Using an Air as an iPod dock for extra headphone volume I have an iPod Classic 160GB synced with iTunes in Windows on a desktop computer.

Volume from the iPod through headphones is too soft. When I'm away from the desktop, is it possible to connect the iPod to my MacBook Air to listen to content through the Air as if it were a docking station? I could use headphones on the Air.

Try using a line-in cable and plug it into the headphone/microphone jack. This Apple support article could have your answer: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201929


What's the cleanest way to integrate apps across multiple devices? I have an iPhone and two Macs. I sync my files across all three using iCloud and want to do something similar with my apps: I want to be able to use an app on my iPhone, and use the same app on both of my Macs, for apps where this is possible.
What's the cleanest way to do this? Right now I download the app separately on each device using the same Apple Id, so when I update something in the app from one device, the update is present in the instance of the app on the other devices. Is there a better way to do this?

Enabling automatic App Store downloads on all devices solves this issue for devices that use the same AppleID for App Store.

macOS this is in the preferences for the App Store App
iOS this is in the settings app under Apple ID > iTunes & App Store

The general case is solved only when you package and script app installs with an MDM framework like JAMF Now. It’s a lot of work to start packaging your apps or manage installers, so most groups don’t fully manage all apps until they have 50 to 100 Macs, but the technology is there to do this on macOS and iOS. There are even comprehensive books on packaging such as Armin Briegel’s


Is there an USB adapter for the Earphones that will let you use both audio and mic simultaneously for a phone conversation? I like the Apple Earphones (the iPhone headphone with audio, mic and remote) but I hate to keep plugging it on and off my Macbook Air. So I heard the only way to fix that is to buy a USB headphone so you can switch it on and off through software. Problem is that I like my Apple Earphones and I want to keep using it but now through USB. Is there a USB adapter that will work with the Earphones, in other words, that will make both headphone and mic work at the same time for a phone conversation?

I'm not aware of a USB adapter that directly takes the 4-pin 3.5mm connector that the Apple headset uses, but you could combine one of the many USB adapters with an adapter cable like this. That will convert the 4-pin connector to the separate 3-pin stereo & microphone connectors that are standard on PCs and should work with any USB adapters with an in & out. You will likely lose the volume and clicker controls on the headset.


Python quit working and now I get "Illegal instruction: 4" message I have an old iMac running High Sierra and I use the Anaconda distribution of python 3.7. I've been using Anaconda for over 2 years and it has worked fine. I have a test code I've run over 100 times to be sure my python still works after doing something stupid on my computer.  About a week ago I was trying to get a python script to run and input some bad parameters into the code. This appeared to lock up my computer and without thinking I manually restarted my computer.

Now I can't seem to get python to work no matter what I do. Before this I had run python scripts using Atom and VSCode. Both worked fine and I checked both out with my test code many times. I would also run Python from the command line and it worked fine as well. Now when I try to run a script in Atom or VSCode it doesn't work. Sometimes it gives me an "Illegal instruction: 4" message.  And other times I get "No module named vpython found. Even though I installed vpython on my machine using conda install vpython.

When I run my test code from the terminal I get an immediate return which says "Illegal instruction: 4". My test code doesn't use vpython.

I have deleted and reinstalled the Anaconda Python twice. I do not have time machine working on my computer so I'd like to fix this issue. Does anyone know why I keep getting the illegal instruction 4 when I run from the command line?

Details:

macOS 10.13.6
Python:

which python3
/Users/myname/opt/anaconda3/bin/python3

I just wrote a simple script and it ran fine in the terminal. The script read in a number and printed it back out and also printed version of python it was using. The source code is:

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))
print(num)
import sys
print(sys.version)

Adding any one of these three lines to the above script causes the illegal instruction 4 output.

import numpy as np
from scipy.optimize import curve_fit
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

So it seems to be something due to these import commands. Although import system works fine!

I found a solution but I'm not 100% sure its the whole answer. My test codes now run fine. I very carefully reloaded the Anaconda distribution for python 3.7 and i made sure to activate my virtual environment ASAP.  When Anaconda is loaded, it also loads many packages. I noticed that it did not load numpy, although it had in the past. It did load something called numbpy, I think it was. Anyway, making sure my virtual environment was activated I loaded numpy for my environment by typing:

conda install -n yourenvname [package]

I also did the same for vpython. Now everything seems to work. I suppose the problem was trying to import a package that hadn't been installed  properly. I'm sure I've committed the foul-up before but I don't recall ever seeing "Illegal instruction 4".


Reclaiming Unallocated Free Space that might Have Gone to Recovery Partition? So, I have a pretty grave problem that I really need help with.  Earlier today, I decided to remove my old and buggy bootcamp partition and reinstall windows.  Problem was, bootcamp assistant didn't allow me to pick the same size as I previously had, so I decided to try to forcibly resize the Mac partition using diskutil resizevolume and then format the unallocated space into FAT32.

That's when my real problem started.  I was unable to use disk utility to convert that unallocated space afterwards, and a few boots later, I even think that the recovery partition seems to have taken the unallocated space for itself.

This is my main partition, for reference:

And this is what diskutil list shows:

So my question now is this: how do I return things to normal on my hd and reclaim all the space for the main partition?  Do I have to delete the Recovery HD partition and reinstall it afterwards?  Or am I making a mistake and the space is still somehow unallocated?

You somehow merged disk0s3 and disk0s4 (the Windows partition) to one big recovery partition - consequently there is no unallocated disk space. With your published commands this shouldn't have happened though.

The fastest way to get a default partition scheme is to merge disk0s2 with disk0s3 and later recreate Recovery HD with a tool like Recovery Partition Creator.

The merge command is:

diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk0s3

The command will merge Macintosh HD and Recovery HD to one big Macintosh HD while retaining the content of your main system volume.


Time Machine adds a dash and a number to my selected backup volume, resulting in incorrect file path - how to fix? I'm on MacOS High Sierra Version 10.13.2 and use Time Machine to back up to an external drive through an AirPort Extreme.

I've had this setup for years (~5, I think) and backups worked fine until earlier this year. The .sparsebundle file has a Date Modified of Apr 30, 2017... I don't know whether it broke after an OS update, or anything like that. When attempting a backup, I first get the following message:

  Time Machine completed a verification of your backups on “Chris' AirPort Extreme”. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.

and I click "Start New Backup". Shortly after, I get the following error:

  Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Chris' AirPort Extreme”.
  Time Machine could not delete the backup disk image “/Volumes/FreeAgent 3TB GoFlex Drive 0-3/Chris’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle”.

I've bolded "0-3" because, the thing is, the name of my drive as connected through the airport is "FreeAgent 3TB GoFlex Drive 0" -- I have no idea why the plist file has "-3" in the path.

I had a go of editing /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist to change the "0-3" to just "0" (I did this by turning off automatic backups in Time Machine preferences, using plutil to convert the plist to xml1, edited in TextEdit, then converted back to binary1); however, when I turn backups back on and tell Time Machine to Back Up Now, it just overwrites the plist to include the "0-3" again.

Same goes for when I delete this plist, entirely -- a new plist is created with "0-3". Any ideas?

UPDATE: Before posting this, I tried a tip I found which advised to repeatedly delete the plist then restart until the plist stays deleted — this never happened (a com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file has always been present after restarting) but the “0-3” has changed to “0-2”.

You probably have some folders in your /Volumes folder that're conflicting with the Time Machine volume. You'll need to delete them, then find out what's creating them and get it to stop.

Deleting them: First, make sure the backup volume (FreeAgent 3TB GoFlex Drive 0) is not mounted; if it is mounted, eject it. Then in the Finder, choose Go menu > "Go to Folder" (or use the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-G). In the "Go to the folder" dialog, enter "/Volumes" and click Go. This takes you to the normally-hidden /Volumes folder, which is where the various volumes your Mac has mounted (both local and network volumes).

If I'm right about the problem, you'll see folders named "FreeAgent 3TB GoFlex Drive 0", "FreeAgent 3TB GoFlex Drive 0-1", and "FreeAgent 3TB GoFlex Drive 0-2" inside /Volumes. You need to delete these, but first check out their contents to make sure there's nothing important in them, and also just to see what files exist -- that'll be a hint about what's creating these folders. When you're done checking them out, delete them. Note that it's not necessary to empty the trash, just to put them in the trash.

Ok, now an explanation of what I think is going on: when your Mac goes to mount the server volume, it tries to create an entry for it in /Volumes, named with the volume's name. All good so far, but what happens if some program tries to access a file or folder on that volume when it isn't mounted? Well, most programs access files by their paths, so the program will try to use /Volumes/FreeAgent 3TB GoFlex Drive 0/SomeFolderOrFile, and if that doesn't exist many programs will go ahead and create it, and store files in it. Then later you mount the actual server volume, and it can't put it at /Volumes/FreeAgent 3TB GoFlex Drive 0 because there's already something by that name. What it does is append "-1" to the name, and use that instead (unless there's something by that name, in which case it tries "-2", etc).

This creation of spurious folders has apparently happened three times on your system. Deleting the folders will fix it temporarily, but whatever created those folders is probably going to do it again and again unless you track it down and get it to stop. This is where you have to play detective: what files and folders got created inside those spurious folders, and what program uses them? For that matter, what program (other than Time Machine) is using that network volume? My guess would be that it's something that starts using the volume while Time Machine has it mounted, and then tries to continue using it after Time Machine has dismounted it.

(Time Machine itself shouldn't cause this problem. It uses aliases rather than just paths to locate its backups, and aliases let it be much smarter about e.g. mounting the server volume rather than just creating a folder by its name.)


Unable to click continue while Reinstall/Disk utilities in Boot I am try to upgrade Sierra to high Sierra, unable to click continue Upgrade/Reinstall,Disk Utility, Restore from machine backup, And Get help online in MacBook Pro booting time.
Kindly help me..

