How to restore a deleted HFS+ partition table? I have an external 2TB hard drive with one HFS+ partition, and accidentally dd'ed over the first ~500 MB of it. I have carelessly placed some new partitions in an attempt to repair it, because I had an online backup in case things went south. The backup fell through, though, and I have to recover the data from this drive now. The readable data in the partition table is most likely unusable or misleading.

I have tried running Testdisk and placing the partition using pdisk and this guide, without success. I don't know anything about the partitioning before the accidental dd except that I selected the standard options for HFS+ from Disk Utility for it and used all the space on the drive.

Is there a way to simply format the drive as a single HFS+ partition again, without losing all the data? How does HFS+ store its files and metadata, and will it be possible to recover the data this way?

Here is the log of what happened from the shell log:

$ diskutil list
[...]
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:                  Apple_HFS WD-40                   2.0 TB     disk2s1

$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
Unmount of all volumes on disk2 was successful

$ sudo dd if=/Users/Felix/Downloads/xubuntu-12.04.3-alternate-i386.img of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m
^C503+0 records in
502+0 records out
526385152 bytes transferred in 16.409358 secs (32078351 bytes/sec)
$ diskutil list
[...]
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:                       0x17                         715.1 MB   disk2s1

And the log from the Testdisk scan (Deeper Search), which I aborted at around 40% progress because the drive is so large:

[...]
LVM magic value at 31676/178/3

LVM magic value at 31685/19/35
Search for partition aborted

Results
     MS Data                354087269  354093442       6174
     NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
     MS Data                354093442  354099615       6174 [Boot]
     NTFS, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
   P MS Data                354099734  354120472      20739 [NO NAME]
     FAT12, blocksize=4096, 10 MB / 10 MiB
     MS Data                358938549  358944722       6174
     NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
     MS Data                358944722  358950895       6174 [Boot]
     NTFS, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
   P MS Data                358951010  358971748      20739 [NO NAME]
     FAT12, blocksize=4096, 10 MB / 10 MiB
     MS Data                363749573  363755746       6174
     NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
     MS Data                363755746  363761919       6174 [Boot]
     NTFS, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
   P MS Data                363762034  363782772      20739 [NO NAME]
     FAT12, blocksize=4096, 10 MB / 10 MiB
   P MS Data                371716138  371719017       2880 [EFISECTOR]
     FAT12, blocksize=512, 1474 KB / 1440 KiB
     MS Data                371720053  371726226       6174
     NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
     MS Data                371726226  371732399       6174 [Boot]
     NTFS, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
   P MS Data                377878122  377881001       2880 [EFISECTOR]
     FAT12, blocksize=512, 1474 KB / 1440 KiB
   P MS Data                377881002  377883881       2880 [EFISECTOR]
     FAT12, blocksize=512, 1474 KB / 1440 KiB
   P MS Data                421662274  421665153       2880 [EFISECTOR]
     FAT12, blocksize=512, 1474 KB / 1440 KiB
     MS Data                421674913

Since the table has most likely been written over, scanning for the files and backing them up that way is probably the only option. DataRescue is one of the more popular ones.


Minimum Space for Boot Camp Windows 8.1 I have a Macbook Pro 2014 13-inch 128 GB and I want to install Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013 Community via Boot Camp. I am Mac user and use my Mac for iOS development. Now I have to learn Windows app development, so I need Windows 8.1 + Visual Studio 2013 Community. I have no plan to spend my money for new Windows PC/Laptop. I am not familiar using Boot Camp features so it's my first leap.

How much space to install Windows 8.1 + Visual Studio 2013 Community via Bootcamp? FYI I have 100 GB free on my OSX Yosemite and I have no plans to save any documents or media files on Windows.
If I divide 40 GB for OS X and 60 GB for Windows and then I don't need my Windows anymore, can I move my 60 GB back to the OS X partition?

Have you changed your info.plist in boot camp assistant so you can use a .iso file for windows 8.1?

If you havn't follow my steps!

Find Boot Camp Assistant then DUPLICATE IT put it on your desktop right click it show package contents open info.plist then find PreUSBSupportedModels and remove the Pre JUST THAT save and open! then download a ISO

( Look up a activation key )

Here is download
( Dont need key to download )

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows8

Always STAY cool!

By the way this is just so you dont lose storage on your HD Harddrive


Android message merge with iCloud Message history I had an iPhone, and used iMessages with iCloud enabled. Then I switched to an Android for a while, which contains new messages. I've now switched back to an iPhone, and am trying to migrate these new text messages into the iMessages app on my new iPhone.

My first try was to restore my new iPhone from my last iCloud backup, and use the dr.fone tool to import these messages, but they did not appear.

Second try was to reset the iPhone (so not logged into my iCloud), and copy the messages to it with the same tool. This worked fine until I logged into iCloud to upload these messages and they vanished.

Does anyone have a solution to this, that will end up with my existing Messages history intact, with any new messages being migrated across and synced properly into Messages in iCloud?

For the record, Apple's Move to iOS app does work. In the end, I had to:

Borrow an old Android phone (i.e. pre Android 9).
Transfer the messages to that from my Android phone using SMS Backup and Restore.
Reset the iPhone so the Move Data from Android option was available – only possible when first setting up the phone.
Use Move to iOS app on the old Android phone to copy messages to iPhone.
Sign into iCloud on the iPhone to enable Messages in iCloud, which then merged the newly transferred messages with the ones already present in iCloud – I've confirmed that this has worked as the imported messages have synchronized to other devices.

The Move to iOS actually still wouldn't restore to my iPhone XR, so I had to restore to a borrowed older iPhone, then backup that and restore it on the new iPhone… Apple last updated this app in March 2016, predating the iPhone 7, 8/X, XS/XR generations, so hopefully it will get some attention soon to fix these issues, as not everyone will be able to borrow other devices to go through this process!


Internet speed getting slower over time on MBP Recently I've noticed that internet speeds on my MBP 2018 (Mojave 10.14.4) are decreasing with time. For example, after a day it will go from 100 MB to 60 MB and it will continue to decrease. The plot below shows download speeds sampled every 15 minutes over the course of ~3 days.

A few things:

This is not my ISP, since it works perfectly on other devices.
After restarting the computer, it goes back to the maximum speed and countdown starts again.
It is both for wi-fi and ethernet.
Logging out and back in doesn't fix the issue.
There is no software that runs in the background and utilizes that bandwidth.
Network diagnostics don't show anything.
Trying iperf between Mac and PC over Ethernet and WiFi, gives same low numbers as on Mac. Speedtest on PC is OK.
Running Speedtest from Parallels Ubuntu VM also yields low download speeds.
For Ethernet, I am using Belkin HD dock.

Would appreciate any help or guidelines on how to debug this issue.

In my case this was caused by the Juniper/Pulse Secure VPN client's kernel extension, which was active even when not connected to the VPN. Unloading the kernel extension restored speed without a reboot.

Short term fix is to unload the extension, command copied from linked kb article:

sudo kextunload /Library/Extensions/PulseSecureFirewall.kext

Long term solution is to upgrade pulse secure client. I was experiencing this problem with pulse secure 9.0.3(1599). I upgraded to 9.0.3(1667) and the kext is no longer loaded by default. I can connect to the vpn without the kext loaded, and speed is no longer tailing off. Solved!

With pulsesecurefirewall.kext loaded:

Without pulsesecurefirewall.kext loaded:

If your VPN security policy requires "Lock Down Mode" or "Traffic Enforcement", you may need to downgrade instead of upgrade the client.

For future reference, you can view loaded non-apple kexts with:

kextstat |grep -vi com.apple

Edit: What is a kernel extension?
A kernel extension is a program that runs within the macOS kernel. Running within the kernel can give performance improvements for certain applications, and also access to APIs that aren't available to normal (user space) programs.

In this case, the pulse client included a kernel extension which provides firewall functionality by inspecting packets as they pass through the kernel. The provided extension is buggy and performance drops over time (maybe it keeps a list of something, and as that list grows, the length of time taken to scan the list increases, so the time to process a packet increases, leading to a drop in throughput??)

Unloading the kext removes the buggy code from the kernel, so that it doesn't affect performance.


How can I add an autocorrect mapping to the iOS dictionary? My iPhone, running iOS 6, used to autocorrect ill -> I'll for me and I liked that. It has, very recently, stopped doing this. I suppose it makes sense given than ill is actually a word, but it is a word I rarely use and certainly use far less frequently than I'll.

Is there any way to add a correction mapping back to the iOS 6 dictionary such that typing ill autocorrects to I'll for me?

My workaround has been to add a keyboard shortcut that replaces the text ill with I'll any time I add it. Not perfect, but as a stop-gap it will do.

To add the shortcut go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard and scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see an Add New Shortcut... button. Press it.

In the Shortcut configuration page type I'll in to the Phrase entry box and ill in to the Shortcut entry box and press the Save button.

Now any time you type ill it will auto-correct to I'll.


Updating from iOS 6 to 8 I currently have a 16 GB iPhone 5, with about 1.2 GB available storage. It's still on iOS 6 (I know, right?!) and I figured it's about time to update. Under software update, it says iOS 8.4 is 1.2 GB.

Does that mean the entire update will need just that much space, or will I need more than that considering I don't have iOS 7 and that it's a big jump from the iOS 6 interface to the iOS 8?

It may need more than the space of the update to move things around while updating, but if that is the case, it will refuse to update until you free the space needed.
In that situation, according to this Apple Support document, you could:

Plug your device into your computer and update using iTunes.
Manually remove content from your device and try to update again.


Where to see kernel startup messages after boot? I set my kernel to boot up verbose using

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

These logs are what I wanted to see, but how can I view the log after booting? I searched all log files without success.

dmesg did not show me the entire boot log but only the last few 100 lines of it, which was not enough.

What works for me (on macOS 10.12.6) to see all boot messages is this command:

sudo log show --predicate "processID == 0" --start $(date "+%Y-%m-%d") --debug

It shows all of today's kernel msgs, including the boot process.

