How do I bypass a VPN for Continuity to Work? When on a VPN (such as Private Internet Access) Continuity and Handoff stop working.  Some VPN's such as PIA have a feature to exclude certain IP addresses, networks, or executables from the VPN.  To make continuity work to place and receive calls using my iPhone, an executable needs to be excluded.  What executable should be excluded?

By excluding the executable \usr\sbin\mDNSResponder executable and either rebooting for killing the existing process, Continuity properly works to make and receive phone calls using an iPhone.  This means VPN users can exclude that process and still gain functionality of Continuity if they want.
It should be noted that by excluding that executable they would be exposing it's network traffic to the network without the protection of the VPN.  Thus if on an insecure network it might be possible for the network provider to see what the user is doing (though the actual call traffic is encrypted, IIRC).
Different VPN's have different mechanisms, I know what works for PIA to exclude the executable but I'm not familiar with all VPN packages.  The PIA application UI doesn't allow for excluding just bare executables, but it is possible.  Pulling from this post on the PIA forum one needs to install a package called jq using Homebrew.
Once installed, it can be excluded via:
piactl -u applysettings '{"splitTunnelRules":'"$(cat /Library/Preferences/com.privateinternetaccess.vpn/settings.json | jq '.splitTunnelRules + [{"linkTarget":"","mode":"exclude","path":"/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder"}]' -c)"'}'

The FaceTime application should also be excluded, but that can be done through the PIA UI without any trouble.
The change is persistent and survives a reboot.  Before changes work a person will have to reboot or kill the mDNSResponder process to force it to reload.  Other services offer Split Tunnel as well to exclude certain applications, but as I said I don't know how to make it work for anything but PIA.  Excluding the executable should work, so long as there is a way to do that.
As an addon, I've also found that I need to exclude /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IDS.framework/identityservicesd.app as well as /usr/libexec/avconferenced from the VPN in order to make the connection reliable when using WiFi Calling.  It appears the system establishes a VPN of its own using identityservicesd and while I could not actually see any activity over the network from avconferenced the system got really flakey about establishing a phone call until I excluded it.  Not sure why.


How do I get Mail.app use a template? It would be very convenient in macOS mail if upon clicking Reply, a simple template would:

insert a "Hi [first name of recipient from original email],"
add my signature
quote the original email at the very end (as usual)

Any mail.app extensions (plugins) that do this one simple feature?

The Mail.app is scriptable, although AppleScript can be a little weird to work with. It wouldn't be hitting the reply button, but you can put a command in the Menu Bar under a Script Menu.

Much of the following comes from a discussions.apple.com thread (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4401380):

Open the Script Editor (in Utilities) and go into its preferences and check "Show Script menu in menu bar"

Then create a new script with something like this:

set myReply to "Thanks, I've received your email. If I have any questions about it I will contact you directly"

tell application "Mail"
    set theSelection to selection
    if theSelection is {} then return
    activate
    repeat with thisMessage in theSelection
        set theOutgoingMessage to reply thisMessage with opening window
        repeat until exists (window 1 whose name = "Re: " & subject of thisMessage)
        end repeat
        delay 0.1

        -- send gui scripting to handler to get it out of Mail tell block
        my guiScriptMail(myReply)
        send theOutgoingMessage -- This automatically sends the message!
    end repeat
end tell

on guiScriptMail(myReply)
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Mail"
            set frontmost to true
            -- keystroke "a" using {command down} -- ⌘A to select all
            keystroke myReply
        end tell
    end tell
end guiScriptMail

Then save this script to the Desktop. In the Script menu, go to "Open Scripts Folder" and select "Open User Scripts Folder". In the folder that open up (should be ~/Library/Scripts) create a folder named "Mail" - this will create a context sensitive menu in the Scripts menu, so that it will only show your script if you are in the Mail application.

Then you can select a message in Mail, and then select the script in the Script menu and your reply should be filled out and sent.

Again, AppleScript can be a little tricky and can fail or hang sometimes, but works well most of the time.


How do I backup account passwords and and other data on Catalina? I have always relied on using an encrypted backup of my iPhone to preserve account passwords as part of the backup, so that these can be easily restored when I move to a new phone. But this feature relies on iTunes, which has been removed from Catalina.

How do I create an encrypted backup of my iPhone that preserves account passwords and and other data on Catalina, so that these can be restored when I get a new phone?

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT205220#encrypt
Has the screenshot

From the General tab or the Summary tab, select "Encrypt local backup" under the Backups section.


Saving video from shared photostream How do I copy or save a video on a shared photostream to my iPad camera roll? Tapping on the video does not offer a suitable choice. Mail a copy is ghosted out.

Open the video you wish to save.
Tap the Share  button
Select Save Video in the actions list (bottom scroll view, may have to scroll to the right).


Apple Watch 1st Gen serial number and pairing issue I am trying to get the serial number of my Apple Watch 1st gen watch.
I can’t get it off the back as wear has scraped it off over time.
I thought I would try and get it off the watch itself in settings, but I can’t pair it to my iPhone 11 (running iOS 14.1). Every time I try to pair, my iPhone tells me I need to have the latest version of iOS on my iPhone. Which I have.
Is there any way I can get the serial number without pairing?
Or is there a way to help me pair it to get the number?

It's under Settings on the Apple Watch.
Tap General then About.  Scroll down until you see Serial Number and the IMEI (where applicable).  If it's paired to your phone, it's under General → About in the "My Watch" App.

How to find the serial number or IMEI for your Apple Watch


Configure 1 of 2 keyboards for Dvorak I have 2 keyboards on my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.8.5. I am trying to configure it so that typing on one keyboard will always use the Qwerty layout while typing on the other will always use the Dvorak layout. What would it take to configure or develop something that accomplished this?

I type Dvorak myself.

While I am interested in your idea, I do not believe that it is possible.

Matias makes a keyboard that is dedicated to Dvorak in hardware, for US $100. In other words it types in Dvorak when the Mac's software keyboard layout is set to U. S. You could purchase one of those.

From the company's description:

  Hardwired Dvorak layout. The Matias Dvorak Keyboard gives you the
  Dvorak layout, hardwired right into the keyboard. This approach has
  advantages that software-based solutions can’t offer.

  Software Dvorak layouts may not take effect until after you log in, so
  if you need to type a password, you’re stuck typing it in QWERTY. With
  the Matias Dvorak Keyboard, you’ll never have this problem.

  Switchable to QWERTY on the fly. A layout selection key lets you
  instantly & easily switch the layout to standard QWERTY and back, for
  those times when non-Dvorak typists want to use the computer.

  The keyboard is labelled with both Dvorak and QWERTY key legends, so
  you can easily see which key is which.

I have not tried this model of keyboard, but I have used other Matias products.

I type in Dvorak using a standard QWERTY keyboard, setting the Mac OS and Windows to use a software Dvorak keyboard layout. The whole point of using Dvorak is to learn to type faster, and that should also include training yourself to type without looking at the keys on the keyboard. Therefore it makes no difference to me what is printed on the keycaps, as I never look at them. So any standard keyboard will work fine for me and I can do Dvorak mapping in software on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux for that matter.

Should it be necessary to toggle between Dvorak and the standard US QWERTY layout, that can easily be done in Mac OS X by assigning a keyboard shortcut in the Language & Text pane in System Preferences.


MacBook Pro suddenly does not boot and acts very strange Suddenly when booting up my MacBook Pro I got the message in the image  It restarted by itself a couple of times giving the same crash message. Then it wouldn't boot at all. It would just go black midways through the boot progress bar.

After 10 attempts of hard shutdown and reboot it went into the login screen. I logged in successfully but started giving all sorts of strange error messages, as if the hard drive was read only, and went extremely slow. It took a really long time to even launch a Finder window, a Terminal or the Activity Monitor. The hard drive is SSD by the way.

I managed to restart, then got the login screen again but wouldn't accept my password! From that point and on, whenever I try to boot, I usually reach the login screen but my account has disappeared! Only the "guest" account is present, which I haven't enabled as far as I know. So I can't login, but even typing into the password prompt has huge lags, it's going really slow. Sometimes I get the initial crash screen too (that's how I managed to take the picture attached).

I tried booting with the D option to perform the hardware test. I performed an extended hardware test but no problems were reported.

I also booted with the Alt option to run the Disk Utility to check the hard drive. It didn't report any problems.

Any idea what could be wrong?

It is hard to tell in cases like this as the hardware test and Disk Utility don't always find hardware or disk errors.

However that the system can boot and run diagnostics bodes well for the hardware in the system. It sounds like it is possibly a damaged macOS install. I would be inclined to reinstall macOS right over top of what you already have there. Normally an OS install will not wipe any of your data. But, as always, verify you have a good working backup before proceeding.

If it still acts wonky after an OS reinstall I would say that you possibly have an issue with the HD/SSD and a 3rd party disk utility might be able to either tell you what is wrong and/or fix it. Failing that a visit to the Genius Bar may be in order.


Harmful to never put to sleep / shut down a mac? Is it harmful for a mac in any way to never put it to sleep, or to turn it off?

I have a macbook air and an iMac that I set to never sleep in the settings. Only the displays go to sleep. I turn them off once a month. I am afraid that they could be damaged over time if I keep doing it. Could it happen?

You can safely leave your Mac powered on all the time.

Safe and Harmless

There is no practical damage or harm that will occur because the Mac is constantly running. Use your Mac as best suits your needs.

Restarting is helpful every so often – if only to install updates and clear out caches or temporary files.

Environment

As 1lann mentions, environmental factors like dust and heat build-up should be considered. Keep your Mac away from sources of dust, like limestone or sandstone walls, where the fans can draw in surprising amounts of particulate matter.


How do I reply to a mail with in-line comments on iOS? When I answer emails from outlook on my PC I can add in-line answers to questions I’m asked and it automatically add my initials inside brackets when I click “enter” like so:

What is the weather today?
[RW] Sunny and bright
How do you feel today?
[RW] Very good, thank you!

It also makes my answers bold and italic usually.
Is there an iOS app that does the same?

