How to efficiently mark mail as spam before reviewing it in Mac OS X Mail.app? If my ISP marks an email as spam, and moves it to the spam folder before the Mac OS X Mail.app sees it, Mail.app does not mark these emails as spam.

This wouldn’t be too bad if there was a way for me to efficiently mark these as spam (so that I can review them just in case without triggering one-pix image trackers and the like), but there does not seem to be one:

Keyboard shortcuts are a non-starter, as they require the message to be selected first.
Right-clicking the emails one by one to mark them as spam (which requires going in a submenu each time) is tiresome.
In Lion, I could select multiple of them (being careful never to select only one spam) and mass-mark as spam without viewing any of them, but that stopped working when Mail.app got the ability to show multiple message selections as a pile of messages.
I can re-position the dividers or resize the window to hide the message view pane and mass-mark at that time, but that requires re-positioning them back manually each time, and that won’t do.

Is there something I have missed?

One solution would be select all those messages and mark them as Junk using an iOS device, which would not load/preview emails until they’re opened.

You can also run the following AppleScript:
tell application "Mail" to set junk mail status of (messages of mailbox "QUARANTINE" of account "NAME" whose junk mail status is false) to true

Replace NAME with the name of your account, as defined under Mail → Preferences → Accounts.

You can then run that script anytime you want to mark all those messages as junk.

You could even setup a rule under Mail → Preferences → Rules:

If any of the following conditions are met: Every Message
Perform the following actions: Run AppleScript
In the dropdown click Open in Finder.
Drop your .scpt file into the window that opens up.
Select that script in the action’s dropdown menu.
Set this rule as your topmost rule, so that it runs before any rule that ends with Stop evaluating rules.


Mavericks - USB to HDMI Monitors I'd like to update to Mavericks on my "mid 2012" MBP, but am worried about my monitor setup. I have two Samsung S22C300 Monitors attached to my computer, one via a thunderbolt to HDMI adapter, and the other through a Cable Matters USB 3.0 to HDMI adapter which has drivers only updated to Snow Leopard, but they work ok on Mountain Lion (with a little monitor lag, but I've gotten used to that).

Has anyone had an issues with their "third" monitor with the new MacOS? More specifically, any issues with connecting monitors to USB with the Cable Matters adapter?

Nothing that I have run into personally but I just ran across this:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/os-x-mavericks-breaks-multi-monitor-setups-with-some-usb-displays/

Which indicates major issues witht he author's USB monitor (DisplayLink) so I would not upgrade untill you are either sure you have updated drivers or can do without your second monitor.


iPhone 3GS suddenly shuts down while playing games I just purchased used iPhone 3GS from a fella, and the phone is running everything perfectly except for games. Whenever I play any game after some minute it suddenly shut down, even battery is fully charge.

It is an iPhone 3GS, 32GB, SU, old BR, 5.1.

What possibly is the cause of this issue?

Usually when an iOS device suddenly powers off, it's a voltage drop in the battery due to a hardware problem. If the device draws more current than the battery can provide, it will shut off.

Are you able to take it in for service to have the device checked out? You could chase a software restore, but those usually leave a log file or the device reboots on its own. Also, over temp could cause the issue, but the device logs that and shows an over temp error on the display rather than just blacking out most of the times heat is a cause.


Can punching my iPhone damage it? Sometimes, when I'm suddenly frustrated by something problematic I read on Reddit, I punch my iPhone SE (the 2016 version) screen from a couple inches away using my finger joints while holding it in my other hand (I know, bad habit). I'm wondering whether this bad habit has any risk of causing long-term negative effects to my iPhone, like breaking something on the PCB or damaging the battery.

Sure it can, just like dropping it on the floor.
999 times you'll get away with it, the 1000th you'll break something.
As this is entirely behavioural rather than accidental, I'd suggest you learn to not do it.


With AppleScript how can you check if spctl is enabled? I'm familiar with running the AppleScript command:

do shell script "sudo spctl --master-disable" with administrator privileges

to allow the ability in Security to select Anywhere but is there a way in AppleScript to detect if spctl is enabled or disabled?

Edit:

Running the do shell with:

do shell script "spctl --status"

will throw a Script Editor in Script Editor:

Is there a way to get the status without it throwing an error?

I think what you're looking for could be:

try
    do shell script "spctl --status"
on error E
    E
end try

Returns assessments enabled or assessments disabled accordingly.

System info: AppleScript version: 2.7  System version: 10.13.6


Sprint factory iphone 5 unlocking I want to factory unlock my iphone 5 from Sprint operator. Can it be done for free or have I use an internet ? Thanks for helping:)

You need to read this. Unfortunately, it is completely illegal, and almost impossible, unless you are off the contract. If you are currently off the contract, see this.


Contact picture not connect with Faces on Photo Each time I'm going to select a face picture for my contact in the MacBook Pro (Mid. 2010 OS X 10.11) and I select the option Faces the window display the following message:

Find and organise photos of <name_of_the_contact> in the photo app using Faces.

The problem here is that I would like to choose a photo among the available pics in the Photo app for my contacts. Obviously I set one pics in the app Photo but these are not present in the list when I edit the photo in the contacts app. The two app appear to be not related each other.

Someone have had the same problem and maybe solve it?

I think you may have hit the difference between the old handling of Faces & the new.

If your Face is tagged as 'john', & 'john' is not in your Contacts list, it cannot find him.
If he's tagged as John Smith - john.smith@me.com then he can be found.

The only way to associate the two is to click the name under the face in Photos, start typing the name, then pick john.smith@me.com instead of just 'john'.

Then when you go back to Contacts, it can associate the Faces selection with the appropriate Contact.

Here's an example using some Davids - the top ones are my 'Faces' as I already have them; underneath are the same people as 'Contacts' which is imho a lot less 'chummy' but how you must tag people before they will correctly link as Contacts.


Where to find model for downgrade.Is that GSM or Global? I would like to know my iPhone's model no. Is that GSM or Global? On the back of the phone it says “Designed by Apple in California Assembled in China – Model A1530”.

I am from India. Where do I find the model number? Is that GSM or Global?

You can find the model number of your iPhone in Settings > General > About. There is an entry under "Model". This describes your phones model configuration, such as colour and memory size.

The model number you mention is the region and network configuration as per below table. So you have the Asia Pacific model.

iPhone 5s             Model Number
----------------------------------
GSM/North America     A1533
CDMA/Verizon          A1533
CDMA/China Telecom    A1533
CDMA/US/Japan         A1453
UK/Europe/Middle East A1457
China Unicom          A1528
Asia Pacific          A1530
China Mobile          A1518

What do you mean by "Global"? GSM is a telecommunications networking standard defining the protocols for what is commonly known as 2G.

Since you tagged your question as "iphone-5s", the networks it supports are

GSM
CDMA
3G
EVDO
HSPA+
LTE


"type" and "which" programs coming up empty for programs on the path Here is an example of a program that is in the path, find-able by tab / command-completion and accessible but not found by which:

kafka-

However running which kafka or type kafka comes up empty handed

Why would these programs not be working properly?

As you can see in your first screenshot, there is no application called and ‘kafka-‘.  Therefore, it cannot look up its path.

Try, for example, ‘which kafka-configs’ and it will show you the path.


2 phones using same Apple ID. What happens if I erase everything on one phone? I have two phone using the same Apple ID.   Second phone was a temporary replacement, and then the first phone was found.   I want to erase all the settings and data on second phone so I can give it to another employee, with a new Apple ID.   Second phone wants me to log in with the Apple ID before it will allow me to erase everything. Will all the data be erased on the iCloud account, and also delete the data from the first phone?

Apple give fairly detailed instructions on how to prepare an iOS device for another person here...

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201351

Basically, back it up, sign out of your iCloud account (and the App Store depending on the version of iOS you have installed) and then choose "Erase All Content and Settings".

Selecting "Erase All Content and Settings" on one phone will only affect that phone. It doesn't affect the content you have saved to another phone or the data in your iCloud account.


iTunes 12.5.4: generic icons in "artists" view sidebar? In iTunes 12.5.4, I have mostly generic icons in the "artists' view. This is a huge waste of vertical height and I wish I could turn off these icons  – but since I can't, does anyone understand how these icons are populated with image data? I have a few icons with images but did nothing (knowingly) to accomplish that.

(sorry the image is so huge)

I'm not 100% on this but changing things like the Sort Artist and Album Artist seems to change things for me. If I do that, I get picture Icons. My guess is that in order for iTunes to contact its database of artist images, it needs detailed information to avoid errors.


Do the M1 Macs "shutoff" RAM or CPU Cores? Question
Is there any new way the M1 Macs manage memory or long running processes that would explain the behavior I describe below? I wanted to investigate what I might not know about the M1s before chalking it up to a software bug.
Background
When I run BOINC (via Rosetta2) it runs without issue with one project per CPU core. But after some time of inactivity it seems that certain cores are "shutdown". I have observed this happening one core (bionic task) at a time with about 30secs between the next "shutdown".  The BOINC software seems to interpret this as the system not having enough memory. As can be seen in the image each project needs <1GB of RAM to run. With the Mac having 16gb of RAM all tasks can run.

TLDR
M1 MacBook Air with 16gb seems to "shutdown" cores or parts of RAM after a predictable amount of time of inactivity.
Post Script

No, the issue you're seeing is not in any way caused by the M1 "turning off memory" or "turning off cores". It is entirely caused by the manner in which this particular software program is structured.
Remember to check your BOINC settings - you can actually decide how large a part of your RAM that BOINC can use. The lower you set it (all else being equal), the more you'll see "Waiting for memory".


how can i get mp4 from the internet onto my ipod touch i have a URL like this for example: http://media.ch9.ms/ch9/2451/19bd8bd5-6f13-440a-a8b9-9ebd01582451/NYCDRMVVMS2_low_ch9.mp4

and i want to bring that into itunes and then onto my ipod touch.

what is the best way for going about this?

Right click the link in your browser and save it in a place you can remember. Open finder and locate the mp4. Right click the file and click Open With > iTunes. You can also drag the video into iTunes if it is already open. Then you can sync the video by plugging in your iPod and selected it under "Devices" in iTunes. There is a tab for videos and you can select which videos from iTunes you wish to sync (just like music).

