Early 2011 Macbook Pro DisplayPort 1.2 driver So I searched a bunch, lots of threads on this, but unfortunately either they haven't been resolved, or its not helpful.

I have a Macbook Pro (early 2011) model w/ the Intel Core i5. It is currently running OS X Version 10.9.5, and I just recently purchased a second monitor for it (Dell P2014H). I am using a Mini DisplayPort to Display port cable to connect this monitor to the laptop, and it is working.

However, the Macbook is restricting the resolution to 1360x768, it's not using the 1600x900 that I would like. If you set it to that resolution, the 2nd monitor blacks out, and goes to sleep. After a lot of troubleshooting (resetting PRAM, SMC...), I borrowed a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter from a friend, and I tried that. That worked with the proper resolution, no problems.

Now, I am guessing that this is occurring because of DisplayPort 1.2 that the monitor uses, and the macbook does not work with that. Unfortunately Dell does not make a driver for OSX. I could also not find any drivers online. Does anyone have/know where I can find a driver, or know another method I can use to fix this resolution issue (other than buying a vga or dvi adapter)

Thanks in advance!

I had a similar compatibility issue a few years back with a Dell monitor.  After a replacement and multiple support calls, it ended up being the Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.  The embedded chip didn't send the proper info the Dell monitor is expecting.

After I replaced the Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable with a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter and a normal sized DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable, it worked properly.

There is some kind of incompatibility with Dell monitors and MDP to DP cables.  I've used the MDP to DP cable with other monitors without problems but have only had success with Dells when using a MDP to DP Adapter with a DP-DP cable.

Hope this helps!


How do I completely uninstall an app in OS X without the use of a dedicated app eg AppZapper? I came across this post, however all the answers recommend using Applications eg AppZapper or similar to achieve the uninstallation of the App desired.

What are the steps required where the uninstallation is carried out by "manual means" by the user to achieve complete uninstallation ?

In general most programs place files within the App icon, which is really a special folder for the Applications files. Many also add files within the Application Support folder within your library.

Simply drag the Application icon to the trash, and empty it. Then open your Library folder (you might have to click on the "Go" menu item in Finder, while also holding down he Option key to expose the Library). Look under the Application Support folder, and see if your Application has a folder, which you may also trash. You can also do a general search in this folder for the App name or Software company name.

Of course some apps also put other files in other places, such as LaunchAgents, PreferencePanes and other folders, but that is where such apps as AppZapper and AppCleaner are very nice to have. Also, check the Application website, as often software vendors publish the details of where they install data within OSX, usually in an item called 'manual uninstall'.


When backing up many Macs to one hard drive, must the hard drive be partitioned for each Mac? I'm getting a 5TB drive which I plan on using for backing up all my media, and my OS/config for my machines. The backup tool is Carbon Copy Cloner. I currently have two Macs but may get a third one and I'm wondering:

Since the laptops have different OSs and configurations, do I have to partition my 5TB drive for each of these like this:

╔════════════════════════╗
║ 500GB - Mac #1 Backup  ║
║════════════════════════║
║ 500GB - Mac #3 Backup  ║
║════════════════════════║
║ 500GB - Mac #2 Backup  ║
║════════════════════════║
║                        ║
║                        ║
║ 3500GB - All Media     ║
║ (movies, music, pics)  ║
║                        ║
║                        ║
║                        ║
╚════════════════════════╝

...Or, is it safe to put all three machine backups onto the same partition like this:

╔════════════════════════╗
║                        ║
║                        ║
║ 1500GB - 3 Mac Backups ║
║                        ║
║                        ║
║════════════════════════║
║                        ║
║                        ║
║ 3500GB - All Media     ║
║ (movies, music, pics)  ║
║                        ║
║                        ║
║                        ║
╚════════════════════════╝

I'm suspicious that the former is necessary for the purposes of restoring from a backup so the partitions are "bootable," but I don't understand why this may be needed. If possible, I'd like to use the latter partitioning configuration and just use folders to differentiate between the various Mac backups. Then if something goes wrong, I have the files that I can just drag into place on the machine that I need to restore.

Note that I am using redundancy with two other 1TB backups but I don't want to rely on those for restoration, only for storing duplicates of my media.

If you want the partitions to be bootable, yes you will need a separate partition for each mac you're backing up. The only way to have multiple backups in the same partition is to separate them out into other directories, which is not something most (all?) computers will be able to handle when trying to boot.

If you use Time Machine to do your backups, you could back them all up to the same partition. Then while the partition is not bootable, when you boot into recovery on the given mac, you can point at the drive and Time Machine will distinguish between the various backups.

The final, most convoluted option could be to use Read/Write disk images, those could be mounted, and backed up to, and then if a system failed, you could directly image the disk image to the new drive. This doesn't buy you a whole lot over backing up to separate folders and just copying the contents of that folder over to a new drive, so I wouldn't really bother with it.


history command in macOS Catalina I can't delete the shell history in macOS Catalina. I use rm ~/.bash_history.

history -c all command fields. I need to delete the command history.

Just do a

rm ~/.zsh_history

that clears the history. After that close the Terminal app. To check if the history was cleared run

history

in Terminal.


How to get MacVim to autoload ~/.vim/syntax This might be something quirky about MacVim, so I'll ask here.

I put a syntax file in ~/.vim/syntax, but it doesn't load. I have syntax on in my .vimrc.

When I open the editor, :scriptnames doesn't include the syntax file.

Is there anything else I need to do to make sure it loads?

In addition to relying on the detected filetype, which may be incorrect, there are at least two alternative ways to force loading of a particular syntax file.

Manually run the command :set ft=lesscss
Add the previous setting to a modeline near the beginning or ending of the file.  See :help modeline.


change Caps Lock key to fn key I replaced standard fn key by left control, left control by another useful key.
And as far as I don't use Caps Lock key in everyday life, I decided to replace Caps Lock key by fn.
I use for this purpose PCKeyboardHack.

I just inputed number 63 (which corresponds to fn) in Change Caps Lock row.
But now my Caps Lock don't do nothing: neither CapsLocking nor fn key work.
When I change Caps Lock key by forward delete for example (117 code) - it is ok. And Caps Lock starts work as forward delete key.

But I need to set fn to Caps Lock key.
UPDATE
I have noticed in KeyRemap4MacBook EventViewer: when I press Caps Lock...

... I get control_l keycode. But in fact it don't work even as control_l (I checked).
Why it shows control_l? Maybe because I have changed fn key to left control in KeyRemap4MacBook app.

When I uncheck this checkbox and watch in EventViewer on Caps Lock clicking again: I see Fn code on output.

But in fact it does not work as Fn (I check it on fn+delete)
Update 2
I disabled CAPS LOCK

In PCKeyboardHack set F19 to Caps Lock

In KeyRemap4MacBook remap F19 to fn
<item>
    <name>f19_to_fn</name>
    <identifier>f19_to_fn</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F19, KeyCode::FN</autogen>
</item>

And now Caps Lock works as fn except f1 - f12 keys. For example when I press default fn + f11 I see Launchpad. When I press remapped fn +  f11 I see volume down. So f11 not working with remapped fn.
In other combinations like fn + delete = forward delete remapped fn works well.

Just changing caps lock to key code 63 with PCKeyboardHack works for me. Have you tried setting caps lock no action from System Preferences?

You could also try to use PCKeyboardHack to for example change caps lock to F19 and then use a private.xml like this with KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>test</name>
    <identifier>test</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F19, KeyCode::FN</autogen>
  </item>
</root>


Possible to search Safari's "Reading List"? Anyone know if there is a way to search Reading List?

Not necessarily the full text of the pages — but at least the titles/descriptions that you see when looking at the Reading List pane within Safari:

Scroll up within the Reading List to reveal the search function.


Can i store and access iphotos library on external hard drive (and still have it backup to my cloud network)? I have two questions regarding Apple photos library.

Can I store my large Photos library on an external HDD?
Is it possible to set this HDD to backup via my computer to the same local network attached storage that my computer backs up too?

Notes: I am using a 2015 MacBook Pro running Big Sur, I am backing up to a NAS drive using time machine

This is one of those "fun" non-discoverable Apple settings that you would only know if you knew about this setting already. Yah catch-22. Anyway.

Copy the photoslibrary file to the drive you want to store it on.
While holding the Option key, launch the Photos.app

Instead of Photos.app opening, you will get something like this

Click on the Other Library button and point it to the photos library you just copied to your external drive.

It will open that file and set it as the default, so that the next time you open photos.app it will open that file again. You can verify that by renaming or moving the one in the old default location and launching photos.app normally.


How can I tell if "find my iPhone" has been used We have several apple devices at home. If we track any one of them, using "find me iPhone" does it log or message the iCloud user that it has been tracked? Example: If I did find a find my iPhone on my mother's account or she did it to mine, would either of us know?

Also, if I turn off my location services, does that prevent me and anyone else tracking my iPhone?

No, simply using Find My iPhone to find the location of the phone doesn't record the action anywhere.

Turning off location services will mean that Find My iPhone won't be able to obtain the location, unless Lost Mode is activated.

  In iOS 7, if you turn off Location Services and use Find My iPhone Lost Mode, Location Services will be re-enabled on the device as long as the device is in Lost Mode.

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5594


Is it possible to edit the web pages in the Profile Manager user portal? When setting up Profile Manager in Lion Server, there are a few web pages that are generated for web management of both devices and profiles.  Is it possible to edit these pages in any way?  I am just looking to customize the look and feel without changing the functionality.

If editing is possible, where are these pages stored?  I have looked through the /Library/Server/ProfileManager and /Library/Server/Web folders without any luck.

This is one particular page I would like to edit. Ideally I would like to be able to edit the HTML directly.  I am looking to match the page's style with a variety of other pages hosted on the server.

I was able to locate the source for these pages.  The comments on this question by ioi's were leading in the right direction.  The root directory for the app is /usr/share/devicemgr/.  The portal is actually a Ruby on Rails app, so there is no direct HTML to edit.  However, there are CSS files that can be edited to fit your needs.  The CSS files relating to the page I posted are located in /usr/share/devicemgr/backend/public/start_ota/.


