Error during install of lzip on MacOS 10.11.6 This is probably overly obvious but I am stuck. How can I complete the last leg of this install? If someone can explain what I am being told in the error after "make install" it would be helpful.

Last login: Sun Jul  9 13:54:14 on ttys000
Funi:~ $ cd /Users/ezx/Applications/Lzip
Funi:Lzip ezx$ ls
lzip-1.19       lzip-1.19.tar.gz    lzip-1.19.tar.gz.sig
Funi:Lzip ezx$ cd lzip-1.19
Funi:lzip-1.19 ezx$ ls
AUTHORS     Makefile.in arg_parser.h    doc     encoder_base.h  file_index.h        testsuite
COPYING     NEWS        configure   encoder.cc  fast_encoder.cc list.cc
ChangeLog   README      decoder.cc  encoder.h   fast_encoder.h  lzip.h
INSTALL     arg_parser.cc   decoder.h   encoder_base.cc file_index.cc       main.cc
Funi:lzip-1.19 ezx$ man apt-get
No manual entry for apt-get
Funi:lzip-1.19 ezx$ ./configure

creating config.status
creating Makefile
VPATH = .
prefix = /usr/local
exec_prefix = $(prefix)
bindir = $(exec_prefix)/bin
datarootdir = $(prefix)/share
infodir = $(datarootdir)/info
mandir = $(datarootdir)/man
CXX = g++
CPPFLAGS =
CXXFLAGS = -Wall -W -O2
LDFLAGS =
OK. Now you can run make.
Funi:lzip-1.19 ezx$ make
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -c -o arg_parser.o arg_parser.cc
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -c -o file_index.o file_index.cc
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -c -o list.o list.cc
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -c -o encoder_base.o encoder_base.cc
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -c -o encoder.o encoder.cc
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -c -o fast_encoder.o fast_encoder.cc
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -c -o decoder.o decoder.cc
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -DPROGVERSION=\"1.19\" -c -o main.o main.cc
g++  -Wall -W -O2 -o lzip arg_parser.o file_index.o list.o encoder_base.o     encoder.o fast_encoder.o decoder.o main.o
Funi:lzip-1.19 ezx$ make install
if [ ! -d "/usr/local/bin" ] ; then install -d -m 755 "/usr/local/bin" ; fi
install -m 755 ./lzip "/usr/local/bin/lzip"
install: /usr/local/bin/lzip: Permission denied
make: *** [install-bin] Error 71
Funi:lzip-1.19 ezx$

You're logged in as an ordinary user which do not have write permissions for system folders like /usr/local/bin/.

Normally you'll run the last command like this:

sudo make install

This means that the "make install" command should be executed with administrative privileges - and thus having write permissions for system folders.

Alternatively you can rerun the configure command giving it a bindir that is inside your own home directory. Then you can install the binary to there, but you'll then have to specify full path to the binary every time you want to run it.


Macbook photo storage for digital art, strategies? My wife is a digital artist and has a Macbook pro, iPhone, and iPad, and I am constantly having to clear disk space from the Macbook due to all of the selfies, snaps, cat pictures, and legitimate photos that she takes constantly.  I know I am not alone; these days, cameras are ubiquitous and the Apple product family has some of the best camera hardware and software, and the platform is widely used for digital art.

Her Macbook has 256GB of storage, which is always nearly full; I run a cleaner on it periodically, and have her delete silly pictures she doesn't need, but we shouldn't have to deal with this - non-mac laptops can ship with far more space, and even the current (2017) most expensive Macbook only has 512GB of storage.  If I could tape a 1T usb stick inside the case, I would.

I am looking for strategies to deal with this, other than enabling photo compression/resizing on the macbook (she needs to edit her legit photos).

Her usage pattern is a single Photos library that is replicated with her iCloud account, which is fed with images from all of her devices.

iCloud clearly isn't cutting it, as it's an "all or nothing" proposition - I can't segment the library and only replicate certain types of pictures/directories to her other devices.

I am open to anything, and willing to pay for a solution if one exists.  I have a large NAS in the home, but she frequently works on-the-go.

Actually, current 15" model MBPs are configurable with up to a 2TB SSD, and the 13" models up to a 1TB SSD.

As for your current setup, if your wife is often on the go then any online solution (be it iCloud or something else) may not really cut it. So, if it was me, I would just use an external USB drive.

This is portable enough to take on the road, and to keep connected when at home. Of course, you'd want to make sure that you configure your backup regime to include its data in your backups, but this is really the easiest way to increase capacity.

Another option is to rearrange your data generally so that you use your internal SSD mainly for your digital art, and use an external drive for any other large amounts of data (e.g. iTunes music library). Of course this is just a matter of prioritising what's more important to you.

Finally, you may want to check what's using up space on the SSD. You may find that something unexpected is taking up a lot of space (e.g. com.apple.bird, etc). While you can try to determine this manually, an easier way to check this is to use software such as DaisyDisk.

IMPORTANT: I assume since you have a NAS setup at home you've already got a backup regime in place. If not, organise one now!


Changing the title of an ssh connection without modifying remote machines Is it possible to set the title of an ssh connection by just changing something on my local machine?

I mean I want ubuntu@ip-10-50-10-152 in the following picture to be changed to a name I like.

And I don't want to change any settings on the remote machine.

The IP address is difficult to remember, how can I change it to a more readable name?

I want to map each IP address to a different name.

The remote machines in my case are lots of Amazon EC2 instances. Some of them only exist for a few days. And new ec2s get created frequently.

I use iTerm2 as my macOS terminal. And I couldn't find any plugin that does the thing I want.

Or is there a better ssh management tool that can display custom text on the title of an ssh connection?

The best way (IMO) is to set the necessary variables in your bash_profile of your remote machine.  I understand you don't want to modify anything on your remote but it's important to note that what you are doing is setting the environment variable PROMPT_COMMAND
When logged in to your remote, issue the command echo $HOSTNAME and echo $PROMPT_COMMAND.  More than likely, you will get the hostname of your machine and the second will come up blank meaning that it's unset.
Setting the Title
Edit your .bash_profile found in your home directory on the remote. This is your file and will not affect the rest of the system.  Add the following line:
PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${HOSTNAME}\007"'

The \033]0; (Esc 0;) is the escape code to set the title.  The ${HOSTNAME} is the name of your machine.
Save your profile, log out and log back in and your title bar should now reflect your hostname.
Connecting via hostname vs IP
There are two ways to do this:

Set the hostname in DNS
modify your local /etc/hosts file

I prefer to set this in DNS so that the name will be available to all computers across your network.  Going under the assumption that you have a "consumer grade" router (like Linksys or Netgear), you just have to add the hostname to your DHCP static lease (see your router documentation for specifics)
If you're on a corporate network, the Network Admin can add a record to the DNS server pointing to your host.
If those two options aren't available, you can simply edit your local /etc/hosts file (need root permissions.  Below is my /etc/hosts used as an example:
127.0.0.1       localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost
192.168.10.22   fatjoe

I added the hostname fatjoe to the end of the hosts file.  When I save and exit, if I type ping fatjoe it immediately begins to ping the correct IP - the change is immediate.


deleting java from system library on mac I can't delete java from my mac. I tried deleting it from system/Library, but it says the os mac system needs it. I want to install an older version because a specific website needs it, but it keeps using the newer version that i can't uninstall.

I found this useful article:

  Quit out of any active web browser or  any other app which uses Java

  From the Mac Finder, pull down the “Go”  menu and choose “Go To
  Folder” and  enter the following path:

/Library/Interned Plug-ins/

  Locate and delete “JavaAppletPlugin.plugin” from this  folder – note
  moving this item to the trash requires an admin login

  Now go back to the ‘Go’ menu and “Go To Folder” and enter the
  following path:

/Library/PreferencePanes/

  Locate and delete  “JavaControlPanel.prefPane” from this  folder,
  again you will need an admin  login

  Again return to the “Go” menu and “Go  to Folder” to the following
  path:

~/Library/Application Support /Java/

  Remove the “Java” folder

  Empty the Trash on the Mac as usual


How can I find out what carrier an iPhone 3gs is locked to? I'm trying to activate an old 3gs but am unsure of what carrier it is on. I don't really want to go testing all the sim cards I can find to see if I luck out.

Does anyone know of a way to find out?

I was wondering if I could write an app for it and use the Core Telephony Framework to find the carrier but am not sure if that only show the carrier that is being used by the sim not what it is locked to.

There is a small app which can show you the carrier with which your iPhone is associated.

The app itself is not free but the sole function of displaying the iphone information you require is free.


How to record human voice and display as text on command line? I am looking tool or a script that records human voice and displays as text purely on command line.

I am not looking for text to speech, but rather speech to text.

I do not want to work at all with a UI; all command line.

EDIT :

I am actually saying to record voice (speech) and displays on terminal.

Say my command is 'speak'

then when i do

$ speak

now whatever i speak is supposed to be printed like this.

say i speak. "I am application to record your voice and displays on the terminal"

should be visible as this :

$speak
I am application to record your voice and displays on the terminal

It should again wait for new words and print on the go.

Very similar as google does (BUT i want the same on command line) :
https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/demos/speech.html

You can consider the same as VICE-VERCA of say command. say is text-to-speech but here i want speech-to-text

Apple's terminal does this.

Press the function key twice to start dictation. If that doesn't work, open Speech and Dictation system preferences and enable it/select the sound input you prefer to dictate to.


Fake location find my friends Can I fake location using two phones with find my friends by swapping sim and leaving phone in place ?

Find my Friends reveals neither the name nor the type of the device being used to share your location. So you could switch the device being used for location sharing to a different phone logged in to the same iCloud account, or even to an iPad.

To change this:

On iOS 11: Settings → Your Profile → iCloud → Share My Location → From.
On iOS 12: Settings → Your Profile → Share My Location → From.

Lots more details on how to block location: Can my son block me from finding him with my find my iphone app?


Disk Unable to Mount I've got this really old external drive which I store files from way back in college (~7yrs ago) in. Recently it has started acting up. I've tried a load of different option to reformat it (reformatted w/ PC, Ubuntu, and Mac).

On its last format, I used OS X Journaled since I have a Mac. It seemed to work fine for a few hours while I was putting the original files back in it. Walked away from my laptop for a few minutes to just let the files copy back into it. Then when I came back the disk's folders could no longer be found on my screen.

