Installing Ubuntu on Mac with macOS and Windows already installed I have a dual-boot MacBook Pro late 2013 with macOS Sierra and Windows 10 (BOOTCAMP) already installed. I want to install Ubuntu as a third OS. Is there any (easy) way to do it?

> Disk Partitions:

> Gpt dev disk0

> Fdisk disk0

An update version of this has been posted here.

  Note: These instruction have been updated for use with Ubuntu 18.

This answer installs Ubuntu on your computer without the use of third parity tools for either the installation of booting of Ubuntu. The Ubuntu file I downloaded was named ubuntu-16.10-desktop-amd64.iso. I assume you have created a bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive installer and have verified the contents. I also assume you have verified hardware compatibility by successfully booting the live version of Ubuntu. These instructions have been divided into the three main sections listed below.

Create Space on the Drive for Ubuntu : This is accomplished by using the MacOS Terminal application to enter commands.
Install Ubuntu : This uses the Ubuntu flash drive installer.
Add Ubuntu to Startup Manager - Here you basically use the MacOS to move the necessary files to the proper locations. This will allow
Ubuntu to be selected from the Startup Manager. You will not need
rEFInd to boot Ubuntu.

  Note: If another user has a different partition scheme than shown in this example, the post a comment to me and I will try to update my answer.

Create Space on the Drive for Ubuntu

For the purpose of illustrating the steps needed, I created a drive slightly larger than your actual drive.

  Note: macOS 10.11 and above have System Integrity Protection (SIP). You must disable this before following the commands below.

The output from diskutil list disk0 is given below.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            180.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                70.1 GB    disk0s4

The output from sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0 is given below.

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  352968704      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  353378344       4056
  353382400      32768      3  GPT part - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE
  353415168  136818688      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  490233856    9766151
  500000007         32         Sec GPT table
  500000039          1         Sec GPT header

The output from sudo fdisk /dev/disk0 is given below.

  Note: After repartitioning the drive, you should verify that the values shown below have not changed. Certain changes will cause Windows to view the drive as hybrid partitioned. If this occurs, Windows may fail to boot or malfunction.

Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 31123/255/63 [500000040 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -  500000039] <Unknown ID>
 2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

I decided to allow total of about 40 GB for Ubuntu. If you need a different size, then make the appropriate adjustments. I will be creating 3 new partitions for Ubuntu. A description for each is given below.

A Swap partition. The size of this partition should be between 1 to 2
times the size of the memory installed in your Mac computer. I will be
using a size of 800 MB. Obviously, the size you will be using will be
much larger.
A Ext4 Journaling file system partition to hold Ubuntu. This
partition will consume most the approximately 40 GB of space I
allocated for Ubuntu.
An EFI System partition. This is required for Ubuntu to appear on the
Mac Startup Manager. This manager appears when you turn on or restart
your Mac and hold down the option key. The Startup Manager
can be used to change the default startup disk (i.e. operating
system) or can be used to temporarily boot from a startup disk. I
have chosen size of 500 MB for this partition.

I have chosen to allow the Ubuntu installer to actually create the 3 new partitions. So at this point, I only need to shrink the MacOS partition by approximately 40 GB and create 3 new placeholder partitions. The placeholders will be replaced later by the Ubuntu installer with the actual partitions described above.

The command to change to partitioning is given below. Since the MacOS partition is about 180 GB, I used a desired value of 140 GB (140G). Also, I used a value of 800 MB (800M) for the size of the new Swap partition. Since you will desire a larger size, then you will need to make the appropriate substitution. Note: The two values of 200 MB (200M) were chosen arbitrarily, these values will change later.

diskutil resizevolume disk0s2 140G 3 jhfs+ part1 800M jhfs+ part2 200M jhfs+ part3 200M

The output from this command is shown below.

Started partitioning on disk0s2 Macintosh HD
Verifying the disk
Verifying file system
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
Checking extents overflow file
Checking catalog file
Checking multi-linked files
Checking catalog hierarchy
Checking extended attributes file
Checking volume bitmap
Checking volume information
The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK
File system check exit code is 0
Resizing
Waiting for the disks to reappear
Formatting disk0s3 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name part1
Initialized /dev/rdisk0s3 as a 763 MB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting disk
Formatting disk0s4 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name part2
Initialized /dev/rdisk0s4 as a 191 MB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting disk
Formatting disk0s5 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name part3
Initialized /dev/rdisk0s5 as a 37 GB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting disk
Finished partitioning on disk0s2 Macintosh HD
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            140.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS part1                   800.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS part2                   200.0 MB   disk0s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS part3                   39.5 GB    disk0s5
   6:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk0s6
   7:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                70.1 GB    disk0s7

  Note: The last 200M was ignored by the diskutil command. Instead, most of the remaining free space was allocated to the disk0s5 slice.

The output from sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0 is given below.

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  273437496      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  273847136     262144
  274109280    1562496      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  275671776     390616      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  276062392   77057864      5  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  353120256     262144
  353382400      32768      6  GPT part - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE
  353415168  136818688      7  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  490233856    9766151
  500000007         32         Sec GPT table
  500000039          1         Sec GPT header

The output from the command sudo fdisk /dev/disk0 is unchanged from what was given above.

Install Ubuntu

Insert the Ubuntu flash drive and restart the Mac. Hold down the
option key to invoke the Startup Manager. Select to EFI
boot from the USB flash drive. When prompted, choose the option
shown below.

  Note: For a better view, either click on the image or open the image in a new window.

Select language.

I choose to select both options below.

Choose the option shown below.

Select the partition shown below. This partition should be the same
size as previously specified for the Swap partition when the
diskutil resize volume command was entered.

Click on "Change..." and select "swap area" in the popup window as
shown below. Do not change the partition size. Next, click on
"OK".

Select the partition shown below. Next, click on the "-" to delete
this partition.

Select the free space as shown below.

Click on the "+" to open a "Create partition" popup window. Select
"EFI System Partition". Also, change the size to 500 MB and click on
the "End of this space" button. Next, click on "OK".

Select the partition shown below. Next, click on the "-" to delete
 this partition.

Select the free space as shown below.

Click on the "+" to open a "Create partition" popup window. Select
 "Ext4 journaling file system". Also, select "/" as the "Mount
 point". Do not change the partition size. Next, click on "OK".

Click on the "Install Now" button shown below.

Click on the "Continue" button shown below.

Select your desired location.

Select your keyboard.

Continue and install Ubuntu Linux. When finished, restart and hold
 down the option key to invoke the Startup Manager.
 Select to boot from the MacOS volume.

Add Ubuntu to Startup Manager

After installing Ubuntu, the command diskutil list disk0 produced the following output.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            140.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Linux Swap                         800.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:           Linux Filesystem                          39.3 GB    disk0s4
   5:                        EFI NO NAME                 500.2 MB   disk0s5
   6:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk0s6
   7:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                70.1 GB    disk0s7

The command sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0 produced the following output.

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  273437496      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  273847136     262144
  274109280    1562496      3  GPT part - 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F
  275671776       1312
  275673088   76732416      4  GPT part - 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4
  352405504     976896      5  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
  353382400      32768      6  GPT part - E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE
  353415168  136818688      7  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  490233856    9766151
  500000007         32         Sec GPT table
  500000039          1         Sec GPT header

  Note: The 3 placeholder partitions have be replaced by the partitions specified while installing Ubuntu.

To make Ubuntu appear in the Startup Manager, execute the following steps.

Mount the EFI System partitions by entering the commands given
below.

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1
sudo diskutil mount disk0s5

Use the Finder application to copy the EFI folder from volume
EFI to the volume NO NAME.
If you are not installing Ubuntu 18 or newer, then you can skip steps 4, 5 and 6.
Move all the folders and files in the EFI/Boot folder on the EFI volume to the Trash.
Copy the file bootmgfw.efi on the EFI volume from the folder /EFI/Microsoft/Boot to the folder /EFI/Boot.
Rename the file bootmgfw.efi in the /EFI/Boot folder on the EFI volume to the name bootx64.efi.
Remove the folders and files that were added to the EFI volume
during the Ubuntu installation. To accomplish this, move the folder
EFI/Ubuntu on the EFI volume to the Trash.
Remove the Microsoft related files from the NO NAME volume. To
accomplish this, move the folder EFI/Microsoft on the NO NAME volume to the Trash.
If you are installing Ubuntu 18 or newer, then you can skip steps 10, 11 and 12.
Move the file EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi on the NO NAME volume to the Trash.
Copy the file grubx64.efi on the NO NAME volume from the folder /EFI/ubuntu to the folder /EFI/Boot.
Rename the file grubx64.efi in the /EFI/Boot folder on the NO NAME volume to the name bootx64.efi.
Empty the Trash.
(Optional) Download a collection of icons from the sourceforge web
site Mac icns. Use the Finder application to open the
downloaded file mac-ices.dmg, then enter the command below to copy
the Ubuntu icon file os_ubuntu.icns to the NO NAME volume.

cp /Volumes/mac-icns/os_ubuntu.icns "/Volumes/NO NAME/.VolumeIcon.icns"

This will add the following Ubuntu icon to the Startup Menu.

  Note: When finished, you can use the Finder application to eject the mac-icns volume.

Use the Finder application or enter the commands below to unmount
the EFI System partitions labeled EFI and NO NAME.

diskutil unmount disk0s1
diskutil unmount disk0s5


Is it possible to completely disable the keyboard backlight on a MacBook Pro? I have a new MacBook Pro 13-inch (mid 2012). I have never liked the backlit keyboard. I am completely a touch-typist and I never look down at the keys. I just find the light going on and off to be annoying.

