Find who is intercepting traffic on port 80 Every 7–10 days, all internet browsing on my Mac stops working. I can use Firefox, Safari, Chrome, but I'm able to surf only Google and few other sites.

So I tried to telnet a webserver on the local LAN on port 80

telnet 192.168.10.10 80

telnet says "connected", but "tcpdump -n host clienthost" at the server side can't see any traffic. I expect to see at least a SYN packet from the client.

When I telnet the same server to port 25

telnet 192.168.10.10 25

I can see immediately the regular SYN traffic coming on the server's tcpdump.

My suspect is that the Mac has some "socket filter" or "IP filter" or "Interface filter" installed, which is intercepting traffic on port 80 and forwarding to the real server only when after a correct HTTP request is composed on the socket (I composed it with telnet).
Please note that OS X firewall and parental control are both switched off.

Who is intercepting all my HTTP traffic? I have uninstalled all anti-viruses now.

Is there a way, a commandline tool or an application, which enumerates all socket/IP/interface filters and remove them?

A similar tool for windows could be sysinternal's "autoruns", but on OS X?

EDIT:
The solution to the specific problem has been found: it was OS X parental control. It was disabled, never activated, but the parental control filter was still filtering port 80. We entered on System Preferences -> Parental control, clicked on the lock icon and unlocked with the user's password. Then we clicked a second time on the lock icon to lock again, and traffic on port 80 has been immediately started to flow directly from my telnet client to the server.
A bug on apple parental control activation ?

The question is still open: how can I enumerate all IP/socket/interface filters installed on OS X ?

You can use the following command in the Terminal:

pfctl -s all

It will display a list of all sets of filter rules, translation rules, limits, etc. set on the network packet filter.


Does a black screen save battery on a macbook? I've seen some similar questions about iPhone on this site, but none of them focus on macbook, so here comes this one.

The picture below is a screenshot of my current desktop, with menu bar and dock hidden, as well as grey scale turned on.

Can some pattern (black specifically) save enough energy on a macbook that you’d get more than 5 minutes runtime in a full battery to discharge cycle?

No. No battery will be saved regardless of what color your screen is. This only applies when the screen is OLED, like in the Apple Watch.

You can save battery by lowering the screen brightness, though.


Buying items from the app store I wanted to purchase an item in-game but I downloaded that game in a different account that I seemed to have lost. I now have a new account and I wonder if I can buy from that account instead.

When buying an in-app you'll be asked to enter your Apple ID and password. Just use that account to unlock the item.


Open Self Extracting .exe I have a self extracting exe file that is password protected, does anybody know of a program that will open this? If I need to I can just run bootcamp, but it would be convenient to not have to do this.

Some self-extracting files can also just by unzipped using the command line 'unzip'. Just open Terminal, change into the directory with the .exe, and try running unzip -t filename.exe. You should see a listing of the files in the .exe. If you don't, then this approach won't work. If you do, you can make a directory and then extract the files, something like mkdir extracted && unzip /path/to/file.exe


On iOS 8, how do I turn on spell check without turning on Auto Correct? On iOS 8, how do I turn on spell check without turning on Auto Correct? I just want the red line to appear on words. But autocorrect is terrible and ruins most everything I say. So I just want spell check only. But when I turn off autocorrect then spell check turns off also. How do I fix that?

I'm on iOS 8.3 on a 5S.

Settings ➙ General ➙ Keyboard:

Turn off Auto-Correction

Make sure Check Spelling (at the bottom of that same screen) is on

Your iDevice will no longer automatically correct misspelled words, but it will highlight them for you. As far as I know this is the only way to have spell-checking on without the Auto-Correct feature.


Can't create virtualenv I want to create a virtualenv but it doesn't find the command.

$ virtualenv venv
-bash: virtualenv: command not found

It is installed:

$ pip install virtualenv
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): virtualenv in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages
Cleaning up...

What could be causing that?

If you want to use a command without typing the path to the executable, you need to put it (or a symbolic link to it) in one of the the directories where the system looks for executable whenever no path to the command is provided, for example /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin.

So in your case I would put a symbolic link to virtualenv in /usr/local/bin:

ln -s /path/to/virtualenv /usr/local/bin/virtualenv


Safari not accepting website certificate I've been using an internal website at work without any issues until today when I received the error message:

  "Safari can't open the page "https://...". The error is: "The server "..." did not accept the certificate." (NSURLErrorDomain:-1205)

I've looked in my Keychain to see if there was a certificate that I could delete and re-add, but nothing shows up there matching the URL of the website. I've fixed this problem once in the past (accidentally) by deleting my entire keychain and starting over but I didn't mean to do it the first time and I'd rather not do it again.

The website does load without an issue in other browsers without any errors/warnings. It's just Safari that's barfing.

Has anyone else seen this? Know how to fix it?

I've since solved the problem, though I'm not sure if this is the right answer for everyone.

The problem seemed to come from the certificate automatically generated from apple (com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.[large character string]). A quick Google search didn't tell me what this certificate was for, but I'm sure that deleting it was probably not the best solution. Ignoring that thought, I deleted it anyway and now I can log in without a problem. I'm sure that something bad will happen with other things on my computer (private key, other certificates, something), but it hasn't happened yet so I'm calling it a win.

UPDATE:

A couple of months on, I still haven't had anything bad happen so I guess this solution didn't break anything else.

UPDATE 2:

About a year on, this problem still comes up from time to time (even with 10.10). I keep deleting the certificate in the keychain and it keeps working for a while.


SEO'd iTunes Preview of App from Wrong Region I've recently released UBCme onto the app store. The problem is that I accidentally shared the US store link which doesn't have any ratings because all my users are from Canada. Thus, the top google hit for UBCme returns the US link which doesn't show the customer ratings. The first thing I did was replace all my advertisement links with the Canadian link, but I worry that it's too late.

Has anybody made this misstep before? How did you rectify it?

I feel reluctant to re-announce my app everywhere, but is it the only way I can fix this? Is there anything Apple can do to redirect pages?

The name of the store is embedded in the store link and I highly doubt whether Apple would apply a redirect especially for your application. So the best course of action is to redestribute the correct link.

Users from Canada will need to buy the app from the Canadian store anyway so they will get redirected to the store with the ratings. But of course this isn't the case if you follow the link in the browser.


Audio not working on Windows 10 installed on external SSD running on iMac I installed Windows 10 (April 18 update) on external SSD drive that can be selected on the iMac's startup. Run the Boot Camp Windows Support Software and everything is fine, Apple mouse & keyboard, except audio is missing. Windows 10 Device Manager app does not show any problems with the drivers such as yellow triangles or red crosses. In fact, when a video is played the green volumen bars in the audio device driver properties move but there is no sound at all.

iMac is the latest 2019 model.
Windows 10 is up to date according to Windows update app (had to use April 18 update as start version since the installation does not work with October 18 version).
Drivers are update to date according to Windows.
Installed Windows 10 on external SDD following these instructions: https://blog.macsales.com/40947-tech-tip-how-to-use-boot-camp-on-an-external-drive, https://medium.com/@svenkirsime/install-windows-on-the-external-ssd-hdd-for-your-mac-5d29eefe5d1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=910Y1hLreRc&t=117s.

Possible Alternative Methods to Install Windows 10

The answer shown at this link gives an example of using the Windows CLI to install Windows 10. This answer is probably outdated. For example, the command given in step 3 should be replaced by the command given below.

diskutil  partitiondisk  disk1  3  GPT  "Free Space"  "dummy"  R  ExFAT  "WINSTALL"  16G  %DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC%  %noformat%  800M

Basically, the October 2018 release of Windows 10 requires a 16 GB ExFAT formatted volume for the installation files and a 800 MB WRE volume.

Problems with the Method You Used

There are two major problems with the method you chose to install Windows 10. Either could explain why the sound does not work.

First, the Windows Support Software you downloaded from Apple contains drivers that may need to be made available before Windows finishes installing. Here, I need to explain what "maybe" means. If your Mac is older than the version of Windows 10 you chose to install, then there is a good chance the necessary drivers already exist in the Windows ISO file you downloaded from Microsoft. However in your case, the ISO file is a year old and you have the latest 2019 iMac. So some of the necessary drivers probably will only exist in the Windows Support Software.

  You can not assume any of these drivers will be installed by running the Windows Support Software application after Windows finishing installing.

So, there is nothing wrong with the references you have linked to. These examples were probably tested on Macs that were sufficiently older that the version of Windows being installed. (Or, they were just lucky enough for their configuration to work.)

Second, Windows starts to download updates immediately after finishing installing. Sometimes these updates can be drivers that would not be installed once the Windows Support Software application executes. Normally, when the Boot Camp Assistant is used to install Windows, the Windows Support Software application automatically starts execution immediately after Window finishes installing. In your case, you have to manually launch the application. Once possible solution would install Windows without access to the internet. This is not a good solution since Windows does ask for your Id during the installation process. Also, Windows may download additional software during the installation process. A better solution would be to run the Windows Support Software application before Windows finishing installing.

BTW: The use of a virtual machines in unnecessary to install Windows on the latest Macs. This is true regardless of whether the drive is internal or external. All the tools needed to install are included with macOS and the Windows 10 ISO file. In your case, you are using VirtualBox to avoid having to use the Windows Command Line Interface (CLI). However, in order to do this, you must use the macOS CLI. So, in my opinion, you should have installed Windows 10 by entering commands in a Windows Command Prompt window instead using VirtualBox.

Using a Flash Drive and the Windows CLI to Install Windows 10

The file I downloaded from Microsoft was named Win10_1809Oct_English_x64.iso. Basically, the English version of the October 2018 update of 64 bit Windows 10.
The procedure for creating the flash drive Windows 10 installer is given as Answer #1 at this answer.

  Note: At this point, prohibiting your Mac access to the internet is generally a good idea. For example, unplug any ethernet cables or disable Wi-Fi access that does not require encryption. Later, you will be asked to reinstate access.