I opened Disk Utility. Found that my Mac could still see the disk but is no longer able to read the folders.

What do I do?

Try clicking on the red highlighted parent disk and format that as OS X Journaled. Note that formatting the disk will erase all the data. So if you wish to keep the data and use the drive normally then please comment below.

NOTE: The following method will recover your data but all of it's name will not be the same you will lose the names of all the files if you do not want this to happen the comment below and follow the steps very carefully. As even one wrong step could damage you hard disk permanently and do not quit the terminal window directly after finishing recovery always exit the program in a grace manner like choosing the 'Quit' option.

As you told you want the data on the disk then first download testdisk for Mac first.Make sure you  connect your damaged external disk in which you wish to recover data from

Then extract the zip file then search in spotlight for "Terminal" then type in cd ~/Downloads/testdisk-7.1-WIP. Then run ./photorec and choose your correct hard disk which is damaged. (Just don't choose 'rdisk'):

Then choose the disk again don't choose 'rdisk' then choose the disk with HFS don't choose 'No partition' then if you wish you exclude some files then choose the 'File opt':

Then click on "Search" then click on "Other". Then after that choose the option "Whole". If you face any trouble please comment below! Quit the terminal window directly after finishing recovery always exit the program in a grace manner like choosing the 'Quit' option.


Installing Manjaro on an SSD and Switching Mac Mini Hard Drive I have an old Mac Mini Core Solo (2006 model). I wanted to know if it's possible to install Manjaro on an SSD and then swap the old Mac drive with the Manjaro SSD? I've tried using Rufus to make a bootable SSD and when I installed it in the Mac, all I get is a blank gray screen. I was hoping to get to an install screen but no luck. What am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rufus to use to make a bootable USB flash drive. In your case, you are suppose to boot from the flash drive to software that can install Manjaro on another drive. Usually, this is the the computers internal drive.

What you propose to do has the following flaws.

You want Rufus to put the software on the SSD drive you intend to install internal in the computer, instead of a USB flash drive.
You have not drive to install Manjaro on to. In other words, if you did get the SSD to boot from the Manjaro installation software put there by Rufus, then this software could not install to the internal drive because that is where the Manjaro installation software resides.

Additionally, the standard RAM that came with this model Mac was 512 MB. To install Manjaro, you need at least 1 GB of RAM. If you do not have enough RAM memory, then you can upgrade. I would recommend 2 GB of RAM. One such source is OWC.

You can not install any 64 bit version of Manjaro, because the processor in your Mac mini is 32 bit. AFAIK, the latest 32 bit version of Manjaro available for download is manjaro-xfce-18.0.4-x32-stable-minimal-i686.iso.


Keyboard stays lit during sleep When I put my computer to sleep the keyboard stays lit. It is a July 2012 rMBP. I always have to turn down the brightness manually which is really annoying. Does someone know how to fix this?

Also when I try to turn down the brightness the symbol at first indicates that the keyboard illumination is already at zero, so I have to turn it up at first before I can turn it down.

I would suggest an SMC reset. You can find the instructions on how to do so here: SMC Reset (Apple.com)

Tell me if it works.


At how many battery cycles should I consider replacing my battery? My battery has become quite a pain in the neck recently, It's not lasting much more than about 2 or 3 hours and that's usually just using basic programs like chrome or pages etc. It's difficult for me because I use it quite a lot at school, and unfortunately school is a lot longer than 2-3 hours...I also use a lot of very intensive programs like blender and unity, but usually I try to only do that at home with my charger.

At the moment it tells me I've done 621 cycles and tells me its in normal condition (pfft, normal...) Is that actually normal? Also, should I be thinking about replacing it with a new one, if so, is it expensive and will it actually make much of a difference, and if it shouldn't be replaced what can I do to make it better?

Thanks, Matthew

Edit:

This is what CoconutBattery tells me:

You haven't mentioned what's the model of the Mac you are using, Apple's Determining battery cycle count for Mac notebooks  will tell you more about the Charge Cycle.

Also in case you are still in warranty, which I assume you are not cause of so many charge cycles, you can go to the Apple Store and get the battery diagnosed, if they find a problem they will replace it.


Is it any different to clone each partition separately VS cloning the entire disk, when clone is meant for data recovery? As directed by an answer on: How to create an accurate byte-level copy of an SSD to another drive?, I tried to clone my Mac internal disk of 256GB. When I ran diskutil I got this:

/dev/disk0 (internal):
╔═══════════════════════╦═════════════════╦══════════╦═════════╦══╗
║ GUID_partition_scheme ║                 ║ 251.0 GB ║ disk0   ║  ║
╠═══════════════════════╬═════════════════╬══════════╬═════════╬══╣
║ EFI                   ║ EFI             ║ 314.6 MB ║ disk0s1 ║  ║
╠═══════════════════════╬═════════════════╬══════════╬═════════╬══╣
║ Apple_APFS            ║ Container disk2 ║ 250.7 GB ║ disk0s2 ║  ║
╚═══════════════════════╩═════════════════╩══════════╩═════════╩══╝

/dev/disk2 (synthesised):
╔═══════════════════════╦════════════════════════╦═══════════╦═════════╗
║ APFS Container Scheme ║ -                      ║ +250.7 GB ║ disk2   ║
╠═══════════════════════╬════════════════════════╬═══════════╬═════════╣
║                       ║ Physical Store disk0s2 ║           ║         ║
╠═══════════════════════╬════════════════════════╬═══════════╬═════════╣
║ APFS Volume           ║ Macintosh HD           ║ 234.1 GB  ║ disk2s1 ║
╠═══════════════════════╬════════════════════════╬═══════════╬═════════╣
║ APFS Volume           ║ Preboot                ║ 21.4 MB   ║ disk2s2 ║
╠═══════════════════════╬════════════════════════╬═══════════╬═════════╣
║ APFS Volume           ║ Recovery               ║ 524.7 MB  ║ disk2s3 ║
╠═══════════════════════╬════════════════════════╬═══════════╬═════════╣
║ APFS Volume           ║ VM                     ║ 1.1 GB    ║ disk2s4 ║
╚═══════════════════════╩════════════════════════╩═══════════╩═════════╝

I understand from the output that while the actual disk is disk0, the partition disk0s2 is mounted as separate disk disk2. I decided to just clone disk0 directly with

dd if=/dev/rdisk0 of=/my/chosen/path bs=1m

May I ask if it would make any difference if I had cloned partitions separately. So instead of the above, would

dd if=/dev/rdisk0s1 of=/my/chosen/path bs=1m;
dd if=/dev/rdisk0s2 of=/my/chosen/path bs=1m;

or

dd if=/dev/rdisk0s1 of=/my/chosen/path bs=1m;
dd if=/dev/rdisk2s1 of=/my/chosen/path bs=1m;
dd if=/dev/rdisk2s2 of=/my/chosen/path bs=1m;
dd if=/dev/rdisk2s3 of=/my/chosen/path bs=1m;
dd if=/dev/rdisk2s4 of=/my/chosen/path bs=1m;

make any difference?

If context is needed to decide whether there’s a difference or not, please consider the same context as in How to create an accurate byte-level copy of an SSD to another drive? - that it is intended that data recovery for lost files is to be done on the clone in the future.

Partitions are fixed in size, so taking images of each partition individually does the same thing as taking an image of the whole disk. The only small difference is that any gaps between partitions (if they exist) are only included in the full disk image. But this gaps are „invisible“ anyway, so for any user-level data duplication and recovery operations this doesn’t make a difference.


iOS 11 autocorrect bug typing the letter capital I So for some odd reason it seems that some iPhones are having trouble processing the letter "I" and I was wondering if anyone knows the solution to this or if it's just a bug in iOS 11?

on some iOS 10 and iOS 11 devices, a question mark shows up or another symbol where they should be an I. Examples:

This is described by Apple:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208240

I think this must be a bug in the system for suggesting emoji in Predictive Text.  The mystery character is FE0F, Unicode Variation Selector-16, which is used to signal that the preceding character should have emoji instead of text presentation format.

Solutions / Workarounds:

turn off predictive text
use a 3rd party keyboard
Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement

Set up a text replacement small i to capital I.

Apple has now issued similar advice.

Many people are waiting for an iOS update, but you could try backing up your device and erasing all content and settings and then restoring your backup. That should fix the issue for you at the cost of making sure your backup is encrypted and has health data and all apps are still available for redownload.


How to tell if a Retina MacBook Pro has gone to sleep when the lid is closed? When I shut the lid on my Retina MacBook Pro (2014), how can I tell it's gone to sleep correctly?

On my previous MacBook Pro (~2008), the fans were audible, and there was a sleeping LED indicator in the lid latch that changed from "on" to "pulsing" when it was asleep. I used this as an "okay" sign to put it in the laptop bag.

Is there anyway to tell if a more recent MacBook Pro is asleep? I can't hear the fan most of the time, and I can't see any externally visible indicator lights that would indicate it's status.

I'm worried if it hasn't sleep correctly when I close the lid (occasionally this would happen with my old laptop) it will overheat when I put it in my bag.

It won't just overheat in its bag, but will also quickly drain its battery.
I always press the power button for about 1 to 2 seconds before closing the lid. The screen will go dark when you release. If you hold it too long, a dialog will come up asking if you want to sleep or shutdown. Choose wisely.


macOS: why only few login elements are in System Preferences In macOS, under System Preferences / Users / Login Elements there is a list of Login Elements that are started at the startup.

Actually only few elements are listed here. There are many other elements that are started from LaunchAgents and LaunchDemons folders, which are not listed here.

My question is: which elements are instead listed here? I suppose macOS has a list of elements that will be listed here while most are not.

What discriminates the elements listed in System Preferences vs. all the others login elements?

The same question is for extensions: only few items are listed in System Preferences / Extensions. Where is the list of the few extensions that are here displayed versus all the other extensions that are anyway loaded but not displayed here?

The login items that you referenced are for your individual account.  The other “elements” you referred to are for all users and system wide daemons/services respectively.

~/Library/LaunchAgents per individual user
/Library/LaunchAgents for all users
/Library/LaunchDaemons for system wide services regardless of user (run as root)

Extensions are handled the same way, some are user only, while others are assigned to all users.  You can find a list of what’s being loaded with the launchctl command.