Alternatively, you can visit the link in Safari on your iPod and stream the video, but you would of course need an internet connection.


Every Ubuntu update breaks rEFInd on my MBP Every time when I'm updating Ubuntu with:
apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade

I've needed to do this in MBP recovery mode:
mkdir /Volumes/EFI
mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/EFI
bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --file /Volumes/EFI/EFI/refind/refind_x64.efi --shortform

How can I avoid this?

Finally I found a solution:
umount /boot/efi

I'm running this automatically at Ubuntu startup. When EFI partition needed with running Ubuntu I can mount it manually. Now I don't need to "rebless" rEFInd after every Ubuntu upgrade.


Terminal command to determine the last time a MacBook Pro was unplugged from AC Power? We have multiple users that are assigned MacBook Pro's who we know never take them away from their desks. We need some sort of proof to repurpose this hardware and issue them an iMac. We would really like a terminal command we can send or a script we could run to determine the last time the laptop was unplugged.

So far everything we've found just tells you its current state, but not "timer"?

You might be able to use ioreg to determine the cycle count of the battery. A low cycle count indicates that the battery has not been discharged and charged very much.

ioreg -l | grep Capacity

"Cycle Count" shows how many times the battery has been cycled. You can read more about battery cycle counts here.

Another idea is to use pmset to log the state of the system's power. You could, in theory, have that dump to a file to investigate after some time has passed.

Take a look at the man page for pmset.

pmset -g pslog will log the state of system's power. As the device is unplugged or plugged you'll see the log update. This could show how frequently a notebook is unplugged and charged. If it remains plugged in for long spans of time, or is often drawing from 'AC Power' then you'd know if it's mobile or not.


In the Skype Meetings App, how can you control your USB/external headset volume? While connected to the Skype Meetings App, you are given the option to specify specific devices for audio output and input.  However, since this is a selection within the Skype application, normal volume control doesn't seem to function.  Instead, increasing/decreasing volume seems to change the volume settings of the primary audio device.

This one has both stumped and annoyed me for a while.  I had been unable to find a solution to this online but, eventually, I figured it out so I figured I'd share my discovery.

To modify the volume you need to click on the speaker icon on the Mac menu.

After clicking on the speaker icon, a little menu will show up showing the available audio devices.  Select your headset and then the hot-key volume controls and the volume slider will adjust the volume on your headset.

Once you've modified your volume settings, you can set your primary audio device back to what it previously was.  Your settings on your headset will remain the same, even if you adjust the volume on your primary speakers.

It's pretty simple once you figure out but wasn't immediately obvious.


"Battery is not charging" after updating to MacOS Big Sur I just upgraded my MacBook Pro to MacOS Big Sur Version 11.0 Beta, and my battery, even though the power adapted is connected, is showing the message "Battery is not charging", while displaying this (new) icon:

My Mac is indeed not charging, even though the battery source is the power adapter. How is it possible to solve this issue?

UPDATE: This looks like a new feature of MacOS Big Sur. In the Battery settings, there is a new option called "Optimised battery charging" which stops battery charging after 80% to reducing battery ageing. By unchecking this option the battery starts charging again normally.


Change Snow Leopard System Font Color This seems like it should be simple, but I've googled and gooled and still can't find an answer.

How can I change the System font color on Mac OS X 10.6.7?

Apple removed official support for "skinning" Mac OS X aeons ago. The only changes that you can make easily involve installing new icon sets.

There is no way to do this short of hacking binary files.


Change font in Console.app in macOS Sierra How do I change the font used in macOS Sierra? Has Apple actually taken away the ability to set the font?

Currently in macOS Sierra the SFMono font bundled with the app seems to be in use. I cannot find any menu item for fonts, nor can I find any toolbar button available for accessing fonts.

The context-menu for the content of a Console.app window offers a Font > Show Fonts item. The standard font-picker appears. But choosing fonts in the picker has no effect on the Console.app window.

Unfortunately you can't change the font for Console.app OOTB with macOS 10.12.x.

Console.app uses the font that is located in the application itself ^. If you delete it, which is not recommended, the default font it will revert to Helvetiva.

^ /Applications/Utilities/Console.app/Contents/Resources/Fonts/.


Number keys not working I'm using a MacBook Air (latest OS X update) and today the number & punctuation keys on the integrated keyboard stopped working. All other keys are working correctly.

And no: there was no water damage. I didn't install any tools today.

For a few weeks I've been using a MagicKeyboard over Bluetooth. Today I connected, disconnected and powered off the keyboard after disabling Bluetooth. I never had this issue before.

For me it seems like there is a "numeric disable" activated, similar to the "num"-Key on keyboards with a numeric block. But this makes no sense...

The setting of Mouse Keys could have been activated while syncing from a MobileMe account that had the preference enabled, migrating a user from another computer using Migration Assistant that had the preference enabled, or by pressing the Option key five times (if that setting is enabled in System Preferences).

To check your System Preference settings, or to enable/disable Mouse Keys:

Open System Preferences and click on the Universal Access preference pane.
Click the Mouse & Trackpad settings tab.
Click the "Off" radio button next to Mouse Keys.

Note1: You may also check/uncheck the box for "Press Option key five times to turn Mouse Keys on or off".

Note2: If you are logged on to a user where Mouse Keys is already disabled, but your keyboard is not responding properly, toggle the radio buttons for Mouse Keys "On" then "Off" to restore normal functionality.


Dock keeps "wiggling" or "bouncing" i have very weird bug that really bothers me.

My dock keeps "wiggling" or "bouncing around".
It looks like someone is kicking on Dock back and forth for ever. Started this morning and i have not installed any apps since then.

It's really annoying and i have no idea whats going on.
What i've tried : Restarted my MBP 3 times, killed Dock multiple times and still no results.

Turns out it was one of Synergy 2 beta background service that was crashing and restarting over and over again.

Thanks to https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/4007/alistair-mcmillan who pointed that in my question's comments.


How to hide notification center button in Mountain Lion? I am using Mountain Lion.

The only advantage (for me) over the gesture is that Option + clicking the button enables/disables showing alerts and banners (toggles the switch in the notifications center).

Is there a way to hide the button in the status bar that opens notification center?

I had the same problem yesterday, and found this tool called Bartender. It is paid software.

On my Mac, running Mountain Lion, the icon is gone but the other notification functionality remains.


Are there any autocompletion input tools for English? Except default TextEdit app I'm a Mac user who is a Japanese. I usually type Japanese using Google IME  which enables me to type it with predictive texts so that we can type it faster.

Google IME

http://www.google.co.jp/ime/

In terms of English, I can't find good tools such as IME and a text editor. Does anyone know of one?

This question may have already been answered by How to setup predictive text (autocomplete) on Mac?, which states:

  The closest things I've found to what you are looking for are this
  text editor experiment that you have to compile yourself

  http://alvinalexander.com/java/type-ahead-continuous-predictive-text-editor-auto-complete

  And this Chrome extension for Gmail https://complete.li

  Both would require you to type in their respective places and then
  paste into your application of choice, but I haven't found anything
  that works systemwide.

However, just to complete the answer, there is a IME type method built into TextEdit, that can be activated by hitting the ESCAPE key, so if you type "beg" then the system will bring up a selection of words beginning with "beg", thus:

However, the title of your question implies that you do not want to use that text editor. However, TextEdit is a system wide text entry mechanism so that particular functionality should be available in a number of text entry fields across the system.

Evernote has an autocomplete system, that relies on the the MAcOS autocomplete.

There is another method, using Emacs, which has an autocompletion mechanism. Again, though, it is tied to use within one particular application, although it is an extremely versatile application, if a little tricky to learn to use.

So, in summary, there appears to be no system-wide IME type functionality, apart rom the one built into OS X's TextEdit mechanism. To re-iterate the answer from Super User: you will have to type in a specific IME friendly application and then paste into your application of choice


Not able to open print setup in my mac. I use OS X EI Captain 10.11.1 I am not able to open print setup.
When I Open Print Queue, i get the following screen

I am not even able to given double sided printout.

Please help me out

Basically, I want to give back to back printout. But I am not getting that option at all.. In print setup, when choose Layout, the "two sided" dropdown is greyed out as shown below.

It's not entirely clear from your question, but I think you're just looking in the wrong place. The Printers & Scanners control panel is a 'set & forget' control, one you really only need if you add a new printer.

You deal with the regular task of adjusting printer defaults for a given print job from the Print menu in your current application - this example from Safari


Adding movie-style sound effects to the Terminal I want to have movie style sound effects in the terminal. You know, when every keystroke and line emits a cool little beep. (Something like this.) I've used KeyClick, but that's only for keyboard typing. I also want effects when characters are read across the screen, etc.

I know this is superflous as hell. And I'll probably get annoyed by it within five minutes. But it will be a glorious five minutes.

Fun question :)

I'm not sure how you would get sound effects for everything but you could do something like this to get sound effects for a few things:

1) Open open your .profile (or .bashrc or wherever you like to keep your customizations) by opening a terminal window and typing:

open .profile

2) Add the following few lines to the bottom of the file:

function top() { afplay /System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/SharedSupport/SystemSounds/accessibility/Sticky\ Keys\ ON.aif; command top;}
function ls() { command ls; afplay /System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/SharedSupport/SystemSounds/accessibility/Slow\ Keys\,\ Key\ Registered.aif; }

3) Try typing 'ls' for a directory listing or 'top' to see the list of running processes & you'll get to hear the results of these commands.

By adding these two lines we are declaring two new functions with the same names as existing bash commands. We override the command itself so that we can play a bit of audio and then run the command itself (or vice versa as shown the 'top' example).

The audio files I am currently using are default audio files (at least on Lion) that are used for accessibility features. I chose these so that you could cut-paste, and see the trick in action but you could use any audio file in place of these.

Here's a site with a bunch of sci-fi sound effects you could use in place of these ones I'm borrowing from the OS:

http://fxhome.com/sounds/


environment variable edit error I have been trying to edit my environment variables. I referred to the sites but its not working. I should mention that I am very new to Mac
and I'm using it because my workplace has it.
When I enter the command

touch ~/.bash_profile; open ~/.bash_profile

in the Terminal, it says

-bash: touch: command not found
-bash: open: command not found

though it did open the file once before.

