Can AppleScript execute a Python script? As a math grad student I often have undergrads emailing me homework to be graded. Some undergrads do send me homework in PDF format. On the other hand many don't and it is very tiresome to convert their homework in image files into PDFs manually either online or using my simple Python script using img2pdf.

I would like to be able to

automatically download attachments that look like homework (i.e. the email has "HW", "Homework", "hw" or "Hw",
and there exists images or PDFs as attachments)
and then if images are obtained combine them into a single PDF using the Python script that I already have.
Adding a new option in the Mail app that can convert attachments to PDF using my Python script will also be great.

I think AppleScript can handle the issue of saving attachments. Can it also execute a Python script?

To answer the question actually in your post (as opposed to the current question title), yes it's possible to execute a python script from within AppleScript.

However, you need to ensure you're not trying to run the script directly. Your AppleScript needs to use Python to run your script.

Example

Assuming your Python script is called img2pdf.py, you need to pass the path of your script as an argument from AppleScript to Python. Below is example code to show how you would do this if your script was saved in your Documents folder:

do shell script "python /Users/yourusername/Documents/img2pdf.py"

But, as I mentioned in my earlier comment, I would just make your requirements clear in advance (and include them in any assignment/essay/homework criteria) so your students know what they need to submit and how. My kids have to do this type of thing for their assessments, so I don’t think it’s too much for you to ask. Plus that’d make your job a lot easier! :)


Receiving txt messages on two apple devices When ever I send or receive a text message from my iPhone, it appears on my spouses iPad and iPhone. Yet, the reverse is not true. I think this is an iCloud issue and my be controlled by adjusting preferences somewhere, but I don't know how.

Are you sharing one iCloud account? You can set separate apple accounts for iCloud and applications. My spouse and I use the same account to purchase apps (so that we don't have to buy apps twice to each have a copy), the same account for music (so that if I buy a song, she gets it too), but separate iCloud accounts to make sure we each only receive messages intended for us. Check your settings and see. AppleIDs are free, if you are not using your own for your devices iCloud, you ought to do so.


AppleScript variant of find(1) How would I write the following as an AppleScript command without the use of bash scripting?

find / -file foo.txt

I might have the bash syntax wrong, but I want to search from the root of the drive for a specific filename.

I tried drawing multiple efforts from things around on the net, but I just need a simple "find" solution.

You definitively have the find syntax wrong here :-)

To search for a file across the builtin disk use

find -x / -name filename.ext -print

If you want to search across all disks (including USB drives etc) use

find / -name filename.ext -print


Any way to save/manage finder states? Not just the windows, but their location and layout too? I'd like to be able to hit a hotkey and load a saved state of the finder. Not just the window locations and size, but also their location, layout, (history?).

There seem to be many solutions for saving window size/location, but nothing specific to the Finder windows themselves.

Is there an app or script that can do this?

If not, where do I begin to try to script something myself?

I'm not sure this would do everything, but if you could get something to put in a file the path to every open Finder window, and then put that file and the .DS_Store from each of those paths into a tarball, I think you would have most of it.

To restore, first put each .DS_Store back, then open all the directory names stored.


Mac mini 2011-mid and SSD sata 3 can someone tell me, will this ssd disc work on my mac mini, since is sata 3? As I know my mac uses sata 2?

But I'm really novice and I have no idea.

Not sure why you think it's SATA2. According to everything I read, the mid-2011 Mini is SATA3

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/specs/mac-mini-core-i5-2.5-mid-2011-specs.html

There are considerations related to garbage collection related to the SSD controller. The safest choice is a OWC Mercury from macsales.com since they are intended for Macs. Others may require installing a 3rd-party TRIM enabling utility.


Macbook Pro late 2011 + Windows 10+ High Sierra I'm struggling for two days now trying to install Windows 10 on my Macbook Pro  Can anybody help me out? I tried several methods, and none is working for me.

MacBook Pro 2011 Late
High Sierra
No CD Drive
SSD + HDD (SSD main Drive running osx + hdd storage switched with cd drive)
Modified Bootcamp to use USB Stick

Windows 10 should be installed at the main drive but if its easier to install Windows on my HDD (which I'm only using for storage) I'll take that.
But I guess I tried that as well with the same result.

I tried several methods like :
http://osxdaily.com/2015/06/05/copy-iso-to-usb-drive-mac-os-x-command/
...
I can't find the other links anymore

Clean install without Bootcamp using unetbootin

The final result is always the same when I try to install Windows, I'm always stuck at the step where I have to choose the installation disk, it always says "windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the gpt partition style" or no volume at this drive to install Windows. When I choose to delete the formatted disk it starts the installation, breaks up after a few % and says can't fulfill the next installation step.

I was able to successfully install Windows 10 on my Late 2008 MacBook running macOS Sierra. I created a bootable Windows 10 USB key on another PC and performed a normal install on my MacBook.

As per official guidelines, Late 2008 MacBook does not support installing versions of Windows later than Windows 7 using Boot Camp. But I was able to find a workaround, thereby doing a normal PC installation.

The installer must be created on a pen-drive and not on a external hard-disk as it can create troubles.

I first created a Windows partition on macOS by resizing, plugged in the bootable pen-drive, restarted my MacBook, pressed Alt + r key till the boot device selection screen appeared. Then I performed a normal Windows installation.

Windows can overwrite the boot loader which can be repaired with the recovery partition.


Show Dialog Window if User logout on High Sierra When a user logout, I want to display a window. In this window should be a text (Please save your data...). After the user has pressed OK. The process logout continue. Is this possible?

onLogout() (
    # that works:
    if [ "$USER" != "admin" ] && [ "$USER" != "Administrator" ]; then
        rm -Rf ~/Downloads/*
        rm -Rf ~/Movies/*
        rm -Rf ~/Music/*
        rm -Rf ~/Pictures/*
        rm -Rf ~/Public/*
        rm -Rf ~/Desktop/*
    fi
    # it doesn`t work:
    res=$(osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to display dialog "Please save yout Data!" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 1 with icon caution with title "Important Information!"' 2>/dev/null)

        if [[ $res == *OK* ]]; then
            # continue logout?
        else
            # break logout?
        fi
    exit
)
trap 'onLogout' SIGINT SIGHUP SIGTERM
while true; do
    sleep 86400 &
    wait $!
done

Yes this is possible.

You can use the "User Policy Banner" feature.

Although used mainly in cafes and other public places to make user agree to a ToC this feature can be used to create a dialog box.

From the related Apple support article:

A policy banner is a banner that you can display at the login window that requires a user to acknowledge it before proceeding.

  Create a banner

  You can set a login message that appears at the login screen of your
  Mac. You can also set a "policy" banner to display a longer message
  that you must accept before you can log in. This can be useful in
  situations where you need users to agree to or acknowledge terms or
  conditions before using the computer, such as an Acceptable Use
  Policy.

  Use these steps to create a policy banner:

  Create a plain text (.txt) or rich text (.rtf) document named PolicyBanner that contains your banner.
  Copy the PolicyBanner file to the /Library/Security/ folder.

  The next time you restart the computer, the banner you created appears
  when you would normally see the login screen.

The banner will look like this:


For right clicking, are ctrl-click and two-finger-tapping used exchangeably? For right clicking, there are two ways when using the trackpad

Control-click, i.e. tapping the trackpad while pressing Control key
two-finger-tapping

Can they be used exchangeably?

If not, when to use which?

Yes, they can be used interchangeably. The two-finger tap is a shortcut employed by OS X for more convenience / accessibility, however, it has exactly the same function as the control-click.


How can I save opened application settings in Mac OS X? In Linux there is an option to save the currently opened windows such that when you shutdown and boot later, these applications are there the way you left them. It is similar to Hibernate in Windows.

Is there something similar in Mac OS X?

You are looking at two different things.

1) Shutdown and boot - get your same apps as per Linux option - see @Am1rr3zA

2) Hibernate - OSX does this already. Just choose sleep from the apple menu
For more details see Macworld explanation and Apple docs


MacBook Air charging light stays amber and does not go green and machine does not boot or even chime I have an 11" MacBook Air 6,1 from mid 2013 that I found discarded and had restored but now seems dead again.

I got the machine with a broken screen backlight and missing SSD. I took it to the Genius Bar and they diagnosed only those two problems. I attached it to an external monitor and USB 3.0 hard drive and installed El Capitan and used it for a couple of days. Everything worked except the webcam. Though the machine had sat for several weeks with no power before I acquired it the battery life turned out to be very good.

I put it to sleep when the battery charge indicator had just gone red and did not have access to a charger/power supply for over a day.

When I was able to borrow a friend's power supply the light did not come on. After finding another Mac user we plugged each other's Magsafe into each other's machines and both lights came on. When I went back to the first charger on my machine the light then stayed amber but the machine would not boot and would not even make the startup "chime" sound. I kept it plugged in all day yesterday and the charger light never went green.

I tried resetting the EMC to no avail. I can't seem to find information on this specific problem online. I can't get a reservation at the Genius Bar for another five days.

I had a similar thing happen to my old Macbook. I discharged the battery all the way down and then couldn't recharge it for about two days. When I finally could charge it, it wouldn't charge or turn on. It turned out to be the battery. You can probably get a replacement battery from Apple (if it turns out to be the battery), but I found cheaper options on Amazon.


iOS and Objective-C Training in Melbourne I'm sure this is not the correct forum for this but figured it was pretty close.

Does anyone know of any courses in Melbourne Australia for iOS development?

I've been developing in the MS arena my whole life and am looking at getting into Objective-C with regards to mobile devices but cannot seem to find any courses.

Any help would be greatly appreciated thank you.

