Where and how are the extra columns available for list view in Finder defined? In an answer to an earlier question I found out that the available columns for Finder's list view are relative to the folder path. This means that one could choose to add a Dimensions column when browsing under ~/Pictures or Artist under ~/Music or Codec under ~/Movies.

Where and how these are defined?

Is there a centralised file that links a path ~/Pictures, column Dimensions and action "get file's dimensions" together?

Or is the column and the action defined in a centralised location and then a folder's property (like "this is a folder for pictures") enables the columns?

Or are these all defined relatively under the folder path? Or something else?

I think I'm indirectly asking whether or not it is possible to customise the columns (add own) and enable them for different locations.

Try renaming the folder to "Pictures" or moving it into a folder named "Pictures" -- that did the trick for me.


Impossible to sort iBooks PDFs in Bookshelf view? I can drag and drop all day long, but it won't let me so much as touch the data source. Whether I'm dragging cover art around on the Bookshelf or moving rows in the List view's table, there is a major piece of missing functionality.
Titles and art will duplicate, leaving some PDFs apparently gone, but as soon as I leave the app (or even just change the view), it reloads and gives me the random-sort that I really don't want.
List view works for finding sometimg to read, minus the completely ineffective reordering action, but it has absolutely no influence on Bookshelf view, which is the one I want.
I did somehow manage to get one -- ONE of 41 PDFs -- to move. I'm amazed it hasn't reset on me.

Running iOS 5.1.1 on an iPad 1, not that it should ever matter with first-party software.

From Apple's website:

Can I rearrange books on my iBooks bookshelf?
Yes, you can rearrange books in your iBooks bookshelf by touching and holding a book, then moving the book where you would like it.  You can also sort books in iBooks by switching to List view and tapping either Bookshelf, Titles, Authors, or Categories buttons. PDFs are conveniently stored on a separate bookshelf.

Helpful.

Problem seems to have been insufficient RAM, since only iBooks was receiving a memory warning and dumping nonvital objects, or something which would have similar behavior.

It'd be nice if it iOS was a little louder about this sort of situation. Oh well.

Belated Edit: Closing some other apps in the background is what fixed it. Yeah.


Preview and Skim are not opening Latex compiled pdf file I am using latexmk to compile file written in Latex in OS X (macOS Sierra : 10.12.4) to pdf.

Recently I am facing that such pdf files are not being opened through Preview or Skim pdf editor! Earlier I didn't have such an issue.

Any fix?

My machine has MacOS 10.12.5 and MacTeX-2016 and it works fine, both with Preview and Skim. I used the command-line in Terminal. Here are what latexmk --version and pdflatex --version report on my system, respectively.

Latexmk, John Collins, 22 April 2016. Version 4.45

pdfTeX 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.17 (TeX Live 2016)
kpathsea version 6.2.2
Copyright 2016 Han The Thanh (pdfTeX) et al.
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.
Primary author of pdfTeX: Han The Thanh (pdfTeX) et al.
Compiled with libpng 1.6.21; using libpng 1.6.21
Compiled with zlib 1.2.8; using zlib 1.2.8
Compiled with xpdf version 3.04

I know this does not really qualify as an answer but I don't have enough reputation to comment on your question!


What might cause a a dock icon to have pixellated noise? This is possibly a non-issue, but the Finder icon that appears when you Cmd + Tab has some strange graphical noise on the top. I can't remember how long ago it happened, or if I made anything strange before it appeared.

Does anybody have an idea of why this happens? I'm on a 13' MacBook Air 2011 with 10.7.5.

It's likely the Finder's application icon is corrupted.

To check, navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/ and select Finder.app.  Get information on the file and see what the icon looks like.

I'm not sure where you can get a replacement icon (maybe another computer or the install disks with some package exploration).  I'd post mine here but for Apple's remarkably strict copyright lawyers.

--SOLUTION--

Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences and move the com.apple.dock.plist file to your desktop. This may result in your dock items needing to be reloaded. Logout and back in.


Configure keyboard combination to switch apps Command-Tab displays app list to switch between them, well nice feature. But can I customise this keyboard combination to use a single key to accomplish application switching?

I can only think of a way to do it with a single key if you enable the function keys to work without holding down fn.

Then you can assign one of the function keys (F1, F2 etc.) to "Move focus to next window".

First enable "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys like this:

Then assign the "Move focus to next window" to one of the function keys like this:


Can I remote desktop to another user on the same machine? On my work Mac, which stays physically in my work office, I want to keep my work stuff separate from my personal stuff by using two different user accounts.  I normally stay logged in as the 'work' user.  But I want to have them visible at the same time, since I have a large screen.  I think I could get a nice setup if I could use the built in remote desktop client or a 3rd party VNC client to connect to the login screen of the existing machine, so that I can select a different user.  Or if I could connect as a specific user, even though the physical machine is already logged in as someone else.

I normally use my system with "remote management" mode enabled (not just remote desktop), and I often use a VNC client at home to access my Mac desktop at work.  Although this is not my daily routine.  In this mode the VNC client immediately connects to the existing desktop.  Is there a way I can force this connection to go to the login screen instead?  When I use a VNC client to connect to the existing screen, I can see it trying (you get the kind of infinite regress that you might expect), so the basic connection works.  I just want it to let me select another user.

Edit:
I think part of the problem is that the system might be running a VNC server session in the background waiting for me to connect.  It connects to the active session.  It seems to happen either when I have "remote management" turned on or just "screen sharing".  Using an alternate user in an "open" command results in an error about not being able to control your own screen.

To be clear, both accounts are on my work computer.  From home I want to connect to my "work user" on my work computer.  From my desk at work, logged in as my "work user" I want to be able to connect to the "personal user" on my work computer.

I think my real problem is related to what happens on the server side of the connection.  I want the OS to fire up the login window even through there is a user logged in on the main screen/keyboard.   I know that is some circumstances a remote-login user can receive the login screen.  It might be necessary for me to give up the idea of sometimes connecting to the logged-in user and sometimes connecting with a fresh login.  If I can switch completely to the fresh-login mode that would be a start.

How does Mac OS decide whether to show the login-screen for a remote connection versus just connecting you to the running desktop?  I thought it was related to having "remote management" turned on vs "screen sharing".  But with just "screen sharing" turned on, I still get the connect-to-existing behavior.

ARD into your "work account" and then do the following on the remote computer to open a Screen Sharing window to your "personal account" on the same remote computer.

Create an SSH tunnel.  It works for me using 10.9.

Enable Remote Login (SSH) in System Preferences > Sharing, and in Terminal run:

ssh -NL 5901:localhost:5900 localhost

Finally, use Screen Sharing to connect to localhost:5901 (instead of the default port 5900).   Instead of port 5901 you can use a much higher port that isn't in use by anything else.

The Screen Sharing application is located here: /System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.app


Real tracking app for iPhone? Is there an app that can tell me someone else's exact or general location by entering their phone number, no matter if they give permission or not? (Preferably not.) Or is there some other device, software, etc. that I can purchase? Something that is real and not just for entertainment purposes.

Not on the App Store. Something like this is a likely violation of privacy laws as well. There's no way Apple would allow it.


Is my MacBook Pro hard drive dying? I have an early 2011 13" MBP, i7, 8GB crucial RAM, 500 GB Seagate ST9500325ASG.

I've had it for about 4 months. Twice, including last night, the beach ball appears, concurrent with a sound that can only be described as a squeak, coming from, I assume, the hard drive. Then, the beach ball freezes and the machine can only be revived by a hard restart.

The cover is closed and I am using a keyboard and monitor. The Console shows nothing, no kernel panic.

I have done some research, and this sound is not like those recorded on YouTube.

I am at a loss. Is my hard drive on its way out? Should I be concerned?

Update

The responses so far have all assumed that because the hard drive is making noise that it is about to dies. Is this really case? Has anyone had the same circumstance? Also, why does the computer freeze? Is this also a symptom of a dying drive?

Another Update

I've made a video where you can hear the noise. This describes is much better than i can!

Final Update

I cloned the drive using SuperDuper and replaced it. No further issues.

Number one, backup immediately. At least if it dies you got all your data. I would recommend using a drive scanning utility to check your drive for hardware issues. S.M.A.R.T is useless, its pretty good that telling you that your drive is already dead.

All the really good utils aren't free. Techtool Pro has been my tool of choice, however its not cheap.

While you're at it install Disk Drill to get temps for your drive make sure its not over heating and also get some recovery mechanism in place (other than time machine). The basic edition is free. You can grab it from here: http://www.cleverfiles.com/


What Icon Display Resolutions and Pixel Densities Should I Use? I am designing an icon for use with an Xcode template and need to know what display-resolution and pixel-density settings I need to use for each of the PNG files I'm exporting from GIMP into my .iconset folder.  Specifically, what display resolutions and pixel densities should I use for the icon_512x512@2x.png, icon_512x512.png, icon_256x256@2x.png, icon_256x256.png, icon_128x128@2x.png, icon_128x128.png, icon_64x64@2x.png, icon_64x64.png, icon_32x32@2x, icon_32x32.png, icon_16x16@2x.png, and icon_16x16.png images in my icon set?

Use the resolution given in the name of the image. For @2x images, double the resolution in both directions. PPI does not matter—Apple uses 72 PPI. Do not use any transparency or interlacing.

For example: icon_512x512@2x.png is a 1024x1024 image.


How do I backup my Mac without a different storage device or computer? I only have my Mac which is on Catalina 10.15.7 (and my iPhone SE if that helps). How can I backup using Time Machine without anything else? I want to install bootcamp and it says I should backup my disk but I'm not sure how with the resources at hand.

Saving two copies of your files to the same drive isn’t a backup type that will protect you from a Boot Camp error.
You’ll want to get an inexpensive USB drive to copy your critical documents. Then when you can afford a drive that’s at least as large as your internal drive, set up Time Machine so you are protected by automatic backups of the Mac data. Note, Time Machine does not backup Boot Camp.


Mavericks: MS Word crashing on documents with comments In short, Word crashes silently upon opening certain documents.  The problem seems to be with documents that include Comments.  I have tested by using WinWord to remove the comments from a file that crashed.  After removing the comments, Word opens just fine.

Furthermore, when creating new comments in a fresh document, Word crashes.

