How to resize Apple partition? How to resize for Linux?

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            249.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

diskutil resizePartition dis0s1 100GB?

Disk Utility for macOS Sierra: Partition a physical disk using Disk Utility

Please make sure to preform a backup prior to partitioning. Although a standard process, there's always an increased risk of corruption or failure when modifying partitions. But this shouldn't be an issue as you have been backing up regularly........right?

  Disk Utility for macOS Sierra: Partition a physical disk using Disk

  Utility

  Partitioning a storage device divides it into individual partitions,
  which are listed as separate volumes under the Devices section in the
  Finder sidebar. You may need to partition a disk if you want to
  install multiple operating systems or if you need to change the
  device’s format.

  If you’re partitioning your internal physical disk because you want to
  install Windows, use Boot Camp Assistant.

  WARNING: To prevent the loss of data on your Fusion Drive, don’t
  connect it to a Mac that’s using a version of OS X earlier than
  v10.8.5. For more information, see the Apple Support article Only
  connect OS X Mavericks Fusion drives to OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5 or
  later.

  You can easily create new partitions on a device with at least one
  volume that contains data, if it has space available.

  Important: As a precaution, it’s best to back up your data before
  creating new partitions on your device.

  Add a volume to a device without erasing existing data

  Select the device in the sidebar, then click the Partition button .

  Internal storage devices appear under the Internal section in the
  sidebar. External devices appear under the External section in the
  sidebar.

  When you select a volume that already has data on it, the pie chart
  shows a shaded area representing the amount of data on the volume and
  an unshaded area representing the amount of free space available for
  another volume. Disk Utility also reports whether the volume can be
  removed or resized.

  If you see a small volume with an asterisk, the partition is smaller
  than can be represented at the correct scale in the chart.

  Click the Add button .

  Disk Utility splits the volume into two, leaving the data in one
  volume, and creating a new, empty volume. If the existing volume is
  less than half-full, Disk Utility creates two volume of equal size.
  Otherwise, it creates one volume large enough for the existing data,
  and another volume with the remaining space. Depending on the space
  available, you can create multiple volumes by selecting the new
  partition, then clicking the Add button ![enter image description
  here]3.

  Click each volume in the pie chart on the left, then enter a name for it.

  For MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT volumes, the name must be eleven characters
  or less.

  Enter the size or drag the divider to increase or decrease the size of each volume.
  For each volume, click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a format.

  Mac OS Extended (Journaled): Uses the Mac format (Journaled HFS Plus) to protect the integrity of the hierarchical file system.
  Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted): Uses the Mac format, requires a password, and encrypts the partition.
  Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): Uses the Mac format and is case sensitive to file and folder names. For example, folders named
  “Homework” and “HOMEWORK” are two different folders.
  Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted): Uses the Mac format, is case sensitive to folder names, requires a password, and
  encrypts the volume.
  MS-DOS (FAT): Use for Windows volumes that are 32 GB or less.
  ExFAT: Use for Windows volumes that are over 32 GB.

  Click Apply.

  Click Show Details to view the step-by-step process of creating a new
  volume.

  When Disk Utility is finished creating the volumes, click Done.

  After you partition a storage device, an icon for each volume appears
  in both the Disk Utility sidebar and the Finder sidebar.

  Enlarge a volume If you have multiple volumes on a device and one of
  them is running out of space, you may be able to enlarge it without
  losing any of the files on it.

  To enlarge a volume, you must delete the volume that comes after it on
  the device, then move the end point of the volume you want to enlarge
  into the freed space. You can’t enlarge the last volume on a device.

  WARNING: When you delete a volume, all data on it is erased. Be sure
  to back up your data before you begin.

  In the sidebar, select the device that contains the volume you want to enlarge, then click the Partition button ![enter image description
  here]3.
  In the pie chart on the left, select the volume you want to remove, then click the Remove button .
  Click Apply.

  The volume is removed, reformatted, and all free space is assigned to
  the previous volume.
  Click Done.

  Erase and repartition a device You can erase all volumes on a device
  and create new ones. For example, if you want to change the partition
  map of a USB, Thunderbolt, or other storage device from Master Boot
  Record to GUID Partition Map. If you simply want to erase a volume,
  see Erase a
  volume.

  WARNING: Erasing and partitioning a device destroys all data on all
  volumes of the device.

  Select the device in the sidebar you want to erase and repartition, then click the Erase
  button.

  Note: You can’t erase the device that contains your startup volume.

  Enter a name for the initial volume.
  Click the Map pop-up menu, then choose a format for the initial partition.

  For MS-DOS and ExFAT partitions, the name must be eleven characters or
  less.

  GUID Partition Map: Used for all Intel-based Mac computers.
  Master Boot Record: Used for Windows partitions that will be formatted as MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT.
  Apple Partition Map: Used for compatibility with older PowerPC-based Mac computers.

  Click Erase, then click Done.


"Pre-registered" AppleCare --- to whom is it registered? When I log into my Apple ID on Apple's site here, https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetAgreements.do, I am able to view a complete list of all of my AppleCare registrations.  This is very convenient for organizational purposes.

We recently purchased about 20 or so MacBook Airs of a custom configuration from Apple, and they all came "pre-registered."  Using Apple's MacBook lookup by serial number here, https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do, I am indeed able to see that the item itself is covered by AppleCare, but there appears to be no name or Apple ID associated with it.

I want these pre-registered AppleCare registrations to appear under my Apple ID for all of my other registrations that didn't come pre-registered (which I needed to register by typing in the AppleCare registration number myself), so that both manually and automatically registered machines appear is one single unified list.

At the end of the day, everything that we need covered is covered.  I can see that these pre-registered machines are covered.  But how can I retroactively associate the AppleCare registration with an Apple ID of my choosing, or rather, how can I find out to whom the AppleCare is registered?

Yes, I understand that AppleCare is by serial number of the item and that we are covered.  But for our own record keeping purposes, it is 10000x easier to simply log in here https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetAgreements.do and see a nice, comprehensive list of all AppleCare agreements.  As it is now, we have a rift --- only ones we entered manually appear here.  The automatically "pre-registered" ones we have to track elsewhere (right now it's just going into our internal wiki).  But this rift, having two instances of the exact same type of information, is very inconvenient.

Technically, AppleCare plans get registered individually to each equipment record in Apple's database. Similarly, a customer record gets registered to each equipment record and when you log in to Apple's web site, your customer record is polled to determine which equipment records should be presented to you. AppleCare transfers with the hardware, so registering it to a person (or com pay record) would be harder to implement and manage.

You can work through the process by following this guide:

How to manage your AppleCare agreements - http://support.apple.com/kb/HE50

My experience is this isn't worth your time and that for 20+ machines, you'll want to keep internal records and not rely on Apple's externally facing registration portal. It allows anyone to register a Mac and if someone else mistypes their serial number (and types in your valid serial number), the registration presented at your account for tracking computers could lack that device. It's still covered and internally Apple knows who they sold it to no matter who tries to register that serial number and what Apple ID they use to do so. I just wouldn't want to trust that portal to keep my list in one place.

Apple has business teams in all retail stores and they might be your best way to get detailed instructions and assistance on how to correct any errors in registration and assist you in getting the AppleCare records straight if they don't match your records. The portal for end users doesn't have the tools to make it easy to manage large numbers of computers.

You will also want to look into a self-servicing account and although you might be a little shy of the 50 devices needed, I've seen many organizations set these accounts up with 20 to 30 macs on one order.

http://www.apple.com/support/programs/ssa/

That program has many benefits other than just the tools to bulk upload and manage AppleCare plans and registration but it's well worth it solely for the purpose you described above. The end user portal at https://selfsolve.apple.com is designed for consumers and ease of re-registering a used / unregistered Mac from a consumer standpoint - not a business that may have several purchases of 20 machines, some with and some without AppleCare so you'll want to look into software designed for business needs (like JAMF's Casper, Apple's JointVenture and SSA Program) and reach out to Apple's Business Staff to keep abreast to changes they may make to the tools going forward if it doesn't make sense to invest in tools like Casper, JV or SSA.


"disk full" error -- quota disagrees with system information When I try to download anything or create/save new files, it fails saying "Disk full". Entering quota in terminal tells me around 417600 blocks have been used out of 512000. However, going to About this Mac > More Info > Storage, it says I've got 938.1 GB free.  Which is most likely wrong, and what do I need to do to be able to fix this?

I would run Verify Disk in the Disk First Aid tab in Disk Utility (Usually kept in Applications > Utilities). If there are any problems you will have to repair your disk which will require restarting while holding down the option key and booting from your recovery partition, or if you have an older computer, from the system install disk.


iMovie: simple red filter I'm not sure this is the best place to ask this question.

I'm trying to simply apply a simple "red tint effect" on a video with iMovie, any idea how to achieve that?

That's not really an answer : I just moved to Final Cut to make that effect, as it seems that iMove can't do it.


Does Healthkit Sync? Does Healthkit sync between devices? For example, if I have IOS 8.02 installed on  iPhones 4S and 5S, should I expect that data on the 5S Health Dashboard will appear on the 4S Health Dashboard?

On iOS 8.0.x the health app does no syncing of any health kit data or configuration.

You only get the app on iPhone and iPod builds and there is no cloud component of the data. It resides on each device and only gets backed up to iCloud as a device backup and not synced like other things can in iCloud such as calendar and contacts data.


iPad battery level doesn't increase when in use while charging When I plug my ipad 3 in to charge while using it, the battery icon shows it is charging but the battery level percentage doesn't change. If it's at 18% when I plug in, it remains at 18% until I put it in standby.

Is this normal, because generally my ipad charges far faster than I can deplete the battery?

This could be normal if you have a lot of power being used (stuck process, bad iOS load, games or many background apps). If you put the iPad in airplane mode and power it off. Connect to power and then be sure to only do things that use little power like play a song or two or read iBooks. You’ll know which apps you run (games are notorious for taking more power than the charger can supply) and then know if even the lightest load is enough to prevent meaningful charge.