First check that your path variable is working or not just type (echo $PATH) from terminal it will return the O/P like: /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
if saying "commond not found"

Then you have to PATH variable to setup path variable below steps

1) vi /etc/paths
it's will vi editor to edit type "I" and enter below mention lines

/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin

2) press esc and type wq to save exit.


Are OS installations on a disk linked to a system? I have a MBP17 with an SSD (Sierra) which I want to switch with my husband's MBP13 for work related reasons.

Would taking out the SSD (OS and files intact) from the MBP17 and placing it in the MBP13 without re-installing anything render any problems? Meaning is the harddrive linked to an installation in any way, leading me to have to re-install Mac on the SSD before I can use the MBP13?

Would it matter that the MBP13 is still on El Capitan and the MBP17 on Sierra?

This shouldn't be a problem. I have done similar things both with an external disk and an internal disk. The first boot may take a very long time, but it is working — leave it to do its thing. Of course, double check your backups before performing something like this.


Photos library not showing in iTunes I can't see any longer any Photos library inside iTunes->Phone->photos.
Nor my full photos collection neither any newly created test library can be chosen in the option "Copy photos from"

I don't know if this issue is related to latest upgrade to macos 10.11.2 or to some old files cleaning I perform recently.

Anyone know what is missing?

If you have moved your library to another folder, like in my case to an external hard drive to save space in my laptop, then you just need to create an alias of the photo library, move it to the Pictures folder, and rename it to "Photos Library"... iTunes will now be able to find it.


How can I get zsh to show the current path in the prompt? I am not able to see path of my current directory or even username in terminal while using zsh. I was able to see it until few days back. Now it just shows blank. I tried uninstalling oh-my-zsh but it dint work. If I switch to bash, then I can see path. I have tried restarting my mac as well but no luck.

Currently, terminal looks like below:

Until few days back, it used to look like below:

Below is my .zshrc

# Path to your oh-my-zsh installation.
export ZSH=/Users/vishalsingh/.oh-my-zsh

# Set name of the theme to load.
# Look in ~/.oh-my-zsh/themes/
# Optionally, if you set this to "random", it'll load a random theme each
# time that oh-my-zsh is loaded.
ZSH_THEME="agnoster"

# Uncomment the following line to use case-sensitive completion.
# CASE_SENSITIVE="true"

# Uncomment the following line to use hyphen-insensitive completion. Case
# sensitive completion must be off. _ and - will be interchangeable.
# HYPHEN_INSENSITIVE="true"

# Uncomment the following line to disable bi-weekly auto-update checks.
# DISABLE_AUTO_UPDATE="true"

# Uncomment the following line to change how often to auto-update (in days).
# export UPDATE_ZSH_DAYS=13

# Uncomment the following line to disable colors in ls.
# DISABLE_LS_COLORS="true"

# Uncomment the following line to disable auto-setting terminal title.
# DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"

# Uncomment the following line to enable command auto-correction.
# ENABLE_CORRECTION="true"

# Uncomment the following line to display red dots whilst waiting for completion.
# COMPLETION_WAITING_DOTS="true"

# Uncomment the following line if you want to disable marking untracked files
# under VCS as dirty. This makes repository status check for large repositories
# much, much faster.
# DISABLE_UNTRACKED_FILES_DIRTY="true"

# Uncomment the following line if you want to change the command execution time
# stamp shown in the history command output.
# The optional three formats: "mm/dd/yyyy"|"dd.mm.yyyy"|"yyyy-mm-dd"
# HIST_STAMPS="mm/dd/yyyy"

# Would you like to use another custom folder than $ZSH/custom?
# ZSH_CUSTOM=/path/to/new-custom-folder

# Which plugins would you like to load? (plugins can be found in ~/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/*)
# Custom plugins may be added to ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/
# Example format: plugins=(rails git textmate ruby lighthouse)
# Add wisely, as too many plugins slow down shell startup.
plugins=(git)

# User configuration

# export PATH="/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:$PATH"
# export MANPATH="/usr/local/man:$MANPATH"

source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh

# You may need to manually set your language environment
# export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

# Preferred editor for local and remote sessions
# if [[ -n $SSH_CONNECTION ]]; then
#   export EDITOR='vim'
# else
#   export EDITOR='mvim'
# fi

# Compilation flags
# export ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64"

# ssh
# export SSH_KEY_PATH="~/.ssh/dsa_id"

# Set personal aliases, overriding those provided by oh-my-zsh libs,
# plugins, and themes. Aliases can be placed here, though oh-my-zsh
# users are encouraged to define aliases within the ZSH_CUSTOM folder.
# For a full list of active aliases, run `alias`.
#
# Example aliases
# alias zshconfig="mate ~/.zshrc"
# alias ohmyzsh="mate ~/.oh-my-zsh"

Oh my, omz is setting the PROMPT variable. Let's get you a temporary bash-like prompt in your current zsh session.

PROMPT='%m:%1~ %n%#'

Your omz installation is hosed. I recommend that you uninstall it. Install it again, if you want to or read the following sections of the zsh manuals.

man -P 'less -p "EXPANSION OF PROMPT"' zshall

to craft your own custom prompt in your .zshrc and if you are interested in themes

man -P 'less -p "PROMPT THEMES"' zshall


Is there any way to write an automation or program on an iPad except Shortcuts? I would like to build an interface - a set of menus, for example - which presents information from an app or a webpage and allows me to read and interact with it in a different way than it is presented or accessible in that app or website. I am working on an iPad, so I am considering trying to write some kind of web scraping Shortcut which returns information from the website.
I was curious, is there any other hypothetical way to create an automation, on an iPad? Could there be any tool which could override, control and automate the iPad, even if Apple has made it very difficult to do so?

The only other way I can think of is jailbreaking and using Activator.


MacBook 13" white (mid 2007) - how to treat a new battery for optimal battery life? The old battery of my MacBook 13" white (mid 2007) is dead (as I always had the MacBook on my desktop and did not bother calibrating or discharging the battery).

I bought a new one (original Apple battery) and I wonder how to treat it to get optimal performance and a long life.

I found general tips on the apple.com homepage, but they are for MacBook Air/Pro Li-Ion batteries, and if I am not mistaken, the MacBook 13" has a Li-Polymer battery which might be a different story.

So what do I do with the new battery?

first use/charging
daily use

I remember asking the guy at the Apple store this very question back when I bought my black MacBook 13" back in 2007. From what he said and from what I've read over the years regarding battery health, most of what Apple have stated on the page you referenced is applicable to you. If I could offer some more advice, it would be this.

Cycle your battery at least once a month by charging it to 100%, discharging it completely (until the MacBook puts itself to sleep) and leaving it discharged for about 5 hours, then charge to 100% again and let it "over"-charge for about 2 hours. According to Apple, you should get 300 cycles out of your battery before it is considered to be "consumed". That's 300 months of use if you only cycle it that many times.
Only charge the laptop when you need to. Don't leave it constantly plugged in. If you know you're going to be running off of mains for an extended period without the possibility of power failure, then consider  removing the battery altogether to prolong its life. The 2007 model MacBooks have easily removable batteries so it's not too much of a hassle.
As for first use, as far back as I can remember, all Apple products are ready to use straight out of the box. It's annoying to get so excited to have a device, get home, and then have to wait 16 hours for it to do an initial charge. As far as I am aware, this should extend to their batteries as well, although I would hazard a guess that the batteries come with a 50% charge instead of a full charge as the batteries should be stored at around 50% for long-term storage. I would suggest, based on that and the above advice, to utilise the battery the first time without an initial charge, deplete it until the MacBook enters low power state, then charge it fully.


OS X Lion SMB shared folder lost execute permission After updating from 10.6.8 to Lion 10.7.0, my shared folder (shared over SMB) begin having strange problem with my Windows VM.

When I create a .exe file from my Delphi compiler or create simple test file from the Windows VM, OS X doesn't inherit the permissions anymore and sets them to read/write not read/write/execute.

This also causes problems with Windows, which gives me the error "unable privilege for execute".

Samba was dropped in 10.7 in favour of new custom Windows/SMB code - the functionality might still look the same, but the software that enables it is very different.  I have seen various issues related to it, and this could be one of them.  You could always stop sharing via preferences, and install the "real" Samba sharing software and see if that helps - it's not the most elegant solution, but it may prove a point while you wait for a fix.


I am retiring and my apple ID and email will be cancelled by my employer. How do I keep some of the content from apple id? I am a public school teacher about to retire. My apple id is tied to my school email. These accounts will no longer be available to me upon retirement. How can I save or transfer data to my personal apple id/gmail?

This is a very hard process to generalize, but we have someone that has written about it exceptionally clearly.

https://www.brianstucki.com/blog/how-to-manually-merge-two-apple-ids-to-one/

The process does take a lot of steps as e@ch bucket of data may or may not be fungible, but I would start with a good backup that you know you can restore before you try any changes. Perhaps you do not even need to merge things, but just change the email from school to home and keep the account, erase the school machines when your retirement day draws close.


USB-C Charging Speeds / Charger Outputs I own a 2016 Macbook (with the USB-C charging) - at the time and in response to all of the reports of poor cables and poor chargers, I bought a meter so I could see what the throughput of my cables/chargers was. However, having run some tests I'm now not sure what to consider normal / what is harmless to the battery.

For all tests I used an original Apple C-C cable - though was able to replicate with two third party cables I own.

I have the original Apple block charging at 14.3 V / 1.99 A and a third party block that charges the same.

Another third party block which advertises USB PD and 3 A is currently charging at 20 V / 1.43 A

I've done some research online but I can't find any articles that indicate what a normal USB PD output is relative to the devices that connect to it and would appreciate any guidance / assistance.

TL;DR: Have Apple charger which charges at one voltage/amperage. Bought several others advertised at PD which are higher voltage, lower amperage. Not sure what is 'safe', or 'fast', or does least overall damage to battery.

A good Multimeter is fantastic - I use one all the time - however it's not clear from your question just how you're using a Multimeter to take your measurements?

Considering we're talking about a fairly recent model MacBook Pro, I suspect you haven't opened it up to take these measurements. Instead, I recommend you download and install coconutBattery1. It provides a whole heap of information that you'll find useful, and from memory includes both Discharging and Charging measurements in watts!