I have heard about Lab Tick, which provides a slider to control the level of the backlight, but what I really want is a command-line defaults write to simply turn the lights off.

Does anyone know of a means to do this?

Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard and, in the Keyboard tab, turn off (uncheck) "Automatically illuminate keyboard in low light". Then, if you turn the brightness down all the way, it should never turn on. If you then want it on (say, a friend who is not a touch-typist), just use the brightness keys on the top row.


best free software to make/open rar files Which is the best software to open/make rar files in Mac OS?

I am new to Mac and I want to open rar files.

The Unarchiver will open them and almost any other compression format.


DNS Issues after Updating to Mountain Lion I've updated to Mountain Lion, and I'm having some DNS problems. I always PPTP/L2TP VPN connections on my macbook. Recently after a while of working with Mountain Lion, VPN stops sending and receiving data and I have to disconnect/connect again to make it work again. I'm not having the same problem with iPad, iPhone and PC.

and without the VPN, when I try pinging 4.2.2.4 , 8.8.8.8 and other DNSs and all I get is timeouts! But the ping works fine on my other devices. I also tried setting the DNS to Google and OpenDNS DNSs (8.8.4.4, 4.2.2.4, 8.8.8.8, ...) but it still didn't help. I also tried emptying DNS cache and other solutions. but nothing.

I'm guessing that these two problems are tied together.
Any solutions?

Thanks.

change the primary DNS to your local gateway address, like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.10...
I have the same problem in PC, try it, It may be useful ;)


Does the iPad mini warranty cover the charger? I purchased my iPad mini last January. Now the charger doesn't work so well and sometimes it doesn't work at all.

Does the warranty cover the charger?

Short Answer
Apple warrants all hardware for one year in general. Depending on where you purchased the hardware, your warranty coverage and service options may vary. If an Apple Store is convenient, make a genius bar appointment and bring your iPad, cable and charger in case the cause isn't just the adapter. If not, you can find warranty service options online: https://locate.apple.com
Explanation(Proof)
From Apple's Legal Support Page:

This Warranty does not apply: (a) to consumable parts, such as
batteries or protective coatings that are designed to diminish over
time, unless failure has occurred due to a defect in materials or
workmanship; (b) to cosmetic damage, including but not limited to
scratches, dents and broken plastic on ports; (c) to damage caused by
use with another product; (d) to damage caused by accident, abuse,
misuse, liquid contact, fire, earthquake or other external cause; (e)
to damage caused by operating the Apple Product outside Apple’s
published guidelines; (f) to damage caused by service (including
upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a
representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider
(“AASP”); (g) to an Apple Product that has been modified to alter
functionality or capability without the written permission of Apple;
(h) to defects caused by normal wear and tear or otherwise due to the
normal aging of the Apple Product, or (i) if any serial number has
been removed or defaced from the Apple Product.

As you probably read, the quote above never mentions Apple branded accessories.

Apple Inc. of One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, U.S.A. 95014
(“Apple”) warrants the Apple-branded iPhone, iPad or iPod hardware
product and accessories contained in the original packaging (“Apple
Product”) against defects in materials and workmanship when used
normally in accordance with Apple's published guidelines for a period
of ONE (1) YEAR from the date of original retail purchase by the
end-user purchaser ("Warranty Period"). Apple’s published guidelines
include but are not limited to information contained in technical
specifications, user manuals and service communications.

Links
Legal Warranty


"You don't have permission to save files in the location where screen shots are stored" Every time I take a screenshot, I get this error:

  You don't have permission to save files in the location where screen shots are stored.

How do I fix it?

If you type defaults read com.apple.screencapture location into a Terminal window it should tell you where OSX is currently trying to save screenshots.

You can change the location with a similar command. For example:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop will save screenshots to your Desktop.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Documents will save screenshots to your Documents folder.

Once you've told it a new location you need to run the following command for OSX to pick up the change.

killall SystemUIServer


Recording screen and user inputs (gestures) on iPad I need to perform an usability study of my application running on an iPad and would like to record the screen (video showing what is going on) as well as gestures (where and when users tap their fingers on screen).

Tools like Quicktime Player X, Camtasia or ScreenFlow can record the screen video, but not gestures.

Do you know any solution, please?

You can program your app so that it shows the gestures on screen - then it would appear in the recorded video as well. You would then have a simple switch in your program's source code so that you can enable this feature only for demonstration videos and not in the actual released app.

Many modules exist for doing this easily - for example:

Swift: TouchVisualizer
Obj-C + Swift: COSTouchVisualizer
Obj-C + Swift: Touchpose
Obj-C + Swift: Fingertips

A less sophisticated solution is to use the built-in accessibility features of iOS. You can read a guide on doing that here.


I can't sync new songs to my iPhone Okay, so I got a new iPhone and I got some music from my Mom's iTunes library onto my iPhone with no problems, then I tried to sync some songs from my own iTunes library and I cannot. Do I need to activate homesharing or something, because I don't have this problem with my iPod. PLEASE HELP!!!

From my understanding of the question, it seems to me that you are trying to sync your new iPhone with two different libraries.  This is impossible without a jailbreak (which by no means I am suggesting you do).

Since you can't sync songs from your own iTunes library, it looks like you set up your iPhone on your mom's library. I would suggest that you select 'Erase and Sync' when you try to sync your music to your own library and allow your iTunes library to manage your new iPhone. Then, I would probably import your mom's music to your iTunes library.

You can do this using Home Sharing, as you said, but only if both of you use the same Apple ID.  Alternatively, you could follow this thread and simply share the organized files and put them in your ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/ if you're on a Mac. Hope this helps!


pfctl config to only allow OpenVPN connection I found what appears to be a suitable guide here, but pfctl complains of a syntax error and "no IP address found for en3" which is my main interface. I have had other pf rules working successfully to forward ports, etc. but I cannot figure this out.

I am on 10.11.4 and using Tunnelblick connected to a OpenVPN server i installed myself on a VPS.

Could someone give instructions on the correct configuration for pfctl on El Capitan? I need to keep open access to private networks like 10.0.0.0 and 168.1.0.0

Thanks!

The following works on Sierra.

Append the following lines to the end of /etc/pf.conf

anchor "org.vpnonly.pf"
load anchor "org.vpnonly.pf" from "/etc/pf.anchors/org.vpnonly.pf.rules"

Create this configuration file at /etc/pf.anchors/org.vpnonly.pf.rules

# Options
set block-policy drop
set fingerprints "/etc/pf.os"
set ruleset-optimization basic
set skip on lo0

# Interfaces
vpn_intf = "{ utun0 utun1 utun2 utun3 }"

# Ports
allowed_vpn_ports = "{ 1:65535 }"

# Table with allowed IPs
table <allowed_vpn_ips> persist file "/etc/pf.anchors/vpn.list" file "/etc/pf.anchors/custom.list"

# Block all outgoing packets
block out all

# Antispoof protection
#had to disable this to avoid error
#antispoof for $vpn_intf inet

# Allow outgoing packets to specified IPs only
pass out proto icmp from any to <allowed_vpn_ips>
pass out proto {tcp udp} from any to <allowed_vpn_ips> port $allowed_vpn_ports

# Allow traffic for VPN interfaces
pass out on $vpn_intf all

Create /etc/pf.anchors/vpn.list and /etc/pf.anchors/custom.list

sudo touch /etc/pf.anchors/vpn.list /etc/pf.anchors/custom.list

Add a list of allowed IP addresses (addresses of VPN servers) to /etc/pf.anchors/vpn.list

41.xxx.xxx.xxx
42.xxx.xxx.xxx

Add google DNS to custom /etc/pf.anchors/custom.list
    8.8.8.8
    8.8.4.4

sudo pfctl -e -f /etc/pf.conf and check for errors

To load at startup, edit to default pfctl at /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist to set
<key>Disabled</key>
<true/>

ensure rootless mode is disabled. (boot to recovery terminal with Command+R at the chime and run csrutil disable run these commands, then return to recovery terminal afterwards to reenable rootless with csrutil enable

Create your LaunchDaemon at /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.apple.pfctl</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>pfctl</string>
        <string>-e</string>
        <string>-f</string>
        <string>/etc/pf.conf</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

finish with sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist, reboot with rootless mode enabled and you're set.


Company Mac OS laptop must connect to Cisco AnyConnect VPN in order to access to the Internet My company Mac OS X laptops (Mojave) are managed devices and in order for the user to connect to Internet, the user must first launch and connect the Cisco AnyConnect VPN otherwise the user is not able to connect to the Internet.
Just for my knowledge, I am looking for the specific file or configuration profile or settings that show me this specific rule.  It must be something on the system that I can see that the Mac system must be connected to Cisco AnyConnect VPN first in order to get Internet access.
I just want to see where this rule is located.

I found the solution.  We use mandatory proxy for http and https.  So if the laptop is NOT connected to the VPN (meaning cannot hit the proxy server IP address) it cannot route traffic.


Second chance at icloud upload? If photos are not automatically uploaded to icloud due to some transient error (environmental or otherwise), does icloud try again? Or do they get just one shot and if that doesn't work, they don't upload?

The Apple Genius just told me that they get just one shot and if that doesn't work, I have to do it manually.

If the photos are unable to be uploaded to Photo Stream, they will be attempted to be uploaded again at the next available time. There's no 'one chance'—it'll try as many times as necessary until it succeeds or other circumstances make it not necessary to upload them.


How do I find out the status of a large download from the Mac App Store? I just started downloading OS X Lion, and it's 3.49 GB.

This is the extent of the user interface for the download process:

Is there a place to see the download progress? Can I pause and/or resume the download?

