Trackpad going crazy A few days ago, I don't know what happened, possibly nothing but my 13" MacBook Pro trackpad started acting weird. Did I spill water? Food? Shook it? Pressured it? Any of these might have happened, but nothing out of the ordinary that caught my attention.

So, the trackpad started moving around randomly by itself; sometimes clicking around. It was dangerous so I disabled the trackpad from here:

I've tried:

Mac restart
SMC reset
PRAM reset
Fontnuke
Clearing some settings and caches
Messing with the preferences

Nothing worked to fix it. Even my mouse (Logitech G500) was messed up, the left button is not clicking and movement kind of clunky.

Interestingly when I login with my guest user account, my mouse works fine until I start using the trackpad. After using trackpad my mouse gets messed up again.

Also after I disable the trackpad while mouse is was connected and after that operation I restart my Mac and do a NVRAM reset, my mouse works perfectly fine. As long as I don't disconnect my mouse accidently and do something on the trackpad.

After 2 days my trackpad still has issues but it is not as crazy as it used to be. Now, it doesn't run around randomly clicking around, but I cannot control it properly either. Trying to make a shape with the trackpad is very difficult because it starts jumping around. It's also still messing with my mouse, but this time instead of the left button it started messing up the right button of the mouse. Why?

It seems like this is a software problem and how can I fix it?

It's probably moisture.

I experiencing something similar after being caught in the rain with my MacBook Pro.  Working outside because the weather was nice, I got caught in a slight drizzle of rain.  I immediately shut the lid and ran inside.

It didn't get wet enough to cause damage, but somehow wet enough to mess with the clicking function of the trackpad; it would sometimes "lock" in the clicked position, not register clicks, or click erratically.

What I did was put my MacBook Pro in a Zip-Loc bag with several desiccant (silica gel) packets and leave it overnight.

In the mid-morning, I took it out of the Zip-Loc and the trackpad was working again.

I save these packets in a jar; they come in the packaging of products I buy.  I will throw some in my camera bag where I keep my lenses and I will put a few in my briefcase where I keep my laptop.

If you save them, they're free, but they are also extremely inexpensive on Amazon or eBay if you don't have any available and are in dire need.


Multitasking bar does not show up on my iPhone The following page indicates what the multitasking bar should look like after pressing home twice:

https://gigaom.com/2011/02/21/ios-101-how-to-use-multitasking-on-your-iphone-or-ipad/

However when I press home twice instead the running apps are shown in the deck of cards - and nothing is shown at the bottom of the screen.

This is on an iPhone 5c with iOS 10.3.3. What should I do differently?

Apple changed how multitasking looks and works with the release of iOS 7 in 2013, from the ‘bar’ to the cards layout. The cards are previews of the apps represented by the icons in the picture you provided. It is not possible to achieve the picture in modern iOS without jailbreaking.


iOS 10 double click home to pay issue iPhone 6s I find that it is virtually impossible to double click from the lock screen to open wallet and make a payment using a iPhone 6s and iOS 10.

If can remember to shift my thumb and use the edge of the thumbnail to double click the home button then all is good.  On the other hand, I find myself fumbling on paying  at a checkout, unlocking and relocking several times.

The problem appears to be that with iOS 10 as soon as your thumb hits the home button the phone gets unlocked.  Yet double clicking home to open wallet must be done from the locked state.

Is there a better way to deal with opening wallet while standing in a checkout line?  Or do I need to teach myself in that case to double click with my thumbnail instead of thumb print?

You can change the behaviour of the Home button in iOS 10, although this may reduce the way you'd like to use the new lock screen features in iOS 10.

To change the Home button behaviour, follow these steps:

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility
Scroll to and tap the Home Button setting
Change the Click Speed and/or Rest Finger to Open settings

Test the changes out and see if it works for you.


How can I successively trigger an AppleScript very quickly? Background
For fine volume adjustment I use the following AppleScript:
try
    do shell script "killall afplay"
end try
set currentVolume to output volume of (get volume settings)
set volume output volume (currentVolume + 2)
    -- play volume changing sound at new volume
do shell script "afplay /System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/Contents/Resources/volume.aiff"

This will increase the volume by 2% and play the new volume once like usual.
Problem
Using this script has disadvantages:

When I trigger the script quickly multiple times in a row, it does not respond as quickly as the 'normal' volume change would.
For every execution the volume sound is played at full length.

It appears that my problem is due to a limitation of the how the scripts are triggered. E.g. When I use FastScript, it will not execute the script again before it has been finished. The same goes for Quicksilver.
However, when I assign the "lower volume script" to Quicksilver and the "louder volume script" to FastScripts I can trigger both scripts very fast after each other - so: the script is fine. I believe that my problem is due to how the scripts are triggered.
Question
How can I successively trigger a script very fast?

Adding > /dev/null 2>&1 & to the end of the do shell script command should work. This redirects the stdout and stderr of the do shell script command to /dev/null and runs the shell script in the background, meaning that AppleScript no longer needs to wait for the command to return stdout or stderr before the AppleScript script can finish. That means that it finishes and can be run again much more quickly.

You also shouldn't need the try handler at the beginning. The following modified script should work:

set currentVolume to output volume of (get volume settings)
set volume output volume (currentVolume + 2)
-- play volume changing sound at new volume
do shell script "afplay /System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/Contents/Resources/volume.aiff > /dev/null 2>&1 &"

I got this tip from MacScripter (an excellent resource for AppleScripting) in a post about running multiple instances of a shell script.


Xcode GUI adjusting location of Navigator-Menu How can one adjust the view settings, so that the Navigator-Menu (see image) appears on the right or on the bottom, etc.?

UPDATE: Thanks, jherran, for telling me the name of this menu.

It's called the Navigation Area and you can't change it's position, but you can hide the menu with ⌘+0.

To unhide it, just type ⌘ plus a number from 1 to 8 depending the tab you want to show.


Adding login items from terminal in Catalina I've tried multiple ways but none work.
A few AppleScripts and even some bash script somebody made. Which essentially just executes a different AppleScript afaik.

Some of the commands I have tried:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make new login item at end with properties {path:"/Applications/AppName.app", name:"App Name", hidden:true}'

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary -array-add '{Path="/Applications/AppName.app";}'

defaults write loginwindow AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary -array-add '{ "Name" = "AppName" ; "Path" = "/Applications/AppName.app"; "Hide" = 0; }'

defaults write loginwindow AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary -array-add '<dict><key>Hide</key><false/><key>Path</key><string>/path/to/item</string></dict>'

Try enabling AEServer and/or Script Editor in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Accessibility. Occasionally I've had to quit and relaunch System Preferences for new login items added via AppleScript to appear.

After doing this I was able to add login items via AppleScript. Confusingly, after I disabled Accessibility access for AEServer and Script Editor I was still able to add login items via AppleScript.


Switch tabs in Safari - Shortcut (⌘ + ⌥ + Arrow) I would like to know if there is a way to switch tabs in Safari with the shortcut used in Chrome (⌘ + ⌥ + Arrow).

Right now with OS X El Capitan, you can switch between tabs but just up to the 9th one with ⌘ + number.

I find it way much easier to switch tabs with the arrows compared to the numbers plus you can get to all the tabs instead of the nine first ones.

You can use ctrl + tab to switch to the next tab (equivalent to ⌘ + ⌥ + >) and ctrl + shift + tab to switch to the previous tab (equivalent to ⌘ + ⌥ + <).

You can use this on Safari, Chrome and Firefox, basically with any app that has tabs.


Own Apple products for $1 for business? I was looking for ways to save money for a small business on Apple products. While I find that Apple makes the best products, it'll be too expensive for a new business, and will most likely seek some other company.

However, I saw this...

...on the Apple website.

In detail, what does "Own It" mean? I'm doubting that only $1 comes out of pocket.

The text indicates that you pay $1 at the end of the financing term. So no, you pay $1 in addition to whatever agreement you sign with Apple, not $1 in total.

This is essentially a lease with option to buy.


Change bitrate from the default 128kbps for syncing songs to iPhone I have a rather large (>25GB) music collection, and my iPhone is currently almost full.

I just saw this option in iTunes:

This would probably be very useful to me, but I'm concerned about sound quality at such a low bitrate. Is it possible to change it to at least 160kbps from the default 128kbps?

Also, if I check the box, will the conversion occur on the fly (i.e., seamlessly while copying songs to the iPhone), or will iTunes basically create copies of all my songs in 128kbps AAC (thus causing to take up a lot of space on my Mac)?

As far as I know iTunes does not offer any other options for bit-rate conversion. This conversion does indeed happen on-the-fly, as you sync your iPhone with iTunes, which makes the syncing take longer but saves space, so you have not to worry for duplicates on your mac.

If space is an issue and you have some spare $25 I also recommend you give a look to iTunes Match: it will allow you to store your music on the Cloud, so you can download the songs as you listen to them thus you have not your huge iTunes library sitting on your iPhone but it still is available when you need it.


Is there a keyboard shortcut to jump directly to a particular full screen app in Lion? When you full screen an application in Lion, it "flies out" of the desktop space it started in, and winds up at the end of the spaces list (assuming you have turned off auto-arranging).

As a result if the app being pulled out of the spaces flow, there is no way to ctrl+1/2/3etc to jump to the space it is currently occupying.

Does anyone know how you can make a keyboard shortcut so you can jump directly to full screened apps?

If you want this for a specific app, you could use an application like Keyboard Maestro to set up a shortcut to switch to that application.

If you want this for every app, I don't think it is possible at the moment. It may come with an update (as the ability to manually re-arrange spaces in Mission Control).

Waiting for a better solution, you can still use ⌃→ and ⌃← to navigate between spaces (including fullscreen applications).