Boot from flash drive by holding down the option key immediately after restarting on your Mac. Release the option when the Startup Manager window appears. Select the icon labeled "EFI boot". Next, select the arrow below the "EFI boot" label.
The first window to appear is shown below. When the first windows appears, press the shift+F10 key combination to open Command Prompt window.

Enter the commands given below. For an explanation, see this Microsoft document.

  Note: When selecting the disk, make sure you select the external drive. Otherwise, you could erase all the data on the internal drive.

diskpart
list disk
select disk 1
clean
convert gpt
create partition efi size=200
format quick fs=fat32 label="EFI"
assign letter="S"
create partition msr size=16
create partition primary
shrink minimum=800
format quick fs=ntfs label="BOOTCAMP"
assign letter="W"
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery"
assign letter="R"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
list volume
exit

Example is given below.

  Note: In this example, the 500 GB internal drive is empty.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.107]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

X:\Sources>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.17763.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MININT-D6GJT51

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          500 GB   500 GB
  Disk 1    Online          250 GB   250 GB
  Disk 2    Online           29 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean

DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

DISKPART> convert gpt

DiskPart successfully converted the selected disk to GPT format.

DISKPART> create partition efi size=200

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> format quick fs=fat32 label="EFI"

  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> assign letter="S"

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> create partition msr size=16

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> create partition primary

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> shrink minimum=800

DiskPart successfully shrunk the volume by:  800 MB

DISKPART> format quick fs=ntfs label="BOOTCAMP"

  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> assign letter="W"

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> create partition primary

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery"

  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"

DiskPart successfully set the partition ID.

DISKPART> GPT ATTRIBUTES=0x8000000000000001

DiskPart successfully assigned the attributes to the selected GPT partition.

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     W   BOOTCAMP     NTFS   Partition    249 GB  Healthy
  Volume 1         Recovery     NTFS   Partition    800 MB  Healthy
  Volume 2     S   EFI          FAT32  Partition    200 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 3     C   WINSTALL     FAT32  Removable     29 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

X:\Sources>

  Note: In this example, the volume with the label WINSTALL was assigned the letter C. If the you find a different letter was assigned, then make the appropriate letter substitution in the rest of these instructions.

Next, enter the following command to determine the index of the Windows image you wish to install.

  Note: You may need to substitute install.esd for install.wim.

dism  /Get-ImageInfo  /ImageFile:C:\sources\install.wim

For my install.wim file, the index shown for the name Windows 10 Pro was 6. I will use this value in the command shown below. This command will copy the Windows files to the "BOOTCAMP" volume.

dism  /Apply-Image  /ImageFile:C:\sources\install.wim  /index:6  /ApplyDir:W:\  /CheckIntegrity

  Note: When entering the above command, the parameter /name:"Windows 10 Pro" could have been substituted for /index:6.

Below is an example

X:\Sources>dism /Get-ImageInfo /ImageFile:C:\sources\install.wim

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.17763.1

Details for image : C:\sources\install.wim

Index : 1
Name : Windows 10 Home
Description : Windows 10 Home
Size : 14,367,948,244 bytes

Index : 2
Name : Windows 10 Home N
Description : Windows 10 Home N
Size : 13,552,369,476 bytes

Index : 3
Name : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Description : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Size : 14,369,510,003 bytes

Index : 4
Name : Windows 10 Education
Description : Windows 10 Education
Size : 14,605,758,894 bytes

Index : 5
Name : Windows 10 Education N
Description : Windows 10 Education N
Size : 13,790,476,653 bytes

Index : 6
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 14,604,257,035 bytes

Index : 7
Name : Windows 10 Pro N
Description : Windows 10 Pro N
Size : 13,788,777,857 bytes

Index : 8
Name : Windows 10 Pro Education
Description : Windows 10 Pro Education
Size : 14,605,688,656 bytes

Index : 9
Name : Windows 10 Pro Education N
Description : Windows 10 Pro Education N
Size : 13,790,405,515 bytes

Index : 10
Name : Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Description : Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Size : 14,605,723,541 bytes

Index : 11
Name : Windows 10 Pro N for Workstations
Description : Windows 10 Pro N for Workstations
Size : 13,790,440,850 bytes

The operation completed successfully.

X:\Sources>dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:C:\sources\install.wim /index:6 /ApplyDir:W:\ /        CheckIntegrity

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.17763.1

Applying image
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

X:\Sources>

Add the Apple supplied drivers to the drivers store. This can be accomplished by entering the command shown below.

dism  /Image:W:\  /Add-Driver  /Driver:C:\$WinPEDriver$  /Recurse  /ForceUnsigned

  Note: If any drivers are ineligible, you may see error messages. This is normal, so such error messages can be ignored.

Below is an example.

X:\Sources>dism /Image:W:\ /Add-Driver /Driver:D:\$WinPEDriver$ /Recurse /ForceUnsigned

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.17763.1

Image Version: 10.0.17763.107

Searching for driver packages to install...
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \AppleBluetoothBroadcom64\._AppleBTBC64.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelHDGraphics64\autorun.inf         Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelHDGraphics64\._autorun.inf         Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelHDGraphics64\DisplayAudio\._IntcDAud.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelHDGraphics64\Graphics\._igdlh64.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\HCSwitch\Win7\x64\._iusb3hcs.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\HCSwitch\Win7\x86\._iusb3hcs.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\xHCI\Win7\x64\._iusb3hub.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\xHCI\Win7\x64\._iusb3xhc.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\xHCI\Win7\x86\._iusb3hub.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
There was a problem opening the INF file. D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\xHCI\Win7\x86\._iusb3xhc.inf Error: 0xE0000100.
Found 9 driver package(s) to install.
Installing 1 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$\AppleBluetoothBroadcom64\AppleBTBC64.inf: The driver         package was successfully installed.
Installing 2 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelHDGraphics64\DisplayAudio\IntcDAud.inf: The         driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 3 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelHDGraphics64\Graphics\igdlh64.inf: The driver         package was successfully installed.
Installing 4 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\HCSwitch\Win7\x64\iusb3hcs.inf: The driver package was         successfully installed.
Installing 5 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$        \IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\HCSwitch\Win7\x86\iusb3hcs.inf: The driver package was         successfully installed.
Installing 6 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\xHCI\Win7\x64\iusb3hub.inf:         The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 7 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\xHCI\Win7\x64\iusb3xhc.inf:         The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 8 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\xHCI\Win7\x86\iusb3hub.inf:         The driver package was successfully installed.
Installing 9 of 9 - D:\$WinPEDriver$\IntelxHCISetup\Drivers\xHCI\Win7\x86\iusb3xhc.inf:         The driver package was successfully installed.
The operation completed successfully.

  Note: You should expect to get a different set of messages.

Write the boot files to the EFI partition. The command to use is given below.

bcdboot  W:\windows  /s  S:

Below is an example

X:\Sources>bcdboot W:\windows /s S:
Boot files successfully created.

Enter the command given below to close the Command Prompt window.

exit

Click on the red button with the X to close the window. When the popup window appears, click on the Yes button to cancel the installation. Immediately, hold down the option key. Release the option when the Startup Manager window appears. Select the icon labeled "EFI boot". Next, hold down the control key while choosing the circular arrow below the "EFI boot" label.

  Note: There will probably be two external drive icons labeled EFI boot. If you choose the wrong icon, then the image shown below will reappear. If this happens, redo this step and choose the other icon.

The first window displayed after booting is shown below. When the first window appears, press the control+shift+F3 keys to restart Windows 10 in Audit mode.

When desktop shown below appears, use the Windows File Explorer to open the Windows Support Software application named "Setup".

This application can be found in the "BootCamp" folder on the "WINSTALL" drive, as shown below. After the installer application completes, allow the computer to restart.

You will return to the Administrator's desktop displaying the "System Preparation Tool" window. In this window, select "Shutdown" under the "Shutdown options", as shown below.

  Note: Your screen may also include a window labeled "Boot Camp", which  can be ignored.

Next, select "OK" to shutdown the Mac. At this point, you have completed the installation of Windows 10. If you have not already done so, you can remove the flash drive.

  Note: If you initially prohibited your Mac access to the internet, you may now want to allow access before turning your Mac back on. In other words, plug in the ethernet cable or turn the Wi-Fi back on.

Next time you turn on your Mac, Windows will start in the "Out of the Box Experience" mode. This is basically the way a newly purchased PC starts up, when Windows 10 is already installed.

  Note: When asked, be sure to select an Apple keyboard.

If asked, I can clarify any of the above steps

References

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions
DISM Image Management Command-Line Options
DISM Driver Servicing (.inf) Command-Line Options


My Screen Saver is awry & need help I have an iMac 21.5" 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 Macintosh HD - Yosemite. My Screen Saver comes up with foreign words and gobbledygook that I don't understand.  Went into  Finder/library/Screen Savers (this is what is in my Applications) to see what I could do but there is nothing in this folder.  This looks bogus to me. Do you agree and what should I do?

Screensavers were developed do deal with issues that affected CRT displays. As nobody makes them anymore, and LCD displays don't have the same issues, we no longer need screensavers. A screensaver running on a flat screen monitor just looks pretty - there is no difference to the operation.

Open System Preferences.

Go to Desktop -> Screen Saver and set the "Start after:" value to Never.

Go to Energy Saver and set "Turn display off..." to whatever value you want.

This actually powers down the screen illumination and most of the GPU.


Does a Wireshark implementation exist for iPhone 4? Does a Wireshark implementation exist for iPhone 4? I recently felt a need to have some tools with me at all times.

If you have a jail broken iPhone you can ssh into it and install tcpdump. Tcpdump is a command line program that wireshark is indirectly built off of.


Questions about permissions, specifically across machines I've got a couple of external HDDs and I've noticed the permissions on them are differ, which has got me wondering how a few things work.

