How to backup only the settings from a MacBook Pro I am totally aware of Time Machine and the process of backing up the complete Mac data on an external Hard drive.

I just need to generate a small script/backup of all the settings of my MacBook pro.

I just need the ability to run that script in a new machine, and that can download and install all the apps & configure things like the menu bar, dock settings, etc.

This is something like composer does for a PHP project.

Is there a way to that in MacBook Pro?

I'm not sure there's anything simple/comprehensive. I've been working on this myself for the past few months. I'm pretty happy with what I've got, but I had to put in a lot of custom work to draw together a lot of individual pieces.

The exact answer depends very much on what sort of config you need to port, and how technical you are. If you're talking about common color/desktop settings, this shouldn't be too bad. If you're trying to do something complex like keep exact Finder view preferences for every folder on your system, you're in for some work.

Here are a few things you may want to look into, each of which can get you at least part of what you want (listed roughly from less to more complex/technical)

mackup, a program which recognizes config files for many apps and attempts to piggyback on sync software such as Dropbox to share them among systems (I haven't used this--just aware it exists...; this is probably as close as you'll get if you'll get to what you're asking without doing some custom scripting)
A simple package manager, such as homebrew (particularly via brew bundle, which can install apps and other software specified in a Brewfile)
a dotfile manager, (I use yadm--but there are many of these with slightly different features and philosophies), which provides a scaffold for identifying which files on your system are config related, and making it simple to track/port them to another system. For the most part, you'll be on your own to identify what is worth tracking with one of these. It tends to take a while to identify what files are useful config, and which ones are junk. Many apps mingle them.
publicly posted dotfile repos from other mac users. One of the most famous of these is by Mathias Bynens. Some dotfile repos will only be good for ideas, but some (Like Mathias') include instructions for how you could install his configuration on your own system. It'll probably still take a good bit of effort to tailor this to your own needs.
more complex package managers such as Nix which, in tandem with nix-darwin, is capable of setting up parts of a macos system in a fairly deterministic/explicit/repeatable manner.

To give you some sense of what this can look like in practice, I can stand up a new system in under two hours with the vast majority of what I need pre-configured/installed. The process is, roughly:

I start up the system and log in to a private git host for my dotfiles, and go check the installation instructions in my README file.
Manually grant some security/privacy exceptions for Terminal and ScriptEditor so that my scripts can run.
Copy/paste a small bash script from my README document which installs the Nix package manager, and uses Nix to install the software that my dotfile manager (yadm) needs to successfully clone my dotfiles.
When yadm is done copying in my dotfiles, it automatically runs my full bootstrap script, which installs homebrew for installing a few big/commercial mac apps, installs nix-darwin for configuring the rest of my development-oriented software, sets many macos preferences, restores my work/project files from a remote backup repository, and runs hand-written scripts to configure a few apps that must be actively configured (installing Safari extensions, installing vpn configs, etc.)
reboots the system for use


Can Google Photos on iOS use mobile data connection to back up? For some reason, I already turned on Mobile Data for Google Photos in iPhone settings, but it still says "Waiting for Wifi" in the app.

After I turned on Wifi, and tapped on the backup button, and went to another app, the backup didn't run in the background for the first time. The second time, it did run in the background. Is there a way to make it always back up in the background?

Back up on mobile data: If you don’t want to wait for Wi-Fi to back up your photos, under “When to back up”, tap Use cellular data to back up photos or Use cellular data to back up videos. Charges from your service provider may apply if you upload using your mobile network.

from https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?hl=en&ref_topic=6156061&co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS&oco=1

Also, turn off low power mode for background backup

As OP puts it nicely:

  ...the key is: you have to allow iOS to allow mobile data, and allow the Google Photos apps to use mobile data, so there are 2 settings to be touched. [..] we can have on/on, off/off, on/off, and off/on, and only on/on allows using mobile data...

From: Can Google Photos on iOS use mobile data connection to back up?


AirDrop no-response from MacBook to iPhone MacBook Air M1 2020 + iPhone12 Pro Max
AirDrop from iPhone to MacBook works well.
Handoff in both directions works well. (Although I didn't know whether they were acting in similar ways)
The only problem is that when I want to airdrop a file from MacBook to iPhone, I can see my iPhone's figure, however with no-clicking-response neither in Mac nor in iPhone.
I tried to toggle the bluetooth and WiFi in both devices but the issue still exists.
I tried to restart both devices but the issue still exists.

Bugs has been fixed after I quit Proxifer completely


OSX Mountain Lion: Automatically restarts after showing screen saver a certain amount of time Since I upgraded to Mountain Lion it happens to me every day when I enter the screen saver while having lunch it tries to restart the computer.

I don't have any clue why this happens. If there is some process running and OSX can't automatically quit it, OSX will tell me that it couldn't restart.
But if there's no process like this running it will restart.

I don't really want this behaviour and searched in system settings as well in the Console in order to see why this might happen but I don't have a clue as of why.

OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.2 - MacBook Pro 15" Late 2011

Ok well. After getting more and more annoyed, I finally figured it out.
Apparently I enabled the automatic logout after 60mins of inactivity in the security settings. I really don't know why/when I enabled this and wouldn't consider myself a noob ;)
For anyone else looking for a howto on this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4014 (I found this page and thought: that must be it!).. It was.


How can I distable coub.com weekly notifications Every week I receive a Mac notification about Coub.com weekly. If I click into it it will take me here on Safari browser.
I was trying to disable it by changing the preferences -> notifications -> Safari. But it didn't help. Any ideas?

Assuming the notification is really coming from the coub.com website, you would disable that in Safari preferences, not System Preferences.

Go to the Safari Preferences > Websites tab, select Notifications on the left, and you'll see a list of all the websites that have asked you for permission to send notifications. From there, you can change the notification preference for coub.com to "Deny".


HomePod no longer responds to Siri HomePod does not respond to my Siri commands anymore. I have tried to reset HomePod.

In the Home app on your iOS or iPadOS device, touch and hold a HomePod.
Scroll down, tap the Settings button, then do any of the following:

Enable “Hey Siri” requests: Turn on Listen for “Hey Siri.”
Enable summoning Siri using HomePod touch controls: Turn on Touch and
Hold for Siri.
Enable indicator light when Siri is listening: Turn on Light When
Using Siri.
Hear a chime when Siri is listening: Turn on Sound When Using Siri.

Source: https://support.apple.com/guide/homepod/change-settings-apde6dc8093d/homepod


iphone messaging: how do I show the senders number When I get a message in from someone, and their contact card has multiple numbers associated with them, how do I then show the actual NUMBER that the message was sent from? (Currently it tells me the contact name, but not the number within that contact)

Click on the circular image on the top in iMessage. It takes you to the contact details. The contact detail in blue is the one which the sender has used to send you the message.


How to access a newly mounted DMG from VMWare Fusion (Windows 8.1)? I'm running Windows 8.1 on VMWare Fusion, on top of OS X 10.8.5.

I have some DMG files on Mac that I mount sometimes to work with.
These are some encrypted data folders.

Can I access them from the virtual machine when I mount them?

Example: VM is running, Windows is running inside. Then I go to MacOS and mount a DMG. Next moment, a new drive (or folder) appears in Windows... without needing to restart the virtual machine.

Is this scenario possible?

I don't think this is possible without some special software in the windows vm. The dmg  is analogous to the windows .exe.  In the same way a Mac can not run an .exe, a windows box can not open a dmg.  That being said a software solution like transmac installed in the vm may offer the functionality you seek.

No personal experience with transmac myself.

http://www.acutesystems.com/scrtm.htm

Trasmac features:

-Open Mac format disk drives, flash drives, CD/DVD/Blu-ray media, high density diskettes, dmg and sparseimage files.

-Copy files to Mac disks and dmg images.

-Format for Mac and restore disks and flash drives.

-Create, compress and expand (convert to iso) dmg files.

-Built in burner functionality to burn ISO and dmg files directly to CD/DVD/Blu-Ray.

-Read Mac multisession and hybrid CDs.

Good luck.


OS X Server Users Read & Write but can't delete running OS X Server (Mavericks) I am trying to use file sharing.
When I create a Folder and select that for sharing and add users they get read & write access, but when I take a closer look via the Server App under Storage, they all have no "Delete" permission on folders inside the share.

This happens on new folders I share as well as with users I newly create.
Any ideas?

Select the containing folder in Server.app, then Edit Permissions….
Click the gear icon at the bottom of the sheet, then select Make Inherited Entries Explicit.
Change the permissions as you desire (the users should no longer be greyed out), then click OK.
With the containing folder still selected, click the gear icon at the bottom of the window and click Propagate Permissions….
Select all the option boxes, then click OK.


Retina macbook max USB power output Could someone tell me how much Amperes (Amps) the Retina MacBook Pro can deliver over USB?

I thought that one should be able to charge an iPad with a Retina MacBook which would mean that it should be about 1A minimum (probably rather 2-5A for an iPad3). However when I plug in my Android phone to charge, it does charge slower than on an 1A USB charger.

With the System Profiler you'll be able to know how much power does the USB delivers, and how much is required for each device connected to a USB. Under the Hardware tab, you'll find, listed, all the USB ports, and, within, all the devices connected to them. Just select one of those to get detailed information.

To open System Profiler just choose Apple Menu / About this Mac and clicking More Info, or go to Applications / Utilities.


How to set up Loki Render on Mac OS X Lion I am trying to do network rendering in Blender3D using Loki Render across my 3 Xserves. I have no experience in setting up network rendering and the instructions that are given on the Loki Render home page do not help me. Any help would be appreciated.

Loki render passes files around internally, so you don't need to set up any type of file sharing, whether it be Mac, Windows or Linux. Just make sure your computers can ping each other, and Loki's grunts should be able to connect to the master no problems. If you still have trouble, check firewall settings.


Turning off time machine I cannot turn off time machine. I'm using Catalina and a seagate back up drive plus. I have researched this and many sites. They say go to system preferences, time machine, turn off. When I go to system preferences, time machine, I don't get a turn off button. Is it just me? Please help. Thanks in advance.

There should be a checkbox saying "Backup automatically".

Uncheck it.


How do I recover the administrator or root password on OS X? I received a hand me down white MacBook with 10.4 on it and it automatically logs into a user account that isn't able to change much in the preference pane. How do I recover or change the administrator password?