How can I install boot camp if I have a Windows 7 upgrade CD? I have the following CD's:

Windows Vista Home Premium (Upgrade)
Windows Vista Ultimate (Full)
Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade)

I would like to install Windows 7 on a mac with boot camp. It seems that Apple doesn't support installations via upgrade discs.

From what I understand, this means that I can't simply begin the installation using the Windows 7 CD, since it is an upgrade version. What I didn't understand, though, is if I can upgrade the OS once it is installed. For example, if I install the full version of Windows Vista Ultimate, could I then upgrade it to Windows 7? Or is my only option to purchase a full edition of Windows 7?

Actually, it's not that Apple won't let you install Windows from an upgrade disc—it's Microsoft that won't.

Think of it in terms of a blank hard drive on (what will be) a Windows PC. You can't use an upgrade disc to install Windows, as there's no OS there to upgrade.

However, once Windows is installed, you can then upgrade to a later version of Windows. This is covered in the Boot Camp
Installation & Setup Guide (pdf), page 15+.


What's Photoshop CS6 keyboard shortcut to call Edit - Transform - Scale? I'm not able to see any predefined keyboard shortcut to call Scale under Transform.

If such a shortcut does not exist, is there any possibility to define one, so a specific thing will be called?

Why can't you use the shortcut for Free transform?

Either way...

You can edit / add keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop in:
Edit > Keyboard shortcuts...


How to edit videos keeping existing geotagging? Videos recorded with an iPhone or with other GPS-enabled phones gets geotagged as they should. When I trim/crop/edit them in iMovie (iLife '09) the GPS tags are gone.

How to keep the tags despite editing or is there a program to add back the geotags to the movie afterwards?

You can geotag videos with Picasa, but I don't know if the geotag is saved along with the file...


Video stuttering in Google Chrome with hardware acceleration enabled Google Chrome comes by default with Hardware Acceleration enabled. This setting can be changed from the advanced settings.

I'm experiencing a very frustrating problem where most video content on Google Chrome experiences visual stutters that last up to 6 seconds. Moving the mouse seems to unfreeze the video, but it will otherwise not unfreeze until after a few seconds, only to freeze again shortly thereafter.

Disabling Hardware Acceleration eliminates the stutter. As a side-effect, all web content becomes slower and more CPU-intensive, especially pages that make use of CSS visual effects. As such, it's not viable to keep using the software without Hardware Acceleration.

I'm experiencing this problem only when using Google Chrome and only when doing so on my 2017 15" MBP. The computer is upgraded to the highest-tier hardware, so I don't suspect it's a question of underpowered hardware.

My 2012 non-retina 15" MBP also does not display this issue. One of the main differences is that I have two users logged into the MacBook at the same time, one being my personal and the other my work account. I often switch between these. This question has a similar background but no solution.

The problem also doesn't appear to be constant. Sometimes videos will play without stutter. This might be related to the automatic graphic switching. At the moment my graphics card is set to High-Performance and I can see no stuttering. I never noticed any stuttering when I tried playing the same content on Safari after experiencing stutter in Chrome.

Is there a solution to the stuttering?

Hardware/Software details:

Google Chrome: Version 61.0.3163.100 (Official Build) (64-bit)
OS: macOS Sierra: 10.12.6 (16G29)
Model: MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
Processor: 3.1 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3
Graphics: Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB, Intel HD Graphics 630 1536 MB
External Display: LG 34UC98, connected via Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and Thunderbolt 2 cable. Note the issue appears on both internal and external display.

I had same problem and the solution is go to System Preferences > Keyboard and uncheck turn keyboard backlight off. This will make Chrome work smoothly .


Who is the kid on Preview app icon? Who's this kid?

btw, I am also sure that, he's now not that much innocent, he grew up.

Its also noticeable that with release of Yosemite, the Preview app icon get changed.

Apple often uses employee's photos for things like this.

When filling iPhoto with content for on stage demos and later demos in their stores Apple will often request photos from their employees, through an open submission contest.  Obviously not every photo gets used but more often than not the family photos you're seeing are shared from an employee somewhere within Apple.  I've tried to find some of the old articles that outlined this process but they've either been buried away or removed at the request of Apple.

Knowing that, my best guess is this was a son, nephew, grandson, etc of an Apple employee around the time that Apple was looking to change the Preview icon.

Hardly a definite answer (we still don't know who he is) but it might be the closest we get.


Preview in OSX El Capitan defaults to 100% scale When printing a jpeg, preview now defaults to 100% scale, which is not what I want. I am having to manually select scale to fit and fill entire paper. How can I make it always default to the latter (as it used to in previous versions of OSX)?

In the Preview Preferences, you can define the 100% scale.  In Preview press Cmd ,, then click on the Images tab.  You will get two options

1 image pixel equals 1 screen pixel
Size on screen equals size on printout

Select the second one.


How to do I tell Quicktime player to start a New Movie Recording with a apple script? I have made a duplicate of the application "Quicktime player" on my Mac and renamed it "Reaction" then I have put this copy inside of a applescript. I am trying to write a code that tells the "Reaction" to start a "New Movie Recording" (which is a option of recording) then save the recording within the applescript. (the name of the recording is irrelevant)

Extra: Also if anyone knows how I could then code a way to add the recording to a email and send it to people that would be great.

At the moment I know how to open "Reaction" but not how to tell "Reaction" to start a "New Movie Recording"

So far i'm using this to open "Reaction"

  set appPath1 to path to resource "Reaction.app"
tell application "Finder"

open appPath1

end tell

Having duplicated your QuickTime Player application and named it Reaction, I understand you've created an AppleScript applet, and placed this copy of Reaction.app within the Resources folder of the AppleScript applet.

Because it's a duplicate of QuickTime Player (which is scriptable), Reaction is also scriptable, and can also be scripted from within the applet's AppleScript (located at Resources/scripts/main.scpt).

Your main.scpt should look something like this:

set A to path to resource "Reaction.app"

set home to POSIX path of (path to home folder)
set fp to home & "/Movies/Reaction Recording.mov"
set f to a reference to POSIX file fp

using terms from application "QuickTime Player"
    tell the application named A
        activate
        tell the (new movie recording)
            start
            delay 10
            pause
            save in f
            stop
            close
        end tell
    end tell
end using terms from

application "QuickTime Player" may change of its own accord to application "Reaction", which is completely fine.

This script creates a ~10 second recording, minus a couple of seconds to account for the initialisation of the script and such.  Change delay 10 to whatever value represents a sensible recording time in seconds.

To send it as an attachment using Mail:

set msgSubject to "My Reaction Recording"
set msgBody to "Hi. Please see the attached recording. \n"
set msgFrom to "your@email.com"
set msgTo to "friend@email.com"

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    tell (make new outgoing message ¬
        with properties {visible:true ¬
        , subject:msgSubject ¬
        , content:msgBody ¬
        , sender:msgFrom})

        make new to recipient ¬
            at end of to recipients ¬
            with properties {address:msgTo}

        tell its content to make new attachment ¬
            at after the last paragraph ¬
            with properties {file name:f as alias}

        delay 2

        -- send
    end tell
end tell

The top script and the bottom script can simply join to form one continuous script.  You might need a delay in between the two portions, but I didn't require one on my system.

However, the delay within the Mail block is important if you wish to send the email (you must also uncomment the send command by removing the --; keeping it in, which I did during testing, will allow you to preview the email and send it manually).


Is any version of OS X/macOS vulnerable to the Year 2038 problem? Around the year 2000, Apple wrote a press release that every Mac since 1984 would avoid the Y2K problem, and could process dates for the next several thousand years.

  The good news is that since their introduction in 1984, Macintosh computers have had the ability to make the transition to the year 2000. In fact, the Mac OS and most Mac applications can handle internally generated dates correctly all the way to the year 29,940.

This statement was made when Mac OS 9 was the most recent operating system.

Since then, OS X (now called macOS) is the dominant operating system, which is derived from Unix. Does this mean that any version is vulnerable to the Year 2038 problem, a problem comparable to the Y2K problem that affects Unix-like systems? Or does the statement Apple gave about being compatible to the year 29,940 still hold true?

All versions before OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" have the year 2038 problem. Most installs of 10.6 and all installs of 10.7 "Lion" fixed the main cause of the problem. It's almost gone, but the year 2038 bug might survive in a few apps.

My old PowerPC Mac runs OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger". I went to Date & Time in System Preferences, and tried to enter a date after 2038, but it reset the date to December 31, 2037. It knows that something's wrong in 2038.

OS X is derived from Unix by way of BSD. Apps for OS X use BSD system calls for things like opening files and connecting to the internet. BSD has a long history and some of its system calls come from the 1980s. One of its system calls is gettimeofday(), which first appeared in 4.1cBSD. UC Berkeley released 4.1cBSD in 1982, more than half a century before 2038. The time from gettimeofday() is an integer of type time_t. It counts seconds, where zero is the Unix epoch of 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.

In my old PowerPC Mac, time_t is a signed 32-bit integer. This causes the year 2038 problem. A signed 32-bit time_t has a range of -2147483648 to 2147483647. This can only hold times from 1901-12-13 20:45:52 UTC to 2038-01-19 03:14:07 UTC. When this overflows, gettimeofday() will flip the date from Monday the 19th of January 2038 to Friday the 13th of December 1901.

The fix is to transition from 32-bit time_t to 64-bit time_t. For OS X, this transition happened along with another transition from 32-bit pointers to 64-bit pointers, but 64-bit pointers require a 64-bit processor. Apple has only provided 64-bit time_t for 64-bit processors. It is possible for 32-bit processors to handle 64-bit time_t, but Apple never provided that feature.

Apple's compilers have supported 64-bit integers on 32-bit processors since OS X 10.0 "Cheetah", when time_t had 32 bits and off_t had 64 bits. In Unix and BSD, off_t is the size of a file, or an entire disk. A 32-bit off_t would limit OS X to disks under 2 GiB. Apple defined off_t as 64 bits, so OS X worked with larger disks. Apple defined time_t as 32 bits in 10.0, so a transition to 64-bit time_t needed to happen later.

For my old PowerPC Mac, the header file <ppc/_types.h> defines __darwin_time_t as long. For Intel Mac, the header <i386/_types.h> does the same. In OS X, long has the same size as a pointer. So when pointers became 64 bits, long also became 64 bits, and time_t also became 64 bits, fixing the main cause of the year 2038 problem.

