Is "Ignore ownership on this volume" reversible? In other words, does it just hide the permissions on file, or change them? More specifically, if you have a volume with file on it that have different owners and you check Ignore ownership on this volume, and then later you uncheck it, will the original ownerships/permissions revive correctly?

I have not seen anything that answers this directly, although what I have seen about problems with Ignore ownership settings needing to be reset and about them being recorded in /var/db/volinfo.database suggest that the answer to my questions is yes. Nevertheless, it would be very reassuring if someone could confirm this.

(The context is that I have a bootable backup on an external disk that I would like to keep the permissions intact on so that I can boot from it if needed, but I would also like to be able to read from it on another computer where the users don’t match up to give me access to the relevant files. Being able to switch Ignore ownership on for the latter, and then switch it off again to leave the disk in good condition for potential boot/restore use, looks like it would be a nice, simple way of doing this, but I am concerned about breaking things if I experiment.)

Yes, ignoring ownership is reversible, but I wouldn't recommend that as being a solution to your problem because the Ignore ownership on this volume option shouldn't be used on a drive you also want to use as a bootable drive for one of your Macs. And, since your Macs are running different versions of macOS, you may be asking for added trouble. In addition, you mention that this is also a backup drive - while you don't clarify this, in the case of drives also used by Time Machine Apple recommends:

  Make sure "Ignore ownership on this volume" at the bottom of the "Sharing & Permissions" section of the Get Info window is deselected (unchecked).

Source: https://support.apple.com/HT202380

Ignore ownership on this volume

The main reason the Ignore ownership on this volume option exists is to ensure that file servers, applications, operating systems, etc can still function correctly because they require permissions to keep track of which users have access to which files.

However, drives used purely for data storage (as opposed to being boot volumes) shouldn't generally use permissions and ownership (although they can be secured in other ways).

What I'm saying is that the Ignore ownership on this volume option shouldn't be used for boot disks or server volumes (and you may not even get the option anyway - depending on macOS version). It's best this is only used for drives that are used purely for data storage, and even then only for drives that are directly connected to your computer.


Closing Macbook lid changes external screen to primary I've recently got a new Macbook with Big Sur and I'm observing some different behaviour compared to my old Macbook with Catalina.
I have an external monitor connected as a secondary display and I have a video player streaming on full-screen on it. When I close the lid, on Catalina my video keeps playing on the external secondary display, however on my new laptop when I close the lid the external display turns into primary, and I'm seeing my laptop's windows rather than the video.
Any ideas what might be causing this?

Again, another stab at the dark here:
Either:
(Easy route) remove the monitor's cable from the computer/ or manually put it to sleep OR
open up your terminal and write the command
'pmset -g'
it will display your current power management settings.
from then on you could try disabling lidwake, acwake or messing around with the gpu switch option(though, honestly i think its only related to either enforcing dedicated or external/separate internal gpu settings ).
Also, try disabling the darkwake option.(which is not listed within pmset's man pages but you can google your way thru understanding it)
pmset -c darkwake 0

Note: all pmset values require sudo access


iMessage from IMac to IPhone I'm having difficulty with the iMessage app in the sense that I would like to be able to send an iMessage from my IMac @home to my IPhone @On the road?  How do I do this without creating a different Apple ID for both? They are both mine - but I want to be able to communicate between the two.  Is this possible?  Thanks. Theresa

hmmm… initially I thought this couldn't be done, however.

From messages, start a new conversation, from the top right icon. Start typing your own name until you can select your iMessage-capable account, accept then type the message.
Send.
A few seconds later the message will arrive on both devices & you can then converse with 'yourself' - though it will all appear in both columns, as though you were actually talking to 'yourself'.

Looks odd - but it works.

Tested initiating on both iPhone & Mac. Both work.

iPhone seems to generate multiple conversations for some reason, but the Mac keeps it inline.
Minor inconvenience, I'd say, for the benefits of being able to talk to yourself ;-)


Smart Mailbox -- Google Folder Doesn't Work I have a folder on 3 different email servers that contains notifications of forum replies.  I want to use a Smart Mailbox to view them all in one place.  However, when I go to set this up the Smart Mailbox won't save a folder within my GMail account, only that ONE GMail account.  I have 2 other GMail accounts that work just fine.

So I select the mailbox.

See, it is selected, and now I save it.

Once saved, I go back in, and now no mailbox is selected.

I really don't know what else to try, this isn't a deal breaker but ALL of my other accounts work.  I've tried deleting my Google accounts from the computer (and iCloud) then loading them back but that doesn't work.

The solution was in the fact that my Apple ID has been around for a long time and was the same email address as my GMail account.  I had to go into Apple's site, manage my ID, and then change my Apple ID to its associated iCloud email address.  Then I had to sign out of my Apple ID and back in on my Mac.  The confusion within Mail seemed to be rooted in the fact that it couldn't tell the two accounts apart in the filters since they had the same email address even though I could get mail on my iCloud account without issue.


What is the benefit of nanosecond granularity? Apple recently announced a new file system for Apple products, Apple File System (APFS).  Amongst the characteristics, is Nanosecond Timestamp Granularity. Sure, this sounds impressive, and is a great improvement compared to one-second granularity of HFS+.
Lee Hutchinson writes that:

Nanosecond timestamps are important in a modern file system because
they help with atomicity—in a file system that keeps a record of
writes, having nanosecond-level granularity is important in tracking
the order of operations.

How does nanosecond granularity improve my experience as a user of Apple products?  Or is something I'm not likely to notice?

It makes your file system less likely to lose or corrupt data if it is shut down incorrectly, e.g. by turning your computer off instead of shutting it down. It doesn't affect the user experience except for making your file system more reliable.


Calendar gives error for Gmail Account: 403 CalDAVAccountRefreshQueueableOperation Recently I started getting errors from Calendar.app about my synced Gmail calendars. I haven't made any changes to my Gmail security settings.
Usually if Google needs to be authenticated for macOS apps it pops up a little portal window asking me to sign in. I haven't been able to trigger this window to popup.
It seems that at least one of my calendars is still syncing between Calendar.app and Google Calendar in both directions. All calendars are on the same account.
Just in case this is relevant, I recently (2-ish weeks ago) upgraded a different mac on my apple id to Mojave.
Update:
I have cleared the iCal cache as per google support advice, as well as revoked authorization from google and re-authorized as per this recent thread on google support forum. The issue still remains.
macOS 10.10.5
 The server responded:
“403”
to operation CalDAVAccountRefreshQueueableOperation.

Google Support thread for this issue.
Apple Discussion thread for this issue.

I'm having the same problem. I'm also operating Yosemite (10.10.5)
Saw the solution below for Sierra elsewhere, but it didn't work for me.
+++++++++
This problem appears to be caused by corrupted Calendar caches and it occurs in macOS 10.12.2 Sierra as well.
The easiest way to get rid of this problem is to:
Quit Calendar
Open Activity Viewer and Quit "CalendarAgent"
note, using QuickLook on any calendar item in the Finder will
relaunch CalendarAgent which needs to be not running at step 3
Delete ~/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache
Delete ~/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache-shm
Delete ~/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache-wal
Launch Calendar
Calendar will read the information from the surrounding data folders and files in ~/Library/Calendars/ and recreate the caches cleanly.
If for some reason the files listed to delete re-appear before you launch Calendar, it means something is triggering the system calendar operations. Try quitting all of your applications and starting at step 2 or logging out with the "Reopen windows when logging back in" unchecked, then logging back in.
++++++++


Retrieve old lock screen notifications I pressed the home button on my iPhone 6.  I noticed that there was a notification on the lock screen - something about iCloud.  Before I could read more than a few words, Touch ID helpfully kicked in and unlocked the phone, taking me to my home screen.

I wanted to finish reading it, so I pulled down the notification center from the top and didn't see the message on Today or Notifications.  Is there any way to get such notifications back, or should I develop muscle memory of clicking the home button and quickly removing my thumb from the button to avoid losing these forever?

edit: This no longer appears to be a problem in iOS 10.  woot

Apple messed up, in my opinion, by taking away the "missed" tab on the notification pull down in iOS 8.

The only thing I've found that helps is to navigate to settings > notifications and set "sort by time".   After that you can pull down the notification center, and the notifications will still be grouped by app, but at least they are sorted so the most recent group is on top, then you can scroll down reading the top notifications out of each group until you get "caught up"

Personally I used that "missed" tab more than almost another screen on the phone, I can't believe they eliminated it.


Mac booting loop, I can't recovery or boot from USB im having a big issue with my iMac mid 2011, last night the Imac just reboot itself and after that i can't use it.

There is a white screen (see picture), the logo and loading is always there, sometimes the loading dont get to the end and the Imac reboot itself, an eterna loop of reboot.

I tried all methods about how recovery with USB, from Internet, from the recovery partion and nothing works, in fact the OS doesn't load any visual window like OS X Utility.

The thing is that i don't know if this is a hardware problem like HD or if this is a software problem.

I have the MacOS Sierra

Any idea about it?

Thanks

You might want to try to boot into Verbose Mode. This is a regular boot process, however, the graphical screen is turned off in favour of a terminal-like screen logging everything that happens during boot. This may give you the chance to see an error message indicating the cause of your problem. It is not too likely yet still possible so do give it a try.

To boot verbose you need to press cmd-V upon startup. You may release the keys just after the boot chime has passed. The screen should immediately switch to a white font on a black background. You need a fast eye to read these (cryptic!) messages as you cannot hold them.

Good luck!


What chargers are compatible with A1226? I need to buy a power supply for my A1226 15-inch Macbook Pro (2007), but I can't find any anywhere. Apple's online store, ebay, or amazon. So I'm wondering if the charger doesn't have to be the one for your specific model. I found this charger that says that it's for Macbooks and 13-in Macbook Pros. It's 60W, so I'm guessing that it'll work. Will it?