Some thoughts

It's not clear from your question why you're investigating all this? Unless you've actually got a problem you're trying to address, using the charger that came with your MBP should be perfectly fine. Also, in relation to you not finding any articles that indicate what a normal USB PD output is relative to the devices they connect to, that's because PD stands for Power Delivery and most of these devices are just designed to allow the power travel through them from the charger to the device being charged.

In other words, you can use a hub with a USB-C PD port with a 2017 MacBook Pro and also use it with a HP Elitebook and the voltage/watts will differ, depending on the device and charger.

1 I am not affiliated with coconutBattery in any way.


Automated copying of Finder comments I have a bunch of old files in FLV format, which VLC will convert to M4V format while preserving the audio and video tracks (not re-encoding them).  Many of them have Finder comments that I want to copy to the new files, appending a note that it's converted.

I see that running:

mdls -raw -name kMDItemFinderComment "$f"

in bash will read the comments, but bash appears to have some trouble with non-ASCII characters.  I've tried xattr and an osascript command to apply the comment to the new file, but both are choking on the special characters (mostly bullet: •).

I even tinkered with making an AppleScript droplet to do it, but that's a mess too…

Any advice?

This AppleScript code works for me using the latest version of macOS Mojave.

set originalFile to (path to desktop as text) & "Original.flv"
set convertedFile to (path to desktop as text) & "Converted.m4v"

set appendTextToComment to " This File Has Been Converted"

tell application "Finder"
    set originalComment to comment of alias originalFile
    set comment of alias convertedFile to originalComment & appendTextToComment
end tell

Obviously you need to change the file path variables to the location of your files and the appended text value to whatever you want


Omitting photos when backing up an iphone to a macbook with itunes I have a 64GB iPhone 6 and a MacBook Air with a 256GB disk, about 20GB of which is empty.  There are about 24GB of photos and videos on the iPhone, all of which have been imported into the Photos app on my MacBook. Thus I have a backup of the phone photos on the MacBook.  But when I try to sync my iPhone to the MacBook through iTunes, it tries to copy all the photos into the backup and fails because there is not sufficient free space on the MacBook disk.  Since I already have a copy of all the photos in the Photos app., there is in fact no point in iTunes creating a second copy during the backup.  But everything else on the iPhone should be backed up.

Thus what I need is a way of telling iTines to backup everything on the iPhone except the photos.  However, I cannot find any way to do this (apparently rather simple) thing.  is it possible, or is there some work around?

I am assuming you are not using iCloud Photo Library, but are importing the photos into Photos through a USB cable.

What you can do is remove the photos from the iPhone after importing them, and then sync them to the iPhone through iTunes. As far as I know, when not using iCloud Photo Library, an iTunes backup of an iPhone will include a copy of all the photos in the Camera Roll of the iPhone, but it will not include another copy of all the photos that were synced onto the iPhone through iTunes (Apple Support states that “An iTunes backup doesn't include: [...] Content synced from iTunes, like imported MP3s or CDs, videos, books, and photos”). This way you can still view the photos on your iPhone without having two copies of them on your Mac.


MacBook Pro 2019 with touchbar freezes chrome forms I have a brand new macbook (2019 with touchbar running macOS Catalina).
When I use an external keyboard all is fine.
But when using the laptop keyboard it is extremely slow/laggy on all website input fields and forms (using chrome).
After the first char it freezes and then maybe 10 seconds later the rest I typed is visible.
On safari it is working normally. I have tried disabling the touchbar, but that does not seem possible. Putting it in F1-F12 mode (not providing suggestions) does not help.
Any ideas how I can fix this issue?

Make sure chrome is updated! You can check your version here: chrome://settings/help
As @Udhy pointed out in the comment.


Disk Space taken up by misc/other - not TimeMachine I have OS X 10.15.7 running on a 500GB SSD and OmniDiskSweeper, GrandPerspective and System Information show that I have used about 270GB but only have about 30GB free. OmniDiskSweeper just counts what is there, but GrandPerspective shows 191GB of "Miscellaneous used space" (big grey box on the side) and System Profiler lists it as 'Other'. I know I should have loads of space because I moved my Photos library to an external disk and I was sitting at over 100GB at that point, but in the months since then it has ticked away.
I've tried tmutil listlocalsnapshots / but nothing shows up.
Something curious but possibly unrelated things
1: the disk drive has that second partition "- Data" and it is listed as 500GB too. It may be just me misinterpreting the read out, or poor interface design on Apple's part. The reason I mention this is that Disk Xray Lite also seems confused about disk space, claiming I have used 536GB, presumably because it has counted System > Volumes > Data > Users as well as Users, despite them appearing to be the same thing.
2: I replaced ~/Library/Application Support/Mobile Sync/Backup with an Alias that is to an external drive. I think it only backs up when that drive is plugged in, but maybe it is writing to 'other'

Some additional shots from Disk Utility to help diagnosis. The numbers have changed a little bit because I have deleted a few gigabytes, but the balance is the same

Disk Utility trying First Aid on one of the volumes

Are there multiple users set up on this machine? The screenshot of About this Mac -> Storage shows that there are lots of "Other" files on this partition, which usually means files outside of your user's home directory (and probably hidden/inaccessible).
By default, OmniDiskSweeper can only size folders which you can read. You may use Terminal.app to launch OmniDiskSweeper with root permissions to track down files your regular user can't access:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

Also, /usr and /private are 10x larger than usual.
As for the second Data partition: That is weird. I would consider reformatting (after a full backup, of course).


Command Option P R not working with Bootcamp installed I have an error 43 when trying to delete a folder in Mac OS - I have read that to fix this I need to reset the NVRAM - to do that I need to boot with Command OptionP R - however, this makes the startup noise continually until I release the buttons.

So far so good, but when I do release (I tried after 2 and after 3 startup sounds) - it just boots directly into Windows.

How can I make this work?

Resetting the NVRAM won't make your Mac boot into OS X, which is what I am assuming you want to do.

What you need to do is hold down the Option key when booting and then select the macOS partition as your startup.

If you want to boot into macOS from Windows directly, you have to right click the Bookcamp icon and select "Restart in OS X"

For more info, please see Apple's Bootcamp Documentation


Passing selected folder path to custom Service executing AppleScript I have a custom Service I created in Automator. Right now, the service shows up in my context (right-click) menu, when right-clicking on any folder. In Automator, I added the Run AppleScript action, to execute this code:

on run {input, parameters}
    do shell script "/usr/bin/find ./ -type f -name .DS_Store -delete -print"
    return input
end run

My objective is to delete all .DS_Store files in the selected folder (and all folders within it). I normally do this in Terminal by executing /usr/bin/find /path-to-folder -type f -name .DS_Store -delete -print, but I would love to get this to work from my custom Service.

I'm thinking I need to pass the selected folders path to the AppleScript function (through input perhaps?), but I have no idea how, nor do I see any actions in Automator to pass this. I'm using OS X 10.6.5. Any ideas or suggestions?

At the top of the screen, above your action, there should be a list-box that says Service receives selected <text> in <any application>.  Changing <text> to folders should give you the folders as input.


No email notifications when Mail.app isn't running? On Mountain Lion, I don't get email notifications in Notification Center when Mail.app isn't running.

This is not the expected behaviour (it is inconsistent with the Mail.app behaviour on iOS) and makes the notification feature redundant (Mail.app shows a new email badge and also has an email-snippet view).

Is there a setting or third-party solution to fix this?

UPDATE:
When I'm interacting with email I want to be able to command+tab.
This is very handy when composing a message that consists of copy-pasted content from other applications.
I also use the "drag a file to the dock icon" functionality to create a e-mail with an attachment.

But when I'm not interacting with email (98% of the time) I don't wan't Mail.app cluttering the application-switcher but do want to be notified of new email (via either a notification or a badge).

I can only say that this is true. Mail.app has to be open to get notifications.

  A workaround: Open Mail, and close it with the red dot (or command+w). So the blue
  point under the icon in the Dock is still there. So you have no window
  open but mail is still getting emails.

There is no app or anything there yet to fix this "problem".


How to analyze/resolve Gmail timeouts in Apple Mail? I am using Google Apps/Gmail with Apple Mail on OS X Mavericks. For some reason, sending email is extremely slow (minutes to hours) and I constantly get this message:

  The server returned the error: The connection to the server “imap.gmail.com” on port 993 timed out.

There are often (but not always) little error triangles on the inboxes.

Does anyone know why this happens and what I can do to solve the issue?

Close Apple Mail and flush your DNS cache - imap.gmail.com is actually a collection of servers and occasionally your DNS will send you a bad one.

In El Capitan the command is sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

It's different for earlier versions.

Even the connection logging in Mail didn't show that DNS was the problem, only that it was a timeout in my case. Unfortunately this is only one possibility.

A way to check is by running the following in Terminal:

$ telnet imap.gmail.com 993
Trying 64.233.187.109...
Connected to gmail-imap.l.google.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

test
FConnection closed by foreign host.

(I typed test there, and the server doesn't understand that so I get disconnected. This proves that the connection between the computer and GMail is fine)


Is there a way to see connected static leases in Lion Server? In Lion Server Admin, under DHCP settings, it is possible to see a list of "Clients", but for me this list is nearly always empty, except in the rare occasions when I allow a machine on my network that is not statically mapped. Is it in fact the case that statically mapped IP addresses are not listed under "Clients" by default? Is there a way to see currently connected, statically mapped IP addresses?

You can look at "dynamically" attributed leases with:

more /var/db/dhcpd_leases

You can look at "statically" and "dynamically" attributed leases with:

grep '\[en.\]' /var/log/system.log | more


Plugging iPhone 5 into computer resets USB hub and devices Recently upgraded an old iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 5. Shortly after plugging in the iPhone to a new Windows laptop (usually under 10 minutes), the entire USB hub will reset, disabling all connected devices.

(A USB thumb drive once was the sole survivor, and continued operation even though an external hard drive and USB mouse shut off.)

The laptop is on AC power and has two discrete hubs, one USB 3.0, the other USB 2.0. The same thing happens to either hub, and in both cases, the other is unaffected.

As the 3GS never caused this issue, I am assuming the iPhone 5 draws more heavily on the USB power.

Is there anything I can do to eliminate this issue, other than get an externally-powered hub? (Which I plan to do!)

