Moving iOS Notes into OS X Notes I'd like to do a few things, either:

Safely move my iOS notes to the OS X Notes app
That is, sync my existing notes with the OSX Notes app and then delete the couple of thousand notes from the iOS app. I assume this would be done via iCloud, but I'm not sure how to save my notes permanently on my Mac and subsequently delete them off my iPhone.

Mass email my existing notes into Evernote
I've found plenty of suggestions on how to sync any new notes with Evernote or the OS X Notes app, but nothing about moving existing notes.

(I've tried exporting them with iExplorer and CopyTrans but I instantly noticed that a lot of notes were missing, so it's not the most reliable option. And given that since iOS 7 you can't even see your notes count, I have no way of knowing if the number of notes that other exporting apps - such as PhoneView - show the real amount.)
The majority of them are important academic notes and I absolutely need to get them off my iPhone onto my Mac, but it seems a lot more difficult than it should be.
Any suggestions?

I just realised I have the same issue.

But using the new Dropbox feature to save app documents to your Dropbox.

  What's New in Version 3.7 • New Action Extension for iOS 8: save files
  straight to Dropbox from your favorite apps

I can now get all my iPhone notes over and into Notes.app on the Mac. Which has my icloud account as the default account

This Answer shows how to do it with Automator folder actions. As everyone should have that.

I will be using Hazel.app As I find that works better than Automator folder actions.

First on my Mac.

create a folder in dropbox name notes.
create a folder in my Macs documents folder named htmlNotes.
Create a Automator Folder Action workflow :

Select the notes for the folder that receives the files.
Add a Move finder Items action
set the Move finder Items action's to: htmlNotes
Add a Run Applescript action
set the applescript code to:

on run {input, parameters}
    set bodyText to (do shell script "cat " & quoted form of (POSIX path of (item 1 of input as string)))
    set theName to paragraph 1 of (do shell script "cat " & quoted form of (POSIX path of (item 1 of input as string)) & " |textutil -format html -convert txt -stdin -stdout")
    tell application "Notes"
        activate
        set theContainerFolder to container of first note
        make new note at theContainerFolder with properties {body:bodyText, name:theName}
    end tell
end run

Save it.

Now in the Notes app on the iPhone I have the latest Dropbox update which gives me the ability to save a note to dropbox using the share icon.

(If you cannot see the Dropbox extension in your share list. the click the More button and activate it.)

Once you are in Dropbox , choose the folder you want the files to be saved into.

Dropbox will remember you last selection.

Lastly save the file.

The script should run on the make and move the file from  notes  to htmlNotes.

I did this moving because I originally found that if Dropbox did any updates to the folder the files would be added more than once to notes.

The files saved into dropbox are formatted in html tags. This is really handy because it allows us to keep most of the formatting from the original notes. The reason I do the conversion from html to text in the script is just to cleanly get the first paragraph, which will be used for the notes name.

Hope this helps. And note that this can be adapted to be used with any other way you choose to get the note text file onto your Mac, i.e email rule, Script Editor.app or like me Hazel as I find it is more responsive than the built in folder actions.

Here is the adapted script for Hazel:

set bodyText to (do shell script "cat " & quoted form of (POSIX path of theFile))
set theName to paragraph 1 of (do shell script "cat " & quoted form of (POSIX path of theFile) & " |textutil -format html -convert txt -stdin -stdout")
tell application "Notes"
    activate
    set theContainerFolder to container of first note
    make new note at theContainerFolder with properties {body:bodyText, name:theName}
end tell


Open Bitlocker USB stick on OS X I have a USB stick encrypted by Windows 7 built-in tool (bitlocker). I would like to open it on my OS X El Capitan.

When I open it, all I get is a file "BitLockerToGo.exe" and another "Read Me.url"

I found some pieces here and there but no full procedure for mac.

Actually I asked after some success because I thought it would benefit everyone ;-)

Here is the complete process. Some links are missing because I don't have enough reputation to embed them all. Sorry about that.

High-level, we "just" need dislocker.

But to install it, there are some dependencies to resolve... we need:

"Fuse for OS X"

Simply download the .img on their site, open and run the .pkg installer

Xcode command-line developers tools

I'm not sure what's the generic answer.
Open a terminal, and type

xcode-select --install

If you get an error "-bash: xcode-select: command not found", you need to install Xcode from the App store, then start again this command.
If an alert windows popup asking if you want to install, click on "install" button.
If it prints error "xcode-select: error: command line tools are already installed, [...]", you're all set.

"Homebrew"

Following instruction on their website, type following in terminal:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

If you get an error about Xcode tools not being installed whereas you did install it, then change the path to Xcode:

sudo xcode-select -switch /

and obviously dislocker !

Download ZIP (available in green button "Clone or Download" on the right)
Extract ZIP content
Open terminal and change directory to the dislocker-master directory
Compile and install dislocker:

brew install src/dislocker.rb

If you get an error about Xcode tools not being installed whereas you did install it, then change the path like this:

sudo xcode-select -switch /

Don't be desperate, it's now time to mount the USB stick !

But it's not gonna be trivial...

Identify the device of the USB stick, using Disk Utility:

Open Disk Utility and select the USB stick drive. Somewhere you should get something like "disk3s1". Replace this example with your actual value in following lines.
Keep Disk Utility open, it will be used in next steps

Eject the USB drive for example from Disk Utility (Unmount button)
Create a directory for the decrypted file

sudo mkdir /tmp/mydrive

Warning: this directory will have strange characteristics: it appears with "ls" but not with "ls -l" and not in the Finder wherever it is, moreover the content can't be listed, and trying to delete it often fails with strange error messages. That's why I put it in /tmp which is cleaned at every reboot.
Decrypt the USB stick with dislocker. If disk is "disk3s1" and the password is "MyPassword", the command will look like:

sudo dislocker-file -V /dev/disk3s1 -v -uMyPassword -r -- /tmp/mydrive

Add the disk image to Disk Utility and mount it

sudo hdiutil attach -imagekey diskimage-class=CRawDiskImage /tmp/mydrive/dislocker-file

Note: Don't try to list "/tmp/mydrive/dislocker-file" by yourself. Just assume it is there and write the path as is.

Hourray !!!, the new drive is there !

Because really nothing is easy, to clean-up you need to do the following:

Unmount the drive

For example from your friend Disk Utility, select its icon and click on "Unmount" button

Get rid of the image

From "Disk Utility", select the greyed drive, and from the menu "File" select "Eject".

Detach the fuse volume

sudo  hdiutil detach /tmp/mydrive/

Only now the directory /tmp/mydrive is a plain directory that can be deleted...

As you noticed the process is definitely complex and finally I just get a read-only drive.
I'm interested by any better answer.


Can employer install any software in Macbook to monitor activity? My work laptop is a MacBook. can my employer monitor my activity? I have to run a certain proxy config file via Tunnelblick( VPN ) the config file I had to take it from IT.thats it

It depends, but in most cases, yes they can.

If they issued the MacBook to you, it's their property and they have every right to do as they please with their assets.  There's a simple rule - their company, their rules.

If it's your laptop, they can't force you to install anything.  But that said, you have no entitlement to that particular position.  Again -  their company, their rules.

The first case is pretty cut and dry, so let's explore the second a bit more...
Your employment with a company is conditional, you follow their rules and do what they ask and you get to come back tomorrow to earn another paycheck (yeah, it's a little brutal, but that's what it comes down to).  If they have a policy that says your activity will be monitored and you will use a particular VPN (Tunnelblick), you agreed to those conditions.  So yes, even if it's your laptop, when you agree to certain conditions to work there, you've entered into a contract.  Not holding up your end of it, would be a breach of contract on your part.
Now, remember I said "it depends?"
Well, here in the US, there are contractors (also called 1099s because that's the tax document used to report income).  A contractor is not an employee.  There are laws that govern the relationship between what a 1099 contractor and the employer can enter into contractually.  For instance, if you are hired as a 1099 to market the company's new widget that's what you're hired to to do and that's it.

If they provide you with a laptop, well, it's their laptop so their rules apply.
If it's your laptop, they can't manage you like an employee, because you're not.  If however, their marketing database is secured behind a firewall that requires a VPN to access, well, inherently you'll have to install said software because you won't be able to do the job without it.

Can they monitor your activities?  Yes and no.
If you're connected to their VPN, inherently they can monitor everything you do.  However, when not connected, they have no business monitoring you - your laptop, your rules.  Typically when hired as a contractor, the contract will spell out the metrics you must meet (i.e. sales of so many widgets, so many contacts with X number of prospects per day, etc.)  How they record these metrics varies, but they cannot go outside the scope and micromanage your day to meet those metrics.  If they do, you're no longer a contractor, but an employee.  If this is the case, there are legal ramifications.  What are they?  You need to consult an attorney.  I'm not an attorney, and most importantly, I'm not your attorney.


Is there an app that allows me to monitor time spent using an application? Is there a tool that allows you to monitor the amount of time spent actively interacting with an application? This would be useful for development work to get an idea of just how long projects take.

EDIT:

I've been using RescueTime as it tracks apps, catagorises them based on productivity levels, and also looks at web pages visited.

Timing helps in tracking time spent in applications (and their windows) as well. It's similar to Time Sink but seems to provide more grouping and reporting options.


Is there a way to use Notes without using Mail.app With iCloud I've found the notes app super handy now that it easily syncs to my iPhone and iPad. It also syncs to my mac via Mail.app, but I was wondering if there's an easy way to access and edit notes that doesn't require opening my email.

Any way to do this?

Currently there is no way to use notes outside of Mail.app as suggested there are other apps like evernote that will sync but not iOS notes sadly.

I would have expected some kind of widget like stickies to work with notes, but no.


How do I create a video thumbnail Can I create an active, small but uncropped video window, whilst working on a different window

QuickTime Player

Open the video in QuickTime Player, resize the player, then select View → Float on Top.
QuickTime Player hides all of the UI when you move your mouse outside of the window.


Pages 09 4.0.3 wants an update When I open Pages 09 4.0.3, it tells me I need a software update; yet, running Software Update responds that all software is up to date.

