iTunes on PandaBoard/Raspberry Pi or other single board computer Has anyone being able to get iTunes to run on a single board computer like PandaBoard or Raspberry Pi?

I would like to do this to build a low cost, low power-consuming media center. If one could bring iTunes to run on such a low cost single board computer, it could be utilized as a music/video server which could be controlled via Apple's Remote App on iOs devices (e.g. I could stream music to AirPlay speakers or videos to Apple TV). I would also be able to stream music/videos it to my iOS device or Mac when Home Sharing is activated.

So, is this possible? Is there such a computer that is fast enough to do video streaming, running iTunes, attach HDD? Or are they all too slow? Any other obstacles?

The primary obstacle to getting a full featured program like iTunes to work is running OS X on non Apple hardware and/or Windows on ARM.

I do run ubuntu on a Beagle Black and it is suitable for music streaming and light video streaming using open source packages. Nothing I have found works as well as an AppleTV and iTunes Match for music streaming, though. The black CPU is dual core, but severely resource constrained so it can generally walk or chew gum but not both.


Can't run launchctl agent in Catalina. Is this a permissions problem? I have some launchctl scripts on Mojave that I am trying to now run on Catalina, but can't seem to get them to run. I made myself a very simple little plist as follows
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>local.moveit</string>

  <key>StandardOutPath</key>
      <string>/Users/pheon/Library/Logs/local-moveit-stout.log</string>
  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
      <string>/Users/pheon/Library/Logs/local-moveit-stderr.log</string>

  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>mv</string>
    <string>/Users/pheon/Desktop/test/fileA</string>
    <string>/Users/pheon/Desktop/test/fileB</string>
  </array>

  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
  </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Then I loaded it with
launchctl load local.moveit.plist

Restarted my machine.
Checked it was running.
$ launchctl list | grep moveit
-   0   local.moveit

It is simply supposed to rename a file (which does exists), but it doesn't do anything, it doesn't report any errors. It seems dead.
I had read that there could be permission issues, so I gave mv, launchctr, sh and zsh "Full Disk Access" in System Preferences. I also downloaded LaunchControl.app to see if that would help. But it still doesn't work, and nothing is reporting that anything is amiss.
I have the following questions.

How do I get this to work?
What is it with this permissions thing? Is it safe to give those apps "Full Disk Access". Should I turn SIP off and on again? (What does that do anyway?)

ETA.
An error message finally turned up in the log.
mv: rename /Users/pheon/Desktop/test/fileA to /Users/pheon/Desktop/test/fileB: Operation not permitted

How do I get this to work?

Your plist file looks good except I have found it’s more reliable to have your actual commands in an executable script and call that rather than call the commands directly from the plist.
(For future readers in case comments are deleted)
The StartCalendarInterval can get confusing at times...
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
  </dict>

This runs the command on the first minute of every hour (i.e. 12:01, 1:01, 2:01, and so on).  It’s not “every 1 minute.” For more details, see launchd plist format for running a command at a specific time on a weekday

What is it with this permissions thing? Is it safe to give those apps "Full Disk Access". Should I turn SIP off and on again? (What does that do anyway?)

Catalina has instituted a new security model in which applications or processes need to be granted rights to different resources.  It has nothing to do with your rights per se, but rights of the resource. For instance, you might not want your Firefox to have rights outside it’s normal work folders.  On the past, an attacker might exploit some flaw and gain access to other directories snd drop off malicious code. Now, if the app doesn’t have rights to accessed the volume, it won’t be able to access it regardless whether of your rights
SIP is merely a set of protected folders. what makes it special is that it cannot be disabled while the file system is mounted which is why you need to reboot in Recovery/Single User mode to disable it.  Rogue software can’t overwrite system files even if the user is root.


How can I split a 60 GB file into 5 GB pieces on a Mac? I would imagine using a Disk Utility partition, but I didn't see the option in Disk Utility to split a larger partition into several.

How can it be done on a Mac?

I am doing this because I would like to Mail Drop the file.

OS X includes a command line tool called split. See man split for all the details.

You can call split using the Terminal.app and the command:

split -b 5000m MYBIGFILE

To combine it again, have the receiver store all parts in a dedicated folder, open Terminal there and run

cat x?? > MYBIGFILE

(This assumes that you used the default output names when running split.)


My password to login to my "screen" isn't being recognized My son used my computer last night.  he logged onto it using the Guest User.  He therefore logged off my "screen".  I keyed in my password in the startup screen and it wasn't recognized.  I rekeyed it in a few times incorrectly ( bad I know) but then finally found the CORRECT password and it keeps on "shaking" as it is incorrect.  This is about to drive me crazy and I have spent 1 hr trying to fix it and nothing is working.  please help me!!

Most probably, and unwillingly, your son modified your input keyboard
or used the ⇪ caps lock key.


How to change the switch window key? On my Macbook with a US-International physical keyboard, the windows of one application are cycled with CMD+`. Now I also use an iMac that has a German keyboard (the printing on the keys).  I switched the layout to US-International, but weirdly, the windows of one application are now switched with CMD+> instead. This is exactly the key that would be in the same location as CMD+` would I be using the German keyboard layout. I am not using that layout, though and I don't want to cycle windows with CMD+>.

How can I customize this setting?

The language specific shortcuts are set up when the computer is first set up. In my case, the computer was set up in German and I only later switched it to English. Then the default hotkeys do not change. The desired behaviour (switching windows with CMD+' could be enabled by going to System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard and then pressing "Restore defaults". In particular "Move focus to next window" changes then.


How to open Cinema Display power supply? My Cinema Display bit the dust, and all the symptoms seem to point to the 150W power supply brick, which is apparently not an uncommon problem with those models.

New power supply bricks are close to $200.  Ouch.  Usually one bad component in a power supply is a lot cheaper than that, and I've soldered together a power supply or two in my day.

Unfortunately, the Cinema Display power supply is built like the monolith from "2001", with no apparent way to open it.  Can I use a thin putty knife to crack it open, like the old Mac minis?  Is there some way to get in through the line-in plug?  Is it sealed in a way that can't be opened, but maybe there's a safe(-ish) place to saw through to get inside?

Someone did it.

There's no good way to open it. Use a Dremel to carefully cut around the seam until it was thin enough to crack apart.

There's one huge capacitor (Rubycon KXW 450V 150 uF) that needs to be discharged before the power supply will start up.

Be careful, because it's charged to over 100 volts. Solder a 600 k ohm resistor across it to bleed off the charge a little faster.


Possible to Reinstall Bento I recently had to wipe clean my harddrive. I had a Bento DB installed and so I had to reinstall it. I have the original license key, however, since FileMaker no longer supports Bento it isn't working. Any ideas on how I might be able to open my database?

Check the "archived software downloads"-section on their homepage here. There is a section for Bento v1, 2, 3 or 4, your product should be included as well. For example, try downloading Bento v4.1.2 from here ;)


How can I password protect files in macOS? I want to start a private journal on my Mac, but I want to make sure that the file can only be opened by me.

How can I put password security on my file without it slowing down my computer?

You could put it in an encrypted disk image.

You can create an encrypted disk image in Disk Utility:

Open Disk Utility.
Go to File > New Image > Blank Image (Cmd+N).
Enter a filename, and choose a location. You can also choose the size of the disk image. Make sure to set Encryption to either 128 or 256 bit AES encryption (256 bit is more secure than 128 bit, but it's also slower.) You can keep all other settings the same.
Enter a passphrase for your disk image.
Ensure you have read/write disk image selected for Image Format (otherwise you won't be able to write to it)
You can now create the image. Once it's created, the disk image will be mounted. Copy the files you want to keep safe to the new disk.
Once you're done, eject the disk by dragging it to the Trash.

Now, whenever you want to access your encrypted files, just mount the image from wherever you saved it to earlier. Once you're done with your files, eject it as described earlier.


Change application and select text with a single click I'm fairly certain that, prior to Yosemite, it was possible to click in a non-active app's edit pane to put the caret at that point. It now requires two clicks: one to change which application and then a second to put the caret at the desired place. Has anyone else observed this change or know why it was made?

More importantly, how can I get this behaviour back? I seem to do a lot of work where I select text in one app, copy it, and then want to insert it in a new app. The above change in behaviour is pretty infuriating :-(

Looks like it's always been this broken, maybe I just never hit it because I haven't used multi-monitor macs before and so rarely had windows side-by-side:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2436615

Enable click-through, preferrably for all applications

:-(


Finding the folder a note is stored in in Notes This seems so basic, but just can't figure it:

I can easily find a note with an unique bit of text, but finding WHERE in my list of folders the note is stored seems impossible. One would think that when you tap a found note, the note's folder would become highlighted, or at least a tooltip would help identify the location, but no such luck.

Tips, thoughts? thx.. drew..

This works on 10.12.6 Sierra: Search for the note, select it, then clear the search field. The folder will be highlighted in light gray.


Mac Pro average lifetime? I am thinking of buying a new workstation computer, and Mac Pro is like the first thing I thought of buying.

I know Apple supports their computers for quite a generous time period, like the mid-2007 iMac is still supported in Yosemite. However, I see that only models going forward from Early 2008 are supported for Mac Pro(source: http://www.ibtimes.com/os-x-yosemite-compatibility-find-out-if-your-mac-will-be-able-update-1594262).

So are Mac Pro's not supported for as long as iMac's or is there a different reason? How long are Mac Pro's generally supported for? Thanks in advance.

Well, the Mac Pro went through quite a long period of stagnancy recently, which is likely the cause of the disparity you see between the iMac and Mac Pro in terms of software compatibility.

According to the MacRumors Buyer's Guide, the Mac Pro has by far the largest average time between refreshes (449 days), so new models are sparse.

Because of that, it's a good time to buy, if that's what you're asking. Though there could be a minor spec bump or price drop at any time (those are more or less unpredictable from afar), it's not worth the risk of waiting for one. The December 2013 update is likely the only major refresh we'll see for quite a while.