If you in fact have a device that under low load can’t charge, that’s not normal. This can be a symptom of three things:

The iPad battery is failing - when they age this will happen to 100% of all batteries (eventually). Some batteries will fail like this before their useful life is up, too. Ask apple to run battery diagnostics and you will get a reading on the health as well as the cost to have it serviced if you ask. This service is free for iPads 5 years old or less.
The charger or cable just isn’t sending enough current to fill up the gas tank while the car is being driven. Get or borrow a new cable and a new charger to test this.
The iPad charger and pins are failing - when you rule out the other items, this remains. Hardware service will fix this.


Write an AppleScript to create a web link on the desktop I'm helping a visually impaired friend learn how to use her Mac. She's using the built-in screen magnifier, which is working great. She likes to access websites (mainly TV streaming services) via links on her desktop, which I'm able to create by hand. However the standard method for creating these (dragging a URL from the location bar in Safari to the desktop) isn't ideal for a visually impaired user.

I was thinking, therefore, that maybe I could write an AppleScript which could create the weblink on the desktop. I'd envisage this script being run from Safari when the user hits a specific keystroke. I've got no experience of writing AppleScript, however. Is it the best approach for what I'm trying to do? How should I go about getting started?

This script will do what you asked. It grabs the URL and the Name of the current Safari tab and creates a weblink file on the desktop. It uses the page's name to name the file. If you want help parsing a better option for the file name, just ask.

try -- will just silently quit if front window is not valid
tell application "Safari"
    set theURL to URL of current tab of window 1
    set theName to name of current tab of window 1
end tell

tell application "Finder"
    make new internet location file at desktop to ¬
        theURL with properties {name:theName}
end tell
end try


Can I force Safari on iOS to store a password, though the site disallows it? For OS X Safari there is a solution to force storing of passwords. Some sites disallow the storing of passwords, and I wonder if I can force this, at least for some sites, on Safari on iOS 7.

Actually, it seems you can do this! I just found the settings under Safari->Passwords and auto-fill. The setting is called "always allow".


iCloud web interface still on Daylight Savings Time Although my settings are Pacific Time (Cupertino), the time shown on incoming mail messages is one hour too late, using the web interface. The message time on my iPhone is correct. Hunh?

BY web interface I assume you mean being logged into icloud.com.   If thats the case check your timezone for icloud.com

Find your name on the right end of the top title bar at iCloud.com then click the V symbol to the right of your name to find "iCloud Settings" and open these settings.  There are very few settings here, but one of them is in fact "time zone".


How to copy one standard user profile of macOS to another machine I have a Standard user with parental control enabled on it. I have disabled many features as per our requirements. However, I want to have the same Standard user setup in other macOS machines too. Is there anyway to copy the user profile and create similar one in another macOS machine?

You should be able to just zip your current working user folder, and then copy it to the other Mac, where you unzip it into a user folder (the user has been created before the unzip) with the same name, which you can rename afterward.

Otherwise, you can have a look at the macOS Server, where you can create user profiles.


How can VoiceOver users activate links after the first one, in a message with multiple interactive items? On selecting a message containing multiple links or other interactive items in VoiceOver, how do I activate any after the default first item?
Suppose an iPhone VoiceOver user receives a SMS message like this one:

Hello! Your order number 12345 is ready, you can check status on our website or app here https://app.example.com/orders/12345

With VoiceOver on, the number 12345 is treated as an interactive item, so most gestures I try on such a message select the number, not the link.
If I open the message's context menu, or swipe down to "Actions - default", or if I do any of the things described in this Apple forum thread "How do I open links on accessibility voiceover?", it only activates the number and gives me the option to copy the number to the clipboard. How can a VoiceOver user reach a link that isn't the first interactive item in the message?

I've found one way, but it's not great:

Tap or swipe to select the message containing multiple links
Do a two-finger rotate gesture until the rotar says "Links". For me one rotation left (anti-clockwise) from the default position seems to usually reach Links
Swipe down repeatedly until the desired link is selected. It'll now go through each interactable item in the message (not just links), so in this message it'll select the number then select the link
Double-tap the screen while the link is active to activate it


Execute alias with sudo at session startup I created the following alias and put it into my ~/.zshrc:

alias kiosk-proxy="echo \"rdr pass inet proto tcp from any to any port 80 -> 127.0.0.1 port 8080\" | sudo pfctl -ef -"

It's basically a pf rule which redirects all incoming traffic with the destination port 80 to 127.0.0.1:8080 (but what it does is not important, it's just to give you some context)

Currently, I have to manually run this at every session startup, I'd like to automate it.

It would be rather simple if it didn't need sudo rights, I'd just put kiosk-proxy in my ~/.bash_profile, I guess.

But since it needs sudo, it's gonna ask for the password and I doubt it's gonna prompt it. So... How can I execute this alias with sudo rights without asking for the password? Also, it needs to know there is such alias existing in ~/.zshrc, which may not have been loaded yet. Worse case, I can move the alias to another file.

Enabling pf (with the rdr rule) with a command/alias or a shell script/function in your bash/zsh profile like in your question is neither common nor good practice. It is possible though:

To disable a password prompt modify the sudoers file:

Open Terminal and enter sudo visudo to modify the file /etc/sudoers.

Change the part:

## User privilege specification
##
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

to

## User privilege specification
##
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL
your_username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/pfctl

and save the file.

If you don't know vi: after entering sudo visudo you have to change to insert mode by hitting i. Enter the additional line as indicated above. To leave insert mode hit esc. Then enter :wq and the Enter key to write the modified file to disk and quit vi.

bash:

Entering kiosk-proxy shouldn't require a password anymore. You can then simply add kiosk-proxy as a separate line in your bash_profile (after the alias kiosk-proxy ...line)

After exiting the shell, pf won't be disabled and the passed rule is still redirecting! To disable pf and the rdr rule while exiting the (bash) shell, create a file with touch ~/.bash_logout and the content sudo pfctl -d.

zsh:

The same works with ~/.zprofile containing:

alias kiosk-proxy="echo \"rdr pass inet proto tcp from any to any port 80 -> 127.0.0.1 port 8080\" | sudo pfctl -ef -"

kiosk-proxy

and ~/.zlogout containing

sudo pfctl -d

A more recommended way is to simply add the rdr rule in pf.conf and enable pf while booting.


Associating ssh public key with user account How do I associate an ssh public key with a user account on the machine I connect to, so I don't have to type in the account password every time I make an ssh connection to that machine?

The machine being connected to is an older mini with Leopard installed. I assume that this is doable in Leopard, and I don't have to upgrade to Snow Leopard or Lion.

First, you create a public and private key (if you haven't done so already) on the machine from which you want to login:

ssh-keygen -t dsa

You only need to do this if there isn't already a ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub file.

On Linux, there's the ssh-copy-id helper. On Mac, you need to copy the public key by hand:

Copy the generated public key to the target machine:

scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub user@targetmachine:myPublicKey.pub
Login to the target machine:

ssh user@targetmachine
Append the public key to the authorized keys:

cat myPublicKey.pub >>.ssh/authorized_keys
You can now delete the copied key:

rm myPublicKey.pub
Done. You should now be able to login to your target machine without the need to enter a password.


Is there a way to Reindex/"Reinstall" AirPlay Devices in OS X? I'm using Airfoil as a way to broadcast my iMac as an AirPlay device on my home network. This utility does, besides creating an "Airfoil" server, also create an actual AirPlay device that can be seen under System Settings > Sound and by Opt–clicking the Sound/Volume icon in the OS X menu bar.

For some reason, the Airfoil AirPlay device (reachable in the below menu) has suddenly stopped working. When trying to send audio to it from my other Mac, I get the system pop-up "Could not connect to xxx-Airfoil".

  (Ignore the current checkmarks in this image. It's the "Airfoil" AirPlay device I'm trying to access)

However, when using the Airfoil application menu directly to access the computer via the Airfoil service (not AirPlay in the audio output tab), audio transmission works as intended. So my conclusion is that there is something wrong with what/how OS X "knows" about the AirPlay device.

Question: Is there a way to get OS X to "reindex"/reinstall the available Airplay Devices?

Something like (in pseudo-terminal command):

airplayutil --reindex devices

I've tried reinstalling Airfoil and its sister-application Airfoil Satellite, and also tried rebooting the computers. Not sure why it suddently has stopped working – I'm still on El Capitan.

Typically when I see issues with AirPlay, particularly when you've taken the troubleshooting steps that you have already, it is a network issue and not a software issue.

So here are a few things to try/verify:

Can you AirPlay from this Mac to other AirPlay receivers?
Are you on the same physical network as the AirFoil receiver (including same Wi-Fi network—and the same frequency band (2.4 GHz vs. 5 GHz)?
Is Bonjour working?
Are all multicast filtering options disabled on your switch/router (or conversely, is multicast traffic permitted)? Note that if your router autoupdates, a setting or default may have changed.
Have you tried temporarily disabling all firewalls on both machines?


Mac Pro 2009/10 Doesn't boot after weekend, LED shows for 2 secs then nothing! One of our users computers on the network has a ~2009 Intel Mac Pro. On Friday the machine was fine, shut down correctly at the end of the day as normal.

This morning (Monday) the Mac Pro will not power up. After pressing the power button we get 1-2 seconds where the "on" LED is lit, then it goes off. We have removed all components, and blown with canned air, reseated everything, reset the SMC, but still the same issue.

The Mac Pro has 2 DIMM "boards", one of which is full (4 slots) and the other which has 2 slots free. On the brief power-up, all 4 LED's are lit on both DIMM boards, they're not on long enough to do anything else, is this normal? We've reseated all the RAM and the boards, but no change. We've even removed components such as the graphics card, and sticks of RAM individually but no change.

I've read that if the system detects no RAM it will beep 3 times, we removed all the RAM but no beep, I think because the system is not powered up long enough.

Any suggestions? We think it's a PSU but can't be sure.

We just managed to figure this out. It was a faulty RAM board/riser. We found the DIAG switch and pressed it with a pencil, all the lights for the PSU checked out properly. So we went back to thinking it must be the RAM again. One riser had 10GB on the other had 2GB, luckily the 2GB one appears faulty. We removed this riser (although we'd already done this!) and the machine booted up fine!