For your mac you'll need a 85W power adapter like that one.


How can I open a .pkg file manually? Some applications come in .pkg files, and ask for you administrator password, even if all they do is copy the binary to /Applications.

I like to have my applications in ~/Applications, and I do not like to give administrative permissions to anything that is not from the mothership.

Is there a way that I can manually open the .pkg file and pull out the application? There is PackageMaker in the Developer Tools, but that does not seem to do it (it did produce some output that makes me think that there really are no scripts or other pieces in the installer, just the application).

If you right click it, and click Show Package Contents you'll get a few files in a Contents folder. (Note: if you do not see Show Package Contents you will need to open Terminal.app and run pkgutil --expand mystubbornpackage.pkg path/to/expand)

One is a BOM file (bill of materials) which gets turned into a receipt that you can use to uninstall the app.  This file contains a manifest of everything the package will install and where to; to read this file, use the lsbom command.

Most packages (I'm using Office 2008 here) also have an Archive.pax.gz file, this contains everything that Installer will move into the various folders as instructed in the BOM file.  Most apps seem to have the .app in this archive, although dragging that to /Applications might leave it without frameworks it needs to run; so you'll have to figure out which other files it needs and where it needs them to get it to work.

Additionally, all packages can log messages, if you hit Cmd-L (or choose the Installer Log option from the Window menu, you can view them as they're generated.  This might give you an idea what extra things it's installing, at the very least it's some more information if you're untrusting of the package.


What in the world does this iTunes Terms & Conditions about Virginia & California mean? Neither Issuer nor Apple is responsible for lost or stolen Gift Certificates, iTunes Cards, Content Codes, or Allowances. Risk of loss and title for Gift Certificates, iTunes Cards, and Allowances transmitted electronically pass to the purchaser in Virginia upon electronic transmission to the recipient. Risk of loss and title for Content Codes transmitted electronically pass in California upon electronic transmission from Apple; for avoidance of doubt, such recipient may not always be you.

Are they just fooling with us?  Does anybody know what the sentences about Virginia and California actually mean, and the "for avoidance of doubt"?

"For avoidance of doubt" is legal speak for "let me summarize this in a way that handles any and all cases I might not have explicitly called out in any clause in the contract". It's a catch-all term used to say "this is it". It can cap damages or dues or liability. Here's a good example and explanation:

  Contract clauses beginning with the phrase, “For the avoidance of
  doubt” are a common feature of business contracts.

  For example, Company A is negotiating a three-year contract with
  Company B to purchase twenty different products from Company B. The
  contract includes ten pages outlining minimum purchases, pricing and
  quantity discounts, price adjustments for changes in raw materials
  costs, methods of calculating credits for returns, etc., with
  variations for each product.

  Company A carefully analyzes all the different combinations of prices,
  refunds, etc., but wants to make certain it doesn’t receive a big bill
  as a result of unanticipated future permutations.

  Company A might insert a clause in the contract that says, “For the
  avoidance of doubt, Company A will never be required to pay Company B
  more than $2 million during any calendar month.” (PG has somewhat
  simplified the likely language.)

  With this clause in place, as Company A’s CFO manages cash flow, she
  knows she will never have to write a monthly check for more than $2
  million to Company B.

In the case of the iTunes contract it says first that any of "Gift Certificates, iTunes Cards, and Allowances" are handled in the state of Virginia -- presumably they use this state for these transactions as it offers something ammenable to Apple when it comes to handling these things. You can see what Virginia has for state laws around gift cards here. They're rated "red" by that site meaning they're fairly anti-consumer, pro-seller there. From their summary chart:

  Good

  Only cards with an expiration date escheat to the State of Virginia after 5 years
  Virginia has legally defined the notion of a gift card
  Virginia has legally specified whether or not gift cards escheat to the state

  Bad

  No limits on expiration dates
  No maximum post-sale fee or minimum time frame before charging monthly fees
  Merchants are not required to give cash back
  Virginia does not maintain a consumer-centric web page dedicated to gift card laws

Those bad things would look good to me if I was Apple.

As for "Content Codes" passing to you via California, again it likely goes back to some legal goodness the state of California affords a company sending out content codes that other states do not. So Apple says "we're doing this type of business, with you, via California and you agree to that".

Caveat lector: I am not a lawyer; I just play one on the Stack Exchange network...


Force Keynote in presentation mode and quit after last slide I need to open Keynote files programmatically via Node.js. using

open -a Keynote -W "path/to/file.key"

everything works well. But there are two tasks I cannot solve:

the presentation needs to start directly so no further user interaction is necessary.

As I have no control over the presentation itself, I cannot alter the files to start in presentation mode. Somehow I have to tell Keynote. In Powerpoint this is possible via the /s Argument (powerpoint.exe /s "path/to/presentation.pptx" will go directly in presentation mode). Does something similar exist for Keynote?

After the last slide I need to quit Keynote

Is there any possibility to tell Keynote to quit after the last slide? My Application needs to know when the presentation is finished and I can track when the program closes, but as default it only closes the presentation, not Keynote itself.

You could use an AppleScript to do this and run it with osascript...

osascript << EOF
if running of application "Keynote" is true then
    tell application "Keynote"
        activate
        try
            if playing is false then start the front document
        end try
    end tell
end if
EOF


Leaving battery in storage I am going to be away from my rMBP for 2 weeks, I powered it off and left it with around 56% of battery charge, anything I should do differently / didn't do? in order to keep the battery in a good condition without causing damage (losing capacity or getting it in too deep discharge state).

That's perfectly ok. You just shouldn't store batteries completely empty for a long time.


HTML / CSS / Javascript editor for the iPad? I'm interested for a code editor for my iPad.

I've made a search on Apple Store for "HTML", and I've got a huge amount of results..

Can anyone recommend any of them?

It would be nice to have syntax-highlighting, to be able to open many files simultaneously (tabs?) and a nifty way to import, export files. Dropbox would be perfect!

I think the best one out there is called Textastic. It supports FTP, DropBox and WebDav and has a keyboard geared for editing code. It also has syntax highlighting.


Turning phone on if lock button is broken? So my lock or "hold" button is broken and my phone turned off. My phone is plugged in to the charger and still won't turn on. Also I can't plug it into my computer because my computer doesn't recognize an iPhone as a device.

If an iPhone is off, and you connect it to a power source (either a charger or computer), it will always turn on. Since you have mentioned that this is not happening, I would conclude that there is something more serious wrong, not just that your power button is broken.

It may be the case that your phone has just 'locked-up' - try holding both the home button and power button for at least 30 seconds and see what happens.

If that fails, I would suggest taking it to an Apple Store and see what they say.


How do I bulk delete incompatible apps in iOS 11 I finally upgraded to iOS 11 and when I go to Settings > General > About > Applications I have 105 incompatible apps listed.

Is there a way for me to delete all these in bulk?

I really don't want to have to go and find these apps one by one to delete them!

As far as I know, there's no button to simply "Delete all 32-bit apps", but you can delete large numbers of apps quite quickly using iTunes.

This won't work with the latest versions of iTunes (12.7+), so if you've updated you will need to download an older version.

Select your device next to the media type selection menu near the top of the screen.
Go to the Apps section.
For each app you would like to remove, click the X on its icon or find it in the list and click Remove. (iTunes won't show you which are incompatible there, but you can cross-reference with the list on your device and knock them out in a relatively speedy way.)
When you've finished, click the Apply button at the bottom right.


Diagnose periodic slowdowns/freezes When I am watching a YouTube video, the video will pause and freeze for about one second, every 10 seconds on the dot. I've timed it. I have also tried watching activity monitor but it doesn't show anything out of the ordinary spiking. And it's not Flash or the browser in particular, though they show the worst effect. But even as I type this, every 10 seconds it freezes. In other programs too I'm pretty sure I have seen this freeze. (lately I haven't used many other programs, to be honest, so I'm not 100% sure)

I am trying to avoid the brute force approach of removing things one by one and seeing if it stops. Before I resort to that, is there anything sort of like activity monitor but maybe that will graph usage so I can just look at a spike in usage from a single process? Or is there some other method you can recommend for finding out what is causing this every-10-second freeze?

This, by the way, is a few-month-old 17" MacBook Pro with a 2.8ghz i7 and 4gb of RAM and all updates.

Sometimes a good place to look is the syslog.  If you know it's every 10 seconds then there's a chance that a message will get logged for whatever is happening.  Try this in terminal and append the results to your question or even have a look yourself for anything that looks unusual which is happening on 10 second intervals.

tail -n 20 /var/log/system.log

You need to be an admin user to run the above command


How to import photos+videos from iphone with IOS 7.0.4? Trying to import this with the Photos app on mac sierra v.10.12.1. When I go to the import option the iphone is not showing up? How can I import my photos & videos to my mac? What other way is there to try?

You can use the Photos app to import photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac without using iCloud Photo Library. These steps also work for importing images from digital cameras and SD cards.

Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes on your Mac. Importing photos to your Mac requires iTunes 12.5.1 or later.
Connect your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or digital camera to your Mac with a USB cable. If you're using an SD card, insert it into the SD slot on your Mac, or connect it using a card reader.
You might need to unlock your iOS device using your passcode. You might also see a prompt on the iOS device asking you to Trust This Computer. Tap Trust to continue.
On your Mac, the Photos app automatically opens. If it doesn't, open the Photos app.
The Photos app shows an Import screen with all the photos and videos that are on your connected device. If the Import screen doesn't automatically appear, click the Import tab at the top of the Photos app, or click the device's name in the Photos sidebar.
To import a selection of photos, click the ones you want, then click Import Selected. To import all new photos, click Import All New Photos.


