OS X Server Caching / DNS Question our network has 3 primary public IPs (datacenter, user set a, user set b).  I would like to set up the Caching server, and am just trying to understand the breakdown of the DNS entry.

In the data portion, the  "prs=1.2.3.4,2.3.4.5,3.4.5.6" section: What does "prs" actually equate to? Peers?  If this is going into internal DNS, wouldn't I want to use the internal IP of the cache server, as opposed to the public IPs?

Also, does this record assist the clients/devices, or the server itself?

Reading the help pages I would assume that prs stands for public range comma-separated and prn stands for public range binary network-byte-order format.

The entry(ies) go(es) to the authoritative DNS-server which is not necessarily your (internal) DNS-server.

The purpose of the entries (of the public hosts or network ranges) in the zone file is to introduce your caching server and then redirect any of the service queries (e.g. updates) of the other hosts to your caching server.

Rough example:

Your public host             ---update request-->                            Apple Update Server
Apple Update Server      ---reverse DNS look up--->                 auth. DNS server
Auth. DNS server            ---domain name/_aaplcache._tcp---> Apple Update Server
Apple Update Server      - determines the responsible caching server
Apple Update Server      ---sends public ip of caching server---> your public host
Your public host             ---update request-->                            your caching server


How to rename formula installed via Homebrew? I installed gcc with homebrew:

$ brew install gcc

I can see the result:

$ brew list
ant         gcc     go          libyaml     postgresql  tmux
autoconf    gdb     isl         mpfr        python      valgrind
automake    gdbm    libevent    openssl     readline    wget
binutils    git     libmpc      ossp-uuid   ruby        xz
cloog       gmp     libtool     pkg-config  sqlite

I also see gcc-4.9 in /usr/local/bin

$ ls /usr/local/bin
...
gcc-4.9
...

The issue is that typing gcc still refers to the system gcc

$ which gcc
/usr/bin/gcc

I wanted to rename gcc-4.9 to gcc, but I don't want to break anything in homebrew. Specifically, I'd like to rename it in such a way that homebrew is aware of the change and running brew update will know to link the newly updated version to the name gcc in /usr/local/bin.

Can this be done?

DESIRED BEHAVIOR:

$ which gcc
/usr/local/bin/gcc
$ gcc -v
... version XXX
$ brew update
... new gcc version YYY installed in /usr/local/bin/gcc
$ which gcc
/usr/local/bin/gcc
$ gcc -v
... version YYY

I don't think what you want can be done directly without hacking Homebrew formulas, er, I mean formulae.

What I do is put

export CC=gcc-4.9

in my shell profile.  That works in almost all scenarios I'm interested in.

An alternative is that you create your own "bin" directory, say ~/bin/, put that first in the path, and symlink ~/bin/gcc to /usr/local/bin/gcc-4.9.

Both of these methods will survive package upgrades.


Why won't my Time Capsule extend my wireless network? I'm trying to get my 2009-era Time Capsule to extend my home wireless network (broadcast by a non-Apple router). I reset the Time Capsule and AirPort Utility can see it on both my iPad mini (iOS 6.1.3) and my Mac Mini (OSX 10.8.2). In both cases, AirPort Utility will happily allow me to set up the Time Capsule and have it join my existing network. When I go back and tell AirPort Utility to have it extend my wireless network, the Time Capsule tries to update itself and then just fails. It tells me "An error occurred during the update", and then AirPort Express can no longer see the Time Capsule:

At this point, I restore the Time Capsule using the tiny button on the back and lather, rinse, repeat.

The Time Capsule hadn't been used in a few months, so I tried this both before and after updating the firmware. There has been no change in the result.

Where do I even begin to troubleshoot?

If you are trying to extend a wireless network that is not an Apple Airport base station it cannot be done. You can join a network but this will not increase the range of your wireless network.

Unless you have a firmware that supports WDS on your 3rd party wireless router.


Remove separator and last opened apps from the dock In my Mac on the Dock is a separator which keeps the last open programs. How I can remove it? I didn't find any place in the Dock settings...

I don't want to see any apps on the right of the separator.

Drag the folders away from the Dock and wait until the cursor changes to indicate they will be removed, and let go. You have to do this one at a time for folder stacks as Monomeeth says.

To prevent minimized windows from showing to the right of the separator, go to System Preferences > Dock and check the “minimize windows into application icon” setting.


Browsing web page stored on local machine I am developing a web site and would like to check how it looks on my iPad and iPhone. Is there a way I can set up my mac and devices so that I can develop the web site locally, but view it on my devices over the local wifi?

I'm looking to replicate the functionality whereby you can just save an HTML file in your text editor and press refresh in the browser and the page updates, except that the browser in question will be on my iPhone.

I'm running Lion and everything is connected to the same network, which uses a time capsule as a base station. I know very little about networking.

Enable the web server on your Mac via System Preferences:

You can then save the file in your Personal Website folder, as described in System Preferences. Use the supplied URL on both your Mac and on your iOS devices. The System Preferences panel will walk you through it fairly well.


Low quality Apple Music app audio when doing conference calls I noticed a mono-like sound switch of current Music app song when starting a video call with Skype or Zoom. Can anyone here help me please?

Are you using a Bluetooth headset? If so, try the following:

Go to System Preferences → Sound → Input and select a device other than your bluetooth device, for example "MacBook Air Microphone."

Note that if you disconnect your bluetooth device, you might have to do this step over again. Inconvenient, I know.

This is because bluetooth does not have enough bandwidth for 3 audio channels at the same time, so it is either: (1) two speaker channels (stereo) or (2) one speaker channel (mono) and one microphone channel.


Syncing address book contacts through iPad and iPhone? Is there a way to sync Address Book contacts added from an iPad, on iPhone and Mac without having to manually sync with a USB cable and through the Mac?

There are a number of options, these solutions assume you want to sync your contacts to Apple's Contacts.app on your iOS device and not a third party app.

MobileMe

Apple's service is the most straight forward (it should just work) and offers other benefits such as storage.

Microsoft Exchange

iOS devices can use Microsoft's Exchange protocol to update the device's email, calendar and contacts. If you are running Snow Leopard you can use also connect your Address Book, iCal, and Mail to the same exchange server and your contacts will sync between your iOS device and your Mac's Address Book. A free option would be to use Google sync on your iOS device which uses Microsoft's exchange protocol. However Google Sync doesn't work for desktop applications like Address Book right now. So you would have to find a way to sync your Address Book contacts to Google which is possible.


Automatically print incoming email on an iPad I'd like to automatically print all incoming email to my printer.
I don't think there's any way to do this with the native mail client, perhaps there is another app that does this?
It's definitley possible to do this with the desktop versions of Outlook or Thunderbird, I'm trying to set this up on an iPad.

Going from this comment:

It would be one email per page. The idea is to automatically print out order emails so that they can be fulfilled.

You're using the wrong product for your purposes.
There are much less complex and more reliable solutions

Printers with email addresses like HP's ePrint  The printer has it's own address and you can literally email (or forward) the message to the printer

Apple's (or any other *nix for that matter) built in mail facility.  A simple and very short batch program can be used to access and print all mail sent or fetched) from a computer.

The full blown Outlook client supports rules that allow you to print all incoming mail based on criteria you set.

Purpose built software such as Email to Print from Papercut will retrieve mail from a mail server and print it based on rules (like Outlook client)

Actually, the worst thing you can do is set this up on a mobile device like an iPad.  The moment it goes to sleep, all processing is done.  If the process is pushed the the background, the email to print processing stops.  If the device is dropped, it stops.
If you're taking orders to be fulfilled, you likely have a computer (or even a server) already for other purposes (accounting, internal website, etc.) that can handle this processing for you without trying to bodge something on a mobile device.


Apple ID password not being requested before installing an app from the App Store Why isn't my Apple ID password being requested before installing an app from Apple Store ? It always has before now.

I changed my password the other day and I have a feeling I must have done
something else to screw things up. I have an iPad 4 running 8.x

Go to Settings → General → Restrictions and set Require Password to Immediately to always be required to enter your password for purchases.


Some Finder Sidebar Icons Missing? In the Finder windows, the iCloud Drive and Downloads icons are missing from my sidebar. I use CleanMyMac 2 could that have deleted the icons by mistake?

I have rebooted the icons are still gone.

Yosemite 10.10.2 MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)

How can I get these icons back? Any idea what caused them to go away in the first place?

Update:

Can't I just drag the iCloud Drive icon into the info panel and change the icon like that? If so where can I find the original icon from?

This generally happens when you've used a utility that changes your sidebar icons to colorized versions. iCloud Drive and Downloads do not use the standard icon format. These products are based on a SIMBL plugin called ColorfulSidebar that does not recognize the non-standard format. Even if you've changed the icons back to the non-colorized versions, the routine that changes the icons may still be running. You have to totally disable the software that colorized the icons.


Bootcamp Windows USB Installation Errors I am having issues installing Windows 7 through Bootcamp on my Mac. I want to be able to natively boot into my Windows installation so Parallels or VMWare will not work for me. I am using an early 2013 MBP with retina.

Here's what happens:
I am able to partition the drive with the Bootcamp assistant, download the support software, and have the machine reboot into the Windows installer. Upon installation however, it seems like the USB controller for my MBP is not active and it's not able to find my installation media. The specific error that I'm getting is:

"A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB, or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now."

I made a video reproducing what happens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GMg-xXsmzo

Hopefully someone out there has run into this as well, I could really use some unblocking!

The (fixed) Pre-Installation Environment (boot.wim) of your Windows_7.iso doesn't contain the necessary drivers to use the USB3-interface of your Early 2013 Macbook Retina.

To circumvent limitations (new drivers, new hardware) Microsoft uses the $WinPEDriver$-feature to provide drivers at installation time.

Apple Boot Camp uses this method to provide the necessary drivers with the boot medium - your thumb drive.