We then reseated the sticks in different slots on the faulty riser, reseated the riser and the machine booted, but couldn't find the RAM. So for now we've ditched that riser and are letting the machine run with 10GB instead of 12GB.

Hope this helps.


Bootable drive for MacBook Air without CD/DVD drive? I'm considering getting a MacBook Air. Since it doesn't have a CD/DVD drive, how can you deal with issues that would otherwise call for a bootable install disk?

Simply with other bootable devices like USB thumb drives or USB/ThunderBolt/FireWire External drives !

Or if you absolutely need a CD/DVD Drive you can use a USB SuperDrive.


How to uninstall Zoom outlook client from outlook 365 from Mac I have searched everywhere but cannot find any way to remove this Outlook addin. It is a very annoying and keep on sending update alerts every 5 minutes.

I have contacted the MS Office Support and they said the following:

  Navigate to the ribbon under 'Home' tab > click on 'Get add-ins' option > click on 'manage add-ins/My Add-ins' option in the left column > try removing the Add-ins that you would like to remove.

But there is no option called "Get add-ins". Attaching the image:

I tried searching for anything with Add-in in every menu and every ribbon and still didn't get any answer.

MS Office support didn't reply back after this and because probably even they don't know how to fix it.

I found it! The zoom plug-in / add-in is not provided by the Microsoft store, rather installed by zoom itself, so you won't find it in the Microsoft store > my add-ins area. If you go to finder > applications, you will see a folder called 'Zoom plugin for Outlook', in that folder is an uninstall icon. Close outlook, uninstall, and voila....zoom gone!

This has been especially important since the zoom client no longer works in macOS Catalina, so it's useless to keep it in outlook.


Can I pay for membership from another card? I'm apple developer. A few years ago I registered an account from one card. Can I pay for membership from another card?

Yes.

The Apple Developer account isn’t locked to your credit card. You can make use of any valid/active credit card to make payment towards your membership renewal.


If I erase my iPhone remotely, what happens to my iCloud backup? My iPhone 5s just got stolen and I did all the proper procedures (activated lost my iPhone on icloud.com and cancelled my data with my carrier). Am I, by any chance, in risk of erasing my phone remotely and losing my last iCloud backup?

The backups do not get erased when you send an erase request to a phone.  You are actually preserving the back ups in the sense that if your phone doesn't have a passcode lock or the passcode becomes compromised, whoever has your phone now could start deleting things and if the phone starts  A new back up then your current backup would have less of your data on it.

The interface for deleting back up data of an iOS device is in the manage storage portion of iCloud. If you think someone has access to your iCloud account, change your password to prevent them from deleting the data.

So, unless other things happen, your back up data will be sitting in iCloud waiting for you to load it on your device if you recover it or on another device of your choosing.


Safety of "Apple"-branded iPhone chargers listed on Amazon vs. MFi-Certified alternatives On Amazon.com, there are numerous iPhone chargers listed, the top results of which fall into two categories:

Apple-branded chargers (which seem to be authentic and made by Apple) but have very poor reviews, often between 2 and 3 stars. Here's one example.

or

Definitely real MFi-Certified chargers from reputable companies like Belkin, AmazonBasics, and Anker. Here's one example.

Certainly it would seem like genuine Apple chargers would be safer. But there is a catch: the chargers that claim to be "by Apple" or "Original Apple OEM" all have terrible reviews (see that link from category 1) that call the chargers "unsafe" and "a fire hazard". And many of the chargers from category 2 have very positive reviews, often 4-4.5 stars.

So are the "Apple"-branded chargers really made by Apple Inc., and which type of charger is safer when one needs to purchase a lightning iPhone charger from Amazon?

Here's a screenshot of some of the "genuine" Apple charger's negative reviews:

One reviewer (pictured on the bottom right in that screenshot) even mentions that the "genuine" charger caused the dreaded Accessory Not Supported error on their iPhone.

Apple Products

If you ever think of purchasing Apple branded products, your only safe place to make your purchases are Apple Stores or the Online Apple Store. If you prefer to make fast and safe purchases online, you can download the Apple Store App by Apple and make purchases there.

MFI Certified Products

When purchasing these non-Apple branded products you must pay attention.
If they're certified by Apple, you just need to find a brand you trust and make your purchases safely while saving some money as well!
I've purchased one MFi certified cable for my iPhone 6s as a second option, and I've encountered no issues so far. Then, yesterday, a friend of mine tried it as she needed to charge her iPhone 5s, and she had no problems at all either! MFi cables are a great bet. Some of the best and most reliable cables sold on Amazon are made by AmazonBasics and Anker (Anker makes a power adapter brick too).

In the end, you should always buy cables you are certain are genuine, because counterfeits are downright dangerous. If you need to purchase from Amazon, buy a high-rated MFi cable from the likes of AmazonBasics, Anker, or Sync-Wire. Otherwise, purchase a genuine Apple charger straight from the Apple Store. I would totally suggest you to try the Amazon route: you'll save a few dollars and you can easily get a refund if the cable goes bad quickly. And if you purchase a cable that's "genuine" and "made by Apple", you must buy it through the Apple Store.

If you're interested on the brand of the cable I bought (made by Sync-Wire), here's the link to the product, and you may find interesting to browse their website if you're curious about their products!


Why is Spotlight contacting Yahoo i.e. Oath? A very creepy thing is happening. Every time I turn on Wifi, I see a connection by Catalina's Spotlight to Yahoo's Oath service:

 Spotlight       49345 me   17u  IPv4 0x93dfe36e77e7a7ae      0t0  TCP 192.168.1.9:50976->67.195.228.57:https (ESTABLISHED)

You can get a list of all connections in Terminal by typing:

lsof +c 15 -n -i4TCP

Does anyone know why Spotlight feels it needs to contact Yahoo, which is a company I don't want to have anything to do with?

Under umbrella term: "spotlight suggestions"  some features like weather, flights, internet search results' preloading etc., might need Spotlight to connect to Yahoo. But the following sources suggest that it happens after the data is sent to Apple.

  To make suggestions and search results more relevant, some information
  is sent to Apple and not associated with you

  In some cases, such as when you use Siri Suggestions in Spotlight,
  Look Up or Safari, generalised topics of interest that Siri has
  learned may be sent to Apple to make your searches more relevant.

From: In-app disclaimer in System Preferences.

  Since the release of Yosemite, Spotlight sends all
  entered queries and location information to Apple by
  default.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_(software)#Privacy_concerns

  Apple's support page informs users who want to opt out of Spotlight
  Suggestions, Bing or Location Services for Spotlight to go to their Mac's
  System Preferences and deselect the corresponding checkboxes.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150727152056/http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-clarifies-spotlight-suggestions-data-collection-practices/


What keys / "switches" are available for Alternate Pointer Actions? I would like to use a convenient keyboard shortcut for the context menu that is typically accessed by right clicking. Instructions for updating are here:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchl7b437b35/mac

To change the name or action assigned to a key, switch or facial expression, double-click the item in the list, or select it, click the Action pop-up menu , then follow the onscreen instructions.

Here is that dialog:

Clicking on the ⌥ Option and then F12 while right clicking brings up :

But which keys are permitted?  I tried ⌘ Command; and see:

(Note that F11/F12 are possible - but they're a bit of a stretch for my hands so I was looking for something closer to home row.)

You're not going to be able to assign a complex keyboard shortcut to the Accessibility/Alternate Control Method.  The reason for this is to simplify the process of right clicking, not to remap it to something else.
From Apple Support:

We build powerful assistive technologies into Mac to give people with physical limitations more ways to be creative and productive. Switch Control lets you navigate what’s on your screen with a single tap. And a range of settings let you adjust interaction sensitivities for an experience that works for you.

What this is looking for a a whole different device (like a key switch device) that where the user presses a button, it will be mapped to something else.  You can use the function keys, but you'll have to un-map them first (F11 and F12 aren't mapped, so they're "available.")

... they're a bit of a stretch for my hands so I was looking for something closer to home row.

Finding something on the home row is really not feasible.

⌥ Option and any of the charachterss on the home row are already bound to unicode characters:  åß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…

⇧ Shift⌥ Option as well: ÅÍÎÏ˝ÓÔÒÚÆ

You may have some luck with ⌘ Command⌥ Option and assigning it a shortcut, but is this really easier than a single keypress like F11?

You could "make" a separate device with a USB or Bluetooth Ten Key (Number Pad) and with USB Overdrive or ControllerMate program one of the keys of the keypad as either right click or left click.


How can I disable a pass code that I didn't intentionally set? I have an iphone4 and I have never locked the phone or set a passcode, but for some reason, the phone is now requiring a 4 digit passcode and will not let me do anything but unlock it without the passcode. I have tried a couple but each time the phone locks and wont let me try again for several minutes. Is there any way to fix this?

Has anyone else had access to your phone and played a prank on you? You should ask people who may have had access to your phone what passcode they set.

Does iTunes still let you sync? Normally if iTunes has never seen your phone before a passcode is put on it, it requires you to unlock the phone first. But if it had previously seen the phone locked, it may let you sync your phone to do one last backup of your data, because;

If there is no way can regain access to your phone, you must restore it.

There are two ways of doing this:
The easy way is, if iTunes lets you plug in your phone and click 'restore', then do that. Again, please bear in mind that you WILL LOSE ALL UNSYNCED DATA when doing this, see note #2.
Otherwise, you must put your device in 'DFU' mode in order to forcefully recover it. Again, because this is absolutely even more important:
After entering DFU mode there is absolutely no way to get out of it, as soon as you follow these instructions you will be on the road to completely restoring your phone. Again, see the previous bold/italics and Note #2.
Per Apple's Unable to update or restore support article (note also that you can click on the images in order to view them larger in this answer):

While pressing and holding the Home button, reconnect the USB cable to the device. The device should turn on.
Note: If you see the screen pictured below, let the device charge for at least ten minutes to ensure that the battery has some charge, and then start with step 2 again.

Continue holding the Home button until you see the "Connect to iTunes" screen. When this screen appears you can release the Home button:

If necessary, open iTunes. You should see the following "recovery mode" alert:

Use iTunes to restore the device.
If you don't see the "Connect to iTunes" screen, try these steps again. If you see the "Connect to iTunes" screen but the device does not appear in iTunes, see this article and its related links.
Additional Information
Note: When using recovery mode, you can only restore the device. All user content on the device will be erased, but if you had previously synced with iTunes on this computer, you can restore from a previous backup. See this article for more information.


