How can I use Availability Panel in Calendar? There is an item named Availability Panel in Calendar:

When I open it this message is shown:

  This calendar does not support availability.

What kinds of calendars are supported for calculating availability? I have personal calendars in Calendar with recurring events that none of them work with Availability Panel.

On BusyMac there is an article about that. The Availability Panel is supported by e.g.:

Exchange and Office 365
Fruux
OS X Calendar Server
Kerio
Zimbra

and not supported by e.g. iCloud, Google Calendar, Yahoo, Communigate, Beehive.


How can I truncate filenames after X number of characters using Automator or AppleScript? I have IFTTT sending several new desktop wallpapers per day from Reddit to Dropbox. These wallpapers arrive often with very long filenames. I need a way to automatically shorten their names (without renaming to date and time) when they're downloaded to my Mac by Dropbox.

I want the action to run automatically, so it can't require me to select Finder items or supply the number of characters to keep
It needs to run by itself as a folder action or AS via Hazel.

Could someone please give me an Automator folder action or AppleScript I can put in Hazel to truncate the filenames after X number of characters?

Do we have to be concerned about the names being the same? If not, this should work for you as an embedded AppleScript in Hazel:

tell application "Finder"
    set original_name to name of theFile
    set short_name to characters 1 thru 10 of original_name as string
    set name of theFile to (short_name & ".png" as string)
end tell

You'd set Hazel to run this rule on "any file" then "Run AppleScript" (embedded).

You can change the number of characters easily. I picked ten. Do what works for you. Also, I guessed that your images are ".png" files-- you would change that to ".jpg" or whatever.

I hope this helps you!


Microsoft Office 2011 interface blurred on Retina display I am using Microsoft Office 2011 Suite on my MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

The user interfaces are super blur as shown below.

Am I missing out some patches or paddings or MS Office does not support retina display at all?

According to Microsoft, they've supported Retina Display since version 14.2.4. If you are using an older version of Office 2011, then you should upgrade.


How to get rid of underlines under URLs in Textmate 2? I decided to try Textmate 2 alpha, since I used to use TM 1.5 for years.

I got it up and running, but no matter which theme I use, all URLs (as in href and src) are underlined in my HTML documents, which is very distracting to me.

I can't find any setting causing this... but how do I set this to off?

I believe you can edit your bundles and remove the Hyperlink Helper bundle. Pretty sure that's what I did.


Download and view podcast If I download a free podcast onto my iTunes and onto my iPhone does it still use data from my contract?

Downloading podcasts to iTunes on your computer and syncing it from there to your iPhone (via cable or WiFi) does not require a 3G/LTE connection, so you should be fine.


Is it possible to create a user with all admin rights *except* the ability to interrupt a particular process and access a particular folder? On Windows, it's not really doable. It is possible on linux with mandatory access control (for example). So you can have a web filter running, but the sudoer wouldn't be able to interfere with it (at least not without lots of effort, potentially rendering the system inoperable). At the same time a sudoer can modify virtually everything else.

What options would I have on OS X to do this?

I can’t see any way you could accomplish this without rewriting the OS and security models.

The accessing a specific folder will be trivially handled when you encrypt the contents of a folder or file and don’t share the key to unlock the data on APFS. Since you can’t keep the root user from reading a file or folder, and admin user can become root (that’s the definition of Admin user on macOS) therefore anything one admin user can set, another can undo.
The prevention of the ability of any admin user to send SIGKILL (or any other interesting IPC commands) to any running process will be problematic technically without modifying the OS itself.

The best you can do is try to rely on Gatekeeper and preventing sudo from your admin user per this very excellent question:

Block Specific Apps on macOS

I can’t see a case where you wouldn’t just make the user not an admin and carve out a way they can do whatever admin things you want them to do by granting additional access and just not granting admin status to the users you don’t trust.


Copy paste string to terminal leave a dangling empty area appearance If you see the bell on the title, it means when I deleting string it was reaching $ sign and give a bell warns. But the strange thing is my cursor is not completely clear the string, it is still leaving my URL left over there. I already checked PS1 on my bash profile and it looks like this

export PS1='\e[1;32m\W \t \e[1;31m\u \e[1;32m$ \e[0m'

But when I resize the window of the terminal, suddenly it turns back normal.

You need to enclose the non-printable characters properly in \[...\] block. This ensures that correct number of characters are counted while generating the prompt.

I had the same problem and here's the PS1 that gave no issues so far :

\[\e[30;47m\]$(parse_git_branch)\W\[\e[30;47m\]$\[\e[0m\]

That is my understanding of what I read on SO:

  You should add \[ before any starting ANSI code and add \] after
  any ending ones.   Example:   in regular usage:  \033[32mThis is in
  green\033[0m   for PS0/1/2/4:     \[\033[32m\]This is in
  green\[\033[m\]

  \[ is for start of a sequence of non-printable characters   \]
  is for end of a sequence of non-printable characters

  Tip: for memorize it you can first add \[\] and then put your ANSI
  code between them:
    - \[start-ANSI-code\]
    - \[end-ANSI-code\]

https://stackoverflow.com/q/5947742/28938235#28938235

https://stackoverflow.com/q/17432993/

https://stackoverflow.com/q/20697195/20698168#20698168


USB C to Ethernet on iPad Air 4 in hotel The WiFi in my hotel room has been dropping video calls so I got a USB C to ethernet adapter and plugged it into my iPad Air 4 running the latest iOS. Ethernet settings appear in the settings app and show an IP address but nothing will connect to the internet.
Apple Support was at a loss so I called the hotel’s internet provider and the agent said she could authorize my device for internet. Great. But she needed a specific address from my iPad. She said it’s a USB key. I have no idea what this means or where to find it in iOS.
Any ideas?

You are getting good advice and the hotel probably needs the hardware media access control address which is like a serial number on the adapter. If you can’t find that out from a computer, manufacturer support, the labeling on the part or the box, ask if you can use a web browser to navigate to http://captive.apple.com to register.
You can also ask them if setting the DHCP client ID or address manually works. You can’t discover the ethernet MAC address from iOS 14 (afaik) - here is what you can see and control in the settings app if you tap Ethernet.

For WiFi and Bluetooth you can see these addresses on iPhone and iPad  (like 16:00:DD:EE:FF:78 ) and even specify a private one different than the factory address, but this doesn’t apply to ethernet adapters currently.


How can I relocate an iTunes library from a Time Machine backup? I have used Setup Assistant from my last Time Capsule backup on my old iMac to start my new iMac. The new iMac has a 256 GB SSD and a 2 TB HDD. The old iMac had a nearly full 1 TB HDD.

This means when I used Setup Assistant I had to exclude from the list of things to copy, all of my Music and Movies folders as they wouldn't fit on the SSD.

I have now been able to pull the Music/Movies off the old Time Machine backup and put them on the HDD, and all the system/app files are on the SSD. So that's all good up to now.

BUT, all the guides I read about relocating iTunes from one HDD to another start with the library being in ~/Music and doing a 'consolidate'. In my case it isn't (and can't be due to space constraints) in ~/Music to start with. In fact, it's starting in the place I want it to be, HDD/Music

So my question is, how do I tell iTunes the library is now on the HDD, not in the default ~/Music location?

If I do the relocate in the iTunes Preferences > Advanced panel to the new location and then consolidate, I'm worried it'll overwrite the music that is already there, with the empty library in ~/Music.

The preference in iTunes tells it where to read and write your files. It will not move the existing music library. You should set this to your HDD/Music, and you're done. Consolidate will then pick up the files you have left elsewhere (e.g. the now unblessed ~/Music) and copy them over for you.


iCloud issues on my new iPhone So I recently lost an iPhone 6s Plus, and ordered a new iPhone 7 plus through the insurance, once the 7 arrived, I restored it via iTunes from a previous backup, now here's the issue. It is logged into my current Apple ID and iCloud accounts, and it is asking me to sign into the accounts to confirm, but they have a two way authentication that sends a 6 digit code to your main device, so essentially it should be getting sent to the new 7, but I receive no message

The first piece of the puzzle for you is to get your list of trusted devices and trusted phone numbers updated.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915

Be aware there is an older two-step process and a newer two-factor process so I usually print out the article and keep notes when helping someone so we don’t go down the wrong path for the other process.

The FAQ at the bottom of the article might cover your exact situation, so start there.


Recall windows to the current space Is there a way to recall an app to the current space?

This is possible by turning Spaces off, but that recalls all apps. I just want one.

Sometimes a Safari URL gets opened, and since there is a Safari window open on some desktops somewhere, there it goes. It takes a few minutes to find where the link opened. If I could just recall the browser to the current space, it would be nice.

I don't know how to fetch that window to the current space, but if you switch to the appropriate space where that window is located, you can click on the window title and while holding down the mouse button, press control + 1 to return that window the first space (or hold down control + whatever number space you want to drag it to).


Open Directory and "Local" Logins In the Windows server world, when you connect a computer to a Domain, you have the option of logging into the computer locally if there are local accounts.

Consider this scenario:
I have a Mac with a local admin username called "localusername." I then set up the Mac to use the local Open Directory Master for logins. I then want to login to the Mac as "localusername."

Is that possible?

Here's a second scenario:
I have a Mac with a local admin username called "spandex." I then set up the Mac to use the local Open Directory Master for logins. I then set up an Open Directory user with the username "spandex." I then want to login to the Mac as the LOCAL instance of "spandex."

Is that possible?

Thanks to everyone!

Are both scenarios possible? Yes, the local node doesn't go away after domain binding. The order in which the Mac looks at bound directory nodes for user accounts is shown graphically in Directory Utility, which can be found in /System/Library/CoreServices as of 10.6+.  You'll also notice that even if you set OD to be searched before the default/local node, if the directory is not available(or not cached) you'll login to the local spandex instead of OD's.


Finder can't recognize USB drive When I put in a USB drive, VMWare asked me if I want to connect it to Mac or Windows, and the USB drive shows up in Disk Utility, so I can confirm that the USB is not broken and USB port is also working.
But I can never find the USB drive in Finder.
In Preferences, I checked everything so external drive can be shown in Finder.
What's wrong with this?

