Can Airport Extreme have a separate network using XBrand modem connectted via Ethernet I have recently added solar to my home. There is a monitoring system to monitor the panels inverter via a wireless connection to their gateway that connects via Ethernet to my Airport Extreme router. I would like to setup that Ethernet connection so it is secure from my home network but is able to send the required information that it is supposed to provide to the Solar Companies' portal. Is there a way of providing this separate access either via another router or directly via my Airport Extreme?

You can set up an Airport Extreme with a guest network {Apple.com}. This is entirely separate from your in-home network even though it runs on the Airport. In this case it would be kind of like setting up a home network 'DMZ' that keeps some services away from the main network at-large.


Macbook Pro 2016 (15") has weird default Resolution I recently changed from a 2012 Non-Retina Macbook Pro (15 Inch) to the 2016 Retina model.

As soon as I changed , my eyes started to hurt after only few hours of working (1-2) and painful headaches afterwards, this was never the case with the 2012 model, even after 15-16 hours.

I checked and the default resolution is 1680x1050. which is weird as the display 2880x1440 the HiDPI default resolution should be 1440x900.

There is a 1440x900 option, but Macbook says it is "Scaled", and 1680x1050 is default and not scaled (unless the display is 3360x2100 that can't be true can it?)!

I'm confused, does any one has the same issue? or my Macbook has issues?

  Please instead of closing this help me, I'm having serious headaches
  working with this $3000 waste of money and I can't return it (no Apple
  support in my country) :(

The 2016 15" Retina MacBook Pro has a resolution of 2880 x 1800. 1050/1800 and 1680/2880 are both 7/12 which means it is scaling properly for 7/12 the maximum resolution.

I'm not sure how the resolution or scaling would cause you to have headaches unless the text and images on the screen legitimately appear blurry. Is that the case? It is possible that you have the screen brighter, or glossy rather than matte, or are using it differently, but I can't really say.

In general, you should take short breaks every 10 or 20 minutes and have a screen brightness that matches the ambient environment (many people make it too bright which forces them to squint or tense up and get headaches) to prevent eye strain, and remember to blink frequently to prevent dry eye.

Short of that, I'd say change the resolution to whatever feels better for you, or see if anyone you know would be interested in trading laptops if you find theirs to be easier on your eyes.


iPhone 4S I did upgrade and hate it, want to go back If I can't go back I'm getting rid of iPhone for droid, any help would be appreciated. My iPhone and all upgrades are legal, just hate new upgrade...
Please help me
Terry

I am sorry to tell you that there is no official way to downgrade from iOS7 to iOS6 anymore as Apple stopped signing the 6.1.4/6.1.3 firmware. Every time a software-upgrade is done iTunes asks for a verification of the firmware. As of 21st of September Apple stopped signed the 6.1.3/6.1.4 firmware and therefore iTunes will refuse a downgrade to iO6. For more information see the following blog for more information.

update: this question has already been answered over here: Can I undo the upgrade to iOS 7 by restoring to iOS 6.1.3?


OS X installation on external HDD I am planning to install a second OS X on an external HDD, I was wondering when I boot in external HDD will it in any ways affect my first OS X installation? Will it have the permissions to write or read from it? Or will spotlight start to index that HDD? If yes how can I isolate my first installation from being affected? (without using third-party apps or FileVault)

The disk which you don't boot on will show as an external drive to your current OS HD. You'll have full read/write accesss, Spotlight will start indexing it.

To prevent Spotlight from indexing your second drive, open a Terminal window and type:
    sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/2NDDRIVENAME

and replace "2NDDRIVENAME" by the name of the disk you want to exclude. Beware if you have a space in the drive name, you may need to use the "\" escape character:

sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/MacHD

sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD


Directories showing as files when browsing a Time Machine backup on Windows I have to grab some files from a time machine backup and I only have a Windows PC.  I downloaded the HFS+ filesystem drivers from MacRoumers (here) and plugged in my Time Machine Drive.  Everything appears normal, until I transverse into a specific backup.  There I see the "Library" directory, and every other folder (Desktop, Movies, Music...) are files.  It's like this in every backup instance, and I'm stuck.  I don't recall these folders being symlinks to earlier backups, but I could be wrong and these drivers don't support symlinks.

When Time Machine makes a backup it only copies changed files and creates links to the older items. AFAIK these are not symlinks, but hardlinks.

Sample output from Time Machine
23/06/2014 10:40:19.087 pm com.apple.backupd[12797]: Copied 4 items (33 bytes) from volume DeepThought. Linked 20.


AppleScript: Is it possible to have an unselected "default answer" in an input dialog? When one uses the default answer parameter in display dialog in AppleScript, whatever text is set to default answer is automatically highlighted upon display of the dialog.

Is it possible to specify a default answer without the answer highlighted?

I would ideally like the cursor to be placed after the last character of the default answer, so that the user can append text to this answer without first pressing the → key (or, worse, accidentally overwriting the default answer).

I figured it out.

If one presses the right arrow key just milliseconds before the dialog is displayed, then the default answer will not be selected and the blinking cursor will be placed after the default text.

You can perform this action in AppleScript like so:

-- Unselect the “default answer” in an input dialog:
tell application "System Events"
        key code 124 -- right arrow key
end tell

display dialog "Enter a keyword:" default answer "I do not want this text to be highlighted. "

In theory, the above solution should not work. In theory, the key press should commence and complete before the display dialog command initiates. But, this method does work, for whatever reason.

Note: This method will not work if you insert key code 124 before the very first dialog of your AppleScript file. In this case, my above code will fail to behave as desired and the default answer text will remain selected. (It may misleadingly appear to work correctly if you are simply running the AppleScript code from within Script Editor.app or Automator.app, but it will not work correctly if you run the .scpt file via Fast Scripts, osascript in Terminal.app, or any other method.)

However, if the display dialog in question is the second, third, or fiftieth dialog in an AppleScript file, my solution works correctly. Don't ask me why it won't work on the first dialog (because I don't know).

So, you have no choice but to rearrange the dialogs of the AppleScript file so that the first dialog does not need to have a default answer.

One workaround, if your initial dialog must have a default answer that is unselected, is to insert a dialog that automatically proceeds after a brief amount of time has elapsed. This dialog should be inserted immediately before the above tell block. It's not an elegant solution, but here is some code that will work:

display alert "Please wait..." message "..." buttons ("") giving up after 1
-- I think that "1" is the minimum for "giving up after." I tried "0.5" and the dialog completely stalled.

As long as it does not precede the initial dialog of a script, I have personally found my method to be reliable; it works 100% of the time on my computer.


2011 13" Macbook Pro shows a green charging light but battery was draining and now it won't respond to SMC Reset I was using my Macbook Pro and I was letting it discharge to about 30%; then I plugged it back in to charge.

It charged for a while (orange light) but after a few minutes, it changed to green. My laptop wasn't fully charged yet and my battery actually started to drain even on a green light. At first I thought my charger was defective so I borrowed a charger but it still showed a green light. Using my charger on another MBP showed expected behaviors (orange for charging).

I then turned my laptop off and tried to reset the SMC by holding down the left side shift control option and the power key, but to no avail. I have done SMC resets before, and I know that the LED Indicator light of the charger should change had I done it successfully. I am pretty sure I shut down my laptop properly.

Has anyone encountered this situation before? Any help is very much appreciated. I would post more technical information about my laptop, however, I don't think turning it on is a smart idea as I don't think the battery is functional at all.

Unless you have had the battery replaced in the last few years it’s most likely dead. You can use a couple of different apps(Battery Health, Coconut Battery), or even the built in System Info screen to see the charge cycles and condition of the MacBook's battery.

I helped a friend with almost the same identical problem on a system of the same vintage, and it was the battery that was dead. No matter how many times he reset the SMC, it never helped.

As a side note, Apple recommends that you cycle the battery fully at lest once a month to avoid potential problems that can occur form charging the battery to soon in a battery discharge cycle.  So if you are always plugging into power when you have only 30% of your battery drained, you could be shortening the life of the battery.


Boot camp install of Windows 7 issue, no bootable devices So I have a 2010 15" macbook pro (MBP6,1) and I replaced the optical drive with a hard disk. I wanted to install windows 7 on the hard disk with boot camp with a USB and ISO image.

After searching I found that I need to modify my plist.info to allow my boot camp to create a bootable USB (since normally it doesn't have the option to create the USB for my model since it came with a disk drive).

After doing so and seemingly having a fine (but long) install process onto the USB. I told boot camp how much space to partition windows on and hit install.

Then the computer restarted. When it came back up it was stuck on a grey apple logo screen forever (I waited 15 minutes to ensure it wasn't just "thinking"). I force restarted and the next time it turned on it got stuck on the grey logo for a bit but then proceeded to go to a black screen that said " No bootable device - please insert a bootable device and hit any key". I tried hitting keys with he USB in but nothing happened.

I had to eventually remove the USB and reset PRAM to get it to boot into osx again

Is there any way to install windows 7 from a usb on my macbook pro using boot camp?

UPDATE

An improved procedure for installing Windows 7 can be found at Installing Windows 7 Pro 64 bit without DVD or Flash Drive

Note:

The updated steps, for installing Windows 8.1 using the procedure given below, can be found here.

My hardware and software differs from yours. I will first document how I tested my answer and then try to adapt the answer to your needs. Since this is a fairly long answer, the adaption will be given as a separate answer.

My computer is an iMac (20-inch Mid 2007). The version of OS X is 10.10.5. I will be installing Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 Bit.
I have only one internal drive. It is a 1 TB hard disk using the Apple hybrid GUID partitioning scheme. Hybrid means Windows will see the drive as MBR partitioned, while OS X views the drive as GUID partitioned. I will be following Apple's recommendations and installing Window using the legacy BIOS. I also have a working internal optical SuperDrive which is not used to install Windows.

(Hint: For a better view, click on an image or open an image in a new window.)

