xld crashes with El Capitan After upgrading to El Capitan (No complains apart of this one) XLD does not work anymore.

When I try to rip a CD, XLD crashes and I get the following trace back:

Process:               XLD [79196]
Path:                  /opt/homebrew-cask/*/XLD.app/Contents/MacOS/XLD
Identifier:            jp.tmkk.XLD
Version:               20141129a (148.2)
Code Type:             X86 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           XLD [79196]
User ID:               501

Date/Time:             2015-10-04 14:49:21.854 +0200
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.11 (15A284)
Report Version:        11
Anonymous UUID:        9CCBACF6-B42B-0DCE-94E2-6BD9C09609E5

Sleep/Wake UUID:       5458CA8F-9C1F-4CAB-8190-184CF714214C

Time Awake Since Boot: 56000 seconds
Time Since Wake:       680 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        11

Exception Type:        EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** +[NSString stringWithUTF8String:]: NULL cString'

Application Specific Backtrace 1:
0   CoreFoundation                      0x993309b9 __raiseError + 201
1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x94324f11 objc_exception_throw + 276
2   CoreFoundation                      0x993308cd +[NSException raise:format:] + 141
3   Foundation                          0x90ce2fc5 +[NSString stringWithUTF8String:] + 96
4   XLD                                 0x0001c692 -[XLDController readPreGapOfDisc:] + 2354
5   Foundation                          0x90d15b37 -[NSThread main] + 45
6   Foundation                          0x90d158c2 __NSThread__start__ + 1550
7   libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x9512b794 _pthread_body + 138
8   libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x9512b70a _pthread_body + 0
9   libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x95128fa6 thread_start + 34

Thread 0:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   libsystem_kernel.dylib          0x9401c07a mach_msg_trap + 10
1   libsystem_kernel.dylib          0x9401b464 mach_msg + 68
2   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x9922b096 __CFRunLoopServiceMachPort + 214
3   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x9922a4a1 __CFRunLoopRun + 1521
4   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x99229c46 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 390
5   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x99229aab CFRunLoopRunInMode + 123
6   com.apple.HIToolbox             0x97919719 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 267
7   com.apple.HIToolbox             0x9791951b ReceiveNextEventCommon + 503
8   com.apple.HIToolbox             0x97919314 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 99
9   com.apple.AppKit                0x9cd5b976 _DPSNextEvent + 1053
10  com.apple.AppKit                0x9cd5aef0 -[NSApplication _nextEventMatchingEventMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 1057
11  com.apple.AppKit                0x9cd5aac7 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 121
12  com.apple.AppKit                0x9cd4e23b -[NSApplication run] + 1063
13  com.apple.AppKit                0x9cd148c4 NSApplicationMain + 1630
14  jp.tmkk.XLD                     0x00002d12 _start + 216
15  jp.tmkk.XLD                     0x00002c39 start + 41
....

The crash occurs when it reads the gaps before ripping.

Any suggestion why this happens? I re-installed the newest version.

From the XLD SourceForge page

  The crash report
  indicates that XLD failed to get a vendor/product string from a drive,
  or lost a connection itself. I guess the crash is caused by "Set
  automatically if possible" option in "CD Rip" preference tab.

This solved the problem.


Track volume keeps resetting itself I'm using garageband, and I am trying to lower the volume of one track. I adjust the volume slider to where I want it (-13.8 db) , but when I start playing the song, the volume slider for that track instantly resets itself back to a much higher volume (+1.8 db).

If I adjust the volume while the song is playing, it works, until I restart. If I start the song from anywhere but the very beginning, it plays at this right volume. If I start it from the beginning, it plays with the higher volume. I'm so confused as to why this is happening. I'm using volume automation to fade out at the very end, but it's flat until then, so I don't know why it would cause this. (Yes, the line in the automation is where I want it).

Any ideas?

Here is a video of the issue in case my description was unclear.

I was having this same problem and I think I figured it out. You have to click on ‘Editor’s button’ which is the scissors cutting the sound wave, which should open the MIDI region menu at the bottom of garage band. The make sure your track is unlocked, and then click on the little button just above where it says MIDI Region that looks like three tiny sliders or dots with lines coming out of them. That should open your MIDI draw area where you can not edit the volume and such. From there, edit your volume in the draw area, then fine tune it with the slider located on the track. Make sure when you're done adjusting you lock the track before you press play or it will reset again. It may take a few tries where it does reset a couple times before it sticks, but now, you should be able to get it to stop resetting for you.


Migrating with different operating systems ... Issue? Trying to migrate software on two OS X macs with different operating systems. Source is running mountain lion and target is running Yosemite. Is this an issue??  I'm using an ethernet cable, have turned off firewall and wifi.

No - Migration Assistant always supports taking an older system and/or backup and migrating those Apps, Documents and Settings to a newer OS.

You generally can't go the reverse direction so Yosemite to Mountain Lion wouldn't be a possible migration path.


Bell causes entire screen to flash white I have an old-ish iMac where the sound has stopped working:

which I'm not really too fussed about - it doesn't get used for a whole lot of stuff.

The only really annoying part is that it seems like every time the OS wants to play a bell, it sees that there's no sound available so it flashes the entire screen white.

I've checked another SE post which recommended checking "Accessibility > Audio > Flash the screen when an alert sound occurs" and trying to enable then disable it - done that, and had no luck. I've also removed ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.universalaccess.plist and restarted, that hasn't helped either.

As another answer on the other post suggested, I've also tried running sudo killall coreaudiod with no joy.

Does anyone else have any idea how I can get rid of the white flash?

Since I don't have a broken audio card and VMs apparently don't work with a virtual sound device (pun not intended but it got one - maybe I made a mistake installing Soundflower) I can't really prove it, but the following should work:

Download Soundflower 2.0b2 (for 10.8, 10.9, 10.10)
or download Soundflower 1.6.3 (tested with 10.7)
or download and compile the Soundflower sources
Install Soundflower and reboot your Mac
Set the Soundflower device as default audio output for alerts/sound effects with the Audio-MIDI-Setup tool (found in /Applications/Utilities).


MacBook Pro boots to mostly white screen with random pixel pattern So my girlfriend's "oldish" MacBook Pro (Model #: A1286?) won't boot. Upon pressing the power button the fan starts up and a short mechanical noise is heard that sounds like the DVD drive's loading mechanism. Then the screen comes up mostly whit with the pictured pattern.

If I leave it running the screen will periodically turn black shortly, the mechanical noise will be heard again and then the weird patterned white screen comes back. The pattern is not always exactly the same, but always similar to the one pictured.

All troubleshooting tips I was able to find assume that the machine boots to at least the apple logo, which this definitely does not.

I would appreciate any input as to what might be causing this and / or how to fix it.

EDIT:
Almost everything I have tried so far has included holding down some sort of key combination on startup. But all those tips (like the ones from Monomeeth's answer) usually reference the "grey startup screen" or the "screen with the apple logo". My MBP does not display anything but the weird pattern above, so I can't run the hardware test, boot to safe mode or reinstall the OS.

But since I've tried Resetting the PRAM/NVRAM the MBP sounds the "startup chime" on every reboot which it hasn't done before as far as I can remember.

Sadly I'm not 100% sure what year the MBP is, but it should be 2010 (or maybe 2009)

As suggested by Allan I tried hooking it up to an external monitor, but the external monitor stayed black while the behavior of the MBP did not change at all.

The A1286 is the model number used for many of the 15" MacBook Pros from late-2008 to mid-2012.

Troubleshooting is a process of elimination and often requires patience. In this case you should definitely run Apple Hardware Test, although you could try resetting the NVRAM first to see if that resolves the issue. Below are steps on how to do both.

Resetting the PRAM/NVRAM on your MacBook Pro model

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). It may be worth resetting this on the off chance it resolves your issue. Here’s how to do this:

Power off your MacBook Pro.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again (i.e. a 2nd time) and you've heard the startup chime twice.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

If this doesn't work, then proceed to testing your hardware with Apple Hardware Test.

Run Apple Hardware Test

Your model MBP uses Apple Hardware Test. To use this, follow these steps:

Power off your MacBook Pro
Power on your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears.
After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start.
When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow.
When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. However, I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Note 1: that the extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

Note 2: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.


StarCraft II minimises itself after opening Whenever I try to open up StarCraft II, the updating screen appears for a few seconds on 50%. The window then disappears, but it is still shown as open in the dock (light is on under the icon). How can I fix this problem?

Have you tried a full re-install of StarCraft? Have you ensured that you have all updates, particularly graphic driver updates, are installed?

Additionally, you can also find several troubleshooting steps at OS X Daily which includes a few close descriptions of the issue you described.


How do I restore a Mojave Time machine backup on Catalina? I recently did a clean install of macOS Catalina. I did this knowing well that my previous OS, Mojave was backed up on Time Machine. However, am failing to restore the Time machine backup on the new Catalina OS.

Time Machine doesn’t operate differently when restoring.

If you restore a backup interval made on an older or same OS - it works.
If you attempt to restore a backup interval made from a newer OS than what is attempting the restore it will fail.

Since we don’t know what’s failing - you can either attach the Time Machine and indicate before you create the first user account you want to migrate. If you are past that, erase the Mac and then watch carefully in the setup steps where you are asked to choose to restore from backup.
If you don’t want to erase Catalina - open Migration Assistant and choose the data you want to restore from your Time Machine.
If you like steps and guides - here is a great one on moving your data to a new Mac.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350


OS X Server & Time Machine for Active Directory Users In my setup, we have an OS X server, where the machine is bound to our Active Directory domain.  I am able to log onto the machine using AD users/credentials locally, with no problems.  However, when I configure and enable the 'Time Machine' service, I cannot seem to authenticate to the machine from my Mac.  I was wondering if there was something extra needed for the server to query AD, without having to configure local users.  Thanks!