Drained battery iPhone 5G, about 40-50 cycles only spent, iPhone can't turn on Well, basically I bought a good battery it was working fine, and lasting for a long time on a single charge. After like 40-50 cycles or so, I left it without charging and it drained to zero. Now, I can't charge the phone (I use wall charger). It shows only the battery red line sign and a cable, and when I plug it in, it only shows the red lining battery.

I tried keeping it overnight on charging (I use wall charger, because I know it is stronger).
I also tried going into DFU mode, but to no avail. No use. It can actually go to iTunes and iTunes detects the phone, and I can actually restore the phone, but after it finishes it resets and the same happens - red lining battery sign.
I tried keeping the battery on red hot sun and after it almost melts from the heat I wait one minute to cool off and then I put it in phone, same result.

What else can I do?

As mentioned in comments, first check the cable is good.

After that, analysis isn't easy without the right tools.

Your potential fail-points are

The battery's bad
The phone's bad, or
The installation wasn't done properly.


How can I apply a terminal script using ssh to all users? I need to disable Google chrome's print preview option using the script
"defaults write com.google.Chrome DisablePrintPreview -boolean true -contributed by CutMaster", to a mac using ssh and apply this to all users.

The script above only works when you enter it when logged in as a user. However, I do not have access to the user's account but I do have access to the admin account.

Your help is much appreciated.

Use the sudo command

The command is sudo -u username command

So, after you SSH in as the admin, issue the command:

sudo -u <username> defaults write  /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist D
isablePrintPreview -boolean true

That will set the preferences value for the particular user you are interested in without having to know their password.

I personally checked this on OS X 10.11.4 using an account called "testguy".  I was able to SSH into the machine, set the preferences using the command you provided and verify that it was set by issuing the command:

sudo -u testguy defaults read  /Users/testguy/Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist Di
sablePrintPreview

The response was 1 (true)


How to turn off the "Look up" function on the touchpad completely? When I click with two fingers to open a link in a new window, Safari too often turn on the "Look Up" function. It is annoying, and I have tried to turn it off in System Preferences > Touchpad > Point & Click to no avail. Any other suggestions?

macOS 10.12 Sierra

Open System Preferences
Click on Trackpad > Point & Click
Uncheck Look up & data detectors

Does this work for you?


How to follow the instruction to diagnose Mac? I am trying to diagnose my Mac Book Air, 10.12.5 follow link as below:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

Regarding instruction(see on bottom), I need to hold D key.  I was trying to hold caps d or shift d and press them about 3 minutes ... but there is no a screen asking but regular desktop.

How to proceed?

thanks.

"Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold the D key on your keyboard. Keep holding until you see a screen asking ..."

Its not a capital D, they would have specified "Shift-D" if in that case. Just hold d itself.

If it doesn't work, see the Learn More section at the bottom of that article.


Wrong (generic) Mac dock application icon I have the following problem since upgrading to OS X 10.13.1 High Sierra on MBP 2017.  A generic icon is shown for nearly all my apps. See the image below. Does anyone know how to fix this and get the applications icons back?

Try running this shell script sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name com.apple.dock.iconcache -exec rm {} \;


Stop macOS from accessing external drive at night I have Mac Mini Mid 2011 with macOS 10.13.5 with a data drive. When I wake up at night, the drive is running. I ran fs_usage and was surprised to find macOS accessing the drive a lot.

How do I stop macOS from spinning the drive, except when accessed by a human, or at least not at certain hours when I sleep? Can Spotlight/macOS be configured to lay off the drive at night?

00:01:10  fsgetpath         /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000022   mds
00:01:10  statfs64          /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000015   Finder
00:01:10  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000017   Finder
00:08:59  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000019   backupd-help
00:39:54  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000031   diskspaced
00:39:54  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000081   diskspaced
00:39:54  statfs64          /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000014   diskspaced
01:08:47  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000017   backupd-help
02:08:35  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000020   backupd-help
03:08:40  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000033   backupd-help
04:04:09  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000019   fontworker
04:04:39  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000015   fontworker
04:11:01  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000032   backupd-help
05:11:56  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000052   backupd-help
06:05:23  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000030   backupd-help
06:33:52  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000017   fontworker
06:34:15  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000020   fontworker
06:34:48  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000014   fontworker
06:36:23  fsgetpath         /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000012   revisiond
06:36:23  fsctl             /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000010   revisiond
06:36:23  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000023   revisiond
06:36:23  statfs64          /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000011   revisiond
06:36:23  lstat64           /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000010   revisiond
06:36:23  lstat64           /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000008   revisiond
06:36:23  statfs64          /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000007   revisiond
06:36:23  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000012   deleted
06:36:23  statfs64          /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000005   deleted
06:36:23  lstat64           /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000009   deleted
(...)
06:36:23  getattrlist       /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000055   AOSHeartbeat
06:36:25  statfs64          /Volumes/FOOBAR  0.000006   df
06:36:30  HFS_update /Volumes/FOOBAR/..V100/../db.sqlite-wal launchd

I believe the best solution would be mounting and unmounting the drive to completely ensure no activity from the OS or any other rogue processes.

There is an already built solution that is paid:
Following this guide can help with more advanced settings how to unmount and mount the drive.

A free Solution would be combining

Apple Script disk mounting with Time scheduling to execute script


I am trying to "split text to column" on a .csv file in pages I have one column that is asking for my customer's name, some of my customers put just one and others put several names (first, last, title, etc.) I am trying to change this column to split at the space. I found an answer on here that gave me the following formulas LEFT(C2, FIND(" ",C2,)) and =RIGHT(B2, LEN(B2)−FIND(" ", B2)) This is working for me BUT if there is no space (they only put their first name) then it won't split out to the first column making half my users not have a first name.

In the event that the user inputs one name with no spaces, the formula in the OP could be wrapped in an IFERROR formula.

IFERROR(TRIM(RIGHT(B2, LEN(B3)−FIND(" ", B2,))),"")

The IFERROR statement returns simply and empty string "" if there are no spaces.  (No spaces returns an error because FIND() results in an error when it cannot find a space.) The formula returns the characters to the right of the space. If no spaces found, it simply returns the contents of B2. (Of course, there is no way for the computer to know if the single name entered is a first or last name, even tricky for humans.)

Something similar could be used to return the first name or just the name in the original string:

IFERROR(TRIM(LEFT(B2,FIND(" ", TRIM(B2)))),B2)

The only gotcha will be if there are several names.  But this is a good starting point. A useful resource is the Formulas and Functions Help for the Mac apps—Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and iBooks Author.  Look for Text Functions.  Good function combinations can give the desired result.  Work from the inside out.  For example, TRIM(B2) will remove all leading and trailing spaces. Then, FIND(" ",TRIM(B2)) will look for the first space without having to worry if there was a leading space.  Hope this helps!

Examples:


Should virtualize within MacOS or use a Hypervisor like VMWARE ESXi I have a Mac Mini late 2012, 16GB ram with 500GB disk, multiple (3) gigabit NICs, and some external USB3.0 drives.

My requirements for guest OS are:

One Macos High Sierra with Server.app
One pfSense linux guest (requirements are minuscule.  CPU 600MHz, 512MB RAM, and 4GB HDD)
Maybe a second Linux instance to tool around with - No windows guest VM

My research shows I don't need to use ESXi but it has a lot of features  I'd like to leverage, snapshots, Multiple test configurations and etc. Given that nothing else is running in the ESXi environment.

(the goal of knowing how to measure this lets me weigh if I upgrade to an SSD and or even bother to install ESXi)

I'll be using the ESXi6.7

Spec of the hardware, 16Gb Ram 500GB HDD or SSD

In your experience, how much (CPU/RAM) overhead would the virtualization layer add?

Decided to go with VMware, more an industry standard.  Looking into my own question, the overhead for VMware outweighs the the benefits.  I put it at about 15-20% on CPU & RAM.  This is from research, not empirical data.  I have several devices/servers I want to build, none are resource intensive. I upped the Mac Mini to 16gb Ram 1TB SSD and 2TB SSHD.  The max it can take for less than $200.  Should be plenty powerful.

Some context...
This is more of a home project.  A server to store family's media, documents, and backups (mostly macs & iOS).  I'll also build a full featured network firewall, I don't like black box or desktop firewalls.  I like to know what's going on.  Lastly a home automation server, there are some integrations between devices/protocols that require a system in the middle.

I used to be an Windows engineer, 20+ years ago, when that was a new thing.  Since then moved on to management.  I try to stay close to the technology, but virtualization (hand's on is new to me).  Tired of the planning and managing tech.  I'm not allow to touch anything anymore.   I have to use my own desktop teams for my work machine. I want to get my hands back on.  Hence this home project.  though a home project, it seriuos for me, I like to research and understand best practices.  Not to mention the geek out factor. :-)

Look forward to learning here and other sites.  Who know, this "old man" (not talking punch cards or anything, may be able to answer some questions.

Thank for your help.

Sunil


How can I change the keyboard shortcut key to open Quicksilver? Fyi.. I searched Apple.SE and didn't found an answer, so I am posting here.

Currently I open Quicksilver by Ctrl + Shift + spacebar. And my Spotlight preference is Cmd + spacebar.

Most of the time I use Quicksilver, I would like to change this. I know how to change this for spotlight, but not sure for QS.

UPDATE:

Now I am able to see the preferences screen with some menu's and here is the screenshot. Am I running very old build/ version ?

Open QuickSilver, and press ⌘+, to access Preferences.

Go to the Command tab and change HotKey Actionvation to the shortcut you want to use.

If the command you want to set is the same as the Spotlight one, you'll first have to change the Spotlight shortcut.


Mac OS X accessing Windows Share Strange thing keeps happening with one of my clients. They are running 3 iMacs 2of which are running 10.9.3 and 1 is running 10.9.4. While they are accessing a Windows share, they can be working away quite happily until it comes to saving where they no longer have access to the file opened from the server and have to save as a new file. They are accessing using smb://{servername}/{share}

What would cause this?