(I use MacBook pro 15" Late 2011, OS X Mavericks)

You could try finding the drive using Terminal. If you're not hip to Terminal commands, the way to access your USB via the command-line is

Open up Terminal, and enter the following commands (hit return at the end to execute):

cd /

This will take you to the highest level folder on your computer's hard drive. Then, type:

ls

This will list everything there. You should see an entry there called Volumes. Now go into the directory and list its contents:

cd Volumes
ls

The USB's name should be listed, since you said DiskUtility sees it.

From there, you can browse the stuff in your USB, and use open [filename] to open things.

Otherwise, you might want to copy everything off of the drive and reformat it. That fixes most problems.


Sharing a provisioning profile among team members under a non-company subscription Let's say there are two iOS developers using 4 computers in total, working on the same project. Because code signing information in the Xcode project file gets checked in to the source repo, and because they can't share the same provisioning profile, it becomes a headache for obvious reasons.

I know it's possible to use your own certs and prov. profiles on multiple computers, but is there a way to share at least the prov. profile (for development) between individuals without a company subscription?

Thanks.

Provisioning Profiles can be shared without problems between developers. For them to be valid and usable, though, having both Public and Private keys is needed.

The Public key is stored in the Certificate whilst the Private has to be exported from the certificate's creator Keychain App.


What OS X app can I use for wireframing? I'm looking for something to replace Visio on a Mac.  I am getting tired of using VMware because it's too slow on my computer and was wondering if there's anything out there I can use to wireframe apps specific to Macs.

If money isn't an issue, or one that you can wrestle with, then I don't think there is really any better tool for this than OmniGraffle by the Omni Group. It doesn't come with interface elements by default, but there is a freely-available extensive library of options on their site Graffletopia.


recovering erased hard drive with Testdisk Recently I have accidently erased my harddrive with all my old mac files on it, and I have been trying desperatley to get it back.

I have tried EaseUS recovery program and it has found my files (thank heaven!) but it asks to pay to recover these files.

After looking through and through, I've found testdisk, and followed the instructions to get an image copy of my hard drive. It had a similar size, which I believe is my files!

Buut this is the problem. It's compressed as a .dd file, and after a little research it seems to be an old UNIX compression file.

Is there any way to open this file to get my lovely stuff back?

An image copy (what you did with testdisk) is a block-level clone of your drive, not a file copy. it includes the directory, which does not include any of your files.

EaseUS, Data Rescue and similar programs can usually recover files from a formatted drive. Yes, they cost money so get out your credit card. Some have a preview mode that can recover a small number of files per scan, basically to prove it's worth investing in.

EaseUS costs $90, you apparently don't think your data is worth that much. Decent external drives cost about $200, a backup would have eliminated the headache you are going through. And there's more to come, as recovered files typically don't have the original filenames.

Also note that if you are talking about the disk drive in the computer you are currently using, the chances of recovering anything go down every minute you continue to use the computer.


What does the 'lock' checkbox on the 'Get Info' - 'General' - screen do? What exactly this lock checkbox does and how it differs from the lock icon at the bottom right of the "Get info" tab.

PS: Diff. questions from - What does the lock icon on the 'Get Info' screen do?

This checkbox provides a means for the user to lock the item (i.e. a file or folder). Once locked, it can’t be changed or deleted.

Notes:

When I say it can’t be deleted, what I actually mean is that if you try to delete it you’ll get a prompt alerting you to the fact it’s locked. However, this prompt does give you the option of moving it to the Trash anyway.
Locking a file does not prevent someone from opening/viewing the file. In other words, locking does not password protect it.
To unlock an item, just go back into its Get Info screen and deselect the Locked checkbox.


Running LG UltraFine 5k with additional low DPI screens I have the following hardware:

2018 MacBook Pro 13''
LG UltraFine 5k
2 x ThinkVision 1920x1200

Ideally, I would like to connect these 3 screens to my MacBook Pro.

I connected the LG UltraFine 5k on one side of the MacBook Pro, and both ThinkVision screens on the other side.

Currently, I only manage to get a most 2 of the screens running.

Is this a hardware limitation? Or is there a way to get the 3 screens at once.

As mentioned by in the 2018 MacBook Pro 13-inch spec, this is not possible. It supports at maximum of 2 external screens:

Video Support
Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and:

One display with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors
Up to two displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz at millions of colors
Up to two displays with 3840-by-2160 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors


I don't want to lose my data on my iPhone, can someone help? I got an iPhone 4S not too long ago, maybe a month or so. I already have it set up and I bought all of my music on iTunes. I am getting a MacBook Pro soon, and I want to load the music I have on my phone onto the MacBook without deleting all of my data on my phone. Is this possible? It would be really helpful.

Just open iTunes, sign into the store, and you can download purchases directly from the store from your new Mac. No need to plug the phone into the computer and no risk of erasing your phone.


Why do Apple bloggers use Skype or Google Hangouts instead of iChat for video podcasts? I enjoy a few "talking heads" type of video podcasts by Apple bloggers. How come they don't use iChat? Doesn't iChat have group video conferencing or are there technical (as opposed to social) reasons to prefer skype over iChat for producing a video podcast?

Awareness

Many people know what Skype is — not many know about iChat in comparison. As soon as someone says 'video conference' the immediate response by many is 'Skype!'
Familiarity

Many of the older video podcasts use Skype because that's what they started with. Familiarity is very important with people that make video podcasts for a living. They see no reason to switch because Skype works well for them.
Plugins

There are a number of plugins made for Skype for recording the call, etc. This means that for those that use Skype they'd have no reason to switch to iChat since their favourite plugin isn't available that works with the rest of their equipment.
Livestreaming

Many video podcasts use Google Hangouts because of its ease of use for livestreaming it as well. Google Hangouts can be livestreamed with practically no preparation or equipment and then immediately made available on YouTube after, which is perfect for many.
Number of People

Google Hangouts can hold many more people than iChat/Skype, which makes it perfect for large events.


ios push practicaly equals frequent requests to the servers? How iMessage push works? I would like make sure, how push in iOS works. Is it just about frequent requests to the servers?

Second question is how iMessage works? It is free of cost, works over the Internet (using the data transfer), but it is also based on frequent requests to some server or it is somehow classical GSM BTS backed?

About Push Notifications

As its name suggests, Apple Push Notification service (APNs) uses a push design to deliver notifications to devices and computers. A push design differs from its opposite, a pull design, in that the recipient of the notification passively listens for updates rather than actively polling for them. A push design makes possible a wide and timely dissemination of information with few of the scalability problems inherent with pull designs. APNs uses a persistent IP connection for implementing push notifications.

iMessage uses the same protocol as APNs (source), so it is pushed from the server, and does not use GSM.


How to control MacBook volume from an iPhone? Is there a way to control the volume of a MacBook using an iOS device?

Ideally I would like to rely on the built-in functionality present in macOS and iOS, but if that's not an option, then I would like to know which workarounds exist.

I am aware that it is possible to enable Screen Sharing in macOS (System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing), and then use a VNC client on iOS in order to access the Mac's screen and scroll the volume slider, but this is not very convenient.

Another option I've discovered is to enable the SSH server on macOS (System Preferences > Sharing > Remote Login), connect from iOS with an SSH client and run something like osascript -e "set Volume 10".

These options are unnecessarily clunky and I am assuming there might be some built-in option to do this but I couldn't find it so far.

(Ideally, I would also like to have the possibility to play/pause video and audio playback but since that's player-dependent I'm not expecting much in this sense).

There is an app called Remote Control For Mac - Lite. There is a free version that allows volume control.

I am not affiliated with the software.


Changed Apple ID email sign in, now can't sign in my daughter has an iPhone 6s, running on iOS 9.3.5, for over 6 months. She had another iPhone, 4s, that she no longer uses, and that we initially set up all her Apple info with. She hadn't setup her email on her new phone, as she didn't use the associated email address regularly anymore. (It was an old email she set up when younger that she didn't care for the name). It's with this email address her iTunes and App Store was tied to. She set up a new email a few months back, with a less cutesy name (now that she's older) and this was the one she wanted to use for her 6s. She wanted to use the original email as her secondary and switch everything to her current email address.

She is not on iCloud.

I went to the apple site, and saw the options to switch your Apple ID  to a different email, and the other option after setting up that, to then switch her Apple ID login to her newer email. All went well, as we received the verified codes sent to her current email (accessed by laptop), to set this all up. It seemed all very seamless. It verified her new email address was the ID and to be used in place of the older email address.

However, moments later, when going to App Store, the older email address was still there. We shut those windows, and restarted phone, but older email address remained. We signed out of the older email address, and signed in with new one. We got an error message. We then said let's see if older one worked, it does not either (of course, we knew this, we got verification it was switched to new email).

So now she can't set up email. And she's afraid she will lose all her games on her phone, all the progress she's made on her different apps, she's afraid she will lose her notes that were associated with the older email address, the one she wanted to switch to secondary, but still use on occasion. She is afraid all her progress with Game Centre will be lost. The games are still usable, but it asks her to sign in, and she skips that step now, because she can't sign in.

We followed the instructions. I keep going over what we did, and we did the correct steps.

What went wrong? Will she lose all her information? Can any one shed some light on this for us?

Thank you in advance!

My suggestion is to sign out of iTunes & App Stores and try to log in using the new email.  If you go to the App Store after that and her purchases are still there then you are good to go.

Settings > AppleId > Sign out

If when you attempt to login with the new email it asks you to fill out additional information then her new email is most likely a new apple id and you will not be able to use that email in the app store or iTunes and have access to what she previously purchased.

If it signs in and you have access to all her previous purchases then you are good to go.  If not then sign out again and log back in with the old apple id.