On the hard drive that seems to be normal, it has the following permissions on machine 1 (as seen in the info panel):

myuser1 (Me) - Read & Write
staff        - Read & Write
everyone     - Read only

Now when connecting it to my second computer, the user I'm logged in as still has write permissions. When viewing the permissions again I see:

myuser2 (Me) - Read & Write
staff        - Read & Write
everyone     - Read only

1) I the reason that this second computer has R&W permissions because myuser2 is also a member of staff?

2) If so how is the staff group on one machine determined to be logically the same as a group named staff on another machine? I.e. security wise, how is this secure?

How are users and groups referenced in the file's permissions, in a way that is "secure", yet somehow works across 2 completely separate machines? Is it done by name? uid? gid (for groups)? Either way, as these aren't UUIDs, how can this be classed as secure? One could simply ensure a user is created has the same uid as is required to view a file that they're not supposed to see, and they'll have access!

First some important commands to know:

ls -laO shows a lot:

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 myuser1  staff   714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport

ls -elaO includes ACLs:

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 myuser1  staff   714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport
  0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit

The following command shows all members of a group (the example group here is staff):

members () { dscl . -list /Users | while read user; do printf "$user "; dsmemberutil checkmembership -U "$user" -G "$*"; done | grep "is a member" | cut -d " " -f 1; }; members staff

The following command shows the UID, the GID and the group memberships of user_name

id user_name

Please check your various users/groups with the last two commands to get an overview.

Standard permissions in the file system are applied by using UID and GID instead of names. So

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 myuser1  staff   714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport

should be read as (assuming myuser1's UID=501):

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 UID=501  GID=20   714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport
 |  |  |
 |  |  |Others (Members of GID=12 (Everyone)?) can read and execute
 |  |Members of GID=20 can read, write and execute
 |UID=501 can read, write and execute (owner)

Attaching My Passport to another Mac (Mac2) - the UID/GID won't be changed - will reveal the following:

In case myuser2's UID=501 and GID=20 (GID=20 (staff) is a standard group on every Mac and every (standard or admin) user created with the System Preferences is member of it)

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 UID=501  GID=20   714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport

which retranslates to:

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 myuser2  staff  714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport

and myuser2 on Mac2 has the same rights as myuser1 on Mac1
In case myuser2's UID=502 and myuser3's UID=501 and both are member of staff:

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 myuser3  staff  714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport

myuser2 as member of staff isn't owner anymore but can still rwx.
In case myuser2's UID=502 and is member of staff and myuser3 with UID=501 has been deleted:

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 (unknown user)  staff  714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport

myuser2 as member of staff isn't owner anymore but can still rwx.
In case myuser2's UID=503 and is not member of staff and UID=501 is deleted

drwxrwxr-x+ 19 (unknown user)  staff  714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport

myuser2 as others (member of everyone?) can rx.

So to answer your questions: the reason why myuser2 on Mac2 has the same rights as myuser1 on Mac1 are the same UID and GID/group memberships of both on their respective host. Staff is a default group on every Mac.

In your current environment (single machines/admin rights for the main user(s)) using external drives is not "secure/save" - only using permissions to determine access. And it was never meant to be.

In an organizational unit (the common user of a workstation is no admin) with a centralized user management (OD etc.) you may use applied mount points and special groups do deal with external drives:

Special owner and a new group for the drive/mountpoint:

drwxrwx--- 19 UID=501  GID=512   714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport

or

drwxrwx--- 19 UID=501  GID=512   714  2 Feb 10:31 My Passport/share_folder

and all non-admin users which require access to the external drive(s) are member of GID=512 ("External Drive Users")

Still, when the external drive is lost, anyone may have access to it. To make it secure you have to encrypt the content of the external disks.


Where does Yosemite store cache files for exchange accounts? My problem is, that the server of my exchange account crashed today and it is maybe not possible to restore the database of the server.

Are there any files on my Mac or in my TimeMachine BackUp, where for example my notes, or calendar entries are stored for offline use?

I only found the stored data from my iCloud account in the folder:
user / Library / Containers / com.apple.Notes / Data / Library / CoreData / ExternalRecords / B059E164-CC3A-44ED-AB92-C703BDD09455 / IMAPNote / _records /...

You are pretty close for the Notes. If you have an Exchange account set up for Notes then you should have a folder at this location with your Notes.

/Users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/CoreData/ExternalRecords/B059E164-CC3A-44ED-AB92-C703BDD09455/EWSNote/_records/


Stocks widget will not let me add new stock I'm trying to add new stocks to my stock widget but it won't let me do so. It validates the symbol and then does nothing. I have to remove a current stock and then only will it let me add a new one.

Is there a max number of stocks I can watch on the list? I only have 20ish stocks right now.

I tried to add/remove the widget and that did not work.

You can find the default Dashboard widgets in /Library/Widgets. They are written using JavaScript, so it's pretty easy to access the code. For example if you right-click on the Stocks widget and choose "Show Package Contents" you will find a file called "Stocks.js" inside the bundle that contains the logic behind the widget.

On line 1319 of that file there is a function called "addOrSelectItem".

Aside from defining variables, the first thing that function does is check to see whether you are trying to add an existing stock (line 1321), if you are then it just selects the existing stock in the UI. However if you are adding a new stock the next thing it does is check if there are less than 20 stocks (line 1323), if there are less than 20 then it adds the new one. If there are already 20 stocks then it does nothing.

Simplified code below. The comments are Apple's comments. Clearly having more than 20 stocks is not "correct". :)

function addOrSelectItem () {
    var index = symbolAlreadyInSet(lastValidEntry.symbol);
    if (index < 0) {
        // make sure we have the correct number of items
        if (allTheData.length < 20) {
            ...
        }
    } else {
        // select the item that is already there.
        ...
    }
}

In theory someone could make a copy of that Stocks.wdgt file, open it up, change that single line in a text editor to allow more than 20 stocks and save it. Obviously distributing that modified version would be a bad thing, but modifying a copy for your own personal use shouldn't be a problem.

If you do create your own version you might need to kill the Dashboard process for it to notice the changes. Just select it in Activity Monitor and Quit it, it'll automatically relaunch.


Upgrading to 10.10 ether via USB drive or app store, in September 2016 I've got a mac mini running 10.8.5 that I want to upgrade to a newer OS. The most recent OS I can upgrade to is Yosemite 10.10.5 (due to the fact some software we need to run doesn't work on 10.11 or the upcoming 10.12).

I've got the installer for Yosemite 10.10 saved to a USB flash drive from when I did a previous clean install. Am I able to use this on my 10.8.5 machine if I want to do a standard upgrade not a clean install?

If not am I still able to upgrade to 10.10 via the App Store?

App Store

You can easily check whether upgrading via the Mac App Store is an option by going into the App Store app and seeing if it's available for you.

Generally, what should happen is the App Store will give you the option of upgrading to the most recent OS that'll run on your Mac Mini. Your question doesn't specify which model of Mac Mini you're running, but any Mac Mini from early 2009 onwards can run macOS Sierra, so you're likely to get the option of upgrading to that, which you don't want.

You may be able to still use the App Store by going to the Purchased tab and seeing if Yosemite is listed (it will be if you've previously downloaded it using the same Apple ID).

USB Drive

Regarding your USB option, this may work depending on what version of the installer you have or how you put the installer onto the USB drive (e.g. Is it bootable from the USB)?

Assuming everything has been done right, then Yosemite supports the usual installation options, including "upgrade install".

Remember:

The best approach (as always) is to do a full backup prior to attempting the upgrade, regardless of how you plan to do it.


How to charge AirPods to keep battery healthy? Once on the official Apple website it was written to keep iPhone's charge between 20% and 80% for better battery life.

I've not found exact battery specs for the AirPods (I am about 2nd gen), probably they have the same battery type as latest iPhones (Li-ion).

So, do I have to keep AirPods with at least 20%+ charge while using? I can't keep them 20%-80% because of case will charge them even they are at 99% battery.

... do I have to keep AirPods with at least 20%+ charge while using?

No.  Use the AirPods for what you purchased them for - wireless headphone with Siri control.
Lithium ion batteries don't need to be micro-managed like previous generation batteries needed to. They don't develop a memory and will function (generally) for their usable life.
The key to this is to understand that age and cycle count is, by far, the largest factor in determining battery health.  You can mitigate factors that will diminish battery life like avoiding extreme temperatures and physical trauma but there's no procedure or practice you can do that will extend the life of the battery.

I can't keep them 20%-80% because of case will charge them even they are at 99% battery.

This is also not an issue and a misunderstanding of how charging works.   Batteries and chargers are "smart" in that they will automatically reduce/stop charging when it reaches a full charge.  Batteries naturally discharge without use, and the charger will kick back in recharging the battery.
The good news is Apple has official battery service options now and some third party companies are also competing in the battery repair service space.

https://9to5mac.com/2021/02/09/what-to-do-with-old-dying-airpods/


Uploading photos from MacOS Photos to Facebook? What is the "simplest" and most privacy-conscious way to upload photos from your MacOS Photos collection to Facebook?

I "trust" Facebook as little as possible (for obvious reasons) and so do not want to do anything that would give it full unrestricted access to my Photos collection.

MacOS has a Facebook "Extension" which allows Facebook to be added as a destination to the Photos "Share" menu, but I am very wary of enabling this and do not know what permissions it would give to Facebook. (I recall reading somewhere that, on iOS, if the Facebook app is given access to the iOS Photos collection, the Facebook app then automatically "helpfully" uploads all of your photos to Facebook, which is the sort of thing that I definitely do not want.)

At present, to upload a photo to Facebook, I seem to have to export the photo from Photos, go to Facebook in my web browser, and then select "Upload photo", and then navigate to the folder where I exported the photo in order to upload it. This is a somewhat cumbersome process. It would be useful if I could instead more simply "copy" a single photo from Photos and then "paste" it into my Facebook photo collection somehow, but unless I am missing something, this does not seem to be possible?

Is it a case of: ease of use, security; pick only one?

You kind of answered your questions yourself.