Cheers

Apple moved to SMB2 in Mavericks.  There have been many reported issues regarding Macs using SMB2 to access Windows shares.  There's even a site dedicated to this specific set of issues!

For a dated, but good explanation of work-arounds see this ZDNet article.

TL;DR

Have your users try cifs:// instead of smb:// (assuming your Windows share supports CIFS)...and hope that 10.9.4 comes with an SMB2 fix. :)


How can I get my MacBook to stop freezing after I switch back to Mac OS from Windows 7 in Bootcamp I have a problem I could not find anywhere else. Maybe somebody here has an idea on how to solve it.

I have a MacBook Pro, early 2011, 2.2 GHz i7 with the AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 1680 x 1050 display. I have installed Windows 7 on a partition of the hard drive and have to switch there about once a day. Every single time I switch back to Mac OS X (10.7.2), the computer will freeze either immediately or within up to three minutes after logging in. This is absolutely reliable. I then have to do a hard restart (keeping the on/off button pressed for several seconds), and when the computer comes back, everything works fine until the next time I switched to the Windows partition.

Since this is a freeze, no error report is generated by the system, so the Apple solution is "Send the computer in", something that is impossible for me (I need my MacBook constantly).

I do have quite a few extensions installed, and suspected Quicksilver for a while, but deactivating it did not solve the problem. Other extensions going up at startup are: iCal, Evernote, DoublePane, iTunesHelper, Autograph, DropBox, SophosUIServer. Sophos Anti-Virus is the only program running both in Windows and Mac OS. All software is legal, and virus scans (Sophos and MacScan) showed no Malware.

Any helpful suggestions, what might cause the problem?

My Mac (OS X Mavericks 10.9.4) also crashes/freezes and becomes partly or wholly unresponsive (beach ball and all) and it was due to Sophos Anti Virus. Uninstall it and see if it makes things work!


Unable to add outlook account after updating to ios10 After updating my iPhone to IOS 10 yesterday, I am unable to add an outlook account.

So here's what I'm doing:

I go to settings->mail->accounts, then tap "add account", and select "outlook".
A pop-up appears which loads Microsoft’s login page. I enter my username and password there, and click "login".
The page then asks me for a code from the two-step verification app. I enter that code and press "confirm" (or whatever the button is called).
After that another page appears which says that I am about to grand the following permissions (access to mail, contacts, etc.) to IOS, and asks me to confirm that.
I press "Yes", and then this window simply dissapears, leaving me back at the screen with mail provider selection (the one with "outlook", "exchange", "google", etc on it).

The outlook account is never added to my phone. However if I login to my outlook account from my PC and go to security settings->permissions, I can see that the permission for "IOS" has been created properly, it's just that the account is never added to my phone for some reason. Is there a way to fix this somehow?

Use Exchange instead of Outlook as mail provider. It offers exactly the same functions, including push notifications. Create a new app password in your Outlook account security settings for login.


IOS: How to “unsnap” a slide over app It’s easy to put app to the side in iOS 11, but how to un-pin it back? It always opens in this mini view.

I have an older iPad and I cant swipe down to put sideloaded app on the main screen. The only solution I could find is to sideload another app, but what if I don’t want anything there?

Just to reiterate - I want this app to be the main one. If I launch it from the Dock it opens in a slide-over state.

The OP is talking about an old iPad so mentioning “split screen” will not be available. Something like the mini 2 which is what I have and I have the same issue.

Start Safari as normal so this is the main app.
Start Notes by dragging it from the dock and onto the right of the screen so this becomes the Overlay.
Swipe Notes right and then have a full screen Safari.
Swipe from the right to bring back Notes in overlay

Great but now I want Notes as my full screen app

If I swipe Notes off to the side it just hides it. It does not remove it the Overlay mode so if I now swipe up to get the dock and select Notes it comes out as an Overlay, not as a full screen app.

Various solutions I found are:

As OP said you add a different app as an Overlay. But I do not want another app in Overlay

Or

Go to Home screen so no apps in view and then start Notes and it’s full screen but it secretly knows it is an Overlay so workflow is.

In Notes full screen
Dock to select Safari so get Safari in full screen as any other app would do
Dock to select Mail and glorious full screen Mail appears
Home button so no apps in view
Select Notes from Dock to get Notes in full screen

You have to do this extra step of going to the Home Screen for Notes (the was used in Overlay mode and ios11 is stubbornly not letting go) because if an another app is full screen then Notes will come back as Overlay. For clarity any other apps you could switch to using the Dock would be full screen so yuck for this

Or (homing in)

Annoyingly you have to have started Notes once in full screen mode to use this slight improvement as you bizarrely need that step to get the Overlay app to appear in the multi-tasking view so follow above to get that.

Use can then use the multitask control panel.
Swipe up to middle of screen and switch to Notes using this makes Notes full screen and as long as you switch via this back to Notes it is always full screen.
So any other app you can switch anyway you want but always use the control panel to switch to Notes. Probably the most doable solution until you get an app to replace Notes in Overlay.

But one more I found

Kill Notes and start from Home Screen

swipe up to middle of screen to get the multi-tasking panel.
swipe up on Notes to kill it. As before for Notes to appear you needed to do the start Notes with no other app in view at least once.
Now crucially go to Home Screen so no app on view
Start Notes and it will be full screen
You can now switch as if it was never an Overlay

If you do the above but having killed Notes then go back to an app (Safari) and select Notes from the Dock then not only does it stubbornly start in Overlay mode but it also again does not appear as an app in the multi-tasking view.

I would like a list of apps in Overlay so I can switch between them. A clever version of the list we used to have and then swiping an app out of that list could be used to remove from a Overlay. At the very least it seems a bit of a bug that an Overlay app doesn’t appear in the multi-tasking panel until you started as view screen using hack above.


iOS 10.3.2: cookies will return after deletion. How to clean-up? I discoverd that in iOS 10.3.2 (german language set, timezone Berlin / MESZ) in my iPad not every information concerning history and tracking could be deleted:

Following Einstellungen (Setting), Safari, Erweitert (more or extended), Website-Daten (website data) there is a list of pages visited (I assume with cookies set). When I'm trying "delete all" none of the entries will disappear. I tried additionally deleting one by one. By entering this part of setting again (even without using safari in the meanwhile) there are some of the entries there again, some of them with 0 bytes. Resetting / rebooting iPad or cleaning history completely before deleting or combination of different steps cookies still are there.

Are the domains which are listed in some sense untrustworthy? Or do they use some "irregular" code / approach? The most persistant ones are

onedigitals.co.uk
parismatch.com
dove.com

Additional some google-domains (domains containing string google) and spiegel.de could be very often seen. Or some new sort of supercookies (but they are flash aren't they - and iOS does not support flash)? Or bug in iOS?

Perhaps related to

Also encountered the same problem on my iPhone 6s running iOS 10.3.2. There were some website data that could not be deleted and showed 0 bytes. It is definitely website specific as only a few domains keep popping up while others could be deleted. I tried rebooting my device, clearing safari history and manually deleting each cookie but nothing worked.
What fixed the problem was restoring my iPhone from a recent backup before I've visited the websites. I connected my iPhone to iTunes and clicked the 'Restore iPhone...' button on the device menu. After restoring, I set up my device from backup and all the unwanted website data were gone. Note that this may take a long time.


iPod Touch 4G case recommendations What is the best iPod Touch G4 case that clips on a belt and covers the screen?

The main annoyance I have with my current case is that I can't always reach the edges of the screen.

I've been using this case since the day I got mine back in June of 2011.

Its very robust, it completely covers the screen, and I have never had problems tapping the edge.
One thing you do need to be aware of though is the clip. In the picture its shown as being on the back, however I've found that to be somewhat unreliable. If you switch it around to the front (so the clip is covering the screen), its much better.
One of the (in my opinion nice) side benefits of using this case is it adds enough mass to it that you don't have to worry about the iPod just slipping out of your hand - for the week I used mine without a case, I found that it was almost too light and thin, and I kept fearing that the iPod would just fly out of my hand. Its a full body case (as you can see), so while you can't drop it into water (or a blender) and have it be fine, you can drop it a few times and it'll still be OK (handy for those first few times the belt clip fails until you learn the best way to use it! ;)


Can not access samba file share I have activated file sharing for my public folder. I have network connectivity within my private local LAN and Internet Access. My router does not support IPv6.
When someone tries to connect from another mac with my shared folder, the login procedure is incredibly slow. I have tried to use the domain name and the ip-address without success.

Today I have learned about the mac tool smbutil and tried it for my own PC using smbutil view -g //hostname but I took very long and then the procedure failed.
I cannot

find any logs (what does apple do with logs???)
turn on smbd debug level
find any clue to solve the problem in the Internet.

Can someone help me?
g

I like using WireShark to do a packet capture. Wireshark can highlight the SMB traffic and allow you to see if the packets are flowing well. You can also analyze the SMB transactions. This is helpful because you can compare a Windows client and a macOS client to the same appliance with the same tool on the same network and see what the difference is.

You probably are negotiating the connection differently or may need the server logs to analyze what's happening not the client logs.


Can thieves use Bluetooth scanners to detect sleeping MacBooks? I believe Bluetooth devices can wake MacBooks so I wonder if this is a theft risk.

Is it possible for thieves to detect sleeping MacBooks in car trunks by using Bluetooth devices or signals?

No, it’s not plausible for thieves to scan for Bluetooth signals to detect sleeping Macs.
For your MacBook (or any device, for that matter) to respond, it must be in discovery mode.  This is a mode that answers pairing requests and must be initiated by the user.  This is why, in macOS you have to go into Bluetooth settings to do this.
When your MacBook sleeps (lid closed), Bluetooth is turned off.  Even Power Nap, which periodically enables WiFi (networking) to check for emails and such. It would make no sense for your laptop to continually broadcast Bluetooth signals while sleeping as this would drain the battery.

