Apple Internal Hard Drive Error So long story short, my iMac was working perfectly fine and I just decided to restart it because the fan was loud, it made a weird noise and now it keeps taking me back to either reinstall my macos, disk utility, and time machine.

I try clicking my Macintosh HD but it isn't even showing even after running first aid it says that "it has failed, is possible back up data on this volume". I also went on reinstall macos but does not show my Mac HD in there ... Any solutions ?

You really need to put this Mac in target disk mode and connect it to another Mac - or you can accomplish the same things buy installing a fresh copy of Mac OS on a USB external drive and booting that.

Once you're running normal Mac OS on another drive, you can run SMART Utility to see if your drive is having a hardware failure. If it is, time to replace it. If it's not, you should run a good drive repair utility like DiskWarrior. Unfortunately, while Apple's Disk Utility technically performs these functions, it's fairly useless at both.


blank popup appear when updating mac when i wanted to update the mac, this thing appear, so i can't.
maybe it's cuz of some apps that i've downloaded, but i couldn't know which one is! i need to update the mac.
i tried to search for solutions, but there's no such a problem.
please help :( i'm really suffering and bored cuz of this problem.
thanks.

10.9.5 and the model is macbook pro

EtreCheck version: 2.2 (132)
Report generated 5/31/15, 1:34 AM
Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck

Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.

Hardware Information: ℹ
    MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) (Technical Specifications)
    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,1
    1 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
    4 GB RAM Not upgradeable
        BANK 0/DIMM0
            2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
        BANK 1/DIMM0
            2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
    Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
    Wireless:  en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
    Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 202 - SN = D864062T07FFT5YAZ

Video Information: ℹ
    Intel Iris
        Color LCD 2560 x 1600

System Software: ℹ
    OS X 10.9.5 (13F1077) - Time since boot: 0:19:46

Disk Information: ℹ
    APPLE SSD SD0128F disk0 : (121.33 GB)
        EFI (disk0s1)  : 210 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /  [Startup]: 120.47 GB (14.70 GB free) (Low!)
        Recovery HD (disk0s3)   [Recovery]: 650 MB

USB Information: ℹ
    Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
    Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ
    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ℹ
    Mac App Store and identified developers

User Launch Agents: ℹ
    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]

User Login Items: ℹ
    iTunesHelper    Application  (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
    uTorrent    Application  (/Applications/uTorrent.app)
    AdobeResourceSynchronizer    Application  (/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)
    RealPlayer Downloader Agent    Application  (/Users/[redacted]/Library/Application Support/RealNetworks/RealPlayer Downloader Agent.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ
    AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.07 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.07 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
    JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version
    Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

User internet Plug-ins: ℹ
    _SpeedTaoPlugin: Version: Unknown - SDK 10.7 [Click for support]
    iGetter Plugin: Version: 2.9.2 [Click for support]
    iGetterScriptablePlugin: Version: 2.9.2 [Click for support]
    RealPlayer Plugin: Version: Unknown [Click for support]

Safari Extensions: ℹ
    FastestTube

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ
    None

Time Machine: ℹ
    Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ
       100%    MPlayerX
         4%    fontd
         3%    WindowServer
         2%    Google Chrome Helper(7)
         0%    RealPlayer Downloader Agent

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ
    991 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(11)
    381 MB    Google Chrome Helper(7)
    345 MB    kernel_task
    115 MB    Safari
    98 MB    Google Chrome

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ
    92 MB    Free RAM
    3.78 GB    Used RAM
    0 B    Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ℹ
    May 31, 2015, 01:14:50 AM    Self test - passed
    May 29, 2015, 01:18:14 AM    /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/VLC_2015-05-29-011814_[redacted].crash
    May 28, 2015, 04:33:09 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2015-05-28-043309_[redacted].crash

Thank you for the report

Please disable the all following (from auto starting when you log in)

  iTunesHelper Application
  (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

uTorrent

  Application (/Applications/uTorrent.app)

AdobeResourceSynchronizer

  Application (/Applications/Adobe
  Reader.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)

RealPlayer

  Downloader Agent Application (/Users/[redacted]/Library/Application
  Support/RealNetworks/RealPlayer Downloader Agent.app)

How to do that:

Go to system preferences- user& groups- you will see your log in profile. Click on the Log in items and disable anything using the (-) sign to remove.

Restart your system. If the MPlayer is still running STOP it. To do that press 3 keys all together [alt (option)+ cmd +esc]. A new widow will show where you can select the MPlayer and force quit it.

Finally lets repair your User profile.

Hold cmd+r during restarting of the computer

You will boot into the Repair Utilities screen.

On top, in the Menu Bar click the Utilities item then select Terminal.

New window - type resetpassword

You will not reset the password but:

Instead, click on the icon for your Mac’s hard drive at the top. From the drop-down below it, select the user account where you are having issues.

At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled ‘Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs’. Click the Reset button there.

The reset process takes a couple of minutes. When it’s done, quit the programs you’ve opened and restart your Mac.

If none of the above worked I am afraid you will need to restore your Mavericks first before Installing Yosemite. To that use the cmd+r again and follow the instructions how to restore. Normally you data will not be touched during this process, but if you have back up it is better.


How to thoroughly waterproof a Macbook? I am just now coming to know the hard limits of water destroying equipment. I don't know if it's realistic to be able to have my Macbook as a floatable rubber ducky in the bath in this day & age, but products like Liquipel and commercials of scuba divers using iPads have me curious.

Is liquipel the best protection on the market? Are there other custom shops that could do anything to make a MacBook either resistant to liquid or even waterproof?

I'm going to stick my neck and say that you cannot do this.  No matter what materials you have to hand, your MacBook requires open access to the internals via vents and grills etc for fans to push unwanted air out, or suck cooler air in etc.  You can't safely just block all this up.  You can get a wide range of keyboard covers to allow you to type with wet/dirty hands etc, but protecting the entire unit isn't really practical at all. Servers are amenable to being bathed in mineral oil but that requires special cabling, removal of all blowers and potentially modifying the heat sink depending on the specifics of the CPU and coolant temperatures.

http://www.grcooling.com
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Server-Cooling-Hardware-mineral-oil,17348.html


Generate all Calendar.app icons I'd like to get all 366 possible icons that Calendar would have displayed in the Dock.

How can you automate the creation of each of these, either in Bash or Automator?

You should avoid using Apple's artwork for your own projects or where you need to re-distribute the files. Apple's legal department may have an opinion.

Rather than copy Apple's artwork, create your own. There are numerous collections of calendar artwork that you can build upon.

Use a scriptable tool like Gimp, Inkscape, or ImageMagick to create all 366 variations.


El Capitan - Increasing/Resizing the BootCamp Partition Size I'm running OS X 10.11.5 El Capitan with a 240GB SSD. I made a 50GB BootCamp Partition using this guide because my usb/dvd wasn't being detected. I found myself searching for space because I somehow only have ~16gb left after installation of several programs. I need around 2-5GB more.

Upon research, I found this youtube guide which basically makes a 3rd partition, booting in Windows, and then using MiniTool Partition Wizard, have the windows partition "take" the 3rd blank/unused partition. However, upon further research, I've seen this thread among several others that say that this method does NOT work on El Capitan. It primarily has something to do with the partition mapping and how adding a third one makes you unable to boot in Windows. There are comments that say it works on El Capitan and some say it doesn't. I'm not sure if those who managed to make it work did 10+ steps in between or if those who didn't manage to make it work simply weren't resourceful enough, and I'm not taking a risk by figuring it out on my own.

I then found Paragon Campture which seems promising as it says it support El Capitan. I know this isn't free and I'll have to shell out cash, however, I'm okay with the free 2GB reallocation. My main concern is that I haven't seen as much feed back (I'm pretty sure I'm looking at the wrong places) about Paragon on El Capitan but so far, they seem to be the most solid choices. It would greatly help if I got feedback from anyone who used Paragon on El Capitan.

I know the old method is to scrap the Windows Partition and reinstall one using the Boot Camp Assistant, however, as I stated above, I took a pretty darn long way around installing Windows on my Mac and I don't wanna do that again.

Any feedback on these software, or any tips on how to make MiniTool Partition Wizard work on El Capitan, will be very much appreciated.

The product I have used for years to solve such a problem is Winclone. According to Russel Scheil at Twocanoes Software, the Basic edition is all you should need. You install Winclone as an OS X application. The steps to create a larger Boot Camp partition are given below.

Use Winclone to create a compressed backup up of your Boot Camp
partition. This backup can be stored in any Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
formatted volume.
Delete your Boot Camp partition.
Resize your OS X volume.
Create a MSDOS (FAT) formatted partition. This partition will need to the same size or larger than the original Boot Camp partition.
Use Winclone to restore Windows to the MSDOS (FAT) formatted
partition. Winclone will change the partition to NTFS format. If
Winclone is running under El Capitan, you will first need to disable
System Integrity Protection (SIP) before restoring Windows.


Having separte Apple accounts on same device I have couple of questions to ask related to one topic.

I live in japan and had my apple account installed there.

And now I am here in US for a year and want to make another apple id so i could redeem iTunes gift card here in US. Is it possible to have another apple id on one iPhone?

When I get back in Japan (for example, I downloaded apps using my US iTunes account) and logged in on my Japanese iTunes account, will the apps I downloaded in US iTunes disappear on my phone?

When you change countries, you will no longer receive app update notifications on your iOS device or in iTunes for the apps you purchased in your original country.

However, you will still be able to download those applications again for free if they are present on your new country's store (even if they are updated).

You will not be charged and the download will not appear on your Purchased page.

If the app is not available in your new country, you will not be able to download it again.


How do i get past this certificate error? On Google Chrome, i want to go to a website, which is blurred out for privacy reasons, but whenever i click proceed anyway, it tells me on and on the same message, can someone help me out or something or how do i add that website as a administrator website, or a trusted website? Im using a mac machine.

It would be easier to give you a fish here but since you don't want to share the hostname... the error indicates that the name in the address bar (eg. apple.stackexchange.com) does not match anything in the certificate that the site is presenting (perhaps it actually belongs to some.bogus.example.tld).

