Using CMD on Very Old PC Keyboard During Boot I use a circa-1987 IBM Model M keyboard (with a PS/2 to USB adapter) on my 2011 Mac Mini.  For the most part it works well, after some tweaks in System Preferences and third party software.

However, one thing I can't figure out is whether I can send the Command signal during boot.  This would be helpful for booting into recovery mode, etc. On newer PC keyboards I could just use the Windows key, but this old beast doesn't have that.

I'd rather not have to keep another keyboard around just for this purpose, although that's not the end of the world.

Unfortunately I think you're out of luck. I don't know exactly what sorts of tweaks you've used to get a command key in OS X, but they're almost certainly at the OS level, not on the hardware or firmware level. The EFI boot loader can't read these tweaks, so unless the keyboard itself can directly send the command key signal, you're out of luck.

The only thing I can think of is some sort of hardware device that would stand in between the keyboard and the Mac and spit out modified key codes if given the proper input. However I don't know of any such product. Perhaps something could be hacked up using an Arduino or something similar, but it would be a fairly substantial project.

I think you're best off just getting a cheap keyboard with a windows or command key and keeping it in a drawer for the few occasions when you do need it.


Dragging an app's icon across in Dock without ended up pinning I like to keep the running apps in the Dock organized in a logical fashion, so that similar apps are grouped together. I don't pin all of them permanently because that would reduce dock icon size.

When I drag a running app to a place I want it to be, the app is auto-pinned. I have to right-click and unpin the app from Dock.

I wonder if anyone knows how to stop letting Dock auto-pin apps.

There is no setting for this; any item on the dock that you move gets pinned to the dock. Locking the Dock's content does prevent items from being pinned, but it also prevents items from being moved/rearranged.

You could download an alternative dock replacement that looks and acts like the OS X Dock (there are a few) and hide the real Dock, but that's about it. It may be possible to somehow watch the Dock for newly pinned items and unpin them every 60 seconds or something... but that's probably more hassle than it's worth. OS X doesn't always like to be tinkered-with like that.


How to partition 128 MB space on El Capitan? I'm trying to dual boot Ubuntu with El Captain MacBook Pro mid 2012 following this guide: How to Dual-Boot OS X and Ubuntu

I want to partition a 128 MB space called Ubuntu Boot Loader along side my main partition but, when using Disk Utility, this task seems impossible. It will create another untitled partition (half the size of my drive (128 GB)) and then when I hit accept it will only create that Untitled 128 GB partition (but name it Ubuntu Boot Loader) and it will fail on creating my 128 MB partition. I have no idea how to simply make a small partition, is there an easier way to do it on Mac without dealing with all the BS introduced by Disk Utility? Can provide pics of whats happening if needed.

This link seems to explain it pretty well. Though HFS+ is well within the bounds of creating a partition that size, Disk Utility attempts to prevent you from creating any partition under 10% of the size of your disk. You'll want to use diskutil from the command line instead. Take a look at partitionDisk, resizeVolume, and splitPartition to determine which one is right for you.


VGA monitor doesn't work at boot time on Mac mini 2011 I have Mac mini 2011 and Samsung Syncmaster 710v (old TFT monitor) connected through mini DisplayPort to VGA. The monitor shows something only when the login screen appears (no boot menu, no boot-loading, just black screen, BUT no info that the monitor isn't connected).

On new monitors (VGA), my Mac works great and I can see the boot menu. Is it the monitor's problem, a mini DisplayPort issue, or software?

Could be something to do with the energy save technology and standy mode on old tft monitors, if your monitor has energy save.

Probably that's not 100% compatible with new Macs.


How to trust an invalid certificate in Big Sur / Safari 14 Since installing Safari 14, I can't find a way of trusting an invalid SSL certificate (either expired or set up for the wrong hostname).
I used to be able to click on the address bar and then trust that specific certificate but can't find a way to do that in Safari anymore.

Note: Don't do this for sites you don't trust!
This might not be the simplest solution, but it's the only one I could come up with (thanks to https://serverfault.com/questions/139728/how-to-download-the-ssl-certificate-from-a-website# for explaining how to download the certificate). Assuming we want to trust https://test.com/

Download the certificate by running this in the Terminal:

echo -n | openssl s_client -connect test.com:443 | sed -ne '/-BEGIN CERTIFICATE-/,/-END CERTIFICATE-/p' > /tmp/test.cert

Add it to your Keychain

open /tmp/test.cert

Add it to the System Keychain

Find it in the Keychain, double-click it and trust it:


is there anyway to add a song to an existing specific playlist from my ipod touch If I am listening to all my music and I hear a song and I think it would be great to add to a certain playlist (lets say a playlist i called "gym mix", is there anyway to do this from the iPod touch itself, instead of having to remember this and them do it from iTunes when i am at my computer.  This seems like a basic function but i can't find it anywhere

Assuming you're running the latest iOS:

Select a playlist. Select "Edit" from the buttons at the top of the playlist under the search field. Tap the "+" in the top left of the toolbar. Find the song(s) you want, and hit the "+" to the right of their name. Tap "Done" when finished.


where to type the password for printing over internet and can not install the driver on 10.10 My company has a network printer KONICA MINOLTA C353, I have added it on my Mac.

I know there is still a password needed to fill in, but I can't find where to input it.

What a bad luck is that I can install the latest driver on osx 10.10 (you can see the two disks are gray, you can install on it)

I can't replicate this window on my end so I can't say for sure... But.. I would imagine it's under the "Advanced" button next to your printer's IP address.

Konica Minolta printers call this feature "Account tracking", where you enter a password that is designated to you/your department so that they can track usage.  I would click the Advanced button and look for a password field or mention of Account Track.

If that doesn't work, and assuming you have the proper drivers loaded, I would try clicking the "Printer..." button in the bottom left of the dialogue.  This should open a standard OS X print dialogue (rather than the Adobe one in your screenshot) that should have an option in the dropdown menu for Security.  Under that option you should have an Account Track field.  Again, all of this is assuming you have the proper Konica driver installed.  The below example doesn't have the field I'm referring to but if it did, this is where it would appear.


How do I disable mobile Youtube redirection on iPad? When I click a Youtube link, say, in the newly released Skype app, the iPad will open the link in Safari, which will load the mobile site. Also in Twitter's built in browser the mobile site is displayed. This sucks, because the site is slow and often fails loading a video at all.

Is there a way to stop Youtube redirecting to m.youtube.com on iPad?

In short: no, you can't stop it. It's Google re-directing you.

You can work around it though. You can scroll down to the very bottom of the page and tap the "desktop" link, which will take you to the full desktop version of the site. If what you want is the YouTube app to open, then all you can do is copy the name of the video from safari into the YouTube app.

I know what you mean about it not loading the videos. It's annoying!


Trying to use launchd to make my iMac running 10.7.5 to email me it´s IP address not working This is the first time I use launchd so there´s a lot I don´t know.

A little bit of background info.

I set up everyting to be able to use the mail command to send emails with my gmail. Wrote a bash script (IPSend.sh) using ifconfig, grep, and mail. Running the script manually as any user including root works perfectly and sends the email to the specified email address. Copied the script to /usr/local/bin/ the directories have rwxr-xr-x permissions and the script -rwxr-xr-x@ everything is root:wheel. Created a plist file and copied it to /Library/LaunchDaemons (-rw-r--r--@  1 root  wheel   918 Dec 25 16:01 com.fer.ip.plist), debugged it with plutil -lint until result was OK.

When I launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemon/com.fer.ip.plist (as root) I don´t get any errors the email is not sent and the log shows something like:

  Dec 25 16:18:00 dbe4b6a01 com.apple.launchd[1] ("com.fer.ip"): Throttling respawn: Will start in 6 seconds
  Dec 25 16:18:06 dbe4b6a01 com.apple.launchd[1] ("com.fer.ip"): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
  Dec 25 16:18:37: --- last message repeated 2 times ---
  Dec 25 16:18:37 dbe4b6a01 com.apple.launchd[1] ("com.fer.ip"): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
  Dec 25 16:18:37 dbe4b6a01 com.apple.launchd[1] (0x7f9170659600.anonymous.sendmail[20303]): Failed to add kevent for PID 20303. Will unload at MIG return
  Dec 25 16:18:37 dbe4b6a01 com.apple.launchd[1] (0x7f9170659600.anonymous.sendmail[20303]): Unloading PID 20303 at MIG return.
  Dec 25 16:18:47 dbe4b6a01 com.apple.launchd[1] ("com.fer.ip"): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
  Dec 25 16:19:00: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
  Dec 25 16:19:00 dbe4b6a01 com.apple.launchd[1] ("com.fer.ip"): Throttling respawn: Will start in 7 seconds

The reason I say "something like this" is that somtimes I dont get the "Failed to add kevent for PID" or it appears earlier.

I'm totally lost. No idea what the "Failed to add kevent for PID" means or why it is not working as a launchd process when it works manually. Please help!

Here's my script changing my email address:

#!/bin/sh

ifconfig | grep -o -E [0-9]+[.][0-9]+[.][0-9]+[.][0-9]+ |grep -v "127" |grep -v "255" | mail -s "iMac" myemail@isp.com.xx

and here's my plist file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0">

<dict>
        <key>label</key>
        <string>"com.fer.ip"</string>

        <key>ProgramArguments</key>

        <array>
            <string>/usr/local/bin/IPSend.sh</string>
        </array>

        <key>OnDemand</key>
        <false/>

        <key>StartInterval</key>
        <integer>60</integer>

        <key>KeepAlive</key>
                <true/>

        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/test.stdout</string>

        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/test.stderr</string>

</dict>
</plist>

Both standard error and standard out files are always empty

I don't know why I missed these the first time, but upon reviewing your problem just now, I noticed a few inconsistencies in the plist file which might well be the problem.  I think this will fix your problem.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
                    <dict>
                            <key>Label</key>
                                <string>com.fer.ip</string>
                            <key>Program</key>
                                <string>/usr/local/bin/IPSend.sh</string>
                            <key>RunAtLoad</key>
                                <true/>
                            <key>KeepAlive</key>
                                <false/>
                   </dict>
</plist>

Hope that this helps!