Update: If I plug the iPhone in fully charged, there seems to be no issue. This seems to indicate that it is indeed related to power draw.

Screenshot of the USB hub properties when the phone is fully charged:

Wow, 7 USB ports is a lot for a laptop!

Because (as you mentioned) the iPhone and iPad consume above-standard amperages, they can sometimes cause issues such as this.  Most USB controllers are dynamic enough to simply provide a standard amount of power to just the iPhone, but there have been a couple of cases I've seen where the hub crashes as you're describing.  When the hub provides a USB-standard amperage to the device, the device will indicate that it is not charging (though explicitly indicating that it is plugged in).

I'm interested to know what model laptop you're using as it may be a known issue for the corresponding USB controller.

As for a fix, you can see if there is updated firmware for the controller.  If those are unavailable or don't resolve the issue, I suggest getting a powered external USB hub.  Using one will eliminate the power strain on the motherboard and will probably extend the life of the PSU.


My Macbook Pro can't install Windows7 On any MAC OS My MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011), since start 3 days ago i keep trying to install Windows7 with original apps Boot Camp Assistant on  El Capitan, it start without any problem. Once the installtion after create partition and restart to start install Windows7 from booting my DVD Drive. I using original Windows7's DVD, but is just can't start load windows's file and start install. It just left and blank black screen and a underscore on the left on my screen. I keep trying and trying many ways to install dual boot on my Macbook Pro, i try many solution before like those using USB Bootable, third-party apps like VmWare Fusion, all i get is fail result. 2 Months ago i still can get boot into Windows7, after that i didn't turn on my machine for 1weeks, it just show me a underscore on my left screen.
Can any one help and tell me is that my hardware failure or my software problem. I really need Dual boot on this machine for some work.

Your Windows 7 DVD probably is defective. Either that, or the optical (DVD) drive is defective. I assume you are using your internal optical drive. If not then, then the external optical drive is defective or may not be compatible.

I assume you your firmware is up to date. Although, on a 2011 model, this should not be the cause of your problem.

Try this. Insert the DVD in the optical (DVD) drive. Restart the Mac and hold down the option key. A DVD icon should appear with the label "Windows". Select this icon and continue booting. If everything is OK, then the Windows installer should start. (If prompted, you may have to hit the space bar on the keyboard.) I assume the installer will not start, thus indicating either the DVD or the optical drive is at fault. If the installer starts, then exit and post a comment below.


Default background color in Textedit How do I set default background color in Textedit?

Preferences -> New Document -> Font doesnt help.

That black on white isn't too good in nights.

You could also use WriteRoom. It's based on TextEdit but has a few additional features like customizable themes.


Jailbroken iPhone dead; What firmware "load" options do I have? I jailbroke my original iPhone first gen to version 3.14 (I think) and since then I'm unable to use the phone.

I've done this before and never once had an issue (so I'm semi-experienced with this).

Symptoms

iTunes says the phone is in recovery mode.

The screen looks like a newly loaded (not activated phone)

Attempts to fix

I've loaded almost every original (not jailbroken) ipsw from 3.0 to the latest one (for this model) and am not able to get back to defaults. I get the following error:

I've loaded many different Jailbreak programs and none of them can make the phone work.

I'm OK if I don't ever get cellular service and just use it as an iPod Touch.  Anyone know how I can get past this screen in either jailbroken or original mode?

From every piece of literature I can find on the topic, and my own past experience, this normally indicates a hardware failure. Your best bet would be to take it to your nearest Apple store and they might be able to assist.


fsck_apfs not working from terminal in single user mode I am trying to fix errors on my MacIntosh HD Data volume.

I have tried to fix using Disk Utility from normal mode and from recovery mode. Same problem. DI hangs at a certain point and that's it.

I boot into single user mode.

Using df -h I see that the MacIntosh HD Data volume is /dev/disk2s1.

I try to type:

fsck_apfs -y /dev/disk2s1

and I get this:

  error: device is unreadable because you are in single user mode.

I try the same command from normal boot and I get

  error: container /dev/rdisk1 is mounted with write access.

I have done this thousands of times before, from single user mode. This is some Catalina crap.

How do I do that now on Catalina?

Correction

Apple's official word is that the traditional single-user mode which one enters by booting whilst holding ⌘S is deprecated on macOS Mojave (10.14) and later. This is due to the presence of the Apple T2 security chip in Macs which initially went to market with Mojave or later.

From Mac startup key combinations:

  Command-S: Start up in single-user mode. Disabled in macOS Mojave or later, or when using a firmware password.

And from the small print on the linked "single-user mode" page, Start up your Mac in single-user mode or verbose mode:

  These steps replace the Command-S method, which doesn't work with the recommended settings on current Mac computers.

The linked page "current Mac computers" refers to those which have a T2 chip.

Despite the claim that the traditional single-user mode is outright disabled on Mojave and later, you can still boot into it using ⌘S on devices which don't have a T2 chip, even if you attempt to do so on a system running Mojave or later. However, this single-user mode will require access to the data and VM volumes of the APFS container that contains the OS, and you will find that you are unable to unmount these volumes in order to run fsck_apfs -y on that container. This is because umount will refuse to unmount the volumes due to them being actively used, and you cannot forcibly unmount them using diskutil since the DiskManagement framework required by diskutil is not loaded/present in this mode — and even if this were possible in some other way, it is unadvisable to forcibly unmount elements of a filesystem that you are trying to repair!

Having said that, macOS still technically has a single-user mode in Mojave and later: the Terminal in macOS Recovery. After actually trying to use fsck_apfs -y in this environment, it turns out that it is possible, but you will first need to unmount any mounted APFS volumes belonging to the APFS container that contains the OS; macOS Recovery will automatically mount the data and VM volumes by default. Because macOS Recovery isn't as stripped down as the traditional single-user mode, you can do this simply with e.g. diskutil unmountDisk disk2. You can use mount and diskutil apfs list to determine the device nodes.

Original answer

This isn't a Catalina thing, but an APFS thing. You cannot perform reparatory actions on an APFS container (or any of its volumes, since this requires acting on the container) when that container is mounted. If any volume in that container is mounted, then the container itself is necessarily also mounted.

As such, you cannot use fsck_apfs -y on the APFS partition that you have booted from, whether that's in a regular environment, in single-user mode, in recovery mode, or however else. You can still run fsck_apfs -nl when booted normally to inspect the APFS partition for errors, but this will not repair any such errors.

To run fsck_apfs -y on your Catalina APFS partition, you must access could also try accessing the disk another way, such as:

booting into Catalina Internet Recovery (which also requires you to unmount the automatically mounted volumes).
booting from a Catalina USB installer.
booting your Mac in Target Disk Mode and connecting it to a secondary Mac running Catalina, then running fsck_apfs from the secondary Mac on the affected disk.
physically removing the disk from your Mac and connecting it to a secondary Mac running Catalina, then running fsck_apfs from the secondary Mac on the affected disk.

Since new, significant APFS features were introduced in Catalina ("volume groups" in particular), avoid using any fsck_apfs belonging to an older macOS version, particularly if you are trying to repair incorrectly allocated disk space. fsck_apfs(8) states for the -o option:

  -o — Repair overallocations; please do not run an older fsck_apfs on newer systems with this option.


Remove all items from Safari 10.10.1 reading list I wish to remove all sites from the reading list. Under the spectacles is a list of sites previously visited. I now wish to remove all sites on this list.

Right-click on an item in the list and choose Clear All Items.

Reading List is not a list of sites you previously listed, but rather a list of sites you specifically added to the list using the + button to the left of the address bar.


Apple Music and Playlists Maybe I'm missing something here, but my playlist created on my iPhone is not showing up on my iPad.

Both are up to date, even running on the same network. You would think this would be stored on the cloud, not locally.

I think this is a feature not a bug. different devices you may want to have different playlists for . However that's just my opinion. On the other hand I think if you sync your iPhone and iPad to the same machine and have them both sync all playlists then you should be good to go. However you will have do sync them both all the time to keep them synced lol . Another opinion here. I agree with you. Storing them in iCloud would be good


Is there a way to run a macOS guest virtual machine on an M1 / Apple Silicon host? On an Intel Mac it was possible and legal to run a "Mac-on-Mac" VM, i.e. to run macOS within a virtual machine hypervisor running on macOS. Does any product or demonstration exist for the same on an Apple Silicon (M1) Mac?
For its part, VMWare's most recent public update included a bullet point

macOS VMs are not in scope in the short term. There are challenges there which will require Apple to work with us to resolve.

with no further explanation to be found in the remainder of their blog post. Has their competitor Parallels had better luck? Or, if the "challenges" are more of the contractual or simply "polished user experience" sort, perhaps a more independent hobbyist or hacker has overcome them at least in a proof-of-concept fashion?
To be clear in this question I am not specifically asking if it's possible to run an older Intel version of macOS on an ARM processor (which admittedly would fulfill similar purposes but likely in a less-performant way), but mostly whether there is currently any way to run an Apple Silicon macOS guest under an Apple Silicon macOS host?

The macOS guest on top of macOS host running ARM hardware is not supported officially by parallels.

https://www.parallels.com/eu/products/desktop/resources/

Today, there are five OS guest options with Parallels:

Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview
Ubuntu 20.10, 20.04
Fedora Workstation 33-1.2
Debian GNU/Linux 10.7
Kali Linux 2021.1

Only Windows and Linux ARM OS run on the Apple Silicon (M1) production build.

https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion.html

The VMware Fusion hypervisor doesn’t officially support Apple Silicon (M1) yet.
Today, the answer is no supported macOs guests running on the commercial products with wide adoption.


Finder alternative with New File Coming from the Windows/Ubuntu world I enjoy a lot of macOS things, but one thing that drives me crazy is the lack of new file button in the finder. I know that you are supposed to save the file from the proper application but I hate it.

Is there a Finder plugin (or anything like an Alfred workflow) or an alternative explore manager that have this functionality?

I can offer you 3 options:

Option 1.

I think the most popular alternative to Finder is Path Finder and it has the "new file" feature.

Option 2.

If you search the App Store with "New file", you'll find quite a few Finder extensions that do this.