Check out an iOS/iPhone Developer Training (Melbourne/Sydney) by jTribe

Schedule:

  DAY ONE: Introduction to iPhone Development and the Objective-C
  Language On day one we start with Objective-C and will cover
  everything needed to start building iPhone applications. We will  dive
  straight into the core Objective-C syntax and constructs, use of Xcode
  as a development tool, the Foundation  framework, how to build your
  own Objective-C classes, properties and methods, a thorough
  explanation of memory  management issues on the iPhone and will use
  Xcode and GDB to debug an iPhone app.
  DAY TWO: Building a basic iPhone
  application, using Interface Builder, Views, View Controllers & Table
  Views Day two starts with the build of a complete iPhone app. We then
  look in depth into views, the iPhone view hierarchy,  the concept of
  delegates, Interface Builder and view controllers. We look in more
  detail into table views, navigation  and navigation controllers and
  learn techniques to ensure that our app can scale in the real world.
  DAY THREE: Application Navigation, Animation and Multi Touch,
  Deployment, Provisioning Profiles and the App  Store. On day three we
  look at image handling, resources and how to create those beautiful
  custom table cells. We  then go on to interacting with web services
  and building our very own Twitter client before we take a deeper look
  at  the development and deployment process, iTunes connect, the App
  Store and marketing


How do I move up one folder while browsing Time Machine? When I'm viewing a folder in Time Machine's "Star Wars" view, how do I move up one folder, to view the current folder's parent folder?

In Finder, I have several ways to do it: I could either hit CMD+Up Arrow, or CMD-click the title bar then click on the parent folder I want, or double-click the folder I want from the folder path in the bottom bar. But none of these methods work in Time Machine.

Command clicking the icon at the top center of the Finder window works for me to navigate back but there is a slight delay while the UI processes things.

Perhaps you are mounting the backup over a network share or otherwise not waiting long enough for that option to draw. Also, you can add the path control to Finder's toolbar by control clicking (right click) in the toolbar and customize…


How to disable screen sharing I have some privacy concerns and would like to know how to disable screen sharing. I have tried turning of the WiFi but was then not able to use the internet.

Go to System Preferences > Sharing and uncheck the box to the left of "Screen Sharing"


Fully displaying volume size info on the desktop No matter which combination of icon size, spacing, font size I use for the desktop Finder view, the info for my drives on my Mac Mini hooked up to my TV (1080p) shows up as:
999.85 GB, ...06 GB free
instead of
999.85 GB, 152.06 GB free

I've even made a screenshot:

Is there a fix/hack to display this fully all the time? Should I file a bug/request with Apple? Should I give up and use GeekTool or something else? This drives me nuts...

Thanks in advance !

For string to be as wide as possible change "Grid spacing" in Show View Options

but in case when the whole info string become 25 characters or more it will just become truncated anyway. On the next screenshot I have 104.69 GB available.


Some contacts not displayed when searching for them I have an iPhone 6 with the newest iOS.
Today a friend sent me a text message. After a few hours I went into
my contacts and tried searching for him but nothing came up even though I have him in contacts (checked by going into the message and clicking view contact).

This has actually happened several times before, searching for some contacts doesn't yield any result or shows something different even though that contact exists.

Anyone had the experience with this?

This can happen if you're using iCloud and it gets out of sync.  Go into Settings --> iCloud and turn off Contacts.  It will ask if you want to delete the contacts on your iPhone or keep them.  Choose to delete them from your iPhone.

Exit iCloud then go back into it.  Turn Contacts back on and allow it to sync your contacts back to your iPhone.  If everything worked ok, you should be able to find that person in your contacts again.


Macbook pro doesn't want to start, "no RAM installed" beeps (1 every 5 seconds) I have a problem with my Macbook Pro.

Everything was working fine up until yesterday; I can't start it anymore and it  "beeps" once every 5 seconds.

According to the support, this indicates that "no RAM is installed", which is not true.

So I tried to change RAM but I have the same problem. I put the suspect RAM into another computer, and it worked fine.

I Googled but I didn't find a solutions. The Macbook didn't take any knocks, I didn't try to change any RAM (before this problem), there is no reason for this error.

Does anyone have an idea ?

(Macbook Pro 13-inches mid-2012)

Sounds like your Logic (mother) board is done.

You should see your RAM in the About this Mac.

Try resenting the SMC and the EFI.


Can an old photo from Gmail get put into my photo stream? Is it possible for an old photo from gmail (like 6 years old) to be put into the photo stream after an update? A very old picture appeared in my photo stream and I don't know how it got there.

Yes - software does have bugs from time to time. It also could be you unintentionally did it or that another device is signed into your iCloud and entered that photo intentionally.


Sync books from iBooks on Mac with iBooks on iPhone This task should be very easy to solve, but still, I can't do it.
I have downloaded a epub book, dragged it to iBooks app on Mac. Then I go to iTunes, click on iPhone and go to Books tab. I can see some books in Sync section, but they are different from those I see in iBooks app on Mac. No way to sync that single book with my iPhone.
So, my question is: what am I doing wrong? Is there any way to do that without killing virgin and summoning Devil? Because to me all this sync issues seem to be a black magic.

In short, the iBooks application and its behavior were kind of a big surprise to everybody. Before I opened it, Mavericks seemed great.

The iBooks application seems positioned to deal only with purchased (DRM) books. This includes your ePubs and PDFs. It wasn't announced, but it seems to be the case. Also the iBooks application on the desktop isn't intended to be the means to sync to your iDevices. When you sync your device, the iTunes "Books" selections will come from the new iBooks application.

All of your not-purchaed ePubs and PDFs that you used to store and sync in iTunes, well now you have to use something else, like Calibre. Whether or not this continues to be the case is unknown. It's possible that the new iBooks app is an attempt to distance Apple from non purchased books.

I spent a day putting all my non-purchased books into Calibre and it works fine. It's not seamless with the syncing, especially if you used to do it over WiFi. For the moment that capability is not available. Calibre has multiple methods for copying to devices, and you will definitely need to do a little digging in the documentation.

So for the moment, you have two separate methods of syncing books: iBooks and iTunes for purchased, and Calibre (or whatever) for non-purchased.

When you start iBooks for the first time, your iTunes books will be transferred to a folder buried out-of-sight. Most of the ePub metadata will be in the ePub file, but not so for PDFs. If you were lucky you copied your stuff out of iTunes before using iBooks. I wasn't so lucky.

BTW, any PDFs that are music booklets (or in my case, sheet music) can stay with the album in iTunes. However they are media type "Music".


What is the most reliable ATSC TV tuner for use with OSX? I'm looking for an OTA (over the air, eg. no cable) ATSC USB tuner to use with a Macbook. There appear to be a few options, all of which seem to have ugly hardware and buggy software. Does anyone have a recommendation? Elgato seems like the biggest manufacturer, but I'm reading mixed reviews.

I would primarily be using this in the US.

I have an Elgato EyeTV 250, and it works great. I think Elgato may be the best (if not the only) option.


Is my iPhone locked with iCloud or not? I don't have SIM Card yet I bought an iPhone 5C from a friend and I'm not sure if it's Activation Locked or not and I don't have a SIM card yet. He hasn't used it and didn't know anything about that, he got it second hand.

When I got the phone it was stuck at the lock screen because of too many password attempts. I've put it in restore mode, and now the phone is "formated/restored"

When turning the phone back on, it first asks my country, then it wants me to connect to Wi-Fi, which I do, and next it says I need to put a SIM card (not pin-locked) in.

If the iPhone was Activation locked, does it ask for the Apple ID after you connect to Wi-Fi or after you put a SIM card in?

Can you provide a step-by-step guide?

The easiest manner to check is from this web site:

https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

If that fails, the older method still works in all cases and Apple describes the steps here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5818

Expand the portion that says (in the english version) How do I check for Activation Lock before purchasing a used device?

It states:

  Follow each of these steps to make sure that you can use the device
  you purchase:

  Turn the device on and slide to unlock. If the passcode lock screen or
  the home screen appears, the device has not been erased. Ask the
  seller to completely erase the device by going to Settings > General >
  Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Do not take ownership of any
  used iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch until it has been erased.

  Begin the device setup process. After choosing a language, choosing a
  country, and connecting to a network, the device will begin
  activation. If you are asked for the previous owner’s Apple ID and
  password, the device is still linked to their account. Hand the device
  back to the seller and ask them to enter their password.

On iOS 7, the part where you are asked if you want to enter your Apple ID is the step that means it's not locked to another iCloud account. If you cannot enter your new Apple ID from the setup you will see a prompt to enter an existing password and can conclude that it's not released from the previous owner.

Since you're not getting to that step, either get a SIM card that satisfied the carrier lock on that device or perhaps connect it to iTunes and see if you can restore the device. In my experience, iTunes also checks if the device is locked and will tell you to remove the iCloud lock before it lets you restore the device when it's at the point where you can start the setup assistant.


How can I migrate my data from my Macbook Pro 2010 to a Macbook 12-inch 2016? How can I connect a Macbook 12-inch 2016 to a Macbook Pro 2010 in target disk mode to migrate my data with Migration Assitant? The Macbook has a USB-C port and the Macbook Pro 2010 has Firewire 800 and USB 2.0.

I couldn't find an adapter or cable for this.

Your best bet is to use an ethernet (network) cable. At gigabit speeds it should be pretty fast.

The 2010 Macbook Pro has an ethernet port, and since the 2016 Macbook has nothing but USB-C you will have to go with an adapter.

This one was the first result in my search engine of choice. There are many others. And I would imagine that if you buy the adapter from a store with a good return policy and use care in unboxing and using the adapter, it might be easily returnable, if you only use it that one time.

Also, it has been a while since I have had to do this but Migration Assistant may work over WiFi if both are connected to the same WiFi network. That would be kinda slow but should do the trick if Migration Assistant works with WiFi


How long does it take to get confirmation? I am an iOS developer and I just enrolled in the mac developer program. The site says i'll get confirmation in 24 hours, what is the 'normal' time in which confirmation is usually received?

It depends. It can take a few hours for a personal enrollment to several days for a company enrollment. If you want your company name (rather than your personal name) to show up on your apps, you'll need to take the extra time to confirm.

I also suspect that during times of peak enrollment (say after an announcement like at WWDC) that the confirmation takes longer simply due to the number of people applying to play with the beta.