F.


emailing a larger set (15-20) of photos If I need to send a set of 15 photo images via email, what is the best way to do this? Will I need to send them in multiple emails? I understand that I should resize the files to 72 dpi.

For sharing photos, you can use iCloud Photo sharing. For more information, refer to the Apple support document, iCloud Photo Sharing.

If the recipient are not using Apple devices, they can still access the photos via iCloud website.


Do i need a seperate dedicated machine to run osx server or can i use some features running it from my MBP We've got 5 desktop devices in our organization which im currently managing using a remote connection client or physically by sitting at each machine.

Each change i make such as an update / settings change has to be made one by one across all machines.

I was reading up online and got pointed towards an osx server - http://www.apple.com/osx/server/ - which looks like the sort of thing i need.

The feature i really liked the look of is the Profile Manager, which looks like it would let me manage the config and updates of machines.

The other features we dont really need right now for instance, we currently use Dropbox for file sharing and i think this will continue as this has a mobile app (accessible when off site using 3g) which we find really useful.

If i just want to use the Profile Manager, can i setup the server on my day to day machine (2012 MBP - 10.9.2) whilst still be able to use it as before, or do i need to get a dedicated machine to run the server on ? Or is there another option for config and one to many updates on osx ?

You don't need a dedicated machine, as server can be installed on any machine providing it meets system requirements without much change to the actual system, unlike the older osx-server, but it's probably a good idea.

I have installed Server.app before on my MBP to test some features and its worked fine for this. The only problem with installing it on a MacBook is that when the machine is off, the services on the other devices start throwing errors as they are unable to connect to services which they consider should always be available. For instance, Profile Manager can set up MDM on iOS devices, which works great until the server becomes unavailable unexpectedly (the device can connect to the network) — errors ensue.

Obviously other features such as Websites won't work if the machine is down, but this should be fine as you mentioned you won't be using such services.


One contact with several numbers - sent messages I have a contact with multiple (two) mobile numbers.

How do i know to which number the sms (text message) was sent?
The system did not ask me which telephone number to use.

Is there a way to check it?

When typing in a contact name whilst creating a new message in Messages.app, if the contact sheet for that person has more than one number (or email addresses too) it'll display a list of all numbers. From there you can select which number you'd like to send the message to for that specific contact.

If you've already sent a message and wish to determine what number or email address your using; simply tap on the message -> details -> the "i" icon. The contact sheet will display the currently used number / email in blue (the other numbers will all remain black).

(I'm using iOS 8 - different versions of iOS may vary)

Update for newer iOS versions:

On iOS 12, the used number will have a grey tag next to it with the text RECENT. (and all the numbers are displayed in blue color)


Why does 'uname -m' says 'i386' even if I'm on Macbook Pro on Intel Core 2 Duo? My Macbook Pro is running on Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz. OS - Leopard 10.5.8. My assumption is that all Core 2 Duo processor systems are 64 bit. But uname -m command outputs i386. Why is it so?

It's because, by default, Mac OS X boots in 32-bit, excepts some recent models.

Quoted from Apple KB Mac OS X v10.6: Macs that use the 64-bit kernel :

This Mac uses the 64-bit kernel by default in Mac OS X v10.6 :

 - Mac Pro (Mid 2010)

These Macs use the 64-bit kernel by default in Mac OS X Server 10.6 :

 - Xserve (Early 2008) and later
 - Mac Pro (Early 2008) and later
 - Mac mini (Mid 2010)

These Macs support the 64-bit kernel, but do not use it by default :

 - iMac (Early 2008) and later
 - MacBook Pro (Early 2008) and later

Here is a little software that can help you to boot in 64-bit if your hardware supports it.


iMac 2011 27" Screen, Contrast Gone iMac 27" from 2011, OS El Capitain 10.11.6. Tried to increase screen contrast in Accessibility pref. pane, but instead got almost no contrast and very light colors!
Can hardly see the grid in Excel and it is even worse in the Calendar app where there are no visible lines separating the dates. Under Display Profiles for this Display there are 2 named iMac. I can see that they are not identical.One says  iMac-48812E13-8A483-7A3C-C675A9008885.icc,  the otheriMac-00000610-0000-A007-0000-00000428001C0.icc Which one should I use and how do I select it? Anyone knows how to get the previous setting back?

Sounds like you have mixed up your Contrast settings. You can increased in System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Enable Increase contrast. Make sure to set the display contrast slider to Normal.


Time Capsule use WIFI to copy files? I recently got a time capsule and I wanted to know if the time capsule uses wifi to copy movies, music ,etc. onto it?

Yes. From Apple's AirPort Time Capsule page:

  With AirPort Time Capsule, you get a super-fast Wi-Fi base station and an easy-to-use backup device all in one. And backing up your data couldn’t be simpler. Just set it up once and AirPort Time Capsule does the rest. It works with Time Machine in OS X to back up your Mac automatically and wirelessly, so you never have to worry about losing anything important again. Every photo. Every file. Every song. Even your apps and OS X settings are saved. AirPort Time Capsule stores it all — up to 2TB or 3TB of data.


XAMPP on Mavericks install APC and Memcached What I already did:

Download latest stable release from pecl.php.net with wget-
Unpack archive
Run phpize, ./configure, make, make install, etc..

That stuff went well, now I have:

/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20100525/apc.so
/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20100525/memcached.so

In my php.ini (Loaded Configuration File from phpinfo) I added:

extension_dir="/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20100525/"
extension=memcached.so
extension=apc.so

But the problem is, the libraries are not beeing loaded, the correspondent sections in phpinfo() are missing.
I have tried to:

Restart apache
Comment out "extension_dir"
Use "zend_extension" instead of "extension"
Specify the full path to the .so files

Restart of XAMPP happens without problems, no error log is generated.
Anyone of you have an idea what could be wrong here?

If you've installed XAMPP then you'll have two versions of PHP on your system. I think the problem is that you are using the XAMPP version of PHP, but the extensions have been compiled against the OS bundled version.

If you are using XAMPP then you'll need to use the toolchain that comes with XAMPP.
For example, try sudo /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/pecl install memcached, this seems to download, build and install memcached correctly for me so that XAMPP can use it.

After that I just needed to add the extension=memcached.so line to php.ini and now memcached is appearing in phpinfo().


Best epub reader app for iPad? What is the best epub reader app for iPad?

I have very complex files on which most apps I have tried time out with sudden execution abortion and control returning to the SpringBoard.

I don't believe this to be a duplicate question because most of them focus on particular aspects of quality or functionality like "auto-scrolling and/or annotation support".

This question is focussed on best viewing quality assuming support for complex and large files.

I went through this when I first got my iPad. My killer app is color pdfs with nice figures. (biochemistry/bioinformatics) I tried GoodReader, iBooks, Stanza, and one other that I can't remember now. I also wanted: borderless full screen, tap to turn, quick page turns regardless of file size, and the ability to scrub between pages. I settled on Stanza, as it has those features and seems to integrate with Dropbox in a reasonable manner.

My litmus test for file size was a 300dpi scan of Envisioning Information by Tufte (came to nearly 450MB?) It was quite usable with fast page turns. It did crash once in awhile, but other readers would not even load it.

Stanza's epub performance apppears to be good. I have only really tested it with brutal PDFs, to be honest, but I use it nearly daily.

My workflow is this: read rss from PubMed/sites with filters. Read abstract. If I like it, put it in Dropbox/papers. Then, before leaving work/home, sync the files on Dropbox. Read on train/at leisure. I make notes in SimpleNote. I don't really like PDF annotations because they are generally non-standard and easier to lose/messup.

Hope it helps!


How to clean install OSX without formatting drive? What's the best way to clean install (not upgrade) OSX (from 10.10 to 10.11) without formatting my drive?

This is a MBPr with a 1TB internal, where I have 700GB of media that I would like to leave on there, all within 2 folder at /

Can I just delete everything except those 2 folders then install OSX?

I'm thinking I have 2 options:

Boot from a bootable USB with 10.11 installer
Boot from a CCC clone external of my system drive

... and then delete everything except those 2 folders, then run the OSX installer.

There is no easy way to do this. You can't clean install and keep your files because those files live as part of the OS. The OS knows where they are, what they are, the permissions etc.  Clean installing would be removing all parts of the OS and installing a the new OS and the links to those files, where it would not know it needs those files or what they are.

Alternatively you can try:

Create a New Partition (Say of 200GB)
Install a clean copy of OS X there
Copy 100GB of your files to the new partition
Delete those exact files on the old partition
Shrink old partition and expand new partition
And repeat last 3 steps till you have all files

But the best solution would be:

Buy external HD
Copy all files to external
Reinstall OS X
Copy files back


Reinstall Terminal on OS X Lion I accidentally removed Terminal from the apps folder. Any ideas how to get that back?

Have a look at this post - the app is included on one of the DVDs that came with your Mac. Alternatively, I'm quite positive you can copy the Terminal .app file from another Mac that's on the same OS, as well.


What are the key differences between the Shazam and Soundhound Apps? Both seem to do roughly the same thing.   What, if anything, are the relevant differences?

Don't know if there are really major differences that set one far apart from the other.

One of the bigger differentiators is that Soundhound claims to recoginze songs that are hummed and/or sung by the user.

From a purely opinion oriented view, I've had better success with Soundhound at identifying songs than Shazam - but both do the job pretty well. Soundhound also seems to be quicker at returning results for me than Shazam. Again, that's just my own experience and I've, by no means, done exhaustive testing between the two.

Shazam seems to have better search but Soundhound can search by lyrics.


Merge multiple m4a files Is there an easy way to do this?

I have several folders with music files that I want to join. So it would be good if there is a batch solution to this problem.

brew install ffmpeg sox

#!/bin/bash

for f in *.m4a; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f%m4a}wav"; done
sox *.wav combined.wav
ffmpeg -i combined.wav -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ab 192k combined.m4a
rm *.wav


iTunes Sync Problem with iPhone 5 I just got my iPhone 5, and I installed iTunes 11.01. When I connect my iPhone via USB to my laptop, it just charges. Nothing happens with iTunes nor with my iPhone.
I restarted the iTunes and my iPhone too, but nothing happened.