For a MacBook Pro there is a possibility. Assuming you are using the trackpad to click, it may be worth trying a wired USB mouse. Try on all USB ports just in case.
Oddly enough older MacBooks have actual ADB bus pointing devices, long after Apple supported ADB as an available port. Not sure if this is one of those Macs but a curious historical note, none the less.


What video boards can I put in a 2008 Mac Pro to get 4 monitors (DVI)? I currently have a 2008 Mac Pro with 2 Radeon HD 2600 XT video boards, each of which is driving two monitors. This setup performs acceptably, though I wouldn't be averse to faster GPUs. However, the machine periodically crashes (sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes goes for days without doing so, with no discernible pattern) with a large amount of GPU debug mode error messages in the system log. As far as I can tell, this is likely caused by either some driver bug which remains or one of the video boards is failing. This has been going on for quite some time, and while I've reported it to Apple, I don't have high hopes of it being fixed in software anytime soon.

So my question is this - what new video boards can I put in this machine that will still get me four DVI monitor hookups?

What version of OS X? That'll be your limiting factor on GPU support, I think. The 2008 Mac Pro (3,1) had two 16x PCIe slots, so any PCIe video card supported by your version of OS X should work. The official list:

Graphics cards for Mac Pro (Early 2008)

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (part number 630-9191 or 630-9897)
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
ATI Radeon HD 4870, offered as an upgrade kit

Note: The Radeon HD 4870 card requires Mac OS X v10.5.7 or later for use with the Mac Pro (Early 2008).

Graphics cards for Mac Pro (Early 2009)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
ATI Radeon HD 4870
ATI Radeon HD 5870, offered as an upgrade kit

Note: The Radeon HD 5870 card requires Mac OS X v10.6.4 or later and it requires the use of both auxiliary power connections.

Newer cards with OS X support may work, but there are caveats with pre-2010 Mac Pros and I doubt they'd be officially supported.


Bootcamp Installation Space I'm installing Windows via Bootcamp but during the partitioning, my MacBook Pro crashed and now after the reboot I'm seeing that I only have 15GB of free space left. I had 33GB before partitioning.

Since I need at least 30GB to reinstall Bootcamp I'm stuck here and need to find out where the 18GB went during partitioning. Any ideas where to look/what to delete?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!

MacBook Pro 13" Retina 2014, 128GB, Mac OS X 10.10.5

Edit: It's probably worth mentioning that the new Volume does not seem to be created as I only have one, which still has the same total size of 120GB

You most probably still have the disk partitioned in the GPT, but there are no partitions on the disk any more. This has happened to me twice when trying to remove the Boot Camp partition.

You have to compare the output of diskutil list disk0 and sudo gpt show disk0 to see which partitions are still in the GPT, but are marked as unused. Then you'll have to create a temporary partition which you can then delete from Disk Utility.

For example,

[onik@Oniks-MacBook-Air ~]$ diskutil list disk0
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            204.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk0s4
onik@Oniks-MacBook-Air ~]$ sudo gpt show disk0
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  398437504      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  398847144        856
  398848000      32768      3  GPT part - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE
  398880768     228520
  399109288    1269760      4  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  400379048   89855676
  490234719         32         Sec GPT table
  490234751          1         Sec GPT header

shows that there is unused but reserved space at the end of the disk (the line after index 4). You can solve this by creating a partition in the space manually.

Boot into recovery and open a terminal. Unmount the disk with diskutil unmountDisk disk0 (use your own disk number) and calculate the available space for the partition. OSX needs 262144 sectors of empty space after each partition, so subtract that from the size of the space available. After this, create the partition with sudo gpt add -b 400379048 -s 89829462 -t hfs disk0.

After this, if you run diskutil list disk0 again, you'll see the partition, but you'll need to format it. sudo newfs_hfs -v "Temporary volume" -J /dev/rdisk0s5 will do the trick (but use your own disk and partition number). Now you can close the terminal, open up Disk Utility and delete the temporary partition, and Disk Utility will take care of the rest.

Now just reboot and run Boot Camp Assistant again!


Can't get a Public Link to test iOS app on TestFlight I've a app and I want use the External Testers with Public Link. I can use with TestFlight in internal testers.

In "Builds->iOS->Testers" I added the external group target (Público em Geral).

In "Testers & Groups->Público em Geral", I see "No builds available" in the box of Public Link.

So, how I solve this to use public link?

It looks like you make need to add some builds to your tester group, so that the public link can be enabled.

Try the following:

Go to your Testers Group (i.e. "Testers & Groups->Público em Geral" in your 2nd screenshot)
Click on the "Builds" tab
Add one of the builds that you’ve uploaded recently
Click back to the "Testers" tab

You should now see an option for "Enable Public Link".

I found this article pretty handy for some step-by-step instructions.


Get MAC address from a dead phone I have a 4 years old iPhone 3GS that suddenly stopped working 1 and a alf years ago. It was already out of warranty so I preferred getting a new phone instead of reapiring it. But now I need to get its MAC address, however both on iCloud and using the backup I did on my pc some time ago, but I couldn't find any way to recover it? Is it written phisically on the board and opening the phone could be useful? I still have the serial number if that could help.

iPhone original packaging should have the Wi-Fi MAC address in addition to the serial number and IMEI printed on it.  An Apple service desk or service technician might be able to look that up for you, but older devices might be out of the recent database or release of that detail might be considered out of scope.

iOS itself as well as the iTunes back up syncs never need the MAC address, so you would be better looking at Internet logs and router logs and basestation logs since they would record that type of information as a routine auditing function.

Lastly, diagnostic logs from the device might have that information so if you opted into sharing diagnostics with either a third-party developer or Apple, they might have records of your mac address in their databases of crash reports and support incidents.

Opening the device would only make sense if you could get it to power up and join the network-I would be surprised if the address or visible to inspection internally


How to properly install Kali Linux on MacBook Air (dual-boot with El Capitan) I updated to El Capitan yesterday (on MacBook Air 2014). I then decided to install Kali Linux 2.0, and boy it's been one problem after another, so far nothing has gone the way it's supposed to. Without going too much into details, some of which include (problems downloading rEFInd, burning the iso image onto the thumb drive and etc.). I think I managed to do that.

So now I try to reboot my Mac, after the rEFInd boot screen shows up I plug-in the usb and I get only one volume (the legacy OS one) and the guide for installing Linux says try installing rEFInd and try again, but I already have rEFInd (you need to have 3 volumes as it shows here).

If I try to boot the legacy folder it says:

  Starting the Legacy Loader
  Using Load Options USB
  Error: Not Found while loading legacy loader

  Make sure u have the latest firmware update installed
  Hit any key to continue

Any help is appreciated :) I'm really getting frustrated trying to install Kali, first time though.

P.S. There is a very high probability I've messed up somewhere before, because as I said, I've been running into almost every problem out there, googling, and trying to go around it, most of the time not even sure what I am doing, so... I may have messed smth up on the way.

BTW my laptop can't read my USB, which is to be expected, but I will be able to turn into readable later, won't I?

More Details:

rEFIdn used - 0.9.2
How I configured it: Iunzipped it, I had to turn my security settings off in the recovery mode, and I think that worked for me after I ran it as it's is supposed to be ran, as said in the link. Long process, I don't remember all of it.

I set up a MacBook Air 2013 from scratch and tried to install Kali Linux 2.0. The install was successful, the big problem is the Broadcom wireless card though. But that's probably a second question.

Here is what I did:

First I made a fresh install of El Capitan 10.11.1 after repartitioning the internal drive to 1 partition with a GUID partition table.
After configuring El Capitan I downloaded Kali Linux and rEFInd 0.9.2
Then  I dd'ed the kali iso image to a thumb drive:

First get the disk identifier of the thumb drive and unmount it:

diskutil list

My thumb drive had the disk identifier disk2.

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

then dd the iso to the thumb drive:

sudo dd if=/Users/your_user_name/Downloads/kali-linux-2.0-amd64.iso of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m

The thumb drive will be bootable without installing rEFInd.
Then I booted to Recovery HD by holding cmdR while booting. Disable System Integrity Protection in Terminal with

csrutil disable

Reboot to Internet Recovery Mode by holding altcmdR.You will see a spinning globe animation while booting.
Since you probably have a CoreStorage partition after installing El Capitan you have to resize it. I doubt that the disk partition tool in the Kali Live USB drive succeeds with that. Open Terminal and enter:

diskutil cs list
diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size

lvUUID is the UUID of the Logical Volume. It's the last one listed in the output of diskutil cs list. The size has to be in t, g, m or k. Example: If your main disk has 250 GB and you need 40 GB free space to install Kali Linux to, enter 210g.

If you don't have a CoreStorage stack on your Mac you may choose Disk Utility to resize the main volume. The Recovery HD should be moved automatically in both cases.
Reboot while holding the alt key. Boot to the Windows partition of the thumb drive. Choose Graphical Install and configure the locale settings. The network interface install will probably fail. Choose none. Use the defaults of the disk partitioning tool. It will choose the empty space on your main disk to create a small boot partition for grub, a main partition and a swap partition. Then Kali Linux will be installed. Install grub to the mbr of your main disk.
After a reboot the Mac will boot to OS X. Eject the Kali Linux installer thumb drive.
Install rEFInd:

cd /Users/your_user_name/Downloads/refind-bin-0.9.2
./install.sh

Rename the refind folder and the efi file:

cd /Volumes/ESP/EFI
mv refind boot
mv boot/refind_x64.efi boot/bootx64.efi

Immediately after installing rEFInd the EFI volume is mounted at /Volumes/ESP and the install script fails to unmount it. If you mount disk0s1 later manually (e.g. after a reboot) with diskutil mount /dev/disk0s1 it will be mounted to /Volumes/EFI! Then you have to use cd /Volumes/EFI/EFI instead.
Quit Terminal and reboot while holding alt
Choose EFI Boot at the Mac boot screen and then Kali Linux at rEFInd boot screen.
Set up Kali Linux

Everything except the WLAN interface (and AFAIK the webcam) works now.