Ok - I feel foolish.  I found the answer within minutes of posting the question.  Here is the answer:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/24844922#24844922

I had to enable 'File Sharing' on OS X Server as well, add an explicit folder (or drive) where the backups would go and add explicit permissions to that folder. You can allow 'everyone' to access it, but in my case, I have an AD Security group that contains all Mac users in the org.


Why does the Mac App Store show an "error" for a missing product? A game that purchased a while ago in the Mac App Store is now "not currently available in the U.S. store", but continues to appear in my Applications folder as a download in progress

and shows an error in the App Store's list of apps that I've purchased

Why does this app continue to appear in the App Store if it is no longer available? What can I do to get rid of the warning about the error in the App Store? I've tired deleting the app (or what's left of it) from my machine, but it continues to appear in the App Store as an error.

And if anyone knows, I'm curious why the app is no longer available.

If you disconnect all network cables and turn off WiFi, you should be able to reboot and have the download fail. At that point, deleting the file should be the permanent solution.

Once that's sorted, you'll have better luck hiding that purchase to avoid a re-download attempt.


Input Sources Menu not working I recently updated to Sierra.  Now the Input Sources Menu isn't working.  My 2 source are listed (US & Unicode) but selecting them does nothing.  The checkmark doesn't move, the menu title doesn't change, and the keyboard function doesn't change.

Additionally, the "Show/Hide input source name", "Show Emoji & symbols", and "Show character viewer" menu options tend to just disappear from the menu and stay gone until reboot.

Any idea what would cause this, and/or how to fix?

I believe I have fixed it.  Based on some pages I found, I ended up deleting some prefs:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox*
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox*

After rebooting, the menu now acts normally.  If no other problems crop up soon, I'll mark this as answered.


how many devices can be registered for iOS Enterprise programme I am working in a big organization where I want to distribute application with 300 different devices.

I came to know that iOS Enterprise programme is available for such a big in house distribution ,

But I want to know how many device can be registered with such programe ?

With simple developer programe with ad-hock profile we are able to register  100 different devices that I know but with enterprise I do not have any idea.

If any one know then please let me know.

thanks in advance...

I'm pretty sure it's unlimited, tho I couldn't confirm it from any official source. There are reports of people using it for way over 300 devices, tho, so you should be fine.


How can I work around Subversion's port being blocked when installing something with brew? I'm running into an issue where I'm trying to follow the advice of a comment on this SO Q&A titled: Use PPK file in Mac Terminal to connect to remote connection over SSH that suggested you could install putty via an Subversion repository like so:

$ brew install putty --HEAD

When attempted I get this error:

$ brew install putty --HEAD
==> Cloning svn://svn.tartarus.org/sgt/putty
svn: E000060: Unable to connect to a repository at URL 'svn://svn.tartarus.org/sgt/putty'
svn: E000060: Can't connect to host 'svn.tartarus.org': Operation timed out
Error: Failed to download resource "putty"
Failure while executing: svn checkout -q --force svn://svn.tartarus.org/sgt/putty /Library/Caches/Homebrew/putty--svn-HEAD

NOTE #1: I believe the port used by Subversion is blocked by a corporate firewall.

NOTE #2: I'm ultimately trying to work around an issue with the version of putty that's included in Brew.

$ brew install putty
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/putty-0.63.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/putty-0.63.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
==> Pouring putty-0.63.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
  /usr/local/Cellar/putty/0.63: 11 files, 1.4M

$ puttygen privatekey.ppk -O private-openssh -o privatekey.pem
Enter passphrase to load key:
Assertion failed: (random_active), function random_byte, file ./unix/../sshrand.c, line 313.
Abort trap: 6

Run puttygen as sudo and you'll be fine.


Scroll to zoom on a mac with a non-mac usb mouse Moving over to a mac from windows and one feature I really enjoyed was being able to map my scroll up and scroll down keys and (+) and (-) respectively.

Then, while in a web browser or picture preview I could hold ctrl and scroll up and down to zoom in and out.

I have been having trouble implementing this for my mac. I tried the better touch tool but can't seem to make it work with that.

I also tried System Preferences->Accessibility->Zoom to change the settings there but it does not increase the size of whatever I am viewing, it just actually zooms in the entire computer screen (which is an unwanted effect).

Some programs may allow you to use cmd+scroll to zoom in or out (it works in Firefox at least)


View metadata for song currently playing on iPhone Is there any way to view metadata (such as composer, genre, year etc) for a song that is currently playing on an iPhone?

If there is no way to do so, and no apps which can do this, does the iOS API allow access to this information (i.e. could I write an app to do this myself)?

Looks like many apps do this. Look at FlickTunes, for instance, which allows you to use gestures to control playback. Or TuneWiki, which tries to look up the lyrics for the current song. So I assume the API is there and you could write an app that displays this metadata.


How can I stop my iPhone from auto deleting app data left and right? I have noticed that an app I use has been requiring me to download tons of data whilst in the app despite there not being any new (internal, I.e. non-AppStore based) updates. As far as I can tell at some point in time, perhaps near the release of iOS 11, Apple added a new feature which causes iPhones to delete app data (documents etc.) partially or completely. I’ve seen a few people mention this online but I haven’t heard of any solution besides ”delete some data yourself” which doesn’t seem to always work either. Is there any way to disable this? Thanks in advance...

In iOS 11 you can have the system 'offload' rarely-used apps and their associated data.  In prior iOS versions, once an app is deleted all its data is deleted, too.  Now you can change that.

By default, this selection is turned on.  It's very simple to turn it off (and back on, if you want).  You can do this by individual app for the the entire device.

Source:

Individual App

Go to Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage
Tap the app you want to offload

Tap Offload App and then confirm

Its documents and data will be stored on your device. And, when you reinstall the app, all of the data is automatically restored.

Automatically for the device

Go to Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage
Tap on Enable next to Offload Unused Apps

That's all you need to do.  If you don't want this to be done automatically any more, simple disable the selection.


Why is the software under the Public Beta Program considered confidential? The FAQ page for the Public Beta Program includes the following entry:

Is the public beta software confidential?
Yes, the public beta software is Apple confidential information. Don’t install the public beta software on any systems you don't directly control or that you share with others. Don’t blog, post screen shots, tweet, or publicly post information about the public beta software, and don't discuss the public beta software with or demonstrate it to others who are not in the Apple Beta Software Program. If Apple has publicly disclosed technical information about the public beta software, it is no longer considered confidential.

Why is it considered confidential if it is completely free to enrol in the beta program and anyone with an Apple ID can do it? Is there some kind of weird legal issue or is Apple just reusing some parts of their TOS from other things?

One reason beta software is restricted and considered confidential is that by exposing features could result in revenue recognition issues for the company, which could result in the company refunding money or needing to restate their corporate financials.

Lets say you play with the beta, and are extremely excited to discover that this beta has support for left-handed keyboards. As a big user of left-handed keyboards, you begin tweeting about the support, write blog posts, etc.  Many users decide to purchase new Macs because they too are anticipating left-handed keyboards. However, Apple decides that supporting left-handed keyboards doesn't work well enough, and decide to not ship the support in the golden master release. Customers sue Apple, demanding not only refunds but reparations for lost time because of the "missing" support. The SEC investigates Apple, because they feel Apple may have mislead investors, who anticipated that there would be lots of sales of Macs, partly due to left hand keyboard support....

You get the idea.


Possible to disable URI on iPhone? Apps can open other apps on iPhone using a URI scheme (e.g., open the Facebook app with fb://). Is there a way to disable this?

There is no way to disable opening the apps instead of going to Safari, aside from deleting the app itself.


How much RAM does the 6th generation iPod touch have? I would expect to have the same as the iPhone 6 - 1GB since it also has an A8. How much does it have?

The 6th generation iPod touch has 1GB of RAM and runs at 1.10GHz according to Matthew Panzarino.


MacBook Pro reset password My Macbok Pro is wanting me to reset my password.  I know my password but I can't get past this screen because the touch mouse doesn't work in this reset mode.

Keyboard navigation using Tab & Enter
OR
Connecting a cable/wireless mouse that has been unified/set up

One more thing, I think the title of the question is misleading.
"Trackpad doesn't work in Reset mode" That should get more answers quickly!


Can the Finder Dock be fixed to show all icons of aliases instead of some? I have a folder in my dock full of aliases to applications. When I add a new alias, the icon doesn't usually show up in the Dock folder:

but the icons are there in the Finder window for the same folder in every case. Usually the icons will show up eventually (with no clear indication of what triggers the fix), but these 4 apps have been stuck without an icon for some time and through a reboot. I have this now on Mountain Lion, but the same thing happened in Lion.

Does anyone know how to fix things (preventative or remedial) so the Dock will display icons properly?

I was able to work around this by dragging the folder out of the Dock to remove it, then dragging the folder back from the Finder into the Dock. I'd still love to know if there's something that would fix it in place, but this is working for me now.


How can I remove an icon from dock in ML? In previous releases of OS X, you were able to remove an icon from the dock by just dragging it off. However, this does not seem to work anymore.

How can I remove a program's icon from the dock?

This is actually still possible; however, a safe-guard to protect novice users has been added. There is now a minimum distance that you need to move the icon away from the Dock for it to be removed.

Once that distance is reached, the cursor will show a wrinkled paper icon.

Simply release the mouse then, and the icon will be removed from the dock normally.

Alternatively, one can still use the context menu of the icon (right-click or long-left-click the icon to make it appear) and go to Options > Remove from Dock.


How can I change the number of times my iphone tries to notify me when I receive an SMS message? I would like to change the number of times my phone 'pings' me when I receive an SMS message.

I'm not sure who decided that 2 pings was enough and there would be no visual indicators but I would like to at least change the number of times it tries to tell me I got a message.

You can go to Settings > Notifications > Messages and change the Repeat Alert option to Never. This will stop it from bugging you twice!


Is there a hotkey/shortcut for Print to Web Receipts folder? I love the "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder" in Safari and use it all the time. The only minor annoyance is that it takes a few steps (cmd+P -> click "PDF" -> select "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder") to use it. Is there a way to setup a hotkey/shortcut for it so that it just takes one quick key combo?

