Bootcamp - Apple SPI Device driver missing - Touchpad/Keyboard don't work I recently did a clean install of MacOS Big Sur on my 2016 MacBook Pro touchbar and did a Bootcamp install of the latest windows 10 pro.
During the install the keyboard and touchpad did not work, so I used an old usb mouse and the on-screen keyboard to get through. After booting into windows and installing the Bootcamp windows support software, connecting to the internet, downloading updates, etc..the keyboard and touchpad still do not work in windows.
In Device Manager > Other Devices I see 5 listings for Apple SPI Device with exclamation marks because it couldn't find a driver.
The frustrating thing is that my setup was working perfectly in both MacOS and Windows a few days ago.
Any ideas? How can I install the drivers for those Apple SPI Devices?

After doing some more messing around (and a bunch of trial-and-error) I was able to identify and manually install the keyboard and trackpad drivers!
To manually install the keyboard and trackpad drivers to their respective SPI Device entries in Device Manager, I clicked 'Update Driver'>'Browse my computer...'>'Let me pick from a list...'>'Human Interface Devices'>'Apple Inc.'>Apple SPI Keyboard/Trackpad'
On my 2016 MacBookPro touch bar, this is how the Apple SPI Devices correlated to the drivers, based on the value in Properties>Details>Property: Hardware Ids:
SPI\VID_05ac&PID_027b&MI_01 (SPI Bus Location 1) - Apple SPI Keyboard

SPI\VID_05ac&PID_027b&MI_02 (SPI Bus Location 2) - Apple SPI Trackpad

However, I still need to determine which drivers go with the remaining 3 unknown devices. Their hardware IDs are:
SPI\VID_05ac&PID_027b&MI_00 (SPI Bus Location 0)

SPI\VID_05ac&PID_027b&MI_03 (SPI Bus Location 3)

SPI\VID_05ac&PID_027b&MI_04 (SPI Bus Location 4)

Does anyone have any ideas as to what these 3 hardware devices are?


How to fix inverted color on one thunderbolt monitor with maximum resolution set? I have two monitors. All of the sudden my second monitor has switched blue for red when it is at the full resolution 2560x1600. However, white is not black, so it isn't totally inverted.

If I use the same monitor on a different thunderbolt port at the full resolution this problem doesn't happen.

How do I fix this?

The following seems to have fixed it:

sudo mv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist ~/Desktop/
sudo mv /Users/kbrandt/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.CDE1EF8A-5D17-5A4E-AFB8-C4D1E19616DD.plist ~/

Followed by a reboot. I expect there may be a more targeted way to fix this, but this worked for now.

If you can forgive a little rant, I also have to killall Dock to get the wallpaper on the second monitor, and use SwitchResX to get the monitor to display the proper resolution. In short, it seems OS X sucks with multiple monitors (at least with non-apple displays).


Kernel panic - Mac won't allow me to log in My MacBook Pro is going through some sort of kernel panic, however it is not letting me log in at all. It just keeps restarting and playing the chime music before showing some error code text on the loading screen. Then the cycle repeats. Is there any way to fix this?

Something like that happened to me after upgrading to El Capitan.
The system would only behave "normally" if I started it in safe-mode (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262)

So I tried restarting it again in verbose mode (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201573) and just before the "panic" message, there was a reference to a kernel extension (kext) for a very old program that I didn't even remembered installing...

I fixed it by restarting the system again in safe-mode and unloading that kext.
The next boot, the system began again working ok...

HTH


iPhoto on Mac doesn't download the full iCloud photo library My iCloud account is already set up and contains several years worth of photos.

If I log in to my iCloud account from a new iPad, I understand that only the last 60 days worth of photos will be downloaded to the iPad.

But I had also understood that if I log in to my iCloud account on new Macbook, all the iCloud photo library, not just the last 60 days, will appear in iPhoto/Photo (after setting the appropriate iCloud System Preferences, and the iCloud preferences within iPhoto/Photos).

Yet even on a Mac I am only getting the last 60 days of photos. How do I get iPhoto/Photos to download the full iCloud photo library?

iCloud Photo Library needs to be enabled in Settings (on iOS or OS X) devices and then the photos will sync. Also make sure the devices are up to date.

I have just been through the process on a replacement iPhone (iOS 8.3). I setup the device on Friday (12 June 2015) and only today (18 June 2015) did my Photo's application show the correct count of photos (approx 25000). The most recent ones have thumbnails already and the older ones are still getting them. I did not realize when I setup the device that it was still on iOS 8.0 (Photo Library was marked as Beta) so that could have contributed to the delayed sync.

This device has been on wifi networks (work / home) for the majority of the time since configuration. Please note that this post is from South Africa where both of these connections top out at 10 mbps on a good day.


403 forbidden on Apache vHost I'm using Mac OS X 10.6.8 and I'm trying to configure a vHost. I configured it and it gave me a 403 Forbidden, and I'm having trouble giving _www permission to read/write in ~/Document/workspace/dev

httpd.conf, I thought this might be causing trouble with me accessing public host, not vHost, but I'm not sure.

    #
    # ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.
    # This can often be determined automatically, but we recommend you specify
    # it explicitly to prevent problems during startup.
    #
    # If your host doesn't have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here.
    #
    #ServerName www.example.com:80

    #
    # DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
    # documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
    # symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
    #
    DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"

I also made sure to uncomment the include on this:

    # Virtual hosts
    Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

And I defined these vHosts in httpd-vhosts.conf

    <VirtualHost *:80>
        DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:80>
            DocumentRoot "/Users/isaacbeckett/Documents/workspace/dev"
            ServerName isaac.local
            ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/isaac.local-error_log"
            CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/isaac.local-access_log" common

            <Directory "/Users/isaac/Documents/workspace/dev">
                    AllowOverride All
                    Order allow,deny
                    Allow from all
            </Directory>
    </VirtualHost>

And here is my /etc/hosts file:

    ##
    # Host Database
    #
    # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
    # when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
    ##
    127.0.0.1       localhost
    255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
    ::1             localhost
    fe80::1%lo0     localhost
    127.0.0.1       isaac.local

I've flushed the local cache with dscacheutil -flushcache
 several times and tried chmod 755 ~/Documents as well, but no success. Can someone please help me figure this out?

This is very much off topic as it is unrelated to Apple hardware/software.  However, I wanted to point you in the right direction.

The problem that you are running into is that

In your httpd.conf, the directory permissions are not set properly
Your .htaccess file is not configured properly
The system doesen't have the correct permissions for the directory

The best thing to do is consult the Apache documentation about the VirtualHost directive.

The Server Fault and/or Super User boards here on Stackexchange would also be beneficial to solving this particular problem.


Mac terminal can't be used after set up of ~/.bash_profile I was installing Apache Ant earlier and once I did, I also ran:

touch ~/.bash_profile
nano .bash_profile

Within that text file I wrote:

. .bash_profile

saved, exited, then ran:

source ~/.bash_profile

Now my Terminal looks like this:

I can't access my command line at all, so I went into preferences and set

/bin/bash -x

to run as a default upon Terminal's open, and now it looks like this:

and still reads

[Process Completed]

afterward. Any help?

You've got a recursive inclusion in your .bash_profile.

You can always edit the file in TextEdit.app (or another graphical text editor of your liking) if you get in to deep trouble like this.

Open up TextEdit using Spotlight or via Finder and then type ⌘ CMD+o to get the Open File... dialog. Press ⌘ CMD+⇧ SHIFT+. to reveal hidden files in the dialog box and then find your ~/.bash_profile file. Remove the:

. .bash_profile

from the file and save it and you'll have a working bash shell again.


Contacts in Mavericks Messages display phone numbers instead of contact names Since updating to Mavericks the Messages app doesn't display the contact names for people I've been communicating with iMessage, it shows their phone number instead. My messages thankfully still stay synced between my iPhone and Messages on Mavericks.

When Messages receives an iMessage, it matches the source with an entry in your Contacts. If you don't have a matching contact, you just see the phone number or email address of their iCloud account.

If your phone syncs its contacts to iCloud, Facebook or some other source, and you would like your contacts on your computer to also sync to this source, open System Preferences then choose Internet Accounts. If you use iCloud for syncing, choose iCloud from the list of accounts then tick the "Contacts" checkbox. If you use Facebook, add a new Facebook account and your friends list's contact information will download and stay up-to-date as they change it. Pretty much any other source of contacts you can think of can be added here, either through one of the main account types for the major providers or "Add Other Account" for standards-based things like LDAP & CardDAV.

Wait a few seconds after adding the new account and ensuring "Contacts" is checked off, and your iMessages should now match up names where there were phone numbers or email addresses before.

While you're in Internet Accounts, you can also add certain other message sources to Messages, if you desire. As an example, you can add a Google account and tick the "Messages" checkbox, and then your Google Talk messages will appear inside of Messages alongside your iMessages. AIM, Yahoo! and Jabber round out the other options; no Facebook yet.

There are a number of other routes to access your Messages and Contacts sources (namely via the iCloud preference pane or via the "Accounts" tabs present in each app's preferences) but Internet Accounts is the one-stop source for all of this. Each different route controls the same information, back here in the master source.


Port forwarding Yosemite I have a server running on my iMac (port 8000) and I want my iPad to be able to visit it through the local network so I set this rule using pf anchors (hence ipfw is gone).

It doesn't work, what am I missing?

file: /etc/pf.anchors/com.test

rdr pass on lo0 inet proto tcp from any to 192.168.2.2 port 80 -> 127.0.0.1 port 8000
rdr pass on lo0 inet proto tcp from any to 127.0.0.1 port 8000 -> 127.0.0.1 port 8000

enable the command:

pfctl -ef /etc/pf.anchors/com.test

Visiting my iMac's IP-address from the iPad 192.168.1.1 gives me an unreachable message (Safari)

From my iMac all seems OK:

# nc -v 192.168.2.2 80
found 0 associations
found 1 connections:
     1: flags=82<CONNECTED,PREFERRED>
    outif lo0
    src 127.0.0.1 port 52342
    dst 127.0.0.1 port 5001
    rank info not available
    TCP aux info available

Connection to 192.168.2.2 port 80 [tcp/http] succeeded!