I'd maybe suggest:

New File Menu Free

You'd probably want to set the template to be Blank Document

New File Menu (~$2)

I believe the key difference is that the free one only allows one new file item to be added at a time and the paid one allows you to add multiple.

I haven't really tested many of these so I don't know if this is the best one or not.

Option 3.

I've made myself this applescript:

This could be triggered using Alfred or pretty much anything that supports applescripts.

A dialog window will open up asking for filename and when you press enter, new file will be put in the current Finder or Path Finder folder. It is restricted to only proceed if Path Finder or Finder is the active application.

This is the icon I use in the script (not that it's important or anything...)
If it was unclear, in the code the path to the icon is the root of the user folder: ~/new-file.icns and it is defined in the iconfile variable.

if application "Path Finder" is frontmost then

    tell application "Path Finder"
        set currentPath to the path of the target of the front finder window
    end tell

    makeNewFile( currentPath )

else if application "Finder" is frontmost then

    tell application "Finder"
        set currentPath to (folder of the front window) as alias
    end tell

    makeNewFile( currentPath )

end if

on makeNewFile( currentPath )

    set userPath to POSIX path of (path to home folder)
    set iconfile to POSIX file (userPath & "new-file.icns") as alias

    display dialog "For instance:
My File.txt, index.html, Markdown file.md" with title "Create a new file..." default answer "" with icon iconfile
    set fileName to text returned of result

    tell application "Finder"
        make file at currentPath with properties {name:fileName}
    end tell

end makeNewFile


How do I search ??_doc.xml file in a specified folder in Finder? I have a lot of ??_doc.xml files in a folder, it's like:

13_doc.xml
16_doc.xml
87_doc.xml

The filenames are all like two digits with _doc.xml combined together.

I want to search them and have them showed in folder, and when I type ??_doc.xml in the search box, I get nothing.

Is there anything wrong with my query? What should I type there?

Thanks

The Finder search box does not support wildcards. You can add additional criteria to narrow down your search, though.

Enter _doc in the search field to start a search.
In the bar that appears (showing "Search: This Mac" etc) click the plus sign button all the way to the right.
In the new row that appears, in the first combobox, select Name, then in the next one select Contains, then in the empty text box type _doc (without wildcards or the file extension).
Click the plus sign button all the way to the right of this new row.
In the first combobox of the second row, choose Kind. In the second combobox, choose Other. In the empty text box type xml (without the leading period).

This will narrow down your search to files whose names contain _doc and whose extensions are xml.


Upgrading from 10.11.6 El Capitan to 10.12 I rarely use by mac. Right now I wanted to install a new program on it but it says it won't run unless the OS is 10.12. I only have 10.11.6 (El Capitan) right now and I can't see any updates for upgrading it to 10.12.

Questions:

How can I force upgrade it to 10.12? I can't see any updates for it in the store to upgrade it to 10.12. When I Googled, The only one I can find that has a 10.12 is Mojave.
If I upgrade my OS to 10.12 will it erase all my previously installed apps and programs? I don't want to do it all again.

How to upgrade to macOS Sierra - Apple Support will lead you to the Mac App Store link for Sierra.

You might want to bookmark this too:

Download Older Versions of macOS and Mac OS X - krypted


iBooks are not synchronized via iCloud between my Apple devices I don't seem to be able to synchronize my iPad (2) and IPhone (5s) to access the iBooks documents saved across the devices. They are both updated to the latest iOS.  I Have looked into all the settings and they all appear to be OK, but still don't know if I am missing to set the the ones that engages the iBooks. I noted that in the iCloud "settings" I don't see the iBooks icon as I do with the Photos, Mail, Notes, contacts, Calendar, etc., which I manage to see across devices.

However, I don't find a way for iBooks to add it or for making it into my iCloud Settings screen menu.

Can I kickstart a sync to get iCloud working for iBooks?

Open Settings app on both devices and verify both have an iCloud backup (or connect to iTunes and back up both)
Sign out of iTunes & App Store and then reboot both devices
Sign back in to the iTunes & App store on one device
Open iBooks and see what it shows for your purchases / books.
Tap to download one of each (a purchased book and a synced book)
Then review the iBooks settings in the settings app for this device

Repeat the sign in steps for the second iOS device. Pay attention to the "Sync Collections" setting for iBooks.


Apple Developer membership I am trying to sign up for Apple Developer membership, and I've enrolled and paid for 1 year.

But after trying to sign in to my developer account, it states that my membership is pending and to complete your enrollment by purchasing the membership.

But I've already bought it and they sent a confirmation email to me.

Does anyone have an idea why it is telling me to complete your enrollment by purchasing the membership?

So i contacted the apple developer
It seems that even after you purchase the program
It is normal to see to complete your enrollment,complete the purchase when you sign in Developer,
If you receive a confirmation that you bought it,just wait,dont buy it again it might take several days,also they might send email about missing documents


Removing a Gmail account on a computer I'm selling How do I remove a Gmail account in Apple Mail on a computer I am giving away? I do use IMAP and want to make sure I don't lose any of my emails on my other computer and iPad.

All you need to do is remove that account from the Mac you intend to sell and all your emails will subsequently be deleted from that Mac and no other devices will be affected. To remove the account:

Open Mail Preferences (Cmd + , or Mail -> Preferences)
Select "Accounts"
Select the account(s) that you wish to remove, and proceed to select the minus button below the list of accounts.
Accept the prompt by clicking "Remove".


Is getting a Mac Pro to run Windows useful in any way With the new Mac Pro recently released I can't help but be intrigued.
The thing that stands out the most for me is the hardware options the Mac Pro has.

I have a few questions about running Windows on the new Mac Pro.

Would it be possible to just install Windows 10 onto the hardware,
by completely removing OSX? I.E. would windows be compatible with the motherboard, CPU, RAM, etc? I would think the answer is yes,
but maybe there are BIOS settings or limitations.
Would running Windows with Bootcamp allow the computer to take advantage of the hardware on the Mac Pro? Eg, to play games, edit videos, etc.
Is there any benefit in getting a Mac Pro if one is simply going to install Windows on the machine? The box is designed with cooling and aesthetics, and it's easier than building a custom rig.

I know these sorts of questions come up often, but I couldn't find any information regarding only the hardware. Most comments on this topic involve Bootcamp and various ways to run windows on OSX.

I'm mostly curious to know if one could buy a Mac Pro and be able to benefit from Mac's great hardware as well as have all the benefits of using Windows, which for me are mostly playing games and software development using .NET (4, not core).

There is very little difference between running Windows 10 on a PC and a Mac. The Boot Camp Assistant that comes with macOS is just a utility that simplifies the installing Windows in dual boot arrangement.

The Boot Camp Assistant also allows the user to download the drivers needed to install Windows as the only operating system on the Mac. However, Apple offers no other assistance in doing so.

There has been issues in the past were Apple has released a new Mac before the Windows drivers (Windows Support Software) was available. So you probably want to ask about running Windows before purchasing the latest Mac models.

So the answer to your questions:

Question 1: Yes, but you need macOS to first download the Windows Support Software.

Question 2: Yes, the Windows Support Software provides all the drivers need to run all the hardware included on a Mac.

Question 3: Most likely there are other PC manufacturers that provide the same hardware at a lower cost. A lot of what you pay for when purchasing a Apple goes to support macOS. Apple provides little or no support for Windows. (Other than providing the Windows Support Software and the Boot Camp Assistant.)


How to stop iTunes from syncing voice memos from my iPhone? iTunes 12.8.0, iPhone with iOS 12.1.2. Sync over wi-fi enabled to sync photos, everything else is manual. Every time iPhone syncs over wi-fi it imports voice memos in my iTunes library and I delete them every time. I don't want them on the computer. Just in the cloud and the phone, that's it. Is it a bug or I need to configure something differently?

Most likely you have voice memos sync enabled:

Connect your phone via USB.
Go to phone > Music tab.
Uncheck 'Sync voice memos'.


Can't unenroll from Apple Beta Program: All System Preferences popups freezes Version: 10.15 Beta (19A526h).

Behavior:

The window in the picture becomes unresponsive after this popup appears. I can't press "Restore Default" at all. I've restarted my computer, went in terminal and entered sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog, and then went in the App Store to get the stable release of Catalina. Anyway, it doesn't help because it takes me to System Preferences again, where it becomes unresponsive.

Is there something else I can do to get the stable version of Catalina on my machine?

Update: Was able to use keyboard (tab / space / enter) to select "Restore Default", I enter my password when I'm prompted but then the window just closes and nothing changes. Have also tried the same thing with installing Catalina from Mac Store. After downloading ~6GB, it pops up ad says "Update Not Found: The requested version of macOS is not available."

It took multiple attempts to download the Catalina update. The last attempt gave an error, but somehow the install screen for Catalina showed up and I was able to perform the update. The issue with System Preferences seem to have been fixed.


How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA "rootless" on macOs [OS X] Apple has introduced System Integrity Protection, also known as "rootless", with OS X 10.11, El Capitan. I understand this is a step for general protection against malware but as a developer I need write access to some of the files it locks away.

How do I disable this protection?

Apple's documentation covers disabling SIP, About System Integrity Protection on your Mac and Configuring System Integrity Protection.

An article on lifehacker.com lists these steps:

  Reboot your Mac into Recovery Mode by restarting your computer and holding down Command+R until the Apple logo appears on your screen.
  Click Utilities > Terminal.
  In the Terminal window, type in csrutil disable and press Enter.
  Restart your Mac.

You can verify whether a file or folder is restricted by issuing this ls command using the capital O (and not zero 0) to modify the long listing flag:

ls -lO /System /usr

Look for the restricted text to indicate where SIP is enforced.

By default (=SIP enabled), the following folders are restricted (see Apple Support page):

/System
/usr
/bin
/sbin
Apps that are pre-installed with OS X

... and the following folders are free:

/Applications
/Library
/usr/local


Change *.txt to *.csv How can I rename all *.txt in a directory to *.csv files in the terminal (Mavericks). I tried following inside the directory:

mv *.txt *.csv

You need to loop over all files

for f in *.txt; do
    mv "$f" "${f%.txt}.csv"
done

If you have files with names starting with a . as well you might need to run

for f in *.txt .*.txt; do
    [[ -f "$f" ]] && mv "$f" "${f%.txt}.csv"
done


Restrict CL "Find" to Root Volume Only Because the default MacOS mount point for volumes is inside the root volume (i.e., /Volumes/…) find / -iname "hidenseek" searches every mounted volume, not just the root volume.