Apple's 64-Bit Transition Guide says, "Prior to OS X v10.6, all applications that shipped with the operating system were 32-bit applications. Beginning in v10.6, applications that ship with the operating system are generally 64-bit applications." I know from Wikipedia that 10.6 required an Intel processor and 10.7 required a 64-bit Intel processor. A Mac running 10.6 on a 32-bit Intel processor must have had 32-bit apps. I conclude that most Macs running 10.6 and all Macs running 10.7 have 64-bit apps with 64-bit pointers and 64-bit time_t. Apple released 10.7 in 2011, well before January 2038.

With 64-bit time_t, the year 2038 bug is almost gone, but it might survive in a few apps. Old 32-bit apps might still run on newer systems. Also, 64-bit apps might contain coding mistakes or outdated designs, causing them to convert a 64-bit time_t to 32 bits. This is a problem for all systems, not only macOS.

There is also Mach time. The kernel of OS X mixes BSD with Mach. Most apps get the time from BSD using gettimeofday(), but there is a way to go around BSD and get the time from Mach. This is more difficult: the program would call mach_host_self() to get the host port, then host_get_clock_service() to get the CALENDAR_CLOCK, and finally clock_get_time().

In my old Mac running 10.4 "Tiger", <mach/clock_types.h> declares the time as an unsigned int (inside struct mach_timespec). This is an unsigned 32-bit integer, with range from 0 to 4294967295, which is from 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2106-02-07 06:28:15 UTC. This would exchange the year 2038 problem for the year 2106 problem. It can't reach year 29,940.

I suspect that host_get_clock_service() was obsolete since 10.0 "Cheetah", because Apple provided faster ways to get the time. These were BSD's gettimeofday() for calendar time, and Apple's mach_absolute_time() for monotonic time. The preference for gettimeofday() put the problem in 2038, not 2106.


Restore PDF to Evernote service in Lion Anyone knows how to restore the print PDF to Evernote in Lion 10.7.2?

This was a commonly discussed issue on the Evernote message boards when Lion debuted.  I've seen all sorts of "fixes" including hacking an old version of Evernote.  Fortunately, there's a much easier option.

Print something
Choose "Edit Menu..." from the PDF menu in the Print dialog
Click the "+" button then navigate to Evernote, highlight it and click "Choose"
You will now have an option called "Evernote" in the PDF menu in all of your system print dialogs.  Choosing this option will print to pdf, and open that pdf in a new note in Evernote.

This process has been tested on 10.7.2 with Evernote 3.0.5.

I hope this is helpful.


iPad iOS 9 Today View - Calendar Listing How do you list your day's appointments on your iPad "Today's View"

The article for the link below was great iPhone but not so much for iPad.

How do I show all calendar events in "Today view" in iOS 9?

Thanks,
Al

If you swipe to the bottom of the today screen you should see the edit button. If you tap that you should see the option to place the calendar in the 'Today' section (see below)

In the pull down menu, I now have two sections: the 'Today View' and 'Widgets View'.  The Today View shows me the current temperature, below that the next appointment on my calendar.  Below that it shows me the appointments in my calendar for the whole day.


how do I lock my Apple ID? I entered Apple ID to my iPhone 5 which "Find my iPhone" button was on and someone changed the password. Now every second I use the phone they ask me to sign in to iCloud.

How can I remove this ID and unlock my iPhone?

The following official Apple article may be of help here: Find My iPhone Activation Lock

In short, try to reset the password using the appropriate links inside that article.  In the event that someone highjacked your iCloud account you used to enable Find My iPhone with and you cannot reset the password, you need to contact Apple to get this feature unlocked.

Before you do, please have the proof of purchase available, because that is what they most-likely ask you to send in.  As sad as it sounds, but this procedure (calling Apple to unlock the device) typically takes about 2+ business days to complete.


ulimit -n shows different values in mac terminal and intellij terminal I have tried increasing the max open files limit in mac by running the following command
sudo launchctl limit maxfiles 524288 10485760
When I try running ulimit -n it shows 524288
But while running the same command in IntelliJ idea's terminal it shows 10240

I've tried reinstalling IntelliJ idea
I've tried restarting IntelliJ after invalidating cache and restarting
I've restarted the system multiple times.

Please let me know how to fix this issue.

The problem is caused by IntelliJ being a Java program that is subject to the constraints of the Java virtual machine, which by default on macOS is set to limit the number of open files to 10240 - no matter which setting is used elsewhere in the operating system.
The solution is as follows:

Add -XX:-MaxFDLimit in IntelliJ Idea (Help->Edit Custom VM options)
Invalidate cache and restart IntelliJ

This removes the arbitrary 10240 limit on the Java virtual machine, and makes it so that IntelliJ is instead only limited by the general macOS open files limit - like any other program.


How can I see (and delete) app data for apps that aren't installed? I recently did a "restore" of my iPhone, and loaded data in from a backup (an iTunes backup, not iCloud) So, all my apps were gone- I had to re-download them. So I did, but I noticed that when I did so, the data was all still there.

However, I didn't (and don't want to) reload all the apps I had installed. So, what I want to do is be able to see which other "not currently installed" apps have data on the device, and be able to delete some of them. How do I do this?

(Or, was it actually just pulling this data from iCloud, despite that I was using an iTunes backup?)

Yes, you're just syncing the App's data with iCloud, as no files are leftover when an App is deleted.

iOS apps (and now  OS X  apps too), are Sandboxed. This means that each App has its own space in disk, with its own directories, which act as the home for the App and its data.Deleting an app from the iPhone deletes this sandbox, deleting all data associated with the App.

So, if an App supports iCloud sync, whenever you install that App with your Apple ID, in any of your devices, all the information will be synced.


How to type "Full Width" characters? I would like to be able to type with the "full width" characters, such as

ａｂｃｄｅｆｇｈｉｊｋｌｍｎｏｐｑｒｓｔｕｖｗｘｙｚ

and

ＡＢＣＤＥＦＧＨＩＪＫＬＭＮＯＰＱＲＳＴＵＶＷＸＹＺ

or

０１２３４５６７８９

or even

！＃＄＆＊＋－＜＝＞？＠［＼］＾＿｛｜｝～｟｠￠￡￢￣￤￥￦

without having to resort to "hunting and pecking" via the Symbols and Emoji dialog..

Is this possible without laboriously assigning macros for each character via OS X's "shortcuts" (or BetterTouchTool, etc)?

• Open system preferences

• Select ‘Keyboard’

• Go to the ‘Input sources’ tab

• Click on the plus button at the bottom to add a keyboard format

• Select a keyboard format that supports full-width text (e.g. Japanese)

• Make sure that the full-width input mode is enabled. (For the Japanese keyboard menu you will need to tick the box next to ‘Full-width Romaji’)

• Make sure that the ‘Show Input menu in menu bar’ box is ticked

• Select the full-width mode in the menu bar

• You should then be able to type in full-width text

Screenshots:
https://imgur.com/a/eHqyl


Change MacBook Pro OS X Apple ID ownership Over a year ago I bought a second hand MacBook Pro on ebay. Unfortunately the original owner did not reinstall the operating system and in fact it came together with Photoshop and Microsoft Office.

My problem is that I am unable to update certain apps (e.g. iPhoto and iMovie), strangely enough I managed to update from Yosemite to El Capitan.

I tried to format and reinstall the operating system, as many forums suggest doing, however when opening the App Store I still get a prompt to login with the previous owner's email address and I am unable to proceed.
Also it's strange that despite reinstalling the OS, I still have pre-installed Photoshop and Office.

I would prefer not having to contact the owner asking for his password.

What can be done? Did I do something wrong during the OS reinstall (considering Photoshop and Office are still on it)?

You'd need to erase, then reinstall OS X. The drive (and all applications as well as the authentication data for that user's Apple ID are kept during the reinstall of OS X. Erasing the drive completely will remove all traces of any data on that drive. However, it will also delete all of your files. I'd recommend doing a manual backup and copy all the files from your desktop, documents, etc. to an external drive. Then enter recovery HD, erase the drive, and reinstall OS X.


Can I turn pages in ebook with single touch? I am considering the purchase of the iPad2 and among other things, the one that bother me is this -- you can turn pages when reading an ebook with hand gesture, i.e. moving finger from left to right with nice animation. This is cool for starter.

But I want something 100% traditional -- just touch of the finger on left or right edge of the screen, and I would get just next/previous page. No animation, no moving hand.

Is this possible on iPad? If yes -- is it device settings, or given app?

Yes it is. At least in the iBooks app (the one from Apple). I don't know about the Kindle app, but I'm pretty sure it's possible as well.

You can make a single touch in the right or left part of the screen to go to the next or previous page in your eBook.


Migrate content of Notes App from 10.11 machine to new 10.13 machine I need to get all my notes from my old machine (10.11) to my new machine (10.13) and I was thinking that it would be super easy by copying over a few folders but unfortunately, that doesn't really work as Notes on the new machine is still empty.

What I have tried:
Copy over the following folder
~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes

This didn't help - when I start notes it's empty.
I did find a topic here on how I can get the data out of the sqlite database but that's raw data and need time to sort.

I can hear a lot of you say iCloud already but I don't wan't to mix my personal Apple ID with a work computer. Aside from that I don't like iCloud all that much. Sure it has good features and I use those, but those not so great features are not so nice to say the least.

iCloud is likely your best bet, but it doesn't have to be a permanent decison.

First, you can restrict iCloud to just Notes if you like in System Preferences > iCloud preferences. Simply unselect everything in iCloud other than Notes. In this case there is no work on your part other than signing in. The notes will simply move to your Notes app.

When you get your Notes as desired, you can sign out of iCloud after the Notes appear. Go back to iCloud in System Preferences, and sign out. It will ask if you wish to keep everything on your Mac, in which case you should say 'yes'. Of course, you will no longer sync Notes between your devices, but it sounds as if you do not need that feature.


Does an iPhone 3GS running iOS 6.1.6 require SIM card setup after iTunes restore? A few days ago, I bought a used iPhone 3GS. I need to restore it, because I bought it broken and when I disassembled it and cleaned it up, some how it worked again, so the seller didn't have the opportunity to restore it. Sometimes (I can't remember which models and/or iOS version) after I restore an iPhone, when I'm setting it up again, it requires a SIM card inside, it doesn't have to be active, but it has too be there. The problem is that I can't get the SIM card slot in this iPhone to read the card I have. I don't think that it's the card, as it worked in an old 1st Gen iPhone I have, but it won't ever change from "No SIM" to even "Searching..." in the status bar when the card is inserted in the 3GS.