Never trust a proprietary extension or app, because you never know what the app is doing. Today it's normal for an app to collect all personal data technically possible. Facebook is evil. Exception is an Open Source client, where you can see the code.

To grant Facebook as little as possible data, you need to use their web interface (not app) and install essential privacy extensions and Ad blocker. See PrivacyTools for a list of recommendations.


How can I get rid of the high pitched creak and squeak noises in the unibody Macbook Pro? The unibody Macbook Pro makes disturbing creak noises when I move it around on my lap - or when I apply pressure to either the top or bottom of the case.
How else can I eliminate the click noise? What is causing them?
I've applied insulating tape at places of the RAM slot which I had manually upgraded. However, the place where these noises originate from are spread out over the whole left side where the logic board and battery are located.

I'll list some general things to check in the order I would isolate them.

The bottom case itself is bent slightly compared to the frame (you should see wearing of the cases and brown dust where the parts rub)
The plastic clips that hold your bottom case to the topcase are bent, not engaged, loose or damaged.
A screw is not seated and rubbing. (and replace screw with cable, connector, lever, or cage - all of them are in there)
Foreign debris came in from the exhaust vents and is stuck between parts where normal flex is causing a noise.
Fan or blower bearings (unlikely - but I've seen/heard them make the darndest noises some times)

A great place to find pictures of your model is the iFixit repair guide - I'll use the Early 2011 15" iFixit guide for some tips below:

Look over your bottom case very carefully - you should see wear marks or fine dust or scratches where it is hitting the insides. If the noise is coming from the bottom case contact - you should see physical evidence of wear. If not, then focus on the other parts (fans, hidden debris stuck under the battery, board or other parts near the keyboard side of things, etc...)

It's probably from the bottom case, so look at all potential contact points where the bottom case can rub. When putting the bottom case on again, remember where these inserts are so you can press them and hear a click for each before screwing the fasteners. When open, inspect the clips very well - a broken clip or not getting the insert into the snap is a big cause of the bottom case moving around when in use.

Similarly, pay attention to the clearance between the battery indicator, keyboard ribbon ZIF socket and trackpad connector cage as well as the clips under the left hand side of the mac. Even a battery screw could be too high and scraping the case. Once you have exhausted the easy things, you may even need to remove and re-seat the components on the left hand side of the mac to ensure nothing is stuck under the topcase and between the components.

Unless you are a very good tech and know what things cost should they break, it might be better to take it in for service - especially if you can show the tech how to reproduce the noise. There are so many components, any one of which could be harboring a loose screw or piece of debris that made it's way in the heat exhaust vents - it's hard to guess what exactly is making your mac squeak.


No display on external monitor I have a macbook pro retina 13 inch and I am trying to use a Dell monitor as an external display. I have an HDMI cable from the laptop to an HDMI to VGA convertor to the monitor. After some playing around, I finally got the macbook to recognize the external monitor. But, the external monitor still shows nothing. The mac screen changed to a weird square shape that I guess is supposed to be the Dell screen? I'm guessing there is some kind of display setting I need to toggle, but I can't find it. Also, the mouse can go way off the screen on the right side, but nothing appears on the monitor still. It is in "Power save mode". Any help is much appreciated!

If your HDMI to VGA converter is not powered, that's your first problem - HDMI is digital only and VGA is analog - a pure cable solution won't work - you need actual electronics to convert the digital HDMI signal to VGA and that requires power.  If your converter is not plugged into a USB port it could be "converter".

If that's not it (and it sounds like your Mac does think it is connected to a second monitor so your converter may be just fine) you could just be suffering from the extremely dumbed down Display System Preferences in the recent versions of OSX.  The monitor is in power save mode because your Mac is sending it a resolution/refresh combo that the monitor can't deal with.  Unfortunately converters like HDMI to VGA often wipe out the EDID information which can cause wacky results like your seeing (often an out of bound signal and the monitor sleeping instead of showing you what you want to see).

There are many utilities that will give you more direct control over your displays and resolutions, but my favorite is this free little gem - Display Menu:  http://displaymenu.milchimgemuesefach.de

You may have to fool around with resolutions and refresh rates to find the best one - or just look in the manual for the Dell monitor and find it's native resolution and max refresh rate and set it to it.  That should do it!


How to free up Message's "dead space" while preserving some conversations? There are many reports that the previous versions of the iOS Messages app did not properly free up space when conversations were deleted and every subsequent restore from backup carries this "dead space" over. And, since they are deleted, there is no way to regain that space because there are no UI elements for those conversations.

For example, my Messages is using up nearly 2 GB of data, but when I examine my conversations and their attachments, they don't add up to anywhere near 2 GB.

How can I regain this dead space?

... given these constraints:

Retaining some of my conversations (i.e. the ones that I haven't deleted).
Retaining those conversations in the Messages app.
Not jailbreaking my device.

Update: Apparently at least one person was confused as to what I'm asking, so hopefully this will clear it up: I have 3 (for example) conversations in Messages that I want to keep (history, attachments, and all). Those 3 take up around 100 MB of space on my iPhone. However, when I go into my iPhone's usage page, I see that Messages takes up 2 GB of space! I'm running low on disk space, so I want to get back 1.9 GB of space (2 GB - 100 MB). I tried deleting every conversation in Messages except those 3 that I want to keep. I then restarted and examined the usage again, and Messages still reports as taking up nearly 2 GB of space! The only explanation is that there is "dead space" on my phone: space that my iPhone is consuming for things I can't even see. How can I free up this dead space? I can't use the solutions from the linked MacRumors threads because they either (1) delete all conversations from the Messages app--remember, I want to keep 3 conversations; or (2) involve exporting the messages to a different app/pdf--I want to have access to my conversation history in the native Messages app.

For reference, the solutions from the MacRumors threads seem to fall into these categories:

Backup to iTunes, delete all messages/attachments from the backup (e.g. via iBackupBot), restore using this backup. -- This wouldn't work since it violates constraint #1... I want to retain some of my conversations.
Using an app such as iMobie PhoneClean -- First, the user never mentions that dead space will be cleared up, next no one confirms that this resolved their issue, and finally the website makes the product look shoddy at best.
Exporting the messages to another app -- Violates #2.
Jailbreak the device and delete all attachments -- Violates #1 & #3.
Erasing all Content and Settings w/o a restore -- Violates #1
Restore using iTunes, then restore through iCloud (1, 2) -- I have tried the regular restore through iCloud, but not this method yet. It looks the most promising. Has anyone had any success with this?

There may be a "bug" in IOS that hangs onto old messages or attachments even after a message or thread is deleted. The discussions you link to on macrumors.com seems to indicate that.

That said, if I have a lot of space being taken up for no apparent reason I find the best way to fix it is as follows.

Back up your phone, Apps and all to your computer (encrypt the backup, it makes restoring easier)
On your iPhone fo to Settings > general > reset and tap on erase all contents and settings
Once the phone has been wiped, restore it using the backup you just made.

No guarantees that this will do the trick but it has successfully worked for other apps for me in the past. It would be interesting to know if it fixed the issue for you as well.


Mac OS Mojave Terminal Resetting to Default Theme I've recently worked out how to change my terminal theme and set the new theme as default through the GUI menu: Terminal > Preferences > Profiles > Default. This works and sets the current session to that theme but after restarting Terminal the theme resets back to basic.

I've tried deleting all other themes and setting a specific one, and although this will work for the remainder of the session it does not work after restarting the app.

I can't seem to find any specific help for this issue. Others have asked about setting a default or it not working on multiple windows/tabs, but that isn't the issue here.

Is there a config file where I can change the theme manually?

Any suggestions will be very much welcomed!
Working on a 2017 MacBook Pro 15" (MacOS Mojave)

Setting the default profile does not mean that it will launch with the new window on startup. You need to set that in the General preference on startup, open: New window with profile: [YourProfile]

  is there a config file where I can change the theme manually?

Yes, you can edit the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist in XCode (it's a binary plist file so while you can view the file in a text editor you don't want to save it as ASCII text).

You may actually want to delete this file though. After deleting it, when you launch Terminal it should be recreated with all the system defaults. That way they are there. You may have gone overboard with deleting everything.


Is integrated VRAM included under `kernel_task` RAM in Activity Monitor? I was stunned to discover that Mac OS X kernel can consume 750MB of RAM. A few related questions:

Is it a problem if kernel_task is routinely above 130MB on mid 2007 white MacBook?
kernel_task using way too much memory
How much RAM does the kernel use?

clarified the issue a little bit, but one question remains: the claim that video memory for onboard integrated graphics is marked as used by kernel as well.

Is it really true?
Is VRAM included in the number shown by Activity Monitor for kernel_task?

What version of Mac OS X are you running?
The kernel_task in Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks takes 1.07 GB of RAM on my 2012 MacBook Pro (non-Retina) with Intel HD4000 integrated graphics and 16GB of system RAM. Yes, this is completely necessary. If you have more physical RAM, then Mac OS X will use a lot for kernel_task in order to make the system run optimally.
With each new version of Mac OS X over the years, the kernel_task has taken more and more memory to run Mac OS X.
In my experience, if you are running Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, your Mac needs to have more than 4GB of system RAM to run optimally (without the OS needing to use the swapfile on the hard disk constantly, which degrades performance speed). It now appears that your Mac needs more than 6GB RAM to run Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks effectively.
The amount of RAM needed for Microsoft Windows 8.0 and 8.1 are comparable. This is simply what is required for the newest personal computer operating systems in 2013.
Please note that many system functions run under kernel_task, and the list of what is running on your Mac changes based on what you are using your Mac for.
I found a good explanation for you, in "Kernel_task taking up RAM in OS X" from CNet in 2011. A quote:

...you will see another process called "kernel_task" that also will
regularly use a few hundred megabytes of real RAM and seem to increase
its RAM footprint with system usage.
The kernel in OS X is the
software architecture that is responsible for handling resources that
processes and programs need. These include the management of
multitasking scheduling, virtual memory, system input and output, and
various communication routines between processes. In addition, the
kernel can be modified and given enhanced functionality by loading
kernel extensions (kexts) to supply system-level management of
features like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, graphics processors, third-party
hardware, access to peripheral devices, and special filesystem
support. In essence, the kernel is responsible for running your
hardware and making the hardware resources available to applications
and system services.
...the process "kernel_task" may take up a large amount of
system memory. When the system starts up, even
though you may have kernel extensions loaded, not all of the services
are active. The system may be ready to use them, but will not load
them fully until needed. Therefore, if you initially start up your
system and check Activity Monitor, you may see the kernel_task process
taking up a relatively small amount of RAM. When you then start using
your system and activating features like your iSight camera, Wi-Fi
services, switching GPUs, and using external devices, then the
kernel_task will make use of the resources for these devices and will
grow in size.