Zoom level in Pages 09 not WYSIWYG? I'm using Pages 09 to prepare a document and have just noticed that the Zoom level (at least on my install) is not WYSIWYG.

The Page setup is correctly showing A4 as the output paper size.

The default Zoom and the Zoom setting for the document are both at 125%.

The computer is a Macbook Air 13.3", so has a resolution of 1440X900.

As far as I can tell it the zoom level would need to be about 175% to be correct.

(A quick look at Wikipedia shows that the Air has a DPI of 128PPI which may be the issue)

Is there a default that can be changed to set Pages to assume that DPI is greater than the default (presumably 72 ppi)

To answer your question simply. No. Pages is great at what it does, but I've yet to find a way to get it to truly be WYSIWYG.


DNS Problem with my Macbook Pro I have a problem with my Macbook Pro. I suspend it and if I should open it up and the wifi is connected and all looks pretty well. But I have no connection with my DNS Server. Other devices works well. I can ping all ip adresses but I can't resolve any hostnames.

My Router is a "Vodafone Easybox 903". I don't know what the problem is, and I don't know how I can solve it.

My Macbook is the only device with this problem. My girlfriends MacBook Pro, iPhones, Apple TV and my Ubuntu PC work without any Problems.

Try using Google DNS - it will solve the problem, but doesn't go very far as to explaining why it's only your computer experiencing it. It might be worth checking in your hosts file to see if there are any unexpected entries.

Open Terminal
Type "Sudo nano /etc/hosts"
Enter your admin password

Your ouput should be something similar to the following:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##

127.0.0.1       localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost

Push ctrl + x to close when finished, and then you can close terminal. You may also have two more localhost entries - you're looking for anything with a * or any of the websites you use normally. I know SelfControl.app modifies this file and sometimes doesn't change it back.


Deleting emails on iPhone creates new folder "Deleted Messages" in Mac Mail When I delete an email in Mail on my iPhone, it creates a new folder in Mail on my Mac called "Deleted Messages". Why is it doing this and not putting them in the Trash? I am using iCloud mail on both devices.

You can tell iOS which folder it should use for your deleted messages. Open up the Settings app and follow this path:

Mail, Contacts, Calendars < YOURACCOUNT (iCloud) < Account < Advanced (Mail) < Advanced

There you'll see Mailbox Behaviors options to tell iOS which folders to use for Drafts, Sent, and Deleted messages.

In your case, tap Deleted Mailbox and navigation your mail account's hierarchy to find your existing Trash folder. Select that and everything should work as you expect.


How to call a phone number on a picture? How to call a number on a picture without typing it over by hand into the phone app (because it is faster and more convenient that way)?

Like:

phone number on a piece of paper I hold in my hand (like a business card)
on a bill board
on a photo stored on my device

For information, I found the following apps that do or promise the sought functionality:

VisuCaller (payable)
Camera Dialer (not available any more?)

This feature isn’t implemented in iOS. You would probably be fastest to ask Siri to dial the number via dictation if you can see the number and speak it.

Some third party apps have image recognition like iOS does in the notes app when you hand write things or when a PDF can be scanned into searchable / copy able text.

One third party app that has a scanner is Excel - you can take a picture of a paper table and it tries to automate the numbers and text that created the printed table.


Palm Desktop for Mac I've got a Palm Centro and would like to sync all its content to Palm Desktop or similar programme. Is there any enthusiasts site or any software which can help with that?

(It is ridiculous that these days there is no good analogue to Palm Desktop on any platform).

Thanks.

The last ever version of Palm Desktop for Mac [4.2.2] was released in 2008 - though 4.2.1 is more common, & still available if you look around - https://palm-desktop.en.softonic.com/palm though I haven't run the Mac version in a long time, so compatibility might be suspect.

I've found it's simpler to use a VM of Windows 7 & install to that - though my Palm iQue 360 installer now fails on anything other than a backup restored drive, as the associated internet app downloader points to nowhere.

It's not hugely surprising that software for something that hasn't been manufactured in 8 or so years is not easy to obtain or run.

[download locations untested]


Adobe Creative Cloud Color Replacement Tool Not There Color replacement tool in Photoshop CC missing. It's usually behind the brush tool. Just updated and it's still missing. It's there on my desktop Mac, but it's missing on my MacBook Pro.

How do I find where to sync settings and/or find that control on Photoshop?

Try going to Edit > Toolbar and in the dialogue that opens click "Restore Defaults".


iPhone 6s Plus - video chat problem Friend called me using Facebook Messenger. She could see me, but I was not able to see her (Everything else was perfect). There was a large, grey square area with a camera icon with a line through it.

I thought it was a tap-icon, so I could go find a setting I'd missed. But it would not respond.

I explored settings and found nothing to help. What am I missing please? Thank you.
Don

The settings that control this are on her phone - not yours.


FAT (file allocation table) variant used when disk is formatted using OS X (macOS) disk utility Disk Utility on OS X (macOS) shows "MS-DOS (FAT) " as one of the format options

FAT (File Allocation Table) has many variants like FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32

My questions are mentioned below:

Which FAT variant is taken when I formate disk using "MS-DOS (FAT) format?
What is maximum size (for partition/disk) of FAT variant selected in question 1?

In Disk Utility, when choosing MS-DOS (FAT), the FAT version will be size appropriate. In other words, if creating a disk image of 1.4 MB it will be formatted FAT12, if 100 MB it will be FAT16 and in the case of your 8 GB Flash Drive it will be FAT32. The FAT (File Allocation Table) link in your question answers #2 however there is nothing to worry about as it's considerable larger then your Flash Drive.

The issue to be aware of is on a FAT32 volume the maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GiB minus 1 byte or 4,294,967,295 (232 − 1) bytes.


kernel_task, high CPU and fans going crazy, no applications open, no launch agents/daemons i've tried to debug this for a couple days straight now and can't find out what's causing the kernel_task to go so unruly.  i've removed nearly all my third party kexts, done so many etrepro's, and i've been trying to use the console to see repeating errors but it's difficult to follow. i've done all the usual PVRAM and SMC resets etc, booting in safe mode and on a new user. i'm on the latest catalina update. could this be helped by investigating kernel_task deeper, how can i navigate this/keep track of the code to debug what's going on here. thanks in advance for any help. i can upload my current etre pro report/ any else information if needed.

The answer here:

How to find cause of high kernel_task cpu usage?

was to switch charging cable side, which i can't do on my computer. I'm more so asking for how I can investigate more intimately or identify what could causing the kernel task to react this way. Thanks

Hardware test gives out:

there may be an issue with the smc PFM006
there may be an issue with the power management system PPN001

Not sure if this will help, but I was getting the same thing on my Mac Mini.  Turns out that the temperature sensor wasn't working, and so the fans were on all of the time.


Photostream eats my pictures, why? I have the current situation:

in iPhoto, I can see some of my pictures made in the last months ONLY in Photostream. iPhoto says they're imported already, but "show in Library" leads to nowhere.
Since Photostream has a 1000 pictures limit, I'm afraid I'll soon lose some photos I really like.

Last import is supposed to have deleted all pictures from the iPhone, so these pictures are only in Photostream... does anyone have an idea what to do to have these pictures show up in my Events, as they should be?

Make sure that you turn on the option "Automatic Import" in your iPhoto preferences :

If it is not working, try to disabled and then enabled Photo Stream in iPhoto.


start outlook and open calendar using applescript I know how to start outlook:

tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
   activate
   set folderName to "Calendar"
end tell

but the set folderName does not seem to open the calendar view

This script will open Microsoft Outlook, bring it to the front, and set the view to Calendar view.

tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
    activate
    set theWindow to first main window
    set the view of theWindow to calendar view
end tell

Is that what you're looking for?


Formatting logs in OS X Console We have logs from an application that are formatted as JSON. Normally they are sent to a central logging tool like LogStash. On the terminal, we can read them using a tool like jq. But if I attach a log file to a ticket or email it with a name ending in .log OS X opens it in Console by default. I am trying to find a straightforward way to view it formatted or pretty-printed within the Console application.

Check out this article:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/LoggingErrorsAndWarnings.html

It looks like there isn't any way to nicely format JSON for the console app, but you might be able to use the tagging system for some increased clarity.

Probably a better idea to include instructions on how to open the log in a more capable program.


How do I force my iOS device to create a new backup on iCloud? I have an iPod5. I have been using iCloud for backups. However, I have an issue in a particular app that only goes away when I fully reset the device. (The issue in the app persists if I restore from iCloud backup, but that’s not what I want addressed here). So, at the moment, my iOS device is running as if it were a fresh new iOS install. I want to be able to keep going with this install and have it backed up to iCloud. However, I also want to keep my old backup around so that I can go back to that later.

I thought that iCloud would automatically start a new backup series when I chose to set up my iPod5 as a “New” device. However, when I look at the backups UI, I get the impression that I am going to lose my old backup as soon as it performs the next backup.

Under iCloud → Backup, I see “Last Backup: 1:37 AM”. That is the timestamp of the backup I performed on this iPod before resetting it:

Under “Manage Storage” when viewing iCloud settings through the device, it lists the iPod I’m using as matching the backup I made before I set up my iPod as a new iPod. The backup that it says is associated with this iPod is the very one I want to preserve when I make a backup of my iPod:

And when visiting that screen, you can see the discrepancy between the backup that looks like it will be overwritten and the backup that iOS plans on overwriting it with:

So, how do I get iOS iCloud backups to start a new backup or save/checkpoint/rename the old one? I’m starting to fear that my only option is to restore the old backup, make a backup in iTunes, and then manage storage of that backup manually which is a pain that I hoped iCloud would be able to prevent…

In an answer to another question, I read:

  You can have multiple backups in iCloud for a device and choose which backup to restore from (assuming there are no device/iOS compatibility issues).

My question is: how? ;-)

You can't fork a backup on the iCloud servers.

All you can do is delete the existing backup and then start one over. Over time, abandoned forked backups get pruned and deleted as well, so keep that in mind if you manage to separate things.

Disable iCloud Backup without deleting existing backup?


What is the vibration when I picked up an iPhone 7 Plus that feels like a gyroscope? Recently when I pick up my iPhone 7 Plus (especially when it is charging), there was some kind of vibration that felt like a turning gyroscope which I played when I was a kid. And then after picking up the phone for 10, 20 seconds, the vibration would stop. What was it about? If it was a gyroscope, what was it turning for?

i think it's Taptic Engine. This engine can turned off.