IOS support also what you need:

from upper right icons of the received mail, press the curved to left arrow to generate a replay;
press return on the line where you need to write an answer to create an empty new row;
on your keyboard, upper right, touch/press the letters "B" and "I" to generate bold and italics. Please note these letters become color blue;
type your answer. It will be written in bold italics;
send as usual!


Deleting formula sources without destroying formula output, using Numbers for Mac I would like to delete the source column for a formula in Numbers 3.2.2, without destroying values in the formula's output column. Specifically, I have a column of "Last, First" names, which I parse by comma and output to two separate columns, "Last" and "First". How can I delete the "Last, First" column without destroying the output values in the "Last" and "First" columns?

An image of the current state of things is shown in the link after this paragraph. The formula used to generate the First Name column is shown for the "Example, A" entry. I'd like to lock the output column's values in place, such that they no longer draw on the source column, "Full Name".

Select the columns with the data that you want to preserve.
Choose Copy from the Edit menu (or hit Command ⌘+C).
Choose Paste Formula Results from the Edit menu (or hit Shift ⇧+Command ⌘+V).

You should end up with just the results of the formula.


Asset Management, Zip Application with File previews? I have large amounts of design asset files I have created and purchased (images, PSDs, icons, fonts, etc...)  These are really starting to take up a lot of space.

I would like to zip the files into an archive, but still have the ability to browse the files as I'm doing design work.

Are there an Mac zip utilities that would allow me to browse a zip file "in place" where I could see what the file content's look like without manually unzipping the file every time as this would be impractical?

BetterZip is fairly comprehensive & has a preview mode, which can be toggled from prefs as to whether it will uncompress or open to preview by default. It also has a Quick Look plugin, which remains free even after the trial period.

Zipster tries to go one better by integrating zip files into the system so you browse them just like folders & can add/remove files without appearing to do anything other than drop/remove a file in a folder.

Overall, BetterZip is the more comprehensive tool… but Zipster is free, vs 20 bucks for BetterZip.


Why is Aperture showing thousands of Rejected, but there are only 3 there? My Aperture is showing 2.5k Rejected photos (count), but when I view the album, there are only 3 there. I tried rebuilding the database.

I also tried switching and viewing the library in iPhoto, which shows no hidden photos. The library in Aperture shows no hidden photos. When I create a Smart Album having only Rejected items in it, it still only shows 3 items.

My Trash is empty too, and permissions are correct.

Any ideas on what's wrong, and why it's showing this?

Apparently aperture doesn't show photos that have been hidden in iPhoto. You need to open the library in iPhoto and unhide them there, I think. Then you can reject them in aperture again, and they should show up as expected.


How do I get Automator actions for Microsoft Powerpoint and Word? I'm trying to set up Automator with a folder action to convert any Powerpoint or Word documents I drag into it to PDFs.

I found this question: How do I script Powerpoint to save a directory of PPTX files as PDFs?, but I don't have any Automator actions for Powerpoint or Word.

Here's what I see in Automator.

When I search in actions for "convert", here's what I get.

Mac OS 10.10.5
Powerpoint version 15.15
Word version 15.15

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 (and 2008) includes several Automator workflows, but Microsoft is no longer providing Automator actions for Office 2016.

So, you must run an AppleScript from the Automator workflow

Here is the script (edited):

on run {input, parameters}
    set theOutput to {}
    tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint" -- work on version 15.15 or newer
        launch
        set theDial to start up dialog
        set start up dialog to false
        repeat with i in input
            open i
            set pdfPath to my makeNewPath(i)
            save active presentation in pdfPath as save as PDF -- save in same folder
            close active presentation saving no
            set end of theOutput to pdfPath as alias
        end repeat
        set start up dialog to theDial
    end tell
    return theOutput
end run

on makeNewPath(f)
    set t to f as string
    if t ends with ".pptx" then
        return (text 1 thru -5 of t) & "pdf"
    else
        return t & ".pdf"
    end if
end makeNewPath

This script return path of the PDF files to the next action.

Here is the workflow:


Why would MacBook Pro indicate "not on same network" as iPhone...when that is not the case? I have a new MacBook Pro (2015) from apple and I am trying to link with my iPhone so I can make calls from the laptop. I have done this before, with my iMac and other laptops but I keep getting a message (see below) that they are not on the same network...but they are!!! Any thoughts?

Network might me blocking required protocols.

UDP ports 500 and 4500 are required for Wifi Calling.

Other ports and protocols might be needed.

There is a list here.


Deleting image from Camera Roll and Photo Stream at the same time? Now that Photo Stream lets you delete pictures, I find myself frequently deleting pictures from both Photo Stream and the Camera Roll manually. Is there any way to easily delete the same picture from both locations at once?

The iCloud FAQ states that:

  Copies of Photo Stream photos you have saved to your Camera Roll on an iOS device, or imported into events in your iPhoto or Aperture library, will not be deleted when you delete photos from Photo Stream.

I guess it cant be done, at least officially.

Pictures in Photo Stream will be deleted after 30 days, though.


How do I view title text for a web page on a mobile device? XKCD on my kindle or phone just doesn't cut it.  I do all my other morning reading from the comfort of the ivory throne, but always have to revisit XKCD when I'm at a full blown computer with a mouse because I can't access the title text for the comic.

Is there any way to display the title text on a mobile device?

It's not generally possible unless specifically supported in some way by your browser, but you can create bookmarklets in JavaScript that add image title text to the web page as regular text paragraphs. How well that works depends on the layout of the web page.

One possible implementation is the following as URL of a bookmark:

  javascript:(function(){for(var i=0;i<document.images.length;i++){var t=document.createTextNode(document.images[i].title); document.images[i].parentNode.insertBefore(t, document.images[i].nextSibling);}})();

This will add the image title text just after every image on the web page. For XKCD, it looks like this:

It's not easy to type on iOS, but you can use iCloud to sync it between desktop and iOS device.


Import Safari data into Safari Technology Preview I have installed the Safari Technology Preview and whilst everything works fine, there is a lot of data which is missing and not been migrated.

Bookmarks, Reading List and AutoFill have been transferred automatically through iCloud, and eventually History through iCloud too, but I would like to also transfer the following data:

Cookies
Preferences
Extensions (specifically the extension preferences — I can reinstall the actual extensions)

How can I export my Safari browser data into the Safari Technology Preview?

Coping ~/Library/Safari to ~/Library/SafariTechnologyPreview works for me.
On the command line, run:
cp -R ~/Library/Safari ~/Library/SafariTechnologyPreview


Does the new Air (2012) support Daisy Chaining to two Thunderbolt Displays? Does the new MacBook Air (mid-2012) support Daisy Chaining to two Thunderbolt Displays?  I'm trying to decide between a fully-loaded MacBook Air and a Retina MacBook Pro, and this is a big breaking point for me.

Yes you can.

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5219?viewlocale=en_US#11


Replace iSight camera on MacBook Air late 2010 (A1369) My MacBook got a small water damage some time ago. Luckily everything still works without any problems except the iSight camera, which is no longer detected. I reinstalled Mac OS X a couple of times since, so I'm sure it's not a software issue. Since a replacement looks pretty cheap and I have all the tools to open up my MacBook, I was wondering, if there are any guides on how to replace the camera. I googled a lot and also checked on Youtube, but could not find anything suitable. How hard would such a replacement be? Can I make sure it's the camera and not some other hardware issue before I try to replace it? On the other hand how much would it cost to have the camera replaced by Apple?

The problem with this is that in order to get to the iSight camera, you have to detach the display assembly from the body and then get the casing off, which probably means removing the display gasket and the display itself (non-trivial) because the iSight cable is routed behind the display.

You can find guides at iFixit on how to detach the display assembly (seems to be harder with an Air, it was simpler for my MBP), which appears to involve taking everything out of the bottom casing. And then you need to take apart the display. They don't even have a guide for this, you must look elsewhere (Youtube or so, but this should give you the idea that it's difficult).

Long story short: The replacement part may be cheap, but the procedure isn't, and is probably best left to a professional, unless you know what you are doing.


How can I move photos from iPhone to my local disk? This has me stumped. I have nearly 4GB of photos and videos on my phone, and I want to put them into my computer's pictures folder.

I have opened Windows Explorer and found the photos in the weird location Computer\Torbens iPhone 4\Internal Storage\DCIM\800AAAAA, but I cannot copy or move the files from here to a local folder. When I try, Windows says "Error copying file or folder. The parameter is incorrect."
I have synced with iTunes but don't see where iTunes would have made a backup copy of the photos.

This is immensely frustrating. I can't believe it has to be this difficult and I must be missing something, but I don't see what that is.

1) How do I get my pictures off the phone and onto my local disk?

Also, it would be so much simpler if Windows would just assign a drive letter to the device, just like it does for my digital camera and any other USB storage I connect. Is there any way to make Windows do this, or is Apple being restrictive again?

2) How can I get a drive letter assigned to the phone? (Less important but mighty annoying.)

Details:
iPhone4, iOS 4.1.2, iTunes 10.5.1.42, Windows 7.

Update:
Am I understanding correctly that neither of the sync nor backup functions in iTunes backs up the photos?

When you plug your iPhone into your computer, Windows should pop up a dialog asking what you want to do with it. You should see an option to import photos. If you choose this, you can choose where you want the imported photos to be stored. You can also make 'import photos' the default behavior when you plug in your iPhone.

You are better off using the photo importer instead of trying to manually copy the files.

If you are using iCloud and Photostream, you can use the iCloud Control Panel to set up your computer to automatically import your Photostream photos. However, this only works with photos and not with videos.


I accidentally "unflagged" gmail messages with Mail.app, is there a log somewhere so that I can restore them? I configured Mail.app to access my gmail account, and I noticed some messages were "flagged".

I didn't realise this meant "starred in gmail", so I unflagged them.

While I was doing it I realised that: I was able to re-flag some of them, but I wasn't so quick to save them all.

Is there a log somewhere, so that I can restore the flag/star to all of them?

(using Mail 6.6-1510 on OSX 10.8)

GMail keeps no such logs, and neither does Mail.app

Unfortunately, you're kind of stuck searching for the messages yourself.