As far as average lifetime goes, the Early 2008 Mac Pro shipped with OS X Leopard (10.5), and is still supported in Yosemite (10.10), so it has received five software updates so far (and there could still be more).

Based on that, you could expect software compatibility to last for upwards of 6 years on a Mac Pro bought today, if that's how you define lifetime. However, the Mac will of course function on old software for much longer than that.


Can't time capsule back-up to an external hard-drive? I recently had connected an external hard-drive to an old 1st gen time capsule and successfully used it for backup. However, my TC began shutting down on me so I thought it was time to get a new one. Now my new TC will let me choose my external drive but as a backup but cannot seem to login to it. It keeps complaining "problem with the network user name or password. However, I know this is right.

In the Mac Help doc, there is one section that reads:

  Every available disk that can be used to store backups is listed. If you’ve partitioned a disk, the partitions are listed. Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme, or to an iPod, iDisk, or disk formatted for Windows.

OK, so if this is true, why did it work before? Why does the app let me select the drive as "Available"? Could the reference in the Mac Help to AirPort Extreme refer to just the base station and not the time capsule?

I used Apple's Express Lane tech support. (Being as this was a brand new TimeCapsule, there was no fee.)

The tech told me that TC no longer supports backup to an external drive as of the 2nd Gen TC. He would not speculate as to why.

I can speculate that perhaps Apple wanted you to buy a bigger TC instead? Or perhaps (as was my experience) backing up to an external drive seemed to cause the TC to shut down (maybe overheated).

However, I can and did hook the drive directly to my USB port and I can back up that computer to it using Time Machine software (which is what I wanted to do anyway.)

Odd to answer my own question but this thread may provide an answer to the next guy.


Big Sur: I'm not able to charge up to over 8% I know about this question, but this is a feature for when your battery is about 80% not 8%.
My Mac is MacBook Pro 15-inch 2019 and since the update to Big Sur, my mac won't charge fully to 100% while it’s running. It just sits at 8% all the time and says: It's not charging even though it's plugged in.
Things that I have tried:

Resetting default settings in System Preferences
Removed the option for "Optimised battery charging"
Reset the SMC with my T2 Chip

Any idea what further steps I should take?

The first thing I would do is verify the charge cable is capable of handling the wattage of your adapter. (Did you perhaps get an Air adapter or a non-apple cable?)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201700

The second is check CPU usage. A runaway process could out run even a 61W adapter that’s using the correct charge cable.

https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/view-cpu-activity-actmntr43452/mac

Check in Activity Monitor - show all processes: the charging circuitry should be able to net charge past 80% regardless of your “optimize” settings. Only if you have massive energy usage, would this make sense - and on your Mac - it can run the battery down if it’s stuck in a loop - the charger is less powerful than that hardware running 100% on CPU and GPU in some cases.

The third would be to open a support ticket with Apple online to run remote battery diagnostics. They have the best tools to pic apart the health status and recommend any actions. A one time SMC reset is good but now that you’ve ruled that out, I would go straight to the authority to see if they can share with you anything specific about your battery health.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211094

You can look in About This Mac in system information and as long as the status is healthy, you’ll have an official diagnostic log sent to Apple in case you find it degrading and want to seek warranty or out of warranty repairs.
Your case where it’s less than 50% and running but not charging should be very easy for Apple to diagnose remotely.


How do i autorun .command files from a USB drive when I plug it in? I've made two .command files, "lock" and "unlock". The first hides hidden files with: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE, then refreshes finder with killall Finder. The second does the opposite, I simply replaced TRUE with FALSE, in the first command.

I'd like to copy these over to a USB thumb drive in such a way that when I plug this USB into my laptop, it automatically executes the "unlock" file, and as soon as I unplug it, the "lock" file is executed.

I don't know to what extent this is possible and what drawbacks/problems it may entail, but any help or input is very much appreciated. I'm also only doing this for fun, so I'm perfectly okay with experimenting!

A launchd service supports the WatchPaths option, which launches a program when the contents of a folder are changed:

  WatchPaths <array of strings>
       This optional key causes the job to be started if any one of the listed paths are modified.

By watching /Volumes, a shell script can be created which would check whether your external disk is mounted or not° and run the appropriate commands°°.

° The simplest way would be checking for the presence of a /Volumes/disk-name/ folder, but it would also be the simplest to fool with by renaming the partition or having another one with the same name, causing the mount point to be modified.

°° It would be appropriate to use a temporary file storing the result of the last execution to avoid killing the Finder if another disk was to be [un]mounted.


How to submit app without In-App Purchases I'm trying to make a bundle identifier that doesn't require me to submit IAPs. For the explicit id, I can't find where to turn it off or uncheck the box. I noticed that I can make a wild card id, but Game Center is disabled and I want to have Game Center.

So, can we submit an identifier with IAPs enabled but not use any IAPs?

Yes, as  Game Center and In-App Purchase are enabled by default for an explicit iOS App ID and can't be disabled.

Having them enabled, though, does not mean that you are forced to use them nor means that you are actively using them.


How to install eyeD3 on OSX? Can't seem to install eyeD3, any ideas?

matts-MacBook-Pro:~ matt$ sudo pip install eye3D

Downloading/unpacking eye3D
Could not find any downloads that satisfy the requirement eye3D
Cleaning up...
No distributions at all found for eye3D
Storing debug log for failure in /Users/matt/Library/Logs/pip.log

For info:

matts-MacBook-Pro:~ matt$ python --version
Python 2.7.8

matts-MacBook-Pro:~ matt$ pip --version
pip 1.5.6 from /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg (python 2.7)

OS X 10.9.5 (13F34)

Well, you're writing 'eye3D' instead of 'eyeD3', that's probably it.

You want:

sudo pip install eyeD3


iPhone: transfer audio from Whatsapp to Music library I'm using an iPhone 4 with iOS 7.1. I've been sent some songs(*)  via Whatsapp, and I'd like to copy them to my music library in the iPhone, so that I can listen to them, add them to my playlists, etc., but I can't find the way. Here are my limitations:

Whatsapp only offers the option to share the songs via Whatsapp or
via email.
My iPhone is synced to my desktop computer, which I don't
have with me. I have a Macbook with me (OS X 10.8.5), but I don't
want to sync the iPhone to it, because it will wipe everything in my
phone.
I don't use iCloud, nor I have it activated in any of my devices… though I could do so, if I have to.

What can I do? If the solution is to use iCloud, how would I do so without wiping or syncing the rest of the contents in my phone? (I have waaay more than the free 5 Gb. in an iCloud account).

(*) Non-pirated songs!!! They are a demo from a musician friend of mine.

Hit the share button and send it to yourself via email. Then, open your mail in iPhone and it will download the song. Long press on the name of the song until it asks which application to open in.

There, you can open that song in your preferred app (but not not the iPhone music library) like i downloader, and also  download it to your OC from the emails.


Mountain Lion System Freeze - Poor Memory Handling? Useful details: Core2Duo mid 2010 Macbook Air, 128Gb SSD, 2Gb RAM.

Since I upgraded to Mountain Lion I've had this occur a few times. I'll be running my system and it'll completely freeze, no response to keyboard or trackpad other than the ability to hard power off.

In general it's when I have VirtualBox, Safari, Sublime Text 2, Terminal and Spotify running, but it'll be fine up until some unknown point and then thats it. Occasionally it'll unfreeze and I'll have messages about UI updates being suspended by (insert app here), but most of the time it forces the fans on high and starts trying to crunch on something.

Mountain Lion seems a bit snappier than Snow Leopard was for me on  this machine, but it seems to be a large chunk worse for memory management, has anyone run across similar issues? Starting points for me to try optimise?

Since re-install Mountain Lion my system freezing very often (randomly). It seems like disk freeze for 15-30sec. I suspect some bug. But after huge effort to investigate problem I found that in my case the solution is to delete sysem logs.
In terminal:

sudo rm /var/log/*

I don't know what was wrong (it was clean install of ML) but it work for me (two days until now) and looks stable.


How can I reprogram OSX to use Windows-style shortcuts for all operations? I've recently started using a Mac after using Windows for 20+ years and one annoying thing is that I have to re-learn all the shortcuts. I've found that you can change small stuff like swapping the Ctrl, Fn and Option buttons, but the shortcuts themselves would still be different from what I am used to. I've also found Karabiner helpful for remapping individual keys, but it won't let me create more complex rules, such as assigning Alt-Tab to change between Windows.

Is there a program/extension/terminal command that would allow me to remap any shortcut in the system to any other shortcut combination?

The answer to my question is to use Karabiner along with their set of complex key modifications titled "PC-Style Shortcuts". You can also add modifications of your own by editing the ~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json file.
The only shortcut I couldn't get working is using Alt+Shift to switch between input languages, but it's probably doable using more advanced scripting. I'm instead using Macs built-in language toggling using the Caps lock key. Top this off with Witch to enable Windows-style toggling between applications/windows and you get a full PC experience, completely customizable to your personal needs.


Maxing out a MacPro5,1 from 2010? I have a MacPro5,1 (2010) with a 4-Core 3.2 GHz (W3565) and 12 GB RAM (3x4GB ECC 1066 MHz; 1 slot free).

Would this be possible to possible to purchase 2 X5690 (3.46GHz/6-core/12MB/130W) processors to upgrade this or would I need a new tray + heatsink and some firmware update?

Also, would the upgrade then also accept a 128 GB memory upgrade (via 8x16 GB; 1333MHZ DDR3 PC3-10600 Reg ECC Low Voltage DIMM)?

You'd need a new daughterboard & both heatsinks, at least - the single & dual CPU boards are physically different & the singles have larger heatsinks which won't fit the duals.

picture from OWC

Changing the board also gives you 4 more RAM slots & a potential maximum of 128GB RAM, if you are running Mavericks 10.9 or later.
With earlier OSes, though it will take 128GB RAM [8x16GB in dual channel], OS X cannot use it all - it only supports a maximum of 96 GB [6x16 in triple channel].
Bootcamp into Windows & all 128 is a possibility.

The 5,1 should already have the firmware necessary to support the Westmere processors, the update is only necessary for the 2009 4,1.