Internal Disk is locked and Erasing is taking for ever I recently got an iMac they did erase the internal drive for me but for making sure every step is correct I tried to erase the internal drive myself from recovery mode before reinstalling the macOS.
but this time it stocked on erasing exactly on the "Deleting volume" step.
I waited for more than 15 hours but the progress bar was 0%

then I gave up and restart the iMac, this time I tried to reinstall from recovery mode, but this time in choosing the installation disk, I saw it's grayed and says "this drive is locked".
the only solution I found for the locked drive was to erase it again. but my erasing has problem as I said

thanks to my friend @At0mic who commented on my question.
by choosing "Show All devices" I was able to erase the parent disk and that went smoothly
and now I'm in the installation process :)))


App Store won’t let me update from 10.13.4 to 10.13.6 - why? I’ve got 10.13.4 running on a MacBook Pro.

When I go to the App Store it says in order to download the latest version of iMovie I need 10.13.6.

But there is no option to download 10.13.6 via the App Store.

Any ideas why this would be and apart from downloading the combo update file direct from Apple’s website (eg not through the App Store) how could I get it to work ?

It is odd that the App Store app does not show you the update, not sure what is happening there. BUT You can manually download that update. The link is here.

That is what is referred to as a "Combo Update" which is a larger update that Apple provides that has the full size changed files rather than just a "delta" or changes. Combo updates are generally found to be a good repair for what ails macOS.


Can I hide the "All on My iPhone" option in iPhone's Contacts app? I'm using Gmail for Contacts, Notes, Calendar, and Mail sync.

Since I only have one account, most of these apps don't have the top level selection page which let's you choose which account to use. They always use my Gmail account, which is exactly what I want.

The one exception is Contacts, which allows me to tap "Groups", and then has an option "All on My iPhone". I want to disable this feature, so that I don't accidentally add contacts that aren't synced with Gmail. The Notes and Calendar apps do this perfectly... I can only add notes and appointments to my Gmail account, not to the phone itself.

I'm using Gmail's Exchange sync, by the way.

Unless you manually go to that "All on My iPhone" section and add a contact, contacts would be created by default on the account you're viewing, i.e. Gmail. Just keep the Contacts app viewing only the Gmail contact list and you should be fine.

iOS5 now has a Default Account option under Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Contacts (section) (Credit to Peter for the update)


Browsing on Apple TV without mirroring? I wonder if its possible to browser websites on Apple TV without having an iPod, iPhone or iPad to mirror from.

If Apple TV has a browser that I can use with my Bluetooth keyboard, that would be awesome. Is it possible yet?

Edited to Add: I haven't jailbroken my ATV yet, but I'm open to any solution that requires it.

There is no browser app for Apple TV itself. The best I've found so far is Airweb which of course still requires an iOS device. But it's easier to use than a mirrored Safari.


Recover mac mini broken BIOS (mac mini displays nothing) Well, month ago I gave mac mini (late 2011) to my little brother with new HDD and RAM memory stick. So, being an independent person, he has tried to install Windows on empty HDD (yeah, it's weird) and after his several tries mac mini stopped showing anything on screen. Mac mini still working, boot up signal and light are on, but now we have nothing on display, like nothing is connected.
In workshop repairer said that young man broke BIOS and recover costs 7 000 rub (~106 usd), what is pretty expensive to us. Is there any way to recover bios on my own? In case that I don't see anything on screen while mac is working. :D
Thanks in advance!

UPD: Brother just burned .iso file on DVD and inserted in mac mini. How installation had even started - I have no idea. But it failed.
I erased entire HDD. Have tried all the startup key combinations (reset PRAM, etc). Nothing reanimated mac mini. On booting up I have "no signal detected" screen.

UPD2: Tried several monitors and HDMI cables. Mac mini still displays nothing and without HDD too.

If you are entirely sure that the computer is starting up with a connection to a monitor, then this is a problem with the disk format more than likely. This will make it so that the Mac will not be able to boot into recovery either. You'll need to go to an Apple retailer to ask them to reformat the disk for you, or perhaps it's possible on your own. I know that apple likes to ensure no third-party computers register with Mac OS X so they format the disks in dumb way.


3rd-party SSDs: enabling TRIM without disabling kext signing Before reading this long question, please note that it is mostly outdated in light of the more recent developments reflected by the top answer.

Unfortunately Apple has decided to create kext signing in Yosemite that creates issues for SSDs that require Trim support for optimal function and longevity. Whether this is vendor lock in or not, it's made upgrading a headache. If you bought a SSD that needs trim support (at time of writing, all SSDs benefit) such as the Samsung 840 Evo, there are many reported issues when performing PRAM reset and potential future system update conflicts in addition to the current security tradeoffs (see below). Trim Enabler author says using Trim Enabler by turning off kext signing is cracking a walnut with a sledgehammer.

I'm hoping for strategy / options to work with SSDs that recommend or require Trim support. So far, because of this article, I'm considering a SSD with Sandforce or equivalent active garbage collection. I'm also considering turning on Trim Enabler periodically, then off and reenabling kext-signing to avoid issues with until (if) Apple restores TRIM support to hardware and software devs.

Please detail working hardware/software configurations and strategy/schedule as well as outcomes.

tl;dr --

Some background:

3rd party SSDs for the most part don't have trim support in Yosemite without kext signing security tradeoffs. Apple changed kext signing in OS X 10.10 such that kext singing must be disabled to use applications like Trim Enabler for trim support. So choices using Yosemite are, reduced security and potential system update issues; or, a SSD that doesn't require Trim support.

Yosemite kills third-party SSD support. This is not relevant if you're using an Apple installed SSD or SSD that doesn't require 3rd party trim support for optimal function. So, if you're using a DIY SSD, Trim support is tricky in Yosemite because of recent modifications to kext security management that affects Trim support. More about Trim Enabler for Mac:

  About Trim in Yosemite In OS X 10.10 (Yosemite),

  Apple has introduced a new security requirement called kext signing. (A kext is
  a kernel extension, or a driver, in Mac OS X)

  Kext signing basically works by checking if all the drivers in the
  system are unaltered by a third party, or approved by Apple. If they
  have been modified, Yosemite will no longer load the driver. This is a
  means of enforcing security, but also a way for Apple to control what
  hardware that third party developers can release OS X support for.

  Since Trim Enabler works by unlocking the Trim driver for 3rd party
  SSD’s, this security setting prevents Trim Enabler to enable Trim on
  Yosemite.

  To continue to use Trim Enabler and continue to get Trim for your
  third party SSD, you first need to disable the kext signing security
  setting.

  It is important to note that the kext-signing setting is global, if
  you disable it you should be careful to only install system drivers
  from sources that you trust.

See my answer here:

Since the release of 10.10.4, Apple now provides a new tool called trimforce, allowing users to activate TRIM also on unsupported disks. So now you can do:

sudo trimforce enable


use `pf` to allow TCP traffic on specific port (from specific subnet) So, I've read various posts about how to use both the Application Firewall (apf or socketfilterfw) and the Packet Filter (pf) at the same time.  I thought this would be straightfoward since I'm not a pf newbie, but perhaps there is something to be learned about pf, or if not, about the combination under MacOS.

Essentially, I'm trying to add a pf rule that allows (TCP) traffic to a specific port (say 9999), from a specific subnet (say 192.168.5.0/24).  Eventually on the Mac, the applciation in question will be a java process listening, hence my desire to limit the exposure over just allowing the Application Firewall to accept traffic from anywhere destined for java.    In it's place, for experimentation, I'm using netcat (nc).

In System Preferences, I've of course enabled the application firewall, turned on ("Enable Stealth Mode"), and ensured that pf is enabled.   I then loaded additional rules into pf, but I when the application is blocked (/usr/bin/nc in this case), it appears as if my pf rules are never used.   A sample transcript to show my current state:

mac $ alias apf=/usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw
mac $ apf --getglobalstate
Firewall is enabled. (State = 1)
mac $ apf --getstealthmode
Stealth mode enabled
mac $ apf --getappblocked /usr/bin/nc
Incoming connection to /usr/bin/nc is blocked
mac $ sudo pfctl -s info |& grep ^Status
Status: Enabled for 0 days 21:52:31           Debug: Urgent
mac $ sudo pfctl -s rules
pass in quick proto tcp from any to any port = 9999 flags S/SA keep state
scrub-anchor "com.apple/*" all fragment reassemble
anchor "com.apple/*" all
mac $

At this point it looks like I should be able to start nc listening and connect from another machine, as in:

mac $ nc -l 9999

linux $ nc -v -w 1 mac 9999
nc: connect to mac port 9999 (tcp) failed: Operation timed out

So, hypotheses and questions:

apf takes precedence over pf, in which case, (Q) how do I change or work around that?
I can't block the application in apf and allow some ports in via pf; see (Q) above.
pf rules are not really interpreted the same way on MacOS as, say, FreeBSD; then: (Q) why not?
I don't understand enough and I'm really just a newbie, hence, (Q) what don't I know?

apf takes precedence over pf, in which case, (Q) how do I change or work around that?

It's not about precedence; it's logical AND — those firewalls are independent to each other and you're invoking both of them. Even if Pf won't block connections you have specifically verified that socketfilterfw won't pass it.


On macOS, why is the output of log stream different to log show? On macOS, why is the output of log stream different to log show?
Specifically:

log stream --predicate  '(process == "smtpd") || (process == "smtp")' --debug

In this case --debug also shows info level messages (from man log)
It shows incoming connection entries such as:

2019-03-04 10:55:25.537313+0000 0x34491f   Info        0x0                  40392  smtpd: connect from unknown[192.168.1.115]

But:

log show --debug --info --start "2019-03-04 10:55:24" --end "2019-03-04 10:55:27"

Does not show any such message, nor any Info level message for that matter. This is making it very hard to diagnose postfix issues on macOS.

By default debug messages are not persisted on disk, but rather only stored in memory.

Therefore you can have the situation where you can stream the debug log messages live using the "log stream" command, but when you later want to find it using "log show" it is not there simply because it is not logged to disk and has been erased from memory.


New Magic Keyboard types the wrong symbols I have bought a new Magic Keyboard in Portugal to replace my previous one as I spilled coffee on it! Now I find many of the keys produce bizarre non matching symbols. What on Earth is going on?

If I try to hit the question mark key all I get is this _
If I want an apostrophe I get - instead
The bracket keys are out of order and I struggle to find what I need.
; is found by hitting a key to the right of L but it marked with a another option.
The key next to that is a ^ yet gives me " or '

The problem is that your Keyboard layout is set to Brazilian and not to the Layout that you are used to..