Removing trusted certificate from Mail in iOS 8 My IMAP (and SMTP) server used a self signed certificate.

Once I marked the certificate as "trusted" in the Mail app, is there a way to remove that trust again?

I tried deleting and re-creating the email account, but the certificate is still trusted afterwards.

The certificate does not show up in the Profiles section of the Settings app.

It looks like you might not have actually "trusted" it, but rather made "exception" for it as detailed here: https://blog.httpwatch.com/2013/12/12/five-tips-for-using-self-signed-ssl-certificates-with-ios/

If you did import the certificate, then the above website shows how to remove the "profile" that contains the certificate. To remove the exception, it looks like you need to reset all settings (General > Reset > Reset Settings). Unfortunately it deletes all your settings.

There is further discussion here:

How do you remove SSL certificate exceptions on iOS?


Software update hinders rebooting OSX I'm trying to reboot Mountain Lion but it will not allow me. It just keeps saying Waiting... without anything happening. What can I do?

See this image:

Press command + shift + escape and Force Quit the App Store. You can try updating again after App Store is quit.

If this is a recurring issue, try to install small updates first, one by one.


How do I play FLV and MP4 files on my jailbroken iPhone 4, without converting the files? I have a jailbroken iphone 4. Is there  way to play MP4 and FLV files without converting them? I'd like to play them straight on my iPhone,since it takes too spend time to use iTunes to convert the files.

VLC (google it) plays just about everything. Unfortunately, due to a strict interpretation of some open source licenses (that is, not Apple's fault), the iOS version was pulled from the App Store.

Fortunately, though, you can still install it by using Cydia. Or at least that's what I've read (I haven't done it myself), see the instructions for details.

Getting the video files onto your phone will be more of a hassle, but I think this might be your best bet. Can't hurt to try.


Respringing after updating Mobile Substrate in Cydia bricked my phone? I currently own an iPhone 4S running 6.1.3. I jailbroke it a week or so ago after being forced off of 6.1.2 in July. This isn't my first time jailbreaking, and I am pretty computer savvy, so don't be afraid to get technical.

My issue first started when I had five new updates in Cydia for some of my packages. I distinctly remember Mobile Substrate, Pdanet, iCaughtU, and then there were two others I can't recall now.

When I first started, the download seemed to get stuck and after a few attempts of canceling and restarting the download, I finally got them to update. I was greeted with the Tap to Respring button as always and I proceeded with respringing.

Immediately once my phone comes back on, I am greeted with the iOS 6 Welcome Screen. It asks me to choose a WiFi network, and then it starts to activate my phone.

Every time, without fail, my iPhone gives me the following message:

Could Not Activate iPhone

Your iPhone could not be activated
because the activation server is
temporarily offline. Try connecting
your iPhone to iTunes to activate it, or try
again in a couple of minutes.

If the problem persists, contact Apple
Support at apple.com/support

Obviously, I can't walk into an Apple Store without them turning me away once they find out I'm jailbroken.

The most confusing part is whenever I plug my iPhone into my iMac, the computer fails to recognize it in any form or shape. It's not even charging the device, let alone acknowledging it in iTunes.

Right now, I'm extremely afraid that I've been locked out of activating my phone because I'm jailbroken. I don't know what to do, and my LAST RESORT is to do any kind of force-resetting that would require me to update to iOS 7.

iOS 7 eats my battery life and would essentially require me to get a new phone with how I use my device, so I consider any kind of restore an absolute LAST RESORT.

Hopefully it's an easier issue to solve than that.

If any more information is required, I will happily provide.

Edit #1

I tried seeing if I could rerun the process from p0sixspwn, but as soon as I open v1.0.7 of the app (freshly downloaded one hour ago), it tells me the attached device is unsupported, even when there's nothing there?

I had the same exact problem today. I didn't want to update to iOS 7 either, but after so many hours on google, this seemed the only way to make my phone useful again. I followed this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808 and although it made me have to lose my familiarity with iOS 6 (RIP), my phone is useful again.


Safari extension to get rid of Google redirect links in search results? I'm looking for a Safari extension that can rewrite the google search results so that it gives you the direct URLs rather than the long jumbled redirect links that often pop up.

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, Google often (but not always) gives you the results with redirect URLs like this:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fextensions.apple.com%2F&ei=56lZTvqqCNP-sQKKzoGZDA&usg=AFQjCNG8RJkKTqQOF1SSdxFTGI4J6iArug
which make it a pain when trying to share/copy&paste a link, not to mention whatever additional tracking nonsense goes on behind the scenes.

It's definitely possible, as there seem to be some Greasemonkey scripts available for Firefox, but I haven't been able to find any Safari extensions that do this so far.

Canisbos has released another extension called gDirectLinks, which is a more efficient subset of LinkThing focused solely on the task of removing the hidden redirects from Google's links. It handles both regular Google search and the more modern Google Instant search (AJAX; most people are using that version these days without knowing it, as it's on by default). It also has the option of re-writing Google Images results to point directly to the image.

It's very important to note that gDirectLinks (and its big brother, LinkThing) is the only extension of its kind that properly handles Google Instant results.

More information is available at the official website. Enjoy!


How do I unlock an old iPad with Activation Lock without knowing the Apple ID password? I want to start using my old iPad again. I forgot my old Apple ID and the iPad is stuck on the activation lock screen after resetting it to factory settings. I used a different Apple ID for my iPad and iPhone, so I don't remember the password. I don't remember the answers to the security questions. I cannot change the password for this account. The iPad is running iOS 9.

I have looked into some shady internet tips recommending an app to unlock it, but the app doesn't work when activation lock is on.

Apple has the following information on their page for Activation Lock for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:

  If you forget your Apple ID or password Your Apple ID is the account
  that you use to sign in to all Apple services. Usually, your Apple ID
  is your email address. If you forget your Apple ID, we can help you
  find it.

  If you forget your password, you can reset it from your device or your
  Apple ID account page.

  If you can't find your Apple ID or reset your password, you'll lose
  access to your account and might be unable to use or reactivate your
  device. To help prevent this, visit your Apple ID account page
  periodically to review and update your account information.

Unfortunately, you are probably out of luck.

Since your iPad was unused and running iOS 9, it's probably pretty old and may not be worth any money in Apple's Trade-in Program as a non-functioning device, but can be recycled free of charge. (Nation-specific recycling programs can be found here). Other people or companies may be willing to purchase non-functioning devices for parts.


Why won't iPhone mail connected to an Exchange account download email bodies? I bought an iPhone 4 today and after alot of fiddling around I got it connected to Microsoft Exchange Activesync. Mail shows the message headers correctly and a preview of the first line from the body. When I click on any of the message headers, it displays the header information but then it just sits their loading the message body.

Eventually it times out and says: The message has not been downloaded from the server

How can I fix this?

Check iphone date and time:

Settings->General->date and time.
If its point to Automatic, set Automatically OFF
Time Zone: Setup your current time zone.
Hope it helps


Convert PDF to something editable without losing all formatting I am aware of solutions that allow one to extract text from a pdf file. Are there any practical solutions on the Mac to extract rich text and layout from a PDF, or somehow convert a PDF into some editable format without losing all formatting, and without multi-column layouts ending up with the text from each column interwoven?

If you just want to edit the content of the PDF, Adobe Acrobat (full version) can do that. It can change/add/delete text, images, objects, etc.


List all programs without any window and kill them has anyone an idea for an AppleScript that checks the number of windows of all applications and kills programs with window count 0?

Thanks a lot!

Interesting problem.
Here's a snippet to help you start listing windows of apps:

tell application "System Events"
    set appProcs to every application process whose background only is false
    set appWins to ""
    repeat with eachProc in appProcs
        set appWinNum to title of every window of eachProc
-- Put "quit..." command into "if...then" :
        if (count of appWinNum) is equal to 0 then display ¬
                alert "No window found for app: \r\r" & name of eachProc
        set appWins to appWins & return & name of eachProc & ¬
                ":\n" & appWinNum & return
    end repeat
    display alert appWins
end tell

I didn't bother to set line feeds for multiple windows -- as there is a TREMENOUS drawback to this approach:

This script does not and will not find windows on each and every "space" set in Mission Control.
It's a pity, but as yet Mission Control is un-scriptable.

Your best -if ugly- solution would be to have each app put frontmost, then checked, then quit ...


Accept login policy banner without mouse My computer setup currently has three monitors: the 15.4" built-in display of my MacBook pro, a 27" Apple Thunderbolt Display connected by Thunderbolt, and a 10" Mimo Magic Touch display connected to the Thunderbolt Display via USB.  The computer is running a version of OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

My computer also has a user agreement policy banner set to appear at login due to the presence of /Library/Security/PolicyBanner.rtfd.  However, the Mimo monitor appears to be causing issues with the policy banner: namely, the banner is appearing partially off-screen, making the "Accept" button unclickable.  I'm not sure if this is due to the smaller size of the monitor, or the atypical monitor/driver.

Furthermore, the standard accessibility functionality does not appear to work with the policy banner as far as I can tell: I can't use ⇥ to tab to the "Accept" button, nor can I just hit ↩.  I've also tried various combinations of modifier keys with these options.  ⌘+A (the first letter of the "Accept" button) also does not work.

Ultimately, my question is thus: is there a way to accept the policy without using the mouse and clicking on "Accept"?  If not, this seems like an accessibility oversight on Apple's part, as I would imagine this is also a potential problem for users with special accessibility needs.  It would also mean that you can no longer log into your mac with just a keyboard.

This appears to have been fixed in OS X 10.11 El Capitan, as the banner can be accepted using ↩.  Furthermore, the window appears fully on-screen in my scenario, rendering the need for a keyboard-only approach unnecessary for my use case.

So as far as I can tell, it is impossible to accept the policy banner without using the mouse in OS X 10.10 Yosemite, but they've fixed it in OS X 10.11 El Capitan.