I think it's rather a poor idea to defeat the safety measures Google put in there for you. May I ask your reasoning for being fearless here?


How to display artist's Alphabetic scroller in Music from iOS 8.4 Before iOS 8.4 I had an Alphabet scroller to find artists quickly.
How to make it appear again?

You can still use the alphabetic scroller! Simply go in Music screen, select artist

then scroll down to make "Most Recent" disappear and the scroller will appear again!


Can't access one specific subdomain Using OSX 10.10.2 on a MBA 11" I can't access

  https://developer.worldweatheronline.com

I flushed the DNS, rebooted my machine, connected via iPhone instead of WLAN (I can access the site via iPhone directly, but not when using the iPhones Network-connection on the Mac.

Tested on all installed browsers.

The results of ping, traceroute and dig:

ping: cannot resolve developer.worldweatheronline.com: Unknown host

traceroute: unknown host developer.worldweatheronline.com

dig:
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 20383
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;developer.worldweatheronline.com. IN A

;; Query time: 274 msec
;; SERVER: 212.60.61.246#53(212.60.61.246)
;; WHEN: Mon Mar 9 13:22:06 2015
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 58

So, I'm out of ideas and look forward to yours.

Just noting that whenever you use tools like PING and NSLOOKUP you should enter the hostname with a final period like this:

ping developer.worldweatheronline.com.

Otherwise, your DNS client will think that it needs to suffix that with the default domain name for you.  The ending period means "this is all, don't add a suffix".

I'm running the following on my computer:

  c:\> nslookup

> developer.worldweatheronline.com.
Server: mylocal.server.local
Address:  192.168.0.2

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: developer.worldweatheronline.com
Address:  78.137.123.255

> server 212.60.61.246
Default server: ns4.fcom.ch
Address: 212.60.61.246

> set q=ns
> set d=2
> set domain=worldweatheronline.com.
> worldweatheronline.com.
Got answer:
    HEADER:
        opcode = QUERY, id = 4, rcode = REFUSED
        header flags: response, want recursion
        questions = 0, answers = 0, authority records = 0, additional = 0
*** ns4.fcom.ch can't find worldweatheronline.com.: Query refused

I would say that the people there have either failed to setup their named.conf file properly... or they've chosen an interesting (bad) IP address for their server by using what is normally considered a broadcast address of xx.xx.xx.255.  Some computers assume that .255 is a broadcast address and some don't.  This could explain why one client behaves differently from another.

Something else to note is that DNS lookups can sometimes involve three computers:  1) your workstation makes the lookup request from your local router, 2) your router then makes the query on your behalf and uses your address, 3) the distant DNS server then attempts to respond directly to your workstation.  In some cases, this un-initiated inbound attempt for that foreign server to respond directly to you fakes out your firewall so it blocks the response.


Why does Google Chrome require a Force Quit when Restarting OS X I am very rarely able to close Google Chrome on my Macbook Pro without force quitting the application. Is there a way to detect why this is happening?

What Extensions do you have installed in Google Chrome?
Check for updates for Google Chrome - By going to Help > About Google Chrome, and the application will automatically check for updates.

If none of the above work, remove Google Chrome and re-install it (check or any saved passwords etc., before removing Google Chrome).


Running a sudo command on startup I want to run sudo ifconfig lo0 alias someIp every time I open my mac, what would be the best way to achieve this?

You can create a LauchDaemon. LaunchDaemons are processes managed by the launchd service in macOS that are loaded when the system boots. LaunchDaemons can be used to run a program one-time, contiuously or periodically after boot.

Create a file called org.my.ifconfig.plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons/
with the following content and you should be good to go.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.my.ifconfig</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Nice</key>
    <integer>10</integer>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/sbin/ifconfig</string>
      <string>lo0</string>
      <string>alias</string>
      <string>someIp</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Make sure the file is owned by root and in the group wheel, and has the permissions 644: Owner – read/write, group – read, everyone – read

More information can be found at developer.apple.com at Creating Launch Daemons and Agents.


putting a shortcut to dock I created an aliases for a binary file (which runs in terminal) and want to put the aliases (shortcut) to dock. However, I can't drag&drop it to the dock. Is there a way to put the aliases to the dock?

You can put aliases on the Dock to the right of the separator line. Only applications can go left.


Getting notified when my iPhone is found at a different email address? If my iPhone gets stolen and I try to use Find my iPhone while it's off, I am given the option to be notified by email when my iPhone is found.

I believe this sends an email to my iCloud account.

I see 2 problems with this:

Since my iCloud address was automatically set up to receive email on my iPhone, the person who currently has possession of the phone will also be notified when my phone was located. They could then take measures in order to make it harder to find the phone. Ideally they wouldn't get a notification message when my phone is found.
My iPhone was the only place that I used to get my iCloud messages. Right now I would need to manually login to iCloud.com and check the email every so often to see if it's been located. I realize that I could use an application such as Apple's Mail app to check this account automatically, but I am not using Mail right now. I'm using Gmail instead, and would prefer to get the message at my Gmail address.

Is there any way to send the email to a different address and/or bypass these 2 issues after the phone is stolen?

You can setup your gmail account as default iCloud account.

To do this :

Go to settings
Mail Contacts, Calenders option
Add new Email Account
Choose iCloud Account
Choose Get a Free Apple ID
When it asks for Email provide your Gmail Address
It will then pair your email with iCloud account so that you can use it as primary iCloud account
Once setup is done go to iCloud in Settings and change the account from iCloud me address to your newly setup Gmail iCloud Account

Hope it helps :)


I can't play any type of media or hear anything I can't play any type of media or hear anything (with or without head/ear phones) on my iPod Touch 4th gen running on iOS 6.

I press play on the selected item but the play button immediately turns into a pause button.

You have a problem with the Audio chip on the iPod touch. iOS devices use a separate chip for decoding audio files, so that the processor can be put to sleep. The chip can probably decode all supported formats, but it may be optimised for mp3 and m4a. If the audio chip is dead, nothing will work. Movies won’t play because the iPod decodes only the video part (which has a dedicated chip on A5 and later devices) and not the audio.


Why aren't my sent messages from iPad and iPhone syncing? I sent someone a message from my iPad through iMessage and I know that my devices always syncronise my iMessage stuff, so it should have popped up on my iPhone that I sent the message (as both were beside me). However, it didn't pop up on my iPhone - there's no evidence of me ever sending the message - but it's still on as Delivered on my iPad.

Has the message been received or was it glitched and never got to the recipient?

When you send a message from iPhone Messages app, all your messages are texts, but not all your texts are SMS.


In version 5.2 of Apple's Pages app for OS X (Mavericks), how do I change the page layout? I'm trying to adjust a simple template in Pages version 5.2 but can't for the life of my figure out how to change the existing layout such that the text spans the full width of the page.

I've turned on Show Layout and tried adjusting the left Document Margin to 0 but it's still indented by about 4.5cm and that throws the footer and header too far to the left.  The Ruler won't allow me to drag the slider any further left than the edge of the layout.

Changing the Column settings doesn't do it either. My Indents settings are all set to 0. I'm completely at a loss as to how to do this.

I've had no issue changing the top, bottom and right margins, but the left margin seems to have this welded in inset.

The following screen snap of the standard Business Letterhead template (with markup in red) indicates what I am trying to achieve.

My thinking is there is some weird margin applied, but I don't know where it is set. I can not move the blue tip (see image below)

How can the tip to the left be moved? Right now it is 'blocked'.

Note the 'DOCUMENT' icon at the far right of the very top of the document. Click on the Document Icon ... You will see a formatting screen similar to the 'older' inspector. The margin details are below "Document Body"

You need to select text in the body and then change the Document left margin from 2.69 inches to 1 inch.

Also, you might need to remove the left items. Depending on how thorough you want to be, update the body style to match the new definition, but at that point once the left margin is something more sane like 1" - you can fix your indents if desired by dragging the tab stops in the ruler.


How to logout from console and turn into login screen Based on the link, I can login in console mode. And then I can ssh into it from another computer.

If I want to log out the console back to the login screen how can I do that?

If you've enabled Remote Login on the destination host there is no need to login to console mode and logout to the login screen to afterwards ssh to it.

Depending on the users allowed in System Preferences -> Sharing -> Remote Login -> Allow access for: either all or only some of the users can do so after booting to the login screen.


Where does Homebrew install wine? I'd ask this on Homebrew's own community, but it doesn't seem like there is one.

I'm trying to install wine with Homebrew, but it doesn't look like anything's in the right place.

That is, "which wine" returns nothing, and "brew link wine" returns "Error: No such keg: /usr/local/Cellar/wine".

So where did brew install wine to? And where should I put the folder once I find it?

I can post my brew doctor output if you want, but I don't think anything in there was related.

Brew should install the wine in /usr/local/Cellar. Have you ran brew update && brew upgrade wine? I always use the GUI (Wineskin) which can be installed via brew cask. However, I also have the CLI and it works fine.


Stop "...wants to use keychain" password prompts Because of Xcode bug I had to reset my default keychain, and since then I'm getting annoying messages like this:

Here is what does not work:

unlock keychains
reset default keychain
change keychains password
remove ~/Library/Keychains.

It keeps popping once in 15-30 min, sometimes multiple times in a row.

Note that there are no "fix keychain" or "keychain aid" anymore in macOS Sierra Keychain Access app.

Here are two old questions with outdated answers.

I would prefer not to create access exceptions for all items, and it's not allowed for iCloud keychain ("Access for this item cannot be edited").

Your Mac keeps asking for the login keychain password and this means
The password of your macOS user account might not match the password of your login keychain.

It might also tell you that the system was unable to unlock your login keychain. That's because your login keychain is still using another password.

If you don't know your this password, the solution is to create a new login keychain or reset to default.

Open Keychain Access, which is in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder.or Launchpad > Utilities > Keychain Access
From the Keychain Access menu, choose Preferences.
Click General, then click Reset My Default Keychain.
Add your account login password.
Quit Keychain Access then Restart your computer.