Is there another program like iTunes for iPhone to download songs?

Open iTunes, go into preferences, Devices tab , and make sure that the prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically! Checkbox is not checked


Free up unused memory from kernel_task I am a web developer, and sometimes I encounter software bugs that has runaway threads or used up available memory in a browser process. Terminating the offending Chrome process will free up the memory usage, but kernel_task still use up a huge chunk of memory

Running sudo /usr/sbin/purge does not make any impact on the used memory.

How can I get kernel_task to free those unneeded memory?


How to move iCloud photos from one country to another? I have to move my photos/videos stored in iCloud from one country to another. I have both country's Apple IDs.

What's the easiest way to move photos/videos stored in iCloud to another Apple ID?

A simple approach would be to use Shared Albums. Create a shared album for the source Apple ID and share it with the destination Apple ID.

On the destination, export the photos to save a local copy. Once exported, you can unshare/delete the shared album at source end.


Mouse stops working in Bootcamp (XP) I've been using Bootcamp (XP) with no problem for quite a while now. Today, when I tried booting to XP, my mouse will work for about a second and then stop working. If i unplug/replug it, it will sometimes work for another second and then stop. The keyboard works fine. I've tried several different mice, all corded.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on or how I can fix it?

Have you tried using other mice, either the same make and model or another brand altogether, and do they exhibit the same problem? If not, then you probably have a hardware failure with your mouse.

Beyond that, what have you changed or upgraded or installed on the Mac side just before this problem appeared? What have you changed or upgraded or installed on the Windows XP side just before the problem appeared? There must be something. This is the key to troubleshooting.

Reset the PRAM.

If that does not help, report back.


iOS 7: delete a location from the weather application I would like to delete a location from the weather app in iOS 7.

If I tap and hold I can rearrange the order and the '+' sign allows me to add one.

Swiping left-to-right as in previous versions does not work.

How can a location be removed from the list?

It's a common interaction on iOS : Swipe to the left.

Swipe the location to the left, the delete button will appear.

But this does not work on the one that is at the top of the screen if your letting it use your current location

Swipe the location to the left IN LIST MODE. Then a red square delete button appears on the right edge. Tap it and the location is gone.


How to retrieve a PDF file from an iOS device? Given two Macs running Yosemite and one iPad running iOS 8, how do you retrieve a PDF file put on the iPad from Mac 1, using Mac 2 ? Let's say that I don't currently have access to the Mac used to put the file in the first place. I can see the file in the Books section of the device in iTunes, but that's all I can do right now.

Try emailing it to yourself from the iPad.


Why is my iPod touch so slow after installing iOS 5? With iOS 4.x everything was super fast on my iPod Touch. Now with iOS 5, whenever there are a few apps open in the background, everything becomes slow.

It takes 20 seconds to switch between playlists. It's ridiculous.

The unfortunate thing is, thanks to Apple restrictions, I can't downgrade to iOS 4.x.

On Apple's official forum, other users report this problem too: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3376176?start=0&tstart=0

What is going on with iOS performance?

Newer iOS devices have more system memory, which is separate from the flash memory. The OS itself has a specific memory footprint at boot time, and the rest of the system memory is used by applications. I don't have any data on this, but I can imagine that each major revision of iOS (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) has a larger system memory footprint than the previous release.

Keep in mind that the iPod Touch has a lower overall price than the iPhone released within the same year. An iPhone may cost $200 plus a two-year contract, but this is due to a subsidy paid by the wireless provider to Apple. So, the iPod Touch is expected to have a bit lower quality in terms of hardware specs (for example: system memory size, camera quality, CPU speed).

Taking the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th generation as examples, Wikipedia states that the iPhone 4 has 512MB of system memory, and the iPod Touch 4th gen has 256MB of system memory. When the system runs out of memory for applications, it must make more memory available by terminating background processes or reducing their memory footprint. This may take time. You're more likely to experience this overhead on a device with less system memory, and on a likely slower CPU.


Convert bin/cue image to iso format on OS X? How can I convert an .bin/.cue image to .iso format? ... preferably free.

A nice tool is bchunk (I have used it under linux) which is available in homebrew.

$ brew install bchunk
==> Downloading http://he.fi/bchunk/bchunk-1.2.0.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> make
/usr/local/Cellar/bchunk/1.2.0: 5 files, 56K, built in 2 seconds
Avatars-MBP:~ avatar$ bchunk a.bin a.cue test


Can you see a list of all open tabs in Safari? I often have a good 150 to 200 tabs open in Safari at all times because this is where I like to keep all my current work.
Obviously, all open tabs are never displayed at the same time when there are so many...

I am wondering if a list of all currently open tabs is available in Safari.

Here is an AppleScript that will get the name of all Tabs in all Safari windows and show them in an unsaved TextEdit document.

You can save this as a plain script and access it from the Script menu on the Menu bar if you enable it in Script Editor's Preferences.  Or as an App and it can be placed on the Dock.

tell application "Safari"
    set windowCount to number of windows
    set docText to ""
    repeat with x from 1 to windowCount
        set tabcount to number of tabs in window x
        repeat with y from 1 to tabcount
            set tabName to name of tab y of window x
            set docText to docText & tabName & linefeed as string
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell
tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    make new document
    set the text of the front document to docText
end tell

The above source code was modified from Generate a List of Open Safari Tabs with AppleScript.


NTFS-3G unmounts NTFS partitions because it "did not receive signal in 15 seconds"—what signal? After upgrading to Lion, NTFS-3G has been encountering problems. I uninstalled NTFS-3G and MacFUSE, reinstalled them and rebooted; but the problem still exists:

After connecting an USB-disk that has a NTFS partition the disk icon appears on the desktop andthe partition can be browsed. After ≈15 seconds I get the following pop-up:

However, the partition stays mounted and it can be browsed via the same icon on the desktop. After this pop-up the other, HFS+, partition gets mounted and its icon displayed on the desktop.

I could consider the above merely as a glitch, which would just slow down my workflow for 15+ seconds. But problem gets bigger with TrueCrypt disks:

After I connect an USB-disk, which is fully encrypted with TrueCrypt, and mount it with TrueCrypt, again—as above—its icon appears on the desktop and I can browse the disk's contents. After 15 seconds I get the following pop-ups:

Translation: "hdiutil: attach failed — no mountable file systems"

At the same time, my mounted partition—which worked normally for 15 seconds—disappears from the desktop, ie. gets unmounted.

I've read about similar problems after some googling, but all of them say the problem disappears with reinstalling MacFUSE and/or NTFS-3G, which is what didn't work with me.

I've also tried mounting the partitions with and without caching, didn't help either.

What is the signal NTFS-3G wants?

Can I give it manually, as a workaround. Or can NTFS-3G be somehow modified that it wouldn't need "the signal": the partitions work normally until the pop-up.
Why TrueCrypt drops the partition while normal partitions stay in the system?
Is some hidden/visible setting in Lion blocking NTFS-3G working normally?
And finally: Is it just me or does this happen to others with NTFS-3G?

TrueCrypt is v. 7.0a
NTFS-3G is 2010.10.2
MacFUSE is 2.1.9 (Beta)

It seems the problem is indeed with NTFS-3G: I downloaded the trial of Tuxera 2011.4.1 and no errors happened when mounting a NTFS partition with it.

I stumbled on a post on IM.GETTING(THIS);, which explained the issue — and even provided a fix!

  The problem seems to stem from the binary "fuse_wait" from NTFS-3G that's run as a final part of the mounting procedure - for some reason it can't detect that ntfs-3g mounted the volume and stays on a hopeless loop trying to detect this condition until it gives up after 15 seconds. So my workaround involves replacing the fuse_wait binary with a script that does more or less the same thing, but actually detecting (sort of) the mount operation and not timing out.

The fix

(Assuming the use of MacFUSE & NTFS-3G)

sudo mv /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait.original
sudo touch /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo chown 0:0 /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait
sudo nano /usr/local/bin/fuse_wait

Copy & paste:

#!/bin/bash

MNTPOINT=$1
shift
TIMEOUT=$1
shift
MNTCMD=$1
shift

$MNTCMD "$@" &> /var/log/ntfsmnt.log
MNTCMD_RETVAL=$?

if [ $MNTCMD_RETVAL -eq 0 ]; then
        until [ `/sbin/mount | /usr/bin/grep -c "$MNTPOINT"` -ge 1 ] || [ $TIMEOUT -eq 0 ]
        do
                       sleep 1
                let TIMEOUT--
        done
fi

[ $TIMEOUT -eq 0 ] && RETVAL=1 || RETVAL=$MNTCMD_RETVAL

exit $RETVAL;

Save. Then:

sudo nano /System/Library/Filesystems/ntfs-3g.fs/ntfs-3g.util

Change the following line:

DEFAULT_NTFS_MOUNT_OPTIONS="auto_xattr"

to:

DEFAULT_NTFS_MOUNT_OPTIONS="auto_xattr,noatime,noappledouble,auto_cache"

Save. Reboot. Smile.

For details and alternative methods I wholeheartedly recommend reading through the aforementioned article and thank him, not me.


iPhone 4 Will not Sync Calendar through Exchange Server 2003 I have an iPhone 4 that I can't seem to sync to our corporate Exchange server (Exchange Server 2003). Email syncs fine, however generally calendar items do not sync, and when they do, they disappear from the phone after about an hour.

I've re-added my corporate account to the phone, attempted to sync via WiFi rather than 3G, and I've checked all settings to ensure that they are correct. Corporate policy states that iPhones are not to sync with iTunes, instead using only the mobile Exchange server.

Do you have any advice?

According to Apple's Exchange ActiveSync and iOS Devices:Requirements iOS devices support Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) for Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2.

Check with your Exchange Administrator and be certain that your system meets that requirement. The linked document may be of further assistance.


How to automatically login to captive portals on OS X? How can I automatically login to captive portals on OS X?