My (unbroken) iPhone won't turn on! I have an iPhone 5. The only issue it's had is that the battery life wasn't so great as it once was... until now.

Earlier the battery went flat and it switched to this screen

Totally normal.

So I plugged it into a portable USB battery that I use in situations like this. But after 30 minutes it still didn't turn on. Then I tried it through the original mains plug and 12 hours later it still didn't turn on. Then I plugged it in via a computer's USB port and 8 more hours it still won't turn on.

Now it's been 72 hours and probably 48 of those plugged into power without turning on.

Unlike many others who have asked this or similar questions, my phone isn't damaged...

I've tried holding the power button.
I've tried holding the power button and home button - for 10 seconds.
I've tried charging it with different cables.
I've tried charging it with different power sources.
I've tried plugging it into a computer running itunes.

How do I get my iPhone running again?

You should get someone to open up your iPhone, disconnect the battery, and reconnect it. That's where I would start with it, it may be something more serious, but there's a pretty good chance just that the disconnection and reconnection of the battery on the logic board could work. You could try to do it yourself, but it requires taking off the touchscreen (digitizer) assembly, about a dozen small screws, and a few other parts like EMI shields. It's not too difficult, but if you decide to do it, you'll need to buy tools online and repair guides at iFixit.


Troubleshoot Dock behaviour in Mac Yosemite When I right-click the Downloads folder in the dock, and select Open "Downloads", instead of the expected thing happening, an app launches.

The app is one I created myself using Automator. And it is on the Desktop. I can move it anywhere and rename it, but this doesn't fix the problem.

Other steps taken to resolve:

reboot -> not fixed
switch user to guest account -> fixed
delete the app -> fixed
zip the app, delete the original -> fixed
unzip the app -> unfixes itself!

Might be relevant:

I use Quicksilver, but behaviour occurs even when QS is not running

System info: Yosemite 10.10.3

Why is this is a problem? Because I want to create Automator apps without them being launched by right-clicking the downloads folder in the dock.

Edit: This is the workflow of the app that launches:

Answer for my own question...

I mistakenly changed the default application for opening folders (!) away from Finder to an application of my own creation. I didn't know this was even possible! Needless to say this had some weird side effects, like the problem I originally described. But I figured it out – I mucked up my system with an erroneous QuickSilver command.

I'm always creating dated folders, so I created an Automator app that, given the current folder, would create a folder within using the date as the name.

When teamed with QuickSilver's "Current Selection" trigger, the app becomes useful. I can call my "create-dated-folder.app" from the current folder, using "Open with..." in Quicksilver's second pane, and my app in the third. Works great.

My mistake was, instead of "Open with", I once chose "Always Open With", which changed system settings I didn't know existed – it changed the default application for the "public.folder" UTI from Finder to my Automator app. Then the weirdness began, like if I chose "Open Examples Folder" from Automator's help menu, my app would be invoked. I really had no idea what was going on!

Brilliant tip from to Tetsujin who suggested RCDefaultApp would be worth investigating.


Can't find file saved in Propellerhead Reason 8 I made a song in Propellerhead Reason 8 and I named the file ".cubicle..reason" but now I can't find the file. I was wondering how I could use terminal to locate the aforementioned file.

Files that begin in a . are invisible to Finder. If you go to the directory in terminal and enter ls -a it will show the invisible files.

You can do mv .cubicle..reason cubicle..reason which will change the name and make the file visible.

To view hidden files in Finder see: How to show hidden files and folders in finder?


Mac OS X 10.6.8 App Store not working I recently reinstalled  Mac OS X on my iMac to Mac OS X 10.6.3 then updated to Mac OS X 10.6.8 and now I am trying to update to OS X El Capitan but when I go to the App Store to download, I click the "GET" button and nothing happens. Nothing also happens when I try to do this with any other apps.

There is a version of El Capitan specifically being kept available for any Mac that needs the stepping stone to Sierra, or that can run El Capitan but not Sierra.

It's on the App Store at https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12

You cannot use it to revert from Sierra to El Capitan, for that you need to already have El Capitan in your purchase history.

As far as I'm aware, but cannot test, you cannot use it to upgrade to Sierra if your machine could do it without the stepping stone.


Can you download custom iPhone vibrations? I know how to create vibrations on the phone itself, but I'm wondering if there is a way to upload to a computer, download from a computer, or even create on a computer.

I ask because I'd like a way to save and share vibrations (like you can with ring and text tones). And if there is a way to create them, that would be great. Because, let's be honest, you have a great deal more control over timing if you can use a computer.

No. There is no way to share the ones you created manually on your iOS device, and you can't import them.

I don't think they are even synced across devices.


Do iPhone X cases fit on the iPhone XS? Does anyone know whether the iPhone X and the iPhone XS have the exact same measurements as far as cases are concerned?

I know that the measurements shown on the Apple iPhone compare webpage are the same, but what about the measurements of the camera? Apple does not show this on their website.

Let's suppose, that the X and the XS have the exact same measurements, then every iPhone X case should fit on the XS, correct?

But even if there is the slightest difference between them, there could be some iPhone X cases that can't fit iPhone XS.

Various sources on the Web affirm that iPhone X and iPhone XS are near identical in dimensions and cases for iPhone X should fit iPhone XS.

However, there are also various reports pointing out specific cutouts applicable to certain cases.

Like, if the camera opening on the iPhone XS is noticeably larger, so if you have a case with a very tight fighting camera opening, your iPhone XS may not fit. One point outs that the placement of microphone vent is slightly different between the two phones.

The various reviews are shared below for reference:

From the Q&A on Apple Online store:

  Yes! They have same dimensions and buttons location. So all your cases from iPhone X will perfectly fit iPhone XS.

Reddit thread, from /r/iphone, PSA: iPhone X Cases Will NOT Fit XS

  Just noticed this in MKBHD's review: https://youtu.be/YAF9BWpzwvI?t=2m7s
  The camera opening is noticeably larger. If you're upgrading from an X to XS, you'll need new cases.

iMore, Will your old case fit the new iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max?

  The iPhone XS is a refresh of last year's iPhone X, and appears to have the exact same design and dimensions. This means that you should be able to use your old iPhone X case with your iPhone XS. So all those great cases already available for the iPhone X are ripe for the picking!

  That being said, the microphone layout on the bottom of the iPhone XS is slightly different than the iPhone X, which means cases that have precise cutouts for those microphone holes in the iPhone X, may be slightly misaligned on an iPhone XS.

iPhone Hacks, Will iPhone X Cases Fit the iPhone XS?

  The answer is a resounding yes! The iPhone XS shares the same dimensions as the iPhone X and since all port locations are also the same, iPhone X cases will fit the iPhone XS just fine. The latter is 3gms heavier than the iPhone X but this difference is unlikely to create any issues for cases with a kickstand or a slim profile.

CNET, Will my iPhone XS fit in a iPhone X case? Yes!

  The two iPhones have the exact same height, width and depth.

MacRumors, iPhone X Cases May Have Slightly Imperfect Fit on iPhone XS Due to New Camera Bump Dimensions

  While the iPhone X and iPhone XS have identical overall dimensions, a new report suggests that iPhone X cases may have a slightly imperfect fit on the iPhone XS due to very slight changes to the camera bump dimensions.

Note: The official case design guidelines for devices from Apple are made available here. The linked Accessory Design Guidelines containing precise measurements should soon get updated to include iPhone XS. If interested, you can go through the measurements to get a better idea of what aspects have changed between iPhone X and iPhone XS, and case analyze case compatibility.


Run Mojave apps on High Sierra Is there any way to run new Mojave apps (like Voice Memos, News, Stocks) in High Sierra?
I tried to modify info.plist in particular with stocks, but the app gives me an error, I suppose because some missing files. But, is there any way to run this app on High Sierra?
Here you can see the error in stock when I open the program (for no Italians: "borsa" means stock):
Dyld Error Message:
  Library not loaded: /System/iOSSupport/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/NewsArticles.framework/Versions/A/NewsArticles
  Referenced from: /Volumes/VOLUME/Borsa copia.app/Contents/MacOS/Stocks
  Reason: image not found

No, these new apps are built using iOS-based frameworks that only exist on Mojave. These frameworks are located within /System/iOSSupport which is why you're seeing that error message, as that directory (and the files within it) do not appear in previous versions of macOS.


I accidentally deleted all my photos in iPhoto on my Mac I did not empty the trash. How can I get these photos back?

If you did not empty the trash, then they will still be in iPhoto's trash. Select the photos in the trash and choose Photos → Restore to iPhoto Library.


Partially delete path in zsh (Option + Backspace) In zsh Option + Backspace deletes the whole path on a prompt. For example:

ls /usr/local/bin

Option + Backspace returns:

ls

How can I set the same behavior so that the shortcut deletes just one word, till the next delimiter, like:

ls /usr/local/bin

Option + Backspace should return:

ls /usr/local/

An arbitrary number of alphabetic characters and digits as well as chars defined by WORDCHARS are considered all one word in zsh.

The default value of WORDCHARS is:

% echo $WORDCHARS
*?_-.[]~=/&;!#$%^(){}<>

By defining another/a new WORDCHARS in .zprofile (and/or .zshrc|... - depends on how you configured your zsh environment), you can modify the behaviour of werase (word erase - usually ctrl/^w).

Simply add the line export WORDCHARS='*?_-.[]~=&;!#$%^(){}<>' in .zprofile|..., close the Terminal window or source .zprofile|... and werase  works as you want afterwards.

Keep in mind that other shortcuts (like alt/⌥←) will also be affected then.

If you want a different behaviour, check this question & answer: zsh: using different WORDCHARS for kill-word and forward-word / backward-word


Dmesg shows no timestamp The sudo dmesg command works fine, but shows no timestamp. Is there any way to get it to show the timestamps as well?

Not by using dmesg which is a very simple command. But you can use

sudo fgrep "kernel[0]" /var/log/system.log

instead to get the same messages from the system log file, including a time stamp.


Run Windows 10 on Mac from custom boot drive? My Mac has specs for Fallout 4, but it won't run with wine like the others. I don't want Windows directly installed on my Mac because it corrupted my hard drive last time, instead I want to install it on a USB 3.0/Thunderbolt drive, where I can hold down a key while booting up my Mac with it plugged in to boot Windows 10. Or something like that. What I have is a Mac with Yosemite and a Windows 10 disk, I need to get an external drive capable of this $30-$50 preferably and suggestions are appreciated.

