How can I use iCloud to sync my contacts, while also syncing my contacts with Google? If you have Google contact syncing enabled in 10.7.1 or earlier, then upgrade to 10.7.2 and try to enable iCloud contact syncing, you will see the following dialog:

Is it possible to have both worlds?  I would like to sync with iCloud for my iOS/mac devices, but ALSO sync with google for my gmail/android devices.  This used to be possible with mobileme.

Doesn't look like this is presently possible.  Only way to get this to work is use Google Contacts as the main source, and then set OS X Address book to sync to Google, and use Google ActiveSync on the iPhone to also sync contacts with Google.


How to resize the main volume to its original or full size? I followed the instructions mentioned in one of the threads on this community to expand the Macintosh HD volume to its full volume. I rebooted with cmdR to Recovery Mode, opened Terminal, entered diskutil cs list and it said: "No Core storage logical volume found". What does that mean and how to get through?

I need to merge the blank space of my HD with Macintosh HD and make it one. Screenshot is attached.

Update:

The output from diskutil list is below.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            189.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

Output from sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0:

start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  369140640      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  369550280    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  370819816  605953319
  976773135         32         Sec GPT table
  976773167          1         Sec GPT header

Output from sudo fdisk /dev/disk0:

Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -  976773167] <Unknown ID>
 2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

You are not required to use core storage unless you have a Fusion drive or need encryption. In your case, the drive does not have any core storage partitions. Your question does not contain enough information to determine what hidden partitions may exist on your drive. To determine this you would need to edit your question and add the output from the following commands.

diskutil list
sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

You should enter these commands while booted normally to OS X. Some commands may ask for your login password. This is normal.

Assuming you just have a EFI partition closely preceding and a Recovery HD partition closely succeeding the Mackintosh HD partition, you can add the blank space to this partition by following these steps.

Boot normally to OS X.
Setup the Disk Utility application just as shown in your image.
Enter a new size of 1000 GB, then press the return key.
The size should change to the maximum value.
Click the Apply button. Note: This can take a while if there is a
hidden Recovery HD partition.


Macbook Pro Late 2011 13" Dual Monitors I have two external monitors (both are Sanyo TVs). My Macbook Pro has one Thunderbolt. I purchased a Mini DisplayPort to Dual HDMI Adapter. The adapter is connected to the Mini Display port and to a USB. I have two HDMI cables, each connected to their own HDMI port in the adapter. My problem: The laptop works just fine independently; however, the two external monitors mirror each other. I have tried clicking on Display and clicking on Detect Displays but it does not detect the 3rd monitor or if it does, I am unable to make it work independent of the 2nd monitor - Help, Please!

Are you able to confirm that your MiniDisplay port to 2x HDMI cable supports two separate outputs and not just mirroring of the output?

If you go to System Preferences : Displays : Arrangement can you see the two monitors?

Can you uncheck the box the says “Mirror Display”?

If you don’t see the two monitors, I’d guess that the adapter is an HDMI splitter and does not support two Independant desktops.


What are the possibilities to connect intenet from stolen iphone? My iphone has been stolen,
I have configured touch id already.
After stolen i have put it in lost mode
so now what are the possibilities that thief can connect my
iphone to internet as he/she can not know passcode ?

So if thief can not connect to internet then how can i get location from find my iphone App ?

Your stolen / locked iPhone can get an internet connection if :

A / your SIM card without pin is installed;
A know wifi network is in the area and if the "Ask to join network" feature is disabled;
Your SIM card is still inside and the guy don't turn off your phone


Is there a manual for JavaScriptCore shell (jsc)? MacOS ships with a JavaScript shell jsc in the JavaScriptCore framework.  The easy way to run it from Terminal is to link it into a standard directory:

ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaScriptCore.framework/Resources/jsc /usr/local/bin/jsc

What built-in JavaScript functions does jsc support?

The manual page documents some JavaScript functions like readline() and run(filename).   But it's out of date — it's missing the command line options printed out by jsc --help.

I found the the source code to jsc.  It sets up more JavaScript functions.  Most of them look like testing and benchmarking hooks, but there some useful-looking functions like read and print.  Are they documented anywhere?

There isn't much to the documentation.  It's merely a framework allowing you to run JavaScript from Swift, Objective-C and C based apps.

From Apple Developer:

  The JavaScriptCore Framework provides the ability to evaluate
  JavaScript programs from within Swift, Objective-C, and C-based apps.
  You can use also use JavaScriptCore to insert custom objects to the
  JavaScript environment.

The functions that are supported are referenced here


Does iOS 5.1.1 disable Visual Voicemail on Sprint phones? I updated to iOS 5.1.1 today, and now the voicemail button on my phone calls Sprints old, audio voicemail system. I no longer have access to visual voicemail.

I suspect that the feature may have been disabled for Sprint users because previously, I was finding Visual Voicemail to be very unreliable, resulting in delayed receipt of voicemail messages, and frequently, messages appearing in the list, but being unable to be played without restarting my phone. (The message would show up in the list with a duration of 0:00 until the phone was rebooted.)

Was the feature disabled for Sprint users, or did the update just break Visual Voicemail in some other way? How can I get it back?

Have you tried a reset of the Network Settings on your iPhone ??

Settings => General => Reset => Reset Network Settings


How to tell VLC 2.3.0 to scan a local folder on an iPad I'm trying to load some of my son's favourites videos on his iPad (7.0.4).
When I plug the iPad on my Linux Box (mint 17), the iPad folders are automatically mounted in read and write mode. So no problem to transfer the files on the iPad.