The original owner told me to try a few passwords, none of which work to get logged in as admin.

Boot to OS recovery, internet recovery or on older systems, with a Mac OS X DVD, then there's an option to change passwords.

You can follow an how-to here.


To install GNU Cut in OSX? I did not find it in brew by brew search cut.
I wound if it exists in any other package systems.

How can you install GNU Cut in OSX?

cut is part of CoreUtils.

To install it :

brew install coreutils

Then it's available in terminal as gcut.


Can I add guide lines or background elements to my Pages document to assist with layout? I'm currently using Pages '09 on OS X 10.10.5. I have a document in portrait orientation that I occasionally print (8.5" x 11"), and fold into four equal vertical sections, like a spreadsheet with one column and four rows. Here's an image matching what I do with the printout.

The document consists of several text boxes. The text box layout is fitted to the content and this does not correspond to the page folding. Is there some way to add guide lines to my document to see where the folds will be? This would be for layout purposes only, the lines shouldn't appear in the printout. I looked through the menu options and the document inspector, but didn't see a way to accomplish what I want.

I believe any of these options would work, but I'm not sure how to accomplish them:

Add guide lines manually
Display a vertical ruler for the page (menu item references rulers but this document only displays a horizontal ruler)
Create a background image with the guide lines (easy with Pixelmator) and add it to the document

I am willing to use a newer version of Pages.

Here is how I solved this:

Used a spreadsheet to choose values for all of the margins and four equal-height text boxes to best use the full 11" height of the printed page
Created four text boxes, full page width, and equal height
Used margins at the top of page, bottom of page, and between each text box, with all of these margins being of equal value
Used the spreadsheet to determine the exact starting Y location of each text box and enforce the desired margins
Pasted existing text into the four text boxes, using paragraph separation in some cases to combine the text from previously-separate textboxes into one textbox


Apple Cash Family - "Family member already has Apple Cash enabled" I'm attempting to set up Apple Cash Family in a family sharing group. I experience an issue when attempting to add a minor (under 18 years of age), telling me that Apple Cash is "already enabled" on their account. However, Apple Cash does not show as enabled on their device - further, attempting to turn it on from their device (for a personal Apple Cash account) says that they do not meet the age requirements. How can I find and disable this "already enabled" account?

This can happen if the minor has previously created an Apple Cash account but was unable to verify it due to not meeting the age requirements. The account does not show up because it is not active, it cannot be enabled because they do not meet the age requirement, and yet it prevents them from having an Apple Cash Family card created on their behalf.
To resolve this issue, you can call Apple Pay support at (877) 233-8552. Once they verify the minor's identity, they will be able to close the empty account so that you can create a new one.


Is there a tmp directory that gets cleaned when user logs out or logs in? Looking at building a custom parser in AppleScript that would run throughout the day with launchd.  The issue I'm looking at is trying to find what tmp directory to store the parse at that would be cleaned after log in or log out.

After searching it would appear tmp directories are only wiped on the reboot.  If I can run a clean on log in or log out that would save on performance trying to condition when to run under a wipe.

When I research the topic I've found Temporary Items that details:

path to temporary items
path to temporary items from user domain
/private/var/folders
/tmp
/private/tmp
/var/private/tmp

but that doesn't mention wether or not a log out/in wipes the directories.  Diving deeper I found AppleScript has a tmp option from Where to write temporary with:

path to temporary items from user domain

Searching the site I've found:

How long does the ios clean tmp directory?
Saving /private/tmp

Is there a directory on a Mac that is cleans on a system running Maverick, Yosemite and Sierra that will be cleaned after a log in/out that doesn't require system admin approval?

path to temporary items or path to temporary items from user,local or system domain: there is no difference because this folder is not in the home folder.

I tested this by creating a folder named "xyz" in the temporary items, log out and log in, the "xyz" folder was moved to the Trash.


Windows 10 - installed on external SSD , gets stuck on Windows logo after installing bootcamp drivers I installed windows 10 on an external SSD, on my Macbook pro. I saw this method from a 9to5 mac video. I followed each step, and it all worked flawlessly, i was even able to use windows 10, but then i installed the bootcamp drivers (The WindowsSupport folder installed from the bootcamp) After installing the drivers, i restarted, and well, the screen was stuck on the windows logo and the spinning dots were frozen.

Any help?

I have installed Windows 10 on an external SSD as well. I have experienced the same thing while I have my USB-C to HDMI adapter plugged in. Maybe you could disconnect all your USB-C connected devices but your SSD and try again?


Running a command via SSH on the Mac causes exception; works fine when directly connected I am trying to sign some code for an application. I can log into my Mac (Mountain Lion) and do this easily:

codesign -s "Developer ID Application: My Name" -f /path/to/appfile/mounted/elsewhere.app

'/path/to/appfile/mounted/elsewhere.app' is the path to the .app file which is actually hosted via Samba on another server.

However, if I ssh into the Mac and run the same command I get:

/path/to/appfile/mounted/elsewhere.app: replacing existing signature
libc++abi.dylib: terminate called without an active exception
Abort trap: 6

... and it fails. Here's the top of the crash report:

Process:         codesign [1353]
Path:            /usr/bin/codesign
Identifier:      codesign
Version:         0.3
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  sshd [1352]
User ID:         501

Date/Time:       2012-08-01 11:06:50.092 +0100
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8 (12A269)
Report Version:  10

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:
terminate called without an active exception
abort() called

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   libsystem_kernel.dylib              0x00007fff9980f212 __pthread_kill + 10
1   libsystem_c.dylib                   0x00007fff96de1b34 pthread_kill + 90
2   libsystem_c.dylib                   0x00007fff96e25dfa abort + 143
3   libc++abi.dylib                     0x00007fff92619f87 abort_message + 257
4   libc++abi.dylib                     0x00007fff92617944 default_terminate() + 42
5   libstdc++.6.dylib                   0x00007fff9249e527 std::terminate() + 18
6   com.apple.security                  0x00007fff8d898dfb Security::CodeSigning::SecCodeSigner::Signer::signMachO(Security::Universal*, Security::CodeSigning::Requirement::Context const&) + 1047
7   com.apple.security                  0x00007fff8d897e67 Security::CodeSigning::SecCodeSigner::Signer::sign(unsigned int) + 129
8   com.apple.security                  0x00007fff8d8957b9 Security::CodeSigning::SecCodeSigner::sign(Security::CodeSigning::SecStaticCode*, unsigned int) + 393
9   com.apple.security                  0x00007fff8d894a23 SecCodeSignerAddSignatureWithErrors + 52
10  codesign                            0x00000001096d0cca 0x1096ce000 + 11466
...

... I can post the rest if required.

What's stopping this working over SSH?

I found that I needed to unlock the security keychain:

Mac-mini:~ gravelld$ security unlock-keychain
password to unlock default:
Mac-mini:~ gravelld$ codesign -s "Developer ID Application: My Name" -f /path/to/appfile/mounted/elsewhere.app
/path/to/appfile/mounted/elsewhere.app: replacing existing signature
Mac-mini:~ gravelld$

Success! Hope this helps someone.


Is Home screen 3D Touch menu on supported iPhones user customizable? Attached is a screenshot of what appears when I force touch (3D Touch) on the 2Do app running on an iPhone X. Annoyingly, the action view doesn’t contain Search item. Can I alter the menu so that it has a search option (like Apple Music - screenshot attached)

There is no setting in iOS to customize the action view displayed when 3D touching an app icon on iPhone Home screen. It is up to the app what items are displayed. For 3rd party apps, iOS generally displays a Share app name item.

However, an app may provide settings within itself to customize what items it displays. Thus, it's best to look within the app to search for any relevant setting.

2Do app doesn't appear to offer any such setting.


How to remove extended attributes from all files in a folder on mac i'm trying to remove the extended attributes from some files (where froms) in a folder on my mac.
I could not find a solution for that. Is there a way to remove the attributes from all files in a folder?
Kind regards Bijo

To Remove All Extended Attributes On Many Files
To recursively remove extended attributes on all files in a directory,
combine the -c "clear" flag with the -r recursive flag:
xattr -rc /path/to/directory

Open Terminal.app and start typing xattr -rc  , include a trailing
space, and then then drag the file or folder to the Terminal.app
window and it will automatically add the full path with proper
escaping.

Source: Taken form cwd's answer to: How do I remove the “extended attributes” on a file in Mac OS X?


Slow login and Terminal loading time in Yosemite, possibly related to open directory I have a problem with slow login times in Yosemite.  Logging in is speedy after booting, but after a while (a few days usually) it slows down and can take 20-30 seconds.  The time to load a new Terminal window / tab also increases.  If I reboot, the problem is fixed...for a while.  I tried the answers in this question and nothing seemed to work.  I ran the profiling suggested here and this part of the output looks suspicious:

+   ! 8118 ???  (in login)  load address 0x10583c000 + 0x2a8f  [0x10583ea8f]
+   !   8118 openpam_dispatch  (in libpam.2.dylib) + 277  [0x7fff86957a7d]
+   !     8117 ???  (in <unknown binary>)  [0x1058c4bf2]
+   !     : 8117 ???  (in <unknown binary>)  [0x1058c40e9]
+   !     :   8117 ODRecordAuthenticationAllowed  (in CFOpenDirectory) + 258  [0x7fff9161df85]
+   !     :     8117 transaction_simple  (in CFOpenDirectory) + 448  [0x7fff91615274]
+   !     :       8117 _dispatch_semaphore_wait_slow  (in libdispatch.dylib) + 213  [0x7fff955c07f6]
+   !     :         8117 semaphore_wait_trap  (in libsystem_kernel.dylib) + 10  [0x7fff882b751a]

But further Googling hasn't turned up anything helpful for solving the problem.  Any ideas on how I can further diagnose or fix this issue?

I had the same problem everywhere authentication is needed after upgrading to High Sierra. Sampling login process gave similar output where ODRecordAuthenticationAllowed takes longer to complete than usual. The call graph shows that the authentication request dispatched from transaction_simple probably encountered some multithreading issue as caught by semaphore_wait_trap that consumed most of the runtime. So, something else must have been busy with authentication ALL the time. In my case the culprit turns out to be the printer. After updating the printer's driver and changing to use AirPrint from CUPS, login, terminal, browsing etc. are now all working to normal, and sampling login process again produces nothing as now the authentication request is too fast to catch.