Aquire the Boot Camp Support Software (the drivers). The software
can either be downloaded using the Boot Camp Assistant, downloaded
directly from the Web or copied off a OS X installation DVD. See
System requirements to install Windows on your Mac via Boot
Camp for details. This procedure does not require the use of
a flash drive. If your Boot Camp Support Software is stored on a
flash drive, then follow the special instructions given in certain
step that follow.
Make sure your firmware is up to date. See EFI and SMC firmware
updates for Intel-based Macs.
Download and install a free copy of VirtualBox from Oracle. I
used VirtualBox, Version 5.0.0 r101573, Copyright © 2015.
Inside your "Documents" folder, create a folder named "VirtualBox".
This is where you will keep the files created in the rest of the
steps.
Create a MS-DOS (FAT) formatted partition to install Windows. You
can use the Bootcamp Assistant, the Disk Utility, or commands
(distutil, gpt and/or fdisk) entered in a Terminal window.
Other third party tools, such as gdisk, can also be used.
Give the label for this partition the name "BOOTCAMP".
Determine the disk and partition numbers of the partition named
"BOOTCAMP". To do this, highlight the partition in the Disk Utility
application and click the "Info" button. A popup window should
appear. The values shown will be used in the next step.

The information, in this pop up window, shows the disk and partition
numbers are 0 and 4, respectively. If your numbers are different,
you will need to substitute your numbers in the rest of the steps.
If your partition number is greater than 4, then you can not install Windows on this partition. (Technically, this may not be
true, but it is beyond the scope of this answer to explain how to do
so.)

Do not close the popup window.
Open the Terminal application and enter the following commands in
the Terminal window. This will set variables to be used in later
commands. In the next command, replace α with the "Disk Number"
shown in the Disk Utility popup window. The usual value for α is
0.

DISK0=/dev/diskα

In the next command, replace β with the "Partition Number" shown
in the Disk Utility popup window. The usual value for β is 4.

PARTITION=β

The next command sets the variable PARTID to the disk identifier of
the partition. This should be the same as the "Disk Identifier"
shown in the Disk Utility popup window. The usual value for PARTID
is disk0s4.

PARTID="$DISK0"s"$PARTITION"

Note: the letter s is lower case.

Close the Disk Utility popup window.
With the Disk Utility application still open, select "File→New→Blank
Disk Image..." from the menu bar. In the popup window, enter the
values shown below. Note: "Where:" should be the "VirtualBox" folder
created in Step 4. If the Boot Camp Support Software is stored on a
flash drive, you can use the default "Size:" of "100 MB".

Save As: bcssoftware
Tags:
Where: VirtualBox
Name: BCSSOFTWARE
Size: Custom... (1.5 GB)
Format: MS-DOS (FAT)
Encryption: none
Partitions: Single partition -  Master Boot Record Partition Map
Image Format: read/write disk image

The popup window should appear as shown below.

Click the "Create" button.
Determine the disk number of the partition named "BCSSOFTWARE". To
do this, highlight the partition in the Disk Utility application and
click the "Info" button. A popup window should appear. The values
shown will be used in the next step.

The information, in this pop up window, shows the disk number is 1.
If your number is different, you will need to substitute your number
in the rest of the steps.

Do not close the popup window.
Using the same Terminal window, enter the following to set the
 variable DISK1. Replace γ with the "Disk Number" shown in the
 Disk Utility popup window. The usual value for γ is 1.

DISK1=/dev/diskγ

Quit the Disk Utility.
Copy the Boot Camp Support Software to to the partition labeled
 "BCSSOFTWARE". I used the Finder application to do this. You can
 skip this step, if this software is already stored on a flash
 drive.
Mark your partition as active in the MBR by entering the following
 in the same Terminal window. The input for the interactive command
 fdisk is taken from the variable INPUT. If a password  is asked
 for, enter it.

INPUT=$(printf  "f  $PARTITION\nw\ny\nq")
sudo  fdisk  -e  $DISK0  <<<"$INPUT"

Note: To display the value for the variable INPUT, use the
 command echo "$INPUT".
Allow VirtualBox read/write access to your physical partition by
 entering the following commands in the same Terminal window. If a
 password is asked for, enter it.

diskutil  unmount  $PARTID
sudo  chmod  go+rw  $PARTID

This will allow VirtualBox to install Windows on your physical
 partition. Note: This access will only last until OS X is
 rebooted.
Create the files that map the virtual partition and disk to the
 physical partition and disk image. In the same Terminal window,
 enter the following commands.

cd  ~/documents/virtualbox
sudo  vboxmanage  internalcommands  createrawvmdk  -filename  "$PWD/bootcamp.vmdk"  -rawdisk  $DISK0  -partitions  $PARTITION
sudo  chown  $USER  bootcamp*.vmdk
diskutil unmountDisk $DISK1
vboxmanage  internalcommands  createrawvmdk  -filename  "$PWD/bcssoftware.vmdk"  -rawdisk  $DISK1

  Note: If a password is asked for, enter it.

Open the VirtualBox application and click on icon above the New
 label. Enter or select the values shown below, then click the
 "Continue" button.

Use the default settings  except for the hard drive. Choose the
 "Use an existing virtual hard  drive file" button. Navigate to the
 VirtualBox folder created in  step 4. Open the "bootcamp.vmdk"
 file. Your window should appear similar to what is shown below.

Click the "Create" button.
Enter  the following command in the same Terminal window.

diskutil  unmountDisk  $DISK1

Return to the VirtualBox application's "Oracle VM Virtual Manager"
 window and click on the  icon above the "Settings" label. Next,
 click on the icon above the "Storage" label. Right click on
 "Controller: SATA" and select "Add  Hard Disk". Choose existing
 disk by opening the file "bcssoftware.vmdk" stored in the folder
 created in step 4. The attachment "bcssoftware.vmdk" should appear
 as shown below.

It has been reported by other users that the "Use Host I/O Cache" box needs to be checked on if VirtualBox boot fails with error VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED.
Highlight the Empty CD/DVD and select "Choose a virtual CD/DVD
 file..." to attach your Windows installation iso  file. (Hint: Look
 for the CD/DVD icons)

Click OK to close the  window. Your "Oracle VM Virtual Manager"
 window should appear similar to what is shown below.

Before clicking the icon above the "Start" label to begin installing
 Windows, enter the following command in the same Terminal window.

diskutil unmountDisk $DISK1

When you reach the window shown below, select "Custom (advanced)".

In the next window, click on "Drive options (advanced)".

Select the "BOOTCAMP" partition and click on "Format". The error
 message shown below will disappear. Click on "Next" to continue
 installation.

The rest the virtual machine installation will be repeated again
 after booting Windows on the physical machine. Use the provided
 answers when the following windows first appear. When asked a
 second time, you can provide your own answers.

When the following window first appears, I would enter the Product
 Key and uncheck the "Automatically active Windows when I'm online"
 box.

To be safe, I would not let any updates download or install until
 after the Boot Camp Support Software (the drivers) is installed.
 Therefore, I would click on "Ask me later" in the window shown
 below.

VirtualBox creates a virtual Public network for your virtual
 machine. Therefore I would click on "Public network" in the window
 shown below.

Once the installation has completed on the virtual machine, you
 need complete the following instructions to make a copy the MBR
 bootstrap code. From the Start Menu, select "Computer" to open a
 window containing the hard disk drives and devices with removable
 storage. Determine the drive letters for  the hard disk drive
 labeled "BCSSOFTWARE" and the CD (optical)   drive. The image below
 shows the drive letters on my computer are  D: and G:,
 respectively. Your drive letters may differ from mine.

Close the window and open a Command  Prompt window run as an
 administrator. Select "Start Menu→All  Programs→Accessories",
 then right click on "Command Prompt" and  select "Run as
 administrator", as shown in the image below.

In the Command Prompt  window, enter the command shown below. If
 necessary, substitute your drive letters for G: and D:.

G:\BOOT\BOOTSECT  /NT60  D:  /MBR

The results of running this command on my computer are shown below.

Close the Command Prompt window.
Copy the Boot Camp Support Software from the partition labeled
 "BCSSOFTWARE" to the "C:\Users\Public\Public Documents" folder. I
 used the Windows  Explorer to do this. You can skip this step, if
 this software is already stored on a flash drive.
You need to prepare Windows to run on your physical Mac. Open the
 Windows  Explorer and navigate to the "C:\Windows\System32\sysprep"
 folder. Open the "sysprep" application. Select "Enter System
 Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)", "Generalize" and "Shutdown" as shown
 below. Click OK and wait for the virtual machine to shutdown.

Once the virtual machine has shutdown, quit VirtualBox. Enter the
 following in the same Terminal window. These commands will update
 the MBR bootstrap code, set the Windows partition identifier to 7
 in the MBR and then mount the partition. The input for the
 interactive command fdisk is taken  from the variable INPUT. If
 a password is asked for, enter it.

sudo  fdisk  -u  -y  -f  $DISK1  $DISK0
INPUT=$(printf  "s  $PARTITION\n7\nw\ny\nq")
sudo  fdisk  -e   $DISK0  <<<"$INPUT"
diskutil  mount  $PARTID

Close all other applications. Open System Preferences and select
 "Startup Disk". Highlight the "Untitled Windows" icon and click the
 "Restart" button.

If something goes wrong, you will need to hold down the "option" key
 at startup to return to OS X. Hopefully, nothing will go wrong and
 Windows will start.
When Windows finishing installing, install the Boot Camp Support
 Software (the drivers). This software is either in the
 "C:\Users\Public\Public Documents" folder, or on a flash drive.

COMMENTS

On OS X El Capitan (10.11) the System Integrity Protection does not allow editing the MBR with fdisk, so disable SIP following these instructions for the duration of the install.

I ended up having to create two user accounts. If you only want one account, you have two options. First, delete one of the accounts. Second, disable one of the accounts so it will not appear. The former can be accomplished from the Control Panel, the latter requires entering the command control  userpasswords2 in a Command Prompt window. For example, below is the window were one can enable or disable the rpj account. If you need help let me know.


Why does the Google Chrome icon appear like this in Applications? I am using OS X Lion 10.7.4.

The Google Chrome application seems to work fine and the icon appears normal the Dock and Launchpad. What does this error icon mean?

I have not seen this happen and it is quite uncommon, but usually it means that the app hasn't fully loaded the icon from the dmg file to the memory. It could've been because you moved the app over very quickly or you must not have followed the standard procedure, which is Download app → Drag icon to Applications folder.

Either way, it should fix itself on a reboot. If you don't want to do that, there's an answer on Super User to the same question:

  Drag the app to your desktop first, and wait for it to finish loading from the .dmg file. It will get its proper icon. Then drag it to the Applications folder, or on the alias in the .dmg, if one is supplied.