How do I get the 'Find My' map back in the Messages app 'details' popup on macOS? I used to have a 'Find my' map on the details popup in Messages, useful for quick access to that info.
It disappeared around the time I upgraded to Catalina, so I assumed the feature was pulled. However, when I got a new MBP 2 weeks ago, the feature reappeared, so there as probably something wrong with my old installation. It has now disappeared again, so why is that and how do I get it back?

The easy way to get a known good system and all Apple apps is to boot to recovery and reinstall the OS. Since you now know your system is corrupt in some way, I would make a full backup using Time Machine or equivalent tool if you don’t already have everything you care about on different storage.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Reinstalling doesn’t delete anything by intent, but if your disk is corrupt, you could lose data when the filesystem heals itself. Also, if the cause is a hardware issue, any use can cause data loss and an installation moves a lot of files.
An erase install or testing in a new user account take more time, but are also good options to diagnose / fix this.


Why my desktop displays location path of the chosen image? Without doing anything specific I have suddenly the location path of the desktop image written on my desktop like

(3)/System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg

On my 2nd Monitor it says
(6)/System/Library and so forth.

Its not clickable, changing the desktop image is changing the written path, but not the mentioning itself.

Any ideas?
My System
MBP 13" Mid 2018, (4 TB3 Ports and TouchBar)
2,7 GHz IC i7
16 B 2133 MHz LPDDR3
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536 MB
macOS High Sierra, 10.13.6 w/ security update 2020-003

I don't know how you got this turned on accidentally, but you can remove it by entering these two lines in Terminal.app:

defaults delete com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text

killall Dock


How to change Artist profile image? Is there anyway to force/change/reset the profile image that shows up for an Artist in iTunes?

If you've added custom artwork to an Artist, it will replace the individual Album Artwork that iTunes had previously set.

To clear it, you need to clear each affected album - which can be done as a bulk selection, using shift/click to select all its tracks [but doesn't work if you select more than one Album]
then

Cmd/I to Get Info
Artwork Tab
Select the Custom picture
Delete or Backspace
OK
File Menu > Library > Get Album Artwork
You can do the last step once only, after resetting all the tracks you need to clear the Custom picture from.


Get default ruby back I'm in the process of setting up my Ruby on Rails development environment and part of that was playing around with RVM. I screwed up a bit though because I deleted the /usr/local/bin/ruby which was required for homebrew.

How can I get that version of ruby back at this point?


Is it possible to use as an external monitor 2013 iMac 21.5 late edition from MacBook Pro 2015? Is it possible to use as an external monitor 2013 iMac 21.5 late edition from MacBook Pro 2015 Early Edition?

Yes. You will need a Thunderbolt 2 cable. You will also need a keyboard and/or mouse for the 2013 iMac. This is required so you can enter the Command + F2 key combination to put the iMac is target display mode. Also, you will have to have installed a version for MacOS on the iMac that works with target display mode. Basically, High Sierra or an earlier version of macOS compatible with the the 2013 iMac. The 2015 MacBook Pro can have macOS unto the current version (Cataline) installed.

Note: It is possible to install a AppleScript application on the MacBook Pro, that will eliminate the need for the keyboard and/or mouse to be connected to the iMac. Basically, the AppleScript sends the Command + F2 key combination to the iMac over the Thunderbolt 2 cable.

One possible source for a Thunderbolt 2 cable is OWC.


Copy/paste OmniFocus actions for iOS on iPhone? Is there any way to copy/paste actions in OmniFocus for iOS on the iPhone?

If I recall correctly, there used to be a beta feature you could enable in the settings which allowed you to press and hold on an action to show the "copy" option, but it's no longer there in the latest version.

Is there any other way to duplicate actions in OmniFocus without having to use another client?

If you click on an action or a project in the latest version of OmniFocus Universal for iOS, it provides a system share sheet that has a copy extension, which allows you to copy it as Taskpaper. That can then be pasted back into the application or you can use an application such as workflow to make a new project or action based on your copied data, which may be slightly more convenient.


Set the screen saver to 20 minutes I set 20 minutes in System Preferences -> Desktop & Screen Saver, however the screen saver starts after 5 minutes. I tried to log out and restart the mac with no success.

I should say that after restarting I can see 5 minutes again. So it looks like the settings were not saved.

Check the date for the file:
com.apple.screensaver.50A10F0D-581E-5D09-8966-646EE8532C5B.plist in Libary

after you made the time change, it should show the latest date/time.

If not, delete the file.


How to open a searched file in Finder? When I search a file in Spotlight, it provides me a good result. But the problem is that I want to open the file in Finder, instead of directly opening the file in an application. How can I open in searched files in Finder, meaning that I want to open the folder that contains the searched files in Finder?

If I can do what I want in another application like Alfred, that will be also wonderful.

Highlight the result in Spotlight, then press ⌘↩. This will open the containing folder in Finder.

Alfred will also let you do this, with a bit more customisation:


Keynote animation to scroll text box content I have a long set of lines within a text box extend beyond the height of the text box and slide.

I wish to create an animation that will scroll to the bottom of the contents of the text box.

I have seen this before in presentations, but have been unable to figure out how to reproduce this effect.

Note: This is not as simple a movie credits effect achieved with a simple Move Build. Although that may work if I could figure out a way to mask the text box bounds.

I just did something similar that may help. I broke the text up into blocks. Each block being the contents of one 'page' I wanted to display. I then Positioned the blocks one above the other in the order I wanted them displayed.

Next I left the first block which would be displayed at 100% opacity and reduced the others to 50%.

Then I added a move to the blocks so that they all moved up the screen the same amount at the same time.

Next I added an opacity change to each block so that it either reduced to 50% or increased to 100%.

Finally it was just a matter of adjusting the animations so that the blocks all moved together and changed their opacities at the same time.

The final effect was that as the blocks scrolled up together, the currently displayed block fades out, and the one becoming the current block fades in.

I'm sure that it's probably possible to do something like this using magic move if you want to use multiple pages to generate this effect.


Upgrade to El Capitan, unable to use keyboard and trackpad after sleep I have upgraded from Yosemite to El Capitan. This version is stable enough but when I let my macbook pro 15" (2013) sleeping at night and reopening at the morning, keyboard and trackpad do not work anymore...

This issue never happened before and I tried to reset PRAM and SMC but nothing works.

I also tried to troubleshoot it by looking at logs and I spot these 2 lines:

06/10/15 09:25:20,000 kernel[0]: USBF:    21910.354    IOUSBHIDDriver(AppleUSBTCKeyboard)::RearmInterruptRead  returning error 0xe00002d8 (device is not ready), not issuing any reads to device
06/10/15 09:25:20,000 kernel[0]: USBF:    21910.379    IOUSBHIDDriver(AppleUSBMultitouchDriver)::RearmInterruptRead  returning error 0xe00002d8 (device is not ready), not issuing any reads to device

So I found that the IOUSBHIDDriver module was not load by the kernel, so I searched how to load it manually.

I did:

kextstat | grep -i "IOUSBHID*" (which return nothing, normal the module is unloaded)
kextload -b com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver
kextstat | grep -i "IOUSBHID*"
   65    3 0xffffff7f817f0000 0xa000     0xa000     com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver (900.4.1) 7180DE6A-7FF9-35D5-A78A-8C417A4BD45E <39 33 5 4 3 1>

Keyboard and trackpad still not working...

I check once again that the module is still loaded and it's not.

Am I alone with this problem ? Do you have any workaround waiting for an eventual patch from Apple ? Please do not tell me to reinstall.. It's not a real solution.

Thanks

Edit: today I didn't got the problem.. Let see tomorrow morning

Ok I can confirm that the keyboard and trackpad are stuck after sleep when I let VMWare Fusion running... If you have something similar that's running in background it could be the problem.

To resolve it at the moment I pause all Virtual Machines and everything goes alright now.

This is probably related to kernel modules installed by VMWare but I can't find any clue...


Can I use iOS 7 blocking to block iMessages between Apple IDs instead of phone numbers? I have iOS 7, which provides the ability to block calls and messages. Can I block someone texting me on iMessage from their Apple ID to my Apple ID? …or can I only block based on phone numbers (not Apple IDs)?

Yes, on iOS 7, you can block someone from sending you an iMessage from their Apple ID. When you block a contact from sending you texts, it applies to SMS (sent to phone number) and iMessage (sent to phone/Apple ID email). Currently this works only on iOS devices. Any iMessages received on a Mac are not blocked.

How it works is described in detail here - Silence is Golden: A Guide to Blocking Calls and Texts in iOS 7

  What about texts?

  If you’re sending a text, it will look like it was delivered. If you’re sending a message to someone who has blocked you, and you’re using iMessage, it will say “delivered” — exactly like a text that went through.


Microsoft Office for Mac 2011: add-on that can open Visio and Project files I've been using OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 and Office for Mac 2011. Is there any software or add-on that can be used to open Visio and Project files?

Not sure about visio but for project theres

Moos - just a viewer
Project Libre - project management software (but can open ms project files)


Xcode 7.2.1 Supporting Files folder missing I am on OS X 10.11.5

and Supporting Files folder is missing

I am following tutorials and they all have that but not in mine

I already tired recreating new projects but it's missing in all of them

Project Creation
1. File > New > Project > iOS . Application > Single View Application

The Supporting Files group is not created for Swift-based projects.

For Objective-C-based projects, the folder usually contains main.m and maybe Info.plist (with related strings files).

You can always create your own group named Supporting Files and put whatever you want into it.

(Note: the Supporting Files entry never was an actual Folder, just a Group in Xcode)


How can I get OS X to challenge me for password after sleep? I'm running version 10.6.8. Where do I go to enable password challenge after sleep?

Go to System Preferences > Security and check "Require password"

There are several selectable time delays if immediate locking isn't what you prefer.