Apple iPhone 4 does not recognize my DC car charger Apple iPhone 4 does not recognize my DC car charger AC charger works fine. I bought a new DC charger and it still does not recognize that charger. I took it back and exchange it for another one and it does not recognize it as ever being plugged in. I did not buy a cheap charger—that was a $30 charger.

The most likely explanation is that this is a generic charger not designed/tested for use with an iPhone. Have a look here for a more detailed explanation, but in a nutshell, iPhone-compatible chargers need to put out some very specific voltage levels on the USB data (NOT power) lines to be recognized by the iPhone.

So, unless this charger specifically states that it is iPhone-compatible, it just won't work without internal modifications, and you should just return it and get one that is made for iPhone.


Problem creating new Apple ID. Account cannot be created at this time I'm attempting to create a new Apple ID with a new @icloud.com email address from a new Mac user account.

I enter the required information, including a new unique iCloud email address. Attempting to use an already-used iCloud address gives a different error on a previous screen.

I also enter a phone number and receive a 2-factor code from Apple. I then agree to the terms of use.

However it then gives the error:

  There was a problem creating your new Apple ID.

  Your account cannot be created at this time.

What is the problem? Why can't I create an Apple ID?

This is a new Mac (provided by work), so I am 99% sure I am not hitting the per-device Apple ID limit.

I like to check Apple system status when I can’t use their online services.

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

It has a contact link for when you have an issue that isn’t described. As mentioned in the comments - it’s not easy to know if you need to retry or there’s a more permanent issue, but waiting is always an option to avoid a call to support. I would try once in a few hours, then again tomorrow, then ask support if you haven’t waited a little to try again already.


Why am I getting "Error -1,752" when trying to save in Script Editor? I'm trying to edit a script in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Mail. When I attempt to save from Script Editor I get The document "Reply.scpt" could not be saved. (Error -1,752). It doesn't seem to be a permissions issue because I can edit and save the file in BBEdit (it's a plain text file).

I'm running Script Editor 2.8.1 under OS X 10.11.1 on a late 2015 iMac.

The problem is that the file is a plain text file. When I originally created the file in 2007, Script Editor could apparently save uncompiled .scpt files. Now, however, as described  in Can't save AppleScript file when created by touch, .scpt files must be compiled. Uncompiled files can be saved with the .applescript extension.

I know this is nearly a duplicate of the question linked above, but I added it because as of OS X 10.11 El Capitan Script Editor gives an error number for this problem. I couldn't find any other references to this error number so I thought it was worthwhile to get the error number in a question title.


Is there a way to exclude certain apps from showing in the spotlight/alfred results I mainly use Alfred to launch various apps and I am kind of annoyed when I am trying to open chrome, the chess app is the first in the results and fibre channel comes up first when I am trying to open Firefox. Unfortunately it seems like I can not add specific apps to be excluded in the spotlight preferences so that chess.app and fibrechannel.prefpane are not shown in the spotlight results. Is there another way to achieve this?

If you go to System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy and click the [+] button to add an application they are grayed out and cannot be added in this method.
However, you can, instead of clicking the [+] button, simply drag and drop the application(s) from Finder onto the list area of the Privacy tab to have it removed from Spotlight searches.


Dell in2020m widescreen monitor and a MacBook Pro I'm buying a MacBook Pro soon but have a Dell IN2020M widescreen monitor with 16:9 aspect ratio. Can I hook up my MacBook Pro to this?

The supported resolutions for MacBooks seem to be as follows.

Supported resolutions at 16:10 aspect ratio:

1440 by 900 (native)
1280 by 800
1152 by 720
1024 by 640
800 by 500 pixels

Supported resolutions at 4:3 aspect ratio (stretched and non-stretched):

1024 by 768
800 by 600
640 by 480

Supported resolutions at 3:2 aspect ratio (stretched and non-stretched):

720 by 480 pixels

The supported resolutions defined on the Apple pages are for the built-in screen which is, pardon the pun, comparing apples to oranges in this case.

Plugging an external monitor in will show those resolutions that the monitor supports and you will be able to achieve the maximum resolution of the Dell monitor which is 1600x900


Can't update (formerly managed) iPad to 8.0.2 from 8.0 We have an iPad that is running iOS 8 and can't see that iOS 8.0.2 is available. This id true from both the settings app and through iTunes. Other iOS 7 and 8 devices on the same network can see the update and have been able to update. We've done a complete "Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings" but the reset OS also can't see the update. A restore from iTunes didn't seem to fix the issue either.

We also tried to update the OS from iTunes and are being told that the iPad is up to date.

This device at one point was managed by MobileIron, in case that makes any difference (we suspect it might). From our MobileIron interface, the device is no longer managed and the MobileIron app has been removed from the device.

The way to complete this is to locate a downloadable version of the iOS 8 install file.  Redmond Pie has a great blog post with links to each version of the software.

http://www.redmondpie.com/ios-8-beta-download-release-date-features-rumors-and-news-update/

Once you download the version of 8.0 for your iPad version - following this:

Connect ipad to computer
Click on iPad - Summary
Hold  and click on restore.   A file dialog window should open, allowing you to manually select the restore media.   Navigate to where you downloaded the iOS software to, and select that .ipsw file from the list.

It should overwrite and install the 8.0 version to the iPad.

Regards,

Ed


Battery life on a core i7 Macbook Air I recently purchased one of the new core i7 Macbook Airs and in most respects its amazing.  The one problem is that the battery life is far less than the "up to 7 hours" Apple claims.  In moderate usage, no flash or video, it lasts about 2.5 hours, maybe.   I use the istat menu monitoring tool and don't see much CPU usage, the fan isn't running constantly, and poking around with the Activity Monitor doesn't show anything unusual, so I'm pretty sure I don't have any rogue processes running.   I have flash disabled in Safari, so I don't think that's the culprit either.

My questions are...

What battery life do other Macbook Air owners see?   I'm guessing a trip to the genius bar is in my future, has anyone seen similar problems?  If you have, do the support guys give you a new laptop, replace the battery, or tell you there's nothing they can do?

I have the same Air as you and I am getting 5-6 hours. So not to much off of what the advertised amount is. Your battery sounds faulty to me.

The last computer I had had a faulty battery. It was replaced for free and within a couple of days. Back then they simply replaced the battery on the MB because it was removable. Chances are now they will give you a new laptop because the battery on the Air is harder to remove. You might be without a computer for a few days though. I don't know what they do in other countries, but in Spain they just took it and mailed it to Holland to get fixed and then mailed it back.


Macintosh HD icon on desktop - make it open finder in desktop with toolbar? When I double click not the Macintosh HD icon on my desktop, it opens a window like so:

I would like it to open a window like so:

This is on a 2019 mbp running Mojave 10.14.6.

It is a recent update from a ~2016 mbap, where I have had that icon functioning in that desired way for many years. Also, that icon has functioned that way on my iMac at home for the past 7 years, and that's how it functions on my new home iMac (one week old).

I've no idea why I can't get that icon on my new (work) mbp to function that way. Could it be to do with not having admin rights? I had admin rights on the 3 other machines I refer to (previous work mbp, two home imacs) whereas I don't on my new work mbp.

I think I know what the issue is here. You need to change the view settings for Finder when you're in the Macintosh HD directory that you clicked on from your desktop. I think any view settings you've set for a particular directory (i.e. Macintosh HD) is applied to the child directories you've clicked on from the same window.

The reason a new Finder window doesn't have the issue is because by default it opens the ~/AccountName directory which had the view settings enabled for toolbar/path bar/status bar. So change the view settings when you're in Macintosh HD directory and it shouldn't have this problem in future. I've highlighted the view settings you need to enable in the screenshot below.  Let me know if this works for you.


OS X Server safely facing WAN and LAN? Our OS X Server serves our company DNS, web and mail with an external IP address to the Internet.
It currently does not have a local address on the LAN and thus cannot be used e.g. for software update caches for OS X and IOS devices on the network.

If I were to also attach the server to the LAN by one of its other ports would I be compromising its security or the security of the LAN?

I am more concerned about opening up a security hole from the WAN into the LAN than vice versa as I can control which users have access to which services on the Server.

OS X Server has its adaptive firewall enabled and the router via which it connects to the WAN has only those ports open that we need for the services it serves.

Nothing much will change in regards to WAN exposure, as long as you're not configuring the server to proxy or route any traffic. Services intended for the LAN only should be configured to only run on the appropriate interface, regardless of whether there's a firewall in place.

There is an increased risk if one of the externally facing services is compromised, potentially allowing access to resources on the LAN. If you want to be really careful you can set up the firewall on the Mac to not allow traffic out the LAN interface unless it originated on the Mac...


Text Message Forwarding I am trying to make NONE of my text messages/imessage/sms messages (don't understand the universe of text messaging).

I just don't want any of them to appear on the iPad my child sometimes uses.  I've seen other answers to this kind of question mention going to the iPhone to SETTINGS / MESSAGES / TEXT FORWARDING but I don't find that on my iPhone 6 that is running with current IOS software.
Can somebody tell me EXACTLY where it is located so I can make sure to turn off all that needs to be turned off.

THANK YOU!