So, my question is: If I restore this iPhone 3GS, will it require a SIM card in order to set it up again?

For whatever reason, the SIM card slot decided to work about a day before I did the restore. I don't what did it or why it happened, but anyways it works. To answer my own question: No, nowhere in the setup for iOS 6.1.6 after the restore require a SIM card for activation, I'm not so sure about other iPhone models running other iOS versions, though.


Best practice to maintain high charge count I have a MacBook Pro, always plugged, I put it to sleep during the night. Is  that the best thing to do if I want to maintain a high number of remaining charges, while also keeping a healthy battery?

Or should I turn it off at night instead of sleep, plug it off, or something else?

apple has a useful page with some tips on how to keep your battery healthy right here: Apple battery tips
They also recommend discharging the battery about once a month.
I don't think sleeping instead of powering off makes that much of a difference.


doubt regarding calibration I have white MacBook (early 2009), with Snow Leopard running.

I read this following article about calibration: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/9036.html

I have doubt in step 2
It says "Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for two hours or longer.", with subnote as "You can use your computer during this time as long as the power adapter is plugged in."

If I don't want to use computer after fully charging it, should I turn off and remove MagSafe Power Adapter or should I keep it on for 2 hours?

Please help.

Keep the magsafe in for 2 hours, whether it's on or sleeping.


iMessage "Start New Conversations From" options different on iPad than iPhone All of a sudden my iPad sends messages showing an email that I never use. For years it worked the same as my phone. Does anyone know how to correct this? When I go to settings, and click on send and receive on my iPad, it now shows 3 email addresses and not phone number. If I sign out, it will not let me send any messages without signing in, using my Apple ID.

The setting you are talking about can be found in

  Settings > Messages > Start new conversations from

This will only work if you have signed in with the same Apple ID on both- the iPad and the iPhone.

If you cannot get it to work, try signing out of both devices and signing back in.


My Mac repeatedly beeps three times on startup. What does this mean? When I try to boot my Mac I get nothing but strange beeps. They beep as follows:
BEEP BEEP BEEP [3 second pause] BEEP BEEP BEEP [3 second pause] and it continues until I power off.
So far, I have:

checked with Apple KB - About Mac startup tones and this pattern is not listed as an official form of communication.
rebooted a number of times and the same exact pattern occurs.
used a timer to verify it is definitely 3 seconds in between the 3 beeps.
booted into Apple Hardware Test and no problems found after running extended tests

Is my Mac possessed? Assuming not, what is it trying to tell me?
Background
For various reasons I want to re-install the original Mac OS X. To do this I am trying to boot from an original Snow Leopard disc in the SuperDrive. I have no reason to suspect a problem with either the disc (no scratches or other signs of damage and it boots a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro just fine) or the optical drive (it loads other discs fine).
The Mac boots fine otherwise (both normally and in Safe Mode), but just doesn’t want to boot from this disc and I have no idea why, but I’m pretty sure the beeps are the key! :)
Specifications:

iMac, 27", Mid 2011
16GB RAM
2 GB GDDR5 (Radeon HD 6970M)
3.4GHz Intel Core i7
Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 installed on the internal drive

Update
Upon checking after Monomeeth's answer I can add that the original Snow Leopard disc I am trying to boot from is indeed a retail version containing 10.6.3.

No, your Mac is not possessed. And Yes, it’s trying to tell you something!

A looping three beeps in between three seconds during startup is your iMac’s way of telling you that the operating system you’re trying to boot into is incompatible with your Mac hardware.

In other words, the Snow Leopard disc you’re trying to boot from contains a version of Snow Leopard that is earlier than version 10.6.6 (the earliest your iMac can support).

My guess is that you’re not using the grey disc that shipped with your iMac. It’s either one that belongs to another Mac or it’s a retail version that’s earlier than 10.6.6.

The only ways to get around this is to use another disc or do the following:

Boot your iMac into Target Disk Mode by pressing and holding the T key as you startup
Connect it to your Mid 2009 MBP with a FireWire cable (once connected it’ll be seen by the MBP as an external hard drive)
Boot the MBP from the Snow Leopard disc
Now install Snow Leopard onto the external drive (i.e. the iMac’s drive)
Reboot the MBP from the iMac drive and then upgrade Snow Leopard to the latest version (i.e. 10.6.8) so that you know for sure it’ll boot the iMac fine
Shutdown both the MBP and iMac and then try rebooting the iMac as normal from its internal drive that now has Snow Leopard installed.

WARNING: You should always ensure you have a backup of your data, especially when performing operations such as this!


how to fix a dead iPad 3? I got it from a yard sale. it won't turn on. if plugged in it shows the dead battery symbol, Apple logo, turns off and repeats. iTunes won't detect it unless in DFU mode. recovery fails on waiting for iPad(unknown error).

This happened to me with newer iPads and even my iPhone XS Max. Let it charge using the Serial cable. Leave it on the charger for at least two hours. Then try to turn it on, connect it to iTunes, and go from there. That helped my boot loop.


Unidirectional sync from iOS device to iCloud Photo Library I have an older iPhone with limited storage. I use it as a "distraction free" version of my main phone for the gym. I've deleted almost all apps except for Music and Podcasts.

I want to be able to take photos with this iPhone's camera, and I want them to be backed up and uploaded to my other devices / iCloud Photo Library.

I do not need to view other devices' photos on this device.

I believe this may be a somewhat common intended workflow for people with multiple iOS devices. Especially older iPhones, iPads, and iPad Touches being used for specific purposes.

I would prefer to use "Photo Stream" so that no iCloud photos are downloaded to this device:

  Upload to My Photo Stream

  Upload your last 30 days of new photos and view them on your other devices using My Photo Stream. Photos from other devices can be viewed in the My Photo Stream album, but are not automatically saved to your library.

But it's unclear if the photos are ever automatically saved into the iCloud Photo Library.

Photo Stream also does not sync Live Photos or Videos, which is not ideal.

Using "iCloud Photos Library" would be fine, but Photos has already downloaded 16.49 GB of photos and caused an iPhone Storage Full alert, despite having "Optimize iPhone Storage" turned on.

It does not appear to be possible to strictly limit the size of an iOS Photos Library:

Limit iCloud Photo Library space usage on iPhone

Is there a way to enable unidirectional iCloud Photo Library?

Photos should be uploaded from this device, but ideally should never be downloaded to this device from iCloud / other devices.

Using Photo Stream does mostly work.

Photo Stream images from the phone do end up in my iCloud Photos Library. I assume that either my main iPhone or Mac grabs the photos and adds them.

If the devices did not sync for > 30 days, those photos probably would not be synced to iCloud. But that's not a huge limitation.

The only major annoyance is that Photo Stream does not sync Live Photos. Only the stills end up in iCloud.


iTunes 12 Turn off Repeat Song and Repeat Playlist Separately The last answer in this thread makes iTunes 12 shortcuts for shuffle (on and off), but I was wondering if it were possible to make shortcuts for turning on the repeat playlist, song, and turning off repeat. By doing 'Off' (as it appears in the menu) it only affects the shuffle command.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

In earlier versions of iTunes, "repeat" and "shuffle" were associated with playlists.  With iTunes 12 they are global flags and seem to be toggled by menu clicks; there's no direct property to manipulate.

You can control repeat from Applescript thus:

tell application "System Events"
  tell application process "iTunes"
    tell menu 1 of menu item "Repeat" of menu "Controls" of menu bar 1
      click
      click menu item "All"
    end tell
  end tell
end tell

Options are "All", "One" or "Off"

You can do similar for "Shuffle" with allowed options of "On" or "Off"

tell application "System Events"
  tell application process "iTunes"
    tell menu 1 of menu item "Shuffle" of menu "Controls" of menu bar 1
      click
      click menu item "On"
    end tell
  end tell
end tell

This makes it scriptable to control the status of shuffle and repeat, and you could bind these scripts to keyboard shortcuts.


Is it possible restore or update your iphone if you only have tethered internet? I totally bricked my iphone for a couple of days last time I tried to upgrade my OS.

I didn't realize that upgrading the OS requires access to Apple during the installation process. I only have wireless Internet that is tethered from my iPhone.

So last time I tried to upgrade, I downloaded the OS, then proceeded to run the installation, which  shuts down my iPhone in order to install files. After that though, it requires some sort of verification from apple.com and because my iPhone is already shut down, i have no Internet access.

I ended up having to go to a friend's house to the install cos she has WiFi.

So is it possible to upgrade with tethered internet? Is there an option where you can do the verification before re-installing. It just seems strange cause although it may be rare to only have wireless internet, I'm sure I'm not the only person to have ever encountered this, and there was never a warning message that it couldn't be done before the installation.

As you said, yes, you do need to have a connection to download and verify the install, not just the download. Its the computer doing the update that needs an internet connection - not really the phone.

In your case, the phone is currently in the update, which is probably running a very 'light' iOS bootstrap while your computer does the update. OS features like tethering would not be running then (nor anything much really), and so your computer would not recognize it as a connection, and the iPhone can't really do the verification in its state at that point either.

The only way you could really do the update with tethered internet is to have another iPhone that you are tethered to.


Removing uninstall icons OS X newbie here.

Many applications come with their own uninstall icons - like CS5.5, which adds three of them. Those are installed side-by-side with the application icons themselves.

To me, they clutter my Launchpad and program folders unnecessarily, but I can't seem to be able to remove them: dragging and dropping them to the recycle bin does nothing.

Is there a more elegant way of getting rid of these uninstall icons than placing them in a separate folder? I'm a bit anal about my launch bars and would like to avoid even that.

Can (and should) I get rid of them permanently somehow, or do they fulfill some special function that just dragging and dropping the application to the recycle bin doesn't do?

For Adobe products, you definitely want to use the uninstaller because they place files in locations other than just the App itself, so just dragging the application to the trash won't get rid of everything. I would suggest just making a separate folder in Launchpad for uninstallers, then you can drag all of them into that folder and it will only use up one tile.


How to remove app which is greyed out, can't be deleted, won't open and doesn't appear in apps list? I have this app with a greyed out icon which I'm trying to delete.

I tap and hold, and it asks me if I want to delete it and its data. I confirm and nothing happens.

I try to open it and nothing happens.

I go to Settings>General>Usage and it's not in the list.