# curl -I 192.168.2.2
HTTP/1.0 302 FOUND
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:39:47 GMT
Server: WSGIServer/0.1 Python/2.7.6
Vary: Cookie
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Location: http://192.168.2.2/

Try using this command:

echo "rdr pass inet proto tcp from any to any port 80 -> 127.0.0.1 port 8000" | sudo pfctl -ef -

That command should forward your port 80 to port 8000. I got that from this website http://salferrarello.com/mac-pfctl-port-forwarding/


How do I use Automator to add files download via Transmission to iTunes? Here's the setup…

Computer A
- Running Transmission
- placing files in a Dropbox folder
- Uses iTunes Match to load music from Computer B's iTunes library
- Is always running

Computer B
 - Shares Dropbox folder with Computer A
 - Is "master" computer for iTunes Match account
 - Is not always running

Current process
1. Download files via transmission to dropbox folder
2. Start computer B, wait for dropbox folder to synchronize
3. COPY files to "Automatically Added to iTunes folder"

What I want is to have a folder action that when Computer B sees new files in the dropbox folder it will wait till all file transfers are complete, then copy just the new filed into "Automatically added to iTunes"

all of my current tries have caused Automator to re-add all files in the dropbox folder to iTunes, creating duplicates.

one limitation to be aware of — unaltered versions of the files must stay in the dropbox folder

A couple of solutions come to mind.

Have your Automator script move the files to the trash (or another folder on dropbox, like "Added to iTunes") after it copies them to the Automatically added folder.
Set your automator script to check your dropbox for files every x minutes (e.g., 15). Tell it to only copy the files that were added in the last x - 1 minutes (e.g., 14, or 14:59). The Spotlight metadata element you want is kMDItemDateAdded.
Far and away the easiest solution is to use Hazel.


How can I change the ownership of the unwritable directories for Homebrew? I had admin account before and I deleted the admin and made the user as admin because it was bit of pain in neck. This is now the admin user called zuhairhallak. Before, installing Homebrew, it was just user without any privileges. I want to fix that. I tried to remove Homebrew but it did not let me.

zuhairs-mbp:~ zuhairhallak$ sudo chown -R $zuhairhallak /usr/local/share/aclocal /usr/local/share/doc /usr/local/share/info /usr/local/share/locale /usr/local/share/man /usr/local/share/man/man1 /usr/local/share/man/man3 /usr/local/share/man/man5 /usr/local/share/man/man7 /usr/local/share/man/man8 /usr/local/share/zsh /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions
Password:
chown: /usr/local/share/aclocal: illegal user name

I would start with a simpler command.

sudo chown -R 501 /usr/local/share/aclocal

Use a user number instead of name to see if that’s he error. Also, do one directory first to be sure where the error arises. You could even skip the -R if the above command fails to further reduce the variables in play.


How to rework a "System Events" command in AppleScript, so that it automatically works in all applications? With the following AppleScript code within a "Run AppleScript" action in a Service:

tell application "System Events"
    set theSBounds to {{572, 64}, {332, 515}}
    set position of window "Google Hangouts - myemailaddress@gmail.com" of application process "Google Chrome" to item 1 of theSBounds
    set size of window "Google Hangouts - myemailaddress@gmail.com" of application process "Google Chrome" to item 2 of theSBounds
end tell

the Service will only work if the application from which that Service has been called has been added to the list of applications under "Allow the apps below to control your computer." This list is found at System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Accessibility.

Is it possible to modify the AppleScript code somehow so that adding every application on one's computer to the list is not necessary? Or, so that, one only needs to add one item to the list, as opposed to every application on one's computer?

I thought that something like this might work:

do shell script "osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\"' -e 'set theSBounds to {{572, 64}, {332, 515}}' -e 'set position of window \"Google Hangouts - myemailaddress@gmail.com\" of application process \"Google Chrome\" to item 1 of theSBounds' -e 'set size of window \"Google Hangouts - myemailaddress@gmail.com\" of application process \"Google Chrome\" to item 2 of theSBounds' -e 'end tell'" with administrator privileges

but this code also requires that the application from which the Service is run is added to the Accessibility list.

Note: I only want to run this AppleScript as a Service, and not in an Automator-created Application, because the code receives selected text as its input (system-wide).

I've found an okay solution (i.e., workaround).

Insert the "System Events" block of code into a "Run AppleScript" action and save it as its own application file in Automator. Note: The file extension of this code must be .app in order for this to work (more on this in a moment).

Go to System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy tab → Accessibility. Add and checkmark the newly created application to the list of apps allowed to control your computer.

Run the newly created app from within your Service. To do so, you may add the following line to your AppleScript code:

do shell script "osascript -e 'tell application \"Application Name\" to activate'"

(I habitually use osascript to activate applications when using a "Run AppleScript" action in a Service, as this circumvents a bug with Services that I've discovered.)

Your Service should now run perfectly in every application on your computer, despite the fact that only one application (the one that contains the "System Events" code) has explicitly been granted the power to control the computer.

The file must be saved as a .app file, and not as a .scpt or .applescript file. This is because it is not possible to add .scpt or .applescript files to the list of apps allowed to control your computer; only true .app files can be selected in the dialog.

Note that the .app file does not have to be created in Automator. If you create the .app file in Script Editor.app and follow the other steps, the .app file will function in the same manner.

There is one difference, however. When the .app file is created in Automator, one can use either activate or launch to run the application in their Service. But, when the .app file is created in Script Editor, one can only use activate to run the application; launch will result in nothing happening.


Buzzing sound through MBA earphones while charging I have got a MBA M1 base variant and am in India with 220 V @ 50 Hz power supply. Currently, my MBA is plugged in (and 100% charged) and through my earphones I am hearing a buzzing sound. If I turn off the power then the sound vanishes.
More interestingly though, if I touch my hand to any area on the metal surface the sound vanishes. Likewise, if the power is plugged-in and I drag my hand through any area of the metal surface then there is a distinctive vibration I can feel which is absent when my hand is resting.
Is this normal behaviour? Is there any chance of damage of any kind? Could this be a grounding issue? I'm pretty sure that the power is grounded (but not 100% sure).
Edit : Additional Comment -
In case it's relevant I bought the MacBook through official online store of Apple so no chance of a run-in with power rating issues. Also, the power supply at my place is rock-steady.

Sounds like an earthing issue. If power supply & mains plug and socket are all correctly earthed, this should lessen or disappear.
Some PSUs aren't earthed - this I've always considered a manufacturer failing.
Technically it's not 'dangerous' as the mains leakage from a switch-mode power suppy is a known quantity, but it does upset people.


Yosemite not able to use external display at full resolution I had problems with Mavericks in getting full resolution in my monitor Dell U2713H (connected to a Mac Book Pro). I used this solution from this site to fix the problem:

I downloaded the file from http://embdev.net/attachment/167830/U2713H_U2713HM_Mac_EDID_override.zip,
and after copying it to /System/Library/Displays/Overrides and rebooting, my display was showing again its awesome full resolution.

I did it again when I installed Yosemite but it does not work. Any idea to fix this problem for Yosemite?. Otherwise I will downgrade to Mavericks again. Thanks!!

Upgraded to Yosemite 2011 13" Macbook pro.  Display port to VGA is what I used with Mavericks.  As soon as I updated to Yosemite my macbook would not recognize my external display.  Applecare support were stumped.  Got a Display port to HDMI adapter 3rd party, and voila back in business.  Yosemite does not like display port to VGA adapters.  I tried apple branded VGA adapter and nothing.  As soon as I switched to HDMI all resolutions appeared.


All of my files in home directory have 0620 file permission I don't the the exact reason why, but all the files in my home directory have 0620 file permission. What I remember is that I setup file sharing in System Preference.

Now, when I try to delete file in my home directory, this dialog box pops up to ask the password. I modified all the files back to permission 0774, but I still can't delete the file without answering the password.

What went wrong? How can I get the system back to normal?
I use Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2.

ADDED

Refer to this post also

You must set the permissions of the folder the files are in as well.


How does MacPorts work with /Applications/MacPorts and /opt/usr/local/bin I have installed i3 under MacPorts. Whenever I run uxterm under X11 it works as expected and I can get vertical and horizontal splits with i3. However, when I try to run kitty -- also installed under MacPorts, I get a terminal that opens up as if it was a native OSX application, and not one managed by the Xorg Server that MacPorts installed.

Note, MacPorts installs i3 to /opt/local/bin, and it installs kitty to /Applications/MacPorts/kitty.app. What are the implications of these two different install paths, and can I get i3 to work with MacPorts kitty?

The different install paths does not have a consequence here. It doesn't matter where the application is installed in terms of running under X11 or native OS X.

kitty on macOS is a native macOS application, and is not "managed" by Xorg. You do not need Xquartz, Xorg or X11 at all to run kitty on macOS.

i3 is a window manager for X11. It will only work with and affect X11 applications. You will not be able to use it as a tiling window manager for native macOS applications, such as the default kitty.

In order for kitty to be managed by i3 you would have to recompile kitty using an X11 backend, if that is possible. The X11 backend is already made as it is used on Linux. However it doesn't seem like the X11 backend has been tested on macOS, as the author intends the user to use the native Carbon backend.

Another solution would be to install a macOS tiling window manager such as chunkwm with skhd. That window manager would then be able to tile windows of both native macOS applications as well as the ones managed by XQuartz for example.


How can I boot a 2012 Mac Mini off of a USB thumbdrive with CentOS on it? I have a 2012 Mac Mini running OS X 10.7.3. On another PC, I have created a USB boot disc with CentOS 6.2 on it. The goal was to install CentOS onto the Mini. The USB drive is MBR partitioned and boots fine on BIOS based PCs. However, not so on the Mac Mini. While holding down the option key, I see the USB drive offered as a "Windows Drive" however selecting it to boot into causes the screen to go completely black and the words "Boot Error" to be displayed with a blinking cursor underneath the words.

I have installed rEFIt as an EFI boot manager onto the Mac Mini. Using the rEFIt boot management screen to select the USB drive to boot from causes no difference. The Mini can boot from a USB drive that I turned into an Apple Recovery Disk.