Bluetooth is disabled. NOTE: This can be changed in your Bluetooth system preferences, in which you can actually choose to make bluetooth devices power on your computer.

Source:  What Happens When You Put Mac Laptops to Sleep?
While it is possible for Bluetooth devices to wake a computer

your computer would be in listening mode; not transmitting
The device would need to be already paired to wake it
It can’t override the closed lid; it won’t go into closed clamshell mode as you need to have power, keyboard and mouse attached.

Thieves are more likely to be watching your actions rather than trying to scan for radio signals when they break into vehicles.


How to search for .zip files instead of all compressed files? How do you search for a file of a specific type in OS X Yosemite?  I cannot seem to find any instructions on how to do this.

In the Finder search I enter: kind:zip

But it returns all compressed files.  I only want zip files - so this AD post does not help me much.  All the solutions either use bash, or I cannot find the options they refer to.

Open a new finder window and type "zip" in the search. Select "Zip archive" in "kinds".

You can also just type out kind:.zip and press enter and you'll get the appropriate filter:

Note - omitting the . after the : results in many compressed files and not just those with .zip extension or literal conformance to that specification.


How to export a table with transparency from Numbers to PNG? If I copy a table from Numbers to the pasteboard and then create a new document in Preview, it usually works fine, but if cells contain partially transparent background or border colors (especially within gradients), the alpha value is either not kept or it’s more opaque than anticipated.

Maybe this is a limitation of or issue with the PDF format that Preview defaults to, or of the underlying framework. Anyhow, I already reported a bug to Apple.

OS X 10.10.5, Preview 8.0, Numbers 3.5.3. I’m willing to upgrade if needed.

Meanwhile, is there a way to export a table to PNG while keeping alpha information intact using just system or free third-party tools?

It works in Photoshop. You can select a transparent or translucent cell fill in Numbers. Copy the table from Numbers and paste into a new blank document in Photoshop, and then hide the Background layer in Photoshop.

Here's another angle using built-in system tools, but you might need to be a bit proficient with AppleScript:
https://iworkautomation.com/numbers/examples-table-as-image.html


Can I SSH into my Mac from an iPhone over Wi-Fi LAN with no connection to the internet? I want to use ssh to get into my mac from an iPhone over Wi-Fi LAN with no connection to the internet. I want to do this to get access to the command line (for playing with programming related stuff) while I'm on the couch.

I do not need an internet connection on the Mac while I do this, so it's fine for me to reserve the Macs' Wi-Fi connection for communicating with the iPone. However, When I create a network on my Mac and connect the iPhone to the network I created, it seems to work in the Wi-Fi menu, but there is no change in the networking icon from 4g to Wi-Fi.

Will an SSH server on the Mac still be accessible to an SSH app on an iPhone? I've had trouble with file sharing from third party apps that don't know that they have a Wi-Fi connection when it's not connected to the internet. Though this does work when I use an android device to create a hotspot.

Yes. You can. However the Apple Mac OS X operating system has SSH installed by default but the SSH daemon is not enabled. This means you can’t login remotely or do remote copies until you enable it.

To enable it, go to ‘System Preferences’. Under ‘Internet & Networking’ there is a ‘Sharing’ icon. Run that. In the list that appears, check the ‘Remote Login’ option.

This starts the SSH daemon immediately and you can remotely login using your username. The ‘Sharing’ window shows at the bottom the name and IP address to use. You can also find this out using ‘whoami’ and ‘ifconfig’ from the Terminal application.

An app called iTerminal - SSH Telnet Client is available free on the App Store. It allows you to connect via SSH to your Mac iTerminal.

Another app called Reflection for UNIX - SSH Client will also do this for free.

To run the server without Internet will be fine. The DCHP server will still allow access with Bonjour and manually inputting the IP address of the Mac.


MacBook locked or with virus? (Apple.pass@post.com) Yesterday I was out of home and I receive a message on iPhone forcing me to change my iCloud account details.
I changes everything to new passwords, keep the 2 factor enabled and sign out in every device automatically after this change.

Today I turned on my macbook and saw this:

I tried cmd R and this is what appears. I tried every password, code from two factor and nothing..

It seems that someone hacked my account.
I go over iPhone and checked that for my Macbook the only option available is to reproduce sound (and it works).

Do you know how to solve this situation?

It appears that someone did get ahold of your iCloud account and locked your Mac using Find My iPhone. Usually, you will receive an email if an unknown device logs into your iCloud account, so I would check there to see if any suspicious login attempts were made.

Unfortunately, the only way to unlock your Mac is to know the password that was used to lock it on Find My iPhone. For now, I suggest that you change your iCloud password. You can take your Mac to a local Apple store or Apple Authorized Service Provider, who may be able to unlock your Mac.

My guess is that Apple.pass@post.com is run by some sort of scam service. Looking online, it seems that other people have encountered this attack, and have been asked to pay a ransom to get access to their Mac. I still suggest you take your device to an Apple store and explain your situation before paying the owners of this account.


Time Machine to NAS, over internet I have a Synology DiskStation NAS that I use for Time Machine backups on my LAN. I want to be able to back up when I'm away from home. I've tried:

Connecting via L2TP VPN running on Synology
Connecting directly to Synology via AFP

Through both of these methods I can mount the Time Machine share in the Finder, and I've confirmed read/write access to the share when connected over the internet.

However, when I've mounted the share over the internet, and try to "Back Up Now," I get a message that it couldn't find the disk. Even though the disk is mounted.

Synology does have this walk-through for doing what you want to do.

I will mention that (quite some time ago) I used a Synology NAS as a time-machine target disk, and I did get it to work, but found it to be highly error-prone. Not what you want in a backup. Also slow. I'm using a drive with a direct USB3 connection now and am much, much happier with that.


Macbook charge with an iPad charger Can I charge my MacBook (the new one, with the USB-C) with an iPad charger? I forgot my MacBook charger and may not be able to get it in a week. Thanks!

The iPad charger is 10 W and the MacBook charger is 29 W, so you would really be limping along from a power source that's not sufficient. I haven't tested, but my guess is the MacBook won't even try to charge from that small power source.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201700

The second hurdle you will face is that you'll need a charging cable to go from the iPad charger's USB A port to the USB C port. This basically will connect the 4 wires the iPad charger uses to the 24 pins that the MacBook expects.

I wouldn't count on this doing anything and instead look for an Apple Adapter or third party adapter that adheres to the USB Power Delivery specification - Apple specifically lists that this is supported by the MacBook.


How can I control Music with arbitrary global hotkeys (SizzlingKeys replacement) on Catalina? On High Sierra I was able to control the playback of iTunes using arbitrary keys of an external keyboard (one without any Media control keys) using SizzlingKeys.
But SizzlingKeys is a 32-bit app and no longer works on Catalina.
What is the best SizzlingKeys replacement, allowing me to assign arbitrary global keys as hotkeys, allowing me to start/stop playback regardless whether the Music app is in the foreground or not?

Global hotkeys controlling Music even when in the background can be achieved by using a combination of MacMediaForwarder and Karabiner-Elements:

Install MacMediaKeyForwarder: https://github.com/milgra/macmediakeyforwarder/releases
Install Karabiner-Elements: https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org
Configure Karabiner-Elements using "Simple modifications" so that your desired global hotkey maps onto key_code::play_or_pause (or any other action).

This can also be used to map the global volume control to arbitrary global hotkeys which I find very useful when using an external keyboard. (This does not require MacMediaKeyForwarder.)


Is the iPad Smart Cover flammable? I've looked everywhere for the answer to this. And it is honestly a important question.  Is the iPad Smart Cover flammable?

No. In your case of the leather cover - I can't imagine any circumstance where someone would call leather flammable. (or inflammable or combustible or any other word which means "easily set on fire")

Leather is what blacksmiths, welders and others working in hot or hazardous environments use for flexible protection when asbestos or other fireproof materials are overkill.

I haven't seen a good chemical analysis of the makeup of the polyurethane cover, but in general urethanes begin to break down chemically at the same temperature that paper burns, so even if it doesn't ignite, you might not want to expose your smart cover to burning temperatures.

Neither is going to ignite easily or need handling typical of a "flammable" substance.


iPhone 5 keeps on turning off even in DFU Mode I'm trying to restore my iPhone, since I've read that it could help me solve the continuous apple logo loop. But when I'm trying to restore it via DFU mode, it still shuts down and restarts. What could be the cause of this?

You need to get the timing right.

Once the screen turns off, release both the power button after 0.5-1.0 seconds. Keep pressing the Home button, though.


Mysterious icon when pausing Apple TV app I'm using the TV app on my Apple TV to watch Apple TV+ content.

Whenever I Pause, Skip Forward, or Skip Back using the Apple TV remote, a strange icon immediately pops up above the playhead.

I have never seen this icon when using other Apple TV video apps such as Netflix or Plex.
I do not seem to be able to interact with the button. Clicking the remote Pauses normally, as if the button was not on the screen.

What does this icon represent? How do I interact with it? Why does it pop up when I pause the TV+ app on my Apple TV?

It is the new picture-in-picture feature of the Apple TV app in tvOS 13.

Can't decide what to watch? Use picture-in-picture viewing to play two videos at once, or browse the Apple TV app while a video plays in the corner of your screen.

Details:
https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT210525

Play a movie or TV show in the Apple TV app.
Tap the Touch surface on your Siri remote to bring up the video timeline.
Swipe up on the Touch surface to highlight the icon, then click the Touch surface to select it. If you don't see the icon, you're not in the Apple TV app and picture-in-picture isn't supported.
The video will shrink to the bottom-right corner of your screen.

To watch another video in full screen while your video window plays in the corner, find something else to watch in the Apple TV app and just click play.


I can't check or uncheck items in Security & Privacy > Accessibility on macOS Catalina Since I installed macOS Catalina I can no longer check or uncheck some items that appear under Security & Privacy > Accessibility. First I click on padlock button on the lower left side of the screen to allow me to do the changes, but when I click on one of the items nothing happens.