Is it safe to delete "My First Project.rcproject" file in the "iMovie Projects" folder? I am totally new to "iMovie" so I would like to ask you if it's safe to delete "My First Project.rcproject" file in the "iMovie Projects" folder (as it appeared from nowhere, maybe it was result of opening "iMovie")?

Thank you in advance.

That is the default name of your first project. If you haven't done any work with it, you should be able to delete it.


How to organize/sort alias mails? I have one mail account with 3 aliases. I am wondering if there is any way to separate them from one mailbox to 4 individual mailboxes?

Is there a "hidden feature" I do not know about that lets you use Smart Mailboxes for that? Are there any tips/ideas as to how I can organize them in a nicer and cleaner way?

Is doesn’t matter if you use a mail sorting rule (found in Mail’s preferences) to move the mail to the target mailbox of your choice or if you create a smart mailbox to display the mail which will keep staying inside the inbox. All you need is a rule of this type:

Any recipient is aliasname@maildomain.com

This should separate your mails to different mailboxes as you described.


Finder window, Save As prompt missing sidebar entries Check out this screenshot:

Why is everything missing in the sidebar? Normally I would see Desktop, Downloads, a custom list of favorite folders, Applications, Library, etc. Suddenly this started happening and it's super annoying because I have to browse everywhere manually on the right side. This is the Save As dialog in Chrome, but it's the same way in a regular Finder window. I'm in OS X Mountain Lion.

You probably accidentally hid the favourites list. If you hover your mouse to the right of the Favorites text, you'll see a small Show text appear. Click it, and your favourites should reappear.


using Microsoft Arc Mouse surface edition on MacBook Air 2015 I have an ARC mouse (surface edition) which i'd like to pair with my macbook air. I'm running el capitan (os X 10.11.1).

from system preferences/mouse I can't even see the mouse. Is there anything else to try?

as far as I understand, my macbook air is bluetooth 4.0 LE compatible. Not sure whether it's bluetooth smart ready though, which the mouse seems to be.

Found a solution.

Open system settings/bluetooth.
switch bluetooth off and back on again, this way it will start scanning for new bluetooth devices
click and hold (for 5 seconds) the button on the mouse to start the pairing process. The led lights on the mouse will flash red and green
After a few seconds the mouse appears on screen, and next to it a big "PAIR" button.
Click it! :)


How to make the login window display list of users and name and password? I want to be able to have the login screen of OSX Yosemite display the list of users and a name and password field. I have seen it done on my school's computers but they were connected to a user server, but I don't have a server. Is this possible? If so, how could I do this? In settings it only allows the selection of one or the other.

As you have discovered, the choices are:

A list of users with their icon

--OR--

A name and password box

What you see at school is the "other" user - user info is stored on a network server, the complete list is both unreachable and potentially far too long to simply scroll through.

It's certainly possible, just get the "Server" application from the App Store and set up your own machine as a server.


Unpair apple remote from Apple TV I want to un-pair the silver remote that came with the Apple TV (3rd Gen) so that I can use it exclusively with my Macbook Pro. Is there a way to do that? Please help.
Note: I have tried using those instructions from Apple, but the Apple TV remote still continues to control the Apple TV.

Pair is actually a bit of a misnomer.   Unpaired remotes will still control the device.   Pairing only changes the receiver so that it just looks for the paired remote.  In "un -Paired" any remote can control the device.

If you have multiple devices that you do not want to interfere with each other pair them to their own remotes and they will not interfere.   If one device is left unpaired it will still follow signals from other remote.


Difference in archive formats? After a little testing, I can't figure out what the difference is in the archive formats listed in the Preferences > Use archive format. Each time I compress a folder, each one has the same extension and file size. Can someone shed some light on this?

Archive Utility Preferences
  Use archive format:

Zip archive: A Zip file (.zip).
regular archive: ASCII cpio archive (.cpio).
compressed archive: An ASCII cpio archive, but gzip compressed (.cpgz).

Note that the Compress "folder" option in Finder always creates a zip file. To use the other options you have to open Archive Utility directly and drag-and-drop things onto the icon in the Dock.


OSX - Button spam help? I want to be able to spam the jump button without having to hit the space bar multiple times, and I have a line of code but I'm not too sure what it is doing.

tell application "System Events"
    key down "space"
    delay 10
    key up "space"
end tell

I'm new to coding so it is kind of confusing, I want to be able to be in game, hold space bar, make it spam space, when I let go, it stops. (Without having to tab out)

It looks like there's an app that does what you want. Keyboard Maestro allows you to set one key to repeat, a configurable delay and a second key to configure to stop the automation.

http://leancrew.com/all-this/2016/03/dont-forget-simple-automation/

The link above is how to configure the app for paging through a 2,000 page long PDF and stop when a key is pressed, but you could easily adopt that workflow for your game I think.


The free vs. inactive memory ratio on a Mac with 16 GB RAM has me concerned I am looking for clarification since I am seeing large allocations of RAM on my Mac. I have 16 GB of RAM and recently installed Windows 7 on Parallels. When the machine runs, I see 3.55 GB Free memory and 8.39 GB Inactive memory. I do not want my RAM to be hogged by Windows if I only need it for a small task and am concerned about a slowly running Mac in this case.

Might the huge amount of inactive memory be due to Parallels being run recently? I am not sure if Parallels is the culprit. Moreover, Wired and Active memories show 2 and 2.13 GB, respectively. The total Used memory is 12.54 GB which means the majority (12.54 GB of 16 GB) of RAM is committed now.

This seems too much. How can I diagnose what is exactly eating up my RAM? I have a retina MacBook Pro and the 10.8 release of Mountain Lion. When I launch Parallels, the increase in memory is allocated to "Wired" yet Inactive memory is still 8GB.

Is what I am seeing explainable?

Free memory has nothing in it. Inactive memory caches recently used information just in case the system might use it again. This is especially beneficial for file storage.

The system only needs a tiny amount of free memory so the program asks for memory to be allocated it doesn't have to page some other active memory out to disk and cause that program to stall momentarily while the virtual memory system is doing housekeeping. The overhead for the system to release inactive memory is almost immeasurably short so worrying about a large amount of that memory is generally not worth your brainpower to even think about it.

In summary:

Inactive memory: this is always good, it makes the system fast.
Free memory: any more than 200 MB is a waste, so the system will keep adding files and/or code to inactive memory until free memory hits a low-water benchmark based on a few factors.

What you describe seems perfectly normal for a system that has been recently booted and doesn't seem to me to be anything of concern. VMware fusion or Parallels clearly has need to access a lot of files when running Windows 7 and they are likely to be the reason for your large amount of inactive memory.

If, however, you wish to diagnose what is using memory, the sysdiagnose program will run several memory allocation utilities and saves the results to a directory.


Use Windows XP sounds in OS X? I have a zip file of all Windows XP sounds. Is there a way I can replace the standard OS X sounds with these?

You technically can't replace the sound files as they are protected by SIP (well... you could by disabling SIP, but that's another discussion altogether), but you can add sound files to your own personal library.  This is much easier to do.

There's basically two steps to this:

Convert your WAV file to AIFF.
Copy the file to ~/Library/Sounds (Note that this is located in your user directory and not the SIP protected /System/Library directory).

The easiest way to do this is to use FFmpeg1  Just issue the command ffmpeg -i <path><name of file>.wav ~/Library/Sounds/<name of file>.aiff and it will do both steps in one shot.

The nice thing about using FFmpeg is that you don't have to manually open each file in QuickTime as you can do it right from Terminal.  This also means you can write a quick batch file to do all your sounds if you like.

Once you do that, it should show up in Sound Preferences as a "Custom" sound (I created an "Ask Different Sound" specifically for this example).  Be sure to completely close out of System Preferences (if open) before going into "Sound" so that it can load up the new files.

1  FFmpeg is open source, free software that converts almost any audio/video file from one format to another. Simply download the binary and make sure it can be found in your path.  I just copied it to /usr/local/bin so I didn't have to modify my path at all.


Syncing Linux server data with data on my Mac I have a Linux server that stores some files, and I want to sync them with my Mac.
I can mount the directory of the server, so after mounting it's just  directory to directory sync. There are thousands of files, so the sync tool should be smart enough to sync only the changed files.

Is there any Mac software out there that does this automatically (or at a scheduled time)? The expected action is as follows:

Mount the directory in a server.
Sync intelligently.
Unmount.

You can combine the GUI-based arRsync tool for OS X with the use of /net to automount the share to achieve what you desire.

The remote share will be automatically mounted as long as you access as /net/hostname/exportname. So use that path in arRsync and when you fire the sync it'll automount and then scan and sync just the deltas.

There's good old command line rsync available if you prefer. It ships with OS X. Here is the manual page for it.


Annoying MacWizz Ads I have recently been having trouble with MacWizz ads on my Chrome browser. The ads started appearing this morning. Any ideas on how to remove them?

An example image showing the ads

List of my Chrome Extensions

With AdblockPlus, you can right-click on an ad and click Block Element to block that ad specifically, and from there it normally blocks those ads in the future. Or, you can follow the steps as shown in this link: https://malwaretips.com/blogs/ads-by-macwizz-removal/


Can a Mac use AirPlay to stream to stereo HomePods? Set up two HomePods in a stereo configuration, and they act as one pair when used via Siri or an iOS device. Open the HBO, YouTube, or Music app on your phone, and voilà, stereo sound.
This doesn’t seem to be an option on a Mac. On my 2017 MacBook Pro, I can only choose one HomePod at a time as an audio out. I’m running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. [Update: It’s the same on macOS 10.14 Mojave and 10.15 Catalina… Here's hoping for Big Sur.]
Is there a way to make this work?

There is an application that make possible to stream any source of sounds from mac to paired stereo HomePods. It also let you use others types of wifi or bluetooth speakers at the same time. I uses using it from some time ago and it works well, but is not free.
https://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/


Sync iPhone and dead mac I have an iPhone 4 loaded with data (apps, contact, and photos)
iOS 4.x (not using iCloud), This phone was synced with my iMac and worked fine...  Suddenly, my hard drive crashes. All my data was on a server, so no need to backup the mac, just buy a ned hard drive and reinstall all the apps.