Aha... found it. In the App Store application menu, you can choose Store > Check for Unfinished Downloads which pops up a window like this:


Why can't I turn on Location Services in OS X? Each time I open System Preferences, I authenticate and turn on Enable Location Services. The check box appears to turn on, but if I close System Preferences and look, it's off again.

When this happens, this is logged:

12-03-16 10:06:37.206 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: ERROR,Time,353610397.205,Function,"CLInternalSetLocationServicesEnabled",CLInternalSetLocationServicesEnabled failed
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,1   CoreLocation                        0x00007fff8b2b77be CLInternalSetLocationServicesEnabled + 110
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,2   Security                            0x000000010effc65c SecurityPrefDebugLog + 4356
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,3   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff909c075d -[NSObject performSelector:withObject:] + 61
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,4   AppKit                              0x00007fff88adecb2 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 139
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,5   AppKit                              0x00007fff88adebe6 -[NSControl sendAction:to:] + 88
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,6   AppKit                              0x00007fff88adeb11 -[NSCell _sendActionFrom:] + 137
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,7   AppKit                              0x00007fff88addfd4 -[NSCell trackMouse:inRect:ofView:untilMouseUp:] + 2014
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,8   AppKit                              0x00007fff88b5dd04 -[NSButtonCell trackMouse:inRect:ofView:untilMouseUp:] + 489
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,9   AppKit                              0x00007fff88adcbde -[NSControl mouseDown:] + 786
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,10  AppKit                              0x00007fff88aa76e0 -[NSWindow sendEvent:] + 6306
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,11  System Preferences                  0x000000010a238a17 System Preferences + 31255
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,12  AppKit                              0x00007fff88a4016d -[NSApplication sendEvent:] + 5593
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,13  System Preferences                  0x000000010a237c61 System Preferences + 27745
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,14  AppKit                              0x00007fff889d61f2 -[NSApplication run] + 555
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,15  AppKit                              0x00007fff88c54b88 NSApplicationMain + 867
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,16  System Preferences                  0x000000010a232d9c System Preferences + 7580
12-03-16 10:06:37.208 AM [0x0-0xee0ee].com.apple.systempreferences: STACK,Time,353610397.205,17  ???                                 0x0000000000000002 0x0 + 2

What do I need to do to turn on Location Services?

This is an iMac7,1 running 10.7.3. I've tried turning on location services with every release, and it hasn't worked yet. WiFi is on, though I'm connected via a wire since I'm on the edge of my range here.

Could be related to this bug:

Running the iPhone simulator via Xcode disables the Mac's location services.

Do you have the iPhone Simulator running?


AppleScript from Terminal unrar command I would like to know if it's possible to make an AppleScript of the following terminal command(s).

cd
unrar e -r -o- *.rar && find ./ -name “*.r*” -delete

Also, I would like to know if it's possible to tweak the unrar e -r -o- *.rar command.

Following situation:

Main_folder\SubfolderA
Main_folder\SubfolderB
Main_folder\SubfolderC

When I login in to Terminal and use the command unrar e -r -o- *.rar, everything from the subfolders will be extracted to the Main_folder.

Is there a command that will extract the *.rar in the same subfolder as where they are stored?

For now I have…

on run {input, parameters}
  tell application "Terminal"
    activate
    do script with command "cd /Volumes/******_storage/******* && unrar e -r -o- *.rar && find ./ -name “*.r*” -delete"
  end tell

This works fine except that subfolders are still extracted in /******** instead of their own folder and that my files aren't deleted.

In the help text of the utility is says...

UNRAR 5.10 beta 4 freeware      Copyright (c) 1993-2014 Alexander Roshal

Usage:     unrar <command> -<switch 1> -<switch N> <archive> <files...>
               <@listfiles...> <path_to_extract>

so you can include the path_to_extract at the end of the command and once inside a loop it's easy. Like this...

cd <path>
for f in `find . -name "*.r*"`; do unrar e -o- $f `dirname $f` && rm $f; done

HTH


Trackpad unable to press click after Security Update Apple issued a Security Update 3 days ago which was silently installed on my computer. I woke up and realized the trackpad doesn't give the press click feel again.

Before the update, I was able to just press the trackpad and would hear the click feedback, but after the update, the click is now silent.

My current Trackpad preferences - Mojave 10.4, MacBook Pro mid-2015:

Is there a way to fix this issue or remove the new trackpad drivers and reinstall the new one.

There are a couple of things that you can do to fix this. Here are the basic steps that I would take on needed cases:

Ditching Input plist Files:

From the Mac OS Finder, hit Command+Shift+G to bring up “Go To Folder”
Enter the following path: ~/Library/Preferences/ and choose Go
Locate the following files manually, or use the Search box in the upper right corner and narrow down for ‘driver’ to find them – remove the ones that are relevant to your issue:

com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad.plist - Magic Trackpad
com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist - Magic Mouse
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse.plist - wired USB mouse
com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad.plist
com.apple.preference.trackpad.plist

Drag the appropriate files* to the desktop to make a backup of them, or just delete the files* if you’re comfortable with that
Leave the User Preferences folder and reboot the Mac

*Note: You can get more specific if you want like only deleting the AppleHIDMouse.plist file if you are only using a USB mouse, or only removing BlueToothMultitouch.mouse if you only use a Magic Mouse, or you can ditch all of the plist files if you’re using all of them.

If the above-listed solution didn’t help, then

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart.
Test after this.

If this doesn't help then at last try to:

Reset the SMC on Mac

First, shut down your Mac and Press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. Release all keys. And, Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

Start up in safe mode

Start or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key. The Apple logo appears on your display.

Release the Shift  key when you see the login window. If your startup disk is encrypted with FileVault, you might be asked to log in twice: once to unlock the startup disk, and again to log in to the Finder.

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac without pressing any keys during startup.


Better way to create signature for preview than holding a paper in front of the camera I have a perfectly fine scanned image of a signature.  It is unnecessarily inaccurate  to hold it in front of the camera instead of using the image directly.

How to enter the signature from the image file directly?

It can't be done directly.

Best authority I can find to back up this statement is Linc Davis, on the Apple Support Communities. - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3667416

It is possible to create one that way in Acrobat Pro/DC, but I'm not then certain if that would then also work in Preview. It would depend if Acrobat creates the signature as a true Keychain Signature item.

It's not clear from Acrobat Help /
Sign PDF documents but implies Adobe use their own cloud service to keep tabs on signatures rather than the Keychain.


OS X El Capitan find mouse dosen't work with external mouse Yesterday I installed El Capitan 10.11 (15A204h) and liked it a ton and intend to be use it exclusively from now on. I really liked the feature where you can shake the mouse to find the cursor and was very disappointed to find it didn't work when I tried with an external mouse.

Does anyone have any hacks or methods to get this to work? I think it's a really good feature and I don't want to not have it when working with external mouses and displays.

I know a hack to make it work. It's called "tell Apple that there's a bug in their beta software."

Seriously, don't expect flawless performance from features that still have every right to be half-baked. Open Feedback Assistant and file a report in the hope that Apple will have it fixed by the time El Capitan gets its stable release. Odds are other beta testers are having your problem too, so it's your duty as a tester to report all the bugs you can find.


How to make iPhone delete GMail contats that are not in GMail "My contacts" any longer? The only source for my iPhone contacts is my GMail account.

I've cleaned up "My contacts" in GMail, but those contacts didn't get removed from my iPhone/iOS 7.0.

I tried to set the GMail contact sync mode to "Manual" and ran "Contacts" app, and tried to set it to "Hourly" - they just won't go.

Is it possible to achieve?

You might have to force iOS to refresh your contacts.  Goto your iPhone's Settings and select Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Select Gmail and uncheck Contacts.  Now, goto your Contacts app and it should be empty.  Go back to the previous settings screen and recheck Contacts.  After that, open up your Contacts app to verify the updates.


Tab Key Not Working to Select Controls I have Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls selected in System Preferences, so but the tab key isn't working to select different controls (such as drop-down menus and checkboxes) in application dialog boxes. For example, I tried the Preview Preferences dialog box.

I have tried multiple different applications, and I do not to my knowledge have any additional software running that would be intercepting the tab key press.

Is this a problem that is local to my computer, or am I missing something important?

MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina 10.15.2

The only solution I've discovered seems to be using fn+ctrl+F7 to toggle dialog navigation on/off. It might reset after restarting the computer, but it seems to enable navigation in all applications.


Blocking internet access for a specific application on Mac OS X How can I block internet access to a specific application in Mac OS X? I need this to be done from the command line and hopefully use the ipfw terminal command.

Specifically I am looking to toggle the internet connection on and off in the iPhone simulator application since there is no airplane mode.

You can use the Lulu open-source macOS firewall that aims to block unknown outgoing connections, unless explicitly approved by the user. Whilst it has a GUI, the set of blocked applications can be controlled via the command line by modifying the config file /Library/Objective-See/LuLu/rules.plist as explained in the Lulu webpage (near the bottom).


What is the current Apple policy on purchases outside the App Store? We are developing an app for a customer that will sell content. There will also be an Android and web app and they don't really want to pay Apple 30% and would rather use their own site to sell.

For what I've read online, I understand that it's ok to sell content for the app elsewhere, but it is not allowed to link to the store from the app. Do I understand this correctly? There was also something about prices.

Sorry, not sure if this question is more appropriate here or on StackOverflow. It's not really a coding question either.

The rules of iTunes connect are only really available when you sign in to the service, and agree to the terms. I am not currently a developer so I don't know even if the details are protected by an NDA.