A captive portal is used by (often not password-protected) wireless networks that present a web page as soon as you connect to them, requiring you to login.

I have to login to different wireless networks like this very frequently, and none of the captive portals seem to remember my login/password information. Is there a way to automate the login process somehow, or at least store the login/password pairs in the Keychain?

Update: There’s an iOS app called AutoWifi that basically handles this. If it’s possible to do this on iOS with all its restrictions, surely it must be possible to do something like it on OS X, right?

Related fun fact: This is how Apple tests for captive portals on OS X and iOS:

  OS X and iOS make a request to http://www.apple.com/library/test/success.html every time you connect to a WiFi network.

As of Yosemite the URL is now:  http://captive.apple.com/hotspot-detect.html

This URL returns the following HTML:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
    <TITLE>Success</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Success
</BODY>
</HTML>

Just found this Disable Captive Network Support in OS X

Which mentions "To disable it, set this preference:"

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.captive.control Active -boolean false

In case, you would ever want to remove this setting, you can do:

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.captive.control Active

Then, as @Leon mentions, use the regular web browser to login. Or if you are on a network where that somehow does not work then you can still try and open the app manually ( located at /System/Library/CoreServices/Captive Network Assistant.app )


Finder icons without thumbnail preview and a cross? Today I imported (MacOS Catalina, 10.15.3) some RAW and JPG images from my Canon EOS R camera using ImageCapture. They are 3 CR3 bracketed (AEB) images and the JPG HDR created by the camera. Strangely, some icons are not visible in the Finder, and have a 'cross' on the upper left corner:

The images are there: all can be opened in Preview, and Adobe DNG converter may convert them to DNG. The view option "Show Icon Preview" is enabled
I tried to create a thumbnail using a newly created 'quick action' in Automator, and to drag that thumbnail to the icon shown in the 'Info' window for the IMR_0138.CR3 file; nothing happened. And, yes, I have write permission on the file.
This is not related to the file type: JPG files in other folders have their icon, and one out of 3 CR3 files here has its icon.

How can I have my files with their thumbnails displayed?  Thank you in advance for any help!

Although it looks 99.9% complete, I think the Mac still thinks they are being copied over.
The 'thermometer' at the bottom of the icon would suggest this; the x at the top is so you can cancel before the operation is complete.

I'd try a reboot & see if that fixes it, otherwise try copy over again, maybe to a different folder.

If you were to look at them in List View, then the thermometer would be to the right of the file name, as either the same type of icon or as a 'pie chart', depending on version of macOS
Two views of a partially copied file, Icon & List.

 These were done with Apple Remote Desktop, so the X is in that app's interface, not on the icon.


How to edit shared iCloud note in native app? I shared an iCloud note with somebody else to work on it together. I sent a link via E-Mail which points to iCloud.com. The other person opens the link, signs into iCloud and then the note is opened in the web app.

While the Apple online help is not very clear about the abilities I expected the note to at least synchronize with the other persons Notes app on macOS (the other person is signed on to iCloud on macOS and notes synchronization is turned on). But not even that. Am I missing something or is it really only possible for the sharing person to edit in the macOS app?

I tried the same with a Numbers spreadsheet which is saved in iCloud, too. Sending the link via iMessage results in the same problem.

Solution: Upgrade to a macOS version which introduced the support to do so. According to the About collaboration for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote article on the Apple Support pages "A Mac with macOS Sierra and Pages 6.3.1, Numbers 4.3.1, or Keynote 7.3.1 or later" is required.

In my case the macOS upgrade from El Capitan to High Sierra provided the desired feature. I simply did not think about the only recently introduced software support.


The Apple ID "example@email.com" cannot be used to unlock this iPhone Recently I bought a second hand iPhone 8. When I'm trying to unlock the device It shows this error:
The Apple ID "example@email.com" cannot be used to unlock this iPhone

Previous user deleted this device from "find my iPhone" service (But still it shows "Erase requested 1hour ago")

How can I register my device under my apple ID?
Do they take more time to erase a device from the database ?

Apple’s activation servers are generally instant. I’ve gone through the official process maybe 20 times in the past two years for work, and it has never not worked within 1 minutes let alone waiting 5.

Here is the official guide and link for the previous user to remove that lock:

https://support.apple.com/HT201365

Activation Lock is part of the iOS Activation status here:

https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

So if you believe it’s failing, the instructions there are correct - contact Apple Support directly. The only thing I can add, is Apple doesn’t tell you the full email of the previous owner, so unless you have the passcode, you won’t really know which email is “example@email.com” above.

How exactly are you connected to the internet from the device to try and unlock / activate it?
Do you actually know the email some other way or were you putting something hypothetical in the question?


Mirroring content/photos between devices — Tripple the iCloud backup? I own an iPhone 7+, an iPad, and most recently a new MacBook Pro…  so I'm starting to look at the more intelligent syncing of content between devices.

If I mirror my photos (for example) or other documents between devices through iOS, does that effectively tripple the storage used in iCloud to back up that content, or is there a bit of intelligence to avoid backing up synch'd content multiple times?

No, it doesn't.  iCloud is a syncing solution.  That means it will sync everything to all devices signed-in with the same Apple ID.

You can read more about setting up iCloud from this Apple support page.

The amount of storage will be same on all your iOS devices.  It might different on macOS because of optimized storage.  It will never be more space (or tripled).


Replacement for Supercard in Catalina? I have been a long time Hypercard fan. When Apple mysteriously dropped it, I kept my Hypercard stacks going using Supercard. Unfortunately, Supercard is not 64 bit compatible (and no sign that that is going to happen any time soon), and so will not run under MacOS Catalina.
Many of my Hypercard stacks are really just fancy Address books, and I could export them to Apple's Contacts app.

However, I have a more sophisticated complicated stack that is really like a  little customer database ...

My Question is:  Are there are any free or simple (but good) apps that you would recommend for that purpose:  one card per person, usual entries for email and contact information, and then which version of the software they are using and similar. Simple database or even simpler than that might suffice. All suggestions appreciated.

LibreOffice contains a database application, Base. There are several available Address Book templates, which you could modify.

(I note that SuperCard are blaming Apple for 'going back on their promise to release a 64-bit Carbon framework'. A 64-bit version was noticeably absent in 2007, and Apple deprecated Carbon in 2012...)


System freezes when performing intense disk/cpu operations, Disk Utility says the disk is ok Sometimes my system (macbook air, mid-2013, sierra 10.12.3) freezes (beachball + can't really click anything although some mouse movement is possible) and doesn't come back to normal unless I reset it.
This usually occurred during archiving an app, but today happened when I tried opening extensions in safari preferences.

I've tried running Disk Utility, but it says that the disk is ok.
What other diagnostic can I run?

It sounds as though your install is corrupted. You may to boot to your recovery parition (Command-R after the chime), followed by the "Reinstall macOS" option. It should only overwrite the core system files and leave your User/User data/Custom apps untouched, but to be safe you should make a Time Machine backup first.


Macbook white screen of death not able to boot My macbook 2011 17.5" won't start.

I tried all options listed here https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255 on how to boot with different keycodes. Only single user mode seems to work everything else ends in white screen a few seconds after the apple logo. I can choose the startup disk and tried booting from a backup but that also resulted in whitescreen.

Is there anything else I can try?
Maybe reset the system completely somehow?

If your Mac shows a white screen in recovery mode or internet recovery then there is a hardware issue on your mac.

My recommendation is to either contact Apple Support for an appointment or set up an appointment yourself via https://getsupport.apple.com/.

This could be a hard drive or display issue. If not then you are looking at a logic board replacement.

If you have a time machine backup or a separate backup of your things
elsewhere then you should be fine, if not then you'll want to get the hard drive (if that is the issue) taken out and then purchase a new one, so you can take your current hard drive to the nearest data recovery center nearby you.


Can I run multiple instances of Skype on one computer? I am a heavy Skype user - I use it for work and to communicate with friends. Little by little my contact list grew to almost 800 people. It's really difficult to handle my contacts and put them in different lists. Searching for contacts is also not intuitive and easy task - people like to use strange usernames for Skype.

I need to divide my contacts and use two instances of Skype - for business and personal use. Do you know a way I can do that and stay online in both accounts at the same time?

multiple copies of Skype can only run under separate user accounts, making for some unfortunate but not critical overhead. create another user account on your Mac, either business or personal. then from the other one, open Terminal and do:

$ su - [your other username]
$ /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/MacOS/Skype &

after which you can close the terminal.

edit: after running this after a bit, i should note that you will run into fun issues like separate clipboards, links opening in separate browsers, and possibly other multi-user issues which i havent run into yet.


Can I delete photos from iPhoto and delete originals that aren't in the iPhoto folder? I like the simplicity of iPhoto and all the nice ordering features. But, since I like to manage my library myself (folder names etc) I have not selected the option to import my photos to iPhotos' folder structure, but rather prefer to import my photos to iPhoto but keep them where they are (in my own folders).

One drawback to this, is that when I delete a photo from my iPhoto Library, it won't also delete the original file (even if I empty its trash), which makes iPhoto useless for managing my photos (for example, checking a new batch an deleting the ones I don't like). Has anyone managed to work around this stupid feature of iPhoto?

iPhoto has an internal file storage system where it saves all the photos for the events, albums etc.

You notice this, when you select an event and click "Show in folder". Then you see the whole folder with all the pictures in it.

You should treat events or albums as your folders. You can give them custom names and everything.

What I have done is:

Import all photos to iPhoto
Delete original files
Just work with iPhoto (when I want to see the photos in a folder structure, I can choose "Show in folder".

Note: I have heard that you can have an external file storage for your photos with Apperture. This is iPhoto with more functionality for 200 USD, in case you do a lot of work with iPhoto this might be interesting.


How do I recycle old MacBook Pro batteries? Can I return an old 15-inch MBP rechargeable battery to Apple, or does it have to be disposed of locally?

The disposal and/or recycling of batteries will differ depending on your local jurisdiction, namely because of local laws.

In some jurisdictions you can take your old electronic equipment, including batteries, to any Apple Retail Store. The local store will ensure that it will be recycled in a responsible manner.