I believe there is a later version of Pages with improved Lion support (like full page modes).

I've been to Apple Support pages download section: No dice.

How can I get that upgrade?

Ensure that the applications reside in /Applications/iWork '09 or the software update process does not seem to find them.


File has different owner if examined using `sudo` I have some files backed up on an external HD, and according to Finder they're all owned by my standard user account. According to Terminal, however, they're owned "unknown" if I look at them using sudo. If I don't use sudo they agree with Finder. I still seem to have normal access to them, but can anyone tell me what's going on here?

These files are owned by UID 99, which is the unknown user.  These files were, perhaps, initially created by an account that is no longer on the system, or a "different version of yourself" that was migrated from a previous version of the OS, etc.  To avoid confusion, when a normal user inspects these files, they appear to belong to whoever is viewing them.  When root inspects them (via sudo, for example), their actual owner is shown.

The following describes this in greater detail:

http://googlemac.blogspot.com/2007/03/user-99-unknown.html


Is this a security flaw for Other, Others, Others... accounts having 0 (root) UID? When running this command dscl . -list /Users UniqueID, I get duplicate UID, for the Other, Others, Others... accounts, which is the same UID root uses.

daemon              1
Guest               201
myusername          501
nobody              -2
Other               0
Other...            0
Others              0
postgres            502
root                0

I'm worried if this might be a security issue after I've updated from Yosemite → El Capitan (10.11.1), and I'm not aware if it was present before the update.
I've found out about this after being unable to install Parallels Deskop 10. The message from parallels was:

ERROR: 15476. Cannot install Parallels Desktop because there is a non-root user account with the UID 0 in your system

So this leaves me questioned whether it's a Parallels issue or the permission configurations.

Each user on OS X should have a unique identifier.

Given that your Mac is not managed and that you do not want the three Other accounts, reassign these accounts to different UID values – or delete them.

See Accidentally created user with duplicate UID. How to fix? for steps on how to reassign or remove these errant accounts.

This dscl command should work and form the basis for removing the other two accounts:

dscl . -delete /Users/Other

Be careful and please take a back-up first!


MacBook Pro Encountering High Latency I'm encountering latency trouble with my 15" 2011 Macbook Pro (running 10.6.7) when on an 802.11n (5GHz) wireless network hosted by a Time Capsule (version 7.5.2).  When I ping the Time Capsule, the ping numbers are all over the place, like so:

64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=216 ttl=255 time=3.461 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=217 ttl=255 time=236.725 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=218 ttl=255 time=157.924 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=219 ttl=255 time=79.511 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=220 ttl=255 time=1.295 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=221 ttl=255 time=0.833 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=222 ttl=255 time=150.669 ms

226 packets transmitted, 226 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.718/115.353/303.004/96.717 ms

The location of my computer doesn't seem to matter.  My signal shows up consistently at four bars, and I get the same ping results whether I'm in a different room, different floor, or right in front of the Time Capsule.

A second 15" unibody Macbook Pro (Mid 2009, also running 10.6.7) doesn't have this problem on the same network.  All pings to the Time Capsule from this second machine report <4 ms.

If I connect my computer via ethernet to the Capsule, I get a solid <1ms ping, as expected.  Only the wireless appears to have wild jumps.

I have tried resetting my network settings (deleting all network configurations from the library), disabling IPv6, changing my "Network Location", resetting the PRAM, resetting SMC, recycling power on the Time Capsule, but none of it seems to have had any effect.  I've tried to make sure I have no programs running in the background - Software Update has been turned off and running lsof -i on Terminal only reports SystemUIS as having two open IPv4 connections.  There is also no significant network traffic taking place, so it's not a matter of congestion.

Any ideas on something else I can try?  I'm sort of at a loss as to why one computer is fine and this one is not.

Edit:  Apple released two updates for the MBP this week, including an EFI update.  While neither update explicitly mentioned wireless connectivity, the update seems to have partially fixed the problem.  After installing both updates, I get a pretty consistent 3-5 ms ping with a very very occasional spike to 100.  At least it's much better than before.

In the meantime, the trick below still works if you want a 1 ms response instead.

There's an interesting tip from someone on Apple's discussion forums that can work as a workaround.

It appears that if the network card is inactive for more than 200 ms, it powers down and has to be powered up to send network traffic again, hence the random spikes.
But, if you can keep the network card active (at the cost of a small amount of CPU power and some extra traffic), then the latency goes away.

The command recommended by seanfromcolumbus was:

sudo ping -i .2 192.168.1.1

(The -i .2 specifies an interval of 200 ms)

Indeed, with this running, I get consistent results of <2 ms.

Original Post


Vertical lines on the left side of iPhone 4s after it fell down. Can it be fixed without replacing its screen? I accidentally dropped my iPhone 4s and vertical lines have appeared on the left side. Although, the screen did not break. The screen works well, but I can't see the other side of the screen.
this is how it looks: https://imgur.com/a/vlQZfkS

Can it be fixed without the need to replace the screen? I tried to shut it down and open it, but it didn't work. I tried a method I saw on YouTube where I would go to Settings app → Sounds → Ringtones and would play the ringtone and close and open the screen it did not work either.
Here's the link to the video i followed its' instructions : https://youtu.be/7CfYe_yNSDY

The video you're referencing appears to be a hoax of some sort. The steps shown in the video make no sense.

If your screen stopped working after your phone was dropped, the screen or some other part of the phone has probably been damaged, and will need to be replaced.


How do I command Automator to convert the multiple images from PNG to ICNS once at all? (Solved) I use OS X Mountain 10.8.2.

I used Automator and added AppleScript, copying the command from the old app's developer at the Iconoodle - Convenient ICNS to PNG image conversion  (Iconoodle isn't supported by OS X 10.8 by being a PPC app). I saved the workflow as an application. I selected the images and dropped them into the application, but the images weren't converted to ICNS. I also copied from the question Convert image to .icns file AppleScript Obj-C from StackoverFlow and it didn't work either.

I'm really frustrated with it. I want to use Automator to convert the multiple images from PNG to ICNS once at all. It's very annoying to convert each image to ICNS in the icon editor applications, one for one. The Preview.app doesn't want to convert the image in format PNG to ICNS because it has only one page, it can convert it to ICNS only if the icon has many pages.

Do you know to make it?

Thank you for your attention, help and patience!

My question has already been solved. Here's the answer at this link:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13559343/how-do-i-command-automator-to-convert-the-multiple-images-from-png-to-icns-once


Can I put a monitor next to another monitor while both are connected to my MacBook Pro? I have two monitors. Just for my setup, I was wondering if I could position one monitor on the left of my 15" 2018 MacBook Pro, and then another one on the left of that.

You are looking for a setup similar to this:

This is a commonly used multi-monitor setup and pretty simple to configure.

You can either setup the external displays to extend the Desktop or mirror the MacBook display.

Once you have connected the monitors and have set them up physically, arrange them by going to System Preferences → Displays.

Refer to the Apple Support document, Use external monitors with your Mac for help and more details.

Your MacBook can drive upto 4 external displays. Refer to the Apple Technical Specifications document, MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) - Technical Specifications for details:

  Video Support

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

  Up to two displays with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors
  Up to four displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors

  Thunderbolt 3 digital video output

  Native DisplayPort output over USB‑C
  VGA, HDMI, DVI, and Thunderbolt 2 output supported using adapters (sold separately)

Image Source: https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/xlarge_wm_brw/public/field/image/2014/01/4k_macbook_pro_hero.jpg?itok=vVPFgzZo


Suddenly Apple Wired Keyboard not working Suddenly my wired Apple Keyboard isn't working anymore. My MacBook don't recognize the external keyboard, and the keyboard is only two weeks old.

Is the Keyboard physically broken, or is it a software issue?

What can I do to fix it?

This is what solved it for me:

  Eventually I found this thread on the Apple website, and followed the rather bizarre advice of adding a USB extension cable between the keyboard and the Mac (luckily the keyboard comes packaged with one). Bingo! Keyboard fine, mouse plugged into it also fine.

http://www.zigpress.com/2014/12/30/has-your-apple-mac-external-usb-keyboard-stopped-working/


Random extreme CPU spikes on random browser tasks I've noticed that every once in a few days (sometimes daily) my CPU spikes to a 120% or such usage when any of my browsers are open.

The scenario is weird, today I was watching a movie using VLC player and I saw my battery starting to drain unusually fast and my fans running out of control, I open up the Activity Monitor and see that Safari Networking is clogging up my CPU time and usage (100%). My Safari was open but in the background with a few random websites such as Stack Overflow, none Flash-related apps or something along the lines. This was happening on Chrome way too often under the Process Name of Chrome Helper, but with a slightly greater CPU usage.

When I force shutdown the processes either via Activity Monitor or their PID everything returns to normal. Any clues? Happy to post any logs necessary.

macOS High Sierra 10.13, MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

Here are a few steps you can check:

Do you use Safari extensions? Try uninstalling unused or non-trusted Extensions.
Do you run Java in Safari? Disable the java browser runtime
This sounds too easy, but did you clear Safari Caches and Cookies? Sometimes quitting Safari without restoring windows may help resolve issues.
Go to Safari Preferences and turn off the autoplay video feature for all sites.
If you never clear your Cache the ~/Library/Safari/RecentlyClosedTabs.plist file generates huge file size. Quit Safari and move RecentlyClosedTabs.plist to the trash


How to make an alias permanent? I create an alias behavior

alias chrome="open -a 'Google Chrome'"
chrome foo.html

Nevertheless, It refuses to work when I restart the terminal.

$ chrome foo.html
-bash: chrome: command not found

As a solution, I place the command to ~/.bash_profile

# Add to ~/.bash_profile
# shortcut for chrome
alias chrome="open -a 'Google Chrome'"

Again, it report similar error

$ chrome foo.html
-bash: chrome: command not found

How to solve such a problem?

You need to relogin( to apply changes from .bashrc)
or do

source ~/.bashrc

which do the same work for your needs


How do I detect malware and remove it from iPad? I was an idiot, clicked on a zip file from a scam (notice to appearing court). How do I know if the malware did in fact get installed and if it did, how do I get rid of it?