Disadvantages of using sim card from old iPhone? I upgraded from an iPhone 5 to XS. the 5 had a mobile-carrier company sim card (non-apple). To save phonecalls, I just plugged in the old sim card into new phone and it worked. I think the new phone has a apple sim card. The sim card that came with the new phone looks newer and more shiny. Are there any disadvantages of sticking with the old sim card? Everything seems like it works. I was just wondering because many but one android user sent me an text message and it didn't go through. The 5 underwent submersion but the water damage detector didn't register water damage.

In terms of using the phone day to day, there's no disadvantages with re-using the SIM card from the old phone.

The disadvantage lies primarily with the fact that if you had requested a new SIM card from your provider, you would have received one that could be running newer software (inside the SIM card). This could be relevant if you were the target of a specific hacking attempt, as the SIM card software is rarely, if at all, updated by providers after it is sent out.


AppleScript to Make New Calendar in Specific Account The AppleScript Dictionary for macOS Calendar 10.0 (High Sierra) appears to have no API for addressing specific accounts.

For example…

set myCalendar to make new calendar with properties {name:"New Girl"}

…creates a calendar "On My Mac."  There seems to be no way to create a calendar in an iCloud or other calDAV account.

Have I had insufficient caffeine, or is the answer just plain "No"?

You could use GUI scripting like this...

tell application "System Events"
    click menu item "iCloud" of menu 1 of menu item ¬
        "New Calendar " of menu 1 of menu bar item ¬
        "File" of menu bar 1 of application process "Calendar"
end tell

But one of the problems with this solution is you cannot set the properties of the calendar.  The new calendar will be named "Untitled"


How To Remotely Sign Out Of iCloud? One of the top results in Google: "How To Remotely Sign Out Of iCloud"
https://www.addictivetips.com/web/remotely-sign-out-of-icloud/
I cannot find the Settings app:

The reason why I need it: I'm signed in on my work laptop. I don't want my employer to know. I prefer to log out remotely.
EDIT: Found it: https://www.icloud.com/settings/

The settings icon has been replaced with only text below your name. Simply hit account settings and you will be able to sign out.


How can I specify a custom icon for a Dock stack? I've created a folder in Finder with aliases of several apps. I want to add this to my dock so that those apps are grouped together and the dock isn't quite as messy. No problem; I added the folder to the dock and it's displaying as a stack. The only problem is, the icon displayed in the dock is the icon of the first app in the folder, rather than the custom icon I assigned to the folder in Finder. Is there a way to force the dock to display the custom icon?

You need to change the icon of the folder that contains the items in the stack.  This can be done in several ways, but perhaps the easiest is to start by navigate to the folder of the stack, change that icon, and set the stack to display the folder instead of the contents.

Click the stack, click "Open in Finder" in the stack, and then press the keystroke ⌘ + ▲.  The key press will take you "one level up" in the directory hierarchy so that you are now looking at the folder that houses the items in the stack.

Next, select the folder (If it's not already selected), and "get info" on it, by typing ⌘ + I, or right-clicking and selecting "Get Info".  At the top of this window will be a miniature icon of a folder.  You can click on this and copy it via the keyboard shortcut (⌘ + C), or paste in an image that you copied from somewhere else.

Finally, you need to right-click on the stack and set it to display "folder" and not the stack contents.


IntelliJ IDEA + JBR11 uninstalled but still appears in Spotlight Search I have uninstalled the JBR11 version of IntelliJ and installed the standard version, but both versions appear in Spotlight Search. How can I fix this?

You might have a corrupted spotlight index.

See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716


Can you add a pause to a Better Touch Tool macro? I was hoping that there could be some way to have the first action go, then wait .1 seconds before the next action. Is there any way to do this?

You can set it by "Delay Next Action" in Trigger Predefined Action.


NAT port forwarding from host to client in VMWare Fusion 5? How do I forward ports from my host machine to the virtualized machine when I'm using NAT to share my network connection? I found some instructions for earlier versions of VMWare, but I don't see the files they mention in the same location in my installation.

Okay, I found out where it's located - /Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/vmnet8/nat.conf

So, open it up (VMWare shouldn't be running while you do this):

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet8/nat.conf

Go down in the file, there should be a section like:

[incomingtcp]

# Use these with care - anyone can enter into your VM through these...
# The format and example are as follows:
#<external port number> = <VM's IP address>:<VM's port number>
#35 = 172.16.126.128:22

Uncomment that last line, and edit as appropriate.

Couple of notes:

These instructions are for TCP port forwarding, there's a corresponding [incomingudp] section for UDP
If for some reason this section doesn't already exist, just add it


Since 10.11.1 Mail spends most of the time unable to connect to servers After years of working smoothly, through many OS updates, including 10.11.0, my Apple Mail client now only succeeds in connecting to servers intermittently since updating to 10.11.1. I'd estimate that on a typical day, it manages to work about 10% of the time it is running. Mostly I just quit and leave the app closed to avoid the annoyance of constant warning dialogs interrupting me while I'm working. (Connection Doctor never shows any errors or difficulties.)

Is there something simple I might do to fix this? Is this a known problem with 10.11.1?

Check to see if you have _mbsetupuser running. If you do your update to 10.11.1 (or to 10.11.2 or 10.11.3, for that matter) has not completed.

Though the "About This Mac" dialog may say that your version is 10.11.1, you are in fact effectively between versions, and will get all kinds of odd behavior (repeated requests to unlock the Keychain, connectivity problems, wifi issues, etc.) until you complete the installation process, which you should be able to accomplish with a reboot.


How do I Launch an Applescript with a Hotkey Without Automator? I'm running Yosemite and looking to launch Terminal with a keypress in any application. One solution was creating a Service in Automator that launched terminal and assigning a key to it in System Preferences. However there is an annoying delay before launching Automator services, I'd like something immediate. Is there a way to do as such, preferably without installing software that runs in the background?

I found Automator's "Launch Application" action to be as quick as anything else, and the only way to do this without third party software.

BetterTouchTool is a free application that can be used to launch applications using hotkeys.

iTerm 2 is a Terminal.app replacement that can be shown/hidden using a hotkey (if it's running).


Option + E accent not working on Google Chrome - Macbook pro A few days ago my Macbook stopped displaying the ´ character when I use Option + e.
The same happens if I try to use the ´ in the keyboard viewer.
Option u and option n work to make umlaut and tilde as expected.
Catalina 10.15.4, input sources US and US International PC.
Everything else is working as usual. I tried the options suggested in this question
Option + E not working but nothing changed.
Anyone have any ideas what may be happening? I haven't installed anything new either.
Edit: This seems to only be happening in Google Chrome

After realizing the problem only happened in Chrome I disabled extensions and the accent option worked again.
The extension responsible is Honorlock if someone else runs with the same problem.
Thank you all


How can I change the colour matching option in the Default Settings printer preset? Specifically, I want to change the colour matching for my Canon Pixma G3500 from Canon Color Matching to ColorSync.
When editing using the GUI, the Default Settings, and Draft Printing on Plain Paper and Fine Printing on Plain Paper can't be saved over or deleted.
I know how to create custom settings but ideally I would like to change the defaults to avoid accidental wasted prints in future, because the custom settings appear lower down the drop-down menu so could be missed if printing in haste or when tired.
I searched plist files in /Library/Preferences/ and ~/Library/Preferences/ but drew a blank.

You can't change the Default Settings print preset, but if you make a new Preset, and print with it, then MacOS normally offers the same preset again, the next time you print.
In earlier versions of MacOS, if you held down Option when you pressed OK in the Print menu, the settings would be saved as the default, but that doesn't seem necessary now. You could try it if it isn't working.
You can change the defaults of the printer by accessing the CUPS web interface, but that doesn't always include ColorSync options.
The first time you try this, you need to enable the CUPS web interface. In Terminal, type cupsctl WebInterface=yes
In a web browser, go to http://localhost:631
Then you'll see the CUPS controls. Click on "Printers" in the bar along the top. Choose your printer from the List. and in the drop down list, select Set Default Options.


Dark mode of MacOS not working for Chrome As specified here, I have enabled MacOS's dark mode however, the Chrome browser doesn't become dark. It's expected that webpages, toolbars, etc all become dark.

I wanted to avoid third-party Chrome plugins/extensions as they can inject scripts in my browser. Any idea why is the dark mode for Chrome not working?
The Chrome version I'm using is Version 78.0.3904.108 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Chrome doesn't change the content of web pages to dark mode, but it can be made to.

It's experimental, so at your peril...

Put chrome://flags into the address bar and hit enter. Search for "Dark Mode", enable it, and relaunch Chrome.


Flickering on certain sites with Intel HD 3000 I have a mid 2011 macbookpro 15.4 2.2ghz quad core, 16gb ram and ati 6750m w/ intel hd 3000. Mac OS X 10.9.3 & 10.10 beta.

Whenever I use chrome v35 and the graphics card is set to use the intel hd 3000, I get flickering on certain sites,
the best one to show the issue is bootstrap 2.3.2 site which shows up as diagonal lines. I have tested this on other 10.9.3 intel hd 3000 machines and it seems like its a bug in the graphics driver, also I have tested it on the yosemite beta and it is still an issue.

I have attached a png from my dropbox that should work in any browser & preview, but this will only work if you are using an intel hd 3000 on a laptop.

Test Image for flickering.

Does anyone know of a fix other than to not use chrome?

I have the same issue with a 17" MacBook Pro (Late 2011). I can only solve it by switching from the Intel HD 3000 card to the AMD Radeon one by using the gfxCardStatus tool.


What debug information is available on iOS Is there any logs that would give (for example) some indication of what caused Unable to connect to X errors when trying to connect to a Wifi hotspot, with iOS 7.x?

The seeming lack of information as to the cause of many failures + error messages on this OS doesn't help technical people like myself start the troubleshooting processes anywhere logical.

I think there are two possibilites to get log information.

First sync your device with your Laptop / PC via iTunes. Then go to:

OS X

~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<your iPhone’s name>/

Windows XP

%APPDATA%\Apple\Logs\CrashReporter\<your iPhone’s name>\

Windows Vista+

%APPDATA%\Apple\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<your iPhone’s name>\

Second use the iPhone Configuration Tool from Apple.