How can I get MacOS to use the correct search domain from DHCP? Last year, my router broadcasted search domain was "home.lan".
After I changed the ISP, I set new search domain as "lan".
However, MacOS appears to ignore it completely and still use the old search domain.
How can I solve this issue?

# When my Mac is not connected to WiFi
myusername@myhostname $ hostname -f
myhostname.local
# When my Mac is not connected to WiFi
myusername@myhostname $ hostname -f
myhostname.home.lan
# Checked Network preferences: Shows correct search domain
# Checked other settings vis scutil
# Note that DHCP server/router address must be different from DNS server address in my network
myusername@myhostname $ scutil --dns
DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : lan
  nameserver[0] : 192.168.1.101
  if_index : 4 (en0)
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

resolver #2
  domain   : local
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300000

resolver #3
  domain   : 254.169.in-addr.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300200

resolver #4
  domain   : 8.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300400

resolver #5
  domain   : 9.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300600

resolver #6
  domain   : a.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300800

resolver #7
  domain   : b.e.f.ip6.arpa
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 301000

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : lan
  nameserver[0] : 192.168.1.101
  if_index : 4 (en0)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)
# As you can see, the correct search domain is shown in the output above.
# Further using ifconfig
myusername@myhostname $ ipconfig getpacket en0
op = BOOTREPLY
htype = 1
flags = 0
hlen = 6
hops = 0
xid = 0xb4e66b8
secs = 0
ciaddr = 0.0.0.0
yiaddr = 192.168.1.159
siaddr = 0.0.0.0
giaddr = 0.0.0.0
chaddr = <snipped>
sname =
file =
options:
Options count is 9
dhcp_message_type (uint8): ACK 0x5
server_identifier (ip): 192.168.1.1
lease_time (uint32): 0x15180
subnet_mask (ip): 255.255.255.0
router (ip_mult): {192.168.1.1}
domain_name_server (ip_mult): {192.168.1.101}
domain_name (string): lan
domain_search (dns_namelist): {lan, home, homelab}
end (none):
# The set hostname does not even resolve
# The DNS server resolves the expected FQDN correctly
myusername@myhostname $ dig myhostname |grep -A1 'ANSWER SECTION'
;; ANSWER SECTION:
myhostname. 2   IN  A   192.168.1.159
myusername@myhostname $ dig myhostname.lan |grep -A1 'ANSWER SECTION'
;; ANSWER SECTION:
myhostname.lan. 2   IN  A   192.168.1.159
myusername@myhostname $ dig myhostname.home.lan |grep -A1 'ANSWER SECTION'
<no response>

So where is this machine getting the ".home.lan" Domain suffix?

hostname [-s|-f] and (sudo) scutil [--set|--get] [HostName|LocalHostName|ComputerName] (name) set/get the respective names locally only.

hostname`s set operations are ephemeral only and vanish after a reboot.

With the listed options scutil writes to and reads from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist only.

With the listed options both tools don't query (or feed) DNS-servers.

You probably set the hostname of your Mac locally to myhostname.home.lan with scutil in the past. To set another name locally (corresponding to your DNS-server's db) and persistently simply enter:

sudo scutil  --set HostName myhostname.lan

Your DNS-server and your search domain work perfectly well (and as expected). The search domain is meant to create a FQDN from a relative name.

If you enter a relative name the system adds the name(s) listed in the search domain list and tries to resolve them.

This is the reason why e.g. ping google (=in your case e.g. ping google.lan - assuming you don't have a host with the name google in your network/DNS-db) will fail but ping myhostname (=in your case e.g. ping myhostname.lan) will succeed.


How to fix poor font rendering in Mac iBooks? The font rendering in iBooks (version 1.0.1) on my Mac (Mavericks 10.9.1) is outright horrible. The text is jagged and rough looking. I've tried changing the font but that doesn't help, it still looks bad. Does anyone have a solution to this problem, or have I just gotten too used to the smooth look of iOS iBooks?

Edit: This is on an early 2008 Mac Pro, on a 22" screen with 1680x1050 resolution, and on a 24" screen with 1920x1200 resolution. Font or font size does not matter. I've only seen the problem in iBooks, not in any other app. Notes and other UI text is fine, it's just the actual text I want to read that's jagged.
As a comparison, my mid 2011 27" iMac shows the text beautifully.

It seems that there is are others that report a problem with font rendering in the iBooks app when using epub files under OS X Mavericks (10.9.x). As in your experience, the problem seems isolated to Macs that don't have a Retina Display, such as your Mac Pro.

The solution is fortunately a simple one: Go to

System Preferences > General

and uncheck the box that says Use LCD font smoothing when available.

This should clear up the jagged text you've been experiencing in iBooks on your Mac Pro.

(Note: You may need to quit and restart iBooks and/or restart your Mac for these changes to take effect.)


Get text of most recent notification with applescript I would like to be able to grab the text of the most recent notification and pass it into an applescript variable. How can I do that?
Edit: here's what I have so far:
on run
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "NotificationCenter"
            tell first window
                set rawElements to UI elements
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end run

This gets me most of the way there, but it doesn't get me the body of the notification, just the label:
Here's the output:

{static text "Macro Cancelled" of window 1 of application process
"NotificationCenter" of application "System Events", image 1 of window
1 of application process "NotificationCenter" of application "System
Events", scroll area 1 of window 1 of application process
"NotificationCenter" of application "System Events", image 2 of window
1 of application process "NotificationCenter" of application "System
Events"}

Using the following example AppleScript code to generate a notification:
display notification with title "Macro Cancelled" subtitle "Cancel All Macros."

In the example notification, Cancel All Macros. is in:
static text of scroll area 1 of window 1 of process "NotificationCenter"

Using:
tell application "System Events" to ¬
    get value of ¬
        static text of ¬
        scroll area 1 of ¬
        window 1 of ¬
        process "NotificationCenter"

It returns:
{"Cancel All Macros.", ""}

As you can see what's returned is a list and will need to be process as such.
Note however, in this example, Cancel All Macros. is actually static text 1 of scroll area 1 and static text 2 of scroll area 1, which is blank, is when display notification uses:

display notification [text] : the body text of the notification

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.

With Error Handling:
tell application "System Events" to ¬
    if exists window 1 of ¬
        process "Notification Center" then ¬
        get value of ¬
            static text of ¬
            scroll area 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "NotificationCenter"


Is it safe to charge iPhone while it is powered off? When I am in a rush I often plug my phone into it's charger and then turn it off (if I do it vise-versa it will turn on when I plug it in).  I have found it charges a estimated 1.5x faster then while charging turned in. I have never had a problem with this, although, since I am in a rush, I only have it plugged in for a little amount of time.

Could I damage the battery or some other component if I have it charging, turned off, for an extended period of time?

Short answer

This is perfectly fine to do, although the benefit of doing so is negligible.

The reason an iDevice will typically switch on when connected to a charging source is for usability reasons (i.e. due to User Experience considerations, not due to any hardware limitations). Likewise, you'll find in the case of a totally dead battery that plugging an iDevice into a charging source will not allow the user to switch on the device until the battery has been charged to about 5%.

Long answer

Your impression that it charges a estimated 1.5x faster then while charging turned on is probably due to the different stages of charging rather than the fact your iPhone was on/off during the period.

To clarify this somewhat, your iPhone uses a process known as trickle charging once your iPhone battery has reached 80% of its charge capacity. That is, the first 80% of a battery's capacity is charged at a much faster rater than the last 20%. This process increases the lifespan of your battery, not to mention lets you get going again faster in between charging sessions.

So, if you're plugging your phone in for short spurts every now and then in between uses, and thereby it's still switched on, it's much more likely to be at 80% or above or that it reaches that point sooner rather than later. And, once it does, trickle charging kicks in and that explains the impression that it's charging slower while your iPhone is switched on.

Another factor that affects battery performance and charging times is temperature. If your iPhone is switched on in the car and streaming Apple Music while also using Maps to navigate you to a destination it will charge a lot slower than it would otherwise, not only because of how much the phone is being actively used, but also because the temperature levels will rise under those conditions. So, for these reasons, if your phone is switched off while charging, then it's temperature level isn't likely to be an issue and, of course, it's not actively being used either.

However, based on my own testing, having an iPhone switched off while charging only reduces charge time by between 1% to 2%, so it really is negligible. You'd get close to the same benefit by putting your iPhone into Airplane Mode and switching off Wi-Fi, which may be more convenient than switching off the phone altogether.

If you're keen, the following may be of interest to you:

Myth need to be solved: will the battery drain faster in places with poor wifi signals?
Why is it better for an iPhone’s battery to NOT close down apps?


Call recording without connection I need to record my incoming and outgoing calls on my iPhone 7, but it seems that all third party app use their network to call and record (which requires an internet connection). Is there any way to record a phone call without an internet connection similar to what you can do on Android?

With iOS you are not able to do so as of today.

If your carrier provides support for conference calls (you can speak to two people simulataneously), you can call do the following:

Call your voicemail so it picks up your call and starts recording.
On the iPhone keypad press "+ add call" and select the person you want to call.
As soon as the other line rings press the "merge" button.
Inform the person that you are recording him/her.
After the call hang up on both calls.

If you have enabled Visual Voice Mail (VVM) the recorded conversation will be available as a recording in "Phone > Voicemail".

Let me know if this works for you.


Why does my 10.8.5 OS X not recognize my iPod when I plug it in? Just today, I plugged in my iPod Classic (bought recently; 160 GB), and it doesn't charge or show up in iTunes. Its screen turns on though.

I have OS X 10.8.5, and the latest iTunes on a MacPro 2008.

I can plug it into my wife's iMac (2011) using the same cable and it seems to work fine.

So I reset the SMC, and the PRAM. I reinstalled iTunes twice, and restarted the mac. The only thing that changed was immediately after resetting the SMC, plugging in the iPod had it show up as connected on its screen for a few seconds, then it said "OK to disconnect" and now doesn't respond any more. I also tried plugging it into the other USB ports, including the ones on the Apple Keyboard.