If you like to disable go to Settings -> Sounds & Haptics - > System Haptics -> turn off.

Taptic Engine is different from 3D Touch. So disabling haptics won’t turn off 3D touch.


USB intermittently not working - requires restart - what to try next? The USB ports on my MacBoook Pro13 stop working after a while (new devices aren't recognized by the OS, already plugged in devices don't work any longer, the behavior is the same for all USB devices and both USB ports). Doing a restart fixes the problems for a while (about a day of use). The way I'm usually working, the Mac goes to sleep a few times during the time it works. I've tried the standard procedures of resetting PRAM and repairing disc permissions without success.

I'm not sure how long I've been having this problem, it might be related to updating to Mountain Lion or some version change in VMWare Fusion (and no, the USB hardware is not available there, either). As the problem is not occurring directly after a reboot, I'm assuming it is not Hardware-related. Still I'd like to avoid a complete re-install.

What can I do to further diagnose and fix the problem?

UPDATE: Thanks for the suggestions. I wasn't able to try all of them .. interestingly, my USB has been working for more than a week now, and I'm not sure what changed. (Maybe I'm using VMWare in a different way, maybe it has to do with the way I use my MacBook.) So I haven't been able to verify that any of the changes solve my problem (which makes awarding the bounty a bit tricky). I'll update the question when I have new information - but hopefully my USB continues to work!

The first step in diagnosing the problem is to create a user account and see if it happens for that user. If it still happens, it's probably hardware but could still be software. To verify it is not, then remove any software that installs Kernel extensions (VMWare does this, as well as USBOverdrive, SteerMouse, etc…) and see if it still happens.

The fastest route is probably taking it to the genius bar, even if the machine is out of warranty. They have tools that aren't released to the public that go much deeper than any commercially available hardware diagnostics software.


Password dialog box differs between Macs I upgraded a Mac in my lab (23" iMac) to Lion. My MacBook Pro (mid 2007) is running Mountain Lion. For some reason the iMac is showing a different user password screen than my MBP - I can't figure out why. I like the new screen, and am trying to figure out why my MBP doesn't use it.

My MBP shows the "old" screen, with text boxes for user name and password, like this:

This screen hasn't changed on my MBP since Tiger at least.

The iMac shows only the user icon and a spot for password, like this:

I have a hard time thinking it's a hardware limitation issue. Could also be from some old setting, but the iMac used to use the old dialog too. (iMac originally ran Leopard, was upgraded to SL some time ago; same basic upgrade path as my MBP). Any ideas?

Update: This is still happening in Mavericks. The single answer below does not address the issue - the preference pane affects the login screen only, not the password dialog that comes up after screen lock. (I'd vote the answer down - not because it's wrong, but because it doesn't directly address the problem - but I apparently can't do that yet.)  User icons on login look just as expected - round icon with user photo, but the password dialog after screensaver has not changed on my system since I bought it in 2007.

Per my comments below, note that any new accounts created use the new screen lock dialog, but my account uses the old format - so this MUST be a per-user issue. I am having a hard time accepting that no one out there can tell me what needs to be changed. I've tried nuking basically ever preference I can find on my system. This is really minor but trying to figure out why it is even happening is driving me nuts.

For anyone else with this issue (and at least one person has emailed me to report they deal with this too!) - I did "fix" the problem thanks to a hard drive crash. I did a clean install, and did not copy any Apple system prefs from backup, just my files and program preferences. This resolved the problem, but didn't do so in a way that allowed me to figure out what the specific setting was that caused it in the first place!

If you see the old unlock screen (gray window asking for your username and password) you have to delete the following file:

/etc/cacloginconfig.plist

If you delete this file, you will see the new unlock screen (like the login screen) and touch ID will work again.

  Summary: If "/etc/cacloginconfig.plist" exists in 10.9 +, the screensaver unlock screen will be controlled by SecurityAgent (old style). Admins, when they successfully authenticate, will be allowed to take over the user's session.  Even if "system.login.screensaver" in AuthDB is set to "use-login-window-ui", this will be overridden by the existence of "/etc/cacloginconfig.plist". We will still be presented with the SecurityAgent style login window.

More Info:
http://www.openradar.me/19177988


How can I generate a batch of profiles and certificates for OS X Server Profile Manager? I'm using the Profile Manager on OS X Server (Mavericks). I ran a script that imported our ~20 users into Open Directory from CSV. I've configured Radius with EAP-TLS, and have set up 802.1x so that our WiFi APs and router authenticate with the Radius server.

I've generated a self-signed CA for Radius, and a client certificate for myself, using Keychain Access. I managed to export my client certificate, upload it to the Profile Manager web interface, upload the Radius server's trusted certificate, configure all the network settings as payloads, download and install my profile, and get connected to our WiFi.

I have to set up over 20 more profiles, and it's a huge PITA to manually generate all these certificates, upload them, and configure WiFi settings for each individual user.

I know I can programmatically generate the client certificates with openssl on the command line. I used dscl to work with Open Directory, but is there a command-line tool that can push payloads into Profile Manager?

Or would it be easier if I just programmatically generate the .mobileconfig XML files and email / AirDrop them out to each user?

I want to know how a regular small business IT person rolls out network settings and profiles to an office, but it's really hard to find documentation on this topic. I also have a few follow-up questions:

How do you manage a PKI on Mac Server, and how do you use it with Profile Manager?
I've set a temporary password for users, but how can I allow them to sign in and change their Open Directory password?

You should be able to do all the configuration by group.

Add all the users into an OD group and then set all the WiFi preferences there. You should also be able to set a certificate for the group and allow the entire group to authenticate against the Radius server.

When it comes to setting up PKI then you enter into the dark realms of Kerberos. (Be very careful with your DNS or you will never return.)

This is a good guide http://yesdevnull.net/2013/10/os-x-mavericks-server-open-directory-master/

Reading everything Charles Edge writes is always worthwhile :- http://krypted.com/guides/mavericks-server/ - he literally wrote the book on Macs in the enterprise.

If you turn on the web server (which I assume you have for the Profile Manager) the front page provides a nice link to change passwords for OD users.


AppstoreConnect reports total estimate proceeds in euro We changed to a new developer account for one of our projects and somehow the payment & finance reports are in USD instead of euro (what was on our old account).
How can I see the proceeds in euro so we know how much we can expect?

Sometimes patience is key. The USD changed into euro's automatically after a few hours.


El Capitan: will System Integrity Protection defence stop sandbox program from accessing System.log? OS X El Capitan apparently has this new security feature known as System Integrity Protection, which limits root access to an array of files including: /system, /bin, /sbin, /usr, /etc, /tmp and /var.

I have a program I developed which accesses the file system.log located in the /var/log/ directory.

My Question is:

Will my program (running in the sandbox) be able to access the file /var/log/system.log with the 'System Integrity Protection' system running?

Thanks in Advance.

Will my program (running in the sandbox) be able to access the file /var/log/system.log with the 'System Integrity Protection' system running?

Yes, a sandboxed application will be able to access /var/log/system.log on OS X with System Integrity Protection (SIP) enabled.

/var is Not Protected

The /var folder is not protected by SIP. As of OS X 10.11, only the following locations are protected:

  Paths and applications protected by System Integrity Protection include:

  /System
  /usr
  /bin
  /sbin
  Apps that are pre-installed with OS X

  Paths and applications that third-party apps and installers can write to include:

  /Applications
  /Library
  /usr/local

See Apple's developer documentation on System Integrity Protection for more details.


Is there a keyboard shortcut for inserting MathType equations in Pages? I have more and more thoughts about taking my class notes on my computer, and Pages '09 would seem like a good candidate for that task. However, being that I have a lot of technical classes, I find myself needing to insert MathType equations very often.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to insert such an equation? If not, can I somehow make one?

Update for 2019: The newer versions of Pages actually recently added equation support! Just go to Insert > Equation... or hit ⌥⌘E.

It uses LaTeX or MathML, but if you want to use MathType there's apparently a button for that in the resulting dialog, or you can set it to be your default. (I don't have MathType, so I can't test this.)

The Apple Support page has more information.


How to clear DHCP leases in OS X Server (v4.1.3-14S1127) on Yosemite 10.10.4 I have a situation where my OS X Server app seems to not be completely dropping DHCP leases and I think it is causing some of my hardware MAC's to conflict as per the assignments I have set.

I use DHCP to assign machines IP's based on their MAC's and there is one set of network devices that allows me to inject data over our radio stations STL path. (Moseley LANLINK HS, yes I already contacted their tech support...awaiting response, but this does not seem be a specific issue with the devices functionality) I need this to connect on our network to access the remote site network devices for federally mandated logging and site control purposes. I am able to connect my laptop directly to the device and it works just as it normally should!

I feel there is some weirdness in OS X Server with the DHCP service not properly assigning address and I really want to clear all leases before I move forward with an uninstall and reinstall everything in Server.app, including all of it's settings files and...everything

All other services are working just fine in the application, such as DNS, Open  Directory and WWW. So this seems to be isolated to just the DHCP service.

Is there a command that I can input to the terminal to drop all DHCP leases assigned by Apple OS X Server?

I found this but can not test since I do not have your set up.

Stop the dhcp server either through Server Admin or from a command line command of sudo serveradmin stop dhcp.
delete the file /var/db/dhcpd_leases. You will need root access. Terminal command of sudo rm -f /var/db/dhcpd_leases
Restart dhcp via server admin or by terminal command of sudo serveradmin start dhcp

Be very careful when deleting files in terminal!


Can an iPad somehow connect the iPad Camera Connector AND be plugged into power simultaneously? Can an iPad somehow connect the iPad Camera Connector AND be plugged into power simultaneously?

I need to use the USB port AND have the iPad connected to a power source.  Possible?

Not with Apple's own kit, but you can find various adapters on places like ebay which do what you want. My friend has one similar to this which appears to work fine (on iOS 5.1.1 at least).


High-pitch sound coming from my macbook pro when I move a wired mouse I have a Macbook Pro Retina and when I move my wired mouse (mionix Naos, but same with others) there is a high pitch sound coming from my mac.