I have tried all

reinstalled Word 14.3.8
deleting all caches (font and otherwise) using Onyx
Installing latest Java
disabling MS Error Reporting

all of which didn't help.

Any suggestions?

Changing preferred language to English (as explained here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/115387) worked for me!


Can Apple's Earpods Be Used With Any Smartphone? Can Apple's earpods be used with any smartphone, or are they specific for the iPhone only ?

They can be used in any device that accepts a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack (and that's pretty much anything that has a headphone socket these days, alternatives include a smaller 2.5mm jack, or a much larger 1/4" one), although the inline controls may have limited use or operate differently depending on what you plug them into.

As to advanced features, this depends on a couple of things.  The socket size is the most important consideration, but the next thing is the amount of "poles" that the headphones have, and that the socket supports.  A "2 pole" device (3 separate contact areas separated by 2 solid line/band right around the jack) will provide for stereo sound (left/right/ground), adding a 3rd band/4th pole will add MIC functions and the ability to send controls from an inline controller for volume, track selection etc.  For the latter, the actual commands sent down the connection may vary per device, giving you volume on one device, or tracks on another, but there are a couple of semi-unofficial standards in that it usually works OK across devices so long as the contact is there inside the socket to support the connection.

Standard    Tip         Ring 1          Ring 2  Sleeve          Phones using this Standard
CTIA / AHJ  Left Audio  Right Audio     Ground  Microphone      Apple, HTC, latest Nokia, latest Samsung, latest Sony (2012+), most Android phones

This page may help if you need to read more.


Detecting malware in panic reports Is there a way to identify kernel modules that shouldn't be there out of a panic report? For example, looking at this discussion https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2778885, there it was pretty obvious as "elmedia" was easily identifiable.
However, when looking at mine, there are some things which seem fairly common but I don't seem to be able to find any information about them in internet. For example, in my report I have a couple of (suspicious?) national instrument drivers called ni488k.

I think these logs give a good insight to detecting possible malware. The question is, how can I know which kernel modules should be there and which ones shouldn't?

A panic report isn't the right tool to investigate malware.

Many crashes are coming from commercial and not evil conceived pieces of software. Some of them are coming from MacOS X directly.
Crash doesn't mean malware.
Most of the time you can't reproduce these crashes at will.
To hide their tracks, most crapware will change their name as soon as activated.
If the crapware wasn't active at the time of crash, their won't be any usefull information in a crash report.

The right tools to investigate for malware are :

Tools to detect any system abnormal activity:

Activity Monitor

top

netstat

Little Snitch

This command will show any program which might attempt to penetrate your firewall:

tail -f /var/log/appfirewall.log

...
Tools to detect abnormal components of the system:

kextstat

this command searches for all recent setuid bit files:

find / -mtime -7 -perm +04000 -ls

tripwire

clamav, ClamXav

chkrootkit

...

If finally you think something is suspicious within a panic report,
try to investigate it with the above methods on the system alive.
To check which modules should be there use kextstat. Save a copy of its output, check another day, check when you install a software asking you for your admin password, check when you notice an abnormal slow down.


AddressBookSourceSync a virus? On my mac, in activity process, there are two processes that keep on running even though I stop them. They are AddressBookSourceSync and com.apple.AddressBook.ContactsAccountsService. Is it possible that they are viruses or am I just being paranoid. How do I quit these? I tried everything but it keeps turning back on.

Taken from one of the answers in this Apple Communities thread:

Export all contacts to a vCard file for safe keeping.
Delete Library --> Application Support --> Address Book.
Reboot.
Open System Preferences --> iCloud. Enable Contact Syncing.


Macbook 5,2 (Mid-2009) optical bay hard drive enclosure I was wondering what about my Mid-2009 Macbook makes optical hard drive enclosures like this one incompatible with the enclosure. And if there is another way that could get a second drive in there.

according to this site, it is compatible but there are some limitations:2008/2009 MacBook/MacBook Pro 13", 15", and 17" models. (Model IDs: MacBookPro5,1; 5,2; 5,3; 5,4; 5,5 and MacBook5,1; 6,1; 7,1) While a 6G SSD does function, it will only do so at SATA Revision 1.0 (1.5Gb/s) speeds rather that the SATA Revision 2.0 (3.0Gb/s) speed the machine can deliver. Should owners of these machines desire another SSD option, the Mercury Electra™ 3G SSD does run at the full SATA Revision 2.0 (3Gb/s) specification.

What this means is that your macbook does not have a connection fast enough for most ssd's and you won't be able to utilize the full potential of such a drive.
You can always contact the guys at owc and ask for a recommendation for your mac.


date add command Terminal: How to add time using `date`? (illegal time format) I'm trying to add minutes to the current time using date. This works for adding 5 minutes:

$ date -v "+5M"

But if I try using -v with a formatting argument, it fails and prints the help menu:

$ date "+%r" -v "+5M"
date: illegal time format

Is it possible to use the %r formatting with -v?


Spotlight in Mavericks does not search Tags - how to enable? I have defined a couple of tags in Mavericks. If I search inside Finder, tags work as expected:

It recognizes that "Firma" is a tag.

If I select it and press enter, it turns into "Tag:Firma".

However if I do the same in the global search (CMD+SPACE), it seems to have no idea about tags:

Is there a way to fix this or is it a known bug?

Tags have never worked that way for me. I don't know if they should, but they work for me if I prefix the tag with tag: like this:

tag:Firma


A sleep button shows up on my Mac recently, how to get rid of it? I'm not sure what happened, but recently I found I have this button showing up.  Does anyone know how to turn it off?

OS: 10.15.3 (19D76) Catalina
MacBook Pro 13inch, 2017, 4 Thunderbolt 3 Ports
Memory: 16GB
3.5Ghz

You seem to have enabled the Dictation or Voice Control features.

You can disable it again by opening System Preferences > Keyboard. Select the "Dictation" tab, and ensure it is set to "Off".

Then open System Preferences > Accessibility. Select "Voice Control" (or "VoiceOver" in earlier versions) in the list on the left, and ensure that "Enable VoiceOver" is not selected.


MacBook Pro USB ports not working properly At work, I usually use my left USB port to charge my iPhone, while the right port connects to a hub on my monitor, providing Ethernet, external keyboard and sometimes another iOS device. I also have the monitor itself connected via one of the Thunderbolt ports. The computer is connected to the mains.

All of this works fine, but recently I've had some what I believe to be power-related issues with the ports. If I try to plug my iPad mini 2 into either port, it doesn't charge correctly (it keeps chiming to say it's charging, randomly, every second or so).

Another symptom appears to be that if I try to run Duet (the iOS/OS X app combo that allows you to run your iOS device as an external screen), it keeps trying to connect, the screens flash black, then come back, then keep coming and going but never connects properly to the iOS device. This is even the case if I'm using my iPhone, which doesn't usually have any problems charging.

I've tried removing all external devices and just plugging in the iPhone, and Duet still doesn't work properly. Same with the iPad and charging, if no other devices are connected, it still beeps all the time and doesn't charge properly.

Usually (depending on MBP model) - there is only one fully powered / full speed bus.

You could try resetting the PRAM / NVRAM which also causes a restart to be sure it’s not a temporary situation.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

Here is a good support article on USB ports and their corresponding power.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204377

From my experience iPads can request a lot of power from a standard USB port. Since power management could be involved, the SMC - System Management Controller decides when to apply or deny charging current. You might want to try one time resetting that for your Mac.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

If you still have USB issues once that’s done - see about hardware service either in or out of the standard warranty process.


Why does look-up not work on every webpage in Chrome? Lion introduced a new feature called look up:

... which can be invoked by double-tapping a word with three fingers. This works fine most of the time, but I've noticed that it fails many times in Google Chrome (I'm running 18.0 beta).

For example, it works fine on this website, but fails on http://www.gigaom.com. If I try both websites on Safari, they both work. Why does Chrome have this problem? Is it an issue with the website owner not following standards? Is it a bug in Chrome? Is there any temporary workaround?

This bug is known to the Chrome developers and has been filed under...
Issue 90461: Dictionary keyboard shortcut doesn't work in Lion
Basically the problems are timing issues for some websites which take too long to respond to information needed to show the dictionary.
This is what @resek@chromium.org says:

There's likely not much that we can do here. We have to block the UI
thread to implement this feature, which is bad and so that's done on a
timeout. If the web page takes too long to respond for the information
we need to display the popup, we give up and unblock the UI. If we
didn't do this, Chrome would look like it's hung, waiting on the web
page to respond.
We collect timing information about this, and most pages succeed well
below the timeout, but there's also some class of pages that do not
respond in time (more than 1500ms, which is what starts to be
perceived as sluggish/hung).


Completed Reminders not syncing to iOS from OS X Running the most recent version of OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6.0, I'm able to sync all my Reminders between all my devices.

However, though the Reminders themselves will sync across all my devices, their completion state will only cross the same platform (that is, if I complete a Reminder on OS X, all my Macs will show as complete, but not my iOS devices, and vice versa).

Is there a setting that I can check somewhere to fix this, or is it working as intended?

Quoting a solution I found in the Apple community web site:

  I was having this problem. I changed the syncing range on the phone (under Settings > Reminders) to sync All Reminders. I then logged into iCloud and opened the Reminders tab. This actually caused the reminders on the phone to match the ones in iCloud.  I then made changes on my phone while that tab was still opened and the changes started to appear in iCould (sometimes takes a few seconds - up to 20 or 30) and synched on my iPad as well. After that, all of my changes started to sync across all devices - iPhone, iPad,Mac and in iCloud, regardless of where I made the initial change.

  Hopefully this will work for you too.

Link here.


How to copy updates from mac to another? I live in a country where Internet isn't that broadbandish, I installed Lion on my home laptop and want to copy the updates to my Mac Mini.

Is there a way to copy Apple updates from a machine to another?

You could, but not by using Software Update.

What you should do, is wait for Apple to release the update on its website, here is the 10.7.1 update, store it on a USB drive and install it wherever you want.


Where does iPhone store information about current battery percentage? I wonder how is it exactly with the calculation of the battery percentage: from 100% down the software calculates which resources were used and for how long and thus it approximates the current battery state. But where is it stored - as logs, or as app data? I mean what happens with this information after hard reset or DFU mode - in DFU mode iOS is not loaded, but this software still runs? How does it know what is the percentage after switching it on again? Is charging in DFU mode still causing the software to calculate the approximate percentage?