BTW, if you are considering doing this yourself, be aware that standard off-the-shelf CPUs are expected to go in PCs not Macs & have lids. The ones for Mac are lidless.
You can make the lidded processors fit, but it's fiddly [& would need an entire answer in itself]

Refs: Everymac, MacSales, OWC & being the owner of a similarly upgraded 4,1


iPhone 3g (iOS 3.1) screen rotation problem One evening, the screen of my iPhone 3g would no longer rotate. It was working fine that morning.

I haven't updated or installed any applications.

The process in charge of reading the accelerometer may be having troubles. I suggest you hold on your power/suspend button for 5 secs and then completely turn off your iPhone. After the phone has been turned off, press the power button again to start it (this will perform a "cold boot" of the phone). That's the equivalent of completely powering off a computer.

If the problem persists after the reboot, then you might have to restore your phone from a backup using iTunes.

Please provide more information or use the search tool in the upper right corner of the website to find similar answers on how to restore an iPhone from a Backup.


53 GB in iLifeAssetManagement folder but only 5 GB in Photo Stream I've got a 128 GB 11″ MacBook Air running Yosemite which I use for travelling and managing photos while on the move. With only 128 GB I try to manage the disk space carefully. But now I find there is only 10 GB left. About This Mac → Storage shows that photos take up 61 GB of this.

Drilling down 52.7 GB of this is in the folder ~/Library/Application\ Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub which I understood to be Photo Stream. It shows in a very large number of folders, each containing a single jpg file.

But if I pull out the images by using the Finder window searching for "image" and then selecting from kind "image" (I understand the standard way to pull out Photo Stream) the resultant file is only 5 GB large

Why is this folder showing nearly 53 GB when Photo Stream is only 5 GB?
What constitutes the other 58 GB?
How can I identify them and delete those I don't need to free up some much-needed disk space?

The sub folder contains all the legacy photos from iCloud and iPhoto and normally should have photos and videos.

With 10.10 and the new Photos app, everything appears to be stored in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.cloudphotosd/ and not in Application Support once you open the new Photos app and allow it to migrate things.

If you're in that situation (open the Photos app once and letting it set up a library and choosing which Photos to store locally), you should be able to confirm that nothing in iLifeAssetManagement is needed anymore and safely delete it after making a backup offline just in case we don't know all the tricks Apple has pulled.

Be sure to open iPhoto one last time and see if you need any of the photos there. If not, consider deleting that app and then converting all the iPhoto albums into Photos app albums and deleting the iPhoto Libraries once you have also an archival copy of these Libraries for "just in case" needs stored offline.


Automator Localization issue? I have some difficulties understanding what's wrong in Automator:

I used to launch a short automator script with an exiftool command to organize my pictures by folders:

exiftool -v '-Directory < DateTimeOriginal' -d /Users/home/Pictures/Photos-Sources/APN/%Y/%Y-%m" "%B/%Y-%m-%d" "%A -r "$f"

This script created a folder named according to the date the photo was taken.
In my case, some arguments (month or day) are in "French literary", due to my OS X configuration (exiftool doesn't come with any localization option).

After Mavericks installation, the script is still working, but these same arguments are in English only; even when I use this script in a Terminal, they still come in French.

Does anyone have the same issue, or anyone else could help me to understand if I'm mistaken somewhere?

You can change the time format by setting LC_TIME to fr_FR:

LC_TIME=fr_FR exiftool -v '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d ~/Pictures/Photos-Sources/APN/%Y/%Y-%m\ %B/%Y-%m-%d\ %A -r "$f"

$ LC_TIME=C date +%A\ %B
Monday November
$ LC_TIME=fr_FR date +%A\ %B
Lundi novembre

Terminal and iTerm 2 set LANG (which changes LC_TIME) automatically based on the region selected in System Preferences.

On my installations of 10.8 and 10.9, the Run Shell Script command uses the C locale by default though.


Let Windows 8.1 use 5k pixels of my iMac 5k? (Boot Camp) So I installed Windows 8.1 x64 using the Boot Camp Assistant on my Yosemite, iMac 5K 27".

The max screen resolution is being reported as 3840x2160.

I cannot explain what exactly is wrong, but my strain is huge after working in this setup for ~2 hours. It wasn't so in MacOS. I suppose the problem is with graphics driver.

I updated Windows 8.1 - everything I could.

What worries me is that the latest Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5640 does not list iMac 27' 5K:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1721?locale=en_AU

.. and the AMD website where I wanted to try their driver here:
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows%208.1%20-%2064

says:

This driver is not intended for use on AMD products running in Apple Bootcamp platforms. Users of these platforms should contact their manufacturer for driver support.

Then, I tried to contact Apple Support - I have an extended support for 3 years (AppleCare). They asked me nicely to go and ask Microsoft for this.

Finally, I contacted Microsoft Support and they proposed that I subscribe to their support service (e.g. spend another $100+) and they will solve my issue. They assured me they knew the solution and they even had an internal technical  note about a similar case. Besides the feeling of being cheated, I supposed there should be drivers for my case, but I can't find anything.

Please help me - how else can I try to solve the issue, what system info you want to know in order to give advice, and where should I look for more references / reading?

UPD. I've also tried these drivers from AMD designed for BootCamp, but it did not help:
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/bootcamp

Back in 2015 there was a Bootcamp Update that came through Apple Software update (ATI/AMD driver), which enabled full 5k resolution for Windows 8.1.

Sadly Apple pulled this update silently. I only know the version number of that gorgeous driver: 15.201.2001-15005a-295390C

But the only way to get it, is a private person, which did that update and did not delete the installer, usually located in: "C:AMD/".

If I once get that driver back, I will share with everyone! Maybe someone can help?


How to sync LastPass or 1Password with Apple Keychain? I am looking for a way to sync passwords between Apple Keychain and LastPass or 1Password1. Apple Keychans works quite well only if you are on Safari. The others work well if you are not on Safari Mobile, so I am looking for a solution that is more flexible, which makes me think that some kind of sync would be needed.

Perhaps you mean 1Password by AgileBits? If so I can answer that as a happy user of 1Password that you can't. Migrating or syncing passwords from/with the keychain is as far as I know, not strictly possible.

But 1Password (at least) is designed as a replacement for the Apple Keychain. the migration is not without its pain points (manually moving passwords over wholesale, or a few at a time as they pop up is not fun) but once you have all your passwords moved over your need for Keychain is gone.

Also, you can get an iOS version of 1Password as well which syncs with the desktop versions (either through the cloud or locally within your WLAN) and ties in nicely with Mobile Safari and other apps on your iDevice.


Is it possible to *partially* claim an iTunes gift card? When I claim an iTunes gift card I am given the option to use it toward an Apple Music subscription. For example, I can use a $150 gift card to get a year of Apple Music for $99 and have $51 left over to buy apps or whatever.

But what if I'm not sure yet whether or not I want to commit to the Apple Music Platform? It may not be an obvious decision for everyone. It certainly gave me a pause, while I considered how likely I am to purchase a HomePod in the near future, and various other factors.

Is there a way to claim just $51 of the $150 gift card and buy some apps and music while I contemplate whether I actually want Apple Music? Or do I have to buy the Apple Music subscription first, and then other iTunes content?

There is a free trial period for Apple Music. Your gift-card will not be claimed within the trial period. Just make sure you cancel your subscription when the free trial ends.


Calls from Yosemite via iPhone fail when connected via WiFi and Thunderbolt Ethernet I am able to make and receive phone calls from my MacBook running Yosemite via my iPhone when I am only connected via WiFi to my home network (Airport Extreme).

When I connect additionally via my Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter to the same network it does not work anymore. Making and receiving phone calls always fails with the message "Call failed" after trying for some seconds to connect to the iPhone.

UPDATE: I can see the following error in the console:

17/10/14 14:15:23,082 discoveryd[56]: Basic Network GetExtendedFlags ioctl failed Device not configured

I did not realise that it works when I am connected only via Thunderbolt Ethernet - I though you have to connected to the same WiFi network.

You can only have one active network interface at a time.

Having multiple interfaces connected confuses the Mac and is in general a bad practice.

In short, pick one; either disconnect the TB Ethernet or shut off Wi-Fi.


Easiest way to get path of currently-opened file in Adobe Acrobat? When viewing a file in Adobe Acrobat Pro XI on OSX Yosemite, I sometimes want to send the file to another application. To create an action in KeyboardMaestro, I need to get the path of the currently-open file from Acrobat. How can I get the path?

A way to send the value to the clipboard would be enough; getting a value I can manipulate in AppleScript would be even better.

So here's an AppleScript that I pasted together with the help of some other answers and the AppleScript reference. This puts the URL of the frontmost Acrobat document to the clipboard, e.g:
file://localhost/Users/Your%20Username/Documents/Some%20Folder/Filename.pdf

 tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Acrobat"
            set thefile to value of attribute "AXDocument" of window 1
        end tell
    end tell
 set the clipboard to thefile


Choose providers in ios 9 spotlight suggested news I wonder where I can choose/ change the news sources that spotlight uses in the new iOS 9...!
I live in Switzerland and don't have the News App...

i've never visited most of the sites before

I think the news section in spotlight search is linked to your iOS news app, try changing sources there to see if it has any effects. You may also want to take a look at your spotlight search settings.


Why would Mail's message counts not match Gmail's? I have Mail 4.5 on 10.6.7 and a Google apps account.

My total message counts for each folder in Mail don't match the counts I see in the GMail web UI.

I don't have any custom labels or folders. I've tried rebuilding the mailbox in Mail, syncing the account, and switching the message view to "threaded". No dice.

Inbox, Sent, and Trash have always been off and Mail always shows more.

Inbox:  62(GM) / 78(Mail)
Sent:   88(GM) / 117(Mail)
Trash:  199(GM) / 262(Mail)

Gmail counts all mail of a thread to 1 mail. Your version's Mail app not.