Go to System Settings -> Keyboard -> Input Sources...

There you will see that its the wrong input source.
To change it click on the plus symbol (+) in the left corner of the list and add the input source you want.


Need to restore applications folder from an old time machine backup I have a macbook air running OSX 10.7.5. I have had a problem with the App Store not connecting. Apple could not resolve it, so I have done a clean install. Now I wish to restore various folders from Time Machine, but not the most recent Applications Folder, as the App Store program is not working.

So, how do I restore an older Applications folder to my clean SSD and import all the necessary support files that are not stored in the Applications folder?

Also, where do I find, and how can I import all my user defined files (my Application preferences) that will allow the programs to have the settings I had stored for them before I had to wipe and reinstall the OS?

Run Migration Assistant and tell it to move Applications and settings from the Time Machine backup of choice.

If your SSD is clean or only has a junk account, you should be able to move back your real user account and settings as well as all applications in one clean migration.

It will check for problems like you already having a user account and let you know if you will have collisions and how it will handle them.


Powering off/crashing during startup MacBook Pro mid 2009 I have a MacBook Pro mid 2009 that crashes during startup after the chime and once in a blue moon gets as far as the login screen before crashing.

Crashes during safe reboot or recovery reboot too

Hardware test from original cd works but finds nothing wrong
Smc reset changes nothing

I have another 2009 MacBook Pro and on interchanging them the following parts work fine

Hard drive
Logic board
MagSafe port
Heatsink
Fan
Sata cable
Battery
Ram

Any ideas for tests or parts to check that might be able to crash the whole computer during startup would be appreciated!

Try an Apple Hardware Test by holding down the D key: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257


5th gen ipod touch mic only works when headphones are plugged in The title says it all.

This is a difficult one for me to troubleshoot...in part because it's my son's device and he is in Australia (I am in the US).

This is our primary means of communication. I'm speculating that there is something happening in the headphone jack that would allow this to happen.

Strange is that the headphones that he is using do not have a built-in mic. –

Thank you in advance for helping me with this!

Following your hint on Headphone jack.

When using headphones only (no microphone) (the ones with the 2 black ring plug) the system activates the built in microphone.

When not plugged in, the system now thinks you plugged in an external microphone and it will not activate the built in one. The reason for that would be a STUCK contact pin in the jack.

It is possible that the pin for the microphone got stuck.

Strip down a Johnson & Johnson Q-tip & dip it in alcohol. Insert damp Q-tip in earphone jack and twist.
Use a compressed air can (computer store) and blow in it few times.

Do not use metal object inside the plug.

If the stuck contact pin does not get loose you have 2 choices:

use headset with microphone
open iPhone and repair the plug. (that is rather a complicated process!)


How to fix "You are not allowed to use "Application"" How do I fix this message, I am Admin, Mobile. Even if i login to a root account this message still appears. I have iTerm so if any commands need to be inputted to fix this problem I can still do it. This also happens with activity monitor.
Mavericks

Old question, but I'll answer it anyway:

This message is from JAMF's Casper Suite. You can remove all the JAMF nonsense with either sudo /usr/sbin/jamf removeFramework or sudo /usr/local/bin/jamf removeFramework (depending on the version installed).


Converting videos in the background using automator and handbrake I am trying to automate the process of video conversion using handbrake and automator.

Here is the script that i am using in Run Shell Script action of Automator Folder Action:

for f in "$@"
do
    Applications/HandBrakeCLI -i "$f" -t 1 \
    --angle 1 -c 1 -o "/Users/abc/Desktop/TestVidDest/$(basename $f)" \
    -f mp4  -4  -O  --decomb="fast" -w 1280 -l 720 --modulus 16 \
    -e x264 -b 3800 -2  -T  --cfr -a 1 -E faac -6 dpl2 -R 48 -B 128 \
    -D 0 --gain 0 --audio-fallback ffac3 --x264-preset=slow  \
    --x264-profile=high  --x264-tune="film"  --h264-level="4.0" \
    --verbose=1  &
done

The problem is when I manually run this script from Automator it works fine but when new files are added in the folder then this script is called but videos are not converted. If I remove '&' from the end of the command then it works with new files but not in hidden mode and I want it to run in hidden mode.

So if anybody can guide me about what i am doing wrong here???

Log from the console:

First, I'm assuming that you accidentally chopped the '/' character off the front of the path to Handbrake in your example. Second, when you say "hidden mode" you mean run in the background.

What happens if you run the command from the command line?

How do you know the command isn't running when you run it in background mode? Are you doing a "ps" command from the command line to see if it is running or not?

Have you tried adding ">>~/HB_log.txt 2>&1" just before the "&" command so that you get a log of both the output and the errors it might be putting out?

If only the first part of the name is being used then I assume that the quote characters around the name are being stripped - try escaping them with a '\'. Like so '\"/Users/abc/Desktop/TestVidDest/$(basename $f)\" ' and see what happens.

I also suspect that problems with the name might be upsetting the entire line and causing your problem.

I would actually write a shell script that you could test externally and then call your shell script from Automator.


Un-integrate Parallels for Mac OS X When installing Parallels in Mac OS X 10.6 I believe I chose to integrate Windows XP with OS X. Some files are now associated with programs in Windows even though there are OS X equivalents. This is annoying because it is easy to accidentally open Parallels and Windows. Very annoying.

So my question is: can I un-integrate Parallels?

Power off your VM, open Parallels Desktop, select the VM you wish to modify then in the menu bar select Virtual Machine -> Configure...

You'll get a Options window where you can change all the settings of the VM.  Specifically to your application problem, you can modify those settings underneath Options -> Applications.  I'd uncheck "Share Windows applications with Mac".

After completing that step you'll need to manually rebuild the LaunchServices database.  Open Terminal and run the following (without the $):

 $ /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
 $ killall Finder


Software Update hangs...where can I see a log as to what its doing? For the last 2 weeks Software Update on my Snow Leopard box seems to hang at "Installing 1 item...Writing files...".  Where can I look to see if it is making progress or just hung up?  It has been trying to finish today's Software Update for over 2 hours now.  It feels like it is hung but I would like to be sure before I kill it.

So it looks like the Console application is the only way to "view the logs", so to speak.  I launched it from the Finder under "Applications/Utilities".  It is rather sparse, but it does have information regarding the update.

I am having more success watching the progress of Software Update by executing it from the command line of a terminal.  This I launched as

sudo softwareupdate -i -a -v

I still don't expect it to complete, but am hopeful that I can get a better clue as to why it is failing.  Currently there are 4 packages called out in /Library/Updates, one of which is likely the source of my problems:

bobk-mbp:~ bobk$ find /Library/Updates/
/Library/Updates/
/Library/Updates//.DS_Store
/Library/Updates//index.plist
/Library/Updates//ProductMetadata.plist
/Library/Updates//zzzz041-3450
/Library/Updates//zzzz041-3450/041-3450.English.dist
/Library/Updates//zzzz041-3450/CoreFPDelta.pkg
/Library/Updates//zzzz041-3450/iTunesAccessDelta.pkg
/Library/Updates//zzzz041-3450/iTunesXPatch.pkg

Finally, it looks like you can actually tail the install log as

tail -F /var/logs/install.log

So I now know how to watch the thing, but why isn't it completing?


Sorting music in iOS by album only When you try to sort by album on iOS, the player sorts by album and then it also sorts by artist.

How can you get it to sort by album only?

Edit: I should clarify that I’m using an iphone 4 with the latest updates, so this question is about whatever version of iOS runs on iPhone 4

Go to your album view, then use View -> Sort By -> Title.


Why is the apple pencil (1 and 2) so long? Both apple pencils are around an inch longer than my average actual pens. I love the fact that the apple pencil 2 is considerably lighter, but it still is uncomfortably long and gives an unbalanced writing feeling.
Does anyone know if the length is intentional, or more of a technical restraint at this present time?

Pretty much technological reasons.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple+Pencil+Teardown/52955


Left Shift and Left Command combination yields only Left Command; other shift command combos work fine Early 2011 15" Macbook Pro, Lion, no external keyboard or mouse:

Lately I noticed that I can't use left-shift+left-command together; it registers as left-command only.  The other three combinations (right-shift+right-command, right-shift+left-command, left-shift+right-command) work properly. I’ve confirmed this in text editors and in the keyboard viewer.

Same problem appears with left-command+left-control.

I’ve shut down all programs, verified no weird keybinds in Universal Access or elsewhere, even installed Lion to a clean external disk and booted from that.  The first thing I did was check left-shift and left-command in TextEdit; same problem.

Any ideas?

I'm posting the non-answer of "I reinstalled OSX and upgraded to Maverick from Lion, and it now works" because, well, it now works. Unfortunately I don't know what were the actual reasons it broken and then un-broken. I am sorry to anyone whom this question didn't help at all.

If anyone else comes up with a reasonable explanation I'll mark them as the answer instead.


Can I use an iTunes gift card to pay for something I bought yesterday and avoid a credit card charge? I need to buy something today via iTunes. However, I have gift cards arriving tomorrow that I had initially planned on using to buy this item. If I do end up buying it today, will I be able to use the gift cards tomorrow on the balance to not have it ultimately avoid a charge on my credit card or can they not be used retroactively like this?

The TL;DR is your gift card can't be used this way.

Your account is charged before the purchase is complete. If there is store credit available on your account, your credit card will not be charged. With no available credit on your account, your credit card will be charged.


iMovie crashes on startup I've just installed iMovie from the App Store.  When I run it, it crashes after the Welcome wizard.  I've rebooted, deleted and reinstalled, and the same thing happens each time.