EDIT: also, I would prefer not to enter many passwords to do this so if possible that would be preferred, if nessesary I can but it would be harder. If it was my computer I wouldn't mind risking corrupting the HD.

rEFInd is able to boot Windows from external drives, as it modifies the Mac's EFI. Here are some instructions on installing it.


Why are some disk images bigger when burned? I've got a couple of DMGs that should fit on a CD (one per CD) but burning softwares (Disk Utility & Toast) say that they are 2 or 3 times bigger and thus need a DVD.
Why is that ?

Different file systems and disk formats have different block sizes, which all files are rounded up to in size.  If you have a lot of small files on one file system, and try to move them all to a different file system or media format with much larger block sizes, the total space required can balloon.


Good simple Clipboard manager I'm used to using Ditto on windows, and need something similar on my mac mini.

Any Suggestions?

I think your best choice is :

Clipboard Evolved

But you can also use these softwares:

JumpCut (Free and open source)
Clipmenu (As Calavera said :"ClipMenu is nice because it's free")
Clyppan
CuteClip
PTHPasteboard


How can I retrieve photos from an iPhone 4 without using wifi(probably) or cell data? So I am blinded by anger at this point. I cannot believe this isn't possible in some way.
In short:
Iphone 4 has a bad battery, photos filling storage, out of date Ios so no wifi, 3g data available is much less than the amount needed to move. This ideally would be solved without leaving the house because it shouldn't be this hard in the first place and also blizzard.

Here are the specifics, along with some rough ideas:

My mother has an iphone 4 that is completely full of photos. She will not delete any significant amount of them.

Wifi is greyed out because IOS is out of date and my mom does not apply any software update ever at all. Can I FORCE wifi on somehow? I am familiar with linux and windows and android, I know I could force that flag somehow on those devices...

I cannot update IOS because it requires 1.6 GB of free space, in the storage manager thing if I add up every single app besides photos it does not add up to 1.6gbs. It's all photos. Do I actually need 1.6 gigs in the first place?

I can pair it with her macbook over bluetooth, but apparently only tethering is supported because Apple, I can't pair it with my android devices because Apple.
 Is there any way to break that restriction to access the iphones storage? the devices can see each other well enough for apple to tell me to f*** myself...

I may have a bluetooth capable windows laptop, if I do I could use a linux live cd or stick and this adds a bluetooth linux laptop as well, but not bt windows/linux at the same time.

The phone has 3g data, but her data cap is half used and the total amount of photos is triple the entire plan anyhow, having her move 1.6 gigs of pictures one by one over email or text is out because of that and general sanity. Also Icloud can't be made to update over 3g because apple.

The battery is bad, so it will only boot from a wall charger, I can't plug it into another computer and have it run.
So can I make a USB port on another computer pump out more juice?
-I have an old desk that has a power supply embedded into the back, It has two usb ports, a regular plug jack and of course the power cord to the wall. Can I reconfigure that to function as a hub maybe?

What I really don't want to hear though I may have to is:take it to a store, replace battery or go to a store and get a battery to replace yourself.

Particularly I don't want to go to an apple store because some hapless kid will get a feature rich/function poor brick punched right through their face.

-sorry I am so angry about this. I thought it would take ten minutes when she asked me to get the photos, but if someone asked me a question like this about stuff I normally use(I don't deal much with apple) I would find it a fascinating challenge, so I figured I'd ask, and every google search I've ever made for deep tech stuff has led me to stackexchange eventually.

As a sidenote, the phones WiFi chip seems to be defective, WiFi will work no matter how old the iOS-version is. Maybe try resetting network settings in Settings - General.

Anyhow - I believe your only option will be to use a cable to get the pictures off the phone. Have you tried all the computers you have at home? Some devices give out more juice than others. Another way would of course be some cloud service, then again, not the best option without WiFi..


How do I download all PNGs on a page with iOS Workflow? I want to save all of the PNGs from this goofy website so I can turn them into a PDF. I thought I'd use Workflow for iOS, which I've never used before.

I get the contents of this page and then get all the links

Get Contents of URL
|> Get URLs from Input
|> Quick Look

But, when I want to filter or match those URLs for PNGs, I get weird applewebdata:// URLs, like

applewebdata://{guid}/path/to/PNG

I am currently using iOS and trying to make Workflow (or something similar) work for this task. Thanks for the other suggestions, but they won't work for me!

What a hot mess... I ended up using a number of "Get Component of URL" steps to extract the scheme and host from the Workflow Input and the path from the links to PNGs on the page (these were the ones showing as applewebdata://).

Once I had the parts of the URL to download, it went something like this

Get Contents of URL
|> Get Component of URL; Scheme
|> Save Variable 'Scheme'
<Input>
|> Get Component of URL; Host
|> Save Variable 'Host'
<Input>
|> Get URLs from Input
|> Repeat with Each
   |> If Input Contains '.PNG'
   |> Get Component of URL; Path
   |> URL <Scheme>://<Host>/<Path>
   |> Get Contents of URL
   |> Add to Variable 'Pages'
|> Pages
|> Filter Images; Sort by Name A to Z; File Type 'PNG'
|> Make PDF
|> Set Name <input.Name>
|> Quick Look
|> Save File

It seems like, if I didn't have to break down into procedural steps to extract and recombine a usable URL, I could have written a much cleaner simpler pipeline. Something like

Get Contents of URL
|> Get URLs from Input
|> Get Contents of URL
|> Get Images from Input
|> Filter Images; Sort by Name A to Z
|> Make PDF
|> Set Name <input.Name>
|> Quick Look
|> Save File


How can I gift an iPad app from iPhone OR via Web? I would like to gift an iPad app to my friend. I don't have iTunes installed on my work laptop and right now I don't have my iPad with me.

All I am trying is checking it on App Store on my iPhone, but the search is not listing the iPad version, instead it's only showing iPhone version of the same app.

I also tried via browser, but no luck.

Do I have to wait until I go home and do it from either iTunes on my Mac or iPad?

Looking for some solution!

At the moment, you have to use iTunes to gift an application for iPad.

If the application is universal, then you can gift the app with your iPhone.


MacOS: How to turn off Option key printing special characters in VS Code, IntelliJ etc Most code editors like IntelliJ, VSCode etc have many shortcuts using the 'option' key in mac. For me, using the option key would cause a special character to be printed instead of performing the shortcut. I wanted to turn this feature off.

I managed to do it after some googling. To serve as a documentation, I am answering my own question below.

Most code editors like IntelliJ, VSCode etc have many shortcuts using the 'option' key in mac. For me, using the option key would cause a special character to be printed instead of performing the shortcut.

How to fix this:

Go to system preferences > keyboard.

My Keyboard was set to 'ABC - extended'. Which had special characters turning up on pressing the 'option' key. I Changed the keyboard to 'ABC' , ie, one without the extension part.

Problem solved.

Why? Coz the 'ABC' keyboard doesnt have the special characters in them :)


Can you buy Apple Care from eBay after purchase iPhone? I see advertisements on eBay selling Apple Care for half the price. I bought my iPhone 6 a week ago.

Can I still buy discounted Apple Care from eBay?

Caveat Emptor

You might be buying a sealed, boxed product at a reasonable price…
…only to discover it's only valid in Outer Mongolia.

Different countries have different statutory requirements & Applecare varies country to country.

I'd be more circumspect.

Read this before even considering it - https://www.apple.com/support/products/iphone.html
but make sure to swap to your own country via the flag icon in the very bottom right corner of the page before reading it.


How to set odd rows as x axis and even rows as y axis in numbers? I am trying to create a chart using some data. The odd rows represent the date and time and even rows represent the count. I want to make the odd(date-time) rows as x-axis and even(count) rows as y-axis. Is there any way to do this? I an giving the image of my structure below.

Please help me to get a solution for this.

I am afraid there is no way you can chart all that data in Numbers as they are.

First make a copy of that table and then transpose the copy via the Table > Transpose Rows and Columns menu at the top. Then cut & paste all date and amount columns below each other respectively. There does not appear to be any other way.


macbook to monitor via windows laptop I want to connect my macbook pro to my tv.  I do not have a hdmi cable but I do have a dvi cable.  I also have a usb to usb cable.  Is it possible to connect my macbook pro to windows laptop then connect that to the tv and be able to see the macbook's desktop on the tv?

First off, I suggest just going for the appropriate adapter for your MacBook. If you have a Unibody MacBook Pro, you could use a mini DisplayPort to HDMI converter. If you have a newer Retina MacBook Pro, you can just use a plain old HDMI cable. Older non-unibody MacBooks could use a DVI-to-HDMI converter or cable.

miniDP to HDMI (Monoprice, $6.85 + HDMI cable)
DVI to HDMI (Monoprice, $3.33, doesn't carry audio)
HDMI to HDMI can be found on Monoprice for around $3.00.

If you were looking to save money by not buying more adapters and cables and you're serious about using your MacBook with your TV, just buy the right cables and/or adapters. Sites like Monoprice.com and DX.com offer very inexpensive cables that are of no lesser quality to the ones found in big box stores and at the Apple store.

To do what you're asking, relaying through your PC, would require some sort of screen sharing or remote desktop software (over the network, not over USB) but would be more trouble than it's worth and would likely be unsatisfactory if you wanted to do anything graphics intensive (watching a movie, gaming, etc.).

If you really want to give it a shot, here's what I suggest:

In  your MacBook's System Preferences (since OS X Tiger), you can enable a VNC server. Open System Preferences -> Sharing -> enable "Screen Sharing" or on older  versions of OS X, "Apple Remote Desktop" -> go to "Computer Settings" or "Access Privileges…" -> check off "VNC viewers may control screen with password: " and set a good password.
On your PC, you have to install a VNC client or viewer. Two free clients come to mind, RealVNC and TightVNC. Either should work fine. I tried RealVNC. Download the standalone viewer .exe from their website. Find your MacBook's IP address from your router or the "Network" section in your System Preferences. Open RealVNC, type in the IP address, it will warn you that it's not encrypted, continue, enter the password you specified earlier. You should be connected!
Connect your PC to your TV and simply drag the VNC window over onto the TV or, if you're in mirrored mode, you should be good to go. You may have to adjust the resolution in VNC and on your MacBook to get it fit properly on your TV. I found it very laggy (unusable for text editing) over WiFi in Control Mode, so you may want to try going over Ethernet if possible.