All of the battery and power usage information (including approximately how much power applications and certain system processes use over time) is stored in /var/mobile/Library/BatteryLife/CurrentPowerlog.PLSQL and /var/mobile/Library/BatteryLife/Archives/powerlog_*.PLSQL. This data is both used to aid in the calculation of battery percentage and to unmask power-hungry applications.

Apple's algorithm for battery percentage is based on a number of factors: the maximum capacity of the battery (known based on the battery that the iOS device was manufactured with), the remaining capacity of the battery (calculated based on Voltage), power usage over time (stored in CurrentPowerlog), and current power usage (calculated based on draw). This data is all put together to extrapolate an estimated remaining capacity which iOS displays as the battery percentage.

When the iOS device is in a different mode other than iOS (such as DFU Mode or Recovery Mode), it does not store or read any information from the CurrentPowerlog database; it uses the direct method of determining the capacity of its Lithium-Ion battery: simply the Voltage that the battery is currently outputting. Take a look at a Voltage over time chart for Li-Ion batteries, and you may wish to read more information about determining capacities for Li-Ion batteries.


Changing trackpad scroll direction with AppleScript in Yosemite I prefer "natural" scroll direction when using my MBAir trackpad, but "unnatural" when using the mouse. I frequently switch back and forth depending on where I'm working, so I've been using a bit of AppleScript to switch the setting. This script stopped working when I upgraded to Mac OS Yosemite. It still opens the Scroll & Zoom pane of the Trackpad preferences, but it doesn't click the checkbox. I've tried a few things but I can't get it to work.. I'm not an Apple Developer, so I don't have any debugging tools. Any tips?

try
    tell application "System Preferences"
        activate
        set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.trackpad"
    end tell

    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "System Preferences"
            click radio button "Scroll & Zoom" of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
            click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
        end tell
    end tell
end try

First, make sure Applescripts has permission to modify apps.
This can be done by opening System Preferences | Security & Privacy | Accessibility and checking Script Editor. This is a one time process and you shouldn't have to check it again.

I ran this same snippet @Bowen provided in his question on Mojave and noticed what he described. I fixed it by adding the delay mentioned by @Bowen in his answer. The box would either check or uncheck now that we have added a small delay.

Here is that example I ran directly from Script Editor:

try
tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.trackpad"
end tell
delay 2
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        click radio button "Scroll & Zoom" of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
        click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
        tell application "System Preferences" to quit
    end tell
end tell
end try

Also, In relation to this topic, I built something using ideas from this thread, since folks may want to automate it per their settings. The below script is "Automator ready", or can be exported as an application so you can run it at startup or however you want to execute it. You have to also allow access to the exported application as shown in the image above for "Scroll direction Clicker". This is specific to a Logitech mouse being found, but it can easily be modified to any other type of string/mouse type. It can also be used as a decent reference to build off of for scroll-direction. I for one got tired of flipping scroll-direction when going from mouse to trackpad, and that's how I found this thread.

Tailored to be exported as an Application from within Script Editor

try
    set logitech to "Logitech"
    try
        set scriptOutput to do shell script "system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -i logitech"
        if scriptOutput contains logitech then
            tell application "System Preferences"
                activate
                set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.trackpad"
            end tell
            delay 2
            tell application "System Events"
                tell process "System Preferences"
                    set checkBoxOne to checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
                    click radio button "Scroll & Zoom" of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
                    tell checkBoxOne to if value is 1 then click
                    tell application "System Preferences" to quit
                end tell
            end tell
        end if
    on error errMsg
        log errMsg
        tell application "System Preferences"
            activate
            set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.trackpad"
        end tell
        delay 2
        tell application "System Events"
            tell process "System Preferences"
                set checkBoxOne to checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
                click radio button "Scroll & Zoom" of tab group 1 of window "Trackpad"
                tell checkBoxOne to if value is 0 then click
                tell application "System Preferences" to quit
            end tell
        end tell
    end try
end try


How does Apple Watch Activity app deal with timezone changes? I have noticed very strange behavior of the rings and Activity.app when traveling.  Thus the question:

How does the app deal with time zone changes, and how should it deal with time zone changes?

Some comments

I live in Germany and I'm currently in Japan which is 8 hours ahead.
The health database that can be accessed through the health app is timezones aware. This data is displayed in the lower part of the activity app and it changes if you change timezone (e.g. the non-activity of the Germany night is now displayed in the middle of the Japanese day).
The rings are not recomputed: Now that I'm in Japan, the rings for a day in Germany do not agree with the data that is displayed below.
On the travel day all hell breaks loose.  There are several bugs, including the rings being shifted by one day and activity being recorded randomly for either the day that is still running in Germany, or the new day that already started in Japan, and display on the Watch and in Activity.app disagreeing significantly.
My awards got messed up. I did a perfect July (and got the 7/2016 award), but now that I am Japan the award changed to a perfect August:

I got a perfect October (which I really did), but I did not get the perfect week for the travel week(which was in October):

Update: After a few days in Japan, something strange but illuminating happened: I got the award for July back, but I did not lose the award for August.  I now have both (although I was slacking in August):

At the same time I also received the missing "perfect move week" award, credited on Sunday October 31.  In tandem with this, I also got many many new perfect week awards: All the way back through my time with the Apple Watch I got a perfect week award on Sunday and another one on Monday. It appears as if it recalculated all the awards in the new timezone, and now they were credited on Monday morning, because the European Sunday night happens to be Japanese Monday morning.  It did however not remove the Awards that were credited on Sundays, leading to a huge increase in awards.
I possess my Apple Watch since March, for about 35 weeks that is.  In that time I have no gathered a total of 24 perfect move weeks, 30 perfect exercise weeks, 57(!) perfect stand weeks, and 30 (yes, more than 24) "all perfect" weeks.  Maybe when I return home to Germany I will be credited a perfect November award...

Update2: I'm being showered with undeserved awards.  Today I got a "longest streak for 38 days, although 34 days ago I did not finish the move ring.

Update3: Back in Germany for a few days already.  The undeserved August award is gone and the numbers for the weekly awards have also normalized to the correct values.  The currently running streak is still 3 days too long.

I love traveling but I have the same problems with my appleWatch.

I contacted the Support, It's a well known problem since the watch have launched. The "Bug" isn't fixed yet.

The Genius told me, the only way to handle that problem is to deactivate the automatic time adjustment of the iPhone and Watch.

Well it's not a satisfying solution but it works. The only problem is that you need to calculate the current time as it won’t display the correct local time.


Time Machine after formatting still works? I would like to format my mac, and be able to access old files, photos... from my previous time machine backup.

I have backed up my mac with time machine and I am uncertain if after formatting I will be able to access my backups. Time machine backed up my previous system, its not like an image right? it's different? Will I still be able to access these files?

You will still be able to access your Time Machine backup -- but there is really no way to be assured that it will work fully and that no files have been corrupted since they were first backed up. If you have enough space, I would recommend making a new backup on its own partition with SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner (the free/trial versions should suffice for a one-time backup), before wiping your mac. Note that if your external hard drive happens to fail before you've copied the stuff back onto your Mac, you will lose all your data, so it would be even better if you could make a second backup to independent media before wiping your Mac.


Setting a clipboard kind without setting "styled Clipboard text" I am developing a tool to add a HTML-ized version of a text to the clipboard. Currently, I'm using applescript to manipulate the clipboard.

Unfortunately, I realized that in addition to the entries I ask it to add, it also adds the entry styled Clipboard text. This, I believe, causes applications like Pages to fail to paste the HTML-ized version.

To see the current state of the clipboard I use (with the word "while" in the clipboard).

$ osascript -e "the clipboard as record"
«class utf8»:while, «class ut16»:while, string:while, Unicode text:while

I add the HTML variant as follows (the HTML is encoded as a hex string):

$ osascript -e "set the clipboard to ((the clipboard as record) & {«class HTML»:«data HTML3c6d65746120636861727365743d277574662d38273e3c7072653e3c7370616e207374796c653d22636f6c6f723a20236364303063643b223e7768696c653c2f7370616e3e3c2f7072653e0a»})"

After adding the HTML variant, the clipboard contains:

Unicode text:while,
string:while,
styled Clipboard text:«data styl01000000000010000E00030000000C00000000000000»,
«class utf8»:while,
«class HTML»:«data HTML3C6D65746120636861727365743D277574662D38273E3C7072653E3C7370616E207374796C653D22636F6C6F723A20236364303063643B223E7768696C653C2F7370616E3E3C2F7072653E0A»,
«class ut16»:while

Pasting this into Pages (-09) cause the plain text version of the text to be inserted.

However, when copying the same from the gmail editor in Chrome it can be pasted with highlight information into Pages. In this case the clipboard contains:

«class utf8»:while,
«class HTML»:«data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»,
«class ut16»:while,
string:while,
Unicode text:while

My conclusion is that the difference is the styled Clipboard text entry.

So, over to the real question. How can I set the HTML entry without setting the styled Clipboard text entry.

I have tried several approaches. For example, I have tried to set the clipboard to only contain a string and a HTML entry, but still the extra entry is included. I have also tried to set the styled Clipboard text entry to the empty string but that also set all the plain-text entries to the empty string as well.

I don't think the pbcopy command line tool is powerful enough to do this, as it set the clipboard to a new value.

While I'm currently using applescript to do this, I'm open to using any tool available, preferably a scriptable one (so that I don't have to ask the users to perform a compilation).

After some investigation I found that you can manipulate the Pasteboard from Python, without having it introduce the styled Clipboard text entry. I reimplemented the ruby/applescript module in Python, so now I can copy syntax highlighted text from Emacs and paste it either into dumb applications like the terminal window or applications that can handle formatted text, like Pages.


Mavericks+: (Desktop Wallpaper) How can I use both the Apple Desktop Pictures and a local folder? I enjoy the built in wallpapers that are shipped with Mavericks, but I also want to supplant those with the wallpapers that I have within my user folder.

In System Preferences -> Desktop & Screen Saver, the option only appears to be EITHER the Apple -> Desktop Pictures OR Folders -> My local wallpaper folder.

Does anyone know of a way to blend the two and have both sets cycle through?