Keep in mind there are many places that you will need to change you apple id if you want to completely switch.  All are accessible in settings.  Examples are:

iCloud
iTunes & App Store
Mail

I have been through several different hells regarding my apple id.  The unfortunate best advice is not to try to change your apple id to an icloud.com or me.com address.  I have two that I manage now.  I don't like it and apple is unable to fix it which I think is ridiculous.

My best advice for if she wants to change her apple id to something less cute is to start from scratch.

Create a non-apple related email address using your preferred service that is less cute (I used gmail)
Login to https://appleid.apple.com with the old cute email
In the Account section, there is an edit link
This will allow you to change the apple id email to the new email address
Perform the log out steps from above and sign back in to each of them with the new email address.


message: drag dmg file to applications folder keeps repeating I have downloaded stellarphoenixmacdatarecovery.dmg file. I dragged the file from downloads folder to applications folder. I double click on the file in the applications folder and I get a message: 'drag stellarphoenixmacdatarecovery.dmg to applications folder'. When I double click on the dmg file, I expect it to install, but the message continuously repeats itself. Can someone help me with installing the dmg file?

Double-click the dmg file. A new window should open or it is already open. Access it with the Finder (either by the sidebar or the desktop) if it is already open but somehow hidden:

Now use the mouse pointer and drag the item named StellarPhoenixMacDataRecovery to the Applications folder link like indicated by the big grey arrow/the explanation above.

Open the file StellarPhoenixMacDataRecovery in your Applications folder. If you have been successful starting the application, unmount the image and delete the dmg file.


Restoring an 10.9 TM backup onto an iMac running 10.6.8 My original hard drive has failed. Would not go beyond grey screen.

It is in course of being repaired with a new h.d. The Apple tech said the machine would be returned to me with mac o/s 10.6.8 installed (this being the latest version possible without passwords etc, apparently)

I have a Time Machine backup on a separate HD. This backup has the latest 10.9 o/s on it together with the latest Iphoto app. and several other apps I use.

My question is: EXACTLY what is the procedure for restoring my repaired machine to it's former state, (Applications, Settings, Stored information etc.)

I would appreciate a simple step by step answer to this point.

Can't give  you exact, as you haven't said how you connected to your Time Machine disk.

I am going to assume it's USB, and recommend simply holding down the Alt key at boot time, slecting your Time Machine drive, and following prompts...


Block access from WAN but not from LAN I have an OSX Lion box behind a router (firewall on in the router). On the OS X, if I switch the firewall on, I'm unable to access the web server running on this box from outside the network (i.e. WAN). This is as expected.

However, if I try to access the web server from within the network (i.e. LAN), my requests are still blocked.

Two questions:

Is this the expected behavior?
If (1) is true, can I do/get something else that can enable me to do what I want i.e. block access from WAN but allow access from LAN?

EDIT:
I have "Allow Incoming Connections" enabled for "Web Sharing" in firewall options.

Solved the problem:

In the firewall options dialog (attached along with the question) there's another entity 'httpd' which was set to "Block incoming connections". Setting it to "Allow incoming connections" did the trick.

I do not know where it's coming from though.


Subscribe to Shared Album from iCloud for PC Q: How do I use iCloud for Windows to accept an invitation for a Shared Photo Album  without an iOS device or a Mac?

I have an Apple ID, I can see my iCloud files and photos with a web browser, and I can use the PC iCloud app to upload and download photos but I do not have an iOS device or a Mac.

You cannot subscribe to a shared album without a Mac or an iOS device.

See this message from Apple when trying to subscribe to a shared photo album:

  iCloud Photo Sharing is not available for this device

  To subscribe to (sender's name)’s “Sample Photo Album Name” shared
  album on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, open your invitation
  in the Mail app, and click the Subscribe button in the message.

  To subscribe you need to be signed in to iCloud on:

  an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 6 or later, or
  a Mac with macOS 10.8.2 or later and iPhoto 9.4 or Aperture 3.4 or later


Can Apple developers see app uninstalls? I know that Apple developers can find out how many users have downloaded their app(s) from the App Store. But I would like to know if developers can also find out how many users have uninstalled their app(s)?

No, iOS does not send a ping when an app is deleted from the device. Also, user choice determines whether iOS reports generic analytic information to Apple, so even if Apple wanted to process that analytics and possibly report that to a developer, it’s opt in by end user.

Developers that desire that need to build an activity reporting service that exists outside the App Store. Look at MAU, monthly active users, count of launches, etc...  just be sure you think of the privacy concerns. Once you start collecting this data, you are liable under GDPR and many governments to handle it properly and respond to legal and extra-judicial requests properly.

Not collecting this data and not retaining it can be a very smart business decision. Measuring engagement can be very valuable, but think how to benefit the end user and consider privacy while you do that. You might request this to be aggregated like the installs are as I could see Apple providing that in the future if it was balanced and useful to most developers rather than forcing them to roll their own analytics.


Splitting Partition On External Drive I have a 1TB external drive with three partitions:

FAT32 for extra storage (~500GB)
Ubuntu (~499GB)
Linux swap space (~1GB)

I want to boot to rEFind and then to Ubuntu from any Mac; preferably without destroying my Ubuntu install. I would like to split the FAT32 partition into two partitions:

FAT32 space (500GB minus a few megabytes)
bootable partition for rEFind (the aforementioned megabytes)

How can I do this, for free, on OS X; preferably from Terminal or Disk Utility? Would making the extra storage partition bootable work?

Unfortunately OS X Disk Utility refuses to modify partitions on MBR disks. You can modify partitions form the command line using fdisk. If you have a Ubuntu machine you would be better to use this e.g. using gparted to resize/move/create the partitions.


Applescript Service fails because of missing constraints I wrote an Automator Service which executes a small applescript to set the volume and play a sound.

To activate the service, I copied it into /Library/Services and did a chmod +x.
To register a keyboard shortcut for the service, I ran defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents '{"HelloWorld" = "$@~1";}' where HelloWorld is the name of the service as seen in the Services menu and $@~1 my shortcut (which resolves to ⌘+⌥+⇧+1)

After a reboot I can see the service in the menu with the shortcut next to it. When I press the desired key combination, an alert pops telling me that the script encountered an error. There also appears an error in the log:

  Detected missing constraints for .  It cannot be placed because there are not enough constraints to fully define the size and origin. Add the missing constraints, or set translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints=YES and constraints will be generated for you. If this view is laid out manually on macOS 10.12 and later, you may choose to not call [super layout] from your override. Set a breakpoint on DETECTED_MISSING_CONSTRAINTS to debug. This error will only be logged once.

This suggests an error with some view that is not initialized correctly, but I'm not using any views.

Here's the content of the Automator Workflow:

on run

    if (get output volume of (get volume settings)) < 50 then
        set volume output volume 50
    end if

    do shell script "afplay /Library/Application\ Support/HelloWorld/hello.mp3"

    return
end run

Since it was requested in the comments (sorry it took that long), here's a working version of the script. The trick is to put the filename (which contains spaces) into double quotes, because those can be escaped.

on run

    if (get output volume of (get volume settings)) < 50 then
        set volume output volume 50
    end if

    do shell script "afplay \"/Library/Application Support/HelloWorld/hello.mp3\""

    return
end run


Log individual users out of a period of inactivity? There is a setting under Security & Privacy -> Advanced, to "Log out after X minutes of inactivity".  However, this is a system wide setting.  I just want to have my kids account log out after a period of inactivity, but leave my account logged in.  Is that possible?

The MacEnterprise list has discussed this topic recently, Forcing Log-Off For Idle Users.

autologout Defaults

John NcNair suggested the following autologout defaults:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences com.apple.autologout.AutoLogOutDelay -int 900
defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences com.apple.securitypref.logoutvalue -int 900

Limitations

Bruce Carter mentioned...

  Note that nothing using Apple's internal mechanism for this will work if
  the user has unsaved files open.  It will simply stop at the dialog box and
  time out.

See the related question How can I automatically log out the guest account after a period of inactivity? for other approaches and tools.


Converting MP4 to PAL DVD I have a dozen or so mp4 files I downloaded from youtube. I would like to put these onto a DVD for a relative (He only has a DVD player, no PC or USB slot on tv)

I think DVD's have two folders audio_ts and video_ts. Can anyone point me to, or provide a workflow to convert the mp4 files to pal dvd's.

I will be using ffmpeg on a MBP OSX 10.10.5

I don't wont to lose any quality at all if possible. I have used ffprobe to get details on the mp4's, output is below. I have read some examples on converting the mp4's and outputting to a VOB file, but it doesn't mention anything about the audio and I'm at a loss with what quality will be be like.

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'movie.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isommp42
    creation_time   : 2015-10-18 17:44:18
  Duration: 01:29:29.38, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1936 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 1741 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 30k tbn, 59.94 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 191 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-10-18 17:45:35
      handler_name    : IsoMedia File Produced by Google, 5-11-2011

I'd also appreciate a breakdown of ffprobe output, I'm confused that stream #0:0 video reports h264 and avc1 ? I thought these are two different types of video codec?

Many thanks.

Try this open source software called "Burn". I have used it. It has many options for DVD burning.


.iso vs .cdr format? My Macbook Pro optical drive is out of commission.

If I use my sister's Windows 10 or Windows XP to make an ISO file from a DVD and bring over by sneakernet, will I be able to play it as a DVD?

Or can it be converted to .cdr?

macOS will recognize both an .iso, .cdr and .dmg (for that matter) as a standard disk image.

Copy it to the Mac and double click on it and it should mount on the desktop and recognize it as standard DVD...

...ASSUMING that the DVD does not have some copy protection built-in that will prevent a simple disk image copy. Unfortunately that is likely and you may want to look into Windows compatible software that will enable copying commercial DVDs.


What's the Way to clean out my mac ahead of giving it out? I recently got a retina MBP and I would like to give my former MBP to my sister, How do I clean it out the "Apple way" rather than just manually deleting all my files. I would prefer if it ran smoothly like a new MBP to give her the full "Mac welcome experience" Are there steps for this? I have already migrated all my info to my new one.

To give it a full fresh and clean and welcome experience I would suggest you remove all stuff accumulated over time including all non apple aps.