To further set up Kali Linux check the following resources:

HOWTO : Kali Linux 1.0.6 on MacBook Air (Mid 2013) 13 inches

To get the Broadcom chip to work check:

How to install Broadcom BCM4360 on debian on Macbook pro
How do I install build-essential without an Internet connection?
Kali 2.0 Installation Tips for Macbook Pro 2015 Retina
Broadcom firmware
Installing Debian On Apple MacBook Air6-2
b43 and b43legacy

Until now I haven't been able to get WLAN working but I'm investigating that and I will extend the answer as soon as I'm successful.

After setting up everything successfully boot to the Recovery HD again and reenable System Integrity Protection in Terminal with

csrutil enable


iPhone 5s trouble with cellular data My iPhone won't send texts and I can't recive any texts unless I'm on Wi-Fi.  My iPhone says I have LTE but nothing that requires internet will load. I have cellular data for all my apps turned on. I've tried rebooting my iPhone, and turning the cellular data off and on. My family members who are hooked up with the same data package can use their data just fine. Any advice on how to fix this?

Call your cellular service provider, they should be able to help you.


Cannot Update Apps on MacOS App Store When I try to update an app, and I go to the 'Updates' page, I Get this error in a dialogue box:

Could not load data from the Apple software update server.

I checked my Internet connection, everything is fine.

Please backup all your data. Example: with Time Machine or similar Software (if you not use Time Machine).

All steps are complete in itself. If any of these works you don't need the other steps.

Step 1: Appstore

Open the Appstore and choose from the Menu Store the option to show your Account. You need your AppleID password to access to your account.
If you have access to your account, click on the button reset all warnings.
Log out from the Appstore and close the app. Start Appstore again
Log in to your AppleID by using the option from the Store menu.
Test if the update process works.

Step 2: Using Terminal

Open your Terminal. Choosing from the Finder Menu Go To.. the Option Utilities. Start the Terminal.app
Type or insert the following command in your Terminal and hit Enter.

softwareupdate -i -a

If this not work or you got an error use the following command.

    sudo softwareupdate -i -a

Test whether AppStore updates work.

Step 3: The Hard Way

Reset PRAM
To Reset PRAM, restart the Mac and hold the keys CMD+Option (Alt)+P+R simultaneously during startup. Hold down the keys until you hear the second sound output.

Move the following files to the trash or on your Desktop. Close the AppStore before using the following instructions.

Click on the Finder Desktop and press the keys CMD+Shift+G.
Insert the following Line in the window and press Enter.

~/Library/Preferences/

Delete the following files (if exists)

com.apple.appstore.plist
com.apple.storeagent.plist

Restart your mac and test if works.

Step 4: Use Debug menu

Close App Store with CMD+Q
Open Terminal and insert the following Command:

defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool true
Open App Store and choose from the Debug Menu Show download Folder
Close App Store and move the Download folder to the trash.
Restart your mac (this is important), empty the trash and try if app store works.


Contacts LDAP Account on 10.11 (El Capitan) I am trying to set up an LDAP account for the Contacts application in the 10.11 (El Capitan) OS X version. I need it, for example, to be able to autocomplete addresses via the Mail application.

I've been using this feature in older versions without problems, but with 10.11 I am unable to retrieve contacts from the server. Even on 10.11.3 - connecting to an OpenLDAP 2.4 server or to Active Directory 2008 R2 using a "formal" dn, login & password fails.

In this version the setup can be done vie the Internet Accounts at the System Preferences pane or directly in the Contacts app. The first nuisance is that the password can only be entered once the account has been enabled on the preferences on the Contacts app. Having found this, the new account only appears after restarting the app, and then, searching anything always returns an empty set.

The information to connect to the server (host, user dn, password, base...) is valid and works in previous releases. Doing an ldapsearch works fine as it does configuring the LDAP contacts in Thunderbird in OS X. It seems to me that it is related to the OS.

Is this a bug or is there a procedure to connect to LDAP?

I had checked network packets with wireshark and found that OSX 10.11 and 10.11.1 do not send bindRequest to LDAP server (only searchRequest and unbindRequest), nevertheless authenticate method was configured as 'simple authentication'.
This is bug.


Change the input language to english when shift is pressed On Windows and Linux, when I'm typing in Hebrew and pressing the shift key, the input language automatically changes to upper case English (just while the shift is pressed, when I let it go it changes back to Hebrew).

Is this possible on OS X also?

Found a solution.. Switching to 'Hebrew - PC' keyboard instead of 'Hebrew' solved it :)


Macbook cannot find Magic Keyboard in Settings - Keyboard - configure bluetooh keyboard I have paired the wireless Apple keyboard with my MacBook and I am writing this on the new keyboard. The problem is, I can't configure it in the settings. "No keyboard found"?

I want to set the wireless keyboard's language to English and keep MacBook's keyboard as German. Currently I must switch the language via menu bar.

So… Is it even possible to have two different keyboards with two different languages at the same time?

Hope anyone has got a solution. I've tried rebooting the MacBook and disconnecting the keyboard and re-pairing.

System: MacBook Pro 15 late 13, OS X 10.11.5

It's not possible to do what you want with Apple's software:  System Preferences/Keyboard/Input Sources applies to all keyboards.  There may be a way to do it with the Karabiner app, see this earlier article:

Different key-maps/bindings for in-built keyboard and Bluetooth keyboard


Not showing user after Migration Assistant? I used Migration Assistant to transfer a user account from one MacBook to another.

However, the user that got migrated is not available as a login option on the new Macbook?

If I go into settings I can see the user account is there.   And if I change it to auto-login using the new migrated account that works.

But if I don't use auto-login I can't login with this migrated user.  Also, I can't do fast-user switching to this new user either.

Any ideas?

Did you happen to have FileVault enabled on the target (new) machine before initiating migration assistant?  I've run into where I needed to go into the FileVault section of the security system preferences and explicitly enable the migrated user before they would appear as a login option...


Upgrade to final release of Yosemite from gold master? I'm using developer preview of Yosemite for a while, now that Yosemite is released I want to have it installed on top of my Yosemite partition.

Clicking on "Download" in App Store Yosemite page, I see that I am prompted with an error note, saying :

  Os X v10.10 is already installed on this computer. Use the Updates page to install the 10.10 update or if you would like to download the full OS X installer click Continue.

There's only two buttons; "Learn More" and "OK". OK does nothing, and there's no relevant update note regarding switching to full version of Yosemite so it's not rleevant neither.

How can I download full, final OS X Yosemite 10.10 release and install it on top of preview partition?

All the coverage I've seen says to run what you have and 10.10.1 will convert all pre-release versions of OS X - including the latest GM candidates to the full production version.

You are free of course to go through the work to download the free version of the installer and see if it runs on your specific version of OS X but without knowing your exact build and source of the pre-release software, it's hard to be more specific.


How can I kill or refresh Desktop Wallpaper with a Terminal command? Is there a command for refreshing the Display Settings? Or, in specific, refreshing the Desktop Wallpaper?

You could try restarting dock which, amongst many things, draws the wallpaper on the desktop. But be careful; as dock also controls a lot of window management apps may 'un-minimise' or un-hide and windows. As dock also controls Mission Control, you won't be able to change spaces or go into Mission Control until dock restarts again (which is mostly instantly).

From terminal, try:

killall Dock


How can I troubleshoot an Epson Perfection 1260 scanner that won't play nice with Mavericks? I'm trying to get an Epson Perfection 1260 scanner working with Mavericks.

When I connect the scanner to my Mac it shows up fine in Printers & Scanners in System Preferences. It also shows up in Image Capture, and quite often it will allow me to do an overview scan. However, at some point the (usually green) light on the front of the scanner turns red, and the scanner disappears completely from my Mac.

How should I start troubleshooting this?

The red light may mean that the scanner has detected an internal error, so start at that end.  First, try the scanner on another system if possible. If it works on another system, then the issue could be the USB connection or the software.

It is not unheard of (though rare) to have a bad USB cable, so if you have a spare, swap it for the current one and see if that helps.

There were sporadic disconnects in the early versions of Mavericks, so a system update may have solved your problem.  If not, start troubleshooting by making sure your software is up to date, then remove all other peripherals from your system and connect the scanner directly to your Mac ( no hubs ).  Try each USB port in turn, as there are differences in their internal connections.

I doubt that it would make any difference, but you can download and try a copy of vuescan, (hamrick.com) which uses a different driver.


How do I restrict Internet access while still being able to make calls/receive messages? Is there any way I can restrict my iphone from using the internet? Basically all apps should be blocked from using the internet, in one go, but I should still have the provision to make/receive phonecalls/messages.

Turn off Wi-Fi (in Settings > Wi-Fi), and turn off Mobile Data (in Settings > General > Network).

This will keep the phone off the internet, but still allow phone calls and texts. (iMessage and MMS won't work, however).


Spotlight file path in Yosemite How do I expand the file path in Spotlight in Yosemite? In previous OS versions it would scroll to see the entire path, but now it only shows the end of the path preceded by ... Many of my files are PDFs of scientific literature and all I can see in the file path upon holding the command key is the end of the title.

I found this workaround:

open TextEdit.app
switch to Plain Text (Format -> Make Plain Text or Cmd-Shift-T)
search in Spotlight
drag item into TextEdit.app window

It also works if you drag the file from Spotlight into a terminal window.

I am not sure if there is a more convenient way to do it. If there isn't, I hope Apple will fix this soon.


What is a user friendly ebook converter for pc to Nook HD+? I've tried using calibre, but it cuts out or messes with the original text from the pdf. I don't want to just give up and read from my computer, so any ideas? (please posts links if any.)

Calibre is without a doubt the best ebook library converter/manager I've ever used.  Free and crossplatform for Mac, Linux, and Windows.


Can't remove bluetooth iPhone 3GS from OS X Mountain Lion I paired my 3GS for network tethering and it worked fine until I closed my MacBook.  Now it says that I'm connected to my phone when I am not.  Clicking the 'Disconnect from Network' button does nothing. And in the Bluetooth preferences I can't delete the device.