Usually the Boot Camp Assistant does the whole work properly:

Partition your drive
Download the appropriate Boot Camp Support Software
Create the Windows 7 install thumb drive (with all necessary drivers)

Please check if you meet the following requirements:

Backup of your entire hard disc
Windows 7.iso Home Premium x64, Professional x64, or Ultimate x64
(these three are us-en digitalriver isos and here is a full list of all images available there)
Formatting of the USB-device (according to Apple):

If the size of the thumb drive is 32 GB or less it should be MS-DOS (FAT).

If the size of the thumb drive is over 32 GB it should be ExFAT.
Boot Camp Support Software version: 5.1.5621

download link: Latest Boot Camp Support Software
File/Folder structure of the root of your boot device (your thumb drive):

If your boot device doesn't contain $WinPEDriver$, AutoUnattend.xml and BootCamp please download and extract BootCamp5.1.5621.zip and copy the contents of the resulting BootCamp folder to the root level of your install drive.
If your install drive already contains those files and folders then check if the USB drivers are present.
(Paths: /$WinPEDriver$/IntelxHCISetup/Drivers/HCSwitch/Win7/x64/ and /$WinPEDriver$/IntelxHCISetup/Drivers/xHCI/Win7/x64/).
If they aren't present the wrong Boot Camp Support Software package has been chosen. Delete $WinPEDriver$, AutoUnattend.xml and BootCamp and continue with step 6.

Now the installation should work.


How to find .bashrc or .zshrc? I just got a MacBook Pro and am in the process of trying to get GNU commands installed. I'm following this guide, but I don't know how to do:

Then add the following line to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

export PATH="$(brew --prefix coreutils)/libexec/gnubin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

I did a cd; ls -a and I don't see any files called .bashrc or .zshrc.

Additional Info:
Running Yosemite 10.10.3 on a MacBook Pro. Already have Xcode installed. Total newbie at this.

To know which shell are you using, use the following command:

$ echo $SHELL

It will return something like:

/bin/bash

or

/bin/zsh

After you know the shell, if the file .bashrc or .zshrc doesn't exist in your home directory (echo $HOME to find out), just create it.

If you are using bash, you may have a file called .bash_profile where you can put your export command instead (don't know in zsh).


Late 2012 iMac not seeing Bootcamp 6 update I would like to install Windows 10 and use Bootcamp 6 to do so on a 2012 iMac. According to Apple's documentation, this should have appeared and been installed by software update. When I check my Bootcamp version though, it is 5.1.4. I have updated everything on the actual computer (10.10.5, etc).

They used to provide access to the direct PKG files to install, but I don't see one for bootcamp 6.

What am I doing wrong. According to their support document, this machine should be supported - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204990

According to this thread on Apple Support Communities, the version number "6" only shows up in Windows, or in XML files on the Mac, if you go digging.

From what I understand, you should be able to, without any problems, use a Windows 10 ISO with the 5.1.4 version of Bootcamp Assistant, and it'll be smart enough to download the version 6 drivers behind the scenes.


iphone status bar activity indicator spins forever Can someone point me why this activity indicator is spinning? All apps are closed. It's starts to spin right after I'm activating wifi. Wifi turned off - activity indicator disappearing.

The Cause
I can reproduce this problem consistently on iOS 7.1.1. Just go into App Store and click the "update all" button in the updates tab. When you exit to your home screen, the activity indicator will spin in the status bar incessantly. Since the code has been wedged into the wrong state, the only way to get rid of the activity indicator is to power down your phone and boot it back up.
The Reason
This is caused by Apple developers poor programming. They properly show it when apps begin to update:
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES;

But they fail to turn it off when the apps finish updating:
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = NO;

The way their Cocoa Touch framework is written makes it very easy for amateur developers to make this mistake, including Apple's own internal iOS development team. It's very hard to manage nested network operations that need to show the activity indicator. The correct interface for managing the activity indicator would have been to create a stack. Any time the indicator is needed, an object would be pushed onto the stack. When the operation is complete, the object would be popped from the stack. Once the stack is empty, the indicator should disappear.


How to copy files in /Applications/* using Terminal? # whoami
root

# pwd
/Applications/Calendar.app/Contents/MacOS

# cp Calendar Calendar.backup
cp: Calendar.backup: Operation not permitted

im curious to know why im not able to copy applications from a root terminal using the cp command?

sh-3.2# system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType
Software:
System Software Overview:

  System Version: macOS 10.13.4 (17E199)
  Kernel Version: Darwin 17.5.0
  Boot Volume: lily
  Boot Mode: Normal
  Computer Name: lily’s MacBook Air
  User Name: System Administrator (root)
  Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
  System Integrity Protection: Enabled
  Time since boot: 2:03

Applications that come preinstalled with macOS are protected by SIP.  The Calendar App, being preinstalled falls under this category.  Firefox, for example, wouldn't.

So, anything in

/Applications/Calendar/..... is protected
/Applications/3rdPartyApp/.... is not

  System Integrity Protection restricts the root user account and limits the actions that the root user can perform on protected parts of the Mac operating system.


Is there an application that moves menulets from the menu bar, and shows them in a little window? Is there a utility that shows the menulets in a window in the style of the old Control Strip (which means a window that automatically shows and hides)?

It's not exactly the style used by the old Control Strip, but Bartender hides the menu extra icons, and show them in a little window that appears when clicking on its menu extra icon.

  Lets you tidy your menu bar apps how you want.
  See your menu bar apps when you want.
  Hide the apps you need to run, but do not need to see.
  Have the clean looking menu bar you want.
  Rearrange your menu bar items as you wish.

For each icon shown in the Menu Bar, it let you decide where the icon should be shown (Bartender Bar versus Manu Bar), and how long the item should be shown when it is updated.


FileVault2 Asking for Password Twice? I recently enabled FileVault on OSX Lion. All seems to have gone well - it asks for my password before booting as expected, however it asks for it twice. Basically, it asks for my password, boots for a 30 seconds, restarts, asks for my password again - and then everything boots OK.

Is this (annoying) normal behavior? (From everything I've read - it isn't).
If not, does anyone have a remedy, or at least suggest a place to start looking as to why it might be doing this?

Hardware: MBP 13" Early 2011.

FileVault will ask for the disk encryption password to unlock the disk before booting the OS - once the disk is unlocked, it proceeds with booting as normal, at which point it will ask for your login password. Only certain users are allowed to unlock the disk. So, when you first turn it on, it'll ask you to authenticate to unlock the disk, then it'll ask you to authenticate to login. This sounds like what you're experiencing, and it is normal.
EDIT: Check the answer below, this is in error. Are you unlocking the drive with the same account you're logging in to?
This article goes into more detail. Specifically:

Upon selecting "Turn On FileVault", if your Mac has multiple user accounts, you will be asked to identify the user accounts that will be allowed to unlock the encrypted drive (to start the computer or recover from sleep or hibernation).
Users not enabled for FileVault unlock will only be able to log in to that Mac after an unlock-enabled user has started or unlocked the drive. Once unlocked, the drive remains unlocked and available to all users, until the computer sleeps, hibernates, or is shut down.


Mail pops up frequently Apple mail application often appears and asks me to enter email address and password.
I don't use this application.
It happens even though I never clicked email address or something like that.
How can I prevent this?

Steps you can take to ensure this doesn't happen:

Make sure that Mail.app isn't set to open at login.
Check your Mail, Contacts & Calendars settings to make sure you don't have an invalid account linked to your Mail account.
If you don't use the app, make sure you actually Quit the app instead of closing the application window (that's a common mistake for new Mac users).


How do I insert a tab character in a Google Docs document on iOS? I'm trying to insert a tab character in a Google "doc", from Google Drive on my iPhone.

I have a list

Item
Thing

and I need to insert an a. between 1 and 2 - usually accomplished by pressing the Tab, which is not present on the onscreen keyboard.

How do I accomplish this task (on iOS)?

In the Google Drive app, within a Google document, there are two indentation keys in the top status bar. You'll need to scroll right to get to them. The right one works just like Tab, and the other is for Shift+Tab.


What is the best way to clone a disk between two Macs? What is the best way to clone a disk between two Macs? I ask this every couple years or so and every time I get the same answer. "Use Carbon Copy Cloner", they say. But the unfortunate fact is that CCC is a file-level copy between disks. When I migrate to my new Mac, sure all the files are there but there are quirks here and there (including file dates being different etc).

So, really now, once again: how do you clone the disk over byte-for-byte?

You can use the dd command to make a bit-perfect clone of a drive. It's a command line tool that ships with OS X. In order to make the clone perfect you'll need to ensure the source and the destination aren't actively in use.
To prepare for the clone I recommend creating a secondary boot disk that you can boot from. Your source for the clone should be an offline volume, not in use, when you're making the copy. Otherwise you risk copying things that are in incomplete states on disk.
With your machine booted to your secondary boot disk, log in and fire up a Terminal or iTerm window.
Run diskutil to get a list of your available drives. One of them will be your target drive you're trying to clone. The other will be your source drive. For example:
> diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *320.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            319.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Backup                  499.8 GB   disk1s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk2
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Clone                   499.8 GB   disk2s2

Let's say that Macintosh HD (disk0) is the source and Clone (disk2) is the target for our dd operation. Start the clone with:
> sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk0 of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m conv=noerror,sync

When dd finishes you may see an error like this:
dd: /dev/rdisk2: short write on character device
dd: /dev/rdisk2: Input/output error
3726+1 records in
3726+1 records out
500107862016 bytes transferred in 14584.393113 secs (34290619 bytes/sec)

That last error message is actually okay. The last block written was a short block because there wasn't a full 1MB block to copy. No worries.
Now you've got a bit-wise perfect clone of your Macintosh HD drive. Reboot your system using the Macintosh HD drive and enjoy your clone!


Internal keyboard and trackpad stop working after plugging in USB device I got a new MacBook Pro with OS X Mavericks. When connecting my phone via USB, the internal keyboard and the trackpad immediately stop working -- not always but in most cases. The bluetooth mouse and an external USB keyboard are not affected. Everything else works also fine. The power button of the internal keyboard still works. Reboot helps. Any ideas?