You can move your wallpapers into /Library/Desktop Pictures/ and have them in single location. This shouldn’t affect the system because I have the wallpapers since Leopard and each OS update only include more wallpapers.

Go ahead and include yours in there. Make sure you make a backup of /Library/Desktop Pictures/ just in case you want to revert them back to default state.


OS X installer booting instead of Macintosh HD Accidentally closed MacBook Pro while installing El Capitan. Now only bootable disks are my bootcamp, Recovery, and OS X installer. Macintosh HD shows up in Disk Utility and I've tried repairing it, no errors. On the properties it shows that it isn't bootable, that's it.

Just install the system again: it shouldn't overwrite any files outside of the system.


Should I use Dropbox or Aperture to back up iPhone photos? I want to back up my iPhone 4 photos and have been just downloading them into Aperture and then deleting them from my phone. No desire to do any of the various sharing options, I just want to make sure I keep a copy of the photos in a safe place. Would it be better to use Dropbox? I'm thinking I need to choose one or the other.

If you have your Photostream set up in Aperture and on your iPhone, the photos will also get automatically downloaded to your computer. Dropbox has a similar feature, so if you wanted automatic backups, you could set up both Photostream and Dropbox sync and then back up your Aperture library (from Photostream) to your external HD. That way you have three copies, one of which you cannot modify from your phone.


I cannot change Game Centre Profile name When I first put in my nickname I used emoji with the name. now each time I try to sign in to change the name a box comes up saying to update my account cannot connect to server. As far as I know my account is updated. However the emoji keyboard no longer is available when I sign in. How do I fix this?

To log in to Game Center, you use your Apple ID email and password, not your Game Center nickname. Go to Settings > Game Center, tap your current nickname (under Game Center Profile) and then you should be able to edit it.


Issue with FaceTime and iMessage (iPod touch 4) My sister bought an iPod touch yesterday. Everything seems to work fine except for FaceTime and iMessage.
In both applications, after she signs in with her Apple ID, she can see the next screen for about a second before it automatically reverts back to the 'Apple ID sign in' screen. No error message is shown.

While we couldn't find any information on our specific problem online, we did find some general iPod touch/FaceTime troubleshooting tips which we followed:

We've updated to the latest version of iOS and iTunes
We've verified her Apple ID via the Apple website
We restarted her iPod touch
We made sure there are no active restrictions under 'Settings > General > Restrictions'
We reconnected to our WiFi. We also restarted our router just to be sure

I also tried logging into FaceTime with my own Apple ID on her iPod touch. Surprisingly, the screen no longer reverted back to the previous screen automatically, but I wasn't able to move on to the next one because my account wasn't verified.
After verifying my account on the Apple website, the problem occured on my account as well.

I love Apple products, I do. But after struggling with this problem for an entire afternoon, I want to strangle the guy that thought it was a good idea not to show an error code or at least a short description explaining the problem. On any other device I would've been able to figure out what exactly I was doing wrong in seconds, yet here they leave me guessing.

I managed to fix the issue by changing the following:

Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically = On


How can I mute phone ringing with exceptions? My mother is ailing and I want her to be able to reach me all the time. Also when asleep etc. Is it possible to disable all (phone) sounds with exceptions?

You can activate the Do Not Disturb mode.

In the settings, it lets you choose to allow calls from your favorites. So if you only add your mother’s number to your favorites, it will have the desired outcome.


Is it possible to install a custom screensaver? Is it possible to make or install a custom screensaver on to use on macOS? For example: create a video or GIF and use it as a screensaver.

You can use Xcode to create your own screensaver

but showing a video or GIF probably needs some custom programming.


iTunes sync stuck on step 5: Importing Photos When I'm trying to sync my iPad 4 (iOS7) using my Macbook (Mavericks) it stucks on the stage "Importing photos". It was syncing for more than 9 hours with absolutely no progress until I cancelled it. There are around 500 pictures to import.

The cord is good. USB port works well. I have the most recent iTunes, iPhoto. Already tried to rebuild iPhoto library. Nothing helps.

Please advice.

Deleting ~/Pictures/iPod Photo Cache and emptying the trash did the trick for me.

Just to be clear,

Quit itunes.
Go to your home folder in the Finder
Go to the pictures folder
Right mouse click on "iPhoto Library.photolibrary" and choose Show Package Contents
Move "iPod Photo Cache" to the trash.
Empty the trash.
Open itunes and run a sync


Enable wifi hotspot on Macbook Pro Mid 2014 I am trying to share the internet connection from my MBP Mid 2014. It seems I can only share the internet through the Thunderbolt Bridge or Bluetooth PAN but I need it through the wifi for my Mobile device.

Is there any way I can share the internet connection through wifi ?

Thanks in advance.

You must select ethernet in the "share your connection from"
after you must select Wi-fi in "To computers using"


terminal starts with `no such file or directory` message I removed Enthought Canopy from my Mac and now when I start terminal there's this warning message says

-bash: /Users/myname/Library/Enthought/Canopy_64bit/User/bin/activate: No such file or directory
-bash: /Users/myname/Library/Enthought/Canopy_32bit/User/bin/activate: No such file or directory

of course they don't exist because I deleted the program. How do I remove the message?

You need to edit your profile (.profile, .bashrc, .zshrc, .tcshrc, etc… that is appropriate for your chosen shell) and remove any lines that contain "Enthought". It might be a bit more complicated than just deleting a couple of lines depending on what it did to your login file.


How do I turn a folder into a .jar file? I currently have modified a program that is a .jar file. I had unarchived it and turned the .jar file into a folder so that I could edit it. Now all I need to do is change the folder back into a .jar file so that it is not accessible like a folder. How would I do this?

Jar files are almost zip files in most cases, but I would use the jar cf command for best results.

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/jar/build.html

You could just use OS X compression and then rename the zip file as .jar - but then you might not have a correct manifest file. It's hard to tell without the exact files in hand.


Where is the CE certification on Apple Watch? I've looked everywhere it seems, but I can't find any trace of any CE or FCC certification on the Apple Watch. Now I hear FCC has loosened up lately, but not CE. All electronics have to carry a CE symbol if sold within EU. So where is it?

After scrutinising every angle of the Apple Watch I finally spotted the CE marking!

It is hidden on the inside of the slot that holds the wristband. See pict below. The etchings are not visible to the eye. The shot was taken with my iPhone X. Even using the x2 lens, I had to pinch zoom quite a lot  to get this picture.

I can only imagine this must have taken an army of certification experts to make it happen. Kudos to Apple for putting much effort into creating a clean product! It really throws some light on the amazing amount of work it takes to make something perfect.


Empty space on Macintosh HD drive Below is a screenshot for Macintosh HD drive storage.

It shows that I have 82.47 GB storage for "Other". How to delete and free up this space?

I checked ~/Downloads and ~/Desktop, both are less than 2 GB.

I also emptied out ~/Library/Cache and ~/Library/Cache folders.

I am running OS X 10.11.2.

I suggest you to use the DaisyDisk application (a free trial is also available).

This app help you to find out how you are using the space available and so you can identify what is occupying a large amount of space in your HD.


How can I check via software if my iPhone is unlocked? I have a carrier-unlockable iPhone. That means they sell it locked but will unlocked upon request.

As is generally the case with carriers, mine is a sack of incompetence. I requested the unlock and got many different responses and directionless guidance in the process. I have reason to believe it may be the case that they did attempt to unlock it at some point.

I'd like to know how I can check wether my device is still carrier-locked or not.

I'm on a Mac, and I'm enrolled in the iPhone developer program. It would be of more general use to have an answer that doesn't depend on the latter, tho.

While "just pop in a SIM card from another carrier" is a technically feasible answer, I'd rather have one that doesn't involve my getting off my chair.

So in the end I had to do the SIM card dance.

In fact, it seems what the carrier does is mark your phone as allowed for unlock.

Then, the first time you put a SIM card from another carrier, you must connect to iTunes, which will then perform a series of annoyances and alerts and whatnot, and only then your device will be truly unlocked. You need an internet connection for this process.

I know this is a terrible answer to my own question.


Mac OS wont open a file if the App is open - Need to quit the app every time to open files Long time Mac user but never had this problem before and it's driving me nuts.

Every time I open a file by double clicking on it, it will refuse to open if the application is already open. Weirdly it will do the quick icon expanding flash you see when you open a file, but it wont load.

I will need to quit the app, then open the file again for it to open. Then, once in the application I can select open from the pull-down menu which works.

It is happening on all types on applications not just one, Photoshop, Excel, Word, Preview, Quicktime etc

I then attempted to show this to a friend and it completely stopped happening for a few hours (sods law) at that moment! It does seem to momentarily start working again.

How might I resolve this weird behaviour?

There's a few things to try here to help us narrow down this problem.

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
Now log into your Mac and (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice)
Now test to see if you have the same problem
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac as normal
Once again, test to see if you have the same problem

Once you've done this let me know how you went and we'll go from there.


Skype puts macOS users on mute for all calls on macOS Sierra All of the Mac users in my organisation get put on mute whenever they make or receive Skype calls. None of the Windows users are affected.  It mutes their microphones (headset or built-in) when their outgoing call is connected, but if you add a second call to that they stay off mute.

Their microphones are similarly muted whenever they answer a Skype call, whether or not it's a group call.

We're on Skype 16.3.240 right now, but it's been the case for a few months now.

Seems to have been fixed in the latest patch from Microsoft.


Suddenly "Safari Starts With: A New Window" Setting Is Missing I have a macbook pro 13" from 2015 running Mojave at the moment. Recently something odd happened and selection of how safari opens has two options."All windows, and all non-private windows". It used to have one more option called "A New Window" and now it is missing.
I would really love to get rid of anxiety I have each time I open my laptop in a cafe or something because of obvious reasons.

Thanks in advance!
Cheers,
~bio

That setting is dependant on another setting in System Prefs > General > Close Windows when quitting an app.
If that is checked, you get the new Window option. If it is unchecked, then you're essentially telling Safari [& all apps] to remember what they were doing at quit.


Virtualizing Mac OS X on Linux - is it legal? While browsing i found an interesting tool in sourceforge.net
it says

Mac-on-Linux is a Linux/PPC program that virtualizes Mac OS or Mac OS X in Linux.