What could be preventing the Mac Mini from booting off of the USB drive when other BIOS based PCs don't have trouble with it?

It appears that the Mac Mini version that I purchased cannot, as of the time of this post, accept an alternate operating system. Hacks and workarounds may exist, but they are not apparent.


MacBook Pro shows machine name as Mac-mini in public key When I checked my public key, it shows ssh-rsa mykey hari@Hari-Mac-mini.local

But I'm using macbook pro. Also hostname is correct. My old machine was mac mini.

My guess is that your old keypair got copied over to the new machine (possibly when you restored from a Time Machine backup or even just manually copied over your user directory).

Either way, that string at the end is just an identifying string; it won't affect your ability to use the key from your new machine as long as you are using the matching private key to connect to servers on which that old public key is installed. That said, if the username on your local machine doesn't match the username on the remote host, you'll have to specify the remote host username when trying to connect via SSH.

If you really want to, you can generate a new keypair and upload the new public key to servers you need to access; that new public key will have your MacBook Pro username and MBP identifier appended to it.


Wifi shared from Macbook comes and goes I have a new iPod Touch, and an old(er) Mac.  To connect my iPod Touch to the internet at home, I set up my Mac to share its internet connection (ethernet) over wifi.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.8 on an Intel (Core 2 Duo) Mac.  For completeness, the "sharing" control panel says:

Share your connections from: Built-in Ethernet
To computers using: (X) Airport

and the Airport Options say:

Network Name: (some name)
Channel: Automatic
[X] Enable encryption (using WEP)
Password: (some 5-letter word)
Confirm password: (again)
WEP Key Length: 40-bit (more compatible)

I used this setup for a couple weeks with no problem at all.  A day or two ago, sometime in the afternoon, it got funny: the connection would work for a few seconds just fine, and then cut out for a few seconds, then come back, etc.  Sometimes I can sit here with my iPod and watch the network status icon at the top of the display come and go.

It's not a strength issue: I'm right next to it, and it always shows max bars in the iPod control panel.  It's not a WEP issue, because it accepts my password, and if I turn off WEP entirely it does the same thing.  If I'm in the iPod control panel, it always shows max signal strength for my network -- it just disconnects me regularly, and frequently.  (This is especially annoying if I go into an app like Safari, because it asks me to pick a network and retype my password every 10 seconds.)  It's not an iPod issue, because the wifi still works perfectly on all other wireless networks I use.

Has anyone seen this before?  I haven't tried rebooting yet because I have a ton of things open.  Is there some way to restart the networking subsystem on Mac OS that might help this?

I suggest you restart your box to make sure that it’s just not a problem there. You could technically turn off the AirPort and turn it back on (that’d restart most of the stuff), however the “problem” could be on the Kernel level, which would only be fixed with a proper restart or even a hardware buffer, which a cold shutdown would most likely fix.

In any case, if you still want to experiment, try changing the Channel from Automatic to something you can use in your country and move it, maybe somebody (neighborhood?) brought new devices or networks next to you and that causes new interference that wasn’t there two days ago.


Which iOS presentation/slideshow app can be controlled by a Trust Wireless bluetooth remote I want to use my iPhone (4S) with the VGA adapter to display presentations on a beamer (projector) and control the advancement with a Trust Wireless Remote Control for iPad.

The remote works well with music apps (iPod/Music, Rhapsody) and also in slideshow mode of the "Photos" app.

Unfortunately iOS does not (yet) support QuickTime movies with manual advance - which would be my favorite option.
Keynote for iOS unfortunately doesn't support generic bluetooth remotes (yet).

The best solution I've found so far is to use the "Photos" app and start a slideshow (of a group of images), which then can be controlled by the bluetooth remote.

Is there any app for presentations with the VGA adapter that supports bluetooth remotes?

As I have my iPhone with me anyway, I want to use as little (and least expensive) additional hardware as possible to give a presentation using a beamer with VGA input: the VGA out adapter and the bluetooth remote are working with my iPhone - I'm only missing a decent presentation app that supports both.

I would prefer a non-jailbreak solution that is likely to be compatible with new devices/iOS versions.

As of March 2012 there doesn't seem to be a real presenter app for the iPhone, which supports the Trust Wireless Remote Control (or generic bluetooth remotes, that do work with music apps) and offers VGA-out.

I really hoped I didn't search thoroughly enough but it seems such an app has yet to be made - and I bet it would sell well.

So, if anyone happens to find such an app for the iPhone or something that supports QuickTime movies with manual advance: please post it here and I'm gonna reward a bounty of ≥150 points.

The best way to go till then: Use a collection of pictures in slideshow mode of the "Photos" app (supports both VGA-out and bluetooth remotes)


Control iTunes remotely on 10.3.9 (or maximum 10.4.11) I have this sweet old iMac 350 Mhz sitting in my dusty cellar.
Filled with nostalgia I've fired it up and it is still working :)

Thinking about how to use it, since it has no fans and good integrated audio, I'd love to use it as stereo system in the bathroom or any other room...
I would like to use it without keyboard and mouse and control completely itunes from my android device (or maybe another windows pc).
Max system I can get on the buddy is 10.3.9 or with worse performance 10.4.11
Any hints?

I think the trouble you're going to run in to is that much of the remote control software for iTunes out there, especially for the smartphone market, requires an iTunes version that support Digital Audio Control Protocol (DACP, aka "Home Sharing"). Not sure you can get to an iTunes version that supports DACP if your highest OS level is 10.4.11.

For control from another Mac I highly recommend TuneConnect. Very cool little program that lets you remote control iTunes on another Mac from your current Mac. Even streams the cover art and playlist back to the remote app. It uses a daemon approach to controlling iTunes so it works with older, non-home sharing capable, iTunes installations. There's also the simpler iTunes Remote Control which works over Bonjour IIRC -- not quite as fancy, but it gets the job done. Both of those are free.

For control from an iPhone Apple has it's own iTunes Remote you can download from the iOS App Store for free. Works well. Requires home sharing be turned on in iTunes -- so you might be out of luck there if you can't run the latest iTunes on your older iMac.

For an Android device there's TunesRemote (which uses the home sharing protocol, so it requires a newer iTunes installation). TunesRemote is free and open source. There's also Remote for iTunes which also relies on DCAP and costs $5.

For control from a non-Mac machine your best bet is probably still VNC. Just get a remote desktop on the Mac and click away. I couldn't find anything that solves this particular problem. I'll admit I didn't look that hard. :)


Automatically forward "Starred in Gmail" messages to OmniFocus Summary: I would like to create some sort of an automated process where any messages that I 'star' in Gmail (aka 'flag' when using Gmail via IMAP) will automatically be added to OmniFocus, and then "unstarred" on Gmail and moved to another specific label called "OmniFocus".

I am quite sure that this is possible with Google Scripts but I cannot figure out how to get it to work.  I would like that solution because it would not require me to run anything else on my own Mac.

Also: I have an account with http://www.spootnik.net which means that I can add things to my OmniFocus Inbox by sending email to a specific email address.

My idea for a Google Script would go something like this:

every ¿15? minutes or so, check for flagged messages in Gmail, and if found:
forward to my Super Secret Spootnik Email Address
Add label 'OmniFocus' to message
unstar/unflag message in Gmail

Unfortunately I don't know to make this work in Google Scripts, so I'm wondering if someone else might know and be able to explain it to others who might want to do something similar.

Alternatively

While I would prefer Google Scripts, I do have a Mac which is usually on 24/7 anyway, so if that is the only way to do this, that would also be an option. Unfortunately I have even less of an idea how to do that. (I assume Mail.app + AppleScript?)

Try:

function TJ() {
  var threads = GmailApp.search('label:inbox is:starred');
  for (var h = 0; h < threads.length; h++) {
    var messages = threads[h].getMessages();
    for (var i = 0; i < messages.length; i++) {
      if (messages[i].isStarred())
      {
        Logger.log(messages[i].getSubject());
        messages[i].unstar();
        messages[i].forward("recipient1@example.com", {
          // Advanced parameters: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/gmail/gmail-message#forward%28String,Object%29
          cc: "myboss@example.com",
          bcc: "mybosses-boss@example.com,vp@example.com"
          });
      }
  }
}
}

For more information regarding Google Apps Script, see this post:
http://www.johneday.com/422/time-based-gmail-filters-with-google-apps-script


How to enable iTerm2's system-wide hotkey when iTem2 is not running For me system-wide hotkey does not work when iTerm2 is closed. Is there a way to enable it? Or maybe create an instance of iTerm that runs invisibly in background and listens for hotkey?

Follow these three steps:

Launch Automator from /Applications/Utilities. Create a service for launching iTerm in Automator in these steps:

1.1. In the first window select Service and press Choose.

1.2. From left sidebar select Utilities. From middle section drag Launch Application to the right section and select iTerm from the its dropdown list. Select no input from upper dropdown list. Save the document by command+S and provide a meaningful name like Launch iTerm.

Open System Preferences and open Keyboard section. Navigate to Shortcuts tab. From left sidebar select Services and from right list scroll to General section. In this section should be an item named Launch iTerm. Select it and then click on add shortcut button appeared in the right. Assign a shortcut like control+command+Z.

Open iTerm and navigate to the preferences. Assign the same keyboard shortcut in previous section.

This keyboard shortcut launches iTerm when it is not running and shows/hides iTerm when it is running.


Return to current Album in iTunes on Mac I select album and now I am listening it. But I am lookking the other music in iTunes. So I now I have the one album I am listening now and other page in my iTunes, like this:

What do I need to do to quickly return to my current played album page:

Press CMD+L.

Enjoy your music!

Edit:
You may also go to

Controls > Go to Current Song


How do I change the icon on an external drive? How do I change the icon on an external drive? I have a Samsung T5 SSD but following the instructions (copy from source Get Info dialog, and paste into destination Get Info dialog) has no effect and no feedback. This used to work in the past, but since then I've upgraded to newer external drives (and have updated macOS several times). Has something changed that now makes this impossible?

I've tried this now with several drives (various hardware) and am unable to change the icon on any of them. This used to work before (1) updating macOS and (2) reformatting the drives with APFS/GUID. Has one of those changes made it impossible to change the icon on external drives?