To do that you can erase all the information from hard drive and simply reinstall the OS X.

Apple's knowledge base article has the steps:

OS X Lion: Erase and reinstall Mac OS X - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4439.

On most computers, the erase and install takes 30 minutes plus how ever long it takes to download the installer package from Apple's servers. That part is about a 4 GB download if you haven't saved it and follow the above instructions.


iMac Core i3 mid 2010 hard drive removal and fan control I'm thinking of adding an SSD.  I'm getting conflicting advice as to what to do with the sensor cable if swapping the mechanical drive for an SSD.

I think in these units, there is a sensor cable that runs to the mechanical drive, rather than a sensor probe stuck on the drive.

I've read that some short this cable, some put a resistor on it, even some saying mover the sensor from the optical to here.  I have no idea if that is sound advice or not.

So it made me think, if I just do away with the mechanical drive entirely and unplug the sensor cable.  And swap out the optical for an SSD.  Will the iMac boot fine with this arrangement.  And will it be smart enough to realise that there is no HDD plugged into, let's say the main slot, and therefore not care about fan control at all for that drive?

For context, apparently if the sensor cable is not tackled, the fans roar at 100% for this model and similar setups, when doing a swap of the mechanical for an SSD.

The usual result of removing the thermal sensor is roaring fans; I suspect that there's little reason for Apple to add some "if no drive, ignore sensor" logic, because Apple would want to replace the drive.

The best instructions for replacing components on your Mac can be found here:
https://www.ifixit.com/Search?query=imac%202010

Remember that your iMac has a SATA II (3 Gbps) controller, so you're not going to see the full benefit of the SSD: though it will probably double your HDD's speed.

If your iMac had Thunderbolt, then I would have said avoid the hassle and use an external drive; but it is a 10-year-old Mac!


How to stop receiving mails from a specific account? Macbook Pro has made my life very miserable, in a struggle to make something out of it, I'm trying to atleast stop receiving mails from my gmail account with out disabling it. My gmail account is being spammed heavily even after setting so many filters. So i'm auto forwarding the important ones to my iCloud mail. I am not disabling it as I want to reply to the mails from it that are being forwarded to my iCloud email. As my Gmail is being heavily spammed I want to stop syncing it with out disabling it. Or how can I add my gmail as alias in iCloud mail?

You can remove the account from iCloud which will not disable it you just won't get the emails anymore; you can still log into it via a web browser if you like. Adding the email address as an alias would only allow you to send an email from one account but having it say it's from the other.


Cellular iPad-Air text message configuration Given the following:

iPad air with cellular modem (issued by T-mobile)
T-mobile sim card from working telephone: re-allocated to iPad

What are the steps \ procedure to configure iPad's iMessage to receive text messages from SIM phone number?

You can't use SMS messaging on an iOS device (or any device for that matter) that doesn't connect to the GSM network.

SMS is part of the GSM services network; the "telephone" functionality of your device.  It's the network that allows you to place a call to all phones including land lines.  The iPad doesn't connect to the GSM network.

iMessage requires a data connection (WiFi or cellular data like LTE) because they are sent and received through a server over the TCP/IP protocol.


Macbook (unibody plastic) won't reconnect to wifi after setting up new router while other devices do just fine I recently upgraded to a Wireless-N capable router (Linsys WRT160N) from a Wireless-G model.  Everything was fine and dandy with the G, but I needed a stronger signal strength in my living room and dining room.  After getting the new router configured and deconflicting the channels, it's finally working great with my Macbook, Galaxy Nexus, and wife's iPhone 4.

The Macbook, however, refuses to reconnect to my network after closing and opening the lid.  It connects fine once you select the network from the list of available ones, but it has never done so on its own.  I've made sure that my network is at the top of the preferred networks list in the Advanced menu in the Network settings, but that still has no effect.

Am I missing something?

The most common solution to this problem (I encountered numerous times) is to change the WiFi channel on your router.

If your router is set to auto channel you can switch to channel 6 or 11 for example.

And try different channels.


Sent email disappeared, heard 'sent' whoosh, but it's not in the Sent file Wrote email, sent it off, heard whoosh sound, assumed it was done.

Not so.

Cannot find the email anywhere, least of all where it should be: in the Sent File.

Tried various setting options - advanced to tick off the 'sent' option on iPad (nothing) and cannot get it to go to the web server where it was in the first place, but then somehow switched.

I just want to see what I sent, that's all. Please help - I've tried everything I could think of.

Login to your email provider and see if the email is visible there
    (ex: gmail.com if a gmail account).


How to move dock items? Options gives me

 (slack)

or

 (chrome)

but I don't get the options to rearrange the icons in the dock.  I can't 'drag' the item either.  How can I achieve this?

I am on yosemite 10.10.2

It's a smooth click and upward motion on an icon using your mouse or trackpad to rearrange icons in the Dock. Don't click-and-hold, click and move -- if you click and hold you'll get the option menu overlay for the application.

Tried to make a little gyfcat that shows it happening:

http://www.gfycat.com/ClearcutUnluckyAndeancondor

This irregardless of the setting for Keep in Dock on the application. In the above example I'm moving apps that have Keep in Dock set and not set. They're all re-arrangeable.


User-specific Time Machine config Is it possible to configure Time Machine per user? Use a different server, exclusions, etc? Currently, the config is shared.

Unfortunately that is not the function of the Time machine.

Time machine does not only backs up all users files, but also the operating system, so you can restore from it.

“Time Machine is a backup utility, not an archival utility, it is not intended as offline storage.

I would suggest you use separate disk for backing up individual users files.

The users home folders will be in the /Users/

To backup, use Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities/) to backup the user home folder.

Login as a local administrator, but not as the user account you want to backup.
Launch Disk Utility.
Choose File » New » Image from Folder...
Select the user's home folder /Users/[username].
Save the disk image to your backup drive.
Enter an admin username and password when prompted.


iMac + uTorrent energy saving I want to keep my iMac on tonight and seed/leech torrents. I usually leave it there until, after 5/10 min or so, the iMac turn the monitor off. I can still hear the hd working.

uTorrent has an option which "prevent sleep when transfers are active" so I guess if the iMac goes in sleep mode I can't seed/leech torrents.

Told so, how can I reduce power consumption? And how can I measure the power I'm using now to decide if it is ok or I shouldn't leave it on?

Thanks!

Yes, if the mac sleeps, you can't run any processing. Apple have released as part of Mountain Lion a background system that can run while asleep (PowerNap), but that's not open to other apps, and also needs a laptop with a flash drive. Besides, torrents require a fair amount of processing of the data, lots of network traffic and HD activity.

Your best bet is to use the Energy Saver panel in System Preferences to get the screen and  computer to sleep after short period of time. You can also check the HD option.

Not sure about uTorrent but Transmission lets you prevent computer sleep when there are active transfers, and you can set limits on when to stop the transfer. So, you can have it set to seed a certain amount after it's finished downloading, then remove it automatically, and your computer will then sleep.

As for measuring power, something like this is what you need:

http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU

Plug the iMac into it and it'll tell you the actual power used. There are a bunch of similar devices, but the Kill-A-Watt ones are pretty well known and widely  used.


How do I install applications from a .dmg file? Possible Duplicate:
  How do I install an application from a disk image?

I just got my first Macbook Pro yesterday and one of the first thing I did was to download and install Mozilla Firefox web browser onto my laptop. After I dragged the firefox icon to the application folder, everything was fine except I was left with a "Firefox 15.0.1.dmg" file that I didn't know what to do.

I experimented with it and tried ejecting the "disk" and dragging it to trash and emptying it. After I did that the Firefox icon on my dock went black and there was no response when I clicked the FireFox icon on my dock.

So I had to redownload and reinsintall everything to make it work again.

Are these dmg files stuck in my computer forever? My download folder is getting unnecessary big

A .dmg file is kind of like an USB stick in a file and can be handled more or less the same way. To install from a .dmg file you usually do the following:

double click the .dmg to make its content available (name will show up in the Finder sidebar), usually a window opens showing the content as well
drag the application from the .dmg window into /Applications to install (may need an administrator password)
wait for the copy process to finish
eject the .dmg (by clicking the eject button in the Sidebar)
delete the .dmg from Downloads


Someone used "Find my Iphone" to wipe my phone. Can I use the same app to find their location? This morning someone decided via either a prank or otherwise to log in to my apple id, and use Find my Iphone app to lock and then erase my phone, then leaving me the ominous message "This is what u get bitch".

From Time stamps, I've been able to figure out what time zone they're in, but is there any otherway to perhaps zero in on where exactly they are so I may press charges or tell apple?

No, The app doesn't expose past actions and events to users.

You should check that your AppleID is emailing an email address you control since erase and lock events trigger an email to the email on record for admin changes / security at https://appleid.apple.com

There might be server logs and if you are really interested in knowing who erased your phone, having your lawyer contact Apple legal promptly would be the best avenue to get cooperation to track down where/who may have compromised your account. That would both help you decide to press charges and certainly alert Apple to the situation in an official and formal manner.

Of course, you should change your AppleID password immediately to some password you don't use on any other online site. Consider enabling two factor authentication as well if you wish to make your account harder to hack into going forward.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5570 - The FAQ on two factor security


How to make macbook pro use a 16:9 aspect ratio? How can I force my screen to use a 16:9 aspect ratio? I don't mind seeing black bars above and beneath the screen content.

You can use RDM to set a custom resolution such as 1920×1080.


Can I Permanently Delete This File from Trash with Terminal? I was trying to add sound file options for the native Messages app on my rMBP with El Capitan. I disabled "System Integrity Protection" (SIP), dragged in the new file, enabled SIP (with all the correct rebooting, as necessary).

I want to delete the file I added now. I was able to move it to the Trash, but it will not delete.

Rather than going through Restarting, choosing Recovery Mode, disabling SIP, restarting, deleting the file, restarting, choosing Recovery Mode, enabling SIP, and restarting, can I just input the following into Terminal?

sudo rm /Users/tmhahn/.Trash/Mailtone12.aiff

I'm just learning Terminal, so I wanted to ask before I attempted it.