Is it legal In india?

On Apple hardware, yes - as of OSX Lion / Lion Server.  Otherwise, no - it's a violation of the EULA.


Do refurbished Macs come in the standard boxes when ordered from the online store Do refurbished Macs come in the standard boxes when ordered from the online store?

Speaking from experience, I can tell you that they do not come in the retail packaging. There are instead shipped in white box packaging.

My Mac was delivered by UPS, it was just the white box, with the handle, on the side of the box was the barcodes and address etc, there was a mention of Apple on the barcode stickers, but no Apple logos, or images.

The standard iMac box, I also know from experience, has an image of the iMac on the outside and is a thinner box (I'm guessing as it doesn't need to be shipped). It also has a gloss finish whereas a refurb box has a matt finish.

I also received a keyboard and mouse with my refurbished Mac and the internal box with these in had

  Apple Refurbished Products

on the exterior.


Why is iAd Workbench completely broken? Since the release of iOS 9, I can't view my ad revenue. Every time I try to pull up iAd Workbench, I get this message:

It looks like a Java error. It happens on my phone as well.

Safari on a Mac. Yosemite 10.10.5
Mobile Safari on my iOS 9-running iPhone 6
Google Chrome on 64-bit Windows 7

What gives?

If you have that many browsers failing, you should contact Apple Developer support to have them check on things.

https://developer.apple.com/contact/

The system status show no outage so you'll need someone on the inside to point out what you're doing wrong or fix what they're doing wrong (other than still using Tomcat, I suppose).


Find My iPhone "Erase Pending" & No Passcode My sister just got her iPhone 6S stolen. She somehow managed to ignore my advice to apply a passcode. We put the phone into "erase mode" right after we noticed it was gone.

Theoretically speaking, what info does the thief have access to? I know the phone will enter erase mode as soon as it connects to a network, but assuming it doesn't, and assuming the thief does not elect to wipe it himself, what kind of information can he access?

First, be sure to go to this Apple Support page and follow the instruction for what to do if your iOS device is lost or stolen.  Your options will be limited, as will your ability to control the 'damage' the person with the iPhone can do, because it wasn't protected.

  What if your device is off or offline?

  If your missing device is off or offline, you can still put it in Lost Mode, lock it, or remotely erase it. The next time your device is online, these actions will take effect. If you remove the device from your account while it's offline, any pending actions for the device will be cancelled.

The thief can simply not allow the iPhone to access the internet and then do whatever they want with the data on it.  They will have access to any app that's not password/passcode/fingerprint protected.

I would recommend you change the password, ASAP, for any app/site that is accessible on the iPhone.


How to use OSX to create a bootable USB key to install Windows 8.1 on a PC I have a PC laptop without OS and I would like to install Windows 8.1 on it.

How can I prepare a bootable Windows USB key in Yosemite?

I have to use OSX to prepare the bootable USB Key, as I have no Windows machine to create it on.
Is it possible? How can I do it?

I saw this post: Creating A Bootable USB Of Windows 8.1 On OS X?
but here the final destination seems another Mac.
Have I to follow the same procedure?

Quick shot:

Download and install VirtualBox
Create a new Windows VM with your Windows 8.1.iso (x64)
Copy the Windows 8.1.iso (x64) to your VM (network sharing)
Download and install Rufus
Plug in your thumb drive and attach it to the VM
Create a bootable thumb drive with Rufus. You may even choose UEFI or BIOS.

Not smart but it should work...

I'm searching for a faster way without creating a VM


iMac applications restored from back-up are not opening My  one year old  iMac failed  to  boot, after   SMC  and  PRAM  reseting  I  got  the  hard disc replaced  and it is working again.

Now  when  I  opened  my  back up,  all  the  applications  were there  but  many of them  including  iPhoto  won't  work  with  error  message  saying  that  it  is  not  compatible  with  the Mountain Lion.

I don't know  how  to recover  my  photos. If  I  go  for  data recovery  will  it be  able  to  recover my  photos  and  can  they  be  viewed  normally  or  only through  iPhoto.

Are you running the program from the backup HD directly, or did you do a Migration Assistant (the latter would be better, its located in Utilities).

Also, your photos are in /Users/(you)/Pictures/iPhoto Library.  As long as you have this folder, your photos are not lost.

The next step is just to install (or update) and get iPhoto working again.  Try to install from your CD (if you have any) or app store.  As soon as it is working again, it will be able to find your pictures in the above folder on your new Mac.


iPhone 4 "A Series" battery? I was just about to order a replacement for my iphone 4, when I noticed there are apparently two different types. Both are claimed to be genuine apple batteries, however one costs nearly 10GBP more than the other. The only difference I can tell is that one of them is called "iPhone 4 Battery A Series"

Anyone has an idea what the difference might be?

I have gotten an answer from the seller, who states that they are both the same. Hm, price targeting?


How to repair permissions after removing the "wheel" group from my hard drive? Is there a command in Single User Mode to recover/reinstall the start-up wheel (with root its user access).

I removed wheel as a group from any file/folder it had permissions for or access to. I didn't just change the permission, I actually clicked the (-).

I thought it was a hipster nickname for an actual user from the previous owner. Stupid, I know.

The problem is that without the start-up wheel, literally every reboot, restart, recover attempt gets hung up at the screen with the Apple and the spinning wheel. The only mode or screens I can access are Single User or Verbose (which can't reboot) because they are the only two that don't run through the traditional start-up path (spinning wheel).

I've tried every key +power button combo listed anywhere. No safe mode, no recovery, no boot from another drive...nothing.

System specs:

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X 10.6.8

This not-really-an-answer answer probably doesn't solve your problem, though the result is so astounding/interesting not to dump it in the comment section:

I set up a virtual machine with Snow Leopard Server (10.6.8). After deleting (not just disabling rwx!) all wheel group permissions of /bin, /sbin, /private, /System and all subsequent files and folders as well as those of all relevant folders in /Library with either an admin or the root account and afterwards totally removing the group wheel with the workgroup manager, the system still boots properly. Some apps don't work properly (e.g. Terminal in the admin account; it still works in the root account).

Consequently I can't reproduce your problem.

You may try the following in Single User Mode:

At the prompt enter:

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.notifyd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskmanagementd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.securityd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.configd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskarbitrationd.plist
diskutil repairPermissions /

If the loading of com.apple.configd.plist doesn't find an end you may just enter launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskarbitrationd.plist or after entering ctrlC continue with launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskarbitrationd.plist

If you don't get a new prompt :/ root# after waiting some time, you may just enter the next command. You may also modify the sequence of the five load commands. I needed three attempts to get that working.

You should now see a wall of notifications. It should take about 20-30 minutes to repair everything.


Mp3 player that lets you go back 5 seconds with the left arrow I'm looking for a mp3 player software that lets you go back say 5 seconds of the audio clip by pressing the left arrow key.

I'm using this as a means to memorize, and I used to use winamp on the PC and was wondering what choices I have on a Mac.

As always VLC will do that for you. The key combination:

⌘ +^ + →

from within VLC will skip forward 5 seconds. Left arrow for backwards.

You can also change the key combination, as well as skip, 10 or more seconds depending on the combination you choose from the menu, VLC>Prefernces>Hotkeys:


How do I make ⌘← and ⌘→ work for home/end combo for Terminal? Why does fn-⇧-→ (or others) do a home/end in Terminal but a ⌘-→ works everywhere else?

So just to be clear the question is how to make Terminal take Command + ← and → for home and end?

As convenient as it would be, Terminal can't easily provide the functionality you ask for.

The reason is that programs that run inside Terminal have different rules for moving the cursor to the beginning/end of the line, for example:

bash (and other shells) use CtrlA and CtrlE
vi uses 0 and $/Shift4

Other programs may use other keys. There isn't a universal key combination for positioning the cursor at the beginning/end of the line.

Of course, Terminal could maintain a list of key combinations for a number of common programs, check what's running and send the correct keys for you, or it could provide a menu item like Move Cursor To Beginning Of Line Inside Shell ⌘← and then send CtrlA behind the scenes. But I guess Apple engineers thought that if you venture in CLI territory you know its idiosyncrasies.

As a side note, Terminal provides Option← and Option→ which behaves in bash as you would expect and moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous/next word. That's because these key combinations are mapped to Escb and Escb (see man bash, section "Commands for Moving" for more information). In vi, for example, only the latter (kind of) works (at the end of this answer I'll show how to configure vi to work with Option← and Option→).

But thanks to Automator, AppleScript and bash aliases you can get ⌘← and ⌘→ to work with bash (and possibly other shells) and vi.

The first step is to map ⌘← and ⌘→ to CtrlA and CtrlE. In a second step, I'll show you how to configure vi to honor CtrlA and CtrlE (which, as a result, will make vi compatible with ⌘← and ⌘→).

Map ⌘← and ⌘→ to CtrlA and CtrlE

In Terminal, go to Preferences...>Settings>[your active profile]>Keyboard:

Press +, select "Cursor Left", "Control-Shift" as modifier and action "Send Text:". Then press CtrlA (\001 will appear in the text field) and confirm with OK:

(In a previous version of this answer I used "Shift" as a modifier. I've noticed that this setting conflicts with ⌘shift←, which shows the previous Terminal tab, if you don't let go of ⌘ immediately. Using "Control-Shift" fixes that.)
Now add a key combination for "Cursor Right", but  press CtrlE (\005 will appear in the text field). Confirm with OK.
Open Automator (for example, hit ⌘space to bring up Spotlight and type Automator), select File>New and choose Service:

Drag Run AppleScript to the right pane:

Type the following script:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "System Events"
        tell application process "Terminal"
            key code 123 using {shift down, control down}
        end tell
    end tell
end run

and save as Move Cursor to Beginning of Line:

Repeat steps 4. to 6. with this script:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "System Events"
        tell application process "Terminal"
            key code 124 using {shift down, control down}
        end tell
    end tell
end run

and save as Move Cursor to End of Line:

This is what Terminal>Services looks like now:

Configure vi to honor CtrlA and CtrlE

Open .bashrc with your favorite editor and add this line:

alias vi='vim -c "map <C-A> 0" -c "map <C-E> $" -c "map <Esc>b B" -c "map <Esc>f E"'

The first two map commands tell vim to interpret ControlE and ControlA as $ and 0, which move the cursor to the beginning or end of line, respectively.