Based on your profile, I see you're based in Germany. Germany is one of those places where Apple will happily take your batteries.

For more info, see So einfach wie Apple Produkte sollte auch ihr Recycling sein1.

1 The UK english version of the above referenced page is: Recycling an Apple product is as easy as it is good for the planet.


Keyboard and Touchpad stopped working - MacBook Pro 15" - Mid 2009 Today after opening the lid I found out that TouchPad and Keyboard doesn't work. I tried with an external USB mouse, but no success. However, keys work during the startup when I'm trying PRAM reset. Booted in safe mode but again they froze at login screen. Recovery mode didn't work either. I just can't login into my mac.
My machine is MacBookPro 15" Mid 2009, running macOS Sierra.

Update: Recovery mode doesn't work, it shows nothing, but I booted with Option key to select startup disk and both keyboard and touchpad work while choosing the startup disk. But once I got to the login screen, they both freeze.

Any hints what might be the problem and what other steps I should take before taking it to the repair shop?

Thank you very much!

First off, you are running macOS Sierra on on an unsupported Mac.  Per Apple's official supported hardware list, it supports MacBook Pros from 2010 and newer.

macOS Sierra was installed either by:

using some sort of "hack" to trick the installer into thinking it was supported hardware
installing it on a different MacBook Pro then moving drive with the new macOs installation into your MacBook Pro.

It's quite conceivable that this installation initially worked, but after an update, things would break because Apple is not anticipating that macOS Sierra is working on unsupported hardware.

The fact that it's working in a pre-boot environment, is a good sign that your hardware is good, though it's not conclusive.  What you need to do is to revert back to El Capitan (10.11.x).

Run Internet Recovery CommandOptionR instead of booting from the Recovery partition.  This will load the last supported OS.  If your keyboard and trackpad works, then you have your answer.

What you will need to do next is to erase your drive and start with a fresh install of El Capitan.


Run siri commands in a shortcut I upgraded to iOS 12 and would like to make yet another morning routine shortcut.  I'd like it to run these audio commands that I ask Siri to do by hand:

"What's the weather?"
"Play the news"
"Shuffle my Mix playlist"

Is there a way to have siri execute text that I give it in a shortcut?  Thanks.

UPDATED: This new code will help you a lot, tell me if you need anything else. :)

Get Current Weather
At: Current Location - Custom Location

Get Playlist
Playlist: [Select Playlist]

Play Music
Shuffle: Off - (Songs)
Repeat: None - One - (All)

Show Alert
Title: Weather
Message:
- Currently -
(Weather Conditions)

Show Cancel Button: OFF

Open App
App: News

If you want the code to appear somewhere else and not in an alert, then please comment and tell me & I will fix it to your choosing.

Hope this Helps!


Disabling wifi password sync between Apple TV and iPhone I'm in an environment with a wireless network that has a different WPA key for each user. My Apple TV and my phone have different passwords, but they seem to insist on syncing between themselves. The end result is I have to keep re-entering passwords on one or the other device. Both devices are on the same Apple ID.
I've looked through all the settings and can't find anything, but is there any way to stop this password sharing between devices?

You need to disable Keychain sync.
This will affect all keychain items; you can't selectively choose which items will sync.
On the Mac, it's System Prefs > iCloud > Keychain
iOS is Settings > [Your name] > iCloud > Keychain
In all honesty, I'd avoid this. Change a password on any web site & you'll have to manually change it on every device that needs to access the same resource; or prevent passwords from being saved entirely.
The other thing to perhaps consider is that WPA already uses a different (pairwise) key per device, even if it shares the same password (PSK). Adding one password per device is no more secure, at consumer-level, merely more difficult to admin.


How to turn off automatic typing correction in Lion? Since upgrading to Lion I notice that typing is automatically getting "corrected".

For example, I type "I posted to elance that" and the word elance automatically changes to "glance".  I back up and change the 'g' to an 'e' and it changes it back to "glance" again.

I first noticed it in Mail, but I see it's also happening here in Safari too.

How do I turn this off?  Note: I don't mind the 'red-squiggle' when it thinks there's a typo, but I don't want it automatically changing my text.

Go to system preferences -> and then language/text

Hit the "Text" tab.

There is a checkbox that says "Correct spelling automatically". Uncheck it.

Look here for more info:

http://www.applegazette.com/mac/how-to-disable-auto-correct-in-os-x-lion/


ERROR ITMS-90158: URL schemes need to begin with an alphabetic character - Google client ID When trying to Upload to App Store... received the following error:

ERROR ITMS-90158: "The following URL schemes found in your app are not in the correct format: ... URL schemes need to begin with an alphabetic character"

The url in question is the Google client ID, that worked well before and doesn't give any error while building or validating archive however, after uploading to App Store, gives the error:

  ERROR ITMS-90158: "The following URL schemes found in your app are not
  in the correct format:
  [012345678910-kn4fsmu9sql2rtq6juun2dehji3h0pkr]. URL schemes need to
  begin with an alphabetic character, and be comprised of alphanumeric
  characters, the period, the hyphen or the plus sign only. Please see
  RFC1738 for more detail."

Using Xcode Version 7.3.1 (7D1014) and the error only started to appear recently (around Xcode 8 release date)

I found the problematic URL at: info.plist > URL schemes and reversed it myself. i.e.: com.googleusercontent.apps.xxxxxx-xxxxxxxx

then did a fresh build, all was ok


Why is my Mac able to write to my NTFS hard drive? My question is one of confusion.  All over the internet I have seen people looking for the ability to use a Mac to write to NTFS, or people formatting drives to FAT32 so that their Mac can share a storage drive with a PC.

I am experiencing the opposite effect.

I recently hooked up a Western Digital (WD) My Book 3 Terabyte drive to my network.  I connected both my PC and my Macbook Pro to it.  The Mac put a bunch of hidden folders on the drive, and my PC added it's own shared files.  The drive, from the perspective of the PC says the drive file format is NTFS.  I am able to access the shared drive as a Guest, from my Mac, and I can view all the files, add files (I added a picture) and pull music off the drive, and play it.

I don't have a problem with this, but I'm wondering how this is possible?

I have made 1 attempt to back-up on the network drive using Time Machine.  It was too slow over the wi-fi so I canceled, but it didn't come up with any pop-ups that said the back-up was failing.

Because it's a network drive, is there some kind of conversion going on?  I haven't installed any programs to write to NTFS on my Mac.

I would also like to know if I am damaging the Network drive in any way by using both the MAC and PC on it.

Note:  My MacBook Pro does not see the Network drive as a Hard Drive, and I cannot use the Disc Utility to format it.  It only sees it as a shared drive in the Network.

Over the network it does not matter what file system is used on the hardware drive, because the computer hosting the drive (making it available through the network) will access it.  Your Mac will just make generalized requests over the network for files, folders, etc. and the host will access the file system and serve the files. Network requests are standardized and the host answers them and converts between those and the actual file system on the hardware.

What you were reading about not being able to write to NTFS, was people who either had a partition with NTFS on their native HD in the Mac computer or who were attaching USB drives.  In both these cases, the Mac has to access (and possibly modify) the file system on drive directly (without an intermediate agent) and needs to be able to deal with the specifics of the file system directly.

And no, there is no danger of damage (well, not unless you or the Mac intentionally delete files or move folders that are needed otherwise).


iMac bundled pointing devices With the purchase of a new iMac, Apple seems to be offering your choice of Mighty Mouse (Apple Mouse) or Magic Mouse with the option of adding a Magic Trackpad to the Magic Mouse. I have no interest in either of those mice, and would prefer to simply get a Magic Trackpad with my iMac, which is priced the same as a Magic Mouse. Would Apple Retail be able to set me up with this at a brick-and-mortar Apple Store?

Probably not.

The retail stores only sell the standard configurations of their products. When looking at the specs for "What's in the Box" for an iMac, it includes a Magic Mouse. They'd have to open up the box and take out the mouse while giving you the separately packaged Magic Trackpad.

You're best chance is getting the Magic Trackpad thrown in at a discount.


Weird Password/iCloud stuff going on - baffled. "This is impossible." I've had some weird stuff going on in the last few days.

On Wednesday, I was listening to a Podcast on my iPhone. This one is rated "E" for explicit. I was about 5 minutes from the end, when I stopped, planning on finishing the show later. When I returned the next day, the iPhone displayed "Episode Contains Explicit Content - To play this episode, allow explicit content in Restrictions." ?!?! I have no children in the home. No one else ever uses my iPhone. I didn't turn on Restrictions between Wednesday and Thursday. I didn't do an update. I didn't reset. I didn't backup or restore. Nothing changed, and yet.....
Tonight, I noticed that my Apple Watch didn't unlock my Mac. So, I opened the Security & Privacy section of System Preferences. The "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" was unchecked, even though I have been using it for months. It was still working even after recently (one week?) changing Apple Watches. But, now, unchecked. WTF?
When I tried to check the "Allow Apple Watch to Unlock My Mac" option, I was prompted to "finish setting up iCloud...." I clicked "iCloud" which asked for my password. I haven't changed my password in months or years. I regularly use it and type it in manually. I visit appleid.apple.com or iCloud.com regularly, and type my password all the time. And, I have a mind for numbers and passwords. I don't forget passwords. Ever. And all my devices use iCloud Keychain....But, tonight, my password didn't work. I typed it in very carefully, several times. I typed it where I could see it, copied and pasted - fail. I visited iCloud.com and appleid.apple.com - both failed. I finally had to change my password. But, WTF?

Has this happened to anyone else? Recently or ever? Does anyone have a rational explanation as to why this could be happening? I sure don't. I'm not a novice with Apple, iCloud, iPhone, or computers in general, but damn if I'm baffled by this one. And a little worried/paranoid that it might be nefarious.

This might just be a simple service outage or a migration to move iCloud data to a new container or migrate it to make it ready for the fall iOS and macOS releases and new features that ran into a glitch.

The same way thing has happened to me recently. Yesterday I had stuff in my iPhone analytics dating back to July,8th. I went to show them to a coworker today and 80% of them were gone. I don’t have any idea how, that coupled with some other stuff has me worried that’s it’s nefarious.