(I know to be careful with "sudo" AND with "rm," which is why I'm confirming this is okay!)

If using the Terminal in this way is not advisable, do you have another suggestion?

Thank you for your assistance.

Your current command is correct and will work.


How to fix lsregister failing associations after reboot? I'm running 10.7.5 and I have noticed a problem with associations between files and applications. The main symptom is that Finder shows more than one copy of the same application to open a file.

At first everything worked, but now the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist file is not updated anymore. In particular, if I launch through terminal lsregister -dump the association appears, but if I open the plist file the association is not present. If I reboot, instead of updating the plist file, the system eliminates the association from the database (the option -dump doesn't show it anymore). I tried to launch lsregister -kill -seed several times, but the situation doesn't change.

How can I permanently fix the associations between files and applications?

The LaunchServices database is built with data from as many as four domains. (See 'lsregister --help' for more info on these domains.) You might not be rebuilding the LaunchServices database correctly.  This is the command I use to rebuild the database on my Mac:

sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of file associations (plus a whole lot more) and want a nice GUI to boot try installing RCDefaultApp.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/14618/rcdefaultapp


Future of iTunes and audio files in its library I still have most of my music on CDs. This has been fine, since I mostly listened in the car. Since I retired recently, I am driving less and would like to put the CDs into iTunes (mostly for my iPads and iPhones). I have already put a small percentage of the CDs into iTunes. Now, I am considering putting the remainder (~200) into iTunes.

But, now that there are rumors that iTunes will be discontinued, is this a dead-end?  Most of the existing files are ".m4a" files. Any recommendations?

It is not a rumor - it has been officially announced by Apple that iTunes is going away. It is going to be replaced by Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts in the next release of macOS named Catalina.

In practice you'll just start using the Apple Music program for listening to your old ripped CDs instead of using iTunes - so this is definitely not a dead-end. Your iTunes Library will be carried over automatically.

Catalina Features


SIPS: Only Resize if Image is 315x300? I'm currently using sips --resampleHeightWidth 250 300 "S1" to resize new images in a folder but I think that it might be resizing images that were already resized.. Is there anyway to know this for sure?  If not what do I add so I can only resize images taht are 315x300?

Here is a bash script to check the size before :

#!/bin/bash

#theFile given in input
theFile=$1

#using sips to retrieve the width & height
size=($(sips -g pixelWidth -g pixelHeight theFile | grep -o '[0-9]*$'))

#the size you want
width=315
height=300

if [[ ${size[0]} -eq $width && ${size[1]} -eq $height ]]; then
    #put here your command for files that are 315*300
fi


Remote control mac using ARD or teamviewer with password lock? I'm going to leave my main iMac in the office for a few days but I also need to access it remotely.

Currently I noticed I can only remotely access the mac with ARD or teamviewer if the iMac account wasn't locked.

How can I access the iMac remotely whilst still guaranteeing security to prevent unauthorized access from other sources.

TeamViewer requires password to connect, so that's safe, but requires the iMac up and running and not locked.

This isn't actually true. With ARD/Screen Sharing, you can leave the mac logged-out, authenticate when you connect with ARD, and then log in to your user account after connecting.

You just need to make sure the Mac isn't set to go to sleep when no one is logged in.

With TeamViewer, you would need to have the account logged in, but it should still be accessible if you have the account locked or using fast user switching. Those features allow an account to stay logged in, but prevent it from being used (physically or remotely) until authentication.


Brew - undo whatever the heck it just did for installation Disclaimer - I am not a Mac person....
I wanted a very simple text editor that I could save a small python script with. Text edit wouldn't let me save a .py, so I was like hmm - I'll just install gedit which I see on machines all the time. Must be small.
brew install gedit

10 mins later stuff was still installing, wasting tons of my precious 256Gb disk space. I cancelled it, but now I have no idea how to uninstall whatever the hell brew just dumped into my machine and its really bothering me.
Can anyone help me to get rid of that? brew uninstall gedit doesn't do anything.

Try running this command:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall.sh)"

Source/more info: https://discourse.brew.sh/t/uninstall-homebrew-from-mac/8696

For future reference, you probably would have been better off to let it finish installing and the uninstalling it. Hopefully their uninstall script is robust enough to help. If not, you might want to ask for help on the Brew forum at https://discourse.brew.sh where Brew developers help users with issues.


Macbook A1342 2010 - OS Installation Issue I purchased a Macbook A1342 2010 (white one) from eBay and it arrived with software and a password on it. This was not in the seller's description. I instinctively (have had many macs before) used Disc Utility to wipe the disk and reinstall OS. All was going well until when I went to sign in before installation began it said: "This item is temporarily unavailable". I went on the internet in search of answers and someone suggested to use Online Recovery (which I did) and it reverted back to OSx Lion. The exact same error happened with Lion as it did with El Capitan right before it begins installing - "This item is temporarily unavailable". The Apple ID that I used has been used with Macs before but no older than El Capitan. I tried two Apple IDs which have both been used on Macs and both were refused. The seller is saying it is my fault despite him being the one that sold a locked product without stating so and eBay have ruled in his favour. How can I go about fixing this mess?

Thanks.

If you have access to the installer have you tried creating the bootable thumb drive from here?

Reading closer you don't have access to the installer.  Running the online installer won't work because apple pulled the download links that it uses.  I suspect this is thinly veiled attempt at pushing people to upgrade.

Check this out:  https://diskmakerx.com. It will create the thumb drive for you.  You will most likely have to go here and buy El Capitan from apple if you haven't installed already.

Its also worth checking out http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ his tool will download the High Sierra installer for you from apple.  This is the last supported release for your MacBook.  Once you have the installer you can use DiskMakerX.


How to remove blank space on the menu bar? For some reason I have a blank space on my menubar, It doesn't happen on my second screen, and when i click it disappears but appears in the other screen and so forth.

I haven't done anything to the system like trying to remove the spotlight icon or that sort of thing.
I have OS X 10.9.4

I've tried removing all other apple icons and this happens:

When  I activate istat menu, the issue goes away temporarily but I'd rather not use istat forever.

Are there any other solutions to this?

Restart your menubar

This might be due to some error within the placements of the icons in your menubar. You can restart your menubar and your icons will 'reload' and settle correctly.

Run the following in Terminal to reload the menubar:

killall -KILL SystemUIServer


How can I tell if my MacBook's iSight has a hardware problem? I've got a 2006 13" MacBook (Core Duo; the first ones they produced with an Intel chipset), and the built-in webcam doesn't seem to work anymore.

Here's what my System Profiler shows in the USB tab:

Which makes me believe there's a hardware problem, or a more fundamental problem with my OS (Snow Leopard 10.6.6).  Before I try reinstalling the OS, are there any ways I can test the functionality of the hardware? I'm willing to open up the computer if needed.

Note: I've already tried resetting the PMU, along with the other steps on Apple's "How to Troubleshoot iSight" page.

If System Profilier isn't showing it up under USB then the iSight has been physically damaged beyond repair (not accepting power) or has been somehow disconnected from the Bus. System Profiler always displays connected devices, even if they're corrupted or non-functioning.

Take your Mac to the Apple Store and they will tell you what it will take to fix it. The most likely scenario is that it will be a free repair, and they'll clean up your computer while they're at it :)

If you can't get to an Apple Store call 1-800-MY-APPLE and ask them about your options.


IOS 8.0.2 Calendar on iPhone 5 not syncing with MS Exchange properly Since I upgraded my iPhone 5 to iOS 8.0.2 I have started having issues with the calendar syncing through Microsoft Exchange. The event description created on the iPhone do not appear on Outlook, only the subject and address are synchronised. The description of the event remains blank on Outlook.

Try Settings; Mail, Contacts, Calendars; Default Calendar.
Make certain that your Exchange server calendar is the default calendar.


There is a file named index.dat, and subfolders named serially from 00 to 0f, a0 to af ... f0 to ff in my `~/Applications` folder, can I delete them? My User's Application folder does not contain the regular Applications' folders one might expect. Instead it contains an index.dat file and a lot of sub-folders that are serially numbered (00,01,...,0f,...,9f,...,a0,...,af,...,ff) and contain *.file files like "00b1bfebc0ceb054d7872956649e40b091ab9341.file".
See following screenshot:

I'm cleaning up my mac and am not sure if I can delete this. I don't know which Application is creating this... filesystem?.
Some files are written even today so, is there a way to find out which Application is writing these files?

Update:
I did the following:

Deleted the files and folders in question
Restart Machine
Log user back in
Quickly open terminal and run sudo fs_usage | grep index.dat
See the file being accessed by the following:

13:10:44  open              /Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                             0.000041   mdworker
13:10:44  getattrlist       /Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                             0.000027   mds
13:11:23  lstat64           Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                              0.000022   fseventsd
13:11:23  getxattr          /Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                             0.000011   Dock
13:11:23  lstat64           /Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                             0.000023   fseventsd
13:11:24  fsgetpath         /Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                             0.000021   mds
13:11:24  getattrlist       /Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                             0.000046   mds
13:11:24  listxattr         /Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                             0.000020   mds
13:11:24  getattrlist       /Users/lapdog/Applications/index.dat                                             0.000081   mds

and a lot more of that until it stops. I still don't know if this is being created upon login or restart. I will check with a different user if the files are being created b4 logging in the with my user again.

Like all things, backup your Mac and then delete the files you suspect are bad / need to know when they re-appear. Backups exist so you are free to clear things knowing you can get them back if you find out later some specific program actually needs them where they are.
Examining the files like this you have some clues that often will let you refine what caused them to be there:

What permissions / ownership is on the files?
What are the created dates, last modified dates?
Can you catch it with lsof or fs_usage (both of which are covered here on site pretty well on how to check for what process has a file open and which process reads / modifies / writes to a file)
Open terminal and use the file command to actually inspect the contents. Open them in an editor or a great free program like BBEdit to look at them safely. (Type file and a space and then drag one or two of the curious file icons into the terminal window and press return)

What’s clear, is it’s not a program that behaves at all like a mac program and puts application files where they belong in user or system libraries. I would focus on things that are cross-platform or open-source as that’s a typical pattern to shard data to directories that are named algorithmically (Apple does this in /private/var/folders) as well - but hides that away from where people expect properly curated files to exist.