Reset the PMU on macbook when the left shift key is dead I have a fairly new white Macbook, the kind with a built-in, non-user replaceable battery, model MacBook6,1.

The thing's Power Management Unit is clearly on the fritz-- the battery indicator says "no batteries available" (while clearly running off battery power), the magsafe adapter won't light up, and the fan is constantly running at full bore.  According to Apple, this calls for resetting the PMU as follows: "On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time."

Here's the catch: The left side shift key, the control key, and the left side option key are all dead, due to an unfortunate beer spill some months ago.  The other shift key works, but the directions clearly call for holding down the LEFT HAND Shift-Control-Option keys, all of which are dead.

Are there any other ways to reset the PMU, or am I SOL?

If you feel confident enough the only other way I know is to take the MacBook apart, remove the battery, hold down the power button for 5+ seconds and then put it all back together again. Sounds simple but it could get messy if you haven't taken one apart before.

If you do take it apart you could use this time to try and fix the the keyboard and give the poor thing a clean inside...


Prevent Safari from transforming downloaded CSV files to Numbers files On a computer that has Numbers installed, downloading a CSV file will automatically be converted to a Numbers spreadsheet and no longer be a plain CSV (not just the extension, but the contents themselves are transformed such that they are no longer readable in a text editor or similar). If the machine does not have Numbers on it then this conversion does not take place.

The workaround is obnoxious at the time, opening the file in Numbers then saving from there into CSV so it can be actually used as intended.

Is there anyway to disable this automatic transformation from happening (aside from uninstalling Numbers)?

Update: I have tried this on various machines and it is definitely a very spotty behavior. I am teaching Intro CS to a college class and all the students have "identical" machines (except whatever modifications they have made after they received them from the college). About 1/4 of the students experience this problem and none of them know why (not very computer-oriented students being a general-education class).

It seems that on some computers with Numbers installed, opening a CSV file in Numbers will cause Numbers to convert the file to it's own format, delete the original CSV file, and replace it. I can't find a setting for this, but on certain student laptops this is always reproducible.

Additionally, on some computers with Numbers installed, the mime-type text/csv (what the particular server is serving those files as) is considered a 'safe' file and then auto-opened with Numbers, as per How to stop Safari from unzipping files after download

So one solution is following @CraigStodolenak solution which causes Safari to them auto-open the file with a different program and the auto-conversion then never happening.

Once I get access to another machine like this I will also try the ⌥ alt trick that disables auto-opening for a single link in Safari.

As a side note, on my own machine from the school and another loaner I have received I cannot reproduce the issues with auto-opening or auto-transforming.

Safari does not post process files or transform them. It saves them exactly as the web server sends them or it throws an error code.

The worst thing Safari could do is decide the file is “Safe” and open it in the default application. You should disable opens safe files on Safari and then re-download the files in question.

Finder controls which apps open which file, so if you decide to re-enable “open safe files” be sure to chose TextEdit or another file to open .csv files or delete Numbers so that there’s no default Application for these files.

In more detail on the Finder opening - macOS keeps track of which apps open specific file types. When Numbers is installed, Apple matches all .CSV files to Numbers. To change this, Get Info (⌘-I) on a .CSV file in the Finder and perform the following:

under Open With dropdown, select a different app to open this type of file (TextEdit, BBEdit, SublimeText, Atom, etc.)
click on Change All... button
click on Continue


Preventing google search for custom top-level domain How can I prevent safari to redirect the user to the google search page for addresses with custom top-level domains?

Given an address of the type http://application.test where test is a primary zone on our intranet, if I enter either:

http://application.test
application.test/

Then Safari correctly resolves the name and opens the page, if I enter:

application.test

Then Safari assumes it is a search query and redirects the user to the google search page.

Is it possible to prevent this in any way which does not involve the user itself?

To just avoid connecting to Google, open Safari's preferences, click on "Search" and then change the search engine to something else.

To prevent that domain from going to any search engine, add a Safari bookmark with the full URL (including the http:// or https:// protocol). Once the domain is bookmarked it should come up when the user begins typing the name in the address bar.

The user's machine will still need a way to route traffic to the custom domain, either via DNS settings, or by adding an entry to the /etc/hosts file on the user's machine.


Using applescript to control an application which does not support it I want to control an application that does not have an Applescript api (simfy). I would like to pause it via an Alfred command, but for this I need to use scripts. This application is build with Adobe Air and there is no script dictionary entry for it.

I have created some shortcuts via System Preferences, but I would like to access the options even when I am using another program. The typical use case, is that I am working in my editor, I want to switch to the next song without having to leave it.

Do you know how to script an application without applescript support?

The only way I am aware of is using UI Scripting (old link but still useful) via the dictionary of an application called "System Events". In substance, this allow you to make a script that click on a given button or press a given key. Unfortunately, you'll need to activate Simfy to send the keystroke (but you can automate it and automate a switch to the preceding frontmost application as well).

Remote Buddy allow you to send a keystroke to an application without activating it. You can then trigger the Remote Buddy action via AppleScript. But that seems overkill here except if you use Remote Buddy for other things already.


Change computer Apple TV uses to connect to iTunes I have the newest version of Apple TV. Firmware is up to date.

I set it up in the apartment I used to share with my girlfriend until about a week ago when I moved away for school. After I left, she found herself not only without companionship but also unable to access Netflix or the iTunes store.

I'm guessing this is because I set up the Apple TV using my mac, which is no longer in the apartment with the Apple TV. Assuming this is the case, I'm wondering: is resetting the Apple TV and going through the setup process again the best way for her to "associate" her mac with the Apple TV? Or is there an easy way to do this that won't wipe out all of the configurations we've made?

On the Apple TV:

Go to Settings > Computers
Turn off Home Sharing
Turn on Home Sharing (it will ask if you want to use your Apple ID or connect using a different one)
Select the option to connect using another account
Have her enter her Apple ID and password in

Of course for this to work, she will have to enable Home Sharing on iTunes on her Mac. For directions, see Apple's guide on setting up Home Sharing.

As for Netflix, you should just be able to log out and log in with a different account.


Tap to click keeps disabling Recently the tap to click on my trackpad will disable itself after a restart and I have to go into System Preferences to enable it. Has anyone experienced this and know of a solution?

I'm running Snow Leopard on a white MacBook (Mid 2010).

Open Terminal.app and enter the following to (re-)enable tap to click on the Trackpad:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad Clicking -bool true

Then, log out and log back in again.


How To Stop Sticky Notes From Flickering? This is really weird, but I tried to open up a new sticky note to paste in a link, and when I tried, the new sticky note started to flicker really fast and I can't right click, close it, or write on it or any other notes either. If I'm on the sticky notes, they won't let me go back to the thing I was on before. Also, the little keyboard icon (next to the battery and wifi connection icon) that tells you the language of your keyboard flickers at the same time.
I really need to put some things on the sticky note!
Can anyone help?
Thanks!

Open the Keyboard in your sys pref.

The click on the Input sources Tab.

Uncheck the "Automatically switch to Document Input source".

If above did not work try following.

Go to /Users/borderline/Library/Preferences

find the com.apple.Stickies.plist

Delete it and restart.


Use OpenSSH agent instead of the OSX agent I've installed OpenSSH using homebrew (brew install openssh) and this installation provides it's own ssh-agent.

Still, when I login, and see the autostarted ssh-agent, I see that the agent that is started is the OS X agent, and not the one installed via Homebrew OpenSSH.

Also, how do I start the ssh-agent from openssh by default every time that I login? Finally, is there any way in which I can automatically load key files to the openssh agent, and have these key files loaded the next time that I login as well?

ssh-agent, the system builtin one, is run as a system daemon started by /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.openssh.ssh-agent.plist. Cause the service plist is located in /System/Library/LaunchAgents, it mean it's impossible to disable it unless you break SIP, which is not recommended.

The macOS version ssh-agent is built with additional KeyChain support compared with the standard one. The best solution is to use the keychain.

First, uninstall the homebrew-installed SSH, brew uninstall openssh.

Secondly, configure the SSH to use password from Keychain.

Host *
AddKeysToAgent yes
# use the password stored in keychain
UseKeychain yes
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Thirdly, add the key and password into Keychain.

ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa

In this solution, we keep the password into Keychain and configure OpenSSH to load password for the key from Keychain.

References

OpenSSH updates in macOS 10.12.2


My MacBook Pro doesn't recognize the battery after minor liquid spill Hello and thank you in advance to everyone that will try to help me.
My MacBook Pro get water damaged with some drops of water on the left/up side and, as it should do in this cases, i rapidly shutted down and reversed it.
The laptop works perfectly fine with the exception of it not recognizing the battery, thus the laptop only turns on while being connected to the power cord. The battery icon on the top right displays an X with "No battery available". This is mirrored in the System Information interface under Power, where all values for this section display "No" and "0" (as in the battery is not recognized). If i remove the power cord it goes on kind of a sleep state because if i re-plug the cord it wakes so it doesn’t shut down.
I have tried SMC Reset and this made no difference. I’ve also tried cleaning the NVRAM/PRAM without any luck.
I’ve also tried a method described on a discussion on this site that consist on removing the battery, press 10 sec the power button, plug the magsafe while pushing power and then plug the battery in. With this method the MacBook turns on WITHOUT the power cord (so the battery is working), with the airfan at max speed but the battery icon on the top right still displays an X.
I’ve also purchased a new battery and replaced the old one but nothing changed.
I know that it is near impossible to diagnose what is wrong with the laptop via the forum, but what are the options? There are any other thing i can try do to or the only solution is asking to a service provider?

That needs dismantling for cleaning and as soon as possible.
The damage will likely get worse and the « loquid » will also make a difference, as the impurities can become electrically conductive and cause more problems over time.
Take it to a service centre or a professional.


Reinstall El Capitan on 2009 iMac I've giving my 2009 iMac to a friend. It was running El Capitan and Windows 10 on Bootcamp. I've tried to be clever (which apparently I'm not) and I've done a clean reset of Windows 10, not understanding that I would no longer be able to see or access Mac. Yes, all traces of macOS have disappeared.  Even the Mac keyboard doesn't work, presumably because I've lost all Bootcamp drivers.

The Mac partition may still be there somewhere, as the Windows partition only takes 130GB of the 500GB HDD. So somehow, I need to restore macOS using a Windows mouse and keyboard. Oh dear.....