I've tried opening with Cmd and deleting preferences, I've deleted everything in ~/Movies, ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iMovieApp, it still crashes every time

  2014 MBP, 16 GB RAM, just installed 10.13

There may be vestiges of old iMovie installs/projects laying around; if there are, I'm OK with completely deleting them, if someone can tell me how to hunt them all down

Crash report

  Process:               iMovie [1107] Path:
  /Applications/iMovie.app/Contents/MacOS/iMovie Identifier:
  com.apple.iMovieApp Version:               10.1.7 (310090) Build Info:
  iMovieX-31009000019000000~1 App Item ID:           408981434 App
  External ID:       823649006 Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
  Parent Process:        ??? [1] Responsible:           iMovie [1107]
  User ID:               501

  Date/Time:             2017-10-01 19:33:44.776 -0500 OS Version:
  Mac OS X 10.13 (17A365) Report Version:        12 Anonymous UUID:
  1BAD87A2-DB4E-312A-643C-36D1F4BE862D

  Time Awake Since Boot: 2600 seconds

  System Integrity Protection: enabled

  Crashed Thread:        4  Dispatch queue: com.apple.root.default-qos

  Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) Exception Codes:
  0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000 Exception Note:
  EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

  Application Specific Information:
  -[QCCGLRootContext minimalSharedContextForCurrentThread]: Inconsistent state abort() called HÇÆ±ˇ

I have a MBP that does this. Are you running an external display mirrored with the lid closed? Mine works if I open imovie with the lid up.


Client certificate required after installing certificate Using safari on OS X 10.8.2 to connect to an internal server via https:, safari indicates a client certificate is required.  Tried dragging the certificate from the url field to the desktop and adding it to the system keychain which did not work.  Went to the server and exported the certificate then added it to the system keychain which did not work as well.
What could be the problem?  The server is a windows machine running IIS.
Any suggestions to try something else?

You are looking for a client certificate.  It would seem if you are trying to obtain it from the URL that you are actually getting the server certificate to place in your keychain.

Normally a client certificate is a certificate that identifies the user, or at times the machine, that the request is coming from (ie. not the server you are accessing via Safari).

A client certificate would normally reside in your Login keychain and not the system keychain as it identifies you.

The client certificate is normally provided from the server by some other means rather than accessing the browser, as that is an insecure delivery method.

You need to talk to the owner of the internal server and ask them to provide a client certificate, or if two-way certificate identification is not required then have it turned off in the internal server instead.


iTunes suddenly rejecting mp4 downloads from torrent networks For a while I have been able to add most videos coming from torrent network without problems unless they were avi encoded. But for a few weeks now, I have had to re-encode all of the mp4 videos that I download using Handbrake which is not very practical.

Why is this? Does everyone face the same issue as I do?

iTunes v 11.1.5
OS X 10.9.2 (Mavericks)

MP4 is a media container format which can be encoded with many different video and audio codecs like DivX, Xvid, H.264, H.263, MPEG-4, AC3, WMA, AAC, etc. While iTunes only support few video and audio codec like MPEG-4 video codec and AAC audio codec; H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec. If the MP4 video is encode with iTunes unsupported video or audio codec, iTunes will not add and play it.

Sometimes, even if the MP4 is in the right video and audio codec that iTunes supports and we can successfully add and play MP4 in iTunes, but if the MP4 video does meet the technical specifications for iOS devices like video size, bitrates, sample rate and etc, we will fail to sync and transfer the MP4 video from iTunes to iPod, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV and etc.

A recommended solution is to convert iTunes unsupported MP4 to a more compatible MP4 video format using HandBrake.


How to Sync iphone contacts to gmail I have the old iphone 3GS
LATEST IOS

I used to open Itunes to put songs on the phone etc and if I wanted to I would (manually)sync my phone. Syncing the phone enacts whatever your options are set to. In my setup that meant, hitting "sync" would cause:

1  Backup- iphone backed up to the PC,

2  Calendar - iphone calendar synced with Oulook calendar on my computer

3  Contacts, that is the iphone contacts (phone nums, and any other info like street address, email address)  - synced with gmail contacts.
NOTE: In 2 & 3 syncing meant that any new contacts put in the iphone since the last sync, would be added to my gmail contacts and any new contacts in my gmail contacts that were not in my iphone were added to the iphone. So the syncing worked both ways. Handy, as if I ever lost my phone (apart from having the backup on the PC) my phone contacts would be in my gmail.

I did not do the above sync for some months and when I went to do it recently I find that Apple has changed things. The dropdown list that had gmail on it for selecting which email application you wanted your iphone contacts to sync to, no longer had gmail on it and it had to defaulted to Outlook. Certainly don't want contacts to go there.
So I unselected the contacts sync so now when I sync only my calendar gets done.

Apple apparently wants to be less connectable to non apple entities, so wants people to sync contacts with icloud. Useless for my purposes. :(

My question:
HOW TO sync, if possible, my iphone contacts with my gmail contacts even if it is a 2 step process. There are a lot of questions similar to this on the site but none seem to deal with the fact that I want to be sure that I do not cause any iphone contacts to be wiped in favour of what is in my gmail contacts or vice versa

( Back a few years, I thought I would make a new start with a clean slate on my gmail contacts so wiped them all and then synced, thinking all my iphone contacts would appear in my gmail contacts. Because the syncing process updates the other entity with the latest actions from and to each other, the iphone was updated by the latest actions which were in gmail contacts, so wiped the iphone contacts clean!
Was not happy)

With all this in mind, can anyone tell me how to do a 2 way update (sync) or if this is no longer possible to at least update my gmail contacts with any changes in my iphone contacts?

HELP is appreciated.

All google syncing is done through the wireless connection now.  Go to the Settings app, and choose Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

Choose Add Account... and select Gmail from the list.  Follow the instructions to connect to your google account, and then select whether you want to sync more than your contacts.

Tested on my iPhone 3GS with iOS 6.1.3 (6.1.6 just updates a few security issues, no change to the contact/gmail sync)


viewing old imessages (for free, on a PC) I'm writing something to a friend that requires extensive knowlege of our past iMessage convos; and, since I haven't a 2.3 GB memory myself, and it would take hours to scroll all the way up, I'd like to be able to view the whole thing as a text file or any equivalent such that I can scroll to the start easily. Most solutions for this I've seen on the web involve using a Mac, and I don't have one. My iMessages are on a 4th-generation iPad. I have a PC running Windows 10 and two running Xubuntu. Can anyone help me out? I'm kind of desperate.

I would get PhoneView and connect the device to a Mac (even if you have to borrow one or go to a library) and then save the message database to a more friendly format.

I sadly cannot offer any PC options, but I'm sure someone else here will edit one in to this answer in place of my ignorance or offer their own software recommendation.

Phone View is my go-to tool for this. You could even ship your iPod to a consultant that was willing to do the work for you if you absolutely have no other options.


How can I remedy a multiple AirPort network where each base station tends to end up isolated from the rest? I live in a wide house, so I have an Airport extreme, an Airport express and a TimeCapsule setting up a free roaming network.
I used to have the Airport Express working as a master central router for the rest of the network.
Airplay was a little buggy and wifi gaming is not the best option out in the market.

But now I changed my ISP, and it provided me (free of charge) with a ZTE ZXDSL 9311WII routed modem, with 4 ethernet ports, so I decided to boost the performance of my network. Bought over 300ft of LAN cable, a bunch of cable connectors, crimping tools and even wall connectors...
So I wired every AirPort directly to the ZTE, and now I have all airports in bridge mode.

The problem that emerged is that a computer connected to one airport can not see anymore the computer in another airport. This happens if the computer is connected via wifi also, he can only see the ones connected to the same airport. Also, airport admin utility lost the capability of seeing all the airports connected and turned on - and now can only see only the one that the computer is directly connected to.

How do I solve this visibility issue?

I am SURE ZTE is not blocking connections because if I plug in computers directly to ZTE, they can see each other just as they should.
I already went trough all airport possible configurations, googled for the whole day, and found nothing about this configuration being possible or not.

The first thing I would suggest is to get an ethernet switch and place it between the ZTE router and the rest of the network.  Route all the Airport devices into the switch.  Then they should all see each other.  These cost $18-$25.

I have two Airport Extreme Base Stations, at opposite ends of my house.  I set the one connected to a DSL modem to be the DHCP server, and create Airport wireless networks.  I select the channels manually, not automatic.

The second base station is connected to the first by ethernet cable - not wirelessly.  It is set to bridge mode, but also to create wireless networks.  I give the networks the same, identical names, but manually select different channels than the first base station.

This lets any WiFi device to connect to either server without any conflicts that I have noticed.

You may wish to turn off the DHCP server on the ZTE router and use one of the Airport base stations to provide that service for your network.


Can I search for a string of text inside Notes.app on an iPhone 5c (iOS 7.1)? I use Mac's Notes app on my MacBook Air (Mavericks).  I can readily search for any specific note just using command - F.

It finds notes containing the string of text either in the title of the note or in the body of the note.

However, when I sync all my notes to my iPhone 5c, I can't find how to search for a particular note in this way.  Is it possible?

Drag down on the home screen (just touch in the middle of the icons and drag down) and the iPhone search box will appear. Searching there will reveal text in notes (in addition to other stuff like song titles)


How to access other users' files via Terminal in OS X? I am an admin that wants to access other users' files. How to do this via the Terminal?

As stated by patrix: the personal files of other user's on the same machine are generally stored in the /Users/<username> folder for each user. The permissions on these folders are usually set such that they are private to the individual who owns the files.

This means you need to use sudo to elevate your own access levels in order to see their files. If you are truly an admin, using sudo is something that's ok, but do so with caution. If you are not an admin then you shouldn't have the proper sudo privileges to do any of this and your repeated attempts to use sudo are logged in the system access log.

To simply list files in another user's home directory (let's call them bob) you do:

sudo ls ~bob

The ~ prefix is POSIX shorthand for "home directory of...". To browse freely, you can become that user with sudo like so:

sudo su - bob

This makes you bob, logged in as bob and in bob's home directory. You can now move around, cat files, open files, etc. as bob.


How to access wireless channel 13 and above from a US Mac Book Pro? When traveling internationally and connecting to an 802.11g wireless network I'm unable to connect because non-US access points default to using channel 13 and up. From what I hear if the Mac Book Pro is purchased in Europe then it can access those channels.

Is there a way to update / tweak / etc. a US Mac Book Pro to access wireless channels 13 and up?

There's a rather easy solution. Right click your clock, select "Open date & time preferences". Click "Time Zone" and select "Tokyo - Japan". Then either reboot or go to sleep mode. After you power up you should see all of the channels.