One of this item that won't change is org.chromium.chromoting.me2me.sh.

Just try to delete that specific item you want to check or uncheck and then add it back again.


Mac OS reinstall - what to backup for manual restore? In the next few days I'll have to reinstall my Mac OS/ Snow Leopard computer.
I'm trying to figure out what to backup first. I’m not talking about the user data but rather OS specific things like in windows ini files, applications settings, some of the registry entries etc.  I'm rather a windows guy and all the Mac stuff is a bit new form me.

The plan is to use a clean install and not the “Archive and Install” option, I’ve read how it works but am not sure how to use such archive anyway. I also plan to do a full OS backup with the TimeMachine in case something goes terribly wrong :) no plans to use it otherwise.

So far I plan to back up the following items (the plan is to restore them all manually, after the install):

OS usernames and passwords,
Network configuration,
Browsers bookmarks (FF, Safari, Chrome, Opera),
Users home folders (just in case, have no plans to use them afterwards really, should be deleted a few days after the reinstall as soon as I know everything works smoothly and I’m not missing any private data),
Xcode developer profiles,
Passwords, keys and certificates from Keychain Access app,
Deauthorize the computer in iTunes.

Am I missing something?

You will find that TimeMachine is generally inclusive as far as selecting data to back up.  If you take a stock TimeMachine configuration and don't omit anything (supposing your disk is large enough) you will be able to

Perform the backup
Remove the backup disk
Wipe the disk
Reinstall the OS
Reattach the backup disk
Reboot

And all should go smoothly.  In the initial configuration dialog on rebooting, you will find a page that asks you if you want to migrate your data, of which one of the options will be from a TM backup.  This will result in a very cleanly migrated system with very little changed as far as the individual user goes.

But your question was more specific:  Are there data files that you should specifically opt-in for a Mac Backup?  Yes.

Applications folder

Prior to TimeMachine, I would always kick myself for forgetting the /Applications folder in my backups.  Mac apps generally don't modify items in sub-directories of the Applications folder, so if you're trying to get out of a potential corrupted Application, there's little to be concerned of.  TimeMachine by default includes this.
Application Support/Preferences

Varying heavily from application to application, but generally, most applications look to the ~/Library/Preferences/ and ~/Library/Application Support/ folders for configuration and "temporary" files.  This will accomodate #3 on your list.  TimeMachine by default includes this.

You will likely find that TimeMachine is very capable as a method to make a non-bootable shadow copy for archiving purposes.  If you use it, you should have no issues retrieving any old data ex-post (barring external forces like a bad drive etc.)


Reinstall Mac OS X Lion and do selective restore from Time Machine backup My MacBook Pro is so slow that it would put a Windows XP laptop to shame, so I am considering a fresh installation of Mac OS. I have Time Machine backups of the system, but I don't want to restore system files, preferences, applications, etc., because it would probably reimport stuff that was slowing down the system in the first place.

What's the best way to go about this? I am currently downloading the OS from the Mac App Store. I know how to start off the installation from an external drive. But then what? I just want my documents and iPhoto library.

Anyone with any experience with this?

Am I right in assuming that since I have a current Time Machine backup, in the worst case I can go back and find any missing files if I do a clean install?

As I answered in this recent question your Time Machine drive will also appear as a valid Migration Assistant source if you opt for wipe and reinstall - I was surprised. When you use Migration Assistant you do get some control over what you install and what you leave behind.


How can I create a new user through terminal macOS 10.14 I am trying to write a script to add a user to a computer. These will not be admin accounts and should be staff accounts. I ran the following script and can login to the account but I can't access any files, create any files, or save any files to the computer.

Ultimately I would like to run this to remove 5 user accounts and all of their information and then create 5 new accounts (this is in a classroom where I have 36 computers) but I am struggling to create a single user correctly with the following script.

Any help would be much appreciated.

#!/bin/bash

USERNAME=per1
FULLNAME="Period 1"
PASSWORD="test"
SECONDARY_GROUPS="staff"

# ====

if [[ $UID -ne 0 ]]; then echo "Please run $0 as root." && exit 1; fi

# Find out the next available user ID
MAXID=$(dscl . -list /Users UniqueID | awk '{print $2}' | sort -ug | tail -1)
USERID=$((MAXID+1))

# Create the user account
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME RealName "$FULLNAME"
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME UniqueID "$USERID"
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME PrimaryGroupID 20
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME NFSHomeDirectory /Users/$USERNAME

dscl . -passwd /Users/$USERNAME $PASSWORD

# Add use to any specified groups
for GROUP in $SECONDARY_GROUPS ; do
    dseditgroup -o edit -t user -a $USERNAME $GROUP
done

# Create the home directory
createhomedir -c > /dev/null

echo "Created user #$USERID: $USERNAME ($FULLNAME)"

#!/bin/bash

USERNAME=per1
FULLNAME="Period 1"
PASSWORD="test"
SECONDARY_GROUPS="staff"

# ====

if [[ $UID -ne 0 ]]; then echo "Please run $0 as root." && exit 1; fi

# Find out the next available user ID
MAXID=$(dscl . -list /Users UniqueID | awk '{print $2}' | sort -ug | tail -1)
USERID=$((MAXID+1))

# Create the user account
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME RealName "$FULLNAME"
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME UniqueID "$USERID"
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME PrimaryGroupID 20
dscl . -create /Users/$USERNAME NFSHomeDirectory /Users/$USERNAME

dscl . -passwd /Users/$USERNAME $PASSWORD

# Add use to any specified groups
for GROUP in $SECONDARY_GROUPS ; do
    dseditgroup -o edit -t user -a $USERNAME $GROUP
done

# Create the home directory
createhomedir -c -u $USERNAME > /dev/null

echo "Created user #$USERID: $USERNAME ($FULLNAME)"


Upload Photos to iCloud Photo Library on iPhone only when plugged in? I'm running into issues with my battery draining quickly (iPhone 6s with iOS 11) and it appears that Photos is the culprit (based on % battery use) presumably from uploading photos to iCloud Photo Library (with ~150k items).

I can manually 'Pause Updates' by going into Photos. Updates are also paused when in Low Power Mode — both of these are helpful. However, when I plug in the phone to charge and it gets back to 80%, Low Power Mode turns off and iCloud Photo Library updates resume, and my battery quickly drains again.

It could be that the battery just needs to be replaced. The capacity is above 80% and the iPhone reports that the batter is ok.

Is there a way to to configure Photos to only update iCloud Photo Library when it is plugged in and not to update when it is on battery power?

Source:

Previous versions of iOS would only sync photos when the device was plugged-in and on wifi.

iOS 11 changed that.  Now photos will also sync when on cellular and when not plugged-in.  This means if you have a lot of photos, the first-time sync could kill your battery.

There's no fix for this however there is a workaround according to this Apple discussion.  This user had both an iPhone and iPad and used the iPad to do an upload of several images first.  After that they turned iCloud for their iPhone back on.  I can't vouch for this method because I never tried it but it worked for several people on that discussion thread.

  Use iTunes to sync a minimal number of photos which automatically turned off iCloud Photo > Library. After that finished on the iPad I turned on iCloud Photo Library and agreed to
  delete the photos I'd just synced and then it worked.


Imac Whistling noise My computer has this annoying whistle sound that goes and comes back.  Does someone have an idea what it might be?  Do I need to take it to the apple shop?

2.93 GHz Intel Core i7
12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)

The motherboard (PRAM) needed resetting by turning off the computer and then restarting while pressing Cmd, Opt, P and R. The noise is gone.


No ringtone from text when I receive a text from my husband's phone, there is no ringtone. The message shows up on the screen, but there is no alert tone. Other texts are fine.

Go to

Contacts
Locate the person you're talking about
Click Edit right on top
Remove the custom ringtone which has been set
Save it and return to springboard
Everything should be back to normal


Installing ML 10.8 Using Internet Recovery freezes during install process I changed my Mac HDD because the other one was corrupted. But when I do the Internet Recovery install, the bar on OS X Mountain Lion Install Page (Downloading Additional Components) goes all the way to the end when it says remaining 0 seconds and then the minutes go up again like 43 min remaining but the progress bar is stuck at the end of the bar, like it is in a download loop.

This thread looks like it has instructions on how to make a bootable OS X drive from Windows. If you have an 8GB USB drive that you're willing to part with, you can do this and then use the bootable drive to install OS X on your new hard drive.


iPhone4 has no picture. However, responds to touch and has sound. How can i test logic board failure? iPhone4 has no picture/black. However, responds to touch and has sound. Just replaced the LCD screen/digitizer, and it's still black screen.

Is there anything else that I could be missing? What else can I check/test?

My phone was also overheating, experiencing reception problems. It looks like a bunch of dirt and grime got trapped all over the inside from the previous cracked screen.

The solution: I cleaned off all the dirt and grime off of all the parts with alcohol 70%, used rubber gloves to make sure no oil from my skin transferred to the parts, and I used a blow dryer to blow off any dust. Fixed everything. The overheating stopped and phone reception is a lot better!


How can I use a non-amplified mic on a MBP? How do I use a non-amplified/powered mic on a MBP? Or is it not possible without an amplifier/interface. I don't really want to get an amplifier or USB/Firewire interface, but if I have to, I will.

You can't get good results with an unpowered microphone without a cable adapter or USB interface. The best bet is to purchase one of the many USB to audio interface dongles available. A favorite of mine is this one from Monoprice in California, which costs under $10. It includes a stereo headphone output and a mono mic input. It will also handle  powered microphones, such as the Audio-Technica ATR-3350 lavaliere mic. I have two of these mics, and they offer excellent value for money (about $20).