  From Apple support

  If you know your old password, use that password to update your existing login keychain:

  Open the Keychain Access app, which is in the the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. or Launchpad > Utilities > Keychain Access
  From the Edit menu, choose “Change Password for Keychain 'login.'”
  Enter the old password of your user account in the Current Password field. This is the password you were using before the password was reset.
  Enter the new password of your user account in the New Password field. This is the password you're now using to log in to your Mac. Enter the same password in the Verify field.
  Click OK when done, then quit Keychain Access.


Where are currently set wallpapers stored in Mountain Lion? I have set a wallpaper to my desktop, now I want to consolidate all my wallpapers into a single folder so the system can cycle through them.

How can I find a currently set wallpaper's location?

Have a look at this hint: http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/20/show-the-location-path-of-current-wallpaper-in-mac-os-x/

You can (temporarily) show the location of the current desktop picture by executing the following command from the Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text -bool TRUE;killall Dock

You can revert this behavior by executing the following:

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


How to set the file order (arrangement) permanently in Finder? I use High Sierra and each time I have to set the file order to "Date modified" but then the next time it defaults back to "None".

Any way to set it permanently for all folders?

All folders except the Applications folder and its sub-folder will maintain your setting for Date Modified if so set in the

  Arrange pull down menu

The Applications folder does not even has such a option.

However, if you're talking about the "Sort By" option, when you're in a folder press command+J to see the View options.

Now go about setting the view options exactly how you'd like them to be. Once completed, click on the Use as Defaults button at bottom centre of the View options window. This will set your configuration as the default for all folders.


Why does this shell-script dim my bash colors? My ~/.bash_profile contains this:

function rgb {
    # https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#8-bit
    let "sum = 16 + 36*$1 + 6*$2 + $3"
    # echo "\[\e[${sum}m\]"
    tput setaf ${sum}
}

  BOLD=$(tput bold)
   DIM=$(tput dim)
 RESET=$(tput sgr0)

BRIGHT=$(rgb 5 5 5)
  BLUE=$(rgb 1 1 5)
YELLOW=$(rgb 4 4 1)

PS1="\n"
PS1+="\[${DIM}\]"
PS1+="\u@"
PS1+="\[${BRIGHT}\]"
PS1+="\h "
PS1+="\[${BLUE}\]"
PS1+="\w "
PS1+="\[${YELLOW}\]"
PS1+="\$(git_branch)"
PS1+="\n"
PS1+="\[${BRIGHT}\]"
PS1+="> "
PS1+="\[${BOLD}\]"

echo ${BOLD}

If I just execute the above as a separate foo.sh file, it leaves my bash window dim:

(Edit: Screenshot fail, . foo.sh behaves the same)

Even upgrading my bash version thru Homebrew fails to shift this.

What's going on?

Because your function told it to do so?

See wikipedia tput page, IBM tput tutorial  & man tput

Google bash prompt & tput and you get quite a few suggestions on how to set up your prompt.

Comment out the function you posted in your ~/.bash_profile.
Start a new terminal. Things should be normal again.


In Mac Excel, how can I replace with newline? In Mac Excel, how can I replace with newline?
Ex:
Finds all
AAA BBB
and replace all with
    AAA
    BBB

Please any help would be highly appreciated.

Manually Adding a Line Break
You can do this by pressing Option Enter at the point you want to insert the line break.
It's best that you format the cell(s) as Text to ensure the best results.

Mass Insert Line Break (a.k.a Search/Replace)
You can do this on a mass basis with Search & Replace.  As before, it's important to format your cells as text.  In the replace field, use the generic formula
="Text1"&CHAR(10)&"Text2"&CHAR(10)"Text3..."

The text to be replaced in quotes (" ")
& as the concat (concatenate) function
CHAR(10) as the symbol for newline

Using this methodology, you can "fix" multiple lines of text (like an address).  See the animation below for an example:


Is there an application that can check for broken aliases in Finder? I use a lot of aliases in my file system. Many original documents are placed in global repositories and I access them by aliases grouped in "tag" folders.

Therefore, when I need to delete such a document, I need to check multiple tag folders to remove the aliases, which pains.

Is there an application that can check for broken aliases in Finder (or preferably, a particular folder)?

File Buddy might solve your problem. According to their website, it can:

  Find empty files and folders, orphaned files, duplicate files, broken aliases, and unused preference files.

The user interface is a little weird, but it does have the functionality to scan either the entire drive or a particular folder, so I think it'll meet your needs.

It costs $39.95, but you can give it a try for 30 days/10 launches for free and see if it works for your situation.


Photo Taking Application with Jokes I plan to get an iPhone, one of the tricks I can think of is to use it to play a joke on my friends.

This is how the joke goes. I would ask my friend to pose for me in the name of testing the quality of the camera. As I snap his/her photos, instead of showing his/her real face, I want the snapshot to be replaced with a picture of a pig (say), or anything that would elicit laughter.

Is there such an app available?

Uff, there are a “lot” of photo + fun applications in the App Store. Here’s a few I’ve tried:

Face Substitution
Swap Faces: Very funny (has a Lite version)
Face It: Allows you to add overlays of things (glasses, mustaches, etc)
Face Melter: allows you to deform a face (it makes you laugh a lot to be honest)

I have performed a “Face” search in the AppStore for iPhone apps and there are quite a lot, I suggest you take a look at those.


Can I set up quotas on my Time Capsule? I have got the mid 2013 AirPort Time Capsule. Is it possible to set it up so that each user has a certain quota on the device? Either that, or even limit the size of the Time Machine data sets, so that I can allocate a bit for auxiliary data storage?

Whilst you can't restrict the size of Time Machine backups on a Time Capsule, you can reserve space for other files and Time Machine will expand to the remaining space.

Open Disk Utility and go to File → New → Blank Disk Image….
Give the image a file name, then select the options that you would like at the bottom of the window. Here you set the size that you want to reserve for other files.

The others should be set to default (but you can have a custom name).
Select your Time Capsule → Share as the destination for this image.
Click Create.

You can then store any files you wish inside this disk image and Time Machine will not intrude upon the space you selected when you created the image. You can change the size of the image later if you have sufficient space using the Resize button in Disk Utility.


How can I use Gmail to sync my calendar between Mac OS X and Android? I've recently bought an HTC Desire and I'd like to sync my calendar from my MacBook Pro (Os X 10.6.6) with the calendar from the phone. I suppose it would be easiest to do it over Gmail, but I'm not sure how. I checked their site, and there is a simple tutorial how to do it if you want Gmail calendar events in iCal, but I need the opposite. How to do that?

The approach I took was to sync my phone with the gmail calendar and then sync iCal with google calendar. I don't sync directly between phone and mac.

I can add events on all three now and it will sync between all of them.

edit: I've been asked to post up a screengrab, but it honestly isn't needed. I've seen the guides on setting up CalDav but it's honestly not required, iCal has a really simply method to add an account which makes it extremely simple to do.

Launch iCal
Go to File -> Preferences
Delete any accounts you think you might have set up incorrectly
Add an account with the + button
Leave the account type as Automatic
Enter your google email address
Enter your google password

That is IT! I have a personal and work calendar on google calendar and it brought both in.


Why is my iPhone screen stuck on the 'connect to iTunes' screen? I need help with my iPhone. It's stuck on the 'connect to iTunes' screen.

iTunes does recognize the iPhone, but when I select 'restore', it goes through a few progress bars, then errors again. I've already tried to hard reset the phone, but that doesn't work either.

Please note that the instructions I am giving are assuming you are using an English copy of Windows, since I do not have a Mac and therefore do not have much experience with them.  However, the steps will be very similar, and I will try to note where things might be different for Mac OS X.

First, check all of the following:

Make sure your copy of iTunes is up-to-date. In Windows, open iTunes, click "Help", then "Check for Updates".
Make sure you are connected to the internet and the connection is reliable.  iTunes contacts Apple several times during the restore procedure, and if iTunes fails to get a response during one of these check-ins, the restore will fail.
Make sure you are using the correct version of iTunes for your system.  If you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, you will need to install the 64-bit version of iTunes.  If you have Windows XP, you need the normal 32-bit version. If you have Vista or Windows 7, click the start orb, right-click computer, then click "Properties". In the "System" section, look for the line that starts with "System Type". If it says 32-bit, use the normal iTunes installer. If it says "64-bit Operating System", download the 64-bit version of iTunes from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1047  (If you have trouble determining whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit copy of Windows installed, try installing iTunes using http://www.ninite.com and it will automatically download the right version)
Delete the restore files from your computer. In Windows, press WindowsKey+R, type '%appdata%\apple computer\itunes' then delete the folders iPod Software Update and iPhone Software update if they exist.  If you are using OS X, the folder should be ~/Library/iTunes/.
If it still isn't working, uninstall iTunes, reboot, then install iTunes again, then reboot again.

If none of the above work, do the following to place your iPhone into DFU mode.  Some people have better luck with restoring with this method.

Plug the iPhone into the computer, and wait for it to be recognized in iTunes.
Press and hold the home and sleep buttons.
As soon as the iPhone screen goes blank, count to six seconds. At six, release the sleep button, and continue holding the home button.
You should see or hear the new hardware notification on your computer. When you do, you can release the home button.  If the new hardware notification, wait until iTunes recognizes it and tells you it found an iPhone in restore mode.
The iPhone screen should be blank. If it shows the "Connect to iTunes" screen, unplug it, then try again from step 1.


Renewed Apple developer account with wrong credit card I paid my Apple developer account membership (renew) order with my brothers credit card. What to do? Can I cancel this order and renew again with my credit card?

There isn't any issue if the payment has made though and your account is renewed. You can simply pay back your brother :)

In theory you should be able to contact Apple Developer support and ask for a cancellation, but since you said you wish to renew anyways, I don't think it is necessary. If you are concerned that your card may get charged by Apple Developer for some developer service, be assured that there's no other charges associated with Apple Developer Program membership, that may get billed on your card without your consent.

Next year, when renewing, you can use your card again. Please note not to use your brother's card again without thinking twice!

It is possible to change the payment method associated with your Apple ID anytime.


How do delete pictures from the iPhone 4S camera roll but still keep them in my album? I made albums for my pictures and want to keep them in the albums and delete them from the camera roll.  When I try to delete the pictures from the camera roll it says it will delete from everywhere. Then I no longer have them in the albums.

