Professional video editing on Mac I'm totally unaware about Macs and video editing. I have an iMac and a Sony camera that produces .mt2s files. I've heard that the Mac is the best for graphic and video editing, so I was wondering how should I work with this file format on a Mac?

Sony codes their recording in their own format, hence the .mt2s, and they want you to use a Sony Laptop to edit the footage. Anyways, there is a Mac app called, MPEG Stream Clip, that converts the footage to any format you want at any frames/second you want. You can download it for free from Squared 5, http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html.

It is a great piece of free software.

As for video editing software you can use Apple's iMoive (for the amateur) or purchase Apple's Final Cut Pro (wait until July, they are releasing a new version).


64bit vs 32bit on mobile devices with 2gb ram - is there any sense? Today I took part in an interesting discussion. Someone said that's great that Apple goes 64bit with their iPhone 5S. Of course I mentioned about no need for 64bits paired with 2 gigs of RAM, but then I started to wonder - is there anything good with 64bit in this case, except for benefits of "future compatibility"? Larger instructions? Any kind of optimalization?

Since the iPhone doesn't use an x86 processor, almost everything you know about 64-bit versus 32-bit will not apply. For example, on x86 processors, more general purpose registers are available in 64-bit mode. This provides a performance boost in 64-bit mode. That doesn't apply to non-x86 processors.

64-bit operation tends to provide benefits to software that handles "bulk data". This generally includes things like encryption, compression, and image processing. Other types of programming don't significantly benefit because they seldom deal with values that occupy more than 32-bits. Also, more memory bandwidth is required by 64-bit code because all pointers are twice as large and this can cause some performance loss.

However, there is one big advantage of 64-bit code over 32-bit code -- virtual memory need not be treated as a scarce resource. This can have all kinds of benefits both for performance, ease of development, reliability, maintainability, and so on. For example, if you're manipulating a large database file, you can memory-map the entire file and access it just like an array. This can eliminate a lot of slow, complex, error-prone code to memory map sections of the file or alternate seeks with data operations.

Similarly, libraries can have fixed virtual addresses. This can improve code sharing and result in memory being used more effectively. It can minimize relocation, which can result in faster code startup.

To be honest, you would have to know a lot about the internals of how the device operates, both in software and in hardware, to usefully opine on whether a change from a 32-bit platform to a 64-bit platform will provide significant benefits.


I do not have enough free space on the C:\ drive of my Windows computer to run the updater for iOS 5 in iTunes I am trying to update to iOS 5, but iTunes wants 10 GB in the C: drive. (I don't have that much free space in C, but I have it in another partition.)

I have already reinstalled iTunes in my secondary partition (300 GB free) and moved the Preferences > Advanced iTunes Media to my secondary.

But still when I try to update to iOS 5, iTunes tells me there is not enough free space (it still wants to use the C: drive).

Are there any other settings I should check?

I think that iTunes is trying to use your gobal Windows temporary folder. By default, this directory is in your user Local Settings directory, located on the same drive as Windows. This is a system-wide setting that applications are supposed to follow.

You can change the path to this temporary folder by changing the value of the TEMP environment variable. You'll have to restart iTunes after changing the variable to have it take effect.


How can I restore photos from my ipad? My computer -- with its attendant photo library -- was stolen, and now the only copy I have of many pictures is on my ipad. How can I transfer those photos to my new mac?

I tried the instructions from here but these only found photos in the "Saved Photos" album, not all photos.

You need a 3rd party app like

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24832/ipod-access-photo

(there are others, search Macupdate)

Note that the images will have been optimised for the iOS device so they may not ne as large as the ones on your Mac.

regards


How to move books from iBooks on my iPhone with iTunes on Mac? The first thing I bought was an iPhone. I have a lot of books there in iBooks. Now I would like to sync this library across my other devices: Mac and iPad. I know that the base for devices is Macbook and syncing via iTunes.

But when I connect my iPhone to Macbook, and then try to set Sync Books I got a warning:

I definitely do not want to remove them from iPhone. What should I do then?

Did you buy them from the iTunes Store? If so, they should sync automatically via iTunes into iBooks on your Mac. If you got them externally to iTunes, then you will have to separately move them to your Mac first before using iTunes on your Mac. Can you mail them to yourself and import them into iBooks on your Mac? It does matter which version of iTunes and OSX you are using as the behaviour of iTunes and iBooks has changed between releases, however the fundamental point is that you need to move them independently of iTunes to your Mac first.


Decrypting Login Keychain encrypted with smartcard I set up login with smartcard (actually a yubikey, but over
   PKCS#11/PIV).

I restarted and logged in with my smartcard+pin instead
   of with my password, and I was prompted to give my old password to
   update my keychain. I foolishly entered my current password
   confusedly.

I then rebooted again and was asked for my current keychain password
   as it wasn't the password I entered on boot (apparently). I tried both
   my current and previous passwords and neither work. I suspect it's
   been set to something based on my smartcard encrypting something, but
   I have no idea what and can't find it online.

Not only do I not have access to my keychain now, but I'm constantly
   prompted for my keychain password.

Suggestions as to how to figure out my current keychain password? or
   to induce logging in with smartcard/PIN instead of password so it
   magically works?

If you performed your initial login and profile setup using your "smartcard" then your login keychain password will be your PIN.

If you find this is not the case (& no passwords you enter work either), you may just have to trash your login keychain by deleting the login.keychain & login.keychain-db files from ~/Library/Keychains, restarting, logging in again with your "smartcard" & PIN to create a new login keychain, the password for which will then be the same as your PIN.


How to share geolocation tags in photo streams? I have made over 3000 pictures during my last trip, mostly with the iPhone.

I then shared them as a photo album in iCloud with my family, but neither of us can figure out how to enable geolocation data. It obviously would be quite handy to know which picture is taken where, and display the map like photos can for unshared pictures.

How is that done?

Under Preferences, select "Include location information for published items". You then probably need to delete and re-create your shared album to get the location metadata


Keychain cleanup before sync Would you recommend a cleanup of the keychain before activating iCloud Keychain sync.

No on a technical level. If you know how to clean up your keychain, you can do it as well after you enable sync as before.

Yes on a philosophical level. You might have items you don't want in the cloud where the chance of error, surveillance or disclosure are higher and your ability to permanently erase the data is lower.

So, I would only clean an item you don't want on Apple's servers directly.


how to add the white border and 'peeling' shadow to a photo in Pages? It's been a while since I used Pages, but the last time I used it, I dragged and dropped a photo into a blank document and there were options to add nice borders to the photo.

Specifically, I added an effect which made the photo look like it was peeling off the page on the left and right side, and there was a shadow underneath each corner giving it a 3d appearance.

I can't for the life of me find that feature in Pages (using Page '09).

I'm not sure it's the same effect you're looking for, but to apply different borders in Pages I followed these steps:

Place the picture where you want it in your document
Open the Inspector by holding CMD+I
Go to the Graphic tab:

Go to the Stroke menu and choose Picture Frame from the drop-down menu.

Now you can choose a picture frame and alter its appearance by using the Scale slider.


How to switch from from the active application on monitor 1 to the active application on monitor 2 via keyboard TL;DR: I am typing notes into a full-screen notepad on monitor 1. I want to switch to typing into the visible, full-screen application shown on monitor 2 without using the mouse.

(I know I could just click on the application shown in monitor 2). I know cmd+tab lets me cycle through all possible application, and will bring them up in the correct monitor. However, with 8 open applications, this method seems slow, especially if I haven't used the application currently shown on monitor 2 in a long time.

Is there a keyboard shortcut for this?

Based on your original question here is the answer to that.

  switch from one active desktop to next visible desktop on other
  monitor

On High Sierra the keyboard shortcut to switch Desktops already exists.

In my case it only shows 1 since I only have one Desktop.

In your case it should show 8 Desktops (numbers)


How to use a selfie stick remote trigger with iPhone 3G? I have an Apple IPhone 3G and Version 4.2.8 (8E401), and a generic selfie stick.  The selfie stick has a wire that plugs into the headphone jack on the phone, and when pressing the shutter release on the stick increases the volume?  It does not release the shutter to snap a photo.  Can you help with this issue?  Thanks.

The generic Selfie Stick button emulates the volume down button action on the iPhone. Initial iterations of iPhone(3G,4,4S) did not use the volume button as a shutter.

iPhone 5 and above introduced the volume down button as the "shutter key"

Alternatively, [Camera+][1] built the feature into their app back in 2011 for this purpose. Try the Selfie stick with the Camera+ app and it should work.

Incase it doesn't work, Open Safari and type camplus://enablevolumesnap into URL box and the feature will be enabled.


Bootcamping a Mac. Got windows installed correctly but now it cant see the USB that Bootcamp had me make with all the Mac drivers Pretty much as title says.  Went through Bootcamp Assistant, created the USB with Mac versions of the Windows drivers, and installed Windows.  Can successfully dual boot, however, none of my devices work.  When I plug in the USB to install those drivers, Windows doesn't recognize it.  Any thoughts? Thanks!

I see your problem. You should try to install the latest drivers for BOOTCAMP. If this doesn't fix it, there's a problem with your USB3 Drivers.

Install here : http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1638

Try this too : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj945423.aspx

This should help :)


How to add calendar entries in iPhone 6? I am trying to make entries in the calendar on iPhone 6. I complete everything as on my previous iPhone, but there is no 'done' button.  Checked online and it says to press 'add' once complete.

I do this, but then the whole entry is lost without saving. What do I have to do to persist my appointments?

You may be inadvertently saving the event to the wrong calendar. Often email accounts, such as Gmail automatically enable a calendar when being set up. If the event shows up only on your iPhone, and nowhere else, chances are your default calendar is set to something that you are not used to checking.

When you create an event, scroll down to where you can see the menu item "Calendar". Tap that, and choose one of your iCloud calendars. If the event then shows up on iCloud, and your computer, you have chosen the correct calendar.

If this is case, you will probably want to change your default calendar by opening your Settings.app, scrolling down and selecting "Mail, Contacts, and Calendar". At the bottom of this screen is a section titled "Calendars". Change the "Default Calendar" to reflect the one that worked correctly.

here


How to completely Disable Cmd + [Num] in Safari? I want to disable the the ⌘ [Number] shortcuts in Safari to prevent losing content when I accidentally click it.