The last two map commands tell vim to move the cursor one word at a time as you would expect when pressing option← and Option→.

Caveats

You will notice that there is a short delay between the moment you press ⌘← or ⌘→ and the moment the cursor actually moves.

Bear in mind that it will only work for programs that honor CtrlA/CtrlE, so you may still want to learn the specific key combinations of each program you use in Terminal.

(Tested on macOS Sierra 10.12.4)


Why does a MacBook throttle without a battery? According to this posted answer, a MacBook Pro will throttle because otherwise its power consumption might exceed the amount supplied by the AC adapter.

However, from my experience, my 2012 MacBook Pro has never gone over perhaps 50W of energy usage, as shown with iStat Menus. My power adapter is an 85W MagSafe adaptor. Because of this, it seems like even without throttling the power consumption never would exceed the amount used.

So why would this MacBook throttle if I took out the battery, as suggested by the answer above, even though the power adapter can supply enough power to sustain peak performance?

The CPU and GPU can draw more power than the AC adapter can provide as the battery serves as a capacitor and reserve. It smoothes out the voltage when a surge is needed. If the system over draws, voltage drops a little and subtle computing errors happen. If the voltage drops too far, the system shuts down entirely and abruptly.

To be reliable and fast, the battery is needed and the system slows down to preserve the correctness of the function. This is a very well tested design, so it’s not an accident that this happens and it’s not for some small reason. This can be measured with oscilloscopes and quantified precisely.

All the measurements you are doing are time averaged. You’ll want to look at millisecond to second level time scales to see this voltage compensation happen.

Apple engineers work from Intel specs on voltage drop curves and tolerances to meet the needs of the power handling on the Intel side as well as manage the battery and charging circuitry and also build in tolerances for aging gear and adapters.


Partitions: Create Bootable USB to load Windows 10 install I am using a MacBook pro running Catalina to create a bootable USB that I can use to install Windows 10 on another machine.  Initially I formatted the USB as FAT32, but the Windows setup ISO includes a file that is greater than the max file size (4 GB).

I understand that ExFAT can handle files greater that 4 GB, but cannot be bootable.  Therefore my plan was to partition the USB to have a FAT32 bootable partition, and an ExFAT partition.  I would then load the ISO onto the second partition.

The problem I have now is that I cannot re-partition the USB drive.  The option in the disk utility is greyed out.  I erased it with a number of different formats, but to no avail.  I also investigated command line options for eraseDisk but it doesn't seem to take a partition size parameter.

So, the question is can I create a bootable USB that will store a file greater than 4GB?  How?

Secondly, if there is a better way to go about installing Windows 10 on a bare machine, please let me know.

Your question lack sufficient information to properly answer. I will assume the machine where you wish to install Windows is a PC and not a Mac.

Certain Windows 10 ISO files can contain at least one file to large to be saved on a FAT32 formatted volume. However, when the same release of Windows 10 is saved to a USB flash drive by the Windows media creation tool, smaller files are substituted for the ones to large to fit on a FAT32 formatted volume.

One solution you be to install VirtualBox on you Mac. This is a free product. You can then use your Windows 10 ISO file to install Windows as a virtual machine. Once booted to Windows, you can download the free media create tool from Microsoft. This tool can be used to create a bootable Windows 10 installation USB flash drive.

  Note: After installing VirtualBox, you will need to install the VirtualBox Extension Pack in order to access a physical flash drive from the virtual machine.


Scheduling a "sleep" event on Power Manager I am using Mac OS El Capitan on my macbook pro and have just installed Power Manager following your recommendations elsewhere on this website (see Low Battery Alert for Mac OS X El Capitan).

However, I see only an option to power down the computer when the battery charge falls below a specified level. I would like to simply display a pop-up warning on the screen along with a sound alarm and, if continued unheeded for a few minutes, put the laptop to sleep instead of powering down. I guess the way to achieve this would be a script; could you send me such a script indicating wherever I have to insert my preferred parameters? Thanks.

Below are the steps to creating an event to run an AppleScript when the battery level drops below 30%:

Power Manager > File (menu) > New Empty Event;
Double-click new Untitled event to open in editor;
Add a trigger > Power Remaining > Battery 30% Left
Add an action > Run Script > AppleScript
AppleScript action > Cog > Edit
Copy and paste in the AppleScript below
Apply then Save

AppleScript to copy and paste into event:

#!/usr/bin/osascript
try
    with timeout of 10 seconds
        display dialog "Your battery has dropped below 30%" with icon caution buttons {"OK"} default button 1
        say "Low battery"
    end timeout
on error -- likely timeout
    tell application "Finder" to sleep
end try

I wrote Power Manager. If you need support for Power Manager, please get in touch via support@dssw.co.uk.


AppleScript and Growl: How to choose the display style? I'm using AppleScript and calling Growl notifications and I notice that it ignores my choice of using Bezel as my system default style. It only changes if I manually change it in Growl's preferences.
How can I choose a style through AppleScript?
I ask this because different styles would be better for different notifications type.

Each Applescript you use Growl with registers itself as a different application with Growl.

After the first time you use a script, you can go to Growl's settings. Look for the application name you registered the script as. (This is configurable in the register as application "Application Name" line when scripting Growl.)

Once you've used the script once, it should show up in Growl's settings. In there you can customize the display location and style specifically for that script, or as Growl calls it, that "application".

If you need more info about using Growl with Applescript, I have a blog post here, which explains how it works and provides a pre-built Applescript handler that you can drop into your scripts and call with a single line of code.


Using iTunes match on a computer that has two libraries I was thinking of subscribing to iTunes Match. I share my computer with my sister who also has a iTunes library. She has no interest in iTunes match what so ever but I don't want her songs in my cloud. Can I:

Make a separate library under the same user account (on the actual computer) and only match one library leaving the other one unaffected?
Make another account on the computer, having the two libraries under different accounts, and only matching one library leaving the other one unaffected?

See what I want to do? I don't want my sister's library to be affected by the fact that mine is being matched. Anybody have any experience in this or have any thoughts?

In general it's recommended to have one computer account per user (in your case one for your sister and one for yourself), each with its own settings, home folder, iTunes library etc. This also takes care of separating mail, calendars, iTunes Match settings etc. without having to go through a lot of loops.

In addition you need a separate AppleID for each user (especially if both want to use iTunes Match independently).


Can't detect bootcamp partition on windows installation I followed this site for the instruction on how to boot up windows on my bootcamp partition: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/install-windows-on-mac/

Now I'm stuck in the VM ware installation.
The setup runs but once I get to the formatting page, the installer can't detect any storage.
I tried formatting  bootcamp to and ntfs using ntfs 3g but it still won't work. (I'm really not sure what I'm doing at this point)

Right now, I have the VM and the bootcamp partition of 60 Gb formatted in Fat32.

Now, I'm not sure if this solution will work, but how can I make the installer detect my storage so I can proceed to the next steps?

I have a macbook 4,1 early 2008 running on OS X lion (10.7.5) and I'm using VMware 6
I'm trying to install win7_32bit

Thanks in advance for those who will offer some help :)

I do not have VMware 6 so I can not post a direct answer to your question. I believe the reference link given in your question has left out many steps that need to be taken in order for you to succeed. There is two previous answers posted here at Ask Different where VirtualBox was used to install 64 bit Windows 7 on older Macs. The links are given below.

Boot camp install of Windows 7 issue, no bootable devices
No bootable device USB 2.0 MacBook Pro mid 2014

VirtualBox is a free product. Since you are using OS X lion, you would have to install an older version of VirtualBox.


No bootable device USB 2.0 MacBook Pro mid 2014 I've been tearing my hair out the last couple days trying to get Windows installed.
I have a MacBook Pro Retina 15 inch mid 2014. Yosemite version 10.10.1.
Win 7 64 bit iso (sha1 - 0bcfc54019ea175b1ee51f6d2b207a3d14dd2b58).

I have tried two usb 2.0 flash drives with 'Create a Windows 7 or later install disk' option in BCA. This proceeds smoothly and so does creating the partition using Install Windows 7 option.  However, when it restarts, it says something along the lines of 'no bootable device'  If I hold down 'alt', the only options are to boot back into OS X & the recovery disk.

I realise this question has been asked countless times - I have read a lot of them but few seem applicable to my situation and those that are have not helped yet. I have not tried another USB yet since I am bandwidth limited (both in download speed and data limit) and BCA wants to redownload Windows support files every time and at this point it feels like a shot in the dark.

Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.  Some further questions:

Is there a way to determine whether the usb drives are at fault?
Does BCA create the bootable drive in any special way? I.e. is it possible to create it by another method that will still play well with the bootcamp process?

Installing Windows 7 or 10 Pro 64 bit without DVD or Flash Drive

If you are trying to install Windows 7 on a 2012 through 2014 Mac, then you should read my answer to this question.

  Special thanks to user Rafa, who was able to correct this procedure so it now works with Windows 10.

Here I assume your computer is configured as required by the Boot Camp Assistant. (In other words, you will be installing Windows to the 4th partition on disk 0.) Also, your firmware is up to date and you have downloaded the correct "Boot Camp Support Software" for your model Mac computer. Before starting, remove all DVD's and external devices from your Mac.

  Note: Some of the steps, that do not involve VirtualBox, have images captured from a VirtualBox window. This was done when this was the easiest way to create an illustration. I suppose I could have cropped the images, but I chose not to.

(Hint: For a better view, click on an image or open an image in a new window.)

Create a MS-DOS (FAT) formatted partition on your Macs internal
drive. This is where Windows 7 will be installed. You can use the
Bootcamp Assistant, the Disk Utility, or commands (distutil, gpt
and/or fdisk) entered in a Terminal window. Other third party
tools, such as gdisk, can also be used. Give the label for
this partition the name "BOOTCAMP". When finished, quit all
applications.

  This procedure requires the "BOOTCAMP" partition be the 4th partition on your Macs internal drive (disk0). If you are using the
  Disk Utility from OS X 10.7 or newer and your Mac has the default
  drive configuration, then the new "BOOTCAMP" partition should be
  created as the 4th partition automatically. However, if you are using APFS and the default drive configuration, then the new "BOOTCAMP" partition should be
  created as the 3th partition automatically.