It looks like the problem is that the Apple Mobile Device Service doesn't start up. I can find Apple's support article on how to reinstall it on 10.6.8 and lower, but that doesn't help. It includes deleting iTunes.app and reinstalling it; 10.8 say you can't do that since iTunes is needed by OS X.

So: how do I get the AMDS working again?

Did you tried Disk Utility->Repair Permissions ??

To remove iTunes and Apple Mobile Device Service(http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1747) in 10.8 and 10.9, Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and run these commands (substitute <account name> with your mac login username - you need to be Admin user to run these commands; enter your login password when prompted):

$ sudo mv /Applications/iTunes.app /Users/<account name>/.Trash/

$ sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AppleMobileDevice.kext /Users/<account name>/.Trash/

$ sudo mv /Library/Receipts/AppleMobileDeviceSupport.pkg /Users/<account name>/.Trash/

You can then re-install iTunes and try.


Remove mysql 5.6.26-community I installed this version of mysql with the script here, but I don't know how to remove it. It isn't in the applications folder. It's here:

I wish if someone could tell me how to completely remove it.
Thanks!

To uninstall all files/packages installed by the shell script simply undo all commands executed in the script logged in with an admin account:

Open System Preferences -> MySQL and stop the service if it's running
Open the folder /Applications and drag SequelPro - if it was installed - to your trash.
Open Terminal and enter sudo rm -R /usr/local/mysql-5.6.26-osx10.8-x86_64 to remove the mysql folder
Enter sudo rm /usr/local/mysql to remove the soft link
Enter cd /Library/LaunchDaemons && ls
Search for the *.mysql.plist (the launch daemon plist of mysql) and remove it with sudo rm com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist.
Remove the my.cnf file with sudo rm /etc/my.cnf
Remove the mysql socket soft link and the superior folder with sudo rm -R /var/mysql
Remove all installed mysql package receipts with sudo pkgutil --forget package-id.
Example: sudo pkgutil --forget com.mysql.launchd The name of the other two packages are com.mysql.mysql and com.mysql.prefpane
Remove the file MySQL.prefPane in /Library/PreferencePanes/
Finally cd to /usr/local/bin and check the existence as well as the creation/modification date of the file pidof. Remove it if both dates match with the installation date of mysql.

Addendum

To remove the MySQL installation from System Info -> Software -> Installations (which is a "cosmetic problem" only) remove the MySQL dict entry:

<dict>
    <key>date</key>
    <date>2015-10-13T15:06:35Z</date>
    <key>displayName</key>
    <string>MySQL 5.6.26-community</string>
    <key>displayVersion</key>
    <string></string>
    <key>packageIdentifiers</key>
    <array>
        <string>com.mysql.mysql</string>
        <string>com.mysql.prefpane</string>
        <string>com.mysql.launchd</string>
    </array>
    <key>processName</key>
    <string>installer</string>
</dict>

by editing the file InstallHistory.plist in /Library/Receipts/ with sudo nano /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist or with TextWrangler.


Cut functionality shortcut for folders and files I'm accustomed to ctrl+x, ctrl+v combination to move files and folders using only the keyboard. Can I get the same functionality on OS X Lion?

Yes, but it's a little different in Lion.

In both the move and the copy situation, you use ⌘ CommandC to put a file on the clipboard.

When pasting:

To copy the file to the new location, press ⌘ CommandV.

To move the file to the new location, press ⌥ Option⌘ CommandV.


To find the disabled devices in OSX I am discussing about To record sounds from 3.5 - 3.5 mm audio in Audacity here.

I have connected my iPhone to my Macbook Air (2013 model) by 3.5-3.5 mm cable.
My Macbook (OSX 10.9.4) cannot find the device.

I see this in my Preferences > Sound

so there is no port selection for "Line in".
This is strange.

How can you list the disabled devices in OSX?

3.5 mm ports on Macbook Airs don't support regular 3.5mm audio in plugs. Their 3.5 mm ports only support "three ring" plugs. How to use an external microphone with a MacBook Air

The 3.5 mm audio port on Macbook Pros can do regular audio in and audio out. But they default to out and needs to be changed to audio in using the "Use audio port for:" option from the Input tab of the Audio preference pane in System Preferences.

More information here: MacBook and MacBook Pro (13-inch): How to use the combination audio port for an audio input device


Is there any way to watch Hulu (or Hulu Plus) on the new Apple TV? I was hoping Airplay might do this, but when I turn it on in the Hulu Plus app, it only streams the audio to the ATV.

Unfortunately, it seems that AirPlay is audio only for third-party apps for the time being, and there's no other way to get Hulu Plus on the Apple TV.


In macOS Photos app, can you export all pictures of a person? I'd like to export all the pictures that Photos.app has tagged as a particular person. Is there any way of doing that?

Choose People view from library ⌃ CTRL+4 and drag the person to the destination folder in Finder.

Works in macOS Mojave (I don't know if it works in previous versions as well).


Can a VirtualBox Windows 7 virtual machine be installed on a USB hard disk? My MacBook Air has only a 64G hard drive which is so small that I don't want to install virtual machines on it. I'm planning to buy a 1TB portable USB hard disk to run virtual machines. Has anyone tried running a Windows 7 VirtualBox virtual machine on a USB3.0 hard drive with success?

Yes, it's possible.

First you need to create the virtual machine, after you completed the wizard don't start the VM but go to the menu Machine -> Show in Finder

Copy the 3 files (VM Name.vbox, VM Name.vbox-prev, VM Name.vdi) to your external hard disk.

After select the VM inside virtualbox and go to menu Machine -> Remove... and click the button Delete all files

After go to menu Machine -> Add.. and select the VM file you copied before.

Now the VM is inside virtualbox and runs from your external hard disk.


AD User as an administrator on the Mac? I'm looking for a way to add an Active Directory user to a Mac and let them administrate the machine, without making more than just that user an administrator.

Right now, I'm using Directory Utility to add an AD group, we'll call it Domain Devs, to the Allow Administration By: list. This would allow Bob, Nancy, Paul, and Bill to administer the computer. But this machine is supposed to go to Bob, so I only want him to administrate it. I then have to go to the login options and tell it to only allow Bob to log into the computer.

So while Bob, Nancy, Paul and Bill can administer it, only Bob can log in.

There is a concern that other users will be able to log into or gain access to the machine through another method of login or security breach and have administration rights to the system.

We're looking for a way to do something similar to what happens in Windows when you take a user in AD and add that specific user to the local Administrators group, so Bob could be added to that specific computer and have admin rights and any other domain user can log in and have just limited user rights.

Is there a way to do this, add a specific AD user to the Mac as an administrator without using a group in AD with just that user in it?

Does this command not work for you?

dseditgroup -o edit -n /Local/Default -u localadmin -p -a networkuser -t user admin

details: Mac OS X: Allowing administration by network accounts


Sidebar folder shortcuts all disappeared after update I've just updated from 10.10.1 to 10.10.3 and now all of the folder shortcuts on my sidebar have disappeared, e.g., 'Desktop', 'Downloads'. Does anyone know how to fix it?

Thanks

Try Finder prefs > Sidebar -  Cmd ⌘   ,  - they may just have become unchecked…

Any that are still missing after that - previous customer entries etc, can be restored by selecting the appropriate drive/folder/app in any Finder window & hitting  Opt ⌥   Ctrl ⌃   Cmd ⌘   /  or File Menu > Add to Sidebar

Perhaps Time Machine would have an older version?
The prefs are at /Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
If you navigate there then enter Time Machine, it may have an older version you could recover


Extending 2007 iMac display to HD projector? I have a 2007 iMac and an Epson 730HD projector. I want to dedicate this iMac to playing media on the projector but I'm having problems with extending my display.

I'm using a Mini-DVI to HDMI adapter and connecting to the projector using an HDMI cable. The computer is detecting the projector, but the projector is saying there's no signal. I've tried playing with all of the resolution settings–thinking that maybe the projector just didn't like the resolution that the computer was sending–as I've had this problem before with other displays and setting the resolution to "Best for display" usually did the trick. The projector has a native resolution of 1280 x 720, I've tried every scaled resolution while extending the display and while mirroring. No luck.

My MiniDVI to VGA adapter works, so this appears to be only an HD problem.

Is there anything I haven't tried? Or is my iMac just too old for this projector?

Screen captures of available scaled resolution settings:

My Mac (24" Intel iMac, 2007):

2007 had 2 iMac models.  The white Intel iMac and then the start of the Aluminum models.  Based on the info and pictures above, you have the Aluminum Core2Duo model, which should be able to handle up to 1920x1200 digital external display in extended desktop mode so it isn't a limitation of the iMac video RAM.

In the list above, when in extended desktop mode, the appropriate resolution setting for the projector would be 720p.  Have you tried configuring the iMac and projector in mirroring mode?  Check the box in the Arrangement tab on the iMac window then set the resolution to 1280x800 or 720p (which will be 1280x720 with black bars on the side of the iMac display).

Finally if that still doesn't work, most likely it is the DVI to HDMI adapter at fault, especially if the DVI to VGA adapter is working.  Try replacing it with a new/different adapter, if possible with an Apple brand.  3rd party adapters might not be 100% compatible.


How do I modify Word 2011 for Mac so I can see tracked changes inline and notes simultaneously? Background:

In Word 2011 for the Mac, it's possible to view tracked changes inline -- that is, see the changes made on the screen within the text itself, as opposed seeing them in a balloon off to the side. (Such a balloon would read "Text deleted - "on the screen".)

However, there's currently no way of doing this while simultaneously viewing comments.

You can view comments as well as changes simultaneously, but the only way to do this is in balloons off to the side, so you have balloons reading "This text is confusing because [reason]" and also ones saying "text deleted - [foo]". This is extremely confusing.