I’ve followed the method in this answer. I’ve changed the shortcut for Apple to ⌥  ⇧ ⌘ F10 But whenever I press ⌘ 1 in Safari, it still opens the Apple homepage.

I make sure that Safari » Bookmarks » Apple menu item is labeled with ⌥ ⇧ ⌘ F10, not ⌘ 1.

I’m using OS X 10.9.4 and Safari 7.0.5

Using OS X 10.9.4 and Safari 7.0.5, I've replicated the results of your shortcut alteration attempt. It seems that adding the new shortcut doesn't replace the old one.

Removing everything from the Favorites Bar works for me. This is certainly not an ideal solution, but depending on how you assign value to the usefulness of the Favorites Bar and the importance of potentially lost content, this may be useful to you until a better solution is discovered.

Extra info and opinions:

The problem persists after hiding a non-empty Favorites Bar
I'm surprised that Apple doesn't list all keyboard shortcuts for their own applications in System Preferences


How does the iPhone X eliminate borders? The Samsung S8 has top and bottom borders. The Mi MIX 2 and Essential Phone have bottom borders. Only iPhone X is able to eliminate all borders. How can that be done?

I don't know if this is the full story, but the screen folds over & wraps underneath - presumably this gives them space for connectivity.
It's OLED so needs no backlight, allowing them to do this.

It was visible in the Jony Ive presentation video - https://youtu.be/K4wEI5zhHB0


Is there a way for the host of a Zoom meeting running the Zoom app on a Mac to admit everyone from the waiting room via keyboard not mouse? If I am the host of a Zoom meeting and people arrive at the meeting late and I want to admit them to the meeting without interrupting the flow of my presentation, is there any way to "Admit all from Waiting Room" from the keyboard? This is further complicated by the fact that if only one person is in the waiting room, there is no "Admit all" option.
Things I've unsuccessfully tried:

There is no pre-defined keyboard shortcut for admitting people from the waiting room
There is no menu item in Zoom to admit from waiting room, so I can't assign a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences
The "Admit all" button doesn't appear in the same place on the screen depending on how many people are in the waiting room, so it looks like simulating a mouse click at particular coordinates wouldn't work.

I don't know if there is a path forward with UI Scripting through AppleScript, or if I'm overlooking a simulated mouse click solution, or if there's something else I'm not thinking of, but I'd love to be able to admit latecomers to a zoom meeting from the keyboard.

There's a couple of scenarios to consider.

Showing/hiding the Participants view
No people in the waiting room
Only one person waiting in the waiting room
More than one person waiting.

I'll cover only the case where the Participants View is already active, and the Admit All link is visible due to multiple clients on the waiting list.
This code will click the "Admit All" link
tell application "System Events" to tell process "zoom.us"
    click last UI element of UI element 1 of row 1 of outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of window "Zoom Meeting"
end tell

To Bind it to a keyboard, 2 options:

Use Keyboard Maestro to run an AppleScript on a hotkey trigger - Simplest, but KM is not free.
I'll save the script above as an Application so that it's available to run from the Spotlight.


How do I get rid of orphaned application entries after uninstallation? Orphaned Entry in Default Calendar App Preferences (OS X Yosemite)?

The image below is the preferences pane in Calendar.app. This is where the user sets the default calendar app used by OS X globally. In OS X 10 this is set to Calendar.app by default. I use Fantastical 2 as my default calendar app. The problem is an orphaned entry is appearing -specifically MobileCal.app- (as can be seen in the image below). As far as I can recall I've never installed an app called MobileCal. Please let me know i) how to remove this orphaned entry and ii) how it got there in the first place. I'm running OS X Yosemite 10.0.3. Thanks! Additionally I'm receiving the following error when I attempt to open a reminder from Spotlight Search:

The MobileCal.app is part of Xcode's iPhone SDK, so the easiest way to get rid of that app is to either remove the Xcode completely or remove just the app. The file can be located inside the Xcode package:

Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneSimulator.sdk/Applications


Browsers don't restore tabs after quitting in macOS Mojave I'm new to Mac, so please be patient :)

I've got a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) with macOS Mojave. Some apps are pre-installed, because it's a company laptop. So, maybe something in there, but I'm not sure.

The problem is that neither Safari nor Vivaldi (I installed Vivaldi to check there) restore opened tabs. But Safari has an option "Safari opens with: All windows from last session" and Vivaldi "Startup: Last session". On my Ubuntu Desktop Vivaldi works perfectly with it.

So, what's going on here and how to fix it?

Update due to comments:

I'm not using Incognito, so that's not the problem
I unchecked the Close windows when quitting an app option in System Preferences > General but this didn't help
I've checked the answers at How can I save state of tabs in Safari? but none of the answers helped, so it seems this problem is unique to macOS Mojave (especially since Vivaldi is also affected)

Looks like you have found a bug,
I can reproduce your issue on my Mac running 10.14.1

It does work after logging out (and back in) or force closing Safari,
but when I close it normally and reopen, it does not reopen my last session,
until I click reopen last closed tab, and it suddenly restores all my tabs from the last session. Bit annoying but at least a work around (Cmd + Shift + T)

I needs a bit more testing I think, but looks like this should be reported to Apple if this behaviour is indeed consistent.


Cannot break running process in Terminal This has been killing me for a while. In macOS terminal, I cannot break a process. I've tried every combination of keys. Command. doesn't work.

For example, if I open a screen session with a serial device. It works fine but I cannot exit screen. The only way to kill it is by using Activity Monitor.

stty-a shows that most things are bound to  ^ "key", but this Control + "key" doesn't do anything either.

To exit screen you press ControlA followed by Control\.

You can find a comprehensive list of all the default key bindings in the man page (man screen).


How does iOS 5 decide what mailbox to watch for new mail? I have a new iPhone 4 (not S).  I have installed iOS 5 on it.  I have configured an Exchange active-sync mailbox for my mail.

I have three Exchange rules running on incoming messages in order to sort them into three places:

filter out all low-importance messages to folder B
filter out messages that are not to me to folder B
filter out messages which are to me but I don't want to get notified-on-arrival to folder A

This theoretically leaves messages in my Inbox which are both to me and something I want to be notified about when they arrive.  If I want to look at mail in folder A, it is a few clicks and a poll away, which I can live with.

So when mail is filtered into folder B, great, it works.

When mail arrives and ends up in the Inbox, the phone vibrates and goes "Bing!"  Also great.

However.  When mail is filtered into folder A, there appear to be some circumstances where the iPhone will notify me that new mail has arrived by vibrating and going "bing!", while other times it works the way I want.

So my question is: why is the phone sometimes alerting me that mail has arrived in folder A?

Update: one thing that I maybe should have mentioned is that I'm filtering with exceptions in my rules:

Rule 1:
Criteria:
    Stuff marked low priority
Action:
    move to Inbox-Filtered-Out
    stop processing rules on this message
Rule 2:
Criteria:
    stuff marked normal priority
Action:
    move to Inbox-Filtered-Out
    stop processing rules on this message
Except:
    if it is to: or cc: me
    or if it is from (list of people which includes my wife and the pager-relayer)
    or if it is to (specific address which I am responsible for responding to)
Rule 3:
Criteria:
    stuff marked normal priority
Action:
    move to Inbox-For-Me
    stop processing rules on this message
Except:
    if it is from my wife or the pager-relayer
    or if it is to (specific address which I am responsible for responding to)

So after all that, the only things left in my Inbox (and therefore triggers the phone alerting me to its arrival) should be stuff from my wife, or something that I need to be alerted on (or is marked as High priority). The rest of the moderately important stuff ends up in Inbox-For-Me, and everything else is shunted to Inbox-Filtered-Out.

I should also mention that these three rules are the only rules I have on the Exchange account, so I'm pretty sure there isn't a race condition here.

I don't know that this is defined anywhere, but it has been my observation that you will be notified about new mail in the folder you are browsing in the mail client and in the inbox but no other folders.  So if you're reading messages in folder B and then put the phone sleep or switch to another app, you will be notified about new messages in the inbox and new messages in folder B but not new messages in folder A.  If you are reading messages in the inbox, then you won't be notified about messages in any other folder.


How many combinations of tags are there for a file? With the advent of Mavericks, files don't have only labels, they have tags. You can still use it just like labels (and have the classical 'work', 'home', 'urgent', 'to file', ... tags), but it is more powerful than that.

The difference with tags is that you can have multiple tags for one file (while there was one or none label). My question is two-fold:

How many combinations are there?
Is there a better way to organize tags than the categories:

Combination to produce many labels: 'red - blue = work, projectA' ?
A hierarchical way?
Find relevant, relatively independent axis:

'blue = related to work',
'red = to treat urgently',
'violet = general interest',
'green = recycle'?

There are infinite combinations since you can add your own custom tags, therefore you can have as many tags as you wish and therefore as many tag combinations as you wish.

Organising your files with tags is down to personal preference, but personally I use custom tags for projects and custom-named tags with colour for important/completed/etc.

My current main tag list is as follows:

I usually combine these with the project- or context-specific tag if it is a single file or package, or use the project/context tag on the folder and these general tags on the files themselves.


Mercurial command line client not found I have the latest version of Mercurial installed on a fully patched Lion and  the Mercurial client cannot be accessed from the terminal ("command not found"). The command line client is installed in /usr/local/bin and I've checked that this directory is in my $PATH variable.

The funny thing is that if I log on as the root user via sudo, I can access the command line client! I've checked the permissions of hg and it's +x for all users.

What could be wrong?

I found the cause.

It looks like the permissions on /usr/local/bin was 700, which is wrong. It should be 755. Changing the permissions fixed it and I can now access the mercurial command line client.


How does the Apple Watch get the temperature? The Apple Watch shows the temperature on the clock face.

When my Apple Watch is disconnected from my iPhone, the temperature display becomes disabled, but the time is still displayed. That leads me to think the watch doesn't have a temperature sensor, but it getting it from the Internet.

My question is: How does the Watch get the temperature?