EDIT:
As @David Anderson mentioned, the icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns in the root of the external drive. This is a hidden file by default, so press ⌘ + Shift + . to see hidden files. By default, the .VolumeIcon.icns file does not exist, and if it does, the icon in the file will be used.

If you want to see all default icon files for modification purposes, go to /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources. Then, you can move or modify any icon of your choosing to the drive.

Changing the icon of external drives still works on macOS. Here are the steps to do so.

Download an image to your computer
Open the image with Preview.app
Press ⌘ + C to copy the image to your clipboard
Select your external drive (Go to finder then Shift + ⌘ + C to see your external drives)
Select your drive and press ⌘ + I
Right-click the icon in the upper-left-hand corner of the popup window
Press ⌘ + V to paste the image to the drive


Preview freezes every time I restart it and open a file Every time I open a pdf or image file using Preview when Preview was not already open, Preview will freeze up for a few seconds. If Preview was already open, i.e. I already had a pdf open and opened another one, then there is no issue with opening the second pdf. I've tried resetting Preview by deleting its files in ~/Library, but the problem still persists.

As a troubleshooting step I would boot your Mac into Safe Mode.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. use Preview a couple of times or so to test it)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac as normal
Log in and test Preview again

Let me know how you go.


How to create a FAT16 partition on an SD card with OS X El Capitan? I want to prepare an SD card for use in an old camera using CHDK. The card needs to be FAT16 formatted. This doesn’t work from Terminal anymore, maybe already for years. Disk Utility provides ''FAT'', but this is FAT32. I have no other (Windows) computer. What do I do?

You can format any drive to FAT16 with newfs_msdos Command

1) Launch Terminal

2) Find The Drive you Want to Format

#mount
/dev/disk2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
/dev/disk4s1 on /Volumes/USB_Disk (msdos, local, nodev, nosuid, noowners)

In this case, my disk is disk4.  Your disk will most likely be different!  Be sure to reference the correct disk - you can and will lose your data if you format the wrong drive!!!

3) Unmount the disk

#diskutil unmountDisk disk4
Unmount of all volumes on disk4 was successful

4)  Format the drive

#sudo newfs_msdos -F 16 /dev/disk4

After a few moments, your drive will format.

5)  Remount the drive (optional)

#diskutil mount /dev/disk4

It will probably show up as "NO NAME" on your Desktop.  You can rename it here or to do it at the time of formatting use -v Type in a Volume Name when you format the drive.


Can I use two USB-C to HDMI/DVI cables to hook up to two monitors from my MacBook Pro (2017)? I want to add a second monitor that is connected to my MacBook Pro. Right now I am using a USB-C Apple adapter which allows me to plug the HDMI to HDMI cable from the adapter to the monitor.
I want to connect a second monitor that has a DVI port so I was wondering how I could do this. Can I buy a USB-C to DVI cable and plug the USB-C side directly to the MacBook Pro USB-C port?  If that wouldn't work, what are some other alternatives?

Can I buy a USB-C to DVI cable and plug the USB-C side directly to the MacBook Pro USB-C port?

Yes.  This is exactly how you would do it.
I would avoid using HDMI on your first monitor and instead opt for a pure DisplayPort to DisplayPort connection (the Thunderbolt ports natively output a DP signal). But if you must, use an active adapter for best results.   As for the monitor that uses the DVI port, a simple converter should do, depending on the monitor.  Depending on the resolution that monitor is capable of, you may need a dual link DVI adapter.  In that case, it  must be active.

Connect Apple 30" Cinema Display to new MacBook USB-C
What's wrong with HDMI?


Trash moved to Other, wasn't removed I had 30 GB of trash (UnrealEngine4) and when I emptied it, it only took a second and it all became part of Other in About this Mac - Storage. I was looking at it, before it was 30GB in Trash, and then it all moved to Other.
I want to use Time Machine and I don't want 30GB of unusable trash. Can anybody help me remove it?
I'm using Catalina on a 2013 MacBook Pro.

You should run an app like DaisyDisk and see if you can locate where the files in "other" are located. Then you can delete them directly.
Or if you can find where it's stored you can have Time Machine exclude it from the backup.


User input in Automator's "Run Shell Script" I have a Folder Action on a /Volumes folder. I'm checking when a specific disk is mounted (folder in /Volumes created), checking ssh to remote computer. If all present I run rsync there.

It was OK when number of files was low. Now only rsync's "building file list" takes 40 minutes. I want this action to ask before rsync for my decision. Better with osascript.

source="/Volumes/MyDisk/FolderToSync"

user="username"
host="myhost"
port="22"
path="/RemoteFolder/"

log="$HOME/RSync_$(date +%Y.%m.%d_%H-%M-%S).log"
rm $HOME/RSync_$(date -v-1m +%Y.%m.)*.log

if [ -d "$source" ]; then

    nc -z $host $port > /dev/null

    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        touch $log;

        osascript -e 'display notification "Do you want to RSync now?" with title "ssh"'

        rsync -czvaEP --delete --log-file=$log "$source" -e "ssh -p$port" $user@$host:$path;

    fi
fi

Using display notification will be of no use since its result is none, use a display dialog instead.

The follow is an example of how I'd do it:

result="$(osascript -e '(display dialog "Do you want to Rsync now?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} default button 2 with title "ssh")')"
if [ "$result" == "button returned:Yes" ]; then
    rsync -czvaEP --delete --log-file=$log "$source" -e "ssh -p$port" $user@$host:$path;
fi

Shown within the relevant code posted in the OP:

source="/Volumes/MyDisk/FolderToSync"

user="username"
host="myhost"
port="22"
path="/RemoteFolder/"

log="$HOME/RSync_$(date +%Y.%m.%d_%H-%M-%S).log"
rm $HOME/RSync_$(date -v-1m +%Y.%m.)*.log

if [ -d "$source" ]; then

    nc -z $host $port > /dev/null

    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        touch $log;
        result="$(osascript -e '(display dialog "Do you want to Rsync now?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} default button 2 with title "ssh")')"
        if [ "$result" == "button returned:Yes" ]; then
            rsync -czvaEP --delete --log-file=$log "$source" -e "ssh -p$port" $user@$host:$path;
        fi
    fi
fi


Does the motion co-processor chip register if your iPhone hits the floor when lost? I lost my iPhone 7i on the concrete floor. Is there a way to read out from the motion tracking a time stamp when this happened?

Apple does not expose this data to users, so the answer is a general no.

Whether the data was captured doesn’t matter as much as observability does - similar to the “if a tree falls in a forest” thought experiment.


Free Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) certification materials? Does anyone know of any free resources available to people studying for the ACSP exam?  I'm a student technician at my university's computer clinic, and unfortunately the school's IT department does not have resources available to me for preparing for the exam.

Note: I'm aware that there is an app for iOS devices that has sample questions, but I'm specifically looking for literature.

Go here for Apple official info: http://training.apple.com/certification/macosx

Take a look at the Exam Preparation Guide for the test you want to take. It's a PDF with tons of questions. If you can answer those with confidence then you can pass the exam.


Left mouse click for external mouse not working after upgrading to Lion I'm setting up an older MacBook Pro (it still has the button on the trackpad) and after upgrading it from a fresh install of Snow Leopard to Lion last night my external mouse is not functioning properly.

Left clicks with the mouse are not registered. Right clicking is fine. Moving the mouse around is fine. But left clicks do nothing. I can click with the trackpad button (but this button sticks, which is why an external mouse is required) and that does work.

I have natural scrolling turned off. I have all trackpad gestures turned off. There are no open windows or any dialogs that might be interrupting things. There are no stuck keyboard keys.

One bit of odd is: if I reboot the machine, for a few seconds after a fresh reboot the left click on the external mouse works fines. And then...nothing. Disconnecting and reconnecting the mouse does not fix the problem, even temporarily.

I've tried multiple external mice, wired and wireless, now and it's the same for all of them. All mice are known to be good and function well on my mid-2007 iMac that is also running Lion.

Update:

The only thing possibly related in the Console is the repeated message:

IOSurface: Buffer allocation size is zero

And, it appears after one more reboot, things are working okay for me now. I've been using it for ten minutes without the left button on the mouse failing.

The solution was to disable the internal trackpad. The trackpad, one of the older style pads with the separate button along the bottom edge, had a malfunctioning button and that seemed to be at the heart of the problem.

As soon as I disabled the trackpad the mouse would word. And as soon as I re-enabled the trackpad the mouse would cease to work.

For details on how to disable the trackpad see this question and answer.


Clock app alarms are stopping recordings I just found out from Apple techs that the clock alarm is supposed to stop all activities, such as making recordings, playing apps, etc. when the alarm goes off. Who else finds this ridiculous? I've had important recordings (work audio recordings, and my daughter playing music during a show, for example) get borked just because I forgot to turn off a not-so-important alarm. Ugh! Why should this behavior be normal? Why can't there just be a visual pop-up overlay with no sound when I'm in the middle of something? This should be normal.

Anyway, does anyone have a good recommendation for a replacement clock/alarm clock app that is basic and has customizable and non-intrusive settings for the notifications/alarms?

Thanks in advance.

Only if you set it up to do so.

The TIMER (not the Alarms) in the built-in Clock app on your iPhone and has a feature called Stop Playing, which will automatically turn off any music, movie, TV show, or video clip that is currently playing. It's perfect for setting your entertainment to turn off at a specific time.

Launch the Clock app on your iPhone. You can also access it from Control Center.

  Tap Timer in the bottom right corner of the screen.

  Select a length of time.

  Tap When Timer Ends.

  Scroll to the bottom and tap Stop Playing.

  Tap Set in the upper right corner of the screen.

You can set it back to "normal" not intrusive just a beep sound.

Or you can go completely silent with this app

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/silent-alarm-free/id541446930?mt=8
OR you can se it to Vibrate only

https://www.live2tech.com/set-iphone-alarm-vibrate/

The choice is yours, but do not confuse the Alarms with Timer.


Is it possible to access a Mac via SSH without administrator access? I want to be able to SSH into my Mac, but it's disabled in System Preferences (Sharing --> Remote Connections, I believe). The administrator disabled this, and I'm looking for a way to re-enable it without an admin password. Is there a way I can re-install SSH to enable it, or something along those lines?