I also feel as though somebody has reported me to the police and that I am now listed as an aggressive or dangerous person. So it's not at all odd to feel what you're feeling so I wanted to post that you're not alone in this take.


How to go level up in file select window An application has the button to select folder. When I click it it opens a file/directory selection dialog.

Is it possible to know the current path of directory I see in this dialog
Is it possible to go one level up?

Click on the Path button, which shows all the levels up to the folder.

Click on a folder in this list to jump to it. The list is always reverse hierarchy so the folder containing the current folder will be one down from the top of the list.

The shortcut to go up a level is ⌘↑.


How to copy/sync music downloaded from Apple Music on iTunes to iPhone? I have Apple Music subscription. When I make songs available offline(on iPhone 5s) I can listen to them on the device that I downloaded the songs without internet and not offline on iTunes on my Desktop running Windows 10.

If i make music available offline on computer then I can listen to them only on computer without internet and not on my iPhone. I have to re-download the music onto my iPhone.

I'm using the same apple account. All my songs are getting downloaded twice. What should I do to copy the music from Desktop to iPhone without redownloading?

Hardware

iPhone 5S - iOS 9.1
Windows 10 - 64 bit

Why should I have to download a song on each device when I'm signed in on the same Apple account?

Also, when I add a song to Apple Music, It comes under my music from my iPhone and also to itunes my music in computer, but i have to make the music available offline again even if i did download on to the phone earlier. The offline music does not sync.

You can't sync Apple Music downloaded content from iTunes to your iPhone (or the other way round). Each device has to download it separately (as of iOS 11.3 and iTunes 12.7.3).


What causes iPhone low battery crashes? Is there a software fix? Some iPhone users (especially those with devices that've been in use for a while) encounter a problem where the device crashes once the battery gets low. For example:

  "After updating to iOS 7 my iPhone 5 has been doing something strange.
  When the battery gets low (usually around 20-30%), iOS will shut down
  completely, and when you try to power the phone back on it flashes on
  the screen telling you to plug the phone in to charge it (saying that
  the battery is almost completely dead).   The phone refuses to power
  on until you plug it in, but once I plug the phone in and power it
  back on, the battery life shows the last percentage it was at before
  it crashed (20-30%). This has happened to me more than once, so I know
  it's not just some crazy fluke."
  https://discussions.apple.com/message/23587500#23587500
  "I have a 3GS that is almost 2 years old now and had a hard life. It
  has now developed a tendency to crash when the battery gets below 25%.
  it will restart using the top button ok but as soon as you put any
  strain on the battery it crashes when at this low level. When the
  phone is charged it seems to work fine."
  http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1139488
  "I have a weird problem with my iPhone 5. My phone switches off when
  the battery is low. I was at 23% charge and just browsing facebook
  when my battery died. The other day I was at 13% charge and it
  switched off. Last week 17%.. It refuses to switch back on until it
  was plugged into the wall. I have tried restoring the phone and set up
  as new but I still have the same problem. It just seems to switch off
  when the battery is low at different percentages."
  https://discussions.apple.com/message/22284705#22284705

It seems to happen on various model iPhones and versions of the OS; it's currently happening to me on a heavily used two year old 4S running iOS 6.1.1.

TidBITS suggests that:

  "The common element in these crashes is low battery life, usually under 20 percent, although one crash occurred at almost 30 percent. When I give the iPhone power, it restarts immediately and shows the expected amount of battery life remaining. So it’s not that the battery is actually running out; instead, [iOS's] power management code is freaking out once the battery level falls to around 20 percent. I do see a number of LowBatteryLog files in Settings > General > About > Diagnostics & Usage > Diagnostic & Usage Data, though their contents don’t reveal a smoking gun. Letting the battery run down completely and then recharging entirely to recalibrate it made no difference."

(NB. TidBITS writes about this as it pertains to iOS 7 only.)

So, my question:

Do we know, technically, what is causing these crashes beyond simply "the power management code is freaking out"?
Are there any software hacks, fixes or usage habits (beyond usual battery saving/care techniques and "just get a new battery/don't let the battery get low!") that might help avoid these crashes?

(I'm interested in general answers, but in case it's of use here are the low battery logs from my two most recent crashes.)

If your phone shuts down with more than 10% charge remaining on the estimate, then you have a voltage / capacity issue in the battery and should have the device tested with Apple diagnostics to check the health of the battery. Think of a small town with a medium sized reservoir and a small water tower. The reservoir level can have water, but if it’s not pressurized (voltage) in the tower, the system can ask for more water (current) than the tower can supply. For a shower, the water just stops, but for an iPhone, it shuts off when the voltage drops too quickly.

The diagnostics read the low battery logs and compare them with thousands of other logs and Apple engineering standards to tell if your battery needs to be replaced.

Technically, those log files are total benefit with no downside. Your phone is out of juice and will shut down anyway. The OS is logging the data so you can take action on it if you choose. They don't cause anything other than logging what led up to the low power condition.

I watch my LowBatteryLog-YYYY-MM-DD-hhmmss.plist log files quite regularly to know when to seek service for my battery.

Technically, the lithium polymer cells can exhibit voltage drops when they are out of specification but not yet failing or in a state where they should be shut off and not used again.

Looking more deeply into your two posted logs, I would focus on these lines primarily:

Awake Time: 03:45:27 (13526)
Standby Time: 04:55:29 (17729)
Partial Charge: 0
Capacity: 0
Voltage: 3469 mV

When Partial Charge is 1 - that means that you plugged it in and the device received a charge between when it was full and first removed from power and it eventually shut itself off due to low power detection. In those cases, I really only focus on the Voltage - knowing when the device decided to preserve the remaining voltage for standby and battery protection.

The log above shows a very short awake time and indicates a likelihood that the battery isn't providing the correct duration and amount of power. Even if the CPU is full use, all radios are on, speaker cranking, brightness max - I expect 4 to 5 hours on most devices.

Unless that 3h45m run was a rare occurrence, my estimate is you need a hardware repair as sleeping more often will allow the sleep time to increase, but never increase the active time.

For newer iOS hardware (think iPhone 5 to 10) the voltage to available current to available capacity can also be due to aging, power management software or hardware issues.

Why does my iPhone power off when the battery is down to 30%?


Question about how networked users work As I'm waiting for my new gleaming iMac to arrive, I'm considering buying OS X Server since it's only $20 now and offers Open Directory.

We have two MacBook Pros, so I'd like to have all of us able to log into any of the 3 Macs with our ID.

Can I simply switch from a local user to a network user without losing my home directory contents?
Is it just my home directory that is mirrored on the server? Or is it all the applications I've installed etc. For example, if I install an application on Laptop A will it show up on Laptop B?
I assume that when I have the laptop somewhere that the server is not available, that I can still get to all my home directory contents.  They will then magically sync back up when I get back to my regular network?

I did get some feedback over at StackExchange:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14221782/detail-on-how-os-x-networked-users-works

Closing this thread.


Can I access contact names in chat.db? I've been playing around with the chat.db file in Library/Messages to look at my messages from a sql perspective. I'm wondering if it's possible to see contact names in this db, specifically somehow joining on the message table. My poking around hasn't been helpful, and neither has googling.

Any insights appreciated!

You can join the handle table to the messages table.

select date, id, text
from message
left join handle
on message.handle_id = handle.ROWID

However, this only provides the phone number or Apple ID email address. This is because chat.db does not store contact names — this is looked up on-the-fly by Messages.

You can attach the address book database and perform a query joining tables from the two databases to get the information you need.

Start a sqlite3 session. Open Terminal and run

sqlite3

SQLite version 3.19.3 2017-06-27 16:48:08
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
Connected to a transient in-memory database.
Use ".open FILENAME" to reopen on a persistent database.
sqlite>

Determine which Contacts database to use. Contacts can come from multiple sources. In my case, all my contacts are on iCloud, so it's easy to choose the largest database. Go to

~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Sources

and find the folder with the largest size, or otherwise have a look through each folder's Metadata folder using QuickLook to find contacts within the database.

Once you've found the folder in Sources containing the contacts you wish, get the path to the database. Right-click on AddressBook-v22.abcddb within the folder with your contacts, hold ⌥ and select ‘Copy “AddressBook-v22.abcddb” as Pathname’.
In Terminal within sqlite3, run the following:

attach "/Users/yourusername/Library/Messages/chat.db" as cdb;
attach "<paste your path>" as adb;

Replace ‘yourusername’ in the first command and paste the path you copied in the second one.
Run this SQL. Copy and paste all these lines in.

select date, id, ZFIRSTNAME || ' ' || ZLASTNAME, text
from cdb.message
left join cdb.handle
on message.handle_id = handle.ROWID
left join adb.ZABCDPHONENUMBER
on replace(substr(handle.id, 4), ' ', '')
like '%' || substr(replace(ZABCDPHONENUMBER.ZFULLNUMBER, ' ', ''), 2)
left join adb.ZABCDRECORD
on ZABCDPHONENUMBER.ZOWNER = ZABCDRECORD.Z_PK;

Note that this SQL contains some magic numbers.

substr(handle.id, 4) presumes phone numbers from Messages start with a country code in the format of a plus followed by 2 digits.
substr(replace(…), 2) presumes phone numbers from Contacts start with a 0.

This is the standard international format. This will need to be adjusted for US.
You should get an output resembling:

datetimestamp|+441234567890|First Last|Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet


Is it possible to copy and paste iCal events in iPad / iPhone? Is there any way to copy an event in iCal in iPad or iPhone and paste it to a different day? At times, I want to keep the original calendar entry, but repeat on a different day? I am not looking to use the repeat function, as that forces one to use more predictable repeat.

Aside of using the duplicate and repeat there is no copy/paste function.