If you read a lot of text-based mail, and want a "buffer" of sorts to prevent yourself from doing this in the future, a command line mail client like Alpine can be configured to only synchronize changes like message flags/folders on a configured interval, rather than immediately on the remote side.

Homebrew has a package for it: brew install alpine


Force a 5 GHz connection on an iPhone 5s My wife and I both have 5s and both connect to BT Home Hub on default settings. Through the hub I can see she is connected using 5 GHz but I am connected using 2.4 GHz. How can I make mine use 5 GHz, at least as a preference?

iOS decides automatically whether 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz connection is best if an access point supports both.

You can change your BT Home Hub settings to broadcast two separate access points. Open the hub settings → Advanced Settings → Wireless → 5 GHz Wireless and disable “Sync with 2.4 GHz”.

This allows you to specifically connect to two separate access points depending on whether you wish to connect over 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz.


Macbook Pro 2012 MD101 cannot bootup, cannot reinstall OSX Problem Description
About 5 years ago, I upgraded the original HDD to SSD (Samsung 840 evo), everything was ok until last November.
After a trip to an examination (4 hours drive, 2 hours out, 2 hours back), when I turn on the power there is a Question Folder mark display on the screen.
Because this one is a spare computer, and there is no important data, so I tried to reinstall OS X. But after a long wait, the computer still cannot boot up, still question folder mark.
When I try to reinstall again,the SSD cannot be found in Install OS X Program or Disk Utility Program. I take off the SDD, connect it to a PC, and delete the partition, those Mac APPs can find it again, but Disk Utility Program cannot erase the disk, the erasing progress will be stuck on somewhere.
I thought this SSD is dead. So I replaced it with a new SSD. Try again, the same problem(After download files, reboot to continue to install will display Question Folder mark).
In addition to these:
I tried to reinstall from Recovery Disk. Still, the same problem.
I tried run Apple Hardware Test, did not find any problem.
After a lot of tries, when I erase the partition, this error popup:

Volume Erase failed
Volume Erase failed with the error:
POSIX reports: The operation couldn't be completed.
Input/output error

Conjecture
When I drive to then examination perhaps some bumps and shakes broke some part in the computer? I don't know.
It seems like the Part of SATA I/O or something on logic board goes wrong?
Update
I installed macOS to an external drive, it workes. I tried several times, and I found maybe the problem is the cable. I order a new cable online, I will try again later.
Update 2
After replacing the cable, problem fixed. :)

It sounds like you had a replacement SSD that WAS working at one time and has since failed. You then had some work done on the Mac or had some diagnostics done (?) but with no results.

Trying another SSD yielded similar results: the drive was not found to install macOS onto.

I am re-stating your problem to make sure I got it right.

What it SOUNDS like is that there is something going on with the storage subsystem. A cable, a connector or something on the system board (disk controller or the like).

You could examine all the connections carefully make sure there are no kinks or breaks in any cables associated with the disks. And if you still have the original working drive I would be tempted to try that, assuming it is still around and still bootable.

Failing all of that I would say that the issue is with the Mac itself and if a repair shop can't fix it what you have is an expensive door stop, unless you want to use the Mac with an external drive plugged into it (assuming that works...)


Updating to macOS High Sierra Download doesn't finish I am trying to updating my macOS Sierra to macOS High Sierra through official installer package from AppStore. The installer started downloading the macOS High Sierra It almost downloaded the OS but its stuck on About one minute remaining

I cancelled this after 3-4 hours after stuck at this point. And again downloaded from start. It again stuck at the same point.

I have macBookPro mid-2012 and according to apple MacBook Pro 2010 and later are compatible for macOS High Sierra update.

What can be the possible issue and solution?

Given the context of your question, it's unclear if you re-downloaded the installer from the App Store after the first failure or if you ran the upgrade application again. Yes, your computer is supported for the High Sierra update. I have a few suggestions:

Delete the upgrade application (go to the Finder and delete it).
Re-download the upgrade application from the App Store.
Run the application again.

If the problem persists, the solution will probably involve something more drastic. If you have an available flash drive, try making a bootable flash drive installer. Restart and hold (Option) and select the bootable USB disk and hit enter. Proceed through the install process. Notify us of the result and we'll proceed from there :)

Good luck ;)


Change symbols with alt modifer so this has probably been asked, but I have not exactly been able to figure it out. I was just wondering if it is possible to change what the alternate characters are on my keyboard. I have osx 10.9 and use the keyboard on a 15" macbook retina.

For example I never use the ¢ or £ symbols, but frequently use greek letters like η, or λ. It would be nice if I could have all of my frequently used symbols to be mapped to what I want.

I have googled this and not really found out anything useful.

Not exactly what you're asking for, but I use

System Preferences - Keyboard - Input Sources

to add Greek & other layouts, and tick the 'Show Input menu in menu bar' option. This results in a pretty menu with keyboard layouts marked by national flag. And, a ctrl-cmd-space shortcut to cycle between them.

Also:

System Preferences - Keyboards - Show Keyboard and Character Viewers in menu bar

for all other typographical symbols


Are there known DTS or Dolby Digital encoded videos readily available on Apple TV for testing? I am trying to troubleshoot playback of discretely encoded 5.1 audio on Apple TV.  It is apparent that Apple TV can "pass through" Dolby Digital (aka AC-3).

Are there readily available video clips (i.e. no charge, and able to be reliably found through the Apple TV user interface) that are known to be encoded in either Dolby Digital or DTS?

After about a week of use, I have not come across any free content on AppleTV that is 5.1 encoded.  My search was by no means exhaustive, but even the previews for blockbuster movies seem to only be plain old stereo.

The good news is that various movies on Netflix (e.g. a Big Year) and iTunes (e.g. The Hunger Games) are Dolby Digital encoded, so if you play them on Apple TV, discrete audio channels are played back if your audio equipment is capable.

Edit:
Other notable Dolby Digital encoded content:

iTunes festival 2012 - Usher (free, but probably not for long)


How to do speaker correction on a MacBook Pro Retina On a MacBook Pro 15inch Retina I find the sound output from the internal speakers to be quite 'strange'. It is like there is too much bass from where the spectrum starts and then as if there are some kind of gaps in the spectrum where middles and highs are somehow absent or underdeveloped.

These are small speakers and they are usually judged as quite good for their size. Yet they seem to me part of the wrong side in the loudness war.

On older machines I previously used a complicated setup involving SoundFlower and AULabs equalizer settings to correct for some of the perceived deficiencies.

Besides the cumbersome setup of this surely outdated solution: On these newer machines I cannot arrive at a satisfactory result.

But I remembered a few "audio optimizers" offered some speaker correction presets for these machines. (Examples would be Boom3D, Hear, eqMac2, Bongiovi DPS…) With the smallest settings I found Boom quite smooth. But that piece of software is unreliable in operation, costs money, and offers a range of other features I do not want or need, and it is even accused of possibly damaging your audio hardware if misused. On top of it the results on this machine are not in that way 'better' as I remember it (and re-tested with an older version just now) from older machines.

Since I am lacking even the right terminology for this kind of task:

How do I approach speaker correction for this machine properly? Are there equalizer presets to start from? Settings perhaps to download somewhere or to copy along the sliders of the band?
Can these speakers or their response curve really be calibrated (as the setup from one of the software titles seem to suggest) Other software solutions to consider altogether?

Note that I am aware of "perceived sound quality" as pretty much opinion based, therefore I am not asking about "the best setting" but about the proper approach to this problem in general. The huge difference between the so called "optimized for this machine" settings offered by Boom and Bongiovi DPS is testament to the "opinions differ" thing as well.

Late edit:
Since writing this, Rogue Amoeba have released a simpler & cheaper app specifically to tailor output rather than provide full internal audio routing & recording - SoundSource. You can set up your EQ or whatever as a global or on a per-app basis, making it very flexible.

I wrote this before checking all the proposed apps in the OP; my issue with these kind of things usually is that I tend to avoid the "we can do it all for you" apps, like Boom & Bongiovi; because I always think, "How can you do all that for me? You can't hear my speakers!".
eqMac2 does look like a simpler version of what I'm already doing on the first machine example below... for free. You still need ears, or an analyser, but the investment could become 'merely time' rather than actual cost.

Potentially what you could do if you have access to a smart phone is download a free Spectrum Analyser & find a white noise sample or generator online* then use the EQ to flatten the perceived EQ curve as the phone hears it.
You could do this with Soundflower & a graphic EQ too, or potentially with eqMac2 - for free.
There's a slicker solution than Soundflower, but it's far from free - Audio Hijack - which I use to tame the audio on several machines here, for slightly different purposes.
I get the feeling it won't be what you're looking for, but it's quick enough to throw in here & see if any future Googlers might like it. I do seem to come across as a one-man campaign for this app, but it's just that it's the best I've found for many similar purposes. I have no affiliation whatsoever.
If someone can find a free equivalent, I'm all ears - quite literally ;)
One cool thing, though is you can set timers for it - so to get it to be 'always on' I set it for 23h 59m of every day & let that spare minute be when I'm bound to be asleep.

On one machine, I use it to compensate for cheap external speakers with an odd EQ curve. I simply send all audio through it to flatten the perceived EQ curve.

On the other machine, I use it to compensate for the very high dynamic range whilst watching movies - which are piped through to my powerful 5.1 system, capable of offending the most tolerant neighbour. I use it to simply keep things within a more acceptable range to suit me & my neighbours...

Both these setups just use Apple's built-in AU plugins.
Unfortunately, there is no automatic setting for either of these setups. I do it by ear - but I'm a pro sound engineer & I trust my ears to get it at least close enough to be acceptable to any listener.
*No affiliation, just one I've used before.


Share with 'Start at' tag in YouTube iOS app How can I share video with "Start at" option in YouTube iOS app?

copy the link and append ?=tXs to it, with X being the number of seconds into the video you want to share at. It's also possible to specify minutes, using ?=tXmYs, where X is minutes and Y is seconds.
I don't think there's an easy way of selecting the time, you have to work it out manually.