Make sure the drive is using the GPT/MBR hybrid partitioning scheme. See my answer to the question "How to convert a drive from the GPT format to the hybrid GPT/MBR format when using High Sierra (macOS 10.13.2)" for a procedure that accomplishes this task.

  User Semi has noted that the Boot Camp Assistant (BCA) will correctly GPT/MBR hybrid partition the drive. So, you may be able to the the BCA to partition the drive, then use the flash drive to install Windows.

Download and install a free copy of VirtualBox. I used
VirtualBox 5.0.14 r105127, Copyright © 2016.
Do the following to transfer the "Boot Camp Support Software" to a
partition compatible with VirtualBox. Create folder named
"VirtualBox" in your Documents folder. Open the Disk Utility and
from the menu bar select File->New->Blank Disk Image. Create
this image in the "VirtualBox" folder using the following
parameters.

Using the Finder application, copy the "Boot Camp Support Software"
to this new partition. When finish, this new partition should appear
in the Finder as shown below. (For readers with older Macs, you may
only have the "BootCamp" folder.)

This step will create the file needed by VirtualBox to access the
partition containing the "Boot Camp Support Software". In a Terminal
application window, enter the following commands.

  Note: I assume you are using the default Bourne-Again Shell (bash).

cd  ~/documents/virtualbox
open  bcss.dmg
DISK1=$(mount|awk  -F  s1  '/BCSS/{print$1}')
diskutil  unmountDisk  $DISK1
vboxmanage  internalcommands  createrawvmdk  -filename  "$PWD/bcss.vmdk"  -rawdisk  $DISK1

The result should be the creation of the file bcss.vmdk in your
"VirtualBox" folder. Later, you will select this file to give a
virtual machine access to this partition.

  Note: At this point, one should realize it would be easier to copy the commands from this document and paste them into the Terminal
  application window.

This step will create the files needed by VirtualBox to access the
physical partition where you will install Windows. In a Terminal
application window, enter the following commands.

cd  ~/documents/virtualbox
DISK0=/dev/disk0
PARTITION=4
PARTID="$DISK0"s"$PARTITION"
diskutil  unmount  $PARTID
sudo  chmod  go+rw  $PARTID
sudo  vboxmanage  internalcommands  createrawvmdk  -filename  "$PWD/bootcamp.vmdk"  -rawdisk  $DISK0  -partitions  $PARTITION
sudo  chown  $USER  bootcamp*.vmdk

  Note: This access granted by the chmod command will only last
  until OS X is rebooted.

The result should be the creation of the files bootcamp.vmdk and
bootcamp-pt.vmdk in your "VirtualBox" folder. Later, you will
select the file bootcamp.vmdk to give a virtual machine access to
the physical partition.

  Note: OS X prefers to automount file systems. This can be disabled for a particular partition by creating or modifying the /etc/fstab
  file. Instead of employing the /etc/fstab file, the user is asked
  to repeatedly enter the following commands.

diskutil  unmount  $PARTID;diskutil  unmountDisk  $DISK1

  These commands unmount the physical "BOOTCAMP" partition and the disk image file bcss.dmg containing the "BCSS" partition.

Configure the virtual machine. Open the VirtualBox application and
click on icon above the New label. Enter or select the values shown
below, then click the "Continue" button.

Use the default settings except for the hard drive. Choose the "Use
an existing virtual hard drive file" button. Navigate to your
"VirtualBox" folder. Highlight the bootcamp.vmdk file. Before
clicking the "Open" button, enter the following commands in the same
Terminal application window.

diskutil  unmount  $PARTID;diskutil  unmountDisk  $DISK1

Open the bootcamp.vmdk file. Your window should appear similar to
what is shown below.

Click the "Create" button.

After returning to the VirtualBox application's "Oracle VM
VirtualBox Manager" window, click on the icon above the
"Settings" label. Next, click on the icon above the "Storage" label.
In the "Storage Tree", "Controller: SATA" should be highlighted.
Right click on this highlighted area and select "Add Hard Disk".
Choose the "Use an existing virtual hard drive file" button.
Navigate to your "VirtualBox" folder. Highlight the bcss.vmdk
file. Before clicking the "Open" button, enter the following
commands in the same Terminal application window.

diskutil  unmount  $PARTID;diskutil  unmountDisk  $DISK1

Open the bcss.vmdk file. Next, select the "Use Host I/O Cache"
option. Your window should appear similar to what is shown below.

Highlight the Empty CD/DVD and select "Choose Virtual Optical Disk
File..." to attach your Windows 7 iso file. (Hint: Look for the
CD/DVD icons)

Click OK to close the window. Your "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager"
window should appear similar to what is shown below.

In this step, you will copy the necessary files to the physical
partition, so later you can restart your Mac and install Windows.
Enter the following commands in the same Terminal application
window.

diskutil  unmount  $PARTID;diskutil  unmountDisk  $DISK1

Next, click on the icon above the "Start" label to boot from the
Windows 7 iso file. Press the space bar, if prompted to "Press any
key to boot from CD or DVD."

  Note: The mouse pointer must be over the virtual machine screen window before you press the space bar.

When the display below appears, click the "Next" button.

When the display below appears, select "Repair your computer".

With the button "Use recovery tools that can help fix problems
starting Windows." selected, click the Next button.

Select the "Command Prompt" option.

Insure the drive letters C through F are not assigned by default
to a volume by entering the following commands.

mountvol  c:  /d  >nul
mountvol  d:  /d  >nul
mountvol  e:  /d  >nul
mountvol  f:  /d  >nul

Enter the following to determine a list of the current volumes.

diskpart
list  volume

The image below displays the volumes found on my Mac. You may get
different results.

Enter the following commands, to assign the drive letters D, C
and E to the CD-ROM volume and the volumes labeled "BOOTCAMP" and
"BCSS", respectively. In the image shown above, these are volumes 0,
3 and 4. If your volume indices are different, make the appropriate
substitutions. Also, NTFS format the "BOOTCAMP" volume.

select  volume  3
assign  letter=c
format  quick  fs=ntfs  label=BOOTCAMP
select  volume  0
assign  letter=d
select  volume  4
assign  letter=e
list  volume
exit

When finished, the volume letters should appear similar to what is
shown below.

Next, enter the commands givens below. The bootsect command writes
boot code to a Volume Boot Record (VBR) of a partition and Master
Boot Record (MBR) of the corresponding drive.

bootsect  /nt60  c:  /mbr
bootsect  /nt60  e:  /mbr

The next sequence of commands creates a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)
file. The VHD represents a virtual flash drive from which Windows
will be installed on to the physical "BOOTCAMP" partition.

  Note: If you are installing Windows 10, then the parameter fs=fat32, in the format command shown below, should be replaced
  with fs=ntfs.

diskpart
create  vdisk  file=c:\flashdrive.vhd  maximum=8000  type=fixed
attach  vdisk
create  partition  primary
format  quick  fs=fat32  label=FLASHDRIVE
assign  letter=f
exit

Finally, copy the Windows installer iso and "Boot Camp Support
Software" files first to VHD, then directly to the physical
partition where Windows is to be installed. Exit the Command Prompt
window when finished.

xcopy  d:*  f:  /s  /h
xcopy  e:*  f:  /s  /y
xcopy  f:*  c:  /s  /h
exit

  Note: The files \sources\boot.wim and \sources\install.wim take a long time to copy. The file sizes are 168 MB and 2.95 GB,
  respectively.

Select the "Shut Down" button to shutdown the virtual machine. Quit
the VirtualBox application.
This step will involve configuring Master Boot Record (MBR) of your
physical internal drive. The MBR is stored on the first 512 bytes of
this drive. This space is shared by boot code and the MBR partition
table.

  This step can not be preformed under OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) with System Integrity Protection (SIP) turn on. (This is the default
  setting.) If you are using OS X 10.11, you must disable SIP,
  complete this step, then restore SIP. See the link: How do I
  disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA “rootless” on OS X
  10.11, El Capitan?.

In a Terminal application window, enter the following commands. The
first fdisk command flags the "BOOTCAMP" partition as the active
partition. The second fdisk command changes the "BOOTCAMP"
partition id to 7. The final fdisk command copies the boot code
from the MBR of the disk containing the "Boot Camp Support Software"
partition to the MBR of the physical disk containing the "BOOTCAMP"
partition.

cd  ~/documents/virtualbox
DISK0=/dev/disk0
PARTITION=4
PARTID="$DISK0"s"$PARTITION"
open  bcss.dmg
DISK1=$(mount|awk  -F  s1  '/BCSS/{print$1}')
INPUT=$(printf  "f  $PARTITION\nq\ny")
sudo  fdisk  -e  $DISK0  <<<"$INPUT"  &>/dev/null
INPUT=$(printf  "s  $PARTITION\n7\nq\ny")
sudo  fdisk  -e  $DISK0  <<<"$INPUT"  &>/dev/null
sudo  fdisk  -u  -y  -f  $DISK1  $DISK0
diskutil  mount  $PARTID

  Note: To display the value for the variable INPUT, use the command echo "$INPUT".

This is the step where you install Windows to your "BOOTCAMP"
partition. Restart your Mac and hold down the option/alt
key. Select the Windows icon to boot from the "BOOTCAMP" partition.
Open a Command Prompt window, by navigating through the displays as
you did in step 7. Enter the commands below to attach the
"FLASHDRIVE" partition stored in the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file.

diskpart
select  vdisk  file=c:\flashdrive.vhd
attach  vdisk  readonly
list  volume
exit

On my Mac, the output from the list volume command shows E to
be the drive letter assigned to the "FLASHDRIVE" partition. If your
drive letter is different, make the correct substitution when
entering the e:\setup command given at the end of this step. Next,
remove all the files, but one, from the "BOOTCAMP" partition.

rmdir  /s  /q  c:\

  If the above command executes correctly, you should get the error message: "c:\flashdrive.vhd - The process cannot access the file
  because it is being used by another process."