Update (digging deeper):

The reason this happens is that the mac reads all wifi signals and takes country code from the strongest one, setting it as global. If it's transmitting a country code which has a blocked 13/14 channel, these channels will be blocked globally.

So what you could do is check the country code on your wifi router and bring your laptop as close to it as possible.

To see which country code is transmitted by the nearby routers and blocked / unblocked channels, go to the "About this mac -> System report -> Network -> Wi-Fi". There should be a list of channels enabled for the current session under the "Interfaces -> en1 -> Supported Channels". There should also be a list of networks under the "Current Network Information".

Check if there's any network with the wrong country code and should you know its owner, ask him to set the proper one. If your router does transmit a proper country code, just bring your laptop as close to it as possible and reboot / got to sleep and wake up. This should refresh the list of available channels for the session.


how do I get the network connection window to stop popping up? This window pops up every few minutes (macbook pro circa 2006 running OS 10.6)

I no longer have this internet service, so how do I get it to go away? Hitting cancel or ok just makes it pop back up in a few minutes. Doesn't matter if the airport is turned on or off - it still comes up.

Thanks!
Kendra

It is likely that you just need to delete one of the connections in Network Preferences.

Go to System Preferences > Network

You will likely have a list of connections on the left, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, etc. One of them is likely the connection above.

Click on each of them, in turn till you find the one that corresponds to the connection in your question. Click on the "-" at the bottom left to delete the selected connection.

That should do it. If not then we will need the screen captures "TheBro21" asked for.


Does Apple Pay Still Work in Lost Mode? I have a long pin and FaceID enabled and have used my AppleID to place my phone in lost mode. This message was the result of my actions:

  Unable to Suspend Cards on iPhone.
  If credit or debit cards have been set up for Apple Pay on this device, contact the card issuers to
  suspend them.

I'm using iOS 13.2.2. What is going on and am I at risk of potential unauthorized purchases?

This is intended behavior when the device doesn’t respond to Apple Push Notifications to confirm locking and deactivation of the cards. It could be out of battery or off network or just unable to process the erasure of the cards.

Normally when there is a good cellular data connection setting your iPhone to Lost Mode both disables Apple Pay and suspends and confirms deactivation Apple Pay cards.

In your situation, provided you received an email confirming your iPhone is in Lost Mode, Apple Pay will be disabled and unusable on this device until Lost Mode is turned off.

Entering your device password on the device will turn off Lost Mode and re-enable Apple Pay, but won't un-suspend suspended cards. Normally you have to un-suspend the cards by entering your Apple ID username and Apple ID password. Since your cards were not suspended, they may be usable after entering only your device password.

If you have a weak password or someone else knows your password, then you may want to contact your card provider to suspend these cards.


How can I see my iPad from my MacBook? Is there an easy way to see my iPad screen from my MacBook?  I have Mocha VNC Lite and I can see my MacBook from my iPad, but I want to go the other way.

This is possible in a way, but your question might need more detail if the answer is to be useful.

Because Mac OS X is a fully multitasking OS, you can VNC onto it and do all your normal stuff.  iOS though is very app centric, so to do this the other way would require you to run a VNC server type app on your iPad, but you would then be stuck in that app only without the possibility of subsequently running other apps, and not be able to actually use your iPad remotely at an OS level.

So, if you want to see it in order to be able to interact with it, using it normally from afar, the answer is no (although there may be jailbreak tweaks that allow this sort of thing to an extent - can't really comment on that tho).

If, however, I was to take your question literally, you just want to see the iPad screen on your iPad, then bingo, piece of cake if you have an iPad 2/3 - you can use Airplay mirroring to mirror the output of your iPad screen on your Mac using one of a variety of airplay receiving apps on OS X.  See this answer for more details.


Mac won't allow me to add any email account On OS High Sierra 10.13.5. Allows me to write account name, add password, but won't finish task, just stays on next but not frozen. Have tried to delete relevant terms from keychain.

Usually when this happens, it’s a temporary issue on the server side.

I would remove the account and do these three things:

Set your Mac clock to the internet to be sure ssl and certificate timings match.
Log into webmail and be sure your account is not locked. Look for two factor authentication or the need for a second password for that account. Those often cause a silent failure.
Set up only one item at first. Adding five items mail, contacts, calendars, notes, reminders means that all five of them have to be set up in the not time out.  If you can get one to set up and saying and then leave it for 20 minutes, you might then try to add the second and the rest one by one.


Constrain connecting lines to be only horizontal or vertical (only 90º increments) in OmniGraffle? In OmniGraffle 5, how can I constrain connecting lines to be only horizontal or vertical? In other words, only angled at 0, 90, 180, and 270º?

With the Line Tool selected you can begin drawing your line and then press the SHIFT key. At this point, with both the mouse button and SHIFT key down, the line will restrict to 45-degree increments.

When dealing with a connection line, where the line's start and end point are linked to an object, it become more difficult. The line's orientation is based on the location of the object's line anchors. You will need to make sure that the anchors your line is attached to are aligned appropriately. This can normally be done through the standard object alignment tools.


What is the Mac 256-color system palette? I have some old Mac files, of which I want to extract and display their icons. To do this, I will decode their icl8 resources. According to Inside Macintosh, icl8 resources do not include a color table--instead, they are drawn according to the system palette. The problem is, nobody seems to have ever extracted and made the palette available online. All I can find is a basic description on Wikipedia.

What are the color values of the Macintosh 256-color system palette?

The Mac system color palettes are typically stored as "clut" resources in the ROM. There are palettes for 8-, 4-, 2- and 1-bit depths.

Belkadan Software has helpfully provided the 8-bit palette here: http://belkadan.com/blog/2018/01/Color-Palette-8/


Take the iCloud Plunge? I want to understand committing to using iCloud given my particular needs, which to date I totally avoid except for "find my mac." Consequences, gotchas, costs - both money and time, an upgrade tread mill trap, etc. E.G. "useful" trumps unicorns and rainbows.
I'm reading icloud questions and much of it is old. That's minute details anyway, I need a bigger picture with relevant detail to make sure I'm not screwing myself in some way.
Cause for Pause
The nuclear option: if I disconnect from iCloud everything iClouded on that device is deleted. That. sounds. bad. Like no backing out, ever?! It seems like any backup recovery puts the computer back to a wired-to-the-cloud state.
Buggy iCloud? When first introducted iCloud was quickly turned off by Apple, people fired, and months of rework preceeded a re-introduction of iCloud. Pervasive glitches in the nooks and crannies due to sheer complexity?
Convoluted processes: Might customizing (or the lack thereof) iCloud doom me to a lifetime of jumping thru hoops thus making the whole thing not worth it?
Vague security and privacy concerns: synching via public WiFi hotspots. iCloud means no air gap (yeah, the "air gap" myth). General iCloud security, "ownership", what Apple does w/ iClouded stuff.
Unforseen show stoppers due to hardware, software, personal-needs differences.
Synergy and benefits I'm simply unaware of.
General mindset: Living fully wired/connected 24/7? I'm just not feeling it. But obviously I would not have made this post if I was absolutely against alien technology; no conspiracy theorist, I.
My Landscape

2008 iMac that cannot upgrade beyond El Capitan
MPB 2011 on Sierra
iPod on iOS 10.2
MacBook Air 2015 model on Sierra
Keep the iMac beyond mere inconvenience.
I locally backup all my computers. iPod is backed up on iTunes.
Different people

MacBook Air, let's call it "ID1"
All other devices, collectively call it "ID2"
I've read threads about separate AppleIDs. Use a common ID for purchases, separate IDs for all else. But that needs some tweaking; see below

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) functions.

Reliably synch calendar and contacts across all devices
ID1, ID2: separate email, browser history/bookmarks

Photos

Decades of photos - Is it all or nothing?
Sharing and syncing photos behind our household firewall is all I really need; I think.
I don't know if I completely grock iCloud implications of "camera roll" vis-a-vis "photo stream". I think of my photo "library" as one thing.

No iPhone

iCloud/iOS gotchas because an iPod is not an iPhone. EVERYTHING is iPhone centric now.
Don't ask. I'm a kool-aide drinking Apple fan boy since pre-Macintosh yet I choose to no longer have an iPhone. iPhone 6 jump the shark pricing + provider pricing + engineered upgrading + reality check = the total cost of ownership last straw.

Unnecessary $$$ for unnecessary storage

I don't need instant iPhoto Photos synching?
I backup my computers at home.

iTunes

I'm old school. I "own" my music. I don't subscribe to Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc.
"match my music" doesn't make sense from my perspective. But I'm open to new concepts.
iCloud induced creeping storage costs, crippled functionality, other?

Back up your devices
Jump in the iCloud pool
See if you like it

Given your landscape, having one set of photos instead of managing them on many devices alone seems worth simplifying things via iCloud. I'm also a big fan of iTunes Match and Apple Music despite having tens of thousands of CD and phonograph recordings digitized.


How to stop the iPhone from vibrating for just the alarm? How do I set the vibrate to not fire for alarms but still fire for calls, texts, emails, reminders, etc?

I have looked at third party alarms but they all seem quite fallible, many do not work when you press the home button. Those that do use push notifications to get around this but this feature obeys the silent switch on the phone which means you have to remember to switch the sound on each night. And I have had two of them just randomly not work on me.

Is there a way of turning the vibrate off for just the alarm?

I'm willing to jailbreak for this.

I know it`s been a while.

@SomewhereThere's answer is good for any version before IOS9.

Since IOS 9

You may disable vibration from the alarm menu per alarm independently.

  In the alarm settings. When you add a new alarm time, you can select sounds > vibration and set it to ”none”. You can also edit existing alarm schedules to disable vibration individually.

Credits


Restored iPad , old Apple ID, find my iPhone still on So we have a iPad with an old Apple ID that is now disabled, can't get the restore to work because find my iPhone is still on and it keeps asking for the Apple ID and password of this account to turn off the find my iPhone
I am over it! Just painful, anyone know what to do?
Dee

If the account is truly deleted and you can no longer login, you'll have to contact Apple for them to remove the lock for you. You'll probably need to show proof of purchase, ID or similar.