Favicons + text for wide tabs, just text for narrow tabs Safari 14 recently launched and started putting favicon back in the tabs, alongside the webpage's name. When you open too many tabs (as I may be wont to do...) the page name is dropped and the tab only shows the favicon.
Safari preferences has the option of showing the favicon or not. While deselecting this option does mean narrow tabs retain the webpage name, it also removes the favicon from the tab.
Is there any behind the scenes way to either
    a) show both the favicon and webpage name when the tab is wide, but show only the name when it is narrow or
    b) change the width at which only the favicon is shown (currently the tab has plenty of room for a word or two if the favicon wasn't centered)?

Yes, you can enable the old horizontal tab scrolling with both favicons and titles always visible by disabling the new "Narrow Tabs" feature.
First you need to give Terminal full disk access:
Go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access then
click the + button and select Terminal.app to give it full disk access.
After giving Terminal full disk access, you can use Terminal to set user defaults in Safari allowing you to disable the new "Narrow Tabs" feature.
Method #1:

Close Safari
Run Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugDisableNarrowTabs -bool YES

Run Safari, it should now use the old tab behavior (horizontal tab scrolling with both favicons and titles always visible)

Method #2:

Close Safari
Run Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu -bool YES

Run Safari
Open the new Debug menu in Safari
Safari > Debug > Tab Features > Narrow Tabs (uncheck for the old behavior)


Possible reasons for very laggy video on external 4K monitor from MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)? I bought a 4K Dell P2721Q monitor and connected it to my old late 2013 MacBook Pro 15" via a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable. It connected without problems and shows that I have 4K resolution and 60Hz refresh rate.
When I tried to play 4K video on YouTube in Chrome, it was constantly showing a "loading" indicator. I thought it was problem with my Internet, but playing the same video in 4K on the MacBook display works fine and smooth.
Then I tried playing 4K YouTube video from Safari, it was definitely better than in Chrome, but it was still choppy. Doing some other activities like browsing/scrolling tall websites seems to work OK, there is are no lags.
What could be potential problems to investigate? Is this possible due to bad cable (I bought one in the mid price range, it has clear 4K 60hz marking on it and there are user reviews which claim it worked fine for them)? I noticed that after several minutes of playback CPU temp rises above 80 degrees up to 90 and then returns back below 80 (fans start to work louder). Could it be due to some CPU throttling?
Anything else I should try to check?
Macbook details:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB, Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

It's about the decoding codec. Chrome does not support hardware accelerated vp9 codec on Mac OS, which is required to decode any 4k video on Youtube. Which means when decoding the 4k video it's using your CPU's resource instead of the GPU. Good luck trying to decode any 4k video using a mobile CPU, it simply won't work, a 9900k might do it, but a mobile chip, nope. For safari it should support hardware VP9 decoding, however, your Macbook is so old I highly suspect that the GPU does not support VP9 decoding.
Anyway my Macbook Air 2020 has difficulty running 4k on Chrome, and always drops frame during the first few seconds of full screen on a 4k external monitor when using Safari. Time to buy a new laptop if you want smooth 4k video experience.


Black screen on startup I have 2 mac pro desktop systems: 5,1 running Sierra and a mac pro 1,1 running SUSE Linux. I remove the SUSE disk from the 1,1 and insert a working, bootable disk with Lion on it in its place. All I get is chime, black screen with cursor and an unseen keyboard.

You should not insert a "working, bootable disk with...."
You should install Lion on the Mac Pro.


Mbp early 2011 stuck at white screen Can anybody help me witha fix about mbp early 2011 stuck at white screen after boot. I have tried to boot in safe mode before by pressing power button and shift key which it actually work but when i shutdown mbp just to on it the next day the problem still persist. Please any help will be appreciated

No guarantee this will solve it, but it might help:

Reset PRAM
Reset SMC


El Capitan upgrade issue I've downloaded the OS X El Capitan Installer, but when I try to put it into action, the machine refuses access to my MacIntosh HD because it says Time Machine is using the drive for backups.  How do I get Time Machine out of the way so I can upgrade the OS?

I've never known Time Machine to hold up an OS update, however…

System Prefs > Time Machine [or from the menu bar if you have set it to show there] you can tell Time Machine to halt its current backup, or switch it off completely.

A late note: if you have local snapshots enabled [which I don't, in the picture above] Time Machine changes its "Time Machine keeps:" line to
"Time Machine keeps local snapshots as space permits, and:"


VirtualBox/Vagrant Fully Remove Virtual Machine to Clear Hash Sum Mismatches, etc I'm running Mavericks, and using Vagrant with VirtualBox to spin up a Precise32 box. When I first started, I had issues with apt-get update on the box (hash sum mismatches, etc.); so after weeks of trying to fix it, I just reinstalled my OS and tried again--problem solved. Unfortunately, the problem has returned after several months; so I cannot use the box anymore.

I have tried reinstalling Vagrant and tried deleting everything I could find that was associated with the box and re-adding the box; but nothing seems to work. I'm guessing that there has to be something that's being left over from the old box(es) (registry? I don't even know..), but I can't figure out what it is and how to remove it.

Thoughts? I just want to start with a totally fresh box without having to reinstall my OS.

Edit 1: I'm still looking into this, but this may be resulting from an internet filter that I installed (k9)--see here.

Mavericks has left me in tears, over a similar issue.

I upgraded to Mavs using appstore and, it went fine for a couple of weeks.

I think that the problem occured after I upgraded to the latest Virtualbox (I know nothing of Vagrant, Precise32, and I don't want to).

There came an occasion when I couldn't  VBoxManage - restart. It shut down the VM but, would not and cannot restart the VM.

Right now, I'm trying to work out a way to brute force Mountain Lion to install over Mavericks. I'm completely out of other ideas, apart from to get a tattoo that reads, 'Don't upgrade, just because it's there - it will only cause you to cry in your beer'.


I can no longer play my songs consecutively on my iphone I have been playing music on my iPhone for years, updating it with new songs I purchase regularly from iTunes.
Recently, my list of songs looks different and I can only play one song at a time, and if I don't stop to change songs, the song just repeats over and over, even when I hit shuffle. Very frustrating while I'm trying to run with continuous music.
I've noticed the red icon has recently turned white.  Not sure if this is relevant.
How do I get back to my original format?
Thank you!

Apple has updated the music app. The icon changed with the update in iOS 7, I believe, and the music app saw some big changes with iOS 8.4. Some of the UI is harder for me to figure out and use but all of the old functionality should still be there.

To play an entire playlist, tap the Play icon in the upper right of the playlist. It should be overlaid onto album artwork (likely of 4 albums).

To have continuous repeat, after starting the playlist, tap the bar just above the navigation bar to see "Now Playing". Then, at the bottom (you may need to scroll down) there are standard icons for repeat and shuffle. If the repeat icon in the lower right had a "1" next to it, it is set to Repeat 1. Tap the icon to change it.

You can find more information about the new Music app here:
http://m.imore.com/how-use-new-music-app-iphone-and-ipad-ultimate-guide


how can I transfer empty space between partitions? I would like to dual-boot OS X Lion and Snow Leopard, because I have a few programs that do not work on OS X Lion yet.
That works, but now I have the problem that I have run out of disk space on my OS X Snow Leopard partition, and I would like to resize the partition of Snow Leopard so it takes space from the Lion partition, but in Disk Utility that is apparently not possible...

Is this really impossible or do I need a special program for this?

I haven’t tried any way of resizing the partitions through Disk Utility, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. (Before I go on, consider this the ever-important reminder that when fiddling with disk partitions and stuff, have a good backup. And then some. And then another one).

So here are my two suggestions:

You could try backing up the Snow Leopard partition to two external drives (one for backup, one for the copy). Then delete the original partition, and put in a new one to fill the space. Finally, restore the copy back onto the new (larger) partition
iPartition from Coriolis Software sounds like it would be able to do what you’re doing. I haven’t used iPartition, but I have used their other product, iDefrag, and that worked fine for what I needed. It costs $46.95, but there’s a free demo that you can try. Not sure what the limitations are, but this seems like the safest option.


Where is running terminal program scrollback located I had multiple terminal programs running at same time and Terminal stopped responding.

Now I wonder if there is any chance to get those session output/scrollback files and save them.

I don't believe so with Snow Leopard. Unless someone knows a backroots way of getting it, and the HDD is journal formatted. I know that Lion does a good job of restoring sessions in its native applications, or at least keeping them logged. I am afraid though that you may be out of luck on that one.


check mail for certain word before sending I have mail templates with placeholders for names (ex. Dear XXXXXX).

Is it possible to make apple mail check the content of my mail when sending and to stop an email from getting send out when it finds my placeholders?

Are you committed to using just Mail.app?

If you go to http://macupdate.com and search for Mail Merge there are a page of hits.  At first blush, this one seemed to be right up your alley, but I may not understand fully what you are looking for.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11731/mailmergeapp
Claims to use your address book, and a composed message, and it does the substituting.

If your outgoing messages are batched, take a look at external software for sending out email.  In my other life I use Mail Chimp to send out news letters, but there are many many others, with various features.

A final possibility is to abandon Mail.app alltogether, and throw together a perl script that does the substitutions, and makes a call to /bin/mail for sending.


How to change the Finder title bar font from the command line? I'm sure the fellow who wrote TinkerTool, which lets me change the Finder title bar font among other things, is a fine fellow and surely TinkerTool is not malware. Nevertheless... I want to change the Finder font without installing software. Is there a way to do it from the command line?

Thanks.

Got it. It's in ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

Modify the following entry:

<key>NSTitleBarFontSize</key>
<integer>11</integer>

with your desired font size. This file actually contains a lot of your system's preferences, from your locale setting, to the antialias threshold, to the scrollbar behavior. The file is a binary plist, so you'll either have to use Xcode or convert it into XML and then back again using this method.


How can I stop unwanted notifications from Google Calendar on an iPhone? My wife finds that her iPhone constantly reminds her of google calendar events (accessed via the exchange trick). None of the google events have reminders enabled. The phone preferences don't ask for reminders. Yet reminders she gets.

This is actually a default setting by Google that can be changed.  To change this setting

Go to your Google Calendar settings found in the top right under the gear icon.
Select the Calendar tabs
Click the Shared: Edit settings link for the calendar you want to edit.
Select the Notifications tab
Click the remove link next to the reminders you don't want.