The temperature shown does come from the Weather App. Small bits of data on the watch face are known as complications.

Tapping the temperature on the watch face will open the Weather app thus revealing the source of the data. The watch gets the data from your iPhone which, in turn, uses location and data from the Internet.
You may find more useful information in the Apple Watch User Guide.


Re-appearing folder in OS X Lion At some point in the past, I had a folder on my desktop that I placed temporary music files off of my Aunt's iPod. I imported the files from her old school iPod in order to add to her iTunes library and import to her iPhone.

This specific path to the folder was ~/Desktop/Jean.

I deleted this folder and emptied the trash, but 9 times out of 10, after I login after restarting my computer, the folder named Jean has reappeared on my desktop. I have no idea why this would be the case, what would be causing it, or how to make it stop occurring.

Anybody know?

info: I am running OSX 10.7.1.

Did you use an application to get those files off the iPod? If so, did that application create a folder to export the files to?


How to format multiple exFAT partitions on USB drive? I'm following the instructions in Creating a bootable Clonezilla dual partition USB device but using my Mac laptop running El-Capitan.

I managed to create an MBR partition table and two partitions on the external USB drive using OSX' fdisk utility but I failed to find a way to format the existing partitions to ExFAT.

All the references I found so far point to diskutil eraseDisk or suggest using Windows or Linux for that, but I don't have access to bare-iron servers with these OS's and failed to access the unformatted USB drive from VirtualBox virtual machines on my laptop.

So, the question is - "Is there a way to execute the equivalent of mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdb1 on OS X?"

To format an ExFAT partition, unmount the partition and use (sudo) newfs_exfat [options] /dev/disk*s*. Check man newfs_exfat for the options.

The default FAT-size is 32bit, so you don't have to (or more precisely: you can't easily) specify the -F option.

Typically the Terminal commands should look like this:

diskutil list #to get the disk identifier of the exFAT partition
diskutil unmount /dev/diskxsy
sudo newfs_exfat -v Name /dev/diskxsy


Safe and Sure Way to Install Sierra / Ongoing Regressions in OS X I am looking to install Sierra from scratch in a straightforward, foolproof manner on an Air currently on Catalina.  I've written 'straightforward, foolproof' because it appears that experienced persons have run into trouble doing this and I do not do sysadminey stuff to begin with.

Installing whatever O.S. you wanted used to be so easy when Macs came with DVD-Rs.

Sierra is still available as an upgrade on the App Store but as a direct install and 'visible' only to O.S.'s up to and including Sierra, so you can't directly revert to an earlier O.S.  I downloaded it (on Sierra itself).  The Installer says "This copy . . . is damaged, and can't be used . . ."  This may be because the download was interrupted and restarted.  Inside the app wrapper is 'InstallESD.dmg.'

I could re-download and if it's not 'damaged,' I could copy it all over onto an external drive to install but that external drive would have to be a bootable drive as well -- more new things to learn and more pitfalls.  So is there no easier way?  An "Installing Sierra for Dummies" way?

This is an overview. I'm going to assume you know your way around a Mac enough to fill in the blanks.

You should be able to download Sierra from the App store. (or here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202) Note that if you are getting an error message about a damaged installer it may be that the installer is old and the certificate in it is expired. I have heard that setting the clock back a number of years will also fix this issue.

Then using the command Apple recommends using (at least 8GB) flash drive create your bootable installer.

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

Or you could use something like DiskmakerX you can create a bootable macOS Sierra install disk a different way. I use this method as I like me some GUI apps.

Once the bootable installer has been created on the flash drive and with the flash drive plugged into your Mac (and a backup of your Mac somewhere safe and disconnected). Boot the Mac holding the ⌥ Option key.

When you get to the Startup Manager screen select the Sierra installer and let it boot. It may take a while.

Eventually you will be asked to select a language and be given a window with several options.

Instead go to the Utilities menu > disk Utility and reformat the internal drive. This will, of course, remove everything from the drive so do be very sure about your backup.

When that is done quit disk utility and select the option to install Mac OS Sierra on the drive you just formatted.

Now, all of this assumes that macOS updates that you have previously installed have not updated the firmware on your Mac to the point that macOS Sierra won't work. That is possible but I don't know how likely it is. So proceed at your own risk, and have a macOS Catalina bootable installer standing by, just in case.


Stop messages to my new iPhone from appearing on my old iPhone I got a new iPhone, and I gave my old one to my husband. Naturally, I want to disable my Apple account and iMessage on the old phone. How do I do this without affecting my own account?  Each time I receive a message on my new phone, he is receiving the same message on his phone.  We have two different phone numbers.

My husband does not have his own iTunes account and prefers not to have a separate account. The phone is unlocked

You need to disassociate your Apple ID from iMessage on his iPhone. You can do this by following the steps outlined below. Don't worry, iMessage/FaceTime account settings are separate to iTunes account settings (so you can choose to have different Apple IDs for each)

Open the Settings app
Scroll down to and tap 'Messages'
Scroll down to and tap 'Send & Receive'
Tap 'Apple ID' (which should list your Apple ID)
Tap 'Sign Out'

This will disassociate your Apple ID from iMessage on that iPhone and still leave it intact on your new one. Your husband will still be able to send and receive iMessages using his number. You will probably want to do the same for FaceTime too otherwise he will receive FaceTime calls for you and vice versa!


Sound balance keeps changing on High Sierra and Mojave i have a problem that every time when i reconnected my Bose QC35 II the sound balance was to the right instead of balanced in the middle.

So i found a solution on Reddit with the AppleScript but this did not work completely form me because it was throwing errors sometime:
"System Events got an error: Can’t get tab group 1 of window 1 of process \"System Preferences\". Invalid index." number -1719 from tab group 1 of window 1 of process "System Preferences"
original source of the code: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/34qmn0/is_there_a_shortcut_or_command_to_switch_the_lr/
Original code:
tell application "System Preferences"
     activate
     reveal anchor "output" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
     tell slider 1 of group 1 of tab group 1 of window 1 of process "System Preferences"
          set value to 0.5
     end tell
end tell
tell application "System Preferences"
     quit
end tell

Working code
I made some changes to the code:
tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    reveal anchor "output" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "System Preferences"
        repeat until exists tab group 1 of window "Sound"
        end repeat
        tell slider 1 of group 1 of tab group 1 of window "Sound"
            set value to 0.5
        end tell

    end tell
end tell

tell application "System Preferences"
    quit
end tell

i saved my code in ~/Applications/FixSoundBalance.applescript
Cronjob way
And made a crontab crontab -e with the value:
*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/osascript ~/Applications/FixSoundBalance.applescript >/dev/null 2>&1

And on Mojave, you need to give the first time permissions to Cron to access Accessibility (under Security & Privacy, tab privacy), after that, it works fine.
Alfred way
When you use the alfredapp https://www.alfredapp.com/, you can set the under Features -> Default Results -> Extras the checkbox AppleScripts then when you search for Fix... you get the script as result and you can run it directly. Then you do not need to set a cronjob.


What is the quickest Mac OS X app to use to remove the background of an image to make it transparent? I followed the instructions in How to use Preview for Basic Image Editing: Remove Backgrounds and Extract Shapes to use the Preview app to remove backgrounds with an image. The problem is that the "Instant Alpha" tool sometimes does not capture all the pixels and can't figure out how to use the rectangle tool to remove those remaining pixels. I tried highlighting the pixels and then pressing delete but it doesn't work. Can someone explain how to do it or recommend another free, lightweight Mac OS X tool to remove background to make it transparent? I do not want to use Photoshop or anything else expensive.

Just selecting an area and hitting delete just as you do with the Alpha tool should do it fine.  I tend to get a good outline with the alpha tool, then zoom in and use the lasso selection tool to draw around any stray pixels - remember to complete the lasso yourself, or it may complete it for you and if the end is not near the start, it will just draw a big line between the 2 across whatever is in its way.

You don't say what OS you are using, but I've done it this way in every OS since Tiger...


Is there a way to start a specific application with a keyboard short cut? Sort of like the Windows+R command in the windows world?  That actually just lets you run a command but you get the idea.

As of Snow Leopard, this actually is built into the OS.

Launch Automator and create a service that receives no input from any application. From the Actions Library, add the 'Launch Application' action to the workflow. Select the 'Terminal' application in the drop-down list of Applications. Save your new service and then assign a keyboard shortcut to it in:
System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Services


Does uploading new binary to iTunes Connect lose our place in the review queue? Our iOS app is "Waiting for Review" on the iOS App Store.

While "waiting for review," do we lose our place in the "waiting for review" queue each time we upload a new binary?

From Apples Documentation (it puts you in back of the queue):
Removing a Build from Review

Removing a build removes your app version from Apple’s review queue and changes its status to Developer Rejected. When you resubmit your app, the review process starts over from the beginning.

You can remove the build you’ve submitted if its status is any of the following:

Waiting For Export Compliance
Waiting For Review
In Review
Pending Developer Release
Pending Apple Release


Is there any way to have an iPad auto update its date and time? On my iPhone, my date and time are set automatically. Is there any way to do the same thing on the iPad to ensure it always displays the correct time?

It should update automatically by default (Settings → General → Date & Time).

Are you running the latest iPad OS (3.2.2)? I have a vague recollection of a bug in the iPad that caused the time to go out of sync that might have been fixed in a software update. I can't seem to find any info about it, but you might want to update the software just in case.


How can I kill the Jenkins process? I have Jenkins running on my computer and occupying port 8080.

I'm unable to kill it.

Something like ps -9 PID would kill the process, but Jenkins will restart with a different PID.

I thought maybe when Jenkins was started, there was also a user "jenkins" created. I searched for that user in "System Preferences > Users & Groups" but I couldn't find it.

Any idea how I can terminate Jenkins? Maybe I need to delete the user "jenkins" ?

Launch daemons

On macOS, Jenkins runs as a launch daemon, or simply daemon, which is just a fancy name for a specific way to have a program run in the background. According to Apple’s developer reference, a daemon on macOS is:

  [...] a program that runs in the background as part of the overall system (that is, it is not tied to a particular user).