If you only want the msgs since reboot, enter the date and time manually, like this, in 24h format:

sudo log show --predicate "processID == 0" --start "2018-10-28 13:19:00" --debug

(The "sudo" part is currently not necessary, but it doesn't harm, either.)


Broken AirPort Expressfirst generation I've got a first generation AirPort Express and when I plug it in the wall (electricity outlet) it will turn orange and do nothing besides that.

I cannot access this device via AirPort Utility
When I hit the reset button on the device using an iPhone simcard-extract-pin, it will start to blink but when I release the Iphone-pin it will turn back to orange again.

Is there anything I can try to fix this device? I've already bought a 2nd generation as replacement, but I'd like to fix this device in order to use it outside for example.

According to Apple you should try the Factory reset.

Hold until flashes quickly!


Does Mojave make old MacBook slower? I have a MacBook on El Capitan with the following specs:

Early 2016
1.3 GHz Intel Core m7
8GB memory
Intel HD Graphics 515 1536 MB
SSD 500G (half used)

It is mainly used for writing Word documents and watching YouTube.

Does upgrading to Mojave make the MacBook slower?

Measuring:

CPU speed

GPU Speed

RAM Speed

Disk Speed

Boot time

Thanks for your help in advance.

I have a 2013 MBP running Mojave. It’s showing no issues and works fine. No concerns on speed. I noted no apparent slowdown in anything after upgrading from High Sierra. I think you should be fine... I wouldn’t even consider a 2016 model to be “old” at this point.

A sided by side comparison shows Mojave actually been slightly faster overall, and much faster in Booting.

Reboot average times were 212 seconds in High Sierra but only 124 seconds in Mojave, that’s an 88-second improvement.

However, as with any new OS X, the performances from 3D party apps might be initially impacted till they provide updates to they products.

Example Adobe CS Premiere Pro is 2 seconds slower in opeing on Mojave.

Do not have "word processing apps" to compare to answers your question.


How to either simultaneously delete photo from photo stream and all devices; or how to designate a photo not to go to the cloud at all.  I'll do something like take a picture of an item at Costco to look it up on the net later.  But I don't want the picture bumped to the cloud, then to my Mac and pad.  It's going to be deleted once it's done it's job.  As it is, I have to delete from my phone, the cloud, the mac and the pad, which gets old.  Or simply leaving them there cluttering up my photos collection.

Turn off the automatic stream button for streaming file from cloud to Mac and iPad, this may work.


Can I use a DC 60W 18v 3A solar pannel to power my macbook pro 15" retina mid-2012? I have found this solar pannel ( https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/Suaoki-60-w-Panneau-Solaire-5-v-USB-et-18-v-DC-Sortie-Portable-Pliable-Puissance/32935273533.html?spm=a2g0w.search0104.8.83.3f714267rqy4Q1&priceBeautifyAB=0 ).

I am already using another one, smaller, for charging usb powerbanks while traveling and it does the job well.

I have now found a DC to magsafe 2 adapter that suits the 60W solar pannel.

The Apple DC power magsafe 2 for the Macbook has the follwing written on it : "Output - 20v / 4.25A max."

Is this solar pannel suitable ?

What should I be looking for when looking for power appliances to charge this Macbook ( W, v, A )?

Thank you for your answers.

Ok ,the math goes like this

Volt x Amps = Watts

First important factor is the Voltage. It has to be the right one for the circuits otherwise they burn up. You would not connect 120 Volt to magsafe.

Next is the Current (Amps) it is the consumption. Usually they are controlled by the consumer (Battery in this case). You can not have to much of it since Battery only takes what it needs. The specification for Maximum Amps is for protection of the connector (plug), otherwise to much of it can burn the wires/connectors.

The 85 W charger (20x4.25) are used with 15" and 17" MacBook Pro, so you might be bit on low end with your 60w. It will charge but slower.

If you are in the wilderness with no plugs and on you Solar, keep an eye from time to time on the Charging.

About this mac > System report > Power.

There you will see if the battery is charging or been depleted.

Look at he Amperage (mA) number, if it is negative (-) then your battery is been depleted.


Keyboard stuck at bottom of iPad, regardless of orientation When I am in the home screen, in landscape mode, and swipe down to bring up spotlight search the keyboard shows up as if I was in portrait mode. See the screenshot below:

It's not a problem with the orientation lock, because the screen does rotate. The keyboard always shows up on at the bottom of the iPad, regardless of what orientation I hold the iPad. If I hold the iPad upside down, the keyboard will drop down from the top. (Not only making it very hard to use, but completely obscuring the search dialog box.)

This does not happen in any apps. In apps the keyboard always appears where it should.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I am currently on iOS 8.1, but this was happening on iOS 8.0 as well. I'm not sure if it had that problem before then.

Looks like one of the many keyboard issues in iOS 8.

Might need to wait for Apple to fix it.

See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6581211 & many others


How do I delete a purchase that is on my music that I don't want How do I delete a purchase which is on my music that I don't want

In the Music app, find the name of the song, album, or playlist that you want to remove, and tap the More Options icon.
  From the menu that appears, tap Delete.
  To remove the song, album, or playlists from only the device that you're currently using, select Remove Download or Remove Downloads. The item stays in your library on all of your other devices.
  If you want to remove the item from your iCloud Music Library on all of your devices, tap "Delete from My Music."

Straight from Apple Support.


El Capitan Fat32 partition problem I have a strange problem in El Capitan.

I have a second internal drive which is divided into two partitions: one Fat32 and one HFS+ Journaled.

I do not see this drive in console when I type diskutil list /, but I can see the HFS+ partition in the system and I can use it. I do not see Fat32 partition.

May it be a permission problem? If yes, how can it be fixed right now? Disk Utility is not supporting this option anymore. I do not have Windows installed.

If you enter diskutil list / in Terminal only partitions of the boot device are visible.

The proper command to enter is just diskutil list.

With the disk identifier diskX found above try to verify the disk and the volume:

diskutil verifyDisk /dev/diskX
diskutil verifyVolume /dev/diskXsY

If verification was successful try to make a mountpoint:

sudo mkdir /Volumes/EXT_HD_FAT32

and try to mount the partition there:

sudo mount -t msdos /dev/diskXsY /Volumes/EXT_HD_FAT32/


Open a link in new tab in Safari on macOS Sierra Before macOS Sierra I could open new link with command-click in Safari. It doesn't work anymore.  What's the shortcut in macOS Sierra?

⌘-click works fine for me in Safari under macOS sierra 10.12.

Check that ⌘-click opens a link in a new tab is checked under: Safari > Preferences... > Tabs

If it's checked and not working, uncheck it and close Safari. Then Open Safari and check it. Does it work now?


How do I stop OS X from treating a SuperDuper image on an external drive as part of my current installation? Every night, I have SuperDuper! create an image of my hard drive to an external drive. This works great, and has saved me from system failures a number of times.

However, OS X is constantly treating it as if the installation of OS X on that external drive is a part of my actual system rather than just a backup on an external drive. To wit, when I do a Spotlight search all results are duplicated. (Even though I have expressly forbidden Spotlight's indexing of the /Volumes folder through System Preferences.) Every app in the Mac App Store, when updated, will update the copy on my system and then report again a second time that this app needs to be updated again, and running the update will update this external drive. Apps that request the location of my iPhoto library always list two.

How can I get OS X to just treat that drive like an external drive full of data, rather than as a part of the current OS X installation?

Most people I know that keep bootable backups do one of two things:

Do these backups far less often and use Time Machine to keep the most up to date backup.
Script mounting and ejecting the drive as part of the copy process.

The first option works well for a monthly rotation (and just before major updates like an OS update or upgrade) since the bootable image is more about getting running rapidly than needing to have a perfect mirror of everything when your actual data is backed up elsewhere.

The second option I have seen for people that really despise Time Machine since you will get all sorts of unwanted confusion having two (or more) OS mounted at the same time with Spotlight, App Store Updates and worse mixing up which file should be opened or updated.

Assuming you have already told SuperDuper to not make a fresh copy and instead perform a smart update, you might be in the same boat as these:

Why do apps which are not installed run from an external bootable drive?
How do I make Spotlight stop indexing my Backup drive?
Stop Spotlight from indexing a drive that is regularly unplugged and reattached

The last topic about indexing may also help you if you script the mounting and unmounting as spotlight may want to reindex the drive each time depending on precisely how you have SuperDuper set up.


Office 2016 - how can I see which Microsoft Account I use/change Microsoft Account? In Office 2016, how can I see which Microsoft Account I use with it? The About box just shows a serial number and user details in the preferences is empty.

Using any Microsoft Office App (Word, in this case), click on the Avatar and it will bring up the Account you have signed in with and any other accounts it's connected to.


How to type in the tilde character '~' with an apple international keyboard? I am a French developer, used to the French keyboard layout. Being a developer, I invested recently in an Apple international keyboard.

Having a french keyboard, typing in the tilde '~' character was quite simple since it was printed on a key as far as I remember, although I don't remember where.

Now with my new International keyboard, the layout is very different, missing accents and other special character (which is ok since I use that keyboard only for development on my mac) but I am facing the issue that I need to type in the tilde character very often, and I don't have any clue on how to type it in in a simple way.

(PS: To type in the '~' character, I am actually using the  "character display pane" coming with Macosx, which is quite cumbersome when you need it often ...)

The "~" key is located between the "left shift" and "Z" keys on the international english keyboard.

Many users are used to have this key under the escape key (the US layout), and they (including me) use the KeyRemap4MacBook software to swap those keys.

Edit:
KeyRemap4MacBook is now called Karabiner. Here is a screenshot of the configuration I'm using to remap Section to Backquote key.

Edit:
Karabiner does not work on macOS Sierra, however a new project is in development: Karabiner Elements. As of now, it can do the replacement in question:


Terminal Keeps Opening I am a musician running ProTools and Maschine on my MacBook Air. I recently used Terminal.app to delete some standard Apple apps and clear disk space.

The space was cleared but now Terminal keeps opening and interrupting me. I enter the logout command and it logs out successfully but keeps coming back. I have run Etrecheck and there was nothing insidious on the system.