It does not make any sound if I don't move the mouse, or if I the integrated trackpack.

The sound comes from the mac. If I use headphones the sound does not come from it, but form the mac.

I'm experiencing the exact same thing with my Macbook Pro 15" Retina (Mid 2014) using both the Logitech G Pro and older G500.

However, I noticed that changing the polling rate for the mouse from 1000 to 250 makes the sound very hard to hear, though the higher polling rates of 500 and 1000 makes the sound more audible. Happens with either USB input and even if both mice are plugged in at the same time. Unplugging the power adapter does not make any real difference.


Can't I use iTunes playlists from a shared library on another computer? I've got a media center running iTunes, and it has some smart playlists set up.
I've also got a desktop computer running iTunes, with which I sync my iPhone.

I want to use the music and the smart playlists from the media center, and not the few songs I've got on the desktop computer. I thought that I could set up the media center to share its library and select that in the iPhone sync settings, but I don't see it.

I do see the media center's shared library on my desktop, and the songs play, so that bit works. I don't see the media center's smart playlists in the desktop's iTunes and also not in the desktop's sync settings.

Is this just not possible, or what did I miss? Both computers are running Windows, but I'm hoping that iTunes would work the same way regardless.

Bonus points for getting the star-rating changes I make on the iPhone synced back to the media center...

You can only sync local music (music that exists in the iTunes library on the computer you sync your iPhone with).


How can I re-setup an iPad 2? I had one iPad 2 and I got a second one. I want to sync them both to the same iTunes account from the same Macbook Pro. When I plugged in the second iPad it asked me something along the lines of

  This computer has been previously synced with an iPhone or another iOS device

Well, I wanted to share programs and things between them so I thought it would be good to choose "restore" - however that seems to have been the wrong thing to do because iTunes now thinks I have two of the same iPad and won't let them each be customized.

How can I backup to this step where I can have it ask me this question again? (Basically, wipe the second iPad 2 and start over.) I thought about maybe "restoring" it but then I didn't want iTunes to think that my only iPad had been wiped and then wipe the original the next time I connected it.

You can wipe the data and return it to factory settings by choosing settings - General - Reset.

Like the first answer you should now name them differently.

Just to add to that you will also need to restore one of them to empty, then set it up using iCloud, add iCloud to your other iPad 2 and then they will share data, but you will also be able to add an app to one and delete from the other without losing all data, next time you sync.


Can you send push message only for selected users? I'm an absolute newbie in Apple development, and I just want to know something special:

Is it possible to send a push message not for all downloaders of the app, but some selected users?

I thought about two possibilities

send apple the push message command just for some selected devices
decide in the app wether to show the push or not

If this is not possible at all, I do not have to keep on developing.

I don't have an exact "developer" answer, but from the usage of app like Facebook or Twitter, it is definitively possible to send a push notification to selected user.

Since the main goal of push notification is saving battery, I'd say deciding in the app if a notification is shown or not is not the smartest way, since you'll have to send the data to the phone.

I would say that (and that's where I don't have hard facts) Apple keeps an unique ID for every iPhone that you can use on your server as well so that you'll only have to send to Apple to which phone you want to send the notification to.


How do I make NFS automounted volumes visible in Finder? How do I make NFS automounted volumes visible in Finder or, in other words, have opposite effect to default option nobrowse?

From mount manpage

nobrowse
     This option indicates that the mount point should not be visible via the GUI
     (i.e., appear on the Desktop as a separate volume).

This is edited mount command output from Mac Pro

mac-pro:~ shpokas$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
map autofs_nfs on /Volumes/nfs (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s2 on /Volumes/VFS HDD 0122 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
varaklani:/faili on /Volumes/nfs/faili (nfs, nodev, nosuid, automounted, **nobrowse**)

Have you tried Finder:Preferences:General:Show these items on the desktop and check Connected servers?

That normally works for me.


How to uninstall 3rd party keyboards on ios8 I've installed a 3rd party keyboard on ios8. I didn't like it so i wanted to uninstall it completely.  It stills appear under "Third Party Keyboards" when I press "Add new Keyboard..." in the Keyboards settings.

Any hints how to make it disappear at all?

You can only disable it in the General -> Keyboard section. To delete it, you have to delete the application that provides it.


Can not boot from USB to make a clean install of Yosemite I have a MacBook Pro 13' retina from April 2013. Yesterday I wanted to do a clean install of Yosemite. I formatted my USB as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and made the partition to be a GUID table partition.

Then I run this command to copy the bootable installation files of Yosemite to the USB:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction

Everything went fine and to be sure I verified with Finder that the installation really was in the USB and not corrupted.

Then I rebooted my MacBook Pro, held the Options Button to get into the boot menu but there my USB wasn´t listed, only the harddrive and the recovery partition. I also tried the other USB port but id did not help. I have googled a lot of this issue but I haven´t found anything that helped. I have also tried the whole procedure of formatting the USB and putting the installation files 3 or 4 times now.

After some hours of tries to boot the USB I gave up.
What I did instead was to open Disk Utilties (from my recovery partition) and format the harddrive, then install Mountain Lion and then make the upgrade to Yosemite. But that is not a clean install.

Any ideas why I could not boot from the USB?

I had the same problem. You have to drag the file from finder into terminal to get the official name of the installer. The end result is something like /Applications/Install OS\  X\ Yosemite.app

At least that is what worked for me.

Hope that helps.


How to disable ambient noise reduction? It used to be in that one could disable the ambient noise reduction in the sound preferences.  But I can't seem to find that option anymore, which means when I record sound with the built-in mic I have to accept the warbling effect.

According to Help, the option should be there so long as there isn't a 4-channel built-in microphone format chosen in Audio MIDI setup.  But my internal microphone is a 2-channel according to Audio MIDI Setup.

How can I get the check box to appear so that I can cancel the noise reduction effect? I have a Late 2013 27" iMac

This model of iMac (Late 2013, 27") has dual internal microphones, which were designed to offer better noise cancellation. This is most likely why the Ambient Noise Reduction checkbox is missing.


How to Tell Siri to Send a Text Message with Special Characters Such as Enter (Newline or EOL) - Dictation Commands I'm using Siri a lot in my car to send text messages. The problem is I don't know how to convert characters into the text. Think like questionmarks (?), dots (.) and enters.

Example:

This is a question [questionmark]?
[enter]
End of text [dot].

Thanks in advance!

This is a question?
  End of text.

Was generated by me saying
"this is a question question mark new line end of text full stop"
 though I did have to then manually fake it into SE's markdown format

SE isn't great for formatting tables, so this is really just in case the link ever disappears

Original Source [& far easier to read] - Siri User Guide : Dictation Guide

Command                         Action                                          Before                                                                  After
New line                        Move to the next line
New paragraph                   Start a new paragraph
Cap                             Capitalise the next word                        I like 'cap' sunshine                                                   I like Sunshine
Caps on ... caps off            Capitalise a section of text                    'caps on' twenty types of flower 'caps off'                             20 Types of Flower
All caps                        Make the next word all uppercase                I 'all caps' love summer                                                I LOVE summer
All caps on ... all caps off    Make part of what you say uppercase             I 'all caps on' love summer 'all caps off'                              I LOVE SUMMER
No caps                         Make the next word lowercase                    I like 'no caps' Capitals                                               I like capitals
No caps on ... no caps off      Make sure part of what you say is all lowercase We like the cities 'no caps' London and Sydney 'no caps off' the most   We like the cities london and sydney the most
Space bar                       Prevent a hyphen from appearing in a normally hyphenated word
No space                        Prevent a space between words
No space on ... no space off    Prevent a section of text from having spaces between words
"Period" or "full stop"         Place a "." at the end of a sentence
Dot .                                                                           The number pi is three 'dot' one four                                   The number pi is 3.14
Point   .                       The 'point' number pi is three 'point' one four The point number pi 3.14 (note the subtle difference between saying 'point' and 'dot' dot works between words)
"Ellipsis" or "dot dot dot" ...
Comma   ,
Double comma    ,,
"Quote" or "quotation mark" "
"Quote ... end quote" or "quote ... close quote"    Place quotes around a section of text   She said 'quote' see you next week 'end quote'  She said "see you next week"
Apostrophe  '
Exclamation point   !
Inverted exclamation point  ¡
Question mark   ?
Inverted question mark  ¿
Ampersand   &
Asterisk    *
Open parenthesis    (
Close parenthesis   )
Open bracket    [
Close bracket   ]
Open brace  {
Close brace }
Dash    -                                                                       This dash is dash my dash cheese                                        This - is - my - cheese (note the difference in spacing between this and when saying hyphen)
Hyphen  -                                                                       This 'hyphen' is 'hyphen' my 'hyphen' cheese                            This-is-my-cheese (note the difference in spacing between this and when saying dash)
Em dash —
Underscore  _
Percent sign    %
Copyright sign  ©
Registered sign ®
Section sign    §
Dollar sign $
Cent sign   ¢
Euro sign   €
Yen sign    ¥
Degree sign ∘
Caret   ^
At sign @
Pound sterling sign £
Pound sign  #
Greater than sign   >
Less than sign  <
Forward slash   /
Back slash  \
Vertical bar    |
"Smiley" or "smiley face" or "smile face"   :-)
"Frowny" or "frowny face" or "frown face"   :-(
"Winky" or "winky face" or "wink face"  ;-)
E.g. (pronounced as "e g")  e.g.    'e g' when you learn to ride a bike E.G. when you learn to ride a bike
i.e. (pronounced as "i e")  i.e.    'i e' when you learn to ride a bike I.e. when you learn to ride a bike


what is the proper bootcamp software for windows 10 on macbook pro early 2011 when i install bootcamp drivers on double booted windows 10 on my macbook pro early 2011, after restrating blue Screen appears and windows won't load.
i think it's because of bootcamp software version(5.0.5033)
so what is the proper bootcamp software ?

You should be using Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621. You can download the software from the given link. With later versions of macOS, the Boot Camp Assistant can be used to download the software.