Now the problem, my old iPhone synced with the old (now dead) Mac does not want to sync with the new iMac. It needs to update to iOS 5 and it wants to delete all my apps because it's synced with another Mac....

How can I sync my old iPhone and all his apps with my new iMac and no apps without losing it all?

Attach your phone to any Mac that you want to use as your new machine. It can be the same machine with a new hard drive, or a completely new Mac altogether.
When prompted to sync, cancel, so that you don't lose the data on your phone.

Now, click File -> Transfer Purchases. You will be prompted to "authorize" your Mac. Log in and then you should be able to transfer your music and apps.

If you want to save your contacts to your computer, look through the "Info" tab to have iTunes overwrite the contacts on your Mac with those on your phone. There are settings for that there.

You can also use Music Rescue (shareware) to pull off your music.


How do you disable or speed up the character/emoji keyboard animation? Context: By default on macOS, you can press cmd + control + space to bring up the character keyboard (more commonly known as the emoji keyboard). Before the keyboard pops up, there is a short delay and a fade in animation. For documents where you enter such characters frequently, the delay is substantial and interferes with the flow of typing.

The Question: How can you speed up the time it takes to show the emoji keyboard? Is there a terminal command to disable the animation, or otherwise reduce the time it takes to ultimately enter the desired character?

Found the answer -- though this will also affect other animations:

defaults write -g NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool false


Using mouse from OSX host on iOS device Is it possible to use a mouse connected to OSX computer at iOS device.
Assume I have a Mac Mini and iPad on same WiFi network. I have a USB mouse connected to Mac Mini. Is there an option to use this USB mouse on iPad remotely (via WiFi) ?

I mean something like Synergy - but Synergy work only on Windows, OSX and Linux. I want to one if there is something similar but for iOS and OSX or for Android and OSX.

Currently, the answer is no. iOS does not have a built in cursor function(unless you count the new keyboard cursor is iOS 9). In order to use a mouse on an iPad at all, you would probably need to jailbreak it.


How can I tell if my Mac Wifi adapter supports "ap mode" First, a long preamble: I've got a set of smart plugs which I'm planning to flash with a new firmware using https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert. Long story short, this utility does over-the-air flashing of these devices with a new firmware. Very convenient and useful. List most smart home stuff, it seems, this is windows and linux only. This is not such a big problem in light of Docker and Docker Desktop for MacOS or Virtualbox, however the utility is failing with a complaint that my Wifi NIC (interface en1) does not support "AP Mode".
Here's my question: how can I decisively tell whether my NIC supports (or does not support) AP mode? I've read that many (but not all) Mac NIC adapters may be lacking this feature, but am not sure how to tell using ifconfig whether this is the case. I can share my wifi connection, and I can sniff packets using WiFi on that mac, so this seems to me to indirectly indicate this is the case. But if not, I'll just get a USB dongle that will work and use that.
Bonus question: anyone recommend a MacOS compatible USB dongle that supports AP Mode in case my iMac does not natively do so?

As far as I know all Macs sold within the last many years support AP mode.
I doubt that your problem is that your WiFi card does not support AP mode, rather it is the fact that you're operating on a virtual network interface inside VirtualBox or Docker - and that doesn't allow exposing such features to the guest OS.
Instead remove the WiFi interface from the host (i.e. it should not "grab" it over USB/PCIe or whatever - it should not load its drivers). Then expose it to the guest as a USB/PCIe device, and let it grab it.


Spotlight sometimes can't find a file. (that actually exists) I don't really understand how Spotlight works, I sometimes search for a file that I know it exists, and Spotlight doesn't find it.
Then I browse to it and it's there.
The volume or folders where it is in are not excluded from Spotlight, I've made sure of that.
Should I (and how?) rebulid Spotlight's index? or otherwise do something so every file can be found?

Edit: I searched for textwrangler and Spotlight found it, also found it with barebones, so it looks like not every pattern that would match the filename works the same for Spotlight.

Spotlight generally only searches at the beginning of words. It can find barebones because it is right after a period, or textwrangler for the same reason, but not wrangler. (It also understands underscores, hyphens, and CamelCase as marking the beginning of words.)

To work around this, instead of doing a straight up spotlight search do a search in Finder (with cmd+F or cmd+option+space). Leave the search box blank, and click the plus button next to where it says "Save." Then make your query "Name" - "contains" -"wrangler" and you are good.

You also need to be careful because I think the file you are searching for is considered a system file. If you are searching within the Preferences folder you will get the right result, but if you are just searching within the home folder or on the entire hard drive, the system file won't show up, unless you push the plus button again and add to your search query "System files" - "are included." Since "System files" isn't in the dropdown box by default, you will probably need to click "Other..." and then find it. You will have the option of adding it permanently to the dropdown box.

Edit: Added image for clarity


How fast does a modern Mac SuperDrive spin a CD or DVD? I am wondering how fast the current 2011/2010 era macs spin the optical media. I'm talking about real physical speeds even if it is complicated.

Angular velocity is fine, linear velocity is fine - the radius is fixed, so the math is easy.

If you can address both slot load and tray loading or go into details how the speeds vary, that would be very nice.

I am also curious of the read speed is different than the burn speed for writeable media of the various types.

Some times you can specify 1x or 8x - but don't know what is the "normal" burn speed. My understanding is they employ zoned constant linear velocity (ZCLV) but I don't see a good reference for hardware that is shipping presently that goes into any detail what 8x actually means.

According to ISO/IEC INTERNATIONAL STANDARD 10149 (Second edition 1995-07-15), which is the basis for the "1x" speed, the linear velocity at whatever point on the disc is being read needs to be between 1.2 and 1.4 meters per second. That would translate into a different RPMs at different parts of the disc.

A back of the envelope calculation suggests that the fastest a drive in a modern MacBook Pro would spin the disc would be during 24x read at the center of the disc; that would be around 12,000 revolutions per minute.

The full text of the standard is downloadable for free at http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/s025869_ISO_IEC_10149_1995(E).zip


OS X autoswitch the input method So, I have a really weird problem with OS X 10.8.2. When I last configured it from scratch for the last time (the release of Mountain Lion), I was using the Apple keyboard. So, the default input method is the Belgian one.

But since, I bought another keyboard (Corsair K60). And as the keyboard layout is a bit different from classic Apple layout, I made my own with Ukelele.

It's been working really well since, I think, the last extra update pour 10.8.2. Since then, every time I switch to an app where you mainly type text (Notes, Sparrow, Twitter client, ... But not with Messages weirdly), OS X switch the input method to Belgian. And I can't switch back to my custom one.

I've already checked I've selected the option : "Use the same input method for all documents" is activated. So, I'm a bit stuck here. Any help ?

If the custom keyboard layout is in ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/, have you tried moving it to /Library/Keyboard Layouts/? That would normally prevent it from being switched to a default layout in password dialogs.

If you don't need the Belgian layout, there's also a hacky way to disable the default layouts.


How do I scroll left or right in a text input field on my iPhone? Sometimes webpages are completely nonfunctional on a phone. There's no way to edit text that extends beyond the text box.

If you're using an iPhone with Force Touch you can force press down anywhere on the keyboard to bring up the typing cursor. If you drag your finger to the right/left side of the display(without letting go) the text will scroll in that direction.

Not 100% on how you would do this on an iPhone 6 or older as it has been a long time since I have used one. You might still be able to hold down on the keyboard..?


I have a problem with the track pad on my Mac Book Pro (mid 2012) The trackpad on my mac book pro (mid 2012), isn't functioning properly. Sometimes it behaves as though I'm holding down a click. For example when working with a text editor I move the mouse across the page and the editor selects the text I move across (without me clicking).

Sometimes it's not possible to click even right at the bottom of the track pad - it feels the same when you try to click right a the top of the track pad (i.e. there is no movement and no 'click' sound).

I've got Apple Care, but the error comes and goes so when I took it into the local repair centre they said they couldn't find anything wrong with it. (It's an apple authorised repairs rather than an actual apple store).

Any suggestions what I can do? What might be causing this? How I can reproduce the fault for the repair guys?

It sounds like your track-pad might need to be adjusted. If it's too tight it can cause the "symptoms" you are describing. I would say this is most likely, but it's always possible that there is another issue with it. If this happens to be the problem it is an easy fix, really. Or, at least it should be. I would take it to your authorized Apple Care repair shop and just have them open it up really quick and take a look.

You can do it yourself without much difficulty at all. Just keep in mind that if you open it up yourself that it voids your warranty. If you are OK with that, then go ahead and check out the solution below.

You need three screwdrivers to get in there and fix it: a tri wing screwdriver(same as the one for nintendo), a Phillips #00 screwdriver, and a T6 Torx Screwdriver. The screws holding the back cover on are tiny phillips screws, the battery is held in by tri wing screws, and to adjust the track pad you will need the T6 Torx driver. NintendoScrewdriver.com has a nice little screwdriver set that has a precision tri wing and phillips screwdriver in it (find that here: nintendoscrewdriver.com). It's technically for Nintendo stuff, but it's high quality and you can't go wrong with it. You can find the T6 torx driver here (also good quality, so you don't strip screws and so it actually fits!).

You really just need to take out the battery to get to the track pad. This video does an awesome job showing very clearly how to do this: (www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQZ_rG9VpHk). The parts you need are the first 0:00-1:45 (shows how to take out the cover and battery) and 13:40 shows taking out the track pad. You won't need to take the track pad out unless you are going to replace it. Also, this video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdKwE9FOnrI)does an AWESOME job describing how to adjust the track-pad. The macbook in that video is a 2008, but it should be the same on the 2012 model. I would also try cleaning it out with compressed air after opening it up.

Another possibility is that the battery is swelling. This is actually somewhat common. You can read about that here: discussions.apple.com/thread/4652016

If worst comes to worst, replacing the track pad isn't too bad. But, rounding back to the beginning, try to use that AppleCare to resolve the issue first so you don't void the warranty.

Hope this helps!

Note: you will have to copy and paste some of the links. This is a new profile and it won't let me post more than 2 links until I have over 10 reputation points.