Is anyone aware of how to address this issue?

Please note that I have not (and cannot!) update OS X because I've heard that it has operating problems with ProTools 12.

System specs:
MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012)
1.8 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Macintosh HD
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB
OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.5

I've been having this exact problem all day and think I just found the solution too it.

I too thought that the problem was being caused by Terminal but I think it's just Application Manager acting up. For whatever reason Application Manager kept opening along with Terminal, only with no indication that it was open. Try quitting Application Manager and see if that works.

I know most of the people have this same issue also have Pro Tools so it could just be something stupid Application Manager is doing. Hope it works for you or get you on the phone with ProTools support to help fix the cofiguration or bug in that app/suite that is opening the terminal app.


How do I get a high-quality version of my account iChat icon? I'm looking for the file that corresponds to my account photo (this is also my iChat icon).

If you wish to extract a 320x320 version of your account picture you can do so by running the following command: dscl . -read /Users/short_username JPEGPhoto | tail -1 | xxd -r -p > /PATH/TO/accountImage.jpg

Since a 320x320 image would be too small for many purposes, it would be preferable to look first for the actual photo in ~/Library/Images/iChat Recent Pictures/.

The following "generic" command, when copy-pasted directly into Terminal and run without modification, creates a small file named MyAccountPic.jpg on the current user's Desktop:

dscl . -read /Users/`id -un` JPEGPhoto | tail -1 | xxd -r -p > ~/Desktop/MyAccountPic.jpg


Set default printer for each location Is there a way I can set a different default printer for each network location?

Sidekick will let you do this.

Highly recommended.

("Disclaimer:" I was a beta tester for the new version, but also a paying customer. Otherwise un-affiliated with them.)


What is the real meaning of the "WiFi strength" indictor? In the WiFi list, I see full signal for my WiFi. Since I'm quite far away from the access point and the WiFi works poorly, I double checked the signal strength with WiFi Diagnostics. This tool tells me - no surprise - that I have a weak signal.

The symbol indicates full signal strength, even though I have a week signal. What is this symbol good for then?

it is just a bug of the icon at manu bar, if logging out and back is not working or even rebooting your mac, try this:

Click the icon- turn wi-fi off- then turn it back on again
Do a reboot
3 Reset the router (unplug it from the mains and leave the capacitors to drain for half an hour or so)
Do an SMC reset which appertains to 'unusual system behaviour' like yours Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
There is some advice on plists here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4149916 but it concerns an aberration post-Mavericks install with regards to the presence of an exclamation mark on the icon. Apple hid the library a couple of upgrades ago so if you want to go this route eventually then hold the alt key down whilst clicking Go on the Finder menu bar.

source: Mac Forums


Meditation timer that reports mindful minutes to the Health app? Is there a simple meditation timer app that actually logs time spent meditating to the Health app as mindful minutes? I need just a simple timer, no guided meditation (and certainly no subscription). Preferably an Apple Watch app?

Sattva - Meditation Timer & Tracker

Sattva is the world’s first advanced meditation timer and tracker with challenges, trophies and guided meditations to inspire you to meditate everyday!

Has the features you requested:

Apple health kit integration for mindfulness (minutes)
Apple Watch app


Low/no-cost, cross-platform alternatives to iSCSI and Fibre Channel (My use case is using my RAID storage on a Linux workstation to store Time Machine backups and other data)

I have investigated options for iSCSI, they are GlobalSAN and XtendSAN. Both are prohibitively expensive, at A$119.51 and A$261.85 respectively, at time of writing.

Since there are no free or reasonably priced iSCSI initiators for OS X (there is an FOSS iSCSI initiator for OS X, but it is not currently developed enough for real use), I am seeking a viable alternative.

Please don't suggest file sharing protocols such as SMB, AFP and NFS. I've tried them, and they don't work since file permissions need to be directly managed by the OS of the machine running the Time Machine service.

There is known workaround which uses an older version of Droboshare Dashboard software which includes an CLI Xtend SAN iSCSI Initiator written in Java:

Download and install Droboshare Dashboard 2.6.2 which is the last version containing the Atto iSCSI Initiator. Download and install Java.

Remove/rename the file /usr/sbin/xtendsan/.iqn.filter or replace the content/add a line with the beginning of your target name:

The content of the original file looks like this:

iqn.2005-06.com.datarobotics
iqn.2005-06.com.drobo

The main app to use is "xtendsancli" as superuser. Enter sudo xtendsancli to get a list of possible commands.

And here is a basic script to connect to your iSCSI-targets:

#!/bin/bash

serverAddress="${1:-127.0.0.1}"

if [ -x /usr/sbin/xtendsancli ] ; then
  for target in $(/usr/sbin/xtendsancli discoverTargets -address $serverAddress -verbose | grep ^iqn); do
    /usr/sbin/xtendsancli logoutTargets -verbose -address $serverAddress "$target"
    /usr/sbin/xtendsancli removeTargets -verbose -address $serverAddress "$target"
    /usr/sbin/xtendsancli addTargets -address $serverAddress "$target" -autoLogin Yes
    # works even if no security is set on server
    /usr/sbin/xtendsancli loginTargets -address $serverAddress "$target" -autoLogin Yes -security CHAP,TargetUserName=username,TargetSecret=password
  done
else
  echo "no file"
fi

Replace the x.x.x.x by the real IP-address of your server. Make the script executable with sudo chmod +x scriptname.sh and run it with sudo scriptname.sh.
If you have CHAP enabled replace "-security NONE" with "-security CHAP,TargetUserName=username,TargetSecret=password".

Tested with 10.9.5 Mavericks/Java SE Runtime Environment 1.7.0_71/Java for OS X 2014-001.

Addendum for OS X 10.11 El Capitan

To install  Droboshare Dashboard 2.6.2 and use the Atto iSCSI Initiator you have to download and install Java for OS X 2015-001 Beta.

Then you have to disable rootless mode to be able to modify /usr/sbin/ with the following command:

sudo nvram boot-args="rootless=0";sudo reboot

After the reboot install Droboshare Dashboard 2.6.2 and reboot again.

Atfer modifying  /usr/sbin/xtendsan/.iqn.filter as described above you should be able to use the iSCSI Initiator like in  Mavericks or Yosemite.

Tested with 10.11 El Capitan Public Beta/Java for OS X 2015-001 beta.


Can't reinstall Mac OS X El Capitan because the only partition is a locked OS X Base Image taking up the full HDD I'm trying to reinstall Mac OS X El Capitan on a new Macbook Air. Disk Utility lists a single SSD with a capacity of 251GB and a single partition (OS X Base system) that is taking up 250.4GB. When I try to create another partition it says that I need to enable journaling, but the option is greyed out. I also can't reinstall from the internet because the OS X Base System partition is locked.

Any ideas?

Edit: As requested by @klanomath

Here is an OCRed version of the screenshot (it may contain small errors):

-bash-3.2#  gpt -r show disk0
     start      size  index contents
         0         1            PMBR
         1         1            Pri GPT header
         2         4            Pri GPT table
         6     76800      1     GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     76806  61043841      2     GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  61120647    158692
  61279339         4            Sec GPT table
  61279343         1            Sec GPT header
-bash-3.2# df
Filesystem     512-blocks      Used Available Capacity   iused     ifree    %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2    488350728   2506264 485332464     1%    377281  60666558       1%   /
devfs                 374       374         0   100%       648         0     100%   /dev
/dev/disk1          10240     10240         0   100%      1278         0     100%   /private/var/log
/dev/disk2           1024       288       736    29%        34        92      27%   /Volumes
/dev/disk3           1024       296       728    29%        35        91      28%   /private/var/tmp
/dev/disk4           1024       312       712    31%        37        89      29%   /private/var/run
/dev/disk5           1024       280       744    28%        33        93      26%   /System/Installation
/dev/disk6           1024       504       520    50%        61        65      48%   /private/var/db
/dev/disk7          12288      6552      5736    54%       817       111      53%   /private/var/folders
/dev/disk8           4096       448      3648    11%        54       456      11%   /private/var/root/Library
/dev/disk10          1024       328       696    33%        39        87      31%   /Library/Preferences
/dev/disk11          1024       312       712    31%        37        89      29%   /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
/dev/disk12          2048       280      1768    14%        33       221      13%   /Library/Keychains
/dev/disk13         12288      1712     10576    14%       212      1322      14%   /private/var/tmp/RecoveryTemp

On your main disk a third partition usually containing the Recovery HD is completely missing: the line in the gpt output starting with 61120647 should look like this:

     61120647     158692      3     GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

Instead the content of Base OS X image (usually residing on the Recovery HD partition) seems to be written to disk0s2 as visible in the df output:

/dev/disk0s2    488350728   2506264 485332464     1%    377281  60666558

The occupied 2506264 (512) blocks are roughly equal to the size of a decompressed Base OS X: 1.2 GB.

The content of Base OS X probably got copied to your main volume somehow. Booted to this volume, any attempt to erase the disk or volume will fail.

To solve your problem boot to Internet Recovery Mode (hold altcmdR while booting) and open Disk Utility.

Choose the superior SSD disk (and not the inferior volume) and hit the erase button. Choose a name, OS X Extended (journaled) and the GUID partition scheme.

If this fails for whatever reason open Terminal in the menubar Utilities > Terminal. Enter diskutil list to get the disk identifier of the internal disk (probably disk0 - below I assume it's disk0)

Then enter diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0. If this fails also, hammer the stubborn SSD with either:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt detroy disk0
gpt create -f disk0

or

diskutil umountDisk disk0
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 bs=4096 count=6

Be sure that it's disk0 though!

Now enter exit and quit Terminal. Open Disk Utility again and partition the disk like described previously.

Quit Disk Utility and in the Utilities window open Restore OS X and follow the instructions..


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

iPhone  lightning to male USB cable  female-to-female USB adaptor USB flash drive

This is not likely to work.  The Lightning port on Apple devices work in many ways like the mini-USB On-The-Go ports from older phones and USB-C ports on newer phones.  This means it can act as a USB host or device, just the means by which an iPhone determines which mode it should be in is different than how devices with USB-OTG ports do.