You probably will need to install Windows to legacy BIOS boot. This means the drive will have to be hybrid partitioned. This is where Windows uses the MBR partition table and macOS uses the GUID partition table (GPT). Also, you should use the optical (DVD) drive to install Windows. If you have latest firmware installed, then you might be able to use a flash drive to install the latest Windows 10. Currently, with would be the October 2018 update. You can get the latest firmware by having the latest version of High Sierra installed.

You can not BIOS boot from a flash drive. If you succeed in booting the Windows installer from a flash drive, then you will have used an EFI boot method. However, even though you have EFI booted the installer, you still will need to install Windows 10 to BIOS boot. This is because the Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621 probably contains drivers that require Windows to BIOS boot. Instructions for properly use a flash drive to install Windows 10 can be found at the accepted answer to the question: How to install Windows 10 into a 2011 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, an optical (DVD) drive or third party tools?


Problems with contacts in Mail I have a problem with Mail and I don't know how it happened. I somehow accidentally added several names for one email address. Now these names are displayed randomly. This problem is driving me crazy. Each time I send an email I'm obligated to check three times to whom am I sending that email by clicking the name and confirming the email. How can I edit or delete the names behind and email address?

EDIT:

Here is the screenshot when I open new mail message:

Then I start typing (pressing "d") the e-mail, list of hints pops-up:

notice that the value that pops up is

"devXXXXXX@gmail.com (Admin m.pYYYYYYY@gmail.com)"
and when I press "Enter" it gives the following picture

:

In other words, when I look at that address after pressing enter it shows me that I'm sending email to "Admin" with an email "m.pYYYYYYY@gmail.com" though in fact the email is sent to other address devXXXXXX@gmail.com. It means that my email address has a name that contains other person's name and email. The biggest problem is that devXXXXXX@gmail.com email contains several names which swap each time and confusing me...

Check the previous recipients list in Mail. Choose the Window > Previous Recipients menu item, and scroll or search to locate the unwanted name/address combinations. From this list you can add entries to Address Book, or remove from previous recipients. This list is populated and updated every time you send an email.


How can I record music from a MIDI keyboard with a MacBook Pro? I would like to use our MacBook Pro to record music my daughter plays on her MIDI keyboard as well as her voice. What kind of hardware/software do I need for this?

There are many brands of MIDI to USB adapters available on the market. They cost about US$40 or less. Here is one example, the M-Audio Uno.

She can record her performances on GarageBand, which is a piece of Apple software that comes free with the MacBook Pro.


If I install more RAM should I boot into 64bit Kernel? Does it matter? I've got an Early-2009 Unibody Mac Book Pro 17".

It came with 4 GB RAM and by default it boots into 32-bit Kernel.

I've just upgraded to 8 GB RAM and my main concern is getting maximum performance from my 64-bit version of Lightroom 3 (I scan negatives and edit large tiff files).

Now that I've got 8 GB RAM, will booting into 64-bit Kernel give me any performance boost on Lightroom (and even generally)?

Should I see a performance boost on 32-bit Kernel with the additional RAM?

According to this article at macperformanceguide.com, you will see performance gains (5-30%) by running graphics applications in 64-bit mode.

Note that you don't necessarily need to switch to a 64-bit Kernel, you just need to ensure that Lightroom runs in 64-bit mode.


Upgrade from Fusion Drive to SSD without breaking fusion first I replaced my fusion drive with a 1TB SSD but didn't break the fusion first. I'm running an iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) 3.2ghz i5 w/ 8GB RAM with Catalina 10.15.3

I'm attaching a photo of my device tree in diskutil.

Is there a way to make the PCI 128GB flash house the OS and be what is usually called "Macintosh HD" and the entire 1TB SSD to be the "Macintosh HDD - Data"
Would I be manually creating a fusion drive via terminal of the two SSDs?

In your Container disk3 you have two volumes Macintosh SSD which is a read only volume of about 10GB and Macintosh SSD - Data containing your user files and other writable parts of the filesystem (logs, your installed applications etc).  There are also some other small volumes not shown for recovery, booting etc that you can see with diskutil list

These volumes are all part of the OS install in Catalina - see this Apple document About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina.

While you could try to roll your own fusion drive you'd be adding complexity for no benefit and if either drive failed you'd lose both - see how to prepare two SSDs after upgrade (merge to fusion drive or not, terminal commands)

What you could do is install macOS to the SD0128F disk and use the new SSD as data storage either by manually saving your data there or by moving your whole user folder.  The volumes called Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data would remain on the SD0128F physical disk.


When I put events on my MobileMe calendar, syncing causes numerous duplicates to appear Anyone encounter this, or know how to prevent it?

I'm syncing two MacBooks, an iPad and two iPhones.

Each entry appears one to five times once it syncs.

For each of the devices remove the MobileMe account and opt to delete all the data when asked (it usually asks if you would like to remove the data associated with that account). Then add back again and see if it continues.


spotlight finds "anaconda-navigator" but `conda` has been uninstalled CLARIFICATION.

I am not trying to use conda, much less reinstall it.  My question is about a behaviour that I don't understand.

THE BEHAVIOUR.

Some time ago I (must have) uninstalled conda, and indeed:

conda list
bash: conda: command not found

Now, when I start typing "anaconda" in spotlight, it finds "anaconda-navigator".  Not surprisingly, when I press enter, it gives me a "The application “Anaconda-Navigator” can’t be opened."

This shows that something has been left behind during the (manual) uninstall, but that is another issue.

MY QUESTION.

Where does spotlight find this anaconda-navigator?

Go to Finder → Applications and find Anaconda-Navigator.app. It should be an alias.  Right click on it and click on "Show original" .

For proper uninstall

  Anaconda-Clean must be run before simple remove.
   Install the
  Anaconda-Clean package from Anaconda Prompt (terminal on Linux or
  macOS):

  conda install anaconda-clean.

  In the same window, run one of these commands:

  Remove all Anaconda-related files and directories with a confirmation
  prompt before deleting each one:

  anaconda-clean

  Or, remove all Anaconda-related files and directories
  without being prompted to delete each one:

  anaconda-clean --yes

  Anaconda-Clean creates a backup of all files and
  directories that might be removed in a folder named .anaconda_backup
  in your home directory. Also note that Anaconda-Clean leaves your data
  files in the AnacondaProjects directory untouched. After using
  Anaconda-Clean

delete the folder where the installation previously was. It should be named anaconda3 or anaconda2 etc.,

https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/install/uninstall/

But since you don't have conda, seen by "command not found" deleting the remnant files can be done using apps like EasyFind.


Whats the most efficient way to switch between 2 open windows on OSX ? (OR What am I doing wrong ?) I've recently transitioned to using OSX after using windows/linux for the last 14 years. Few things I like, few things I can't come to terms with. The biggest gripe is active window management on OSX.

Scenario : 2 windows open side by side. Say one of them is a chat. Another is a turn based card game.

Action : Click on a control object of the passive window

In Windows, 2 things happen seamlessly. The window becomes active AND the control gets activated.

In OSX, with the same action, the window becomes active sometimes (depends on which application's window it is). Sometimes it doesn't get activated until you click on that windows titlebar (Happens a lot with the mail app). And then, only after it is activated, I can interact with anything inside that window.

This behaviour pisses me off. This, combined with the fact that there is no window snap available by default. (I installed BTT for this. Works well)
I am ready to unlearn the way I handle windows in Windows if OSX provides a more efficient way of working on 2 applications at the same time. Anybody ?

I have a 15 inch retina macbook pro with OSX 10.10.5

There are ways to enable "focus follows mouse" discussed here:
How can I make focus follow the mouse cursor?, but that might be more than you want...

Otherwise I second MrMojoRisin, get used to cmd+tab or 4 finger swipe (you need BetterTouchTool on Yosemite to bring this last one back).


X11 and Open Motif libraries I'm trying to install a quite old Fortran code requiring xorg and OpenMotif libraries.

Here is part of the install script where the code is checking for these libraries:

    echo -n "Esistono le librerie X11 ? ... "
    (find /usr -name lost+found -prune -name audit -prune -o -name libX11.so > /tmp/___) >& /dev/null
    set trovato=(`cat /tmp/___`)
    rm -f /tmp/___
    if( $#trovato < 1 ) then
    (find /usr -name lost+found -prune -name audit -prune -o -name 'libX11.so*' > /tmp/___) >& /dev/null
    set trovate=(`cat /tmp/___`)
    rm -f /tmp/___
    if( $#trovate < 1 ) then
    echo "ASSURDO! Non appare installato in modo corretto"
    echo "nemmeno il server X11: ERRORE CRITICISSIMO"
    echo "(sei sicuro/a di essere in inittab 5 ?)"
    else
    echo "Appare mancante la libreria  libX11.so  e tuttavia esistono "
    echo "librerie libX11.so.n.m. Eseguire (come root) un link simbolico "
    echo "della libreria opportuna a  libX11.so  e ripetere l'esecuzione "
    echo "del presente script."
    endif
    exit
    endif
    echo  "Trovate "
    echo -n "Esistono le librerie dell'Intrinsic Toolkit ? ... "
    (find /usr -name lost+found -prune -name audit -prune -o -name libXt.so > /tmp/___) >& /dev/null
    set trovato=(`cat /tmp/___`)
    rm -f cat /tmp/___
    if( $#trovato < 1 ) then
    (find /usr -name lost+found -prune -name audit -prune -o -name 'libXt.so*' > /tmp/___) >& /dev/null
    set trovate=(`cat /tmp/___`)
    rm -f cat /tmp/___
    if( $#trovate < 1 ) then
    echo " "
    echo " "
    echo "ASSURDO! Non appare installato in modo corretto"
    echo "nemmeno il server X11: ERRORE CRITICISSIMO"
    echo "(sei sicuro/a di essere in inittab 5 ?)"
    else
    echo "Appare mancante la libreria  libXt.so  e tuttavia esistono "
    echo "librerie libXt.so.n.m. Eseguire (come root) un link simbolico "
    echo "della libreria opportuna a  libXt.so  e ripetere l'esecuzione "
    echo "del presente script."
    endif
    exit
    endif
    echo  "Trovate "
    echo -n "Esistono le librerie di OpenMotif ? ... "
    set MOTIFLIB=""
    (find /usr -name lost+found -prune -name audit -prune -o -name libXm.so > /tmp/___) >& /dev/null
    set trovato=(`cat /tmp/___`)
    rm -f /tmp/___
    if( $#trovato < 1 ) then
    (find /usr -name lost+found -prune -name audit -prune -o -name 'libXm.so*' > /tmp/___) >& /dev/null
    set trovate=(`cat /tmp/___`)
    rm -f /tmp/___
    if( $#trovate < 1 ) then
    echo "No. "
    echo " "
    echo "Non appaiono installate in modo corretto le librerie di OpenMotif:"
    echo " ERRORE CRITICISSIMO: giotto NON FUNZIONA SENZA DI LORO"
    else
    echo "Appare mancante la libreria  libXm.so  e tuttavia esistono "
    echo "librerie libXm.so.n.m. Eseguire (come root) un link simbolico "
    echo "della libreria opportuna a  libXm.so  e ripetere l'esecuzione "
    echo "del presente script."
    endif
    exit
    else
    echo  "Trovate "
    set MOTIFLIB=`dirname $trovato[1]`
    endif
    if($MOTIFLIB == "") exit
    set MOTIFLIB=( -L $MOTIFLIB )

Ok, I know this is in Italian, and I can't even translate it properly as I speak French...