How to find the PID(s) of a hung app in macOS from the shell (Terminal)? Within Activity Monitor.app it's easy to visually identify a hung app by seeing its name  in red text:

How can such hung app statuses be identified from the shell (Terminal.app) and the PID(s) of such processes retrieved?

UPDATE (The answer below linked to a great post, but doesn't yet contain the entire answer):

First step appears to be to identify the hung process by using spindump:

sudo spindump -notarget 5  -timelimit 60 -stdout -noFile -noProcessingWhileSampling   -aggregateStacksByProcess | grep -B 8 "Unresponsive for"

I will now need to extract out the PID (probably trivial) and this should do it. It would be nice if there were a more effective method... ie, it would be nice if we could discover how Activity Monitor itself is really doing this so quickly / effectively...

This is actually not straightforward to do, but other people have run into this and written codes you could use. See here.


Why Does a Shell Script Trapping SIGTERM Work When Run Manually, But Not When Run via launchd? Okay, quite simply I have a shell script that needs to wait for something to happen, but it has a lock-file and some child-processes that I need to ensure are tidied up if the script is interrupted.

I've achieved this without issue by using the trap command to set some appropriate actions, and have come up with a script that looks a bit like this:

#!/bin/sh
LOG="$0.log"

# Create a lock-file to prevent simultaneous access
lockfile -l 86400 "$LOG.lock" || $(echo 'Locking failed' >&2 && exit 3)

# Create trap for interrupt and cleanup
on_complete() {
    echo $(date +%R)' Ended.' >> "$LOG"
    kill $(jobs -p)
    rm -f "$LOG.lock"
    exit
}
trap 'on_complete 2> /dev/null' SIGTERM SIGINT SIGHUP EXIT

# Do nothing
echo $(date +%R)' Running…' >> "$LOG"
sleep 86400 &
while wait; do sleep 86400 &; done

This can be run just fine in a terminal via sh Example.sh, and terminating it with Ctrl + C, causing it to remove its lock-file without any fuss.

I then tried creating a launchd job for this script like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.example</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>sh</string>
        <string>~/Downloads/Example.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>EnableGlobbing</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Creating Example.sh and Example.plist from the above in the ~/Downloads folder allows me to run the launchd job via launchd load ~/Downloads/Example.plist and end it via launchd unload ~/Downloads/Example.plist. However, ending the job doesn't cause a SIGTERM to reach the script, which is instead SIGKILL'd after the 20 second timeout.

So what I'd like to know is; why isn't my script receiving SIGTERM, and how I can ensure it does?

The ultimate problem here is that Bash does not normally kill its non-builtin children.

If bash is waiting for a command to complete and receives a signal for which a
trap has been set, the trap will not be executed until the command completes.
When bash is waiting for an asynchronous command  via  the  wait  builtin, the
reception of a signal for which a trap has been set will cause the wait builtin
to return immediately with an exit status greater than 128, immediately after
which  the trap is executed.

When you hit <CTRL>+<C> you're killing the shell script, which behaves normally -- but the sleep lives on. Use ps to see.

When try to stop things externally, via kill, then Bash as above. After some time-out period (I'm guessing 20 seconds) launchd then issues a kill -9 which the script cannot trap.

The solution is to issue a wait after the sleep, to indicate to Bash that it can interrupt itself:

sleep 86400 & wait

This will allow the script to be interrupted, but the sleep will still survive. I'm sure there's a way to kill the children, but I didn't bother looking it up...


Only one USB-C port will charge my MacBook Pro? I've had my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) for over a year and I've never had any problems with charging until now. I was always able to use both USB-C ports for charging, but I just tried using the port that I don't usually use for charging (the one closest to me) and it just doesn't charge. I can use this same port to charge my phone, but when I try to charge my MacBook with it, it just does nothing. How can I fix this?

So, to summarize, the port works for all functions (USB connectivity, display, etc) including charging downstream devices (like a smartphone), but you cannot charge the MacBook.

Your SMC chip needs to be reset.  Hold ^ Control⇧ Shift⌥ Option ⦿ Power from a powered off state.
There is failed component in the charging circuitry.

USB 3.1 (power delivery) negotiates power.  When you connect your power adapter to the port, it basically says "I'm a power adapter and I can charge."  The device (MacBook) will respond "I need X" and will negotiate with adapter for what can be delivered.  Once negotiated, the adapter sends the power and the USB port passes it to the charging circuit (handled by the SMC)

What could be happening here is one of two things:

The port is no longer negotiating for power (unlikely because the port still functions otherwise
The charging circuitry physically isn't getting the power (a broken electrical path)

If the SMC reset doesn't fix, take it in for service.


Apple Script Command Sendkeys? I am searching for a Apple Script command which is similar to Visual Basic Script Sendkeys command.
I want to let a programm type something at itself.

From the AppleScript System Events dictionary:

key code integer or list of integer : The key code(s) to be sent. May be a list.
    [using command down/control down/option down/shift down or list of command down/control down/option down/shift down] : modifiers with which the key codes are to be entered
keystroke text : The keystrokes to be sent.
    [using as above]

Some examples illustrating their use:
tell application "System Events"
    key code 124 using {shift down, command down} --> Right arrow
    key code 8 using command down --> ⌘-C
    key code {4, 14, 37, 37, 31, 47} --> H, e, l, l, o, .

    keystroke "v" using command down --> ⌘-V
    keystroke "Hello." --> H, e, l, l, o, .
end tell

(Note: I stylised ⌘-C and ⌘-V with their uppercase representations, but these indicate Cmd+C or V, respectively, without use of the Shift key.)
keystroke can also accept the AppleScript constants tab, space return, and quote.
The target is always the application window that has focus, so it’s important to set the focus to the desired application before issuing these commands (e.g. tell application "Finder" to activate).
Here’s a great reference for the keycodes as well as a detailed overview of these commands including more examples.


Downloading a previously purchased app to iTunes on another computer I've purchased and downloaded an app to a computer that I do not sync with my iPhone on a daily basis. I would like to download the same app to a computer that I do sync usually and then sync it.

Is it possible, if no - is there any workaround?

I've purchased the app on a Mac and I wan't to do the sync it from Windows (both computers have the newest version of iTunes).

It is possible, there are a few steps required.

The other computer must be authorised to access that Apple ID.

On the iTunes store page on the right hand side, there is a Purchased option, click on this and all previous apps, movies, music, etc purchased will be shown. You can then download it from there.

Apple has a help page about this that can be viewed at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519. It is the bottom section.


Inverse trigonometric functions in Calculator Is there a way to calculate inverse trigonometric functions in El Capitan's Calculator (ie. arcsine, arccosine, arctangent, etc.)? I've tried the usual alt, cmd, ctrl modifiers with the sin/cos/tan buttons to no avail. I'm especially annoyed because Spotlight does calculate arctangents and the result is claimed to come from Calculator itself, so I don't know if they dumbed the interface down or what.

Examples of operations that work from Spotlight but I have no clue how to do from Calculator:

atan(1)  # arctangent of 1 in radians
atand(1) # arctangent of 1 in degrees

Hit the shift key in Calculator in older versions of OS X to get all inverse trigonometric but also some other functions:

In El Capitan it works with the "2nd" button (the real keyboard's shift key should work as well):


10.6 PHD file type exclusion I manage an environment that uses portable home directories for users with 10.6 for both the client and server. I've setup syncing via Workgroup Manager of pretty much entire home directories except for ~/Movies and ~/Music directories.

Unfortunately  I have a particular user that insists on downloading a lot of media (movies, tv shows) on the company provided laptop and leaving it in hierarchical folders on the Desktop, which then syncs multiple gigs every day to our fileserver when she gets on site.

How do I specify the exclusion of .avi and .mkv file extensions within just the ~/Desktop directory using Workgroup Manager?

If you never intend on .avi or .mkv files to be synced you may want to try the following.

Mobile Pane
Skip items that match any of the following
Choose Name Contains and type ".avi" (without quotes).

Do the same for ".mkv" (without quotes).

If you do intend on syncing both file types and would like only to stop them from syncing when they are found within the Desktop folder you may want to try the following.

Mobile Pane
Skip items that match any of the following
Choose Full Path and type "~/Desktop/*.avi" (without quotes)

Do the same for "~/Desktop/*.mkv" (without quotes)


Upgrading from iCloud documents to iCloud drive I have lots of files stored in iCloud documents at the moment, if I upgrade to iCloud drive, are those files automatically copied across to iCloud drive, or will i lose those documents if i upgrade?

Those files should be copied across to iCloud drive with one caveat, you will no longer be able to access them with any devices using the old iCloud system. It is a one way update.

Here is a FAQ from Apple with more info.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201104


Make iOS App Store search stop “helping” Apple’s App Store search function sucks.  Example: I thought (wrongly) an iOS app existed called “cookie” that helps us reduce tracking.  But I can’t tell whether I’m wrong or right, because Apple’s search logic appears to be “cookie is related to candy, so let’s show him everything that mentions candy.  And candy crush is a game, so let’s also show him every other game in the store.”

“Cookie” is not the only search that has been hopeless due to this kind of idiocy, so I wonder if there is a way to filter to what I actually asked for.

I tried a webmaster tool search term site:https://abc.com for cookie app. Found the app for Mac, https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cookie/id1473091386?mt=12. Went to its developer page via the link at the bottom: https://cookieapp.com

Even if this is not the app you're looking for, it's good to have some idea about the developer to find an app quickly. One can look at google play store; chances are that it exists there, if it is on iOS App Store.

"Advanced" App Store search
How to search better in App Store
https://apps.apple.com/in/genre/ios-productivity/id6007

You can try Ghostery, Adguard, and Firefox focus and even private mode for some tracking protection.
Also, you can frequently delete website data in settings > Safari > advanced > website data. You would have to log in again, your history remains fine.


How to auto run a simple python program when the terminal opens Say I have a python program called foo.py that prints a line of text. How can I auto run that program when I boot up the terminal? I know you can, but I can't find the documentation. Also no third party programs please, I'm not looking to make the program executable, just to have it run on the terminal start up.