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Find your original installation (grey) DVD or acquire a DVD that is not bound to the machine (e.g. "Snow Leopard" DVD with the animal picture, not a grey CD).
Boot from the DVD
Using the disk utility (available from the DVD), fully erase the drive.
Install the original OS (e.g. "Snow Leopard 10.6.3")
If you installed snow Snow Leopard, get the "10.6.8" combo upgrade package and install it.
Search on Apple's site how to install OS X El Capitan on old MacBooks. I remember the link is not easy to find, but there's one. Download it and install it.


Flat view in Finder - does it exist? I have seen this useful feature in several Windows File Explorer clones - the flat view. Basically the feature allows you to view all the files in the current directory and sub-directories, side-by-side, as if they were all in the same directory. Useful when trying to compare/find files. I don't think it exists in Finder, but what about the various Finder replacements?

Showsize Flat View Example

Spotlight can, if you just search for "-kind:folder".
It also shows the files. It looks like a bug to me, but it works.

Found here.


How do I delete a Windows partition? I tried to install Windows 10 with Boot Camp and I got an error. When I tried to reboot my MacBook and held Alt, I have two partitions: MacintoshHD and Windows. If I click on Windows I have a blue Windows screen with "Recovery". So how I can delete this partition?

Close all open applications;
Open Boot Camp Assistant (click Continue);
Select Remove Windows 10 or later version;
Click Restore if your Mac has one internal disk, otherwise select the Windows disk and select Restore disk to a single macOS partition, and then press Continue.

It is recommanded to do a backup before doing so.


How do I use Freenode IRC with SASL in Adium? I received the following error when trying to join Freenode with Adium:

*** Notice -- You need to identify via SASL to use this server

I understand why they want me to use SASL in my case, and I can see this is a common problem. I can see that Adium supports SASL, and I can find the help ticket that prompted the Adium dev group to add SASL support.

What I can't find is... how to use SASL in Adium. I don't see any options for enabling SASL or configuring it or anything. Thanks for your help.

Adium 1.5 doesn't support using SASL for IRC. That will be added in 1.6: https://trac.adium.im/ticket/14478.

In 1.6, there will be a checkbox to activate SASL. When that is activated, the password field is treated as the SASL password.

The following build can be used successfully: Adium_1.6hgr5915.dmg

And this guide may help if you have question using it after you've enabled SASL.


“softwareupdate -l” on Mac terminal doesn't return anything I am trying to update my mac OS software to the latest version (10.12.6) from my current version (10.12.4) and unfortunately the app store 'updates' section freezes for me and I can't update it from there. I found another solution, which was to use the terminal to install the update. The problem is that when I type "softwareupdate -l" it returns nothing (I'm aware that this specific command won't actually install it). Not that it doesn't find updates, it's as if it won't stop searching.

Last login: Thu Nov 2 18:48:50 on ttys000
User ~ $ softwareupdate -list
Software Update Tool
Copyright 2002-2015 Apple Inc.
Finding available software

Any help would be appreciated!

Do you have a custom software update server set? See Reset OS X Software Update server for info on how to check & if necessary reset it.

Another option is to bypass the update server system by downloading and installing the update manually. You can find updates at support.apple.com/downloads; the specific one you need is the macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Combo Update

(Note: the 12.12.6 Combo update should not be confused with the "macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Update" -- the non-combo or "delta" version requires that you already be up to 10.12.5.  You're running 10.12.4, so you need the combo update.)


How to enter a non-breaking space on iOS? On a Mac, entering a non-breaking space is very easy. On my iPad with iOS 7 installed, I want to enter a non-breaking space. But I find no way.
I have tried the mic on the keyboard. It gives me this :
Espace insécable
:-)
I would prefer a solution coming from the keyboard. I would also like a palette offering characters or snippets.

Find one in a web page (even a page you create yourself, inserting  ) and then copy it to the clipboard. Paste it in when needed.


iTunes U plays previous video when trying to open reading material I'm having a strange problem with iTunes U (in iTunes). When I click on a non-video item in the lecture feed, it simply plays the last video.
The item I'm trying to view is clearly not a video, as indicated by the book-symbol:

But in this example, when I click "Reading: The Rest of Swift", it simply plays "9. Scroll View and Multithreading".

I'm using a mac running OSX Yosemite, so there shouldn't be any problems with that.
Why is this happening then?

The solution seems to be to first download the item, and then it will open properly.


My custom shortcut for Preview app doesn't work As you can see, I defined shortcut, restart system, but it is still not visible. Why?

Just to give this an answer for future Googlers…

This appears to have been a bug, fixed in El Capitan 10.11.1 & Preview 8.1 (877)

Or, as mentioned in comments, the initial tests were mistaking three full-stops for an ellipsis
… instead of …


Can a USB-C to mini DisplayPort cable be used with USB-C to Thunderbolt ports? I have the above cable for my current set up of sending display from my PC laptop with a USB-C port to my 2010 iMac with a mini DisplayPort port. It works great.
I have now bought a mid-2011 iMac that does not have a mDP port. It has a Thunderbolt port. Which I guess is Thunderbolt 2.
The current cable is not working with this new set up (even though it will plug into the Thunderbolt port) and I cannot work out if the problem is trying to use the cable itself or if I am not setting it up properly.
So do I need a different cable if the only thing that is changing in the configuration is that instead of a mini DisplayPort on the iMac, I have Thunderbolt port on the iMac.
From other answers I think I might need a different cable but I still can’t quite work out what, or if I need one of those very expensive apple adapters.

Here are some basic rules about Thunderbolt and DisplayPort cables:

Any Type C Thunderbolt 3 cable is also a USB-C cable.  Only quality USB-C cables are also Thunderbolt 3 cables.  In other words, avoid cheap ones.

Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2 cables, while they carry the mDP signal are not mini DisplayPort cables.  mDP cables are not Thunderbolt cables and vice versa.

Thunderbolt cables can only be used on Thunderbolt ports.

mDP cables can be used in either mDP ports or Thunderbolt ports

Source:  TrippLite.com

So do I need a different cable if the only thing that is changing in the configuration is that instead of a mini DisplayPort on the iMac, I have Thunderbolt port on the iMac.

Yes.  The 2011 iMac (27" only) support Target Display Mode via Thunderbolt only.  You will need the following:

Thunderbolt 1/2 cable
Thunderbolt 3 to Legacy Thunderbolt Adapter

The 2011 iMac is a very different animal compared to the 2010 that uses DisplayPort.  To connect to it via Target Disk Mode, it requires a TB connection. So you'll need a proper adapter and cable to make this work.


Safari "Find" is slow Safari is fast at everything, except "Find".  When I hit command-F, I get the beachball for 5 to 25 seconds (and then the Find bar appears as normal and everything's good again).

I have plenty of free memory, and the system disk is an SSD with plenty of free space, and my CPUs are almost completely idle.

What could be causing this?  Is there something I can do or reset or flush to make it not so slow at this one thing?

I would check to make sure you don't have any extensions installed that might be causing issues. Also, you can try "Reset Safari..." and "Empty Cache...", both under the application menu. If neither of these work, you can download a new copy of Safari and replace the one currently in your /Applications folder.
After that, make a reservation at your closest Apple Retail Store and see what a Genius says.


Has anyone tried putting Ubuntu on the new retina MacBook Pro? Has anyone tried putting Ubuntu on the new retina MacBook Pro? If so, were there driver issues?

I did, here is how.

First make sure you got enough space for the installation on your SSD.
I resized the partion and left 50GB freespace for ubuntu. Don't make any Partition, just have some dedicated freespace on the drive.

After that Grab the latest Ubuntu iso from here
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/quantal-desktop-amd64+mac.iso

Once the file is downloaded use dd to write the .iso on a usb drive.

Assuming you Downloaded the file into your Downloads directory.
Open your Terminal and check the dev path of your usb drive:

diskutil list

once you got the path cd ~/Downloads and use dd to write the .iso to usb:

sudo dd if=~/Downloads/quantal-desktop-amd64+mac.iso of=/dev/rdisk? bs=1m just replace the rdisk? with the right device name, probably rdisk1

If you got any error messages or Permission Denied alerts you need to umount the drive first by diskutil umountdrive /dev/rdisk?

While dd does write to your usb drive go to http://refit.sourceforge.net/ and grab the latest rEFIt version and download the .dmg file, open it and install the refit package.

Once dd is done (takes a while - depends on your usb stick quality) reboot os x and once it's starts again you should be greeted by refit boot menu and a choice of available os's. Select Linux and you will be booting Ubuntu.

Make sure to use F6 key and select nomodeset since the Gfx does not goes well with Retina by default

Once Ubuntu loads, Install and profit. Just let the installer use the freespace, it will partition the drive and you can change the swap space size later (it does 16gb swap by default for 16gb mbp retina)

NOTE:
I don't have wifi running yet but I installed Ubuntu 15 min's ago, once I do have Wifi up and running i'll post an update here. Otherwise you can google the solution yourself.


Fixing spotlight "code validation failed" errors? Every minute or so, the following ends up in syslog:

Oct  3 22:57:12 Mac-mini lsregister[20158] <Notice>: LaunchServices: Begin database seeding
Oct  3 22:57:12 Mac-mini lsregister[20158] <Notice>: LaunchServices: Completed database seeding
Oct  3 22:57:13 Mac-mini mdworker[20155] <Error>: code validation failed in the process of getting
signing information: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67062 "The operation couldn’t be completed.
(OSStatus error -67062.)" UserInfo=0x7fa5fd803ef0 {SecCSArchitecture=i386}

With lots of repeats of the last line.  It's some sort of mdworker / spotlight issue, but what?

I suspect it is a problem with a plist entry, first obstacle is knowing what file or app to look in...

I have been trying to fix a similar issue from mdworker scanning apps that was traced to an old style InfoPlist.strings for a Classic/OS9 emulator

Just after I succeeded in fixing that (it was quotes within quotes) I started to get

  mdworker[97078]: code validation failed in the process of getting signing information: Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-67062 "(null)" UserInfo={SecCSArchitecture=ppc}

I am not sure yet as I have just expanded the detail of logs I am looking at and not confirmed the source of the new message. It should have been there as I rolled out my fix among the many copies over a few days but was not seen until I just went deeper in logs.