You haven't got malware on your iPad. To extract zip files, you need a third-party app and this app's data will be contained within the sandbox of that app.


Will Turning Data usage off disable the hotspot? Without going into to much detail of why I’m asking .... if I turn off the data usage of one persons iPhone will that essentially disable their ability to be the “hot spot” for someone else to connect to... Even if they are connected to WiFi...
Person one has WiFi access and data and the ability to be a WiFi hotspot.
Person 2 doesn’t have any of that so they connect to person 1 to leach off their data plan.
If I turn off the data plan for person one they can still connect to WiFi. Can the hotspot be used by person 2 if no data plan is active for person 1? Hope that makes sense...

Technically, yes.If you turn off the data plan, then regardless if they try to be a hotspot, it won’t matter because there won’t be a data plan to use.
However, (I know this because I was researching data plans last week) you can get a data plan that doesn’t have hot spot or tethering capability.  So, your user can still have mobile data, but they won’t be able to use their mobile device as a hotspot.   You also might want to ask the carrier if they can manually turn off the hotspot function.


My ethernet is missing, how can i find it? COmcast was setting up an ethernet cable and there was no option to choose ethernet.  I have for years been using the stick from clear but wanted to go to cable for faster.  I currently am using a Wi-Fi router because that's all that I can get to work.  But where is the ethernet?

Click the + button on the bottom left, and select Ethernet from the menu to add it.


Any Way To Find An iPhone That Isn't Signed Into iCloud? I lost my iPhone 6s that isn't signed into iCloud. So, in turn, I can't use 'find my iPhone' or call the iPhone, because I haven't yet assigned a phone number to it. I did sign into the phone, though. Just not iCloud. Is there any way to find my 6s?

The only way would be the old-fashioned - go look for it, ask others if they've seen it, etc.

You don't specify what you mean by "signing into the phone" except that it is not iCloud, you've signed into. If the service you did sign into (for example Facebook Messenger?) does have some kind of location tracking, it might give you a last known position.

If you have just misplaced the phone, you can't really report it as stolen with Apple to get it blocked on cell networks.


Move file with specific extension from a directory hierarchy to a destination I have a directory hierarchy containing many images with .jpg file-extension, and there are multiple folders containing these images. There are many .json files as well in these folders.

Is there a way to scan all these subfolders and move the .jpg files to a specific destination/folder?

If you are looking for a command-line solution, use the following:

find /source_root_directory_path -name '*.jpg' -exec mv {} /target_directory_path \;


How can I remote control music on my computer from my iPhone? I want to change, play or pause my music using my iPhone while it is playing on my laptop.

Get Remote from the App Store which lets you control iTunes playback on your computer.


ios and mediaserverd I just read about playing media files via the browser, which in turn uses mediaserverd in iOS. Is there any place(a wiki perhaps) where I could find details about which file formats are supported by mediaserverd across various ios versions? The iOS version I'm particularly interested in, is 5.0.1, so any information would be appreciated!

Thanks!

The mediaserverd daemon/process handles almost all (audio and video) media in iOS, so to answer your question, there is a long list of supported media formats/types for iOS 5.0.1 on Apple's website: http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html. There haven't been any significant changes to this list since iPhoneOS 3. Mediaserverd mostly encodes/decodes media, so the player may differ, but the core process does not.


Error when using "do shell script" I'm using a MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid-2014) running El Capitan. I'm trying to create a script that checks if my computer is open or not, and I'm using this:

ioreg -r -k AppleClamshellState | grep '"AppleClamshellState"' | cut -f2 -d"=""

I tested this in Terminal and it works fine, so I add do shell script in front of it to run it in AppleScript. But when I do, it gives me this:

Expected end of line, etc. but found identifier.

Please help!

Instead of piping to grep and cut, just use awk.

do shell script "ioreg -r -k AppleClamshellState | awk -F \" = \" '/AppleClamshellState/ {print $2}'"

-F \" = \" makes the separator: = (space = space)
/AppleClamshellState/ Search for: AppleClamshellState
{print $2} Prints Yes or No depending on what's returned for:AppleClamshellState
E.g "AppleClamshellState" = No prints No

You can also use:

do shell script "ioreg -r -k AppleClamshellState | grep 'AppleClamshellState' | cut -d'=' -f2"

However there will be a leading space in front of Yes or No as cut only handles a single character for the deliminator.

Note: The command text portion of do shell script, e.g. do shell script "uptime" must be double-quoted. So when the command text string itself is using double-quotes within the string, one should substitute a single-quote ' wherever possible and if double-quotes must be used within the string then escape them with a backslash \.


Streaming video without an internet connection I have a customer that wants to stream his Iphone 5 and iPad video and audio files over his wireless network.  this network is not connected to the internet 80% of the time making using an Apple TV nearly impossible.  Is there any other hardware, such as a WiFi Blu-ray player that would be capable of doing this procedure for him?

The reason this network is not connected to the internet most of the time is that it is in his private jet that only gets internet above 10k feet and only within the continental US

You dont need the internet connection to stream, you just need a wifi network (a router; example: stream from the iphone to the apple tv via an airport express creating a network). If you neglect DRM-protected stuff that is, which needs access to the internet.

Apparently you just have to activate the apple tv beforehand though, which requires an internet connection.

Another option would be a Chromecast.


Mac OS Catalina - Bluetooth audio output issues (WF-1000XM3, Bose QuietComfort 35) I have new Macbook Pro 16' with Mac OS Catalina (obviously I can't downgrade)

From time to time, music stops playing inside the headphones (WF-1000XM3).
The headphones are still connected, but sound output switched from the headphones.
Changing sound output to the headphones will produce spinning wheel, but will not actually change it.

Turning off and on the headphones sometimes fixes the issue.
Resetting BT module temporary fixes the issue (SHIFT + OPTION + click on BT in menu bar)

It's was really frustrating, How I fixed it is below.

Forcing headphones to use aptX codec fixes the issue.

How to change it?

Head to https://developer.apple.com/bluetooth/

Download additional tools for Xcode (you might need to sign in with your Apple ID)

Open downloaded image and open Hardware folder

Move BT Explorer to your application folder and open it

Select Force use of aptX

Disconnect your headphones and connect again
Hold OPTION/ALT key and click on BT in the menu bar, find your headphones, it should show Active Codec: AptX

From my experience this should fix the issues.

Edit: Some people reported that disabling Ask Siri reduces the issues as well.


Do I need to install the Boot Camp update in Mac OS X and Windows 7? I'm running Windows 7 on a Boot Camp partition on a 2010 Mac Pro running Lion.

Every so often I'm prompted to download and install the latest update to the Boot Camp software under Windows but this doesn't ever seem to update the installed version of Boot Camp. I also get prompted to do this when in OS X.

Should I update both or one of them? And if the latter, should I do one before the other?

I would update them both and I don't think you need to do one before the other. I have not had any problems updating one before the other and I manage large networks of Macs.


Macbook Air crashes/restarts when something doing something heavy on it Might be a little confusing to explain but I'll try my best to give a detailed response.

Basically it's a Macbook Air (2014 model) running Yosamite 10.10.2.

I noticed this issue a while back and couldn't find an answer to it on Google.

Whenever I run anything that's a little CPU extensive like a game, a heavy website, or anything which activates the fan in the Macbook, it just crashes/restarts after freezing.

You can hear the fan just turning on and speeding up, but before it gets to full speed the Macbook just freezes and then crashes and reboots to the Apple logo.

In the past, it worked just fine. I played a few games on it even though the Macbook Air would be running its fan for an hour, it never caused issues like this before.

I'm just confused, could this be an OSX error, like maybe upgrading to Yosamite 10.10.2 caused this(was on 10.10 when things ran fine).

Could it be that something is damaged? (The fan seems fine because I used a fan control App to test running the fan on full mode and it ran just perfectly)

Anything would be greatly helpful guys...

Welcome to Ask Different!

I don't think it's enough details to answer for sure. The best would probably be to go to an Apple Store ask them to run there diagnostic tool on your computer.

What it looks like is that the computer gets too hot and enter in safe mode leading to the shut down to avoid the melting down of the processor.

That said maybe there is too much dust and your computer is actually too hot, or maybe one of the sensor is wrong and then it will show on the diagnostic tool.

You can also use a software like iStat Menu or HWSensors to read yourself the sensors and try to spot something wrong.


How do I identify the device where the photos came from? I have an iMac with OS X El Capitan and I use the iMac to sync the photos on my iPhone. I live with my girlfriend and she also has an iPhone.

This week my girlfriend synchronized her pictures on the iMac and now I have strong problems detecting which device is the owner of each picture.

Both of us are using the same device model (iPhone 5C), I synchronize my iPhone almost every day and she does every 2 weeks.

Is there any way to order the synchronized photos by device?

You can group the photos by the camera that took them, using Smart Albums.

First click on one of your girlfriend's photos and Show Info under the Window menu. You will see something like this. It's the camera model that is important (I have boxed it in red).

My hope is that your iPhone is not the same model as your girlfriend's. If it isn't we are in business. Assuming that they are different here is what you need to do.

Go to File/New Smart Album...

Call it "My Girlfriend's Photos" or whatever (I called mine "iPhone 6s pictures"). Set the Camera Model to include what you saw in the Info pane. In my case, it's iPhone 6s. See below.

If you show the Sidebar (View menu) you will then see your Smart Album somewhere in it. Here's how it looked here.

If you are showing the Sidebar, and you click on "All Photos" under the heading "Albums" (not "Photos" at the very top), you will notice that View/Sort will say something like "Keep sorted by oldest date added." This may give you a second chance at figuring out which photos are your girlfriend's, because the sorting is by date ADDED and not date "taken." So the pictures that were newly added would be at the bottom, and those are probably your girlfriend's. You could select them and put them into a regular album and you'd be all set.

Personally I am hoping that you two have different iPhone models because the Smart Folder method would be very cool.