Can anyone tell me how to force the removal of the device?

What if you just switch off Bluetooth? You're Mac will disconnect (obviously) and then you'll have removed your iPhone from your Bluetooth preferences.

If that doesn't work, you can do it the hard way and delete following files from ~\Library\Preferences:

com.apple.Bluetooth.plist
com.apple.BluetoothFileExchange.plist

Please be advised you'll delete all your stored Bluetooth devices !!


Where is "Today" and "Yesterday" in Finder menu? A folder or place search place that contained everything I used "Today" and "Yesterday" is missing from my new Yosemite finder on the left.  Is it not possible to have this?  It was a quick easy way to recall specific things when working on a lot of different things.

They don't appear to be there by default, but you can add them back in pretty easily.

Open a Finder window
Type "today" into the search box.
It should offer you two options in a dropdown menu "Dates: today" and "Filenames - Name Matches: today". Pick the dates option.
The search should complete and the search bar should appear saying "This Mac" and the name of which ever folder the Finder window had opened. Choose "This Mac".
The search bar should also offer you a "Save" button. Click Save.
A Save panel should appear allowing you to specify a name and location for the saved search. There should also be a "Add To Sidebar" check box. Check the box.

Repeat for "Yesterday".


No X to delete reading list On my Macbook Pro OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 I have a problem with the reading list. I can hide it that works. The problem is how do I edit to delete some on the reading lists. There USED TO BE A SMALL  X  IN THE RIGHT HAND CORNER. I could click it to delete it, but no more. Yes the software is up to date. Any ideas?

Right click on the item in the list and choose Remove Item.


USB 3 via ExpressCard/34 on a thunderbolt with parallels desktop Can I use an extenal  windows formatted USB3 harddisk on my mac connected via thunderbolt on the future Sonnet Echo-Expresscard/34-Thunderbolt-Adapter? It's clear I can use UBS3 HDs for Mac, but how is it when virtually running windows?

If the drive works on the Mac side, it will work under Windows within the virtual environment.  The hardware is virtualized, so Windows will not see it as a USB3 device.


How can I move files or directories marked as a backup? I'm trying to move some files out of my Time Machine backup to a new location on the external drive (outside of the Time Machine folder) that is in use for Time Machine.  I want to do this (as opposed to just copying from the original) primarily to retain all the hard links, not only between files under the directory I am moving, but also to previous backups, so I only maintain a single copy of everything.  Also, I don't have enough free space to make an additional actual copy!  But when I try to move the folder from Finder, I get the error:
"The operation can’t be completed because backup items can’t be modified."

When I try to do it from the command line using mv I get the error: mv: rename [...] to [...]: Operation not permitted

I read this question where in an answer it was explained that the "bypass" utility supposedly "allows you to supply a command and argument to completely bypass the access restrictions."

However, while I found this to work with the rm command, it failed with the same error as above when trying to move a directory.

Update: It appears that if I type the full path to both the source and destination, then it works.  But even when it is outside the backup directory, the system still somehow knows it is a "backup" file, causing trouble trying to use it as a normal file.  How can I get rid of the "backup" bit or whatever that is making the system think it is a backup?

If you list a file inside the TM backup with the Terminal command ls -l@, you'll see that it has extended attributes:

$ ls -l@ "iTunes Library Genius.itdb"
-rw-r--r--@ 22 admin  501  94208 Sep 17  2013 iTunes Library Genius.itdb
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot     50
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot     50

I guess you'll have to remove those from the files that you moved outside the TM backup folder. I haven't tried that myself, though, as I do not want to mess with my backups :)

To remove these attributes, use the attr command with the "c" option, like this:

xattr -c /path/to/file

You may have to use the bypass command for that again.

Let us know whether that works.


Replace "search with google" with "search with bing" in context menu Is there a way to replace this context menu item to search with Bing instead of Google? I looked under Keyboard shortcuts > Services but can't find how to change/add this option.


Don't get password prompt when ssh-ing from fedora I can ssh successfully with password from one mac running Yosemite to another, but when I try to use password authentication for ssh from fedora to either Yosemite system, I never get a password prompt - even if I disable key exchange and explicitly require password authentication. All are on the same local network.

Looking at the differences between ssh -vvv from Fedora and Yosemite, the difference seems to be that Fedora has disabled md5 authentication by default (see Redhat bugzilla 1373835, whereas Yosemite the successful login from Yosemite uses it. However nothing changes if I add

-o MACs=hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com

to the Fedora command line. Upgrading from Yosemite is infeasible (hardware limitations). Do you have any suggestions?

PS could someone with enough points please add Fedora/Redhat, or even linux, tags to this to make it more discoverable (unix, which is the narrowest I can add, is far too broad to be useful)?

When I enter

ssh -vvv -o PreferredAuthentications=keyboard-interactive -o PubkeyAuthentication=no user@host

this is the end of the output I get from Fedora (everything before corresponds fairly accurately between Fedora  and Yosemite logins, modulo slightly differing available encryptions and diagnostic formats):

debug1: kex: server->client cipher: aes256-gcm@openssh.com MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: aes256-gcm@openssh.com MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug1: kex: diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256 need=32 dh_need=32
debug1: kex: diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256 need=32 dh_need=32
debug3: send packet: type 34
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(2048<8192<8192) sent
Connection closed by 192.168.2.12 port 22

Whereas this is what I see in the corresponding Yosemite output:

debug2: mac_setup: found hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com none
debug2: mac_setup: found hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug2: dh_gen_key: priv key bits set: 132/256
debug2: bits set: 512/1024
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: RSA 28:0d:78:e3:61:3a:72:5e:e5:17:b9:27:0b:ad:33:5f
debug3: load_hostkeys: loading entries for host "192.168.2.12" from file "/Users/rim/.ssh/known_hosts"
debug3: load_hostkeys: found key type RSA in file /Users/rim/.ssh/known_hosts:7
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys
debug1: Host '192.168.2.12' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/rim/.ssh/known_hosts:7
debug2: bits set: 519/1024
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug2: kex_derive_keys
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug2: key: /Users/rim/.ssh/id_rsa (0x0),
debug2: key: /Users/rim/.ssh/id_dsa (0x0),
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug3: start over, passed a different list publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug3: preferred keyboard-interactive
debug3: authmethod_lookup keyboard-interactive
debug3: remaining preferred:
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled keyboard-interactive
debug1: Next authentication method: keyboard-interactive
debug2: userauth_kbdint
debug2: we sent a keyboard-interactive packet, wait for reply
debug2: input_userauth_info_req
debug2: input_userauth_info_req: num_prompts 1
Password:

It turns out that this is due to a bug in the implementation of openssh in OSX Yosemite (too small message buffers to accommodate the modern range of available cyphers - please see Redhat Bugzilla bug 1373835 for details). The workaround given there, to limit the cypher list by specifying it explicitly, as for instance

ssh -o HostKeyAlgorithms=ssh-rsa,ssh-dss -o KexAlgorithms=diffie-hellman-group1-sha1 -o Ciphers=aes128-cbc,3des-cbc -o MACs=hmac-md5,hmac-sha1 user@host

works for me.


Close Google Chrome tab (command + w) closes window I upgraded to Chrome Version 23.0.1271.64 and Command + w is now closing the active window instead of closing the active tab only. Is there a "hidden" shortcut for closing the active tab only?

Ok, I just needed to restart the computer. The keyboard mappings are now working as expected.


I just overwrote my folder while mounting a hard disk drive. How do I undo/recover it? I was trying to mount a Linux filesystem on a Mac and accidentally mounted it to my ~/Documents folder using a utility ext4fuse.

Below command is the issued command:

sudo ext4fuse /dev/disk2s7 ~/Documents

And after that, I can't access my ~/Documents folder. Is it there or gone forever?

All the files are still there, you just can't get at them since the mount point has changed the system's ability to resolve files in /Users/whatever (a.k.a.~)

Going forward, try mounting the drive under /Volumes (as in sudo ext4fuse /dev/disk2s7 /Volumes/myDrive)

You should probably reboot the Mac since many programs will have issues saving work to the home folder. If you are working on some important documents, maybe save them to /Users/Shared if you wish, but hopefully you have a good backup system in case this messed things up more than expected.


When using an second monitor, is it possible to move the cursor off both sides of the screen? For example, I have a MBP connected to an external monitor. I use both screens but hate the fact that I have to go all the way to the left side of the external monitor (which is huge) in order to go back to my primary screen. Say that I'm on my primary screen and I move my cursor off the left side of the screen, I'd like my cursor to appear on the right side of my external monitor. Also, if I moved my mouse off the right side of my primary screen I'd like my cursor to appear on the left side of my external screen. I'm sure that functionality isn't built into OSX, but are there third party products that do this?

Yeah, sure. Use Wraparound (I haven't tried it, but it should do what you're asking). Download it here: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/19599/wraparound.


Update screwing with encrypted disk or keep using windows boot? On my 2011 macbook air i have high sierra installed.

It attempted and at some point completed an update security update 2010-001 to version 10.13.6 (not sure if i had automatic updates on or not).

Because i had disk encryption on, i think it became befouled.

Something like what is discussed here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/8092225

forums.developer.apple.com/thread/79420

I now have trouble booting (often it doesnt boot and it takes ages when it does).

I tried clearing the flash with (cmd+optn+P+R) without much help.

On the odd occasion it eventually boots, but as with others on that page everything was going real slow and so i tried to start decrypting the disk (turning off file vault encryption) as others suggested on that page.

Now it is taking a real long time to decrypt. I left it on overnight and had sleep turned off, nevertheless it still locked my computer and i think maybe made no progress over night.

So i got it to boot into my install of windows via bootcamp, and windows works fine. So my question is, should i just use my Mac as a windows machine? or is Apple working on a fix for this problem?