I don't have a link to a good press article covering the current state of affairs, but my understanding and gross oversimplification of the rules are:

It's OK to enable extra content if the iOS app does nothing to link to, process, enroll or advertise the paid portion of the service or app.
It's always OK to handle purchases through in-app purchase where Apple will take their cut of the sale in return for providing the accounting, customer service, billing, returns, server hardware, software and bandwidth for distribution of your app and the handling of the paid content sales. It's probably very not OK to sell in the app and not use Apple for the payment.
Newsstand apps are different and I'll let someone who knows edit in how a subscription might be different than a one time sale, but I would be surprised if it was overall different than the normal in-app purchase policy.

If your work for your client is to advise them, you'll really want to just spend the $99 and join and have your team participate in the developer program NDA / restricted chats and or just read the terms of iTunes Connect. If not, it's their problem and make sure your contract with them is clear as to under whom all responsibility of knowing and adhering to the Terms and Conditions fall.


Software to generate photo gallery HTML with download links I have the following requirement: A software that runs on OS X which takes a number of image files and creates a HTML gallery out of them.

It needs to have the following features:

Caption and description on a main thumbnail page.
Medium size pages for each image, which is scaled down to like 600×600 pixels. If some IPTC info is shown, that is great, but not a strict requirement.
Download links to the full resolution image.

FotoStation is able to do exactly this, however it is rather costly for this single use.

Is there any program that can do this?

I use Jalbum. It's very practical and has tons of features and skins.
You can find it here : http://jalbum.net/en/


I took my iPhone 4 apart and now the display isn't working so I was trying to replace the front of my phone. I didn't need a new LED display because just the top corner of the glass was chipped.

Well, I took the phone apart shortly to find out that it's impossible to remove the LED from the front glass so I just put the phone back together the way it was.

Now when I turn the phone on, it just sits with a black glow. However, it does respond to the power button, but it displays no color other than black. So you either get a matted black (off) or a glowing black (on).

Has anyone ever run into this before? Thanks.

I concur with Jan's suggestion, and direct you to iFixit's Installing iPhone 4 Display Assembly. Perhaps if you repeat the procedure, carefully following the instructions in the guide, you can restore the display functionality.

I would also add, at the risk of sounding condescending, that had you done a little research prior to tearing open the device, you would have discovered that the iPhone 4 digitizer is bonded to the outer glass. This was much discussed, and often criticized both because of screen discoloration on new devices (until the "glue" set) and as being anti-DIY repair when the device was first released. Live and learn, I applaud your initiative in opening your device.


How hot is too hot for my macbook? I have a macbook (2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo upgraded to 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM) running OS X version 10.6.8. I do a lot of prototyping for high performance computing on this macbook (running c++, fortran, mathematica, matlab, etc) and often work in parallel.

I have noticed that my computer gets hot so I have installed 'Temperature Monitor' and find that, when running difficult jobs, it can break into the 90 degree (C) range. I know this is not good, but is this incredibly dangerous? after seeing what values should i begin to get worried?

Secondly, I would like to clean (and maybe even replace?) the fan to make sure I am getting the best ventilation possible. Will a can of compressed air do the trick? how expensive/worthwhile would it be to open up the case and replace the fan?

Any help would be great - thanks!

90˚c is typical for that system under high load; anything > than 95˚c is when you might want to be concerned. If the CPU gets too hot, or starts to overheat, the system (typically) will clock down the CPU to prevent overheating. The fans shouldn't wear out, so I don't really see any point in trying to replace what's not broken. Intel Mac's run hot, and the fact that the only fan is an output fan doesn't help with heat dissipation.

Something you could do to help alleviate some of the heat is to download smcFanControl (free) and adjust your fans RPM. Instead of the standard 1800 RPM set it at 3500-3600 RPM, which should help cool down the temp possibly 2-10˚c. You might notice more noise from the higher RPM, although you shouldn't worry about it — MacBooks fans generally max out at around 6,000 RPM, and I've cranked one up to 8,700 RPM before.


Printing Connectivity with my Modem I have an MacBook Pro using OS Sierra version 10.12.5 (along with our iPhones & iPad) wirelessly connected to the Arris 6900 Modem-Router and wirelessly connected to our Brother printer. The problem is being able to print to the Brother printer on an every day basis. I can print from any device one minute, wait an hour or two and can't print. What is the problem with the connectivity issues to the printer.  I've checked with our Cox internet provider, help people at Brother, and with the people at Arris. No one has a solution that works. I hate to buy a new modem-router but is that my only choice with this Arris product.

You haven't specified your Brother printer, but there is a known issue that affects how some of Brother's printers communicate with macOS systems. When I say it's a known issue, you'll be hard pressed to find it documented in writing, although you will have this confirmed if you get the right Brother support person on the phone.

There are some workarounds you can try, but these are not guaranteed to work 100% of the time. The only option I've found that will work 100% of the time (based on my experience with a limited number of networks using Brother printers), is to disable IGMP snooping. However, if your modem/router does not provide configuration settings for IGMP, then you'll have to purchase one that does.

So, your options are:

Disable IGMP snooping if your modem/router supports this
Try connecting to the Brother printer using CUPS (i.e. do not use AirPrint when you add the printer to macOS)
Use your modem/router to allocate a static IP address to the printer (using the printer's MAC Address1 to identify it) and also configuring the printer's network settings to give it the IP address you've set at the modem/router end
Connect the printer via USB cable instead of Wi-Fi to your MBP when printing

If you still get no joy, then your best bet (assuming you want to keep using the Brother printer) is to purchase a modem/router that supports IGMP and ensure you disable IGMP snooping.

Regardless of what you opt for, I strongly suggest you actually reset the printing system on your MBP before trying each of the above options. To do this:

Got to Apple > System Preferences
Click on the Printers & Scanners preference pane
Right-click on the list of printers on the left-hand side and select Reset printing system...
At the next prompt, click on the Reset button

Remember: Make sure when you add the printer back that you use the CUPS option and not the AirPrint option. (Don't worry, you should still be able to print to your Brother printer from your iPhone and iPad).

1Not to be confused with your Mac computer. See MAC address for more info. You can obtain your printer's MAC address from its configuration menu.


Late 2009 Macbook - Has Anyone Tried 16GB of Ram? Just curious if anyone has tried maxing out the ram on a late 2009 Macbook (white, not pro) to 16GB running El Capitan or Yosemite?

Everymac's page states that the max is 8GB. Why not 16GB?

Thanks!!!

The chipset and processor may not support more RAM, even though you can physically put it in. You can always try. Weird behaviour and instability result from that.


Was my AT&T-approved iPhone 4 unlock successful? I called AT&T and asked them to unlock my iPhone 4 for international travel. They agreed. The support agent created a case, gave me the case identifier, and gave me an expected resolution date of April 18, 2012. Today (April 13, 2012), I received an email with a link to the unlock instructions.

The instructions I received are:

Open iTunes on your Mac or PC and verify that you have internet connectivity.
Connect your iPhone using the dock connector to USB cable that came with your iPhone.
Backup and restore your iPhone using iTunes. For information on backup and restore, please visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414.
After restoring, your iPhone will be unlocked. Additional information on unlocking can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3198.

I completed these steps, however, according to TS3198, I should've seen this message from iTunes: "Unlock Complete. Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked. To set up and sync this iPhone, click Continue." I did not get a separate dialog window (as anticipated) with this message. If the message appeared within the iTunes window, I must have missed it.

TS3198 lists these troubleshooting steps:

Reseat the SIM card: Remove the SIM card in your iPhone and then reinsert it.
Restore your iPhone. Note that the computer you are using to restore the iPhone needs to be connected to the Internet. You can verify the connection by loading the first page of the iTunes Store.
Contact your carrier to verify that the unlock was applied in their system.

I've already completed steps 1 and 2, but still have not seen a message from iTunes stating that the phone is unlocked. After I post this question, I will perform step 3.

I do not have an iPhone 4 sim on another network available to test with my phone, but I need to make sure that this unlocking is complete before I travel to another country.

Is there some persistent indication in the iTunes or iPhone user interface that will tell me whether or not this phone is unlocked?

Sequence of events

April 10, 5pm: I called AT&T and requested unlocking.
April 13, 10am: AT&T emailed me instructions for unlocking.
April 13, 2pm: I completed the steps for unlocking but did not see any confirmation message as expected. I completed steps 1 and 2 of the TS3198 troubleshooting steps.
April 13, 4pm: I called AT&T to request confirmation of unlocking (attempting to complete step 3 of the TS3198 troubleshooting steps). Agent stated I did not complete the necessary steps and would need an unlock code. (below, bmike indicates this advice was incorrect.)
April 13, 6pm: AT&T emailed me instructions for unlocking, which match the instructions I received earlier in the day.

No, you do not have to enter any sort of unlock code for any iPhone unlock event.

iTunes contacts the registration database when a phone is restored to determine the lock status and set the appropriate carrier settings file if needed.

So, in your case one of two things has happened.

The database that Apple / iTunes consult hasn't been updated for your IMEI.
You missed the unlock message and your phone is actually ready to be unlocked.

The unlock happens when you restore your device - either as an over the air (OTA) activation or tethered to iTunes.

The carrier should be able to query the live database to see if your IMEI is unlocked or you could try getting another cheap SIM (or borrowing a friend's SIM) and just testing the phone yourself. If you restore the phone twice after it gets unlocks, you will not see this message - but you should get it when it's first unlocked.