Strangely enough though I can't get VLC to detect the files. It's a breeze on android's version of VLC but the IOS version of VLC has a different UI.

All sorts of ways are available (itune, wifi upload, dropbox and gdrive) but no way to scan a folder apparently.

Am I missing something here?

iOS does not expose its filesystem to apps, outside their own sandbox. As far as an app is concerned, the only files on the iPad (or iPhone, or iPod Touch) are its own files, in its own sandbox.

You can upload the files to VLC by either using 'open with' (from Dropbox or from other apps that expose the ability to open files in other apps), or by going to iTunes and copying the videos to the VLC app. This puts the files in VLC's own sandbox.


Tata photon 3g dongle crashes after upgrading my OS to Yosemite I have upgraded my macbook's OS to yosemite(MacOSX 10.10). Since then whenever I connect my dongle(Tata Photon 3G), it crashes with a crash report.

I came across few patch files for same device having issues with Mavericks.
Is there any patch file or something I can do to make it work fine on yosemite other than downgrading it back to mavericks?

I am able to use internet when I am using my cell as wifi hotspot.

I found a way to make dongle work in the yosemite(Mac OS 10.10).

Go to the system preference and click on network.

In network it will show you the dongle option like in my case my dongle name is ZTEUSBModem.

And enter the phone number "*99#". Click on connect.

Your mac is ready to work with the dongle. There will be no need to run the tata docomo app.

Its working in 3g mode.

Its working good for my mac.


OS X: is it possible to open a window on top with AppleScript? So I have this little script that, when launched does a screenshot of the current screen and then fires up an image editor to edit the image. However, I noticed that every time the editor is being fired up, it just hangs in the background — as in, it doesn't pop up on my screen so sometimes I just sit there wondering what the hell when I suddenly realize I need to do the edits for script to go on and that the image editor is already waiting on me to find it in Dock. Is there a way to make it start on top of other windows?

Use tell application "name" to activate, where name is the name of the application you want brought to the front. If you already have a tell statement block for the target application you can use activate by itself within the tell statement block.

Examples:

tell application "name" to activate

Or:

tell application "name"
    activate
    # Other commands to follow...
end tell

Also, if the target app is being opened from within a shell script, whether executed manually in Terminal or within AppleScript e.g. do shell script "name.sh ..." you can add an AppleScript command within the shell script using osascript as in the following:

Syntax:

osascript -e 'tell application "name" to activate'

Example:

osascript -e 'tell application "Safari" to activate'

Note: In Terminal, type man osascript and press enter, to display the BSD General Commands Manual entry for osascript.

From the AppleScript Language Guide:

  activate

  Brings an application to the front, launching it if necessary.

As a good reference, have a look at Introduction to AppleScript Language Guide and the following document is handy to have on your system, AppleScript Language Guide (2013) PDF.


Mac Mail: Add other message as attachment I'd like to add other mail message as an attachment to a new one but Mail (On OSX Lion) does not allow me to do that.

Any workaround?

Gil

Attaching other Messages in Mail.app (OS X Lion)

Create a new message (⌘N)
Return to your inbox
Click and hold on the message you want to attach until it turns into a letter icon
(Still holding down) drag and drop the icon into the new message window

Repeat steps 2 through 4 for as many messages as you want to attach.


How do I extract and combine messages from Time Machine backups of ~/Library/Messages? I have many backups that contain versions of ~/Library/Messages. Each one contains 3 files and a directory similar to this:

    XYZ:Messages user$ tree -a -L 1
    .
    ├── Attachments
    ├── chat.db
    ├── chat.db-shm
    └── chat.db-wal

    1 directory, 3 files

Some of these backups may overlap with each other. The result is 10-20 folders of messages with no obvious way to access them. I would like to unify all of them and remove duplicates if they exist.

Are there any applications that do this or any sort of tutorial I could follow? The files are sqlite so even a specification of the database structure would be helpful.

Some of these backups may overlap with each other. The result is 10-20
  folders of messages with no obvious way to access them. I would like
  to unify all of them and remove duplicates if they exist.

Yes, you are going to have many, many duplicates.  This is expected behavior given the way backups work.

Time Machine does an incremental backup; meaning it only backs up what has changed since the last incremental backup.  Your chats are held in a single database file (referenced in your question), so every time you chat with someone, that database gets updated and ultimately gets backed up every time Time Machine runs.

  Are there any applications that do this or any sort of tutorial I
  could follow?

No.  Just go to the most recent backup; all of the chat files will be there.

  The files are sqlite so even a specification of the database structure
  would be helpful.

They are sqlite3.  If you want to get the database structure, you can use the following commands in Terminal:

$ sqlite3 chat.db

sqlite> .schema                            # prints out the database schema
sqlite> .tables                            # lists the database tables
sqlite> PRAGMA table_info(tablename);      # lists the columns of a particular table
sqlite> select text from message;         # raw output of all text messages


How do I create an "artificial" redirect on iPad? I have a webserver running under the 0.0.0.0 address, bound to a given port - let's call it 8080. By using 0.0.0.0 as the host address, I can successfully access my webserver from the iPad using my computer's network IP (192.168.100.5).
Turns out my server has some redirections pointing to 0.0.0.0:port, and 0.0.0.0 is unknown to my iPad. One idea I had is to make the iPad interpret 0.0.0.0 as 192.168.100.5, but after some thorough research, I couldn't find successful answers on how to do that.
So here I am: how can I make an iPad, using Safari, to interpret 0.0.0.0 as 192.168.100.5?
A parallel example would be, every time I access http://whatever, I'd like my browser (Safari) to access https://google.com or something.