Create a very basic Automator Service Applescript with GUI Scripting. Then, use the Keyboard Shortcuts in System Prefs to assign a shortcut.

Open Automator and Choose 'Service'
Past this script in a 'Run Applescript' Action.

tell application "System Events"
    get system attribute "sysv"
    if result is greater than or equal to 4144 then -- Mac OS X 10.3.0
        if UI elements enabled then
            tell application "Safari" to activate
            keystroke "p" using command down
            tell application process "Safari"
                tell application "System Events"
                    tell process "Safari"
                        click menu button "PDF" of sheet 1 of window 1
                        delay 1

                        click menu item "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder" of menu of menu button "PDF" of sheet 1 of window 1
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        else
            beep
            display dialog "GUI Scripting is not enabled" & return & return & "Open System Preferences and check Enable Access for Assistive Devices in the Accessibility (or Universal Access) preference pane, then run this script again." with icon stop
            if button returned of result is "OK" then
                tell application "System Preferences"
                    activate
                    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
                end tell
            end if
        end if
    else
        beep
        display dialog "This computer cannot run this script" & return & return & "The script uses GUI Scripting technology, which requires an upgrade to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or newer." with icon caution buttons {"Quit"} default button "Quit"
    end if
end tell

Set input to 'no input' and Application to 'Safari.app'
Save the Automator Service.
While still in Automator (or any app) go to the app's 'Services' menu and choose 'Services Preferences'.
Scroll rich down until you see your new service.
Assign the shortcut, click ok and your done.


Stuck at login in App Store I've upgraded to El Capitain and since then I can't login to the App Store.
The App Store prompts me for my login details and once I try to sign in, it just shows a spinner for ever. I have to eventually force quit.

The login details are correct (I've check on the web App Store and they work)
I've tried deleting the cache for the App Store (no luck)
No VPN / Anti-Virus / Firewall running
I've check some other suggestions such as checking the serial number, and the number is in place.

I don't know if it gives a clue, but when I tried to run Tweetbot (bought through the App Store) it prompts me for my details saying "This App was purchased on another computer, please sign-in to continue using". This is not true, I'm using the same machine I bought the app with.

This is quite annoying since I have a bunch of updates (many security ones) which I can't download and some apps don't even work.

Any suggestions? Thank you.

Grr - the store is having a rough week.

I would do these three things:

Make a new admin user account and log out of the broken "MAS account" to get a clean state.
Run the app store on the new user account. You don't need to sign in for security updates, so this will test that Apple's side of things is working and/or your core system is working.
If that doesn't work, open terminal and run these two exact commands:

softwareupdate --reset-ignored

softwareupdate --install --all

You can take a picture of that screen and then call AppleCare or open a web support ticket if you can't get that to work. They should cover that for free since it's security related as well as they generally support anyone's Apple ID that would be used to spend money on the store without charging them for that incident of support. The core updates should work even when your account or the Apple servers for authentication are overloaded. When that happens you get errors like you mentioned and Apple's support pages rarely log an error until everyone is locked out. (i.e. thousands of people could have problems and it's not a big issue when millions of accounts still work).

http://apple.com/support/systemstatus

I use that "contact us" link from the system status page to initiate my support requests for cloud and Apple ID issues :-)


imported mp3 ebook file is not shown in Books I downloaded a mp3 file from author's site (not itune store or audible), and I found that the book is not in iTune's Library/Books section, but in iTune as a song.

What is necessary to make the mp3 ebook is listed in itune's Library/Books section?

Right click the book in iTunes, and select Get Info (or select the track and Press Cmd-I)

iTunes will open the Info for the file.  Goto the Options tab and change the Media Kind of the file from Music to Audio Book.  It will then appear in the right place.


macOS: Name for app shortcut screen found by pinching with thumb and three fingers In macOS, what is the name for the app shortcut screen (with all the installed apps icons displayed, taking up the whole screen) found by pinching with thumb and three fingers together (or sliding-in 4 fingers together, alternatively) on Trackpad?

The screen is called Launchpad and is a feature built-into macOS. First introduced in Mac OS X Lion 10.7, it displays a grid of icons corresponding to installed apps. This feature was originally inspired from iOS which displays a similar grid of icons for installed apps.

This gesture is pre-defined for Trackpad, and can be turned on/off under System Preferences → Trackpad → More Gestures

There are other easy ways to invoke Launchpad too, which can be helpful on Macs without a Trackpad:

Keyboard: Press the special F4 key on your MacBook's built-in keyboard, or Apple keyboard. On newer hardware introduced after Mac OS X Lion was released, the key shows two rows of three squares to represent Launchpad.

Dock: Use the Launchpad icon in the Dock. The icon for the app is present by default in the Dock and looks like this:

Spotlight: Launchpad can also be invoked via Spotlight search:

Applications: Launchpad is available just like other built-in apps and can be found in /Applications directory in Finder. To invoke, double click on the app icon in Finder.

To learn more about Launchpad, go through the linked Apple Support articles:

Use Launchpad on your Mac
Use Launchpad to view and open apps on Mac


Is there any way to have the Screen Sharing app in Snow Leopard to remember the last connected host? I'm wondering if there is an easier way. Currently, I launch Screen Sharing app, and a window appears asking for a host to connect to. I'd like it to already have the host field populated with my last connected host. Is there any way to enable such functionality? Thanks in advance.

Don't know of a way to specifically do that, but you can set up browser bookmarks and/or desktop icons that will connect to specific hosts, if that's any help.

For the former, create a bookmark that points to vnc://hostname.blah.com rather than the more usual http://hostname.blah.com.

For the latter, create a text file with the .command suffix (e.g. 'myvnc.command') that contains the single line:

open vnc://hostname.blah.com

which will start the screen sharing session when you double-click it in Finder. You can also drag it to your dock if you wish.


Previous deleted text keyboard shortcuts keep appearing I kept a bunch of keyboard shortcuts via System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts and over time, I deleted some shortcuts that are not necessary for me and added new ones.

Some time ago, it appears that the unwanted shortcuts appeared back when the added one didn’t appear — manually deleting them in the system panel only made them return.

How do I keep one set of keyboard shortcuts please?

Deleting from all devices does not appear to permanently fix the problem.  They live in the cloud somewhere, and I was told by Apple in 7/15 that the are working on a permanent fix.  Mine stay away from the most part, but have come back occasionally on my MacBook and iPad.


How to clear table contents in notes for iOS 11? I don’t want to create a new table I want to empty the data of the old table and add new data.

Select all the cells you wish to clear by dragging the orange circular handles on the corners of the selected cell region, then choose Cut from the popup menu.


I think my iphone 5's battery have some problem. One day i charged my iphone till 90%to92% then in didn't use my phone and went to sleep after 10 hours I checked my phone and the battery is showing only 20% charge is left. In the meantime i didn't used my phone so is there a battery issue or some thing else???

Apple has a battery replacement program for iPhone 5. You can check eligibility on this Apple page

  Apple has determined that a very small percentage of iPhone 5 devices may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently. The affected iPhone 5 devices were sold between September 2012 and January 2013 and fall within a limited serial number range. (...)

  The program covers affected iPhone 5 batteries for two years after the first retail sale of the unit or until March 1, 2015, whichever provides longer coverage.


PWA application using angular 4 is not rendering properly on Safari We had developed a PWA application using angular 4, website url: https://www.peepingpeacock.com which is working fine on Google chrome.

but this Progressive web application do not render properly in Safari(Both Mac laptop and Mobile IOS browsers) and noticed it hangs the Safari browser and even very hard to open Web inspector.
How we see on  Chrome browser of Mac:

How we see in Safari of Mac:

Any thoughts on this issue is highly appreciated.

It was a polyfill issue. please read following,
https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/10420


Adding symlink to /usr/bin I'm trying to add python3 to my path by adding a symlink but it's erroring and I'm not sure why.

/usr/bin $ sudo su
sh-3.2# ln -s /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/bin/python3  /usr/bin/python3
ln: /usr/bin/python3: Operation not permitted

sh-3.2# whoami
root

sh-3.2# ls -la | head -n 2
total 139064
drwxr-xr-x  977 root   wheel     31264 24 Jul  2018 .

* Edit *

I have symlinked from /usr/local/bin/python3 so that's fine.

/usr/bin is, as a lot of directories installed by default, protected by SIP and can't be modified by any user. There are ways to disable SIP, but the better approach is to use the directories beneath /usr/local for user-installed things

sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/
sudo sh -c 'grep -q "/usr/local/bin" /etc/paths || echo "/usr/local/bin" >> /etc/paths'

The last line will make sure that /usr/local/bin is part of PATH for all shells started/Terminal tabs created after the line has been executed.


Am I allowed to install Snow Leopard on my MBP using someone elses install disc? I bought a 2009 Macbook Pro 13" used from someone and it doesn't have the install disc for Snow Leopard which is currently installed.  If I have to restore the computer someday can I use a friends Snow Leopard Install Disc?

I'm not sure how the licensing works.  All I know is right now I have a legit version of Snow Leopard on the computer. The install disc's are like $50 and I don't want to buy one unless I have to.

Yes, if it's an install disc that was either a boxed copy, or an up-to-date CD, no if it was just the disc that came with the machine unless the model number of the machine is the exact same one.

There are no license keys or otherwise.

You may not be able to install bundled versions of iLife as they are often locked to the machine it was bought from (but even this is get-roundable by showing package contents and using the individual packages rather than the wrapper installer), but the OS is usually fine.

I think the only install media that isn't usable across a number of systems are the Lion USB installers which I believe are tied down at serial number granularity.

Frankly, if you are worried about licensing, just upgrade to Lion for $30.


How to check which files are not in iTunes library, but are in iTunes folder? This is a question from Wil Wheaton's google+, but I would like to get an answer too, stackexchange style.