Not easily and you may be running afoul of policy if you are circumventing the access policies of a computer to which you are not supposed to be modifying the security stance.

If you were to run sshd in your user space, you will need to use a port higher than 1024 and also hope that the firewall and network will allow you to accept inbound traffic on the port you chose.

Here is a decent article on how you would do this with admin permissions. It's not a perfect fit for Mac OS - but should give you a feel for what the issues are in your quest to set up sshd.

Also, netcat.


iPod Classic 160GB just will not start any help appreciated My 160gb iPod Classic will not turn on or do anything It does not get recognised by iTunes when I hold the Menu and Centre button the apple logo appears but does not start, if I hold the same buttons for longer a red circle with a cross inside it appears.  Any ideas how I can get my iPod started or do you think it might need a visit to apple support shop.

My answer will be short, please check this support page from Apple to troubleshoot your problem:
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203170

If that doesn't work your last shot is at a service point.


How can I analyze and resolve a freezing menu bar? My menu bar is freezing up. Whenever I put my cursor near it, I get the spinning wheel of death (rainbow ball). I opened spotlight and it's stuck indexing. The progress bar isn't moving.

I've tried rebooting, I've killed SystemUI and I've removed the SystemUI preference file but the problem persists.

How can I further analyze and resolve this issue?

I had the exact same problem for a while now and finally figured out how to fix it. My problem was directly related to 3-party menu icons though, FYI.

Open the utility called Activity Monitor and select the offending applications (they will be red and say "not responding") one at a time. Then click the upper leftmost button with the X in it and select Force Quit. That should remove the icon from the menu bar.


How do I send text messages to non-iPhone owners using the iMessage app on a Mac or the Messages app on an iPad? TL;DR

I was on ATT for years and could text iPhone and Android users with the iMessage app on my Macs and the Messages app on my iPad. I switched to T-Mobile (and ported over the same phone number) and now I can no longer use iMessage or Messages to text Android users except on my iPhone itself. How can I send and receieve text messages with Android users once again?

Devices that I Own

iPhone 6 running iOS 8.4 on T-Mobile Pre Paid with a ported phone number from ATT
iPhone 5 running iOS 8.4, but no cell signal. Used as iPod.
iPad Air WiFi running iOS 8.4
MacBook Pro Late 2013 running Yosemite 10.10.4
MacBook Air Mid 2012 running Yosemite 10.10.4

The Longer Story

I was on AT&T for years with multiple iPhones and I was able to use the iMessage app on my Mac laptops and the Messages app on my iPads to send text messages to people who used Android phones. Apple users received texts via the iMessage protocol and those messages showed up across all devices as blue. Android / non-iPhone users in general always used SMS/MMS and texts showed up as green across all devices. I could switch between devices and continue conversations with no problem. All devices were always aware of each conversation as they happened.

I recently switched to T-Mobile and ported over my ATT number. I can no longer use the iMessage program on my Macs nor can I use the Messages app on my iPad / iPod (okay, iPhone 5 with no cell signal) to text message friends that are not themselves Apple iPhone users. I can only text message non-Apple users by directly using my iPhone 6 running iOS Also, all devices are logged in with the same Apple ID.

I'm uncertain if the change of carriers has anything to do with it, but that's the only significnat change that's taken place that I'm aware of, and correlation always implies causation... right? Right.

How can I SMS/MMS non-iPhone people from my iPad / iPod / Macs?

On your iPhone, I'd try going into Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and then uncheck the switches by whatever is not receiving SMS messages and then check and then re-authenticate them individually, it should only take a couple of minutes.


How can I check if a new hard disk is detected by Mac EFI at boot? I have a Mac Mini (late 2012) and have added a new hard disk drive in it. But Mac OS 10.10.5 is unable to detect it. If this were a PC, I'd check the BIOS to see if it was detected and listed there, to rule out hdd cable or connection issues. But as I understand it, Mac Mini's have EFI.

What is the BIOS equivalent to a Mac EFI, to check if a drive is detected by the system?

(P.S: The drive is not shown in "Disk Utility". I have even swapped the drives and HDD cables to check cable issue, but the drive is still not detected.)

There is no specific way to get into BIOS/EFI easily on the Mac. It is possible to get into NVRAM from boot and from a shell (type man nvram) but I am unsure you will be able to do anything there that will have an effect on the new drive.

PC manufacturers give access to this because they don't make the operating system. Apple does not because it's software and hardware are better integrated. So if Disk Utility does not see the drive then there is a problem. Possibly with the cabling, my thought being that adding a drive to a mini is a bit finicky.

You could try zapping the PRAM (COMMAND OPTION P R at boot, wait for a second bong then release those keys). I would be tempted to check the connections and cables and even try the new drive in an external (known good) case to verify the drive is OK


Why is everything set to immutable and how do I reverse it? I can't seem to change the permissions (let alone delete) anything in directories like /usr/local (which I should be). My research has indicated that it's due to OSX automatically setting everything to be immutable. I was able to work through my problem by booting into single-user mode and remounting the partition with -uw. From there I was able to use chflags to remove the immutability.

However, I would REALLY love to not have to do this every time. Is there a way I can disable immutability globally across the system? Is there a reason I shouldn't?

The root user should always be able to change permissions on the filesystem. I believe things are made immutable by default to help avoid footguns by people who try to copy/paste things from the Internet. Requiring a root password may give people some pause, or at least give them the idea that changing files in /usr/local at random may not be a good idea.

Homebrew, the Mac package manager, makes /usr/local writable to be able to install packages from the web without needing to use the sudo command every time. It runs the following two commands to achieve that:

sudo chmod 775 /usr/local
sudo /usr/bin/chgrp "admin" /usr/local/<unwritable directories/files below this>


Can I use ssh in "forwarding mode" as a workaround missing Telnet in High Sierra? If you haven't noticed, telnet is gone from MacOS high Sierra.

I'm experimenting with ways to use built in MacOS utilities to function as a basic TCP-based VT100 emulator... an ASCII console that's dumb as bricks.

I have tried SSH in "forwarding mode", but unsure of the syntax of source and remote port/socket

  ssh -L 192.168.1.162:30000

SSH without encryption

  nothing yet, but experimenting with cipher=null and other settings...

Question

Is there any way to make SSH act like Telnet?  In port forwarding or other modes?

Well, using built in utilities the answer would be nc. nc is easy to use for this, a simple nc <hostname> 23 does the job. Obviously, if your telnet host is using a non-standard port then replace 23 with the port number. <hostname> can be either the name or IP address.

nc is the BSD version of the Gnu/Linux netcat utility. If you want the Gnu version it is available via homebrew, brew install netcat. If you're going to that much trouble you may as well install telnet from Sierra on your High Sierra Mac via homebrew, brew install telnet. Note that you should never run brew via sudo.


How do I add more categories to Mac OS X Finder's sidebar? My Finder sidebar has two categories: Favorites and Devices. How do I add more categories?

It's not possible to add more categories (see picture). There are:

Favorites:

For any subdirectory of the root directory
You can add custom links to folders (not files) via drag and drop
custom searches

Shared:

Local Network, Servers, Back to my Mac, Time Capsule,...

Devices:

Harddrives (internal/external), other storage media like CDs, devices like iPhones

However,

there is a workaround which allows to add separators and changing icons.

Download the icons here. Related forum posts.


Get Numbers & Pages et al. on macOS 10.11 El Capitan I have some old macs which cannot update to OSX 10.12, however this is the minimum requirement for installing those applications from the app store. Please could someone advise how to get an older, compatible version of this software legally through Apple? Thanks!

I had this issue too. Whenever I used an Apple ID that hadn't previously downloaded iWork I wasn't able to download the free version on 10.11. I even tried this workaround.

What did work was getting access to a 10.12 Mac. Downloading Pages, Numbers and Keynote. The apps were now associated to that Apple ID. I then went back to the 10.11 Mac's, signed in using the same ID and clicked download. The App Store displayed a message asking if I would like to download an older compatible version.


How to fix SMS app showing no message even though they are available through Spotlight? I was composing an SMS message and then I tapped on send button. This message was composed for group of 50 persons. It started sending messages in background and I could hear the sound of sending messages one by one.

Suddenly while sending messages, the Springboard crashed. It displayed me three options: "OK", "Restart", "Help". I tapped on "OK" and restarted SMS app to view SMS. But I found everything empty in SMS application and messages were still being sent from my phone in the background.

I got frustrated and I connected the iPhone to my computer, it started synchronizing and synchronized the empty SMSs.

I am able to search all of my previous messages from Spotlight search, but when I select a message from search results of spotlight, it redirects me to SMS application and application shows nothing.

Even in SMS application, I can search for messages and I can find the previous messages as a search result but I can't open them.

How can I get back my messages?

I think you must restore your iPhone from a iOS backup! But than you will lost your last changes.


iTunes folder contains duplicated music files On my macOSX I'm using standard Music folder that contains following folders with music and iTunes folder.

Music
|- Artists
|- Compilations
|- iTunes

I have imported Artists and Compilations into iTunes using "Add to Library". Now Music/iTunes/iTunes Media contains the same mp3 files as Artists and Compilations.

Is it possible import folder into iTunes without duplicating it?

Unchecking Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library in iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced


MTMFS consuming an entire CPU core and fans running full bore with Lion You may be aware that Lion introduced MTMFS, the Mobile Time Machine File System.

I've had a couple of instances now where MTMFS has been chewing up an entire core of my dual-core (mid 2009) MacBook Pro for hours on end with no evidence that it's actually doing anything constructive.

As a consequence, CPU temperature rises and the cooling fans run fast and noisy.

Restarting the machine quietened things down again, but I'm expecting it to start again.

Does anyone understand MTMFS well enough to suggest why it's keeping itself busy (or is it most likely, simply a bug), or if there's currently any solution? I fear I may have gone deaf or been scalded to death before Apple release an update...

To track down the issue you may have to dive into fs_usage or other tools that capture filesystem activity as it happens.