Please note that this will only fix events created from this point forward, you will still have to change all the notifications in events that were previously setup.


Search in Apple Notes.app for MacOS does not work at all Today I started using Apple Notes App and populated it with little over a dozen notes. Then I tried to find a note by searching for keywords. Search does not return any result for me.
I tried to find a fix for hours today, without success.
Possible solutions
Link 1: Two suggestions
Here is a discussion that adresses the problem: Notes app search is not finding some notes
In that thread there are some suggestions

turning off notes in iCloud, restarting and turning it on again. (Did that, without success.)
re-indexing with spotlight (via command line or via System prefs). (Did that, no success.)

Link 2: Points to Spotlight issues
This discussion says it might have to do with excluding ~/Library/Containers from spotlight search. But I haven't excluded that folder.
My system

Am using MacOS Catalina, Version 10.15.5.
In Notes.app I turned off local notes. I keep all my notes in iCloud.
I can see all my notes on my iPhone and iPad. Search works there without a problem.

Edit
Search within one single note works, but
Search across notes fails
Here is a screenshot of what I see. I have only 16 notes. My search term delivers me four notes on my iPhone, but nothing on Notes.app on my Mac.

Edit 2: Decided to ditch Notes.app
After so many hours in trying to fix the broken search in my Notes.app, I decided to get rid of it altogether. Why? Because

it is opaque (proprietary database, no way to look into what's wrong)
no easy import / export (my data is siloed in this app, I can't get it out)
it is developed and supported by Apple! that means, support is minimal. Every other app developer would have solved an issue within hours (Ulysses.app, Bear.app, TaskPaper app, these kind of apps have super responsive teams, because they are small companies, but not Apple; it will answer my requests as if they are talking to retards ("have you restarted/rebooted your MacBook Pro?" kind of answers))

So this incident was an eye opener for me. Better get rid of the app with a handful notes, instead of using it for years, accumulating some 10k notes and then having a serious problem with the app, just when I need it.

For a search to work you have to tell the search function where to search. So if you put the notes on the icloud drive you want to click on that and then search. The search function works fine on Notes as it searches inside each note.


How to renew my Apple Developer Program Account after it has expired? I'm having trouble renewing my Developer Program Account which expired a month ago.

I have emailed Apple about this issue a few times but their help was, at best, unclear.

I log into the Member Center, click on the Your Account tab, and under Account Summary (on the left) I have 3 sections: Apple ID Summary, Contact Preferences, and Memberships.

The Memberships section tells me (currently) that my Developer Program Status Enrollment was Withdrawn, with a button to "Join Today".

Previously this section told me that my Developer Program Status had expired, and the button invited me to rejoin. I clicked on the button and went through the process, filling in all the same information that I had previously put in over a year ago. I eventually arrived at the part where my application was under review.

A day later I get an email saying I cannot enroll in the Developer Program because there is already a Developer Program Account out there with my details. I responded back telling them that I am simply trying to renew my Developer Program (not start a whole new Account), and they tell me that I can renew my Developer Program in the Member Center.

Now I've gone through the Member Center again and again and for the life of me, I cannot see anything that relates to renewing my Developer Program other than the section that tells me my enrollment has been withdrawn.

Can anybody help? All I want to do is renew my account.

I have run into a similar issue like this before when I was taking my ACMT certification. Essentially I created an iCloud email account and tried to use it to take my 10.9 Apple Certified Associate certifications fine but when I went to take my ACMT and log into GCX it told me I could not with that Apple ID.

After calling Apple and being on the phone with a few different people for a few hours they came to the conclusion that I needed to create a new Apple ID in order to take my ACMT. Luckily I was able to transfer my certifications over to my new Tech ID just fine.

Sometimes an Apple ID can get messed up in there system and there is nothing Apple can do about it. I would create a new Apple ID and renew your developer account with it.


String of variable has a space - how do I escape spaces? I'm working on an applescript that pulls old Time Machine backups and places them into a new folder. But if the old computer name has a space in it, that causes an issue in the do shell script command.

Here's an example:

set old_hdd_name to text returned of result
display dialog "Input your Time Machine (external)'s Name *Case sensitive*
    e.g.,
      -Time Machine
      -My External Drive" default answer ""
set old_time_name to text returned of result

So lets say the old_hdd_name is Conners Mac. How could I tell it to look for a space and then add it so it turns out to be Conners\ Mac. If it would work better in C, I could do that there, too.

How would I escape that space?

How about

set a to choose folder with prompt "Select your Time Machine backup:"

set p to quoted form of POSIX path of result

This will produce a string with the full path in single quotes: '/path/to/Conners Mac'.


How to silence “Your disk is almost full” notification on MacOS Mojave 10.14.1 (18B75) I'm getting this message every 2 min and it really drives me crazy!!! I already tried following things that were suggested here. It still pops-up every 2 min.

Some outputs of my machine:

$ defaults read com.apple.diskspaced
{
    checkAllVolumes = 0;
    debugLog = 1;
    freeSpaceWarningLevel = 1;
    lastWarningDate = "2020-05-05";
    minFreeSpace = 1;
    removeAllNotifications = 1;
    warningInterval = 36000000000;
}

I set these values by myself and also tried other values but nothing worked.

$ grep com.apple.diskspaced /var/log/system.log

I set the debug level to 1 (as you can see from the defaults before) so I thought maybe there is something in the logs. Turned out that there is nothing.

I also tried something that is mentioned here.

$ grep -A6 debugLog <(strings $(find /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks -name diskspaced -print -quit))
debugLog (BOOL) - log additional debug information. Default: NO
Commands:
removeAllNotifications - Removes all scheduled and delivered user notificiations.
removeAllNotifications
com.apple.diskspaced
_mbsetupuser
Ignoring low disk notification during migration.
--
debugLog
systemUpdateDate
com.apple.updatesettings
Interval since system update :%f
alloc
init
lowSpaceTimer

Maybe this helps somebody to understand this service and helps to solve this bug.

PS: Yes I know that it isn't the best solution to ignore this issue BUT I can't afford a new mac and I can't delete any files because I already did! I only have 128 GB and 80 of them are programs the rest is reserved for MacOS. All files are on a separate SD-Card.

Put the programs on an external USB drive. They need no special write speed and you’ll be super happy once you get enough space for the OS to breathe.

You’re right 128 GB is too small to let everything sit where it gets installed. I’d say you should have 15 GB free on the root filesystem for the best experience.

If you’re not sure which apps are easily relocated, please post an image of your Applications folder, calculate size, sort descending so we can help point out easy apps to thin or move if you want help there.


Recover an overwritten Mac note I was changing the fonts and accidentally selected all the content of the note which got overwritten. Command + Z doesn't seem to work and I have no backup. Is there a way to recover?
I have tried the solutions in Overwritten Mac note but it doesn't seem to work.

Even if you’re sure you don’t use iCloud, go ahead and turn it on and check https://iCloud.com for notes and deleted notes.
Even if you’re sure you don’t use time machine, connect a drive and see if you can enter time machine to browse local backups and snapshots.
These two methods have saved me and also saved people that were convinced they didn’t have backups.
I hope you have a backup of some sort to piece together the notes database and don’t lose this work.


Ultra HD monitor with Macbook pro 13 mid 2014 I have an Macbook pro 13 mid 2014. I want to connect an UHD monitor(3840x2160) and run it at 60Hz.

My thunderbolt's specs says that it can perform at 20 Gb/s.

My question: is it enough to run 3840x2160x60hz with mini displayport 1.2 cable? Is there anybody who did it successfully?

Ok, it seems like macbook pro 13 mid 2014 theoretically can serve  3840x2160x60hz, but apple won't support it.

There is a tool called SwitchResX, it can help maybe, but it requires System Integrity Protection to be disabled while install. I don't like the idea of disabling system security things in mac os, and i'm not even sure that it would work well.


How to hide Yosemite "search tip" on spotlight search? I just upgraded to Yosemite for OS X and now whenever I use Spotlight Search there's this giant message in the middle of my screen (beneath the search bar) that starts off "In addition to searching your Mac, Spotlight now shows suggestions from the Internet, iTunes, the App Store, etc etc etc etc."

How can I get rid of this? I have used it many times but it continues to show this information as if it were the first time I had used it since installing Yosemite.

It's supposed to disappear after you use Spotlight three times, but you can force it to disappear by setting the use count to three and setting showedFTE to true:

defaults write com.apple.Spotlight showedFTE -bool true
defaults write com.apple.Spotlight useCount -int 3
killall -HUP Spotlight


Error: It seems the App source is not there: '/usr/local/Caskroom/multibit/0.5.19/MultiBit.app' I first moved Caskroom to new location

mv /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom /usr/local
for f in ~/Applications/*.app; do oldloc="$(readlink "$f")"; [[ -e $oldloc ]] || ln -sf "/usr/local${oldloc#/opt/homebrew-cask}" "$f"; done