Option-Delete deletes word with white space in front So this has been driving me crazy for a while now: when you have a lot of blank space before a word, you go to the beginning of the line and push option-delete, it will delete not only the blank space, but also the next word. All editors in Windows and Linux will only delete the blank space. Is there a setting for this? This is an absolute must-have for me when, for example, trying to format code in XCode. As an example:

This is line 1 (caret->) |             this should not get deleted

Pushing option-delete, I expect this:

This is line 1 (caret->) |this should not get deleted

But instead, I get this:

This is line 1 (caret->) |should not get deleted

This is particularly nasty when you copy-paste code from somewhere, and get something like this:

UIImageView *imgView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:
                                              CGRectMake(0,0,100,100)];

....and you want to quickly consolidate into one line.  Does anyone have a fix for this?

I select the entire space and word as per your example. Then keeping Shift and Option pressed, I use the left arrow to select the empty space. Works like a charm and is only one extra keypress.


What is the difference between `on` and `to` in AppleScript handler declaration What is the difference between on and to in AppleScript handler declaration? When to use one or the other?

For example the following handlers do the same:

on demo1()
   return 1
end demo1

to demo2()
   return 1
end demo2

There's no difference between them. Both on and to are acceptable.

From Using Handlers/Functions

  Listing 13-3 shows a variation of the handler in Listing 13-1, which uses the to prefix instead of on. Either syntax is acceptable.

From Handler Reference

( on | to ) handlerName ¬
   [ [ of | in ] directParamName ] ¬
   [ ASLabel userParamName ]... ¬
   [ given userLabel:userParamName [, userLabel:userParamName ]...]
      [ statement ]...
end [ handlerName ]


"Format" menu in TextEdit or Note with changed shortcut Something happend in my Big Sur macOS and the shortcut for "Format" -> "Text" -> "Center" is changed in the "down" key!

So for example every time I press the down key in TextEdit or Note (and I suppose in every app that use these system menus) I got the text centered instead of move the cursor down.
I tried to restore default shortcuts and nothing changed. Rebooted, nothing. CMD + OPT + P + R not resolved the issue...
—— update ——
I reset the shortcut in sys pref -> keyboard, but with no success. I tried with another account on the mac and the problem is the same. So it’s not a user setting, but a system one.
—— possible workaround——
In the apple forum someone had the same problem related to BigSur update:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252054589
Any idea how to restore system shortcut for this type of menu?

Follow what @Andyroo said, it's mostly likely that a shortcut was set.
System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts


iPhone SE powers on whenever moved, defective? Got a new grey iPhone SE for Christmas from the Verizon store. Seems to work fine except for one issue. When the phone is off (standby), any sudden motion turns the phone on, as if the home or power button were pressed.

Let me be clear: Nothing is in contact with the power button or home button when this happens. The phone isn't getting any calls or messages or other notifications.

There's a passcode, so nothing bad happens, but it's unsettling to open the pocketbook and see the phone screen all lit up.

Is this something deliberate? Can it be configured? Or is the phone just defective?

The iOS 10 update brought the new Raise to wake function to the iPhone 6S, 7, and SE. It's completely normal but can be annoying at times. You can disable it from Settings -> Display & Brightness -> Raise to Wake.

Learn more about Raise to Wake and disabling it.


Extending an Airport Express (latest) with a Time Capsule (4th Generation) Will there be a reason not to use an Airport Express (latest model) as the main wifi router and then have the network be extended through an Time Capsule (4th Generation) on bridge mode?

Is the above possible?

Thanks,

The two models differ only in their number of USB and ethernet ports (see https://www.apple.com/compare-wifi-models/ for a comparison of all current models), audio jacks, HDD space and Wifi capabilities. The software features are identical.

Although your proposed setup should be working fine, it has at least the following implications:

No gigabit ethernet connection at the base station (so if a PC is connected to this station and backed up to the Time Capsule, the backup process is capped at ~11 MB/s)
Connecting audio equipment will only be possible at the base station
External HDD can only be attached to the extension, not the base station
802.11n will be provided near the base station and 802.11ac near extension station


What is the difference between the WPA2 Personal, WPA and WPA2 WiFi security passcodes? I was editing the configuration for my Time Capsule, when I noticed that I had the following options for network encryption:

Why is there an option of WPA/WPA2? Is it as secure as WPA2 Personal?

When looking for the network with other devices, I'm am told to enter a WPA2 Password. Thus, I thought that I had configured it using WPA2 Personal.

Both 'WPA' and 'WPA2' use AES to encrypt the information transiting the WiFi network, but

WPA uses something called TKIP to manage the keys used to encrypt the data. TKIP is vulnerable to attack (it's not secure) and should not be used.

WPA2 uses AES-CCMP for key management.

"WPA/WPA2 Personal", also called mixed-mode, allows negotiation of key management modes and reduces the security of the network to the lowest common denominator.

BOTTOM LINE: If you're concerned about security/privacy of information on your networks (wired and wireless) , DON'T use WPA or WPA/WPA2. Use WPA2 only. And, if you don't already know, WEP is basically the same as having no security at all.

Another poster points out that the 'Enterprise' modes send authentication requests to a server before allowing a client on the network. The two big advantages are:

central management: I don't have to set keys on every access point, and I can disable accounts of individual users. There's also traceability: I know which WiFi device belongs to which user.
much longer keys (like 2048 bit, versus 128 for 'personal'). This further decreases the likelihood that an attacker can figure out the key in the time it's in use.

The 'personal' pre-shared key ("PSK") is derived from the passphrase you type into your client, so even if PSK allowed long keys, you'd have to type a passphrase that most people would object to.


zsh: bad CPU type in executable I am using the terminal on an Apple M1 MacBook. I try to use a cli tool that is not build for aarm64, so I get this error message in the terminal:
zsh: bad CPU type in executable

Is there anything I can do to use this cli tool e.g. with emulation or something? How can I run binaries on a M1 based Mac in the Terminal that is not natively built for Arm?

When macOS tries to run an app that is not built for Apple silicon, macOS will prompt to install Rosetta 2 to automatically translate the app to Apple silicon.
In Terminal, there is no automatic detection for missing Rosetta to run older architecture command line tools.
If you haven't been prompted for any other app already, manually install Rosetta 2:
softwareupdate --install-rosetta

If you need to run a universal binary in the previous architecture, use arch and specify the architecture. You need to manually specify the architecture for binaries that need to run other binaries that are not built for Apple silicon, like Homebrew.
arch -x86_64 …

e.g. arch -x86_64 brew install packagename
Alternatively, you can run the entire Terminal app using Rosetta by opening Get Info on Terminal.app in Finder and checking ‘Open using Rosetta’. This way will Terminal and every binary it tries to run through Rosetta, so Apple silicon binaries won't be supported and performance will be impacted, but you don't need to specify the architecture to run old binaries.


Internal keyboard and trackpad quit working, mac not booting up properly TL;DR I have an early 2015 Macbook Pro (stock features), running Yosemite (not sure of the version). I've tried SMC and PRAM resets, taking the battery out, and external mouse and keyboard with limited success.

A few months ago, the internal keyboard and trackpad would work intermittently, but after a week or so, they quit working altogether. The power button still works. Though, I'm now experiencing issues with the computer's bootup. Sometimes when I boot it up, it shows the Apple logo and then quits. This didn't happen before. And before I get into it, the internal keyboard and trackpad don't work during bootup either. I can't use them to boot into safe mode or reset the PRAM or SMC. I need an external keyboard for that.

I was traveling in Southeast Asia at the time with no Apple store within a few thousand miles, so I didn't go see anyone about it. I read forum after forum, and asked questions. I was told (and convinced) by several people that the problem was a swollen battery. In Malaysia, I took the bottom off of my computer, which seemed to make it a little more stable. It created more room in the computer body, and lent credibility to the swollen battery idea. In Asia, I just couldn't get what I needed to take the battery out and try it. I went to an internet cafe in Indonesia and borrowed a mouse and keyboard. I was hoping to install a driver to use my iPhone as a new wireless mouse and keyboard. My experience was less than stellar. The computer was super jumpy. The mouse and keyboard barely worked. I'm not sure if it was the computer's fault or the cheap equipment at the cafe. Restarting the computer didn't seem to do anything.

Fast forward to London, I was at my mother-in-law's house. She had the security I needed to work on my computer as well as an external mouse and keyboard. They worked great! The computer was not jumpy like it was in Indonesia. I took the battery out (please don't give me flack about how my battery is non-removable, I know what I'm doing). To my surprise, the internal keyboard and trackpad still didn't work.

I'm back in Berlin where I now could go to an Apple store, but I'm also in the best place to work on it myself, and I'd like to take one last stab at it before I pay some extortionate fee to have it fixed. Does anyone have any ideas, that don't have to do with the battery, of why this could happen to a pretty new computer?

Firstly, it's definitely worth you taking it in to an Apple Store. I have known Apple to do repairs and/or replacements even when the item is technically outside their warranty period. Of course, each case is different, and it will depend on the What, When, How and Why of your situation. In a nutshell, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Secondly, although it does sound like you know what you're doing, can you confirm you used the correct procedure for resetting the SMC for your particular MacBook? The steps should be:

Shut down your computer.
Keep the MagSafe adapter (power cable) plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button.
Let go.
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

Thirdly, since you've now got access to an external keyboard and mouse, have you tried starting in Safe Mode? If so, what happened? If not, can you try it now and report back?

Finally, since you've now got access to an external keyboard, have you tried using Apple Diagnostics? You can do this by:

Ensure your MacBook is plugged in to a power source.
Do a full shutdown of the computer.
Press your power button and immediately press and hold the d key until you see Apple Diagnostics start.
Let the process finish and take note of the results.