How can I see the list of all open folders in the finder in the Open/Save dialog? Commonly, in the Open/Save dialog I would like to get the list of all the folders that are open in the finder (as these are the ones that I'm using at the moment). I tried to define a smart folder with the list of recent folders, but this doesn't do the trick. Is there a way to introduce this list in these dialogs ?

With any Finder window open, press the key combination option⌘+M to merge all open Finder windows into one Finder window.

Additionally, here’s an example of a Smart Folder one could implement:


iPhone restarts frequently whilst tethering via. USB When tethering via. USB on my iPhone 4 (4.2.1) with my MacBook Pro (10.6.5) I frequently encounter:

my iPhone freezes with either a black screen (hard reset) or a frozen screen (hard reset)
my iPhone restarts itself and reestablishes its internet connection

I can go for an hour or two without a problem, or it might happen after a few seconds. There seems to be a correlation between the amount of data I'm pulling and the frequency of the crash.

I'm using Vodafone New Zealand's 3G network. Tethering is a free feature (using our existing data) here, and we don't need to do anything to enable it. Tethering worked a charm on my old iPhone 3G.

The problem seems to be a common one.

Has anyone encountered this problem and found a fix, or, has anyone called Apple about it to submit a bug report?

Try restoring/updating your phone to the newest firmware from apple. (4.3)


Can I use the iPad Pencil with Trello? I would like to use a TODO app with the iPad pencil. I recently got an iPad with pencil and love it and would like to use it with Trello to have a weeks todo list without the hassle of setting dates in a calendar application.

What would be the best way to achieve this?

My first generation Apple Pencil works with Trello on a 10.5" iPad Pro running iOS 13.2.

If it doesn't work for you, there are some Trello alternatives like Asana – there are really too many to list here! Since Trello works well for me, I haven't explored other options.


Recording the sound of my Mac Is there a way to capture the currently playing "sounds" ?

For instance, If I want to copy (to an audio-file) the noise I make while playing a flash game, is there a way to record what is currently to be heard in my headset ?

Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack Pro can do this for you and much more.


No keyboard backlight until password entered Since updating to OS X 10.8.3 on my MBP, my keyboard backlight does not come on until I enter my password and my desktop comes up.  This makes it very difficult to enter my password at night with low light because the keys are not backlit.

How can I enable the keyboard backlight before password entry?

When FileVault is enabled it encrypts everything on the SSD and doesn't allow even the computer to have access to that data until you enter your password. Including the software that loads during startup which would normally activate the backlighting on your keyboard and the touch-bar.

After you enter your password on startup the decryption process begins and all of those necessary pieces of software start to load. Making your keyboard backlight turn on and your touch-bar activate.

Here are your 2 choices:

Accept it and remain using FileVault (my recommendation)
Turn off FileVault (which I really do not recommend)


Extensions are disabled in `php.ini` and they still show up on `phpinfo.php`... why? So, I finally decide it to switch from windows to Mac after 20 years, and I love it! I have so many questions...
I've installed apache, php, mysql, imagemagick using homebrew and I have a couple of questions...

In httpd.conf, im loading the PHP module like so:

LoadModule php7_module /usr/local/opt/php@7.2/lib/httpd/modules/libphp7.so

My php.ini is here:

/usr/local/etc/php/7.2/php.ini

When I look at the phpinfo.php I see all these extensions (or modules) that are enabled:

But, when I look at the php.ini file, I see that those extensions are disabled

;extension=bz2
;extension=curl
;extension=fileinfo
;extension=gd2
;extension=gettext

Don't get me wrong, everything works perfectly, but i'm one of those people that likes to understand how it works...

Any reasons why my extensions are disabled in php.ini and they still show up on phpinfo.php?

EDITED

The enabled extensions are listed in a different section of phpinfo.


Latest macOS Mojave update (10.14.4) and Mail.app Google accounts issue After updating to macOS Mojave 10.14.4 two days ago and still, I have an issue with taking online Google accounts in Apple Mail.app.

This problem appeared immediately after the update, although it wasn't there before. Also after this update, Apple Mail requested to re-login through Safari and it was simple authentication.

No.

The update broke access to some Library configs that are under control of System Integrity Protection(SIP).

Boot to the recover console, disable SIP with 'csrutil disable' in the terminal, then boot into the OS, go into Internet Accounts and select Google as normal.

After following the steps to give your Mac permissions to your Google objects(mail, calendar, etc.), boot back into the recovery console and re-enable SIP by running 'csrutil enable'. Boot back into the OS and compute on.

I got the hint to do this by looking into the console logs in the console utility, but I have no idea which log I searched for 'google' or 'accounts' in, but I found a problem mentions an error with a 'file-write-xattr', so that gave me the idea that SIP was involved.

Someone should be able to track down the issue and get the errant permissions logged with Apple so the fix can go out with the next patch, or set a sticky here with a more detailed explanation and fix, and not just a work-around.


AppleScript bug when using Myriad Tables Library: "types" is replaced with "type" I downloaded the Myriad Tables Lib v1.0.8 AppleScript script library from here.

Run the following code, and you will notice that the code will run without error:

-- use script "Myriad Tables Lib" version "1.0.8"
use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"

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

Now, un-comment the very first line of this code:

use script "Myriad Tables Lib" version "1.0.8"

Once you compile your code, the following line:

set theTypes to anItem's types()

will automatically change to:

set theTypes to anItem's type {}

The issue is that types is changed to type. The effect is that this code no longer runs.

Does anyone know a workaround, or how to prevent this from occurring?

OS X El Capitan, version 10.11.6.

To get around this terminology conflict, use the following line:

set theTypes to anItem's |types|()

Here's more info (from this webpage):

  You can force an illegal variable name to be legal by surrounding it
  with vertical bars, also known as "pipes."

  The real effect of pipes is to tell AppleScript to suspend its
  compile-time parsing rules and turn what's inside the pipes into a
  token. The main reason this is genuinely useful is to avoid a conflict
  between a token name and a term already in use.

Note:

  A variable name surrounded by pipes is case-sensitive. AppleScript
  will not touch the case of names in pipes after compilation.


Pages 4.3 crashes on iMac Late 2013 Mavericks Pages 4.3 (latest update for iWork '09 afaik) constantly crashes (closes and shows "unexpectly quit" crash report) on a new iMac 27" (Late 2013) running 10.9 (.2) Mavericks
The crashes seem to be comepletely intermittent. Sometimes when writing, pasting text, dragging images.

Here are some crash reports:
http://pastebin.com/xTszDwNG (latest one, this one was when a image was dragged into pages)
http://pastebin.com/k9NsMFpt
http://pastebin.com/kYxh71np
http://pastebin.com/TUMQctDL

The latest one:
http://pastebin.com/g142aypG

This one happened after I completely reinstalled the machine (formatted the drive, installed mavericks over restore partition, created a new user, installed iwork from disc and installed 4.3 update and then dragged over my personal documents via a usb drive)

EDIT
I ended up updating to the new versions of pages since I couldn't get the bug to be fixed.

Slightly off topic, but with Mavericks installed, you can update to Pages 5.1 for no charge and maybe your problem will not occur.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2056159/what-you-need-to-know-about-apples-free-apps-policy.html


App Store for iPod Touch 1st Okay so I talked to somebody and I didn't really get it. Is there a way to get a App Store on the iPod Touch 1st gen?

To use the App Store on your iPod 1st-gen, you will have to purchase the iOS 3.1 update for iPod Touch (1st Gen), which is $4.99.

This link will take you to the App Store on iTunes which will allow you to purchase and download the software update. The App Store was released in iOS 2.0.1 for iPhone 3G, so this update is required.


Adding music to an iphone from multiple computers My iPhone is currently managed on my macbook, where I've added my music library from iTunes onto the phone.  However, I want to also be able to add music from my PC to the iPhone, without erasing the rest of my music. Whenever I try to do this, it threatens to delete the rest of my library.

How do I add music from multiple computers?

It seems that iTunes Home Sharing would fit the bill for what you're trying to do. Here's the link for the basic requirements. I've done this before myself to consolidate my music library from several different machines. Since you own both machines, you should have no problem sharing your library from your PC to your Mac, and then just syncing from your Mac. However, both machines are required to be using the same local network.


OS X unwanted shortcut: ⌘⌘ converted to ⌘C As the title says, whenever I repeat the ⌘ key it triggers a copy command (just as if I pressed ⌘C). I can even see the "Edit" menu entry blinking when I do that. This happens system-wide.

I checked OS X's shortcuts under System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts, but there's nothing there. I also checked other apps, like BetterTouchTool, but it's not defined in any of them.

This started happening a couple of months ago and I'm going a bit crazy with this. Is there any way I can know which app is creating / assigning each shortcut? That could massively help narrowing it down.

Thank you!

You may get some luck if you download and install CheatSheet - it builds a list of shortcuts for the current application, so you may be able to track it down by working through your apps with that.


Where can I find this green nature iPad mini wallpaper used in Apple's advert? Can somebody help me find this wallpaper in high resolution? (image taken from http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/).

The image is available at PAPERS.co in both parallax and normal versions:

http://papers.co/ma28-frog-boy-leaf-flower-nature/


Is there an extension to give Safari the same multiple search engine functionality as Chrome? I have to admit, I never thought that I'd see the day I preferred a different desktop browser to Chrome. But with the latest release of Safari, I'm a believer. It (to me) performs faster, looks better, and having that baked-in sync functionality with all my iOS devices and other Macs is... well, insanely great.

That being said, there are a few features that I miss from Chrome, but the one that I really miss is the multiple search engines you could invoke from typing the name of them and then either Space or Tab (e.g., type "imdb" and then Tab to search using IMDb's search query functionality).

Is there some sort of less-advertised extension that I can get to bestow this upon Safari, or am I out of luck?

Try SafariKeywordSearch. It allows you to set up custom searches triggered by keywords preceding searches. For example, I have it set so that goto Ask Different uses Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" to send me to the first Google result for "Ask Different".