Then tried to install MultiBit.app

   > brew cask install --verbose multibit
    ==> Downloading https://multibit.org/releases/multibit-classic/multibit-classic-0.5.19/multibit-classic-macos-0.5.19.dmg
    Already downloaded: /Users/john/Library/Caches/Homebrew/multibit-0.5.19.dmg
    ==> Verifying checksum for Cask multibit
    Error: It seems the App source is not there: '/usr/local/Caskroom/multibit/0.5.19/MultiBit.app'
    Error: Kernel.exit
    > rm /Users/john/Library/Caches/Homebrew/multibit-0.5.19.dmg
    > brew cask install --verbose multibit
    ==> Downloading https://multibit.org/releases/multibit-classic/multibit-classic-0.5.19/multibit-classic-macos-0.5.19.dmg
    /usr/bin/curl -fLA Homebrew-cask v0.51+ (Ruby 2.0.0-648) https://multibit.org/releases/multibit-classic/multibit-classic-0.5.19/multibit-classic-macos-0.5.19.dmg -C 0 -o /Users/john/Library/Caches/Homebrew/multibit-0.5.19.dmg.incomplete
      % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                     Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
    100 32.4M  100 32.4M    0     0  1604k      0  0:00:20  0:00:20 --:--:-- 1886k
    ==> Verifying checksum for Cask multibit
    Error: It seems the App source is not there: '/usr/local/Caskroom/multibit/0.5.19/MultiBit.app'
    Error: Kernel.exit
> ls -al /usr/local/Caskroom/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  29 john  staff  986 Jun 26 13:05 .
drwxr-xr-x  22 john  wheel  748 Jun 26 12:40 ..
drwxr-xr-x   5 john  staff  170 Jan  2 15:43 appcleaner
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:28 bettertouchtool
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 May 25 19:30 cryptomator
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:29 cyberduck
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 May 25  2015 disk-inventory-x
drwxr-xr-x   6 john  staff  204 Jan  2 16:00 firefox
drwxr-xr-x   5 john  staff  170 Jan  2 16:01 flash
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 Jan 29  2015 google-chrome
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 Oct  3  2015 google-earth
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 Apr 30 21:00 hacker-menu
drwxr-xr-x   5 john  staff  170 Jan  2 21:29 handbrake
drwxr-xr-x   5 john  staff  170 Jan  2 21:31 java
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:29 kitematic
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:29 mediathekview
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 Mar 19 11:29 miro-video-converter
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:29 mongohub
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:29 mpeg-streamclip
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:29 namechanger
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:29 paintbrush
drwxr-xr-x   3 john  staff  102 Mar 19 11:29 robomongo
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 Jul 12  2015 skreenics
drwxr-xr-x   5 john  staff  170 Jan  2 21:34 thunderbird
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 Jun 26 11:07 torbrowser
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 Jan 27  2015 transmission
drwxr-xr-x   4 john  staff  136 Mar 19 11:29 vienna
drwxr-xr-x   6 john  staff  204 Jan  2 21:36 virtualbox
drwxr-xr-x   5 john  staff  170 Jan  2 21:37 vlc
> ls /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom
ls: /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom: No such file or directory

My brew installation looks fine

> brew doctor
Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry and just ignore them. Thanks!

Warning: You have unlinked kegs in your Cellar
Leaving kegs unlinked can lead to build-trouble and cause brews that depend on
those kegs to fail to run properly once built. Run `brew link` on these:
    cf-cli

is this a bug or user error?

I had this with two apps. It happened because I removed them via the Applications folder, using the finder.

Error: Problems with multiple casks:
darktable: It seems the App source '/Applications/darktable.app' is not there.

I got rid of this message by removing the application from cask:
brew cask remove darktable
==> Uninstalling Cask darktable
==> Purging files for version 3.0.2 of Cask darktable


How can I see the history of stories I've read on Apple News? Sometimes I'll be interrupted in the middle of reading a story on Apple News and later when I open the app, it didn't save the story I was previously reading. I want to be able to resume reading the article, how can I find it again?

You can view the "History" of your viewed articles!

iOS:
Click the "Following" tab on the bottom right, and click on "History" toward the top.

Mac:
Show the sidebar and click on "History" toward the top.


Unable to install software packages using Home Brew I am unable to install any software packages using homebrew. I get the following error when I try to install any softwares.

    Rahuls-iMac:local rahuljeevanandam$ brew install mysql
    ==> Installing mysql dependency: cmake
    ==> Downloading https://downloads.sf.net/project/machomebrew/Bottles/cmake-2.8.1
    Already downloaded: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/cmake-2.8.10.1.lion.bottle.tar.gz
    Error: SHA1 mismatch
    Expected: 31856bbd662ca47c325761fc7040e43f9a635c64
    Actual: 4b2ea1d2785009c32d85d1d0e0c7dc4cd68322b7
    Archive: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/cmake-2.8.10.1.lion.bottle.tar.gz
    (To retry an incomplete download, remove the file above.)

    Rahuls-iMac:local rahuljeevanandam$ brew install wget
    ==> Downloading http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/wget/wget-1.14.tar.gz
    ######################################################################## 100.0%
    Error: SHA1 mismatch
    Expected: c487bce740b3a1847a35fb29b5c6700c46f639b8
    Actual: ca98a1bf07f850bc23731fd15d869d1b73ef8c84
    Archive: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/wget-1.14.tar.gz
    (To retry an incomplete download, remove the file above.)

Type

brew cleanup

follow by

brew update

then try again!


Windows FAT32 file system is unreadable I know there is no difference between MS-DOS FAT32 and Windows FAT32 file system and there are only FAT16 and FAT32 but Disk Utility identifies FAT differently and in my case USB drive with Windows FAT32 is unreadable. The latter was created in Ubuntu when I wanted to make GParted live USB using:

sudo dd if=/path-to-gparted-live.x.y.z-w.iso of=/dev/sde bs=4M; sync

before that USB drive was formatted in disk utility to MS-DOS FAT32.

and here is the picture of it after creating live USB in Ubuntu:

Why macOS doesn't read Windows FAT32?

You are copying a file to a block device. Let us consider the two.

A file is usually stored in a file system. The file is broken up to equal size blocks and generally stored non contiguously. The file system contains a table that links the blocks together.

Block devices also contain equal sized blocks. When the block device is an actually a physical device, such as a USB flash drive, these blocks are stored contiguously. Since the blocks are contiguous, there is no need for a table containing links.

Now, there are virtual block devices that are not physical devices, but rather are actually files themselves. Stored somewhere in these files is all the information needed to represent a physical block device. Also, these files may contain additional information needed to describe the physical device. An iso file is this type of file.

Block devices generally contain a table which define contiguous blocks called partitions. Not all block devices have such tables. File systems are usually stored in these partitions. Again, not all files systems require a partition container and partitions do not contain file systems exclusively.

Initially, the 16GB USB flash drive contained a partition table. This table had an entry that allowed for a FAT formatted file system to reside contiguously on most (if not all) of the remaining blocks.

The command you entered completely overwrote this partition table and partially overwrote the file system. In other words, the iso file was copied sequentially to the flash drive starting a the first block of the drive.

The end result? Well, the disk utility (actually macOS) thinks there is at least one partition on the USB drive and that this partition should contain a Windows_FAT_32 file system. Of course, this is wrong, but this what was interpreted from results of your dd command.


Recommended fixed width font for shell prompts and Eclipse I've just installed OS X Lion, and found that the default fonts (Menlo and Monaco) are quote uncomfortable for Shell prompts and the Eclipse IDE.

Is there a good, general-purpose fixed width font for developing under Mac OS X?

My personal favorites are the Bitstream Vera Sans Mono derivates like Menlo and DejaVu Sans Mono:

Espresso Mono doesn't have an italic face, Mensch doesn't have bold or italic faces.

Cousine and Liberation Mono are basically the same font designed by Steve Matteson. The shapes of all ASCII characters are currently identical, but Cousine was released with the Open Font License (instead of GPL v.2) for Google Web Fonts. They are metrically compatible with Courier New, but appear more like more angular versions of the Vera Sans Mono fonts. Liberation Mono currently has more glyphs (674) than Cousine (216) though.

Droid Sans Mono is another font designed by Steve Matteson. It currently has glyphs for 898 characters, but no bold or italic faces. The default line height and character width are both larger than in most monospace fonts.

Inconsolata is a monospace font with humanist features. It has slanted edges and more width variation than most monospace fonts.

PT Mono is part of the same family as PT Sans. It's lighter than most monospace fonts, and has many unique details at the ends of strokes.

Source Code Pro is a new open source font by Adobe. It has a low x-height, large line spacing, and wide slabs on the lowercase i, l, and t. It also has a two story lowercase g like Inconsolata.

If you think text looks too heavy on OS X, there's a hidden preference for selecting a lighter text rendering style.


The error "Keychain "login" cannot be found to store ..." When I start up my MacBookPro/osx/snow leopard , I get this error with yahoo messenger..

What is this keychain thing? Is this some Mac thing?

Any links to explain this concept and how to resolve it?

Thanks,

To fix this:

Run Keychain Access (found in /Applications/Utilities)
click "Keychain Access" in the menu bar at the top and select "Keychain First Aid".
Run the repair and then run verify.

That should fix it!


How to keep terminal window open in AppleScript after end tell? I have this osascript with a command

tell application "iTerm2"
  create window with default profile command "uwm"
end tell

Now the iTerm window closes at end tell but I want to keep iTerm window open to see my command result and work further. Any hints?

If you want the iTerm2 window to stay open and active for further use, you cannot use command with create window with default profile.

You need to use the write command in proper context, e.g.:

tell application "iTerm2"
    create window with default profile
    tell current session of window 1 to write text "echo hello"
end tell

The above example AppleScript code used with osascript:

osascript -e 'tell application "iTerm2"' -e 'create window with default profile' -e 'tell current session of window 1 to write text "echo hello"' -e 'end tell'

Replace "echo hello" in the example AppleScript code with your command, e.g.: "uwm"

Note: osascript can execute the example AppleScript code from a file using, e.g.:

osascript /path/to/filename.applescript

From the iTerm2 AppleScript Dictionary:

  write v : Send text as though it was typed.

       write specifier : The session to send to
             [contents of file file] : Filename to send the contents of
             [text text] : Text to send
             [newline boolean] : If newline should be added to end of text (default: yes)

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not employ any error handling and is meant only to show one of many ways accomplish a task. The onus is always upon the User to add/use appropriate error handling as needed/wanted.


"X11 could not be opened" then "X11 canceled restart" I occasionally run into the following first-world nightmare, usually when trying to run open source software (in this case Inkscape on a Mac Pro running Lion, though I've seen this error before as well, I think with Wine and OpenOffice if I remember right):

First, it fails to open with this error:

  The application X11 could not be opened.

  An error occurred while starting the X11 server: "Cannot establish any listening sockets - Make sure an X server isn't already running"

  Click Quit to quit X11. Click Report to see more details or send a report to Apple.

  [Report...] [Quit]

Clicking 'Quit' just causes the exact same error to endlessly pop up again. Force Quitting the application that caused the error (Inkscape) or X11 itself has the same result. As does quitting from the dock.
If I try to just ignore it, it refreshes itself after a few minutes or so, and the icon keeps bouncing in the dock.
Attempting to restart to break the cycle fails with this sadistic error:

  The application X11 canceled restart.