Please share your results.


Will the Lightning to USB 3 adapter let me connect via Xcode for debugging via the power passthrough? I see that the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter has two 'inputs', the usb port and an additional Lightning port. From anecdotal evidence (I have found no official manual) it is for power supply. Nice, but. Can I use this port to connect to computer, for Xcode debugging purposes, while using the Camera Adapter for connecting a MIDI device at the same time?

Thanks.

No, it is not possible. It can only be used to supply power to the iPad/iPhone.

The only way to connect multiple things is to use a traditional powered USB-hub connected to the single USB-port available on the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter.


macbook pro stuck in boot loop - recovery mode and safe mode not working I have a macbook pro 2015 (8gb ram, running macOS mojave) stuck in the loading screen with the apple logo and the loading bar 100% completed.

I tried leaving it for long periods of time.
Resetting the PRAM and SMC didn't help.
The machine wont go into safe mode using the shift button.
It also won't go into recovery mode using command+R.
Internet recovery also does not work either. After the globe finishes loading in internet recovery, it goes back to the boot up screen with the apple logo and stays stuck there at 100%.
when I run the AHT (Apple Diagnostics) by holding down the d button, the test runs smoothly and exits with the message "no issues found". When I click "Get Started" it starts booting the os and freezes again in the logo screen.
I successfully entered the MacOS Utilities Screen by using a bootable USB drive with macOS mojave on it, but here's what happened

The Disk Utility was unable to load any drives or partitions, it only displayed a spinner and pretty much hangs on startup. However the machine didn't hang, I could still exit the Disk Utility. Here's a link with an image of the disk utility: https://m.imgur.com/gallery/MxfSna8
When I click "Install macOS" nothing happens
In the terminal, when I cd into the Volume "Macintosh HD", then ls, the terminal process hangs.

What's odd is that in single-user-mode, lsing around the internal ssd was not a problem.

I ran fsck from the single-user-mode, it exits with the message:
The  volume /dev/rdisk1s1 appears to be OK. I put a link below of a photo showing the console output of the fsck process.
When I use the exit command to exit single-user-mode the machine hangs. I put a link below with a photo showing the console output following the exit command.

Log output in single-user-mode:
https://imgur.com/a/YPrmtbG

Log output when starting in verbose mode:
https://imgur.com/a/6BAQdR8

Result after booting into AHT:
https://imgur.com/a/aipanxz

Below i go into details about what I was doing prior to this issue:

I ran 8 consecutive node.js processes, to write about 11 GB of randomly generated data to an external SSD.
each processes was given about 8gb of ram with the flag --max-old-space-size=8000 (the machine itself only has 8GBs of ram, and there's usually about 3GBs that are always occupied)
each process was pretty much writing to a csv file using a for loop and a node fs write stream
each processes was followed by a killall -kill node
after the processes were done the os started doing unexpectable things so I shut it down. (unexpectable things such as the desktop background image was changed, and all terminals would restart every time I put the macbook to sleep).
after shutting it down, when I turned it back on the external ssd was still connected, so I unplugged it right before the apple logo appeared, that's when it hanged.

I appreciate your help!

I was able to fix this by using a bootable Ubuntu usb to boot my system, and choosing the option for formatting the SSD. Then after installing Ubuntu I was able to use a bootable MacOS usb drive to reinstall MacOS Mojave successfully.
As mentioned above, absolutely nothing was working including the disk utility, internet recovery, or using a bootable MacOS USB drive. Everything was causing the system to freeze.


listing all processes in iOS 5.0.1 How could one go about viewing all the processes in an ssh session to my (jailbroken)iphone? I'm currently able to ssh in, I have bash installed, core utilities installed, shell-cmds package installed and the system-cmds package installed.

I would have expected the "ps" command to be available from the core-utilities package, but this does not seem to be the case. What am I missing?

I believe the package Cydia package adv-cmds contains a copy of PS


Accessing Disk Images on iOS Is it possible to mount and edit the contents of a .dmg file on an iPhone? I realize they are designed for macOS and larger computers of that ilk, but I'm curious if there's a workaround...

To my understanding, the only workaround involves jailbreaking the iOS device. If you are willing to try that route, you might find this helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/4hgr0y/tutorial_mounting_a_dmg_on_ios/.

If not, I don't believe there is any other way to mount a .dmg on an iOS device.


App Store says an app is installed, but it isn't I've installed a new primary SSD drive on my mac, now I'm trying to download a few apps that I've already installed on my previous HD, but app store keeps saying they're already installed. But they are not.

Is there a way to tell Apple's App Store that these apps are not installed?

I've already tried the solution on the thread: App Store thinks apps are installed, but no success.

My old HD is still connected to my MBP, but as slave. If you guys need further info, just ask.

Just fixed it. Sorry for the noise, guys.

This thread fixed it:
https://superuser.com/questions/437708/how-to-re-install-an-app-that-shows-up-in-the-appstore-as-update-instead-of-b#answer-439700

Thanks!


How do I share a Wi-Fi connection via a Wi-Fi hotspot? This question is an extension of this question. While my answer did answer the question, there was one part that wasn't answered: how do I share a Wi-Fi connection via a Wi-Fi hotspot?

You can't "share" a Wi-Fi connection via a Wi-Fi hotspot.

What is misleading everybody is the inapropriate use of the technical
term of sharing when the function we are talking of is a redistribution.

When 2 PC are connected on the same Wi-Fi hotspot they are truly
sharing the same connection: they are using the same Wi-Fi channel,
they are sharing the router IP public address.

When you start up InternetSharing within System Preferences > Sharing
you are not starting a sharing, but the redistribution of a main network access toward a secondary network access. On this secondary network access,
you are acting as an access router. You are distributing IP private
addresses.
On your primary network access you have a public IP address, on your secondary network access, you have a private IP address, and you translate the traffic IP addresses from the
public side toward the private side and the other way around.
To be able to perform this redistribution of IP traffic coming
from your primary network access toward the same physical access
your OS should be able to present you this physical interface as 2
differents virtual interfaces, typically en1 and en2.

MacOS X doesn't provide such a virtualisation function.

You can't redistribute your Ethernet connection toward your Ethernet
connection.
You can't redistribute your Wi-Fi connection toward
your Wi-Fi connection.

Connectify (on Windows 7) is simply selling a standard function of Windows which permit to create 2 virtual Wi-Fi interfaces on top of
one physical one (see: Wi-Fi hotspot for Windows 7). Then Windows
redistribute the network access of the primary Wi-Fi toward the second one.


Sound Gone on Macbook Pro Retina 15" late 2014 running MacOS Big Sur 11.3 Beta A few weeks ago, the sound on my  Mac just died.  Nothing was coming from the internal speakers, the headsets, or external systems.  When I get into the sound icon from system preferences, I'm told that there are no input or output devices available.  Everything but the sound works fine, except if there's an  interview in a story, music, or any audio, I get dead silence.
Is this a fatal breakdown or can it be fixed for under the $2300 I paid for it originally?
I didn't expect it to help, but I tried to restore everything with the Time Machine--no luck there.
Thanks.

Did you try to run the Mac in Safe Mode? Were the results the same?
What about setting up a new user profile (make sure its an admin)? Is the sound still not working with the new user?
If safe mode and a new user are not showing any results that are different from what you currently experience then do the following:

Run Diagnostics Test
Reset the PRAM

Option-Command-P-R: Reset NVRAM or PRAM. If your Mac is using a firmware password, it ignores this key combination or starts up from macOS Recovery.

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)

The last resort should be to contact Apple Support for any further testing and then they can determine if repair is necessary. Before calling Apple Support, make sure you have an external hard drive (only for your Mac) and back it up so that you can secure your contents and files safely before repairs are done.


How can I back up my OSX 10.6 Installation DVD and create a bootable USB drive? I have a MacBook Pro mid 2009, It came with two DVDs: Application Install DVD and OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Installation DVD.

Since DVDs have a short life, I want to back up these two DVDs (Especially the OS X Installation DVD).

How can I clone these DVDs? Or even better, can I clone them on a bootable USB Drive?

Well, here are a few things:

1) That OS X installation disk (10.6), will only install Snow Leopard for your 2009 MBP

You cannot use that disk for OS X installs on other machines

2) Generally, the applications disk is nearly useless. Your milage may vary, but I've never, ever used them.

3) Obviously your external drive (USB you say?) will have to have enough space to boot the
installation process. I'd recommend 8+ GB if you will actually use this thing. However, you will only need a usb drive as large as the disk image file that we will create later on.

So, lets get started. There are probably guides out there that have more comprehensive answers than this, but I digress.

You need to use Disk Utility for the following steps. It should be in your Utilities folder. Put the OS X install disk into your Macbook, while your USB drive is also in the computer.

Wipe your USB drive, and reformat it as Mac OS Journaled
Create a disk image of the CD, saving it to your computer's hard drive.
Once you have created the disk image, it should be on the left pane of the Disk Utility window. Click on it, then select the 'Restore' tab to the right. You will want the Source to be the disk image file (the OS X install disk), and the Target to be the USB drive.

Let me know how it goes!

Charlie


Remap Top-Row Number Keys I've tried Ukulele and KeyRemap4MacBook. Neither does what I need to do.

I want to map the top-row 4 key and the top-row 8 key to SHIFT. So that, for example, when I press 4 + g it types a capital G.

Hitting the shift key with my pinkie is aggravating my carpal tunnel. On my windows machine I just remapped 4 and 8 to shift and I use a keypad if I need numbers. Savior for my hands.

Ukelele should be able to kind of do this by making 4 a "deadkey" that generates the uppercase letter for any key typed after it, unless there is a limit on the number of keys you can have in such a sequence.  (Just like alt + e is a deadkey that generates acute accented versions of any vowel typed after it)

Of course this is not exactly like Shift, because you can't hold it down, you have let 4 go before you hit the next letter.