How is my $PATH variable built on macOS? I've recently installed Homebrew on my Mac and it's complaining that /usr/bin occurs before /usr/local/bin in my $PATH variable, meaning that system-provided programs will be used instead of those installed with Homebrew.

My .bashrc is configured in a set of separate files, as per this screencast. This means that ~/.bash_profile looks like this:

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ];
then
  source ~/.bashrc
fi

~/.bashrc looks like this:

source ~/bin/dotfiles/bashrc

and ~/bin/dotfiles/bashrc looks like this:

. ~/bin/dotfiles/bash/env
. ~/bin/dotfiles/bash/config
. ~/bin/dotfiles/bash/aliases

~/bin/dotfiles/bash/env, which is where I set my $PATH variable, looks like this:

export EDITOR="kom"
export PATH=some/path/at/start:usr/local/bin:/Users/jim/pear/bin:~/bin:/Users/jim/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin:/Users/jim/bin/bashscripts:some/path/at/end:$PATH

I've added some/path/at/start and some/path/at/end for debugging purposes, since when I try echo $PATH I get this:

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/Users/jim/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:some/path/at/start:usr/local/bin:/Users/jim/pear/bin:/Users/jim/bin:/Users/jim/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin:/Users/jim/bin/bashscripts:some/path/at/end:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin

That is, there's a load of other stuff being loaded into the $PATH variable that I can't control in the configuration I've outlined above. Any ideas as to where this stuff is loaded from, so that I can go about changing it and moving /usr/local/bin before /usr/bin?

The INVOCATION section of the bash man page says

  When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After reading
  that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and
  ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the
  first one that exists and is readable.

Of particular interest is /etc/profile, which uses path_helper to build a path from what it finds in /etc/paths and /etc/paths.d/*.


iTunes 12 home sharing import album Any idea how to import albums from one computer to another via Home Sharing on Yosemite / iTunes 12? All the pages I've found tell you to click a Show menu at the bottom of the window which is no longer there.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12286
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH986

Home Sharing is a method to share music directly between Mac's on a local network authenticated with the same iTunes account.

Family Sharing is the method for sharing purchases made through iTunes or App Store by a defined group of iTunes accounts all using the same credit card.

Share My Library is a preference in iTunes that allows local network user to stream, but not copy, music from your library.

The Home Sharing feature allows one to view, copy, and play music from a locally networked Mac. In iTunes 11 and earlier, it was relatively simple to drag content over to your own library and thus copy the files over the local network. With iTunes 12 it can be a bit less obvious.

With a properly configured pair of Macs on Home Sharing, you can drag a song to the left and a sidebar will reveal allowing you to pick a target location. This function is often broken and requires you unconfigure/reconfigure the Home Sharing.

See this Apple Discussions thread for more details.


Options for recovering deleted files I deleted a file last week (a PDF in this case). While I'm able to reconstruct the information I need in this case, I'd like to take precautions against this happening again.

Is there anything built into the OS that will let me recover files? Will enabling time machine allow me to do this? (I don't want it to be taking up lots of room on disc.) Am I best off purchasing a program such as DiskWarrior, or are there free options to do this?

How can I set up 10.6 so that it'll be easier for me to recover deleted files?

Edit: "Deleted" means I emptied the trash.

If your data is in any way important, you should consider  taking proper backups on a reasonable schedule.  If you are not familiar with the tools available, then the key is to use something simple that you can understand.  For most people, this is indeed Time Machine.  It will backup your whole computer, including your personal documents.  Recovery is simple, particularly if you know where the file was located before you deleted it, but is simple enough to search for also so long as you can remember roughly what it was called.

The requirements to use Time Machine are

1) A spare hard disk partition, you can partition your own internal drive into 2 but this will obviously reduce your working space and will not protect you from a full disk failure.  The better option is to get yourself an external USB disk drive.  The drive needs to be at least equal to the size of the disk you want to backup, but for preference should be 2x bigger to allow for revisions and history etc

2) Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) onwards.

To set up TM, just plug your disk in, and the system will simply ask if you want to use it for backups.  Once you say yes, it will backup changes hourly so long as it is connected.  If you disconnect for any reason (you have a laptop and travel with it leaving your backup at home) the changes will just stack up and then be pushed onto your backup disk when it is next plugged in.  If you forget to plug it in for any length of time, it will eventually start to remind you that it has been X days since the last backup.

Once you have a backup completed, you can recover files individually, or whole folders, or the entire system onto a fresh disk/computer.

EDIT: I see Disk Warrior recommended a lot, but to me it seems like it's a tool for people who are desperate having already lost data.  It will potentially help you recover a "lost" file (but this is never guaranteed).  It's a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.  If you had a backup, you would not need to use this sort of software, but that requires you to be pro-active.  Also, it costs $99, and you could buy a backup drive of 1Tb or more with that kind of cash, and be better protected in the future.  You just had a near miss, so luckily you appear to have got away with it this time, but better to be proactive and backup, then reactive and try to "undelete" etc.


Software Update in Mountain Lion Can anyone who has upgraded to Mountain Lion confirm that software updating is now done through the App Store and no longer through the Software Update utility?

If this is the case, does this mean different family members must sign in to the same account or use the same account just to update the OS? In my case,  purchased OS X Lion with my Apple ID, one of my family signed to my account once in order to download Lion, but they can update their system using the the classic Software Update utility afterwards. Now it seems they'll need to sign into my account every time for any update, or we'll have to create a new Apple ID just for this purpose.

The term Software Update does appear in the  menu, but clicking it opens the Updates tab in the App Store app.


Devices not showing up for AirDrop I have

iPhone 5 (with iOS 8.3)
MacBook Pro Early 2013 (with OS X Yosemite 10.10.3)
iPad Air (with iOS 8.3)

My iPhone is paired with the MacBook, so e.g when my phone rings, I can see it in my computer. But when I want to AirDrop photos from my iPhone the MacBook, then I can't see the MacBook in my iPhone AirDrop targets.

I can see the iPad, I can see my wife's iPhone, but not the MacBook.

On MacBook, I can see the iPad, my wife's phone and even my iPhone and I can drop to there, but not the other way around.

Before I started troubleshooting, the iPhone and MacBook were mutually invisible (I only saw iPad from both). After a while of trying things and sending files back and forth, my MacBook started to see the iPhone, but I did not manage to make it work from the other way. Still, the iPhone seems to be much "less" visible than the iPad - which I see almost instantly and always, the iPhone only seems to appear after a while.

Just to make it clear:

both iPhone and MBP have BT turned on
both have AirDrop visibility set to Everyone

I would be glad for any suggestions to fix this - what settings to check, logs, whatever.

Steps 3 and 4 are the trick!

Similar issue:

Can send file from MBP to iPad.
Can not see MBP on iPad* airdrop screen.

Fix that worked for me:

On iPad: turn on Wifi, Bluetooth and AirDrop (share with Everyone)
On Mac: turn on Wifi, Bluetooth and AirDrop (share with Everyone), then try to share the file(s) on AirDrop
On Mac: Bluetooth > Browse files on Device; select Jeff's iPad, then 'Browse'; notice it connects, but then it drops right after with the message "The device does not have the necessary services" and
On iPad: observe that 'Mike's MacBook Pro' shows on AirDrop
MBP', despite of the error (another error message might be shown under the MBP's name)
On iPad: send pictures/videos to Mac.
[extra] On iPad and MBP: for security reasons, turn off AirDrop (and maybe Bluetooth too) once you're done!

*Obs: it should work on iPhone too;  I upvoted this answer since it helped me to find this solution .


Retrieve thumbnails from iPhoto? I have a friend who managed to lose some photos a while back, but they "appear" in his iPhoto library. The thumbnails are there but the photos aren't. The photos seem long gone, but the thumbnails seem fairly large- large enough to maybe be useful for some of them. Is it possible to retrieve the thumbnails?

According to this website, the thumbnails are stored inside ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library, which you can access by right-clicking iPhoto Library and choosing to view the package contents.

The first location to check is inside of the Thumbnails folder, as mentioned by OP below.

The second place to look would be in Thumb64Segment.data, or ThumbJPGSegment.data. Therefore, I would back up these files and see if there are any applications which can read this file format. I haven't been able to find one after a brief search on the Internet, but I'll update this answer if I do.

A third option might be that this may be happening because of a corrupt iPhoto Library. There's a tool called iPhoto Library Manager, which has a feature called First Aid that let's you:

  Rebuild or extract photos from corrupted iPhoto libraries

I haven't tried the software, so I don't know if it will work in your case, but they do have a trial version available.


How to start App Expose without using Force Touch or the keyboard? I know there was a way to trigger App Expose, by pointing the mouse cursor over an dock icon, and scrolling the mouse wheel.

As far as I remember, it was something I had to enable with the "defaults" command in Terminal.

Unfortunately I don't remember how to enable this feature, and I can't find it on google nor on AskDifferent. Could somebody point me to the right direction?

The following command will enable mouse scroll to open App Expose
defaults write com.apple.dock scroll-to-open -bool TRUE; killall Dock

To disable the gesture, use
defaults write com.apple.dock scroll-to-open -bool FALSE; killall Dock


Completely Destroyed iPhone 6 Just today, my iPhone 6 was left on the top of my friends car and I forgot to take it down. So when we drove, it flew off the top and got destroyed by another car. When I went to go pick it up, the entire screen came off and the entire body of my phone is destroyed. It hasn't yet been a year since I bought the iPhone with AT&T. Do you think I can get a replacement for the phone? any warranty benefits? Again, my phone is completely destroyed but the SIM AND BATTERY are perfectly fine. What should i do?

Warranty from Apple doesn't cover accidental damage.

If you have insurance from the carrier or AppleCare plus, they will pay some or all the costs to repair it.

Put the pieces in a ziplock bag and call Apple or visit a retail store to get a quote for replacement in writing so you can provide that to the carrier and/or insurance company. Depending on how badly you need a replacement, you might pay for Apple's repair and check coverage later.

Best of luck and have a look at cases like life proof and otter box that might help in bad situations if you decide not to insure the replacement.


Whats the last OS X that supported Power PC? I still have an old Power PC machine and was wondering what the latest OS X build I can install on it?

Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) is also the
  first Mac OS release since the
  introduction of System 7.1.2 that
  does not support the PowerPC
  architecture, as Apple now intends to
  focus on its current line of
  Intel-based products.

Thus OS X supported PowerPC up to and including version 10.5 (Leopard).


How to combine two windows as one in Terminal? In Terminal I can use Command + T to create Tabs in one Window, check below:

but now, I opened two windows like this, how to merge them as one liker upper:

I have tried drag one into another, but not work.
my macos Version is: Catalina 10.15.7 (19H524)

If you want to be able to drag one into another, you have to turn the Tab Bar on from the View menu, or use ⇧⌘T, and then drag the tabs.  Both the source and the destination need to have the Tab Bar turned on.
Or, from the Window menu... Merge All Windows.


Buy from the App Store via Desktop browser and have app auto-install to my iOS device? How can I buy an iOS app from the App Store and have it downloaded to my iOS device, perhaps telling it?

Anytime I attempt to go to the App Store website, it keeps trying to push me towards iTunes, which I don't have installed on all my computers (e.g. my work computer). I'd like to fire up a browser on my work or other machines, log into the App Store from the desktop browser, purchase and push the app directly to one of my AppleID linked devices, it's gotta be possible in this day of cloud and mobile computing. (like Android or Windows Phone 8/10).

What am I missing here? Is there a different link? Different setting?

It is not possible to install apps on your iOS devices by invoking the download using a Desktop browser.

Till recently (iTunes 12.6.3) it was possible to purchase an app on iTunes running on a Mac/Windows PC and have it automatically downloaded on linked iOS devices (The iOS device should have the setting enabled to auto-download newly purchased apps). With iTunes 12.7, the iOS App Store has been removed from iTunes for Desktop.

Thus, currently there is no way to push an app on an iOS device.

However, you can have a newly purchased (free/paid) app automatically downloaded on all your linked iOS devices, by going to Settings app → iTunes & App Stores and toggling for Apps under Automatic Downloads.


How to stop speech in automator action I can make an Applescript within automator so it reads text at N speed:

on run {input, parameters}
  repeat with thisText in input
      say thisText speaking rate 400
  end repeat
end run

However, is there a way to stop the speech at any given point? There is the option of clicking the cogwheel at the top menu bar, but I was looking for a shortcut-able way.

I have a few different solutions:

This applescript immediately kills all speech that is running on your computer:

do shell script "killall com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd"

Alternatively, you could have a single script that checks to see if the speech is running and will kill that particular speech, (basically simulates the shortcut for alt-esc, BUT you can add the rate function to the script). I found a script online a while back that does this. Here's the link. I also made my own version that changes the rate (at the bottom of the post). The rate control is where it says [[rate 800]]. This script copies text to the clipboard and adds '[[rate 800]]' which apple tts voices interpret as a command to change to that rate. The clipboard is read at the modified speed. You can adjust up to like 1000 or something.
However, if you really just want to make your mac's default text to speech rate faster (which is what I suspect you are using this script for), I highly recommend you just change the default rate using a little hack I came up with a while back (It allows you to go up to 720 WPM). I have a video that describes it all. Basically, it changes the default rate using a script.

use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"
property this_say_Pid : missing value -- the persistent property

if this_say_Pid is not missing value then -- check the pid of all 'say' commands, if exists then quit the unix process
  set allSayPid to {}
  try
      set allSayPid to words of (do shell script "pgrep -x 'say'")
  end try
  if this_say_Pid is in allSayPid then -- the PID = an item in the list
      do shell script "/bin/kill " & this_say_Pid -- quit this process to stop the speech
      error number -128 -- quits the AppleScript
  end if
end if

-- Back up original clipboard contents:
set savedClipboard to my fetchStorableClipboard()

-- Copy selected text to clipboard:
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}

delay 0.1

tell application "System Events"

  set varClip to "[[rate 800]]" & (the clipboard)
  delay 0.1
  set the clipboard to varClip

end tell

delay 0.1 -- Without this, the clipboard may have stale data.

-- Speak the clipboard:
--  pbpaste = the contents of the clipboard , this run the commands without waiting, and get the PID of the 'say' command
set this_say_Pid to do shell script "LANG=en_US.UTF-8 pbpaste -Prefer txt | say > /dev/null 2>&1 & echo $!"

-- Restore original clipboard:
my putOnClipboard:savedClipboard

on fetchStorableClipboard()
  set aMutableArray to current application's NSMutableArray's array() -- used to store contents
  -- get the pasteboard and then its pasteboard items
  set thePasteboard to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
  -- loop through pasteboard items
  repeat with anItem in thePasteboard's pasteboardItems()
      -- make a new pasteboard item to store existing item's stuff
      set newPBItem to current application's NSPasteboardItem's alloc()'s init()
      -- get the types of data stored on the pasteboard item
      set theTypes to anItem's types()
      -- for each type, get the corresponding data and store it all in the new pasteboard item
      repeat with aType in theTypes
          set theData to (anItem's dataForType:aType)'s mutableCopy()
          if theData is not missing value then
              (newPBItem's setData:theData forType:aType)
          end if
      end repeat
      -- add new pasteboard item to array
      (aMutableArray's addObject:newPBItem)
  end repeat
  return aMutableArray
end fetchStorableClipboard

on putOnClipboard:theArray
  -- get pasteboard
  set thePasteboard to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
  -- clear it, then write new contents
  thePasteboard's clearContents()
  thePasteboard's writeObjects:theArray
end putOnClipboard:


Disk space available: Finder shows way less than System Information The Finder currently shows only 81GB available (at the bottom of a folder's window) whereas System Information > Storage shows 455GB available.

Why does the Finder show so much less space available?

FYI: I'm running macOS 10.15.4 on an iMac with a 500GB drive.

I suggest you run DaisyDisk which will do a graphical display of your disk contents. The app is not free but can be used once as a free trial.  This app will map out your entire disk showing where everything is located.  it will take several minutes to completely map your drive.


Alfred 2 fails to launch after upgrade to Yosemite I just upgraded to Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10 and Alfred 2 fails to launch.

In Activity Monitor, it reports that it is not responding, and the only thing I can do is Force Quit it.

Console doesn't report any messages except the kill message from my force quit.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Don't use Alfred myself so I can't give a specific answer.

Something I would try though is using opensnoop to see if I can work out where it is failing.

If you type sudo opensnoop | grep alfred into a Terminal it'll show you all the files that Alfred is touching. That might help you identify where it is crashing, for example if it is a corrupt plist file.


Login screen stuck after entering password after BigSur update I updated to macOS BigSur, but after entering my password login is stuck. I tried couple approaches:

starting in safe mode;

reseting PRAM/NVRAM;

reinstalling BigSur;

also tried removing Csstore files described here Macbook Pro stuck after I enter my password

I even did full disk erase and installed BigSur, then imported my data via migration assistant but still cannot log in to my account;

but it did not help. I have other accounts and I am able to login there. I also tried from those accounts to login with su my_username with terminal. I also changed the password that way, but all that did not help. I found the crash description in the logs of my user under ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ and it seems that accountsd is crashing, bug type 309.
Is there a process to fix this error?

Bummer. Before you try and reset the password, have you tried a safe mode start? (Power down, hold shift as the Mac starts)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255

Here is the script to reset the password when it’s not working anymore.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860


Is there a way to toggle VPN in iOS shortcuts? Is there a way to toggle VPN trough shortcuts in iOS 12?

Looked into it, but can't really find anything.

First, you need to have a VPN app installed. When you connect to the VPN for the first time (via this installed app OR configuration URL), iOS enables a hidden tag in settings named VPN. This tile isn’t enabled by default, so check if you were connected before to any service or not. This setting was just created to manage an existing connection.
and my second solution is this url : prefs:root=General&path=VPN . but to use this url you need to connect existing app or shortcut (going there with safari does nothing and url is very unstable). here is download of my version of shortcut and sorry for google drive but i'm logged out of icloud :/ . and here is printscreen of code (i'm doing that due to security reasons and people just don't trust me so...) here it is:


ITunes Match: syncing smart playlists that reference other playlists ITunes tells me I cannot sync a smart playlist that references another playlist, but combining playlists is how I like to shuffle my music. I especially like creating individual playlists with "last played is not in the last" and "limit to" and then combining them. Do I need more cleverly designed rules, or is IMatch not for me? Advice?

I have certainly been disappointed that smart playlists won't live update on the Iphone, but at least I could still combine playlists into "superplaylists."

Imatch won't allow this, and by that I mean, these superplaylists sync to the Iphone through a direct sync (with IMatch turned off), but as soon as I turn Imatch on again, they disappear.

I think the best option you have is to recreate your super playlists as a single more complex playlist.

When you are editing a smart playlist you can option click the '+' button (turns into '...' while you are holding option) and this creates a subgroup that can a condition of it's own.

This playlist picks music based on rating and last played choosing higher rated tracks more often:

One technique I used in some playlists was to put NSFW tracks in a playlist and then build other playlists to exclude NSFW tracks.  Putting tracks in a playlist is an easy way to add additional information about them without having to edit the ID3 tags.  That doesn't work with these more complex smart playlists.

You will have to put additional information like that into the ID3 fields.  You can use the comments block for this, but I don't like to do that because I like to be able to add this kind of flag to multiple tracks at once and I can't do that as I may be losing comments already entered. Genre works if you're willing to use that instead.  Any field will work; as I don't have tracks that use grouping I used that for my own NSFW tags.

One slightly more complex place to put these kinds of tags is the 'Category' field.  iTunes keeps a category field but doesn't show that field in the editing UI so it's normally not used for anything.  Doug's Applescripts offers a script that will let you edit this field. (script and instructions)


Will two albums duplicate pictures in Photos.app? I am trying to put together several albums and some of them have a picture from another album. For example a parties album and a birthday 2015 album or a granddaughters 2015 album.  So how do I put the same photos in these 3 albums, and are they duplicated or just cross referenced?

Just drag the photo from one album to another. The photo will be added to the second album and not removed from the first. Only one master copy of the photo is kept and is cross-referenced throughout the library regardless of where it is used.