To clarify, here are some threads on the MS forums about this:

tracking changes and comments
Track Changes Office 2011

My question:

It's pretty clear there's no workaround that will allow authors and editors to view changes inline, while simultaneously seeing notes with their pointers to the text being referred to. (Seeing notes within the reviewing pane while in draft view doesn't work, since you can't easily tell which notes relate to what text.) Is it possible to use VBA to change this behavior in Word on the Mac? Or would this simply break in future revisions?

This is an important missing feature in Word for the Mac. (You can do this in Word for Windows.) Reading through the above threads, this has been the case for the last two major versions Word for the Mac.

I'll consider add-ons, scripting, pretty much anything that won't destabilize my system. (If the answer is that this is impossible, well, I won't be happy, but at least I'll know.)

(I'm running a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.6.7 if that helps. Currently running Word 2011, v.14.0.1.)

You can get pretty close to what you want by turning off balloons.

In the "Track Changes" section of Word's preferences, uncheck the button that says "Use balloons to display changes."

Now additions and deletions are shown inline, and comments are shown as highlights with a reference.

You can view the comments by hovering over the highlight.

Or, you can display the "Review Pane" and view the comments (with additions and deletions interspersed) over there. Less distracting than balloons, though.


Why does the folder icon in my Terminal have a question mark overlaid? From time to time, I spot that the folder icon in the titlebar of one of my Terminal windows has a question mark overlaid on it, e.g. this one:

What does this mean? It doesn't seem to have any effect or issues that I've noticed - I'm just curious.

I'm using OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion).

The question mark (and disabled popup menu items) indicates that Terminal thinks the working directory is on a remote computer, and therefore you cannot navigate to it in Finder using the popup menu. If you look at the last item in the popup menu (Command-Click on the “proxy” icon) you'll see the computer/host that Terminal thinks the working directory is on. You should find that it is not the computer’s current name.

If you’re using bash (the default shell on macOS), by default it sends a control sequence to the terminal at each prompt to tell Terminal the current working directory. Since control sequences can come from local or remote computers, it sends a “file:” scheme URL including the hostname, and Terminal verifies that the name maps to the current machine. If it doesn’t, Terminal disables the path popup menu items, because they don't correspond to local directories.

You can see the code that sends the control sequence in /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal (or /etc/bashrc on older versions of macOS).

[Note that if you’re not using bash, or you’ve customized it so the default behavior doesn’t occur, but your shell (or some other program you’re running) is sending control sequences to set the window or tab (icon) title, Terminal will examine it to see if it contains what looks like a pathname, and then it checks whether that corresponds to a valid local pathname. If not, it doesn’t display the window proxy icon at all.]

A scenario where Terminal can fail to recognize that the “file:” URL is on the current host is if you change your network configuration while a shell is running. A common case is putting a portable computer to sleep and moving to another location, then waking it. The local host name and address will have changed, but the shell’s $HOSTNAME environment variable still has the old host name, and that’s what it sends in the control sequence. To fix this, update the environment variable with:

 HOSTNAME=$(hostname)

Another scenario is where you quit Terminal, change network configurations, then open Terminal with Resume enabled. Terminal will restore the windows and tabs, along with the last working directory URL that each was sent. If you run into this case, $HOSTNAME will be up to date—since it starts a new shell—but Terminal can still have a stale URL until you get the shell to update it again. If displaying the command prompt doesn’t clear up the problem, try changing directories with cd to get the shell to update it.


File upload dialog file picker groups files by sizes When I use the file upload dialog to pick files it only shows some files

In this example it says "from 10KB to 100 KB" how do I stop grouping files by size? I generally like to browse by age not grouped by size.
How do I stop grouping by size?

The drop menu, top left, can set by several criteria, including by Size.

If you set that to None, then you can quickly sort by any column header by clicking it.


Font rendering issue with Word 2011 and 3rd party font (Admiration Pains) I downloaded the Admiration Pains font, installed it via Font Book, and verified it works fine in applications like Adobe CS and TextEdit. Unfortunately, when I try to use the font in Microsoft Word 2011, the font renders as some generic font (e.g. Times New Roman).  When I highlight the text, Word still reports the font family as Admiration Pains.

Things I've tried with no success:

Restarting Word;
Deleting the Font Cache file and restarting Word;
Changing font size;
Looked for "enabled duplicates" in Font Book;
Confirmed font is enabled in Font Book and that it Validates w/out issue;
Using Font Nuke to remove all caches of fonts and restarting computer.

Any ideas on how I can get this font to render properly in Word?

Here's a screenshot of the font trying to be used, where it renders fine in the font drop down, but not in the document:

My workaround was to use FontForge to open the TTF file and then re-generate the font family in TrueType format. Now Word 2011 shows it correctly.


Backup and sync icon not showing on task bar. Just got an iMac running High Sierra 10.13.4. I ran Migration Assistant from my old Mac Mini running El Capitan 10.11.6 and all seemed to work fine. However, the Backup and Sync icon on the toolbar is gone. I tried a couple of times to re-install the B&S program from the google website and it installed just fine each time but the icon is still missing. When I click on the Backup and Sync application in the Application folder it opens up the Google drive folder but still no icon on the task bar. Note, when i ran the Migration Assistant the Backup and Sync feature was 'paused'.

I am sure that this is a preference misbehaving but since preferences for B&S are shown through the B&S icon, which is not being shown on the taskbar, i can't see to review them. What can i do ? How can I review the preferences (B&S is not in the System Preferences)? Any other solution?

Many thanks.

I think the 4-finger salute may help, but please refer to this thread at Google support. Be sure to open all the "more" buttons so you can read all the responses.


Disk Utility "First Aid" says "Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting" after clean install My Mac Mini (Mac Mini 3,1 at OS 10.11.6) shows this after a "successful" run of First Aid from Disk Utility on the internal HD (i.e. not just the main volume, the entire HD) "Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting." I have run First Aid from regular partition and recovery partition. Subsequent runs of First Aid don't show the "Problems" message, but if I run Disk Util after a reboot, "Problems were found..." message reappears. Internal HD is a Crucial SSD. Disk Util run on main volume shows no such messages.

I very recently erased and installed original OS on the internal HD using the OE install DVD (10.5, hit C key at boot), then upgraded to 10.6 using OE DVD, then to 10.11.6 using App Store. Then I recovered from a Time Machine backup saved on an external HD.

I worry this "Problems were found..." message is a time bomb. I am surprised this problem persists after I erased the HD and did a clean install of the OS.

Questions:

What does a recurrent "Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting" message mean practically?
Should I run other tests on my SSD and/or replace it? What are those tests?

Overall, Mac works fine except I can't run AHT at boot (not from OE install DVD #2 with D key, nor using Option key to select that DVD or to select AHT on a theoretically bootable USB flash drive with AHT). These failed boot attempts go to gray screen of death, but Mini boots up fine after powering down.

Background: Mini had RAM problems, but couldn't run AHT from original install disk #2 (Leopard 10.5), nor from USB flash drive (Previously discussed here: AHT problems). I tried a PRAM reset, which corrupted my main HD, but I managed to erase and do a clean install from OE disk (10.5) and recover Time Machine backup from an external HD (Discussed here: PRAM crisis)

I created a bootable external HD running 10.11.6 and I can boot from it. I also erased my internal and reinstalled 10.11.6 on my internal SSD. I booted to the external after selecting it as Startup Disk in Sys Prefs, and ran Disk Utility on the internal. Afterward, I no longer get the message "Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting." Phenomenon of Mac momentarily "going into neutral" described above also appears resolved (based on 30 minutes of use, anyway). Soon I will boot to external and rerun Disk Util to recheck for errors on internal. But so far, seems good.


How do I silence Messages from a single person on my Apple Watch? I have a particular person who continually messages me but I do not want to block them. Is there anyway to silence my watch so I do not get notifications from them, but I still get them from others?

It is possible to set a conversation in Messages to "Do Not Disturb". This will cause notifications to stop and will put a small moon icon next to the conversation. Works great!


New folders are created in root instead of currently selected folder When I click on a folder and choose File->New Folder the folder is created in the root directory of my current view instead of the currently selected (highlighted) folder.

How do I make it so when I create a new folder it will create the folder inside of the current highlighted directory?

You can't.  Finder creates new folders in the folder currently being displayed, not the folder you've highlighted.  First you have to display the folder you want the new one in - double click it, then create the new one.


SSH using IPV6 getting error "No Route to Host" On My Mac Machine I am trying to ssh with ipv6 in my mac machine but I am getting error "No Route to Host". I can it successfully with ipv4.
Can anyone guide me please if it require any network setting or else?

I am using OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite.

Thanks!

If you want to perm a route in 10.10 Yosemite. here

You should create a quick script with

"#!/bin/bash"

sudo /sbin/route add -net x.x.x.0/24 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

save it in a path

chmod a+x the file

Then type this,..

sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /Path/To/Your/Script

POW .. Yosemite perm route with edit file .


Notes loss caused by email-account deletion I got a new Macbook yesterday, so I was trying to configure an email account.
At the same time, I recorded some important notes in the "Notes", which were automatically bound to this email account by the system. (which I was not aware of )

This morning, I just found that the email account was not configured correctly, so I deleted it and re-configured a new account.
Then I found that all the notes I recorded yesterday are gone.

Is there any method to recover these notes?

If your notes are really stored in your email account, you should be able to reconnect to the same email account over IMAP to gain access to your notes again. Do not configure the email account as POP3 for example.

However, if you really have a new MacBook, it is probably running El Capitan. With El Capitan notes are no longer stored on IMAP email accounts - in fact it is not supported at all. Most likely your notes are really stored in iCloud, and you need to relogin to iCloud or reenable Notes in the iCloud preferences to access them.