Hope that helps if you are still stuck! I may report back...


How to change iTunes metadata on PC? I'm looking for a windows compatible program that will change iTunes metadata. I'm interested in changing tags that iTunes doesn't let me change, such as making a little HD flag appear next to the film and changing the media kind with all options.

All the programs are for Mac only, but the functionality I seek is something like Subler for PC.

If they are ID3 tags, you can change them with exiftool (perl).

mutagen (Python) can also change them.


Sharing a Dropbox link directly to the clipboard, without having a browser pop open? Is there any solution for retrieving a Dropbox share link to a file, that doesn't involve opening a browser?

That puts it directly in the clipboard.

(For sake of clarity, I'm referring to when you right-click a file and select Dropbox → Share Link.)

No, you can't just get the link in clipboard, which is much safer for you. With Dropbox's version 2.0.5, you can easily share them through the toolbar.

There's a second way of doing it, being a lot better, which is:

Finder > Dropbox > public (move your public file here) > right click > dropbox > Copy public Link


Finder gets confused after using the mv command in the Dropbox folders I should mention I'm new to command lines.

I want to rename files using the mv command in the Terminal. I type:

mv oldFileName.pdf newFileName.pdf

Afterwards, I use the ls command to check whether things work as expected. The presented list shows me what I expected: The old file name does not appear, but the new one does.

However, when I use Finder and open the folder in which I renamed the file, it shows me two things: The old file name and the new file name. The file with the new file name is fine, but double-clicking the file with the old file name, I get the message

  "oldFileName.pdf" can't be found.

When I use Finder to delete oldFileName.pdf, then both the damaged / "missing" oldFileName.pdf and the file newFileName.pdf are moved to Trash (even though I only right-clicked oldFileName.pdf to delete it).

It looks to me as if there was something wrong. What's the problem? Should I not use mv to rename files?

As a test, I checked what happens when I use the mv command on folders. I created an empty folder named oldFolderName,

mkdir oldFolderName

and renamed it,

mv oldFolderName newFolderName

Again, the ls command shows me newFolderName but no oldFolderName. However, in Finder, I now see two folders with the same name newFolderName, which is a bit different to what happened when I copied .pdf files, but which is still an unexpected behaviour. Again, when I delete one of the two folders, both go into Trash.

What's wrong? What's the right way to rename files and folders via the command line?

Edit: I'm using OS X Yosemite, 10.10.2. I just made an observation: The problem I described arises in folders that are within my Dropbox. The problem doesn't seem to arise in folders outside my Dropbox. Could there be an issue with using the mv command in the Dropbox?

Edit 2: The problem only seems to arise in Dropbox folders that I share with other people, but not in folders which only I have access to (and the NSA).

Edit 3: Similar problems arise when I use the rm command in such folders. The deleted files are still shown in Finder, and trying to delete them in Finder results in the error message

  The operation can't be completed because one or more required items can't be found. (Error code -43)

command+opt/alt
+esc to force quit / relaunch Finder fixes the out-of-sync problem.
Not a great solution, but it does work.


How to suspend a virtual machine using AppleScript (when hibernating the Mac)? I need an application, which will:

Activate Parallels Desktop
While holding Opt, select 'Actions > Suspend'
Activate SmartSleep
Minimize SmartSleep
Click 'Hibernate' of menu item 'QuickSleep' of menu
After resuming the Mac, resume vm also.

Here is my try:

    tell application "Parallels Desktop" to activate
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Parallels Desktop"
            click menu 1 of menu item 5 of menu
            delay 1
            tell application "System Events" to keystroke option
            delay 1
        end tell
    end tell

Sleep/wake cannot trigger scripts. EventScripts, although it is a very impressive program. it not fit this purpose it does NOT actually appear to be able to trigger scripts quickly enough before your Mac goes to sleep.

but there are many third party solutions. For example,  sleepwatcher


How do WWDC presenters paste text during demos? During demos in the WWDC videos, the presenter will often paste code into Xcode to save having to type it in. How are they pasting each different snippet without switching to another app to copy it?

Apple used custom code called "Demo Monkey" whose source code is available on GitHub.


Can macOS be prevented from pausing an app when the system runs out of application memory? I sometimes run distributed computing projects in BOINC Manager while my iMac is idle. Often, a Force Quit dialog appears displaying the message 'Your system has run out of application memory'. When this happens, all open applications except the Finder are paused and have to be manually restarted, one-by-one, from the dialog box.

I could reduce the amount of RAM that BOINC Manager can use, but I’d prefer to allocate as much RAM as possible to BOINC projects. How can I prevent macOS from suspending BOINC (or any other app or apps) when the system runs out of RAM?

Update: this issue appears to have been fixed by a recent BOINC update.

You most probably do not want to avoid macOS from suspending apps when the system runs out of RAM when you know that the only alternative is to kill the program. I.e. stop the program from running now and here without saving its data or anything like that.

However, you do not have to restart the programs that are paused as in "close the program and start it over". Instead you can actually unpause the program when you have sufficient free memory on the system. You can do this from the terminal by running:

kill -CONT <pid>

where  should be replaced with the process ID of the process, you want to unpause.

You can find process ID using Activity Monitor or the "ps" command in the Terminal (in this case, look for processes with status T as these are the paused/stopped ones).

An easy way of unpausing and finding the ID in one go is:

kill -CONT `pgrep myprogram`

where myprogram is the name of the program you want to unpause.

The second part of your question where you describe the ideal scenario is very hard to accomplish with a standard program. In general programs can request memory from the operating system, but the operating system cannot request it back afterwards. It is possible, but it requires very specialized programs which is generally not the case.

This means that once macOS have granted your program for example 1 GB of RAM, the operating system cannot just take it back when other programs want more memory. If you take away memory from programs that are not specially crafted to allow that, they will effectively crash as soon as they attempt to use the lost memory.


How do I enable ntpd to serve ntp clients (using High Sierra)? I have some raspberry pi computers on a private network which do not have real time clocks and thus cannot keep time accurately after they are shut off. Because they are disconnected from the internet, they cannot use ntp to update their clocks after they sync.

However, I can connect my mac to the private network and ask the raspberry pi computers to get the the current time from the mac.

When I try doing this, it does not work.

The ntpd launchd service is disabled on High Sierra. When I try to start it, this happens.

$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ntp.ntpd-legacy.plist
Password:
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ntp.ntpd-legacy.plist: Service is disabled

I tried to enable like so, to no avail

$ sudo launchctl enable system/org.ntp.ntpd-legacy
$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ntp.ntpd-legacy.plist
Password:
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ntp.ntpd-legacy.plist: Service is disabled

so I have to start it manually like so:

sudo /usr/sbin/ntpd

When I test on the pi to see if the ntp sync is working, I get this:

pi@jessie:~ $ timedatectl status
      Local time: Mon 2018-05-07 14:53:03 GMT+7
  Universal time: Mon 2018-05-07 21:53:03 UTC
        RTC time: n/a
       Time zone: Etc/GMT+7 (GMT+7, -0700)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: n/a

Notice that NTP synchronized is set to "no".

When I test to see if the times are synchronized, this is the result:

$ date; SSHPASS='pass' sshpass -e ssh pi@pi1 date
Mon May  7 14:52:23 PDT 2018
Mon May  7 14:52:00 GMT+7 2018

The times are not synchronized.
I am uncertain how to debug.
It is not clear where the ntpd logs are stored.

Ultimately, I just want to be able to start ntpd and have it respond to requests for time.

You have to configure ntp.conf and ntp-restrict.conf to run a local  time server:

Kill ntpd
Add

server 127.0.0.1 prefer
fudge 127.0.0.1

at the end of /etc/ntp.conf.
Add

restrict <network_address> mask <net_mask> nomodify notrap

after the localhost restriction block in  /etc/ntp-restrict.conf. Replace <network_address> with your local network address (e.g. 192.168.2.0) and <net_mask>with your mask (e.g. 255.255.255.0)
Reload org.ntp.ntpd-legacy (I had no problem to load the system daemon - SIP disabled though):

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ntp.ntpd-legacy.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ntp.ntpd-legacy.plist

Check your time server locally:

ntpdate -vdq 127.0.0.1

Usually the server is not suitable on the first attempt because the stratum is to high (i.e. 16 = unsynchronized)! Wait some time and try again. Here it took about 10 minutes to bring the stratum down to 2 from 16.
Connect your Mac to the private network and try to sync your Raspberry Pi clients.


How do fix Safari extensions on Safari 12? Since installing Safari 12, I've been unable to get my extensions working. In particular I have no functioning ad blocker, and the primary extension I use, Pocket, (rally the only reason I use Safari at all) doesn't seem to work. In order to prevent Safari from showing repeated warnings each time I launch it, I've cleared out my extensions and emptied ~/Library/Safari/Extensions/.

How do I get and ad blocker and Pocket working with Safari 12?

The latest Safari update (12.0, Sept 17, 2018) turns off some and and stops supporting other extensions.

I don't see Pocket on Apple's new list of supported Safari Extensions (https://itunes.apple.com/us/story/id1377753262). That might be why Pocket now recommends that Mac users just use their Mac app: https://help.getpocket.com/article/1042-using-pocket-for-safari

Pocket may update their extension such that Apple starts supporting it again. Until then, there might be a javascript bookmark(let) for saving items to Pocket (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4550) or a Pocket email address to which you can send items to your account (https://getpocket.com/add/).

Update: Some unsupported extensions work again in Safari 12. E.g.,

The "Zotero Connector" extension for Safari (https://www.zotero.org/download/) now works for me even though—as I write this—it does not show up in Safari's list of supported extensions in the Mac App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/story/id1377753262).


Automator to remove all text before hyphen ( - )? I'm trying to create an Apple Automator application that will rename a group of files by removing all text before and including a hyphen ( - ) that will post an error if trying to rename a file with no hyphen.

ex:

input is 001-10312233_033

output is 10312233_033

Then if it ran again on the same file (10312233_033) would produce an error or warning as there is no hyphen.

Any ideas what script in Automator will make this happen?

You can use the do shell script from within AppleScript to invoke a standard UNIX CLI such as awk, sed or grep. In this case since you merely want to find all occurrences of *- from the beginning of your string, I'd enlist sed to do this.