You can put command to run the script in .bashrc file inside your home directory, this file is read every time you open non-login shell (Terminal, Iterm and their tabs).

python /path/to/foo.py

Don't forget to set the permissions for all to execute:

chmod a+x foo.py


How to Install Game Boy Advance Emulator on my iPhone 6 I want to play Game Boy Advance games on my iPhone, but I can't install a working Game Boy Advance emulator on my iPhone.

I have iOS 9.2.1 installed on my phone. I searched for tutorials online, but the app can't be installed.

Is there any way to play Game Boy Advance games on an iPhone?

There are many emulators out there espeically for Game Boy Advance, but the most current one is GBA4iOS. Check it out and see if that help.


Searching by file name (as opposed to name and contents) in Lion In earlier versions of OSX, when you search in a Finder window, it gave you the choice of searching by contents or file name. In Lion this choice seems to have disappeared, I can only search by content now. Is there any way to search by name in Lion?

Open a finder window
Open the folder you wish to search in
Click in the search box
Type the text you want to find
A dropdown should appear like the one in the image below which allows you to select the 'Filename contains' option

If you've already run the search and want to alter the search to only look for files with your search term in the filename, you can click the '+' button just beneath the search box and change the search type from there.  See screenshots below:

Mike Scott has nice suggestions from the comments that are worth incorporating here to use the name: selector in spotlight.

You can prefix your search with name: as shown below

This results in a window which you can select 'Filename' or 'Everything' from if you click the button labelled 'name' in the search box as shown below:


Open password protected MS-Word document I've got a password protected Word document, and I've got the password to open it. However, I do not have MS Word or any plans to buy it. How can I easily open and convert this document to something usable on my OSX computer?

The main crux of this problem is supporting a proprietary Microsoft Word feature without using Microsoft Word. It uses in-document encryption, and not any sort of external security routine that may be common to generally protecting files.

The only time I've used something like this recently is with PDF files, but thankfully Preview.app supports document passwords.

Your best bet would be to find somebody that will unlock it via MS Word's password mechanism, and send it to you manually, perhaps using some other more compatible document protection mechanism such as the aforementioned PDF with a read-only password on it, or a password protected ZIP file.

Another hunch I have would be to see if OpenOffice.org supports document passwords to allow you to view them. I can confirm that OpenOffice supports this feature, but this doesn't say it's interoperable with MS Word documents. I can only suggest that you give it a try for yourself. OpenOffice.org is a great alternative Microsoft replacement Office suite with fairly good Microsoft document compatibility.


Complete iPad backup software without using iTunes, for Windows? I'm searching for Windows software to fully back up an iPad.

iTunes only saves those files which were transfered from the same Apple ID.

I need to backup songs, apps and photos. Perhaps the e-mail configuration, too.

I have to update an iPad from 4.3.3 to 5.1, without losing any data.

You can use iPad to Computer Transfer (ATTENTION: Direct download link). It's an easy tool which allow you to do exactly what you've asked for. Here is an excellent how-to guide.

And if you're looking for a more solid (and more expensive) solution, you can always try iPad Max.


250Gb HDD out of 500 Gb mising I face very similar description as in this post here
50GB of disk space missing

I did post an additional question in that thread and was recommended to open a separate question .

After migrating to Catalina, I ended up with multiple containers and disks. I removed 1 container but fail to recover the space that was used by this extra container.

When trying to fix the issue here was my situation.

Next I removed the EFI disk

sudo diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" %noformat% /dev/disk0s1

When running the command :

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

error reply remains : Started APFS operation
Error: -69743: The new size must be different than the existing size

So I'm stuck in this situation with half of my disk storage capacity missing.

The current partition map of your internal HDD looks like this:

    start       size  index  contents
        0          1         PMBR
        1          1         Pri GPT header
        2         32         Pri GPT table
       34  488722422
488722456  488050672      3  GPT part - 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
976773128          7
976773135         32         Sec GPT table
976773167          1         Sec GPT header

The partition with the index 3 is your APFS container container disk1 housing HDD, HDD - Données, and other APFS volumes.

Before removing the EFI partition (index 1/disk0s1) it looked like this (with a giant gap between the EFI and the APFS container):

    start       size  index  contents
        0          1         PMBR
        1          1         Pri GPT header
        2         32         Pri GPT table
       34          6
       40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
   409640  488312816
488722456  488050672      3  GPT part - 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
976773128          7
976773135         32         Sec GPT table
976773167          1         Sec GPT header

You can't expand a partition to lower block numbers (i.e. moving the first block of the container (index 3) from block 488722456 to block 409640).

The partition with the index number 2 resided in the empty space and was removed earlier.

  I removed 1 container but fail to recover the space that was used by this extra container

I recommend to get an external drive, set it up as Time Machine backup drive and backup your internal drive.

Then format the internal drive (booted to Internet macOS Recovery) to GPT/APFS, install macOS Catalina and migrate your user data from the Time Machine backup to the internal drive.


Where does OS X remember previously connected bluetooth devices? I completely erased my hard drive (DOE compliant 3 pass secure erase) that had OS X Lion on it and reinstalled it from the recovery drive earlier today. To my astonishment, I saw that the Bluetooth preferences remembered all my 4 previously paired devices, albeit, with only their MAC addresses and not device names.

Where is this information stored? I did not reset my PRAM, but this page does not indicate that it keeps a history of Bluetooth devices connected.

What other similar information is stored persistently? My networks preferences didn't show any of my previously connected wireless networks, but I'm curious now — is it possible to retrieve it after such a wipe and reinstall?

There's a question from SuperUser that might be useful for you.

In Lion, Bluetooth information is stored in different .plist file with Bluetooth prefix. For my case, I have~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.BluetoothFileExchange.plist


How to enable Google Translate on text selection in iPhone? Android offers integration with Google Translate. You can get translation of selected text right from Google Translate in any app you're in currently:

Select a piece of text:

Get the translation:

But in iPhone, I only have Look Up option available in the context menu:

which opens dictionaries built into iOS. It is not bad, but it can't translate text.

Is it possible to integrate Android like Google Translate features into iPhone?

A workaround could be to download Apple's Shortcuts app from the app store and use it to invoke the MS translation service, as described in this article.


How to use automator to create a service which converts an ebook (using calibre commands) I am trying to figure out a way to be able to right-click on an .epub file and convert it to a .mobi file. Currently (thanks to calibre command tools) I can to the following within the terminal

ebook-convert test.epub test.mobi

So  the fist file name test.epub is the original, existing file, and the second file name test.mobi is that it will be converted to.

Is it possible to create a service from automator which could allow we to right-click on the original test.mobi file and then just convert it?

Thanks

Open Automator, choose the service template, change "Service receives selected" to "files or folders", add a Run Shell Script action, change "Pass input" to "as arguments", and change the command to:

for f;do /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert "$f" "${f%.*}.mobi";done

Or if you add

2mobi() {
  for f; do
    /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert "$f" "${f%.*}.mobi"
  done
}

to a shell configuration file like ~/.bash_profile, you can run 2mobi /path/to/file.epub in a shell.


AirDrop on Unsupported Macs? One of the Lion features I would really like to use is AirDrop. It would make transferring files so much faster than using a flash drive. Unfortunately, my Mac is a 2007 Black MacBook, and AirDrop is not supported on this hardware.

Is there a way to enable AirDrop on my MacBook? Are there any hacks or Terminal tricks to do this?

Hackers have found that Airdrop can be enabled on any Mac running OS X Lion, and will work over ethernet as well. It can be enabled with a shell command.(source: osxdaily)

Copy and paste the command into the terminal of all macs that are supposed to communicate with other hacked macs.
This will enable AirDrop over both Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet connections:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1; killall Finder;

To disable this feature use:

defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 0; killall Finder;

Note

This does not enable the feature on your Airport card. The AirDrop feature is originally not there because the Airport card does not support it (simultaneous wifi and ad hoc networking). This hack enables AirDrop to run over whatever other network connection you have. Therefore, in order for two Macs to communciate this way both must apply the hack.


How can I change the order of messages in Mail for Lion? Suddenly the most recent message in Mail is at the bottom of the list instead of the top. How do I change the ordering of messages?

I am using Mac OS X 10.7.5, Lion.

Just above the rows of emails there is a dropdown that says "Sort by"...

This can sort by date, flags, mailbox, etc.

At the bottom of this list, you can choose to have oldest or newest messages at the top. Check to make sure you have newest selected.


Why is my simple Automator script broken in latest Yosemite update (used to work)? I had a basic Automator script I was using with a keyboard shortcut to bring up the login screen as a sort of lockscreen.  It was working mostly fine until 10.10.1 (I had to manually launch from 'Services' in a given app before I could use the shortcut from that app for some reason).

Here is the Automator portion:

Here is the shortcut:

I can 'lock' the screen as usual from Terminal so I know the command is still good.  I can also click the Run button in Automator and it works there.  However, clicking on it from Services does not work, and of course the shortcut does not work.  Both of these worked in 10.10.

Why has it stopped working and is there a workaround?

I used the exact same settings that you did but used Command+Options+Control+L as the shortcut and it worked. The only things I can imagine is that that the key combination is already in use.


Re-download OS X iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) Apple introduced Pages, Numbers, and Keynote as a Mac native platform for documents such as letters, spreadsheets, and presentations. These applications come pre-loaded with OS X, as they did with my computer, however, after re-installing OS X after having unrelated issues with my computer, I found that these iWork applications were simply no longer there. So, I transferred the suite from a colleague's computer to my own, however, said applications soon became obsolete, as I couldn't update them without my colleague's password. So, I deleted the applications once more, as they were rendered useless.

This wasn't too much of a problem until recently, as I began to need the applications for other projects. Whenever I visit the Mac App Store, I'm not able to simply download them, rather, I have to pay money for them. Which, eventually I succumbed to, grudgingly paying the $15 for Pages, but it didn't download. I lost the $15, with no result from the App Store. Pages doesn't show up in the Purchased section of the Store, and there's nothing in my Applications folder that would suggest that it did indeed download.

Any suggestions? Or does this warrant a visit to the Genius Bar?