Using Windows Connection Manager based VPN on macOS IT department of my company sent me a zip file for connecting to our corporate VPN. I understand that it is a deployable Windows VPN client called “Connection Manager” and it was prepared with Windows Connection Manager Administration Kit. It seems that is supposed to be installed on Windows without any parameter. After installing I have just entered my username and password and since then I can establish a VPN connection on Windows 10 without any problem.
The main question is: How can I connect to that same VPN service from my Mac. I primarily use my Mac and switching to Windows PC every time when I need corporate resources is a pain in the neck.
I find out that it is an SSTP VPN connection. I also can see the VPN server address from connection properties. There are files in the installation package named "routing.txt", "vpn.cms", "vpn.inf" and "cmroute.dll". I can see lots of parameters in these except "cmroute.dll" but do not know what to do with them.
Is there any chance for me to connect to my corporate VPN on macOS Catalina? How can I use the parameters from the installation package on macOS? (IT department is not helping me. They suggest using Windows. :) So getting help from them is out of the question)

It seems a similar question (connecting to SSTP VPN) is answered here:
How to connect OS X Yosemite to a Windows based SSTP VPN?
and here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40590806/windows-sstp-vpn-connect-from-mac/40590807#40590807
Especially on the last one, ppl seem to have succeeded in connecting.


Mail app not opening on yosemite I recently upgraded to Yosemite on my Macbook Pro. For a couple of days, my mail app was working. Then suddenly it stopped working.

I had to force quit the program and since then the app refuses to even open. The beach ball keeps rotating, and it continuously shows app not responding.
What is the solution to this?

My problem with Mail on Yosemite has been the same on three different Macs; new iMac with Retina display, new MacBook Pro with Retina display, and older iMac. Same issue. Half the time or more Mail freezes up upon launch, which required a Force Quit. Upon restarting, most of the time Mail would function OK, but occasionally hang again, always with the same error-- Application Not Responding. I've tried every fix on this thread and other website threads to get it fixed with nothing working.

Here's what I did to fix it.

I left the Mail Preferences window open to Accounts. That's it. Now, when I restart the Mac or it starts up automatically in the AM, Mail launches as per normal, but with the Preferences window open to Accounts. No problems since. None. Zero.

I have over a dozen email accounts, all IMAP, ranging from Apple's iCloud to Gmail to standard IMAP accounts, personal and business. Obviously, there's a bug somewhere. I came upon the fix by disabling all email accounts, re-enabling each, one-by-one, then doing a shutdown and startup. About five re-boots in I inadvertently left the Preferences window open to Accounts. No freeze on the next reboot. When I close Preferences, the freeze begins again.

It's a cheap fix but it took a long time to get to it.


Mac mini sleep LED fades on once and won't boot I've got Mac mini (late 2011), it stopped working recently.

Here are the symptoms:
Sleep LED fades on once for a second(a fan makes a spin or two), then Mac mini goes down. No booting sound.

Any reasonable suggestion is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

P.s. Power cord is in perfect condition. RAM, and HDD are on their places and working fine. All the cables inside are connected accordingly. NVRAM battery is checked (reinserted on it's place), resetting NVRAM didn't fix the problem. I'm out of ideas how to fix it. The latest try will be bringing it to repair shop.

Based on what you described, you most likely have a logic board issue.

The SIL (Sleep Indicator Light) will normally come on and stay on until the GPU is initialized at which point the display turns on.

From Apple Support:

  When you press the power button to turn on the computer, the SIL will also turn on. As the computer starts up, the SIL stays on until the processor (GPU) has initialized and the display turns on. When the GPU initializes properly, the display will turn on and the SIL will turn off simultaneously.

If you have a problem, the SIL will blink out a "code" which you can use for diagnostics.  Since it's shutting down, prior to an error code or a boot, the most likely cause is your logic board.

It's time to take it in for service.


Recursive chmod fails I have a folder owned by root:admin. I would like to change permissions of all files inside, so I can edit them without sudo, but recursive chmod fails:

$ sudo chmod -R u+w some-folder/

does nothing. Any ideas how to fix it?

At the same time changing permission to a single file works seamlessly.

Story:

I installed a Python package from GitHub repository via pip, as an editable install. I am contributing some changes to it, but doing sudo for every edit and every git command is not convenient (I guess - neither safe).

EDIT:

$ sudo chmod -v -R u+w some-folder/

returns nothing.

Path is below:

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

The issue is that to be able to write to a file you need to be the owner for u permissions or be part of the group for g.

Note as a user you are not root so if owned by root the u permission does not matter. As you are using sudo I assume you are in the admin group (this is not necessarily the case but if anyone  alters this I would expect they fully understand these permissions). These files are owned by admin so the permission that matters is the g one.

Thus the chomd you need is

sudo chmod -v -R g+w some-folder/

There are alternatives

As this is where python is installed you should be using pip, easy_install and setuptools to do these updates which will require sudo. Another way is to use virtualenv and so install will be done to your own directories
You can change the owner
sudo chown -R user some-folder/


macOS Catalina installer customization Is it possible to modify the files of the macOS Catalina installer to not require the admin password on install? For example changing a plist or editing an executable.

Yes, you can edit it but It won’t pass validation.

Apple signs the installer so you would have an invalid package after you modified it.

Most people script their modifications to run post install. Same with
   scripting things do run without prompting.


iPhone storage doesn't add up? When I look at the storage section of my phone, the various categories add up to about 2.5 GB of storage, but it says that 11.4 GB is being used. Is there any way to figure out what else is taking up space on my phone?

Please check out What is other on iPhone Storage to get a nice way in finding your hidden storage waste.

Also to give you a nice way to fix this. Restore your iPhone to the most recent version and then place the backup file back. Don't just update as it won't remove anything.

Also check out this Apple KB about the space issue.

To summarize Apple's solution:

  Turn off the music or photo sync option in iTunes for the device.
  Click Apply to sync the changes to the device.
  Turn the music and photo sync options for the device on again.
  Click Apply again to try to sync the device to iTunes.
  If the 'Not enough free space' alert appears, continue to step 5.
  Turn off the automatic syncing functions for the iOS device. To do this:

  Select the iOS device from the iTunes window and click the Summary tab.
  Deselect "Automatically sync when this device is connected" and select the "Sync only checked songs and videos" checkbox.
  Click Apply to sync the changes to the device.
  Reduce the amount of data that is being synced to the device and resync the device. For example, if syncing your Music library exceeds
  the memory capacity of the device, choose "Selected playlists" to
  transfer rather than "All songs and playlists" under the Music tab in
  iTunes. If the 'Not enough free space' alert appears, continue to step
  6.

  Restore using iTunes.


Why is an un-deletable Springboard app on my screen after the iOS 6 upgrade? I just updated to iOS 6 and I have this springboard app that I cannot delete. I've tried restarting, and opening the app just ends up in it closing itself. Any advice?

By the way, I am using an iPod Touch 4 that has never been jailbroken.

Before going through a hard reset, it might be worth doing a soft reset.

To do that, press the Power & Home buttons simultaneously until the iPod shuts down by itself. Release the buttons and power it back on.

This might take care of the issue. Otherwise, just restore it using iTunes and if you have no valuable data to lose, choose the "Setup Up As New Phone" option.


How to find third-party photo extensions I want to find if there is any iphoto extension can share photos on google photos.

Therefore I check
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT205245

it says

  Use the Mac App Store to find and install third-party extensions for Photos.

But I have no idea how to search App Store to find extension for photos.
Any idea?

As of now there only a few extensions for Mac OS X Photos. Many more will be rolling out in the near future. So the extensions available right now are:

BeFunky Express
Intensify
Tonality
Noiseless
Snapheal
Affinity Photo
Pixelmator
DxO Optics Pro
External Editors for Photos
Picktorial
Polarr
HayPhotos
Lochkamera


Where does SFTPD log to? I have enabled logging in SFTPD by adding including the following in my /etc/sshd_config

subsystem       sftp    /usr/libexec/sftp-server -l DEBUG

But I can't find any log files. Where does sftp log on OS X v10.9.2 ?

On my machine, (10.9.2) changing the log level for the sftp server in sshd just makes everything spit out onto /var/system.log/ along with the rest of sshd's log output.

e.g. part of my system.log filtered for 'sftp' after a single connect

May  1 19:57:55 joes-imac.local sshd[50141]: subsystem request for sftp by user joe
May  1 20:01:09 joes-imac.local sshd[50199]: subsystem request for sftp by user joe
May  1 20:01:09 joes-imac.local sftp-server[50200]: session opened for local user joe from [::1]
May  1 20:01:09 joes-imac.local sftp-server[50200]: received client version 3
May  1 20:01:09 joes-imac.local sftp-server[50200]: realpath "."
May  1 20:02:31 joes-imac.local sftp-server[50200]: opendir "/Users/joe"
May  1 20:02:31 joes-imac.local sftp-server[50200]: sent status End of file


How to use the Terminal application to search or print a man page I often need to search or print a man page. Executing the man [-a index] name command invokes a readonly navigable viewer of name[(index)]. For example, the command below displays open(1).

man  open

The command below displays open(n).

man  -a  n  open

Is there a way to use the Terminal application to involve a viewer where I can search and/or print a man page?

man -t yourcommand | open -fa "Preview"

where yourcommand is the one you want the man page of. You can then use any of the normal search functionality in Preview and print the document as a normal PDF.


Does Apple's Disk Utility 'Restore' function make a 'byte for byte' clone? I've used Apple's Disk Utility to 'restore' a drive with accidentally deleted files.  I need to know if this is an exact byte-for-byte clone that I can scan for deleted files on.

Yes, it is a "byte-for-byte" clone. The only exception is if the source volume is defective and contains read-errors. In that case you would be better off using a specialised copying program, such as ddrescue.


Netboot Image - Where is the user generated data stored I have a OS X Lion Server hosting netboot images. I also have a 10.8 Server for creating 10.8 images, but am hosting all images from one 10.7 NetBoot server.

When a client machine boots a specific net boot image, my understanding is that it copies at least the most necessary parts of the image via network and stores it somehow on its local resources.

Does it only store the data in the RAM or does it save data locally?