How can I restrict it to just the root volume?

The -x option will prevent find from descending into directories that have a different device number.

 find -x / ...expressions


How can I skip the desktop while cycling through finder windows with cmd+`? I often have to copy-paste files from 2 finder folders. I use the cmd + ` shortcut. But it cycles through Window 1 > Desktop > Window 2.

Is there a way to skip desktop?

Desktop is a folder, so cycling between active folder is an expected behavior in Finder. The only way to achieve what you want is to hide Desktop by entering the command below.

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop FALSE

After this, cycling between window will happen to the folder you’ve opened. This suggestion is recommended only if you don’t use Desktop to place temporary files.


How do you stop Safari from offering passwords from all subdomains of a domain? So I have these few websites in the same domain (i.e. example1.domain.com and example2.domain.com) that have a different subdomain and Safari offers me passwords from all of them when I enter just one of them.

Is there a way to disable Safari offering passwords if the subdomain is different?

As of February 2021: No
However this could be a good option and I suggest to everyone to voice your opinion here


Why does ls -a not show files that finder does show? When navigating to /usr/local/bin a file called "R" can be seen:

But when cd /usr/local/bin and ls (or ls -a), we see a long list of files, but no file called R:

I was surprised by this - apparently finder can see files that ls cannot. Why doesn't ls -a show all files that finder does?

It's there, but you're not seeing it because it's not where you're expecting it to be because the sorting in Finder is different than the sorting in Bash/Zsh.  Basically Finder does a case insensitive search whereas Bash is case sensitive.  For example, "a" follows "Z"
If you're looking for a specific file and you know the case, you can use a little ls magic to find it...
$ ls -Ad R*

Where...

-A = List all files, except . and ..
-d = Treat directories as files and do not search them recursively
R* = All files that begin with the letter "R"


Download from iTunes to iPod without deleting songs already on iPod How do I download songs to my iPod Shuffle without deleting the songs that are already on it?  When I try to download songs, it gives me this message:

Are you sure you want to remove existing music and audiobooks from this iPod and sync with this iTunes library?
[Remove and Sync] [Cancel]

I just updated iTunes to version 11.0.1.  On the previous version, iTunes didn't try to delete the files I already had on my iPod.

You have two options.

One is to simply connect the iPod, choose not to sync, select the songs you want to transfer, and drag them to your iPod. That should copy them without syncing the whole library. You can also go into the iPod from within iTunes, and you can choose options in the various categories (like music, photos, movies) and choose not to sync them to be sure they won't be touched.

Your other option is to transfer everything from your iPod to iTunes and then sync. See this Apple support document for information on how to do that. Once everything has been transferred and is in your iTunes library (and be SURE that anything you want to be on your iPod is also in the iTunes library), then you can safely sync and ignore the warning about everything being deleted from your iPod (since it will be re-added during the sync).


macOS Sierra doesn’t seem to remember SSH keys between reboots I have to run this command since upgrading to macOS:

ssh-add -K

Corrects the problem after the reboot but I have to run this command every time I log on to my computer.

If I do not run the command above, my keys in ~/.ssh are skipped and I am being asked server password in order to establish the connection.

As of macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Apple added an ssh_config option called UseKeychain which allows a 'proper' resolution to the problem. Add the following to your ~/.ssh/config file:
Host *
   AddKeysToAgent yes
   UseKeychain yes

From the ssh_config man page on 10.12.2:

UseKeychain
On macOS, specifies whether the system should search for passphrases in the user's keychain when attempting to use a particular key. When the passphrase is provided by the user, this option also specifies whether the passphrase should be stored into the keychain once it has been verified to be correct.  The argument must be 'yes' or 'no'.  The default is 'no'.


Password issue on iPhone 6s saying password is too short When I try and change my iPhone 6s password I click "custom numeric password" and I type in a 3 digit code and it says "make password longer". Then it would be a 4 digit code and that's not what I want.

The minimum passcode length for custom numeric passcodes is four characters. The same applies for custom alphanumeric passcodes.

I've also tried this on an iPhone 6s running iOS 10.3.2.

If you want a passcode that's easier to type (which I don't recommend) you may want to use repeating numbers (e.g. 1122 or 2255).


Can a Macbook Pro Output Video through the 3.5mm Audio Port? I have a Macbook Pro mid 2014 running OS X El Capitan and I also have a 3.5mm audio jack to component plug. I want to display my computer screen on my TV (which has component input) but all I have is the 3.5mm audio jack to component. I don't want to buy another cable and I don't want to by an Apple TV. So, can the Macbook Pro output video (I don't care what quality) through the 3.5mm audio jack port or is there any way to configure it so I can do this?

No.  It's an audio port not an audio/video port.

Per the Apple Support site: Mac Basics: Ports on your Mac

HDMI and the Thunderbolt Ports will carry both digital video with audio, but your analog audio port (denoted by the headphone icon) will only carry audio.

Your option here is to get an HDMI to Composite adapter that will convert the digital video/audio signals to analog composite signals.  There are different makes/manufacturers.  You should pick one with good ratings and that is not too expensive.


Mavericks system tool gets wrong notifications Mavericks has this system tool – I think it's called Notification Center from suggested related questions but I'm still with Lion – which shows notifications from many applications. It also shows Facebook notifications. Trouble is, it somehow logged in to MY Facebook account - on my DAD's computer. How do I tell it to log on to dad's user?

If you try to log in and the browser fills in the user and passowrd then that is your problem #1

1- Go to the key chain and delete all "your" Facebook accounts there on your dads computer. Be careful not to delete your dads accounts, that might result in a "you are grounded" for a Month penalty.

2- Disable the Keep me logged in in Facebook web page - Browser.

3- In case you have the Facebook set up in sys pref Internet Accounts - delete it.


Finder doesn't find duplicates with (1), (2), …, (n) in filename I have downloaded lots of duplicate files with my web browser. The first duplicate gets the suffix (1) in its filename before the file extension, the second gets (2) and so on.

For example: my_music_file(1).mp3

I'm trying to purge these duplicates by searching for (1), (2) and so forth in Finder, but for some reason it does not find the files. Probably because the duplicate suffixes are concatenated with the original file name, without whitespaces before the suffixes.

Can I find these duplicates using a name string search in Finder?
Or indeed by some other OS X native method?

EasyFind (freeware) will often find things Spotlight won't - including such as (1)

No affiliation.


Microphone not working in Mac Mini after system update I have a Mac Mini Mid 2011 Model. Earlier when I used OX X 10.7.5 my microphone was working fine.  I updated my system to Yosemite 10.10.2 and my microphone stopped working. In System Preferences-->Sound-->Input, I am getting Line In (Name) Audio Line-In port(TYPE).

I am using Iball headphones.

Try deleting the following files...

From the root folder -

/Library/Preferences/Audio/com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist

/Library/Preferences/Audio/com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist

From your Home folder -

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist

It may be worth installing the current build of Onyx and clearing out the System and User caches before restarting your Mac. Hopefully your audio devices will be set back to their defaults and your mic will work again.


Time Machine backup to encrypted disk I have a huge problem. I just exchanged the SSD of my MacBook Pro. I made a backup just before - everything worked fine.
Now I wanted to restore my Mac from the backup - Problem: apparently the Backup Volume is encrypted with FileVault - which I did not know before. Now I don't remember this password and therefore can not access or restore data from my Backup Volume.

Does anyone have an Idea how to access my Backup?

I wonder why my Mac never asked me for a FileVault Password when either logging in or when running a backup the Volume via Time Machine.

FileVault is for internal startup disks; it sounds like you've just got an encrypted external disk. It's possible when you set up the encryption on the external disk, you saved the password in your Keychain, so in the future macOS reads your keychain for the password to the disk.

If you can't remember the password and don't have it elsewhere, then you cannot access the data.

Put your previous SSD back in your Mac, and either connect the external disk and decrypt it, or inspect the keychain to obtain the password for the disk.


Wise Way To Boot Into Windows With Bluetooth Keyboard? I'm a luddite and have a hardwired keyboard on my iMac. Booting into Windows is never a problem. A family member has an iMac with a Bluetooth keyboard and a Mighty Mouse. Never having used these, I find booting into Windows to be troublesome.

If someone has a slick trick for keeping the keyboard awake so that simply holding down the option key works, that would be excellent. Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

If you can't access the boot menu at startup, you can always select which OS to reboot into from within OS X or Windows.

In OS X, just go to Startup Disk in System Preferences, and select your Windows partition, then restart.

In Windows, you need the Bootcamp tools installed (but they should have been already). You should see Startup Disk in Control Panel, which allows you to do the same thing.


Different iCloud and iTunes accounts on one device I recently got divorced. My ex-husband has changed the Apple ID password for his account and won't share it with me. All three of my boys are on his account. I can no longer see them on Find My iPhone, or have any access to their texts, web browsing history, etc. As their mother I need that. I want to know if I can create a separate Apple ID for them, use it as their iCloud account, but use my ex-husband's account for their iTunes so they can still have access to all the music, movies, and apps they have accumulated over the years.

Any help anyone can give me would be much appreciated.

There are separate places in settings for iCloud accounts and iTunes accounts.  You can be signed into different accounts there.  You will need the current iCloud password to sign out of that account in order change to a different one if Find My iPhone is turned on.


What does launchctl unload actually do? When running launchctl unload some.plist, what is this command translated to specifically, in terms of UNIX commands, etc.

There is nothing in .plist files that specifies any "command line to run when the user specifies unload", so does macOS simply send a kill signal to the process? Or what does it do?

SIGTERM

launchd's unload command sends a SIGTERM signal to the associated job's child processes.

Detached Processes

If a process launched by a launchd job has detached from it's parent process, then unload will not affect that process. This is often the case for daemonised processes.

Original Source Code

You can download and inspect the original launchd source code. launchd has since been rewritten and is proprietary to Apple but the original documents the intended behaviour on unload.


Non-Accessible Recovery Mode on Mac I have a MacBook Pro (late 2011) and I'd like to install Windows 10 on it.

The best way to do it, is to use Boot Camp Assistant but not on my MacBook because it's not supported.