Good luck!


How do I really (dig) flush the DNS cache on OS X 10.9? I'm on OS X 10.9, according to support.apple.com I can flush the cache with

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Unfortunately this does not really refresh my DNS cache at all, also not like this:

dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

E.g.

$ dig www.example.com|grep CNAME
www.example.com.    83955   IN  CNAME   example.com.

If cache were cleared it would be showing a number close to 86400, 3600, 300 or 60 are the TTL values offered by my domain name provider).

If I add @dns-host to dig it works as expected:

$ dig @ns0.transip.net www.example.com|grep CNAME
www.example.com.    60  IN  CNAME   GITHUBACCOUNT.github.io.

I also tried the other commands on that page. In the meantime I work around this by ssh'ing onto one of my servers and check things there. But I'd like a proper way to really refresh all DNS cache on my Mac.  How can I do that?

The effect you're seeing has absolutely nothing to do with the caches on your computer.

Instead what you're seeing is that your recursive DNS server (i.e. typically your ISPs DNS server or Google DNS or similar) has taken the original TTL value and subtracted the amount of time passed since it retrieved these records from the authoritative DNS server.

For example let's say that you own example.com and have an authoritative DNS server set up that when queried gives you that CNAME with a TTL of 86400. Then at some random point in time, your ISPs recursive DNS server is asked by someone else for www.example.com and retrieves those records. It caches that information.

Now you come along issuing the dig command without the @ parameter - this means that the request uses the server listed in /etc/resolv.conf, which is typically your ISPs recursive DNS server. Now you get the response back with TTL 83995, which means that 86400-83995=2405 seconds has passed since it originally retrieved those records.

Nowhere in this process is your standard, local macOS DNS cache involved, so mDNSResponder and dscacheutil is not going to change anything at all.

The reasoning behind this is that the authoritative DNS server has essentially stated that "this information is valid for 86400 seconds". The recursive DNS doesn't know if the authoritative DNS server has since been changed to give out new information, so it can only tell you that the information is now valid for a slightly smaller amount of time.


How do I get rid of browser redirect malware? I am using Mac OS X Leopard on a MacBook Pro.

I must have been very careless at some point, since I managed to let some malware install in it.

While browsing I get randomly redirected to different web sites than those I intended to visit, both from Safari and from Google Chrome.

I have tried to clean my computer with ClamXav without any success so far.

Sounds like your DNS might be hijacked, which could be your router or your Mac.

I'd suggest using OpenDNS for a while to see if the behaviour stops.  If it does, then you will need to look at getting your DNS reconfigured.

If the behaviour continues then it may be malware but honestly I can't think of a single one that would do this.


Disable Specific USB Ports / Restrict Data Transfer from USB Ports In a work environment, I'm trying to "lock down" a mac computer so that files can't be transferred via USB storage device.

Problem is, keybord and mouse are plugged in through USB, but I would still need those enabled, plus the keyboard has two more USB ports on either side.  I could use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard to get around that, but then how can I disable the USB ports (And later re-enable with admin access)?

Or is there a way to limit the amount of data sent to/from as USB port? A keyboard and mouse wouldn't use that much, so then anything every X bytes/sec would get blocked?  I'm not sure what the solution is here.

I think what you want to do is prevent the connection of USB Mass Storage Devices.

I found this answer which is untested by me and not terribly recent, but I can see that the referenced kext is still in the location described:

  a quote from the Leopard security configuration guide:

  48 Chapter 3 Protecting the System Through Hardware

  Removing USB Support Software

  Use the following instructions to remove USB mass storage device input/output support such as USB Flash drives and external USB hard drives.
  The removal of this kernel extension only affects USB mass storage devices. It does not
  affect other USB devices such as a USB printer, mouse, or keyboard. This task requires
  you to have administrator privileges.
  Important: Repeat these instructions every time a system update is installed.
  To remove kernel extensions for specific hardware:

  Open the /System/Library/Extensions folder.
  To remove support for USB mass storage devices, drag the following file to the Trash:
  IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext
  Open Terminal and enter the following command:
    $ sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
  The touch command changes the modified date of the /System/Library/Extensions
  folder. When the folder has a new modified date, the Extension cache files
  (located in /System/Library/) are deleted and rebuilt by Mac OS X.
  Choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash to delete the file.
  Restart the system.

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2105022?start=0&tstart=0


Possible to play HEVC(x265) files on ipad? I tried playing some HEVC videos on my iPad 3 running iOS 9.2.1, but was unable to do so using any player(I tried Infuse,VLC and some others), only audio plays and video is like stuck. I was wondering if there was any way I could play such videos on my iPad without reencoding them to h.264.

Don't forget that HEVC (H.265) has higher playback requirements than H.264, and you are attempting playback on a fairly old iPad.  It is not going to be able to keep up with what is playable on the latest iPad or iPhone.  Don't despair over your older hardware, every computer has its limits, if you encoded a 12-bits-per-pixel 4K 60fps video in HEVC, it wouldn't play smoothly on any iOS hardware Apple has out now.

So ...  Find the limits of your hardware.   Encode something small, get it playing, then encode larger and larger samples until you hit your iPad's limit.

First, HEVC on an iPad using VLC Player is possible - I am successfully encoding HEVC videos to play with VLC player on my iPhone and iPad.  I am using and recommend ffmpeg, which is downloadable as a binary (so you don't have to learn how to compile stuff) here:  https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

Encode a small 120-pixel-wide video in H.265 with this ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i Input.avi -c:v libx265 -preset medium -x265-params crf=24 -r 24 -vf scale=-2:'if(gt(ih,120),120,ih)' -c:a aac -strict -2 -b:a 64k -ss 00:02:00 -t 10 Output.mp4

This will create a small, ten-second video that is 120xsomething that would play easily on your iPad3.  If this doesn't work, then it's not a weak cpu issue, perhaps its your transfer mechanism.  Delete the h265 media from VLC player, and try copying the h265 media to the VLC player three different ways: copy to VLC app via iTunes, use VLC app itself to download the h265 media file, and use a third-party file manager, such as Documents by Readdle, to download the media and then send it to VLC via "Open in".  Hopefully you will find it playing with one method.

Once you find a way to get H265 to play in your VLC Player app, encode the video in larger sizes by replacing the "120" in the above command with larger sizes, I recommend going 120 -> 240 -> 360 -> 480.   Once you hit a limit that stutters, then go back down one size, and that's what your iPad 3 can handle.

Remove the 10-second limitation and encode your entire media with ffmpeg using this command:

ffmpeg -i Input.avi -c:v libx265 -preset medium -x265-params crf=24 -r 24 -vf scale=-2:'if(gt(ih,120),120,ih)' -c:a aac -strict -2 -b:a 64k Output.mp4

Finally, if you want slightly better compression, you can change the "-preset medium" to "-preset slow" or even "-preset slower" to have it spend more CPU and time squeezing out another 5%-10% out of the file size for the same video quality.

Good luck!!


How can I use more than one connected drive for Network Time Machine backups on Lion Server? In Leopard Server, via Server Admin, you were able to enable multiple partitions to be Time Machine Backup Destinations. In Lion Server, there seems to only be an option to have one Time Machine Backup location.

How can I select more than one Time Machine Backup Volume to share in Lion Server (like I used to be able to do in Leopard Server).
Alternatively - is there a way I can pool these partitions together (across about 4 disks) so that I can support up to 4TB of backup space for our workplace? Under Leopard we just shared 4 1TB external drives.
I've also seen this problem mentioned here, with no resolution.

My headhurts from fixing this.
I found this discussion thread which allowed me to enable Time Machine Sharing for more than one volume. It's not as tricky as it sounds, but you do need to go step by step.

The only things I had to do that weren't in this discussion thread were:

I had to log in as root. Root was disabled in my server, so I had to enable it.
I couldn't be bothered downloading xCode, so I used pListEditPro to edit the pLists.
If you use Server.app's Time Machine service as suggested by the discussion it renames the Time Machine Share to "Backups" which is annoying if you're upgrading from a previous set up.

  I have figured out a way to enable multiple backup targets.
  However, it's one of these things I wouldn't want to describe to anyone except true programmer types, because everyone else has a 90%+ chance of messing up their system if they do something wrong.
   It involves turning off file sharing, and then editing the plist files in /private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/sharepoints/

  The gist of it is this:

  a) first create all the share points you later want to use for TimeMachine, and set them up for afp-only file sharing, also create one TM target, which you can either use later, or have there so the system has one entry it knows how to handle. I just made a bogus one that I'm not actively using.

  b) turn off file sharing in Server.app

  c) turn off TimeMachine in Server.app

  d) now you can edit the files, the easiest is with Xcode, so you may want to install that first

  e) for each sharpoint you made in a) there will be a corresponding .plist file in the location indicated, these are the files that need to be edited.

  f) for each of these files
       1) the item0 string property in the timeMachineBackup array must be switched from 0 to 1
       2) a new key of type array with the name timeMachineBackupUUID must be created
       3) in the newly created array an item of type string must be placed with the value of a UUID, which can be created with the shell command uuidgen

  g) make sure all the edited plist files are saved

  h) turn on TimeMachine in the Server.app again

Big thanks to Ronald C.F. Antony who found this fix on Apple's Discussions.


Hard drive died, how do I get the OS X on new hard drive? I have a huge problem. My hard disk seems to be dead. I did a lot of things but I guess it's really gone. The thing is that I don't have CDs o DVDs of the OS X Lion (it's a macbook pro A1278 bought in 2012) and no backup in time machine. I lost all my files so I'm already grieving.

The thing is, if I buy a new HDD, how do I get the OS X there?