I reboot the device and it's still here.

Is there another way to force deletion of this (ghost) app?

Go to settings, general, storage & Icloud usage , manage storage, check the app list click on the app and delete


macos: change default "zoom in" for any application? Many applications I use, like Vim, Safari, and Chrome, support "Zoom In" and "Zoom Out" to magnify the size of the screen, or return it to standard size.
Every time I start some applications, I zoom them "in" a bunch of times, and would like to set a default zoom level for them, so I don't have to do this all the time.
Is there a way to do this? I'm ok with using 3rd party tools!

I don't know about the others, but Safari has a prefs page dedicated to Zoom levels, per site, with a global default…


Is the Lightning connector safe for my children? Having an Apple Lightning connector cable beside my bed to charge my iPhone 6 at night, I asked myself whether the cable is safe for my three-years-old kids?

I.e. having the cable dangling without an iPhone connected, my kids might stick their tongue right on the connector which is still plugged into the wall socket.

I've read this thread and got no clear answer out of it.

Therefore my question is:

Would it be safe for my kids if they accidentially put their tongue on a Lightning connector or would they get a (severe) electric shock?

Update 1:

I just did a quick self-test and stuck my tongue to a Lightning connector which was still plugged into the wall socket.

Even when trying to wrap my tongue around both sides, I felt no electric shock, not even a small prickling.

That said, I still love to get quality answers that are more sound than my own "tests".

Whilst this is usually totally safe, there's a few caveats. I realise this isn't electrical engineering SE, but you asked for sound answers so I'll attempt to elaborate.

As others have stated the most important thing isn't the cable but what it's plugged in to. Lighting is a USB standard so we have 5V there, usually up to 2A.
Under the best case scenario this will come from a battery pack, forming a closed circuit, you might get a very small tingle but nothing too dramatic as the potential isn't enough to go through human tissue and cause and real damage. You can test this with a standard 9V battery on your tounge, it tickles but doesn't hurt, although I wouldn't recommend long term exposure due to DC bias, but that's another story.
If however were talking about a mains power supply, then that is the most important part. A good quality power supply will isolate the low voltage side from the mains voltage, as well as actively regulating the current and voltage passed. In this case it is still safe because earth/ground does not form a complete circuit. In the event of a faulty/low quality power supply however there may not be the electrical isolation between the mains and low voltage sides. This means that although the voltage between + and - is only 5V, there could be mains voltage between the low voltage side and earth/ground or any conductive materials connected to it (appliances etc). As there isn't the isolation, this could result in a nasty mains voltage shock.

That's not the end of the story though, whilst you may get a shock from a faulty/low quality power supply, and it will probably hurt, there are still other devices to protect you. I'll have to just speak for the UK here as I don't know the regulations elsewhere well enough, but all modern domestic circuits have RCD protection. These devises measure the current flowing out vs the current flowing back (simplified) and if there is a difference, i.e. the current is flowing through you instead, they turn the power off. These are calibrated so normally they trip quicker and at a lower current than is required to cause the body issues, but only after the initial painful shock (I speak from personal experience).

In summary, whilst lightening is exposed and there are better, less exposed connectors, if your using a good quality power supply from a reputable manufacturer on an RCD protected circuit, I'd say the risks are minimal.


iMessages showing up as seperate user when coming from Mac vs iPhone I have a Mac running Mountain Lion and an iPhone5 running iOS7

I have confirmed that the Apple account setup in messages in my Mac and iPhone are the same account.

However when I send a message to my wife's iPhone from my Mac it shows up as a separate thread (same name) than when I send a message from my iPhone. She will have 2 threads on her phone, when she responds to the thread started from the Mac, only my Mac will receive the message. When she responds to threads sent from my iPhone, only my iPhone receives the messages.

It like iMessage on my Mac vs iPhone are acting like 2 separate accounts even though they are both using the same Apple ID.

Is there anyway I can resolve this?

I tried followed the instructions here but there was no setting titled Use your Apple ID for iMessage. The settings may have changed since the last version of iOS I am guessing.

When I went to Preferences > Accounts within Messages on my Mac under:

  You can be reached for messages at:

It was only listing my email address (no phone number).

Logging out and back into Messages on my Mac, caused the phone number to show up here. Checking it fixed the problem and they are now synced.


Migrating Mac over home network I am trying to migrate all settings, apps, and data from MacBook Yosemite 10.10.5 to MacBook Catalina 10.15.2 over a home network. I have computer initial setup on the same network with different computer names but the same user name.

I disabled firewall on both and launched migration assistant on both; "To another Mac" on the "Michael's Mac"Book and "From Mac" on the "Tamara's MacBook". Right away I see that "Tamara's" sees "Michael's" but "Michael's" doesn't see "Tamara's". Soon after I attempt to start the transfer the "Tamara's" reports the failure to communicate with "Michael's".

The odd thing, up to that moment "Tamara's" sees "Michael's"m and I choose "Michael's" to migrate from, but after pressing "continue" the error reads "Michael's MacBook" cannot be reached. Ensure both Macs are on and cnnected to the same network.", followed by a suggestion to turn off the firewall. But the firewall is off, and they are on the same network, and "Tamara's" does see "Michael's"...

What could be the problem here and how do I fix it?

A workaround could be to time machine backup the machine you want to migrate, and simply restore it to the new machine, then run OS updates.


MacBookPro stopped booting what should I try? My 2008 MacBook Pro suddenly stopped booting the other day and now the screen looks like this each time it attempts to boot:

The boot time sound still happens, but I just see the dodgy pink with the apple in the background for a few seconds before it reboots. I can hold alt as it boots but bootcamp and recovery fail to start in just the same way.

Is the laptop dead? What's my next step otherwise?

If this is an early 2008 Macbook pro (4,1) then you may finally have encounted the infamous horrible Nvidia 8600 hardwarelproblem that everyone with this model is waiting for.

Nvidia problems

Possibly affected systems include 17-inch, 2.4GHz MacBook Pros, 15-inch, 2.4 and 2.2GHz MacBook Pros, and MacBook Pros manufactured in early 2008, all with Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics chips. All such systems were made between May 2007 and September 2008.Macworld | Apple offers MacBook Pro Nvidia graphics repair

MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues


macOS counterpart of Windows startup batch file My friend pranked me by creating a batch file which opens a YouTube video and added it to the startup folder, so that the batch file launches every time I log in. This is what he wrote in the batch file:

TIMEOUT 1
start /min https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kob0G2hE8IY

On top of that, he scheduled the batch file to run every 10 minutes using Task Scheduler.

This is done on a Windows PC. So my question is, how do you do the same thing on a Mac?

The macOS counterpart is an AppleScript. You can create an AppleScript using Automator app and configure it to run upon system startup by going to System Preferences → Current User → Login Items.

To create the AppleScript, launch Automator.app. Under Library (in the left pane), select Utilities. From the centre pane, drag and drop Run Apple Script action into the pane shown towards right. Now enter the following script into the editor:

tell application "Safari"
    tell window 1
        set current tab to (make new tab with properties {URL:"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kob0G2hE8IY"})
    end tell
end tell

This is how the final result will look like:

Now save the workflow by selecting File → Save... command. When saving change the File Format to Application.

Now go to System Preferences → Users & Groups, select your user under Current User and click on the Login Items tab. Click on the + button shown at the bottom and select the app saved in the last step. This will add the workflow that we created to the list of items set to be opened automatically when you log in.


How to update Mac OS X 10.9 keychain access I am using Mac OS X 10.9 and I am trying to update my keychain password. I have just changed some Facebook password so that now when I log into Facebook, the password that is put by my Mac OS X system is the older one. How can I update my keychain password ?

Open keychain assistant, find the old entry and delete it.


iPad Mini stuck in iTunes logo (failed upgrade) I tried to update to iOS 8 today, and when I opened iTunes to do so, it also requested to update itself, as I thought it could handle both things (especially because I assumed it would update itself then, the iPad Mini).

Now, the iPad is stuck in a connect to iTunes mode, if I try to open the iTunes while the iPad is connect, the iTunes won't open and if I connect it after the iPad doesn't appear as a device in iTunes.

In the Device Manager it states that I have a unknown Device, and in Devices and Printers it is displayed as Apple Mobile Device USB Driver.

How can I get out of this mode and install the new OS ? I remember that when I had an iPhone 3g it could be done through getting the device into DFU. Is there an analog for it in iOS 7?

I had the same problem this morning. I tried to update my ipad mini to iOS 8 over the air (without connecting it to my laptop and iTunes), and it got stuck on the apple logo bootup screen.

The workflow described on the following webpage enable me to resolve the situation: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2014/01/fix-stuck-apple-logo-evasi0n7.html

Hope it'll work for you as well!


Shared photo library moving into new photos app? With the new app photos for mac, I'm getting a little confused.
I didn't have that many photos in my iPhoto library, and yet it says that it is uploading 4000, where are those photos coming from? Are they coming from the shared photos in my shared photo stream? If so, how do I stop that from happening?

Also, how do I sync the photos from my photo library on my phone, or is that what is already uploading? And I know that they sync between devices but do they sync screenshots and saved photos or only photos that are taken with the phones camera?

If you have Photostream turned on and set it to download Photostream photos, then iPhoto will put them in an Event by month. It will look similar to other photo Events that you've created. iCloud Photo Library sees these as just normal photos and will upload them. Everything in the System Library (which means the default Photos library) will get uploaded, so the only way to stop it is to turn off iCloud Photo Library or put those photos into a separate Photos library.

If you have iCloud Photo Library turned on in your Mac and iPhone, then they will eventually sync up.

All pictures in your iPhone Photos app will get uploaded into iCloud Photo Library (including screenshots and saved photos from other apps/internet).


Google Chrome would like to control this computer using Accessibility I installed LastPass and on restarting Chrome got a notification similar to this: https://superuser.com/questions/657015/google-software-update-would-like-to-control-this-computer-what, except it was Google Chrome that wanted to control the computer instead of Google Software Update.

It might not have been related to the LastPass install and might have just been a coincidence and just happened to be the first time I restarted Chrome.

Any ideas on what might have prompted this request?

Chrome 32.0.1700.102

Mac OS X: 10.9.1

Many programs use Applescript to automate GUI functions, such as moving and clicking the mouse, but this functionality requires that the accessibility options are enabled.  According to their support documents, LastPass is one such program that requires enabling access for assistive devices.