There's a good set of built-in defaults, and it's pretty easy to add almost any site-specific search out there, by making a small edit to the URL. There are instructions on the site.


How to change default app to open magnet:// link without using a third-party UI app? How to change default app to open magnet:// link without using a third-party app?

I knew I maybe could use RCDefaultApp to do it but I am trying to figure out how to do it without installation of another app. Thanks a lot.

I found one solution after posting the question. A command line tool duti has a live github repo and can be installed easily with:

brew install duti

And then, check the current magnet:// link setup:

$ duti -d magnet
com.bittorrent.uTorrent

Change and set another default app with the following cmd:

$ duti -s com.foo.foo magnet

That's all.

MORE:

To get a bundle_id of the app, there are two ways:

If you know the app is a default app for an extension, you can do something like

$ duti -x html
Google Chrome.app
/Applications/Google Chrome.app
com.google.Chrome

If you know the app name, you can do something like

$ osascript -e 'id of app "Google Chrome"'
com.google.Chrome


Linking between tables in Numbers I have a table in numbers, and I want a cell to equal the value of a cell in a different table. Following the advice of this Apple discussion, I tried

=Units Sold::B2

, with Units Sold being the table with the value I wanted, and B2 being the value I wanted in the table "Units Sold".

To clarify, I want D2 of "Juice and Beverages" to equal the value of B2 of "Units Sold".

What am I doing wrong? Numbers for iCloud gives the error

  The formula contains an invalid reference.

Thanks!

It does work in iCloud Numbers:

Select the cell you want the result in: i.e  D2 of "Juice and Beverages"

And then in the text field at the top of the page enter:

=SUM('Units Sold' :: B2)

Take note of difference in how I have written it and how you did. Which was you main problem.

When done, click the green tick button on the right. And you will see this as the end result.

You can see some documentation on some of the included Functions by clicking into a cell and then into the:

1, text filed above:

2, you can search for a formula.

3,insert a Function template into the text field.

4, see a description of the Function and scrolling down further in the description you will see examples.


Messages app is popping up an emoji options when I try to copy the message I have tried a number of times to highlight a Messages App message on Macos to be able to copy it into the clipboard. Instead it continually pops up an emoji box:

Can that popup be disabled so I can copy the message contents into the clipboard?

Amongst the unexpected behaviours displayed by Messages…

If you click-hold, the 'reaction' pop-up will appear, so the trick is just a short click.

The rest of the selection behaviour, for sake of completeness, copied from my answer at https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/371319/85275

If you click once straight onto the message bubble, anywhere, the text goes grey. At this point any interaction is with the entire message. If you directly double click or right click whilst the text is initially black, it doesn't go to grey, you can interact directly.

Basically, don't do that first click. You can do anything else & it works as individual words - so right click, double-click or click-drag works, for instance.

If you click outside the message bubble, the text goes back to black & you can now interact like any ordinary text.

BTW, verification codes like that will be found by Safari & will click right into the web page.

Examples

Grey text - handled as a single item for copy/paste.

Black text, can be individually selected.

Same in dark mode (first message is selected)

Smart fill-in feature in Safari


Why does it take so much time for "Require Password" to get turned on/off? Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store > Password Settings > Require Password (under FREE DOWNLOADS)
This just takes somewhere between a couple of seconds to a lot of seconds to get turned on/off. It's never worked instantly (even a second's delay that is perfectly observable isn't considered to be instant).
Is it still a thing now? I'm on an iPad Gen 7 (2019 version)

This is not a thing anymore (or maybe just means your device is slow, running poorly):

FaceID makes this setting go away entirely
Turning off FaceID I am able to tap the toggle 6 times in 8 seconds. (Three complete on/off events)

It’s absolutely not instant to enable this as the system has to generate cryptographically secure tokens and store them in the Secure Enclave. Actual work has to be done when you modify this item. From my screen recording, it appears the disable is close to instant and the enable takes the majority of the duty cycle time.


File metadata.json appears on desktop I apologize if this is impossible to debug, but this has been happening on my Mac with macOS Sierra 10.12.2 installed since a few weeks and I thought I'd give it a shot.

Basically, a metadata.json file gets automagically created on my desktop. I delete it. It appears again after a while. GOTO 1.

Google gets a bit mixed up when I search for answers.

So, how would I begin to find out which app is the culprit?

Edit: this is the file contents (duh!):

{"name":"Desktop","modificationTime":1484074718317,"categories":[]}

I run the suggested command and I got this:

501    788 Sketch        -1 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    347 Finder        13 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    347 Finder        13 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    347 Finder        13 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    347 Finder        13 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    356 bird          25 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    347 Finder        13 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
    0     76 mds           16 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    788 Sketch        29 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    22 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    22 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
    0     76 mds           16 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    720 mdworker      10 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
dtrace: 2154 dynamic variable drops with non-empty dirty list
  501    908 Sketch        -1 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    356 bird          25 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    908 Sketch        18 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    347 Finder        13 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
    0     76 mds           16 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
    0     76 mds           16 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    718 mdworker      10 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    347 Finder        13 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    347 Finder        13 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json
  501    893 quicklookd    21 /Users/ignacio/Desktop/metadata.json

You can use opensnoop to see what app writes to that location.

sudo opensnoop | grep metadata.json

  To disable System Integrity Protection, you can do the following:

  Boot into the Recovery HD by restarting whilst holding ⌘R.
  Open Terminal (from the Utilities menu).
  Run the following command in Terminal:

csrutil disable

  Restart.

Source: Disable OS X El Capitan Rootless and permit write actions to System Integrity Protection locations


Group search results by album in Flickr My photos file names have the date in them e.g. 2015-05-15-123.jpg so when I do a Search in the iOS app for say 2015 I get all photos taken in 2015 but they are shown in a flat list. Is there a way to group them by Album instead?

I have checked with version 4.0.1 of the iOS flickr app. I am sorry to say, but it is not possible to group yearly search results by album with this version. Here is a screenshot of my search results:

By the way, the file names of the uploaded are irrelevant for flickr, as they take the date info from metadata within the photo, via EXIF data.


Should I update to Sierra 10.12 if I already have it? I am confused by my macOS: it proposes to update itself to the same version it is already.

Should I do that?

There was Sierra beta version installed on the iMac some time ago; maybe that's the cause.

Current system version: macOS 10.12 (16A323) and I don't know if it's beta or not.

Is this just showing at the top of the window in the App Store? I think that will show the latest OS version independent of what is installed on your system. If it is coming up as an update, in the "updates" tab, that's a different story - if so, install it, otherwise ignore it, it's just an advertisement.


Move python modules from one installation to another I have several versions of Python installed, some through MacPorts and some directly via the python.org installers. I have modules installed through MacPorts and via PyPI, for the same Python version (3.2.3), but there are no ports for some of the PyPI modules I'd like to use. I tried just copying the files from one site-packages directory to another, but it didn't work. Is there a way to create one "true" centralized location that will accept packages from both MacPorts and pip/easy_install?

Just use easy_install or pip from macports ie sudo port install py32-pip This will put pip in /opt/local/bin I think and use this pip not the Apple supplied one.


Build keyboard shortcut for "minimize all windows of current app except the current window" I'm looking to bind a keyboard shortcut to the action "minimize all windows from the current application except the current window." (The app in question is always Google Chrome.)
(Sort of like ⌘ + ⌥ + h, which translates to "hide all applications except the current application".)
I've never bound a new shortcut, but I suspect I could figure it out once I have a working AppleScript for the task. I also use Better Touch Tool, in case it is easier to go through that app.
This question asks the same thing, but the answers are not bindable to a simple keyboard shortcut as far as I can tell.
This question asks the same thing (except specifically for Safari), and a user suggests the AppleScript
tell application "Safari"
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "h" using {command down, option down}
    end tell
    set miniaturized of (windows whose index is not 1) to true
end tell

When I replace "Safari" with "Google Chrome" in the script, and try to run it from Script Editor, I get the error
Script error: Google Chrome got an error: Can’t make miniaturized of every window whose index ≠ 1 into type specifier.

Can anyone help? Thanks

The following example AppleScript code will minimize all but the front window in Google Chrome:
tell application "System Events" to ¬
    set miniaturized of windows of application ¬
        "Google Chrome" whose index is not equal to 1 to true

Since you already have BetterTouchTool and assuming it can run AppleScript code or an AppleScript .scrpt file with a keyboard shortcut, that is probably the easiest way to go to trigger the code.
That said, my preferred method for running AppleScript scripts with a keyboard shortcut, is to use a third-party application named FastScripts, however you can also use Automator with a Run AppleScript action as a Service/Quick Action and assign it a keyboard shortcut in: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services

The keyboard shortcut assigned to the Service/Quick Action needs to not conflict with a default keyboard shortcut for whichever application is frontmost at the time it's pressed, otherwise there may be unwanted behavior.

FastScripts can be run as a free app, up to 10 keyboard shortcuts, or upgraded for $24.95 USD to unlock unlimited keyboard shortcuts. I have no affiliation with Red Sweater Software, LLC, other then as a user of FastScripts.


Is it possible to send push notifications to the iPhone Simulator? I am developing a push notification infrastructure and would like to test it with the iPhone Simulator on a Mac.

Is this possible, or do I need to use a physical iPhone?

Push notifications don't work in the simulator.  You have to use a physical iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

Good luck,

Mark


APFS folder encryption? From the feature list APFS supports per-file encryption. Hence by extension it should be possible to setup an encrypted folder (or at least just the files within that folder) with a password that is different than the user login password.  Similarly, it should be possible to encrypt users' home  directories with their own respective keys, and render them inaccessible to one another despite whatever their file permission says (similar to what Windows' NTFS able to do since the previous century).

The question is that how to do that from a user's point of view? I've yet to see any UI in the Finder that can do this in macOS High Sierra. Is there a way in the command-line to enable this?