Cannot partition internal drive to install bootcamp because of APFS/High Sierra When I run Boot Camp Assistant, the attempted installation of Windows 10 fails, giving me the error "An error occurred while partitioning the disk." Have already tried First Aid on both my macOS boot volume and in recovery mode. Also tried /sbin/fsck -fy in single user mode. Both didn't work.

Here's the catch - when I make my own partition on my internal disk via Disk Utility (recovery mode and boot volume Disk Utility both have the same result) the partition will fail if I set the partition for over 15 GB. When I make a partition (not APFS container) that is 15 GB or less, Disk Utility will make it without problems. When I attempt to make a partition over 15 GB, the process will fail.

Now, A few days ago, I restored a Time Machine backup of my entire main internal drive via recovery mode and turns out that after that restore Macintosh HD reverted back to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) instead of APFS. After said restore and my internal disk being HFS, Boot Camp Assistant was fully successful in installing Windows 10. So I know that (hopefully) that process will work again if I want to install Boot Camp again. Since then, I deleted the BOOTCAMP partition and deleted Windows from my MacBook Pro (why I did that is a complicated story). I now want to re-install Windows 10.

However, I have an additional Time Machine backup of a clean High Sierra install which I restored to an additional APFS container on my internal disk just before writing this. When restored, this backup did not revert back to HFS after the restore, which in turn means bootcamp assistant/disk partitioning for 15 GB+ failed. I'm willing to restore the backup of my entire main drive from before all these shenanigans started in an attempt to get APFS to accept a partition, but I would like to know more options.

The main point - What are my other options to force APFS/High Sierra to accept a partition of greater than 15 GB and/or make Boot Camp Assistant actually go through with it's job. I’m open to all options to solve this problem. High Sierra has a lot of bugs in it and they're getting on my nerves. Apple needs to up their QC.

Anyways thanks to everyone for reading/helping me out - much appreciated :)

If your disk has been converted/formatted to use APFS, and you use Time Machine partitioning will typically fail because Time Machine made local APFS snapshots.

You can see the snapshots created with the command (use Terminal to enter it):

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

If you see some, run the following command:

tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999

This last command will delete all the local snapshots.

Now run the Bootcamp assistant again, this time partitioning the disk should succeed.


Slow Internet Mac Yosemite Recovery Doom (MacBook Air, Early 2015) Product: MacBook Air(early 2015) with OS X Yosemite.

The issue is, that I happen to have my Yosemite reinstalled, so I restarted my MacBook and at the sound of the chime(startup sound of Yosemite), I pressed ⌥ Opt+R and subsequently selected the Disk Utility.
Once into that, I erased my whole Macintosh HD and then restarted the computer
after which I was expecting the reinstall to be done automatically.

I am a novice in the Mac world.

Now once after the reinstall, I was forced into a screen with 4 options of reinstalling, Disk Utility, Time Machine and help from Apple.

I tried to reinstall, but due to a slow internet connection, I wasn't able to reinstall using Internet Recovery.

Now I created a bootable disk with "InstallESD.dmg" (using tansmac on windows)
This copy of installed is the one downloaded from macworld torrents.
It was after that I restarted the computer this time pressing only the ⌥ Opt key and then all I had was this black screen with a box that asked me for the network I had.

I selected mine in a hope it might work with my USB but it just shows an Internet Recovery option with a globe which I cannot afford due to my slow internet connection. Is there any specific key to select the bootable image because it isn't appearing there?

It sounds like there is a problem with the USB installer. To confirm this, restart holding Option + R to return to Disk Utility, and verify you formatted the drive as "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled).

If you have a working bootable usb, holding the "option" key should show you the Startup Manager menu:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204417

Here are a few tutorials on creating Bootable USB OS X installers:

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-create-mac-os-x-yosemite-bootable-usb-using-diskmaker-x/

How do I create a Mac bootable USB drive using Windows?

http://www.makarandmane.com/computer/tips-and-tricks/apple-mac-os-x/create-bootable-usb-mac-os-x-installer-from-windows/


Will updating contacts with Facebook or Twitter overwrite pictures? In iOS Settings, you can "Update All Contacts" with Facebook and Twitter. According to the explanation in the phone this will update photos and user names for all matching contacts. In addition, you can allow Facebook to use your contacts.

I have a lot of contacts and many of them have already got pictures that I have chosen myself. The contacts (and pictures) are synced with my Google Apps account.

If I do "Update All Contacts" with Facebook and/or Twittor or allow Facebook to use my contacts, will this overwrite existing pictures? (And thus change what is in my Google contacts?)

(For bonus points, please explain exactly what else will be changed.)

Facebook contact sync will add photos to contacts that don't have any pictures assigned and leave those that have them already unchanged.

Sources: on Facebook contact sync and review of the feature on iLounge with the answer to the question.


Watching any video in Chrome has red boxes FIXED:
Version 53.0.2785.89 (64-bit) fixed it

OLD:
I've been noticing this for the last couple months, but whenever I watch a video in chrome (Version 52.0.2743.116 (64-bit)) I see small red boxes over the video. The boxes jump around and flicker. It doesn't matter which site it is for (screenshot is youtube and steam)

Things I've tried:

It does not happen in safari
chrome://flags/#disable-accelerated-video-decode (disabled)
chrome://flags/#disable-cast-streaming-hw-encoding (disabled)
chrome://flags/#enable-webrtc-h264-with-openh264-ffmpeg (disabled)

￼


Encrypted Hard Disk troubleshooting I have problems to read an encypted  hard disk. Unfortunatly I do not remember if I did encryted with Time machine or Disk Utitlity. I think I did it with the first one (Time Machine) as I used the disk as a buck up.

The issue is that When I plug it in it asks me for a password as soon as I write it it blocks or freeze. I have no problems remembering the password. it is no a problem with the Capitals tab.

I would apreciate any help - I have lots of files other than the back up. Fotos, movies, etc, necesary for a documentary .

I have a Macbookair 2011  1,8 GHz Intel Core i7. Mac os 10.7.5
The hard drive is a 2TB WD Elements. Mac formated.

You must have enabled FileVault,
therefore your disk this
encrypted, you go to: System preferences / security and privacy / FileVault.
if enabled it so you disable,
it should take some time
why he will decrypt your disk, then restart and everything returns to normal.

for more information: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204156


Will AppStore applications continue to work after an OS downgrade? Our daughter has an old MacBook Air (2010 model) that worked fine until a few recent OS upgrades. Now it's almost unusable with its 2GB RAM that can't be upgraded, so she is considering cleaning her MBA and reinstalling an old OS.

I wonder whether this is going to work smoothly in relation to apps she was using. Will the apps she will install from AppStore require her to upgrade the operating system?

Minimal OS version requirements vary from application to application, so there is no general yes or no. The minimal OS version is part of the application description in the store though, so the best approach here would be for your daugther to look at her key applications in the store and check whether all of them will work with earlier OS versions as well.


How can I make a recovery partition? ~OS X Mavericks Can i make a recovery partition for Mac OS X Mavericks 10.9.1?

Also, If i upgrade to 10.9.2, will it delete the recovery partition?

After making a partition with disk utility, you can run this utility from Apple to make it a recovery partition
Upgrading your OS does not effect partitions other than the boot partition you upgraded.


Finnish Spell Checker for System of OS X? I know this discussion about spell checkers for Pages, here.
I am searching for the files ending with .aff or .dic.
Without them, you cannot use them in system.
My current OS X is Yosemite 10.10.2.

The manual of OS X says that in Settings > Keyboard > Spelling > Set up ...

  To add an additional spelling dictionary, copy the dictionary files (.aff and .dic) to the Spelling folder in your Library folder.

Is there any standard dictionary for Finnish?

Download Voikko spell for 10.8-9 from

http://verteksi.net/lab/osxspell/

and put it in System/Library/Services  (not Library/Services or Home/Library/Services)

Go to Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar and set the dictionary to Suomi (not Automatic).

Also in Edit > Spelling and Grammar, check the items for checking and correcting spelling.

You should then see, for example in TextEdit, something like


External drive not detected on MBP until it's connected to a Windows machine first I have a WD "MY Passport" 1 TB drive which I use for my TimeMachine backup on a 15" MacBook Pro (Mid 2014).

Sometimes, the mac will not detect when the drive is being connected (it's not showing in the disk utility either). Rebooting the mac does not help.

However, after some experimentations, I found out that if I connect the drive to a Windows machine, disconnect it and then connect it to the mac, it's detected and can be used with no issues (until the next time it's not detected).

This happened to me on another drive (a seagate drive) as well.

Anyone has any idea what's going on here?

You do not have the "standard" formatting on the WD:
for TimeMachine it should be imperatively  GUID Partition Table.   and.  Mac OS X Extended (journaled).
If it really has that, open DiskUtility and select the WD, then select the FirstAid tab: it will check and repair permissions.


Forward iMessages and SMS to e-mail? I want to forward all SMS and iMessages received on my iPhone to my e-mail address. I have tried IFTTT, but can't see a way to do it. Has anyone else managed to do this?

you need to have your email address turned on for iMessage on your
  iPhone in order to enable Text Message Forwarding. If you don’t, the
  numeric access code will not appear on your iPad or Mac during the
  setup process. As soon as you enable your email address for iMessage
  (you only need to do this on your iPhone) the numeric access codes
  appear as expected. Once you have text message forwarding setup you
  can disable your email address again in iMessage as it seems to only
  be necessary for the numeric access code setup step, not the actual
  text message forwarding itself.`

  To enable your email in Messages, grab your iPhone and head to
  Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. There, you’ll find all of the
  addresses at which you can be reached via iMessage. Enable your iCloud
  email address by tapping on it, then head back to your Mac or iPad and
  again request the pairing verification code from the Messages app.
  This time, you should see a box appear on your iPhone in which you can
  enter the code.