You can submit a request for the function at http://www.apple.com/feedback/


List all HEAD formula brew How do I list all formulas I installed with brew install --HEAD. Certain formulas depend of more recent version of a formula and upgrade every time I run brew upgrade if a commit has been pushed, I wish to check if the dependency has been satisfied and install normal version.
This was the case where neovim nightly(5.0.0) where it required HEAD version of luarocks (Undocumented in release page) and recently just works with normal installation

brew list --versions | grep HEAD
$ brew list --versions | grep HEAD
libimobiledevice HEAD-bfaf1a1
libusbmuxd HEAD-73cb5c1


Right click on title of document no longer opens finder I seem to remember that right clicking on the title of a document in an application like TextEdit, Preview, or Pages would allow you to jump to the enclosing folder in Finder.

But this no longer works on my computer. I am afraid it is because I installed Path Finder. I uninstalled path finder Following their instructions. Does anyone no how to reset this functionality?

Odd note: Right click still works for some 3rd party apps like Text Wrangler

How can I fix all of Apple's apps to Open folders in finder again?

If I'm understanding your question correctly, I think this relates to a bug in 10.8.2. I don't know the full extent of the bug, but it seems to break the ability to reveal a file/document in Finder from other programs, including via the title bar.

I've seen a few bug reports around relating to the 'Show in Finder' not working, or only sometimes working, due to issues with the appleeventsd process. For more info see this TotalFinder Feedback issue, a blog entry from Macromates and an issue on Open Radar.


Recipients of my gmail don't see my address I receive my gmail on my pc as well as my iphone 4S. When I answer mail via my iphone, the recipient doesn't see my email address, they only see 'Gmail'. Why is this and how can I change it?

They are almost certainly seeing the name you entered for yourself in settings. To fix this:

Open System Preferences app.
Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Tap on the account you are having the problem with.
Tap where it says "Account" followed by your email address and a right-facing arrow.
In the first box, "Name", it probably says Gmail. Change it to what you want to appear in your return emails.


Memory Movies in Photos app for Mac The iPhone has a great "Memory Movie" feature that that assembles pictures and videos of one person into a little music video.

Can you do that on the Photos app too? I could only find the slideshow, which isn't the same thing. For instance it doesn't play the "live photo" videos, it just shows stills.

Looks like it's not possible according to the Apple pagE: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207023


Mail text disappearing on iPhone Friend of mine has an iPhone and no other electronics. Says that

  It seems like messages come and go. No content then there it is. I
  read one message then the other. Went back to the other and it was
  gone. Happens a lot. Then it turned up again.

I am a long way away, and she is very non-technical. So I am really not sure how to help. What should be done?

With the advancements in iOS, a variety of apps are now available that makes it possible to provide remote assistance (just like in Desktops). A couple example os such apps are:

Zoho Assist: Remote Support for iOS Devices.
TeamViewer QuickSupport.


Is there a way to customize highlight colors in Preview (Mountain Lion and later)? Since Mountain Lion, the highlight tool in Preview allows one to select among a small number of colors. Is there a way to customize the colors (add to or change)?

What they are talking about is having more color choices for highlighting text than are available by default. Both the Yosemite choices in your post and the Mavericks choices (see below) limit the user to 5 preset colors. There doesn't appear to be any way to use the OS-built-in Apple color picker to choose anything other than this very limited set. Very frustrating.


What is the difference between shutdown command and doing shutdown from apple menu? What is the difference between issuing command shutdown -h now in terminal and doing Shutdown from apple menu?

Using command it's instantly power down the system. But via menu it takes around 30-40 seconds.

Also is it safe to use command shutdown -h now all the time?

From the shutdown man page:

 Upon shutdown, all running processes are sent a SIGTERM followed by a
 SIGKILL.  The SIGKILL will follow the SIGTERM by an intentionally inde-
 terminate period of time.  Programs are expected to take only enough time
 to flush all dirty data and exit.  Developers are encouraged to file a
 bug with the OS vendor, should they encounter an issue with this func-
 tionality.

So from what I understand, processes may be killed before they have properly cleaned up.

From the launchctl man page:

  reboot [system|userspace|halt|logout|apps|reroot <mount-point>]
              Instructs launchd to begin tearing down userspace. With no argu-
              ment given or with the system argument given, launchd will make
              the reboot(2) system call when userspace has been completely
              torn down. With the halt argument given, launchd will make the
              reboot(2) system call when userspace has been completely torn
              down and pass the RB_HALT flag, halting the system and not ini-
              tiating a reboot.

This is what I think shutting down via the menu does, it is better as it ensures that all userland processes are exited cleanly before halting/rebooting the system.

I would be tempted to say that the launchctl method is better, and the shutdown -h now method could possibly result in some oddities should a process be killed before properly cleaning itself up.


Wifi Calling Configuratble Provisioning Items What carrier specific software setting must be configured to properly enable wifi calling?  Clarification: I understand that wifi calling must be enabled, however, this is not a carrier specific software setting and is the same for any carrier.

Zero configuration is needed on iOS past turning it on or turning it off.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032

All configuration on iOS is about extending the calling that works on your iPhone to other non phone devices.

Hit up your carrier if you can’t turn on WiFi calling.


Mail.app and Gmail - All Functionality All,

I have Gmail and I'm currently using the Sparrow application, but I wanted to see if Mail.app was able to handle what I need.

1) Archive AND delete functionality side by side. - Yes, I archive some things I want to search later and delete other things. Last time I checked, it was only one or the other.

2) Labels

Basically, (almost) everything that is available in the web interface.

Actually Mail 5 (i.e. on Lion) handles Gmail much better than on previous cats.

1) There's both Archive and Delete buttons. I think the Archive button isn't visible by default. Right-click (or control-click) the toolbar to "Customize Toolbar..." and you should see the Archive button. Drag it up to your toolbar.

2) @adam-rice is correct that there's no direct analog for Labels in Mail. They are remapped to folders. If you just pretend Folders are Labels this does work pretty well. Mail does download a copy of a message for each folder/label it resides in. On previous versions of Mail this would clog up some inboxes/folders with the multiple copies. Mail 5 now recognizes and hides duplicates, though; it seems specifically designed to handle Gmail labels. In Mail's beautiful threaded conversation view you'll just see the one copy of each message, though you will see a note that it has duplicates.

With Mail 5 you can get pretty close to what you can do in the web interface. You might need to remap some keyboard shortcuts. Let Gmail's server do a lot of the heavy lifting. Go to Gmail settings>> Labels tab and check or uncheck the "show in imap" box for some inboxes/labels you don't want to see in Mail. I turn off the "All Mail" inbox and basically archive my emails out of Mail.app and keep them on the server. I also uncheck the spam inbox. Check the "important" inbox to recreate the priority inbox back in Mail.


How do you _unset_ the default printer? I know I'm going to hit myself when someone tells me the answer, but I set the Default Printer on my Mac, and wish I hadn't.  Previously, it would default to the last printer used, which was great.  Now I can't find a way to unset the default printer to get back to the last printer used state.

FWIW, I'm on a Mac OS X 10.9.5 - Mavericks.

Command line solutions welcome too...

Go to System Preferences → Printers & Scanners and set Default printer to Last printer used.


Removing unremovable system fonts Does anyone know how I can remove some fonts (that I know I'll never use) from my Mac?

Some fonts don't allow you to remove them, and these are often the ones that I want to remove.

I want to remove the fonts to free up some space, and also to reduce the long list of fonts in sub-menus.

Standard macOS fonts can't be removed since they are components of macOS. Built-in fonts are protected by SIP, and even if you manually remove the font files, they will be restored on macOS update.


Customizing Guest Account under OS X Lion I am customizing the guest account under Lion. Several questions here, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Currently after opening the user panel in sys prefs, some of the settings saved for the Guest Account in the workgroup manager are lost. How do I prevent this from happening?

Is there a way to copy all the settings from an existing regular user account into the guest account? If that's not possible I'd like to define standard settings for the following:

Turning off "natural scrolling" when using the trackpad
Turning off "welcome screens" for Firefox, iWork and others
OS language

How to Customize the Guest Account
It would probably take me longer to type out how to do it than it will take you to make your changes so I am going to send you to this YouTube video which details the process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra9ThVi7zZo
The only thing I would add is that may want to make a backup of the original template.


Excel on Mac - View Multiple Files at Once I have been using MS Excel on a Mac to view csv data. I am trying to open two files at once to view them side by side. I can open any file in excel, but once I try to open another file to compare, the first one disappears.

I have tried using command + o from within an open spreadsheet. I have also opened the new file from the finder. In all cases, I can't find my previous spreadsheet once the new one is on screen.

Is it possible to view and arrange open files? Command + ` is not helping. I'm assuming my old files are open even though I can't see them. If I'm wrong, is there something I should be doing so that my previous files don't close when I open a new one?

I am mostly unfamiliar with the Mac OS UI, so this isn't the only place where I have trouble finding my application windows. As a result, please don't hold back even the most basic advice about how to use the OS as it pertains to this issue.

Edit: this issue doesn't occur when I open a new file from a non-full-screen excel window. However, I'd still like to know how this works when I am using full-screen applications.

I recently had this problem, or I thought I did, in Keynote. Keynote would open new files in tabs, not a new window. It looked like my original file was gone but it was still there is a different tab. Look under the toolbar in excel and see if there is another tab open.


Keyboard shortcut for switching from address bar to main pane in Chrome The question how to go from the main pane to the address bar is answered here.
But how do I move from the address bar, back to the main pane, without having to reload the page by pressing Enter, or by using Tab a bunch of times?
I'm on a mac, but the question is applicable for any OS, I guess.

This question is already answered here, but the easiest solution is to make a custom search engine with the url as javascript:.

If you set the keyword to a letter (l for example), typing l + return will exit the address bar.


What's a good Windows RDP client for Mac? I administer a number of Windows machines, and am trying to find a really good application to remote desktop in to them from my Mac.  I've tried CoRD, and I really like its library approach to saved sessions (as opposed to Microsoft's file based approach), and tabbed sessions are great when working on a bunch of machines.  Unfortunately, it's just too buggy for serious use, and given that it averages less than 2 releases a year, I have little hope that that will change.  Microsoft's official client is very bare bones and doesn't support connecting on non-standard ports (which I need).

Is there a remote desktop client for Mac out there that's both fully featured and not buggy?