Suppose you have all your music in a folder called /iTunes/Music. When you add files to iTunes, it puts them inside this folder, so it looks like this: /iTunes/Music/artist/album/track

Suppose you recently eliminated about 10GB of music from your iTunes library, but stupidly left those files inside /iTunes/Music. You have the entire thing backed up and pristine on an external drive, so you don't need to keep that music in that folder.

Here's the question: you want to write a script that will compare your iTunes library to the contents of /iTunes/Music, identify files that are in /iTunes/Music but not the iTunes Library file, and  move them to a new folder (probably in /tmp) so you can take a look, then delete them.

One possible solution  would be to write  a script which puts the output of ls (with appropriate flags) into a file, then diff that file with the contents of Library.xml, and move the resulting files into a new directory. Is it possible to do this?

Maybe there is already an Applescript which can be used to achieve this?

You could move the location of your iTunes Media folder, which will only move those files actually in the iTunes library.

It may take a while, even if the source and destination are both on the same drive (it's still got to tell the OS to move each file individually), but should leave behind any files that aren't in the library.

The iTunes Media folder location is set in iTunes Preferences, under the Advanced tab. This will of course only work if you have "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" checked (which judging by your question is the case).

I would suggest something as simple as changing just the name of the folder it's currently set to (i.e. keep it somewhere in your home folder, or whatever drive it's currently on), and then move it back after you've cleaned out the 'orphaned' files.


OS volume shows as type 'FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFF' after attempting to delete some Linux partitions—cannot log in I was unable to just delete the partitions left by an old Linux Mint installation by pressing the '-' button in disk utility. I looked online and read that I could reformat them to a journaled format from the command line and then delete it from disk utility. The command was something like diskutil eraseVolume deleteme JFS+ /dev/disk0s4 (and then again for disk0s5, as there were two).

After this command, disk utility showed the two partitions had been reformatted, but I could now see the Recovery HD partition between the two deleteme partitions and the Macintosh HD partition, which meant I could not delete them without deleting the Recovery HD partition, which even I knew was a bad idea.

I checked diskutil list and saw that my main partition was now showing the type 'FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFF', so I was pretty sure something had gone wrong. I backed up my home folder and rebooted to be successfully brought to the login screen, but when I try to log in, it loads for a while before showing me a black screen with a grey no-symbol.

Here are the results of diskutil list and gpt -r show /dev/disk0:

For the record I have a 13" Retina MacBook Pro mid-2014 version.

To correct the GUID error in your GPT, you need to start up from OS X Recovery over the Internet or from a USB drive with the macOS Installer flashed on it. To boot into recovery mode press and hold the command(⌘)optionR keys immediately after you turn on your Mac and hear the startup sound. To boot into a USB key, hold option immidiatly after you turn on your Mac. You will be prompted to select a drive, one of which will be titled something similar ot "macOS Installer" which you will need to select. For more information see the site: OS X: About OS X Recovery. Once started to OS X Recovery or the Installer, select the Terminal application from the menu bar. Enter the following commands to repair your GPT.

diskutil  unmountdisk  /dev/disk0
gpt  remove  -i  2  /dev/disk0
diskutil  unmountdisk  /dev/disk0
gpt  add  -i  2  -b  409640  -s  194016208  -t  hfs  /dev/disk0

  Note: I do not know if this will fix your log in problems.


Ubuntu on Mac (dual-boot). Where do I install GRUB? When installing Ubuntu, I choose to install GRUB on a partition other than:

/dev/sda i.e. /dev/disk0

as this is stated in various tutorials.

However, this way I end up with the error message: Missing Operating System

When installing GRUB in /dev/sda everythings works fine. Why?

@ mods: I hope this is not off-topic, as this a problem with the EFI boot on a Mac, I assume. If I'm wrong, please migrate this question to askubuntu.

Make a new partion from within OS X, then install http://refit.sourceforge.net/ and then ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MactelSupportTeam/AppleIntelInstallation


How can I access an iOS Mail password stored in Keychain? I upgraded my wife's iPhone to a newer model but she can't remember her Yahoo mail password which is stored in Keychain on her old phone.  She uses the standard iOS Mail app which successfully fetches mail from Yahoo on the old phone.

I've tried syncing the old phone's keychain to iCloud then syncing it back to the new phone using the same process, but with no success.  If I add the Yahoo account on the new phone I am always presented with a blank field for the password.

Should I reset the new phone completely and do a restore from iCloud?

Also I can't use Yahoo's 'forgot password' options on the web because the she also forgot the password to the rescue account.

If you can sucessfully recieve email from your wifes old phone, maybe try restoring the password.


How can I find all selfies taken on my iPhone when on my computer? Since iOS 9, the iPhone has had a default album called Selfies that gathers all the selfies you've taken on the device (i.e. all the photos taken with the front-facing camera) in one place. This makes it easy to browse through and manage your selfies on the device itself, but I want to be able to do so after uploading the photos to my computer (such as via iCloud Photos or by manually copying the images in Windows Explorer).

Is this possible? Is there any sort of metadata in the copied photo that indicates that an image was taken with the front-facing camera, or is this information completely stripped once the image is outside of the device itself?

You should give a try to the Google Photos Apps. I use this app, and it's so good because all the photos are automatically classified. And you will have a selfie Album that will gather all your selfies ;)


Newly added images not showing in "Desktop Pictures" I have just bought myself a new Mac and am finding the new OS a little alien at present.  I've just downloaded a new background screen and moved it to the /Library/Desktop Pictures/ folder.  However when I go to "System Preferences"->"Desktop&Screen Saver" none of my newly downloaded images are showing up for me to choose a new background image.

Any idea why this is happening as I was told that that folder was the default location where all desktop background images are stored (NB: I do NOT want to leave my newly downloaded images in any other folder but the default one)

Rather than /Library/Desktop Pictures/ try ~/Library/Desktop Pictures/
That's where mine seem to be stored.

Mac has 2 [or more] libraries, one for the whole system & one for each user.
The tilde ~ is a shortcut for boot_drive/users/my_name/ - your Home folder.
[Think of it like using %appdata% etc. from the Start menu in Windows]

The /Library folder is hidden by default, but easily accessible.

Quickest way to get to it from the Finder is

 Cmd ⌘    N  for new window
 Cmd ⌘    Shift   G  for Go...
Copy/paste ~/Library or ~/Library/Desktop Pictures/ in this particular case.

If you find that you need to access it more frequently, there are methods to show it permanently, but I'll leave that for another question.

Edit
From discussion, this folder may not exist by default... so here's how to make then add to Desktop & Screen Saver.

Open ~/Library then
 Cmd ⌘    Shift   N  for New Folder. Name it Desktop Pictures. Drop your intended backgrounds in there.
Open System Prefs > Desktop & Screen Saver
Drag the new Desktop pictures folder to 'Folders' in the list on the left of Desktop & Screen Saver
It should be immediately usable as a source.


Macbook pro boots to a black screen after a few seconds of use A clip of what exactly is happening: https://drive.google.com/open?id=19FSU3wFnCi9QjXQRO4UrTT-KxuooOYLu

I've tried all the tips here: https://ugetfix.com/ask/how-to-fix-mac-booting-to-black-screen-error/
including SMC reset, PRAM reset, etc.

An important note is that the computer itself is on - i.e. I can type the password and go on terminal, play music successfully, etc. but the display stays off (not completely off, it's slightly lighter than when the computer is completely off).

Edit:
Huh. After a few days, the problem completely disappeared randomly. I ran the Apple Hardware Test and no problems showed now. Very weird, but at least I'm glad the problem is resolved. Thank you for your help.

The video is not very clear to understanding the issue. It seemed like you clicked on the “Ansel Admin” username and it blanked out. Then you clicked the power button and it came back to login screen. Also, it will help if you describe what you are doing and the problem (in the video as a voiceover :).

Here’s what you can try.

If you have a monitor available, check if you can see the display after logging in.

There are two ways I found to increase screen brightness (as you mentioned that it was not fully blacked out). (Links to original articles below).

Method 1: Using osascript, key code 144 (brighter), 145 (dimmer)

$ osascript -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'key code 144' -e ' end tell'

$ osascript -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'key code 145' -e ' end tell'

Method 2: Using Homebrew - https://brew.sh

If you have homebrew installed, you can install brightness to control.

$ brew install brightness

$ brightness 1

$ brightness 0.5

I have tested the osascript commands on Catalina 10.15.4. You will need to give the terminal accessibility permissions.

If these don’t work, try booting in Safe Mode.
If it resolves the issue, it may be some startup item that could be causing this.
Hold down the Shift key when powering up and you hear the startup chime to enter Safe Mode.

Links:

How can I dim the screen from Terminal?

How to Adjust Screen Brightness from Terminal in macOS
https://www.maketecheasier.com/adjust-screen-brightness-from-terminal-macos/


Why can't I vote on iTunes Radio songs? The like and dislike options are grayed out. I'm on an iPhone 5s and iOS 7.0.

Any ideas?

According the Apple support doc for iTunes Radio:

  There may be some DJ-curated stations that you may not be able to
  modify. You can't like or play more tracks like this while listening
  to some DJ-curated stations. You can however, start new stations based
  on the current track or artist of a featured station or add tracks to
  your iTunes Wishlist from the Star (✭) menu.


How does Bless work? I'm getting an SSD for my wife's MBP 2010. I was planning to install the old HDD and the new SSD into my MacPro and just use disk utility to copy all the info from her old disk to the new one. It would be easy enough and once the new disk is installed she can pick right up where she left off.

But I had an idea to reduce her downtime while the disks were copying. If I install the SSD into my MacPro first. then copy all the files over the network from her MBP onto the SSD. All I would need to do is bless the new SSD and I should be able to just swap the two drives and it should be perfectly bootable with all files and settings intact right? the MBP only needs to be down for the 15mins it takes me to change the drives.