Launch daemons are associated with a macOS-internal process called launchd, which runs all the time. One of launchd’s various responsibilities is to (re-)launch a daemon whenever it deems it necessary. This also explains the behavior you described that Jenkins seems to respawn on its own after it is forcibly sent the KILL signal.

Stopping and uninstalling Jenkins

There is more than one way to stop a running Jenkins instance. As per the original documentation of the Jenkins installer for macOS, the following steps are the recommended way to terminate a Jenkins instance on macOS:

Open Terminal.app (you did that already; if not, type terminal into a Spotlight search field and hit Enter)
If you want to stop Jenkins only once, run the following command:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.jenkins-ci.plist

If you would rather uninstall Jenkins altogether, also run the following command (including the single quotes):

'/Library/Application Support/Jenkins/Uninstall.command'


Inconsistent charging of 2017 MBP 13" (A1708) I own a 2017 MBP 13" (A1708) with the battery replaced about 6 weeks ago. Everything went nicely until this week, when it started charging inconsistently and coconutBattery shows 5-10W of charging. I plug the charger and it says "battery doesn't charge". Sometimes reconnecting the charger helps, sometimes not; the same is true about waiting some time. I've reset SMC couple time but it usually doesn't help. I’ve attached of screenshot showing coconutBattery output.
Also I’ve ordered a new charger and cable.

Sometimes, your mac will do this to preserve the battery. It learns from your charging habits and will wait to charge past 80% until you need it. for example, if you go to work every day (ok, maybe not right now during covid) at 8 o clock, and have your mac charge the entire night, it will charge to 80 during the night, then at around 7 o clock, finish charging, and by 8, it should be at close to 100%.


In game app updates, bypassing App Store Some apps, I've noticed that developers are able to update their software without submitting them to the App Store.

For example, Game of War will occasionally tell you that an update is available and to restart your device.  You can then watch the progress bar carefully and see that updates are being pushed to the app.

I'm assuming they are using XML to change certain attributes and their location on the server.  That's a guess but I don't know.  They are able to make significant feature changes to the game, like adding hyperlinks to map locations,  push sales promotions, add certain events etc. These methods don't require compilation, as that would obviously require resubmitting the app.

What is Apple's policy in the developer terms or seasoned advice on how to keep from running afoul of behavior that would get your app pulled from the store?

I see a lot of games do this and I believe it's OK.

Think of a game as being 2 pieces: the app (program) and the data it runs on. Apps are generally allowed to download and store data.

If an update is merely adding new zones or items represented as various files or tables (with no new programmatic functionality needed), then it only needs to request new static data.

However: game engine updates would require a change to the app and therefore an update via the App Store.


iPhone Upgrade Program without adding line or upgrading? Is it possible to do the iPhone upgrade program without having to either upgrade an existing line or adding a new one?  Just doing it for monthly payments?

No, it's not possible.  You're required to either upgrade an existing line or add a new line through the IUP.

You don't have to use your existing cellular carrier.  If you have, for example, AT&T and want to use T-Mobile for a specific iPhone purchase, you can do that.  However, you need to select a carrier for the iPhone (even though they're sold unlocked).


Will my calendar and contacts in iCloud be lost if I delete backups? I cannot do any new backups because my iCloud storage is full.

I want to switch to using my computer for backups and delete the ones I have in iCloud. However I don’t want to lose my contacts and calendar that are also stored in iCloud.

You can safely delete your backup from iCloud. To do this, go into Settings →  Your Profile →  iCloud →  iCloud Backup and turn the switch to Off to disable iCloud Backups.

This will only delete your iPhone backup from iCloud. It will NOT delete your iCloud contacts and calendars.


Copy and paste from skype includes unwanted characters I tried to copy the following line from Skype:

blah123

I got an error when I tried to paste it into another app to use it. So I pasted that into a hex editor and it looked like this in the hex editor:

¬†blah123

I don't know if that was just a problem with copy from Skype or if it could happen in other applications. What I want to know is a way to copy and paste from applications on mac osx ignoring all these unwanted 'invisible' characters.

As far as I know it is impossible avoid the copy of these weird characters.
But you can remove them using an editor like TextWrangler. TextWrangler has an useful menu option "Text" -> "Zap gremlins".

This options identify and replace:

Non Ascii characters
Control characters
Null (Ascii 0) characters

So, when I cannot avoid to copy from Skype (I suggest to use emails for important text) and I would be sure to remove all weird characters, better paste/zap/copy all the text within TextWrangler.


User rights of a super user and the administrator I'm used to "classic" unixoid user right system with a machine running a normal user, as main account, and a super user (or root account), just for maintenance or configuration purposes.

Then I was really wondered about Mac OS X (I'm currently running Leopard). What purpose has the admin user account? If I'm installing something via console (as a normal user, not admin) I have apparently to log in as admin and then log in as root user (via sudo -s because su strangely doesn't work).

Does anyone know what the main reason for this is or how to fix it?

This is by design. A non-admin user is defined by not being able to use sudo (and the graphical equivalent in the mac windowmanager). You can still enter the admin user and password using sudo -u or the graphical equivalent but short of compromising/modifying the built in controls, that's how the system is designed to work.

The su command doesn't work as you expect since the root user in Mac OS X is disabled by default for security reasons. Sudo has enhanced logging and sudo -s gets you the same shell as su - would when a root user is enabled.

So if you don't want to change to using sudo you can enable root on your mac.


How to detect if OS and Machine fingerprint has been corrupted by malware? Spoofing a MAC or IP is easy:

  For Apple OSX the OS Fingerprint will be the MD5 hash of the
  filesystem UUID for the root file system (i.e. ‘/’). For example a Mac
  with a root UUID of “de305d54-75b4-431b-adb2- eb6b9e546013” would have
  an OS fingerprint of “c001163fbbaaadabeb733e1e9ceb95e6”.

(found in: (S//OC/NF) Network Operations Division
CNE Operational Data Exchange Format
(Codex) Specification, page 9)

If there are no logs or disable, how would you detect if the fingerprint file has been corrupted? altered?

Would spoofing the fingerprint.codex.xml force the malware to be non-functional at boot?

Is it possible to generate a secure hash with sha512k instead of md5 for the fingerprint?

The linked document specifies a data exchange format based on XML. It describes how to package all data (including the fingerprint.codex.xml) in 3. (U) Directory Structure.

The whole CODEX data including single xml files (e.g fingerprint.codex) or metadata of the retrieved data (like emails or screenshots) mustn't be generated on the target host:

  Generation of these metadata files and
  formats MUST NOT take place on the target. Instead, tools MUST ship back to the user the necessary
  details such that a Codex file or structure can be produced from the tool-specific custom format on usercontrolled,
  potentially not internet connected, hardware. To repeat, tools MUST not store data on
  target in Codex format or generate any custom Codex format on target.

Target here means: a monitored/attacked host. User here probably means: a data evaluator/processor of the agency or one of its contractors.

As a consequence the fingerprint.codex.xml doesn't even exist on the target's host but is generated somewhere else based on the conveyed data.

According to the document (4.4 (U//FOUO) Fingerprint XML Format) a macOS fingerprint simply consists of the md5'd lowercase UUID of the root system. All other keys except usertag are related to Windows or Linux operating systems.

The UUID can be retrieved by entering:

diskutil info / | grep "Volume UUID" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | awk '{print $3}'

and its md5 hash with:

md5 -s $(diskutil info / | grep "Volume UUID" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | awk '{print $3}')

The whole fingerprint file would look like this for a Mac (here an example macOS VM):

<codex version=”1”>
    <fingerprint target=”machine” type=”os” version=”1”>
       <uid>“db78ec1b99a4e71fabbc0e23888baf64</uid>
       <rootfsid>d15d6f4e-d213-373d-893e-f975126cb767</rootfsid>
       <usertag>NONE</usertag>
    </fingerprint>
    <fingerprint target=”machine” type=”hardware” version=”1”>
    </fingerprint>
    <timestamp>2017-03-24 07:11:00.000000Z</timestamp>
</codex>

Under the given circumstances the fingerprint file can't get "corrupted" or "spoofed" on your host - it's simply generated and stored somewhere else.

You can of course invalidate the current fingerprint related to your Mac by erasing your boot volume and installing a new system - this will generate a new Volume UUID (or rootfsid).

I don't know whether the agency has a tool or a method to link a new fingerprint (and related CODEX data) created after a "friendly second visit"/surveillance/attack to the old fingerprint (and related CODEX data) of your now overwritten root volume. It probably has!

And to answer your questions somehow:

You can't detect if the fingerprint file is corrupted because you probably have no access to CIA data storage facilities
You can't spoof  the fingerprint file because you probably have no access to CIA data storage facilities and how should malware get non-functional at boot by a remote fingerprint file?
You can use any more or less "secure" hash algorithm to compute the uid in the fingerprint file. By definition it's md5 though.


Deleted user content by accident I was trying to empty the trash from terminal because Xcode was stuck in it, but I accidentally removed the trash from the path and ran sudo rm -rf ~/ I thought for a moment i was changing the directory.

The question is how do I repair the user folders and everything else, icloud and appstore won't login it says unknown error.

The first thing I would try is to log-out and log-in again. In most cases, this will fix your problem.

If not, you have to create a new user account and transfer the data which is left to this new user account. I don't recommend copying the whole Library to the new user account because it could be that your Library is damaged too. I would just copy individual folders like Application Support, Services and so on.


How to diagnose a frozen Mac When I woke my MacBook this morning, it was frozen. The screen came on, but it didn't respond to keyboard, touchpad. I forced a shut down by holding the power button. Is there a log file or set of diagnostics I can use to determine what was happening before it froze?

You might be able to find the root cause of the freeze in the Console application. You can find it in /Applications/Utilities.
Take a look at the system.log on the left-hand side and scroll through the entries to a time when the freeze occurred.
Hopefully you find something that points you in the right direction.


Best app for texting internationally to non-smartphone mobile? I'm going to be permanently moving abroad in two months, and I've decided to get an iPhone to bring with me.

I pretty sure that I'll be on a plan with unlimited texting and 2GB of data, but it will NOT include texts to the USA. No-one in my family has a smartphone.