As a result, I wouldn't worry about the request.  As you suspected, it is probably LastPass, and everything is working normally.

If you want to know more about GUI Applescripting, check this out:

http://www.macosautomation.com/mavericks/guiscripting/index.html


Why is my "Synchronize with Google" option grayed out in Mountain Lion Contacts? I have been syncing Mac OS contacts (Address Book) with Google for a long time. For some reason, though, that option is now grayed out in Contacts preferences.

Why? How do I get it back?

Most likely because you have Contact syncing via iCloud turned on. You can turn this off using the check-box in Preferences > iCloud.

I don't have iCloud syncing for Contacts and can sync via Google, but when I turn iCloud syncing on it warns me that Google syncing will be turned off...


Why does a short video recorded on the iPhone have almost the same file size as a full HD movie? Videos recorded on the iPhone are huge. I don't know where I'm supposed to store those videos. Even with 1TB of storage, I'd run out of space if I regularly recorded & stored these huge files. Also, they're cumbersome to transfer and stream.

Why are they so big anyway, and is there anything that can be done about that?

The answer boils down to how much work the compression algorithm can do to squeeze the file down, and how much quality loss you are willing to tolerate.

Dark Knight on Blu-ray uses VC-1 encoding at 24Mbps, and it's around 27GB on disk. Good thing BDs have so much room! The goal is to give really good quality.

The iPhone encodes things around 17Mbps (according to the file I just checked) using h.264 with the High@L4.1 profile. It has to encode things in real-time because it can't stream the raw video to flash. Doing things in real-time limits the amount of work the compressor can do and results in higher file size than slower compression. The iPhone could probably choose to degrade the quality of the video in order to get smaller files, but since you can never get quality back, it makes sense to keep quality there at the beginning.

The BD rips you're talking about have two things in their favor.  One is that people are willing to accept a much lower quality than the BD in order to shrink the file size. Also, they have plenty of time to compress the files, so they can easily compress at half or quarter real time.  That lets the compression algorithms find a lot more ways to shrink the file size without degrading quality.

If you want to store the iPhone videos yourself for later viewing, you can certainly transcode them yourself and shrink them. You probably would not want to use the results for a television ad but they would be perfectly good for keeping memories.


Is it possible to backup an iOS 7.1.2 device on OSX 10.12, 10.13, or 10.15? I have an old iPhone 4 with iOS 7.1.2 that I want to backup and sync the photos off of.  I have a macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.15 device that I was hoping to backup to (if I have to I can try to dig up some older macbooks that might have an older version of OSX on them).  For some reason when I plug the iphone 4 in to any device then the iPhone doesn't show up in Finder or iTunes (tho it does draw power from the mac), so I'm not able to make a backup or import the photos.
I'm wondering why the iphone doesn't show up on any macOS device that I plug it in to, and what I need to do to make a backup and/or import the photos?

Unfortunately, any iPhone with an iOS lower than 13 cannot back up their photos onto a Mac through a USB connection. However, you could try using Google Drive and then accessing your drive on your laptop (although, I am not sure if google drive works for iOS 7).


Sound effects for commands completing in inactive tabs/windows I think my life would be that much better if a subtle sound effect was played when a task completed in a terminal window/tab that's not the current one. It'd be even better if an exit code 0 sounded different to any other exit code.

Is there any way to make this happen?

(I often start little scripts in a window, like uploading a file to a server, then switch to another tab to do something on the server. It'd be great to hear when the file has arrived.)

It's certainly achievable if you're using scripts, I often use

tput bel

at the point where work is complete. This will not only beep the terminal but put a badge on the dock icon as well.

In terms of handling exit codes then you can string a couple together for a different sound:

if command_or_exit_status
then
# exit OK
        tput bel
else
# not ok
        tput bel; tput bel;
fi


Can I use an AppleTV when I travel off my home network? I have a first generation AppleTV and I am wondering if I take it on vacation and connect to an HDTV with an HDMI cable, will it enable me to pickup programming off the WiFi in my vacation are for viewing?

You may have an issue with the hotel wifi. Oftentimes hotel wifi networks require you to open a web browser to login and use the internet. The Apple TV doesn't have a web browser so you might not be able to login and use their wifi network

@The Disco Spider

Heres my WAY OVER complicated explanation to solve the issue of Hotel/Plane WiFi requiring you to use a Web Browser to login on a device that does not allow this type of authentication

Some Info

Most (All) Hotel WiFi networks that require you to login on a webpage by either agreeing to TOS, inputing your room number and last name, etc. authenticate using a MAC Address
It remembers that you were logged in by using a MAC address so if you leave for the day (disconnect) and come back later (reconnect) you do not have to login
MAC Addresses can be easily spoofed, allowing us to authenticate with the same MAC Address on a compatible device
This method could also be used to steal paid WiFi, so take the moral route and don't STEAL`

Get MAC Address of the Apple TV (or other device)

Settings -> General -> About -> WiFi Address

Get WiFi interface and MAC Address (on your Mac)

Hold Down Option key
Click on the WiFi Button in the Menu Bar
Write down the Address
Remember the Interface Name (either en0 or en1)

Note: Disconnect the Apple TV/Device

Begin the Hack

sudo ifconfig [INTERFACE NAME] ether [APPLE TV/DEVICE MAC ADDRESS] //Spoofs MAC address to Apple TV's MAC address
Turn off WiFi and turn WiFi back on
If a webpage does not open, open Safari and navigate to captive.apple.com to force the sign in page
After logging in, once more navigate to captive.apple.com if you receive a Success then you are good to go
sudo ifconfig [INTERFACE NAME] ether [ORIGINAL Mac's MAC ADDRESS] \ Put back MAC address or you will have EXTREME connectivity issues
Turn off WiFI and turn WiFi back on
Turn WiFI on, on your Apple TV/Device

This should work as I have tested with an Apple TV, PS4, and many other devices.

Note: This may not work in WPA3


Can I backup or mirror an IMAP mailbox on Mac OS X? What is the easiest way to create a dump of an IMAP mailbox on a local drive using Mac OS X?

I would prefer a tool that can mirror an IMAP mailbox's structure to something that creates a massive archive file because the former would be faster and slimmer to do an incremental backup for. But any solution is welcome.

If you're comfortable using Unix tools, a few applications spring to mind:

OfflineIMAP
imapsync
Mailsync

imapsync isn't open source but the others are. You may also find this Ask Different thread useful.


Why doesn't crontab run if screensaver is on? I want to run a Crontab on OS X 10.11.1 (El Capitan).

I'm running the command:

env EDITOR=nano crontab -e

to enter the crontab with nano as the editor.

Then I create my cronjob that looks like this:

50 */15 * * * touch /home/test.txt

If I go to /home/ there is nothing:

User 15:50:home $ ls -la
total 2
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     1 25 Nov 14:53 .
drwxr-xr-x  31 root  wheel  1122 29 Okt 10:02 ..

Why doesn't the cronjob run if the screensavers is on and screen is locked?

/home is used by the automounter and can't be written to. Just try with another directory (eg /tmp).


How to delete an old Apple ID on iPhone For a short time, I'm reverting back to my old iPhone.
I entered my current Apple ID (the one with email address). A long time ago, Apple ID wasn't an email address.

The pop-up "Sign in to iTunes Store" keeps showing. How can one delete the old Apple ID (not an email address) without resetting?

I’m not sure what you mean by resetting but if you go to https://appleid.apple.com/ from a computer you can manage Apple ID’s.

Also here’s a link to an Apple discussion group with similar issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5362309?language=en

Hope this helped.


Terminal sudo dd error while making a bootable drive So I have been trying to make a bootable Kali Linux USB drive for a while.

I am using the command:

sudo dd if=/Users/vanshyadav/Desktop/kali-linux-2018.1-amd64.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m

It asks for my password once, and then gives me the error:

dd: /dev/disk2 bs=1m: Operation not supported

My drive looks like this:

I am following the steps in: Making a Kali Bootable USB Drive

I unmount the disk using:

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

It unmounts, but then it doesn't work.

How can I proceed?

It is very important to get the spaces correct in the command. Try cut-n-pasting the command from here:

sudo dd if=/Users/vanshyadav/Desktop/kali-linux-2018.1-amd64.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m

Note that only regular spaces should be used.

You seem to have either forgotten the space, or used some other space-like character - therefore you get the weird error message where "/dev/disk2 bs=1m" is somehow used as the device name (i.e. the dd commands thinks that the bs parameter is somehow part of your device name).


Could we turn on word wrap Safari Web Inspector? I think it's a bug for sure.

Older Safari versions, it has word wrap in that area but when updated, it seems there is no word wrap in web inspector console.

Could we reenable it again ?
Is that possible ?

Word wrap works a little differently, but actually more accurate, in the latest versions of Safari, depending on the mode you're displaying.

For instance, in the "Elements" tab, it will wrap as desired:

But, like in your screenshot, the "Resources" tab for instance, it will display as the rendering engine intended, unwrapped:


Resolving WiFi interference 2.4GHz/5GHz Set-up:
iPad user connects to WiFi via Airport Express. A printer is attached to Airport Express for (Airprint) printing facility.

Problem:
I am using the above set-up with the permission of IT (I am an external staff person who is not on their payroll). Recently IT has reached out to me saying that I need to remove my Airport Express because it is causing  interference to their devices and making them slow. Since Airport express broadcasts both on 2.4GHz and 5GHz, I was thinking as a possible solution I configure Airport Express to 5GHz only (less crowded spectrum). I think there is no possibility to restrict Airport Express to broadcast 5GHz network only (it will broadcast both 2.4GHz & 5GHz) therefore I was thinking to get a good value router/WiFi base station which has the capability broadcast only 5Ghz WiFi. I have looked up on internet and couldn't find any good value router which could serve the above purpose. My questions are

1) Will the above proposed solution (5GHz network only) could resolve my interference woes?

2) Please suggest an alternative (with specs) to Airport Express which could be roughly of same value and has the printer attachment capability and could broadcast 5GHz WiFi only.

Caveat: I have already scanned the WiFi Spectrum 2.4GHz is very crowded therefore changing the channel wouldn't resolve it plus frequencies are overlapping, 5GHz spectrum is less crowded (only 1 more SSID other than mine is residing there, hence I want to broadcast only 5GHz radio frequency so that IT doesn't blame me that my device is interfering/crowding their 2.4 GHz spectrum)

Thank you!