I'm just a little bit confused about how Bless works though. It just lets the computers firmware know where to find the boot-loader right? but is that info saved in the firmware? or is it apart of whatever filesystem the Blessed files exist on? I guess what I'm asking is, if I bless the SSD while it's in my MacPro, will it mess up the MacPro's boot settings? and Not make the SSD bootable? Or will it work like I hope it does and just make the SSD bootable so that it can go into the MBP and just work? Or do I need to add extra options for that?

PS: yes I realize that this all just creates a bunch of extra work for me to save an hour (at most) of downtime on the laptop. But I had the idea and now I want to know.

Thanks!

I'd think again about 'saving time'.

While you're cloning it - however you do it - the chances are high that the work actually been done at the same time won't get cloned. To ensure it does, you'd have to clone it again...

I'd just prepare for 2 hours downtime - or wait 'til bedtime - use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old drive to the new [that would probably be easier in the Mac Pro, just in terms of physical access, unless you have an external USB/SATA drive adaptor], then just swap them over.
It will boot & you'll be back to where you were 2 hours ago, but with a zippy new SSD. It will also make a new Recovery Partition on the new drive.

A little trick to make the swapover easier...
Before you clone the old drive & while not booted from it, rename the old drive to whateverNameOld, then make sure the new one is GUID/HFS+ & named whateverName.
Once the clone is finished & swapped back into the MBP, the OS won't waste any time at all trying to figure out where everything went.


Cross-Platform File System file sharing between MAC, WINDOWS, LINUX? I've a laptop with triple boot, Yosemite, Windows 8.1, CentOS 7, and need a partition for sharing files between the 3 os's, i've been using exFAT, as it is supported by OSX & Windows but had some issues with linux and after try to mount it on linux, osx didn't recognize it, and i was unable to mount it, then just windows recognized it and after 1 day of using it got corrupted, i had to get my data back with TesDrive.

Now i'm looking for the most accepted file sys to share files between them, so far i've found these options:

NTFS: Using MacFUSE & NTFS-3G to enable read/write access,  or Paragon NTFS, but i've heard some bad things about stability & speed of those options... i would not like to lose my data.
HFS+: Using MacDrive Pro in windows to have read/write access to mac partition, i guess there's a way to allow linux support for hfs+. Heard some good & bad things about MacDrive but still not so sure...
exFAT: This way is the way i've already tried, bad experience with it, but most of the people seems to approve this option. Maybe i did something wrogn, BUT still the data loss is a problem...
FAT32: Limited drive size. Limited permission settings. Not the one i would like to pick.

Needs hierarchically ordered:

Stability (No data loss)
Great File Size support
Journaling
Speed

UPDATE 1:
After more research i've found Tuxera NTFS for mac, seems to be nice, but... how good is it in real life? does it offer real NTFS full support as it says?, great Stability? Speed? Journaling?
Is it worth for the price?

I've done this kind of thing for years and can probably help you avoid the same pains I went through.

Cloud storage would be ideal for some use-cases, but sketchy on privacy/security without additional work, and not necessarily suitable for use cases involving a large amount of data. (I've worked around security/privacy issues with transparent per-file encryption, and use this in parallel with the solution I've outlined below, for different use cases.)

Here are the local storage solutions in increasing order of viability (which is inherently subjective and dependent on specific use cases):

exFAT: At the bottom only because of my own lack of experience with it, and its relative newness. There are compatibility problems between the platforms because of different block sizes. Apparently, formatting the drive in Windows with a block size smaller than 1024 bytes might work.
NTFS: I've had all kinds of problems with NTFS-3G, going back and forth between Windows, Mac, and Linux. File corruption, lost data, etc. This was a few years ago, maybe it's better now - but it was "sold" as solid then and it wasn't.
FAT32: In my experience, this is the only truly "cross-platform" file system that can bridge Mac, Linux, and Windows. (And cameras, and TVs, and...) There is a per-file 4GB size limit and 2TiB total volume size limit. You can in theory overcome the 32GB FAT32 limitation, with Fat32Formatter, but I don't know how compatible it is across systems. In theory, FAT+ allows for 256GiB files and using a higher block size
A virtual machine sharing its native filesystem to the host OS via CIFS: This is hands-down the best solution for most of my use cases.

Years ago when I got fed up with the data corruption using NTFS-3G, I started using a small VM running Windows 2000, and shared an NTFS volume "natively" to the host OS via CIFS. Performance can't compare to directly attached storage, but I finally got to say goodbye to data corruption and the distrust and headaches it caused. NTFS formatted from Windows 2000, worked flawlessly and interchangeably with more modern versions of Windows, including switching back and forth between Windows 2000 in a VM, and Windows Vista (at the time).

But still, NTFS just wasn't robust enough for reliably storing massive amounts of data over long periods of time, even if in a mirrored configuration (and especially in a RAID5 configuration). Mainly due to bitrot and lack of checksumming. Granted, it was the best thing around for a long time, but not any more.

Now, the only "cross-platform" file system I use is ZFS, presented via CIFS by Linux running in a VM. (I'm also increasingly using BTRFS which recently seems to have crossed some threshold of stability for my use cases. For a long time I only used it experimentally and it often let me down.)

I don't use ZFS for Mac OS, only ZFS on Linux. (I used to use an OpenSolaris VM to host ZFS for the sake of purity and support for the most up-to-date ZFS features, until Oracle messed it up.)

I tried ZFS for Mac a while back and it was too unstable and outdated. Maybe it's fine now, but my VM solution is flawless. And like I said, I'm increasingly using BTRFS anyway, which is a better match in many ways for my requirements (the first and foremost of which is rock-solid reliability - which ZFS has always provided).

I triple-boot my Macs, and when I'm not running Linux natively, I run the same native Linux installation in a VM. Linux is perfectly happy alternating between running in a VM with guest additions, and natively. I'm almost always running a Linux VM for "native" ZFS or BTRFS volume access via CIFS, when not running it natively.

I've seamlessly adjusted most of my workflows to accommodate the slower CIFS access to large "cross-platform" reliable storage. For example, if I need fast access to lots of working data, it's usually in an application that is unique to that particular host OS, and it doesn't need to be accessible across platforms. So I just use whatever fast local SSD storage the OS is available natively, and make regular copies to the slower "cross-platform" storage - or only when the project is done, depending on the specific use case.

Tip: If you do go the VM route, you'll be tempted to share the VM file system via a bridged adapter. The advantage to that is that the VM will have its own IP address on the same subnet, and the storage will be accessible even by other computers on that subnet. However, the drawbacks to a bridged adapter are 1) It is tied to a specific physical adapter and if you switch from, say, wired to wireless, you may lose internet connectivity from within the VM [which is only a problem if you are also using the VM as your productivity OS, as I usually do]. And 2) Bridged adapters can be finicky. Sometimes it "just works", but if you have problems, troubleshooting can be pretty messy. A better solution is to configure the VM with two adapters: A) NAT [for internet access from the VM which will work no matter what physical adapter is providing it], and B) Host-only, configured with a static IP address, no DNS or gateway, virtio adapter, and with promiscuous mode. Only your local machine will be able to access the VM's CIFS shares. It's not trivial to get this solution set up, but once you do it's basically magic.

Good luck!


Change the default save location for Excel 2016 I want to change the default save location for Excel files (Office Mac 2016), but cannot find anywhere to do it (unlike Word).

In Excel, navigate to File|Options|Save.
Check "Save to Computer by default"
Enter "Default local file location"


Apple TV 3 and H264 MKV playback? I am debating on purchasing the WD LIVE or Apple TV 3. And I wanted to know if it is possible that the ATV can do .mkv and .avi playback on non-itunes media. (i.e. pulling it from my server)

AppleTV does not have native support for mkv files. You can use various third-party programs to transcode and send to AppleTV, ranging from the simple (Beamer) to the full library solutions (Plex combined with PlexConnect).


VCP driver for my Macintosh; late 2015 Where do I find my "AppleUSBFTDI.kext" in my system?

I am trying to load a different a FTDI VPC driver to use with my Lenz USB 23151 for use with my Macintosh (a late 2015 iMac 21.5" with a 10.13 Beta).

I am told to remove it in order to load a FTDIUSBSerialDriver_v2_4_2.dmg

The kernel extension AppleUSBFTDI.kext is located at /System/Library/Extensions/. The kext is protected by System Integrity Protection, which has to be disabled if you really want to remove it.

Disabling SIP is addressed in this answer.


Permission denied when accessing backup directory I used iTunes to make a backup of my iPhone. I can see the backup directory using Finder, at /Users/ronaldfischer/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup. Strangely, when doing something like

ls "/Users/ronaldfischer/Library/Application Support/MobileSync"

or

du -ms "/Users/ronaldfischer/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup"

I get an error message i.e. ls: MobileSync: Operation not permitted. But when I do a

ls -ld "/Users/ronaldfischer/Library/Application Support/MobileSync"

I see

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 ronaldfischer  staff  96 Sep 15 14:08 /Users/ronaldfischer/Library/Application Support/MobileSync

Hence I should have suffient permissions, plus Finder too can go into this directory without requiring me to switch to root rights.

Where does the permission problem come from?

UPDATE:

Running xattr on the directory MobileSync showed that it has the attribute com.apple.quarantine being set. This attribute is usually set on (usually an executable) file which is downloaded from somewhere, and ensures that MacOS is asking you "Do you really trust this file?" the first time it is opened. Maybe the attribute has been set because backing up my iPhone in effect means that external programs are downloaded.

However, this is likely not the reason of the strange behaviour, because I also get an operation not permitted, when I try to remove this attribute using xattr -d. Furthermore, @Seamus said in his comment, that he did not have this attribute being set, but also has no permission. Perhaps it is a glitch in this OS version? I'm still running Mojave (10.14.6).

You'll be able to read the directory if you grant Full Disk Access to your terminal program. Apple Menu › System Preferences › Security & Privacy › Privacy › Full Disk Access.


Backtick as a non-dead key? On my mac (azerty keyboard layout), I have this key: `, but I'd like it to place the backtick immediately, as I don't have a need to place it on letters.