Source: http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/sms-relay-configuration-fix/


How can I connect my Mac to my iPhone hotspot via USB from the command line? About a mont ago, my Mac's wifi stopped working for unknown reasons. I was recommended to do a clean install, but I need internet connection to run the installer from the recovery menu, so I want to get to the internet by using the iPhone mobile data.
Is there a way to connect to the internet by sharing the iPhone data over USB?
I know I can reinstall from an USB drive, but I've already erased the main HD and I'm stuck here.

If you’ve already erased your hard drive then there’s no “command line” to use to begin with.  You need a minimal operating system in which to boot into and it sounds like you don’t have that.
Here are a few options for you to move forward:

Get a USB Ethernet or USB WiFi dongle (I suggest Ethernet) to connect your Mac directly into your router/modem so you can do the Internet Recovery.

Obtain a USB installer from a trusted source (friend/colleague)

Put your Mac in Target Disk Mode and using another the other Mac, install macOS onto that machine. Alternatively, if the drive in your Mac is removable and you have the correct USB enclosure/adapter connect it to another Mac and install macOS onto it.

Regarding your WiFi....
Reinstalling an OS, regardless if it’s macOS, Windows, Linux, etc. is the absolutely last thing you should try.  It’s a “Hail Mary pass” type of move because the person diagnosing the problem is out of ideas.  It rarely solves the problem because if it does start working again, you haven’t identified what caused the issue to begin with to prevent it in the future.
In your case, resintalling won’t fix it because you’re not in macOS anywhere and you still cannot connect to WiFi for recovery.  If it doesn’t work in this “bare minimum mode“ it’s not going to work when the full OS is loaded.  The thing is, you didn’t have to erase the drive to find this out.  All you had to do was boot into Recovery to test it out.
I wrote this not as an admonishment, but as a cautionary tale to you and future readers.  If you’re being told, especially initially that “the fix is to resinstall” stop and look elsewhere; seek better guidance.  I’m not saying that it’s never the answer; I’m saying it shouldn’t be the first go to.
This is the equivalent to having a plumbing or electrical issue in your house and the contractor tells you that you need to demolish and rebuild the whole house  to fix it.  In this case, normally it would be ridiculous  to do that, but if the entire house had sub-standard or dangerous wiring (like wrapped in asbestos), demolishing might make sense.  It should be your last option after everything else is attempted/evaluated.


Can we have two iCloud accounts on our iPad? I want to access my iCloud account (mail and calendar) on our family iPad. It is currently set up with my husband's iCloud acct. Can we have two accounts on this device?

You can set up multiple iCloud accounts, however, quoting iOS:

  Only your main account can use Photo Stream, Documents & Data, and Backup.

If you want to use mail and calendar only, there is no problem. You can even use all of the other services like contacts, reminders or notes.

Follow these steps to add another iCloud account:
(I took the screenshots on an iPhone, but it is smiliar to your iPad)

Open “Settings” app on your homescreen

Scroll down to “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” and tap on it

You see a list of your accounts, scroll down and tap on “Add Account…”

Choose “iCloud” and enter your data

Finished


`Unknown` file download after reload in Safari 8.0 on OS X Yosemite Since upgrading to OS X Yosemite I've experienced that sometimes when reloading a web page (CMD+R) Safari doesn't reload the page but downloads a file named Unknown.

Is there any way to fix this?

I suspect it is not an empty file but malware from 'carpet bombing'. Do not attempt to open the file but get info on the file and you should see it is from known malicious sites. I am scanning my system right now using ClamXav and nothing is coming up bad so I suspect it will go away if you just keep trashing the files until the hacker gives up. If anyone knows more than this please contribute.


Scheduling Appointments for iPhone Repair at the Apple Store? In our IT department we have two iPhones 5 with cracked screens and we need to get them fixed.

I've gone to the Apple Store personally for my iPod Touch 4G, and I was required to schedule an appointment at the Genius Bar.

Does this work the same way for businesses?  I found the Apple Store in question on their website, and there's a space to Make a reservation at the Genius Bar, but there is also Access Member Services which I didn't see the last time I scheduled an appointment.

Does scheduling an appointment for a business differ from scheduling a personal appointment to fix an Apple device?  Also, can they fix it the same day, or ship the repaired product back to you?

I saw a video on replacing the screen of an iPhone 5 and it doesn't look that difficult provided you have the right tools.  However the screens we ordered online didn't work, so that is why we are reverting to the Apple Store.

You have a few options within Apple's eco system.

The first is Joint Venture, a program that gives priority service to business customers both over the phone and in store.  With Mac repairs this also allows for a loaner if needed for the duration of the repair.  You can read more about Joint Venture at Apple's business page.  It IS a paid, subscription, service but depending on your needs it could be helpful.

The second would be to look into their iOS Direct Service Program.  Essentially entering into the program allows you to train your IT staff to properly diagnose iOS devices in accordance with Apple's guidelines and setup service on them directly, without dealing with AppleCare/Genius Bar.  It's a free service but your organization will need to set up normal credit/billing info with Apple and jump through an application process to enroll.

The third option is creating a mail in repair with AppleCare.  They can provide a quote over the phone and send you a prepaid box to ship the phone in to them.  Shipping is overnight each way (one night to get the box to you, one night for the phone to reach them, another night to come back to you) and included at no additional charge.  This is true for warranty and non warranty repairs.

With all of that said... I typically take our damaged devices into the Genius Bar by scheduling online ahead of time.  An appointment IS required, however if you show up without an appointment they can often squeeze you in within an hour. They'll provide a free quote and if the part is in stock offer to repair it at that time if you agree to the cost.  If nothing else it gets you out of the office for an hour!  If I were in your shoes I would do this.  By checking the "business related" box in the reservation system you should end up with a member of the business team coming out to tell you about Joint Venture.  If they don't you can always ask the Genius or Concierge about meeting with a member of the Business team to discuss exactly how Joint Venture could help in situations like this.


OSX Preview HIGHLIGHTER makes for bad PRINT quality There appears to be a funny bug in Preview.app 5.0.3 (504.1):

I took a few PDF pages of normal black text, used Preview's yellow highlight functionality, and printed it on a B&W HP Laserjet.

The pages that don't contain any highlights look normal.  But the pages that do are printed in a strange 'jittery' low-quality -- all of it, not just the words that are highlighted.

I've seen this happen with a variety of different PDFs that I've highlighted using Preview.

Guessing here... but I suspect that Preview uses a jpg of the pdf onto which it'd add the highlight. The high compression used used by Preview in this process would be where the low-quality comes from.

How to get around it? Use the annotation highlight function in Acrobat Reader instead if you can. Sorry, not a solution but a work-around! Good luck.


Finder window on top of full-screen safari? I wish it were possible to press a keyboard shortcut while in full-screen Safari, have a finder window appear in the middle of the screen, and then drag+drop files from that finder window to safari.

How can I do this?

Rather clunky, but possible...

Go back to Finder, select & grab your files; keep hold of them.
either...

Use your Show Dashboard key command & hover your cursor [still holding the files] over the Safari Space until it pops to the front, or
Use  Ctrl ⌃   num  to go to the last Space before your fullscreen app, then  Ctrl ⌃   →  to get to fullscreen.

Drop the files.

This is always going to be hindered by fullscreen apps being to the right of any & all numbered Spaces.

You may need to enable the Ctrl/key functionality first in System Prefs/Keyboard/Shortcuts/Mission Control

Only alternative I can think of is use the Open dialog, or as suggested elsewhere, don't fullscreen, just maximise.


On OS X, what files are excluded by rule from a Time Machine backup? In addition to whatever files I may choose to exclude, what files does the system exclude by rule or classification?

It might make sense not to backup Trash or Caches, but I'm looking for a way to tell what files are skipped "behind the scenes." Knowing if the system maintains an exclusion list or exclusion pattern would be very helpful in managing larger groups of macs.

There's a built-in list of exclusions stored in /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.plist. It's a bit too long to paste here comfortably, so I've posted a copy StdExclusions.plist (10.7.1) on Pastebin. There also is StdExclusions.plist (10.6.8 Server) on Pastebin.

Some of the more obvious user file exclusions are Trash, Document revisions and MobileBackups from the local Time Machine store are all excluded. The rest of the exclusions are for system things like caches and databases that exist to index other files where the system can regenerate these databases after a restore.

In addition, apps can use a file's metadata to exclude a file from backups. You can view this list of files by running the command:

sudo mdfind "com_apple_backup_excludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'"

On my system this outputs the following:

/Users/brant/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache
/Users/brant/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml
/Users/brant/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates
/Users/brant/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates
/Users/brant/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates
/Users/brant/Pictures/iPod Photo Cache
/Volumes/Archive/brant/Pictures/iPhoto Library/iPod Photo Cache
/Volumes/Archive/brant/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml
/Users/brant/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Safe Browsing Csd Whitelist
/Users/brant/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Safe Browsing Bloom
/Users/brant/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Safe Browsing Bloom Filter 2
/Users/brant/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Safe Browsing Download
/Users/brant/Documents/Virtual Machines/Visual Studio.pvm/{ae6f7518-762e-4fcd-b166-c7a914fc237f}.mem
/Users/brant/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/Cache
/Users/brant/Library/Saved Application State
/Users/brant/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/History-journal
/Users/brant/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Favicons-journal
/Users/brant/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Favicons
/Users/brant/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/History
/Users/brant/Library/Icons/WebpageIcons.db
/Users/brant/Library/Safari/WebpageIcons.db

As you can see, there are a few files here which various apps have told Time Machine not to bother with. Internally, this works by changing the extended attribute  com.apple.metadata:com_apple_backup_excludeItem.

Furthermore, on Lion, the tmutil command allows you to query, set, and delete file exclusions from the command line:

tmutil isexcluded _item_ will determine if the volume, directory or file is currently excluded.
tmutil addexclusion _item_ sets an exclusion rule so that the item (even if moved to a new location or renamed) will be excluded from future backups.
tmutil addexclusion -p _item_ sets an exclusion rule so that the item path is excluded. This remains unchanged so if the file moves it will be backed up if not at this exact path and also will prevent backing up a file if it comes back in the same location as the rule specifies.
tmutil removeexclusion _item_ removed either type of exclusion rule as appropriate.