  To try again, quit X11 and choose Restart from the Apple menu.

But the reason I want to restart is to make X11 quit and stop it from reopening itself!

Report... causes X11 to crash with an "X11 quit unexpectedly" error - but it still automatically re-opens itself and it still cancels shutdown / restart in exactly the same way. Shut down has the same error as restart: "The application X11 canceled shut down".

Any ideas how to:

Get X11 to go away so I can restart and continue what I was doing? (without just pulling the plug)
(for bonus points) Stop things like this from happening? There's no clues an average user like me can make sense of in any of the above for how to debug and fix the underlying problem.

You can force X11 to quit, which will allow for a normal reboot but won't fix whatever problems are causing X11 to fail to launch / hang / otherwise misbehave.

Open terminal and type:

 killall X11

You might use sudo to kill any X1 processes that you don't own, but use care with root and killing processes.


Is there a real benefit to removing applications from the iOS multitasking bar? Sometimes, if my iOS device (ipad or ipod touch) is acting sketchy or slow, I will bring up the multitasking bar (double-press the home button) and then remove items from that multitasking bar (do a long touch on one until they jiggle, then press the red delete spot on them.)
I imagine that this is somehow saving memory or freeing up the device somehow.

But is that true?  or are all those multitasking icons simple shortcuts, and deleting them has no real effect?

(bonus side question -- if it does really have no effect, what is a way to free up memory or complexity on the device other than shutting down and restarting?)

In a word, No.

Apple didn't want to hand over the responsibility of application and memory management to the user, and personally I'm glad that they made that decision.

The purpose of the multitasking bar is to allow users to switch between apps and to quit apps in order to open them afresh (in case of crashes or weird behaviour).

iOS doesn't actually allow 3rd party apps to continually run in the background. There are several methods that Apple have provided to developers which allow a sort of pseudo background tasking functionality.

Long and short is, iOS is pretty damn good at managing memory usage and will kill applications in situations where RAM is running extremely low to prevent a total OS crash.

My advice is, let the OS handle it.


Can't restore iPad 2 with new iTunes... error 9 Ok so I updated my iTunes on my (Mac Book Pro) and tried to install the new iOS on my iPad... got error 9.  (((Switched cables, tried the other usb connecter... same error.)))  Searched the net... everything kept saying usb issues or firewall(I don't have one).  Thought maybe an issue with that computer.

So I then tried my (mac mini) that had an older iTunes and re-installed iOS 4.2 on my iPad.  It worked!!!!

So I updated iTunes on the mac mini and tried to install iOS on my iPad... error 9...  Now both my computers have the new iTunes and am stuck with the iPad waiting to be restored.

What is with this new iTunes/new iOS ????

Thanks for your help in advance.

Status Displayed using iTunes of the restore...
- Extracting software(iPad Recovering Mode:  iTunes is preparing to restore the software on this iPad)
- Preparing iPad for Restore
- Waiting for iPad  (iPad screen now shows a "big apple" on it as apposed to a USB cable pointing to iTunes)
- Verifying iPad restore with Apple
- Waiting for iPad
- The iPad could not be restored.  An unknown error occurred (9).
- also  (the "big apple" on iPad screen switch to a "small apple" and then the "iTunes and usb" image showed up)

Hey I had the same issue as well.

After a lot of searching I found an answer on one of the Apple Discussion Threads.
Try installing Wondershare Dr.Fone for iOS and follow the instructions on the screen.

At the least it should recover the data on your device and let you use it as it was in it's earlier state.

I'm yet to find out how to update my iPad 2 through iTunes without the silly error 9.
I'll edit my answer when I do so.


Dual Monitor setup partially working with Mac Mini I have a 2009 Mac Mini A1283.

I have 2 displays hooked up.

1) Mini Display Port -> Mini Display to DVI (female) adapter -> DVI Cable (male to male) -> DVI input on monitor

2) Mini-DVI Port -> Mini-DVI to VGA (female) -> VGA cable (male to male) -> VGA input on monitor

My second monitor only has VGA input so I have no choice but to use Mini-DVI to VGA

I wonder is this causing my problem which is:

My DVI monitor works fine. My VGA monitor shows a blank screen. My mac mini is picking up both monitors however, with the option of mirroring displays etc. Whatever option I choose (mirror/second display) it still shows a blank screen.

Any ideas why this is? Is it because of the VGA? Or the mix between VGA and DVI? If so what is a possible solution?

Your Mac Mini has a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card which uses either 128 or 256 MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with your computer's main RAM.

If you're wanting to simultaneously use the Mini-DVI port and the Mini DisplayPort, then your Mac Mini needs to be set up as follows:

Use the Mini-DVI port to connect a DVI or VGA display at 1920x1200 pixels
Use the Mini DisplayPort (with an optional Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter) to connect a dual-link DVI display at 2560x1600 pixels

If you've got the right resolutions set and are using the correct cables, then you can try resetting the NVRAM to see if that resolves the issue.

Here’s how to reset the NVRAM on your computer:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the
commandoptionpr keys. You
have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup
chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).


How can I simultaneously take pictures from multiple USB webcams? I am looking at using a setup of multiple webcams (5+) to recreate the bullet time effect. However, I have no idea how to simultaneously capture photos from all the webcams hooked up to my computer. How do I do this? I can't have any delay between the pictures; they all have to be taken at the exact same time.

Couldn't you just record videos and synchronize them based on sound or something? You could save frames as images with something like ffmpeg -i input.mov -r 5 %d.png.


Chrome history and favorites in Spotlight? I have fallen in love with the new Spotlight window in Yosemite as a replacement for Quicksilver (or Alfred, or whatever).

However I would love to be able to "search" into Chrome favorites and history. A bit like if I searched into Chrome's address bar.

Is there any way to make it happen?

To my knowledge, thus far the only browser tied into Spotlight like that is Safari, which is one its major selling points (and the main reason I won't use FF, or now Chrome, as my primary browser.)

The beauty of the Safari/Spotlight connection goes beyond bookmarks, however. Spotlight actually creates an index of all the text on each page you visit. I set my Safari to never delete and now I find myself creating far less bookmarks. If, for instance, two years from now I remember reading a page about best places to stay in Tulum, I can just search my Safari index from Spotlight and pull up that page. I don't need to have ever bookmarked it and I don't need to start over with the web.

It's a little known, but very clever, innovation that Apple provides with Safari and Spotlight.


How can I save images that are on an iPhone but not in iCloud? I have an iPhone 4 with 1275 photos in the "all Photos" folder.
In the connected iCloud only 114 are shown.
As we wish to replace the phone with a newer one we would like to save all 1275 images from the phone.
Connected to iTunes about 600 are shown. All images previous to March 2015 are not shown in iTunes.
Those image show a small exclamation mark in the bottom corner when looked at it on the iphone.
We tried connecting to Dropbox without success. Also sending the images via email.

What can we do to save the images from the old phone?

Try the following:
Connect your iPhone with your Mac and start "Image Capture" for importing photos.

In general, the circled explanation mark indicates that those photos have not been loaded from iCloud. It may download with network connection (mostly Wi-Fi only). If there are no photos on iCloud this might be because of file corruption on iCloud.

Also, iOS support for iPhone 4 stopped with iOS 7.1.2 - iCloud Photo library needs iOS 8.3 or newer. Your device therefore only supports iCloud My Photo Stream which only contains your newest pictures. There is no chance for your full library to be synced with iCloud.
(This does not count for iPhone 4s which supports iOS 9.3.5)

One last thing: Make sure photos are not indicated as "Transferred from Mac" (transferred photos can not be saved on any other Mac as the original source and won´t be shown on your current Mac).

Hopefully you´ll be able to access your photos. I hope these information may help you to understand your situation. Good luck!


Is it possible to swap two cells content in numbers? I have a couple of rows and I have to move some cells from one row to another.

Right now, I have to

Copy/cut cell A1
Paste it in an auxiliary empty cell C1
then copy A2
paste it in A1
finally cut C1
and paste it in A2

I actually don't have that empty cell to use it as auxiliary, and there are several cells which need to be moved. I would like to know if there is something like this, swap cells (or even better ranges) with drag and drop, but for Numbers

https://www.addictivetips.com/microsoft-office/how-to-swap-values-between-cells-rows-or-columns-in-ms-excel/

If you don't want to use other cells temporarily, then do the following, which assumes equal size ranges:

Select the first range of cells.
Press ⌘C to copy the first range of cells to the clipboard.
Select the second range of cells.
Drag and drop the second range of cells onto the first range of cells.
Select the range of cells the second range of cells originally occupied.
Press ⌘V to paste the first range of cells from the clipboard.

Now the two ranges of cells have been swapped.

Note: Both ranges do not necessarily need to be the exact same size, however there has to be an appropriate amount of cells in the area of the ranges being swapped. Use your best judgement.

By the way, this works because the drag and drop clipboard is different then the general clipboard. So the first range of cells just sits there waiting to be pasted as the drag and drop operation didn't disturb it.


Adjust fan speed on ATI graphics card in OS X? I just got an Apple 4870 and am using it with OS X fine. However it is soooo noisy.

Are there any software tools or firmware mods I can do to change the fan speed at various temperature thresholds?

Solved: Edited and reflashed the rom from this guide:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=227787

Worked an absolute treat


Delete all OS X accounts in terminal when selling laptop I have an old macbook with some photos on it that I'm trying to sell. I want to keep the OS on there so that someone new can use it, but I have to wipe it through terminal because the screen is mostly broken.

How can I delete all accounts on my Mac and leave it with a fresh install with no DVD and a mostly broken screen?

Note: I don't have a video out adapter. I know that would be the easy option, but I'm a sucker for the Terminal.

Update: I used this article http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-73393-change-mac-admin-password-without-the-disk

It gives me a new account and the computer starts up as if I just walked out of the store with it, but it says that the other account still exists.

Command Line Only

It looks like there are a four things that need to be deleted:

the user's home directory
the user's membership in groups
user's primary group
the user's actual account along with their password hash

The University of Utah Mac Managers group submitted a scrip to CodeSnippets to handle this. Credit for this answer goes to Chealion.