There's no IP address named 0.0.0.0. Therefore you cannot be running a web server on that address, and that is the reason why your iPad cannot open such an address.
You might be confused because when programming, it is usually possible to specify that you want to bind for example port 8080 on 0.0.0.0. However in that case, 0.0.0.0 is not an address - it is a specific non-address values that means that indicates to the operating system that you want to bind port 8080 on any network interface (i.e. on all the IP-addresses on your computer).
The problem here is not with the iPad. Instead you have a misconfiguration on your server that has caused it to send out redirections to 0.0.0.0. Those redirections are invalid in themselves. Ordinarily servers like that are by default setup to redirect to the same IP address that the user accessed the server by initially.


Install InkScape without XQuartz Is it possible to install InkScape without XQuartz?

I did install it already and it's working but I feel like it's not that native (e.g. the menu doesn't appear on the top pannel but until the title bar).

How to install InkScape without XQuartz?

Not officially possible, yet—the Inkscape developers will have to remove the XQuartz dependency by switching to the native Gtk and Glib libraries for OS X, just like the GIMP team did a few years ago.

This work has been in progress for a couple of years on a separate Inkscape branch, but there is no official release yet. However, you can download the latest DMG here (currently based on Inkscape 0.91) both for GTK2 and GTK3 (experimental), at your own risk—expect bugs and crashes.


My iPhone storage only has 16gb but i buy 50gb iCloud storage Is there any way that i could store stuff on the iCloud and not have it stored on the phone storage? Coz i feel like i bought the iCloud storage for nothing because the stuff i could put in the iCloud storage doesn't even exceed 4gb. I hope someone could help :)

I will give a general answer about what you may and may not store on iCloud, since you didn't specify what data is important to you.

What you can store in iCloud:

Photos
If iCloud Photo Library is activated you can check the option to optimize phone storage, which will offload your photos and store them on iCloud. Therefore, when you want to view them in full resolution you need a internet connection (be careful with cellular data, especially for videos).

Documents
You can save documents (e.g. pdfs, pages/word docs,...) in iCloud Drive, with the Files app (requires iOS 11).

Music
If you use a streaming service (e.g. Apple Music, Spotify,...) the music files themselves can be streamed (as the name implies) and therefore don't need to be stored locally.

What you can't store in iCloud:

Apps
You can't store the app on iCloud. The same is true for most app data (exception to this are e.g. pages/numbers/... documents)

System
Quite obviously, iOS itself needs to be stored locally.

To get an overview of what is using your memory head over to preferences -> general -> iPhone-storage.

Note that some apps (e.g. WhatsApp) store their data in the app and all your chats and their media will be shown as app data.


Any way to make nicknames appear rather than full names? When creating contacts, you can enter nicknames. Is there a way to make these nicknames appear when your contacts call/text you as opposed to their full names?

Thanks.

Unfortunately, Apple hasn't given us that feature. As you probably already noticed the only place it displays is in the contact listing itself.


Offline (Python) documentation? (for ActivePython Mac or similar) I'm a long-time user of ActivePython, and also own a couple of Komodo licenses.

I've recently moved to the Mac, and one thing that I'm missing a lot is the "offline" documentation (i.e., in Windows Help format) that was included with ActivePython.

Is there a Mac "equivalent" of that documentation? I'm not always online when banging away on some script (actually I've found that plane trips are great for some quick coding) so "googling it" doesn't work.

You can download the Python documentation directly from python.org, see Python Documentation for details.

You can also use pydoc in Terminal to access the documentation already stored on your Mac.


Is there a limit to the number of USB and Serial to USB devices my Macbook Pro can connect? I'm curious if there is a limit to the number of usb and serial to usb devices my Mac can connect to. I've got a 2015 Macbook Pro running 10.10.5 and I'm writing a python program to connect to a bunch of serial devices which I have connected to a USB hub. I have four devices on one hub and then two on another. My computer seems to have some weird issues when I connect to all of them and chat with them over serial. Any idea about limits here?

No, but if you connect too many devices through USB hubs, but, as @patrix mentioned, you might experience slower data transfer rates and delays.


Available colors in iTerm / terminal.app I'm trying to make my own colorscheme in Vim, but are struggling to see the available colors in iTerm. Here are my iTerm-color-settings:

Here's how I can use it in Vim (for example using ctermfg=darkred):

iTerm color       Vim-color
----------------------------
Normal-red        darkred
Bright-red        red

Normal-blue       blue
Bright-blue       lightblue

So it appears to me, that Vim has both

'darkred'   'red'   and   'lightred'

... But as you can see, then sometimes the 'Normal'-color is the Vim-dark-color, and sometimes the it's just the regular color. Is there a reason for that? And are there a system for it, or how does Vim know which color in iTerm to use?