In USB device mode, which happens with a Lightning to USB-A male cable, the iPhone provides no power to the cable.  This means that a female to female adapter which connects the data and power lines will not power the flash drive, and the flash drive will not have power to do anything.  Connecting both to a powered hub so that both the phone and flash drive have power will still leave this USB bus with no host to initiate any communications.

It's unlikely any software on the iPhone will resolve this because the hardware on the phone is simply not made to act as a host when the hardware tells it to go into device mode.

USB from 1.1 on up was made to allow for host-to-device communications and what you describe is a device-to-device connection.  USB 2.0 allows for ports to be switched into either host or device mode, but this is done in hardware.  If there is a means to override this in software then it is violating the spec and could result in damaged hardware, if someone could find the software for this then you run the risk of damaging your iPhone the next time you try to charge it.  USB 3.0 allows for host-to-host communications with the right kind of cable and software but the flash drive is simply not going to act as a USB host.

To make this work will mean violating the USB spec, and running the risk of permanent damage to your phone.  There's going to be at a minimum software checks in the iOS to stop this from working, and quite likely the hardware in the iPhone simply will not enter host mode if it sees a USB-A male cable connected.


I would like to get text in between line in pages Am planning to make a resume in pages. I want some of the sub headings to come in between lines. I have attached the image which I want to add in my document.Can somebody please help me?

I am able to get a line below the word summary picture below,

Make some ------------ reduce the spacing to -30% will give you a line type your txt highlight it increase the spacing to 0 make some spaces inside your txt cut and past them to the sides of your txt

           ————————————————  SELECTION ——————————————————

you will need to increase the spacing again on the next line also. better still put it in a txt box , copy and paste for the next one just change txt .there are probably other ways


Shell string manipulation not working in Applescript I'm trying to make a service to translate things which Chrome doesn't translate automatically. The following script works when run from my shell

#!/bin/bash

input='это тест)))' # translates to - this is a test)))
if [[ $(echo "$input") =~ ')' ]]; then
    input="$(echo "${input//)/}")"
fi
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"; /usr/local/bin/trans -e yandex -b :en "$input"

the result: this is a test

However when I put this into an Applescript:

set input to "это тест)))"
set output to (do shell script "if [[ $(echo " & quoted form of input & ") =~ ')' ]]; then " & quoted form of input & "=\"$(echo \"${" & quoted form of input & "//)/}\")\"; fi; export PATH=\"/usr/local/bin:$PATH\"; /usr/local/bin/trans -e google -b :en " & quoted form of input & "")

display dialog output as string

The result is still this is a test)))

It still runs and translates the input string. But it doesn't remove the ))). I don't understand why the if statement is not working in my applescript version. Am I quoting something wrong?

This script uses a program called Translate-Shell which can be found on GitHub or at the program author's website here.

It doesn't work because, the shell try to change a 'string', not to set a variable.

The command as example:

do shell script "if [[ $(echo " & quoted form of input & ") =~ ')' ]]; then " & quoted form of input & "=\"$(echo \"${" & quoted form of input & "//)/}\")\"; fi; "

After the concatenation (Look at the Events in the script editor), the command is:

  do shell script "if [[ $(echo 'это тест)))') =~ ')' ]]; then 'это
  тест)))'=\"$(echo \"${'это тест)))'//)/}\")\"; fi; "

So, put the content of the AppleScript's variable into a variable in the shell (I remove the echo commands, because it's useless), like this:

set input to "это тест)))"
set output to do shell script "input=" & (quoted form of input) & "; if [[  \"$input\" =~ ')' ]]; then input=${input//)/}; fi; export PATH=\"/usr/local/bin:$PATH\"; /usr/local/bin/trans -e google -b :en \"$input\""
display dialog output


VNC connection to Mavericks Screen Sharing drops WiFi connection Whenever I try to connect to Screen Sharing on my 2012 Air from my Linux desktop, the Air's WiFi connection drops. I suspect this has something to do with Screen Sharing trying to present a login screen, and if I'm actually in front of the Air and I'm very quick on the draw, I can quickly re-select the WiFi network and get VNC to connect, but if I'm really "remote" I'm in trouble.

I tried

$ cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/
$ sudo ./airport en0 prefs DisconnectOnLogout=NO

as suggested for a related problem in this answer (adjusted for en0 instead of en1) but to no effect.

Any other undocumented prefs or other workarounds that might help here? Or do I have to install a third-party VNC server?

This happened to me with Yosemite, actually ran into a comment that worked for me here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mavericks-drops-wifi-when-connecting-in-with-vnc.1694085/

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteManagement VNCAlwaysStartOnConsole -bool true

Another option would be to use wired, then it worked for me as well (no setting changes needed).

From https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4170694?start=0&tstart=0 it appears that "maybe" the root of the problem is that it's trying to revert to a login screen (and...doesn't do it right? mine definitely did not ever return to a login screen, it just killed the wifi). So perhaps there's a possibility that if you can get your "wifi" to remain active in login screens (and/or your mac "starts" at the login screen) then you could connect via WiFi and not have it disconnect, and not need the above.  I could not find any way that worked for me to leave my wifi active while logging out, to test this hypothesis, but YMMV.

Another hint: when using wifi with "WPA2 Personal" and the above set to "false" when I connect, it actually works, VNC connects to a "new remote" session, not the currently logged in user (i.e. new login screen) (it also allows me to logout and not disconnect the WiFi, something the "Enterprise" wifi doesn't allow me to do at all).  So my latest hypothesis is that "sharing" stronger encryption connected wifi "WPA2 enterprise" isn't allowed somehow (since it's also disallowed in the "Internet sharing"), and when it tries to open a new session, which is disallowed over the wifi ("sharing wifi" not allowed, for instance, in the sharing pane) it forces a disconnect.  But connecting to the current user is OK.


How to disable Energy Saver mode when switching to battery to stop background windows hiding? So, Mojave appears to background all of your windows when you unplug. Then you re-plug and suddenly all your windows are out of order.

The energy saver options don't seem to have anything related to the windowing. I'm trying to turn this off so my windows stop vanishing, especially since I'm usually developing and debugging and suddenly-disappearing IDE doesn't help with the simulator.

The problem appears to be Parallels Toolbox. To turn it off, you have to go into the settings for Parallels Toolbox, which is in the upper-right of the main window for it, then uncheck Energy Saver. There are about 2 other areas with energy saver options, but they just turn it on/leave it on.

Hitting Cancel on one of the other screens tricked me into thinking it was off, so ensure to follow instructions above.


What are these programs? Who installed them? How to remove them? I have some strange programs installed on my mac. I have not installed them myself. Or they might have been installed with other programs.

How to uninstall them? They do not appear on my Applications folder.

Blinker
Font Proofer X
FTXcode
FTXviewer
KerxTester
MorxTester
UniCharter

While I can't answer where the applications came from or who installed them, you can easily locate an application by holding the command key and clicking on its icon. This will open finder and highlight the application for you.


Big sur kernel panics After updating to macOS 11, aka Big Sur, my Mac has kept crashing every ~2 hours. Here's the kernel panic log from one recent panic
Here is another panic log.
I initially thought the issue was related to a Dell DisplayLink docking station I had connected to, but I have uninstalled the driver and I have also experienced crashes without any peripherals attached.
Any help reading and understanding a kernel panic log would be much appreciated.
I should note that the install process of big sur was a bit strange with several reboots and clicking "update" again. Not sure if that means anything.
I'm on a 2017 15" MacBook Pro with touchpad, i7 and intel graphics.

As of 11.3 and 11.3.1 I'm not experiencing many panics on the M1 Macbook air.
previously:
Currently this is a game of whack-a-mole with Big Sur. I've been seeing repeated kernel panics 2 days into 11.2 and the previous 11.1. I've now largely adjusted my workflow to accommodate regular crashing to manage work loss and expect this to remain true for at least several point releases (11.x) given the slow progress--just my guess. Hardware checks reveal no issues and report all good.
As with notable software updates from Apple the past several years this reveals a significant systemic weakness of the company. LinkedIn was recently hiring for head of software and Google Project Zero is revealing related security issues and improvements, so both directly and indirectly seeing that simply adapting to the shortcomings is the norm with Apple products moving forward.


How do I validate data in Automator? I'm making an app in Automator to quickly delete my iMovie Library (to save space). However, I want my app to check if the iMovie Library has already been deleted and show a dialog saying so. I know how to make the dialog, but I can't figure out how to do it. How do I do this? I'm using macOS 10.11.

My workflow:

Ask for confirmation
Get specified Finder items (the validation would go after this)
Move Finder items to trash
Run AppleScript (to show a dialog saying "Done")

You can use a Run AppleScript action to perform validation. Between actions 2 and 3 in your workflow, add a Run AppleScript action with the following:

on run {input, parameters}
    if input is {} then
        display notification "File already deleted"
        tell me to quit
    end if
    return input
end run

This checks if the input is empty (because the file can't be found), and if so, runs your desired code — you can customise display notification as you please, such as showing an alert. The use of tell me to quit if the input is empty will stop the workflow at this point.


Looking for an ARD/ Unix command to clear firefox history/cache on a mac I'm trying the following but not having any success in seeing anything cleared:

rm -R /Users//Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/.default/Cache

Thanks!

I think you're looking in the wrong folder.  The more recent versions of Firefox put it here.  You may want to alter your command slightly to delete folders as well.

rm -rf /Users/<username>/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/<xxx>.default/cache2


Mavericks 10.9.5 RAM problem and performance problems Macbook Pro Late 2011, Mavericks 10.9.5 had my RAM consumed up to 2.75 GB (out of 4.00 GB) with no apps running except Finder.
Hard Disk Storage: ~300 GB free out of 500 GB

Creating new, renaming, and/or deleting folders with Finder made it lag and had to load ~1 min before it did the process. This is very disturbing and distracting, even opening a Word document takes ages.

Activity Monitor Screenshot (Only Finder and Activity Monitor running):

I just had my Hard Disk cleaned and Re-Installed Mavericks recently, but there were no issues with previous experience of Mavericks. CPU is 70% idle.