Text forwarding just handles the SMS forwarding to a device with the same iMessage id.
To turn off both SMS and iMessages on your iPad simply disable iMessage on that device. Settings -> Messages -> iMessage


Any risks/disadvantages of using MacBook Pro as a desktop? I have used iMac or Mac Pro for my Desktop system for the past 5 years but now consider replacing them with MacBook Pro Retina in desktop environment. The reason is mostly because I don't like bigger screens; 11 ~ 13inch for mobile and 15 ~ 21inch for desktop is the best combination for me. Also, I prefer the amalgamation of keyboard and trackpad as seen in the MacBook line.

However, I wonder there are any disadvantages of using MacBook Pro as desktop. Especially, because I have to open the laptop and run the system for the whole day/week/month, which is the way I have used Mac Pro or iMac, I'm worried how it influences the internal battery.

Is there any serious risk - e.g. increased chance of breakdown, or explosion or ignition for the worst - of letting MacBook Pro to run the system permanently, keep connecting it always to the AC adapter, and rarely shut down the system? Or does it just lead to the exhaustion of the battery life?

For your information I use 13' MacBook Pro Retina in mobile environment. I just want to use 15' MBP Retina as desktop and won't use it outside of home.

UPDATED

I want to handle my Mac much like President Obama does, which is the most comfortable posture for me...

You really hasn't stated you workflow but here is my thought:

The main disadvantage to me in this scenario is total cost by which I understand less powerful CPU/smaller screen for more money and also higher risk of getting into problems with GPU since it is the most failure prone component in notebooks as we see for years. And don't forget that a cup of coffee can cost as much as new Logic Board, Topcase and Labor.

For this scenario why don't you look at Mac Mini (preferably older 2012 Server QuadCore one with Intel HD4000) and as small monitor as you like? Or a smaller iMac with integrated Iris Pro and Quad i5? If you are so keen on Keyboard and trackpad being together look at Magic Wand and that trackpad is bigger than in Macbook.


How does one change default options in CUPS I want to change default print settings in CUPS.

I'm mass printing PDF's through Finder and it won't use my preset in the printer options menu so I'm fiddling around in CUPS to see if that works. I want to change the settings as shown below, but I can't find out how?

Essentially I'm trying to print all pdf's with Scale to fit enabled, if there is some other way I should be doing this. I'd like the heads up :)

Since I essentially wanted to print all pdf's with Scale to fit enabled. This small command worked.

lpoptions -o fit-to-page


How to sort the special characters menu? In order to type special characters, I long press the standard char and then I get a menu to pick exactly the one I need by pressing its number. For example, if I want to type á I need to long press a, then a menu like the following is displayed, and then I need to hit 2 in order to finally type á. However, if I want to type ó, the number is 4 instead of 2.

I want to know whether it's possible to change the sorting of these characters, so that á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ are all on number 1.

You may be able to do this by customizing the Accent Menu/Character Picker as described in this earlier answer here:


Are the new iPads (iPad 3) for sale in the US unlocked for the UK? I live and work in the UK, but I am in the US for 2 weeks, and was wondering if I buy the new iPad from the Apple Store here in the States, will I be able to replace the AT&T or Verizon SIM with an O2 or T-mobile (UK mobile carriers) SIM? Or are the iPads sold by the Apple Store locked to US based carriers?

If you bought the device without a contract, it's unlocked!

The information about AT&T and Verizon is important when talking about LTE availability in the US. Only AT&T and Verizon provide LTE networks in the US that work with the iPad.

  4G LTE is supported only on AT&T and Verizon networks in the U.S. and on Bell, Rogers, and Telus networks in Canada. footnote no.3 - iPad specs

This is important to note as LTE frequency bands used in Europe, Australia and probably most of Asia are not supported by the iPad. You will use DC-HSDPA, HSPA+ or UMTS instead for fast internet access.


How can I upgrade an old iMac from 10.6.8? Model: iMac11,2 (Core i3-550, MC509LL/A)

It was shipped with Snow Leopard 10.6.4, and I managed to update to 10.6.8 via Apple Software Update. After some research I found that this old iMac is capable of running Sierra (10.12.x) and made a few attempts to upgrade.

I noticed that I must first upgrade it to Lion (10.7.5) or El Capitan (10.11.6), both of which are no longer available from the Mac App Store.

But, all info I found from Google tells me to upgrade via MAS. (That's why I'm adding a month in the title.) Any ideas?

You have a couple of options you can try:

Download  El Capitan from the App Store
Take your Mac into an Apple Store where they can download and install El Capitan for you.


Get cpu usage per core on the command line Activity monitor allows users to see the cpu usage on a per-core basis (for multicore machines, e.g. my MacBook Pro).  Is there a way to find the percent usage of each core/processor via the command line?

I've installed htop for this purpose. In order to install on OS X (10.8.4), I used homebrew, which installed the htop package (brew install htop).

Despite the fact that this is via the command line, it is still a graphical output within the terminal.


Can iOS apps read the location metadata when allowing access to Photos? I am just wondering if by allowing access to Photos, the application has access to read the EXIF metadata (including where the photo was taken and stuff like that).

Is that possible?

Yes, the app will have access to the full image data including the EXIF metadata that could contain for example GPS location amongst other things.

On the contrary if you're using a web app and uploading photos to it, the EXIF metadata will automatically be stripped by Safari before giving it to the web app.


How do I make my list filter in Java usable in Automator as a service? A friend of mine has written me a small Java application that is used to filter two lists of words (used for work sadly). Currently I would run the application in the terminal like so:

java ListFilter file1.txt file2.txt > file3.txt

I would like to be able to make this into an automator service where I can select "file1.txt" as the original list and then "file2.txt" as the filter words and then output the third file which would be the consolidated list in the same directory.

However, I have no idea how to do this and need a bit of direction.

Thanks in advance.

You will need to use the Run Shell Script task within Automator. The tricky bit will be choosing and passing in the various paths.

Here are a few tutorials for creating this kind of Automator Workflow:

Automator Programming Guide: Creating Shell Script Actions
Creating a Shell Script Automator Action
How to build Mac OS X services with Automator and shell scripting


Applications assigned to All Desktops loses focus when moving through desktops If I assign an application  to all desktops like this:

It loses focus after moving to another desktop and moving back.

Step to reproduce:

Assign an app to All Desktops (let's say iTerm).
Switch to another App on the same Desktop. Let's say Numbers.
Switch back to iTerm. Work on it.
Move to another desktop.
Move back to the original desktop where you was lastly working on iTerm, expecting to work again on iTerm.
When the desktop appears on the screen, the iTerm app seems to have the focus, but after <1 second the previously used app on that desktop (in this case Numbers) get the focus.

This is very annoying. Any idea how to fix this? I'm not sure if is a bug in OSX, I"m using high sierra.

I found that this happens when you have the applications assigned to "All Desktops," or even a particular desktop. When I assigned all of my apps to "None," the focus issue went away. I'm not sure how the setting got turned on, but switching all apps to "None" solved my focus issue.


Changing default email color in Mail.app does not take effect I have parametered  my Mail (Mac) so that the font color of all my emails are Green, yet each time I write an email, I must change the color myself.   Why didn't it take?  Which box should I have/not check(ed)?

Apple doesn't yet offer the feature you want.  There are various workarounds like reusing a draft where you have set the color you want, creating custom stationery, composing your message as part of a sig set to your desired color, etc.


Safari 6 keeps suddenly crashing on Lion I upgraded Safari to version 6 on OS X Lion 10.7.4
The browser is really fast but with one problem, it keeps suddenly crashing and closing.  Relaunching it wont prompt with the usual suspects: "Ignore" and "Report to Apple".

A common reason for an application crash is a corrupt preference file. The first thing you'll want to try is backing up and deleting your preference file for Safari.

Close Safari, and then you can find the preference file by going to ~/Library/Preferences and looking for the file called com.apple.Safari.plist. Once you've found the file, back it up by adding a tilde to the front of the file name so it becomes ~com.apple.Safari.plist. Once you restart Safari, it will generate a new .plist file.

If that doesn't work, the next step would be to do a permissions repair using Disk Utility, which you can find in /Applications/Utilities.


How to find out which terminal app (iTerm or Terminal) is running from within bash I need to have different color schemes for each of the two terminal types I use. I can set it in the .bash_profile as mentioned here. But how can I tell it to differ depending whether its a iTerm2 or default terminal instance?

There is an environment variable set by iTerm and by Terminal as the following:

for Terminal:

TERM_PROGRAM=Apple_Terminal

for iTerm:

TERM_PROGRAM=iTerm.app

You should see this variable by typing in env from the command line.

So - using this variable, you can put a condition in your .bash_profile file to select the proper coloring.


Display failure after waking up from standby for some days I am experiencing a very strange behavior when my MacBook Air (newest generation) wakes up from the standby modus.

Instead of the login view there are just many white and black lines across the screen. When I shut it down (pressing the off button for 5 secs) and start it again, everything works fine again.

Does anyone have the same experiences or know a solution to this?

Thanks and regards.

If you are seeing something like this, I suggest you contact Apple Support for a hardware check.

Picture from Apple support communities.


How to make bootable ISO of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD on Windows I have tried ISOBuster and IMG Burn but I can't seem to make a Mac compatible ISO? All I can see is the boot camp partition (900MB) in both Windows and Linux. When I try and boot the ISO in VirtualBox (my intended goal) it tells me no bootable medium has been found.

I read that you can use MacDrive.app (it is free for 5 days).

This is what they say about them self:

  MacDrive gives you complete control of a Mac disk all from your PC.

  You can access Mac disks from your desktop or favorite software, as
  well as create and partition Mac disks. MacDrive even includes robust
  tools to help repair Mac disks that are damaged or unreadable on other
  computers.

The key is it can partition the disk in Mac OS stile, which is must have to make bootable OS disk.