I was able to do a FirstAid via DiskUtility on two different occasions. The first time (before i started decrypting) it came up with errors. The second time after i started decryption, it seemed to complete fine.

I was able to get into recovery mode where i could reinstall the O.S but it wont allow me because indefinite decryption is occuring.

High Sierra is basically not functional/fast now and decrytion is taking forever.

Will i need to wipe the whole disk or will the decryption eventually finish?

UPDATED ANSWER:

I noticed safe boot (hold shift) WAS working fine with CPU available but limited by the fact it doesnt load everything.

I then did Justin Silvers method of removing older kexts.
Particularly previous to that i was only managing kexts under /Library and ~/Library but now i was also removing older ones from /System/Library.

One of the kexts i removed was PACEsupport and i also moved other Mbox2 related old kexts. These were from pre 2015.

But this didnt fix things immediately and not even after restart, but it did force the cache to rebuild itself from scratch as i watch it do so in verbose boot mode (cmd+v).

So i went out to buy a replacement cord as i had given up on fixing the O.S and was going to try to get my old external HD to restore an old snapshot if possible, then suddenly out of the blue it released CPU resources again & now kernel is processing fine again & now i just need to find the correct way to recognise my old external HD.

At the time it released resources it seemed to be processing a lot of QuickLookSatellite processes & i took a snapshot here.
As you can see the kernel was using all the CPU (at times up to 1300% or more) and here it falls off the cliff back to 18% seemingly randomly but i think it just finally processed all the kext cache again and maybe some of the removed kexts were no longer preventing it. But i think there were several kexts that were problematic here particularly originally the Commander uninstall kext process was DDoSing the kernel CPU.

UPDATE:

indeed the problem returned.
however i was able to fix it by doing the below.

After the disk decryption process finished, i still couldn't reinstall the O.S through recovery boot, because of connection to apple server problems, even after fixing datetime synchronisation problems.

I was however able to get my system functioning again by removing some startup items and daemons that i think were flooding my system CPU usage. I found these via inspecting the console (in utility folder) and by using EtreCheck tool.

Effectively a couple of older kexts were continually polling my O.S kernel (particularly one called Commander, associated with an old WIFI dongle uninstall process and another one associate with an old program called NoSleep that would prevent the O.S from sleeping but was designed for an older O.S).

These mustve been in conflict with kernel changes in high sierra + update. So they were effectively DDOSing my O.S and consequently kernel CPU was flooded. Stopping these and removing a bunch of unneeded kexts seems to have fixed the problem into a functional O.S again. Im unsure if it was only those two kexts or other removed kexts that ultimately fixed the problem, but at least this gives you an idea of what to do if you have the same problem.

Resources:

osxdaily.com/2011/-3/08/remove-an-agent-from-launchd

etrecheck.com

Result:
My bootup time became faster but seemingly not yet back to pre-problem speed.
However, the O.S is now completely functional again, with idle CPU kernal usage down to minimal and user CPU usage available again.

Originally accepted answer:

  strangely enough, i used my windows boot for a few days, and even did
  a windows update, then i tried to boot Mac again and its working
  mostly fine now, it still took a bit slower to boot (but not 20
  minutes like it was doing before), and the decrypting is not even
  finished now. So apart from not using the volume for a few days, i
  have no idea why it is now working seemingly well again. Id suggest if
  you have a similar problem to look at the links i've posted in the
  question details. Perhaps just accessing the boot sector with Windows
  helped fix up some files or perhaps it was the last First Aid i was
  manage to do which didnt immediately fix it but mayve fixed it but
  took a few boots for me to realise. its also possible the problem is
  not fully fixed and will return but im offering this as the answer for
  now.


Automator - Conversion from image files to Files/Folders failed I am trying to do a simple task of just taking a screenshot with automator and importing that screenshot into iPhoto.  The screenshot takes fine and saves it to the correct location.  It does save as a .png file but then I get an error when it goes to the next step of getting the specified finder items.  It fails and states Conversion from Image files to Files/Folders failed and unrecognized selector sent to instance.  See screenshot below.

My ultimate goal is to do a time lapse setup with automator.  Any thoughts on what may be causing this error?  I am running OSX 10.8.3

Thanks!

Try to ignore input for Get Specified Finder Items action.

To do so, select Options, and check Ignore this action's input:


How do I 'pause' in a .command-script? I want to create a .command-script on Mac, to execute a series of commands on a remote server using SSH. My script looks something like this:

ssh user@domain.com
cd /var/www/website/
git pull

However, I need to enter my password after the first command (to actually gain access to the remote server). The rest of the script does not get executed after entering my password.

How can I tell the terminal to execute the following commands after I entered my password?

NB: I don't want to put my password in the .command-file.

In this solution we need to tell ssh to create a pseudo terminal with -tt then use a heredoc to send the commands to the remote location.

    ssh -tt user@domain.com <<EOF
    cd /var/www/website/
    git pull
    logout
    EOF


Rebuild APFS Container Scheme using Terminal I am having an issue with an internal HDD from my MacBook Pro Mid-2012 by some reason not sure why it change the file system from GUID to APFS. Right now I been trying to recover my data but there are several files that are shown as "corrupted", so I been researching that the is a way I could fix or rebuild the partition table but I am not sure which one I am currently have the GUID or the APFS but I am sure there is one that is corrupted. Actually I have tried with DiskWarrior but it tells me that "APFS is not supported" so I want to try if there is a way by using Terminal.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks
Alberto

Too much for a comment, so I'm dropping this in the answer space - be kind ;)

GUID isn't the partition format, it's the underlying 'low level' format, as opposed to MBR. Previously, Macs used HFS+ for the file system, but that will have been automatically updated to APFS perhaps when you upgraded to Mojave [ iirc.. SSDs would have changed at High Sierra, HDs at Mojave]. As you rightly say, DiskWarrior cannot yet handle APFS, only HFS+.

I'm not sure you should be thinking about rebuilding the partition table, or writing anything at all to a disk with signs of corruption until you can safely rescue the data you have on there.

If you have a solid backup then you could always just reformat, which would take any bad blocks out of service.

Without a backup, then you ought to be using another Mac to download & create a rescue boot drive; avoiding writes to the suspect drive.
There are several apps which may be able to recover your data, Recovering an accidentally deleted  folder in OSX - no Time Machine or backup available  has some options.


'Always on top' window on macOS I need a way to put any chosen window to be always on top.
For example, if I read a book in iBooks or I'm writing code in Xcode using Sublime Text. I want an application or way to overcome the issue.
I tried Helium and Fluid Browser but they are like web browser it's not I look for. I exactly want any application to be on top always for macOS.

Try Deskovery3. It does that and more. (up to and including Catalina)

There's also Afloat (up to Mojave): http://www.perfectlyrandom.org/2016/10/23/always-on-top-in-macos-sierra/

Or AfloatX (for Catalina): https://github.com/jslegendre/AfloatX

Note: these require you to temporarily lower the security settings on your Mac (disabling SIP) during part of the installation/setup.

Alternatively, you might want to investigate the following macOS features: Full Screen, Mission Control, Hot Corners and Spaces which all allow easy and flexible control of application windows.


What does the keyboard shortcut ⌥⇞ mean? I'm in need of a translator for ⌥ ⇞

This screen shot below is from the TexStudio and Texmaker latex editors.

⌥ - Is the Option key, also called Alt.

⇞ - It's called Upwards Arrow with Double Stroke, and usually represents page up. If your keyboard lacks that specific key, doing Fn+↑ does the trick.


may I demand product replacement? Macbook Pro Retina will have screen replacement for the 3rd time may I demand product replacement - completely new Macbook Pro Retina?
My 15" Macbook Pro Retina will have screen replacement for the 3rd time.
For the first time it was ghost effect - replaced with new screen,
for the second time bad pixel - replaced with new screen,
and now there is once more bad pixel - maybe it is the time for WHOLE COMPUTER replacment?
Do you know some of the Apple's polices in this area?
May I even demand the warranty coverage prolongation? One such replacement is about one week without computer...
Additionaly to bad pixels something like presented on the picture started happening...
UPDATE regarding ghost effect issue:
http://youtu.be/KdhIA8-UIRQ
The video shows that only the LG-Panels are affected. Unfortunately it seems that the chance of getting a Samsung panel is only about 1/3.
You want to know what kind of Panel/Display your Retina Macbook has?
Simply start your Mac OS X Terminal and type in the following command:
ioreg -lw0 | grep \"EDID\" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

Model numbers beginning with "LP" indicate an LG display.
A number beginning with "LSN" corresponds to a Samsung display

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE (2015-02-19):
MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15 inch, Early 2013)
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
Symptoms

An affected MacBook Pro may display one or more of the following
symptoms:
Distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen
No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on
Computer restarts unexpectedly

Typically Apple will replace (instead of repair) a computer that has required 3 repairs for the same issue.

It may require a call to Apple Care (800-273-2273) and ask to have the case escalated. If you have taken it to the store already, and the store has refused to replace, then Apple Care will probably back the store's decision. If however you call Apple Care first, and when they say to take it to the Apple Store for repair, you question the need for 3 repairs on the same computer for the same reason, ask to have it escalated, you will probably get offered a replacement.

If that gets you nowhere, You may also try a EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) to various service level contacts. sjobs@apple used to get results, may try tcook@apple.com now? Or do google/consumerist search for EECB and Apple.
http://consumerist.com/2007/05/11/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb/


Safari beach-balling on some websites like Github.com Safari has been stalling when I load some websites. Github.com is the most reproducible. The page would load, but then my mouse would turn to a beach-ball and just get stuck until I close the tab with Github or whatever site seems to be causing it.

I am not running any extensions - to be honest I don't know what it could be. My boss is having the same issue as well. I have no issues with loading Github on Chrome.

I am running macOS Sierra (10.12.1) on a Late 2014 Mac mini and Safari 10.0.1. It also happens on the Safari Technology Preview (Release 26, 10.2)

What are ways to fix this or further diagnose slow web sites in safari?