I had exactly this same problem upon upgrading to Mavericks. Unfortunately, you're going to find that 4GB is on the knife's edge of barely being able to run the system at all - note how you already have compressed memory despite not running anything.

Apple needs to be smacked around for this, but unfortunately, it is what it is.

The first thing you need to do is put more memory in - I would go for 16 unless you absolutely can't afford it.

An SSD would help as well - I find that the IO performance on spinning drives has been getting worse and worse with every OS release.

If you can only pick one of these, get the SSD first. You'll benefit a lot more from the IO boost than the memory boost, at least in the short term.


iOS music replacement apps for iTunes match and dock connector for car radio My holy grail right now is an iOS music app that meets these two criteria

Supports iTunes Match
Works with my car's Made for iPod radio

Currently, I am using "Track 8", which supports iTunes Match but doesn't play nice with my car's radio. The app doesn't send any information to the radio about artist or song name. (Pandora on iOS does do this. Docked with my car, when Pandora is playing, the artist and track info appears on the radio LCD screen)

I need suggestions!

You could email/tweet to the makers of Track 8 and tell them to use the MPNowPlayingInfoCenter API, which is what Pandora and all music apps use to report track metadata.


Is my MacPro 5,1 single or dual socket? My MacPro 5,1 is running a 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3. Is this a single or a dual socket system? Thanks.

Take the side off & look ;)
A 6-core is probably a single socket, a 12 would be a dual.
You can also tell from About this Mac > Memory.
Dual socket has 8 RAM slots, single has 4.
single…

dual…

The sockets are on a daughter-card which slides out & is replaceable/interchangeable.
Image from OWC


Get all frames from .mov video Which program can I use to get all frames from .mov video file. I need this frames in png or jpg. I don't need just one frame I want to export all frames from my video in the same resolution.

If you're comfortable using the command line this can be done using ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i movie.mov -y -f image2 -c:v mjpeg %03d.jpg

This will write out every frame of the input movie movie.mov as a JPEG named 001.jpg, 002.jpg, ...

If you expect there to be more than 1000 frames you might change the format string of the output filename (%03d.jpg) to include more zeros. For example to have it use a 5 digit filename you would use %05d.jpg.


Can't resize APFS Container: Not enough free space in Container due to APFS limits or tidemarks When I try to resize my APFS container, I get the following error:

Error: -69531: There is not enough free space in the APFS Container for this
operation due to APFS limits or APFS tidemarks (perhaps caused by APFS Snapshot
usage by Time Machine)

I followed this guide:

How to Resize Your APFS Container on macOS High Sierra

Is there any way to resize my APFS container without backing up to Time Machine, wiping the disk, then recreating the partitions?

More details below:

Here is the output from the diskutil apfs utility when I attempt to resize:

$ sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 750g jhfs+ Extra 250g

Started APFS operation
[ - 0%................................................... ]

Aligning shrink delta to 250,240,966,656 bytes and targeting a new physical
store size of 749,999,996,928 bytes

Determined the minimum size for the targeted physical store of this APFS
Container to be 997,029,183,488 bytes

Error: -69531: There is not enough free space in the APFS Container for this
operation due to APFS limits or APFS tidemarks (perhaps caused by APFS Snapshot
usage by Time Machine)

Here is my diskutil configuration:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         1.0 TB     disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1.0 TB     disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            380.3 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 21.8 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                517.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

Here is the total of those volumes (calculated manually by me):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
                     TOTAL                             922.0 GB

And when I go to Disk Utility, press the "Partition" button in the toolbar, and manually enter a size for my main disk partition, it won't let me set it under 997 GB, leaving only 3 GB for new partitions:

This is the key part of the error message:

(perhaps caused by APFS Snapshot usage by Time Machine)

You must remove the local snapshots. First, list them:

$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

You may wish / need to delete local snapshots one by one from taking the date from the listing above:

$ tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2018-07-14-211120

You can also thin them based on the amount of space you wish to reclaim by asking for a lot of space back:

$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999

Then, you can resize your APFS partition:

$ sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 750g


Change iPhone earbud button behavior I recently bought an iPhone 3gs. It comes with a pair of apple earbuds that have a remote and a microphone.

I used to have an iPod, that has a set of earbuds that have a remote but not a microphone. When I long pressed the center button of the remote on the earbuds, the iPod said the title and artist of the current playing song.

On the iPhone though, when I long-press the center button (of the remote with microphone), it starts voice control.

Is there a way to change the iPhone settings to resemble the iPod settings? I don't ever use voice control, yet I do use the microphone for calling people while on my bike.

When the beep sounds you can ask:

"What song is this?"

It will speak the title, and artist. There isn't a way to turn this off sadly.


How to install the 2014 NTP security fix on 10.6.8 Snow Leopard For 10.6.8 would it work to open the 10.8 NTP update.dmg with pacifist and put in the new versions of the following 6 files?:

/usr/bin/sntp
/usr/bin/ntp-keygen
/usr/bin/ntpq
/usr/sbin/ntpdc
/usr/sbin/ntpdate
/usr/sbin/ntpd

I am not sure about including the ntptrace file that was in the 10.8 sbin directory. What does it do? Also what would the appropriate chown command be to get these files properly recognized?

For 10.6.8 would it work to open the 10.8 NTP update.dmg with pacifist and put in the new versions of the following 6 files?

No it would not work. You will probably get a segmentation fault due to major changes that happened between 10.6 and 10.8 (I don't think you could even make 10.8 binaries work on 10.7). You can easily try it, however, to convince yourself. Extract them with Pacifist to some temp directory and just run them (eg. extract ntpd and do a ./ntpd --version ). If you don't get a segmentation fault and you get a printout of the version, you might be fine. However, there's a better option.

Instead of using Apple's binaries, you should compile NTP yourself. It's not difficult at all and it requires Xcode (which is free anyway).

See my answer to a similar question that was posted the other day on how to compile NTP: Disabling NTP on OS X Lion or older


Iphone 4s upgrade to iOS7 - Calendar appointments are gone Upgraded my iPhone 4s to iOS 7; now my calendar appointments are completely missing from the phone. And it will not add a new appointment - I enter the data and hit "Done" but when I go to view, it's not there.

To clarify, I use a Google calendar on Outlook on my PC and sync THAT calendar to the iPhone and iPad calendars.  However, the PC Outlook calendar wasn't syncing (I didn't realize that until too late).  I used the iPhone and the Ipad for most calendar data entries.

When I checked iCloud, it showed only the partial calendar on the PC (Outlook).

The good news is that the calendar on my iPad is up-to-date - BUT I'm reluctant to manually sync it to anything in case I lose it.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

You can add your Google calendar to your iPhone 4s directly: Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account > Google > Sign in and select to sync the calendar.


How to use AppleScript in a bash script to create an alias for an app? I need to create an alias on my Desktop to an app in my Applications folder, using a bash script file.

As far as I know, it's only possible with AppleScript.
Unfortunately, my AppleScript skills are non-existent.
I couldn't find a good working example on how to create an alias on my Desktop.

1) How do I create an alias on my Desktop using AppleScript?

2) How do I insert this AppleScript into my bash script file so that it could work in Terminal?

osascript will run AppleScript code in your shell. This example uses a HEREDOC to present the code to osascript.

/usr/bin/osascript <<'EOF'
tell application "Finder"
    set myapp to POSIX file "/Applications/Chess.app" as alias
    make new alias to myapp at Desktop
    set name of result to "Chess.app"
end tell
EOF

Source- Link


Phone is off / black when I plug it into charger, only the Apple logo is displayed My small nephew dropped my iPhone 4s. There is a small crack on the screen. Now the iPhone is off / black and when I plug it into a charger only the Apple logo is displayed.

How can I retrieve my photos & contact list from the mobile? Is it not repairable?

Give TinyUmbrella a try. It's a powerful tool to exit the recovery state of the iPhone without the data loss.

Make sure that your iPhone is on (showing the Apple logo in your case)
Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB
Download and install TinyUmbrella
Launch TinyUmbrella and wait until it recognises your iPhone
As iPhone gets recognised press exit recovery shown in the main menu


iPhone 6 - Exchange calendar not showing up in list of calendars I have a client that has upgraded from iPhone 5 to the iPhone 6.  On the iPhone 5, exchange calendar worked just fine.  We use the same setting for Exchange and it appears to connect.  Unfortunately, the Exchange calendar does not show up in the list of calendars.

Yes, I have checked to make sure the calendars setting is on:
Settings> Mail> Exchange> Calendars

We have deleted the account ans set it back up numerous times with the same result.

The problem isn't that the calendar DOES NOT sync.  The problem is that the calendar simply DOES NOT even show up.

Any assistance is much appreciated.

I had the exact same problem on my iPhone 6s. I tried to delete the Exchange account and add it back again, yet the Exchange calendar would not show up in the calendars list.

What finally helped in my case was quitting the Calendar app (not sure if that mattered), then going to Settings > Mail > Exchange and turning the "Calendars" sync setting off and then on again.

When turning off, you get a question whether to delete all Exchange calendar data. I accepted, and then turned the sync back on. When I started the Calendar app, the Exchange calendar finally showed up.

Make sure you backup your data before fiddling with the settings and removing calendars.


iPad won't turn on after being drained What if my iPad didn't turn on after battery drain?
I did all the steps but it still didn't work.
Is it already damaged or can I recover it on an Apple Store?

I had the same problem, apparently my iPad couldn't be any more charged. So I brought it to a shop, and voila, they could charge it. Point being to really really use the original "fat" charger and not another one (like the thin one of an iPhone). The chargers differ in the maximal current they can supply (more than 2A is needed for the iPad).


Restore iOS 10 backup to an old iPhone 4s I just broke my iPhone 5s running iOs 10.1.1 and I would like to restore a back-up to an old iPhone 4s that I own.

iTunes claims that the iOS version is too recent to restore it. Is there a way to tweak/downgrade the backup in order to avoid using the iCloud backup?

You can't restore a backup of a newer iOS version to an older iOS version.