Where is newly generated session data stored? On the Server or locally ?

When you NetBoot, the read-only NetBoot DMG file gets mounted read-write via the use of a Shadow File. Any Mac OS X DMG file can be mounted with a Shadow file. When a Shadow file is in use, any data which would be written to the DMG file is instead written to the Shadow file, and when data is read, the data will be read from the Shadow file first before the DMG file.

When NetBooting, there are three kinds of images, each with three different methods of mounting the DMG and storing the Shadow file:

NetInstall Images are made from a Mac OS X Installer DVD or an Installer Image downloaded from the App Store. They have no Shadow file, the root partition / is read only and there is no swap.
NetBoot Images are made using System Image Utility from an installed Mac OS X system. the Shadow file is stored on the first hard disk in the hidden /private/netboot folder
Diskless Netboot Images are the same as NetBoot Images but the Shadow file is stored over the network using Apple File Protocol (AFP)

In the case of Diskless Netboot (The most powerful), the Shadow file is stored in the NetBootClients0 folder of the Library/NetBoot folder on the server machine (Or NetBootClients1, NetBootClients2, etc, where the number matches the number of theNetBootSP` folder in which the Net Boot DMG resides)

To make a NetBoot image a Diskless Netboot Image, use the "Make this image available for Diskless booting" checkbox under the image settings in Server.app:

You also need to have AFP File Sharing enabled, and you need a guest writable sharepoint for the NetBoot directory. (I do not recall if Server.app creates this automatically) Apple has a document about troubleshooting Diskless NetBoot which is helpful. AFP548 also has some great hints

  When a client machine boots a specific net boot image, my understanding is that it copies at least the most necessary parts of the image via network and stores it somehow on its local resources

This is not technically correct. When you NetBoot, the Mac OS X Kernel mounts the root filesystem (/, the boot volume) over the network. So nothing is stored locally. When data needs to be read (E.G. an application is launched) it is read over the network, rather than from your hard drive. No data is copied from the server to the local machine.

When changes are made, for example, a new file is saved, then the Mac OS X kernel needs to write those changes somewhere, and that's where the Shadow file comes in. As described above the Shadow file might be on the first local hard drive, but it might also be stored over the network. If it is stored over the network, then the Mac OS X client can actually unmount the drives and do things like running Disk Utility. It can even have the hard drives completely removed.


How does Parallels handle hard drive usage? I'm used to VirtualBox, which gives the option of either, a) fixed portion of hard drive (i.e. choose 40gb, and 40gb gets taken up in OS X); or b) dynamic usage (i.e. I choose 40gb max cap, and it fills this up as data is written by my VM).

I have a few problems with these options:

for (a), I don't want to lock into 40gb unless I need to (I'm on a SSD, so space is limited).
for (b), VirtualBox never frees up space as things get deleted on my VM.  For instance, I may have 20gb taken, then delete 10gb.  The image is still at 20gb.  VirtualBox has ways to resize these, but it is a bit of a pain.

My question: Does parallels do something different that might address my gripes?

Parallels allows to compress the virtual hard drive to give unused space back to the host OS. This only works as long as you don't create any snapshots of the virtual OS and don't use the Recovery functionality (which is most probably not an issue).


Restored my mac, lost a gesture I used to have a gesture where I could place 2 fingers on the top bar of an application/a file  and use a third finger to drag it around. What gesture is this?

Found it. It's not a gesture but an Accessibility feature. Navigate to the screenshot shown below (System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options...) and you can enable dragging from there.

Switch it to three finger drag and your lost functionality will be restored.


Carbon Copy Cloner shell script for ejecting the source drive I created a backup system for a friend, using Carbon Copy Cloner. The system has been up and running since January, but it needs regular intervention.

The main problem is that external hard drives are not ejected before disconnecting. When plugged in, the system does not recognize them, and that's when I intervene and get it to recognize them again.

By using CCC's "after run tasks" function, which gives you the option to ask it to unmount the destination drive after backing up, I've been able to solve half the problem. CCC is automatically mounting and unmounting the destination only as needed. So anytime the destination drive is removed, its always already ejected.

I'd like for this to work for some of the source drives as well.  Of course its not necessary for the laptop's main drive, but there are a number of external drives that are frequently used off site.  After they're used, I'd like them to back up at the end of the day, and then eject when they're done.

I've found CCC's shell script for ejecting the destination:

source="$1"
dest="$2"
exitStatus=$3

####Inserted script to run only if backup successful (exitStatus=0)

if [ "$exitStatus" = "0" ]; then
    # foo
else
    # bar
fi

####Eject destination drive

devID=`diskutil info "$2" | awk '/Device Identifier/ {print $NF}'`
if [ "$devID" != "" ]; then
    (sleep $delay; diskutil unmountDisk "$devID"; diskutil eject "$devID") &
else
    (sleep $delay; diskutil eject "$2"; if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then diskutil    unmountDisk "$2"; fi) &
fi

I think this would work the same for the source drive, if I change it to:

source="$1"
dest="$2"
exitStatus=$3

if [ "$exitStatus" = "0" ]; then
    # foo
else
    # bar
fi

devID=`diskutil info "$1" | awk '/Device Identifier/ {print $NF}'`
if [ "$devID" != "" ]; then
    (sleep $delay; diskutil unmountDisk "$devID"; diskutil eject "$devID") &
else
    (sleep $delay; diskutil eject "$1"; if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then diskutil    unmountDisk "$1"; fi) &
fi

I'm not completely sure how this script works, so before I try this out, does anyone see a problem?

It's much simpler for the source, the following should be sufficient:

#!/bin/sh
diskutil eject "$1"

Mike


Switching "TrackpadMomentumScroll" on and of using a script I'd like to switch the accessibility preference "Scroll with inertia" on and off for a Magic trackpad. The preference can be found in the accessibility preferences/Mouse and Trackpad/Trackpad Options/Scrolling "with/without inertia" (see here: http://de.tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2rw00wg&s=6#.U_NrJrx_ulA).

I think, that this preference resembles the key "TrackpadMomentumScroll" in either the com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad or com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad domain.

Using the defaults command doesn't seem to change the preference. At least, OS X doesn't react to the command and the preference in the GUI isn't reacting either.

I guess, I need to restart some daemon to apply the change.

Can somebody help me here?

Thanks.

Kind regards
Dennis

Oh, found it. You'll have to reload the appropriate kernel extension like this:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad TrackpadMomentumScroll -bool false

sudo bash -c "kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleBluetoothMultitouch.kext; kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleBluetoothMultitouch.kext"

After that your trackpad will shortly become unavailable, but will be reconnected and have the MomentumScroll setting.

This still isn't, what the System Settings-App does, because you'll have to enter your password for sudo (and be an administrator), but still it works.


Change shortcut in Keynote I 'd like to do a presentation with a wireless USB remote control. At one moment, I need to go to the previous animation phase – which would be the shortcut Shift–Left Arrow or [ (left bracket).

However, with my presenter it is only possible to go the previous slide — which would be the shortcut P, Delete, Page Up, Left Arrow, Up Arrow, or Shift–Up Arrow.

I do not want to use a keyboard since I want to speak freely in my presentation.

So the questions are: Is this a problem of my remote control? In other words: Are there remote controls that as well have a "previous animation phase" button? Do I need to somehow trick the system to make it work?

You can do this in Mavericks pretty easily (I just did).

Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts, select "App Shortcuts" and click the + button. You'll be asked to select the app you want to create a shortcut for (Keynote, in my case), the exact text of the menu item you want to create a new shortcut for ("Play Slideshow" in my case), and the keyboard shortcut you want to assign (Shift-F5 in my case, which is what the Logitech R400 uses for "start slideshow").


Mac Pro Randomly Restarts I have a MacPro from Early 2007, and it will restart and at random times. It's not even at times where I'm doing something graphically, RAM-wise, or processor-wise intensive. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I could do to isolate the problem?

You might want to start with the Apple Hardware Test:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


Upgrade iPad to newer (but not latest) iOS How do I upgrade my iPad 3 from iOS 5.1 to 7.x (now when the latest version is >8)?

First backup your iPad in case something goes wrong (if you have jailbroken your device I advice you to save your shsh blobs, it's not necessary).
Next download the os version you want to upgrade to from https://ipsw.me/
Finally open iTunes, cancel if asked for an update. Go to your iPad's summary page. Hold alt/option key (OS X), or Shift key (Windows) and click on restore. A window will show up choose the ipsw your downloaded before and and your upgrade will start. Then afterwards reinstall the backup.


how do I share photos on the web with iPhoto / iCloud? I have a new Mac (Mountain Lion) with iPhoto '11.

I want to share photos on the web.  In the past, I would launch iWeb and build a little photo album web page.  My understanding was that if I subscribed to .Mac/MobileMe I could share my iWeb page that way, but instead I always FTPed my web page to my own web site.

On my new Mac, I see that iWeb no longer exists.  In iPhoto I discovered there's something called "photo streams".  I signed into "iCloud", I dragged some photos to my "photo stream", and it appears the photos are now online (unless I'm not understanding something).

I signed into www.icloud.com, but I don't see any photos there.

QUESTION: What am I missing, or, What is the "correct" way to share photos on the web with iPhoto '11?

iCloud is not a replacement for MobileMe--those great-looking photo albums are a thing of the past.

Photostream shares photos between Macs, iPads and iPhones, automatically and pretty instantaneously — unless of course you turn it off -- in a separate album from the device's camera roll.

Apple no longer provides a way to share photos on the web. Mores the pity.

Edit: iOS 6 offers Shared Photo Streams on iCloud.com.