How can I get my mac to make touching the ` button place the backtick immediately? I use it a lot in Q&A here and have never used it to place it on a letter.

A keyboard layout called Belgian2 with the backtick you want can be found at this page.

Install the .keylayout file (remove any .txt extension if there is one) in Home/Library/Keyboard Layouts.  Then go to System Preferences/Keyboard/Input Sources and use the plus and add buttons to activate it (look in the Others folder).  Then select in the "flag" menu at the top right of the finder.

To get to Home/Library, you need to hold down the option key while doing Finder > Go.  You can also install in Library/Keyboard Layouts to make available to all users.


Where are books stored after iBooks migration on Mavericks? After upgrading to Mavericks all of my books from iTunes have been migrated to iBooks. They are no longer in my media library and I haven't been able to locate them as of yet. So where does iBooks store your books now?

They are now buried inside the user Library folder.

The full path is:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books

The Books.plist there contains itemID values that connect the book titles with their *.epub or *.ibooks names [iBooks 1.2, OS 10.10.5].


QuickVoice recordings on iPad I have a lot of QuickVoice recordings made and stored on my iPad (first generation)

I am attempting to backup to iCloud for the first time.  If this is successful, can I then delete the recordings from my iPad to create some much needed space?

If so, how do I retrieve any specific recordings from iCloud for later use?

You can sync your QuickVoice recordings with a PC or Mac using their software. Have a look at the QuickVoice website for information on the download and price, although it seems that you get a desktop version with the iOS version, which I didn't get so not sure where to get it.

This app does not use iCloud to sync, it uses its own cloud storage system.


5 Minute Yosemite Boot Time? My spring 2011 Macbook Pro with 5400 rpm drive takes 5 minutes from pressing the on button to boot. I have about 400 GB of RAW and NEF (Nikon camera) files and only Photoshop and Lightroom installed. It seems to constantly be writing to the HD, and there is a lag time when typing or using drop-down menus. Can anyone offer any suggestions on what might be causing this? I have verified the disk and it found no problems.

I upgraded from Mavericks. Machine originally had Snow Leopard.
I have never done a clean install.
Disk has been verified and found no problems.
All peripherals have been disconnected.

I have not reset the printing system.
WiFi is on.
All login items have not been removed.
FileVault is turned on.

What help steps are next to diagnose the slow performance of this Mac?

Boot in verbose mode to see what is so slow. Then check your backup, actually do a backup before anything else. Failing storage is a likely culprit and slowing io is the bellwether indicator if you get one at all.

Also, your isolation steps are superb. Remove all accessories, clean install, etc...

lastly, check for io errors in console.app. Verification can show no unrecoverable errors well past the point where rewrite and other mechanisms are compensating for failures in the storage.

If all that fails, start benchmarking RAM, network and CPU. Process List App

Also, check for swap: High memory usage, macbook pro retina feeling sluggish


Browse data on old machine's HDD, without booting machine or removing HDD? For my current laptop I have a 2017 MBP running macOS 10.14.

I have 2 older Mac laptops which I wish to get data off, one of them is a 2007 Macbook and the other a 2004 iBook.

Other than disassembling them removing the HDDs and putting them into enclosures, is there a way I can browse the data on these older laptops from my current laptop? Perhaps by connecting my current laptop to the old laptop via USB? If so would the old laptops need to be powered on?

You can boot each older laptop into Target disk mode by holding down the T key at startup. The older laptops need to be powered up. This will present the internal HDs on these older laptops as an external HD on your MBP.

Both of these older laptops have FireWire 1 ports, however, so a physical connection to your current laptop is problematic as you will have to connect a FireWire 1 cable to a FireWire 1 > FireWire 2 adaptor, then connect that to a FireWire 2 > Thunderbolt adaptor to your MBP.

This may or may not work, but I used FW1 > FW2 adaptors for a few years without a problem.

If either or both of the older laptops do not power up, then removing the HDDs from within them will be necessary.


What apps/programs/daemons on OS X use my ~/.ssh/id_rsa* keys? I recently started using Git with GitHub and thus discovered that I already have a generated pair of SSH keys, public and private. This leads me to ask: what applications/programs/daemons on my Mac might have caused this keypair to be created? I've never used SSH to log in to another machine.

Amusingly, your own question includes the answer. GitHub for Mac uses Git via SSH, and will automatically generate unprotected SSH key pairs (e.g. no passphrase) in order to push/pull contents between the remote repo and your local ones.


Drop ship a preconfigured iPad to elderly in-laws? My elderly inlaws need "The Video Phone" to work. I'd like to drop ship a pre-configured iPad that just connects to Wifi / logs into iCloud so we can see each other.
In fact, the existing onsite iPad has been fine for two years until it was mysteriously auto-logged out of iCloud...
My goals are to:

Configure a Wifi SSID / password in advance.
Spoof or fake and store the MacAddress of a given SSID to pre-join their network.

What setup is realistic for this case?

To answer my own question - the answer is no, the SSID/MAC address of the base station is not paired up. Thank you all for the advise, the plan worked. Shipper at 100% power and received at 20%, auto-connected to WiFi for us to call and do the rest!
You can, however use mobile device management to automate add a large menu of options on both iOS, macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/profile-specific_payload_keys

Wifi SSID is one that’s very common, but instead of your relatives needing to know how to enter WiFi, they need to be shown how to install a profile or remove one if things change.


Can iPhone 4S use Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy channels simultaneously? iPhone 4S comes with full support of Bluetooth 4.0, which means it can work in "low energy" mode. As far as I know it's a completely different protocol on the physical level, but on the application level in many ways similar to the classic BT.

My question is, are there separate radio units for BT and BLE, i.e. can iPhone 4S use both channels simultaneously? For example, can you connect an audio device via BT classic and some low energy heart rate monitor at the same time?

Yes, I can confrim it by doing some test. I have do the below experiment, after connect the bluetooth ear to play music, then open app BLE Utility on iphone4s, hit scan with BT2.0 device and BT4.0 device, which can find BT4.0 device on same time.
Though BT4.0 and 2.0 have physical difference, I think dual-mode BLE can work with two mode on same time by integrate those two parts into one.


Sync Panic Transmit keychain I would like to sync Panic Transmit keychain via iCloud. I know that Panic offers Panic Sync but I prefer to use iCloud keychain to sync FTP password.

In this page https://library.panic.com/transmit/new-mac/ it says that passwords are in /Users/USERNAME/Library/Keychains/ but I see different keychains.

Panic does not use its own keychain, but rather just the standard Login keychain, which will be located in the folder you were looking at. You're not looking for anything Panic/Transmit in that folder but rather just the Login keychain. You can open the keychain with Keychain Access to view the passwords within.


Grub2 Reboot ISO - Similar process for Mac OS Bootloader I'd like to add a menu entry to the MAC OS Bootloader for a Linux ISO that resides on the harddrive. I am not looking to install a 3rd party bootloader, but do this with the bootloader MAC uses by default.

For example, on my Linux VM's I have the ISO reside on the HD and add a grub-entry for the LiveISO.

I can then use the command grub2-reboot "LiveISO" to reboot directly into the LiveOS without needing a USB.

You need startup files for your target OS.

1) Plug the Linux Installer on a Windows OS (It will mount the EFI partition only)
2) Copy the contents to some shared place to access it in Mac
3) Mount the EFI partition on your MAC
4) Copy the Linux startup files alongside Apple folder


Share a folder with photos with someone via Internet and Apple native tools I have a folder of photos imported from a CD and those photos belongs to someone else. I want to share those photos with the person.

First idea was to share them through iCloud Drive but sharing is available for files and not folders.

Second idea was to use iCloud Photos shared album but the images will be added to my camera roll which I don't want too.

Is there any other Apple native solutions to share a bunch of photos with someone via Internet?

The less-friction solution would be to upload the compressed version of the photos. And then use iCloud file sharing.

You can try Mail Drop.

  With Mail Drop, you can send attachments up to 5 GB in size. You can
  send these attachments right from Mail on your Mac, the Mail app on
  your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and from iCloud.com on your Mac or
  PC. All files types are supported and attachments don’t count against
  your iCloud storage. If a message, including its attachments, is
  larger than your Internet Service Provider (ISP) limit, Mail will ask
  you to send the attachments using Mail Drop.

Source:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203093


How do I stop email notificatons on my Apple watch 2 Recently I've been getting my Yahoo mail notifications on my Apple Watch 2.  I've looked everywhere I can think of on Yahoo and in my Apple settings to try to turn off.  Any ideas? TIA!

To stop mail notifications on your Watch, go to Watch app on your iPhone.Scroll down to Mail. Then in Mail, select Custom. Here you can find alert On/Off options for each mail accounts on your iPhone.


Unable to erase Mac HD – “unable to delete the core storage logical volume” I'm trying to erase the my Mac Fusion Drive so I can sell it online. I have followed Apple's instructions on what to do, including erasing the volume, but to no avail. I always unmount, click "erase", but then it shows the error in the picture. After that, the volume disappears from the list of volumes, which is why you can't see it in the picture. To see it again, I need to restart the machine in recovery mode.

I have no clue what is going on and I have never seen such an error before. If someone could help me out, that would be great. I don't want this machine to turn into an expensive paperweight.

Note: Ignore the fact that the OS X Base system is highlighted, that is just what happens by default after the Mac HD disappears from the list of volumes.

Golden Rule:
you cannot trash the drive you're booted from. You need to be booted from another drive, even if it's a USB.


How do I prevent Apple Watch from silencing my phone's vibration on notifications? I've got an Apple Watch, and because haptic feedback is physically disturbing me, I've turned it off. However, I'm getting all notifications on the watch but my phone is not vibrating on a notification, but I do want it to vibrate.

How do I get my phone notifications back?

That's not possible. The notifications will be displayed in one or another, but never in both devices.

If you want notifications back in your phone, you have to turn it off in your watch.


Options for editing mpeg video other than MPEG_Streamclip? I have several MPEG files (technically "MPEG 2" I believe).