Specs: iMac 27" Late 2013 running OS X 10.11 El Capitan

When you bought your Mac, you were prompted to "accept" the applications in the iWork suite, to be attached to your Apple ID for future download.

If you did not do this, I suggest calling Apple Support or taking a trip to the Genius Bar. If you provide them your Mac's proof of purchase, they should be able to give you a redeem code for the App Store to download the suite. This will also link the apps to your Apple ID signed in on the Mac App Store for future download.


Photo stream or camera roll I would like to delete either camera roll or photo stream, but, am afraid of losing pics altogether. Camera roll being original and stream copies if I understand correctly. Therefore would seem deleting stream would be the route. But would that also take my originals?
I cannot delete or rename albums. What is the solution.
Have iOS 9.1

Photo stream is your cloud backup, whereas Camera Roll is directly on your device. So, in short, delete the photo stream. You can completely disable the cloud backup in your settings so it won't keep reappearing.


Changing the behavior of the red number on the Dock I have two accounts on Mail. I want the red number that appears over the icon on the Dock to only consider new messages in one of these accounts. How can I change this?

Mail does not allow customisation of the app's badge in this way. You can provide feedback to Apple regarding this here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html


Windows to Mac database connection intermittently available after Windows Security prompt I am trying to connect from a Windows 10 computer to a Firebird database server (port 3050) running on a Mac. This has been working fine until recently. I now only get intermittent access in a predictable way.

If I try to connect to the database on port 3050, I get an "Unable to connect to network host ..."

However, if I open a Windows Explorer window and try to navigate to the host as a UNC path (e.g. \\192.168.0.1), I get a Windows Security prompt.

I don't have to enter anything in this at all, or submit the dialogue, but after this point, I can connect to the database server on the Mac for about 30 seconds or so.

Could anyone explain this behaviour with a view to getting more reliable access to the database again?

UPDATE

After gaining access to the iMac, I seem to be able to reproduce the issue by putting the iMac to 'sleep'. After putting to 'sleep', I can't access the database, then trying to navigate using Windows Explorer to the mac, I can call it. To me, it seems as though Windows Explorer is doing something to 'wake-up' the mac - temporarily at least - but a standard call to the database on port 3050 doesn't wake it up? Further investigating...

The issue appears to have been caused by the Mac going into Sleep mode.

It appears as though trying to connect using Windows Explorer from a Windows machine is issuing a Wake On Lan request, which wakes the target Mac for 30 seconds or so. During this 'wake' period I was then able to connect.

By implementing a Wake On Lan request from my application, I now seem to be able to reliably connect again to the target mac.

I would not have expected the target 'server' to be put into sleep mode, however, because we don't control the environment in which our software operates, we need to account for all possibilities really.

Because the target mac and windows computers are on different sub-nets, I've only been able to issue the wake on lan directly to the target mac's IP address, rather than completing a broadcast wake on lan.

I was able to modify the code available here to transmit the WOL to the target mac.


Mountain Lion won't wake up after an extended sleep I've recently upgraded my MacBook Air to Mountain Lion. Now whenever the machine sleeps for a long time (more than two hours or so) while disconnected from the mains, it won't wake up.  I had to hold the power button to reboot the machine.

Is there a solution to this problem?

This is a known issue that hasn't been fixed as of 10.8.1. When Mountain Lion hibernates (either directly or as part of standby mode), it couldn't wake up and thus need to be restarted.

The current workarounds are:

Disable hibernate mode.
Disable standby mode.

I've written an article how to get around this issue by preventing OS X from hibernating.

For Apple folks: please see rdar://1212084 - Thanks.


How to find cause for iTunes not exporting library XML? My iTunes XML export has not been working for months but I need it for DJ software like Traktor Pro.
I would like to find and fix the problem and can't reset the database.

When trying to export the whole library as XML manually (File -> Library -> Export Library) I can see Assertion failure: success == noErr (-8753) in the system log but that is ALL I know right now.

What can I do find the root cause of this problem?

macOS version: 10.12.5
iTunes version: 12.6.1.25

These are my relevant settings:

I've seen these libraries get a bit corrupted many times even though they'll still work perfectly in iTunes.

I think that's probably what's going on here so I don't have a lot of faith in my first three suggestions but they're a lot less dangerous / serious & could definitely fix the issue. The 'nuclear' option I've listed last is safe to do but it involves rebuilding your entire iTunes database which if you're a DJ might be more than you'd like to jump to. If you have backups though it will always be fine to take the riskier route first.

Just in case you haven't tried, uncheck 'Share iTunes Library XML with other applications' hit ok, open up preferences and check it again. Try to export.
We can test this on a clean slate with a new user. Copy (move if there's not enough space) the entire iTunes folder over to the shared area of your computer, and then create a new administrator over in System Preferences > Users & Groups. Restart & log in to that one, add your iTunes library by selecting it in the same advanced tab of iTunes preferences shown in your screenshot. This might take a little bit of time. Then try out an export.
If that still doesn't work, the last thing I would recommend to try is to replace the 'System' folder where iTunes & other system functions are kept in case there's an issue there. You can do this by booting into recovery mode by holding CMD + R while the Mac is starting, and install onto your disk. This won't affect your data or users at all - in only replaces the System folder where OS stuff only is at.

When none of those work take the nuclear option and rebuild your iTunes library using these instructions. Backing up before this is a good idea.


Is there a way to not have Lion not launch apps from previous startup? Possible Duplicate:
  Reopen windows when logging back in - NOT
  How can I keep restore for apps in Lion without having session restore when I log in?

I've heard conflicting info on this - seems like a good place for an option on startup. Any ideas? I just want a clean slate and find it annoying.

You can change this in System Preferences > General. Look for the "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps" check box and uncheck it.


Mac OS Virtual Box performances If you run Mac OS 10.8 with Virtual Box (on Linux), on a computer that supports hardware virtualization, how good will be the performances?

With a powerful computer (i7, 8gb of ram, ssd hd), would you be able to run music softwares like Ableton Live, Traktor, etc...?

yes performance is excellent with hardware virtualisation. Ableton, pro tools, cubase all run great on i5.


How to upgrade HDD to SSD and replace the optical drive with HDD? I am trying to understand the process of switching out my HDD for an SSD and then replacing my optical drive with the same HDD just removed in a late 2011 Macbook Pro 15.4".

Is there any benefit to doing this vs. just replacing the optical drive with a new SSD and leaving the HDD where it is at?

My main intent in adding a SSD is to increase the speed of my computer and not necessarily adding more space. My HDD is 750GB and I'm not even close to filing it up. I do have programs on my HDD like Microsoft Office that I don't want to lose and don't have the means of reinstalling.

Any suggestions would be great and a detailed description of how to go about this would also be greatly appreciated.

Have a look - we have quite a few questions covering this - you may want to edit your question to differentiate it from similar questions.

Replacing SuperDrive with secondary storage?
What are some tips for replacing my MacBook Pro hard disk with SSD?
Recommended MacBook Pro 13 (mid 2012) SSD upgrade?
Compatible SSD for Macbook Pro (replace HDD)?
Will a standard MacBook Pro optical-bay HDD caddy fit a non-unibody MacBook Pro?
Is it worth upgrading my MacBook hard drive to an SSD?
How to install an Operating System after replacing optical Drive by a second HDD on MacBook white late 2009?
Are "generic" Optical Bay Hard Drive Enclosures for Macbook Pros just as good as Optibay/OWC


How to back up iCloud Calendars/Reminders/Contacts I use iCloud for my calendars/contacts/reminders because it's just so convenient to share all the data instantly between all my devices, but I can't help worrying about what would happen if Apple's servers have a brain-fart. So I'd like to make my own backups. And, of course, I'd like those backups to happen completely automatically, with no human intervention at all, because I'm sure you all know that manual backups are backups that just stop happening.

Ideally the code for making these backups would run on the Linux machine that is responsible for all my other backups, and I'm happy to write the code to do this myself.

My question is ... can anyone point me at documentation for the protocols and APIs that Apple's applications use?

No API. No protocol.

But there are three workarounds I can think of. The first is to use your mac and copy the following files manually (or rsync in combination with cron or something else you like).

Mail data and settings ~/Library/Mail/V2
Contacts data and settings ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Calendar data and settings ~/Library/Calendars/
Safari data and settings ~/Library/Safari/
Keychain data and settings ~/Library/Keychains/

(for sake, just copy the whole 'Library' folder ;) (list taken from http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13985)

An other way to do it is to setup your linux backup machine to fetch the mail, contacts and calendar and backup that like you normally would.

email through IMAP (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4864)
calendar through WebDAV (it is likely that this must be a public url)
contact, no clue. For android it is possible but I have not seen a Linux solution.

Yet another way is to install 'iCloud Control Panel' through Wine and handle your files from there, although it might work like garbage (https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=14545)

A virtual machine running OS X on your linux server might also do. But I do not know if it is legit to talk about that on stack exchange.

Edit: see comments for ical and contacts


MacOS default folders missing I noticed, I am missing some of my default folders in the finder (Public, Sites, Movies, Library).

However I can list them in the terminal and enter them with the cd command.

I tried to use chflags nohidden, to make them visible in the finder again, but nothing happened.

Is there any other way, to make them visible again in the finder?

Edit:

I think that it's a permissions problem.

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

After entering the diskutil command, if Terminal says that permissions reset on user home directory failed (error -69841), enter chflags -R nouchg ~ and enter the diskutil command again.

You can also double-check whether your user Library folder is set properly. Open Finder as root:

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

Now navigate to your home folder, click on Library folder > cmd+J > check the box for "Show Library folder".

Let us know whether this solved your problem.


How to keep apps open in full screen OS X 10.9 I have been trying to find a way to keep my windows opening in full screen mode.  I have tried to open them in full screen and then close them without resizing the screen, but then when I restart my computer the windows default back to a small screen and it gets very frustrating trying to navigate to another window.  Is there a way to set the mac up so it defaults to full screen mode when opening an app (for example chrome).