Complete Deletion of an App on iPad I have downloaded a game on my iPad (hopefully free), played for a while. Then, after several days, the app crashed. The current situation is that this app starts, but during initial loading, it crashes. I've deleted the app and then re-downloaded it from the App Store, believing that the corrupted file had been deleted too. But the problem stays the same: crash at startup.

So my question is: when I delete an app, does it leave some files on the system? And if it is the case, is it possible to get totally rid of an app?

Due to the way iOS sandboxes apps, when you delete an app, it along with its data are gone. The only remains are in the App Store purchase history. The iOS security means you can't easily undelete these files via a jailbreak - so if you want to ensure the data gets securely erased, you should erase all contents and settings which will either destroy the key used to encrypt.

Don't forget to delete the app from iTunes on any computers you have and then make a backup of your iPad with the app deleted. That gets rid of two other potential copies of the app.

The game is probably just buggy. You can tell the developer and make sure to mention what iDevice you have, its iOS version, and specifically what the bug is.


What is it called when your Mac doesn't fully crash? What is it called when an app crashes and it ends up logging you out, without restarting your computer?  The computer never fully turns off because the /tmp fold doesn't get reset.

This is most often caused by the WindowServer process crashing. However, there's not really a name for this specific type of crash.

On iOS it corresponds to the Springboard crashing, which is then named "springboarding".

However, no such name exists in common use for macOS.


How do I get my iPhone and iPad to automatically search changes of IP addresses with WiFi extenders I have two WiFi extenders and when I move within the range of each extender or back to the router the IP addresses change but my iPhone and iPad don't apply the changes. I have to manually switch off WiFi and restart it to get the device to find the right address.

Your devices (iPad, iPod) are not disconnecting from the first AP and connecting to the extender AP because the signal is still too good for it to disconnect from.

One of the best ways I have found to create a much more reliable wireless infrastructure is to turn down the transmission power of the WAP.

In basic terms, this lowers the distance that a good signal will get to your device meaning your device will begin looking for a new WAP sooner.  The downside to this is that you will need more extenders.

The other way is to invest in "Enterprise grade" WAPs that have "handoff" built into the controller - this allows you to specify what the threshold is before the WAP "kicks off" the client and forces it to to search for another WAP.


Disk Utility: Incorrect number of file hard links I'm running Mountain Lion on my Mid 2009 MBP. Recently(for last few months) it's acting really slow. Simplest actions are taking forever to perform. So I verified disk using the Disk Utility and it said that Incorrect number of file hard links and The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired. It suggested me to restart and repair. I did that but about a week later it became slow again. I verified again and this time also it gave the same message.

Can I be certain that it's a fault of the HDD and just change it?

I took the laptop to Apple service centre. They ran few diagnosis and it turns out the hard disk was fine. One of those test results said that the hard disk is corrupted, and it needs to be formatted and repartitioned. So they formatted the HDD and reinstalled the OS. That seems to have fixed it.


Enabling external booting on a fusion drive Mac I am trying to change the secure boot settings so that I can allow booting from an external disk. Normally to do this you would go into recovery mode with command + r and then change the settings. When I try to do this, however, my mac decides to boot up using recovery mode with internet, in which I cannot change the secure boot settings from. After doing a little research, this seems to be because my Mac has a fusion drive, which is causing the regular recovery mode to not start up. My question is: how do I get into regular recovery mode on a fusion drive Mac? If I can’t, how do I change the secure boot settings without going into recovery mode?

Option 1)
Wait for Internet recovery to finish loading, proceed with normal steps.
P.S. this shouldn't be necessary unless you've enabled the option to disallow booting from external media. If that is the case, see this article for instructions: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198#open
Option 2)
If you're impatient like me, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk.
Click on the drive you wish to boot from, click Restart.


"No Bag Entry" when trying to reinstall Sierra Was given a MacBook Air (2013) secondhand, with one stipulation being that I delete the previous owner's info and items off of the Macbook before I started using it. Did that to Apple's specifications on their website, but whenever it boots into Recovery Mode and I click on reinstall Sierra, I get a "no bag entry" error after clicking go on the MacOS Sierra screen.

I'm at my wits end, and this is basically my last option before I call it quits. Can anyone guide me?

Make sure you're connected to internet before you enter the re-install flow. The machine needs to talk to Apple's servers to verify the license, that's why this error comes up.


ipod Touch Account Reset with a new user and Ipad 4 account currently used I had my iPod Touch and created an apple id account. When i bought iPad4 i sold the iPod Touch but i used same apple id that was registered in my iPod. Will there be no conflict at all with regards to application, photos and updates since I am now using an Ipad? Now the iPod was reset and used by another user name. does the new owner of Ipod can still access my info? please help, i am worrying of the security and privacy. Thank you.

As long as you signed out of your Apple ID with:

iCloud
iMessage
Facetime
iTunes and App Stores

Or:
wiped the device before you sold it, you have nothing to worry about. The new owner of your old iPod, won't be able to access any of your data.

If you did not wipe the device, nor sign out of your Apple ID, then the best you can do is change your Apple ID password. This will, in effect, sign the new owner out of your Apple ID.
Even with an Apple ID change the new owner will be able to access:

Any non-iCloud email accounts that you haven't since changed the password for.
Any app's data that has already been installed.

So, change your Apple ID password, and other email passwords (i.e. Gmail), and that will prevent him from accessing your data any further. In addition he won't be able to download updates for apps left on the device.


Is there any reason to switch from MobileMe to iCloud if i'm still on Snow Leopard? I use iDisk and have some Web Galleries on my MobileMe account (both features that have been siginficantly changed in iCloud), and since none of my computers run Lion (my iPad runs iOS5) I cannot sync fully with iCloud.

Is there any reason why I should switch to using iCloud now? or should I continue with the benefits of MobileMe.

With Snow Leopard, you cannot Sync Docs, you can work around to sync Calendars and Contacts.

I would stick with MobileMe as you have the iDisk.

iOS5 and iCloud does sync docs accross devioces every time you make an edit. But sadly for me (Snow Leopard) I cant sync Docs to my Mac without first uploading from a device to iWork.com which is a bit of a shoddy work arround.


Iphone 6 plus keyboard letters uppercase I bought my Iphone 6 plus yesterday, and i was wondering is it genuine because keyboard letters when typing messages and emails are all uppercase no matter caps lock. Is it good, sorry for stupid question, but I`m new to Apple products.

Thanks

Apple changed the keyboard in ios 9 to make it easier to tell when the shift key is pressed. In ios 8 and below, the keyboard letters are always uppercase, but in ios 9, they are only uppercase if the shift key is pressed.

You can update to ios 9.1 by opening settings, then choosing general > software update, and choosing "install". It will take a while, so you should probably plug your device in first. This should make the keyboard match your other device.


Can I speed up Disk Utility First Aid by running “fsck_hfs” with the “-c” option? I ran Disk Utility’s First Aid on a portable hard disk I use for Time Machine, which took around 13 hours (with no repairs being needed). I was wondering whether there’s a way to speed that up. Disk Utility’s output shows that it ran fsck_hfs -fy -x /dev/rdisk3, and so it doesn’t use the -c option, which according to the command’s man page “can result in better performance”:

-c size Specify the size of the cache used by fsck_hfs internally.
       Bigger size can result in better performance but can result
       in deadlock when used with -l option.  Size can be speci-
       fied as a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number.  If the
       number ends with a ``k'', ``m'', or ``g'', the number is
       multiplied by 1024 (1K), 1048576 (1M), or 1073741824 (1G),
       respectively.

I was wondering whether anyone has experience using the -c option. Does fsck_hfs not use a cache at all when the option is not used, or does it use a default size? How large would I need to set the cache size to see significant, or even just any, performance improvement? I assume this depends on the size of the disk; mine is 1TB with Disk Utility showing it contains around 15.500.000 files.

There are some sources saying you should set the cache size to maybe 1/2 of your installed memory.
This source says, that fsck_hfs is running a lot faster if you assign it 2200m cache (in this example for a 1TB drive):
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110829063745320
I'm now going to experiment with that setting because my external 6TB time machine backup disk has fsck_hfs running since about 18 hours.


FFLibraryUpgradeLock error while opening iMovie library from another machine I'm getting this error when opening an iMovie library that I copied from another machine. I copied it and overwrote ~/Movies/iMovie Library.imovielibrary.

  "iMovie Library” could not be opened. You don’t have permission to save the file “FFLibraryUpgradeLock” in the folder “iMovie Library

I have made sure that iMovie has "File access". I even granted iMovie full disk access.

I ended up just creating a dummy file called FFLibraryUpgradeLock inside the lib directory

$ touch ~/Movies/iMovie Library.imovielibrary/FFLibraryUpgradeLock

and then started iMovie. Everything works fine now and I can see all the projects in the old library.


shortcut to open multiple programmes and have them open a specific file When writing code for web i need to have several programmes and files open at the same time, i need :

project folder open in sublime text
terminal open and on a specific directory
tower (git client) open on the correct project
mamp open and running
browser open and on to local server url

It takes me a few minutes to setup each time, is there a way i can automate these so that with one action all will open and be in the correct configuration ?

Im running osx 10.10

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is, it can be done more then one way.

I'd probably opt for a bash script and wrap it in a application bundle using Platypus, although you can use a Run Shell Script action in Automator too.

In Automator you might want to try the Watch Me Do action, although that will be slower then just a bash script.

Note that some things you mentioned may not be able to be bash scripted, can't say for sure because I do not use Tower or MAMP, although the others are bash scriptable

I can't give a complete answer as I do not use Tower or MAMP however for Sublime Text, Terminal and Safari the following works for me.

Note that Sublime Text includes a command line executable subl within its application bundle. The typical path might be, /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl and executing it with --help will display its internal help information.

The following script example could be used if you can ascertain the commands necessary for Tower and MAMP.

#!/bin/bash

/path/to/subl --project <project>
open -a Terminal /path/to/the/location/I/want
# Tower commands.
# MAMP commands.
open -a Safari http://127.0.0.1


Font is installed in font book, but bold does not work I've installed a font in the font book, but the bold format does not work. I see the bold in the font book. Also, the italic format does work.
How to fix it?
(I'm running on El Capitan).