I want to do some very simple editing, mostly deleting a few frames here or there.

I do not want to have to re-encode or transcode the video, or do anything else which would decrease the quality of the source.

The only software that I am aware of which does this sort of editing is MPEG_Streamclip, but surely there must be others.

MPEG-2 is subject to license restrictions and royalty payments, so you won't find much in the line of free software to edit MPEG-2 videos.

You can do this sort of editing in QuickTime player with QuickTime Pro, but be aware that MPEG-2 for DVDs uses a complicated compression scheme using key frames and "difference" frames that repeat in a regular pattern (Group of Pictures a.k.a GOP).  You cannot just edit out one frame without re-encoding the rest if you want to play it in a DVD player.


Superuser su password reset I am using OSX 10.6
I am the admin of my computer, however when I try to login as the super user through my terminal using my admin password, I am denied. Is there anyway to reset the password or find out what my password is?

OS X doesn't set a root password by default, so it's not possible to log in or su to root. The preferred way to run commands as root is sudo, since that requires your admin password instead of the (nonexistent) root password.

sudo works a little different from su, as it's really intended to run single commands as root. Generally, you just use sudo as a prefix on whatever command you want to run as root (e.g. sudo cp -R myApplication.app /Applications). If you want a root shell (as su does by default), use sudo -s.

I don't recommend setting a root password, but if you do need to do it, you can either run sudo passwd or run Directory Utility.app (which is hidden in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications), clicking the padlock and authenticating as an admin, then choosing Edit menu > Enable Root User.


Install csrutil or new recovery partion on High Sierra volume? My High Sierra installation did not come with a recovery partition, only internet recovery so I don't have csrutil. It's not in usr/bin, or the base install volume either like many have suggested, Single User Mode does not provide a csrutil either.

I have looked through the stack threads on the issue, and can't find a single solution other than upgrading or reinstalling, neither are an option for me currently. I do not have access to a High Sierra version of cocoadialog (v3.0.0beta7/v2.3.7) so I can't use recover partition installer app either.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to disable SIP at this point?

Install rEFInd to your hidden EFI volume. You then can restart the Mac, hold down the option key to invoke the Startup Manager, select rEFInd and instruct rEFInd to enable/disable SIP.

Actually, this is the fastest way to disable SIP because you an also instruct rEFInd to immediately boot macOS after disabling SIP.

Since you currently can not disable SIP, you will have to install rEFInd by not following the installation instructions. For example, to install to the internal drive EFI volume, you would enter the following commands.

  Note: The commands below may overwrite boot files if you already have Windows or Linux installed on your Mac.

cd ~/Downloads/refind-bin-0.11.4/
./refind-install --usedefault /dev/disk0s1

You can also create a USB flash drive with rEFInd instead of installing to your internal drive.

You may need to add the following lines to the bottom of the refind.conf file.

csr_values 10,77
showtools csr_rotate, shell, gdisk, memtest, mok_tool, apple_recovery, windows_recovery, about, hidden_tags, reboot, exit, firmware, fwupdate


Cloud-sycning MS Office documents on OS X/iOS I understand that iCloud does not synchronise MS Office Docs. What other options are available to synchronise and back-up my MS Office Docs across MacBook, iPad, etc.

Mobile Documents folder

Actually, iCloud can be used to sync anything that you wish, including MS Office docs.

In ~/Library/Mobile Documents create a folder (call it anything you wish) and put whatever Office documents you like in there. That folder will sync with other Macs (and jailbroken iOS devices, and on the web too if you have a Apple Developer licence).

Dropbox

Alternatively, Dropbox allows you to sync files that you put in your Dropbox folder with anything (Macs, iOS & Android devices using the Dropbox app or another app with Dropbox integration, and web).


Application to Monitor Battery Usage by Application I want to know what's draining my iPhone battery. Is there an application that can monitor / estimate battery usage by application?

This is not feasibly possible or even reasonable. The battery is just used. The system can track the current battery status and current usage, but it is not possible to track where exactly the power goes. It just all goes into the circuitry, the CPU, the Display, all things that the application uses. No application uses more battery than another unless it relies upon the hardware to a different extent, such as more complex apps will require more battery power because they need more CPU threads, and apps that can locate you will take even more because they need to power up the GPS. Using this logic, you can estimate which of your apps use the most battery.

On the other hand, you can try to measure battery usage manually. You can close all other apps from backgrounding and keep the phone in airplane mode with battery % display on. Then open an app and track how long it takes to drop by 10% from 100%. Then charge the phone again and do it all over for another app. The most important thing is to ensure the phone is operated at a constant temperature under 50 Degrees F and under completely constant runtime variables. This is the only way.

If you built the application, on the other hand, you can use a utility called Instruments to monitor the status of various aspects of the iOS device to determine the approximate battery drain more efficiently. This will get the status for the entire device, however, as, like I said, it's impossible to tell on an app-to-app basis. Instruments also relies upon the iPhone being tethered to the computer, which means it won't be running down the battery anyway, so Instruments only gives power consumption information.


AppleScript to change default web browser I want to be able to change the default web browser of my Mac to Google Chrome using AppleScript. Here is my idea:

set result to button returned of (display dialog "Would you like to change to Chrome?")
if result = "OK" then
    do shell script ("open -a 'Google Chrome' --args --make-default-browser")
else
    display dialog "No change in the default web browser"
end if

However, I always get this window popping up that I cannot programmatically deal with for some reason. I want to select "Use Chrome".

I know of a few manual ways of changing it, such as in the 'General' tab of the System Preferences but I need something reliable such as this shell command.
How do I accomplish the above via AppleScript?

You can deal with the confirmation window via UI scripting. This will press the “Use” button:

try
  tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "CoreServicesUIAgent"
      tell window 1
        tell (first button whose name starts with "use")
          perform action "AXPress"
        end tell
      end tell
    end tell
  end tell
end try

Source


Why is the text-to-speech hotkey not working? For some reason, my text to speech isn't working. I don't know why it stopped working. It works when I manually click it, but when using the default hotkey alt+esc, it doesn't do anything.

I have no idea what happened. How can I fix this? I tried changing hotkeys, but the problem persists.

I have found a solution that worked for me without restarting (although restarting worked before when this happened)

My problem was that both the Hot Key or the contextual menu Right-Click -> Speech -> Start Speaking did not work within any application like Chrome and Text Edit

When I went to System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Speech -> Play the button toggled to Stop as if playing but I heard no audio.

My Solution: I switched my default voice from Heather Infovox iVox HQ to Samantha then pressed the Play button.

I got audio.

Then I switched back to Heather and both Hot Key and contextual menu Right-Click -> Speech -> Start Speaking worked without quitting any apps or restarting my computer.


Unable to boot to recovery mode after problematic High Sierra upgrade After an upgrade to high sierra, my 2013 mac pro experienced intermittent freezes that required hard restarts to resolve. On every restart I get a black screen with a progress bar, and there is an empty progress bar under the launch pad in the dock (see images).

okay, so something is messed up and after trying to fix it for a while I figured a full OS reinstall was in order. However, when I try to restart into recovery mode using either command-r or option key during start-up, the restart procedure continues as if I hadn't pressed the keys. I can successfully trigger a pram flush using command-pr on start-up, so it doesn't appear to be a keyboard issue at first glance. I've disconnected everything from the computer except the monitor, keyboard, mouse and ethernet.

diskutil confirms that I have a recovery partition:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         1.0 TB     disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1.0 TB     disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            646.0 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 31.0 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                506.6 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +3.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Time Machine Backups    3.0 TB     disk2s2

Is there any other way to get to recovery?

When macOS' recovery partition fails, it creates a Catch-22 situation where you need the patient to be able to be able to perform brain surgery on itself.

If you have a ≥ 8gb usb drive you can erase handy, you can use it to create a recovery drive which you can use to diagnose and (one hopes) repair your intractable Mac drive(s).  It'll have all the same tools recovery mode offers:  you can test, run first aid, or perform other related functions without being dependent on the disk you're trying to repair.

Choose  > App Store… and download the High Sierra installer if /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra doesn't already exist.
When the download completes, the installer will open automatically.  Quit it.
Edit the following command, removing any returns to make one long line.  Replace YourDriveName with your USB drive name.

sudo "/Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" --volume "/Volumes/YourDriveName" --applicationpath "/Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app" --nointeraction
Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
Copy/paste the above command at the terminal prompt, press return, and enter your password.
After the process completes (it'll take awhile - be patient), restart your computer and immediately press and hold option.  This will eventually display the startup disk picker, from which you can choose the recovery drive you created rather than your normal start disk.  That'll at least give you a reliable work space unaffected by whatever's wrong with your drive.


Why does iPod 3G show exclamation mark / folder icon after CF upgrade? I have been trying to upgrade my iPod 3G to use a 64g CompactFlash card, as outlined in this blog post.

I have had partial success. I can format the iPod using Disk Utility. I can get iTunes to see the iPod, and even sync songs to it.

But I cannot get the iPod to work by itself. When it boots, it always gets stuck on the exclamation mark / folder icon:

I have tried repeatedly to use "Update" to fix the iPod's software. I connect the iPod to my Mac via USB, and I connect the FireWire cable to a charger so it has power.

The update process seems to work fine on the Mac side. iTunes eventually tells me to disconnect the iPod, and connect it to a power supply, so it can fiinish the update. The iPod itself says "OK to disconnect."

Just like in the blog post, the iPod never resets itself. It just sits at the "OK to disconnect" screen, even after I disconnect it. If I manually invoke a reset (as the blog author did), I end up back at the exclamation/folder icon. The update process never completes.

I have tried almost every variation of this process I can think of, using several Macs.

I know the iPod itself is okay. If I switch back from the CF to the stock hard drive, it works fine.

I guess I'm about to give up on this upgrade, but wanted to see if anyone else might have suggestions how to get the iPod to complete the update process and boot normally.