Edit: Apparently the Microsoft doc I read that states that the Microsoft RDC client can't be used on non-standard ports is out of date.

Use RDC (Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2)
This free download runs natively on both Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs

Use One Mac, unlimited Windows.


Is it safe to let apps use Touch ID on an iOS device? There are some apps that allow logging in via Touch ID (for instance banking apps).

I know that it is relatively secure to use this feature as long as no-one has illicit access to my fingerprints, and the device is not physically accessed.

But what if the database of the application gets compromised?

What kind of information will be leaked? What sort of actions could be taken having this information? Does iOS protect this information from being leaked? Is this documented somewhere?

I can guess that the application will not be given direct access to the finger-print photo, there should be some kind of hash which doesn't allow restoring the original finger-print. In the ideal case, iOS would not even allow the app to access a hash, instead it would provide some way of authorizing.

The application does not have access to the fingerprint data stored on the device. The API provided by Apple tells the app if the auth process was successful by a simple yes/no value. No hash is provided. Here's the documentation.

Also the fingerprint data is stored in the device's "Secure Enclave" and is not accessible.

  The Secure Enclave is part of the A7 and newer chips used for Touch ID. Within the Secure Enclave, the fingerprint data is stored in an encrypted form which - according to Apple - can only be decrypted by a key available by the Secure Enclave thus making fingerprint data walled off from the rest of the A7 Chip and the rest of iOS.

Source: The iPhone Wiki


Remote Ubuntu Screen sharing from Mac I want to connect to an Ubuntu machine from MAC far far away! I have the application Remoter that works like a charm for ssh and connecting to other Mac. However I don't know how to connect to an Ubuntu machine.

In general terms, you'll need to:

Set up a VNC server on the Ubuntu machine. This is the software that shares the screen.
Set up a means of connecting remotely to the Ubuntu machine. If you can already SSH in, that's the best way, you can forward the VNC port over SSH by running this on your Mac: ssh username@ubuntuhostname -L 5900:localhost:5900, replacing the username and ubuntuhostname as appropriate.
Connect with VNC to the tunnel. You can do this with whatever client you like (including OS X's built in screen sharing), but the important part is that the hostname to connect to is localhost and you use port 5900.

If you need more specific instructions, I suggest you do a search, as most of these topics have been covered in some detail elsewhere. Ask Ubuntu is the best place to go if you need Ubuntu-specific information.


Amazon Instant on Xbox 360 via OS X Is there a way to view Amazon Instant Video content on the XBox 360 via OS X? The official solution on Amazon's site utilizes a Windows PC, which we don't have:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/xbox

Any other way?

I utilize an application called Connect360 (http://www.nullriver.com/products/connect360) to get media from my Mac to my Xbox 360. Would love to have a solution for watching Amazon Instant content on the 360 as well.

Amazon now has an official Amazon Instant Video app for the Xbox 360. It is available under Apps from the Xbox 360 dashboard.


Are UDID registrations real There are services like https://udidregistrations.com where you can register you UDID and get Certificates and Provision profiles. Are they worth? What danger is there? Signing applications is real?

Why I ask: I want to "play" a little with Xcode and Objective-C and have the possibility to test on my iPhone, but don't want to pay 100$ just for playing.

I am the administrator from UDIDRegistrations.com. I want to state that we do not support piracy in any way shape or form. Any members that promote piracy are immediately banned.

We simply allow you to join our development team so you can sign your own developed applications and test them on your own iDevice. By extension of doing this, your iDevice is registered which will allow you to install betas granted you have downloaded the files yourself.

You can use Certificate & Provisioning to develop with Xcode and test on your registered device. Obviously, it cannot be submitted to the App Store unless you have your own developer account. But paying a fraction of the fee to start developing is well worth it!

Additionally you can use InstaSign and Zeusmos to sign these applications on the go.


What is the best way I can take my book from iBooks and converted into a EPUB format I would also like the ability to show my book through Kindle without having to start over with an EPUB format iBooks has a scroll widget that will make it difficult to convert I believe looking for  any help

I would suggest you to use Calibre:

  calibre is a powerful and easy to use e-book manager. Users say it’s
  outstanding and a must-have. It’ll allow you to do nearly everything
  and it takes things a step beyond normal e-book software. It’s also
  completely free and open source and great for both casual users and
  computer experts.

https://calibre-ebook.com/about

There is a conversion discussion here.

You can also try exporting your .ibooks format to .pdf, and using Calibre to convert that to the format you need.  How well these conversions will work you can only tell by testing it.


How can I sort notes in the built-in notes app by date created rather than date last saved? I've found how to do this on the desktop, but haven't noticed how to achieve this on any of my iOS devices.  I'd also be happy to know if this actually isn't possible.

Hmmm, it's not possible. The built-in Notes app is quite straightforward. You should look for another app which will allow you do to this. There are tons of Notes app (free or not) on the AppStore.

edit: As Dori said, Evernote is really good and allows you to sort like this.


Issue Enabling VNC Access on Mojave 10.14 I am aware of the answers posted online for this, mainly that I need to allow permission to /Library/vnc/vncagent in the Security & Privacy section of System Preferences.

However I cannot find "vnc" under the Library folder, or any mention at all of "vncagent".

Did you install VNC Server? This will create the vnc directory for you and install the "vncagent" and you will be able to allow/add the vncagent under System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility

https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/vnc/


Is it possible to add credit to an account from a credit/debit/not a gift card? So I play this game on my iPod, Love Live: School Idol Festival. Within this game you can buy currency called love gems. I want to buy 50 of them, but need to add $10 more credit to my account to do it. I don't want to spend around $30 from the credit/debit/not a gift card. I already have $20 worth of credit on my account. It's just the $10 more I need. Is it possible to put $10 of credit into my account from a credit/debit/not a gift card? I've looked but the cheapest App Store card I can find is $25. I don't need $25. And I don't want to spend $15 unnecessarily. Or if I buy the gems can I charge the remaining to said credit/debit/not a gift card? It's hooked up to a PayPal account, could I add $10 through that? Please help me for I am deep in idol hell and am on a time limit as to when I can figure this out for what I want to spend the gems on if/when I buy them.

Here's what you can do: you can have a gift card credit on your account as well as a linked credit card. Here's what you can't do: you can't only add $10 from a credit card to your iTunes account. But if you have a credit on your account now, and you link a credit card to your account, it will use all the remaining credit from the gift card first, then charge the remaining amount to your credit card.


Airport Router DHCP Client Identification I have a 3rd Gen Airport Extreme (802.11n 3rd Gen Dual band) as my main router.  Attached to it are an Airport Express (802.11n 1st Gen Single Band) which is connected by and extends WiFi over it's wired ethernet, and also an Airport Extreme (802.11n 2nd Gen Single Band) which extends wirelessly.  I run a dual band network, the 2.4GHz network which is extended over the 2 slave devices (for want of a better description), and the main router also has a 5GHz network as it is a dual band router, and the guest network (which is an open network, no security).

In Airport Utility on iOS devices (I don't currently have access to a Mac to test the OS X application) I can select a device, select Wireless Clients, and list any clients that are connected to that particular device (from an access point perspective).

One problem with this is not seeing how can I identify which device is being shown in the list?  Most attached devices will happily have a real description, namely iOS devices, Macs and some PCs etc, but I have a whole load of devices for which I cannot easily identify what is being connected.  For example:

I sometimes just get the DHCP lease IP address shown as the client
I sometimes get a name that I don't recognise, i.e. Sue's iPhone or android-653246a714bc41f
I sometimes get the MAC address only
Sometimes (today, after I added a new access restriction) all the proper DHCP Client ID names are replaced with the MAC address for periods of time, and sometimes MAC addresses are shown when the client (example, Apple TV and Playstation 3) is in a WOL enabled sleep mode - still connected on the "physical" layer, but with no IP address assigned.

My reasons for wanting to do this are varied:

The Airport Express has a limit of the number of connections that can be made to it, so it might be nice to move some devices to another access point to relieve strain on it
Being a bit fussy, I like to be able to identify what is what generally
I have reasons for leaving the guest network open in terms of security (some old devices that only support WEP, some devices are such a pain to type passwords into like my TV receiver box that I simply don't wish to spend 20 minutes faffing entering a very lengthy password via a TV remote control unit...).  I know some people (Sue, and her iPhone) use my guest network without my permission, and I wanted to use access control to block these people as and when I see them use the network.

So, the problem for which I am asking this question is as follows:

How can I make the router set or remember a descriptive name for all devices, not just those that response to DHCP Client ID requests?

Sub question: How can I see all current DHCP leases, not just currently connected clients?

I have tried to use DHCP reservations against a PC that only ever shows up with the MAC address, to see if it wil then pick up the description, and it doesn't seem to.

I have set a year long lease on my DHCP, so should be able to identify individual devices with some accuracy etc to stop devices sharing an IP address

Everything uses DHCP, the only hardcoded IPs are the routers themselves.

It seems there is no way to force a client ID at the router end, so you have to make do with setting it right on the client.  I discovered that my Apple TV and Playstation has spaces in the names that prevented them from setting the ID properly.  Taking the spaces out made them show up properly.  However, some clients manage to register names correctly with spaces, so I guess it's down to the implementation of the IP stack on the client device rather than a server issue.

It's also worth noting that after updating settings or resetting the routers, it appears to show just MACs until it has time at some point doing a lookup against it to set the ID.  I found no way of working out how long this is, seems to be random.

It's also worth noting that some devices that are able to use Wake On LAN over wifi and that are currently in a sleep state will register at a Physical layer, so the router is able to send the relevant command to wake it, and as such the MAC is shown, but no IP (and hence no active DHCP use to pull the ID) until the device wakes and pulls it's IP/registers it's client ID.

Finally, using an old version (5.6.1) of Airport Utility it is possible to view a DHCP lease list of all clients, not just active wireless connections.  Sadly it doesn't work on Mavericks, but you can bodge it to make it work.  Unfortunately, either it does not track the DHCP leases for the guest network, or the lease length (not configurable) is short so pretty much only actively connected guests are shown in this list.