Normally, I have seen minor corruption issues on a filesystem (or bugs in the code - it's hard to tell / hard to reproduce this issue) as the cause of this. In practice I can't get it to fail again after cleaning the existing local backup.

sudo tmutil disablelocal
reboot the Mac in safe mode (which runs fsck and many other helpful and potentially irrelevant tests and checks for corruption)
reboot the mac normally
sudo tmutil enablelocal


How do I stop folders automatically opening on my MacBook Pro 2014? When I try to move a file into a folder, let's say Folder A, from another folder, let's say Desktop, how can I stop Folder A automatically opening.   I only want to move the file into it, not see the contents.

Is there a way to stop this?

I am running macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

The feature you're referring to is called Spring Loaded Folders. Folders should only spring open if you hover (or pause) over a folder for a second or so (depending on your settings).

In other words, if you drag and drop files from your Desktop into Folder A you would let go of the mouse button as soon as your pointer is over Folder A, rather than pausing over it for too long.

You can adjust your settings as follows:

Go to System Preferences > Accessibility
In the left-hand sidebar, find and select the Mouse & Trackpad option.
Now use the slider to adjust the Spring-loaded delay time.

NOTE: If you wish to disable the Spring-loaded folder feature, you can remove the checkmark next to the slider.


Move hard drive from macbook pro to macbook air I have a Macbook Pro with a 250 GB SSD hard drive (Macbook retina Mid 2012 i7) and a Macbook air with 120 GB SSD hard drive (Mid 2012 Intel Core i5).

I would like to move the swap the hard drives if the hardware is compatible.
Is this possible? Is it just a matter of opening the machines and swapping the hard drives?

As far as I can see both MacBook's using different SSD's. Take a look on iFixit.com and the image taken from the tutorial

MacBook Air 13" Mid 2012 Solid-State Drive
.

MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Mid 2012 SSD

MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Mid 2012 SSD Replacement
MacBook Air 13" Mid 2012 Solid-State Drive Replacement

I guess it would be much easier and faster using Time Machine, Superduper, Disk Utility, CCC...


How can I set up an Apple TV (4th gen) connection to a PPTP/L2TP VPN? I have in the offices an Apple TV with a custom app that allows each office to see a dashboard with data.

The problem is that this data is in the main server, in the office headquarters. Is there any way I can setup a PPTP/L2TP VPN connection (something always on) in the Apple TV so that the app could gather the data from the main server?

PS. Opening the data in a public link or changing the app is not an option.

One way to do this is to use a router or Mac to connect to the VPN and then share that connection with the Apple TV.

Below is one example of how you could do this using a Mac. This should also give you the basic idea if you need to do something similar with a Windows machine or router1.

Share VPN from a Mac

Connect your Mac to the internet via ethernet cable (i.e. connect it to a router, modem, etc via ethernet)
Set up your VPN connection in System Preferences > Network (obviously you'll need the address and authentication details to do this)
Click on the Advanced... button
Ensure you tick the Send all traffic over VPN connection checkbox
You will also want to make sure that the two Disconnect options are not enabled
Click OK
Ensure you also tick the checkbox for Show VPN status in menu bar
Now go to System Preferences > Sharing
Highlight (but do not tick) the Internet Sharing service in the lefthand pane
On the righthand side, select the VPN connection you created at Step 2 from the Share your connection from drop-down menu
Now select the Wi-Fi port (i.e. tick the checkbox)
Click on the Wi-Fi Options... button
Give your new Wi-Fi network a name, password etc
Click OK
Now tick the Internet Sharing service in the lefthand pane

1 It's impossible to give you precise steps as routers vary significantly. However you would need to ensure your router is capable of doing this and will need to refer to its user guide.

NOTES:

You can also share a Wi-Fi connection via ethernet (although I suspect that's not practical in the case of a Mac > Apple TV.
If you can't connect your Mac to a router/modem via ethernet at Step 1, you could use a Ethernet to Wireless adapter instead. This just means the adapter is connecting to your usual Wi-Fi network and that you're connecting your Mac to the adapter via Ethernet.
Since you want this to be an always on connection, it'd mean your Mac will need to always remain on. It's also why Step 5 above is important. You may also need to adjust your System Preferences > Energy Saver settings.

Now, whenever your Mac is connected to the VPN, it will share the connection via Wi-Fi. This means you can connect any device to the new Wi-Fi network you created at Step 13 (such as your Apple TV).

Using the VPN connection

To make this work with your Apple TV:

On the Mac, click on the new VPN Status icon in the menu bar
Select the Connect option pertaining to the VPN connection created previously
Once the connection is established, your Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar will change to indicate your Mac is now sharing the VPN via Wi-Fi
Now go to your Apple TV and connect it to this Wi-Fi network


Using an expired SIM card in Airplane Mode I have iPhone 6S. My mobile phone and data plans are with Ting, a US-based mobile virtual network operator that uses the framework of the US-based Sprint Corporation telecommunications company. I'm currently not in the US. I've turned on Airplane Mode, and then switched on Wi-Fi. The caption "Sprint Wi-Fi" appears on the top left of the screen, and I am able to access the Internet over Wi-Fi.

How does my phone know to show the word "Sprint" in the caption? Does it read it off the SIM card, or does it get this information over Wi-Fi, or some combination of both?
If I discontinue my Ting/Sprint membership, and stop paying my monthly subscription fee, but keep the SIM card inside my phone, without ever turning off Airplane Mode, will the caption still read "Sprint Wi-Fi"? Will my phone continue to behave as before?
Are the answers to the questions above specific to Ting/Sprint, or will they remain true regardless of the mobile company I'm a member of (with the difference that, instead of "Sprint Wi-Fi", the caption "XXX Wi-Fi" will appear, where XXX is the actual mobile company)?

The reason it says "Sprint Wi-Fi" at the top of the display is that you currently have "Wi-Fi Calling" enabled. This means that your calls and text messages are sent via Wi-Fi over the public internet to Sprint instead of being transferred via a cell signal. This is a helpful feature when you haven't got a cell signal, but have an internet connection over Wi-Fi.

The word "Sprint" comes from the packet gateway that the phone connects to over Wi-Fi. It is not read off the SIM-card as such. Your provider Ting has a cooperation with Sprint to use the packet gateways of Sprint to enable this feature.
If you cancel your subscription with your provider, Wi-Fi Calling will also stop working. It doesn't matter if you're in AirPlane mode or not - when you try to place a call using Wi-Fi Calling it will be rejected by Ting/Sprint if you have cancelled your subscription.
These answers are not specific to Ting/Sprint, but are true for any cell provider that supports Wi-Fi Calling.


Using an iPod 4G dock with an iPhone 4 When I bought my first iPod, a 4G model, in the box there were also a dock.
Can I use that dock, connected to a wall plug, to recharge my iPhone 4?

If by dock, you mean a 30 pin dock connector, Yes Sure why not. It can be used with any other iPod , iPhone or iPads


Time Machine stopped backing up my iPhoto library a year ago, lost all photos I recently got my iMac's HDD replaced and when I restored my computer, every single Time Machine backup stretching back to last October contained the same size iPhoto library (+/- 100MB), which was current up to last February, even though the rest of my backups were intact.

Even stranger, before I had the HDD replaced, I copied the Master's folder in iPhoto's Library package to an external drive, and it was also incomplete, and in exactly the same way.

I managed to salvage some photos that were in Photostream by going into ~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub in the Time Machine backup, but many are missing and all my videos are gone (because Photostream doesn't do videos.)

Is there anywhere else my photos could be hiding (an import cache, iPhoto trash folder)? Is there anything at all I could do? How do I notify Apple about this issue?

This sounds like somehow your iPhoto Library has moved. If you hold down ALT when you click to start iPhoto, the library management dialog comes up. This will tell you where iPhoto is currently located. If you somehow had access to your old HDD, you could see where this was located.

Obviously iPhoto doesn't work without a library, so the library has to be somewhere. I would certainly dig a little to see if you could find it.

 Unfortunately, I haven't worked with HDD recovery at all. I do know there are companies that do this. You could potentially send it it. I'll update or comment if I do find something.


How Can I Send Text (and Not a Text File) to My Printer on OS X? I know about this question (How do I send ASCII text to printer (over USB)?).  But I'm working on something different.  I'd like to be able to send text from within a bash script or Perl script to my printer.

Everything I find tells me about sending a text file to my printer.  Is there any way to send text from within a script?  (That way I don't have to generate the text, save it as a file, then print the file, then delete the file.)

lp is able to read data from standard input, see man lp:

  lp  submits  files for printing or alters a pending job. Use a filename of "-" to force printing from the standard input.

So if you followed the advice given in the referenced question to install a "raw" printer you should be able to run

echo "whatever text you want to print" | lp -d Generic_usbtb -


Registering as individual for iOS development still requires company name I actually have 3 questions, but the one in the title is the main one.

As I was trying to register, I have entered my apple ID and that takes me to a page where I can edit my contact info. I can change everything, except my name, which I would need to change, since somehow there is a wrong name there. (It is actually an old name which I have changed and if I go to "manage my apple ID" page I can see the new name, just the developer site still has the old one). Since they will probably be checking that against information on my credit card this could be a problem.
Even though I am registering as an individual, there is still a field for company name and it has to be filled. What do I put there?
This would probably be more of a question for apple directly, but in case someone knows, can I use a pseudonym to be shown as the "app seller", because I would rather have that than my full name there.

I tried to contact apple about these issues, but it seems that you need to be registered there to receive any support.

Thanks in advance!

Even though I am registering as an individual, there is still a field for company name and it has to be filled. What do I put there?

Put your name again.


install binary file != move binary to path folder? What is the difference (is there any?) between sudo install -c -o %username% binaryfile usr/local/bin and just moving binary file to usr/local/bin?

When you use install, it will copy a file to it's destination, while mv changes the directory listing and is atomic. When you move a file from one file system to another then mv is not atomic and will copy the file to the other file system then remove the source file. Obviously, mv and install have different options with install offering you more fine grain choices.


'which openssl' returns nothing when trying to upgrade OpenSSL I've been working the last day or so to get openssl upgraded on my machine. I've followed the answers here and here and now I've got some pretty funny results.