How to change language of an existing Pages for iCloud document? I have document that was created in Pages for Mac with the correct spelling/language (not English) settings for each paragraph. However, when I now try to edit this document using Pages for iCloud the spelling is set to English.

I have read several support documents about this

Pages for iCloud: Work in other languages

Pages for iCloud: Search, replace, and spell-check text

iCloud: Change the language or time zone on iCloud.com

as well as some "third party" suggestions, all to no avail.

I have made sure that the correct language is my primary language in my browser (Chrome), in my OS (Win 10), changed the language of the iCloud UI (through Settings), changed the format used by iCloud (also via Settings) but my document is still spelled in English.

I believe the first link above explains how one create a completely new document in a certain language but my document already exists.

How do I change the language used for spell-check on an existing document?

I also searched quite in vain...
You can change the Language & Region settings (the three dot button) using iPad or iPhone, then the document will appear in iCloud with the desired language.
Details here. Of course, you can also do that from a mac.


What's with the PDP Authentication Failure when connecting iPhone 4 to a cellular network? I've bought an iPhone 4 and the text and calling work fine, as does wifi. However, when trying to use internet without Wifi I get a "Could not activate cellular data network - PDP authentication failure".

How can I fix this?

There have been a lot of different attempts to fix this general error in different ways. Some of these may work for you.

Remove the SIM card from iPhone 3G, turn off the phone, reboot, then reinsert the sim card and wait an hour or two.
Go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings on your phone to reset the network setting on the iPhone.
Change SIM Card
if nothing else works, call AT&T and have them reset your number.


OS X Text to Speech apps This may be a broad question, but I think the lack of widespread interest in text-to-speech warrants it:

What are some apps for OS X that do novel things with text-to-speech; i.e., more than just take some text and speak it?

One example might be an app that has a "rewind 30 seconds" feature, or highlights the word currently being spoken in an on-screen document, has a hotkey I can press to "bookmark" the word currently being spoken, etc.

I don't know all of Text-To-Speech programs out there, but I think the current state of this technology is still a little behind.

Only the "standard" sentences, i.e. the most common ones, will be spoken with a good intonation. But in general, more or less, programs will behave like robots when pronouncing words.

Regarding the features you asked, anyway, GhostReader does the job and is actually fairly good at pronouncing. Although I'm not sure about the last thing you asked. The program is commercial but has a trial period. You can download single language packages from the site and load them from the program itself.

I was going to suggest Toau as well, but it doesn't have those features you ask, it's pretty basic. The advantages of this app is that it's free, and the interface is simple. The disadvantage is that it uses the Mac OS X library for language packages. When you want to change a language, it will take you to System Preferences, and you'll choose the language there. This is why it's not my first suggestion, while on the other program, you downloaded specific packages.


Unable to restore backup from iCloud in iPhone 12 pro max I have a big-time issue with restoring a Backup from iCloud to my new iPhone.

I traded the iPhone 6s and bought iPhone 12 Pro Max

before trading I took backup of all my data on iCloud, then reset it and traded.

When I started up the new iPhone 12 Pro Max, I got an option under App & Data to restore data from iCloud

I successfully signed in but later it showed No Backups Available however, I could see the data on iCloud in a browser.

I did not take backup using iTunes, hence could not restore it from my PC.

Here is the status of my iCloud backup, it says incomplete too. But not sure if this is the case than will I able to take the backup again that exists on iCloud ?

Yes. You can erase your new phone and run the setup again. Apple cloud servers are seeing outages and general slowdowns around product launches this week so I would check them before trying a restore.

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

You need these to be working for a restore: App Store, Apple ID, iCloud Account & Sign In, iCloud Backup, iOS Device Activation.
Others may be needed depending on your settings and expectations.  Your process is solid and there’s not much you can do - whatever is in iCloud is all you can get so hopefully it’s just slow internet and you don’t have to get Apple Engineering involved to look at your backup logs and perhaps fix or deliver news on what can be restored at this point.


Parallels, Mac and windows using US International keyboard I am currently using Windows 8.1 in parallels under Mac OS X Mavericks.
On both Mac and Windows I use US International since I need the special danish chars æ, ø and å.
These chars are placed differently on the mac layout and the windows layout.
This is very confusing!

Is there a way to make them the same - the mac placement is to prefer?

I found the answer here:
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?265348-How-to-get-same-keyboard-layout-in-Windows-8-as-on-Mac
Basically I had to find an apple keyboard for US International and use it.


Cannot update HomeBrew: Permission denied I am trying to fix some brew doctor error but now after manually erased some files that brew doctor suggested I get the following error when trying to do a brew update :

error: cannot open .git/FETCH_HEAD: Permission denied

Error: Failed to update tap: homebrew/versions
Already up-to-date.

If you are using OSX High Sierra chown operation is not permitted in /usr/local/ in this case use:

sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/Homebrew/


MacBook air shuts down abruptly while using directly with a charger, is it because I am not using battery backup? bought a MacBook air in 2018. After a few months, the battery stopped working and I started using it directly with a charger without any battery backup. Sometime later the device started to shut down randomly even when plugged in and especially when using software like Photoshop.
I am anyway planning to replace the battery but before that, I wanted to make sure is this shutdown issue related to battery or something else?
Did anyone face the same issue before?
Thanks!

It's quite likely to be because the battery is not providing power.
The charger's job isn't to power the computer, it's to charge the battery.
This is significant when the computer wants a lot of power for brief periods. The battery is capable of providing this short burst of full power; the charger is not, so the computer crashes.


Can't access specific websites with Macbook Air (10.7.5 Lion) This has really baffled me:

While my internet connection works, I can't access specific websites with Safari (or any other browser for that matter). I don't get a 404 page; Just an error message that Safari (or Chrome or Firefox) can't access the server at some.location.com.

For example, I can't access www.apple.com or www.reddit.com while some other sites I can access come out "broken" (e.g. in imgur or Facebook I get no images, I can't login etc.) I can ping them, nslookup works, traceroute fails. Other websites seem to have no problem at all (e.g. youtube, this one etc.). It also works ok for the guest account, but not for mine.

Things I've tried so far

clearing the browsers' cache
flushing the DNS cache
adding/removing Google DNS servers
restarting the laptop and the wireless router
disabling the firewall
checking the content of /etc/hosts(which only contains localhost entries)
checked for user restrictions (which are not set)
killing/restarting mDNSResponder

and I still have no idea why this weird behavior started so suddenly. I'm not using any proxies like Little Snitch, and a quick search for malware came up clean.

For such problem one more option is there where you can check your DNS settings.
To fix that problem, open the Network pane of System Preferences and select your network connection in the list on the left. Click Advanced followed by DNS.

In the DNS Servers field, you should see one or more IP addresses. If those addresses are enabled (black, as opposed to gray), select each one in turn and click the minus-sign (-) button. Then, regardless of whether there are already addresses there in gray, click the plus-sign (+) button and enter 208.67.222.220; repeat with 208.67.222.222.

Some more Ipv4 and Ipv6 addresses are given at computerknow.org, you may see there.


"/sbin/mount -uw /" not working? I am trying to add an administrator account on my MacBook Pro using single-user mode. However, the command /sbin/mount -uw / does not seem to work.
Any reason as to why?
/sbin/mount -uw /
apfs_vfsop_mount:1151: Updating mount from /dev/disk1s5 to read/write node is not allowed
mount_apfs: volume could not be mounted: Operation not permitted
mount: / failed with 77
localhost:/ root# /sbin/mount -uw /
apfs_vfsop_mount:1151: Updating mount from /dev/disk1s5 to read/write node is not allowed
mount_apfs: volume could not be mounted: Operation not permitted
mount: / failed with 77
localhost:/ root#

This can happen because System Integrity Protection (SIP) is active. You'll need to disable it first using the command:
csrutil disable

You would commonly do this by rebooting your Mac into Recovery Mode by holding Cmd-R at boot, launch the Terminal and run the command above.


Controlling MacMini volume with MacBookPro volume keys? I have a MacMini which I use as a server and DVR so it constantly has shows and movies playing on it. I'd like to be able to delegate the volume keys on my MacBookPro to the MacMini and control it's volume from my MBP.

Both devices are always on the same network with static internal IP addresses.

You could try using the Airplay for that.

The models that support Airplay

– If you want to mirror to a Mac: OS X Mountain Lion, a supported Mac, and an app to support mirroring.. Supported Macs are:

iMac (Mid 2011 or newer)
Mac mini (Mid 2011 or newer)
MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer)


Batch Removal of "Where from" Metadata Without a Handler I have many images that contain the "Where from" metadata in the "get info" section that shows the URL where they were downloaded from. I want to remove this information from all of them at the same time.

I created an Applescript that works when the shell script retrieves one image from the selected folder in finder. But when the shell script result is multiple images, I get the following error:

  xattr: No such file:

I need the Applescript to work without the use of a handler since it will be used in an application that does not accept handlers.

tell application "Finder" to set selectedFolder to selection as alias list
set folderPath to quoted form of POSIX path of selectedFolder

set getImages to "mdfind -onlyin " & folderPath & " 'kMDItemKind = *image'"
set selectedImages to paragraphs of (do shell script getImages)

set filePaths to {}
repeat with thisFile in selectedImages
    set end of filePaths to quoted form of POSIX path of thisFile
end repeat

do shell script "xattr -d com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms " & filePaths

You need to add:

& space

To:

set end of filePaths to quoted form of POSIX path of thisFile

Example:

set end of filePaths to quoted form of POSIX path of thisFile & space

Another way to resolve this issue is to coerce the list filePaths to a string before it's used in the do shell script command, as after all it does get coerced in the process.

So, just before the do shell script "xattr ... command, do the following, instead of using & space as previously mentioned:

set text item delimiters to space
set filePaths to filePaths as string
set text item delimiters to ""


How can I remove unwanted apps, such as Chess or Address Book, from my Mac? There are a lot of applications that I have no use for that take up space on my Mac that I want to delete.

When ever I try to delete them it says that it is an essential part of the OS but with Chess.app, I find that reason specious at best.

Select the application you would like to remove and Get Info on it, either Command + i or from the Menu File>Get Info.

At the bottom of the resulting window, in the Sharing & Permissions section, change the "everyone" setting to "Read & Write". You will probably have to click the lock in the lower right corner first and authenticate as an administrator.