Next step would be to open/extract the OS installer from the OS package (dmg) from your DVD an so on.


iPhone / iPad: Reply to Email with embedded image -- Image gets replaced with image.png Here is the case:

User Receives an email with and embedded image in the body of the email.
replies to the email and the embedded image gets removed from the body.
forwards the email.. its fine the image is retained in the body.

does anyone know of any work around for this. this only happens when working from mobile device (iphone or ipad) using iOS 7 mobile mail.

Replies from outlook retains the image. We have exchange 2010 on the backend using activesync to connect devices.

Can reply be made to work like forward ?

This is default behaviour. If you reply, the sender already had the image thus it's not needed to send it over and over again.
If you forward it, you're (most likely) sending it to a different person who did never see the content before, which makes it relevant to add the image.
You cannot change this, except if you find any 3rd party plugin.

If you really want to reply the image, just forward the mail and add the emailaddress of the sender back in the "To" field.


Some books are appearing pink in Preview.app I recently copied some PDF books onto my MacBook Air (running macOS 10.12 Sierra). Almost 80 % of them appear to good. They are readable in Preview.app. They appear as they would have appeared on any other app. But some books are appearing totally pink. The background is totally pink. Even in the folder they appear pink. For clarity I am attaching the appropriate screenshots. I need help on how to solve this

To solve the red/pink background follow these steps:

Open the existing PDF in Preview.app
Select File > Export as PDF...
Save the new PDF in a different location.

The new PDF will have no red/pink background anymore.


How to download HD Youtube video on iOS? There are many, Free or Paid iOS Apps to download Youtube Video. Most of them worked the same, where you paste the URL into the built in browsers, press and hold the play button to download.

However most of these Apps only download the low / 360P version of the file. I wanted to save the full 720P or 1080P video, and have yet to find an Apps that does it. Anyone know of any Apps/ Ways to download the Youtube HD video on iPhone?

Edit: I try using KeepVid.com, the resulted link only allows me to play the video file in Safari, and not save it.

iCab Mobile (http://www.icab-mobile.de/) is a very functional web browser with many plugins In addition to the ability to download files for local storage and then opening with other apps via iOS's native share sheets. If you can view the video in the browser, you can download it. It also offers the ability to change your browser's ID so that you can tell the server you are on a Mac or Windows desktop in order to get your desired resolution. Highly recommended tool for downloading videos at whatever resolution you want.


Hide Finder From Dock in Sierra I have seen this instruction for hiding the Finder icon from MacOS:

https://github.com/jesscXC/hide-finder-trash-dock-icons

However, it doesn't seem to work on MacOS Sierra because the DockMenus.plist file seems to be locked and cannot be changed. Is there any other way to do this on Sierra?

I found the answer while playing with Path Finder's preferences and finding this option: "Enable Finder's "Remove from Dock" menu option. Upon clicking on it, I got the following message:

To disable SIP, however, you have to enter recovery mode. Here is more information about it on HowToGeek:

https://www.howtogeek.com/230424/how-to-disable-system-integrity-protection-on-a-mac-and-why-you-shouldnt/


Keyboard shortcut to select some text in a cell in Excel I'd like to know the shortcut I must use to do a multiple selection of some text (not adjacent words) in a unique cell.
The reason is because I need to highlight some text of the same cell, and I currently have to do it selecting the text individually.
So it would be very helpful to find the shortcut to multiple select, as Ctrl + click usually works.
I used it time ago, but I don't remember how I did.
Please, could you help me

Thanks & regards
Susana

AFAIK, there is no way to select non-adjacent words in a cell in Excel. If you need to format several non-adjacent words, you need to process them one at a time.


Mac not updating from 10.8 to 10.10 So I have a macbook air and it is stuck on the version 10.8 and I have checked app store for updates and I clicked on the apple logo and clicked software updates. It says I have none available when clearly there are newer versions out there. This prevents me from downloading some things because they require my version to be 10.10 or higher. Please help.

You need to check inside the featured section of the Mac App Store because new versions of OS X do not always show up in the updates and you have to purchase it (the last three versions have been free) from the Mac App Store and install it. If 10.11 is okay, than that is still available in the App Store. It should be in the featured section or if you search, you will have no trouble finding it. It is only possible to get 10.10 if you purchased it while it is still available, in which case it would be in your purchased tab.


In which file Terminal.app stores its windows? Usually after reboot/crash all Terminal windows are re-open automatically, this time they weren't.

Where (which folder/file) Terminal.app stores the session/information about its windows which suppose to be re-open?

It is stored in the user's Saved Application State folder, located at:

/Users/$USER/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Terminal.savedState


Cannot copy and paste files over SMB but works on AFP Say I have mounted a sharepoint on /Volumes/Staff/.

I find that I cannot copy files from /Volumes/Staff/Folder1 to /Volumes/Staff/Folder2 and vice versa. I get the following error:

  Can't connect to the server because the name or password is incorrect.

The server is a Mac Mini running Yosemite with file server configured with Server.app.

Desktops are iMacs running El Capitan. They all connect via SMB by default when clicking on the Mac Mini icon on the sidebar.

I can replicate this problem on my MacBook Pro running El Capitan. I am connecting via afp://myserveraddress and smb://myserveraddress in Finder.app via "Connect to Server" menu.

I find that on my MacBook, copying and pasting files works while I am connected via AFP but not while I am connected via SMB.

But I cannot simply turn off SMB on the server, we also have Windows and Linux desktops that needs to connect to the server too.

What do I have to do so that Macs can connect to the server via SMB as a majority of the users would only be able to connect by clicking on the Mac Mini icon in finder rather than going through "Connect to Server" like me.

This has been resolved by upgrading the server to El Capitan. Copy and paste files on the sharepoint works now when accessing from MacBooks and iMacs running El Capitan.

Upgrade note, I find the order of steps for the upgrade important. The following are what I find the shortest and easiest steps when done in that order:

Backup. (I used Time Machine, but use whatever works for you.)
Run Install El Capitan.app, I had it saved to the local disk, otherwise run it from the Mac App Store.
Log back in after the upgrade has rebooted the server.
Run all El Capitan updates via App Store.
Update Server.app. (Via App Store.)
Open Server.app and ensure that file service is turned on. It was turned off in my case so I just turned it back on after double checked the file and sharepoints and their permissions.
Test with client computer with smb://myserveraddress in Finder.app via "Connect to Server" menu, this is so that you know it is working with SMB.

Out of the above, step 4 and 5 are the most important. In my case the latest version of Server.app was not compatible with older version of El Capitan (I didn't have the latest version of El Capitan as I didn't upgrade it from Yosemite through the App Store). So after upgrading to El Capitan, always install all updates available for El Capitan before proceeding to anything else.


How do I clone a hard disk excluding some directories? In preparation for Lion, I want to make a bootable clone of my system to an external harddisk. I use TimeMachine, but I want to be sure I have a running backup.

Of course, there is much stuff on my system which doesn't need to be secured. This includes ~/Library/Caches and especially the installation of the developer tools (/Developer). To save space, I don't want to clone these.

Which tool can I use to do that? I have always cloned my harddisks with Disk Utility, but you obviously can't exclude directories with it.

Both Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper can clone and omit files or directories from the clone.


Voice Memos on the iPad iPhones have a dedicated Voice Memos app. iPads don't, despite running the same OS and also featuring a built-in microphone.

Since the answer to 1 is probably "no", what current alternatives do people use?
(ideally free simple app that works the same way like Voice Memos on the iPhone)

There are no clones of the voice memos app for iPad.
Options include:

Microsoft Onenote     (this one is a little more complex, and has different features, including adding additional photos, videos, lists, etc.)
Audio Memos Free - The Voice Recorder by Imesart S.a.r.l. (Just voice memos - not a ported version)


Speaker and camera of my MacBook Air aren't working after installing windows Yesterday I installed Windows 8.1 on my MacBook Air on the partition that contained macOS, so the only OS that exists on my laptop is windows. With addition I had also installed BootCamp drivers on it. But there still exists a  problem with the camera, speakers and tilde and ash keys.

When I opened my device manager in windows all the drivers show no error and are fine but they aren't working. Wifi and bluetooth drivers are working but camera and speakers are not.

Has anyone tried removing macOS and installing windows on MacBook? If so please do let me know how you corrected these errors?

Have you tried re-installing the drivers?

From Apple official page:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1836?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Facetime drivers:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1831?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Hope this helps.

Cheers.


How can I automatically eject volumes I no longer use? I have a volume (saved as an encrypted sparsebundle) that I use from time to time.  For security reasons it should be ejected when not in use.  Of course I should do it myself, and usually I remember.  But not always.  Is there an automated way to do this as a back-up for fallible me?

Maybe a Folder Action attached to it that will eject it after a certain length of time (or even better, a certain length of time idle) or at a certain time of day?

Maybe a way to have it automatically ejected when the computer sleeps?  Currently, it is still there after computer sleep.  (I don't want to use logout because there are other processes I want to keep going.)

Thanks to patrix, I now have it working.  I will post something here for others who want to do this in the future.

It seems that cronjob is no longer recommended, instead launchd.  This was the first time I wrote a launch agent, so there were many errors before I got it to work.  I could not decipher the error messages in the System log, but at least when they were there it told me it was not working.

I found a tutorial for a launch agent on robots.thoughbot.com. Some of the ways he uses launchctl are marked "legacy" by Apple, but they still worked for me in Sierra.

Here is my launch agent plist:

<?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.gae.umount1</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>diskutil</string>
        <string>unmount</string>
        <string>force</string>
        <string>/Volumes/3D</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>10800</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

It is supposed to execute the Unix command diskutil unmount force /Volumes/3D every 10800 seconds (= 3 hours).


iPhone X, iOS 12.1.2 - Whatsapp concern I am looking for a specific setting within whatsapp. Namely, i wish to set the notifications in a way that the only visible thing is "notification" rather than the current Name+Surname+Notification/content of message (if unlocked). is there a way to set it that way? i went through all the setting and i can't seem to make it work?

thanks guys!