There is an app, WiFi Explorer, which shows all the networks your computer can see. It also shows the relative strengths and channel number of them. You could use this to determine that the problem is indeed 5 GHz. Maybe changing Airport channel will help. The app is not free and is available from the App Store.


Finding iPhone 3G firmware version after full reset I "reset all settings and erased all data" on my iPhone 3G yesterday using iTunes. The phone is locked to At&t, and since I do not have a SIM from At&t, I am unable to go past the lock screen to view the firmware and the iOS version.
What firmware and iOS version does iPhone 3G have after completely resetting it using the latest version of iTunes?

Latest iOS [firmware is same as the OS in that respect] you can use on an iPhone 3G is 4.2.1 (8C148)


Encrypted/Journaled Seagate won't accept Password I have a 2011 MacBook Pro Intel running Mountain Lion. I have a 2tb Seagate External Drive with 3 partitions: all three were set up the same way with different passwords as a person who used to live here was burning DVD's from my digital backups I felt the need to do so. I was having no issues with this for the first six months I had the drive set up like this but about two months ago this changed. I can no longer mount one of the partitions. It will not accept the password I KNOW goes to it. All I can figure is that, some how, the system encryption key must have been damaged. The only other pieces of Info I can give you is this. First, I didn't use firevault for this but Disk Utl. Second, at times, I can mount one of the other drives and even though I get the "shaking window" as though I typed in the wrong pw it still mounts the drive. Odd.

Same problem here. Read and on and I'll tell you what I did to solve this problem:

I do Time Machine to an encrypted external Hard Disk. I stored the password to the disk in the default Keychain, and the system mounted the disk automatically after plugging it in. But suddenly, last morning, after I plugged in the disk, it prompted me for a password (it never did, since it was set to remember the password). In that dialogue, type a wrong password and the dialog does the wrong-password, shake animation, and it prompts for a password again; but type the correct password and the dialog freezes, like this:

The solution I have found to work is as follows:

Launch Disk Utility and Select the Drive that won't unlock.
Click on Verify Disk (after it finished it told me the disk needed repair), and after it finishes with the verification, click Repair Disk.
I let the computer do it's job, and after a while (about 30 min), it told me the disk couldn't be repaired, but the disk was now mounted, and working normally. Like shown in the following screenshot:

And now, my Time Machine drive works normally again:

So, launch Disk Utility, then Verify and Repair your faulty disk as needed. This worked in my case.


Run plist command every 5 seconds I have the following plist file in my User/Library/LaunchAgents folder. It presses the "g" key every 60 seconds.

My question is, how can I change this to press the "g" key every 5 seconds?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>-e</string>
        <string>tell application "System Events" to keystroke "g"</string>
    </array>
    <key>ServiceDescription</key>
    <string>Auto Keypress</string>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Second</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Change the plist to

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>G-key-pusher</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/bin/sh</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>sh</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>while sleep 5; do /usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "g"'; done</string>
    </array>
    <key>ServiceDescription</key>
    <string>Auto Keypress</string>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

What it does, is to run a shell script that does the 5 second timer and calls osascript. The launchd plist just ensures the script is restarted if it were to die for some reason. Please note that I still haven't tested this, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work. Though I have had problems in the past when changing launchd items, which I fixed by changing the label. Which reminds me, you had omitted the value for the Label key in your plist.

(Edit: Explain a little, and provide a complete file instead of explaining what parts need to be changed.)


How to add a confirmation prompt window to warn before closing a window for any application? This is about adding a Warn-Before-Closing Confirmation Dialog Window to all application windows in macOS before closing a window.

How do I add a Confirmation Dialog Window when I click the Red X close circle button in the top left corner of a application window to warn me before closing a window? This is basically what Firefox has or at least it had it when I used it a couple years ago, but I would want this applied to every single application window that has an X button for closing that window. When you would click the X button for a window in Firefox with multiple tabs open and try to close that window it would state and ask the following: "You are about to close 83 tabs. Are you sure you want to continue?"

This is a picture of the FireFox warn-before-closing confirmation dialog window I was talking about.

I want to add a confirmation dialog window like that for any and all application/program windows because I sometimes accidentally press the red x close circle button to close a window. When I click or press that red x close circle button to close a window for any reason intentionally or unintentionally, especially by accident, I want a confirmation dialog window to appear confirming whether or not I really want to close it.

Again, I would want this Warn-Before-Closing Confirmation Dialog Window to appear when the Red X Circle Close button is clicked before Closing ANY macOS application window.

Again, how it works is after I would click on a Red X circle close button to close a window, a prompt would appear asking if I am sure I want to close that specific window for that specific app. I would have to click on the "Close" button in the prompt window, highlighted in blue, to confirm to successfully close that specified window.

Here are a few examples featuring a few apps of how I would want it to look and work upon clicking the Red X circle close button to warn me before closing a window for every macOS application window:

I would want this close confirmation prompt window to warn me before closing a window for EVERY macOS application, not just the ones I showed in the examples.

To clarify, I am pretty sure this would be applied system-wide, not to any one specific app or program, but rather to ALL applications/programs for every application/program window that is attempted to be closed.

Let me know if I would need to update to the latest version of macOS to do this. Or if I can use the older version of macOS High Sierra that I have installed on my computer.

Does anyone know if this is possible? Thank you.

You clearly know what you want, and that is great, but you might have a hard time convincing other people to make it for you to your exact specifications.

Safari on macOS does not have any scripting hooks you can use to prevent closing any Safari window with the red button, so it won't be trivial to make Safari do what you want.

One possible avenue to consider is writing a webpage that intercepts the window close event to install a custom behaviour. This might be satisfactory, depending on exactly what problem you're trying to solve.

If you're not totally set on using Safari, you could try developing an extension for Firefox that implements the behaviour you want. I don't actually know for sure if that is possible.

You could try visiting the Mozilla Forums and submitting a feature request to have your feature added to Firefox core, but it is extremely unlikely that anybody will listen and add your feature.

If you want this badly enough that you're willing to pay money for it, you could try putting out an offer on a marketplace for freelance programmers (like Fiverr) and maybe somebody can help you create this feature that is very important to you.


I need to identify a name of an iPhone authentication function I saw today someone transferring data from two iPhones (not sure which models).
I suspect that was for the sake of backup/restore data one phone from another, but I'm not entirely sure about that also.

When he needed to authenticate that the 2nd phone is really is the phone that needs that specific data, there was an animation of bunch of blue dots in shape of a circle on the 1st phone (the phone that should send the other one the data), and the 2nd one has needed to scan this animation (much like QR code) in order to get authenticated.

What I want to know if this function is integrated in the iOS, and if it is, what is it called?

Update: I've added a short GIF that demonstrate what I've saw.

Yes, the function is included in iOS 11 and is called "Automatic Setup".

It is designed to get you up and running quickly when you replace your phone with a new one. Essentially you power up the new, blank device - then place your old phone near the new one. A popup will ask you if you want to use Automatic Setup.

Then the animation you refer to will be shown on the new device, which you then scan with the camera on the old device.

After entering your old pass code the data from your old phone will be transferred to the new phone.


Why does leaked memory appear malloced to kernel_task, and why can't OS X therefore garbage collect it I have previously been told that a sign that some application has a memory leak is that kernel_task has a large memory footprint, commonly on the order of gigabytes. If an awry kext was causing this memory usage, we would expect to see a discrepancy between the allocated memory and those expected to be allocated, i.e.

diff <(kextstat|tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' -f 5) <(kextstat| tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' -f 6)

would return something other than the words 'Wired' and 'Name'.

Whilst writing my thesis, I have noticed that changing a pdf whilst it is open in Preview often causes bad things to happen: occasionally, the memory usage of kernel_task can grow to around eight gigabytes, or more. If I kill preview, it returns to normal, instantly. So, obviously something is wrong -- and Preview is leaking memory under these conditions.

So, my question is this: if I know that a process has leaked ram via a sudden and unexpected increase in the footprint of kernel_task, why can't OS X know that something has gone wrong. If killing Preview restores my missing malloc()'d memory, why doesn't Darwin do garbage collection automagically for me?

Do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of how memory management works?

EDIT: (15/9/15)

Here's a demonstration of what I'm talking about. First of all, I notice high memory usage by kernel_task (note Preview is open, just visible at the bottom of Activity Monitor, using 333 MiB of ram):

Following the helpful remarks by Ashley below, let's find out how much each kext is using:

$ kextstat | awk 'NR==1{ printf "%10s %s\n", $5, $6; } NR!=1{ printf "%10d %s\n", $5, $6; }' | sort -n

...
...
...
   1249280 com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib
   1769472 com.apple.nvidia.driver.NVDAGK100Hal
   2629632 com.apple.nvidia.driver.NVDAResman
   6184960 com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4360
$

So, not a huge amount. My machine has both discrete and integrated GPUs; their drivers are only using a few MiB of wired ram. On my hunch, let's kill Preview, and look what happens to the memory footprint of kernel_task:

Preview's gone, and the memory footprint of the kernel has gone down dramatically.
There's still no evidence of a change in kext usage: the output of the above command is unchanged.

Edit: Bug reported as No. 22701036. I am still waiting for a response from apple. There's nothing particularly interesting if you inspect the process in ActivityMonitor, but maybe I'm missing something.

The core of OS X is not garbage collected; IOKit's libkern C++ Runtime requires developers to manage their own memory.

Mac Memory Management

From How does memory management work in Mac OS X?

  Apple documents the lowest levels of the Mach Kernel and the virtual memory subsystem fairly well on the web as part of it's developer documentation.

  Kernel Programming Guide: Memory and Virtual Memory

  Since that kernel was developed by Carnegie Mellon University, you can find dozens of papers describing it quite easily.

Other Sources

Wikipedia discusses Mac OS memory management.
Apple's support note: Use Activity Monitor to read system memory and determine how much RAM is being used

Garbage Collection

Garbage collection exists at the user or application layer. Even at this layer, garbage collection only helps if the application has released all claims to the memory. A circular dependancy can defeat garbage collection. Garbage collection itself is an evolving area of research and difficult to get right.

Report Bugs and Memory Leaks

Bugs within OS X will be leaking memory. Given the size of the code base, this is almost certain.

Please report reproducible bugs directly to Apple. Every bug report helps and maybe your example will be the one that helps Apple's engineers pin down the cause.