I don't know, if it's of any help, but if I edit an .itermcolors-file, then the colors look like this:

<key>Ansi 1 Color</key>
<dict>
    <key>Blue Component</key>
    <real>0.30443088503649635</real>
    <key>Green Component</key>
    <real>0.18199703467153286</real>
    <key>Red Component</key>
    <real>0.83819000912408759</real>
</dict>

By writing :help cterm-colors in Vim, then I got the left side of the following table. By trial-and-error, I tried out different colors from iTerm and figured out the following (ready to be copied into a .vim-colorscheme to help remember what is what:

" AVAILABLE ANSI COLORS IN iTerm
"
" 0 =     Black                     - iTerm-ref: Black, normal
" 1 =     DarkBlue                  - iTerm-ref: Blue, normal
" 2 =     DarkGreen                 - iTerm-ref: Green, normal
" 3 =     DarkCyan                  - iTerm-ref: Cyan, normal
" 4 =     DarkRed                   - iTerm-ref: Red, normal
" 5 =     DarkMagenta               - iTerm-ref: Magenta, normal
" 6 =     Brown, DarkYellow         - iTerm-ref: ??
" 7 =     Grey                      - iTerm-ref: ??
" 8 =     DarkGrey                  - iTerm-ref: ??
" 9 =     Blue, LightBlue           - iTerm-ref: Blue, bright
" 10 =    Green, LightGreen         - iTerm-ref: Green, bright
" 11 =    Cyan, LightCyan           - iTerm-ref: Cyan, bright
" 12 =    Red, LightRed             - iTerm-ref: Red, bright
" 13 =    Magenta, LightMagenta     - iTerm-ref: Magenta, bright
" 14 =    Yellow, LightYellow       - iTerm-ref: Yellow, bright
" 15 =    White                     - iTerm-ref: White, bright

The colors with question-marks are unable to be changed (unless I'm blind or something).


How long do I have to tap "Don't send" when sending a text message from Apple Watch? When I send a message using siri on apple watch, the text of the message is shown and the only option available is "Don't send". The message is sent if no action is taken - how long until the message is sent?

There isn't a fixed amount of time to send on Watch OS 2.0. It really depends on what you do next with the watch.

If you don't go on to other tasks, it appears to exist in a state where the "don't send" is active for over 2 minutes - well past the point where the watch screen goes dim.

I believe it's about 20 seconds once you leave the watch alone to when the message posts, but I don't get feedback and the time stamps on other devices round to the nearest minute, so getting a precise measure eluded me when testing this morning.

I just place my hand over the entire screen to blank it when I want the send to be final and leave the watch alone for a bit.


How to avoid duplicating files that goes on an iPad? I would like to upload PDF files on an iPad. After adding them to the iTunes Library (iTunes -> Files -> Add to Library), and syncing, they are uploaded on the iPad, but are also copied locally in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Books.

Is there a way to prevent the files from being copied in my home directory ? I just want them at two places: an external hard drive, and the iPad.

On a Mac: Drag the files into iTunes with the option key down and the files won't be copied to your iTunes Media folder.

That's the exact result you like.

There is also the option to change it so you don't have to press option key:

You can press option key after changing that setting to copy it on purpose. (Exact opposite of default setting)

Good luck :)


iTunes Store Not Showing Whenever i try to go to the iTunes store, it loads and acts like something will come up, but its completely blank in the middle where the songs are displayed. It still lets me search but nothing comes up.

It is v12.9.5.5 on Mojave

Not practical/applicable solution here:

I somehow needed to delete my iTunes music archive. Then it asked me to login my account. After login, everything showed up.


Mac OS X Messages and Facetime Started Failing Couple of months ago sending messages and making FaceTime calls started to fail from my Mac. I never found the energy to look into this but after upgrading to Yosemite and still seeing the failures I gave up and spent some time on this.

They both started failing at the same time so I think they are somehow connected. I've gone through most of the solutions that the interwebs offer like resetting my timezone and cleaning up the ~/Library/Messages.

Today I checked the message from console as what happens when I try to send a message or initiate a Facetime call.

When I try a FaceTime call then it fails immediately and I see this in the log

FaceTime(10788) deny mach-lookup com.apple.awdd

The full log is at https://gist.github.com/toomasr/1a92803e630f34eb4fb3

And when I try to send a message I get a red exclamation mark immediately (in less than a second) and see the lines in the log

21/10/14 14:40:35,703 imagent[240]: [Warning] Request to send message: IMMessageItem[outgoing: YES sender=(null); service=iMessage; handle=secretEmailAddressThatIChanged@gmail.com; unformatted=(null); country=(null); roomName='(null)'; flags=100005; subject='<< Message Not Loggable >>' text='<< Message Not Loggable >>' messageID: 47 GUID:'F563CCF5-3A9C-4C89-9F8F-167D0131949E' date:'435584435.000000' date-delivered:'0.000000' date-read:'0.000000' date-played:'0.000000' transfer guids: '(null)' empty: NO finished: YES sent: NO read: NO delivered: NO audio: NO played: NO from-me: YES DD results: NO DD Scanned: YES Downgraded: NO emote: NO expirable: NO expire-state: 0 error: 0] to chat: IMDChat: 0x7fed82c76520 GUID: iMessage;-;secretEmailAddressThatIChanged@gmail.com Style: - State: 3 Participants: (
    "[IMDHandle: <secretEmailAddressThatIChanged@gmail.com:(null):(null)>]"
)  Room Name: (null)  Display Name: (null)  Identifier: secretEmailAddressThatIChanged@gmail.com  Unread count: 0  Row ID: 3  Group ID: 9B5305DB-4938-49A0-9129-F3313E82B731  from NIL ID  fromAccount: IDSAccount: 0x7fed82d216e0 [Service: com.apple.madrid  User: myEmailAddress@gmail.com  ID: B7B7962F-E5DE-4991-BB89-F4498794132A  Type: Apple ID  Active: YES  Registration Status: Registered]

Not sure how to move on with this. Any ideas are welcome!

The best answer so far (weeks after the problem) was at https://discussions.apple.com/message/27149499#27149499 The gist of it is a corrupt keychain. I'll copy paste the steps for a fix here but I advise to read the actual thread over at Apple Discussions and have backups.