But I hope I can give an idea about the libraries dependencies.

My question is : I'm running Snow Leopard with XCode 4 installed. I have the X11 installed too.

Are the X11 libraries present ? Am I able to provide these libraries without additional installation ?

I'm even more confused about OpenMotif, so any help or suggestion to install (or find) these are welcome.

As noted OSX uses .dylib and not .so for shared libraries.

For motif I would install this as a port via macports and get the openmotif port. Note that macports will install a newer version of X11 from a  as well so this will take time.

then you will need a fortran compiler - note that Apple's gcc does not have Fortran as far as I understand so you will have to install that via macports as well - either a new gcc for possibly gfortran - I don't know the details.


What text editor under OS X can close current window when you press ESC key? I'm looking for a text editor that can close the current file when you press ESC key.

I am interested about this for using with a file manager, I open for edit a file and with ESC I want to return to the file commander.

I tried to override the close window command on XCode but it didn't work, instead of closing the window it does write me an upside down question mark!?

In addition, I tried to assign ESC as shortcut key in System Preferences, but this is not allowed.

Emacs allows you to override shortcuts keys.

Add this line to your .emacs file (located in your home directory) :

(global-set-key (kbd "<escape>") 'save-buffers-kill-emacs)


What are the practical differences between Bash and Zsh? With the news that Catalina will default to Zsh instead of Bash, I'm finding lots of results telling me about the switch, and that it may cause problems with shell scripts, but I'm not familiar enough with Zsh to know what those problems might be.

My shell scripts are really not that complicated, but I've only ever used Bash on macOS and Linux - zero experience with Zsh. Can anyone provide a simple practical comparison, or specific stumbling blocks I will need to know, so that I can start working towards being ready for the new shell when Catalina is released?

First, some important things:

Bash isn't going away. If you're already using bash, nothing will change for you. All that changes is that zsh will be the default login shell for new accounts, and even then, you can select bash instead.
Scripts are not affected. What changes is the shell for interactive use, i.e. the shell in terminals (and also a few other things that use the login shell, such as crontabs). If you have a script in a file with execution permissions, starting with a shebang line such as #!/bin/bash or #!/bin/sh or #!/usr/bin/env bash, it'll keep working exactly as before.
Zsh's syntax is not completely compatible with bash, but it's close. A lot of code will keep working, for example typical aliases and functions. The main differences are in interactive configuration features.

Now, assuming you're considering switching to zsh, which has been a possibility for years, here are the main differences you'll encounter. This is not an exhaustive list!

Main differences for interactive use

Configuration files: bash reads (mainly) .bashrc in non-login interactive shells (but macOS starts a login shell in terminals by default), .profile or .bash_profile in login shells, and .inputrc. Zsh reads (mainly) .zshrc (in all interactive shells) and .zprofile (in login shells). This means that none of your bash customizations will apply: you'll need to port them over. You can't just copy the files because many things will need tweaking.

Key bindings use completely different syntax. Bash uses .inputrc and the bind builtin to bind keys to readline commands. Zsh uses the bindkey builtin to bind keys to zle widgets. Most readline commands have a zsh equivalent, but it isn't always a perfect equivalence.

Speaking of key bindings, if you use Vi(m) as your in-terminal editor but not as your command line mode in the shell, you'll notice zsh defaults to vi editing mode if EDITOR or VISUAL is set to vi or vim. bindkey -e switches to emacs mode.

Prompt: bash sets the prompt (mainly) from PS1 which contains backslash escapes. Zsh sets the prompt mainly from PS1 which contains percent escapes. The functionality of bash's PROMPT_COMMAND is available in zsh via the precmd and preexec hook functions. Zsh has more convenience mechanisms to build fancy prompts including a prompt theme mechanism.

The basic command line history mechanisms (navigation with Up/Down, search with Ctrl+R, history expansion with !! and friends, last argument recall with Alt+. or $_) work in the same way, but there are a lot of differences in the details, too many to list here. You can copy your .bash_history to .zsh_history if you haven't changed a shell option that changes the file format.

Completion: both shells default to a basic completion mode that mostly completes command and file names, and switch to a fancy mode by including bash_completion on bash or by running compinit in zsh. You'll find some commands that bash handles better and some that zsh handles better. Zsh is usually more precise, but sometimes gives up where bash does something that isn't correct but is sensible. To specify possible completions for a command, zsh has three mechanisms:

The “old” completion mechanism with compctl which you can forget about.
The “new” completion mechanism with compadd and lots of functions that begin with underscore and a powerful but complex user configuration mechanism.
An emulation to support bash completion functions which you can enable by running bashcompinit. The emulation isn't 100% perfect but it usually works.

Many of bash's shopt settings have a corresponding setopt in zsh.

Zsh doesn't treat # as a comment start on the command line by default, only in scripts (including .zshrc and such). To enable interactive comments, run setopt interactive_comments.

Main differences for scripting

(and for power users on the command line of course)

In bash, $foo takes the value of foo, splits it at whitespace characters, and for each whitespace-separated part, if it contains wildcard characters and matches an existing file, replaces the pattern by the list of matches. To just get the value of foo, you need "$foo". The same applies to command substitution $(foo). In zsh, $foo is the value of foo and $(foo) is the output of foo minus its final newlines, with two exceptions. If a word becomes empty due to expanding empty unquoted variables, it's removed (e.g. a=; b=; printf "%s\n" one "$a$b" three $a$b five prints one, an empty line, three, five). The result of an unquoted command substitution is split at whitespace but the pieces don't undergo wildcard matching.

Bash arrays are indexed from 0 to (length-1). Zsh arrays are indexed from 1 to length. With a=(one two three), in bash, ${a[1]} is two, but in zsh, it's one. In bash, if you just reference an array variable without braces, you get the first element, e.g. $a is one and $a[1] is one[1]. In zsh, $a expands to the list of non-empty elements, and $a[1] expands to the first element. Similarly, in bash, the length of an array is ${#a}; this also works in zsh but you can write it more simply as $#a. You can make 0-indexing the default with setopt ksh_arrays; this also turns on the requirement to use braces to refer to an array element.

Bash has extra wildcard patterns such as @(foo|bar) to match foo or bar, which are only enabled with shopt -s extglob. In zsh, you can enable these patterns with setopt ksh_glob, but there's also a simpler-to-type native syntax such as (foo|bar), some of which requires setopt extended_glob (do put that in your .zshrc, and it's on by default in completion functions). **/ for recursive directory traversal is always enabled in zsh.

In bash, by default, if a wildcard pattern doesn't match any file, it's left unchanged. In zsh, by default, you'll get an error, which is usually the safest setting. If you want to pass a wildcard parameter to a command, use quotes. You can switch to the bash behavior with setopt no_nomatch. You can make non-matching wildcard patterns expand to an empty list instead with setopt null_glob.

In bash, the right-hand side of a pipeline runs in a subshell. In zsh, it runs in the parent shell, so you can write things like somecommand | read output.

Some nice zsh features

Here are a few nice zsh features that bash doesn't have (at least not without some serious elbow grease). Once again, this is just a selection of the ones I consider the most useful.

Glob qualifiers allow matching files based on metadata such as their time stamp, their size, etc. They also allow tweaking the output. The syntax is rather cryptic, but it's extremely convenient. Here are a few examples:

foo*(.): only regular files matching foo* and symbolic links to regular files, not directories and other special files.
foo*(*.): only executable regular files matching foo*.
foo*(-.): only regular files matching foo*, not symbolic links and other special files.
foo*(-@): only dangling symbolic links matching foo*.
foo*(om): the files matching foo*, sorted by last modification date, most recent first. Note that if you pass this to ls, it'll do its own sorting. This is especially useful in…
foo*(om[1,10]): the 10 most recent files matching foo*, most recent first.
foo*(Lm+1): files matching foo* whose size is at least 1MB.
foo*(N): same as foo*, but if this doesn't match any file, produce an empty list regardless of the setting of the null_glob option (see above).
*(D): match all files including dot files (except . and ..).
foo/bar/*(:t) (using a history modifier): the files in foo/bar, but with only the base name of the file. E.g. if there is a foo/bar/qux.txt, it's expanded as qux.txt.
foo/bar/*(.:r): take regular files under foo/bar and remove the extension. E.g. foo/bar/qux.txt is expanded as foo/bar/qux.
foo*.odt(e\''REPLY=$REPLY:r.pdf'\'): take the list of files matching foo*.odt, and replace .odt by .pdf (regardless of whether the PDF file exists).

Here are a few useful zsh-specific wildcard patterns.

foo*.txt~foobar*: all .txt files whose name starts with foo but not foobar.
image<->.jpg(n): all .jpg files whose base name is image followed by a number, e.g. image3.jpg and image22.jpg but not image-backup.jpg. The glob qualifier (n) causes the files to be listed in numerical order, i.e. image9.jpg comes before image10.jpg (you can make this the default even without -n with setopt numeric_glob_sort).