Ideally, I'm looking for a way that they can text me and I can text back for free, but I can't tell if such a thing exists. I do have a Google Voice number, but I'm not sure how to make the most effective use of that.

Any thoughts?
Thanks so much!

The app in my mind apparently does work abroad and internationally.
Pinger (free)
Pinger is a cross-platform messenger and a free texting/calling application.  It allows you to grab a US number and use it overseas- without having your family back home paying crazy international fees.
Here is a breakdown of what's absolutely free: texting, messaging other Pinger numbers, obtaining a real US number, inbound calls from anyone, and calls to Pinger numbers.
Outbound calls can be purchased in packs of minutes or by watching short advertisements to gain free minutes.
From Pinger support:

Traveling outside the US
You can still use Pinger! Pinger uses the internet to work. Just
switch your device to airplane mode (don't want to get crazy
international data-roaming fees!). Anytime you have WiFi, be it free
in your hotel or paid in a cafe, you can use Pinger to text or call
your friends at home.
[...]
Will my friends get charged international fees?
Never fear!
Because Pinger gives you a US or Canadian phone number, you can use
Pinger and your friends at home WON'T get international fees when
you're abroad! Only their standard texting and calling rates will
apply. Pretty sweet, isn't it? :)


Is there such a thing as an indie dev being blacklisted as a developer from the App Store I'm a 1 person indie app developer who makes cool AR apps. I've actually been doing this since 2010, though many of my older apps have been pruned.

It seems that every time I submit an app to the App Store, it gets blacklisted or put in some sort of queue where the review process is either managed by people who are completely non-technical, or trying really hard to witch hunt an innocent person.

This is representative of the app review cycle. Usually, they keep replying with reasons that do not apply to my app, believing that at some point, I will lose steam being a solo 1 person indie app developer. Sometimes, it leads to Apple never responding to my inquiries and just having my apps being in rejection forever. :(

Here's the latest. (AFAIK there is not an app out there that lets you take spatial photos in this innovative design-oriented way and lets you build with virtual 3D models in the scene. Is this too technical? What qualifies as a design duplicate when there are thousands of camera apps that don't even have an AR feature on the store?)

This is after I have responded explaining several times that my app is not in violation.

Apple replied with:

Some background -

My app is called Moments.cam. Testflight @ https://testflight.apple.com/join/RUD4IifH

Description:

  Moments.Cam is a new type of camera app that lets you take photos and turn them into portals that float there. Powered by ARKit: They're spatially floating photos that will stay forever exactly where you took that photo! You can also use it with Google Poly, a 3D model API, to search for 3D models and build digital sand castles that you can take spatially floating photos of in augmented reality!

App Review Guidelines

  Please escalate to your supervisor - I believe there is some misunderstanding
  Please note that Google Poly is not Google Play. As explained in the App Description, Poly is an API provided 3D models based on search terms. They both start with a P - but please don't get them confused.
  The app used ARKit and does not require a marker. Please follow directions in the app and wave your phone around to scan the world like a typical ARkit app. I've added additional screenshots that show this.

  Here is a video that demonstrates how to use the app: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeye2GCGiZw
  The app does come with built-in instructions to guide the user to scan the ARKit surface to the point where content can begin... Please spend more than a moment before you judge my app as something else. Thank you.

First of I would say that it looks like a really nice app that you have produced!

To answer your question: No, I don't think developers are "blacklisted" into having their apps rejected with bogus reasons in order to "bog down" the developer and eventually having them give up on gettings their apps released.

Also, I don't think that you're assigned a specific reviewer that is on a witch hunt for solo developers or anything like that.

However, I do think the realities are that app reviews are done in a very short time frame, and some times the reviewers do not really spend the time necessary to fully understand what a app does - and instead they reject it to be "on the safe side". Also I think the realities are that it is not necessarily the same person reviewing the app each time, so they might not know the history you have.

In order to do something practical and sensible about this, I don't think you'll get anywhere by complaining to Apple that you're being targetted. Instead try making smaller changes to the app and/or description to acknowledge that you're listening to what they are saying (even if you do not agree), and see if that can lead to the app being approved.

For example remove the reference to Google Poly from your app description, and instead change it something neutral like "use it with the most popular 3D modelling API available" or something like that. Then inside your app, you can describe that it is Google Poly.

Similarly try adding an initial intro screen to your app that in simple terms describes how your app works. Make sure NOT to mention QR codes. For example do not say "This app does not require QR-codes". The reviewer might quickly glance at the text and only see "QR-codes" and then reject the app because they haven't gotten a QR-code to test with.


Booting from an external hard disk I am about to upgrade my mid-2012 MackBook Pro with a 500 GB SSD, and use the current HDD as external storage by placing it in an appropriate case that would allow me to connect it through USB later.

Rather than backing up my whole system and data, I thought I would just do the SSD upgrade, and hookup the external hard disk later and copy over my files and projects as I need them (one of the reasons I am considering this is that I have lots of files that I may not need now, but that might be useful to keep for the future... sort of hoarding but that's just how it is...rather be careful than sorry).

my question, is there anything I should consider, before converting my current HD to external? Like file system config or something? Is it really this easy as I am picturing it or should I really think ahead of time and plan for failures to access my HD as external drive, for example, for not having read/write rights or privileges.

EDIT: In the current HDD, I only have one partition used both for OS and Data.

Here's what I used to do back in the day when hard drives were swappable in MacBooks (and PowerBooks before, I'm old.)

Put the SDD in an external exclosure and connect it to the Mac.
Clone the HDD to the SSD.

Use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, both are great and have generous trial versions.
You now have a full backup AND a functional bootable drive.

Swap the HDD with the SSD.

The HDD is in the external enclosure. You can use it as a backup, both SD and CCC let you update/sync your clone drive.
Your Mac is now on SSD. Everything works just like before only much faster.

That's it! Enjoy!


User directory replicated in each Library/Containers/**/Data directory Came across a bizarre bug (?) in my Mavericks installation. I ran out of HD space, which I should not have been anywhere near.

I ran Disk Inventory X to see where the space was being used, and found that somehow my User directory had been replicated in each apps sandbox.

Any idea what I could have done to cause this?

The containers folder uses a Unix device called symbolic links. These links are redirects to information stored in a different folder or separate hard drive in your system. This allows for multiple paths to the same files and folders.

Some software applications can not distinguish a symlink from a valid directory and will report multiple copies of the same files and folders. There is really only one copy of the data but symlinks allow for different permissions to be applied to the application or users.

If you do a ls -la command from the terminal the first character of the permission will be the letter l (ex. lrwxr-xr-x) directories start with the letter d and files start with a dash '-' and the file name of a link will look something like this;

 lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  hidden   11B Jan 10  2014 etc -> private/etc

The first part is the file/folder name that the system is looking for and the part after the -> is the fully qualified path to the actual location of the data data. (See the man page for ls and ln for more detail.)

The function is transparent to the user from the finder but functional to the OS.

For more information do a web search on symlink or symbolic link.

P.S. While an alias that you create provides the same functionality it does it in a different way and the aliases don't backup correctly.


How can I reinstall Mac OS X (Lion) without erasing data? My Lion installation ruined. Everything doesn't work. Even my Mac doesn't sleep. I want to reinstall whole OS, but I have no spare backup drive. So I want to reinstall OS without erasing or repartitioning to keep my data on disk.

I know it's not clear enough, but it should be a lot better than my current installation. So I want to try anything if it keep my data without backup.

Is this possible? How can I do this?

Or is there any way to repair current installation?

Reboot your Mac. When you hear the boot chime, hold the COMMAND + R keys. You will enter the Lion Recovery environment. From there, simply choose to reinstall Lion. It will simply remove the current system and replace it with a fresh copy. None of your data will be deleted or moved. The only thing that will be replaced will be the core system files. There is no longer any need to make backups, migrate your data, or mess with partitioning.

If you'd like to read more about the Lion Recovery function, go here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718


Connect to Linux File System with default "Connect to Server"? I'm wondering what kind of setup I need on my Linux machine to be able to connect to it using the default "Connect to Server" (command + k) in OSX. I'm going to ask this on askubuntu as well, but I want to see if anyone here knows the server connection types that the default file connections in OSX are?

I only want to change my server setup, not install anything new on my OSX machine. Thanks!

You need to set up either nfs, samba, or netatalk. You can then connect with nfs://, smb:// (or cifs://) or afp:// respectively.

You can also run avahi for to have your server show up automatically in the Finder via Bonjour.


How to recover Old BackUp? I recently made a full backup of my iPhone 7 to my computer a day back. I was adding some new songs in Itunes then I connected the Phone to those songs.

Unfortunately as soon as Iphone connected to iTunes, it automatically made a full back-up of my phone, and I now can't see the previous back-up I made. Please tell me!

How to recover that Old BackUp.

iTunes usually just updates the previous backup as part of its incremental backup process. But you can look in the iTunes Preferences ->  Devices tab to see all of the backups iTunes sees to make sure:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204215

To make extra sure that there's not a partial or broken backup that iTunes isn't seeing, you can also go look in the folder for the backups. Here's an article I wrote with instructions for getting to the iTunes backups folder on different OSes:

https://deciphertools.com/blog/where-are-iphone-backups/


Is my iPhone 6s Touch ID scanner faulty? When should I be prompted for my passcode? I recently purchased an iPhone 6s. It's the first iPhone I’ve owned with a Touch ID scanner.

After setting it up I’ve found it to be very accurate, fast and reliable. But sometimes I get prompted for my passcode instead of just being able to use my fingerprint. This appears to be random. It usually happens when I first use it in the morning, but not always!! And sometimes it happens at other times too.

I read this question but I’ve already tried deleting and adding my fingerprints again, but I didn’t notice any improvement.

Is my fingerprint Touch ID scanner faulty? When should I be prompted for my passcode?

Most likely your Touch ID fingerprint scanner is perfectly fine.

There are certain rules that iOS uses that govern when your iPhone will prompt you for your passcode, and one of these relates to an 8hr period during which Touch ID has not been used. That alone would explain the scenario in your question (i.e. some nights you’re getting 8+ hrs of sleep, and other nights you’re not).