Release 26 of Safari TP contains many changes to the rendering engine. This causes problems with many websites, especially where image sprites are used extensively.

This will likely be fixed in the next release, but until then, you can just use the standard install of Safari, or downgrade to the previous version of Safari TP if you still have the installer. You can also try running with Disable Caches selected in the Develop menu.


AppleScript counts multiple Mail messages In this AppleScript on Mavericks:

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    set viewer to the first message viewer
    set msgList to selected messages of viewer
end tell

set msgCount to 0
repeat with m from 1 to the count of msgList
    set msgCount to msgCount + 1
end repeat

I get a much higher message count than the number of selected messages (it can be a difference of almost 30% for some mailboxes). I have confirmed that selecting ONE message with no replies can result in the message being counted more than once. This is with a standard IMAP account.

Is there any reason other than IMAP errors for this discrepancy?

I've seen this too, and I presume it's because Mail in Mavericks plays badly with IMAP in various ways, and AppleScript aggravates these issues. For example, some people are finding that if you move a message from one IMAP mailbox to another using AppleScript, it can take 30 seconds or even a minute - but if you do the same thing just by dragging the message, it's very fast.

So, to sum up, my answer is: yes, it's real; yes, it's a bug, and no, you're not going to be able to do anything about it. Mail is doing some kind of caching here. Quitting and relaunching Mail might (or might not) clear up the problem temporarily. But it might not.

I tried getting the Mail selection with AppleScript just now and I got four messages when only two were selected. But close examination showed that this was only two distinct messages; Mail has wrongly assigned to two different unique message ids to each message. That's a massive bug, and there's nothing you can do about it. (I tried rebuilding the mailbox but it didn't help.)

EDIT: I played around with this some more: I turned off View -> Organize By Conversation and I then rebuilt the mailbox, and that seems to have helped.


Independent columns in Apple Pages 5.0 Is it possible to set two independent columns in Apple pages, so that the text in the left column continues in the left column of the next page and not in the right column. And the text of the right column continues in the right column of the next one.

What I'm trying to do is to have some text and its translation, side by side.

You could accomplish this by creating a Page Layout document. On the first page, create two side-by-side Text Boxes. Before typing, duplicate the page (control-click on the page thumbnail to the left of the editing area). Then, link each text box to its corresponding text box on the next page.

To add additional pages, go to the last page and duplicate it, to avoid having to recreate the text boxes from scratch each time.


macOS High Sierra on the App Store: the Learn More button doesn't work App Store > macOS High Sierra > Download

We could not complete your purchase.
You do not have enough space to install macOS High Sierra.
[ Learn More ]  [ OK ]

That [ Learn More ] button does nothing at all. I opened the Console app and filtered the messages using "App Store" and I found this:

Rejected request to open untrusted URL DABuyButtonLearnMoreURL.Yosemite

I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.6

I had the same issue and I thought I had enough space but I didn't. You need at least 14.3GB I believe. It downloaded for me afterwards


Where does an iPhone store the number of failed password entries? Background:
Recently I changed my password on my iPhone. I opted for an alphanumeric one for security. However thanks to the likes of FaceId I did not have to re-enter it for a while to the point where I could no longer fully remember it. Eventually FaceId failed me and I was locked out. I tried various combinations of the passphrase that I did remember but to no avail. I searched the internet for an answer but found nothing more than a lot of blogspam articles, a forensic tool designed for governments with a price range in the four digits, and a bunch of shady websites, trying to sell me something.
Frustrated with the lack of useful information I opted for restoring from a backup. However all of this got me thinking:
Thought process:
If I knew where an iPhone stores the number of wrong entries I could use tools like checkra1n to access that particular file and alter it to reset the counter for false entries.
The iPhone cannot store this information with the rest of the user content as that part is encrypted, so it must be stored with information that is available at boot and hence accessible when rooting via checkra1n.
However the lack of public tools implies that accessing the number failed password entries is non-trivial. I could imagine the possibility of storing it in hardware, hence making it impossible to reset via jailbreaking but the existence of tools like GrayKey implies that there is some way to extract information out of the phone that allows you test password entries against it.
Question:
So my question is, is the location in which the number of failed passcode entries is stored known or are there at least hints that allow us to (roughly) deduce its location?

The number of failed passcode entries is stored within the Secure Enclave in the hardware. It is not stored as a file or anything like that on the Flash drive.
You cannot easily manipulate it.


How do I find the IP addresses assigned to devices connected via Internet Sharing on Snow Leopard? Possible Duplicate:
  Show Active Connections to “Internet Sharing”

Using the following scenario as an example:

I have a Macbook Pro connected to my LAN via its Airport.
I enabled Internet Sharing so that the Airport connection would be shared among any devices connected to the ethernet port of the MBP.
I plug a Raspberry Pi into the ethernet port of my MBP and boot it up.

How do I determine its IP address so I know what to SSH into?

Try pinging the broadcast address. This should work as long as the Pi got an IP from DHCP and responds to ping.

First, open up a terminal and run ifconfig en0. This should give you the info for your ethernet interface, if not, just use ifconfig and find it yourself. Make a note of the broadcast address. In my case, it's 192.168.2.255:

inet 192.168.2.99 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255

So I'll run the command ping 192.168.2.255. Do the same with your broadcast address, and hit CTRL-C to stop the ping once you have some results:

Miramar:~ gabriel$ ping 192.168.2.255
PING 192.168.2.255 (192.168.2.255): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.2.99: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.113 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=3.567 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.99: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.096 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=3.455 ms
^C

The broadcast is intended to go out to everything on the network. Everything that hears it should respond. In my case, I only see my IP and my router's - I guess it didn't bother passing the request on to my other machines, but you're directly connected to the Pi so you should see it there.


Will the new iPhone 7 be compatible with other wireless headphones? It was not clearly explained, whether new iPhone 7 will be only compatible with affiliated brands rather than free to connect with any wireless headset.

In a word, yes.
The iPhone 7 & 7 Plus both use Bluetooth 4.2 technology.  Considering the vast majority of wireless headphones use bluetooth, this means the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus will be able to pair with them just as previous iPhone models have in the past.
From Apple's iPhone 7 / 7 Plus technical specifications page, under the Cellular & Wireless section:

802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi‑Fi with MIMO
Bluetooth 4.2 wireless technology
NFC


Takes Long Time to Show Network List After Clicking WiFi Icon For the last couple of years, it has taken a long time (sometimes as long as 30 seconds!) for the list of available WiFi networks to be displayed after clicking the icon at the top of the screen.

I have over 400 "preferred" (saved) networks. Does that have something to do with it? I like to keep them because I travel a lot and it's nice to come back to a place and have my system automatically log in without any effort on my part.

I have written a command line application to manage WiFi independently of the GUI (at https://github.com/keithrbennett/wifiwand), but would prefer to have both options available to me.

Having over 400(!) preferred networks may be one symptom of the lengthy time it takes to load them all. I suggest that you take the time to delete the networks you never use, even ones that you connect to infrequently. It may be convenient to be able to connect quickly, but you've found one reason why it actually isn't. Re-establishing networks does not take much time, and you may just prevent your computer from connecting to infrequently connected networks which have been compromised since you last used them.

Secondly, if you use iCloud Keychain, any Wi-Fi networks you connect to on any device you use with iCloud Keychain (iOS devices particularly) will populate this list. I found this out when coming back from a vacation in Europe and all the networks I connected to on my iPad whilst there appeared on my desktop Mac at home!

Lastly, it is wise to move the most frequently used Wi-Fi networks to the top of the list. This may help decrease the amount of time the list appears. I have but a fraction of the number of networks saved, so I can't do a real-world experiment to see if this will decrease the length of time it takes to load the list.


mac wont boot anymore after running bootcamp It went fine until it restarted and showed a black screen with"insert bootable device" which was right there.
It wont do anything else until I hold the power button to turn it off. rebooting shows the same screen. none ofthe start up key combinations like alt, cmd+r, etc work or seem todo anything.

any suggestions? 0_o i did bootcamp by the book, followed apple's instructions, but it seems almost as if it bricked my whole mac...

I wouldn’t panic, but I would think how recent your backups are.

The NVRAM stores where to boot so to bypass that, power off and hold the option key when you boot. If your Mac OS drive shows, select that and see how it boots.
Once you’re back in macOS - use system preferences to change the startup disk or consider resetting NVRAM with the Command - Option - P - R key commands.

If that doesn’t work, I would boot to recovery and see if you can get into Disk Utility and take a picture of how the drive is partitioned or better get some details from the Utilities / Terminal app.

How to know the hard disk capacity for sure and how to recover lost partitions?

The above question lines up the various Core Storage / APFS / plain disk formats for all MacOS versions since OS X.


Move photos from iCloud to iMac I traded in my iPhone 4s for a 5s. I did not have time to transfer my photos at the store. My iPhone 5s says my iCloud is full and that the pictures are from my old phone. How do i get these photos out of the cloud and onto my iMac?

Enable PhotoStream in iPhoto on your iMac.


How to select buttons in a dialog using the keyboard? Times ago I setted my Mac (in system preferences) to use, when an alert appear, enter key to choose OK button and tab to scroll other possible button and space to select one of them.
Now I initialized my Mac and I can't find the preference again, does somebody know where is it? Thank you!

You are probably searching for the option "Full Keyboard Access".

You can find it under System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts


Are there other VNC servers for macOS other than the built in one? The built in VNC server is not sufficient for my needs as I cannot change settings of the VNC server.

I tried to run Vine Server (OSXvnc) but the application crashes on launch.

Are there any other VNC servers that run on macOS?

Edit-

When I connect to the built-in VNC server, I observe that it is slow. I tried to make the VNC connection faster by reducing the color level of the VNC connection so that less bandwidth is used. However, the built-in VNC server refuses to connect.

I am looking for VNC server which supports connections with reduced color level so that the VNC connection is faster.

As far as I know there are no other freely available, generic VNC servers for macOS besides the built-in one and the OSXvnc program.