I think the issue may have been an incomplete "update" process via FireWire on iTunes. I received error messages like:

The iPod "Josh's iPod" cannot be synced. The required file is locked.
The iPod "Josh's iPod" cannot be updated because it contains files that are in use by another application.

Ultimately, I found that the /Music/iTunes/ folder on this Mac had permissions that were causing these errors. The folder (and some files inside) was set to "Read & Write" for the user, but "No Access" for the group or the world. I changed the permissions for group and world to "Read only".

After that I was able to successfully update/restore the iPod, and now it works but with the same quirks described in the blog post I cited above.


How do I jailbreak an iPhone or iPad? This is a canonical question Where is the list of canonical questions stored for Ask Different?

How do I jailbreak an iPhone or iPad (to install a package manager like Cydia or Sileo for tweaks) on:

iOS/iPadOS 13
iOS 12
iOS 11
iOS 10
iOS 9
iOS 8

App-based jailbreaks: You will have to sideload the .ipa with Cydia Impactor or download it from ignition.fun(visit this website on your iOS device and go into the jailbreaks section). You will then need to "trust" the profile, then open up the app on your iOS device and click jailbreak.

Web-based jailbreaks: You open up the website on your iOS device and click jailbreak.

Computer-based jailbreaks: You download the jailbreak app to your computer. Connect your iOS device and click jailbreak on your computer(make sure your device is trusted via iTunes first).

No substrate/substitute jailbreaks: These jailbreaks do not support tweaks or Cydia and only give you root access. You may be able to use apps like Filza or NewTerm 2. There are currently no jailbreaks like this.

If any of the links are broken try using the Wayback Machine.

All iOS versions are currently jailbreakable

If your device is not supported, see my answer below about checkra1n, which can jailbreak all iOS versions.

11.0 - 13.5

unc0ver (app-based)

12.0 - 12.4

Chimera (app-based) (installs Sileo, a more modern alternative to Cydia)

11.0 - 11.4.1

Electra (app-based)

Important: If your device crashes/freezes frequently while using Electra, install Apple Maps.

10.0 - 10.3.3 (recommended, 64-bit only)

Totally-not.spyware.lol (web-based) (if you are wondering, it is safe, the spyware thing is just a joke)

Important: It will ask you if you want to install doubleH3lix or Meridian if your device supports both. Choose doubleH3lix unless your device doesn't have a headphone jack.

10.0 - 10.3.3 (64 bit only, only devices w/ headphone jack)

doubleH3lix (app-based)

10.0 - 10.3.3 (all 64 bit devices, use doubleH3lix instead if you can)

Meridian (app-based)

10.0 - 10.3.3 (32 bit only)

h3lix (app-based)

9.3.5 (32 bit only)

Phoenix (app-based)

9.3 - 9.3.3 (64 bit only) (recommended)

jbme.qwertyoruiop.com (web-based)

9.2 - 9.3.3 (64 bit only)

Pangu IPA (app-based)

9.0 - 9.0.2 (32 bit) 9.0 - 9.1 (64 bit only)

Pangu9 (computer-based)

9.0 - 9.3.4 (32 bit only) (recommended)

jailbreak.me (web-based)

9.0 - 9.3.4 (32 bit only)

Home Depot (app-based)

8.4.1 (32 bit only)

EtasonJB (app-based)

8.0 - 8.4

TaiG 8.0-8.1.2 or TaiG 8.1.3-8.4 (computer-based)


How does one lock down OS X Server using the PF firewall? Assume I have ip blocks for China, Russia, North Korea etc. How would I configure pf to allow those IP addresses to only access ports 80 and 443, and be denied access to other ports?

I have an instance of OS X Server 2.1.1 (aka Mountain Lion) running in a data center with a static ip address exposed to the internet. So there is no hardware firewalls etc to protect the server against malicious users.

Looking through the logs, I noticed numerous failed attempts from countries like China, Russia to services necessary for me to remotely manage the server. Further, I noticed that ports were unnecessarily open to the internet.

Since OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server, I used the Server Admin to manage the firewall (ipfw).  This has been removed in OS X Server 2.1.1 (Mountain Lion). And to make matters more interesting, the Apple documentation states that ipfw is deprecated and to use pf instead. Having read the man page, I'm a tad lost how to configure pf.

Googling "pf firewall tutorial" reveals tutorials aimed for NetBSD, FreeBSD and OpenBSD. Further filtering on "OS X" in that query reveals tutorials for "OS X", but it seems the authors assume some prior knowledge.

You should:

understand pf basics - here is many guides on the Internet, you can safely read any Open/Free BSD guide. You must understand a few basic things:

with PF, last rule wins (opposite of IPFW's "first rule wins")
logging is in the pflog device if the 'tcpdump' format
check the pfctl command using man pfctl
also check man pf.conf
you can create many simple text files that contains IP addresses (called tables) and using them in the filtering rules - see the example below.

AFTER this you can use two GUI frontends

IceFloor (instead of the WaterRoof)
Firewall builder (cross platform)

PF is not too hard if you have some knowledge about how firewalling works in general.

Fragment of pf.conf for table based filtering:

interface = "en0"
allowed_ports = "{ 80, 443 }"
table <badips> persist
table <noroute> const { 192.168.0.0/16, 172.16.0.0/12, 10.0.0.0/8 }
block in on $interface from { <noroute>, <badips> } to any
pass in on $interface inet proto tcp from <badips> to $interface port $allowed_ports

The above example contains:

some basic definitions, like your interface name and some ports
definition for two tables, noroute for nonroutable addresses (RFC 1918) and the second badips that can contain your Geo IP based IP addresses
filtering rule - blocking anything from these tables
allowing ports 80 and 443 from badips (last rule wins)


Simplest way to get a public URL for a photo from Photos App? My phone already syncs photos to my laptop Photos App. I'm looking for the simplest way to share photos from the Photos App to the internet. I don't want albums or anything, just to get the URL of an individual photo. Ideally it happens automatically, and I just right click the photo in the Photos app and click "copy image url"

I tried using Imgur, but you can't even drag and drop photos from the app to the website.

Right-click a picture in Photos, Share [More... if you don't see all the options]

Flickr has a built-in uploader option, but not Imgur.

There are some tools listed on Imgur Help, though I haven't tried any of them personally.

Otherwise the 'simplest' way to get pictures from Photos to Imgur is to drag from Photos to the Desktop, then from the Desktop to the Imgur page... [then throw away the one on the Desktop]

Alternatively, Gyazo has an app that will let you instantly upload & add a link to your clipboard.

Dropbox allows you to right click & share a link to any file stored in it - though you'd have to follow the 'drag to Desktop [or Dropbox]' procedure as above, without then discarding the original.


How can I undo "always allow" in keychain item By mistake, I clicked on "always allow" on a file in my keychain on the Mac. How do I undo this and restrict access? I tried to correct it by clicking on Access Control. There I selected "confirm before allowing access" but it didn't work. I can still see the password for that file without entering a password.

You should be able to clear out any white listed programs and then reset the default behavior from Keychain Access.

First select Fantastical (or any apps that are cleared) and then press the -
Second, choose Confirm and Ask as needed.
Third, select Attributes and make sure the changes are saved (you should probably have to authenticate as well at this step)
Go back to Access Control to verify the settings have been saved properly

If this doesn't work, you might need to repair that keychain containing that item, also using Keychain Access menu to open the Keychain First Aid tool.


Launchd Multicast Socket Listener I'm not sure if I've just missed some documentation or not, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to set up a launchd agent that can be triggered whenever a datagram is received within a multicast group.

What I'd like to know is what a launchd plist should look like to provide a simple datagram listener that is bound to a multicast group.

Here's what I've been trying:

<?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>foo.bar</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/foo/bar</string>
    <key>Sockets</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Listeners</key>
        <dict>
            <key>SockType</key>
            <string>dgram</string>
            <key>SockServiceName</key>
            <string>12345</string>
            <key>SockFamily</key>
            <string>IPv4</string>
            <key>MulticastSocket</key>
            <string>224.0.0.253</string>
        </dict>
    </dict>
    <key>inetdCompatibility</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Wait</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

But it just generates getaddrinfo errors ("nodename nor servname provided, or not known"). Removing the multicast group to just setup a UDP port seems to work fine, but I don't really want to have to hard code an IP address or local DNS.

Are there any good examples of how to create a multicast listening launch agent or daemon using launchd? Or am I missing some other step, or misunderstanding what data I should be entering for a multicast group?

I set this one up using LaunchControl.

<?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>foo/bar</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/foo/bar</string>
    <key>Sockets</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Sock1</key>
        <dict>
            <key>MulticastGroup</key>
            <string>224.0.0.253</string>
            <key>SockFamily</key>
            <string>IPv4</string>
            <key>SockProtocol</key>
            <string>UDP</string>
            <key>SockServiceName</key>
            <string>12345</string>
            <key>SockType</key>
            <string>dgram</string>
        </dict>
    </dict>
    <key>inetdCompatibility</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Wait</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>


Yosemite stuck on "Setting up" for hours I recently replaced the hard drives on my Mid 2010 Mac Pro, and thus had to reinstall OS X Yosemite.  (I went with Yosemite instead of El Capitan because, as the computer is destined to become a file server, I wanted native RAID support.)  I started the OS X installation around 5:30 PM last night; at 10:30 PM the computer was stuck on the "Setting up..." screen.  I know that OS X installs aren't supposed to take five hours.  Is the fact that I have the OS X install flash drive still inserted in the Mac Pro causing this?  Or is it something else?

Rebooting without the OS X flash drive inserted fixed the problem.


Firewall settings with "imagent" Among others that I recognize, I have the "imagent" been allowed to pass true my firewall (allow incoming connection).

What/who is it, and do I must have it or can I just block it.

I do not remember allowing it in the first place anyway, but that could be due to my age :)

IMAgent is a process that listens for FaceTime invitations. It will be active even if FaceTime isn't running. You don't have to block it, but if you don't use FaceTime you can open the application, open preferences, and turn off FaceTime. That should quit the IMAgent process.