When I type which openssl I get no response.
When I type openssl version I get -bash: openssl: command not found
When I type brew install openssl I get Warning: openssl-1.0.1g already installed.

Why does brew recognize an installation, but my other terminal commands suggest that nothing is installed? What do I need to do to get my system to recognize the installation that brew is seeing, or what do I need to remove to allow me to do a fresh install of openssl?

Edit: 'brew doctor' gives me the following:

  Warning: Your XQuartz (2.7.4) is outdated
  Please install XQuartz 2.7.5:
   https://xquartz.macosforge.org

  Warning: Python is installed at /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework

  Homebrew only supports building against the System-provided Python or a
  brewed Python. In particular, Pythons installed to /Library can interfere
  with other software installs.

This command should show you where any openssl binaries may be located on your system:

locate openssl | grep bin/openssl

For homebrew, make sure you have /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin in your $PATH. You can check your current path setting by issuing echo $PATH.


allow program to run on guest account mac How do I allow a program have run access on my guest account?

I am running on a Mac Book pro, I am also running mavericks operating system.

In specific I have installed a game on my admin account. Then I go to the guest account and let my friend play the game. But when I click on the game to load it never loads.

Go to System Preferences > Parental Controls. There you will see a tab for Apps. From there you select "Limit Applications" if the app you want came from the Mac App Store then look under that triangle for the application and highlight it.

If it was from another source then it will be listed under one of the three other categories.

Select the appropriate app(s) until you are happy with the results and then close the lock on the lower right side.


How to get my files of a Windows-formatted HDD? I have a very new MacBook Pro. I have an old Windows laptop that died. However I suspect the hard disk is fine. I also have an external HDD that I had used as a backup for that machine (although I hadn't been diligent in actually making backups). I wasn't using special software to make the backups, just dragging and dropping in Explorer.

The external HDD is USB2. For the laptop's internal HDD, I have one of these (a Unitek hard drive dock).

How can I access the files I backed up? It's mostly MP3s and I'd like to keep them on the hard drive without buying a second hard drive to transfer them to, or reformatting. If nothing else, I at least want to view them so I know what I'm losing if I reformat.

All newer Mac OS X systems are capable of reading all common Windows file systems (FAT/FAT32/NTFS) right out of the box. So it shouldn't be a problem to access the contents of the internal HDD connected to your drive dock, given that the Unitek is working with your Mac.

Since you didn't use any special backup software (generating unaccessible file formats) the same should be valid for your external HDD.


Can only connect to internet in Safe Mode This particular problem was discussed here before  @ I can connect to internet only in Safe Mode. Solutions offered there did not work for me.  I have an older MacBook Pro, Mid 2009, El Capitan 10.11.6. My problem is that I can only access the internet in safe mode. This occurred last week.

It is possible that it occurred as a result of  my installation of Apple Security Update 2017-4. My MBP is the only device in the house affected by this. iPads and another MBP are working fine. Problem MBP shows perfect wireless connectivity but I can’t open a web page, I have tried all the suggestions I found on this and other boards. This includes

restarting DSL modem and TP Link router
trying connection via Ethernet
trying connection via coffee shop network
deleting plist files as suggested
zapping PRAM
running kext utility
running Etrecheck
pinging router and Google
running Disk Utility
running wireless diagnostics
turning off my Kaspersky security suite
creating a second admin account for testing
double checked my Network Preferences
compared Activity Monitor processes in norma; and safe mode

and spent time on the phone with both my ISP and TPLink and probably some suggestions I now don’t remember. The only thing that works is starting in safe mode. Prior to this problem the MBP was showing its age, particularly the need for more RAM but it was working fine.

I freely confess that my own human error might have misconstrued any of the advice. Any suggestions gratefully received. Keith

In a sense you have two options:

Option 1 - Cut your losses and do a fresh installation of macOS, followed by restoring your data from your Time Machine (or other) backups1
Option 2 -Continue troubleshooting your current installation

The first option will almost certainly resolve the issue, the second option may eventually resolve the issue.

Keep in mind that if you continue troubleshooting, that this is a process of elimination and often requires patience.

I assume you already know how to freshly install macOS and restore your data from a backup, so for now I'll focus on how I would troubleshoot this further.

Since the problem is not present during Safe Mode then it's time to investigate login items, fonts, and kernel extensions.

Investigating login items, fonts, and kernel extensions

Let's start with Login Items:

Startup normally
Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups
Select the Login Items tab
Take a note of your Login Items
Now remove all of them by highlighting them and clicking on the - button below
Restart your computer

Now your Mac will boot up without those login items loading. Test to see if you can connect to the Internet:

If you can, you know one (or more) of the Login items were causing the problem. You can then add them back in one by one until you've identified the culprit. Problem solved.
If the problem does persist, it's either a problem with fonts you've installed yourself or with a 3rd party kernel extension. A little more info below:

Fonts:- You can remove any of the fonts you've installed yourself to see if this makes a difference.

Kernel Extensions:- You can open Terminal (found within your Utilites folder) and enter the following command:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

The above command will list 3rd party kernel extensions (you may need to stretch the Terminal window so it's easier to read). Look for anything you don't remember installing, or something that belongs to software you've removed, or just anything that looks out of place. Remember though, this is a list of 3rd party kernel extensions and therefore any of them could be causing the problem.

If you still can't connect once you've gone through the above process, I would suggest that continuing to troubleshoot this will cause more frustration and take more time than just cutting your losses and doing a fresh installation of macOS.

1 I assume you have a backup regime in place. If not, start using Time Machine or some other backup software now!


How do I remove my network from the recovery partition before sale? I'm about to put my old MBP up for sale, so I re-installed from the recovery partition after wiping the drive. But when I rebooted from the recovery partition to double-check I'd deleted everything, it connected to my wifi network. I've got two questions:

How do I remove my network credentials from the recovery partition?
What other personal information is it storing without my knowledge, and how do I wipe it?

The answer was indeed to reset the NVRAM by holding cmd-alt-p-r during boot. Cheers :)


eclipse RCP juno 64 bit crashes on Mac OS X I'm trying to install eclipse RCP 64 bit version on my Mac (10.7.5).

Whenever I tried to launch eclipse, I got this crash screen.

When I tried to start eclipse using command line, I got Segmentation fault: 11 error message.

What might be wrong? RCP 32bit works fine, and eclipse classic 64bit version works also fine.

And it is just OK to use RCP 32bit version on Lion?

The problem was from extracting downloaded tar file. I used pathfinder for untar it, but something might be wrong. I used tar xvf and now everything works fine.


Is there a way to run the Apple Hardware Test without an optical drive? I have a MacBook Pro 13", Mid-2009 and it came with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. As I understand it, that means I would have to use the DVDs provided by Apple
to boot into Apple Hardware Test. The problem is I don't have my optical drive anymore since I swapped it out for an extra HDD. How can I run the Apple Hardware Test?

This answer Diagnosis or Hardware Test on a mid 2009 Macbook Pro with MacOS 10.9.2 discusses a GitHub page https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest which has assembled various versions of the AppleHardwareTest which you can download and install in a specific place on your harddisk. This allows you to run the test without a working CRROM.

It worked for me on a Mid 2009 Macpook Pro.


How can I sync movies from iTunes to my iPad? I cannot figure out how to sync movies that I have bought on iTunes onto my iPad. The first problem is that one of the two movies I bought does not even show up in the screen and the other gives a message that the movie is "not authorized" for this device. Below I have included screen shots.

As you can see in the second image, the second movie that I just bought "Stranger than Fiction" does not even show up in the sync menu.

The problem is that when you buy a movie it is not immediately downloaded to your machine. You have to explicitly tell iTunes to downloading by going to your "Library", selecting Movies from the left panel, right-clicking on the new movie and selecting "Download". Once the download starts you will see a screen like this:

The button next to the search box in the upper right will show the download status. Once the download is complete, click sync button which is the small rectangle next to the media type combo box in the upper left. (This button is right below the "Account" menu in the screen shot above.) Your new movie should appear grayed out (as shown in the screenshot below). Then, select "Movies" from the left hand navigation pane (iPad submenu), make sure that the checkbox for syncing your movies is selected, and press the Sync button to start the transfer to the iPad.


How can I fix my 1st gen iPad if I can't restore (error 3194) and have forgotten the password? I googled to try to solve this, but changing the hostfile didn't work and using tinyumbrella didn't work either. I'm still getting the same error 3194.

I solved this error by deleting private/etc/hosts and rebooting my computer.


"Hey Siri" suddenly stopped working on MacOS Mojave Siri works perfectly after I manually click on the Siri icon on my TouchBar or click on the menu bar Siri icon so there is no issue with my microphone.
Also there are no user accounts to manage in my Parental Controls Preferences.

However it does not start when I speak "Hey, Siri".

I have tried the following:

Unchecking and checking listen for "Hey, Siri"
Reset Ask Siri in System Preferences
Restart my Mac
Reset NVRAM
Reinstalling the OS

Nothing has worked. Please help me fix the issue.

Update 1:
In Safe Mode even Siri does not work let alone Hey Siri. It gives me an error stating "No microphone found."

Update 2:
After taking advice from a Senior Apple advisor, I formatted my hard disk and reinstalled macOS. The problem was fixed but not for long. Today I vividly remember that this problem started after pressing the Siri icon on my Touch Bar while being connected to my bluetooth headphones

Version: 10.14.6 (18G95)

Model: MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

P.S. Other problems that might be related:

The familiar Siri feedback sound that plays once Siri starts also has stopped working when I start the app manually. It however works when I am connected to my headphones.
The volume feedback beep that occurs when you change volume using the Touch Bar also has stopped.

The problem was fixed after upgrading to macOS Catalina version 10.15 (19A602).


How to create TOC style icon files to use with Option startup screen Does anyone know how to modify the icon for an existing disk partition that shows up on the Option startup screen? If you hold down the Option key during power up, you will see an icon for each volume that contains a version of macOS that can boot the computer.

I've got one Catalina partition that shows a nice Catalina icon rather than the generic USB looking icon.