There exist a commercial VNC server from TightVNC, but it is not generic in the sense that it allows VNC access to your macOS desktop - rather it is to be built in to a specific application to allow remote access to that only.

One thing you could try is a newer "fork" of OSXvnc (or rather just seem to be some guys providing updates on the seemingly otherwise abandoned OSXvnc project) here:

https://github.com/stweil/OSXvnc

There are even some pull-requests with bugfixes for a few bugs, so you might be lucky that one of those fixes your crash.


Toggle Natural scrolling from command line with reload I'm looking to make a script that quickly toggles the Natural scrolling settings, so I need a way to do it from the command line.

I think I found the correct defaults command, but I'm not sure how to apply it without logging out. Here is the command I'm using:

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences  com.apple.swipescrolldirection -bool

The same setting is visible in the Magic Mouse and Trackpad panes. This works if you have a Magic Mouse connected (but not if you do not):

osascript -e 'tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "mouseTab" of pane id "com.apple.preference.mouse"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    click checkbox 1 of window 1
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"'

This works if you have a trackpad:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Preferences"
  reveal anchor "trackpadTab" of pane id "com.apple.preference.trackpad"
end tell

tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    click radio button 2 of tab group 1 of window 1
    click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
end tell

quit application "System Preferences"'

nb: the "Accessibility Inspector" tool that comes with Xcode can be used to locate UI items to click on.


Without Match, how do I remove songs from the cloud? My daughter downloaded a lot of pop music through my iTunes account which re downloads to my iPad and iPhone every time I sync them. How do I delete this music from the cloud. I do not use Match

You can have her delete it / stop it being stored in the cloud (see this help page: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201323 ) - basically just click 'Also delete this song from iCloud'.

Alternatively keep them in iCloud but just turn off Automatic Downloads as suggested above by GeF.

EDIT: Remember, choosing to 'Also delete this song from iCloud' doesn't mean the purchase is wasted - you can always re-download previously purchased tracks.


iCloud Keychain - view online Is there any way of viewing the contents of your iCloud Keychain online? After a computer failure, I have no access to my keychain items!

I have another laptop running Snow Leopard, but it is not compatible with iCloud.

I have looked through the iCloud FAQs, but have found nothing useful:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5813

No, your iCloud Keychain can't be viewed online. You need to access the iCloud Keychain service through OS X or iOS to be able to access it, which requires a compatible version of either.

Furthermore, the data is not stored within Documents & Data so you can't access it through iCloud Developer.


Windows Server 2012 (or 2008) on a Mac mini I understand Windows Server 2008 (and presumably 2012) works with Boot Camp. But I am wondering if it will be able to access the second hard disk in the Mac mini server.

Can a Boot Camp Windows use the second hard disk as a NTFS volume?

Yes it can. But it would be better if you first format the disk in OS X as any type you wish, then format it in Windows as NTFS.


Are there informed speculations about what is the next Mac that is going to be upgraded? There are five lines of Macs (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro), and AFAIK Apple has almost always updated only one at a time, leaving the others a bit behind.

Now, it should be easy to keep track of the most recently updated, hence the odds of an update for the older models increases, and this is what I would call an "informed speculation" at a very basic level.

Is there any site which aims to keep tracks of these updates, and possibly adds commentary on product line changes?

MacRumors Buyer's Guide seems to provide the best predictions for updates. They use the average timescale for updates to provide a guess as to whether an update will come soon. They also include prominent rumours towards updates.


iPad Air won't play videos in YouTube app My iPad air suddenly stopped playing YouTube videos. Everything loads fine in the YouTube app and in Safari except videos. I can see my subscription list and recommended videos and I can also search and get results fast. But now just three days ago both stopped playing. I'm running iOS 10. I updated several weeks when iOS 10 just came out, but this is the first time anything is happening to youtube so I assume it's not the update.

Everything loads but once I click a video, all I see is the rotating circle that means the video is loading. It doesn't load and the gray bar that usually shows how much is loaded does not progress at all.

I've turned off my iPad, reset it, closed all tabs, deleted the app and reinstalled it twice, tried it in the browser, reset the wifi, connected to different networks, cleared the youtube cache and cookies, and updated the youtube app.

Videos from other sites like dailymotion and Vimeo or Facebook all play just fine and have no problem loading. Netflix also works fine, it's only YouTube that is having this problem.

I've looked at a ton of tricks and such trying to fix it and tried all the ones I could find on my own, but none of them are recent. I'm willing to try just about anything at this point.

Try a reset: Simultaneously hold down the Home and On buttons until the iPad shuts down. Ignore the off slider if it appears. Once shut down is complete, if it doesn't restart on it own, turn the iPad back on using the On button. In some cases it also helps to double click the Home button and close all apps from the tray before doing the reset. It's worked for me


Where can I find statistics for most searched apps in the App Store? Does anyone know if it's possible to find out what people are searching for in the App Store?

I'd like to be able to pitch to a client that there is a high demand for a certain type of app. Is it possible to see this sorta like a Google AdWords Keyword Tool for the App Store?

Officially? You can't. Apple does not provide any specific metrics about apps nor searches except those provided in Keynotes (we have $x apps, paid $y to developers, etc.). You could really only make assumptions based off the list of "Most Popular" apps in the App Stores.

Your closest bet would be whether or not a third-party ad network like AdMob or LinkSynergy publishes statistics of their own. Their own scope will of course be limited compared to the overall searching traffic, but it may be as close as you're going to get.


How can i install "Stardict" on my macbook? I tried to install Stardict on my macbook. but it didn't work

What have i tried?

I tried to follow this guide https://code.google.com/p/stardict-3/wiki/MacOSX but it didn't work for me or may be i did something wrong.

Who can install Stardict on mac machine, Can you tell me how to install it?

I tried this version  StarDict-3.0.1-MacOSX.zip   21.2 MB
it is in english

just upload dictionaries


.rvmrc and mac osx lion "restore" issue Just switched to lion a couple of days back, and juts noticed that when you quit Terminal while in a folder, when you open it, it should be back in that folder(along with your other tabs).

This is a good feature indeed, but the problem is, it doesn't "refresh" your paths. meaning even if you had a .rvmrc file in your app folder, it won't set the ruby and gemset again. you'll have to actually cd out and get back in again, which defeats the purpose of having an rvmrc.

Is this a known bug and are there an fixes/patches for it already?

EDIT
Following Chris Page's advice, I added cd "$PWD" in the last line of my .bashrc (which is loaded by my .bash_profile)

This in turn "loads" the rvmrc as expected :

Last login: Tue Aug  9 11:29:09 on ttys003
Using /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180 with gemset mygemset

eumir$ gem list
/Users/eumir/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/bin/gem:12:in `require': no such file to load -- rubygems (LoadError)
from /Users/eumir/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/bin/gem:12

eumir$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2009-06-12 patchlevel 174) [i686-darwin10.2.0]

As you can see, it did load the gemset(printed out by "Using /Users...") but trying to do gem list and showing the ruby version says that it still didn't load it. (the ruby version should be 1.9.2)

EDIT 2

I updated my rvm and now any of the fixes aren't working!

It prints out that it IS using the gemset in my rvm but when I do a gem env, i get this:

eumir$ gem env
RubyGems Environment:
  - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.3.6
  - RUBY VERSION: 1.8.7 (2010-01-10 patchlevel 249) [universal-darwin11.0]
  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p174@awetest
  - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby
  - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p174@awetest/bin
  - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
    - ruby
    - universal-darwin-11
  - GEM PATHS:
     - /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p174@mygemset
     - /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p174@global
  - GEM CONFIGURATION:
     - :update_sources => true
     - :verbose => true
     - :benchmark => false
     - :backtrace => false
     - :bulk_threshold => 1000
     - :sources => ["http://rubygems.org/", "http://gemcutter.org"]
     - "gem" => "--no-ri --no-rdoc"
  - REMOTE SOURCES:
     - http://rubygems.org/
     - http://gemcutter.org

doing cd ../ and then cd myfolder and then gem env results with this:

eumir$ gem env
RubyGems Environment:
  - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.7.2
  - RUBY VERSION: 1.8.7 (2009-06-12 patchlevel 174) [i686-darwin10.4.0]
  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p174@awetest
  - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /Users/eumir/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p174/bin/ruby
  - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p174@awetest/bin
  - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
    - ruby
    - x86-darwin-10
  - GEM PATHS:
     - /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p174@mygemset
     - /Users/eumir/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.8.7-p174@global
  - GEM CONFIGURATION:
     - :update_sources => true
     - :verbose => true
     - :benchmark => false
     - :backtrace => false
     - :bulk_threshold => 1000
     - :sources => ["http://rubygems.org/", "http://gemcutter.org"]
     - "gem" => "--no-ri --no-rdoc"
  - REMOTE SOURCES:
     - http://rubygems.org/
     - http://gemcutter.org

which is the correct environment. As you can see, the gemset was loaded correctly(along with the gems) but it is still using the system ruby instead of the rvmrc ruby.

Lion Terminal selects/restores the working directory by setting it with chdir() before the shell starts. If you want to automatically perform some sort of additional work related to the working directory, you should customize the shell with a startup script that performs some command with $PWD.

Assuming you're using bash (the default), what you apparently would want to do is add something like this in ~/.bashrc:

cd "$PWD"

I'm not familiar with rvmc, but I assume it must use the shell startup script to customize the "cd" command, so be sure to issue this command after that. Also, if you don't already have shell startup scripts, you'll usually want to create ~/.bash_profile and have it run ~/.bashrc if it exists (look around on StackExchange or use Google to find this common idiom).


Shell commands to determine if file is held on an APFS volume In a shell script, I need to determine if a file is held on an AFPS volume. What is the easiest way to do that?

I'd do the following:

Use a combination of basename (to get the full path of the file, if required) and df to determine which volume the file is on.
Use diskutil info to determine the filesystem type of the volume (you could also use mount).