To mass-rename files, zsh provides a very convenient tool: the zmv function. Suggested for your .zshrc:

autoload zmv
alias zcp='zmv -C' zln='zmv -L'

Example:

zmv '(*).jpeg' '$1.jpg'
zmv '(*)-backup.(*)' 'backups/$1.$2'

Bash has a few ways to apply transformations when taking the value of a variable. Zsh has some of the same and many more.

Zsh has a number of little convenient features to change directories. Turn on setopt auto_cd to change to a directory when you type its name without having to type cd (bash also has this nowadays). You can use the two-argument form to cd to change to a directory whose name is close to the current directory. For example, if you're in /some/where/foo-old/deeply/nested/inside and you want to go to /some/where/foo-new/deeply/nested/inside, just type cd old new.

To assign a value to a variable, you of course write VARIABLE=VALUE. To edit the value of a variable interactively, just run vared VARIABLE.

Final advice

Zsh comes with a configuration interface that supports a few of the most common settings, including canned recipes for things like case-insensitive completion. To (re)run this interface (the first line is not needed if you're using a configuration file that was edited by zsh-newuser-install):

autoload -U zsh-newuser-install
zsh-newuser-install

Out of the box, with no configuration file at all, many of zsh's useful features are disabled for backward compatibility with 1990's versions. zsh-newuser-install suggests some recommended features to turn on.

There are many zsh configuration frameworks on the web (many of them are on Github). They can be a convenient way to get started with some powerful features. The flip side of the coin is they often lock you in doing things the way the author does, so sometimes they'll prevent you from doing things the way you want. Use them at your own risk.

The zsh manual has a lot of information, but it's often written in a way that's terse and hard to follow, and has few examples. Don't hesitate to search for explanations and examples online: if you only use the part of zsh that's easy to understand in the manual, you'll miss out. Two good resources are the zsh-users mailing list and Unix Stack Exchange.
An extensive collection of articles on switching to zsh on the mac can be found on scriptingosx.com and a useful Ruby script to bring your command history with you, can be found on Github.


10.7: managing SMTP (outgoing) server for multiple POP email accounts on the same mail server Folks:

re:   mail.app  5.2 (MacOS 10.7.4), possibly similar for earlier versions

I'm struggling to understand how to establish and maintain multiple simple POP, non-SSL email accounts on the same mail server.  Say, I have two accounts for which the hosting service control panel gives these manual setup summaries:

  account: blue@example.com
  password:  [blue's password]
  outgoing server:  smtp.example.com, on port 98
  incoming server:  pop.example.com, on port 99

  account: green@example.com
  password:  [green's password]
  outgoing server:  smtp.example.com, on port 98
  incoming server:  pop.example.com, on port 99

I want to add these to mail.app.   No problem with establishing and maintaining the incoming account information.  But mail.app uses a non-parallel method for specifying the outgoing server, yes?   It wants you to enter the data for a multiply-used SMTP (outgoing) server once, then assign each parallel account to that server.   For the above accounts, I think success of this process is indicated by the SMTP Server List (as seen in edit-the SMTP-Server-List mode) showing:

          Server Name               In Use By Account
          -------------------               --------------------------------------------------------------------
          ...
          smtp.example.com      blue@example.com, green@example.com
          ...

(Leftmost "Description" column omitted.  The table display will likely be mangled in this posting;  you can possibly see it correctly by copying the above, pasting it into a new document in an editor, and setting a monospaced font.   I think the accounts are listed in order of establishment;  here "green" is the second account entered for this outgoing server.)

So far, so good?

Though the basic information about the outgoing server --the server name and port settings-- is the same for both accounts,  I think one must set --and later, maintain-- the account name and passwords individually for  each account, even though the common server information is the same.  These are not simply copied from the incoming values for the same account,yes?  (I do not recall seeing an email account in which these credentials differ for the incoming and outgoing servers, and I'm fairly sure some client apps automatically use the same for both.)

I cannot seem to find a method in mail.app's UI to set and later reach these unique settings.

Reference:   this thread gives the general method for adding the second account, but is not sufficiently specific, and refers to mail.app on MacOS10.6.

When I add the second outgoing account, selecting the common server from the Outgoing Mail Sever (SMTP):  pull-down gives me the information for the first account.   Am I supposed to over-write that information?  I don't think so -- correct me if I'm wrong.  I think mail.app should present me with empty boxes, indicating I can enter the new account name and password for the second account. But it doesn't.  (Maybe occasionally, it does, but I can't really figure out how this works.)

The same goes for later maintenance.  If the password for the "green" account changes, I need to make that change to both the incoming and outgoing server, (right?) but I don't see a method for persuading mail.app to show me the credentials for "green" so I can update the password for green's outgoing server.

How is done?   Am I missing something incredibly obvious?

Supplemental:  I noticed that I can run Connection Doctor and click on the rectangle of a failing ("red light") SMTP account to bring up the Edit SMTP window. Cool!  That would be a reasonable, though obscure, way of accessing the SMTP credentials following a password change for that account.   But the account selected in that window seems to have nothing at all to do with the failing server.  It looks like mail.app highlights a random SMTP account in the Edit SMTP window.

TIA

Update: I've now demonstrated this problem is broken navigation in mail.app.  That's sufficiently different to close the above question and start a new thread, which I've done:  10.7 mail.app preferences-->accounts navigation broken; how to fix?


What hardware needed to connect 2 monitors + peripherals to 2018 MBP via a single cable? I am trying to connect the following to my 2018 MacBook Pro (15 inch):

2 monitors (Dell U2715H, 2560 x 1440)
2 USB-3 peripherals (mouse, keyboard)

... but I would like to connect only one cable to my MacBook so that I may effortlessly dock / undock the laptop from my workstation without having to unplug a bunch of wires. Or, some sort of physical dock the laptop slides in (ala the the Henge Dock, however I don't think it support 2 monitors / the 2018 MBP?)

Can anyone give me some hardware tips/advice to connect the above peripherals to my MacBook with a single dock or cable?

My employer just provided me with a 2017 MacBook Pro with the touchbar. I have a ThinkPad with 3 external monitors attached to it via a program called Ultramon. I also had a Logitech Keyboard and Mouse attached using the Logitech unifying receiver (wireless USB plug).

I requested the 15" MacBook Pro specifically because I wanted to be able to support up to 4 external monitors. I purchased a new Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse that will connect either Smart Bluetooth 4.0 or using the Logitech Unifying Receiver (USB 2.0). I purchased the new keyboard and mouse because they will support up to 3 separate devices simultaneously.

As I'm moving applications and files from the Windows ThinkPad to my MacBook I'm running both and just push the 1 or 2 button on the keyboard and mouse depending on which system I want to use the keyboard and mouse on.

I've moved the ACER S200HQL 19.5 (1600 x 900) Radeon Pro 560 x 4096 MQ graphics display the external monitors over using an Apple USB-C to VGA Multiport Adapter USB-C dongle which has USB-C, VGA and USB-3 connectors on it. I plugged the USB-C connector into the MacBook and the USB-C connector of the power cord in the the USB-C outlet on the adapter. I plugged the ACER S200HQL VGA plug in the the VGA connector on the adapter.

It was all very easy to do. I still have an available USB 3.0 port to plug in a USB HUB or other USB 2.0 or 3.0 device. The part number for the Apple USB-C to VGA Multiport Adapter is Model A1620.

I still have to move the 2 DELL 24" monitors but I have 1 very large application on the Windows ThinkPad that has a lot of corrupt files in it so I'm moving that app's files manually. Once that is done I'll move the other Monitors. It was extremely simple to do.

Like you I want to be able to detach one cable and take the MacBook with me. I was looking at the Henge dock and may still purchase one. Here is a link I found when I decided to move the first monitor:
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-multiple-displays-with-your-mac-mchl7c7ebe08/10.13/mac/10.13.5

Additional Comments: I already have a dock I purchased at Best Buy. It's not Henge. I plan to install it this weekend. Then I can answer your question completely. Apple confirmed that what I want to do can be done.


Cannot share my internet connection via Wi-Fi from my Mac I am using El Capitan 10.11.2.

I go to sharing and select 'Display Ethernet' in the Share your connection from menu. The display ethernet port is the port with the ethernet cable leading to the internet.

I check 'Wi-Fi' from the To computers using: list and turn on Internet Sharing.

From another device, I do see the Wi-Fi network created by my Mac show up and I can try to connect to it, but the connection never succeeds.

I think some preference file somewhere has become corrupt because I can do this same thing using another machine without any trouble and I wanted to avoid wiping the problematic machine and starting from scratch if I can avoid it.

The only clue I have are messages in the console log:

  1/7/16 3:56:11.733 PM bootpd[695]: DHCP DISCOVER [bridge100]: 1,c8:6f:1d:15:8c:80 (ericss-iPhone)

I was desperate to get internet sharing going on my mac as, at the moment, it is my only router. It was going fine and suddenly stopped, and I hadn't updated recently. I ran the WirelessDiagnostic tool after doing a bit of searching, and that made the internet shareable again. It's an app--not a setting; I mention this because I wasted a lot of time trying to find it in System Preferences.


Disable Flash in Safari for all but YouTube I dislike Flash intensely (from a security standpoint, plus constantly nagging me to install security updates) and would love to uninstall it in its entirety but unfortunately YouTube requires it. Is there an easy way to disable flash in Safari 6.0.2 for all sites except *.YouTube.com ?

I'm only concerned about Safari, not so much Firefox and Chrome which I only use on rare occasions.

Running Mac OS X 10.8.2

Thanks.

You should give "Click to Flash" a try. I believe that it does pretty much everything you are asking for.

This plugin disables flash in Safari by default, but to load some flash content all you have to do is click on the "Flash" button in a video and the video will load and play as usual. You can even whitelist sites in "Click to Flash" so you won't have to click on flash videos when browsing YouTube.

I have not been installing Flash at all on any of my machines. I use Chrome for YouTube, since it has a sandboxed version of Flash.

EDIT: Almost as soon as I hit Post on my answer I noticed that "Click to Flash has been superseded by "Click to Plugin" which appears to do much more. I haven't tried this, but it looks like the only choice for Safari 5.1 and later.


You need install the older Java SE 6 runtime environment can open the muCommander I installed the muCommander in my Mac, but can not open it.

aircraftdeMacBook-Pro:~ ldl$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_121"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_121-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.121-b13, mixed mode)

What is the best solution for it?