Yes, the culprit is the Android File Transfer application. And following the steps outlined here (disabling the annoying Android File Transfer Agent) seems to solve this. (No need to completely remove it, as it may be useful)

The underlying issue is logged with the developers as 58416: Android File Transfer - Mac 10.8.4 AppleUSBMultitouchDriver Keyboard Input Delays.


How to allow the Files app to save to "On My iPhone" (or to "On My iPad") in iOS 11 I have an iPhone SE with iOS 11 installed. I really love the idea of the Files app for managing downloads and such, however I am running into difficulties:

If I try to save, say, a photograph locally using Save To Files → On My iPhone I can see the On My iPhone option, but cannot select it.
If I try to enable On My iPhone in Files → Locations → Edit there is no On My iPhone option, just iCloud Drive and Recently Deleted.

I am

Uninterested in using iCloud, and
Uninterested in installing Pages (or some other app).

Given these constraints, is there a method for me to actually save things locally using the Files app?

(I wonder if I misunderstand the intent of Files app: Perhaps local storage is only intended to augment the use of Files with other apps?)

According to the iPhone User Guide, this requires a third-party app with Files integration support. If you don't want to install one, it's actually quite easy to make one yourself.

Install Xcode if you don't have it already. You'll need version 9 or above.
Sign in using your Apple ID in the preferences. You have to do this in order to run your apps on an actual device.
Create a new project and select the "Document Based App" template in the iOS tab. Name it "Files Local Storage" or something.
Connect your device using a USB cable.
Install it on your device! Select your iPhone out of the list in the toolbar, and click the big "play" button in the top left.

It won't have an icon, unless you go to the trouble of adding one. You'll also need to go into Settings and switch the storage location from "iCloud Drive" to "On My iPhone".

Also, unless you have a Developer ID, which costs $99/yr at the time of writing, you may need to reinstall your app every week or so.

If you don't want to do this, I've heard that Documents by Readdle supports Files integration. I've never tried it, and I'm not absolutely sure that it does.

On the other hand, I have tried GoodReader. It doesn't support Files integration. (update: now it does!) It is also fantastic for file management, and has some good PDF features as well. It can even zip/unzip files and connect to various types of network servers, like SFTP. It's $4.99 (with 4.5 stars and 1,458 reviews) at the time of writing. Please be aware that it does have a built-in web browser.

(I don't have any affiliation with either of these apps.)


How do I transfer the cellular service from one iPad to another? I have a first-generation iPad mini with Verizon LTE service and I’m replacing it with a second-generation mini. What do I need to do to “transfer” the cellular service from the one to the other? (In other words, I want the new device to seamlessly replace the old one as far as the carrier is concerned.)

Is it a simple matter of moving the old SIM card to the new device, or do I need to get the carrier involved?

I've always involved the carrier, but I don't know if you have to involve VZW in the switch.

If you have a shared data plan, then you will certainly want to get them involved to ensure you don't make a stand alone plan when the old SIM hits the new device. I've had no issues with exchanging a device and not had to pay the fee for enrolling the new device since it simply replaced the old one.

If you are on a month to month plan and don't mind re-paying the activation charge, you could simply set up the new device and let the old device's plan expire.

Much depends on if you use the device to set up the account or want to have verizon enter the details into their system as the different types of accounts have different manners of adding the new device to the plan.


Can I take the optical drive out of my MacBook Pro? I'm proud to say that I'm the happy owner of an almost antique 2009 MacBook Pro. I've had this 15-inch MacBook Pro for quite a while now and I'm not planning on changing it (have you seen the price of MacBooks these days?). As it is quite old now, it is not really working as well as before and my optical drive doesn't work anymore. It does not recognise any CD and keeps burping them out. It doesn't really matter as I've gotten used to it and don't use the optical drive now.

So here is my question:

Can I safely take the optical drive out and not replace it with another one?

I know it is possible to take it out and put an SSD in instead but what about just taking in out? And leave and empty space? What about the cables? Can they just hang in there and not be attached to anything?

I'm just thinking it could lighten up my already quite heavy laptop.

Yes, it is possible to remove the optical drive. However, it isn't that easy. You will need several specialized screwdrivers, a tool to remove the cables, and some manual dexterity. If you have experience disassembling laptops it will not be a problem.

Go to ifixit.com and find the instructions for your model.

Side note #1: this would be a good time to change the spinning drive for an SSD.

Side note #2: I don't find the price of MacBooks these days to be excessive. Have you seen the junk you get for $500?


Why does fan increase slowly its speed at boot and system is so slow? I am given a MacBookAir5,2 [A1466 (EMC 2559)] that is very slow. To give you an idea, a sequence of:

Power on
Log in and loading the desktop
Power off from the menu

takes around 10 minutes.

The MacBookAir runs quite cool. With $ top I see around ~10% of CPU usage after logging in and ~25% of RAM and sysctl hw.cpufrequency returns 1,800,000,000 without the commas, which I suppose is good. Also, I noticed that fan speed is always at (almost?) full speed.
So, after searching around I did a PVRAM/NVRAM reset and an SMC reset.

PVRAM/NVRAM reset seems to be successful since I get the "double restart".

But I question the SMC reset. The steps of the procedure are:

Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected. (I shut it down having MagSafe plugged in)
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time. (I did this, holding them down for <1, ~5 and ~10 second(s).)
Press the power button to turn on the computer. (Now, this does NOT work. I have to unplug MagSafe in order for power button to turn on the MacBookAir.)
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC. (It does not change states to me.)

The strange thing is that when I turn it on, the gray screen appears with the "loading" icon. Then, after let's say 10 seconds I can listen to the fan increasing its rotation slowly from its minimum speed to -I guess- the maximum. This increase is quite slow and takes around 10 seconds.

Should the next step be delivering it to a proper technician or there is something else I can do?

Go to iFixit and look up the guide for your Air. You will need to do two things. First is disconnect the battery, second is remove/clean the CPU heatsink before reapplying thermal paste and refitting it. When you've done that you can reconnect the battery and see what happens.

SMC resets using key combos don't always work - disconnecting the battery does. It might seem drastic but removing the power source is what's needed. If you've an SMC issue (which sounds very likely) this should clear it and cleaning up the CPU cooler will give you something useful to do while any residual voltage is discharging.


What's the Mac equivalent of Windows' Turn Windows Features On or Off? One of my favorite parts of Windows is the ability to selectively turn features on or off. For instance, on a tablet you can turn on Tablet PC components; on a desktop you can disable these and potentially enable other features as well.

It provides you with a list of checkboxes that lets you choose which programs and features  you want to disable or enable.

So: Is there any Mac equivalent of Windows' Turn Windows Features On or Off?

EDIT:

I'm looking for a central place to see a list of checkboxes that display a large amount of features that I can turn on or off.

The Mac OS doesn't directly have a feature like this, mainly due to how the OS and supporting Applications are separated differently than Windows.

Looking a while back, Microsoft was having some issues with anti-trust lawsuits, and the inability to really separate IE from Windows. From how I understood it, part of this feature (at least the user facing side, not the server side) was enabled to help users 'Turn off IE'.

This grew on Windows two ways - one to let users 'remove' features that they didn't want to use, and two - to enable and disable server or other components.

Following the first of the above - this is much easier on the Mac - just drag the Application to the trash. Don't want to have iPhoto on your machine, just delete it. You can always reinstall it later from the media or Mac App Store. While certain API's do tie into different Applications (think media browsers in Pages, etc), the OS doesn't have to always have these applications to run. And to my understanding (although I have never tried it), you could theoretically remove iTunes or Safari if you wanted (although, WebKit is still being used, and may require Safari).

As for the second item above - server or other features - this is also much different on the Mac. For the actual server functions (outside of the Unix tools), you now just buy an app from the Mac App Store (you used to buy a different version of the Mac OS that was much more expensive). On Mac OS client, there is no direct way to fully remove a feature, say apache, without deleting the binaries, etc. from the actual UNIX paths. So, in this case, there really is not a direct correlation on the Mac OS.

When it does come to certain 'server-like' features in the Mac OS (for example setting up file shares, ssh, etc), these are under System Preferences -> Sharing.

Finally, the Mac OS tries to be a bit smarter about this too. Take for example your 'tablet features' for Windows. If the Mac actually supported a tablet in that case, they would show you an item in System Preferences. A great example like this is mice/trackpads. Depending on what is actually connected to your machine, you see (if you have a Mac without a trackpad, you don't see the trackpad option - or at least it used to - my air is showing the options for a mouse right now).

To turn off specific features (say Time Machine, etc), you still have to go to each items 'control panel' if you will under System Preferences, versus one place to turn them all off. There may be tools like Onyx that let you have a bit more control over things (a review here), but this isn't really built into the OS in one place.


"Recent Items" count is not saved in System Preferences-OS X 10.11 "El Capitan" In System Preferences, when I try to change "Recent Items" count from "none" to any other value it is not saved. I can change it, but when I close System Preferences and open it again I still see "none" in "Recent Items". What can be the problem? Is there a way to change it manually? I am using OS X 10.11 "El Capitan".

Sounds like the .plist file is corrupted. Go to Library/Preferences and drag the file named com.apple.recentitems.plist into the Trash and empty it. When you open System Preferences again a new com.apple.recentitems.plist file will be created and you should be able to change the number of Recent Items without issue.


brew uses /usr/bin/autom4te in stead of /usr/local/bin/autom4te I'm trying to brew weechat, which has p11-kit as a dependency.

$ brew install p11-kit
==> Downloading http://p11-glue.freedesktop.org/releases/p11-kit-0.18.1.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/p11-kit-0.18.1.tar.gz
==> Patching
patching file configure.ac
patching file configure
Hunk #1 succeeded at 17201 with fuzz 1.
patching file common/library.c
==> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/p11-kit/0.18.1 --without-trust-paths
==> make
     You might want to install the Automake and Perl packages.
     Grab them from any GNU archive site.
Can't locate Autom4te/C4che.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/share/autoconf /Library/Perl/5.12/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.12 /Network/Library/Perl/5.12/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.12 /Library/Perl/Updates/5.12.4 /System/Library/Perl/5.12/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.12 /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.12/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.12 .) at /usr/bin/autom4te line 39.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/bin/autom4te line 39.
make: *** [configure] Error 1

I tried force linking autoconf

$ which autom4te
/usr/bin/autom4te
$ brew link --force autoconf
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/autoconf/2.69... 18 symlinks created
$ which autom4te
/usr/local/bin/autom4te

No dice. I keep getting the error from /usr/bin/autom4te
Am I missing something?