Here are the steps:

Open Key Chain Access
Select Login at the top left side
Select All Items on the lower left side
Search for entries of IDS.
Highlight and delete all entries that has IDS. (For me I am going to
need to re-install my RSA SecurID Software Token)
Search for entries of FaceTime
Highlight and delete all entries of FaceTime
Search for entries of Messages
Highlight and delete all entries of Messages

I hope this helps.


XQuartz, utf-8 and filenames This is a question in the continuation of this one:
UTF8 filenames and shell utilities:
the nightmare of utf-8 and filenames is….

How to avoid this confusion with most notably the ls command on filnames created in the following way:

$ echo $LANG
en_US.UTF-8
$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ touch á
$ touch a´
$

The first file is created by typing alt ⌥+E, A, the second one by typing A, alt ⌥+shift ⇧+E

Within an xterm window I get:

$ ls -al
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 hal  admin   136 Nov 11 15:52 .
drwxr-x---  7 hal  admin  4386 Nov 11 14:25 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 hal  admin     0 Nov 11 15:52 a´
-rw-r--r--  1 hal  admin     0 Nov 11 15:48 a´
$

Which is wrong.

Within a Terminal window I get:

$ ls -al
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 hal  admin   136 Nov 11 15:52 .
drwxr-x---  7 hal  admin  4386 Nov 11 14:25 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 hal  admin     0 Nov 11 15:52 a´
-rw-r--r--  1 hal  admin     0 Nov 11 15:48 á
$

Which is right.

The result is the same whichever shell I use: bash or zsh.

What xterm or XQuartz setting will avoid these 2 filenames to falsely look the same?

This problem doesn't exist on Mavericks (MacOS X 10.9).

Okay, finally sorted with the help of this post:

http://lists.apple.com/archives/x11-users/2008/Mar/msg00202.html

In summary, go here:

http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCEnvironment/

Download the preference pane, and add this entry:

Key=LANG Value=en_GB.UTF-8

I had already added this to my .bashrc and my .profile with no result. But I think XQuartz doesn't launch within that environment, so it never sees it until it is too late.


Remove bookmark/reading list/link column in safari on ipad Updated ipad to 8.1.  On safari now I have a bookmark/reading list/link column on left of screen.  It takes up about 1/3 of the screen and I want to delete it.  I can not figure out how to do so.

Tap the blue highlighted book icon next to the address bar.

A clarification:  Tap the book icon directly to the left of the address bar (on my iPad this book icon is white; not blue) Do not tap the blue book icon that is located on the reading list itself (nothing will happen when you tap the blue book icon on the reading list itself).

If you do not see the book icon to the left of the address bar, tap the grey bar at the top of the page (where you see the time, battery level, the word 'iPad', wifi symbol) and you will then see the address bar.  The book symbol is immediately to the left of the address bar. Tap this book symbol and the annoying, large, reading list box will disappear.


MacBook Air running Yosemite won't shut down when external HDD connected My MacBook Air won't shut down when an external hard drive is connected. The screen goes black, and the mouse pointer is still there. I think this started happening when I upgrade to Yosemite. Any suggestions as to how I might fix this?

Are you sure something is not still running...or something is preventing the disk from unmounting.
If there's a grey circle -- then it might be running fsck on the disk...
Now, another thread suggested:

Start Up in Verbose Mode using Command-V
Then issue: sudo shutdown -h now
Also, more /var/log/system.log

This should show you what's occurring as it shuts down.
The sudo shutdown -h now is equivalent to the Shut down menu option.
Also, try going into Disk Utility and manually click on the Unmount icon.  I would just want to see if it will unmount normally.
If it doesn't, then, I'm thinking SOMETHING is still using  the disk..


Disable Reminders "due" date Generally, there is no option to set a "due" date and time for a reminder, just a "remind me" date and time.  However, often when I have a reminder and I change the "remind me" time a "due" time appears as so:

The "due" date and time does not have a check box like "remind me".  How do I get rid of the due date?  The due date seems to be related to a bug where the reminder keeps notifying me and appearing on my screen before it's supposed to remind me (as per the "remind me" date).  How can I fix this and in general prevent it from happening?

Quick Answer
To remove the Due field, simply update it to match your Alarm (both day and time).

How To Reproduce
Add a new scheduled reminder by tapping the empty line at the bottom of today’s Scheduled list (on iOS). Then instead of tapping Done, tap the ⓘ and change the Alarm. With a poor connection the Due popped up field every time.

How To Keep This From Happening
Tap Done (in the upper right corner, under the alarm clock graphic) after creating a new reminder. Then wait for the network activity indicator (next to your network symbol) to stop spinning before setting a new Alarm. The reminder should have shifted into its correct, sorted position by then.

I have to wonder what the purpose of this Due field is, since there isn’t a way for the user to set it directly. It seems like something that’s used internally by iOS and macOS that’s never supposed to be exposed to the user.

It is worth noting that the web app at iCloud.com used to have a checkbox to add the Due field. It has since been retired, though it is still accessible via AppleScript.


How can I change Finder's default sort to filename? Since I updated to Lion, every time I bring up a new Finder window the default sort order is by modification date. I want the default sort by filename. Is there any way to change this?

Open the finder window and hit cmd+j.

Select the settings you want and then at the bottom hit Use As Defaults.