Install the current version of muCommander.


Does the Sport Loop have two lengths like the Sport Bands? All of the individual Sport Bands come with both a small-to-medium and medium-to-large adjustable band. On the other hand, the Woven Nylon band does not and clearly says so on its Apple Store page:

  Band Size

  One Size

  Fits 125-195mm wrists.

38mm, not 42mm

The Sport Loop is less clear on whether it has two adjustable bands or one. Does anyone know whether is does?

The Sport Loop is just a single band with no parts to be replaced/exchanged.

It works the same as the milanese loop.


How can I save a document from Pages in RTF format? I only found descriptions were you use the export function of Pages. But there is no RTF option anymore. So is it possible to export a Pages file to RTF?

One work around you may find helpful uses the previous version of Pages which should still be in your Applications folder unless you removed it.

Open your document in Pages version 5.
Next, use the Export dialog to export to Pages '09
Then, open the document with Pages '09
Now, export to RTF

Bit of a pain, but not too much effort.


Why is the input level of the external mic so low? I try to use an external mic to make some audio recordings. But the level of the input is really low ! In fact, the internal build-in mac has a better input level than the external one that is closer to my mouth !

Did I miss something about audio recording ?

Microphones are hooked up to a pre-amp to boost the signal before recording. The internal microphone on the Mac probably has a built-in pre-amp while the external jack doesn't. Typically external mikes are connected to a sound or mixing board before hooking up to a computer.


Encrypting using FileVault on an Apple original SSD - any likely problems? There are plenty of FileVault 2 and SSD (Solid State Disk) questions on many forums, and a few already on this site, but this is more specific and I cannot find it even asked - let alone answered:

If the disk is a factory fitted, original Apple SSD (in a Macbook in my case) is there any possible down-side to encrypting the disk with FileVault (on Mavericks so I'm assuming version 2!)?

Sure there may be a fractional (unnoticeable) performance overhead but apart from that, are there any disk wear-levelling issues (due to problems with TRIM perhaps)?

Ideally some documentation from Apple would be the best confirmation... if they have published any that I haven't found.

I recently did some research on this topic because I want to install an SSD in my Macbook as well.
In my case it would not be a factory fitted one but I doubt that there are big technical differences between original Apple SSDs and custom ones, apart from TRIM being available by default vs. enabling TRIM on my own with a custom SSD.

The most satisfying answer I could find was this discussion in the Apple Support Community.
The interesting posting basically says that a user tested random sectors on a FileVault2 encrypted SSD and found some that were indeed empty (all zero). In a similar scenario on a classic magnetic HDD no empty sectors were found.
The user concludes that this means that unused sectors remain empty on SSDs and that TRIM will correctly work with FileVault2.

The conclusion seems reasonable to my understanding and after installing my SSD I personally will use FileVault2 in good conscience.
However, this is not an official answer from Apple and therefore should be treated with care.


Connect one device with Bluetooth I have some wireless earphones which I want to use with my Macbook Pro, iPad and iPhone. Every time I want to switch the Apple device to connect to, however, I need to turn off Bluetooth to the previously used device. Is there any way to avoid this?

If you have airpods apple just started supported automatic device switching with the newest software versions (fall 2020). Here is a link to read more about it,
https://www.imore.com/airpods-automatic-device-switching
If you don't have airpods and new devices then you may be out of luck for now. Some other bluetooth devices use a button to switch between paired profiles but most don't in my experience. If the devices are all in different rooms it would be one thing but if you have them all on your desk then it is a harder problem. I will say you can disconnect from a bluetooth device without turning off bluetooth but often just as cumbersome a task.


Terminal says permission denied My external usb wont open or i cant do anything on it. I have tried to restore it using disk utility but i doesnt work either. PLease help me

If I see your screen correctly, it's a syntax error. Your problem was you had the DMG file as the 'command'.

If disk2 is your destination (the 4.2gb disk), then the following should work for you.

First, make sure your command prompt has nothing typed by you in it, either press Ctrl-C or Return a couple times then:

sudo dd if=/Users/rabika_1/Desktop/USB\ disk\ 4\ gb.dmg of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m conv=sync

That will erase disk2 (rdisk2) and replace it with whatever "USB disk 4 gb.dmg" is.

You will need to enter your administrator or root password when it prompts you for it. You won't see any feedback until it's done, you'll be at another command prompt.

After that you should be set.

Now there is another way of doing this where you can see the progress, if you want, then use this command instead of the prior one:

sudo dd if=/Users/rabika_1/Desktop/USB\ disk\ 4\ gb.dmg of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m status=progress conv=sync


Where to find the Yosemite traffic light icons? Where would I be able to acquire Yosemite's new "traffic light" icons? I have found the SystemAppearance.car file, but I do not know how to decompress .car files, or if the file even contains the icons.

.car file is special BOM file and the file specification is un-document by apple, this is simulator with Assert.car in iOS.

I found an open source project ThemeEngine
PS: I don't test it anymore.


Is the any way to find my stolen Mac? Two weeks ago, my 13" Macbook Pro was stolen. Is there any way to locate my laptop if and when the thief accesses the internet?

Is there any application or a website similar to this that can give me an alert message if I register my Macbook pro ID number?

It depends. If your machine was password protected, you might be out of luck. If not, there are a few possibilities.

If you have SSH enabled that might be an option. Also, if you had any remote access programs installed, like TeamViewer or LogMeIn, you have a chance to find it, assuming it's connected to the internet.

Regardless, I suggest contacting Apple and telling them the serial number of the machine and that it was stolen. If it's brought in for service, you might be able to get it back. (Although Apple has no official policy on this, it doesn't hurt to tell them. I contacted them when my iMac was stolen. Like I said, not much help, but it's better than nothing.)

PS: Check this out. You might find it inspiring at least.


Do I have to wait days for my library to upload again after accidentally logging out of iTunes? About 15hrs ago I accidentally logged out of iTunes on our main Mac. I literally realized my error straight away, so logged back in immediately and didn't think anything of it.

I then redeemed two gift cards and all was good with the world, until I went to quit iTunes. I got a warning saying that iTunes was uploading to the music library and asking me if I really wanted to quit? I cancelled and let it continue because I was going to bed anyway.

But today my internet has been painfully slow at times and just now I wanted to chill out and watch Netflix. It was having a hard time connecting and buffering and then I remembered iTunes. So I went back to my Mac to quit it and got the same error! I cancelled it again and then clicked on the little activity icon to see the following:

At this rate I'll be waiting for days for all this to upload again.

I don't understand what's happening here? We have two Macs, two iPads and two iPhones. Does this mean accessing my music library has been compromised on all devices while I'm waiting for everything to upload again?

Surely if we're still logged in on all our other devices iTunes on the main Mac  doesn't need to do all this again? I was only logged out for about half a minute.

My questions:

Do I need to wait for iTunes to finish?
If I quit iTunes,  what does that mean for the other devices in the meantime?
If I quit iTunes and then launch it again, will it start uploading from the beginning again or will it continue form where it was?

It all depends on what service you have, be it iTunes Match or Apple Music. This looks more like you have iTunes Match therefore all of you music is accessible from any device.  This would mean that Apple matches what's in your library with what apple already has in it's vast library and any music in your library that Apple doesn't have they upload to the cloud with some exceptions.  If this is the case then I don't think iTunes is actually uploading because you've already got everything in the cloud. I think it's just matching things up.

  Do I need to wait for iTunes to finish?

    If I quit iTunes, what does that mean for the other devices in the meantime?

      If I quit iTunes and then launch it again, will it start uploading from the beginning again or will it continue form where it was?

No need to wait for iTunes to finish. Your music should be accessible from your devices if you've already had the service.

Same goes for if you quit iTunes.

iTunes will continue from where it left off when you quit it. So don't feel like you can't shut it down or turn off the computer.


my wife just got an iphone 3GS. we both have apple IDs, but her iTunes on her iPhone shows my username my wife just got an iphone 3GS. we both have apple IDs and use a macbook together, but her iTunes on her iPhone shows my username and the credit amount that I have. When buying a song or an app, my user account info pops up. How can we have her username and log in information appear on her iPhone?

Are you using the same user on your MacBook? If so, you're probably using the same iTunes too, which probably is set to your Apple ID. To use a different ID, you need to switch accounts every time you sync the iPhones. To sign out, choose "Store" > "Sign out" in the iTunes menu bar.

Thankfully, this whole hassle will be over when iOS 5 is released.


How do I show the hard drive on the desktop My hard drive used to display on the desktop. It's gone missing, how do I get it back?

Go into Finder, then go to the menu bar and click Finder -> Preferences. Select the "General" tab and check "Hard disks" under "Show these items on the desktop":


How to permanently deny accessibility permission? App keeps asking! Some apps ask for accessibility permission every time they start. It's annoying to have to click "deny" every time.

How can we make this choice permanent?

There doesn't appear to be any way to do this currently. This would have to be something supported by the app. An app can request accessibility permissions whenever it wants.


How do I call myself using Facetime? I have Facetime on my MacBook and Facetime on my iPad.  Of course I also have one Apple ID account.  Sometimes the family uses the iPad while I'm away.  I'd like to be able to call "myself", that is my iPad from my MacBook.  How do I do this?

The short answer - you can either call a phone number (iPhone + FaceTime) or an AppleID (iPod/Mac/iPad + FaceTime) and you can't call another device with the same number.

To call back to your mac (or any other AppleID device) - you'll have to make a second account with a different Apple ID. Similarly - there's no easy way to get the phone number into another device since that gets authenticated over SMS in the background and not user/password for AppleID.

If you are calling from an iPhone - you can call your AppleID devices (they all ring and any one can pick up), but for AppleID based calls - you need to call a different AppleID unless Apple ever changes the current software.

Last clarification - AppleID is just a string but most people use an email address since that is more likely to be unique to one person.


How to find the iOS version of a reset iPhone I have an old iPhone I want to sell and I don't remember which iOS version is installed on it.

I am currently presented with the "Hello" setup screen. So I can't determine which iOS version is installed.

Is there a way to find out which version is installed?

If on a background is linen texture: iOS 4, 5, 6, but it on the white background: iOS 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
You need to activate it to see the version.