Once the setting is change, close the Get Info window.
You should be able to move the application to the Trash without any trouble.


Issue with Automator and bash script I'm making an automator service, and the first part takes files and RARs them using a bash script
So in Automator, I have a Get Specified Finder Items action to test the workflow, and then the bash script
F=''
for i in "$@"; do
    F="$F \"${i//\"/\\\"}\""
done

/usr/local/bin/rar a ~/archive.rar $F

so it just takes the file paths, puts quotes around them, and then runs the RAR command with all the files as arguments. When I run this, automator gives me the error

Cannot open  "/Users/user/test.txt" No such file or directory
Cannot create ~/archive.rar No such file or directory

No clue why it's getting those errors. When I add an echo to the last command
echo /usr/local/bin/rar a ~/archive.rar $F

The results are the exactly the command I need. I can copy and paste it in terminal and it works.
Does automator run bash scripts differently then they would run in terminal?

bash does expansion of $@ different than all other environment variables to preserve white space etc in arguments. From bash(1):

@ Expands  to  the  positional  parameters,  starting from one.  When the expansion occurs
  within double quotes, each parameter expands to a  separate  word.   That  is,  "$@"  is
  equivalent  to  "$1"  "$2" ...  If the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word, the
  expansion of the first parameter is joined with the beginning part of the original word,
  and  the  expansion  of  the last parameter is joined with the last part of the original
  word.  When there are no positional parameters, "$@" and $@  expand  to  nothing  (i.e.,
  they are removed).

So you basically should be able to call rar within the Shell Script action without any parsing:

/usr/local/bin/rar a ~/archive.rar "$@"


How can I determine what is hanging git on my OS X machine? I'm trying to do a git pull on my Mac from a local repo.  It is hanging.  My question is, why is it hanging and how can I stop it?  That is, I'm in a repo where the "remotes" are on the local filesystem:

rcook@mymachine (paraDIS_lib (master)): git remote -v
origin  /Users/rcook/gitrepos/paraDIS_lib (fetch)
origin  /Users/rcook/gitrepos/paraDIS_lib (push)

And if I do a git pull then it just hangs, no progress, nothing.  It seems to be stuck doing something called "git-upload-pack":

rcook@RichCookHomeMac (~ (BARE:master)): psfind git
root            15840     1   0.0  0.0 git              git fetch
rcook           23160 22699   0.0  0.0 git              git pull -v --progress
rcook           23161 23160   0.0  0.0 git              git fetch --update-head-ok -v --progress
rcook           23162 23161   0.0  0.0 git-upload-pack  git-upload-pack /Users/rcook/gitrepos/paraDIS_lib

And if run with GIT_TRACE, it looks like I'm hung on "git rev-list":

rcook@RichCookHomeMac (paraDIS_lib.local (master)):    GIT_TRACE=1 git pull
16:51:50.002029 git.c:348               trace: built-in: git 'pull'
16:51:50.002479 run-command.c:335       trace: run_command: 'fetch' '--update-head-ok'
16:51:50.003491 exec_cmd.c:128          trace: exec: 'git' 'fetch' '--update-head-ok'
16:51:50.016960 git.c:348               trace: built-in: git 'fetch' '--update-head-ok'
16:51:50.017949 run-command.c:335       trace: run_command: 'git-upload-pack '\''/Users/rcook/gitrepos/paraDIS_lib'\'''
16:51:50.018872 run-command.c:195       trace: exec: '/bin/sh' '-c' 'git-upload-pack '\''/Users/rcook/gitrepos/paraDIS_lib'\''' 'git-upload-pack '\''/Users/rcook/gitrepos/paraDIS_lib'\'''
16:51:50.038192 run-command.c:335       trace: run_command: 'rev-list' '--objects' '--stdin' '--not' '--all' '--quiet'

Indeed, I can induce a hang with:

GIT_TRACE=1 git rev-list --objects --stdin --not --all

Pulling from the same repo but from a remote machine via ssh works fine.  I.e.,

rcook@rzhasgpu18 (paraDIS_lib (master)): git remote -v
origin  mymachine.net:/Users/rcook/gitrepos/paraDIS_lib (fetch)
origin  mymachine.net:/Users/rcook/gitrepos/paraDIS_lib (push)

There, git pull works great, although it's still very slow.

My question is, shouldn't the local version be way way faster?  How can I figure out what is slowing this down?  On linux, I would run it under strace, but on OS X this is very hard to do it seems, especially in El Capitan with all its weird security stuff.

Yep, occasionally this happens for me too. But it goes normal once I reboot my machine. Probably it starts to happen after update to git version 2.7.2.


bless --nextonly parameter fails I am using the bless command to reboot my Mac mini into VMware ESX.

sudo bless --device /dev/disk3s1 --setboot --nextonly && sudo reboot

Booting ESX works but after the next reboot the Mac reboots into ESX again, despite the "--nextonly" parameter.

The same command (with a different device) works for rebooting into Windows on the Boot Camp partition once, i.e. after booting into Windows the Mac mini reboots into OS X again. But it doesn't work with booting into ESX.

Any ideas?

Update: With the --legacy switch the nvram variable is changed to boot from USB and uses the BIOS emulator, which promptly boots from the Windows partition. So that doesn't work.

Try using the --legacy flag:

sudo bless --device /dev/disk3s1 --legacy --setboot --nextonly reboot

(not sure why you're using the && operator; try the command without it)

I encountered a similar issue a while back; the --legacy flag apparently was needed due to the EFI compatibility at the time. Apple's man page reads:

--legacy     If --setBoot is given, set the firmware to boot a legacy BIOS-based
             operating system from the specified disk. The active flag of an
             MBR-partitioned disk is not modified, which can be done with fdisk(8).
             This is only supported on EFI-based systems.

In VMWare ESX you will need to have EFI selected in the boot manager. It's possible that creating a boot.efi file could help solve your issue as well.

-> bless (OS X Man Pages)


Transferring Files Between Two Separate (not connected to the same network) Computers? I need to send a colleague a relatively large application (>5GB), and was thinking of how I could go about sending it. Cloud-based services such as DropBox won't work because the file is much bigger than the storage, Gmail won't allow me to send files larger than 25Mb, and using a regular USB Flash Drive would take much too long.

What I want to know if it is possible to transfer the files between the two computers without needing to be on the same network (For reference both of us are using MacBook Pro's, and we're a couple of states apart). I've tried using
    telnet,
   ssh, and
    ftp, but it seems that all of them require the two computers to be part of the same local area network (I was trying to have the other end connect to my computer by giving them the IP address of my computer). I was wondering if it were possible to somehow make my MacBook act as a server, have the other end connect, and then transfer the files. Is something like this feasible? Thank you in advance!

The classic way of copying files between two *NIX boxes (Mac, BSD or some Linux) is via the scp command.

This method requires knowledge of the public IP address of the target device, or an IP address within the same VPN. A tool which can help accessing computers over the internet is a Dynamic DNS service, like No-IP or DynDNS. No-IP offers a free service which is more than adequate for your purposes (used it myself). This gives your machine a publicly accessible hostname.

Once you've established the target device's IP, you need to fire up your Terminal, and call the scp command. For the sake of simplicity we'll assume that the target IP is 8.8.8.8, and that you've already set up SSH keys.

Your scp command should look something like this:

>> scp /source/file/here remoteuser@8.8.8.8:/target/file/here

or when using a hostname:

>> scp /source/file/here remoteuser@hostname.net:/target/file/here

If you check scp man pages, it tells you that the first parameter (the source file) should also be defined with a user and a machine. When using a local file, the necessary details are added for you, so you only have to provide the file path.

Here is a link to the scp man page: http://linux.die.net/man/1/scp

And here's a link to a tutorial: https://kb.iu.edu/d/agye

Bonus: if you need to sync a larger number of files more often, maybe something like BitTorrent Sync could be of interest to you. I haven't really tried it myself with larger files tho.


Google Chrome bug in OS X Lion Is it just me or is there a right-click bug for Chrome in OS X Lion? I first noticed that double finger tapping the trackpad didn't show any menu when in chrome (either on a link or on anything).

I thought it was a problem with my trackpad settings in OS X Lion but I checked the Finder and Firefox and right-clicking DOES work. Was it broken together with other mouse gestures in OS X Lion?

Is there a current fix for this?

Looks like it was one of my plugins: Mouse gestures. I was wondering why it was working on my speed dials page(the right click) and when I turned off gestures, right click suddenly worked.


Which options exist for a Macbook air (2010) SSD upgrade? I Know OCZ has released an SSD for the MBA, what other brands sell this kind of hardware?

Actually it's Other World Computing (OWC, also known as macsales.com) that offers 3rd party SSDs for the MacBook Air. They're based on the fairly widespread Sandforce controllers (also used by OCZ). You can find them here.

The only other option I've heard about is RunCore, which announced in May it was going to make a MBA compatible SSD, but as far as I can tell, nothing's been released yet, and it may only be compatible with 2011 and later models.


How do I get my music off my iPod 4th generation 2004 I have a 4th generation ipod from 2004 and have wonderful playlists and music that I want to get onto my 2015 MacBook and in turn onto my iPhone.

Can I do this?

Use iFunbox or try iExplorer to attempt to get all data off of the device. It will have encrypted file names, but the metadata will remain.

In other words, in iFunbox, find the iTunes_Control folder in the root file system, then right click music and click copy to my computer.

In iExplorer, go into music, then press Control-A then Control-C (paste it in the desired directory after). If you are on Mac, go to music then press Command-A then Command-C. (Paste it in the desired directory after.)


Apple Music songs when canceling account and starting a new one If I cancel my Apple Music membership and start a new membership will I be able to play the songs I downloaded from my previous membership? Will they still be in my library?

As long as the two Apple Music subscriptions are tied to the same iCloud account, your music will remain in your iCloud Music Library, and will all be accessible and playable once again after you sign up for a new subscription.

For instance, if you switch from a Family plan to a personal plan, your music should not disappear, so long as you don't delete the music from your iCloud Music Library.