Something like this will remove everything up to the first dash (-):

set output to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of input & " | sed 's/.*-//'"

Example

Say we had this AppleScript:

set input to "001-10312233_033"
set output to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of input & " | sed 's/.*-//'"
log "input:  " & input
log "output: " & output

This sets your example string as the variable input. The 2nd line then takes the variable input and echoes the variable to the sed command | sed 's/.*-//'. This will strip everything (.*) up to the first dash, (-), encountered, and replaces it with nothing (//) in sed.

The last 2 commands with the log merely echo the 2 variables, input & output.

Here's the whole thing in action:

$ cat regex.sh
#!/bin/bash

osascript <<END
set input to "001-10312233_033"
set output to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of input & " | sed 's/.*-//'"
log "input:  " & input
log "output: " & output
END

Make sure the script regex.sh is executable:

$ chmod + regex.sh

And we run it like this:

$ ./regex.sh
input:  001-10312233_033
output: 10312233_033


Internet Sharing failing on Mac OS X Lion Server Before I upgraded to Lion Server, I was running 10.7.1

I setup Internet Sharing in the preferences

(Share from Ethernet 1 to Ethernet 2).

After the upgrade, sharing doesn't work unless I take the following steps

Login
Turn off Internet Sharing
Turn Internet Sharing back on

So the question is can I have Internet Sharing on and running even if no one is logged in?

Thanks

The answer is yes.

I'm typing you this answer through an InternetSharing
connexion provided by an iMac running MacOS Lion (10.7.3) where no one is connected:

me -> MBP    ………Wi-Fi………   iMac   ………Ethernet………   Internet
      10.6.8               10.7.3

I'm using such a connection for professionnal use
since MacOS 10.4 with no one connected (on the Mac running InternetSharing). This connection was used by 5 other Mac (10.4, 10.5,
10.6) and might be considered as a nearly professional grade network.

When you login when your InternetSharing is faulty, could you type
in a Terminal or xterm window:

ifconfig -a
ps ax | egrep '(bootp|natp)'

My first blind guess is that your main Ethernet connection was shut down
under the responsability of your Energy Saver tuning.


Is it possible to redefine what Keynote interprets as bold and normal for a particular font? When working in Keynote I like to use medium and light fonts instead of bold and normal. This causes me a problem because when I hit apple-b to embolden something I want the font to be switched to medium instead of bold, but the default is the bold font. Is there someway for me to either a) redefine what a particular presentation interprets as bold and normal or b) assign a different shortcut key to switch the font between medium and light?

UPDATE: An option c) occurs to me too: could I copy the whole font somehow and play around with its definition to replace normal with light and bold with medium?

To answer directly to your two questions:

a) No, you can’t redefine what is bold and what is normal as far as I know, Medium and Light are different styles than Regular and Bold and there isn’t a keyboard shortcut to set them (nor a menu item for that) and because of the latter, you can’t set a keyboard shortcut.

b) Because of (a), you can’t really do this.

A (lame) alternative is to use Copy Style cmd+alt+c and paste style cmd+alt+v. But that requires that you find a piece of text that has the same size/font.

Also having the Formatting bar visible makes it easier (albeit with the mouse) to change that: shift+cmd+R.


Allow read-write access to subdirectory in first local account to second local account I have two accounts (one for work, the other for private stuff) on a Mac, which is running OS X Yosemite. I would like to share a directory, say ~work/Documents/SomeDirectory/SomeSubDirectory/, such that the other account (say ~home) can read from and write to it.

I know how to do this with Unix access control, but I don't want to go through the trouble of creating groups and checking all the parent directories.

Is there a simpler way to achieve this by using OS X Sharing & Permission settings (those accessible under Get Info in the Finder). If so, how would I go about sharing SubDirectory between the two accounts with minimal effort (yet also minimal exposure to third accounts and esp. remote users.)

Why not to use /Users/Shared? Simply create a directory in it and create two aliases of it one for each of your users. This is the most simple way just using Mac OS and the Finder. The access rights of the original directory unter /Users/Shared can by edited by finders information dialog (add the other user with read/write access).


Choppy mouse on macOS Sierra 10.12.3? (Both trackpad and wired) My mouse movement periodically becomes choppy/jumpy after maybe an hour of use. The problem goes away temporarily with a reboot, but it returns before long. This seems to happen regardless of RAM usage (I'm always at about 3.25/4.0GB used).

The choppiness is exactly what you'd expect from a Bluetooth mouse that's almost out of battery, but this happens both on my trackpad and on my wired USB mouse. The mouse also works correctly on another laptop.

The computer is just a 2014 Macbook Air, but I don't think it's purely a problem of processing power because I didn't notice this problem until a few weeks ago (possibly after an OS update).

Cursor became so jumpy on El Capitan, machine unusable despite all manner of resets ... but cured for good, still cured in Sierra, by third internet reinstall from Recovery partition!

The third time I ran with no hope, but what the hell it's easy enough, and ....no more trackpad or mouse cursor craziness!

If you really want to do it right, back up or make a clone, & erase disk with Disk Utility in Recovery Mode for a complete, clean install.


How can I trust a computer browser I untrusted for iCloud.com? I clicked "Do not trust" when signing into iCloud in Safari in my Mac.  How can I trust the browser now? so I won't be prompted for the two-factor code any more.

Note: I guess If I click "Sign out of all browsers" would offer me to trust again, but that would reset this setting on other browsers too, which is not what I want.

Any help much welcome.

If you open a private browsing browser, you can determine if local storage or a cookie is responsible for this trust.

That's much easier than the sign out everywhere, and that might not invalidate the trust cookie as well as the auth cookie if they are distinct entities.


What launches an ancient "Update Helper" and how do I confirm it's not a trojan? Once in a while a program nags me out of the blue to update. I seldom yield since I always suspect a trojan. For example today I get a persistent:

I launch Activity Monitor and sure enough, there is indeed a process with that name.

Yet after the last upgrade (to El Capitan) I didn't bother installing either Google Chrome or Google Earth. I confirm this in my /Applications folder.

But I do see the folder ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin, presumably left from a previous installation. I am puzzled. After looking at my login tasks

I see that Google Earth should not be running at login.

What launched it, and, more importantly, how do I confirm that such a request from an "Update Helper" is not a trojan?

Update

The answers and comments indicate that what I was asking is not clear. There are four questions/problems that need to be solved in this context. In order of increasing difficulty they are:

I no longer use Chrome or Earth. How do I remove the Google Software Updater.
How do I remove any one particular software updater if I no longer use, nor have installed since the last major OS X upgrade, that software?
Some random window pops up and asks me to enter my password. It's bad enough if my user files are contaminated, but it's a completely different problem if I give a suspect program superuser privileges and take a chance in contaminating the system. How do I confirm which piece of software is popping the window? (And how could something be running without being present in the login tasks? I don't see any root cron jobs. Where else should I be looking?)
There is a problem with OS X major release upgrades. I upgrade in-place (i.e., without formatting my drive). Both ~/Library and /Library are swelling
(sudo du -h -s /Library reports 3.5G and sudo du -h -s ~/Library reports 4.7G). How do I purge the unnecessary folders?

I meant to ask Q3, but I'll gladly settle for an answer to Q1.

In your answers and comments several people have recommended that this discussion will solve Q1. While that article is indeed very helpful, I don't have the file

~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/\
Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/install.py

The nearest file I have is

~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/\
Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ksinstall

I'm tempted to just wipe out the folder

rm -fr ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/

Suggestions?

As others have mentioned, this discussion has some good tips for accomplishing this.

I have not tested any of these solutions as I still frequently use Google Chrome and do not want to delete these files myself.

If your Library contains a install.py file:

python
~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/install.py --uninstall

or:

python
/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/install.py --uninstall

If your Library instead contains a ksinstall file:

~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ksinstall --uninstall

or:

/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ksinstall --uninstall

Test if it worked by running defaults read com.google.Keystone.Agent. If it worked you should see Domain com.google.Keystone.Agent does not exist.

Alternatively you can also disable the updater without removing it completely by running:

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0. The 0 essentially tells the updater to never check for updates.


Can't open PDF's in Outlook using Parallels 8 vm All of the sudden, I am not able to open PDF's that are attached to emails, UNLESS I save/copy them to different location.

Once I save it/copy it or drag it from the email to my OSX 10.8.5 Desktop, I can open it.

I run Win 7 on an MBA w/10.8.5 running in a Parallels vm.

Thanks-

Solved the issue. I needed to re-associate PDF's w/Adobe in the Win 7 Control panel.


How to stream video with subtitles from computer to Ipad? I would like to stream some movies with downloaded subtitles from my hard drive to my IPad mini.

What are some ways I can achieve that solution?

I use Ubuntu 15.10 or Windows and my IPad is updated with the last iOS.

You can install VLC or Infuse (my favorite) and have them connect to your various machines.


How can I hide the Resent-from header in Mail? Looking at Apple's Mail: Show detailed message headers, it sounds like I shouldn't be seeing Resent-from headers, because I have the View->Show message headers preference set to "Default."

The support page sounds like I should need to use Custom to ever see Resent-from.

How can I turn off the Resent-from header?

I also tried setting the preference to Custom... without adding any headers at all, and nothing changed.

My Mac is running OS X 10.10.5, Yosemite.

Visit https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19118?locale=en_US
The following reads:

When you view messages, you can show more fields in the message header, such as List-ID or Resent-From.
Show the headers: Choose Mail > Preferences, click Viewing, then select “Show additional message headers.”

Change the headers that are shown: Click Select Headers. To delete a field, select it, then click Remove . To add a field, click Add , then enter a field name.


How do I remap a key in macOS Sierra, e.g., Right Alt to Right Control? I used to use Karabiner to remap Right Alt to Right Control (as an Emacs user I use Control MUCH more that Alt) but updating to Sierra broke this.  Downgrading is not an option.

How do I manually remap keys in Sierra?  I specifically would like to remap Right Alt to Right Control.

Apple's Technical Note TN2450 describes how to remap keys.  Running the following command will remap Right Alt to be Right Control.

hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":
    [{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000e6,
      "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000e4}]
}'

Note that the above command is not switching the Right Alt and Right Control.  They will both be Right Control.  If you have a MacBook, you will not notice this until plugging in an external keyboard.  If you want to switch Right Alt and Right Control, you need to add a second switch command, like the following.

hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":
    [{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000e4,
      "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000e6},
     {"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000e6,
      "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000e4}]
}'

The table at the bottom of the Technical Note has a list of hex values for each key.  To generalize the above answer to switch any keys, you must or the hex value from that list together with 0x700000000.  The following Python code demonstrates one way to do this.