How do I remove duplicate albums from my iPhone 5's music app? My issue is that my music app shows two different albums that I synced today twice, both completely identical, each having the full list of the songs. In the 'songs' view, each song is only shown once. Obviously, I have set Year, Album Artist and Album to the same values

My iOS version is 6.1.4

Advice would be greatly appreciated :)

For others who have this problem, the error fixed itself after a few days during a sync.


MacBook Air display turning off when on top of other closed MacBook I have two MacBooks, Mac1 and Mac2. Mac2 is closed and Mac1 is open. I put Mac1 on top of Mac2, and then after a few seconds, Mac1's display goes black. I pick it up, and then it's fine. I think it has to do with magnetism. Will this harm any of the computers?

System specs:

  Mac1 - Model A1465, MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2014), Processor is 1.4 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, Memory is 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Graphics is Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536 MB.

  Mac2 - Model A1708, MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports), Processor is 2.4 GHz Dual-Core Intel Code i7, Memory is 16GB 1867 MHz LPDDR3, Graphics is Intel Iris Graphics 540 1536 MB.

That sounds strange, but it's possible that the bottom Mac's closed screen is tricking the top Mac's sensors into thinking that the screen has been shut.

What if you try inserting some "distance" between the two Mac's?  For example, sandwich a thick book in-between the two computers?

In any case, I really cannot imagine there would be any damage to either device.


Why can't my laptop stay connected to WiFi when locked? My laptop isn't staying connected to it's wireless connection when I lock it. I set up an alias using this post and tried to follow the instructions from this one, and those didn't work for me either. My prefs for en0 (the wireless interface) are as follows:

AirPort preferences for en0:

DisconnectOnLogout=NO
Unable to retrieve JoinMode
JoinModeFallback=DoNothing
RememberRecentNetworks=YES
RequireAdminIBSS=NO
RequireAdminNetworkChange=NO
RequireAdminPowerToggle=NO
WoWEnabled=YES

And the alias I use to lock the screen is:

alias lockscreen='/System/Library/CoreServices/"Menu Extras"/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend'

My system info is below as well:

Any recommendations or any ideas of what I'm doing wrong? I don't believe this is a duplicate of the other question since the answers in there didn't work for me, so any advice would be appreciated.

Edit: Going to my username and clicking Login Window... to lock the screen also disconnects the WiFi.

All right, so I've figured out a way to do it. I tried using the command pmset displaysleepnow, and it works as intended. The additional thing is that you have to go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General and require a password immediately after the computer display goes to sleep. I then set up an alias:

alias lscreen='pmset displaysleepnow'

and it works as intended. I use the terminal a lot, so lscreen is an easy way for me to lock my screen and come back with my screen being locked but both my WiFi and VPN still connected.


Using a MacBook air as a monitor Can I use the MacBook Air as a monitor when making a video with my Iphone. I wish to use my camera app on my Iphone 5s to record  how to videos and need to be able to see on a monitor at the same time. Is this possible

Yep,

Plug your iPhone into your MacBook via Lightning-to-USB cable.
Open QuickTime Player (it's on every Mac)
While QuickTime Player is running, click File in the menu bar.
Select "New Movie Recording" (not "New Screen Recording" like one may think)
Click the arrow on the right of the record button to open a dropdown
Select your iPhone under the camera section
If you want sound as well, repeat 5 & 6, but select your iPhone under "Microphone", as well

That's it! Your iPhone will have to be within USB cable length of your Mac, but you will be able to see everything on it that you will be able to see on your iPhone, and it's 100% free.

Note: mirroring the screen of your iPhone on your Mac will drain the battery life substantially


Why are my preferences reset after restart with Mavericks? My desktop wallpaper, the desktop icons - the file preview icon goes away, my default sound device, all get reset back to the default after a restart.

I removed the com.apple.desktop.plist from the Library folder, but it still reset.

How can I fix this?

Have you tried repairing the permissions on your home folder?  Sounds like the Finder is having trouble writing the necessary preference files.


2012 MacMini HDD died while installing Win 10 Tech Preview I have a problem with a 2012 MacMini. diskutil list shows an internal 500 GB 5400 rpm drive as having 0 Bytes.

It also states that it is unknown. Would TestDisk be able to reformat the drive?

Disk Utility will not let me format or partition, all options are greyed out. Any ideas on resurrecting a drive in this state?

The history of events:

I was on Yosemite 10.10.1 when I tried to use bootcamp to install Windows 10.

That did not work so well and I ended up with gray screen.

Trying to recover using the USB Installer with 10.10 does not see my HDD and does not let me format it.

Using the Internet recovery brings up the Mountain Lion Installer but can not proceed with the disk problem been: Not recognized.

How do I format my HDD now and start over.

If I were to remove the drive from the mini and insert it into an external case, would I be able format it as JHFS+/GUID or FAT32/MBR?

I'm not 100% sure this will work in your case since I think your partition map got erased (or something similar) but try this TestDisk tutorial.

I also used to know the site of a really nice walkthrough that helped me fix something similar on a flash drive a little while ago, but unfortunately the tutorial was only for Windows. Here's a site I found with some similar information for both Linux and Windows. You might be able to get this to work for you if you can run Linux off a flash drive or something.

Since you mentioned TestDisk, here's another guide for fixing the partition table of your disk using TestDisk. Again, this article is for Linux, but I assume TestDisk will work the same on both operating systems.

If it works, the first link will give you the cleanest, most-direct fix.

Using the last two links, you should still be able to fix the disk by first formatting the partition table to some universal format like FAT and then running your OSX recovery program to reformat the disk as it sees fit.