  Shared Photo Streams allow you to post and share photos to a Photo
  Stream album hosted by iCloud. The photos stored there don't count
  against your iCloud storage allotment, and will work over Wi-Fi and
  cellular data. You're able to share photos with fellow iOS users as
  well as by creating an iCloud.com Shared Photo Stream album for
  non-iOS users.

See the rest of the How-To on CNET.


Terminal commands for "Application Windows" and "Show Desktop" in Mountain Lion The title pretty much says it all. I need to know the terminal commands for "Application Windows" and "Show Desktop" in Mountain Lion so I can make aliases on the dock with Automator. I don't like hot corners, mostly because there are only four corners on the screen and more OS functionality than that. Keyboard shortcuts are all well and good, I just want options.

You can execute "Mission Control" with specific arguments to trigger the behavior that you desire:

Mission Control:

/Applications/Mission\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\ Control

Show Desktop:

/Applications/Mission\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\ Control 1

Application Windows:

/Applications/Mission\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\ Control 2

Alternately, you could use osascript to execute the key code that you have setup for "Application Windows" and "Show Desktop". In the example below, I have "Desktop" mapped to the F8 key, and "Application Windows" setup to use F9. The key codes for these F keys can be found in various places.

osascript -e "tell applications \"System Events\"" -e "key code 100" -e "end tell"

osascript -e "tell applications \"System Events\"" -e "key code 101" -e "end tell"


Can I reduce how Mobile Safari refreshes web pages when multi-tasking or browsing in multiple tabs? Whenever i visit a page using the web browser, then i simply jump to other applications, when i come back to the page again, the web browser will reload the url.

Is there anyway to make it such that if i come back to the page again, simply show me whatever was shown previously, without any reloads whatsoever.

I've noticed this problem to occur when i was switching tabs in the web browser as well. let's say I have 3 tabs, then i was at tab 1. then later i jump to tab 3, I do not wish to issue a page refresh.

How do we stop iphone from automatically performing all these annoying page reloads?

What you're experiencing is the iPhone flushing pages from RAM to free up memory. There's no way to prevent this from happening, but some things that can alleviate it are keeping less pages open, and being mindful of the current number of apps that you're using that are taking up memory. As iOS needs memory for the current app, it'll kill off less recently used apps/pages.


Boot Partition doesn't have the correct storage space So my SSD has 500 GB of storage I have only one Partition (the Macintosh HD Partition) but it only has ~100 GB storage space.

Is there any way I can get my total ~500 GB of storage on my partition?

here is what shows up in terminal (command diskutil list)

You probably had some dual boot config previously and removed the main Windows partition(s). You didn't expand the APFS container disk0s2 afterwards.

A small blocking disk0s3 is a left-over though (right "after" disk0s2). This small partition has to be removed before you can expand your APFS container.

Erase the Microsoft Reserved partition:

diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" %noformat% /dev/disk0s3

Expand the APFS container:

diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk0s2 0


How do I launch a process with different date/time settings than the rest of the system? I'm developing a desktop app for OS X with behaviour that depends on the date. I want to test the behaviour without waiting for a specific date.

I'd rather not change the date settings of the whole system as I'm worried it might mess with build systems etc. Using a VM is possible, but takes a while to set up.

Is there a simple way to run a process and its children in a time delta relative to the actual time, without affecting the rest of the system?

No. The system doesn't bifurcate time.

You would need the app in question to handle the time shift or run independently of the system time or package the app to run in a VM or other container like docker. In some limited cases, the time zone variable might help you make a little tweak, but arbitrarily setting a totally unrelated time isn't implemented on OS X.


Getting the whole DNS record I have a domain that has a DNS record with CNAME and ALIAS entries, but how do I check them in the terminal?
I tried nslookup -type=any <domain.name> and dig <domain.name> any and variants there of, but it seems like I don't get the whole record.
What knowledge gap do I have?

You can use host -a example.com to see a list of all DNS records of a domain.


How to recover accidentally deleted data? My data has been deleted accidentally don't know how it got deleted.

Yesterday when I left office the folders where at proper place and when today morning I opened my Mac OS Lion  10.7.4. I found some project files to be missing.

How can I recover back my all data?

The only sure way is to restore from your latest backup, which is why Apple added Time Machine for easy use.

If you do not have that then the first thing to do is turn the machine off so that no more data is written to the disk. Then boot the machine off a recovery disk like Diskwarrior. If you are lucky then you can restore data if not the next step would be to send the disk to a specialist and pay them to see what they can get back. If you have a solid state disk then I think you are unlucky and even a specialist will have problems getting data back.


Does Apple have a policy restricting generic UUID with iBeacon apps in the app store? I heard that developers must specify clearly the list of iBeacon UUID their app is working with, and that each change in this list would require an update.
The reason would be to prevent companies to apply "counter-marketing" strategies, using their opponents' iBeacons to broadcast their own coupons.

I'm developing a generic app that may let the user input his iBeacon's UUID or fetch them from a server.

Would this application be really rejected by the appstore's validation process ?

The answer is yes, Apple is rejecting the apps that let the user input iBeacon UUID. If you fetch an uuid from a server, that would probably result in the same problem.

Just a quote from an article about this issue :

      We’ve been receiving reports that Apple has recently taken its “lock down” of UUID scanning a step further. Before, you needed to specify the UUID numbers you were scanning for in your app, but you could also manually input those numbers.

      But now, Apple is rejecting apps that have this functionality. Awwapps is one of the documented cases of this rejection:

      "With the upcoming updates of our iBeacon apps Launch Here and Travel Radar we will remove the option to manually add and edit iBeacon credentials (UUIDs, Major ID, Minor ID). This is not our choice. We do this to keep the apps in the App Store. We’ll do our best to come up with other options to add your iBeacons – better options…We will improve on this and extend support to more iBeacon vendors…Please note that a general scanning of all iBeacons around is not possible on iOS. We rely on your input to cover all commonly used iBeacons."

Source : http://beekn.net/2014/05/apple-closed-system-apple-slowly-locking-ibeacon/

Why :

Apple decided this for security reason. That allows developers to prevent their ibeacons of being used by others companies.

Why it's not a big deal :

Most beacons constructors set up their beacons with the same UUID. So the most commons beacons may still be found, unless the UUID was changed for security reasons. For example, by default, the UUID for all the iBeacons built by Estimote is "B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D". You then rely on the "major" and "minor" id sent by the beacon to develop your application.

iBeacons aren't invisible :

It's possible on Android devices to develop an application able to see all the iBeacons in range, and to get it published on the Play Store without any trouble.
On iOS, it's still technically possible that an application may let the user input the UUID value, it just won't be approved by the App Store.

And of course, the iBeacons still emits Bluetooth data that still physically exists in the air.


Is there a way to stop the MobileMe synchronization from Terminal? It happens to me that, sometimes, the MobileMe synchronization starts when it should not, when Mac OS X is busy doing something time-consuming. In such cases, I try to stop the synchronization using its menu extra, but for some reasons the synchronization doesn't stop.
Is there a way to stop it from Terminal?

Try this :

sudo kill -9 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DotMacSyncManager.framework/Versions/A/Resources/mobilemesyncclient

I don't use Mobile Me so cannot test this but this is the location of the Mobile Me sync command.  So killing it should stop the syncing.


How to fix iPhone no longer loading css on webpages and not connecting to internet Currently my iPhone would not load the CSS parts on webpages so i.e. when I go to www.apple.com the phone would only load the words of the webpage

I cannot access apps such as Itune, Appstore, Facebook that utilizes the internet and basically the only thing that I can do is use the cellular call function,

Even then I cannot even send iMessage texts and send text messages either

When I try to update through iTunes on my Mac the update doesn't work, what should I do?

Make sure the clock is set correctly on the device as this will prevent HTTPS.


Why did all my menus go blank and views become illegible? MacBook Pro 15-inch 2017 i7 16GB
OS Version: High Sierra 10.13.4 (it's possible it was an earlier version 10.13.3 or something because this occurred about a week ago)

Take a look at these images though, I don't think anything particularly out of the ordinary happened, no catalyst that I can think of, but I was using my computer one day and all of my menus and UI started glitching. I ended up restarting the computer which fixed everything, but it was a system-wide glitch which impacted everything running.

There were other strange things I didn't get screenshots of like empty terminals, I could type but couldn't see anything. Every context menu of a running application after I clicked it would have a menu with nonsense text and images in it kind of similar to the last image above, of the text editor file menu.

There are a couple clues here that indicate this is a software corruption of the graphics buffers and not a hardware issue.

The issue corrects immediately after a reboot
The issue doesn’t affect the entire screen
The issue affects layers of image and not the overall picture

Since the graphics architecture of macOS is that each layer of an image is allocated memory and then the software determines if a specific button or frame or windows is on screen and then if it’s visible on screen (whether minimized and visible as a thumbnail or if it’s not obscured by an element more front most than it) the corruption shown is either blanking or fuzzing the bits in one layer.

Hardware errors tend to get worse with time (often rapidly deteriorating) and the hardware doesn’t get cooler or somehow fix itself when the OS reloads. Yes the drivers are restarted and hardware might power down most of the units briefly as part of a restart, but in general it’s the same Mac after the restart as it was before.

Now, none of that helps immediately.

The next time you get this corruption, I would open system preferences and make a new account. Log out of your current account that has the glitches and see if the glitches happen when you log in to the new account. If so, you know the glitches are either hardware or corruption in the base system. That’s good since you can either reinstall the OS or get hardware repair.

If logging in to the new user is clean - no issues. Log out of the new user and back in to your old user - not restarting the OS yet.

If the log in to the old user is glitchy - you need to isolate the software causes (update the OS, update your apps, clean your settings) or just reboot more often. If the old user is not glitchy, you have the least actionable case - it’s some corruption that happens rarely or by chance and “fixing” it will be hard if it’s not a system bug that Apple eventually fixes.