All of the Touch ID rules can be found in Apple’s iOS Security Guide. In summary though, the rules governing when a passcode is required instead of your fingerprint, are as follows:

The passcode has not been used to unlock the device in the last six days
Your fingerprint has not been used to unlock the device in the last eight hours 1
You have just powered up (or rebooted) your device
Your device has not been unlocked for more than 48 hours
You’ve unsuccessfully tried to use your fingerprint on five consecutive attempts
Whenever you add a fingerprint to your Touch ID settings
Your device has received a remote lock command

Regarding that last point, this refers to iCloud’s Lost Mode function. For more info you can read iCloud: Use Lost Mode.

Finally, if you’re still concerned about a possibly faulty Touch ID sensor, you can refer back to the above list as a reference point to determine if you’ve been asked for your passcode under different circumstances. If so, you can use that as a starting point if you seek help from Apple.

1 This is most likely the cause in your situation most of the time.


Airport Time Capsule US power cord in Europe? I have a US power cord for my AirPort Time Capsule (802.11ac 2TB), and I want to use it in Europe (specifically Norway). The power outlets here deliver 220V rather than the 120V a US power outlet delivers. Will a simple plug adapter be enough, or will that fry my AirPort? That is, can the AirPort Time Capsule sold in the US handle 220V as well as 120V?

I remember reading the tech specs for Timecapsule some time ago and it is specified it has a range of 100V to 240V. So it should be fine.

AirPort Time Capsule 802.11ac - Technical Specifications
Electrical and Environmental Requirements

100-240V AC, 50-60Hz; input current: 1.5 amp

You can check this, too.
Here is a link to the Apple TimeCapsule Technical Specifications - please also check if this is your version of Timecapsule.
Have a good trip!


Is Mac deployment controlled like the Apple iOS Developer Program does? I am beginner Apple developer.  I want to develop Mac and iOS software, but not for sale.  Only for personal use.

As I see to deploy my iOS program to my iPhone and my iPad I need to get iOS Developer Account.

Do I need a Mac Developer Account if I am not planning to deploy my software to Mac Application Store and if I am planning to use it only in my Macbook?

Without a Mac/iOS Developer account you won't:

get access to OS X betas
be able to publish your apps on the Mac App Store
be able to code sign your OS X / iOS apps.

Code signing is needed if you want to run apps with Gate Keeper enabled.

There is no discount if you enroll in both developer programs.


How do I stay in the same desktop when I switch to a full screen app? When I switch to a full screen mode app in OS X Lion, it automatically switches to Desktop 1. I prefer to automatically switch back to the Desktop that I was in before I switched to the full screen app. I tried configuring the app for "All Desktops" and "None" by right clicking on the app in the Dock and choosing "Options". Both resulted in the same problem. Thanks!

You can't set it to go back to the last Desktop you were in, but you can set it to go to a specific Desktop when you exit full screen.

Just move the application in windowed mode to the desktop you want, right-click the app in the Dock and set to "This Desktop". Whenever you come out of full screen, it will always go into windowed mode in that particular desktop.


Is there any solution to remove the macOS App - Prepare for Submission? As you can see I wanted to update my iOS App 2.2.0 to 2.2.1 but I accidentally added the macOS App.

After searching some solution on a couple website, I still can't find the solution...
Some say you can remove the "Prepare for Submission" in the "App Information" but I think that is not the correct way. I use that way, I think you will delete the whole App.
Even I wanted to try remove it but in the "App Information", I still can't see the "Remove" Button that I wanted... What can do I?
Other's people screenshot:

My case:

I even have go to the apple developer documentation have a look but their link is not working...(https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store-connect/)
All the link that I press in the apple documentation is just keep loading just like below this image.

Is there any solution to remove the macOS App - Prepare for Submission?

It's not possible to remove a version of your app in Prepare for Submission state.
You can provide feedback to Apple at feedbackassistant.apple.com.


Stocks widget on mac os mojave not showing current prices About a weeks back, the stocks widget on mac os mojave stopped showing the current prices.

Does anyone know of a workaround to fix this? Thank you.

The Stocks widget gets its data from Yahoo:
$ cd /Library/Widgets/Stocks.wdgt
$ grep http Stocks.*
Stocks.html:    <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
Stocks.js:              var url = 'http://api.apple.go.yahoo.com/appledwf/q?s=' + symbol;
Stocks.js:      openLink('http://api.apple.go.yahoo.com/appledwf/');
Stocks.js:      var url = "http://api.apple.go.yahoo.com/appledwf/q/cq?d=v1";

The server used seems to be offline though
$ ping api.apple.go.yahoo.com
ping: cannot resolve api.apple.go.yahoo.com: Unknown host

most probably Yahoo changed the API. I also found pages mentioning that the API got deprecated by Yahoo already years ago. Combining this with the fact that Apple deprecated Dashboard as well you may want to use other ways to access that data.


How to deauthorize an iPhone without iTunes? I no longer wish to use my old iPhone 3GS.
I used to use my Apple-ID to log into The iTunes & App Store on it.

Since I use that Apple-ID for iTunes & App Store on several other iDevices, I want to completely deauthorize and unregister the iPhone 3GS from my Apple-ID.

I have already signed out of iTunes & App Store on it. Can and should I "deauthorize" it in any other way?

I no longer use the iTunes program on any computer, so the iPhone is not connected or synced to any computer of mine . (And I don't want to install iTunes, I don't like the program).

You should explicitly deauthorize it. The standard way is to use iTunes.

But if you do not want to install or use iTunes, you can get Apple Support to help you:

Go to the Apple iTunes Support page
Click on the Contact iTunes Store support link (click OK when it prompts you about redirecting you to another page)
This currently takes you to the What's happening with iTunes? page
Click the Account Management box to open up further options
Click the iTunes authorization or de-authorization link
Choose how you would like help - the current options are for Apple to call you or to schedule a call back from Apple or email Apple Support
Provide the details of the Apple ID and the device in the request for deauthorization


If a Finder window is opened while another Finder window exists, cmd+w will exit to the other Finder window, not previous app I am working on Example 1: Suppose I open up a Finder window, then I start to browse in Chrome. After a while I forgot there is already a Finder instance, and open up a new Finder window. Upon hitting ⌘+w to close this new instance, the system automatically takes me to the very first Finder window I opened, not the Chrome window which I am currently browsing.

Example 2: While in Finder, I click a pdf 1.pdf file and open it. Then I click a second pdf file, 2.pdf. Now if I use ⌘+w to close 2.pdf. The system will again automatically brings me to the window of 1.pdf, not the Finder window which I was previously working on.

Question: Is there a way to modify the behavior of ⌘+w? so that while I close a window from an app A, I am exited to the app B before I open A, not other older instances of app A.

No. To follow your first example, the Finder is the active application at the time you hit ⌘+w to close the second Finder window. So you remain in the Finder and the first Finder window is brought to the front.

One thing you could do is switch back to Chrome first (e.g. with ⌘+tab), then click the second Finder window's close button (assuming it isn't obscured by the Chrome window). That'll close the Finder window in the background while keeping Chrome as the active application.


Is it possible to wipe an entire iCloud Photo Library? I've been using the beta iCloud Photo Library for a week and a bunch of photos got duplicated and I'd like to wipe all the photos out and start over.

I have backups of all the photos and have turned off iPhoto Cloud Library on all iOS devices. When I log into the web app - it still shows dozens of albums and I can delete all the photos, then go to deleted items and then purge them, but the ghost albums are still there messing things up.

I've turned off the library entirely and you can see there is a 30 day waiting period.

If I click on albums, there are pages of them and no delete button anywhere. If I turn on the library on an iOS device, data starts flooding back as if I wanted to recover the photos.

I don't want to recover anything, I want a clean wipe and clean slate.

Currently, there are 7807 photos in the deleted album and no way to mass delete them. I have 31 albums that show up in iCloud and no way to delete them.

Is there some way to accelerate this or must people wait a month for a corrupt library to eventually be purged to start over?

(I have tickets open with AppleCare after carefully reading the FAQ and it's escalated to engineering, but I was informed that it might be a week or two before it gets seen :-( Perhaps someone has a better idea to clear things out or noticed something I've missed.)

Photos on the Mac makes this trivial to accomplish. Similarly with the improved web interface, this is a two step process.

Command A - select all
Delete
Select All Photos album
File - Show Recently Deleted
click the Delete All button in the top right
be patient and wait for the deletion to happen everywhere and filter down to all devices that are syncing from the cloud

Photos for OS X released with 10.10.3 has the changes needed for easy cleaning:

Open your Photos library that is the system library
File -> Show Recently Deleted
Select Delete All in the top right
Repeat as often as needed if the app is still downloading new photos from the cloud

You can also delete 1,000 photos a time using the web interface in 2019 at https://icloud.com/#photos


Pages cost money now? I had to clear my MacBook air as i had created an account with a password I couldn't remember, and I had an old apple ID linked to it that couldn't be logged out of unless I remembered the laptop password. So I cleared the MacBook, completely reset it up , and logged into my new, current apple ID. Now it says pages and numbers cost €19.99 ? I could probably live without these, but I had pages saved to my initial pages iCloud account.. so i really need it back.. Anyone know how I can re download these apps for free, and then will I be able to get the previous pages back? Any help much appreciated. - I also have completely updated the laptop so it has sierra, and all software is update.And I have tried logging out and logging back in in the different apple Ids . I don't think I made a computer back up.. Everything is on my initial apple Id.

Macs purchased before 2013 do not get iWork for free since before that point it was not included with the purchase of the computer.

As a workaround some users of older macs install the iWork '09 Trial

Edit: Looks like Apple today decided to give this away for free even on older hardware. See here.


How do I enable location services for a specific website on Safari for OS X? In the past I've disabled Location Services for a specific site in Safari for OS X, but would now like to enable it, for that site only. How do I do that. None of the instructions I've found describe the current user interface for Safari (e.g., there is no "Reset Safari" window in 9.1.2).

The following works for me in Safari 12.0.

Go to the specific site you want to change the setting for.

Now, from the Safari menu (next to the Apple menu), choose Settings for This Website.