Cron script not executing on Mavericks I have configured a user crontab file as follows:

*/2 * * * * /Users/[my user]/Dropbox/htdocs/auto-update.sh

But it won't execute. I waited for, like, 10-15 minutes. Why?

Command auto-update.sh runs easily if executed manually. How can I break apart the chain of execution and get my script running from cron?

The environment a cron job runs in is quite a bit different from an interactive shell; it's likely that the script is running, but not successfully. One of the biggest differences are that for cron jobs, the default PATH is just "/usr/bin:/bin", so if you use any commands that aren't in /usr/bin or /bin, they won't be found unless your script either sets its own PATH, or supplies explicit paths to commands. The other big difference is simply that it's not connected to an interactive session, so if it tries to do anything interactive (read from the terminal, etc) that'll fail. Try changing the cron entry to:

*/2 * * * * /Users/[my user]/Dropbox/htdocs/auto-update.sh >>/tmp/auto-update.log 2>&1

...and see if anything informative shows up in the log.


iPhone 11, Unable icloud backup iPhone 11 Pro Max
Version ios 14.2
Iphone storage used,  65.4GB of 256
iCloud storage used   68.3GB of 200
Previous iphone backed up ok, this shows ¨never¨ backed up.
I have started ¨Back Up now¨ many times, it will start showing estimated time to finish, the line will go to a little over half the lenght but will stop and discontinue backup process.
Have tried reset settings and signing out of icloud and back in.
Good wifi network.
What do I have to do in order for my iphone to finish its backup process?

Turn off all things you can in iCloud settings. The idea is to back up as little as possible. Then turn them on half at a time till you discover which “group” is failing.
Or, contact Apple support. They can see the logs on the server side and tell what is messed up if needed. You will likely do some other troubleshooting like try a different network, but costumer support has the best tools to support your specific account.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428 ( what iCloud backs up )
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204247 ( reduce the size of your backup )


How can I launch a printer scanner from Spotlight? I can go to the "Printers & Scanners" panel from Spotlight, but I cannot call the scanner directly. Is there any way to make Spotlight index a shortcut to the default printer's Scanner app?

It would save the 2 to 3 clicks it takes to click on the correct printer if needed, click on the "Scan" tab and finally on the "Open Scanner" button.

(It's rather counter-intuitive to have to go to a System Preferences panel to be able to scan a document)

[Edit: I mean this app:]

Easy,

Open System Preferences
Select the "Printers & Scanners" control panel
Select the Scanner that you want to create the shortcut for
Once the scanning window opens, right-click on the Scanner's application icon on the right side of your dock, and select "option/keep on dock"
Next time you want to open the scanner, just click on its docked icon
If it is a combo printer/scanner, step 5 may open the printer queue window instead of going straight to scan mode. If this occurs, simply the click the "Scan" button that shows in the Printer Queue window.


How to remove duplicated browser from a drop down when choosing default browser? How to remove Chrome 54 from this list? I don't use it and it's not installed.

However I do use Chrome 61 and it's visible in Applications - I want this one to stay as it is.

I've finally found what was the "issue" with duplicated Google Chrome. Version 54 was installed via brew cask install google-chrome while the second one was installed in a traditional way.

After calling brew cask uninstall --force google-chrome and re-downloading the classic version, everything came back to normal.


Can imagent in OS X Mountain Lion be made to consume fewer resources? imagent is constantly consuming CPU cycles and a couple of GBs of "real memory" on my wife's MacBook Air since upgrading to OS X Mountain Lion. I believe this is part of the Messages app.

Is there anything that can be done to make it behave more acceptably, or is it just not practical to use on these devices?

Force Quit on the imagent process and then restarting the Messages app reduced memory consumption to a few MB instead.


Copy and Cut sometimes don't work My system is kept fully up to date and I still see this problem intermittently, although not as often as I used to; I would say that this has not been fully fixed. If there are any workarounds other than rebooting, this would be a good place to collect them. This has previously been closed and re-opened due to demand.

Cutting and copying do not always seem to change the content of the clipboard, whether triggered from a keyboard shortcut, a menu option, or even drag and drop. At the least this results in sometimes praying the wrong information, at worst it results in cut randomly acting like a delete key. The behavior as I have observed started out as staying to randomly occur and then consistently happen until the system is rebooted, for all programs including finder and the terminal.now it seems to stay randomly and then intermittently but at a high frequency occur, again regardless of program.

Searching on google produces no useful results for this issue.

Copied from Drag & drop and cut & paste not working [closed] so that others may find this question in search

  Possible Duplicate:
  Can anyone explain this clipboard behaviour?

  This is weird. I'm on OSX Lion, and sometimes both drag & drop and cut
  & paste stop working, at the same time. They stop working in any
  program, not just the Finder. And it's not just the shortcut: if I try
  to right click and select "Copy" it doesn't work either.

  This has happened three times so far. A reboot fixes it, but it's
  annoying at best. Any solution?

Does anyone know of any way to fix this, or otherwise how to report this to Apple?

@bmike I have removed other questions, I had this issue on a series of Macs, both iMacs and unibody MBPs, under OSX 10.7 and 10.8. I no longer use OSX so can't really contribute any more to this question.

Based on this post, the following worked for me.

Check if the pboard daemon is running:

launchctl list | grep com.apple.pboard

If the pboard daemon is running, then stop and start it.  If it's not running, start it:

launchctl stop com.apple.pboard
launchctl start com.apple.pboard

Then, you may need to restart the application(s) where cut-and-paste is not working.


Setting Up Raid iMac I have one lacie 2big thunderbolt 4th unit setup as raid 1. I want to add a lacie 2big thunderbolt 4th unit. How do I get it set up so the entire unit 1 is mirrored onto unit 2(Raid1)?

As of El Capitan, the Disk Utility application no longer provides RAID functionality, but it remains in the diskutil command-line program. For brief instructions, type diskutil appleRAID or diskutil appleRAID create in the terminal. For more detailed information, type man diskutil.

List of available RAID commands:

askewchan ~> diskutil appleRAID
Usage:  diskutil [quiet] appleRAID|AR <raidverb> <options>,
        where <raidverb> is as follows:

     list            (Display the current status of RAID sets)
     create          (Create a RAID set on multiple disks)
     delete          (Delete an existing RAID set)
     repairMirror    (Repair a damaged RAID mirror set)
     add             (Add a spare or member disk to an existing RAID)
     remove          (Remove a spare or member disk from an existing RAID)
     enable          (Convert a volume into a single disk RAID set)
     update          (Update the settings of an existing RAID)

diskutil appleRAID <raidverb> with no options will provide help on that verb

The create command:

askewchan ~> diskutil appleRAID create
Usage:  diskutil appleRAID create mirror|stripe|concat setName
        filesystemType MemberDeviceNames|NestedRAIDSetUUIDs ...
Create a RAID set.  All existing data on the drives will be lost.
Ownership of the affected disks is required.
Example: diskutil AppleRAID create mirror MirrorName JHFS+ disk1 disk2

Some relevant parts of the full man page:

askewchan ~> man diskutil

DISKUTIL(8)               BSD System Manager's Manual              DISKUTIL(8)

NAME
    diskutil -- modify, verify and repair local disks

SYNOPSIS
    diskutil [quiet] verb [options]

DESCRIPTION
    diskutil manipulates the structure of local disks.  It provides information
    about, and allows the administration of, the partitioning schemes, layouts, and
    formats of disks. This includes hard disks, solid state disks, optical discs,
    CoreStorage volumes, and AppleRAID sets.  It generally manipulates whole vol-
    umes instead of individual files and directories.

On RAID:

appleRAID | ar raidVerb [...]
    AppleRAID verbs can be used to create, manipulate and destroy
    AppleRAID volumes (Software RAID).  AppleRAID supports three basic
    types of RAID sets:

          o   "stripe" - Striped Volume (RAID 0)
          o   "mirror" - Mirrored Volume (RAID 1)
          o   "concat" - Concatenated Volume (Spanning)

    Of these three basic types, only the "mirror" type increases fault-
    tolerance.  Mirrors may have more than two disks to further increase
    their fault-tolerance.  Striped and concatentated volumes are, in
    fact, more vulnerable to faults than single disk volumes.

    AppleRAID is not a replacement for backing up your data.  Backups
    should be always be performed on a regular basis and before modify-
    ing any RAID set using these commands.

On creating a new RAID:

    create mirror | stripe | concat setName format devices ...
               Create a new RAID set consisting of multiple disks and/or
               RAID sets.  setName is used for both the name of the cre-
               ated RAID volume and the RAID set itself (as displayed in
               list). e.g. 'diskutil createRAID stripe MyArray JHFS+
               disk1 disk2 disk3 disk4'.  Ownership of the affected
               disks is required.  diskutil createRAID is a deprecated
               synonym for diskutil appleRAID create.


Checkered pattern on itunes? my friend and I who live in different states wanted to watch a movie. We both rented out a movie on iTunes together. We used Skype to screen share, but on my friend's end she sees a checkered pattern. Why is that? Is there any way around it?

I'd assume that's some kind of DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection. I recall from the early days, when Macs still had optical drives and a DVD player app, that if you tried to take a screenshot while the DVD player was visible, even as you saw a frame of the movie there, it came out black in the screenshot. So I guess these kinds of countermeasures go a long way and Apple has no intention of removing them.

As for a way around it, I suppose site policy frowns upon discussing what is effectively piracy (even if you try to argue this might be fair use, which I might actually concede).


How can I change the icon of Recent Folder that I drag to dock on Mac I want to move the folder recent item to dock because it helps me a lot. But this is not the only one folder i use in dock, there is another one such as download folder. Because of the icon shown on these folders based on the first item in each folder, sometime it confuses me.

The question is, can I change the icon of those folders in dock so that I can differentiate them easily?

I assume you mean the recents view from the side-bar: once you have this in the dock, then if you right click on the Recents "folder" in the dock and select the View as Folder option the Recents item will get an icon that looks like a file drawer rather than the standard folder icon–as per image below.