Thank you for your help!

EDIT: I've opened an issue here https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/issues/20586

I went ahead and renamed the files autoconf, autoheader, autom4te, autoreconf, autoscan, autoupdate and ifnames in /usr/bin to force my machine to use the ones made available in /usr/local/bin after a brew link --force autoconf.

Brewing worked without an issue.

I don't know where the files in /usr/bin/ came from or if I borked things up bad by doing this. I'm keeping the renamed files in place, just in case I ever remember what I did today when things start to stink.

(see https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/issues/20586 for more troubleshooting)


Is it safe to use my US iPhone/iPad charger with international plug adapter? This question has been asked of European adapters, however, I am traveling to some other countries such as India, Thailand, and Indonesia. I wonder if it is safe to charge my MacBook Pro and iPhone 8 simply using an adapter in those countries.

I know most appliances these days are 110/220 dual voltage and I've had no problems charging my MacBook pro in hotel rooms in India before. However, I will be mainly staying in homes during this visit - I did some research and found out that there are commonly neighborhood "brownouts" in India and several other Asian countries which can fry your electronics. I've been trying to research my options and the best I've found is to purchase a voltage transformer with a regulator. I wouldn't even require the transformer aspect and the appliance is both expensive and bulky.

Is it safe to use my US iPhone/iPad charger with international plug adapter?

The short answer to your question, "is it safe," you kind of answered yourself.  It depends.

Is it technically possible? Yes. My Apple- (and non-Apple-) branded adapters show a range of 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz. I've used them as-is in the US and Europe without issue. While you should be "just fine," don't just take my word for it. Read the labels on the power supply.

Generally, when the voltage drops, the powered device (or the drawing side of the power supply itself) makes up for the difference by drawing more current. (I've seen this numerous times on 48VDC-powered systems: when the voltage drops much below 44V, circuit breakers trip and/or fuses blow because the current exceeds the rated amounts.) Without a breaker or fuse, that excess current causes elements inside the power supply to heat up beyond tolerances and eventually burn up.  Surges in voltage can overrun the semiconductors as well, with a similar result.

Special shut-off circuitry in some power supplies is supposed to kick in, protecting the adapter and the powered device. Cheaper adapters may not have this kind of protection, or they become the protection for the device by sacrificing themselves.

I would bet that in more developed/commercial areas where the power is more trustworthy, an adapter will be fine. For extended use cases, like a laptop plugged in for a number of hours while in use, especially in sketchy areas, you might want to invest in something that helps smooth out the voltage (surge suppressor, for example) or the transformer/regulator you mentioned.


Macbook Pro 13" 2011, Samsung Galaxy S3's Headset Mic not working My macbook's internal mic stopped working. I plugged in the headset I got with Samsung Galaxy S3, into the mac. I can hear the audio in earphone but the headset mic is not working. What steps can I take to make the the headset mic work along the macbook?

You will need a Apple special plug for the Microphone to work.

It needs to look like this:

If it is 4 rings kind, then check you System Preference - Sound setting and select the external microphone as input source.

Final check--the pin out:

The original TRRS configuration was created by Nokia and has a pinout of Left Audio, Right Audio, Mic, Ground.

Apple came along and changed their pinout to Left Audio, Right Audio, Ground, Mic.

You could go about trying to find a jack converter that switches the Ground a Pin for your Samsung headset.


Are local backups of iCloud photos and camera roll redundant? Does icloud photos strip any metadata or change the quality? The camera roll adds 30 gb to my backup and seems unnecessary.

"iCloud is sync, not backup" that is an argument I've heard whenever things go wrong in iCloud syncing etc. Backup is always good. You'd value it when you'd need it.

  Does icloud photos strip any metadata or change the quality?

None that I've observed so far. All my photos sync across iPhone and Mac and I do edits etc., on both of them. Metadata is not lost.


Windows positioning with applescript I want to set the position of some windows to certain coordinates.

In particular I have 4 possible positions that those windows should have.

For example if I have 4 windows opened I want them to go one per each position, instead if I have 6 windows opened I want the first 4 windows to go to to position 1,2,3,4 then the last 2 to position 1 and 2. I mean if I had 12 windows opened those should go to position 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4.

At the moment I've managed to get the IDs of those windows in a list.

--list with all windows
set Auch to {...}

repeat with theWindow in Auch
    tell (windows whose title contains theWindow) -- it's working
        activate
        set position to {200, 20} --position #1
    end tell
end repeat

This is the code I've written: I'm sure there's a smart way to solve this problem.

Use the modulo operator !

set Auch to {...}      --list with all windows
set positionArray to {{..}, {..},{..}} -- The array where you store the positions you want.

set ind to 0
repeat with theWindow in Auch
    tell (windows whose title contains theWindow)
        activate
        set position to item ((ind mod (count of positionArray)) + 1) of positionArray --AppleScript arrays start at 1
        set ind to (ind + 1)
    end tell
end repeat


wget unable to download anything from https sources. Using wget to download files from an https source is causing a host is down error.

$ wget https://www.google.co.uk/images/branding/googlelogo/1x/googlelogo_color_272x92dp.png
--2018-07-16 20:56:17--  https://www.google.co.uk/images/branding/googlelogo/1x/googlelogo_color_272x92dp.png
Resolving www.google.co.uk (www.google.co.uk)... 216.58.198.163
Connecting to www.google.co.uk (www.google.co.uk)|216.58.198.163|:443... failed: Host is down.
Retrying.

--2018-07-16 20:56:18--  (try: 2)  https://www.google.co.uk/images/branding/googlelogo/1x/googlelogo_color_272x92dp.png
Connecting to www.google.co.uk (www.google.co.uk)|216.58.198.163|:443... failed: Host is down.
Retrying.

When downloading files via http wget works as expected. I'm also able to download the file via curl. However, I prefer wget. As I'm using wget -i flag to download about 50 different files from a url.txt file.

I've tried downloading the source file via desktop Chrome, and again there's no issue.

wget is version GNU Wget 1.19.5 built on darwin17.5.0. and installed via $ brew --version Homebrew 1.6.17 Homebrew/homebrew-core (git revision f0ff; last commit 2018-07-15). I'd previously run into an issue with pip and openssl a while back. Which I've still been unable to fix. So wonder if this might becausing the issue?

It would appear that your issues with openssl are indeed the cause. From the wget manpage:

HTTPS (SSL/TLS) Options
To support encrypted HTTP (HTTPS) downloads,
Wget must be compiled with an external SSL library. The current
default is GnuTLS.  In addition, Wget also supports HSTS (HTTP Strict
TransportSecurity).  If Wget is compiled without SSL support, none of
these options are available.


What user behavior is necessary to make Filevault 2 maximally secure? Situation: Filevault 2 passwords can be stolen
Passware has released the Passware Kit Forensic 11.3 which is able to steal the FileVault 2 password from the RAM by performing a DMA Attack via the FireWire port.
They state that their software:

recovers Mac User Login passwords and FileVault keys from computer memory and
decrypts TrueCrypt and FileVault volumes in minutes.

Various suggestions have been made trying to describe how to protect a Mac with Filevault 2 from such an attack:
sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 1 hibernatemode 25

This will remove the full volume encryption key from RAM when the system is put into sleep mode and forces the system to immediately write RAM to disk and remove power from memory upon sleep.
Question:
What user behavior is necessary and what steps does one have to take for maximum protection with FileVault 2 on the Mac?

Your question contains the most important thing needed to secure a computer against a motivated attack to compromise a FileVault 2 protected Mac volume.

Don't connect FireWire to a device you don't or can't trust while you are logged in to an account that has file vault keys active.
Pick good single use passwords to reduce the chance of other compromises degrading the security of your FileVault password.
Update to 10.7.3 and verify sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 1 hibernatemode 25 power management settings that force hibernate mode to secure your keys from compromise when the device would normally "sleep"

I do follow Rich Trouton to keep up to date on his blog for nice commentary on securing macs. The mix of up to date topics seasoned with experience as a real world system administrator make his writing very valuable to me.

The crux of the issue is your parsing What user behavior is necessary to have security. I always like to think of security as a mindset and ongoing attempt to plan, implement, measure and adapt. Security isn't something you buy or something you "set up" and training users to actually not divulge the passcode they have used to store their unlock phrase is the weakest part of FileVault's security layer. Not reusing that passcode - having a system where you get your users to understand why their keychain password needs to be unique and secure is far, far harder and takes far longer than just setting up a plan for implementing file vault initially. Best of luck in your quest for security!


Booting from an external SSD I have a late 2009 i7 iMac that spends most of its time reading and swapping files from the 2TB hard drive, even though it’s only 40% full.

I want to buy an affordable (240GB/£160) Firewire external SSD, and install Yosemite on to it, then use that as my startup disc.

Will I get an appreciable jump in speed, or will I be limited by Firewire 800 speeds ?

Has any one tried this ?

As you know with SATA connection you get 3 to 6 Gb/s.

With Firewire you get < 1 Gb/s data transfer.

To be specific:

Firewire 800 is 800 Mbits/s (Mb/s) not 800 Mbytes/s (MB/s) [8 bits in a byte] its a common misconception. so Firewire 800 is rated up to 80 MB/s.


How to simulate "right click" in Apple MacBook Pro I have very recently started using Apple for the first time. I have MacBook Pro. I am used to using windows/dell laptop/ibm thinkpad laptop.

I am not being able to understand the mouse. It is one big rectangle with a slightly elevated small rectangle below it. What is the purpose of these 2 each? Right now, both serve as a left click. How do I simulate right click?