I found out this is controlled by the .VolumeIcon.icns file that is in the root filesystem (or in the case of Catalina it's really a link to an entry in the /System/Volumes/Data folder), and that only TOC type icon files seem to work in the Option boot up screen. Once, you boot into macOS that's a different question -- this is only about the special Option boot screen, that you only see when you press the Option key when powering up or rebooting the computer.

So the question becomes how to create/manage/modify these TOC style of icon files?

Preview can view them, but it seems to show the icons in a different order than they are physically stored in the disk (I viewed the icon file in a hex editor and it is much different order than what Preview shows you and in fact Preview doesn't show the mask icons at all).

If you wish to see the details of these icon files take a look at Icon Image Format for more info.

Appreciate any suggestions or ideas or perhaps there is some utility for creating/modifying/managing TOC style of icon files? I know about iconutil and it doesn't seem to be able to create these TOC style of icon files, as far as I know.

Thanks very much.

This is a project I looked at some time back.
I’m pretty sure you need to start with the 1024x1024 size, and the system will scale it as needed.
There are programs (apps) out there like IconEdit etc, although that one may be a bit old now, that creates the proper file type.
Edit: I’m pretty sure the images or at least their names are stored in a control file that is read to find the appropriate image.


Mount PC's HDD on Mac, with a USB from Mac to PC I was wondering is it possible to connect, a MacBook and a PC by a USB cable and then mount the PC's HDD/SSD on the MacBook?

Further more if this is possible, would there be any restrictions on the MacBook's side?, I know about lacking support for NTFS, but how about using programs such as Scalpel, and the Sleuthkit collection to restore deleted data, and such?

You can transfer files over WiFi or BlueTooth. For fast speeds you can plug both computers into a router via Ethernet cables and communicate over the network that way. These are the non-invasive approaches that don't require special cables or enclosures for the HDD you are copying from. You can also try a file sharing server like Samba that you run on one machine and use the other to transfer from. You won't need special drivers for NTFS if using one of these networked approaches.


Awful Network Performance I have a MacBook pro running Mountain Lion. When I copy files over the local network, I get around 200Kb/s on a 1Gbps link (the light on the switch indicates 1Gbps). This morning I went to download the XCode 5 DP6 and was pretty apalled by 50Kb/s. Downloading from a Windows 8 machine connected to the same switch yields 2.2Mb/s.

I've tried running the following, but is there anything else I could try?

sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0

Several things:

Do a TCP Dump to analyze traffic, to see if you're machine is hitting sites that are bogging it down. At the command line, type sudo tcpdump -i en1

Do a DNS cache reset. At the command line, type sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

Check the MTU settings. Confirm with your ISP what the MTU setting should be, and then go to System Preferences -> Network. Find your connection and click Advanced. Find the Hardware tab, and enter the MTU setting manually if it does not match.


Install Safari 7 from Mountain Lion I am currently running Mountain Lion and have Safari 6.2. I need to upgrade Safari to version 7 to run some tests for a particular application. However, in order to upgrade Safari I need to upgrade to Mavericks.

Unfortunately, that is easier said than done since Yosemite just came out. I did some checking and found that Yosemite is running Safari 8, which will not work for the tests I need to run.

Are any of the following options possible?

Get Safari installed on Mountain Lion
Upgrade from Mountain Lion to Mavericks
Upgrade to Yosemite and then downgrade Safari to version 7

Update:
I do need it to actually be Safari 7 for my tests. Is there any (non-shady) website that I can still get Mavericks from?

1) No. Safari requires libraries and frameworks that will only be found in Mavericks. You can potentially snag the Safari.app from someone runnin v7 on OS X 10.9, but I'm fairly certain it will simply crash on launch due to the requirements mentioned above.

2) Yes you can still install Mavericks provided you have purchased it from the Mac App Store. It will be listed under your Purchases tab.

3) No. You will likely suffer the same discrepancies mentioned in 1) with a version mismatch.


How to fix slow trackpad: OSX 10.12.2 I just installed the latest patch for Sierra, so am now on 10.12.2. Post-upgrade my pointer controlled through trackpad runs very slow when I open the laptop. I can fix it by opening System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Point & Click, and just moving the "Tracking speed" slider a notch and then back to where I want it. But the fix doesn't seem to persist, so I have to do this every time I wake the machine. Does anyone know how to fix the issue permanently?

Update: using a mouse works fine regardless of trackpad state. Further, opening a full-screen application resets the trackpad back to being slow, so it's not just when the computer goes to sleep :(

I would try resetting both the SMC and PRAM/NVRAM.

SMC

The instructions for resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) will differ depending on whether your computer:

runs from a built-in battery?
runs from a removable battery?
can only run from power off a wall socket?

Since you haven't specified your computer I will provide the instructions for all three possibilities.

For MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and MacBooks where you can’t remove the battery on your own (i.e. it's a built-in battery), here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Keep the MagSafe adapter (or power cable) plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

For MacBook Pros, MacBooks etc that you can remove the battery from, here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Disconnect the MagSafe plug (power cable) from the computer
Remove the battery
Press the power button for 5 seconds and release
Put the battery back in
Reconnect the MagSafe cord (or power cable)
Turn your computer back on with the power button

For iMacs, Mac Pros, Mac Minis, etc that only run from a power point in the wall

Shut down your computer
Unplug it from power
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
Plug it back in and turn it on.

PRAM/NVRAM

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). Regardless of what Mac you have, the instructions for resetting this are as follows:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. mouse speed, time and date/timezone, etc).


MacBook Pro won't load photos My MacBook Pro is not loading my photos anymore. I insert the SD card, as I have always done, iPhoto pops up and says loading photos, but then the error message pops up saying that the disc was not ejected properly when I haven't even touched it! Can someone please help me?

Thanks!

Leslie,

Without further information, my first guess is a corrupted SD card. Try the following steps.
1) With the SD Card inserted, locate and launch Disk Utility.app
2) On the left column lists of hard disks, DVD/CD and other storage devices detected on your MacBook Pro.
3) Click once to select the SD card. This will cause the right half of the window to be populated with series of possible actions. The default action displayed is titled 'First Aid'. Locate the 'Verify Disk' button on the bottom right corner. Click once on it and allow some time for it to diagnose your SD card.
4) If the Disk Utility.app reports an error, click to grant it permission to fix it. Once it's done, quit Disk Utility.app
5) Relaunch iPhoto and see if it works.

If this helps, please mark your question as answered. Thanks.


How can I reduce/optimize downloads when upgrading to an SSD and installing Mountain Lion? I am worried about downloading so many things:

Here what is I have:

A macbook Pro, with Mountain Lion installed (Upgraded from Lion)
Things installed Xcode, Eclipse with android, RVM, GIT, And lot of another developer tools.
A lot of another things like spotify offline songs, emails, some 30-40 applications downloaded from app store.

Now here is the thing:

Do I need to download xcode, Mountain lion, Eclipse etc again to make a fresh install on my new SSD.

Whats the possible way to minimize the download?

How much space are you using on your current drive and how big is the SSD? If your current space is less than or equal to that of the SSD, you can do a direct clone, without downloading the OS again.

You'll need to get an external enclosure (2.5" bus powered USB ones can be had for ~$20). Put your SSD in that, and you can use Disk Utility to clone your current drive to the SSD. If your current drive is bigger than your SSD (but the capacity used is still smaller), you'll have to shrink your current partition first. You'll also probably want to reinstall the recovery partition to your SSD, using Apple's tool. Once the clone is done, you can just put the SSD in your Mac and everything should work as before.

If you don't want to buy an external enclosure, you can use another external drive (if you have enough free space), and essentially perform the above procedure twice - once from the old drive to the external, then install the SSD and clone from the external to it.

The final option, if you have a Time Machine backup, is to install the Recovery Disk to the SSD (so you can boot to a recovery mode off the SSD), then restore from the Time Machine to the SSD.


Mount external HDD readOnly option I have the following problem: I used the optical bay to use a HDD in my mid 2010 13" Macbook Pro in addition to my SSD. It was working just fine until a few days ago, when it started to get "slower". VLC Player (on SSD) wasn't able to play videos on the HDD anymore, and when I tried to copy files from the HDD to the SSD it took ages (the speed was about 20 mb/m). Also it took a really long time to see what's in a folder when I opened it (but after 5-10 seconds I could at least see what files were in which folder).

My first question is: Is my HDD slowly dying? What could the problem be?

A friend was trying to help me repair it (he tried several things in the terminal and in safe mode - I do not remember all of it, but anyhow.. nothing worked). During this we unmounted the HDD and since then I am not able to mount it anymore.
When I try

diskutil mount /dev/disk1s2

in the terminal it says

Volume on disk1s2 failed to mount If the volume is damaged, try the "readOnly" option

How can I try to mount it in readOnly mode?

diskutil mount readOnly /dev/disk1s2

doesn't work..

I would really appreciate it if you could help me. I have a lot of new photos and music on the HDD I have not backed up yet.

Enter in Terminal.app:

sudo asr adjust --target /dev/disk1s2 --settype "Apple_HFS"

and then try:

diskutil mount readOnly /dev/disk1s2


Brother MFC Scanner not recognized any more I have a Brother MFC-1910W connected by WIFI (multi functional wireless b/w laser printer, scanner and fax). Since a few days I cannot use the scanner any more.

In the first place the scanner icon was disabled so I decided to remove and add the printer. Since than the whole scanner icon disappeared as if the MFC has no scanner capabilities.

I have Brother driver 4.0.5 installed. I found a scanner 4.2.0 on brother support site (sorry, page not available in english). From that installation on I cannot connect using bonjour any more but using IP but still no scanner available.

Now the best: Accessing from another MacBook (both running 10.13.2) there is no problem. It seems some printer driver installation or preferences are broken.

Any idea how to fix, cleanup, whatever (maybe an option to reset all printer driver info would be fine)?

I experienced the same problem with macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 on a MacBook Pro 13" 2018 and a Brother MFC-j6510DW.

The solution is straightforward, you have to reset the printing system according to the Apple support document, macOS Sierra: Reset the printing system

Go to System Preferences → Printers & Scanners:

Control click in the list at the left, then choose Reset printing system... from the context menu that appears.
After you reset the printing system, the list of printers in Printers & Scanners preferences is empty.
Re-add any printers

That's all.