However, you can examine the contents of the backup using iBackupBot and then manually restore what you can using iBackupBot's restore mechanism. This won't restore incompatible databases such as your messages, but you can usually restore app data.


Switch between instances of apps in full screen? I can use command tab to switch between apps, and command tilde to switch between windows of the same app (for example, a regular window and an incognito window of Chrome).

However, when I full screen a window of Chrome, I lose the ability to switch between windows of the same app with command tilde. I also cannot switch back to it with command tab.

What I want is to be able to full screen all windows in all apps, and still be able to switch between apps and windows with the keyboard. How can I do this?

A bonus method if you want to do this entirely with trackpad instead: I forgot to mention that HyperSwitch also adds this functionality into the mac's built in CMD+Tab app switcher.

You need to enable the setting in HyperSwitch to display window previews on the app switcher.

Again, using BetterTouchTool, I used a trackpad gesture to trigger the application switcher. This BetterTouchTool gesture makes the switcher stay open until you click on something, so you can switch windows entirely with trackpad.


MacBook Pro and external monitor compatibility I just bought my first Mac (to learn to build apps!). I have the June 2012 non-retina display 15 inch MacBook Pro. Does any 16x10 aspect ratio montior technically work (monitor with VGA and DVI jacks)?

The Apple 15" MacBook Pro specification about Graphics and Video Support says:

  Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native
  resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up
  to two external displays, at millions of colors Thunderbolt digital
  video output

  Native Mini DisplayPort output DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to
  DVI Adapter (sold separately) VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA
  Adapter (sold separately) Dual-link DVI output using Mini DisplayPort
  to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (sold separately)


Safari extension to check if you're currently logged-in to Google/Facebook/etc.? Is there a Safari extension anywhere that shows a banner (or something equivalent) whenever you're logged-in to Google/Facebook/etc.?

I rarely sign into Gmail from the web, and when I do I want to make sure I sign out as soon as I'm finished doing whatever I'm doing. I often forget though, and only notice days later that I've been logged in that whole time.

An extension that gives a clear "warning" when you're logged-in would be fantastic, and solve my problem, but my searches thus far have turned up nothing.

I don't know of an extension that will warn you about remaining logged into Facebook or Google accounts. However, since your goal is to block web trackers from services like these, a better solution is to install an extension that blocks web tracking bugs. I personally use and recommend Ghostery. Ghostery works with Safari, plus Chrome, Firefox and IE, and it blocks Facebook and Google trackers, plus a slew of others as well. With a plugin like this you can also safely remain logged into your Google and Facebook accounts as well.


How can one mute Zoom on iPad? How can one mute Zoom on iPad? Turning down the volume doesn't work. I don't mean muting the microphone but muting the other interlocutors.

I am an attendee. I just want to mute the others for myself, but I still want them to hear each other.

This seems to be done on purpose. However, it is possible to use a workaround:

Tap on More in the top right corner.
Select the option "Disconnect Audio" which is written in red.

To re-establish the connection, tap the icon in the upper right area on the far left named Join Audio.


Headphone port broken on iPad Air When I try to put the jack in, it jumps back up and only sits when I push it really hard. I've tried with my other headphone but it's the same. On top of that the buttons (on the headphone) doesn't work. How can I fix my iPad headphone port?

iFixit has great electronics repair guides and they sell parts, too (though, at times they can be overpriced). Here's the link for the iPad Air Headphone Jack Replacement Guide (it's for the Wi-Fi-only model).

I hope you have some experience with repair, because the first time when I opened up one of my customer's iPad to replace the digitizer, it was quite a task. Just consider taking your iPad to a pro before attempting the repair yourself.


Turn off address bar search In Safari 6 - I know have a single search/address bar. I like it mostly, although as I'm developing sites locally, when I type in a local address such as site.local it searches Google for site.local,

I'm wondering if I can config it to look at the local DNS first, or turn this search off.

Something else to try: add a forward slash at the end of the URL (so instead, type site.local/).

I do this at work sometimes when trying to access intranet sites. It usually forces the browser to load that resource rather than search. Has worked for me in Chrome and Firefox too.


Is FileVault insecure by default with EFI auto-login enabled? This question really stems from the fact that I'm perhaps unfamiliar with the true function of FileVault. As far as I can tell, there's a way to force a pre-boot login screen... which means that, by default, FileVault logs in automatically at boot? Otherwise, the OS wouldn't be able to start.

So if FileVault automatically logs in to start the OS, does the encryption serve any function at all? I created a standard User to test this and was able to view all my files without entering any Administrator password – the only files I couldn't see were due to not having permission to view files from other users (which is standard protocol regardless of encryption, if I'm not mistaken).

Can anyone explain the function of FileVault to me? I'm starting to wonder if I'm using it to serve a purpose it wasn't intended to serve.

(For reference, I'm running macOS High Sierra)

FileVault2 is full-disk encryption. At pre-boot you can enter the recovery partition or boot from another disk, but not your FV disk without the decryption key (derived from your password). A firmware password takes care of being able to get into recovery or other boot disks, by the way.

The usefulness of FV is, if someone gets ahold of your data, it's useless without that decryption key, in this case coming from your password. Now once the disk itself is unlocked, there are accounts on that disk and each one may have stronger or weaker security, but it's a different layer now. Kind of like breaking into a bank with multiple doors; the firmware is one door, the file vault is another door, then you reach the user's doors.

Hope that helps.


Is it better to use AirPlay to push from Mac to AppleTV, or use AppleTV to pull from a Mac? If we have an iMac and an AppleTV, is it better to use the AppleTV to pull content from the Mac to play it, or is it better to start from the Mac and use AirPlay to push to the AppleTV?

There's no difference in quality, so it's purely a personal choice and depends on how your home network and systems are set-up.

I have a Windows PC running iTunes 24/7 and that has my entire library of music and video on it, so the Apple TV can pull whatever I want from it.

Sometimes I'll play content such as BBC iPlayer or Youtube videos from my phone, or from my laptop if I've downloaded a video I want to watch without importing it on the other system but it really makes no difference. It's just about convenience really.

The only thing that really makes a difference is network connection for the caching, wired ethernet is obviously a lot faster than WiFi.


Reinstalling a deleted app on my iPad with iOS 6 How can I restore an app on my iPad that I thought I didn't want, and deleted?  The App Store only lets me "open", not install. I want to know how I can get the icon back on my iPad.

Open App Store.
click updates
select Purchased
change the tab from All to Not on This iPad

If it has been deleted it should have the cloud with the down arrow.
If it just says open, it could be that you haven't deleted it yet.... try swiping to the far left and using search... search for the app.
If you are having issues, turn off your ipad and back on again by holding down the power button then swipping to turn it off.


Attempting to boot into Mac partition after Boot Camp results in a password lock I have just installed Windows on my Mac and it worked well, but after finishing and trying to go to Mac partition it is shown on the screen a lock icon with a password field. I tried to enter different password, but it didn't work.

From your description, I believe you're looking at the firmware password:

This isn't specific for Boot Camp, and would have been set through the Firmware Password Utility. If you can't remember the password you set and can't boot into Mac, you'll need to go to an Apple Store.


Where do terminated incomplete downloads go when using firefox? Where do terminated incomplete downloads go when using firefox?

They should stay in the designated folder. Mine is /Downloads, and they can have either the filename.part or some weird name.part. Either way, they should be in your downloads or designated folder. If you cannot find it, right click and do show in finder, and it will open the folder containing it.


Escape sequence in terminal or iTerm to jump to absolute column? Is there an escape sequence which I can use to jump to an absolute column in OS X Yosemite Terminal or iTerm?

In other words:

echo 12345678901234567890
echo \StartAtColumn10 A10 \StartAtColumn2 B2

Would produce the following output:

12345678901234567890
 B2      A10

I want to send this code from R to format progress output.

You can use \r to return to the beginning of the line (column 1) and then \e[nC to move right n characters (column n+1). So:

$ echo 12345678901234567890; echo $'\r\e[9CA10' $'\r\e[1CB2'
12345678901234567890
 B2      A10


Is it safe to unplug a drive while MacBook is asleep? (i.e., does sleep unmount drives?) Is it safe to unplug a drive while MacBook is asleep? (i.e., does sleep unmount drives?)
I think probably not, at least if a file operation was running when you put the computer to sleep, I guess it expects the drive to be mounted when it wakes up. Does it?

No. Logging out dismounts the drives.

USB changes will wake most macs from sleep assuring an uncontrolled unmount should users be logged in. The file systems should be clean and synced when entering sleep, but there is no guarantee of it.

Firewire drives also could be corrupted in a similar fashion.

With journaled filesystems you'll likely only lose a few files, but it's not the best practice. Plugging things in as fast as possible is the best option in case you can get things back before the system wakes.


reuse Microsoft Office USB stick with 7.9 GB - Error: -69877: Couldn't open device - dd: /dev/disk9: Permission denied I have a USB stick from Microsoft, which was used to ship Office 2016 for Mac. I don't use Office 2016 for Mac, so wish to use this stick for other purposes.

/dev/disk9 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *7.9 GB     disk9
   1:               Windows_NTFS Office 2016 for Mac     7.9 GB     disk9s1

> diskutil eraseDisk ExFAT DiskName /dev/disk9
Started erase on disk9
Unmounting disk
Error: -69877: Couldn't open device

> sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk9
Password:
dd: /dev/disk9: Permission denied

> sudo diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk9
Forced unmount of all volumes on disk9 was successful

> diskutil eraseDisk ExFAT DiskName /dev/disk9
Started erase on disk9
Unmounting disk
Error: -69877: Couldn't open device

Is this USB stick somehow readonly? How to use it?

After doing a little research on this, my conclusions are that you can try:

Restarting your machine. If you haven't restarted your machine since plugging in the USB drive then I would try that. Once you do, try reformatting the USB.
Running as root. In Terminal type in sudo su, press enter and then type in your password. Then issue the commands, being careful to type them in exactly as you need.
Booting into Safe mode. Another method is using Safe Mode, as this should allow you to encounter fewer errors than using terminal as a regular user. To boot into Safe Mode, immediately press and hold the Shift key down after booting up - keep it down until you see the login screen.