If you do go with the last two links, I would recommend trying to run PhotoRec on it first just in case you're able to recover any useful data with it. PhotoRec is made by the same folks who made TestDisk, but it's easier to use and is designed to just bruit force scan the disk and automatically pick out files that it can recover — actually "bruit force" might not be the right word here since that's just one of the options, but you get my point. :)

Good luck!


echo color coding stopped working in mountain lion The following produced text with different color on terminal in Lion, but not in Mountain Lion. Why? What can be done to echo in color on Mountain Lion?

echo -e "Some text \e[0;32m in color \e[0m no more color";

In mountain Lion it just prints as if -e wasn't given as an argument to echo.

The problem was that the escape code \e has been removed in mountain lion's version of echo.
Change \e to \033 and it will work.


How do I decrease excessive network buffering over Wireless-N I've got a mid-2009 Macbook Pro running Lion over 802.11n with an Airport Extreme and cable internet. I've been seeing drop-outs while using video chat (be it Facetime, Skype, Google Chat) and doing anything else (gaming, Hulu, Netflix, etc) on the network.

I ran ICSI's Netalyzr and found that the network buffering was 4000ms upstream and 3200ms downstream, which is abysmal. Running the same test on my Windows 7 machine (over 802.11b) results in 220ms upstream and 1800ms downstream.

Aggravatingly enough, when I switch my Macbook to 802.11b, Netalyzr fails to complete. I initially chalked this up to a bad test, however, video still drops out and a ping somedomain.com in the background will show progressively increasing RTT's and packetloss.

No such deficiencies exist on my Win7 desktop.

I was unable to find any option under network preferences, and searches only brought up complaints about buffer-bloat without specifics. How do I "improve" the buffering behavior under Lion?

I don't have any specific recommendations when tweaking network configurations. However, I did come across one blog post that discussed various network settings that could be adjusted in /etc/sysctl.conf:

kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=4194304
kern.ipc.somaxconn=512
kern.ipc.maxsockets=2048
kern.ipc.nmbclusters=2048
net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1
net.inet.tcp.win_scale_factor=3
net.inet.tcp.sockthreshold=16
net.inet.tcp.sendspace=262144
net.inet.tcp.recvspace=262144
net.inet.tcp.mssdflt=1440
net.inet.tcp.msl=15000
net.inet.tcp.always_keepalive=0
net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
net.inet.tcp.slowstart_flightsize=4
net.inet.tcp.blackhole=2
net.inet.udp.blackhole=1
net.inet.icmp.icmplim=50

You'll definitely want to back up the original file before fiddling with these system settings. Various readers also contributed to a lengthy discussion in the comments for the blog post.

Apple Support also has a KB for OS X 10.7 detailing changes that can be made to the MTU for Ethernet, which might also be adjusted for performance issues. However, there were no specific instructions for Wi-Fi.

There's an associated Support KB for older versions of OS X (10.4 and 10.5) that details changes for both Wi-Fi and Ethernet - you may be able to apply use the Wi-Fi instructions in Lion.

If you take the first path (adjusting the sysctl.conf settings), some trial and error may be necessary.


AppleScript: How to open text file and move cursor to specific location (signaled by specific character)? I have a .txt file saved on my computer. I want my Automator application to open the .txt file and then move the location of the cursor to the first blank line in the file.

For example, I have a .txt file entitled My Fruit Log.txt saved on my computer. This is what the contents of the .txt file may look like:

So, in the above instance, I want the file to be opened, and then the cursor moved to the second line of the file.

Note: It is not necessarily the second line from the top where I want the cursor to be sent to. Depending on what text has already been written to the file, I might want the cursor on a lower line. For example:

In the above case, I would want the cursor to be moved to the sixth line.

The location where I want the cursor will always be at least the second line from the top, but it could be as far down as the seventh line from the top.

So, the most reliable way to articulate where I want the cursor to be placed is "on the first instance of a blank line in the file."

I already have the code to open the file in TextEdit (borrowed from the top answer of this Stack Overflow question):

set Target_Filepath to POSIX file "/Users/Me/Desktop/My Fruit Log.txt"

tell application "Finder" to open Target_Filepath

Now I need the code to move the cursor. The default location of the cursor is the first line of the file.

I don't know if there's an easy or pretty way to do what you're asking. In other words, you can't just simply say something like open target file and move cursor to first empty line, however the code below will do that.

set filePathName to POSIX path of (path to desktop as string) & "My Fruit Log.txt"
set firstEmptyLineNumber to (do shell script "awk '$1 == \"\" {print NR;exit;}' \"" & filePathName & "\"")
do shell script "open -e " & quoted form of filePathName
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "TextEdit"
    repeat (firstEmptyLineNumber - 1) times
        key code 125 # Down Arrow
    end repeat
end tell

The code above is coded to open the text file in TextEdit, which is what open -e in the second do shell script command is doing and it's coded this way because System Events needs to know where to sent the down arrow keystrokes to. If you want a different text editor then remove the -e and the open command will open it in whatever app the .txt file extension is registered to open with. Then you'll also need to change:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "TextEdit"

To:

tell application "System Events" to tell front process

And replace:

tell application "TextEdit" to activate

With: delay 1

In the first do shell script command, awk is getting the line number of the first empty line and exiting and this is what's used to calculate how many down arrow keystrokes to repeat.