How do you find the UDID for an iOS device? How do you find the UDID for an iOS device on Mac and Windows?

You can follow the official how-to from Apple KB.

The same way works for iPhone, iPod and iPad.

The easiest way is to plug your iDevice, open iTunes, click on your device on the left panel of iTunes then click on the serial number. Your UDID will appear :


How to limit system processes cpu usage? Some system processes like systemsoundservd, logd, diagnosticd, etc. recently use a lots of cpu on my macbook pro. How can I limit them to some degree because most of them are not too relevant to me?

Note: I have already checked out Can I manually limit the %CPU used by a process? but it does not seem to work as expected.

viet@Mozg  ~  pgrep -l systemsoundserv
506 systemsoundserv
viet@Mozg  ~  sudo cputhrottle 506 10
libc++abi.dylib: terminating
with uncaught exception of type Process::ManipulatorException: Error
on task_for_pid of pid 506, res = 5 [1]    7594 abort      sudo
cputhrottle 506 10

Thos system processes respond to other apps that run, so your first step would be to isolate and identify what programs you have that cause high background system load.

It’s like racing a high performance car and seeing the tires are hot and fuel is being consumed rapidly - those all are the design intent when you press the accelerator to the floor.

It might make more sense to start with your actual workload than try and hobble or disable logging and sound output. Sorry for a side answer, but those processes sit at idle for the vast majority of installations and likely would on your system if you restart and some troubleshooting should show exactly which of your apps trigger this usage pattern.


Apple Developer Program: Individual vs Organization I already have an individual apple developer program enrollment but I'm thinking of turning one of my upcoming apps into a full standalone business. It is already incorporated, so it is technically its own entity. Is there any downside to starting it on my individual account and moving it over to its own account later?

I would advise you to seek legal or accounting advice in your local area.

Many places it would be a very bad idea to sell an app that is owned by a corporation through an individual account. First you risk misrepresenting to Apple who's actually selling something, and secondly you risk that the money earned would end up getting taxed with your personal taxes instead of a corporation tax.

There could also be other drawbacks depending on your locality such as breaking VAT regulation, etc.


FileVault decryption accidentially started - what will happen? I accidentially started to decrypt my FileVault so I am wondering what is the process?
Will it reset my computer so I will have to put in my info?
Or will It just start up again and ask for my password?

FileVault decryption does not erase any data or reset your computer.
When the decryption process is finished, the computer will be just like before - except that the data on disk is no longer encrypted. You can use the computer while it is decryption.
As this was done by accident, it is a good idea to enable FileVault again when it is done decrypting. It will unfortunately take a while to encrypt again, but you can use the machine while it is encryption.
There's no way of stopping the current decryption process to immediately encrypt again. You'll have to wait for it to be fully decrypted, and then enable FileVault again.


OSX - Not enough disk space to copy file I've been having issues with my Corsair keyboard and the first step given to me by support was to try updating the firmware. After plugging in the keyboard with the reset button held, it shows up as an external drive. When trying to copy over the firmware file using Finder, I would get an error along the lines of "file cannot be copied because there is not enough disk space". The file was the same size as the listed amount of free space on the external drive so I expected this to work.

I was able to copy over the file by using the terminal. If you hit command + space and search for terminal, you will open the terminal app. There you can type ls /Volumes to list the connect devices. For me this was CRP DISABLD. Then cd into the volume cd /Volumes/CRP\ DISABLD (use a backslash to escape any spaces). You can use tab to complete the name of the Volume if you start typing the beginning of it. Then use mv or cp to copy the file over: mv ~/Downloads/STRAGE_ISP_V205.bin . (the . means the directory you're currently in). In my case all the commands were:
➜  ~ ls /Volumes
➜  ~ cd /Volumes/CRP\ DISABLD
➜  CRP DISABLD mv ~/Downloads/STRAFE_ISP_V205.bin .
mv: ./STRAFE_ISP_V205 (1).bin: unable to move extended attributes and ACL from /Users/monroe/Downloads/STRAFE_ISP_V205 (1).bin: No space left on device

After moving the file over, mv showed the warning that it was unable to copy over the extended attributes and ACL from the original file. I believe this is what Finder was also trying to do and why the copy failed when using Finder


MacOS High Sierra Suddenly Bloated by About 40GB I noticed that sometime in the last couple weeks or so my 2015 MacBook Pro's High Sierra bloated by about 40GB. In that time span, I have not installed any new software nor have done anything except browse internet and use basic software.

Things like this happened in the past, but it was all due to Final Cut Pro storing its caches on the disk. The caches were huge and by deleting them I was always able to clear space.

However, this time it all appears to show in the System section of the Space Used. Does anyone know how one can determine what caused the bloat and reverse it? I cannot afford to have the system occupy 70GB. It leaves no space to do the work. In the past, the system was 20-30GB.

P.S. Having recently looked at the newer MacBook Pros, I was amazed that Apple still sells 128, 256, and 512GB with a straight face. I considered it somewhat low in 2015 when I bought this Mac, but was willing to buy it because I had a desktop as well. However, three years later they still have not improved or increased storage??? All they have done is added a nonsensical touch-bar, removed the actually useful magnet from the charging cord and eliminated the wonderfully glowing apple from the back of the screen. Am I the only one who is astonished by this?

I would recommend an app like OmniDiskSweeper https://www.omnigroup.com/more to help you. Have it search the entire drive, not just your home directory.


Are there any clean-up tools for Address Book data? I use a great add-on tool called Thunderplunger to clean up my address book in the Mozilla Thunderbird email client, but I need something similar for the original Mac Address Book too.
Basically I have big email lists of subscribers from the last few years. By the time they got removed though and I get a lot of bounces when I try sending newsletters (which they opted-in to!), but it's too tedious to delete them one by one, especially when I want to send a newsletter after some time has passed and many mail addresses changed/got deleted.

I know there's no 100% method to filter out invalid addresses, but it helps at least a bit. If there was a method to import/export addresses and all their information (I have some special fields like categories and notes) from Address Book to Thunderbird and the other way round - that would solve the problem as well. But I can't believe there's no tool out there too clean up your Address Book ?!

Before you do anything, you can back up your Address Book database as an archive so you can restore it later if you make any edits that you don't like.

In Address Book, choose File: Export...: Address Book Archive... and save the archive.

Are you running Thunderbird 9 on Mac OS X? You can configure Thunderbird to read and write to the Mac OS X Address Book instead of using the Thunderbird address book. In other words when you open the Thunderbird Address Book and create or modify address book entries, it manipulates the Mac OS X Address Book's database.

In this way, could you use Thunderplunger in Thunderbird to clean up your Mac OS X Address Book?

I don't have an exact solution but I would like to tell you about one simple tool that might prove helpful.

AB2CSV

enables you to export all or part of your Mac OS X Address Book as a CSV (comma-separated value) file. You can import that into any spreadsheet or database program for further editing.

You can also use AB2CSV to export all or part of the Address Book database to one large VCF file.

Next, Apple Address Book can import a .CSV file or a VCF file that you have edited. In Address Book Help, there's a page for "Import contacts" that explains how to do it.


Macbook A1181 Shuts down after a few minutes My dinosaur macbook randomly shuts down. I've reset the SMC and it still shuts down. Even the computer doesnt know its coming because you can hear the arm inside the hard drive clunk as it shuts down. If you leave it sit it will last longer on the next startup. Sometimes it wont even make it to the startup chime.

Try to boot macOS from external Hard Drive or SSD. If it's stable your internal disk is damaged.

Read about external startup here.


Dell 1320c - Catalina 10.15 Mac Pro - will print but only from single feed - How to fix? the link to the recommended driver worked - but only so far as I can insert a single page versus auto feeding from Tray one. Anyone have any ideas how to change this ? the operator panel is not so helpful and the DELL printer web page not accessible as far as I can see. I can print other printer setting from that tray bu holding down the continue button so nothing wrong mechanically. thanks for your input.

I had the same issue. I started playing with the tray settings. When I switched to 250+500 sheets - everything started working ok.
Also, if you are in the Word, use this setting - you can choose them by selecting


iMac external display blurry/fuzzy I've just got my new 2011 iMac (OS X 10.6.8), but connecting my HP LP2475w via a mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable leads to a very fuzzy screen. It's the correct resolution and refresh rate (1920x1200, 60Hz), and size-wise, everything looks fine on the monitor. However, everything, especially the text, looks horribly blurry. It's almost as if the iMac is outputting a 1920x1199 image or something, and the display is stretching it slightly. Like what used to happen with old CRT monitors when you set the image 1px too tall/wide.

Here's an image of what I see

And here's how it should look

Does anyone know what the issue could be?

Thanks!

[Edited - it looks like the original pictures are gone - some of this may not make the most sense without the original pictures - my apologies]

Awesome screen shot - that shows the software settings are perfect. You can be sure of that by opening the System Profiler app and looking at the Graphics / Displays data when the external is connected.

Your screen shot is nearly identical to mine - I am not using LCD font smoothing and the slight difference in color values could easily be color calibration differences. The pixels two above and two below the one selected are one or two darker on my display as compared to your screenshot.

Here is a magnification of both - mine on the bottom and your picture on the top.

Even though it's unlikely - I would make sure it's not a timing issue by the following.

disconnect the cable, adapter and power off the monitor
power on the external monitor
connect the cables and adapter to the monitor
plug in the whole works to the mac

Sometimes when a mac wakes from sleep, you get snow or other artifacts on rare occasion if the mac detects the monitor capabilities from the adapter and sends signal before the monitor can react (or is still scanning other ports if it's got multiple inputs).

Now - the real cause is likely cabling / adapter / monitor. You'll have to test that by eliminating / borrowing / replacing them one by one. :-( Either that or some bizarre software driver issue. That also will be a tough one to pin down unless it's a popular monitor and you just updated software.

Did this display ever work well for you with your mac?
Does the pixelated font rendering move or os it perfectly static and repeatable each time the menu is drawn?

I have seen electrical noise cause that - bad shielding or cables/connectors or more likely noise on the ac power from a large motor or wiring issues.

This is a real stumper since it happening on multiple macs and multiple monitors.