When I wanted to click a new link in new tab, earlier I would just right click and select open in new tab. In MacBook Pro, how do I achieve it? I can do it by clicking command+ left-click. but what if I just want to be able to achieve it by only right hand and not have to use both the hands to achieve something as basic as this.

Thanks,

Update

I just found out that tapping with 2 fingers will simulate right click and it is working. But is that the only solution, because I am finding it very cumbersome to switch between one finger and 2 fingers tapping.
How long new users usually take to get used to this concept?

Update

I am able to tweak time response of touchpad as you mentioned above. I also notice that while typing (say blogging etc), if I have to go a few words back, my keyboard response to <-- key is very slow. So either I use mouse to click at desired place or wait for <-- key to reach to the place. This key response is noticeably slower than what I am used to in ibm thinkpad/dell etc. My CPU is of decent configuration, so I don't think the system speed should be a hurdle here. Any way to configure keys response time too??

You should be able to fine tune the behavior of your track-pad with the System Preferences panel (see Mouses, TrackPad and Keyboard).

If it's not enough, then you should have a look at Better Touch Tool. (It's free)


OS X switches resolution without monitor KVM This is a interesting one. I use a KVM switch on my Mac Pro and Cinema Display. While the display is on another computer, the Mac switches to a different resolution (not seeing a monitor). I know it does while switching back to the Mac as my screen windows have changed places, to the lower half of my screen while the resolution is back to normal.

Does anybody know how to prevent this from happening. I've searched for "fixed screen resolution" etc. I've tried SwitchXres and Stay to no avail. (These apps do not work if there is no screen.)

It would be great if I could set the screen resolution to only one setting (the max) and that there are no other alternatives where the Mac could choose from.

This is in all probability down to the KVM providing a fake monitor signal to OS X whilst the monitor is not "connected" to the OS X box; providing the KVM model would confirm this.

Generally, KVM fall into three monitor modes, usually these are priced low to high:

No signal - where the non active connections receive no indication that a monitor is connected
Fake - where the KVM provides a signal to the host that indicates a monitor is connected
Pass through - where the KVM emulates or attempts to provide through another fashion, the signal of the monitor to all hosts

EDIT: I did test adding a monitor to a Mac Mini and the resolution it first went in on was low, even after setting up the resolution, disconnecting the monitor (power off at the wall and back on) only sometimes caused the resolution to default back to a very basic one.


Is there a way to recover a word document password? I have several password protected word docs that I have forgotten the password for. Is there a way to recover them? I am using Word 2011.

There is good software for this (not free though): http://elcomsoft.com/aopr.html
You can also google for some online services in addition to what Tyson said.


How to stop iPhone users from sending iMessages and send SMS instead I used to have an iPhone, but I changed to an android (shock, horror!). Unfortunately Apple refuses to let me go and whenever friends message me the messages get sent as iMessages (unless they remember to specifically chnge the format). I never get these messages. They never get resent as SMSs automatically as is supposed to happen. How can I get my phone number deleted from the iMessage list. I've turned off iMessage on the old iPhone.

Disabling iMessages on an account that no longer has an iPhone can be frustrating.  But there is hope.  I've written a quick howto which answers this question in full.  Please see it at Why are iMessages being sent to a non-iPhone device.  You will find step by step instructions on how to end your troubles with iMessage.

Hope this helps!


What are the advantages of the mac mini's hdmi output? I have a late 2008 MacBook so I know that if I want to connect my laptop to a tv I need two cables: one for video and one for audio (while in newer models this issue is bypassable via appropriate adapters). So using the hdmi port of the mini would make my life easier.

Are there any other advantages?

For example when I first connected my laptop I needed to do some fiddling around with the displays settings to achieve a decent output: would that be necessary with the mini as well?

I've been using laptops for so long I forgot what it's like not having a display already embedded in your computer!

If you keep your machine plugged into one display, there won't be much of any 'fiddling'. And even if you switch, 10.7 actually is supposed to help with switching displays (as in, if you go from a LCD monitor to a TV).

Another advantage is that the machine was just updated, so depending on how much you are willing to pay, you are going to get a more powerful machine than what you have now.

As you said, you will also have HDMI out, which will contain audio as well.

Finally, you will need to purchase a display, mouse, and keyboard if you don't already have one.


How do I split a large Pages document into multiple Pages documents I have a rather large Pages document that has many sections.
I need to break each of those sections out into their own Pages documents.

I am using Pages 5.5.3.

Can this be done easily? Right now I'm in cut and paste mode.

Although you could script this in AppleScript since Pages is scriptable, I've never had enough sections to make the time spent crafting a script worth the time needed to figure out the syntax.

I simply duplicate the document as many times as needed in finder, batch rename them using Finder.

If you had 64 sections, I would use a "binary search" approach.

split the document in 2
split in 4
split by 8
split by half

I've never liked copy/paste since things get odd sometimes. Chopping out the unneeded parts always seems to work better for me, but your manual copy/paste method also will work.


Does iOS have a built in file manager? Does iOS 10.2.1 have a built in file manager?  If so, where is it?

No, it does not.  A goal of iOS is to remove the idea of files and folders and allow the user to focus simply on their data and accessing it whenever they want and wherever they are.

If you need a file manager, you'll need to jailbreak first and then use a myriad of 3rd-party file managers available.


Unable to restore apps to new Iphone I tried to restore my apps to my new iPhone but 2 of the apps failed to be restored. Then I checked the app store and found out that they are no longer available, maybe Apple took them down. Does that mean I can no longer restore them back into my phone if they are no longer available in the app store? I did fully backed up my phone to the iTunes before.

If they aren't available on the App Store anymore, your phone can't download them from Apple.

If you backed up your phone to iTunes before, you just have to restore the apps from there.

Open iTunes.
Select your device from the menubar at the top.
Select Apps from the lefthand pane.
Check the boxes of the 2 apps you couldn't recover from the App Store and sync them to your mobile device.


Will App preview video for iPhone 5 be the first item on iPhone 6(+) app store We have submitted an app preview video, recorded using an iPhone 5 along with our new binary. We have also gotten some screenshots for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus using the simulator.

My question is, will users who use iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 plus see the app preview video for iPhone 5 as the first element when they look for our app or will they see the first iPhone 6 screenshot?

I now have an iPhone 6 and can verify that with the current version of iOS (8.1), the user will see the app preview video as the first element.


How to set the color of terminal text in ssh session exact same as local session? So this is almost a copy from my previous question: Change output color of terminal (in Mac) to be different from typed text color for which I got a great answer here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/218736/34070. However, the only problem is that when I use ssh, all the text in the ssh session is now lightblue (see screenshot). How can I get the ssh session to use the same color scheme as my local session, and also have different output color for type commands and output?

The main issue here is that the prompt command and colouring options are sourced from the computer you are logged into.  So when you ssh somewhere, you must change the colouring/prompts on that server as well.

There are a couple of options.

Depending on the OS of the server you are logging into you could reset the prompt colours in the login scripts there.  Or;
Add an exception in the preexec command you installed before so it doesn't change the foreground colour for ssh commands

Something like
    [ "$BASH_COMMAND" =~ "^ssh" ] && return
in the preexec_invoke_exec function.


How can I download my app package directly from app store connect? I had an ios app created, which has been uploaded but not yet released on the App Store.
However, I have not been able to get hold of the original files used to create app from the developer who made it.
Is there a way to download the files directly from my App Store Connect account- I want to be able to run the app locally via XCode.

The title and body ask two different things, ‘app package’ and ‘original files’.

The ‘original files’, source code, is never uploaded to Apple. You will need to get these from the original developer.

The compiled ‘app package’ in an .ipa bundle for execution on an iOS device (not Simulator) cannot be downloaded from App Store Connect.

Apple does not provide any way of retrieving an upload app/IPA. It's neither possible through App Store Connect nor the App Store Connect API.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60947606/download-ipa-build-via-app-store-connect-api

If you want to run the app on a physical device without releasing to the App Store, add the app to TestFlight and enable internal testing.


Can't Connect to Samba Drive Using OS X Lion I've come across many threads on Apple, but haven't found a solution that works for me. I understand that the Samba has been removed from OS X, and Apple has developed their own version. I remember trying connecting to the Samba drive when I first upgraded to Lion, and it didn't work so I gave up. But now I need it. Back in Snow Leopard, I used to write smb://URL/username. I didn't have to enter an IP address, but rather a URL to the network drive followed by my username, and it used to work perfectly. It's a URL because this network drive is hosted on campus at my university. I now receive the following error:

Check the server name or IP address, and then try again. If you continue to have problems, contact your system administrator.

As far as I know, nothing has changed on this network drive side. I am able to mount this drive on the Windows computer easily.

In the Console, I get the following error, which is the same if I try to mount the network drive through terminal:

Key 'smb_neg' defined before section

Not sure what that means.

Anybody know an appropriate solution? What about SMBUp? Is it safe to install and remove?

Actually Apple has added a new implementation of SMB as it is now the default filing protocol for file sharing (actually SMB2)

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57588593-263/os-x-mavericks-switches-to-smb2-networking/

While I don't recognize the error you are getting, try replacing SMB in your connection string with CIFS. EG:

cifs://server/share

That forces Mavericks to go back to the original SMB protocol.

However the fact that this was not working under Lion may indicate an issue of some sort (corrupt file, malware, etc.) with your system. If you have a spare bootable drive you might want to install a fresh copy of Mavericks and boot from that to see if your issue goes away,


Is it possible to use an Amazon Echo with HomeKit? I currently use my 4th generation Apple TV as my smart home hub.

The only accessories connected at the moment are Philips Hue lights, but I plan to increase this - hence the need for a more integrated voice activation system in the home rather than doing everything from an iPhone.

As Apple's HomePod is likely to cost around six times the price of an Amazon Echo Dot 2, I was wondering if the Echo would be a viable solution since my devices are controlled from a HomeKit hub, rather than the proprietary hub that comes with the Hue lights.

Could the Echo Dot 2 connect to my Hue lights through my Apple TV hub?
If not, would it be possible to use a proprietary Hue hub in conjunction with the Apple TV? In theory that would allow independent, yet synced, control of the lights through either one of the systems?