Most OS X apps will open in the last state they were in before quitting. So if you quit an application on fullscreen mode it should open in full screen mode when you launch the app again.

In the case of Chrome you will need to tick the "Continue where you left off" option on the startup section of settings.

Hope this helps!


Applescript & Javascript to get number from chrome and give a total I'm trying do get every totals from an internal webpage and get the total.

for getting a single result I wrote this :

tell application "Google Chrome"
    tell tab 1 of window 1 to set orderTotal to execute javascript "document.getElementsByClassName('total')[0].innerHTML;"
end tell

the output on this example is :

"1,200.00	JPY	"

(PS the currency is not always the same)

for getting every value this work

tell application "Google Chrome"
    tell tab 1 of window 1 to set r to execute javascript "var outPut=[]; var arr=document.getElementsByClassName('total');for (var i in arr) {outPut.push(arr[i].innerHTML)};outPut;"
end tell
 return r

which give me something like this :

"4,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "3,800.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", missing value, missing value, missing

I would like to clear the text and do a total,

Tried this for clearing the values, but obviously not working :

set theText to Unicode text
property leftEdge1 : ""
property rightEdge1 : "	"
try
    set saveTID to text item delimiters
    set text item delimiters to leftEdge1
    set classValue to text item 2 of r
    set text item delimiters to rightEdge1
    set singleValue to text item 1 of classValue
    set text item delimiters to saveTID
    singleValue
end try

and for the total I'm not sure yet how to proceed.

In that absence of the actual URL and what appears to be incomplete output shows in the OP the following example AppleScript code defines r as a list and sums its numeric values.

set r to {"4,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "3,800.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", "5,000.00	JPY	", missing value, missing value, missing value}

set theText to Unicode text
property leftEdge1 : ""
property rightEdge1 : "	"
set totalValue to 0

repeat with i from 1 to count r
    try
        set saveTID to text item delimiters
        set text item delimiters to leftEdge1
        set classValue to text item 2 of item i of r
        set text item delimiters to rightEdge1
        set singleValue to text item 1 of classValue
        set text item delimiters to saveTID
        set totalValue to totalValue + singleValue
    end try
end repeat

log totalValue

-- Result:
-- 42800

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not employ any other error handling then what's shown and is meant only to show one of many ways to accomplish a task. The onus is always upon the User to add/use appropriate error handling as needed/wanted.


LaunchDaemon for pf won't load at startup I have a plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons/ that should run as root on startup.

When I run sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist, it works. However on reboot it does not work.

Interestingly, after reboot, when I run that command it says /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist: service already loaded but it is not functioning. However, if I unload and load it works normally.

Nothing appears in my error reporting /tmp/pfctl.err.

My plist is here:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.apple.pfctl</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>pfctl</string>
                <string>-e</string>
                <string>-f</string>
                <string>/etc/pf.conf</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/pfctl.err</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/tmp/pfctl.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>

The problem was that there is a default plist for pfctl at /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist. They were conflict.

In that plist I set <key>Disabled</key> to <true/>, and everything works as expected.


How to disable account on OS X Mavericks I have an account on my OS X Mavericks system that I want to disable so it cannot be used for login. I would not like to delete the account permanently but rather disable it temporarily.

I believe that this was possible in Lion – but maybe my memory plays tricks on me?

You can disable a user account by setting their shell to /usr/bin/false.

Either run chsh -s /usr/bin/false <username>, or change it in Users & Groups → Advanced Options. To change it back, run chsh -s /bin/bash <username>.


How do I remove icon from the launchpad if I already moved app to trash So, I had an app, and removed it (moved to trash)

Now, I can see its icon in launchpad (when I click it says "You can't open the application "Name" because it is in the trash.). With only button OK.

How do I remove it from Launchpad completely?

Emptying the trash would have worked as well.
Launchpad shoes all apps it finds via spotlight, not just those who are in the Applications folder.


How to disable the play button of an Apple Remote in OSX? I sometimes accidentally hit the play/pause button of my Apple Remote while Keynote was in show mode, closing the active presentation. Therefore, I would like to disable the play/pause button; either globally or specifically for Keynote.

I thought that BetterTouchTool would help me out, but it doesn't. Setting up a new trigger for Keynote on the play button does not work (tried to set it on Global and on Keynote).

Any tips on how I can disable the play/pause button? Thanks!

First, make sure you have the "Enable Apple remote plugin" box checked under settings. Also, make sure under Action settings> settings for predefined actions you have the right remote type selected. Then, simply create a new trigger with the remote's play button and no action. It should disable the remote. (You may have to restart both keynote and better touch tool for the effect to take place)


Is there anything more secure than a password protected SparseImage against state actors? If you had to secure important document in an encrypted, yet easily accessible format from state actors; would there be anything better than an password protected sparseimage? I used to use cryptkeeper in linux. A password protected sparseimage is the closest thing I have found on the mac side. Since this occurred (https://www.macrumors.com/2017/10/05/macos-high-sierra-disk-utility-vulnerability/) I am doubting that choice.

Encrypted disk images are secure. The issue that you referenced is a user interface bug in Disk Utility, not a problem with the encryption. You can also create disk images without using Disk Utility, e.g. using hdiutil on the command-line or a utility such as DropDMG.


macOS Custom Directory for Screenshots On Macs OS X 10.11.6, the ⌘ + shift + 4 key combination saves a screenshot to the desktop by default.
Is there a way to change this destination to a custom directory?

If by "user selected directory" you are referring to a directory (other than the desktop) that is defined prior to taking the screenshot, then you can easily use the defaults command inside Terminal to change this for all future screenshots. If however, you mean changing the directory as the screenshot is taken, this is not possible as far as I am aware of.

Defining the screenshot location:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /path/to/new/location
To apply changes:
killall SystemUIServer
Defining the screenshot type:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png - change extension as required.
To apply changes:
killall SystemUIServer
Enable/Disable image shadows:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool false
To apply changes:
killall SystemUIServer

As Steve mentioned, you can also take a look at TinkerTool to make adjustments, however the commands I referenced above should be what you are looking for. Let me know how you get on.


make "fit to screen" default window size in Quicktime How can I make Quicktime to always open in Fit to Screen option (available at View->Fit to Screen)? It doesn't seem to remember the last window size.

Is it possible to attach a script to a program, so that every time the program launches, the attached script executes? In my case, it would change the window size to Fit to Screen

QuickTime Player doesn't have a Preferences... menu command like other applications do, nor does it have a com.apple.quicktime.plist file to manipulate. Therefore there isn't anything you can do directly, however here is a workaround of sorts.

Note that this workaround requires changing the default application for file types, e.g. .mov, you'd normally open directly with QuickTime Player to the application created herein, called: QTP Fit to Screen.app

Using Automator create a new Application and add a Run Shell Script Action.

Change: Pass input: [to stdin] to [as argument]

Add the following code:

if [[ ! -z $1 ]]; then

    open -a "QuickTime Player" "$1"

    osascript -e 'tell application "QuickTime Player" to activate' \
              -e 'delay 1' \
              -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "3" using command down' \
              -e 'tell application "QuickTime Player" to play front document'
fi

Save it as an Application named: QTP Fit to Screen

In order for QTP Fit to Screen to be the global default app for, e.g. .mov, files you'd open in QuickTime Player you'll have to use the Default Apps Preference Pane, RCDefaultApp by Rubicode to change which application opens a given Extension.

Install RCDefaultApp and then in System Preferences > Default Apps select the Extensions tab and scroll down to mov and then change the Default Application: to: QTP Fit to Screen

Now then you double-click .mov files in Finder or accessing them from Spotlight the QTP Fit to Screen application will open the target file in Quick Time Player, set View to Fit to Screen and start playing the file.

Note: If you do not want it to automatically start playing the file then remove the line of code, the one that has "play front document" in it.

If you need modify other default methods of file types, Apps, URLs, UTIs, etc. the Default Apps Preference Pane, RCDefaultApp by Rubicode, is a great utility for it.

To make the QTP Fit to Screen.app application bundle look better in the Applications folder you can copy and paste the QuickTime Player.app application icon from its Get Info sheet to the icon of the Get Info sheet for QTP Fit to Screen.app.

Note: I added the if statement to the code so the QTP Fit to Screen application doesn't error out when executed by itself.  In other words, double-clicking it will essentially do nothing, whereas without it will throw a couple of error messages.


How to use Node.js without admin rights on a mac? I'm trying to use Node.js on my work computer but I don't have admin rights.  I'm wondering how I can install Node.js on mac without having admin rights.

I found a tutorial, which is for Windows but still has been helpful. But, I'm stuck at the "Configure the PATH" step where I have to add to the $PATH variable. How can I complete that step on a mac?

Here's the tutorial:
https://theshravan.net/blog/how-to-use-node-and-npm-without-installation-or-admin-rights/

If ~/.bash_profile not editable by standard user, then  a temporary edit to PATH should work. It should be

PATH="a/b/c":"$PATH"

In this window, this PATH will be used. verify using echo $PATH


Podcasts app "disappearing" from background? I'm trying to give the new podcasts app by Apple a go.
Every morning I listen to a podcast and then pause it when I get to work. When I want to keep listening a few hours later and just press on play again in my earphones, I see that the podcasts app is no longer the active playing app and I have to open it again. This used to work easily in the regular Music app, but with Podcasts it's like the fact that it's the last-played app gets lost after sometime.

Any help?

This is just how it is. After an undefined period the podcasts app is being closed by iOS to save battery and memory. If you want you can delete the Apple podcasts app and sync podcasts from iTunes. You will find the podcasts section re-appears in the music app.


Connection to shared network server sometimes stuck connecting, needs restart to fix Sometimes on OS X Yosemite my connection to a shared network server is stick connecting, while the server is available. OS X simply won't connect to it using Finder and the Connect As... button doesn't respond. It won't eject either. Only a restart fixes everything again, a relaunch of Finder doesn't help. I am wondering if there's a fix or easier workaround for this.

Edit: I'm not even sure it can connect to any shared computer at all when this happens and it seems Finderaccess is fully broken.