Use of Another Mac with FireWire & Install Disk

Boot the MacBook into target disk mode, connect it to your other Mac via FireWire, clean wipe the hard drive, and install a fresh copy of the OS.


Markdown editor with folders as local libraries I need beautiful editor that can 'import' more then one local folders as libraries.

This would let me search files only from these folders/libraries. But the crucial thing is to have local folders as libraries. It's important to not have the tool impose a custom folder structure, just simple folder and its files.

The tools I've dismissed for the job are as follows:

http://writeapp.net/ - nice, but needs some issues to be fixed and more work to be put in.
Ulysses, but I don't think it can use my folders as a libraries. EDIT: it is possible to add 'external source' to it, so for now this looks fine.
nvAlt (not an editor, but has search), but it can work with just one folder

What software might work for my needs?

EDIT

I am not asking for common Editor. I do use Sublime on projects, but I want to use something else for my notes - simply because I want to access them in explained way.

I use Sublime Text with the Markdown Preview package.

It has Markdown syntax highlighting, color themes, and lets you treat directories as projects, allowing you to search over them, as you requested. The Preview package allows you to see the MD result in your choice of browser, with your choice of renderer (regular/GitHub).

Sublime is very versatile and open to many more customizations, should you require them.


Why does my Mac use so much swap space? Examining htop on iTerm2, I'm finding that my machine is maxing out swap space while leaving ~4GB of normal RAM. Why?! This seems like it's going to really slow up my machine. What's going on here? Is there something I can do to improve the distribution?

When your computer runs out of physical RAM, it swaps some of the data in RAM out to disk.
Later when the need for RAM decreases, you will have a situation where you have free RAM, but still an amount of data swapped out to RAM.
You could argue that the operating system should start swapping that data back into RAM immediately. However there are arguments that this is not a good strategy, namely because:
a) swapping in resources takes away resources from other programs running
b) swapping in resources will occupy RAM that another program might need in a short while, provoking another swap out
These are reasons why the swapped out data isn't immediately swapped in when RAM is freed. Instead it is swapped in when needed.


Snow Leopard Clean Install - Zero Out SSD? I just upgraded from a 2010 13" MBP to a 2011 15" MBP.

When I boot off the Snow Leopard DVD and go into Disk Utility to erase the drive, should I do a simple erase or should I also zero out the drive?

You want reinstall your old MBP, because want sale it? So zero out.

Want install OS X into the new MBP - don't need zero.

"Zero out" is for the security. see here too. And if you come from the DoD, CIA etc.. ;) and you have classified informations on you notebook - use the multi-pass zero-out. ;)

For those who have heard that there is someone who has seen such a person who knows how wear-leveling works, ;) TAKE IT EASY :)

I show you how wear-leveling works when erasing a whole SSD sector-by-sector. (and not file-by-file).

For the simplicity imagine than your SSD has only 10 sectors, with numbers from 0 up to 9.
Again, for this example we don't need differentiate between static/dynamic wear-leveling, only need to know, than SSD somewhat counting the write-count into each sector on SSD.

The scheme is the following:

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
my DATA          .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
usage count      0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0

for the fresh ssd we have usage count "0" for all sectors. (in reality this is not true, but for this example it is ok), and we haven't any data on the SSD.

Ok, after a while of usage of normal usage of SSD we get for example the next:

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          .  .  x  x  .  .  x  .  .  .
usage count      5  6  6  6  5  5  7  6  4  5

so, we have physically occupied sectors# 2,3,6 (so, my data ARE really in these sectors, and does not matter what OS think where they are) and the SSD maintain his usage table. You can see the usage table (bottom row) is nearly leveled. (why is not exactly leveled does not matter for this example, and also we not need discuss how SSH maintain the his free sector table, but need to know, than the SSD's free sectors table has nothing with the OS's free sector table).

So, come erase the whole SDD sector-by-sector. What this mean? The OS will write some data (not always zeroes) into each sector sequentially on SSD.

The OS send a command to SSD "write these zeros onto sector 0". The SSD's wear leveling choose on block with the lowest number of writes and write the zeros into. In our small example this will be sector 8, so we get:

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          .  .  x  x  .  .  x  .  -  .
usage count      5  6  6  6  5  5  7  6  5  5

I draw with '-' the written sector for the erase process. So the OS "think" than got erased the sector 0, but this is not true, because the wear-leveling erased the sector 8.

Next, the OS want erase sector "1". The wear leveling choose the first sector with lowest number of write, so sector 0 in our example.

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  .  x  x  .  .  x  .  -  .
usage count      6  6  6  6  5  5  7  6  5  5

for the sector 2 - got written into sector 4

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  .  x  x  -  .  x  .  -  .
usage count      6  6  6  6  6  5  7  6  5  5

sector 3 -> 5

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  .  x  x  -  -  x  .  -  .
usage count      6  6  6  6  6  6  7  6  5  5

sector 4 -> 8 (AGAIN got a write into sector 8, because it has the first sector with the lowest number of writes)

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  .  x  x  -  -  x  .  -  .
usage count      6  6  6  6  6  6  7  6  6  5

sector 5 -> 9

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  .  x  x  -  -  x  .  -  -
usage count      6  6  6  6  6  6  7  6  6  6

sector 6 -> 0

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  .  x  x  -  -  x  .  -  -
usage count      7  6  6  6  6  6  7  6  6  6

sector 7 -> 1

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  -  x  x  -  -  x  .  -  -
usage count      7  7  6  6  6  6  7  6  6  6

sector 8 -> 2

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  -  -  x  -  -  x  .  -  -
usage count      7  7  7  6  6  6  7  6  6  6

sector 9 -> 3

sector number -> 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
MY DATA          -  -  -  -  -  -  x  .  -  -
usage count      7  7  7  7  6  6  7  6  6  6

As you can see, after the 1st pass, (the OS think than got erased all sectors) but in the reality sectors 6 and 7 got not touched.

In the next pass, the sector number 6 still not get erased. But in the 3rd pass GOT erased. In the reality it is more complicated, but the base principe is:

if you erasing the whole drive sector by sector (and not at filesystem level, so not file-by-file), you will get leveled all sectors on write
while you can not ensure, than all your files got erased on 1st pass, on multi-pass you can ensure this, just because of wear-leveling.

Now i show, why some users get confused about the erase. Imagine:

we have an empty SSD - all sectors has zero usage count. The SSD has for example 10 sectors.
we write one file, what got written into the first sector on SSD because this sector is the first with the usage count 0. So the sector #0 will have usage count 1. (again, this is not true in the reality, because of inode table, or FAT tables at the start of SSD - but for the example is ok)
so, the other 9 sectors are free (and has usage count 0). When you rewrite THE FILE 9 times, you physically got writes into the sectors 1-9, so after 9th rewrite your file is STILL IN SSD and possible to recover it. That is because you write only 1 sector at the time (rewriting only the space occupied with the file).
in the SSD with 1000 sectors, we can not ensure physical rewriting of the file (with length of 1sector) either in 1000pass erase.

But with the multi-pass erase of the ALL sectors (sector-by-sector) in SSD, you will get cleared all sectors and all sectors will have the same write-count at the end. (and the oldest FILE get erased first).

Just ask, if something is not fully clear.


Can't access external SATA HDD via enclosure Just bought EW7055 enclosure.
When trying to connect to MacOS, I'm getting "not readable by this computer" error.

Tried with MacBook Air+Catalina and MacBook Pro+BigSur.
Same result.
Here is what I see in disk utility:

And this is if I right click and "Get Info" on it:

Here is the output of diskutil list:
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.8 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.8 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD — data     192.2 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 25.3 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                525.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            11.4 GB    disk1s5

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:                      Linux                         535.8 MB   disk2s1
   2:                      Linux                         336.1 GB   disk2s5
   3:                      Linux                         655.0 GB   disk2s6
   4:                 Linux_Swap                         8.6 GB     disk2s7

Seems like OS can see partitions, but for some reason can not give me an access to them.
I've tried to boot with this enclosure, but MacBooks don't list the disk in StartUp disks.
Neither in System Preferences nor when booting with Option pressed.
In Recovery Mode I've allowed to boot from any device and to any unsigned OS as well.
I've found somewhat similar question, but I don't really understand what's the solution for that.
UPDATE (GUESS):
Is it just because MacOS can't read Linux file system format?
But then why can't I boot into it?

SUB-UPDATE:
Ok, seems like Linux is not easily bootable on Mac hardware...
Is that the answer? I just need to boot into OS which will be able to read Linux FS?

Your "Update (GUESS):" is exactly correct macOS has no (native) ability to read/write filesystems common to Linux.
Heck it can only READ NTFS file systems without 3rd party software.
Also you cant just plug a bootable Linux installation (Or Windows, for that matter) into a Mac and expect it to just boot.
It is possible to work with and install both Windows and Linux on Apple hardware. Apple offers Boot Camp software that enables Windows 10 to be installed and run. But with Linux you will have to seek out how to install Linux on your Mac.
People here on AD may be able to help you with that. There are also lots of places online (mostly Linux-centric) that can help you install Linux on your Mac. But you cant just plug a Linux disk into your Mac and expect it to be bootable. Heck you need additional software just to read and write to the disk itself.


Does using a standing desk "count" when using the Apple Watch to close rings? A colleague asked me how sensitive the Apple Watch was, and if it supported standing desks. (those hours should count right?)

Since WATCH is worn on the wrist, if your wrist rests the same way while you’re standing as it does while you’re sitting, then that time is not going to count as “standing.”

Normally it is best to walk around with your arms swinging freely for WATCH to detect that you stood. That is why the Stand reminder tells you to move around. The current research also suggests that you need to move around to counteract the negative effects of sitting for too long.

My experience has been that at a minimum, you need to hold your arms down your sides for WATCH to detect that you are standing. That is not 100% reliable however, and it is best to take a quick walk (especially since you can no longer use your hand to type anyway).

Either way, if you keep your hands on your keyboard the entire time at your standing desk, WATCH will not detect that. Another good example is cooking/doing the dishes. You will get Stand reminders while performing those activities, which typically require standing.