Start installing Windows 7 by entering the command given below.
Select "BOOTCAMP" as your installation partition.

e:\setup

The installation files are stored in the "FLASHDRIVE" partition.
Since this partition is stored as a VHD file in the "BOOTCAMP"
partition, do not try to reformat the "BOOTCAMP" partition. You will
remove these installation files in a later step. When your Mac
restarts, it will boot to OS X. This is to be expected. From the
"System Preferences" select Windows as your startup disk and restart
the Mac. Your Windows installation will continue.
Once Windows finishes installing, the "Boot Camp Support Software"
 can be applied. To access this software, the c:\flashdrive.vhd
 file, containing the "FLASHDRIVE" partition, needs to be attached.
 Click on the "Start" button, type in diskmgmt.msc and hit the
 return key. Once in Disk Management, click on Action
 in the menu bar and select Attach VHD. Select the file location
 and check "Read-only" to prevent writes to the VHD  file. After you
 hit "OK", the drive will show up in Disk  Management with a blue
 icon. Close Disk Management.

In the AutoPlay popup window, select "Open folder to view files."
 (If no popup appears, use the Windows Explorer to open the drive
 labeled "FLASHDRIVE".) The setup.exe file can be found in the
 folder labeled  "BootCamp". Execute this application to install the
 "Boot Camp Support Software". The VHD file will detach when the
 computer restarts.
Finally, remove DVD and "Boot Camp Support Software" folders and
 files.  This can be accomplished by dragging the
 c:\flashdrive.vhd file to the Recycle Bin. If you get an error
 message about the file being open, restart the computer and try
 again.

Clean Up

The "Virtual Box" folder can be deleted. You will probably need to eject the "BCSS" partition first.

You can delete the "BootCamp" virtual machine. This can be done from the VirtualBox application. If VirtualBox does not remove all the files, you can remove them manually. Look in the ~/"VirtualBox VMs" folder.

You can delete the Windows 7 iso file.

You can remove the VirtualBox application, but since it takes such little space, I would not bother.


Spotlight won't index /Applications I noticed some apps missing from Spotlight, so I tried to force a reindex by adding /Applications to the exclusion list, then removing it. Now it's even worse, as none of my apps are indexed. How do I force this the right way?

Launch Terminal, and type or paste the following command:

sudo mdutil -E /

reindex the spotlight database for everything on the computer, (it might take a while)

Terminal may ask you for your password


Password with £ when using security add-generic-password / find-generic-password How do I add/retrieve a password that contains £ using security add-generic-password and security find-generic-password?
security add-generic-password -a username -s "test" -w abc -U
security find-generic-password -a username -s "test" -w # output: abc
security add-generic-password -a username -s "test" -w abc£ -U
security find-generic-password -a username -s "test" -w # output: 616263c2a3

As a workaround, I now encode and decode to base64:
security add-generic-password -a username -s "test" -w $(echo "abc£" | base64) -U
security find-generic-password -a username -s "test" -w | base64 --decode


discoveryutil: command not found After connecting VPN, I often have to flush DNS to get my private hosts to be found. I would do this

sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache; sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches

Now, after upgrading to Yosemite 10.10.4, I get

sudo: discoveryutil: command not found

So, discoveryutil is gone in 10.10.4? How can I flush DNS now?

Since discoveryutil was replaced by its predecessor mDNSResponder in 10.10.4 use sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder again (like in Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks) to flush the DNS cache.


Mac App Store shows OS X Lion installed after interrupted connection I purchased Lion from the Mac App Store and for some reason my connection got cut, after that Mac App Store says that the app is INSTALLED when i can't see it anywhere.

I tried to check for unfinished downloads but it still says: INSTALLED

I should note that i'm on Lion GM and the installer was downloading in LaunchPad, but i can't see it anymore

i tried:

Rebuilding LaunchServices
Look for the installer

Any idea? thanks

If you select any tab in the App Store except for purchase and hold the option key down when you select purchased, you can re-download the Lion installer.

Using spotlight may also reveal that you have the installer somewhere on the mac - even an external drive and might avoid the delay and bandwidth use to download the installer again.


Merge files & keep bigger file if duplicates? I have several folders each containing several hundred thousands of txt-files, let's call them f1, f2, f3, f4.

I want to move all the files into one folder, say F0 and – if there are duplicate files – keep the bigger files (kb or line count) and delete the smaller ones.

Is there a way to do this relatively quickly?

Many thanks in advance!

edit: Upon trying a simple mv-command, I got -bash: /bin/mv: Argument list too long. So I believe that's another hurdle to be overcome.

If you omit the size test

find f1 f2 f3 f4 -type f -exec mv {} f0/ \;

should do the trick.

With a line count (so the file with more lines wins) and assuming that all files are text files it gets a bit more sophisticated:

find f1 f2 f3 f4 -type f -execdir sh -c \
    '[[ ! -e f0/"$1" || $(wc -l < "$1") -gt $(wc -l < f0/"$1") ]] && \
         mv "$1" f0/' _ {} \;

And finally if you want to compare for file size you need to replace both occurrences of wc -l < (including the <) with stat -f '%z'.

PS: For hundred thousands of text files both find approaches will take a while. The second one using stat should be significantly faster than using wc though.


How to remove "Reminders.app" from Mac OS? How can I delete the folder "Reminders.app" from Mac OS when the current permissions assigned to the folder is currently Read Only for everyone and Read & Write for system?

I've tried sudo / terminal, attempted to change permissions via the finder and all attempts to dislodge the folder result in access denied.  Is rebooting into a special unprotected mode required?

All the default apps are protected by System Integrity Protection.

  To disable System Integrity Protection, you can do the following:

  Boot into the Recovery HD by restarting whilst holding ⌘R.
  Open Terminal (from the Utilities menu).
  Run the following command in Terminal:

csrutil disable

  Restart.

Source: Disable OS X El Capitan Rootless and permit write actions to System Integrity Protection locations

You can re-enable it once you've deleted the app.


Is there a way to control the Numa settings on my iMac? Is there a way to control the numa settings on the iMac (Core i7), OS X 10.7.3?  MacPorts doesn't have numactl and tbb/openmp are both slowing down since the memory is allocated incorrectly.

Does Lion even support NUMA ?
For Snow-Leopard, I thought, there was no NUMA support. German article as source.
I could not find a source for NUMA support in OS X, thus I would say that there's as well no way to control the NUMA-settings ;)
This Intel document states:

On multi-socket machines based on the Intel® Core™ i7 processor, NUMA is typically available as a BIOS boot option, but effective use also requires some OS and some user-level intervention.
Windows* OS support for NUMA started with Windows* Server 2003, and Linux* OS support requires kernel 2.6 or higher.

No OS X mentioned.


MacBook Pro sleeps randomly on the train My MacBook Pro Retina (2014) running 10.12.3 has a strange behavior on the train - while I'm actually using it, it goes to sleep and the only way to wake it up is to close the lid and reopen it.
This happens when the mac is on battery power and on the train - doesn't happen when I'm in an office.

As instructed by https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3428817?tstart=0 , I ran pmset -g pslog in a terminal, and this is the log that I got after a few times of this random sleep happening:

pmset is in logging mode now. Hit ctrl-c to exit.
2017-04-24 08:35:17 -0700 IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource
Now drawing from 'Battery Power'
 -InternalBattery-0 (id=5046371)    84%; discharging; (no estimate) present: true
2017-04-24 08:36:10 -0700 IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource
 -InternalBattery-0 (id=5046371)    83%; discharging; 2:15 remaining present: true
2017-04-24 08:36:10 -0700 com.apple.system.powersources.timeremaining
2017-04-24 08:36:10 -0700 com.apple.system.powersources.percent
2017-04-24 08:36:10 -0700 com.apple.system.powersources

2017-04-24 08:37:00 -0700 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...Sleeping...
2017-04-24 08:37:08 -0700 com.apple.system.powersources.timeremaining
2017-04-24 08:37:08 -0700 IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource
 -InternalBattery-0 (id=5046371)    83%; discharging; (no estimate) present: true
2017-04-24 08:37:08 -0700 com.apple.system.powersources

2017-04-24 08:37:08 -0700 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...HasPoweredOn...
  Wake Reason = XHC1
  wakeType = HID Activity

2017-04-24 08:37:08 -0700 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...Sleeping...
2017-04-24 08:37:12 -0700 com.apple.system.powersources

2017-04-24 08:37:12 -0700 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...HasPoweredOn...
  Wake Reason = XHC1
  wakeType = HID Activity

2017-04-24 08:37:12 -0700 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...Sleeping...
2017-04-24 08:37:14 -0700 com.apple.system.powersources

2017-04-24 08:37:15 -0700 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...HasPoweredOn...
  Wake Reason = XHC1
  wakeType = HID Activity

2017-04-24 08:37:15 -0700 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...Sleeping...
2017-04-24 08:37:19 -0700 com.apple.system.powersources

2017-04-24 08:37:20 -0700 IORegisterForSystemPower: ...HasPoweredOn...
  Wake Reason = XHC1
  wakeType = HID Activity
^C

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening, and what I can do to prevent it? I'd hate to have to service it.

More than likely, the Reed switch1 that detects when the lid is open/closed is momentarily making contact and sending your MacBook into sleep/hibernation mode. It could be faulty.

This YouTube video shows a MBP going to sleep when a magnet is applied to the area where the switch is located.

It's happening on the train because there is enough movement or bumps in the ride to cause the switch to close.  Closing and opening the lid "resets" the switch which then sends the signal to wake up.  Normally, these switches are pretty robust and movement like that of a vehicle isn't enough to to trip them, but I have seen defective ones that would fail by simply turning the machine upside down (Dell, not Apple).  That said, in over 25 years in IT, I can count the number of times on one hand I have seen this type of symptom.

If you still have Apple Care, take a video of the MacBook going to sleep on the train and how you wake it back up.  Take the video and the MacBook to Apple and have them fix the issue for you.

1 Wikipedia:  Reed switch The Reed switch is an electrical switch operated by an applied magnetic field


Share file between Mac with password? Like the title says, I want to share files between two Macs with password enabled. I've tried to disable the access of guest account and using the account with password. But it doesn't work, the username and password from other mac doesn't match.

Information about my macs:

Mac Pro - Moutain Lion
Macbook pro - Lion

What I've tried:

Enable sharing folder and remove everyone's right to access the shared folder on Macbook.
Using Mac Pro to get the shared files.
If I don't remove the everyone's access right, I can use the shared files / folders normally

This sounds like a job for AirDrop!

You should be able to discover the Macs in your surroundings and then you can simply drag and drop the files.