One possible way to do this without resorting to the command line is to create a resizable encrypted volume through Disk Utility. It acts as a folder that is decrypted during the mounting process. It supports APFS and AES 128/256.

To create a new blank encrypted folder:

Disk util > new image > new blank image > set Format: APFS > choose encryption scheme > set Image Format: read/write > OK.

To encrypt an existing folder:

Disk util > new image > new image from folder > APFS > choose encryption scheme > set Image Format: read/write > OK.

This will create the encrypted folder as a .dmg that is decrypted when you mount it. Once mounted it acts just as a normal folder.


How to easily clean up photo folder using Finder? I am using OSX already for a couple of years, but I still have trouble finding a good workflow for cleaning up photos in a folder using Finder. What I like to do is view each of the photos and delete some of them.
What I currently do is:

(a) put the relevant folder in List view (so I see all the details like size, and date modified), and
(b) use quick look (by pressing spacebar) to see the photo.
(c) Then I press cmd-backspace the delete the file if required.

The issue is: if I delete the file, the next file (or the preceding) file is not selected in Finder, which requires me to either use my mouse to select the next file (if I remember correctly which one it is), or (preferably) press the arrow keys a number of times to navigate to the relevant file.

In Windows Preview, deleting a file automatically shows the next file, which is very convenient.

What would be a good workflow to do this simple task in Finder?

(I don't want to use iPhoto etc. Using the icon view in Finder is not convenient either because the photos are too small and I can't use a single arrow key to go through each of the photos. I tried using Cover Flow in Finder, but I find the size of the photos also to be rather small)

When I try this it works. Not that I would actually do this.

I use QuollEyeTree (freeware)

This lets you Tag files of interest, then you can perform operations on the tagged files e.g. Delete, Move etc.


What does iOS Settings → General → Usage indicate? In the image below, iOS shows some figures next to the app name.

I am not sure what this means. Does this indicate network used or disk space used by my app?

The problem is my app is not saving any data on phone. It is just using the internet and saving all data on internet only, but then this count is still increasing…

This is the amount of data the app is storing on the phone, plus the size of the app. If an app isn't saving data, it may be caching data of some kind.

Without getting into code level details, this Storage pane is simply showing the space used by the sandbox (directory) that iOS makes to store each specific app and all the files, temporary files, preference files, caches and other assets as it runs.

Any user of iOS can look into some of the storage for each app using a tool like PhoneView but to truly look at all the files and determine which folders and files make up the 36.5 MB of the Testing_demo app (for instance), you will either need to jailbreak the iOS device and measure the filesystem directly or make use of the profiling tools in Xcode to analyze the writes made by your app.


Yosemite and El Capitan USB crash kills keyboard and trackpad I'm seeing a similar issue to MBP 2013 becoming unresponsive to keyboard and mouse, but this is with no external USB devices at all.

Periodically/intermittently, my keyboard and trackpad will stop responding, and I am forced to hold the power button down to shutdown and restart the laptop.

It was being triggered most frequently when plugging and unplugging an Arduino, but has happened on occasion after resuming from sleep with no USB devices connected. It was possible on some occasions to plug in an external keyboard and mouse and shutdown cleanly, but that does not seem to be possible more recently, perhaps since I upgraded from Yosemite to El Capitan (clean install, trying to solve this issue).

The MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) keyboard and trackpad become completely unresponsive, the only working "input" is the power button, which I guess bypasses the USB stack entirely.

I have got to the point of installing PowerKey, and running a script that will trigger a shutdown and restart if the power button is pressed repeatedly in a short time. At least this will give programs a chance to save their state before shutdown.

What I'm really looking for is how to reset the USB stack entirely. I tried the following:

$ sudo kextunload -b com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCIPCI
$ sudo kextload -b com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCIPCI

and then reloading it, but that left the keyboard and mouse unusable still. (I tried this via SSH, before the problem manifested itself. i.e. the keyboard and mouse were working prior to the kextunload)

I then tried doing a diff of the loaded kext's before and after the unload, and reloading all the other kexts that were removed, but that still did not result in a working keyboard.

Any suggestions? Do I need to load the kext's in a particular order, perhaps? Is there a script/program that knows what that order is (I assume so, since they get loaded successfully on startup!)

The start up sequence is kind of hard to emulate other than actually power cycling the computer.

I don't have a good answer since his failure is extremely low level, but here are the things I would do to troubleshoot and isolate things before considering a total reinstallation of the OS:

run sysdiagnose script each time a failure happens to capture the logs and also gain a sense of how often this happens.
verify that plugging in the USB keyboard does not kick start the system properly for internal or external keyboard function
log out the user using kill -9 -1 or via remote screen sharing

My guess is the logs will show USB errors indicating a hardware fault, but that would need a look at your specific logs. It's not clear why you are manually loading the kext so perhaps I'm missing some information?


Terminal command to change Privilege of "everyone" to "No Access" I want to change the privilege of a specific folder for the "everyone" group to No Access. I have tried chmod o--- that doesnt seem to work but I am most likely doing it wrong. I know that If I click "get info" I can manually adjust it but I want to be able to do it in Terminal so I can deploy this command to numerous Macs. Thank you!

chmod 700 /path/to/folder should do the trick for you. This allows execute (1), write (2), and read (4) for the owner, and no access for everyone else.


Disable Keep In Dock on app move I use my dock without any applications ever kept in Dock. Only applications that are open are in the Dock.

When I move an application within the Dock, OS X thinks I want it kept in the Dock.

Does anyone know how to disable this 'keep in Dock on move' feature?

To the best of my knowledge this is expected behavior. The dock has been doing that (probably) since the 10.0 public beta.

Unfortunately I have seen nothing online, either in App form or a shell or applescript, that would prevent this from happening. Perhaps someone else has run across something that would do this.


will I have to provide banking information and tax forms upon enabling IAP in addition to signing the Paid Applications agreement? Here https://help.apple.com/app-store-connect/#/devb6df5ee51
it says
To sell your apps for a price or offer in-app purchases, the Account Holder user must sign your Paid Applications agreement.
To receive payments from Apple, you will also need to set up contacts, enter banking information, and submit tax forms.

My question is will I have to provide banking information and tax forms upon enabling IAP in addition to signing the Paid Applications agreement?
Or will they be required only when trying to receive payments?

You have to be set up for billing and taxes in one country to put an app on the store, free, paid or some mix of both.

You don’t have to execute tax documents internationally until you put an app as available in those regions, but you do have to fill out the basic forms to push your first app through the pipeline that ends up on the store.


Is deleting the yosemite install partition safe? I got Yosemite via the Apple Beta Program. I installed Yosemite on a separate partition which I had created for the purpose specifically. Now I want to reclaim my 50 GB by deleting the partition. I have already set my startup disk to my original Mavericks partition.

So, if I launch Disk utility in Mavericks and delete the Yosemite partition, will my Mac still boot?

PS: I am not looking to uninstall just yet, but I'm running low on space and might need to get some space back soon enough (before Yosemite gets stable and I get the upgrade).

There is no uninstall per-se for any OS X installation.

You can just boot into your other OS to test that it boots before deleting your current OS partition. I can't speak to any changes that Yosemite has made to your Mac or the recovery partition, but I'd start with powering it off and then booting while holding the option key. From that boot manager, you can test that your Mavericks partition is working and then decide to delete the other partition(s) or if you need to fix things before getting to a point where you have no bootable volumes. In fact, you can't self delete a running partition so you'll likely have to boot to Mavericks (or Recovery HD) to delete a new install as you have done.


Does Time Machine run backups even when no account is logged on? Does an account has to be logged on to trigger the Time Machine backup, or does Time Machine run without any session active?

Time Machine is a system-level daemon, not a user-level process. Time Machine will work even if you are not logged into your Mac.


Rollback Python2.7 Installation How do I reconfigure an installation of Python 2.7, on Snow Leopard, so that the OS uses the default 2.6 but leaves my 2.7 installation, and its installed modules, for use under virtualenv?  Basically trying to fix the mistake of getting at 2.7 directly rather than through virtualenv.

Technicalia:

OSX 10.6.8
2.7 installation was probably from source
2.7 residing in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
python2.6 at /usr/bin/python2.6, a symlink to /System/Library/Versions...
there exists a file /usr/bin/python; << /usr/bin/python -V >> returns Python 2.6.1

OS python scripts will use the default as the scripts look for /usr/bin/python not the one on the path.

If you want python at the command prompt to use 2.6 I would remove /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/ from the path.

To get the bare 2.7 python you will need to use the full path.

If virtualenv is not installed for 2.7 you need easy_install - which should be in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/easy_install virtualenv(if that is not there you should add distribute or setuptools.)

To create a 2/7 vitualenv run /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python virtualenv.py ENV then running ENV/bin/python gives you the 2.7 version - as would running the activate script to add the virtualenv python to the from of your path for the rest of the Terminal session.


How to make facetime volume off and normally watch video in Macbook? I have a question about using my Mac.
When I'm connected with others in FaceTime and I turn the FaceTime volume off, then I play a video, the volume is also off.

I want the FaceTime volume off but video volume on.
Have any idea how to separate them with the volume control?

Individual Application sound control is only really possible using a 3rd party solution, such as Rogue Amoeba's SoundSource ($35)

There's also their more comprehensive, but at double the price, Audio Hijack, but I think that would be overkill.


Alert sounds on iMac Just got a new iMac and it is making an alert type beep every 30 secs. I have tried turning everything off in notifications but this isn't stopping it. The only thing that helps is turning the volume off completely which I don't want to have to do. Can anyone help please?

To start with I would boot into Safe Mode as a troubleshooting step to see if that makes any difference.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your iMac
Restart your iMac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. does it still beep every 30s in Safe Mode)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your iMac as normal
Test again to see if the beeps continue

Let me know how it went and we'll go from there.