There are perhaps better ways of doing it but that will certainly work.

The following one-liner was suggested by fd0 in a comment:

df -T apfs /absolute/path/to/file >/dev/null && Do Stuff

This executes "Do Stuff" only if the file is on an APFS filesystem. If Do Stuff is more than a few simple commands the same can be accomplished with

if df -T apfs /absolute/path/to/file >/dev/null; then
    do stuff
    do even more stuff
fi


Any ideas why my copy and paste are acting weird? I'm on a Macbook Pro (mid-2009) running Lion 10.7.4. Everything has been awesome these past few years, but something weird started happening a month ago: my copy/paste has been acting oddly. Sometimes I copy text and when I paste, it would be something I had copied earlier. I chalked this up to an incorrect keystroke on my part. But even when I pay attention closely this still happens somewhat infrequently.

Even more bizarre is when I cut text (just to be sure my keystrokes worked), I would see the text disappear, but when I paste what's in the clipboard, it would paste something older. huh? I'd then have to undo a few times to restore the text I cut out.

I've ruled out hardware issues with my keyboard since this happens even when I do it with my mouse (using PopClip which pops up iOS style copy/paste buttons).

I am not running any clipboard utilities so I am stumped. If this is a hardware issue, I'd love to know that soon because my AppleCare runs out in a few weeks. Thanks for any tips or leads.

Given that this is almost certainly not a hardware issue (there is, after all, no copy/paste chip that performs that function) and given the troubleshooting steps you have included, this still sounds like a task for your local Genius Bar. If it's a configuration issue or a software conflict, they can help you sort it out, and if it's a bug in OS X, they'll make Apple aware of it so it can be fixed.

As other answers have mentioned, you still have to isolate software as a cause by trying a new user or a new install of the OS (perhaps to an external drive).


Audible books on iTunes I'm running sierra os and want to listen to my audible audiobooks on itunes. The audible website says that I don't need any additional software for Mac:

  Mac users using iTunes do not need to download any additional
  software. Audible files will download directly into iTunes.

When I go to an audiobook section of my itunes I can't see anything. How do I import the audiobooks? I've downloaded them to the computer.

I'm not sure why it assumes that files will automatically get imported into iTunes. When I tested just now, the file downloads, but I certainly have to take action beyond that to get it into iTunes.

To import the files into iTunes, go to File > Add to Library (Command-O), then browse to the folder where you downloaded the Audible file. Select the file(s) and click Open. They will be imported into iTunes and at that point you will find them in the Audiobooks section.


Terminal and iTerm not working after upgrading to macOS Sierra After I updated to macOS Sierra, Terminal.app and iTerm failed with the same error:

login: /usr/local/bin/bash: No such file or directory

Now I can fix Terminal with this. But then in Terminal:

mkdir: /Users/username/.bash_sessions: Operation not permitted

Also, this does not fix iTerm. So where does this /usr/local/bin/bash come from, why is it missing, and if Sierra deleted it, why isn't the new Terminal updated?

There's a guy with the same problem as mine. So I'm not alone.

Open System Preferences > Users & Groups.
Unlock the padlock at the bottom of the preference pane
Hold down the option key and click your account then click the Advanced Options... menu
Change your shell to /bin/bash
Click the OK button and close the preference pane.
Logout then log back in


iMessages between two devices are received by the device sending the message When my husband sends me an iMessage from his iPhone 5c it sends it to him. If I send him a message from my iPhone 5c it send it to me. This has just happened since we updated yesterday.

You are using the same Apple ID or the same cellphone number to receive iMessages on both iPhones' iMessage clients. Doing so will lead to you receiving your own sent message, like I am:

Here's a quick fix:

Open Settings>Messages.

Tap "Send & Receive".

Tap "Add another Email".
Type a diiferent email ID. It will now show a "Verifying..." status. Open that e-mail inbox and confirm verification.


Do native screensavers have a hidden configuration to show image file name/path? I have an archive of images.  When they're displayed as a screensaver rotation, I'd like their names (and maybe the paths they're organized under) to show as an overlay to the image.

I don't really want to run a script that 'watermarks' the name or path permanently on the image.

I'd also think it's worthwhile to hear about 3rd-party screensavers that do this — though I think in that case it should be limited to one answer that gets edited by everyone (and eventually becomes a community-answer).  It'll change over time and need constant revision.

I'm on Mojave, but anything available for an in-support OS is fine.

Check Photo Screensaver for Your Mac (ArtSaver).

The screensaver provides a plethora of options including name and path:


Can you boot into recovery mode on an older iMac running a newer version of OS X (10.8)? I'm running OS X 10.8 on an iMac which is from 2008, and I can't seem to boot into recovery mode. Command-r doesn't do anything- the computer simply boots normally every time. Although OS X 10.8 certainly does support recovery mode, I'm wondering if the problem might be that I'm using an iMac that was built before the feature was added to OS x (it was added with 10.7 Lion in 2011, my iMac is from 2008). Is it possible that the hardware is preventing me from booting into recovery mode, or is it solely a feature of the operating system, and should work on older iMacs as well?

I believe the issue is that recovery mode was introduced in 2011, you are indeed correct.

If you have access to another Mac you could create a bootable macOS installer and boot from that


Windows 10 won't install in EFI Boot mode when hybrid partitions are present on Mac-Pro 5.1? I am trying to install Windows 10 in EFI mode on a Mac Pro 5.1, to co-exist with Snow Leopard, also installed in EFI mode, in GPT partitions, and Windows XP, installed in BIOS mode, in an MBR partition.

So I set up hybrid partitions, using Gdisk, with 4 MBR partitions at the beginning of the disk (for some reason, the Windows XP installation will fail if the 4 MBR partitions are at the end of the disk, and for some other reason it needs to be on the 4th, but those are different issues).

Gdisk reports:

Everything looks OK to me.
But the EFI Boot Windows 10 installation doesn't see the GPT partitions, it only sees the MBR partitions and sees the GPT part of the disk as unallocated space:

And says: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks."

If there are no hybrid partitions, Windows 10 installs OK in EFI mode.

Is Windows 10 installation in EFI mode incompatible with hybrid partitions?

Has anyone encountered this or found a solution?

A Windows 10 installation in EFI mode is incompatible with hybrid partitions. A solution would be to install both Windows XP and Windows 10 in BIOS mode.


FaceTime & iMessage auth troubleshooting I have created a separate user for my GF on my mac (macos Catalina 10.15.4) but I cannot log into  FaceTime and iMessage. FaceTime shows "this account has no reachable addresses" error, but account is connected to appleid and works on her iphone. iMessage just shows incorrect login or password. I tried re-login with my credits and it works fine. My GF has such troubles with FT and IMsg on her phone about year ago, but after updating on 12 ios this problem disappeared.

It seems like something wrong with her AppleID, her Icloud profile can't load her avatar on MacOS and sometimes there are troubles with updating info, it doesn't save data.

I have resolved this issue. It turned out that my GF's apple id was blocked on one of apple servers. I have got in touch with apple support and they resolved my issue. If you are living in the country with no apple id support, go to apple support website, select you're living in US and find any service like itunes issues or something like that with chat support. Connect to chat and describe your problem, say you are from the country with no apply support (it's important). As usual they will connect you with tech specialist who is responsible for all these issues.


When do I need to create Apple Developer Account? Say I want to start working on some app X which I want to submit to App Store.

Is it necessary to have a developer account, before I can start working on this app?

A free Apple Developer Program membership now allows you to develop apps and test them on your devices. A paid membership allows distribution.

A developer account is not required to start developing apps, however not having a developer account whilst developing the app can have the following downsides:

You will not be able to build the app on a real device (unless you jailbreak).
You will not have access to the latest developer builds of iOS and Xcode, or their documentation (a free account will only allow access to the latest public builds and their documentation).
You will not have full access to the Apple Developer Forums (a free account will allow this for certain sections).
You will not be able to create provisioning profiles for services such as PhoneGap Build.

As per above, certain features are accessible with a free Apple Developer Account. You can sign up at Apple Developer Registration.


Macbook Pro Mid-2012 Retina Screen Flicker Basically as it says in the title, whenever I use my computer the screen flickers and it's unusable. This isn't just when I log into one account, this is on startup, login, while using the computer, and in the windows partition. Here is a video. I have tried a PRAM reset and a normal reboot but both are not working.

Certain MacBook Pros made between February 2011 and December 2013 were found by Apple to be defective.  Apple is offering to repair them for free.  The symptoms were:

  Distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen
  No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on
  Computer restarts unexpectedly

Affected Models:

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15 inch, Early 2013)

You have two repair options:

Carry In

Bring your MacBook Pro to a participating provider - Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.
A technician will run a diagnostic test on the MacBook Pro to verify eligibility.
Repair turn around time will vary based upon parts and technician availability.
You will be notified when your MacBook Pro is ready for pickup.

Mail In

Call Apple and request a postage paid box to send your MacBook Pro to the local Apple Repair Center.
A technician will run a diagnostic test on your MacBook Pro to verify eligibility.
The repair process takes approximately 5-7 days from the time your MacBook Pro is received at the repair center until it is returned to you.
After it has been serviced, your MacBook Pro will be returned to you by mail.

See Apple's page on this topic for more info.


iMessage not working between two specific devices iMessage works perfectly between my iPhone and my iPad. It works perfectly between my iPhone and my girlfriend's iPod touch. But it does not work at all between my iPad and my girlfriend's iPod touch.

All three devices can use iMessage just fine with other devices. The only issue is when we try to communicate between iPad and iPod, and it's really infuriating. Any ideas?

First, check the destination address. On your iPad: open Messages, then open the message thread that's not working. Tap the "Contact" button (top right), then the "info" button (i). The destination address will be highlighted blue.

Next, make sure the destination address is configured on the receiving device. On the iPod: Settings → Messages → Send & Receive. If the destination address is missing, add it here.

And while you're at it, check the FaceTime settings, too: it works in a similar way.