Update: I'm going to try a few other methods to connect to the server found on http://www.macworld.com/article/2012153/eight-ways-to-connect-to-a-server.html whenever the issue reoccurs.

Update: I found that the process that (I guess) arranges the connection from OS X to the server using SMB hogs up a lot of memory. The command of the process is /usr/local/sbin/smbd -D -s /usr/local/etc/smb.conf. Killing it on the server remounts the drive on OS X and makes the slowness disappear. On another note: OS X also often mounts multiple instances of the server, appended with -1, -2 etc. I'm still not sure what causes the issue, but at least I have a quicker fix than a reboot.

I was having the exact same issue. In my case, both my mac and my nas were configured for jumbo frames. My new switch, however, even thought it supports jumbo frames, did not have jumbo frame support turned on. Knocking the MTU on the mac back down to the standard 1500 MTU (under advanced settings, and the advanced tab in network system preferences) got everything working again.


YouTube videos don't work despite installing Flash Player I just bought a new MacBook Pro with Retina display and I went to youtube.com in Safari to play a video, but the videos required Adobe Flash.

I downloaded Flash Player and installed it, but the videos still don't work. What can I do?

You need to remove Youtube's HTML5 trial in order for the flash player to work and remember your preferences.

First join the trial, and then leave it. Leaving the trial is the only way to force YouTube to remember you want the videos played in Flash, but of course to do that you have to join the trial first. It fixed the issue for me.

Here's the link:

  http://www.youtube.com/html5

If all else fails, try using other browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox etc.)


My iPhone 5s is frozen with iTunes symbol and plug in picture with arrow My phone is stuck with the image of charger and cord, up arrow and iTunes icon - I can't turn iPhone on or off it seems. Will it restart on its own?  I tried holding the power button down for the ten seconds and then just the home key but that doesn't work either.

Your iPhone is stuck in Recovery Mode. Connect your phone to a computer with iTunes and do a hard reset on it (hold down both your home and sleep button for several seconds).
From a small article on getting in and out of Recovery Mode:

To get out of recovery mode, make sure your USB cable is connected to both the laptop running iTunes and your device.You may need to hold the home button while connecting your USB cable as above.
Now hold the home and sleep/wake buttons together until you see the Apple logo appear. Don’t let go until then – it can take several seconds: the recovery graphic will disappear and a black screen might be shown for a while, but keep holding the buttons down until the white Apple appears.


Updated iPhone asking for passcode I'm trying to update my sisters iPhone 5 to the new iOS update but it's asking for the passcode to do the update. We have tried the passcode to unlock the phone and all the other passcode she can remember but we're still unable to update. Last time we had to use iTunes and then reinstall everything but that took forever to do. Is there anyway of resetting it? I've tried checking the restrictions thing - it's already turned off as well.

The only password that gets asked when updating directly on the phone is the password you need to unlock your phone (or need to enter after restarting your phone). If she doesn't remember any of them, you must fully restore the phone through iTunes.


Old MacBook air's trackpad's right click is failing, is there a workaround gesture? My old MacBook Air is old.

I have to push hard to get right click to work. It is probably something mechanical that could be addressed at a service center.

But in the mean time, is there anything I can do in MacOS to assign some gesture or combination of a gesture plus a key to do what right click does?

I use right click mostly to open little menus (e.g. to edit some object), open url in new tab, etc.

Ctrl ⌃  Left Click is the standard replacement for Right Click.

Alternatively, on a trackpad you could enable 2-finger click from System Prefs


Does Migration Assistant migrate macports? New MacBook Pro here.  I am about to use Migration Assistant to copy over my old files from my old first-gen MacBook.  Will I have to reinstall macports manually or will Migration Assistant copy my /opt directory?

The copying should work without a problem, but if you happen to upgrade to Snow Leopard at the same time, you might run into some compatibility issues, depending on the "ports" you have installed. Same goes for old "ports" that may have been specifically built for your old system (maybe processor dependent), you could run into problems there, too.

Remember to run selfupdate, and upgrade the installed ports (where needed).


OS X Mountain Lion - Kernel Panic and Restart after Sleep I have a mid-2009 15" MacMook Pro, with 10.8.2 installed. Periodically, after sleeping my machine, I open it and hit a kernel panic. The logs fail at the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient kext, and I don't see any non-Apple related kexts in the crash log. Any idea what could be causing this? Hardware failure perhaps?

Wed Jan 30 20:16:32 2013
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800e4b7bd5): Kernel trap at 0xffffff800e42da10, type 13=general protection, registers:
CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0xffffff80effc5000, CR3: 0x00000000110ac000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660
RAX: 0x0000000000000001, RBX: 0xffffff80206e3000, RCX: 0x0000000009000000, RDX: 0xffffff80e9f60078
RSP: 0xffffff80f57c3e50, RBP: 0xffffff80f57c3e80, RSI: 0xffffff80e9f60068, RDI: 0x0000000000000000
R8:  0xffffff800eabec60, R9:  0x00000000fffffffe, R10: 0x00000000001d9bc0, R11: 0x0000000000000000
R12: 0xffffff800eabebe8, R13: 0xffffff8020711ad0, R14: 0x01ffff8020711aa0, R15: 0x0000000000000000
RFL: 0x0000000000010002, RIP: 0xffffff800e42da10, CS:  0x0000000000000008, SS:  0x0000000000000000
Fault CR2: 0xffffff80effc5000, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x0

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff80f57c3af0 : 0xffffff800e41d626
0xffffff80f57c3b60 : 0xffffff800e4b7bd5
0xffffff80f57c3d30 : 0xffffff800e4ce4ed
0xffffff80f57c3d50 : 0xffffff800e42da10
0xffffff80f57c3e80 : 0xffffff800e82e1e9
0xffffff80f57c3ec0 : 0xffffff800e82ca47
0xffffff80f57c3f30 : 0xffffff800e82d3a2
0xffffff80f57c3f70 : 0xffffff800e831e99
0xffffff80f57c3fb0 : 0xffffff800e4b26b7

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
Not yet set

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 12.2.0: Sat Aug 25 00:48:52 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.18.24~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 69A5853F-375A-3EF4-9247-478FD0247333
Kernel slide:     0x000000000e200000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff800e400000
System model name: MacBookPro5,3 (Mac-F22587C8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 1680101793
last loaded kext at 227453939: com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient  196.0.0 (addr 0xffffff7f902ca000, size 20480)
loaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 196.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI    4.9.6
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4331   602.15.22
com.apple.nvenet    2.0.19
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI   5.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager   161.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort  2.4.1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM  1.6.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBOHCI   5.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC   1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET  1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons   1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS    1.9
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC    1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC  1.6
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall   4.0.39
com.apple.security.quarantine   2
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement   196.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily    4.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family   500.15
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily  3.0
com.apple.driver.NVSMU  2.2.9
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily    2.2.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 5.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime    1.6.1
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.8.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily   1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox  220
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch   1.0.0d1
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet  7
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 344
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore  28.21
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform  1.6
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.7.2
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily    1.4
com.apple.kec.corecrypto    1.0

If you want to determine whether your panic is caused by hardware or software problems, I recommend you to install Mac OS 10 on a USB stick, it needs to be at least 8 GB. Boot up from it. Now try sleeping. If it's ok, its most likely (99%) a software problem. It may also be your HDD, which is highly unlikely.


Cannot install macOS Beta version on MacBook Pro July 2019 I just got the new MacBook Pro, which was released few days ago. It is running macOS Mojave 10.14.5.

I am trying to install macOS Catalina beta version, either beta or developer beta. I have installed both profiles separately to try, however I get the following error.

I even did a fresh installation of macOS Mojave just to make sure something was not wrong with the installed OS that came with the machine.

Is it because the machine is too new and not recognized? If so, I doubt it as I see this machine in the supported devices for the beta version on Apple's support: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201300

Any idea why am I not being able to install a Beta version of any kind?

I found this...
Catalina Link to App Store

Edit:  This link now downloads beta 5.

It may help trigger the search for updates but it didn't fix the issue for me either.

Update:  I ran the App Store link on my iMac that already has Catalina.  App Store opened System Preferences and asked if I wanted to download Catalina.  I answered yes and that downloaded the full installer.

From there I made the thumb drive from the command line and when I booted off the thumb drive it tells me that a software update is required for this Mac and clicking software update tells me that there is no update.

Running the installer from within Mojave tells me that "This version of macOS 10.15 cannot be installed on this computer."

Apparently the laptop is really unsupported at this point.


Apple Watch, keep calendar-details during entire meeting I mostly use the "modules" watch face since I can have my next meeting in the middle. However I noticed now that the current appointment I have will disappear and show the the next appointment before the current one has actually ended. This is a big problem for me since it is very important I always know when my current meeting ends so I can close it in the right time.

See the image below, the "J4" meeting will be removed from the watch face before 10:50. I want it to stay until 10:50 or at least 10:45. Is that possible?

Hmm, that's wierd, it's OK for me.

Try these:

check if WatchOS is latest version
check if your calendar is synced with the end-date in your iPhone / iCloud Calendar.

For me it works without any hassle.

p.s. This is added through iCloud / iPhone, not a remote calendar, might be that.


Panning with two fingers in Preview (OS X Mavericks) Just updated to Mavericks. Has anyone else a scrolling issue in Mavericks?

I used to be able to pan across a page that's zoomed in with two fingers scrolling, but now this same move turns pages, which I can do using keyboard shortcuts more efficiently.

Also, sometimes two fingers scrolling pans accordingly, other times it turns page. I can't figure out a consistent behavior (scrolling on the side of the trackpad doesn't work).

Any idea why?

Yes! I am having this problem. It appears to be a known problem with both Chrome and Firefox. So far, I've only seen this behavior in these two browsers. It does not appear to affect Safari.

There are posts from as early as August indicating that this was an issue.

Several posts have suggested clearing your Mac's PRAM as a temporary fix, as well as turning off the "two finger swipe to switch pages" gesture for both Mouse and Trackpad.