Would either of these solutions be possible?

Philips Hue Bulbs are controlled by the Philips Hue Bridge or other ZigBee compatible bridge. HomeKit and Apple TV don't function as a true bridge or hub as it requires other hubs and bridges to connect to smart devices. The Apple TV simply gives you a remote connection from Apple TV to iOS over internet via iCloud.

Hue Bulb --(ZigBee)--> Hue Bridge --(LAN)--> HomeKit via Apple TV --(LAN/WAN)--> iOS device

Now, you can't use Amazon Echo with HomeKit, but this doesn't matter. Amazon uses Hue Bridge's built-in APIs to connect to Hue. Amazon and Hue can connect regardless of your HomeKit setup.

Hue Bulb --(ZigBee)--> Hue Bridge --(LAN/WAN)--> Amazon Echo

You can use both HomeKit and Amazon Echo (including Dot, Plus, Spot, and Show) in conjunction with HomeKit via iOS and Apple TV, provided you have the Hue Bridge as your controller.


How to connect iPhone with MacBook using AirDrop? I have MacBook pro and iPhone 5S. when I tried to send file from MacBook to iPhone using AirDrop my laptop not finding my iPhone. Is there is any solution or additional settings needed?

Sometimes you need to turn off and back on AirDrop on both the Mac and the iPhone, while at it you should do the same for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, that should solve the problem, it works every time for me.


Using my own server instead of iCloud I am currently paying like a dollar a month for 20 GB iCloud storage, but I am just now building a new computer and am hoping to install an Amahi server on it so that I can have my own 'Dropbox' type of cloud access wherever I go.

Am I able to use a service like Amahi (or anything else) to redirect my iCloud backup from apple's servers to my own? Instead of paying $12 a year for 20 GB of storage, I could be paying no subscription for 3+ TB of space.

In a nutshell: No, you can't.

Apple uses proprietary protocols for iCloud access (both data and backup) so you can't just switch backends by redirecting some DNS entries. And as far as I know, nobody has reverse engineered the protocols yet (at least not the full set required to implement an alternative server-side solution).


Is there a last.fm app for iOS to submit the music I'm listening to ? Is there a last.fm app for iOS to submit the music I'm listening to ?

Now with iCloud I'm not connecting my devices anymore by cable to the mac, so the tracks are never submitted.

thanks

iScrob seems to do what you want on the iPhone. I found after a very brief search, used it for an hour or so after answering this question and found it to be pretty neat.

With iOS 5 I can see the track I'm playing in the lock screen and control iScrob as I would Music.

It also displays album artwork on the lock screen:

The only disadvantage is that I can't create Genius playlists.


Ways to find out uptime of Apple Watch? Having to enter a PIN code could possibly mean that wristband wasn't tight enough. Or Apple Watch booted. That question could be easy to answer had Apple provided uptime information directly. Alas, Apple didn't. Any workarounds?
I only found an advice to check graph of the battery use, but given its scale and the fact that AW boots take minute or so I doubt it would reflect it.

Credit to the answer actually should go to one my buddy (thanks again, Max!) who drew my attention to that fact that both iOS and WatchOS actually have diagnostic logs.
So I just run "Watch" app on iPhone and under General/Diagnostic Logs found a file named panic-base-2021-01-18-093103.ips. A self-speaking excerpt from its content follows:
  "panicString" : "Unexpected SoC (system) watchdog reset occurred"


Mirror iPad 2 screen on Mac I would like to know if there is a possibility to display the iPad 2 screen on my Mac?
You know, silmilar to the Steve Jobs presentations.

Thank you for your help.

Not on your Mac, but you can use and HDMI or VGA cable to a separate monitor that will then mirror the iPad2 display.


How can you add your own custom video to your iPhone/iPod on start up? I would like to be able to have an iPad2 have custom functionality. It would have a custom desktop (company logo and other icons). When the iPad2 is turned on, it would automatically start playing a pre-installed video. When the video is done play, it would go back to the custom desktop allowing the user to replay the video (via an icon) and/or click other icons to view pdf files.

I would like to be able to turn the custom functionality on and off (but this would be something only I would be able to do via a password or something similar) so that the iPad2 can be used for only this custom functionality or it can be used as a normal iPad2.

Although I know that Jail breaking is must for this but still confused that even aftaer jail breaking will it work like I want????

This should solve your video portion:

iStartupMovie is a new jailbreak tweak, which allow to play any video of your choice before the iOS home screen is displayed.This jailbreak tweak only add a “iStartupMovie Manager” to your iDevice and doesn’t effect on your other settings.

Once you have installed iStartupMovie, a new app will be appear on your Home screen. With this app, you can enable or disable the movies (MP4/M4V). Add videos of your choice to /var/mobile/Library/Startup Movies directory using either iFile (which can be obtained from Cydia).You can move as many videos into that directory as you want, in order to select which one you actually want to be played at bootup, launch the iStartupMovie Manager app and just pick your favorite video. The change should take effect immediately. There’s no apparent length limit for the boot up video but be reasonable.

You can Download iStartupMovie from Cydia’s BigBoss repository for free. You must jailbreak your iPhone before installing this tweak. You can follow our step by step Tutorial jailbreak your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch on iOS 4.3.5 using (PwnageTool), or on iOS 4.3.4 or on iOS 4.3.3

Reference:

http://techflipper.com/add-custom-startup-video-to-iphone-or-ipad-jailbreak-tweak/


What should I be using instead of `dig`? I stopped using nslookup a decade ago because dig superseded it. Now I'm creating custom files in /etc/resolver/ and finding that everything works... except dig (and nslookup).

Actually, I'd prefer to fix dig than to use something else. I write a lots of scripts that use those common tools. I don't like having to code 2 different solutions.

How about host?

The host command is very similar to dig except it's much more simple and doesn't have the very technical info (if you don't need it).  So, for example, a host lookup would look something as follows:

$ host apple.stackexchange.com

apple.stackexchange.com has address 151.101.129.69
apple.stackexchange.com has address 151.101.193.69
apple.stackexchange.com has address 151.101.65.69
apple.stackexchange.com has address 151.101.1.69

You can also specify which DNS server you want to use by adding it to the command:

$ host apple.stackexchange.com 8.8.8.8
Using domain server:
Name: 8.8.8.8
Address: 8.8.8.8#53
Aliases:

apple.stackexchange.com has address 151.101.193.69
apple.stackexchange.com has address 151.101.129.69
apple.stackexchange.com has address 151.101.1.69
apple.stackexchange.com has address 151.101.65.69

And if you absolutely need it, you can add -a to get the same output as a dig command:

$ host -a apple.stackexchange.com 8.8.8.8
Trying "apple.stackexchange.com"
Using domain server:
Name: 8.8.8.8
Address: 8.8.8.8#53
Aliases:

;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 26262
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;apple.stackexchange.com.   IN  ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
apple.stackexchange.com. 299    IN  A   151.101.129.69
apple.stackexchange.com. 299    IN  A   151.101.65.69
apple.stackexchange.com. 299    IN  A   151.101.193.69
apple.stackexchange.com. 299    IN  A   151.101.1.69

Received 105 bytes from 8.8.8.8#53 in 39 ms


Change all the .txt files to .md files in a certain folder Is there a Terminal command or something like that to batch rename files in a certain folder? Basically I want to change all the files that have a .txt as a file type, and change it to .md (for markdown). Is this possible? I am comfortable using the Terminal, being a developer, so don't hold back on solutions. :)

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

You can do the following in Terminal:

  find . -iname "*.txt" -exec bash -c 'mv "$0" "${0%\.txt}.md"' {} \;

This will recursively rename all .txt files in the current directory to .md.


Using a pre-owned Mac My Dad passed away a few weeks ago and I now have access to his Mac computer. I have little to no knowledge of Apple devices and ecosystem, having used Windows for everything before.

I have all his passwords and Apple ID etc., and have been going through it to save photos and his meanderings. Once I have done this I would like to use it as my home computer.

My question is, can I keep my Dad's identity on there (not ready to let him go yet) and upload my own Apple ID and email accounts etc. without compromising space/usage/integrity of the machine, or will this cause me problems later if I need to get it repaired or install things later?

You can simply create a new Admin account in the system. After creating it, during the initial setup, you'll be asked to sign in with your Apple ID. You can also choose to create a new Apple ID if you don't have it already.

Apple ID is required to interact with the plethora of online services offered by Apple. You can learn more about Apple ID in the Apple Support document:

Create, manage, and use an Apple ID

Once you have your account setup, you can use the system normally and will have access to all the features. Your Dad's user account can stay on system safely.

To create a new admin account, go to System Preferences → Users & Groups → (Click the lock to make changes) → (Click on + button towards the bottom of the left sidebar) → New Account → Administrator.

Creating an additional user account won't take up much space. It gives you a segregated environment while giving access to the systemwide pre-installed apps (those installed in /Applications directory). You generally won't face any issues later while repairing or installing things.


What is the location / path of the finder icons? What's the location (path) of these icons/buttons for OSX Lion? what is the width, height? What is it called? Finder Icon or Finder Button ?

These icons are located at:

  /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/


Why does my 2017 iMac work in every building except my office building? I moved my iMac from home into my office and it would not turn on at all there. So I took it around the corner to a repair man and it turned on straight away at his shop. He suggested I get a UPS to see if that makes a difference. So I took it back to my office and tried plugging it into a UPS, but it still did not work. The input / output voltage on the UPS display read 245 volts (I am in Australia where the wall sockets should be somewhere in the range of 230-240V).  I figured that the voltage must be too high for the iMac, since the power at home (where it works fine) is 230-240V as it should be.  So I unplugged the UPS from the wall to run off the battery and the UPS started outputting 230V yet still the iMac wont turn on!

There has to be something wrong with my office building because the iMac works fine everywhere else! Is there anything specific to the iMac power supply that could cause this?

You can plug the Mac into any voltage from 100 - 240v & it will not care at all, so that's a red herring.

I'd suggest a mains socket tester plug, to ensure the socket is correctly wired, from the wall & also the UPS.
Also, skip the UPS & test the Mac directly in the wall too. That would be the most probable fail point.