Use Shortcuts app to format text I have text in this format:

Red and green apples
Pear
2 Bananas
red orange
Melon
Grape fruit

I need it in this format:

c("Red and green apples", "Pear", "2 Bananas", "red orange", "Melon", "Grape fruit")

I also have these numbers:

1
172
3
183
16
178
68
56
687
576
455

Which I need in the format below. Note that this is same format as above except they are numbers so they are missing quotes:

c(1, 172, 3, 183, 16, 178, 68, 56, 687, 576, 455)

Can I make a shortcut that will automatically convert the text?

You can do this with regex in Shortcuts.

Here with text:

and here with integers:

The code is the same, it’s only the first "Text" action which differ.
More about regex in Shortcuts in this reddit post.

Edit: do not confuse, in the two first "Find Text" in the two screenshots, the | in (\n|$) is the vertical bar character, not a uppercase "i" or a lower case "L".

Edit 2: As asked in the comments by the OP and in the edited question, here is a different version with less constraint in the input (remark: in the first Replace Text action, in the field Replace With, you should read "$1",␣, ie a space should be after the comma, but the screenshot cannot display it, and in the 3rd Replace Text, in the field Find Text, you should read (.+),␣):


Auto Swoosh to space on a per app basis There is a lot of questions and articles about the "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application" under the mission control settings pane (also called "Auto Swoosh") such as here and here.

My issue with this setting is that some applications are used very differently from each other. For example when I want to switch to Spotify I probably also want to move to its space. However, some app (notably web browsers) I'd like the behaviour to be different. Specifically I usually have many safari windows across many spaces and when I switch to safari I probably would want to open a new window in my current space (so I don't want to be switched to a random space).

The best way I see to fix this is some ability to customise the Auto Swoosh setting on a per app basis. I've also been thinking of alternative solutions such as keeping the option off and using apple script or something to make a shortcut to switch to the space with the active window (like a one time manual invocation of Auto Swoosh), or a keeping it the option on and finding a different way of opening safari windows (such as typing in my search into spotlight and using cmd+B to google search it) however nothing works quite as I'd like it to.

What are some options I could use to get to the behaviour I want? My main thing is being able to navigate my computer without using the mouse and without searching through spaces it find the app I want.

I finally figured out a way to do it. I've kept the Auto Swoosh setting on but I've changed the way I open safari. I created a new application using automator with a single applescript block. It has the following code:
tell application "Safari"
    make new document
    activate
end tell

The order is important because its what prevents the spaces switching on activate as there is already a new window in the current space.
To open a new safari window in my current space I simply run this app.
(In case it doesn't make any sense how this is fast, I use spotlight as an app switcher - simply type the first two letters of any app)
EDIT:
I've made a new version that also supports opening links. This is so that when you click a link in e.g. Mail it opens a new safari windows instead of randomly moving to a different space where safari is already open.
Specifically:

Opening this app creates a new safari window without moving spaces
Clicking a link in any non-safari app will create a new window or a new tab
depending on if there is a window already in the space it will open a new tab in that window

Note: the code is modified from here
on open location theURL
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Safari"
            try
                set frontWinName to name of window 1
            on error
                my openNewWindow(theURL)
                return
            end try
        end tell
    end tell

    tell application "Safari"
        try
            tell (first window whose name is frontWinName and miniaturized is false)
                set current tab to make new tab with properties {URL:theURL}
                #activate
            end tell
        on error
            my openNewWindow(theURL)
        end try
    end tell
end open location

on openNewWindow(theURL)
    tell application "Safari"
        make new document with properties {URL:theURL}
        #activate
    end tell
end openNewWindow

tell application "Safari"
    make new document
    activate
end tell

Save this in AppleScript as application and set it as default browser using this or this.
Copy the following into the app's info.plist to register it as allowing for link opening
 <key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
 <array>
     <dict>
         <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
         <string>local file</string>
         <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
         <array>
             <string>file</string>
         </array>
     </dict>
     <dict>
         <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
         <string>http URL</string>
         <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
         <array>
             <string>http</string>
         </array>
     </dict>
     <dict>
         <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
         <string>Secure http URL</string>
         <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
         <array>
             <string>https</string>
         </array>
     </dict>
 </array>

Accept app permissions (for some reason the app needs to be in the /Applications folder first). And voila! Now just change the app icon to the safari icon and retain your muscle memory to type the name of this app instead of "safari" when opening new browser windows. (I have put way too much effort into this but after months of using it, I'm so happy with the change)


Using speakers on both screens depending on window location My configuration:

2x Apple Cinema Display 27"
1x late-2014 model Mac Mini

I would like the speakers in each display to be used depending upon which display the window that made the sound is on. For example if I had Youtube on the left screen I would want the video's soundtrack on that set of speakers, and if I have Slack on the right screen I would like it's notification sounds to come out of those speakers.

Is this possible? Presently I have to select one display to output all sounds from windows on either display.

Rogue Amoeba make SoundSource [$29 USD plus any local tax] which can direct sound per app - though not per monitor, you'd have to set that up manually.


How do I debug Mac freezes caused by VMware Fusion After upgrading to Catalina, when I write a lot of data inside a Linux VM (Ubuntu 20.04) by running dd if=/dev/zero of=zero, after writing a couple of gigabytes the macOS host hard-freezes (mouse cursor doesn't move). After 100 seconds, the system restarts ("Your computer was restarted because of a problem"). Since it is the host that freezes, I'm assuming this is a problem with VMware Fusion, macOS, or my hardware, rather than the guest OS.
The diagnostics produced by the "Report" button after restarting just show a watchdog timeout:
panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff7f84e56a8d): watchdog timeout: no checkins from watchdogd in 99 seconds (81 total checkins since monitoring last enabled)
Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff81e26c3c40 : 0xffffff8003d1f5cd
0xffffff81e26c3c90 : 0xffffff8003e58b05
0xffffff81e26c3cd0 : 0xffffff8003e4a68e
0xffffff81e26c3d20 : 0xffffff8003cc5a40
0xffffff81e26c3d40 : 0xffffff8003d1ec97
0xffffff81e26c3e40 : 0xffffff8003d1f087
0xffffff81e26c3e90 : 0xffffff80044c2838
0xffffff81e26c3f00 : 0xffffff7f84e56a8d
0xffffff81e26c3f10 : 0xffffff7f84e5647b
0xffffff81e26c3f50 : 0xffffff7f84e6bd9c
0xffffff81e26c3fa0 : 0xffffff8003cc513e
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.driver.watchdog(1.0)[B435C72B-B311-3C67-8AA1-1D5CE0FAD429]@0xffffff7f84e55000->0xffffff7f84e5dfff
         com.apple.driver.AppleSMC(3.1.9)[4589419D-7CCC-39A9-9E2F-F73FE42DD902]@0xffffff7f84e5e000->0xffffff7f84e7cfff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.4)[0A7D7382-66FE-391B-9F93-97A996256C25]@0xffffff7f84e4c000
            dependency: com.apple.driver.watchdog(1)[B435C72B-B311-3C67-8AA1-1D5CE0FAD429]@0xffffff7f84e55000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[BE052F4D-9B80-3FCD-B36D-BACB7DEE0DF2]@0xffffff7f84731000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
19F101

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 19.5.0: Tue May 26 20:41:44 PDT 2020; root:xnu-6153.121.2~2/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 54F1A78D-6F41-32BD-BFED-4381F9F6E2EF
Kernel slide:     0x0000000003a00000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8003c00000
__HIB  text base: 0xffffff8003b00000
System model name: MacBookPro13,2 (Mac-66E35819EE2D0D05)
System shutdown begun: NO
Panic diags file available: YES (0x0)

I tried running First Aid in Disk Utility, and cp -r'ing the VM in case it's a file system issue, but it hasn't helped.
What can I do to further debug the problem?

I never figured out how to debug this properly, but the following seems to have fixed it:

Run fsck (xfs_repair) on the VM filesystems. (I'm not sure whether this was really necessary; the crashing still kept happening until I did step 2. I'm just reporting it for completeness.)
In VMware Fusion, go to Virtual Machine -> Settings -> Advanced, and set "Hard disk buffering" to Disabled.


How to get Mail.app to display (rather than hide) duplicate messages Prior to Yosemite, setting the following invisible preference would cause Mail.app to show duplicate messages rather than its default behavior of hiding them:

% defaults write com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates -bool true

This no longer seems to have any effect in Yosemite (OS X 10.10).  Does anyone know of an alternate method to achieve this?

defaults write com.apple.mail _AlwaysShowDuplicates -bool true

This should be working.


El Capitan install from usb stuck at boot Trying to install a clean version of El Capitan from a USB stick to an empty hard drive. I'm unable to boot to the Installer though, it just gets stuck with the Apple logo and the progress bar underneath. The progress bar fills up completely, but then nothing happens. Waited over an hour now. Anything I can try to get past it?

It's a 2008 Late Aluminium Macbook.

Thanks

If you have access to another mac, try this. Hold down the T key during boot on the mac with new hard drive installed. This will put that machine in target boot mode.

Connect the two Macs with either a fire wire cable or a thundbolt cable.

On the 2nd mac run the El Capitan installer. When asked where to install the OS point it at the other mac (with new hard drive installed) which should now be seen in finder. If it does not show up in finder. Launch disk utility and format the drive.

It sounds as if the USB installer is broken. However as long as you have access to another mac you do not need to make another usb installer. Just download El Capitan from the app store and follow the above instructions.


How can I change the hotspot name without changing the iPhone name? How can I change the hotspot name without changing the iPhone name (the name indicated in Settings > General > About)?

Apple confirmed in their own forums the only way to do this is by changing the phone name.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7828399


Thermal paste for A8 chip On the iPhone logic board (or at least for the iPhone 6), there is a metal shield (heatsink?) covering the A8 SoC and few other components. There is also black thermal paste between the chip and shield. I have the grey thermal paste for computer processors and heatsinks, but I don't have, nor have I seen, the black paste being sold. Can I use the grey thermal paste with the A8, without it overheating and with it working long term?