A pop-over should appear, with a Location setting at the bottom.


Unable to create a working .app executable using Platypus I'm new to OS X and I'm trying to create an application wrapper for a shell script that starts a media server(Red5)

I'm trying to wrap the Red5 server starter script (red5.sh) into an .app executable using Platypus.

The Platypus Documentation says that

  You can add a list of files to be copied into the Resources folder of
  your application bundle. These files can then be used by your script.
  The default current working directory of your script will be this
  folder, so you should be able to access them directly from your
  script's CWD.

When executed normally from the terminal (is using ./red5.sh) the server starts up fine, but when I create the .app file (after having set the script's CWD in the "Files to be bundled" field of Platypus, the resulting .app file doesn't run when double clicked upon.

It gives the following error

Error: Could not find or load main class

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I think it's something to do with the bundling the right directory.

I had a similar problem trying to run a Java-based web application server.  For me, the problem turned out to be that my environment variables (in particular, JAVA_HOME) weren't being set, which is because the instance of Bash (or whichever shell you have it use) doesn't start as a login shell OR an interactive shell, so your profile script (e.g. ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc, etc.) doesn't run automatically.

For me, the solution was to add the following to my script:

source ~/.profile

The source command causes the commands in ~/.profile to be executed in the current shell; this way the environment variables being set by that script will be available to the instance of Bash that platypus starts.

Note that it's important that you don't just execute the profile file as a shell script itself; that will cause it to run in its own shell, which will exit immediately afterward; any variables it sets will cease to exist as soon as it exits. This is why we have to use the source command.

As an alternative, you can just set the necessary environment variables directly in your script.

Hope this helps!


MacBook Pro fuzzy screen and freezes on startup at the Apple logo with half progress bar Details: MacBook Pro 2011, El Capitan.
Issue: As mentioned above in the subject. Picture Given below.
Resolutions tried so far:

PRAM Reset - Heard the Chime of reboot but still hangs the same way
Verbose Mode - Stops at AirPort: RSN handshake complete on en1
Recovery Mode - The screen in the picture below appears but after sometime, a complete blank grey screen (without Apple logo) came up, the disk seems to be spinning but then nothing.

Pretty much tried all these options: MacBook Hangs on Boot at seemingly different stages each time

There was mention about a resolution with another Mac but was not elaborated. I have a second Mac, MBP 2015. Can someone suggest what can be done?

I have also read this article, Mac book Pro [2011 model] - Screen bit distorted and greenish tint and does not boot completely after the apple logo and progress bar loads and want to check if my problem is related to this issue.

Thanks a lot for your time and suggestions.

How about start in safe mode?

Try safe mode if your Mac doesn‘t finish starting up

Follow these steps to start up into safe mode:

Start or restart your Mac.
Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the
Shift key.
Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the
screen.


Why doesn't iBooks save my place between the iPhone and iPad? Background: I finally bought a fiction book to read on my iOS devices. It's Redshirts by John Scalzi. I bought it from Apple. It was supposed to be DRM-free but wasn't. So the author got Macmillan to send a DRM-free version to anyone who sent a copy of their purchase confirmation. So I deleted the Apple Store version and replaced with the DRM-free epub file.

Problem: My understanding was that when I stop reading on the iPad I could later pick up the iPhone and have the book open up to the place where I stopped on the iPad. But this isn't happening. I've tried placing a bookmark when I finish reading but it doesn't change anything.

Is my original assumption incorrect?

Sync Bookmarks and Sync Collections are both on in iBooks settings on the iPad and iPhone.

I haven't migrated from MobileMe to iCloud yet (still waiting for Bare Bones to get Yojimbo to sync over iCloud). Is that a problem?

Update

I switched over to iCloud and syncing still doesn't happen. My guess is it's because I have two Apple IDs the one I use to make iTunes purchases is not the .mac Apple ID that became my iCloud account.

iBooks uses your iTunes account to sync bookmarks and places.  My wife and I share an account for app and book purchases, so I setup a separate iCloud account for her thinking that her bookmarks would go there.  It turns out that I'm wrong, and it's the iTunes store account that stores it.  I wish iCloud was the storage location, since the other app settings and backups do work using separate accounts.


The "Esc" key in my bluetooth keyboard doesn't work, how to fix it? I'm using Mac mini, and bought this new bluetooth keyboard. It's not Apple production, but has Apple layout. The other keys all work except "Esc" in the left up corner. Obviously it won't be handy if this important key didn't work. How to fix it, please?

I have (likely) the same keyboard and solved the problem this way: I mapped caps lock to esc.

You can do this via System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys. There, at Caps Lock select Escape.


How can I delete just 1 or 2 message How can I delete just 1 or 2 sent or received text messages without deleting the whole text conversation?

Click on the person's name from the Message screen. This will take you to a record of all the messages you have exchanged with that number.
Click on the edit button at the top right of the screen.
Choose the message or messages you would like to delete. If you change your mind and decide not to delete any, simply go to the "Done" button at the top right of the page.
Once you've finished selecting all of the messages you would like to delete, just tap the "Delete" button at the bottom of the page!


How to delete email from the server? I am using Outlook version 16.16.2 (180910) as a communication program for my company's email address.

When I delete messages from my Inbox, the action done locally on my Mac, but I need it to be deleted from the company's server too.

How can I do that?

If you are setup for POP (which it appears you are) then check this out...

That preference would be in Outlook menu >  Preferences > Accounts > your POP account > Advanced > Server tab.
Uncheck the option “Leave a copy of each message on server”.


APFS Containers - Encapsulation and Safety I'm eager to use Containers not Volumes on APFS to add beta versions of macOS to my dev machine.
I want as much separation and encapsulation as possible because I don't want the OS's to interfere with each other.
I have read that multiple betas on separate Volumes on the same APFS Container can cause issues.
Thus I was aiming to make multiple Containers on the same internal disk.

Is adding and removing Containers through disk utility safe and effective? (Apple seems to only champion Volumes in it's docs: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208891.

Is using Containers in this way providing maximum encapsulation from a logical perspective? (to avoid issues like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOSBeta/comments/hea72p/warning_do_not_install_big_sur_on_the_same_apfs/

In answer to your questions:
Yes, you can add and remove containers without causing problems. You have to be aware that two containers cannot share space in the same way two volumes in a container do.
It is probable that this would totally encapsulate the two OS installs, but be aware that until Big Sur we thought the same about different volumes in a single copntainer so if it will continue to work after Big Sur in subsequent beta versions is an open question.


How to move videos from iPhone to Windows PC by cable? How to move videos from iPhone?

I took long video and filled my memory. Now I wish to move it from iPhone.

If I connect it to general Windows computer, it appears as a device in My Computer. Inside it, I see Internal Storage folder and then DCIM folder.

Unfortunately, I don't see videos there. Probably they appear as some unnamed unindentified icons (see one above IMG_2633.JPG):

I can't drag and drop such icons.

Additionally, I can drag drop photos, but if I select to 'Move` them, they are still copied, i.e. not deleted from iPhone. If I would able to move video, it probably won't deleted too, while I need to MOVE video from iPhone.

How to accomplish?

UPDATE

Here is the video in app. How to know it's name and path?

Movies should come up in the same folder. If you cannot see the video then there are a few things to check:

Was the video taken with a different app, and not the native camera app? If so, that data could be accessible through app data in iTunes
Are there other folders inside the DCIM folder? After you take several photos and videos, they get spread into multiple folders.
If you enable photo syncing in iTunes can you then see the files you want, even if this is just a temporary measure to test it's there?

The "device" type icon you see can be ignored. You won't be able to copy or delete it, and usually after you disconnect and reconnect your phone they will disappear, particularly if you've deleted the rest of the photos.

Cutting/pasting doesn't always seem to delete them on the device, but if you are sure you've backed up all the photos you can just highlight them and delete them all.


Images are "Faded" Emailed from Outlook 2011 for Mac I have a rather odd issue. I'm running in a Mac/PC environment at work. When I email an image (JPG or PNG) to someone from Outlook 2011 Mac and they open in Outlook for PC (2010), the picture always ends up "washed out" or "faded."

This even occurs on the image signature I designed. Any ideas on what's causing this and how to resolve it? I'd rather not pop into Parallels every time I need to send an email.

Thanks!

I've been trying to figure this out at work and here is what I've learned.

Some PCs are prone to see a faded image when others don't, so be sure to test on a number of PCs (try to find the weakest link).

When a Mac user copies a PNG and paste it into his email signature or the body of an email, this error occurs.

I have to send out a company wide email signature, so here's what we do.

Have a PC user draft the email signature, placing the actual JPEG images. When that email is sent out, a Mac user can copy and paste it and it should work.


iMac display goes to sleep randomly during use -- how and why? Are there event logs? Over the past month or two the display on my old iMac 27-inch ("late 2009", running High Sierra 10.13.6) would randomly and suddenly go to sleep (sudden dead black) while in use (while typing, mousing, scrolling, etc.), but only about once a week or even less.

The first time I thought it had crashed (having the display go dead black while typing is very disconcerting) and I power-cycled it.  The second time I realized the system was still running, and I logged in remotely with SSH to find everything "normal".  I finally realized I could simply wake the display again with Control-Shift-Eject and then wiggling the cursor or hitting another key.

These past few days it started doing this very frequently -- every few minutes, or even more often for periods.

At first I thought it might be a software bug as it seemed to only happen when using the browser (perhaps a GPU bug).

Then, because it seemed OK for a short while after being idle for an hour or more, I thought it might be something to do with overheating, and I played with fan speeds (to the great annoyance of my ears).  At first this seemed to make some difference, but I never really could make any strong correlation.

But then I realized it was probably being put to sleep under software control as apps were fully refreshing their windows upon waking the display (just as they do when returning from the screen saver, for example).

Finally I tried changing the Energy Saver settings to "Never" let the display go to sleep.  This seems to have worked!

Now I've also quieted the fans, and so far (an hour or two of constant use) I have not had the screen suddenly go black since.

Does anyone have any deep understanding of how exactly the system controls display sleep, and whether or not there's any way to see logging of the events controlling display sleep?