Download your photos to your computer and put them in albums in iPhoto (or whatever photo software you use). Then sync those albums back to the phone using iTunes.

I don't think there's a no-PC solution to this yet.


Audio out of sync in Final Cut Pro I have converted my video files from .MTS to ProRes (Proxy). When I play them back in QuickTime everything is fine. When I import them into Final Cut pro, they start getting out of sync with the audio at the end of the clip (they're about 20 minuts long).

I'm at a loss why this is happening. There is no problem in QuickTime. Why would there be in Final Cut Pro. Final Cut tells me that all files are 48,0KHz, 16-bit integer.

What do the original files show up as in a media app such as VLC? Does this info match what Final Cut says about the ProRes copy? The video frame rate, audio sample rate, and other information should match exactly.  Then, your FCP sequence settings should be identical.

Another way to address small sync drifts is to razor-cut the audio and manually re-establish sync a few times on the project.


iPhone "software" vs. "hardware" keyboard layout? I'm a bit confused. In the keyboard settings of my iPhone are two options:
"sofware keyboard layout" and "hardware keyboard layout"

But what is the latter? Isn't they keyboard totally "software"? What does it mean?
And why do I need it?

With iOS 4 and above, you can pair a Bluetooth keyboard to the phone. That's the hardware keyboard for which you'd be specifying the layout.


iPhone backup or sync issue "unknown error occurred (-50)" I recently switched from iCloud backup to backing up to my computer since the iOS 8 update seems to have doubled the size of my backup and it no longer fits on iCloud.

When backing up to my computer by pushing "Back Up Now" in iTunes, I get an error message:

  The iPhone 'X' cannot be synced. An unknown error occurred (-50)

The last backup time does change, and it isn't saying that the backup failed, but it is odd that I get that error every time.

I am telling it to not backup any of the apps, because I don't want all that dead space on my laptop. The error seems to happen after the backup and when the sync process changes to "Transferring purchases from X"

I searched around and wasn't able to find a satisfying definition of error -50 does anyone know what it is?

I got this error just now. My Mac mini was connected to my LAN via WiFi and also via Ethernet. That was working ok, but I was trying to get the phone to sync via Wifi (still can't get that working).

Anyway, I pulled out the Ethernet cable. Plugged the phone in via USB and when I clicked Sync I got the (-50) error you describe.

My solution was to exit iTunes, and then launch it again. This was enough to get the phone syncing with no error.


Install Mac OS X via network across different subnets We have more than 70 subnets and lots of switches. I want to install Mac OS X to client computers. By the way the computer may have an operating system installed or not. I want to put an Apple Server in one place and all clients install Mac OS X from there. In the local network everything is fine but in a different subnet net install does not work. I searched some techniques but I think they are not for us.
For example my Mac OS server's IP is 10.10.4.40  and the destination computer's IP is 10.10.12.23

Also our switches' configs are fine for netboot/netinstall (portfast and etc.)
But our technicians says "Computer cannot see the OS X Server".

I also read bootpd, Apple shell script solution vs. but the main problem is destination computer may not have operating system.

Please give me easy way to do it.

I'm late to this party but @klanomath's comments are correct- you probably need to open the network ports. If you can see the images on the local network but not the remote network then it's likely the traffic isn't making it through.

Watch the server's system.log file for messages like this from bootpd:

BSDP INFORM [en0] 1,0:1b:63:39:d0:9f NetBoot024 arch=i386 sysid=iMac5,2

Or get a packet trace from the server:

sudo tcpdump -i en0 -s 0 -B 524288 -w ~/Desktop/NetBoot.pcap

I usually open them in Wireshark and filter for "bootp or tftp" to see how far things get. If there isn't any bootp traffic from that client then something on the network is probably blocking it.


Is it possible to use Apple remote desktop to macOS High Sierra and disable the screen on the remote station? I don't know about you, but for me it seems a trivial thing to do if I were an Apple engineer. Microsoft does it perfectly.

My question is why can't I remote to a far macOS High Sierra station and don't show my work with the people sitting next to me.

As Allan said in a comment, Apple Remote Desktop supports this functionality with the Curtains command, so if you're using a third-party client to access your computer with the Apple Remote Desktop protocol it's up to that client to provide a way for you to activate that feature.

If you're accessing a MacBook using its built-in display, you could always simply decrease the brightness to zero. Technically the display is still active, but it's practically impossible to see in most conditions. You can also do this for an iMac, though the backlight does not dim fully. You can do this in System Preferences > Displays, if you can't send the key commands to decrease brightness.


Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable vs. adapter - for MBP mid-2012 I've been using a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter to connect to an external monitor for over a year. It stopped working yesterday and I am about to replace it. However, I noticed there are Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables on Amazon, as well. The cable's length, either 3 or 6 feet, may be useful to me. That said, I have 2 HDMI cables already, so getting another cable may just be a waste of space (pricing is roughly the same, as far as I can tell).

So, what difference, if any, is there between the Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter vs. the Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable? Thank you.

The only difference is that with the adapter you can use an existing HDMI cable you might have, and thus save some cost and have flexibility in changing the length of the cable later.


MacBook Air forgotten password I last used my MacBook Air November 2016.  OS was up to date at that time.  I have forgotten my login PW (though I am pretty sure I know what it was). I am unable to reset login PW.  It is not part of my Apple ID linked hardware.  My disc is encrypted. I believe that is why no disc options are given to reboot and then change PW.

There are two ways to go... The way where you get your data back, and the way where you lose everything. Assuming you were using FireVault for your disk encryption,
Reset using your Recovery Key (FileVault must be on)
If FileVault is turned on and you have a FileVault Recovery Key, you can use that key to reset your password.
At the login screen, keep entering a password until you see a message saying that you can reset your password using your Recovery Key. If you don't see the message after three attempts, FileVault isn't on.
Click the arrow button next to the message. The password field changes to a Recovery Key field.
Enter your Recovery Key, then follow the onscreen instructions to create a new password. Click Reset Password when done.
Create a new login keychain
Or
Wipe Everything
Boot into Mac Recovery Mode ⌘ + ⇧ + R.
Open the Terminal from the Utilities menu
Type resetpassword
A window should pop up to assist you...


Why does CMD+1 work if using my top row numkeys, but not my right-side NumPad? Mac I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, like CMDkey + 1. However, that 1 has to be from my top row numeric keys. If I try using CMDkey plus a number from the NumPad on the right side of my keyboard - this fails. Even though when I plainly type numbers, my NumPad will type the number just like my top row numeric keys.

Why does CMD+1 work if using my top row numkeys, but not my right-side NumPad?

I'm the kind of person who loves numberpads, but after transitioning to Macbook pro, there's a thing.

You see, we all know that Macbooks are made simplistic and adaptable, but it's also similar to Windows keyboard in a way.
Do you ever use a Ctrl+1 from a numberpad? no. You use it on the number row.
You might've saw my mistake here. Normally there is no Ctrl+1 on Windows unless programmed to do so.

But imagine it like Ctrl+F1 -  F1 is on the top. So as Macbook keyboards do. But Macs hardly use the F keys unless fn is held. Imagine holding that everytime you need to do an action. Fussy fussy. So they use the numbers in the number row instead of the F keys.

So the default and easier way is to use the number row instead of the number pad, so that it acts like the F keys on Windows.  - That's the way of the Apple, easy to use and beautiful looking!

I guess you could program the Mac to use a different shortcut, as mentioned here in Lifehacker or iDownloadblog


Download icon gone in Safari after update I updated to Safari Version 13.0.4 on my Mac, but now my downloads icon is gone from my toolbar. There ARE items in the downloads folder, so that is not the problem. In fact, I just downloaded a couple things to see.

I have tried to customize the toolbar, but Downloads is not in there as an option.

Any ideas how to get this back?

The Downloads icon disappears when you clear out the downloaded items from the list. To make sure it stays quasi-permanently, go to Safari Preferences > General > Remove History items and set it to Manually.

This way, as long as you keep at least one item in the list of downloads, the icon will stay in the toolbar. Setting it to Manually ensures that the other settings - After one day|one week|two weeks|one month|one year - will not clear out the list without user intervention.


Is iOS 12 still supported? Now that iOS 13 is out, and iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 won't be getting it - does this mean that the phones are no longer supported?

Should these devices be considered past their end-of-life? I know that Apple released a iOS 12 security update alongside iOS13, but will that continue to happen?

Is there a way to find out the security status of each iOS/iPhone release?

There's a difference between hardware support (new battery, replacement screen, etc) and software support.

Typically, Apple provides hardware support for 5 years after manufacture on their products.

The iPhone 5S is not currently listed as 'vintage'. However, it's possible the list may be updated shortly, as the phone was discontinued 5 years ago.
The iPhone 6 was discontinued 2 years ago, so will still receive hardware support until 2022.

As for software support: obviously, the devices will not be offered new OS updates, but in the event of a major security flaw, they may receive a patch to fix the problem.

The phones will of course continue to work as they are. Apps will not be updated if they require newer OS versions than are present.


Every time I press enter in the terminal it says Karans-MacBook-Air:~ karanmunjal$. How do I fix this? My name is Karan and so obviously the laptop is named Karans MacBook Air but I dont think it should show up every time I press enter. Please tell me how to fix this!

Right now, it is showing you the default prompt, which is your computer name, current directory and the username.

export PS1="$" or export PS1="\w $" or similar (see https://ss64.com/bash/syntax-prompt.html)

should relieve you. If you're  convinced, append your custom command to ~/.bash_profile and reopen Terminal.

Other than that, pressing enter is actually running an empty command, so after completion, the prompt returns to receive further ones. That is expected behaviour.

Just in case, you want to edit computer name, Go to System Preferences -> Sharing and edit it under Computer Name.


How can I get my 13 inch MBP (A1425) to display 4k? I just got this monitor, http://www.amazon.com/Seiki-SE39UY04-39-Inch-Ultra-120Hz/dp/B00DOPGO2G

When I  plug it into my MBP's HDMI port, the highest resolution I can choose on it under the "scaled" option is 1080p. Why is this? I've upgraded OSX to 10.9.3 but it has not helped me at all. Any ideas? I've also tried using a thunderbolt to hdmi adapter but that didn't work either.