Is there an option to reinstall the font?

Your font could be broken. Not likely if it worked before but at least it is easy to check as there’s a font validator built into Font Book. Please mark the font and select File > Validate Font.

If you receive warnings or errors there’s no built in repair tool, though. But then at least you know...


Will your private tabs still be open when you exit out of private mode? I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to exit out of my private mode without my open private tabs being deleted. Does anyone knows what happens, if you exit out off private mode and then go back to private mode, will they be still there?

If you are talking about iOS, yes. Private tabs will be preserved.

In macOS, once you close the private tab(s), they are gone.


How do I get my (lost) device's serial number from its UDID? I lost an iPad, and I need the serial number - all I have of it is the UDID.

The device is not registered, I don't have the box, and I don't have backups of it either.

I suppose that calling Apple could get me the serial number if I provide the UDID. But that's a step I'd like to avoid. Perhaps there is an email address? (Have lurked their site but I've been unable to find such).

For context, this question comes from https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/90459/identifying-a-lost-stolen-ipad-without-connecting-it-to-a-computer-or-downloadin?noredirect=1#comment106184_90459 - from the comments it seems like getting the serial number would be the most appropiate way to identify my lost iPad, since I have certain complications using the UDID to check that.

I found one way.

I am an iOS developer, and I once used this iPad for development. Xcode has an Organizer window, which keeps tracks of the devices I used for development. The iPad appears on the list, and it also displays the serial number.

This of course only works if you have developed with the device using Xcode. I wonder if there is a more standard way to get the serial number.


brew services start php70 with unix domain socket - without sudo? I have homebrew's php70 installed and successfully connecting to apache via a unix domain socket.

I had to use sudo to start php though: sudo brew services start php70.

If I don't do this, the socket is created under my regular user account name, rather than with owner _www,  the latter being essential to allow apache to access the socket.

Should I be starting php70 as root like this, or is there a safer way?

I tried creating a group with my own user name and apache as members of it, with intention of creating the socket under that group, but gave up as not entirely sure on the right track.

Am I wasting my time trying to avoid use of sudo?   Maybe the answer is just .. 'it depends'.. ?

The command (sudo) brew services start php70 (or better (sudo) brew services start homebrew/php/php70) copies a special plist to a distinctive folder and launches and starts it as a launch agent or daemon.

Without the sudo prefix it's copied to the $USER's LaunchAgents folder (~/Library/LaunchAgents/) and started with $USER rights.

With the sudo prefix, the plist is copied to /Library/LaunchDaemons and started with root rights. It will launch several processes (one parent root php70-fpm and several child _www php-fpm processes).

Only the latter will and can create a UNIX socket file with the owner _www.

This is the expected behavior.


As others have already mentioned, there are built-in sequences for setting colours, like %F{red}. If you want to include more exotic terminal control codes, you can do it like this:
PS1=$'%{\e[1m%}%m%{\e[0m%}'

(This should make the prompt display your hostname in boldface, on most typical terminals.) There are two things to notice here

Using the $'... ' quoting mechanism to include control characters in the string. This is described under QUOTING in the zshmisc(1) man page. (In other words, this is what makes \e work).

Using %{...%} to indicate that the enclosed sequence does not cause the cursor to move.

(%m expands to the host name. This is described under PROMPT SEQUENCES in zshmisc(1), but you probably knew this already.)

(Alright then, three things. Monty Python fans will know what reference I would put here, others won't care. :-) )


Control center bug on iPhone I have an iPhone 6 Plus.

There is a fairly recurring display bug concerning the AirDrop/AirPlay area in control center. Sometimes it appears squished, so that only a few pixels of it is visible. Whatever is there can still be tapped.

Screenshot:

Is this a known bug? How can this be fixed?

The issue should have been resolved, try updating to the latest iOS version in Settings or restarting your device.


Disable dictionary results in Spotlight? How can I remove dictionary results from Spotlight results? I've typed "chrome" into Spotlight and looked up chrome in the Dictionary one too many times, and now opening Chrome takes an extra keystroke.

I've seen comments about defaults write com.apple.spotlight DictionaryLookupEnabled NO, but this doesn't seem to work with Mac OS 10.8, even after a sudo killall -u _spotlight.

TinkerTool also allows you to change this preference via a GUI (rather than a Terminal command). It's under Applications > Spotlight:

Note that you will have to log out and back in for the changes to take effect.


Can Mid-2010 MacBook Pro 13" drive 2560 x 1440 external display Can Mid-2010 MacBook Pro 13" (MC374LL/A) with GeForce 320M graphics card drive both internal display and 2560x1440 external display at the same time?

Apple website states that it can handle 30" Cinema Display which has beforementioned resolution, and EveryMac.com lists maximum resolution for external display as 2560x1600, so in theory it should work fine, but I'd like to know beforehand if there are any gotchas, and whether there may be any performance problems.

While you will be able to drive a display at the resolution with your Macbook Pro 13”, don’t expect the performance to be blazingly fast, and there may be limitations on the type of video connection you can use. Read on for more details.

When you drive a display at that resolution (higher than HD that is) with the graphics card you have in your Macbook, you will be pushing it to it’s maximum. This means if you are looking at a display running 2560x1440 to say play games. You won’t see stealer performance. It will be decent, but you’re not going to be pushing anything over about 30FPS.

If on the other had you are looking at doing coding, web surfing, and the occasional graphics work. Then you should be fine. But video playback in full screen will most likely be choppy at best.

Be aware that the ability to support the resolution you are taking about is not solely the responsibility of the computer. If the display in question uses only a digital video signal (no VGA connector on the monitor) then the monitor must also synchronize with your Mac.  I’ve seen this be a problem with some off brand displays, but an Apple Cinema Display, Dell, HP, or other name brand monitor should work fine in most cases.

For optimal performance you will need to use Dual-link DVI out from your computer, and make sure the monitor supports that. Most monitors support DIV, but not all support the Dual-link DVI format. To do this you will need the Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter with cost around $99 as of 2015. By the way, this is REQUIRED if you are using a 30” Apple Cinema Display.

I hope this helps.


Is it possible to mount a DVD iso to look like it's a DVD drive? I have an old game DVD (Chessmaster 9000) that I bought legit (I swear), and I would like to play it on my Mac Air, which has no optical drive. With another game (Civ V) I've had success data-dumping the DVD to an iso in linux, and then mounting the iso on the Mac Air. But Chessmaster 9000 is the kind of game that needs the disc in the drive to play. Having the iso mounted is not enough.

Is there a way to convince the Mac Air that it has a disk in a drive? My best hunch so far is that if it is possible, it involves a vndevice command, but I have had no luck so far, and documentation for it is very thin on the ground. I'm looking for the magic to make this work via a low-level command-line, rather than the commercial (but cheap) software that is available in one answer.

It looks like it requires writing your own low-level driver for the fake device. In other words, worth $10 to me! Accepting @Guido's answer.

Try with DAEMON Tools Lite for Mac, you can download here:

http://www.daemon-tools.cc/products/dtMacLite

This software has figured out how to trick the computer to thinking a DVD is mounted and I don't know if you can re-implement it via the command line tool vndevice you mentioned.


iPhone 3G cannot be charged while 3GS is charged I have a car USB adapter and can charge my 3GS with it. However using the same cable and adapter my friend's 3G cannot be charged.

First thing that comes to my mind is a problem with the 3G unit however it works well elsewhere with the same cable (e.g. 3 different laptops, wall outlet and even a PS2's USB slot).

So I think there is some mismatch between the unit and the car adapter. But I am not sure what I must consider when ordering a new car adapter for the 3G, for example do voltage consumptions vary between the 3G and 3GS? Anything else? Or is it just a random problem and I don't need to worry and just buy a new car adapter?

I had the same problem, i had 3GS and de car adapter i am using is from philips, my collegeau with a 3G couldn't charge. After buying a new car adapter, it solved the problem.


Automatically receive the current billing cycle's data usage update from cellular providers at pre-determined frequency? With AT&T, I can text *DATA# from my iPhone to get data usage for the current billing cycle.

Is there any way to do this programmatically, say I automatically receive text every Wednesday at 13:00?

You can use the built-in Shortcuts app to automate actions on iPhone. It's not possible to completely automate the action of sending a text message, but you can have Shortcuts prompt you at a specific date/time and send the message with one tap.

From the Shortcuts app, create a new Personal Automation at your desired Time of Day.
Add a Message action to send a message with your text to a number of your choice.
Disable ‘Show When Run’ to run the shortcut immediately on trigger without opening the app.

When the time occurs, tap the notification to run the shortcut:


How to tell what apps are not being used? I have a iPad 4th gen. I want to delete unused apps.  Is there a way to easily tell what apps are not being used?

In iOS 11, you can set up your ipad to move unused apps. Go to Settings and then tap General. In General there is a page for iPhone Storage. Here there is an option to remove unused apps. If you enable this then unused apps will be removed.

Someone reported on this site that they had a problem with there iPad not accurately determining the last used date. That person was getting this "app never used" setting for all apps. I assume you want to avoid that.

If you scroll down on same page where you enable the removal of unused apps, there is a list of all apps on your device. Under the name of each app is the last used date. Make sure that that field does not have "Never Used" for apps you know you have used.


Periodically change Desktop wallpapers automatically on different displays independently I am running macOS Catalina with dual screens.

Is there a way to display a different macOS wallpaper on each screen that also cycles through all the macOS wallpapers?

There's a feature built into macOS that lets you do this. Go to System Preferences app → Desktop & Screen Saver and click to select the Desktop tab.

You'd see a Change picture: checkbox towards the bottom. Enabling it would let you setup automatic change of wallpaper at a configurable duration.


Multiple Bluetooth Speakers 1) Is it possible to output the audio over a2dp to multiple speakers simultaneously?
2) Is it possible to change the audio output to A2DP speakers directly from iTunes or do I have to change the system preferences every time?

Thanks.

1) I think it's dependand on the speaker set you're using, but I don't think so.

2) No, you can change your audio output in a simpler way:

Hit Alt resp. Option
Click on the volume icon
Select your input/output sources