Buy an SSD instead of an HDD if you can afford one. Believe me, you'll thank us. You currently have a MacBook Pro with a fast Intel processor but an extraordinarily slow hard drive. Your failed hard drive was your computer's main performance bottleneck. Replace it with a fast SSD from a reputable manufacturer like Samsung or Intel, and your computer will perform far better than new.
You could reinstall Lion using Internet Recovery. But, it would be much better to skip the outdated versions and install Yosemite. You can create a bootable Yosemite installation disk using an 8GB USB flash drive and a friend's Mac. Here are Apple's instructions for creating a bootable Yosemite install disk from an 8GB USB flash drive:

  Download the OS X Installer app from the Mac App Store.
  Mount the volume you want to convert into a bootable installer. This could be
  removable media such as a USB flash drive, or a secondary internal partition.
  You can then use the createinstallmedia tool to convert the volume from step
  two into a bootable installer based off the installer app from step one. To learn how to use createinstallmedia, use the following command in Terminal:

  /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

After you have created a Yosemite installation disk, insert it in your Mac's USB port and hold down Option as you power up. You will be able to boot from your Yosemite installation disk, just like you would from a Lion installation DVD.

Non-technical users may prefer a more detailed walkthrough of creating a Yosemite installation disc.


can't partition hard drive I tried to make a partition on my macbook for windows. I was unable to do so, because, apparently, the hard-drive has been damaged. Since I do not have osx installation cd, I tried to recover using 1) disk utility and 2) from command line (exiting the desktop, at boot).

In both cases I failed. In particular, doing that by command line seemed to be fine (the output message was something like "disk recovered"). But then, again, when partitioning I always get the error message that the disk is corrupted.

Do you know how could  I possibly solve this problem without osx cd?

One suggestion is to grab this recovery CD. If you like you can use a USB stick instead but I find the CD to be easiest.

Of course, you'll need a functioning computer and CD burner to make this happen so perhaps this isn't possible for you.

If it is possible, burn the .iso, insert the CD, and when booting up, press 'C' immediately after the startup tone plays.

You'll be presented with some options. Just click Enter for these until you find yourself in a live Linux environment that looks like this. You'll be able to use the graphical tool GParted to see what's going on with your partitions. GParted is a very powerful utility. In an (almost) worst case scenario you'll at least be able to recover your data from the HDD.


CrashPlan's top-bar icon, how to get it? I have two Macs running CrashPlan. In one of them, one day, a CrashPlan icon appeared on the top menu bar that informs me when backups are being done, how much is backed up, etc. In the other one, I don't have that icon. Any ideas how to get it to appear?

Are you sure you've checked the option to show it in your menu bar?


Macbook White Mid 2007 will not boot even on Mac OS X Lion bootup USB I see the gray screen and nothing shows up for minutes on the screen not even the blinking question marked folder. Does anyone know how to get it to boot as I have a new hard drive I installed and want to install Mac OS X Lion via the time machine backup. The old hard drive works fine but the boot up using the USB stick does not work.

So I solved this problem by creating the Bootable USB stick by booting into my old hard drive and downloading and installing the recovery disk on the USB stick. Before I made the bootable USB stick on OS X Yosemite.


Why won’t iPhoto open my iPhoto Library any more? My copy of iPhoto has stopped opening my iPhoto Library.

When I open iPhoto, it shows me an empty “Which photo library do you want iPhoto to use?” window. This happens if I open iPhoto normally, or if I hold down the option and command keys while opening it, as suggested in the repair guide linked to from the comments below.

When I click the “Other Library...” button, I can select my iPhoto Library file, but clicking on the “Open” button has no effect.

When I Get Info on my iPhoto Library file in the Finder, it recognizes it as a photo library, and the size (418 MB) looks about right.

If I double-click on the iPhoto Library file, iPhoto does open, but it only shows me the empty “Which photo library do you want iPhoto to use?” window, just like when I open iPhoto itself.

Why won’t iPhoto open my iPhoto Library? And, more importantly, how can I make it open the Library again?

Unfortunately, I'm not super familiar with the inner workings of the library file.  You can copy the masters out and reorganize them into a new library so that your pics aren't lost:

open a terminal window
type mkdir ~/Desktop/RecoveredPicsEnter.  This creates a new folder on your desktop where your recovered masters will live.
type (but do not hit enter) find make sure to leave a space
drag the iPhoto library into the terminal window.  This has the effect of pasting the path to the library.
It also put an extra space at the end of the path, delete it.
type /Masters immediately after the path, make sure there's no spaces between them
NOW you can add a space and past the rest of this into terminal: -type f -exec cp {} ~/Desktop/RecoveredPics/ \;
Hit Enter
Now you can head over to the Finder and check out the contents of the RecoveredPics folder that's on your desktop.  If you're satisfied with the contents, you can drop the folder on iPhoto and create a new library from these.

Let me know if this is helpful!


After upgrading to High Sierra, Boot Camp partition is gone from Startup Manager First time poster here.

After installing High Sierra on my iMac (27", late 2012) my Boot Camp Windows 10 partition is no longer visible in the Startup Manager (accessed by holding Option-key on startup).

When logged into Mac OS, I can see the bootcamp-disk, and it's also visible in Startup Disk. Edit: it's visible in Finder, hence a different problem than described in other questions.

Edit: When I try to boot to Win from Startup Disk, the computer froze on first attempt. On second attempt, it displayed "no bootable device - insert disk and press any key".

I run OS X 10.13.2. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
/Johan

Edit: the disk is a "fusion drive".

Edit: As a (at least temporary) solution, would it be possible to roll back the system using Time Machine, to before the High Sierra uppgrade?

Edit: I solved the issue by simply removing the bootcamp partition, starting from scratch with a new Win 10 installation. However, the Win installation failed several times. The installer wouldn't accept the bootcamp partition. After some googling I did a PRAM-reset, which did the trick. I don't know if this was caused by my original problem with the missing partition.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions, guys!

I do not yet have enough information to diagnose your problem. However, I can offer an solution to one possible scenario that fits what you have posted.

I assume you started with a previous version of Windows, say Windows 7. At some point you upgraded to Windows 10. If this is true, the you would have been using the legacy BIOS boot method, which requires a hybrid GPT/MBR partitioning scheme.

It is possible the macOS upgrade converted a Hybrid partition scheme back to a pure GPT scheme. In this case, you problem is a duplicate of How to convert a drive from the GPT format to the hybrid GPT/MBR format when using High Sierra (macOS 10.13.2).

Before implementing any solution, I would start by determining whether your Mac is trying to boot Windows using the legacy BIOS or the newer EFI boot method.

This can be done by executing the following steps.

Open "Startup Disk" under "System Preferences".
Unlock if necessary.
Select the icon labeled Windows. Do not restart the computer.
Quit "System Preferences"
Open a Terminal application window.
Enter the command given below.

bless  --info  --getBoot  --verbose  2>&1  |  grep  -i  legacy

If you are using a legacy BIOS boot method, then the output should appear similar to what is shown below.

Legacy mode suppported
Boot option is a legacy device
Searching for legacy type 'HD'
Legacy mode suppported
Legacy mode suppported
Matching legacy device 'disk0s4'
Legacy boot device detected

If you are using the newer EFI boot method, then the command will produce no output.
Repeat steps 1 through 4, except select icon with label indicating the volume you have currently booted from.

If you post the output from the the command shown in step 6, I can update my answer with a better explanation on how to proceed.

Also, the output, from the command given below, can help diagnose your problem.

diskutil  list


Will I be charged any fees to use iTunes Radio with my AT&T unlimited data plan? I just got an iPhone 5s. My wireless plan is with AT&T and includes unlimited cellular data. When I open the Music app and go to iTunes Radio, a dialog appears stating:

  Use Cellular Data?

  Additional fees may apply when using cellular data
  for iTunes Radio, iTunes Match, and Automatic Downloads.

Is AT&T charging additional fees for using these services, or is this dialog only warning about the high rate of data usage that may cause limited-data subscribers to exceed their monthly data allowances?

No you won't be charged anything extra.  The dialog is only warning you about the high data usage.


How can I set up Macs with dynamic IP addresses to update a server with a static IP? I have several clients who have Airport Extremes and Macs at their houses. They all have dynamic IP address from their ISP. I want to have their Airport Extremes register their IP addresses with my server, which has a static IP. Does anyone have a guide to set this up?

For example, if my domain is xyzdomain.com I'd like to register clientA.xyzdomain.com on my server.

I realize I need to host my own dynamic IP server, but I'm not having much luck finding instructions for OS X server (10.8).

You can try and host your own dynamic DNS service or you could use one of several online dynamic DNS companies.

While I have not implemented it, this MacOSXhints article appears to be a fairly straightforward solution via a FreeDNS account:

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110812232611102


How to flash screen from command line Is there a way to flash the screen from the command line? I am looking for the same effect that Accessibility does for "Flash the screen when an alert sound occurs", but I don't want it for every alert.

As far as I know, you can't replicate this alert without enabling that option. If you do enable that option, you can cause a flash from Terminal using:

osascript -e "beep"

However, if you don't want to enable that option, you can use invert colours. Using the invert colours Accessibility option twice causes the screen to flash, therefore pressing the keyboard shortcut ⌃⌥⌘8 twice will cause a flash:

#!/usr/bin/osascript
tell application "System Events" to repeat 2 times
key code 28 using {command down, control down, option down}
delay 0
end repeat


Find out which certificate authorities do not come with the system I believe that some of the programs I downloaded in the past have installed some root certificate authorities on my Mac (the OS is Mavericks). After learning more about SSL/TLS, I figure that this is a security risk and I want to fix it. How do I distinguish these CAs from the ones preinstalled with the OS so that I can get rid of them?

You could use the reverse engineering method.

Here is the list of all aps that come with Mac.

So any CA you find in key chain that are not those are the one you are looking for.


Never allow speakers sound during specific hours I don't want my computer play any sound through it's own speaker during work hours in weekdays. But I want to be able to listen to music using my headphones.

I guess something can be done with Automator to schedule a bunch of commands in order to do this.

You could try using breakaway and set up a simple applescript set volume output volume 0 to trigger when the headphones are unplugged. (And of course, you could set up another trigger to turn the volume back up when the headphones are plugged in again.)