Straight from the Apple Spec Sheet for that model:

  Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, at millions of colors

Looks like that model does not support 4K displays


Sharing a video from Photos, Yosemite I filmed a video on my iPhone 5, the synced my phone with my computer, and the video was put into my photo library. I want to share this video on Facebook, but whenever I click on share >> Facebook, Photos says 'exporting files to be shared' and after about 25 minutes or so (the video is 2.6gb, its a 22 minute video) Photos finishes 'exporting' and then doesn't do anything. I don't get an alert telling me anything at all.

Facebook has a limit of 1 Gig or 20 minutes Video.

Also RECOMMEND uploading video files in .MP4 format.

So you definitely need to cut back.


How do I edit keyboard shortcuts in Nano? Is there a way to edit the keyboard shortcuts in Nano?

I would like to change Move to next word from Right (Ctrl + Space) and Left (Alt + Space),
to Alt + ← or →.

According to this thread on AskUbuntu, one should be able to edit /etc/nanorc. However, on my OS X computer, that file is empty except for this line:

set nowrap

Assuming that this is the only file there is, how could I override the keyboard settings here?

If you install a more up-to-date version of nano, it has improved keyboard navigation. In nano 2.7, the move word shortcut is ctrl+left/right. So you might not even need to do keybindings if you are satisfied with ctrl instead of alt.

Install homebrew: https://brew.sh/
Install nano: brew install nano

If you really want alt, then keep reading.

If using Mac Terminal, you will need to enable the Use Option as Meta key setting. Otherwise the alt key won't work.
/etc/nanorc might be ignored, depending on the flags when your nano was compiled. You can use ~/.nanorc instead, that will work for sure.
Add these lines to ~/.nanorc. (It seems that nanorc does not allow left/right arrows for keybindings, so I chose , and . since they are the same keys as < and >.

bind M-, prevword main
bind M-. nextword main

Now alt+, and alt+. will move to prev/next words.

You can find the full list of commands here: https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/v2.7/nanorc.5.html#REBINDING%20KEYS . (You may want to find the exact version of your nano if not v2.7).


Does CapsLock to Escape remapping in System Preference work? I remapped my CapsLock to Escape in System Preferences, but it doesn't work.
I had to install Karabiner and remap it using that.
Is there a way to just remap CapsLock using just the settings without installing a third party software?

This isn't reproducible, it seems to work just fine.


How to redirect out going traffic to an IP address to another host name? How can I redirect an IP say 203.130.48.8-bj-cnc or 203.130.48.8 to Google.com in host file (or other places)?

It looks like host file doesn't redirect an ip address (only the domain names).

You don't specify whether you want to block incoming traffic from that host name or outgoing or both. You also don't mention what version of Mac OS X you are running and whether or not you are trying to block that host with a specific application like Little Snitch or similar. Some logs would be helpful as well. Consult this page to help you formulate better questions for the community to be able to answer.

203.130.48.8-BJ-CNC is a valid hostname according to IETF standard RFC 952.

  A "name" (Net, Host, Gateway, or Domain name) is a text string up
  to 24 characters drawn from the alphabet (A-Z), digits (0-9), minus
  sign (-), and period (.).

To block outgoing traffic to it, use the hostname in your /etc/hosts file like so:

127.0.0.1    203.130.48.8-bj-cnc

Then do:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

to load the new rules.

If you want to be able to block outgoing traffic to the actual ip address of the machine you'll need to use Mac's builtin packet filter (originally from OpenBSD's excellent PF. A pf.conf rule would look like this:

block out log quick on $ext_if proto { tcp, udp, icmp } to 203.130.48.8

Blocking incoming traffic from that ip is generally handled just fine by using Mac OS X's default application firewall in  -> System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Firewall. Alternatively you can set the policy via the commandline like so:

sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --setblockall on

for thoroughness, you may also want to block all icmp requests:

sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --setstealthmod on

and finally enable it thus:

sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --setglobalstate on


Safe Mac-bundles up-to-date? I like the idea of mac bundles where a group of awesome apps are offered in a very good price. I did bought some bundles before and I would like to know, which is the safiest way of tracking such as bundles deals?

I bought 2 bundles, and both was article in apple/mac blogs. So is any website keeping track of mac bundles, but bundles that are not scams/fake/virus etc.

Cheers.

I haven't followed them for a while, so I don't know if they reliably catch all the bundles, but I followed http://dealmac.com back in the day.

They track lots of hardware deals and some software.


Can I edit the “Release Date” field of podcasts in iTunes? My workaround for iTunes automatically assigning hollow star ratings to new podcast episodes has an unfortunate side-effect: after dragging the podcast files back into iTunes, they not longer have their “Release Date” field populated, meaning they can’t be sorted in release date order. (Which gives my tiny little mind the heebie-jeebies.)

I can figure out what the release date was for these podcasts, but iTunes won’t let me amend this field via the UI.

Is there any way I can edit the value of this field?

Best I can tell, the answer is a resounding “no” — at least without deleting your iTunes Library .itl file.


iOS Messages not repeating alert notifications I'm using an iPhone 11 on iOS 13.0.

When I receive a text message, my iPhone doesn't repeat the notification alert, despite the Repeat Alerts option being set to Once.

These are my configurations under Settings > Notifications > Messages:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210393#132

iOS update 13.2 fixes this issue.


MacBook Pro SSD - Very High Wear_Leveling_Count Value? I have a 512GB Samsung SSD in a 2014 MacBook Pro that I purchased new around 2 months ago. I installed Smartmontools via Homebrew to take a look at some of the SSD health / SMART data. Everything looks fine for the most part, but one thing that I'm not understanding is the Wear_Leveling_Count which currently has a value of 12895125514.

This really isn't my area of expertise but I thought Wear_Leveling_Count was typically reported as either a percentage (indicating the life remaining according to the endurance specifications of the manufacturer), or as a raw P/E cycle count. In either case, the value I'm getting seems extremely high.

Does anybody know what's going on here? Am I misinterpreting / misunderstanding something here? Could this potentially be a bug in Smartmontools or the SSD firmware? Smartmontools is also reporting the Wear_Leveling_Count ID as 173 when it should be 177 shouldn't it?

As I mentioned, I'm a bit of a novice in this particular area so any info / suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Update: I came across this reddit thread regarding Wear_Leveling_Count: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/31btmz/what_is_your_177_wear_leveling_count/

About halfway down the page there's a Samsung XP941 user (which I believe is the same SSD used in the 2014 MacBook Pro). He reports a Wear_Leveling_Count value of 197, which is much more in line with what I'd expect. It also looks like the Wear_Leveling_Count ID should indeed be 177 (as I mentioned, I get an ID of 173). This makes me think it might be some sort of OS X / Apple specific bug.

Does anybody know if Samsung does something different to the SSDs they manufacture for Apple? Smartmontools reports the SSD as an APPLE SSD SM0512F (which as I mentioned, is supposedly just a Samsung XP941). Could something unique to Apple SSDs be confusing Smartmontools?

Thanks

I don't know either how exactly to interpret the RAW_VALUE column (the big number in the final column of the line starting with "173 Wear_Leveling_Count"), but the most significant values in that line are columns VALUE and THRESH.

As long as VALUE stays well above THRESH, your disk should not be approaching its specified end of life yet. I believe the initial value on a fresh disk is 200. When it hits 100 (my value for THRESH), it will have performed as many erase cycles as guaranteed by the manufacturer. After that you're running on borrowed time. On my (relatively lightly used) MacBook Pro, VALUE is 0197, meaning I am perhaps 3% into the life of the drive.

For what it's worth, my RAW_VALUE is 12,891,062,312, a little lower than your value of 12,895,125,514 and about 1/1000 of 12,567,284,681,697 (VALUE: 093) and 13,031,154,781,293 (VALUE: 87) reported in one of the other answers.

For information, the file system seems have written 5.4 TB on my machine so far:

175 Host_Writes_MiB         0x0022   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       5445917

What matters for the actual life of the drive is not the data logically written by the file system but the actual internal write cycles, which can be significantly different. However, if what I have written so far is about 1/30 of its lifetime limit, that would be about 160 TB which sounds about right for a 256 GB drive like mine.


iTunes Match: What do these symbols mean in iTunes? I've noticed that on some compilations I own, the following can be seen:

According to this question the two symbols mean "Duplicate" and "Available for Download".

Why would iTunes do this? It appears it's saying the song is not eligible for iTunes Match, but then is offering me to download it (presumably from iTunes Match).

Very confusing!

It seems you have 2 copies of that song on your local library. One of them was uploaded/matched on iTunes Match and the other wasn't because it is a duplicate. The one with the duplicate icon is the duplicate and the one with the download icon is the one available in iTunes Match.


Can Mail fetch email signature set using Google Mail? My organisation's people use a mixture of Apple Mail and Gmail.com as a client for our Gmail addresses. We use a GSuite app to set peoples' Gmail signatures, which works great for those sending email from Gmail.com, but the signature is not 'imported' by Apple Mail. This means people have to manually copy their Gmail signature into the Apple Mail signature preferences. Is there any way to remedy this?

I understand that this may not be a shortcoming of Apple Mail, but a shortcoming of Gmail.

I ended up using Outlook Desktop as it allows me to copy/paste the GSuite signature.
With the Apple Mail is a pain to resize the images and you just cannot float them.

I opened a tread on Apple Community: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250552009 and I hope to receive a reply.

But I believe there is no easy way out. You cannot copy/paste or import signature from GSuite and you might need to edit everything.

Very silly.


Boot Camp 6 update won't install on Windows 10 Using Apple Software Update gets an installer error when trying to update Boot Camp from 5.1 to 6.0 on a MacBook Pro retina laptop running Windows 10. Also tried downloading the Boot Camp drivers directly from Boot Camp Assistant and get the same errors (see screenshot).

The first error is an installer error; if I click Close the program, then I see and empty error message.