You may have a Hot Corner checked. if your mouse touched a hot corner it will respond in a chosen way. One Hot Corner action is to put display to sleep. To check this go to System Preferences, Desktop & Screen Saver. Click on the Screen Saver tab and at the bottom of that pane is a button for Hot Corners. Click this and see if you hve a hot corner set up.


How can I convert my GarageBand tune to an mp3 without the static noise increasing? After I export my GarageBand song and convert it to an mp3 and play it in iTunes, the background static noise is much louder than in Garageband.

OS X El Captain 10.11.2 . Garageband 10.1.0

I want it to sound the same as it does in GarageBand.

How can I convert tracks into an mp3 while reducing static noise in the file when played on iTunes?

I suspect this is not a file compression issue but rather an audio compression issue. By default, GarageBand has "Auto Normalize" turned on (Preferences > Advanced). This reduces the volume difference between the softest and loudest sounds in the mix on export, so that the playback of the finished audio is louder. The problem is, when you've got quiet background noise in your source files, normalizing will make it louder. Try turning off "Auto Normalize" and exporting again. The file format shouldn't matter.

Of course, the Jedi master-level fix for this problem would be to get a better recording (or better recording equipment) and to EQ/filter out the noise while mixing!


Where is news app in iOS 9 beta? I'm a developer and was able to download the new iOS beta yesterday. However, the new News app was missing. Does it not go public for a while?

Apple news will be available in a few number of countries (not specified in the keynote).

The foot note on iOS 9 on Apple website does not have any clues on availability on every announced app. Just say the following:

  Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in
  all regions or all languages.


Unable to install Meld via MacPorts 2.0.3 on OSX 10.6.8 I am trying to get Meld onto my OS X 10.6.8 box using MacPorts 2.0.3 and am not having success.

bobk-mbp:opt bobk$ port version
Version: 2.0.3
bobk-mbp:opt bobk$ sudo port install meld
--->  Computing dependencies for meld
--->  Dependencies to be installed: py26-gnome libgnomeui py26-gtk py26-cairo py26-numpy fftw-3 py26-nose py26-distribute python26 py26-py py26-gobject py26-orbit
--->  Building libgnomeui
Error: Target org.macports.build returned: shell command failed (see log for details)
Error: Failed to install libgnomeui
Log for libgnomeui is at: /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_gnome_libgnomeui/libgnomeui/main.log
Error: The following dependencies were not installed: py26-gnome libgnomeui py26-gtk py26-cairo py26-numpy fftw-3 py26-nose py26-distribute python26 py26-py py26-gobject py26-orbit
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.
To report a bug, see <http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets>

When I look at /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_gnome_libgnomeui/libgnomeui/main.log it has a line like...

:error:build Failed to install libgnomeui
:debug:build couldn't open "/System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/Versions/8.5/Resources/tclIndex": no such file or directory
    while executing
"open [file join $dir tclIndex]"
:notice:build Log for libgnomeui is at: /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_gnome_libgnomeui/libgnomeui/main.log

...and that file is indeed missing on my system.  Where do I go from here?  I really want a piece of that Meld goodness.

Why can't MacPorts install meld on my os x 10.6.8 box?

Running mdfind -name tclIndex on Mac OS X 10.6.8 shows that the path to tclIndex is /System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/Versions/8.5/Resources/Scripts/tclIndex!

Anyway, if there is a pristine MacPorts 2.0.3 system running on Mac OS X 10.6.8, meld gets installed without any (serious) complaints.

The same goes for koffice provided that it can use an older version of libpng (< 1.4); this can be achieved by giving koffice its own fresh MacPorts 2.0.3 system in a custom location, e. g. /opt/macports-koffice.

Try the following Bash script to see if this approach works for your machine as well:

#!/bin/bash

# cat mpmeld
#
# 1. back up the old /opt/local MacPorts system by moving it to ${opt_local_off}
# 2. install a fresh MacPorts 2.0.3 system to /opt/local for building meld
# 3. install a fresh MacPorts 2.0.3 system to /opt/macports-koffice for building koffice (due to PNG_MAX_UINT error)

# usage:
# sudo -H -i                                                 # get a root shell to prevent sudo timeout
# /path/to/mpmeld 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 3>&- | tee mpmeld.log       # swap stdout & stderr to log stderr messages only

# koffice usage:
# /opt/macports-koffice/bin/port contents koffice | grep '/bin/' | nl
# /opt/macports-koffice/bin/kword 2>/dev/null
# /opt/macports-koffice/bin/koconverter --help-all

# See also:
# What does 'Xlib: extension "RANDR" missing on display "/tmp/launch-XXXXXX/:0"' mean?
# https://trac.macports.org/wiki/FAQ#randr

unset CDPATH PATH IFS LC_ALL

IFS=$' \t\n'
LC_ALL=C
PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
export IFS LC_ALL PATH

#if [[ $(id -u) -ne 0 ]]; then
if [[ $(id -u) -ne 0 ]] || [[ "${HOME}" != '/var/root' ]]; then
   echo 'This script must be run as root!' 1>&2
   echo 'To get a root shell to prevent sudo timeout use: sudo -H -i' 1>&2
   exit 1
fi

# prevent idle sleep
pmset noidle &
PMSETPID=$!
pmset -a force sleep 0 displaysleep 0 disksleep 0

sleep 1
usr_local_off="/usr/local-off-$(date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H_%M_%S')"
opt_local_off="/opt/local-off-$(date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H_%M_%S')"
opt_macports_koffice_off="/opt/macports-koffice-off-$(date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H_%M_%S')"

tmpDir="$(mktemp -d /tmp/macports.XXXXXX)" || exit 1

trap "
   #set -xv
   cd    # avoid: sudo: cannot get working directory
   [[ -d '${tmpDir}' ]] && rm -rfv '${tmpDir}'
   [[ -d '${usr_local_off}' ]] && sudo mv -iv '${usr_local_off}' /usr/local
   kill -TERM ${PMSETPID}
   exit
" EXIT TERM HUP INT QUIT

# make sure /usr/local is not interfering with MacPorts build processes for /opt/local
[[ -d '/usr/local' ]] && sudo mv -iv /usr/local "${usr_local_off}"

# back up the old MacPorts system
[[ -d '/opt/local' ]] && sudo mv -iv /opt/local "${opt_local_off}"

# back up /opt/macports-koffice
[[ -d '/opt/macports-koffice' ]] && sudo mv -iv /opt/macports-koffice "${opt_macports_koffice_off}"

# meld

cd "${tmpDir}" || exit 1

curl -L -O https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.0.3-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg

hdiutil mount MacPorts-2.0.3-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg
installer -pkg /Volumes/MacPorts-2.0.3/MacPorts-2.0.3.pkg -target "/"
hdiutil unmount /Volumes/MacPorts-2.0.3

port -v selfupdate
port -f install meld

# enable dbus with launchd
launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist
launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist

# koffice

# get a fresh MacPorts 2.0.3 install in /opt/macports-koffice for koffice
# note: koffice @1.6.3, Revision 4  requires libpng < 1.4  (due to PNG_MAX_UINT error)

cd "${tmpDir}" || exit 1

# cf. http://guide.macports.org/#installing.macports.source.multiple
unset PATH
export PATH='/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin'
curl -L -O https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.0.3.tar.bz2
tar -xjf MacPorts-2.0.3.tar.bz2
cd MacPorts-2.0.3 || exit 1
MP_PREFIX='/opt/macports-koffice'
./configure --prefix="${MP_PREFIX}" --with-applications-dir="${MP_PREFIX}/Applications"
make
make install

# get the Portfiles and update the system
/opt/macports-koffice/bin/port -v selfupdate

# see: "How to install an older version of a port",
# https://trac.macports.org/wiki/howto/InstallingOlderPort

cd "${tmpDir}" || exit 1
svn co -r 71090 http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk/dports/graphics/libpng
chmod  755 "${tmpDir}"  # avoid error message: could not read "/path/to/Portfile": permission denied
cd libpng || exit 1
/opt/macports-koffice/bin/port install -v +universal
cd "${tmpDir}" || exit 1

/opt/macports-koffice/bin/port -f install koffice

find /Applications/MacPorts /Library/LaunchAgents /Library/LaunchDaemons -name "*.mp_*[[:digit:]]" -delete

exit 0


What is the bash version shipped with Mountain Lion? After some serious googling, I still came empty handed. (I don't have access to such a machine, but I need this piece of info to make sure an installer script will run on one.)

I did the same serious Googling to reveal this article.

According to the article, Mountain Lion would have a bash version 3.2.53 unless there were more updates after that. Bear in mind that Mountain Lion was already on limited support phase.

Also you can read the message Apple sent out on its mailing list about the same update.


Page difference is books on my mac Let's say book A on hardcover is 800 pages. After downloading it online, the page count is a lot more. Is this normal?

In most cases this is my experience that the type setting of an electronic text contains fewer words and images than a physical book.

Have you spot checked a few chapters in the middle and then the last page to be sure your book has what you expect?


How to change icon of an app through Terminal I want to customize my app icons, but there's a lot of them, and I don't want to be tedious and go through the whole Get Info process over and over again.

Is there any way to write a program, preferably in Terminal using the command line, that will change the icon of an app?

If you want to easily change the icon of the applications its best to use an application like liteicon You can just drag and drop the icon you want to use.


Logged into Facebook app on two phones I received a Facebook message on my phone B, but cleared the notification. I deleted the Facebook message on phone B. Will phone A still receive the notification even though I cleared everything quickly?

You will receive the notification on all devices that have a connection and have notifications for Facebook enabled, regardless of whether you have since cleared the notification on another device.


Is a refurbished Macbook Pro's battery new? When you buy a refurbished Macbook direct from Apple, is the battery in it new? I cannot seem to find a definitive answer on their website or on the internet. I am concerned that the savings from buying a refurb will be cancelled out by having to replace the battery in less than a year.

I called Apple's Sale Support, and I asked them what their policy was for batteries in a refurbished Macbook. Their answer is that the battery will be replaced if it has a defect, but if nothing is wrong with it, then the laptop will include the original battery which may or may not have many used cycles.