Time Machine not thinning old backups TimeMachine is not removing any old backups.
The disk itself is plenty big enough (1TB, backing up a 500GB main drive), and I have (multiple times) reformatted it to start TimeMachine afresh. After about a month, the TimeMachine disk is full. I last formatted the disk August 19th, and now (September 10th) the disk is full. I can see about 490 backup snapshots, give or take every hour.
The TimeMachine disk is an SSD, formatted Mac OS Extended & Encrypted.
What could be causing this and what else could I try to get TimeMachine to thin out backups as it used to?

I gave up trying to fix this directly, but after upgrading to macOS 11, and using the same SSD freshly formatted with APFS - as now supported in macOS 11 - TimeMachine is back to working as it should, with hourly snapshots being cleared out after 24hrs.
I can't say if the upgrade cleared out something corrupted, or if macOS 11 can now deal with the issue I was having, but it did fix things.


How can I access files on my network from my iPhone? I am attempting to access a PDF file on my network from my iPhone and I know how to access these files from Windows OS.

However since I have an iPhone 5, I don't have the knowledge to make that device work with my existing network files.

I have attempted several apps and none seem to work. I am not interested in changing my network to support iOS. My intent is to absolutely have something on the iPhone to access the same sort of files I can from my Windows laptop when connected via VPN.

I recommend FileExplorer Free.  I just installed it to access files that I wrote on a SD card in my WiFi router.  I have an iPhone and iPad.  FileExplorer can use CIFS, SMB, FTP and others.  It can read many formats such as PDF, video, photos, music and Microsoft Office.
There is  priced version for five dollars.


FileVault causing long boot time and terrible lag in the login screen I've been struggling with this peculiar problem for over a week now. It appears when I have the FileVault enabled and it behaves like this: when booting the laptop it takes 2 or 3 minutes until it gets to the login screen  and once it gets there I can't type anything and can barely move the cursor.

My current configuration is: 13-inch rMBP w/ macOS Sierra, 8GB RAM and somewhere around 30% available disk space. I've tried a PRAM/SMC reset but no lock. Also the diagnostics tool didn't return any error and in the recovery mode I couldn't find any disk errors to fix (before and after disabling FileVault). Even if I boot in Safe Mode successfully, after restarting it gets into the same issue again.

I've tried tailing the system log, disabling useless .plist files and launch daemons that could've influenced the boot time. I've also tried unplugging all my peripherals and it's the same situation. However, with the FileVault disabled it doesn't get stuck in the login screen, but it still needs 1 minute to boot.

I know about a similar issue with the MySQL daemon on Sierra, but it's not my case... I don't have any database installed locally. The single thing would be several homebrew packages that I don't see how they could influence the boot time. I've been pretty desperate with this issue and been trying to avoid starting from scratch with a clean install, because that would imply a lot of configuration.

One thing that I remember is that on El Capitan I didn't have this issue at all or anything related to startup and the boot time was generally of several seconds. Is there any solution or at least a method to give me a hint what's taking so long to boot my machine? Any help will be much appreciated.

I have had this exact problem.

I have a 2015 13" MBP running Yosemite (Mac OS X 10.10.5), not Sierra, though I have 8gb RAM and about 20% free space on an aftermarket 500gb SSD (e.g. not Apple factory installed). I use the laptop constantly and travel a lot with it. I've run into this bizarre boot/lag problem with FileVault roughly 2x-3x a year, and as luck would have it, it usually happens when I don't have access to any hands-on tech support besides myself.

The only thing that works for me:

Disable FileVault: boot into Recovery Mode (command-R after startup chime) or if you have another boot partition. I have a TechTool Pro (TTP) emergency boot partition. Run Apple's Disk Utility from that boot partition and use the "Turn Off Encryption" command.
Reset the SMC: shut down computer; hold shift-control-option-power for at least 10 seconds; start up computer.
Once decrypted, run disk utilities on that drive. Besides Apple's Disk Utility for disk and permissions repair, I use TTP's "Volume Rebuild" tool (once I've booted from the emergency partition).
Use the drive for a few days un-encrypted, with several clean reboots.
Boot back into Recovery or emergency partition and run all those utilities again.
Turn FileVault back on.

This typically works for me. However, it's annoying and time-consuming to resolve. And this is a repair, not a fix.  It will still happen again, randomly, sometime in the future.

The fact that you have this problem on Sierra (Mac OS X 10.12) suggests to me that the problem is deeper than just the OS.


Batch-download from iTunes Match to Mac in iTunes 11 I used to be able to batch-download songs from iTunes Match on my Mac by selecting a group of tracks and choosing Download from the contextual menu, but that option seems to be missing in iTunes 11 (11.1.3 to be precise). Don't want to have to click several thousand songs individually — is there still a way to batch-download in iTunes 11?

Try this as a work around to an actual download all menu item.  Create a new playlist...add your entire library to the playlist.  Next to the playlist click the 'Download from iCloud' icon.


Eliminate com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist malware Running an Early '09 iMac with Mavericks. Earlier this month I began to see a pop up referencing a 'malware cleaner'. Below is a copy of items dated May 4th in the Launch Agents and Launch Daemons folders. Any thoughts on resolving this issue?

Here are the May 4th items:

Launch Agents folder

com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a23d420d.plist

Launch Daemons Folder

com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist
com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist

These are probably real Adobe files, but I'm deleting them because I didn't authorize their installation and they're useless daemons running at launch. The "ARM" ones are apparently for alerting you to updates of Adobe Reader... and who uses that anymore?

Another one is com.adobe.fpsaud, 32-bit junk that's still lingering around to warn you about Flash player updates. It prompts warnings from Mac OS about being "not optimized," because 32-bit support is deprecated.

One guy took the time to write up his exploration of these files and shows how to remove them here.


How to enable routing in OS X El Capitan I've got a Linux VMware virtual machine (guest) configured with a NAT adapter on a 192.168.56.0 subnet. Its IP address is 192.168.56.128 and my Mac (host) got 192.168.56.1. Guest's default gateway is automatically set to 192.168.56.2 and is able to ping google from the guest. Host's Wi-Fi IP is 192.168.0.2,

I've configured my Wi-Fi router with following routing table to forward packets of 192.168.56.0 to 192.168.0.2 (my Mac)

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ route

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
default         172.16.4.1      0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0
172.16.4.0      *               255.255.252.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
192.168.0.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 wlan0
192.168.56.0    192.168.0.2     255.255.255.255 UGH   0      0        0 wlan0
192.168.57.0    192.168.0.2     255.255.255.255 UGH   0      0        0 wlan0

But I'm unable to ping guest from any other device on the Wi-Fi network (192.168.0.0). So it's obvious that my Mac running OS X El Capitan is not forwarding the packets from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.56.0

Your router is not responsible to route packets from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.56.0, but the VM host is. You have to keep the static route 192.168.56.0    -> 192.168.0.2 on the router though. I don't know what's the purpose of the second route 192.168.57.0 -> 192.168.0.2 - probably a second NAT adapter on the  host.

To reach your VM from other OS X devices in your 192.168.0.0 network you have to set up a static route on each of the 192.168.0.x machines to the VM host:

sudo route add -net 192.168.56.0  192.168.0.2

To make this route persistent add a launch daemon on each of the machines:

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.staticroute.vm.plist

with the content

<?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>local.staticroute.vm</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>route</string>
      <string>add</string>
      <string>-net</string>
      <string>192.168.56.0</string>
      <string>192.168.0.2</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
  </dict>
</plist>

save the file (ctrl-O) and quit nano (ctrl-X).

Load the launch daemon with:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.staticroute.vm.plist

If the other devices in the 192.168.0.0 network are Linux/Windows/Android hosts use the respective commands to add a route:

Windows (persistent):

route add -p 192.168.56.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.2

Linux:

route add -net 192.168.56.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.0.2

To add a persistent route in Linux check your Linux distro documentation.


PostgreSQL causing slow shutdowns with OS X Server in Mavericks I've found that on OS X Server in Mavericks, the PostgreSQL processes are causing shutdown delays. During a verbose shutdown, I get the following (shortened) output:

com.apple.launchd                      System: Still alive with 1/7 (normal/anonymous) children.
*.anonymous.pg_receivexlog             PID is still valid
*.anonymous.postgres_real              PID is still valid
*.anonymous.postgres_real              PID is still valid
*.anonymous.Python                     PID is still valid
*.anonymous.pg_receivexlog             PID is still valid
*.anonymous.postgres_real              PID is still valid
com.apple.DeviceManagement.postgres    PID is still valid

The (*) is replaced by a random string, different for each item.

I have no experience with PostgreSQL and I don't use any of the database-related OS X Server components (mainly Xcode and VPN) so I have no idea where to start.

The com.apple.DeviceManagement.postgres line makes me think that this could be related to Profile Manager services. Does it show Profile Manager running in Server.app? If you're not utilizing this service, disabling it may help to stop the shutdown delays.

Alternately, if you need to keep these services running, it may be worth looking at some log files somewhere (/var/log/system.log or /var/log/devicemgr/*?) to see if the profile manager service (or any others) are complaining.


Is there a package management system for shell scripts on Mac OS? Is there a package system (think npm, cpan, or even homebrew) that would be suitable for shell scripts?

Shell scripts don't need much packaging, so most people use a source control system for this. There are dozens of options, but I'd start with github and come back with a more detailed question once the github / source control system broke under the strain of volume of your scripts or the complexity of the situation.

As it stands, we can only guess what your true requirements are since all three examples you list run natively on OS X and you can roll your own packages according to each recipe if you prefer to use them.

For internet hosting, you could easily use GitHub since they host files for download or you could push the files to Amazon S3 and many other cloud hosting services that serve up files for free or inexpensively. Amazon for example allows 5 GB of free space and 20,000 hits per month before you need to pay them anything. Dropbox also has no practical limit on the number of hits, but offers less space initially if you were to sign up for a new account with them.


Game Center, can't sign up IOS 6.1.6 Ipod touch 4th gen I have an Ipod touch 4th Gen on ver 6.1.6, it is not jailbroken. Whenever I try to sign in I get these results

I don't know why it won't work, I have tried factory resetting it, using 3 different Wi-Fi networks, and a bunch of other stuff, but it won't get past that third picture.