Any idea how to resolve this?

It has been a while sine I tried this so my apologies if it is a little vague... But the actual Windows drivers are inside the BootCamp package. In a zip file if memory serves.

Right-click on the bootcamp app and look for the drivers zip file (should be obvious which one it is.) and copy it out.

Put it in a place that your Win 10 installation can see it, boot into windows, copy the file over, open it up and install the drivers. One at a time if necessary in Windows.


How to reset Wi-Fi location history If I have understood correctly, iPhones use Wi-Fi points to locate themselves more quickly.

I was working in one location and my company has now moved to a different location. I guess they brought the Wi-Fi equipment with them. When I now open Google Maps, it locates me at the location where my company was before we moved. Even when I switch of my Wi-Fi, it seems to think I am at this other location. This is Extremely annoying.

Is there a way to fix this? Can I reset the cache or Wi-Fi location history or something like that?

What you are referring to is called A-GPS (a for assisted)

I would try to Reset Network Settings.


How to set a fixed title for a terminal in Mac? I am working a lot with terminals in a Mac with OS 10.13.6 and I want to set a title of a terminal (I have several terminal tabs open).

I know that I can select the tab, go to Shell -> Edit Title and set the title of the terminal.

However, when I - for example - run a command, login to some other computer etc. - that title is always overwritten.

How can I have a FIXED title for a Terminal Tab FOR ALL TIMES (except I turn off/reboot the laptop)?

Complete example so that my question is REALLY understood:

I open a terminal in the Mac
In the manu of the Terminal I select Shell -> Edit Title and change the title:
The title of the tab is like I want it:
In that terminal I start ipython (AS AN EXAMPLE!!!).
The title has been changed. This NOT what I want!
I still want the title to be 'Test Title'.

Open the Preferences for terminal app
Select the profile in use
Select "tab" pane on the right
Uncheck everything except Show activity indicator

Repeat the above for Window title if you want that to change in addition to the tab title. Now, you will only get the defaults when you make new tabs/windows and your manual changes will persist and not reflect the variables that endeavor to provide status each time the command line prompt is regenerated.


Hiding email address associated with Apple ID when using iMessage When sending an iMessage to a recipient, they see the email address associated with the sender's Apple ID. As a sender, is it possible to hide the email from the receiver, instead having the parties refer to each other using only a phone number?

You can choose which ID (phone number or Apple ID email) to use when starting a new iMessage conversation.

To configure, on your iPhone, go to Settings app → Messages → Send & Receive and under Start New Conversations From, select the phone number instead of email addresses associated with your Apple ID.


I have 2 pc servers in My network that I can't find a way to get rid of I have 2 pc servers that show in My network that I can't find a way to get rid of. They are.. home_network_ga and zoey ..Zoey is the name of My computer. If I delete the SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server.plist they disappear for a few minutes after I restart then returns. I have a Macbook Pro A1260 with El Capitan. Anyone got any ideas? Thanks!

You need to disable Bonjour.  Disabling Bonjour client services is not supported through the OS GUI.

See http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20050707222434355

Searching for "osx disable Bonjour client services" might turn up some helpful answers.


Can I enlarge the EFI Partition? And if so how? I've been searching for this forever...
By default EFI partition on Mac is 200 MB.
I have a special Windows 10 image (enterprise compilation) I would like to install on the Boot Camp partition, which requires that the EFI partition be 500 MB due to the image installer boot.wim file size, which is 290 MB.

The way I tried to do this is first install MS Windows 10 image downloaded from MS website by using Boot Camp Assistant to create and prepare Windows partition, then startup from the USB drive that includes the Windows 10 Enterprise image, deploy the image on top of the Windows partition, and reboot starting up from Windows to continue installation, but because I cannot copy boot.wim file onto the EFI partition, the deployment process cannot continue.

I've been trying different methods to change EFI partition size, using diskpart when starting up from the USB drive with the Windows image, or diskutil when starting up from macOS.
None of which allowed me to resize the EFI partition:

With diskutil I get: "File system format does not support resizing".
With diskpart I get: "You may not extend OEM, ESP, or recovery partitions".

Is EFI partition resizing even possible?

Due to the fact that this is a relatively new Mac, I don't think I'll have any problem reformatting the drive for this to work, and reinstall Sierra from the Recovery Mode, if necessary (Of course if it's possible to change the partition size without losing data, that's the best solution).

I used Rod Smith answer and comments @ https://superuser.com/questions/1142967/can-i-enlarge-mac-efi-partition-and-if-so-how and understood that the EFI partition does not have to be the first partition on the drive.
So basically I performed the following procedure:

Marked the EFI partition as normal data partition
Created another 500MB partition, marked it as EFI
Installed the OS and moved the boot.wim to the new EFI and let the deployment procedure complete
After the deployment completed I marked the old partition back to EFI and deleted the new partition I created, and voila! the OS deployed successfully and the drive returned to its original state


How to change the Siri icon on macOS Catalina? Does anybody know how to change the Siri icon on macOS? I am using macOS Catalina. I have changed the default icon in the Launchpad, but the main icon, Siri.icns found in ~/Appications/Siri.app/Contents/Resources, has not been changed. Help would be much appreciated. If feeling confused as to the question, look at the attached images :
PS: This is macOS Catalina, just changed the icons to make it look like macOS Big Sur.
Launchpad:

MenuBar:

Try this method
Open finder
Make a duplicate of Siri app
In duplicate find Siri.icns delete this
Prepare .icns file with your custom icon (you can find this in google already in .icns format or convert another format to .icns using converter
Drop it at the same folder where you remove Siri icon
Rename it as „Siri“ if it isn’t already named „Siri“
!! Important step! Delete your duplicate Siri app name and set another don’t use „Siri“ name
In order remove Siri from dock and drag and drop your new Siri to dock


Bootcamp stuck in Windows I have a Bootcamp partition with Windows 8.1 that I rarely use. Last night I was in OSX, closed the lid, and when I opened it this morning it was in Windows and I cannot get out.

Booting with the option key down does nothing (still boots straight to Windows)
Going to Advanced Boot Options in Windows shows Mac OS X as an alternative boot device, but when I choose it and reboot, it still goes into Windows.
I've read that holding X on boot forces to OS X - never heard of that before, but also tried it with the same results as above.

I've reached the end of what I know how to do - other troubleshooting paths to take?

The Mac hardware stores the boot volume in NVRAM so you could power off the computer and then reset things by holding the Command Option P R keys down.

Once you've heard two boot chimes you can release things and if the Mac OS X volume is viable it will boot first. If that doesn't work then it's likely that the OS X volume has issues and the system is failing to boot there and falling back to the second viable OS - Windows.

You might be able to see that in the console if you boot verbose or single user mode.

The official fix at that point would be to boot into Recovery and then see about repairing or reinstalling OS X.

OS X: About OS X Recovery - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718


Uninstalling Java 6 to replace with Java 8 Every single time I try to install the Oracle Java Runtime Environment... I keep being stuck with Apple's Java 6. I have no idea how Apple's Java 6 ended up on my computer in the first place.

I keep putting "java -version" into the terminal and it comes out telling me I'm still running 6...

How do I remove Java 6? All I want to do is manage to run a Minecraft server, but it demands Java 8.

(I'm running Mac OS X Yosemite, in case that is relevant, because I can't find any up-to-date tutorials on how to do this)

Thanks in advance.

If you want to remove Java 6... From How to properly uninstall Java 6 on OSX?, do the following:

  Remove the "system" JVM installed and maintained by Software Update

% sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk

  Remove any Java Developer Previews

% sudo rm -rf /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0*.jdk

  Do NOT remove any content in the JavaVM.framework. Those items are
  required by Java 7, 8, 9+ as well as Java SE 6. No modern version of
  OS X has a Java JDK inside there anyway.

Then to have Java 8 run from the Terminal when using java -version you need to install the JDK not JRE.

Note: I've tested the instructions here under OS X 10,10.3 and it works however maybe you had installed Java 6 for use by some application that needed it, as an example I installed Apples Java 6 to run muCommander however it will run under Java 8 too.


NeoOffice pay version vs free version Do you know if there are any features included in NeoOffice from AppStore but not included in the free version? I suppose not, because as OpenOffice is free software, NeoOffice must be too, so they should release their full work for free.

From their website:

  NeoOffice 2014.1 Free Edition has the same features as NeoOffice in Apple's Mac App Store.
  The only difference is that NeoOffice 2014.1 Free Edition cannot save documents.

The open source license that is used for the NeoOffice source code (GPL) doesn't require that the software be provided for free. It just requires that the source code be made available for free. NeoOffice do offer their source free, but it obviously requires a certain amount of skill and time to compile.


What makes autofill not appear as a sync option in iTunes 11? I’m unable to use Autofill to add songs in iTunes 11 and I’d really like to use it.
Following the help guide in iTunes, it says I should be able to see an “Autofill from” pop-up menu at the bottom of the music pane:

Unfortunately, this is what I see instead:

Attempting to set my iPhone to have music be manually added also seems like a no-go:

Any ideas how I could see that Autofill pop-up menu?

I figured it out with some help from Jesse at the Ottawa Apple Store:

If your iPhone has iTunes Match turned on, you’re not able to manually manage your music. In order to set how much space you want to use on your device for music, you’ve got to first turn iTunes Match off, set your space requirements in the Autofill section, and then turn iTunes Match back on.

Good times…


Once I set up AppleTV to to play My Photo stream photos, can it update the photo stream automatically (or even manually)? I have an Apple TV 2 that I set up to use a screen Saver of My Photo Stream ( Settings > Screen Saver > Photos > My Photo stream )

it appears to have imported what it claims are 379 photos from my Apple photo stream on the day I set it up -- 11/16. However, it does not seem to update the photos ever, even though the device is connected to the internet.

when I go to the settings, I can see the photo stream from that date

is it possible to have the apple TV continually update my photo stream? And/or it is possible to update it manually myself. I don't see a way to even update it manually myself

For some strange reason as I was going to ask this question the Apple TV photo stream updated itself and it now says "Today 4:57 PM" with 374 photos

I don't really have an explanation other than I went to the settings and click in it & back maybe once or twice.