The article Thermal Paste Thermal Tape Question Logic Board mentions a similar black substance used in a G4 PowerBook logic board:

  When installing the logic board, I know your're required to use the silver colored thermal paste on the main processor and it's heat sink. On the other chip however, ( I assume it's the video chip, it says Motorola on it), the original techs appear to have used something black, and it is thicker, and harder to remove and appears to be cut to size. My question is,...what is the black stuff used on the other processor with a copper heat sink? Is it black thermal tape, cut to size and if so, where do you buy it from? And do you apply a piece of tape on the video processor and on the copper heat sink? Or do you apply the thermal substance on only only one part either the video chip or the copper heat sink?

Unfortunately, as you mention, there appears to be no source for the black thermal substance1. However, silver (which has an extra 5% efficiency) thermal paste, rather than white , should do the trick.

1 Unless this Thermal paste for iPhone 5 Mainboard is the black stuff.


How to create a shortcut/alias for the "NTFS for Mac" preference? I have a bootcamp Windows installed on my RMBP,
and I used to use the "Startup Disk" preference to boot into windows.
By click and drag the "StartupDisk.prefPane" from /System/Library/PreferencePanes/ to Desktop while holding Cmd+Option, an alias can be created on Desktop.

After installing "NTFS for Mac", the bootcamp Windows partition disappeared from the Startup Disk preference. And I have to use the "NTFS for Mac" preference to select.

I want to create a shortcut for "NTFS for Mac", but there is no "NTFS for Mac" in /System/Library/PreferencePanes/.

Where is the "NTFS for Mac.prefPane" located if there is one?
Or another way to create a shortcut for NTFS for Mac?

Mac OSX has two more locations where preference panes can reside:

/Library/PreferencePanes/ - This is where system wide 3rd party panes are installed. (The folder you looked in (/System/Library/PreferencePanes/) is reserved for core OS preference panes.)
~/Library/PreferencePanes/ - This is where user-specific panes are installed.

Search these two locations and if you find the NTFS for Mac preference pane there create a short cut as a link to the file.


MacBook Pro Mid 2009 does not boot without resetting system management control (SMC) Today i started my macbook pro and after some seconds it stopped working (just turned). I was not able to start it again. After some apple support search I found a page that described how to reset the SMC. After that the notebook startet. Then I switched it of again and tried to start it again but it did not start.

Now every start requires to reset the SMC. Then the notebook boots up.

Any idea what can cause this behavior?

I'd try to boot the Mac into Recovery Mode and then Reinstall MacOS and see if that helps with the issue. If not then the hard drive needs to be taken in for repairs. You can also try inserting a new hard drive with MacOS on it and see if it boots.


Use iOS twitter integration without the official Twitter app? Is it possible to keep the full iOS twitter integration (tweet from anywhere in iOS, get notified on lockscreen/notification center etc.) and uninstall the official Twitter client and use TweetBot or Twitteriffic instead?

I found out recently in iOS 6 you don't need the official Twitter client installed nor the Facebook client. I use Tweetbot for Twitter, and I am still able to use the built in Twitter features for iOS without having reinstalled the official Twitter app.

Notifications are generally handled by the individual applications through the notification centre and therefore you don't need the twitter client installed, since your preferred client will handle these.

It seems that the link for this in the settings page is only to make you aware that you need another client to read actual Twitter/Facebook messages and to get all functionality.

iOS provides native authentication and tweeting functionality. The reason for the recommendation to install the twitter app is due to the fact that iOS does not support reading tweets or notifications natively.

I found this out by accident setting up my iPhone 5. I have since removed the official app from my iPad HD and everything still works.


Can the default permissions on /dev/disk* be changed? Is it possibile to change default permissions /dev/disk*?

In Linux this is done in the udev configuration files; which is the equivalent on OS X?

I'd like to give group write permissions so members of the group operator will be able to perform write operations to external hard drives without using sudo (e.g. run virtual machines from external usb drives).

I tried to sudo chmod g+w /dev/disk2* but it doesn't persist as when the first write attempt permissions revert to 640 instead of the changed permissions.

As far as I can tell, Apple locks this stuff down pretty hard to the point where it's not reasonably possible.

However, considering what you want to do with it, I'm certain that what you're actually wanting is to give write access to the external HDD which can be found in /Volumes/ (after you plug it in). Now, most external HDDs I've used (that are formatted properly*) will allow anyone to write to 'em unless an Admin chmod 'em to say otherwise.

*NTFS-formatted drives are read-only through the Mac OS. As far as I know, there is no way around this without reformatting the drive.


Can I use my iPhone as a hotspot on Wifi (instead of 3G/4G)? I would like to use my jailbroken iPhone as a hotspot for my MacBook. It works well when my 3G internet is enabled. But when I disable it, the hotspot menu becomes unavailable... even if my iPhone is connected on the WiFi network.

I disabled the 3G to make sure it wouldn't use my 3G data plan.

Can I use my iPhone as a hotspot on WiFi (instead of 3G)?

You can do this with USB or Bluetooth tethering on jailbroken iOS devices using an app such as MyWi.  There are many other jailbreak apps for this function, so it's worth shopping around.

Some will only share the 3G internet connection, but I understand others will share any internet connection over USB or bluetooth.

You can't use wifi tethering to connect your computer to a wifi network your phone knows about.

The hotspot creates a new wireless network, but the iPhone is capable of attaching to only one wireless network at a time.  It cannot connect to a wireless network with internet and create its own wireless network to share.

Since the iPhone is on the wireless network, though, you can get your computer on that same network since it will likely be in range.


Why I can't remove linux partitions on macOS Sierra I'm trying to remove linux partition from my iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) on MacOS Sierra 10.12 Beta 2, So I tried existing solutions by using Disk Utility, I tried from Recovery as well, But it says

  You can not remove this volume because the previous volume can not be resized

Some existing solutions use Terminal but I have no idea about that.

I need a simplest and easiest way to remove these linux partitions and grow my mac partition.

You can't expand a macOS partition to lower block numbers (i.e. to the "beginning of a disk") with on-board macOS tools.

Basically you have to remove all useless partitions, clone or restore your main macOS drive to a new partition on the same drive and delete the old one.

Preparation:

Backup your data.
Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive).
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either Ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot to a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.
Verify and repair your main macOS volume with Disk Utility

Modify partition table:

Open in the menubar Utilities/Terminal

First you should get an overview of your disks and the partition layout:
Enter diskutil list
Example listing:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        500.1 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB    disk0s1
   2:           Linux Filesystem                        499.1 MB    disk0s2
   3:                 Linux Swap                          2.0 GB    disk0s3
   4:           Linux Filesystem                        247.5 GB    disk0s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X               248.6 GB    disk0s5
   6:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD            650.0 MB    disk0s6
   7:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD            650.0 MB    disk0s7
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                         *1.3 GB    disk1
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OS X Base System        *1.3 GB    disk1s2
/dev/disk2-~disk14...

/dev/disk1-~disk14 ...belong to the macOS Base System (your recovery system you booted to previously)

disk0 is your main internal disk device containing the EFI-partition (dis0s1), some Linux partitions (disk0s2-disk0s4), your main macOS volume (disk0s5) and two Recovery HDs (disk0s6/disk0s7) one of which is useless - probably disk0s7.
To get a standard partition layout you have to delete a lot of partitions, create a new partition, dd or asr your main macOS volume to a new one and rearrange your recovery partition:
Get an overview:

gpt -r show disk0

Remove partitions (which requires to unmount disk0)

diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 7 disk0 #remove 2nd recovery partition
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 4 disk0 #remove Linux 2nd partition (main)
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 3 disk0 #remove Linux Swap
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 2 disk0 #remove Linux 1st partition (booter?)

Create a new partition for a new main macOS with the same size as your old one:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 408640 -s 485511600 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

Get a new updated view of the partition table:

diskutil list

Example listing:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        500.1 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB    disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS                        248.6 GB    disk0s2
   5:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X               248.6 GB    disk0s5
   6:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD            650.0 MB    disk0s6

dd your "old" macOS partition disk0s5 to the new partition disk0s2:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
dd if=/dev/disk0s5 of=/dev/disk0s2 bs=1m

(use the proper disk identifiers here: disk0s5 may be different)
remove your old main macOS partition

gpt -r show disk0
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 5 disk0 #use the proper index number of your old macOS partition here

Create a new partition and clone your recovery partition:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt add -i 3 -b 485920240 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0
diskutil list #to get the proper device identifiers
diskutil umountDisk disk0
dd if=/dev/disk0s6 of=/dev/disk0s3 bs=1m
gpt -r show disk0
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 6 disk0 #use the proper index number of your old recovery partition here

Expand your new main volume:

diskutil verifyVolume /dev/disk0s2
diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk0s2 #if necessary
diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 499g

Reboot to your main volume

Always make certain to use the proper device identifiers - either with diskutil list or gpt -r show disk0!

Finally I recommend to download and install a proper system! Your current system seems to be some public beta of Sierra.


Repurposing "menu" button on Windows keyboards used in OS X Windows keyboards map pretty intuitively to OS X, leaving only the "context menu" button a little purposeless. I would like the menu key to behave as another Command key.
How does one define what the "context menu" key on Windows keyboards does in OS X?

On this keyboard, the "context menu" key is directly under the "." (period/greater than) key; on the bottom row between "alt" and "ctrl" on the right side, two keys to the left of the "left arrow" key. What does it do in OS X, and what is it called?

It has neither purpose nor name in OS X.

Maybe Karabiner could do it, if you can figure out what key code it sends - try Key Codes to see if it generates anything usable.