In order to change my MBR from Hybrid into Protective to be able to install Windows, I have to "disable csrutil" which is just available through recovery mode.

So here's the problem:
I can't access my Recovery mode.
I spent 5 hours waiting but it didn't come up

What should I do to access Recovery Mode easily?

Actually, I do not believe you need to enter what you refer to as Recovery Mode. If you the format either the 2nd, 3rd or 4th partition as MS-DOS(FAT), the partition method should change to hybrid.

You probably will not be able to install Windows 10 using a EFI boot method. You should use the legacy BIOS boot method. This means you want to use a hybrid partitioning scheme.

You should be able to download the "Boot Camp Support Software" (BCSS) using the Boot Camp Assistant. Although, for some Macs this download is the same as for a Windows 7 installation.

When running the Windows installer, you will need to reformat the MS-DOS(FAT) volume as NTFS.


Keep iPad always on and locked to one app. In >iOS 12 Ive got an iPad mini 4 in a wall mount like this here.

I want to set the iPad screen to be constantly on, locked to one app. Prior to iOS 12 i was able to do this by A) setting the sleep setting to "never" and B) putting the iPad into guided access mode to lock it into one app. But since the release of iOS 12 the iPad will only stay on for about 30 minutes, with settings A) and B). If i just set the iPad to setting A) it will stay on indefinitely, but i cant lock the screen to a single app. For more info on this issue, see this thread here.

Is there another way to lock an iPad to a single app, whilst at the same time keeping the screen on indefinitely ? Perhaps through adopting the iPad into MDM mode or developer mode ?

I have seen several people with the same issue. Assuming you upgraded the iPad with guided access enabled follow these steps:

  I have found that if Guided access was enabled prior to the upgrade it
  might reset in this process.

  Turn off Guided Access in Accessibility / Settings.
  Hard reboot.  (Hold Home and Lock buttons for 7 seconds)
  Turn on Guided Access in Accessibility / Settings.  Reset Passcode.

From Kiosk:

  iOS 12.1.1 has been released and includes a fix to this issue, but requires a change to a new setting introduced in this release to prevent the screen from sleeping: General > Accessibility > Guided Access > Mirror Display Auto-Lock > ON.

to update your device, go to Settings -> General -> Software Update


How can I recover missing iCloud storage space? I have an iCloud account with the free 5GB storage, which I want to use for backups.

I have a strange situation where my iCloud is showing as having only 2.2GB space available:

But isn't showing what is using up the space.

I have previously used it for backups of various devices, but these aren't showing.

How can I recover my lost space?

I ended up phoning up iCloud support, and they were similarly baffled. They tried a load of things (none of which worked), and eventually they then asked me to delete the WhatsApp Documents & Data storage. Despite it saying that only 350MB was being used by WhatsApp, deleting this immediately freed up around 2.8GB (350MB plus the ~2.5GB of "lost" space) in iCloud.


Macbook pro late 2011 cannot access windows based server through VPN I am trying to use vpn to access a Windows based server. I set up the VPN when I was at the office, and was able to connect when I was connected to the internet at the office through VPN, but as soon as I went home, I tried it and it did not work.

I have no idea what I am doing wrong I even read to send all traffic through the VPN and tried that and it didn't work.

Is it possible to access VPN with a Mac into a Windows based server.

When you were at the office, did you use a different network like a AT&T/Verizon/Sprint hotspot?  Next time, try testing at a Starbucks or another public wifi first.

More than likely the VPN server dosen't allow loop backs (meaning you are in the network to start, go out, to come back in).  It probably just connected you.

What VPN (server) are you using?  What error message did you get?

In my past experiences, I have found that SSL VPNs are the way to go especially with Macs.


OS X Terminal: "backward delete word" works only with C-M-h Followup on Mac OS X Terminal: Map option+delete to “backward delete word”.

The Use option key as meta key option is checked, but the deleting word backwards works only with ^-⌥-H (i.e. one has to also hold the ^ or Control key)! How can you backward delete a word with ⌥-H only? This annoyance happens only in Terminal.app ... and interestingly also in iTerm.app!

I also have this in ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict, so that I can enjoy Emacs throughout:

{"~h" = "deleteWordBackward:";}

Environment: OS X 10.8.2 (12C54), Terminal 2.3 (309), iTerm

Settings in DefaultKeyBinding.dict don't apply to the shell views in Terminal or iTerm 2.

You can make M-h delete a word backward by adding this to ~/.inputrc

"\eh": backward-kill-word

M-h is bound to mark-paragraph by default in Emacs though.

If others search for how to make ⌥⌫ delete a word backward, just enable using option as a meta key:

In Terminal, check Settings > (your profile) > Keyboard > Use option as meta key
In iTerm 2, set the option keys to act as "+ Esc" in Profiles > (your profile) > Keys

If others search for how to make ⌥⌦ delete a word forward, you can make it insert \ed:

⌥⌦ inserts \e( by default in Terminal and \e[3~ in iTerm 2, so you could also add "\e(": kill-word or "\e[3~": kill-word to ~/.inputrc.


Avoid stutter when watching Amazon Prime video on Mac Mini 32-bit? I have a Mac Mini that's a few years old.

I'd like to use it for watching online video, because it's small, we're not using it for anything else, it fits nicely under the TV, and I can connect its video output to the TV. We've got a month's free trial of Amazon Prime Video.

It's 32-bit (Intel Core Duo) so it's running Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6), which I understand is the most recent version of OS X that it's possible to upgrade it to. It has 1Gb of ram.

I've upgraded Flash and downloaded Silverlight and although APV videos won't play on Chrome, they will play on Firefox. Which is ok.

But when I play them back I get stuttering. :( Sometimes it's ok for a minute or 2 and then we get a little stutter, other times its stuttering every 10 seconds. It seems to stutter mostly when there's a big change in the image and lots happening in the audio - that could be my imagination.

To give video playback the highest priority (the machine is not being used for anything else), I did a renice -20 pid for the Firefox process and for the Silverlight process which it spawned. That didn't seem to help.

I know that the problem is with this machine (rather than with our internet connection or our router) because I've tried watching the videos on my laptop, connected to the internet in the same way, and that works well.

I've rebooted the machine and I've made sure there's only 1 logged-in user.

Can you suggest things I could try in order to make Amazon Prime Video play back without stuttering? Thanks!

sh-3.2# system_profiler SPHardwareDataType
Hardware:

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name: Mac mini
  Model Identifier: Macmini1,1
  Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
  Processor Speed: 1.66 GHz
  Number Of Processors: 1
  Total Number Of Cores: 2
  L2 Cache: 2 MB
  Memory: 1 GB
  Bus Speed: 667 MHz
  Boot ROM Version: MM11.0055.B08
  SMC Version (system): 1.3f4
  Serial Number (system): VM65001EW0C
  Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CBA7861B

My guess is that your CPU just isn't up to the task of decoding the stream of data that makes up the video stream for several reasons.

Amazon video is using a somewhat inefficient codec and software stack to deliver the content.
The software to render the video is likely single threaded on your Mac OS.
Your CPU has only two cores and at 1.66 GHz of that era isn't keeping up.
Your desktop size is too large and/or you can't ask the video server to send a smaller picture that can be processed. Each time you double the sides of a rectangle, you have to calculate 4x the pixels. Even reducing from 1080 horizontal pixels to 720 horizontal pixels would drastically reduce the processing power needed to render the video.

You can verify that the CPU is indeed the culprit by rebooting your Mac and opening only the Activity Monitor app and watching the CPU graph. Set the update interval to be 5 seconds in the app and then open your web browser of choice to an empty page. Again, let the CPU settle. Lastly, load the video you want and then pause the stream.

Looking at the CPU load at that point will let you know if any other process is hitting the CPU in a meaningful way. Anything over 5% would be worrisome from a maximum performance standpoint.

Then let the video play and watch the CPU allocation.

Knowing that the CPU is the problem, you can try reducing the screen resolution or putting the browser on an external display VGA or reducing the color depth of the main display might all help or hurt CPU load - so running some controlled tests might get you to acceptable settings. If not, you could get a secondhand iPod touch or iPhone/iPad and probably stream Amazon video inexpensively and far more smoothly than your Mac.


How to disable lock-screen hotkey (Command-ctr-Q) in High Sierra? I use the command-ctrl-Q key in emacs, but find that it is locking my screen on Mac OS X High Sierra.  Checking the System Preferences in the Keyboard Shortcuts finds nothing to turn off.

I'd rather not move my meta key off of Command to option and thus keep it where I'm used to it.

How can I disable this functionality?

The following worked for me:

Open "System Preferences", select "Keyboard", then "Shortcuts".

From the list of shortcut categories in the left-hand list, select "App Shortcuts".

Add (this is counter-intuitive since you want to disable an existing shortcut) a new shortcut using the "+" button:

Under "Menu Title", enter "Lock Screen" (this should be how the action appears on the "Apple" desktop menu).

Then under Keyboard Shortcut, enter a key combination that you can "sacrifice".  You could use something hard to type like Ctrl + Alt + Cmd + Shift + L.

You "save" the new Keyboard Shortcut (which actually overrides the previously invisible Ctrl + Cmd + Q shortcut) by closing the Keyboard preferences window.

Now you should be able to enjoy Ctrl + Cmd + Q's awesome Emacs binding again.


Easy way to upload images with shortcut or command line or drag drop I need a cloud service to storage image for blog.

I write my blog in markdown language,

I need to get the url of images after uploading those  to  the any cloud service.

Is there any cloud service or tool can let me do it ?

The url of images should be permanent  for my blog , thanks

Droplr can be used upload images right from the desktop by drag and drop to the menu bar icon.  The uploaded images can be embedded anywhere on the web and can be shared on social media.
 There are some handy features like auto copy of uploaded links to clipboard and system wide sharing extension on Yosemite.


Clearing the cache/history not removing form field values I am using Firefox and Opera in OS X 10.5.8. I have cleared the cookies, history, private data number of times. But when I visit gmail/facebook, the email ID is still auto filled up. Is there anyway to remove these values.

This is not an issue in Safari. When I reset the safari, everything gets deleted/removed.

The Clear Recent History option in Firefox doesn't seem to remove saved passwords. But you can remove them from Preferences > Security > Saved Passwords.