How to decide which files from iCloud Drive are stored on iPhone? I recently looked into the composition of the files stored on my iPhone (XS, 64GB internal storage capacity, iOS 14.0, Apple Family Sharing activated with iCloud 200 GB storage plan).
Since I have almost depleted the free storage capacity of my iPhone, I wanted to do some optimisations and saw that 1.5 GB was taken by iCloud Drive. I have roughly 58/64GB used in total.
As I understood, ‘iCloud Drive’ as mentioned in the ‘iPhone storage’ overview (settings > general > iPhone storage) comprises of all files I have saved in my iCloud which are downloaded onto my phone.
Currently I have 13GB of files in my iCloud (ie what is shown at iCloud > manage storage > iCloud Drive).
I know that the most recent files I have used of iCloud Drive are stored on my iPhone. But how can I decide which ones to keep there? Can’t I manage which files to always keep on my phone and maybe even limit how much in total can be saved by iCloud Drive on my phone?

Folder or file level of granularity is not available today in iOS iCloud settings or Files apps.


Only seeing the wrong AirPlay device I'm in a hotel equipped with Apple TVs and I can see my neighbor's Apple TV on AirPlay. I cannot, however, see the Apple TV in my own room. I went through the Apple TV settings and performed the following steps:

Double checked the network: both my MacBook and the Apple TV are on the same wireless network with a strong signal.
Confirmed Apple TV configuration:

AirPlay On
Conference Room Display Off
Play from iTunes in the Cloud Off
Apple TV Name Apple TV 808
Security Off

Restarted the Apple TV via Settings > General > Restart

But I can still only see my neighbor's Apple TV in the AirPlay Selector on my MacBook:

What, if any, further debugging steps can I try?

I don't have an Apple TV in front of me to direct you to the exact place for this, but I'd trouble-shoot this like any networking discovery issue. Make sure your computer's subnet and the subnet of your Apple TV are the same. The hotel may have it configured strangely.

To get your computer's subnet go to System Preferences > Network > Wifi and click the Advanced button then go to the TCP/IP tab. Your Subtnet Mask is shown there and it should match the one the Apple TV is using.

Also (if possible) try and ensure your Apple TV and your Mac are both updated to the latest software available. Apple's support pages also recommend resetting the Apple TV, but I understand that may not be possible in a hotel.

Honestly your best bet is to contact the hotel front desk, since they will be able to do more advanced resets if needed and change the subnet as well.


Persistent "You got a mail." dialog Last evening my iPhone began to exhibit very odd behavior. Every few minutes (whether awake or asleep) a dialog appears saying that "You got a mail." I've posted a screenshot below. (For those who don't read Japanese the text above "You got a mail." translates as a "A message was received.")

Sometimes I must press dismiss multiple times before the screen disappears and the lock screen is displayed.  I have tried in vain to locate an application which is causing these messages. I have also disabled notifications from Facebook, Mail, etc. At present I think that this might be some sort of bug or exploit.

I've restored by iPhone using a recent backup. After the restore, After syncing apps the message remains.  I also reset to factory and even without my apps the message remains. It also seems that the message does not appear when my iPhone is in airplane mode.

My question is, has anyone else encountered anything like this message?

That looks like a carrier message, sent by SoftBank.  I will be pushed to your iPhone when somebody sends a message to your SoftBank address.  To turn if off:

  Follow these steps to disable incoming notification for E mail (i): In Home Screen, tap Safari, open Bookmarks and tap My SoftBank and tap @. Enter Login ID and Password (sent via SMS). E mail (i) setting page appears. Tap [3] Newly arriving e-mail notification setting, then tap Off.

See more details here.


Default Bash 3 overriding shebang /bin/bash with brew installed bash 4 Background

Bash 4 installed successfully using homebrew and the additional steps required to make bash 4 your default shell. Many guides on the net with a simple google: Example Bash 4 upgrade guide for Mac

Bash 4.x (installed via brew) location: /usr/local/bin/bash
Bash 3.2 (Default OSX) location: /bin/bash

Problem

Scripts I can not control/modify the shebang, as it would affect other users. Unless I was to manually change and then revert before committing to source control. Another option is to type: bash some_script_with_bin_bash_shebang.shto force the use of the newly defaulted bash 4 shell.

I only ever need to do this for Bash 4+ functionality, which is very common now.

Question

Does anyone have a cool technique, workarounds to alias a shebang bash path like so: #!/bin/bash to the newer bash 4 shell at /usr/local/bin/bash?

Without obviously modifying the file! ^_^ (e.g. adding #!/usr/bin/env bash)

This is the main reason nowadays for using a different shebang:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

Why is #!/usr/bin/env bash superior to #!/bin/bash? - Stack Overflow

This will use the first bash in the PATH, which will most likely be the latest version. Since /bin is in the standard path (getconf PATH), this falls back gracefully for those without a custom bash.


How can I install and run R on an iPad? I teach a class that uses R as part of the lab and one of my students uses an iPad for her primary computer.  Is there anyway to install R on an iPad?

I found some old blog posts that say it isn't possible but I have not been able to find any information less than about 5 years old.

It's actually pretty simple, in that, if it is not in the app store it can't be installed, unless you want to go the jailbreak route because you found an "R" app for jailbroken IOS devices.


How can I limit the max FPS for an app that doesn't have an FPS option I'm trying to limit the max framerate for multiple apps which don't have built-in FPS options. Is there any tool (terminal or app) which can set this?

I've tried searching, but haven't found anything.

I'm running macOS Sierra.

No, there's no generic mechanism to limit FPS for any app. It is completely up to each app to decide how many times per second it redraws its display.


VLC command line volume control I use VLC in command line mode on macOS and would like to set the volume from the command line as well. On a Linux system this can be achieved by using the option

--alsa-gain= float value

Note that

--volume

is deprecated. Does anyone know how to achieve volume control in macOS?

As mentioned above

--gain= float number

works, but beware that the float number has to be between 0 and 1 and not 0 and 8 as it is stated in the documentation linked above.


Would it work if I swap the hard drive between two Macbook Pro? I have a 17" and a 15" Macbook Pro from about 2010.  The 15" one recently has some problem with the speaker.  Can I take its hard drive out and install it into the other 17" one?  Would it work?  The data I immediately want to work on is on the 15" one.

More detailed version info:

I looked up version information for my Macbook Pro by their serial numbers at https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do and compared to Apple's list of models http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4132 and determined

Macbook Pro 17", Mid 2010

Macbook Pro 15", Early 2011

This will work with the right toolkit (see links below) since the system software (Mac OS X) is almost hardware-agnostic, especially if you use a newer system than the original one. Actually some of the different MacBook Pro Mid 2010 models were sold with the same hard disks (the 500 GB serial ATA). The only thing you may have to adjust is the screen resolution.

Hard Disk Replacement/Swap:
MacBook Pro 15" Mid 2010 MacBookPro6,2
MacBook Pro 17" Mid 2010 MacBookPro6,1

But why don't you just use a Firewire 800 cable, start the MacBook Pro 15" in Firewire Target disk mode and connect it to the MacBook Pro 17"?

You may even start your MacBook Pro 17" from the Target mode MacBook Pro 15" by choosing the latter in System Preferences -> Startvolume.

Update:
Hard Disk Replacement/Swap: MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011 MacBookPro8,2

The standard of the Serial ATA interface changed from 2.0 (MacBookPro6,1) to 3.0 (MacBookPro8,2). If the MacBookPro8,2 contains a SATA II hard drive it will work, if it contains a SATA III hard drive it should work (depends on the hd).


How to delete partition disk0s4? A while ago, I dual booted with ubuntu linux and followed a tutorial on youtube to do so, but later I wanted all of my hard drive to be for osx, so I deleted the ubuntu partition, but now I am left with the following in diskutility:

The problem isnt the disk0s4 partition size, but rather the fact that it prevents me from accessing another 70 gb of hard drive space. This wasn't previously a problem as is reflected by my current data use, but I need to install alot of new software on the computer which exceeds the 180 gb on the current partition...is there any way I can delete disk0s4 and access the extra 70 gigabytes of data on my hardrive? Thanks alot!

Two things come to mind - booting from recovery HD might let Disk Utility be more free in changing the filesystem where your OS resides. You could also try removing it using diskutil in terminal:

diskutil unmount disk0s4
diskutil mergePartitions ignored ignored disk0s2 disk0s4

You will want to have a backup or be familiar with command line and also verify that your Macintosh HD is really disk0s2 by reviewing diskutil list before making any changes.

Once the disk0s4 is subsumed by Macintosh HD you may need to expand that to fill the drive:

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 R

If done properly on a system with no issues, all the above commands are non-destructive to disk0s2 (presumably Macintosh HD) and the boot volume support. You will need to go in and set your startup disk to the resized volume using System Preferences to avoid a long delay each time you start your Mac as it looks for the old location of disk0s2 from which to boot. The bless command would work to set the boot destination as well.


How do you move up one folder in Finder? I used search to find a folder, and so using the back button takes me back to search. I would like to view folders that are in the folder-I-searched-for's parent folder, but I don't know where it is on my computer.

Finder does not tell me where it is from what I can tell.

Using keyboard shortcut Command + ↑ moves one level up in the filesystem hierarchy in Finder.

When using Finder:

Command + ↓ opens the currently selected file or folder.
Command + ↑ takes you to the parent of the current folder.


Does macOS Mojave (10.14) support 32 - bit Apps? According to Apple, 32-Bit apps will lose support soon.  When opening 32 - bit applications on macOS High Sierra I was prompted with a message stating that in future versions of macOS the app would not be supported. This was similar to messages on iOS 10, on opening soon-to-be unsupported applications. These applications lost support in iOS 11.  So, does macOS Mojave, a future version of macOS, support 32-bit applications and allow you to open and use them?

Yes

As of macOS Mojave (10.14) beta 9, macOS Mojave DOES support 32 - bit applications. When opening these applications, you will see a dialog box with a similar message from High Sierra (see below) telling you that "This app will not work with future versions of macOS" but after clicking "Ok" the application will open.