How to stream Mac desktop to Windows Laptop My plan is to use stationary Mac Mini through remote control from on my Laptop.
How do I do that?

My goal is to have supersmooth experience just like I would be using Mac normal way.

To people that may consider this is offtopic and "supersmooth" is subjective, I'll say that I am aiming for <50ms at 1080p while using host in range of, let's say 300km (in Europe).

For connection, I'll be using wi-fi 50mbits asymmetric 1/8 for my Mac and typical Cafe wifi (at my current place about 8mbits asymmetric 1/10) to connect my Laptop.

Supersmooth may be called 60 fps-like (although 30 should be enough for office stuff).

I am planning to code remotely on mac from laptop. So basically using IDE, few pdfs, email and web browser with multiple tabs.

Recently, I have found software called AnyDesk, which claims it has all I need, except Mac support, so for now (and maybe later, since AnyDesk is quite expensive) I have to find something else.

Looks like you want screen sharing / remote desktop software? VNC Viewer for PC looks like it would be your friend in this case.

Here is an article that should help you.

http://www.howtogeek.com/214220/how-to-access-your-macs-screen-from-windows-and-vice-versa/


startup items folder MAC PRO 1,1

it says: Insecure Startup items folder detected .... Items in startupitems folder have not been started because the folder does not have the proper security settings

my question:I checked in About this mac, then more info, then under software Startup items - and there I read: No information found.

I think I deleted what is supposed to be there by mistake. Please let me know what it is to be

there and if I can get that to put it there please help.

StartupItems apply to all users, therefore the folder needs to be owned by root. You can set this by running the following, then rebooting.

sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/StartupItems/


SSD drive does not boot internally 13" Late 2011 MBP I have a late 2011 macbook pro 13" on which i used a kingston 60gb v300 ssd in my primary slot and in the secondary slot i used the 500gb toshiba hdd the macbook pro came with. i've had the ssd since january 2013 and in mid december, it failed. The computer froze all of the sudden, I tried formatting, reinstalling but no luck, the ssd boots fine as an external storage device, but internally it doesn't.

I've sent the ssd to warranty but they said there is no problem with it. right now i'm using the old 500gb 5400rpm drive and it's driving me crazy because it's so slow. I have to mention that the ssd isn't even recognized when i put it in the secondary slot and when i have it in the primary slot and try to go to recovery mode it freezes immediately.

How can I figure out why the SSD doesn't work any more internally?

Ok, so soon after this happened the 500GB 5400 rpm HDD failed also. I took it to Apple and the drive connector/cable was damaged from overheating they said. They changed the cable and it works great now.


AirPods Pro aren’t reliable with Mac mini I have a 2018 Mac mini with fully up to date software. In December I purchased some AirPods Pro headphones and love them...mostly. The main downside is they're very unreliable with my Mac and troubleshooting has proven challenging.

First, and least concerning, is it often takes a little bit of time to pair when it's not already paired. 10, 15, 20 seconds may pass before it pairs. But next come the real problems. It's not uncommon for the headphones to randomly disconnect. Also, when I'm on calls in Webex or Microsoft Teams, people will often tell me my audio quality is poor but I can hear them just fine. If I have Webex call my phone, even using my Airpods, the audio is fine. This happens enough that I can't trust it to work reliably for talking on my Mac.

I'm using three other Bluetooth (or 2.4Ghz) devices. I have a Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and a Logitech mouse which uses one of those USB dongles (I don't think that's Bluetooth). Wireless is setup at 5Ghz so that's not a concern. I've heard USB 3 can interfere with 2.4Ghz signals. I'm using 2x 4k Dell monitors that connect using HDMI->USB-C adapters to the back of the mini. The keyboard and trackpad are reliable so I'm not 100% convinced that's the root cause, nor do I know how to fix that problem if it is.

I have used the Bluetooth Explorer you can download from Apple and found the AirPods RSSI does move more than the keyboard or trackpad. It'll be in the -40 range (very good!) and dip down into the -60 range, or worse. I just don't know if this is expected behavior with AirPods.

Apple Support had me reset the AirPods which helped for a bit but the quality is still a problem.

Can someone suggest troubleshooting steps I can take?

If all else fails you can reset both the macOS Bluetooth Device List and Bluetooth Controller. However, this will reset all connected Bluetooth devices, including a keyboard and mouse.

In other words, this will remove all existing pairing information for Bluetooth devices, so each will need to be reconnected.


Transfer songs from ipod nano without password I have an old ipod with a lot of songs my son loaded years ago. We cant figure out how to get the songs off the ipod and onto my itunes account.    Can anyone help with this

You cannot put them onto your iTunes account, but you can put them into your iTunes Library with iExplorer or iFunbox.


Alternatives to Geektool that make desktop content clickable? Does anybody know of any alternatives to GeekTool that allow you to put content on your desktop sourced from shell scripts, files, etc but that makes the content interactive?

A few use cases I would really like:

A list of recent tweets where any links in the tweets are clickable
A calendar widget that allows me to navigate forward and back in months
A search box for google or wikipedia
An app launcher

I know you could use Dashboard widgets for this but I prefer to have these right on the desktop itself. Also Dashboard widgets seem more limited in what they're able to do, but I'm less educated about these so I could be wrong.

Rainmeter does all this by the way, but is Windows only.

Yahoo! Widgets has a mac version available, and a quick search shows an application launcher, twitter client, a month calendar, and a wikipedia and google search box.

If you want to use dashboard widgets, this software claims to make your dashboard widgets stay on the desktop. It does cost money, but they have a free trial available.


How accurate is the location detection on the iPhone's Find My iPhone app How accurate is the GPS on the iPhone's Find My iPhone app?

I used Find My iPhone app to track a friend. The first 3 stops were dead on but when it refreshed it showed them to be several streets over from actual location. What could cause that?

The generic answer you can find at Apple support website

About location precision or accuracy
Depending on your device and available services, Location Services uses a combination of cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS to determine your location. If you're not within a clear line of sight to GPS satellites, your device can determine your location using crowd-sourced Wi-Fi and cell tower locations or iBeacons.

If you want to have specific numbers, in meters, approximately they would be next (according to the 2009 study):

3G iPhone w/ A-GPS ~ 8 meters
3G iPhone w/ WiFi ~ 74 meters
3G iPhone w/ Cellular positioning ~ 600 meters

In 2011 Dr. Zandbergen tested several Android smart phones. Here he found the accuracies to be slightly better than the 2009 study. They ranged from 5-8 meters. It is likely that the iPhone 4S/5 is within this range as well. It can also be assumed that iPads and other Android tablets will be comparable.


How do I find out what wireless card my Mac has? I am trying to ID the wireless card on my MBP. How do I find this information? I've trying looking on EveryMac, but to no avail. How do I find this info?

 -> About This Mac -> More Info... -> System Report...

Under the Network Heading, click Wi-Fi, and find Interfaces: on the right side of the window.  You will find your card type, firmware version, MAC address, etc.

The route for older MacBook Pro running OSX 10.5, 10.6...

 -> About This Mac -> More Info... -> Under "Network" choose "Airport"

Scroll down to:
"Interfaces"
"en1"
"Card Type"


How do I choose a default 802.1x profile for ethernet? (eduroam) The problem:

I'm connected to eduroam on an iMac, but only via ethernet. After restart/sleep/lock it automatically switches my 802.1x profile to the Wifi instead of the Wired. I have to manually switch it over every time.

Is there a way to reorder the profiles so Wired is the default? Or remove the wireless profile from the wired list? There seems to be no way to do this via the GUI interface.

OS: 10.10.5 Yosemite

Found a solution by removing the WiFi profile from the Wired config file.

Location: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

For me the file was: com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration

Basically it's an XML file that has, for me, the two profiles for the wired connection (this would also work if you're trying to edit the wifi, as that's in the com.apple.airport.preferences.plist). The name of the profile is at the bottom of the data set, so Wifi was the 2nd one for me. I used <!-- Put your code inside these --> to comment the lower part out and the list now only contains the Wired profile.

The section looks like this when you're done:

<!-- <key>NUMBERS-LETTERS-ETC-ETC</key>
    <dict>
        <key>AuthenticationProperties</key>
        <dict> ... lots of stuff ...
              <string>Wi-Fi (eduroam)</string>
               ... more stuff ...
              <key>SecurityType</key>
              <string>WPA</string>
        </dict>
    </dict> -->

Save the file and close any System Preferences windows you have open.

Now this is what is in your new System Preferences > Network, no choices but the one that you want. Viola! Make sure you automatically connect and you're done.


Does Parrallel win 10 work well for Macbook 12" 2016? Does Parrallel win 10 work well for Macbook 12" 2016 ? I am going to buy new MacBook 12" as it is so cool. However, I need to use Microsoft Office 365 for my work with full compability.

Yes. Parallels will work with any reasonably new Mac with relatively little performance hit. It uses virtualization technology, and should suit your needs.

With that said, MS Office 365 is compatible with OS X, so I'm not sure why you'd need to use a VM at all.


Podcast App Double Speed Missing? Apple, in their infinite wisdom, has changed the Podcast app (again).  Am I going crazy, or has double speed been removed?

It's still there!
Between the podcast artwork and the progress bar, tap the 1x icon to change the speed. On iPhone 4S and below, tap on the artwork to bring it up.


How to disable frequently visited items and favorites under the address bar in Safari 8? I want to remove the following frequently visited items and favorites under the address bar in Safari 8. How can I do this?

Go to Safari Preferences → Search and disable Show Favourites.


Where are the tabs in Safari saved (in iCloud or Finder)? I want to recover several links of a website I had open as tabs for quite a few months now. But once it has been reloaded today, I've been redirected to a notice page of that website (it was temporarily shut down due to maintenance). Unfortunately, there's no "turn-back" button. So, recovering the previous links doesn't seem possible. This is why I'm hoping to find a way to recover it by finding out where the tab links have been saved.
I know that you can recover previously closed tabs in Safari directly under "history". So, the tabs should be saved somewhere.
If it's saved in Finder, I should be able to easily recover it using Time Machine. If it's in iCloud, that should be possible, too, unless it automatically overwrites the links with no way to track it back.
Btw., recovering the links (it's about 20) by browsing through my history would be extremely time consuming as I usually open more than 30 (different) links of that website each day.