Good luck, keep your backups current in case you get tired of this and choose to erase the OS entirely, reinstall a new OS and then move your data and apps back from the backup.


Left shift and alt are stuck together My left shift and left alt seem to be stuck together, as in when I press one the system acts as both were pressed (the keyboard viewer shows both pressed as well).

It only happens with the built-in keyboard on my Macbook (Mid 2012 edition, with OS X 10.10.5).

This started today and I've restarted, and also reset the NVRAM, but no luck so far. Any suggestions?

Probably a hardware problem rather than a software problem. Take it to the Apple Store and they'll check the underneath of the keyboard.


Can I boot from a USB stick containing MacOS if there is an issue with MacintoshHD? So my mac HD started playing up and then refused to work, would not boot.
Tried recovery mode but it wouldn't allow me to run first aid on the Macintosh HD drive.
Created a MacOS USB boot up stick by formatting a blank USB stick then using the recovery option to install MacOS on it.
Plugged it in, rebooted and held the command (cloverleaf) key.
Mac then displays the drives from which you can boot
Chose the USB stick and not MacintoshHD.
and it is taking forever.
It took me through all the usual options "set up appleID" and so on which I either skipped or chose default.
Then it just went black with the beachball.
Now it's just black with the arrow/pointer.
Doesn't appear to be doing anything..
So is it because MacintoshHD (internal HD) has issues that the USB booter is not able to finish?
EDIT: additions in italics

Yes. Mac hardware is designed to boot from an external OS whether it’s an external drive, cheap commodity USB Flash thumb drive, network boot, internet recovery or direct attached disks. The startup manager governs which item is selected and you can connect the OS after you power on the Mac.
It even will search for a bootable drive if the last one stored in Non Volatile Ram (NVRAM) isn’t detected.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255 (Intel only startup keys)

In your specific case, you would need to look at the startup logs for the OS to determine the issue or bring another OS to bear to rule out the first OS or drive you’re using. On slow USB media it can take dozens of minutes to boot, but on fast external media, it should be minutes tops.
Also, a failing drive can bring down the Mac and prevent booting from a known good OS so your option might be to remove the drive entirely (if feasible) to test that or have it repaired.


Is there shortcut to switch between visible windows (apps) within current desktop? I have 3+ windows (different apps) placed on a single desktop. Also i have bunch of other desktops with other windows-setups.

How do i toggle focus between visible windows of current desktop?

If you go to Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts in this area you can set the following keyboard shortcuts to achieve the toggle focus between windows on your current desktop. Please see this screenshot for further instructions. I use macOS 10.12.2 (Sierra) on a late 2015 Macbook Pro 15.


How does Mountain Lion set the default text editor for the "open -t" terminal command? OSX seem to offer open -t command line shortcut to open arbitrary files in the system default text editor.

Where is this default text editor set?
Can I change it from the command line (if possible) or otherwise programmatically?

The default choice of TextEdit is limiting.

It's the default application for plain text (public.plain-text) files. You can change it from Finder's information panels or with duti.

You can also edit ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.launchservices.plist, but it requires restarting to apply the changes.

defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSHandlers -array-add '{LSHandlerContentType=public.plain-text;LSHandlerRoleAll=com.macromates.textmate;}'


Dell E2720HS flickering as external MacBook Pro monitor I have an MBP 2012 model. I have Dell E2620HS and connecting it with an HDMI adapter via the Thunderbolt port. It has been flickering as it comes on and off.
I tried reconnecting cable but it didn't help. My OS is mojave 10.14.6
Edit: here is a video of flickering

Make sure that the HDMI adapter is compatible with MacBook. Some HDMI adapter isn't and makes your screen flicker.


How to overlay multiple graphs from Apple Health data With Apple Health in iOS 9, how can I see the interaction between multiple data categories? For example, if I enter data for menstruation and sexual activity, it would be nice to see a graph with both of those overlaid on one another.

The feature you're describing doesn't exist in the Health app. However, it's possible there's some App Store app that reads such data from HealthKit and can display a combined chart.


How much power does Apple TV use on standby? I just bought a third-gen Apple TV, and I don't want to have to open Settings to put it to sleep every time I'm done using it. It seems it won't fall asleep automatically for quite some time, so I'd like to know how much power it draws when not in use.

According to the review on FlatpanelsHD.com, it will use 0.8 watts when in standby (not sleep), and 1.9 watts when in use. To use their description, this is "ridiculously low."

Since all the device needs to do is wait for Bonjour, AirPlay, or IR signals — and the upper number matches up with Apple's own report — I'd say this is believable.

Fun perspective fact from the Apple report: It takes 30 Apple TVs, all streaming HD video, to use the same amount of power as a common 60W light bulb.

You can quickly put the Apple TV to sleep by holding the play/pause button on the home screen. The cursor should be over one of the apps, not a content preview, and last I tested, this didn't work with the play/pause button of the Remote app.


What application can rotate a TIFF without re-encoding it? This question is inspired by my earlier question:

Ask Different: Why does rotating a TIFF in Preview increase the file size?

One thing I don't like about the Preview application is that even something as simple as rotating an image 90 degrees requires Preview to re-encode the file, adding an alpha channel in the process. This results in a file that is 10% to 20% larger than the original, with no added benefit. This size difference may not matter much on a 5 MB file, but on a 500 MB file, it is a nuisance.

Are there any applications that can rotate a TIFF image 90 degrees without re-encoding it and altering the image in any other way? The source of the TIFF is a scanner, which does not offer a rotation feature.

I did a search and all I found were JPEG programs.

(2013 rMBP) -- (OS X 10.11.4)

GraphicConverter ($40 shareware) is the "Swiss Army Knife" of graphics applications.
The list of what it can do & the file types it can handle runs to pages, far too much to even précis here.

The one thing it's very good at is 'not doing anything you didn't ask it to do' so for instance, it won't add an alpha channel if all you want to do is rotate an image.

Being "Shareware" in the good old-fashioned sense, if you run over the trial period it doesn't cease to function, unlike many other apps, so you can continue to use it until you decide it's worth your money.

No affiliation, it's just a cracking good product that I've been using for perhaps 20 years :-)


European week numbers to iOS calendar? I have never really used the calendar in iOS and the below is the reason. I need week numbers for my work, studies, hobbies and almost everything -- that is why I am still using a paper calendar. If a boss gives me a new task, it can be just monday week 33 8PM something -- now I go to paper calendar without touching the phone.

Where you can see that adding week numbers preserves every day on the right. Also you need to click to day to see the week number which is outrageously slow.

If I want to have European week numbers, I need to subscribe to Week Number calendar outlined here and it ruins the availability dots in the calendar like the right. I am looking forward to see week numbers in the month view without preserving every day.

How can I get the European week numbers to iOS calendar without preserving every day and still being visible in the month view?

I use Week Calendar by UtiliTap instead of the built-in calendar - it's not a free app but it's not expensive and works really well.


Delete Yosemite? Find Mountain Lion? Post-Stroke Explanations, Please I hope you can help me. I had modest tech abilities until 6 months ago, when I had a stroke. I don't know now what these abbreviations mean. I have read the answers but they don't seem to apply.

My mini got a new hard drive last November with Mountain Lion installed. I think I wanted to upgrade to Mavericks but somehow got Yosemite instead, which is awful and messes with everything. Can I get rid of it without losing everything? I don't have anymore an external hard drive, or something else I can't recall. Thank you.

Sorry to hear about your stroke. To answer your question, downgrading operating system installs are pretty tricky. This is further complicated by Apple's switch to exclusively distribute OS X via the App Store - if you don't already have access to the Mavericks installer, you're out of luck given that you can't even get the installer on the App Store anymore.

If you do have access to the Mavericks installer, you'll need to back up your documents somewhere as you will need to completely erase the hard drive in your Mini before installing Mavericks. If you use Time Machine to backup, this could be an option - but I couldn't be certain as I've never downgraded from Yosemite to Mavericks and I know that Time Machine backs up the OS as well, so there could be some issues involved.

Once that's done, you can then bring over your documents and reconfigure your apps (if you have iCloud and sync your Apple app settings, that should be effortless - but I can't confirm as, again, I've never done the downgrade).

If this sounds like a royal pain in the butt … you're right. Yosemite is a pretty big change from OS X, but if you can stand to stick with it that will probably be your best option.


Photos getting deleted from favourites album Will deleting the photos from my phone mean that the ones in my Favourites Album will be deleted too?

Short answer: Yes. At least for iOS9.

A bit longer answer: The Favorites Album in the Photos App in iOS9 generates a link to all photos that is marked with a "heart". If you delete the photo then the link in the Favorites album also disappears.


Can the iCloud apps backup of an iPhone be restored to a different iPhone? The main or phone backup of my iPhone happened to my PC, but I had iCloud backup enabled for a number of apps (like WhatsApp, and others).

My iPhone crashed and burned last week and Apple gave me a new iPhone, and even though I named it the same, and used the same AppleID on the new phone, it obviously has a different serial number and IMEI.

My question is if I can in some way restore the applications backup of my previous phone (that are on iCloud) to my new phone? Again, I'm not talking about a full restore of the phone from an iCloud backup, but only retrieve the application data (chats, etc) that my previous iPhone had backed up to iCloud.

If you want to restore your data to your new phone, you most certainly can; that is the point for have iTunes/iCloud backups. But you cannot select what data you wish to restore from backup, regardless if its an iCloud or iTunes local backup.

I suggest you restore your backup to your new phone and then manually remove any applications and data that you do not wish to keep on it. Otherwise, you are forced to start with a brand new phone without any data from your previous phone.