Finally, did you ever interrupt the formatting process at any time? Doing that can pose issues, so booting into Safe Mode is a good option.

Resources:

https://origin-discussions-us.apple.com/thread/4806895?start=0&tstart=0
https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/225061/242879
https://askubuntu.com/a/771326


How to convert a .pkg into an .app Is it possible to convert a Package into an App?
I have a complete installer of El Capitan as a pkg file and I need to install it.  But first I need to make it an app.
I can't do it through the MAS because el Capitan is no longer available.

A .pkg file is basically a folder (if you will) that the installer "app" is located in. I think you are wanting to burn/run the installer from a disc/USB? (if not, you can run it from the .pkg file itself by double-clicking and mounting the installer.

That being said, this is how to locate and save the .dmg file locally.

What you want to do is:

Right-click on the .pkg file > select "Show Package Contents"
Open the Contents/SharedSupport folder and locate the file named
InstallESD.dmg.

Copy InstallESD.dmg to another directory of your choosing. This InstallESD.dmg file is what you need to burn/run macOS installer from a DVD?USB.

Make the OS X El Capitan Bootable Installer Drive with a Terminal Command

Launch the Terminal application, found in /Applications/Utilities/
and enter the following command exactly (unless you changed the
target volume name from ElCapInstaller to something else) onto a
single line, the text will wrap because it is long, but it’s
important to have proper syntax:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/ElCapInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app --nointeraction

Hit the Return key and enter the administrator password when
requested.

  You’ll then see the following screen text in the Terminal:

  Erasing Disk: 0%… 10%… 20%… 30%…100%…

  Copying installer files to disk…

  Copy complete.

  Making disk bootable…

  Copying boot files…

  Copy complete.

  Done.

The target USB disk or flash drive will be erased first and then copy the files to it so that it will become a bootable OS X El Capitan installer. This can take a while to complete, so wait for the “Done” message before continuing.

When you see “Done”, that’s it, your OS X El Capitan installer drive has been created, it’s bootable, and you can use it to update as many Macs as you want to with OS X 10.11.

To boot from the installer drive, hold down the Option key during Mac system start, and select it from the startup volume menu.

Note: the OP is trying to create a bootable disc via MAS and Terminal method. In the instructions it tells you to download and save the installer, to avoid deletion after install completes and saving it for future use. It goes on to say load the .app to continue with creating the bootable disc/usb. This is why, I assume the user has worded his question as such.

I wish people would actually wait for the OP response without thumbing down prior to knowing, if indeed the answer is right or wrong. Or maybe explaining why the answer is wrong by submitting an answer or correcting a wrong one.


Is there a way to get Photo Booth not to flash when it takes a photo? Is there a way to get Photo Booth not to flash when it takes a photo?

It washes out every picture I take.

Your answer is Hold down Shift and click the red *button*


Can I make a repeat action into a function keystroke I use Safari to gather information in my family history research, and when I get new names to add to my ‘Tree” I like to capitalise the surnames. Can I do this with keystrokes instead of going to edit/transformations/capitalise every time?

You can add key commands for any menu item in any app, or even globally.

For one like this, globally might be the best approach - I actually use it in Safari as well as TextEdit.

System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts

Click the + button, select All Applications then type your menu name
You don't need to specify any hierarchy, it'll just find it no matter how many sub-menus deep it is.

Add your key command - make it something you're not going to be using elsewhere

Done.

Note for future ref. If you need to access a menu item with ellipsis [3 dots] that it is not the same as 3 full stops [periods] ...  it's a true ellipsis … [hard to tell the difference in here, but they are different characters.]


Can I get back Snow-Leopard-like application hiding (Cmd-H) in Lion? Till Mac OS X Snow Leopard, pressing ⌘+H while using an application did two things...

The application hid itself from view.
The application placed itself at the end of the ⌘+⇥ switcher.

The 2nd point was very useful, because when I hid an app, I knew I wasn't going to use it for some time. Sending it to the end of the switcher helped me focus on the apps I was using more.

However, in Lion, even though ⌘+H hides the app, it only moves it to the next position in the switcher. This is equivalent to ⌘+⇥ing between 2 apps, except that the app is now also hidden from view. IMO, this breaks a fundamental feature of the switcher and the app-hiding concept. I have no idea why this was done.

Does anyone have clues on how, if at all, this could be fixed? Or maybe places I should start looking? I just hope there's a preference buried in some plist file somewhere...

This is a great question. This might be intended behavior rather than a bug. Mission Control seems to have blended both the old Expose and the old Spaces. With that in mind, launching a new app Full Screen places it on its own desktop. When you get to Mission Control you see it placed to the right of the original, empty Desktop. Open a second app Full Screen and that will place it again on its own desktop, next to the first Full Screen app you opened.

Just like the Home Screens in iOS and the old Spaces, it would seem that Apple intends these desktops to stay, space-wise, in the same place. Mail is "to the left" of Safari if I opened Safari after opening Mail. I agree that this spatial notion collides with our pre-conceived understanding of the switcher. That is same reason why hiding is disabled for Full Screen apps (pressing ⌘+H will not hide a Full Screen app).

If everything is full screen, the concept of hiding becomes less relevant. I think back to the older versions of Mac OS, where you had stacks upon stacks of windows. Hiding an app like Adobe Photoshop (and all of its many opened child windows for each one of my many opened images) made sense. If such window "stacking" is spatially not there (because those Full Screen apps are now side-by-side, they're not really stacked) then it almost makes sense that it doesn't work.

Having said all of that, I could not agree more that Lion has completely messed around with the workflow of many old-time Mac users. I do not necessarily agree with Apple's decisions here, I am just trying to play advocate and see if this one in particular has some explanation that makes sense. Hope this helps.

Update:
This article at TidBITS mentions a new feature in Lion called Automatic Termination. I was not aware of this feature. I wonder if the behavior that is being experienced by this question's author is related to this.


Recover unallocated disk space I would like to recover some unallocated (?) disk space on an external hard drive /dev/disk2 is 1TB but I only see a 250GB partition. Here is a terminal screenshot and a Disk Utility one.

Is there any way I could add the remaining 750 GB to the existing partition disk2s2 or create a new disk2s3?

Ended up formatting the whole thing after doing a back-up


On Mac Pro, on Safari, is there an option to link my account? I have MacBookPro provided by my employer and I like to use it mostly for official purpose. However for productivity reason I do need to login into my personal account, for instance paying bills or even just voting 1up an helpful answer on stack exchange.
Keeping all that in mind, you may understand why I won't connect this Mac to personal account at system level but I wish I can login to safari and get facilities like bookmarks, keychain.
I know chrome lets you login just at browser level, is their a similar functionality in safari.

Safari relies on iCloud to sync the keychain, bookmarks, open tabs, etc. Most employers block iCloud for security reasons. iCloud Drive is something they do not wish to allow. For a given user account on macOS you have one login keychain and an iCloud keychain. You cannot login to Safari with a different user account and sync data like you can with Chrome or Microsoft Edge or FireFox.  However, employers can definitely block you from doing even that. There are enterprise management features in every browser that allows the employer to restrict browser extensions and the ability to login as a different user to the browser, etc.
The computer is owned by your employer and they are managing the device remotely.  Normally users are not granted local administrative privileges. Developers, engineers, technicians and SysAdmins might have an extra user account with local admin but everything they do with it is logged in depth. Some employers might require a user to request local admin privileges for a limited period of time and they need to justify the business reason for the elevated access privileges.  The company Mac will be checking in with an MDM (Mobile Device Management) Server where it receives instructions in the form of Configuration Profiles, policies that run scripts, software updates, and there is typically a company AppStore solution.  The Mac may connect to Apple using a company Apple ID. In most cases, a company will block iCloud entirely. They may block the Apple AppStore.  They may block browser extensions even on Chrome / Edge / FireFox. There's been a lot of nasty evil browser extensions that spy on you or could otherwise compromise company security. There's a lot of malware that uses browser extensions. They might force the Mac to connect to a cloud proxy such as Zscaler that forces you to authenticate before you can browse the Internet without VPN. This has become popular since the pandemic sent everyone to work from home. They might restrict connecting external storage over USB/Thunderbolt and connecting to non-company controlled network shares.  They most certainly will prevent incoming SSH connections.
Read your Employee Manual and Information Technology usage policies. You are only to use the device for work purposes.  The company can and probably does monitor your activity for suspicious behavior and even productivity. They can see absolutely everything. Every email you send and receive is kept in a vault and it doesn't matter if you deleted the email on your Mac. Internal chat systems are also logged. Some countries and regulatory agencies actually require logging of email and chats and if a court demanded that data and the company could not provide it there will be hefty financial penalties. Many industries are regulated to retain data for differing periods of time.
Most employers are rather relaxed but some can be downright draconian.  Other employers might not be tracking everything but if you were to raise a red flag that in some way made them feel you were putting the company at risk then they most certainly could open an investigative case and start collecting a lot more data. Those that work for defense contractors or large financial firms with access to customer private data or other proprietary secret data have to be extra cautious what they do on the company computers. Not only can you get fired, you can be legally prosecuted.
Companies will monitor their computers for unapproved usage, hacking activity, data loss / leakage of intellectual property and private customer data. Error logs can be sent to a centralized server for analysis. They can collect your browser history both from your Mac but also at the network level. Even if you clear your cache on the browser they still know where and when you were surfing every website you connected to.
Most employers will respect their employees privacy while others will not. There should be zero expectation of any privacy while using a company issued computer. Big Brother is watching you if not in real time they will still have logs and history they can review if you draw their attention.  In large companies there are IT security departments and they keep things confidential when running an investigation.  On top of protecting the company and customer data they also look for fraudulent activity such as theft or money laundering.
IT security departments do not talk about their investigations but you would be amazed at what happens on a regular basis. Employees do remarkably dumb things all the time.
Do not put personal data of any kind on work computers that you do not wish the company to see. Again, there is ZERO PRIVACY on a work issued computer.
Just use your personal devices for personal use. Keep work on work devices. Use an iPad or something instead of the work issued computer.