For example, I attempted to open an old version of Firefox (3.16.14 from 2010) that is 32 - bit and got this message

After pressing "Ok" it opened

Sorry about Spanish, only version I could find.


Will my data plan get erased if I reset my iPhone 6s My data plan is with T-Mobile and I have to reset my iPhone 6s but I'm worried my data plan with T-Mobile will also get erased.

So, has resetting an iPhone any impact on a data plan?

Resetting your iPhone will not impact the contract (data plan) you have with a carrier. You will loose all data stored on the phone itself though, so make sure you have a backup (or, if you store your data in the cloud, the login/password data for all your online accounts).


Time Machine and the Blockchain! I use a cryptocurrency and it's blockchain is represented on disk by a single large lmdb database file.

The file is 72GB or so.

Each day the crypto node updates the chain with new transactions so the file is always getting added to.

I'm running Time Machine and seeing huge backups.

I thought Time Machine only backed up deltas of files? (i.e the difference between the old file and new file).

Does Time Machine instead backup a file completely, EVERY time it changes by a bit?

It seems that way.

Is time machine so that it will backup a full 70~ gigs a day each time my blockchain db changes slightly?

This seems wrong to me.

What do video editors do?? Aren't they always hitting this issue with large video files, 4K and whatnot?

Time Machine works on file level, so every time a file changes the full file will be backed up. As you‘ve found out it‘s not well suited for large files with frequent small changes.

One way out would be to exclude the directory containing your blockchain file from Time Machine and use rsync to do backups.


ALT+CMD+SPACE Suddenly works differently It used to be that ALT+CMD+SPACE opened up new finder window. And without making any update to my mac, it started opening up finder in search mode.
What could have changed? How to turn it back?

As far as I recall ⌘n has always been the Finder shortcut for New Window assuming that Finder is the active app, ⌘⇧n opens the Finder with search focused globally. See the 'Shortcuts' tab of Keyboard.prefPane:

I assume that ⌘⇧n as a new plain Finder window was being provided by some other means; Some configuration in that Shortcuts tab (perhaps under services), or a third party app that does a simple "bind these keys to this action", and for some reason that app failed to start, or crashed if you didn't even reboot your Mac.


Moving iTunes library after crashed Windows drive I've read many questions and answers here about moving iTunes libraries between computers and drives. My situation is a little different though. I have (had) Windows XP with iTunes installed on C: and my iTunes library on a second drive (E:). Drive C: crashed recently.

My plan is to move my iTunes folder from drive E: to an external backup drive, re-install Windows onto drive E: (obviously it will now be drive C:) and then copy my iTunes library onto drive C:. I would then configure iTunes to point to C: drive for the library. From what I've read, this should work.

Where are all my podcast subscriptions stored? Where are all my ratings and play-counts stored? Will they still be in iTunes after I've followed these steps?

Edit: Further reading has made me aware of the Media and the Library folders. As far as I know, all my library files (music and podcasts) are located in the iTunes folder on E: drive.

Edit: I have a backup image of the C: drive from about six weeks ago, so I should be able to access files from there if I need to to restore metadata?

By your method , backup and restore the library and files, definitely works . It saves all the playlists, playcounts, music, movies, ratings everything.


Remember network share user name but not password I regularly connect to a remote file store (webDAV) that uses different credentials to my OSX user account. I don't want to save the password to my OSX keychain, but would prefer not to have to retype both my user name AND password every time.

Is there a way to make OSX remember the user name for that share but prompt for the passowrd?

How are you connecting? If it's something that lets you enter (& memorize) an explicit URL (e.g. in the Finder's Connect to Server dialog), you can enter the URL in the form "https://username@server". If the URL processing does its job right (the Finder's does), it'll use that as the default username when it asks for authentication.


how can i extend my 8gb memory space on iphone 5c Can i use an external USB (like an OTG for androids) on iphone 5c along with an usb adapter(lightning to micro usb port)?

Can iphones read external USB devices?

You can't expand the memory, and there is little in the way of dealing with external USB storage other than importing photos from camera cards.

There are several products such as the mophie space pack that have a battery and external storage that is accessible via an app. These are typically cumbersome and fairly limited in how they can be used. Check out reviews of any such products and you will see lots of disappointment.

For what these external storage devices do, you are typically better off using iCloud, Dropbox, getsync.com or the like. But this will not solve the problem of not have enough local storage.


macOS Photos.app - Names Missing on Shared Albums Recently the names from users of my shared album have disappeared from the activity feeds (See picture) - this has only happened on the desktop, both the iPhone and iPad are fine.

Just updated to High Sierra and hoped the issue would fix itself - but nope, still a problem. Any ideas? Searching for answers hasn't revealed anything.

Please try these steps and report back:

In Photos.app in your Mac go to Photos > Settings > iCloud and uncheck 'iCloud Photo Sharing'.
Wait about a minute for the changes to apply.
Quit Photos.app and restart your Mac.
Open Photos.app and turn on 'iCloud Photo Sharing'.


Running some processes and not others over VPN I'm looking to secure some apps on macOS using an OpenVPN connection.
I want the apps not to work when the VPN isn't active.
I can't necessarily track which servers the apps are trying to access, so manually specifying routes either from the server or client end is prohibitive. I also don't want all traffic going over the VPN.
So here's what I have so far:

Something needs to work at the application layer to 'capture' all traffic from an application.
Something else needs to work at the network layer to take all of that traffic and push it over the VPN.

And then I need a way to specify which apps and which interface, and be sure that if that interface is down or disconnected, no traffic flows.
So far I think this might be doable with pf (I found Murus, a GUI front-end), except that it doesn't seem to deal with applications per-se, but rather networks and ports, which as stated above is problematic.
Then there's Little Snitch, which deals with applications but is a binary go/no-go decision maker, rather than directing some traffic here and some traffic there.
That said, I did find a not-well-documented feature where it seems like you can create a rule for a process in Little Snitch, and give it access to pf. So perhaps there's a way to write a pf rule that then directs that traffic over the VPN.
Open to suggestions.

This feature is available from Private Internet Access. They call it their Desktop Application Split Tunneling Feature. It is a complex enough feature that I would not expect it to be supported by free software.


starting mysql from the console and my.cnf Is this possible to start mysql from the console.

I tried with mysqld start but it fails to start, how to start it?

I didn't find my.cnf in Mac, I wanted to change datadir settings, if there any way to do this?

Thanks!

To start mysql, run mysqld_safe &. The ampersand at the end starts the process in the background, so you can continue to work while it runs. Most likely, it needs root privileges to run, so add sudo to the front if it doesn't work without (you will need to be logged in as an administrator).

By default, there is no my.cnf file. Defaults are used automatically. There are a few different starting files in the support-files folder, for different usage styles. You can copy any of them to start with, and place the file in any of these locations (in order searched): /etc/my.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf $MYSQL_DIR/etc/my.cnf ~/.my.cnf


How can I find out the temperature of my Macbook Pro? Is there a built-in way to find out the temperature of my Macbook Pro?

OS X does not offer this functionality. smcFanControl and the iStat widgets are the typical go-to choices for this issue. I personally use smcFanControl. It gives me both the temperature and the ability to monitor fan operation.


Is there a way to find a dead or offline iPhone? I lost my iPhone 5C. It appears to be dead or offline on Find My iPhone. I have tried to get it to notify me when found and to play a sound, but it stills says those actions are pending. Is there anything else I can do to find this phone? It contains important photos that I don't want to lose.

Unfortunately no, all of the methods for locating lost/stolen iOS devices depend on the device being on and connected to the Internet in some way. If it is not on and/or not connected to the Internet in some way then you are just as likely to find the Boy Scout knife you lost when you were 8 the same way.

Note I am not being facetious here, just trying to be clear.

If someone finds the phone and decides to charge it up, it may reconnect to a network somewhere and become findable again. I would log on once a day and see if that has happened. That chance of that happening? Well your guess is as good as mine.


Bash Script that only runs in terminal I created a Bash script that should be able to be ran on any machine. The problem I'm having it'll only run in terminal. When a user double clicks the script, some users have it open up in iTerm, and some in Xcode in read view. Any idea how to have it execute in these programs or make it only specific to terminal?

Also, I'm having an issue as the script I'm running as its being opened from an "Unidentified developer". I know how to manually resolve from system preferences, but is there anyway to automate in the script?

Add the .command extension

To have a bash script open and execute in macOS's Terminal.app, add the suffix .command to the filename.

If you have a bash script called myscript.sh, rename it to myscript.command. Once renamed, when the file is double-clicked or opened from macOS's Finder the Terminal.app will open and execute the file.

Code Signing

The Unidentified Developer warning appears because the script is not code signed. It is a reasonable warning from macOS, as a script could do harm.

If you are distributing the script through a web site, you need to code sign the payload or contents. How to best achieve this depends on your users' environment.

See making an executable bash file run when clicked for reasonable approaches such as an AppleScript wrapper or platypus.

AppleScript Wrapper

You can embed a shell script within an AppleScript. Exported AppleScripts can be made executable and code signed:

 Applications > Utilities > Script Editor.app

Use the do shell script command and File > Export with code signing enabled.


OS X Lion Safari and Chrome's Vertical Scrollbar (overlay versus next to content) What determines how the scrollbar is rendered in OS X Lion? On my home and work machine, I see the scrollbar next to the content like this:

A co-worker, also running Lion has that same scrollbar overlaid ontop of the content (partially transparent), rather than in a "column" next to the content.

What determines which of these you get? Only difference I can figure out is because he's using a magic mouse, and I'm using a Logitech. Systems preferences for scrolling (in the general pref), we both have "Show scrollbars" set as "Automatically based on input device."

That's your reason right there, you are using a traditional mouse, and so you get the traditional scrollbar, it should always be on view.  Your friend is using a touch input device, and like with trackpad users this does not rely on accurate positional use of the cursor, and so the scrollbars disappear unless active scrolling is happening, as they do not need to be seen for a target, and when they do show they overlay so as not to cause a nasty screen artifact (namely an 8 pixel wide scrollbar flashing in and out of existence, possibly causing screen repagination etc)