I have a old Game Center account, and I can sign in with it, but I refuse to use it because the nickname is hella embarrassing, when I sign in with it I can play games fine, however there is one thing when I try clicking on "account: (my old email)" then "View Account" and then it just loads, then gets stuck on that same green screen I would get stuck on when trying to sign in with my new Apple ID

Edit: I am editing it to show you all what I meant in my last paragraph

Signed in with my old account

Selecting "view account"

and then I get that same blank screen, and it doesn't load anything, I waited for 5 minutes.

So I think both of them stem from the same problem, any help would be appreciated.

Just had this problem with an iPod running iOS 6.1.6.  Here are the steps I followed to fix it.

Log into Game Center on a friend's device (must be iOS 7 or greater).
Accept the terms and conditions and create Game Center profile.  Once profile is created, log out of Game Center.
On the iOS 6 device, sign out of your Apple account used by your device and then sign back in.
Launch Game Center and sign in.

Basically, iOS 6.1.6 is having issues when new Game Center users need to create their profile for the first time.


iOS Mail wont open zip files I'm on iOS 9.2 on an iPad air 2.

I understand that since iOS 7 mail should open (for viewing) zip files directly.

What I actually get is just perpetual Loading... and spinning wheel. If I copy to WinZip I can open the file fine.

Is this expected behaviour?

....... Further (!) Edited to add the following in response to bmike's comment and add context ......

5 small to moderate PDF files of business documents, total zipped size 364KB.  Zipped using WinZip 18.5 on desktop Win7. Zip file was attached to an email.

Outlook 2013 opens the zip file on double-clicking (showing the zip file index).
Interestingly, Yahoo Mail shows the zip file as "No Preview" (download is Ok).

On iPad, both the 5 documents, and also a test single document, produce a perpetual spinning wheel when the zip file icon is tapped for native view.
Using 'copy to' (touch and hold the icon) with PDF EXpert or to WinZip mobile, either file can be opened successfully.

I will look for a different zip program on the desktop to see if that makes a difference.

...

What has me quite puzzled is that Google has turned nothing on this topic, trying various searches.   Which suggests this is a somewhat unique situation.  (Or no one is using Mail App for serious emails ...)

But to me this is a very straightforward situation.  And given the facts in the question, the finger does seem to point at Mail.app.

After my test (ipad air 2 with 9.3.2) i see that MAIL opens only zip files produced with a MAC OS X.
With MAIL we can't open zip files produced on other operating system /app (for example windows or 7zip on windows, etc)
So their info
("Supporto allegati email/Tipi di documenti visualizzabili" on https://support.apple.com/kb/SP708?viewlocale=it_IT&locale=it_IT)
are not true (or are partially true)


Is there any port of start-stop-daemon for OS X? I am trying to use some init.d script under OS X and I while some are just working properly, I discovered quite a few that to rely on /sbin/start-stop-daemon and I am looking for a port of it for OS X.

Any ideas?

Note, I know that OS X does not have support for init.d but there is nothing stoping you from using it to start/stop some services. It is much easier to install things like postgres, nginx using brew and control them using the usual service name start|stop|restart.

You need to look at launchd which uses *.plist setup files in:

/Library/LaunchAgents/, /Library/LaunchDaemons/ and ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

Under /System/Library/LaunchAgents/ and /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ are the ones provided by Mac OS X.

When you e.g. install postgresql form Macports, there will also be installed an org.macports.postgresql93-server.plist file under /Library/LaunchDaemons/ (it is a link to a .plist file which is installed under /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql93-server), but the daemon isn't enabled at install.

The content of this .plist file is (the key <key>Disabled</key><true/> need to be set to false, if you need to enable the daemon):

<?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>org.macports.postgresql93-server</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>/opt/local/bin/daemondo</string>
    <string>--label=postgresql93-server</string>
    <string>--start-cmd</string>
    <string>/opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql93-server/postgresql93-server.wrapper</string>
    <string>start</string>
    <string>;</string>
    <string>--stop-cmd</string>
    <string>/opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql93-server/postgresql93-server.wrapper</string>
    <string>stop</string>
    <string>;</string>
    <string>--restart-cmd</string>
    <string>/opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.postgresql93-server/postgresql93-server.wrapper</string>
    <string>restart</string>
    <string>;</string>
    <string>--pid=none</string>
</array>
<key>Debug</key><false/>
<key>Disabled</key><true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key><true/>
</dict>
</plist>


Stop Macbook from making sound when plugged in to charge I have a Macbook Air and whenever I plug in the USB-C cable to charge, it makes a notification chirp to indicate it's charging.

The problem is that this sound comes out audibly, even when headphones are plugged in (unlike other sounds which do come through the headphones), and even when all sounds are muted (other sounds do get successfully muted).

The charging chirp does not seem to follow regular rules governing notification sound effects. How can I plug my laptop in to charge silently?

I was not able to check it myself, but I found that link here: https://www.iphonetopics.com/enable-power-charging-indicator-sound-mac/
It seems a app called PowerChime can do your need.


Right-to-Left in Yiddish in Pages for Mac Pages for mac now supports Hebrew, which is written from right to left. However, Pages does not seem to support custom keyboard layouts other than the system's Hebrew layout(s). I am using Shoshke's Yiddish Kayboard Layout for mac (I don't have enought "reputation" to post the link here, but it is actually not that important) on Yosemite, by the way, which allows me to type Yiddish with punctuation extremely effeciently.

When writing in Pages using the system's native Hebrew layout, this is what I get:

However, when writing with my custom Yiddish keyboard (which was most probably created using Ukelele), I get this:

As you can see, the period is on the right, while it should be on the left (at the end of the sentence). This is just an obvious example, but when mixing Yiddish and English in the same sentence the result is even worse.

Unfortunately, Pages' paragraph direction controls do not solve the problem. Pages obviously recognizes the input language and implements the right-to-left correcly only for languages it recognizes from the system's native keyboard layouts (e.g. "Hebrew").

Writing Yiddish with the native Hebrew keyboard is possible, but is much much slower for me. Therefore, I am looking for a way to still use the Yiddish keyboard in Pages, which seems very stable and rebust in comparison to other available word processors (not to mention that it was shipped for free with my new mac).

I see 4 ways to go about it:

Editing the native Hebrew keyboard layout, adapting it to my needs (so far I could only find information about creating new custom keyboard layouts, not about changing the system's existing ones; this solution would actually be the best one - as there is absolutely no advanatge of the Hebrew native keyboard over the Yiddish one).
Somehow making Yosemite believe that my custom Yiddish keyboard is a sort of "Hebrew" (currently it puts it under "Others" when installing it from the Keyboard preference pane, which explains why Pages does not identify it as an RTL language).
Somehow making Pages believe that my Yiddish keyboard is a sort of "Hebrew".
Programming keyboard-shortcuts for Pages that would immitate the custom keyboard's behaviour (so far I was only able to find ways to program keyboard-shortcuts for the app's menu items; maybe there is a third-party application that can program such shortcuts?)

I looked for answers online and tried to open the package contents of the Pages app and was just unable to discover how to achieve any of the four solutions... I would truly appreciate if anyone could help me out (and maybe there is another solution?)

Thank you very much!

Pages 5 does have paragraph direction controls. See

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH15331

Regarding 4, you can make text replacement sequences in system prefs/keyboard/text

Regarding 1 and 2, you might ask in the group devoted to Ukelele

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ukelele-users

In that group they suggested opening the layout with the latest version of Ukelele and setting the Language to Hebrew.  I tried that and saved as a bundle and it did the trick:  The layout appears under Hebrew instead of Others and periods go in the right place.


Deleting notes in ipod All my notes are synced to my gmail account and can be accessed. Now if I delete all my notes on my ipod, would it also delete all my notes in my gmail because it syncs.
I do not want the notes in gmail to be deleted.Thanks for the help.

If you delete the notes from the app, then yes, they'll be deleted from Gmail. However, if you just want to take the notes off the iPod, you can just switch off "Notes" for your Gmail account under Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.


Can't add tag to apache config or log files In OS X X.9 Mavericks, I'd like to add a colored tag to my apache config file, which is under /private/etc/apache2, and to my apache log files, which are under /priavte/var/log

I do not have the option to add a colored tag to these files.

Is it because they are "hidden"? Or does it have to do with file ownership? Is there a workaround?

The files are owned by root and Finder runs as the user, so Finder is not allowed to modify the tags.

As a workaround, you can run Finder as root:

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder

Or use tag or xattr:

brew install tag;sudo tag -s $'Red\n6' /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

sudo xattr -w com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags '("Red\n6")' /etc/apache2/httpd.conf;sudo xattr -wx com.apple.FinderInfo '00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00' /etc/apache2/httpd.conf


Why did an "Untitled" partition appear that uses up half the disc space and how do I get rid of it? On a Mac OS X Server, I realized today that the 1TB disk has all of the sudden two partitions, both of them around 500GB large:

1TB APPLE HDD ST1000LM024
  Macintosh HD2:
    Mount Point: /
    Format: Mac OS Extended (journaled)
    Capacity: 499.41 GB
  Untitled:
    Mount Point: /Volumes/Untitled
    Format: Mac OS Extenden (journaled)
    Capacity: 499.28 GB

When I look in /Volumes/Untitled, I see the following data:

.DS_Store
.Spotlight-V100
.Trashes
.fseventsd

And that is it.

So maybe I'm becoming crazy but I am almost certain that this partition has not been there before. Was it created by the OS? Is it important? Can I just delete it, so that my other partition can use the full 1TB space?

You only have bookkeeping files on that partition. Unless there are hidden files, you can delete it and expand the / partition to get all the space to use.

sudo ls -laOR /Volumes/Untitled

As to why, that might be hard to guess unless someone was contemplating Bootcamp or making a RAID and needed to reduce the size to match the other disk.

To delete it, Disk Utility is the easiest method to resize the main partition once you've deleted the Untitled one. Just read the dialog carefully on which partition's data will be erased and which will remain before pressing OK in the dialogs.

You can learn more here:

How to resize Macintosh HD?

The command you might need to do that from the command line without prompts asking if it's OK (so be sure to back everything up on the mac first) would be:

diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ "Macintosh HD2" disk222s2 disk222s3

I made the command use disk222s2 to avoid it working on all reasonable setups. If your second drive was disk2 that held the splits, you would substitute disk2s2 disk2s3 after checking the s2 and s3 parts matched the volumes to merge.