What a good app to tag my favorite places? I travel a lot to the same 5 cities for work. Sometimes, if I have a spare hour or two I explore and sometimes on those explorations, I find great places. I'd like to tag those places on a map with an iphone app. But google map app doesn't allow that. I can't find software for this.

Google Maps does indeed allow this.

Find the place you want.
Bring up the details for that location by tapping on it, either in search results or the box at the bottom of the screen after you have selected a place.
Tap the Save icon (between Call and Website, highlighted in the screenshot).

These places are included when searching going forward, as well as displayed on the map view with gold stars when you are sufficiently zoomed in.

You can also view an overall list of them by tapping the  menu, selecting Your Places and scrolling to find your Saved Places.


What should the standard contents of $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH be? I'm trying to install CERN's root libraries on my mac os Lion.

It needs me to set $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH, but on checking

echo $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

it seems to be empty (before I'm adding to it). Is this normal?

What are $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH's default contents?

I have checked on clean installs of Lion at 10.7.3 and 10.7.3 with server and both have the $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH variable unset. Installing Xcode doesn't change that variable either on the current OS.


How can I choose by keyboard the autocorrect suggestions? I love the apple magic trackpad but, I don't like to use mouse to chose something while I'm typing.

Is there a way, to pick the option using the keyboard?

PS: Note that sometimes it may exist more than one option to pick

When the autocorrect suggestion is showing, you need to press the DOWN key, then you can use left and right to select if there is multiple. After that hit return. No mouse/trackpad interaction required. :)


Time Machine, ZFS and deduplication I'm currently exporting a ZFS partition with dedup=on using ubuntu-zfs and netatalk. However, time-machine insists on creating a sparsebundle on it, and it made me start wondering if this would have any impact on deduplication, since the concept of "files" disappear, and probably the block alignment wouldn't be great either...

P.S. My whole idea of using dedup is that I have a couple of macbooks backing up to the same place, and a lot of their files are equal.

Addendum: It seems the block-level alignment is failing dedup. Here's my experience:

Time-machine copies of two different macbooks, with lots of duplicated data among them (total 200Gb)
CCC the two macbooks to two sparse images.

Deduplication factor? 1.01x

Any ideas on how to set up ZFS dedup to correctly work with time-machine backups? Should I start looking for other backup (w/ dedup) alternatives?

Deduplication on ZFS is block-level, so it doesn't depend on the concept of files. The only way the deduplication can be defeated is if the offset of a file within the sparsebundle is not always the same modulo the block size. Since ZFS can use variable block sizes that are larger than the block size of the HFS+ file system inside the sparsebundle, correct alignment isn't guaranteed, but neither is it guaranteed that deduplication will fail.

If you're worrying about space, you may also want to enable compression on your ZFS pool. It imposes extra CPU overhead, but can actually increase effective disk throughput.


I saved my iOS 5 SHSH with TinyUmbrella, and now I have 4.1 SHSH too? I launched "Save SHSH" from TinyUmbrella (for the first time ever), and now in Saved SHSHs for iPod Touch list i get iPod 3G 4.1

Does this mean I can downgrade to iOS 4.1? How is this possible, I never saved SHSHs before?

Here's a helpful guide on using TinyUmbrella, SHSH blobs, and downgrading. Depending on your hardware, downgrading may or may not be possible. I haven't tried downgrading anything since iOS 5 beta on original iPad and iPhone 4. It worked in both cases, but I'm not sure what you have.

The version of iTunes may also play a role in your ability to downgrade. For instance, the latest iTunes may not allow you to restore a version of iOS prior to 5.

Sorry if this wasn't as solid an answer you were searching for. Maybe it'll give you a starting point to experiment, if you have the time though.


Open application from terminal and remain linked to the process (like Linux) so when CTRL+C is sent to terminal the application closes too I have an application (closed-source tool not developed by me) which requires another process to exist before executing properly.  When I quit this application, I also want that custom process to be killed.  My solution is to have a shell script "launcher".  I can handle creating shell script menus, the on-close event, and opening/killing the processes.  The problem is that I can't seem to figure out how to open an application from Terminal but keep Terminal locked on that application so that when I close the Terminal window or send CTRL+C the application closes.  If you're familiar with Linux, a simple example of my desired behavior is just "gedit file.txt".  The text-editor would open but it only lives as long as the terminal window does.

On OSX with the "open" command, I can start applications but they aren't linked to the Terminal window.  Is there an alternative command I should be using to achieve this behavior?

Here is my script so far:

#!/bin/bash
set -e
function cleanup {
    osascript -e 'tell application "APP1" to quit'
    osascript -e 'tell application "APP2" to quit'
}
trap cleanup EXIT

clear

PS3='Please select an option: '
options=("Start Apps" "Stop Apps")
select opt in "${options[@]}"
do
    case $opt in
        "Start Apps")
            open -a "APP1"
            open -a "APP2"
            ;;
        "Stop Apps")
            cleanup
            ;;
        *) echo invalid option;;
    esac
done

Rather than use the Unix command open.

You can execute the executable file of the applications directly.

For example for TextEdit.app

Running the command in Terminal.app

/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit

This will open TextEdit using a process from Terminal.app

When you close the terminal window or use Ctrl  + C

TextEdit will quit.


Delete hidden books from iTunes I'm cleaning up my iTunes library. I'm a programmer so, with the help of some nifty scripting, I'm using iTunes Music Library.xml to give me improved insight into my iTunes library.

In the process, I've discovered there are several books lingering in my library which I can't see in the iTunes application. I've also found the book files sitting in iTunes Media.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to delete these books from my library, considering I can't find them in the application. Any ideas?

Note: I'm running iTunes 12.3.2.35 on Windows 10. My library was moved from an old Mac (packed away but can dig it out if software version numbers available if required).

SELF ANSWER:

On Windows, books should have been available from the iTunes application but, for whatever reason, they weren't for me. So, I ended up moving my iTunes library back to a Mac running OS X 10.11.

On OS X, it appears that all books functionality has been moved from iTunes to the iBooks application. I opened iBooks and it immediately offered to move books from iTunes. I then deleted the books from iBooks. After closing both iTunes and iBooks, an inspection of iTunes Music Library.xml shows that all the books "tracks" have been removed from my iTunes library.


High Sierra 10.13 : Keychain Access Menubar Item Missing? Is the Keychain Access Menubar Item missing for anyone else?

The in-built Help app still claims setting the Keychain Access Menubar Item is possible through Keychain Access > Preferences > General. I no longer have a General pane in Keychain Access > Preferences and, thus, no way to choose to set the Keychain Access Menubar Item.

Do other people using 10.13 still have this option?

UPDATE:

I'm glad you've found ways to lock your screens, but all of the initial responses were weirdly answering a question that wasn't asked.  I rarely used the Keychain Access Menubar Item for the Lock Screen feature; my screen is set to lock after a short period of inactivity. I used the Keychain Access Menubar Item to access my keychain data and to quickly and easily create UserID/Passcodes outside of Safari and to create Secure Notes and to grab Certs.

Please, see my Crude Solution below.

"Lock Screen" is now available via the Apple menu.


Safari crash and refusal/failure to reload Recently, Safari unexpected crashed while I was using my desktop.  Now, when I try to reload, it keeps saying it "unexpectedly quit" and will not reload (even when I push the reload button).  I have restarted my computer multiple times but it will not open Safari and I keep getting the same error messages over and over.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks

1st thing to try is go to ~/Library/Safari/ & move the contents of the Extensions folder somewhere else.
Try again.
If successful, quit, add back one at a time, restarting Safari between each to eliminate which one was responsible.

Alternatively, go to ~/Library/Saved Application State/ & delete the entire folder called com.apple.Safari.savedState


Backup of a cracked screen I cracked my iPhone 5 screen and the right side of the screen is black and un-touchable but the left is fine.
I want to back my phone up to my computer and when i try iTunes says "iTunes could not back up the iPhone because it is locked with a passcode. You must enter your passcode on the iPhone before it can be backed up." but i can't put my password because i can't touch all the buttons to put it in. HELP!!!

In case you have previously synced your iPhone to iTunes, it should automatically sync your device (with 'Sync' button). If you did that on the different computer, try connecting to it. After sync, restore the device from the previous backup in the recovery mode.

See also the following steps depends on your circumstances:

How to unlock your iPhone passcode if you have previously synced your iPhone to iTunes
How to unlock your iPhone passcode if you have never synced your iPhone to iTunes
How to unlock your iPhone passcode if you don’t have access to a computer


How to send only "work" related requests over vpn for El Capitan (10.11) I have configured a new VPN connection (Type - Cisco IPSec) for work using network preferences and it works.

How can I stay connected to my work vpn and direct only my work traffic through vpn?
Given that I already know that all of my work related requests fall under specific ip-range say, 10.0.0.0/8, how can I direct my non-work web traffic to not use the work vpn?

If possible, please provide an effective way to verify the setup as well.

You should talk to the VPN administrator.  Typically, the decision about what traffic is routed to your network is made by the VPN server since there are security implications to allowing the device to send only some traffic down the tunnel.  We use Cisco VPN and we do not allow clients to do what you describe because it opens a potential hole in our network security.


How to change the main user name of a used MacBook on macOS 10.13? I just bought a used MacBook Air 2012 with High Sierra. I would like to change the user name to mine. I tried changing it in the address book or at the preference login but the old name is still stuck when I look at it from anywhere else such as in Terminal or on the side pane of finder. Any suggestions?

You can do the short name shuffle. I prefer this over trying to rename an existing account. Much better to make it “new” with the old files intact.

Make a new admin - to rename the old account(s)
Log out of the old and in to the new
Use the new to delete the old account - answer “don’t change” the home folder when asked
Open /Users and rename the deleted folder to be the new account short name of your choice
Create a new account - specify the new short name from above step

The system sees the user folder is present and asks you to confirm to reuse it, answer yes. Log out of the new admin and test the old documents with the new renamed account. No need to delete the temp account, but you can now if you please.