In [1]: def convert(val):
   ...:     int_val = int(val, 16)
   ...:     int_ref = 0x700000000
   ...:
   ...:     return hex(int_ref | int_val)
   ...:

In [2]: r_alt = '0xE6'

In [3]: print(convert(r_alt))
0x7000000e6


How to get Apple Watch 2 to calculate VO2 Max data? I have an Apple Watch Series 2 running WatchOS 4.0, and an iPhone 7 running iOS 11.0.1.

One of the new features of the new OS on the Apple Watch is the ability to calculate a VO2 Max for any run longer than 20 minutes.

I have been on 3 such runs since the update, and 0 of those times has the Health App on iOS given me a V02 reading.

Under the "Data Sources" tab for V02, nothing shows up as a possible source, not even my Apple Watch 2.

I have attempted to switch on and off the Privacy Settings in the Watch App on iOS for Heart Rate and Fitness Tracking to get the watch to connect for V02. Both have been on, during my runs. This did not resolve the issue.

How can I force my Apple Watch to act as that data source for V02 Max?

I went for a 2:30:00 run yesterday with my iPhone (6s) in my bag and my watch running strava. VO2max was recorded once per hour in three hours (10-11/11-12/12-13). I’ve tried to get VO2max off of shorter runs (5k-10k) on the same route without my phone but no data. I will now have to test longer runs with just watch and shorter ones with phone to get a definitive answer. Hope this is helpful.


How can I send text from an iPhone to a PC? I don't have an email client set up on my PC.

I'm looking for a simple way to send some text from my iPhone to my PC.

I could use Dropbox, or I could email my Dropbox account.
But each of these methods requires a lot of effort.

Ideally, I'd like something where I can paste and tap send and have it pop up on my PC.

Any ideas?

Create a gmail or hotmail account as these have a web interface, and send the text as email to said account.


Catalina Music loses equalizer setting I have Catalina 10.15, Music 1.0.0.426 (the Catalina music player), on a MacBook Air 13".

When the song changes, the equalizer settings change.  I don't mean that the sliders move; they are where I left them.  But the sound changes.  (I set the bass high, and the difference is very noticeable.)

Then if I make any change to the equalizer--choose a different preset, or move one of the sliders a little bit--the sound changes back to what I intended.  (i.e. it changes to the setting that I have newly chosen--which is usually pretty similar to what I had before the song changed.)  The updated sound setting lasts until the end of the song, it seems, and then I have to fix it again.

I don't know what sound configuration it's going back to when the song changes, but it's not the Flat setting.

This is pretty clearly a bug, and hopefully it will be fixed soon.  (I submitted a comment on the Apple feedback page, but who knows whether that has any effect.)

In the mean time, does anybody know of a workaround?  Is there is some setting that will stop this behavior from occurring?

I eventually found a workaround.  I believe that the problem is that each new song reverts to whatever is the default equalizer setting.

The workaround is to set an equalizer preset individually for each song.  You can do this for several songs at once--all of them, if you want--by highlighting the songs, choosing Get Info, going to the Options tab, selecting an equalizer preset from a dropdown towards the bottom of the window, and then saving.  That is what I am doing now.  Catalina Music is a lot less annoying now (but still annoying in some ways!).


Watching a rented iTunes movie on my iPad mini I have the latest update on my iPad mini an I rented a movie from iTunes yesterday. It completed the download to my iPad but when I go to the iTunes Store and click on movies there is no rent tab. There is only purchase and it states no purchases....help!

The rented tab is not in the iTunes Store. It is in the Videos app. If you downloaded it to your iPad successfully, there should be a rented tab in Videos. Otherwise, something went wrong, and you may need to contact iTunes support.


Alternative to Cover Version visualizer in iTunes 12.6 I need a way to display full screen lyrics in iTunes of the song that is currently playing. Up until now I have used Cover Version, but it doesn't work anymore since iTunes 12.6:

Are there any alternatives? I am using a mac :)

EDIT - 29 June 2017

Apparently it has been fixed and the plugin works now! Many thanks to the developer :)

Cover version works on iTunes! What you should do is to create a new directory ~/Library/iTunes/iTunes Plug-ins and put the Cover version file in there.

Quit iTunes
Go to Finder
Press Alt (OPTION) while selecting GO in the menu
Go to Library
Create iTunes directoy if it doesn't exist yet
Go into iTunes directory and create iTunes Plug-ins
Copy Cover Version in there and start iTunes
Now you can select Cover Version again (CMD +T)

I hope this will work for you ... I works for me in iTunes 12.7.2.58


Why iterm2 keyboard shortcut settings don't work on window launched using F12 I've followed the instructions here on how to make alt→ and alt← skip words backward and forward..

this works just fine on the original window displayed by iterm2.. however when i press F12 and the window shows up.. those keyboard shortcuts don't work any more.. any idea why and how to fix it?

On the Preferences Window of iTerm choose keys and below on the left side you see the Hotkey Configuration. Choose your profile from the option Hotkey toggles a dedicated window with profile. And this should work.


Updated Apple-ID password, will Find my Mac still work? I updated my Apple-ID password after losing my Mac. Will Find my Mac still be able to find it? If so, how does the authentication/identification work?

Yes, Find my Mac still work except someone re-format the system and active  Find My Mac with a new Apple ID.

the authentication is token, not the password of your appleID when active Find My Mac. this information saved in NVRAM, you can check it out with this command,sudo nvram -p |grep FMM


Deactivate shortcut launching airplay Everytime I use cmd + shift + p (which is used in a lot of advanced text editor like sublime to open the command palette) my mac opens a window .

I don't want this mac to be connected to airplay.

I've looked at all airplay settings in system preferences as well as the keyborad shortcuts one. I even set a global cmd + shift + p on an arbitrary command to make it conflict with the airplay one, without success.

Installing keycues and cheatsheet didn't help me find it.

Noizio was actually at fault here. The application maps Command + Shift + P as its "Play/Pause" hotkey, overriding Sublime's own hotkey for the Command Palette. I modified the hotkey for Noizio to a different key pattern, and the issue was resolved.


What can I use a iMac G5 17" 1.9GHz for? I'm very new to the Apple world, and I want to buy iMac G5 17", 1.9GHz, 512GB of RAM (upgraded to 1.5GB) and ATI Radeon X600.

What this machine can do in real life? I mean, these numbers mean to me nothing, I want to know what can I do with thin machine? Can it play ~10GB .mkv videos?

It can do moderate Photoshop provided you use version CS2 or earlier. Or do a home server job.
But it's too slow for modern internet (I mean Youtube, Gmail, Facebook, any flash etc.) and it will not play any HD h.264 compressed video (even 720p) without lag.

Have a look at Geekbench Mac benchmark to have a broader picture how this one compares to other Macs


Enter recovery mode (macOS Big Sur) When holding the Cmd ⌘ R combination on my iMac (macOS Big Sur) a command line opens but not the recovery mode window.
How to access it?

The problem was that my keyboard was not a QWERTY one so I needed to hold the fourth key (which is not a R on my keyboard) for it to work.


Will initiating recovery mode on an iPhone permanently disable it until it is recovered? I'm trying to solve an issue I'm having, and I thought that placing the phone in recovery mode temporarily might resolve the problem. I'm afraid to try this though, since the phone contains valuable information, it would be dangerous for me to complete the process and actually recover the phone.

So I want to put it in recovery mode, but not go through with it all the way.

Would a phone normally still be usable after initiating but not going through recovery mode? Or must you complete the recovery process in order to use the phone again?

I had an extra iPhone (that didn't have important information) which I just tried it on. Simply initiating the recovery process (by pressing and hold home button while plugging it into the computer) will not cause anything irreversible to happen on the phone. You still have to click a few buttons on iTunes to start the process.

To go out of recovery mode, simply eject the iPhone through iTunes, disconnect the cable, and restart the phone. It will be in the exact same state it was previously.


What are the keyboard layouts of a MacBook Pro 15"? Can someone find me a picture of Macbook Pro US keyboard Layout and one of an English international?

I need a detailed image, because I need to know the second key assignments of each key.

Everything I found on Google had too little resolution.

You can find this out yourself.

Open System Preferences-> Language and Text-> Input Sources. Check the boxes for the keyboards you want. Then, check the Show Input menu in menu bar box. Click the new menu bar item, select the keyboard layout you want to see, go back to the menu bar item, and click Show Keyboard Viewer.

This will work from any computer, and you can see any layout.

The first picture was snapped while a full sized keyboard was connected, the second shows the option key held down - and is what you will see if you have a smaller bluetooth or built in keyboard connected.


If I change my computer name how does it affect my computer's paths? I wanted to change my computer's name and did so.  I used it for a while but when doing other programming related work felt like I was hitting a wall sometimes because of pathing.

I changed terminal name by executing a command line command and did the rest through Users in System Settings inside of Advanced Settings that you can access by pressing control and clicking on the User.

Ex. starting up a MySQL server/accessing MySQL command line tools/Python or php acting up.

Can changing my computer's name result in this kind of affect?

Not sure what you mean- you can't change the computer name in the Users & Groups pref pane, you do that in the Sharing pref pane. Did you change you user account name accidentally?

In general- changing the Computer Name in Sharing will set the bonjour name (My-Computer.local), you can use the 'scutil' command to set your hostname:

sudo scutil --set HostName mycomputer


How to override the delay timer on a Keynote slide during a presentation Assume that you've set a Keynote (v 6.5.3) slide to automatically advance after 2 minutes:

This works fine - until you realise during your presentation that you've finished early and are ready to move onto the next slide.

How can you override the delay timer, and force the slide to move on?

Keynote ignores any key-press or slide remote, and doggedly waits the 2 minutes before advancing.

(In PowerPoint you can set an auto-advance-after-delay, but override it during a presentation using the keyboard or a slide remote - this is the behaviour I'm trying to emulate)

Try this:

shift+↓ during playback.

EDIT:

These are the Navigation keyboard shortcuts for use during presentation.