Copy ~/Library/Safari/History.db and paste it at a convenient place like Desktop.
Download DB browser for sqlite https://github.com/sqlitebrowser/sqlitebrowser
Open the database file and find the items as you like.
Here are some tools to help you script the search process:

https://github.com/cedowens/macOS-browserhist-parser/tree/master/parse-browser-history/Sources/parse-browser-history
https://github.com/Roman2K/hist_safari2chrome


How to remove bold from desktop font on OS X El Capitan I find the bold font on the desktop  takes up more room than necessary and doesn't make the text any easier for me to read. Is there a way I can remove this bold formatting independently from the rest of the system font?

OS X 10.11.1

Many thanks for your help

The only option available is changing font size (upon right clicking desktop), not the font or even its color. See this post Change color of desktop font (Yosemite)


iOS app to download YouTube videos to video library? I have an iPhone 3GS with iOS 6 an I would like to watch movies on the TV, therefore I bought an AV composite cable. Only videos that are located in the "photos/videos app" can be played on the TV through the AV cable. Is there an app that can download videos from YouTube to that folder?

It's always a bit tricky to download anything on iOS devices..

When I want to download a youtube video I open the YouTube video in my browser and add "dlv" in front of youtube so that it reads www.dlvyoutube.com and there download it.. Then I transfer it over to the device with iTunes.


Swapping internal hard drives I have a mid-2012 MacBook Pro into which I had installed an OWC data doubler SSD (removing the optical drive).  I originally placed the SSD in the original HDD bay and moved the HDD to the data doubler bracket in the optical bay.  I would like to switch these around (HDD back to its original bay).  I'm assuming I should be able to switch the two drives around with no negative repercussions to normal operation - i.e. this should not require a reformat/reinstallation of the boot drive (which is the SSD).  Would that be correct?

I don't think that will be a problem, but you may initially need to hold the Alt key while booting and choose the Startup drive. If it still won't boot, reset PRAM with holding altcmdPR while booting.


Program Icons bounce, but won't open on Apple MacBook Pro I just got an Apple MacBook Pro that is 5 years old and I have no idea how to use it or if something is wrong with it. I have 10.9.5 and it's supposed to be compatible and it didn't work. Since then, I've gotten 3 more programs from a total of 4 different places and they all do the same thing, so this isn't a problem just with one program or place. 2 of them had to be unzipped, then there was a rar file inside them that had to be extracted. The other 2 programs were marked7z; I unzipped them, then used the rar/zip extractor I got from the Apple store(i've used 4 different ones). Everything seems to work fine until I try to open the programs. I click or double-click on them, they say verifying, the bar fills, then the icon just bounces up and down on the desktop dock and the programs never open. I've uninstalled and erased everything, then downloaded them again and still same problem. They all just bounce, but never actually open. After waiting 5-10 minutes, I right-click and select force quit. I've inspected contents and everything looks fine; hash is correct; I can't figure out what's wrong. One of the programs has a .dmg and an .iso and when I click that them, they both say it isn't recognized. Am I doing something wrong with the extract/archive?

I've never had an Apple before, but it seems like it should be easier than this to just download install and open a program.

This is likely because the app's binary is missing the execute bit. In Terminal, run the following:

chmod +x "/Applications/AppName.app/Contents/MacOS/AppName"

Replace the first 'AppName' with the name of the app and second with the name of the app's binary. You can find this by right clicking on the app, choosing Show Package Contents, then opening Contents → MacOS.


Maximizing (not fulll screen) safari window in Bug Sur not working (Option Click Plus) I am using Big Sur. Inside the Messages app when I click the green circle in the upper left hand corner while holding the Option key the green icon will display a black plus (+) sign and the window will maximize to take up the whole screen except the dock and the menu bar. I call this Maximizing the window.
This same functionality does not work in Safari. In Safari I use the same key combination and the green circle shows a plus (+) symbol when the mouse hovers over the icon, however when I click the Safari window does not expand all the way. It only uses about 60% of the horizontal area of the screen instead of the full 100% of the horizontal area.
Is there a way to correct this? It is very annoying to have to manually drag the edges of Safari to fill up the screen.

If you hover over green circle while not in full screen you should see following options:

'Zoom' is the option which should deliver result you are calling 'Maximizing the window'. These options are also available under 'Window' on Menu bar (by default keyboard shortcuts are for Tile Left/Right, others must be set).
Shortcut for Full screen is ⌃ + ⌘ + F. Using it while in Full screen reverts window back to initial size before going fullscreen.


Mac start up - Flashing Folder Basically, tonight my mac crashed so I re-started and got a flashing folder.

I have searched around online for the commands that I need to press when I first hear the chime to get into the disk utilities so I can do a fresh install. What are they?

I have not got the fresh install disks, however, I do have Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 installed onto the system.

Hope someone can help.

Try OS X Recovery, which is supported in Lion and later and hopefully on your Mac (if your Mac shipped with Lion it is supported, otherwise see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4904 for a list of older Macs that support Lion Internet Recovery. If your Mac is not listed you will need the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant, see http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433).

To start up into OS X Recovery you need to turn on your Mac while holding down ⌘R (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718):

  OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion includes a built in set of utilities
  in the Recovery System. Restart your Mac and hold down the Command key
  and the R key (Command-R), and keep holding them until the Apple icon
  appears, indicating that your Mac is starting up. After the Recovery
  System is finished starting up, you should see a desktop with a OS X
  menu bar and a "Mac OS X Utilities" application window. Note: If you
  see a login window or your own desktop and icons, it is possible that
  you didn't hold Command-R early enough. Restart and try again.

  In order to reinstall OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion, you will need
  to be connected to an Ethernet or Wi-Fi network. The Wi-Fi menu item
  is in the upper-right corner of the screen. Click the icon to display
  all available Wi-Fi networks. Click your preferred network name and,
  if needed, enter a username and/or password.

(You will be given the chance to restore from a Time Machine backup, which works very nicely and I'd highly recommend.)

Read the rest of the article for more information on how to proceed.


mavericks 10.9.5 downloaded but not installing I recently updated mavericks 10.9.5 from 10.9,
it shows on Update Installed in last 30 days, but when I see About my mac info it is still showing 10.9

Again going to app store and clicking update it ask me to restart, to install the update I have restarted many a times but it is still 10.9 please help as I want to install X code 6.1 for learning swift

@OP: If you have the update... Download it but DONT install it... Go to /Library/Updates and in there is where the update pkg file lives... Copy (don't delete it or cut it) out of there and install manually. Watch the logs.. i.e. note before and after times!

If it asks you to reboot.. Don't... So ti'll probably try and install.. But get the package anyway...

Install that manually...

In steps:

Download and install the update
After installation, don't restart
Drop to terminal or use finder and goto (cmd+shift+g) /Library/Updates
Copy the OS X update to somewhere else i.e. on your desktop
Restart and see if the update worked
If it worked... Stop here :D
If not... Fire up "Console" in Utilities under your applications....
Note the time of the logs under "All Messages"
Install the update by double clicking on it and install it as you would any other pkg file
After the install, reboot.
Go back to console.. Note the end time!!!!
If it worked! Stop here :D
If it didn't work, can you go through the logs and see if anything fails or complains and come back with that?


Cmd+3, Cmd+4 not working! I've been using Command ⌘+1~4 shortcuts for switching spaces on older versions of OS X.

But after upgrading to Lion (10.7.4), Command ⌘+3 and Command ⌘+4 do not work!

I need them to switch tabs in web browser and they are very useful shortcuts in Xcode too.

I looked in Keyboard in System Preference but couldn't find where they are defined.

Command ⌘+1 and Command ⌘+2 work in both Chrome and Xcode. (Command ⌘+5~6 works also)

I don't know why Command ⌘+3 and Command ⌘+4 do not work in any application!

My guess is they're defined for something else globally. But I can't find where.

Another guess is they're probably defined for 'Switch to Desktop 3, 4' since I've been using old version of OSX and upgraded to Lion.

Like DMan pointed out, after removing 'Switch to Desktop 1, 2', Command ⌘+1 and Command ⌘+2 work just fine.

But where's 'Switch to Desktop 3 and 4'??

Try this:

Open System Preferences -> Keyboard
Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.
From the left column, choose Mission Control.
In the Pane on the right, you should be able to re-set the keyboard shortcuts for your spaces.


Need help deleting multiple items from desktop I just accidentally copied nearly 500 pics and videos to my desktop.  Is there a way to delete all items by date from the desktop?

Open the Desktop in Finder, sort by Date Modified or Date Added, select desired files and delete.


Is there an Apple list of terminal based tweaks? Googling for terminal tweaks shows sites this one which show how to tweak OS X via the Terminal. Are there any Apple or exhaustive lists of these settings anywhere on the net?

There is a pretty good database full of defaults write commands at http://secrets.blacktree.com/

They also have a PrefPane that allows you to use System Preferences to set these hidden preferences.

(This site is no longer available)

Still available here: https://hiddensettings.1984apps.com


How can I create a Finder alias in a bash script that reads arguments from the command-line? I'd like to write a bash script that takes 2 inputs:

path to actual file
path of a Finder alias file (not a unix link) to be created that refers to 1.

The bash script should pass these inputs to an automation script that creates the alias.

I've seen How to use AppleScript in a bash script to create an alias for an app? but I have not been able to adapt it for my goal.

How can I do this?

With minimal error handling:

#!/bin/sh

[ -f "$1" ] || exit 1
[ "$2" ] || exit 1

alias=$(basename "$2")

/usr/bin/osascript <<EOF
tell application "Finder"
    set myapp to POSIX file "$1" as alias
    make new alias to myapp at Desktop
    set name of result to "$alias"
end tell
EOF

mv ~/Desktop/"$alias" "$2"