You can change this option for any installed app in the Notifications section of the iOS Settings app. Tap on the appropriate app; at the bottom of the notifications setting screen, you can disable "Show Previews" (or set it to "When Unlocked") to prevent any details from being shown on your lock screen.


Upgrading from Mojave 10.14.3 to Mojave 10.14.6 (or at most Catalina), but not to Big Sur? I have a MacBook Pro (early 2015) with MacOS Mojave 10.14.3, Safari 12.0.3 and XCode 10.3. The webpage I want to remote debug is opened in Safari on an iPhone SE with iOS 14.2.
The answers I got on StackOverflow suggest that I should upgrade my macOS Safari and/or my XCode version installed on my Macbook.
I see that there is a download for Safari 14.0.1 Beta 4 but it requires at least macOS Mojave 10.14.6.
From https://xcodereleases.com/, I see that my current XCode version 10.3 is the latest I can get given my MacOS Mojave version 10.14.3
So I definitely have to upgrade my MacOS version.
When I go to Preferences -> Software Updates, I see this screen:

Then if I click on "More info..." under "Other updates are available." I get this screen:

So it looks like I could upgrade to MacOS Mojave 10.14.6, which would allow me to install XCode Xcode 11.3.1 at most and also upgrade Safari to version 14
Great, but I fear that clicking on the "install now" button would also install the latest and recently released "Big Sur" because this is what i see on the Software Updates screen.
So this is my (indeed simple, but I wanted to provide more context) question: Can I make sure I upgrade to Mojave 10.14.6 only and not Big Sur from the Software Updates screen I see ?

Yes, clicking on "Install now" in the second screenshot will install only the updates listed and ticked. It will not upgrade to Big Sur.


OS X firewall blocking torrents outside of VPN I've seen plenty of tutorials for this around for Windows but I'm wanting to do it on OS X Yosemite. Is it possible to configure the firewall such that torrent traffic will only ever be permitted when I'm a connected to a VPN?

Yes it is possible, you can create a blocking rule using pf, that only allows traffic on the the port your torrent software is using, to/from the virtual interface created by the VPN. Take a look at a cheat sheet for pf for ideas. Or if you prefer a GUI you might check out icefloor.


macOS keyboard layout switch bug I have a problem that follows me from 2015 MacBook Pro with macOS Sierra → macOS High Sierra → macOS Mojave and now on to 2018 MacBook Pro running macOS Mojave.

I have configured two input sources: English and Russian, and I prefer to switch between them with Caps Lock key.

The problem: Some times switching does not work. I press Caps Lock key and the layout stays the same. I press it again and it still stays. Eventually, it gets changed but it takes 5-6 Caps Lock key press.

This happens in both cases, US → RU and RU → US.

I have Siri disabled.

I had the same problem. As I understand it, this is intentional behavior by Apple (they've been known to have additional delay on Caps Lock key to prevent accidental presses). Not many people notice this because it happens only when you type really fast (to reproduce just try spamming one key and press Caps Lock to switch the language at the same time – sometimes it would just be ignored).

There's a way to solve this – use Karabiner Elements. You can find how to set it up here: https://hybridtechcar.com/2018/07/01/turn-caps-lock-into-a-super-button-suitable-for-any-macbook/


How to transfer songs from iPhone to iPhone I'm upgrading from a iPhone 6s to a iPhone 7. I have about 3000 songs on it from my library of approx. 6000.

Without going through the library unticking 3000 or so songs, is there any simpler way of transferring those songs?

Backup your old iPhone to iTunes using a USB cable
Connect your new iPhone using a usb cable
Select "restore from backup" in iTunes.

Assuming the songs you are from your iTunes library, they will be transferred to the new iPhone.

Enjoy your music!

Please let me know if this solves your issue.


How to include equations in-line with text within the cell of a table in Keynote? Answers to Add equations that flows with the text in the keynote explain that in Keynote we can insert an in-line equation when typing text. I use option-command-E or the same from pull-down Insert menu and it works fine for text in a text object.
However: when I'm writing text inside of a cell of a table this fails. No matter what I do the equation pops out of the text and becomes a floating equation.
If I copy a line of text that contains an in-line equation and paste it inside the cell of a table, the text appears but the equation is dropped.
Is there any way to include equations in-line with text within the cell of a table in Keynote?
Keynote version 9.2.1 (6529)
\int_0^{n\pi}\cos(ax^n)

It is not possible to have an equation created by the equation editor (Insert > Equation menu from the top) inline with text inside a table cell in Keynote. This is possible in Pages but not in Keynote.
The problem stems from a Keynote table not being allowed to accept a picture as a text element in a cell. This behavior leads to an equation not being accepted inside a table cell as a text element in Keynote because an output of the equation editor is handled as a picture by the programs in the iWork suite (Numbers, Pages, Keynote).
A partial solution to this problem within Keynote is to create all of the contents of a cell using the equation editor and paste it inside the corresponding cell (automatically as a picture). The appearance of each "equation" picture can then be adjusted using Format > Cell > Fill menu on the sidebar on the right as shown in the example below (Keynote v10.1). Note that, once pasted, one can not edit the equation picture in a cell. If any change is needed to a cell with an equation, then the whole "equation" needs to be re-created and pasted into the corresponding cell.


Resize APFS (encrypted) container I am having trouble "attributing" some free space I have available on the Files partition to the volume which contains system files: an APFS encrypted container.

I would like to do this because I am no longer able to update some large application from within the App Store. I have already read some articles addressing the issue concerning resizing APFS containers but they still don't answer my question (or maybe I didn't clearly get the idea). I am running a Macbook Air under Catalina.

I put some screenshots that may give more useful information.

Reduce this volume to 90 GB:

Increase the capacity of the container to 160 GB:

diskutil list:

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s3 limits:

Simply resizing Files (disk0s3) and then expanding the container (disk0s2) while "shifting" disk0s3 won't work.

You have to take this path:

Resize disk0s3 with diskutil:

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s3 40g

Create a fourth partition Files2 (HFS+) with Disk Utility at the end of the disk
Copy all files from Files to Files2
Remove disk0s3 (Files) with Disk Utility
Rename Files2 to Files
Expand disk0s2 (if not already done automatically in step 4):

diskutil ap resizeContainer disk0s2 0


iTunes now takes up 100% of CPU since updating to 11.3 UPDATE:
The issue seems to be at least related to what konqui mentioned in the Comments since I do have a large library of podcasts. However, if this was merely related to re-indexing then one would expect things to go back to normal but this doesn't seem to be the case.
Basically, now everything (related to podcasts, at least) takes about 100 times longer than it should take. For instance, after clicking on the podcasts tab itself, it takes 10 seconds (with CPU at 100%) and just refreshing podcasts has taken up to 30 minutes.

Since updating iTunes to Version 11.3, it quickly takes up 100% of the CPU and stops responding every time I try to open it.
I've tried:

Waiting for it to sort itself out on its own
Force Quitting (and then re-starting iTunes)
Re-starting my computer entirely (MBP, running Version 10.9.4) and then trying both previous approaches.

Has anyone heard of this issue before? Should I uninstall 11.3? And, if so, how do I do this?
Again, this problem has only started happening since updating to Version 11.3 two days ago.
Another strange thing is that iTunes does not appear to be totally frozen--for a few seconds the "(not responding)" will occasionally disappear and then reappear. Plus, in those few seconds that it starts to respond again, its status will change (for instance, now it says it is "Processing Album Artwork" and earlier a random podcast started playing). However, this doesn't seem to explain why the % CPU consistently remains at around 100%. [UPDATE: The 100% CPU/"Not Responding"-status may, for some reason, be related to podcasts being refreshed]
Currently, the only Applications I have open are:

Activity Monitor
Google Chrome
iTunes
Finder

Since upgrading to iTunes 11.3 I have experienced a very similar problem.  Every time I refresh my podcasts, iTunes' memory/CPU usage surges, and the iTunes UI freezes up for 5-10 minutes.

I haven't found a complete solution, but I have stumbled across a temporary workaround.  On my system, the problem only seems to occur when I refresh podcasts while looking at them in the List view, as in the screenshot below:

If instead I refresh podcasts from the All Unplayed view, there is no freezing at all:

It appears that the issue is related to viewing the podcast list while refreshing all podcasts.  (You can even avoid the issue if you click refresh in List view and then quickly click away to another view, like Music.)

Not a super satisfying answer, I know, but for me it has returned iTunes to a semi-usable state.


Driver for TP-LINK TL-WN721N Wi-Fi Adapter I used to plug in my TP-LINK TL-WN721N Wi-Fi adapter in a port in my old computer that used to run Windows. That's how I connected to the internet, but now I bought an iMac which I couldn't connect to the internet.

Is there a kext to use or a hack to try to get it working on my iMac? I also learned that similar chipsets used in Wi-Fi adapters can lead to similar experience using different adapters, so I searched WikiDevi to find similar products with supported OS X drivers. I am running OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

Note: AirPort is malfunctioning, that's why I need the adapter to connect ..

According to the TP-Link company website, TL-WN721N is only supported under Windows.


How to type a TAB character on an iPhone I'm editing a plain text file on my iPhone and need to type a TAB (\t) character. However, I am unable to find it and starting to wonder if it even exists.

Anyone able to help me out?

following answer is not to insert tab, but for indent line.

(currently 2016/05)
for the user of iPhone while using Note app,

on the line you want to indent, touch screen on the current cursor
then pop-up appear for more editing, you can select indent among of these.


Where Is The "Summarize" Service On OS X Mavericks? In previous versions of OS X, you could find the Summarize service by highlighting the text you want to summarize, going to the app name menu, click service, and then clicking summarize.

Call me blind but I can't see this service on OS X Mavericks at all? It was really useful in previous versions of the OS so I really hope it hasn't been removed.

Turns out this feature has to be enabled now.
After I posted my screenshot I noticed the "Service Preferences..." menu item and clicked it.

Click that menu item, scroll down to where it says "Text" and tick the box that says "Summarize".