I modified my original answer slightly to get rid of the delay commmand but wanted to add my take on adc's answer while eliminating all the menu_click stuff.

set filePathName to POSIX path of (path to desktop as string) & "My Fruit Log.txt"
set firstEmptyLineNumber to (do shell script "awk '$1 == \"\" {print NR;exit;}' \"" & filePathName & "\"")
if firstEmptyLineNumber = "" then set firstEmptyLineNumber to 1 as string
do shell script "open -e " & quoted form of filePathName
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "TextEdit"
    key code 37 using command down # ⌘L
    keystroke firstEmptyLineNumber
    keystroke return
    key code 123 # Left Arrow - So the line is not highlighted.
end tell

Update:

The code below has been modified from the code above at the top of my answer, not my take on arc's answer although it's applicable there too, to address the issue you're having with TextEdit writing two carriage returns instead of the expected and normal two line feeds for an empty line after a line containing content or two empty lines in a row.

set filePathName to POSIX path of (path to desktop as string) & "My Fruit Log.txt"
set firstEmptyLineNumber to (do shell script "awk '$1 == \"\" {print NR;exit;}' \"" & filePathName & "\"")
if firstEmptyLineNumber is equal to "" then
    set firstEmptyLineNumber to (do shell script "awk '/\r\r/{print NR+1;exit;}' \"" & filePathName & "\"")
end if
do shell script "open -e " & quoted form of filePathName
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "TextEdit"
    repeat (firstEmptyLineNumber - 1) times
        key code 125 # Down Arrow
    end repeat
end tell

Note: Although the modified code works with your testfile.txt file from the link in your comment, nonetheless I personally do not subscribe to this workaround and would instead find out the root cause of the issue and fix it and your files!


Create a shortcut in topbar for accessing folder quickly I want to create a icon in top menu for accessing folder quickly, is it possible?

There's a freeware app that allows you to do this:
• XMenu
And likely many others too.


Why can't some contacts be moved between accounts? Using the El Capitan Contacts app, I was able to drag and drop several contacts from an Outlook account to a Google account. However, there is one contact that I am unable to drag and drop. It has a bit more information than the others did. The green plus sign does not appear when I drag this contact over the Google account, but that green plus sign does appear when I wave this contact over an iCloud account and another defunct Exchange account.

What is it about this contact that makes it different, and what can I do to drag and drop this contact from my Exchange account onto my Google account?

I report here my comment above.

The reason why you can't move the contact to Google (why you can to other accounts) is that this card is already present in Google.

If you look at the "cards" section of the contact, you can see all the accounts that contact is synced with.

Therefore, you can just drag and drop the contact to accounts that do not appear of that list.


MacOS 10.14.4 update failing to fully load and cycling through boot attempts but not loading requiring full recovery Noobie here.  I have tried to update my iMacPro Desktop to MacOS 10.14.4 and each time I do so it stalls part way through the update process and loops between Boot and Shut Down.  Each time this happens my only option is to fully recover the machine from a full backup in Time Machine.  All advice gratefully received.

I got it to load properly by entering Disk Utility and running First Aid on the HD (instead of going to the full recovery mode as I had been doing)and then when I rebooted it booted into 10.14.4 all AOK!!


Macbook Pro frequently experiences drops in WiFi connection with Linksys WAG120N I have a non-retina mid-2012 Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard and this issue has been plaguing me for a while.

During regular use of the laptop, while connected to my home WiFi network (to which no more than three other devices are usually connected), I keep experiencing sudden and complete drops in connectivity. It happens more than once every hour, usually while I'm browsing the Internet on Chrome and I'll see my loading tabs hang there with no response. The OS does not seem to notice this drop in connectivity, and keeps showing the WiFi icon as connected. To get the connection back I either have to wait till it returns (usually after a minute) or disconnect and reconnect the WiFi.

I think the issue is with the Macbook itself or between the Macbook and the router, because during these drops I won't even be able to connect to the router itself (by opening its web interface), and the Macbook seems to completely ignore the lack of connectivity.
The other laptop in the house (running Windows) does not experience these connectivity drops.

I have tried resetting the router, making the Macbook forget about it and then re-configuring the connection and changing WiFi modes but none of these things worked.

Here are a few more details:

Router

Model: Linksys WAG120N;
Firmware version: V1.00.16 (most up to date);
WiFi mode: Mixed (running in G-only or N-only mode still causes issues);

Macbook

15" Macbook Pro from mid-2012 (non-retina);
Processor: Intel Core i7 2.6GHz;
Software: OS X 10.8.2;

Do you have DHCP enabled? Your laptop might be loosing its connection to the router due to IP conflicts resulting from other devices on your network using the same IP address.
Try using different broadcast channels. I think the default Linksys channel is 6. I usually use 8 or 1.
How good is the signal strength? You might have to boost the antennas transmission signal.
Make sure someone like your neighbors are not running APs with the same SSID.
If you use signal encryption try using different key encryption WPA/WPA2-PSK(AES/TKIP).
and the obvious one, run software updates, just to make sure that there is no new firmware for the MacBook NIC.


what is the purpose of mds folder on a Mac I found out that contents of mds folder located at /private/var/folders/zg/jjtx0_k94pdc5p5q6gcvf4900000gn/C/mds gets deleted and back created quite often. I wonder, that is the purpose of this folder and it's content? It contains mdsDirectory.db, mdsObject.db and mds.lock files.

I think in this particular case MDS stands for Module Directory Services, as explained in this apple doc. As far as I can tell this is unrelated to Spotlight's mds (which stands for metadataserver).

You use the search object created by this function in subsequent calls to the SecPolicySearchCopyNext function to obtain trust policy objects. Policies are stored in the Module Directory Services (MDS) database. MDS is described in detail in “Part 8: Module Directory Service (MDS)” of Common Security: CDSA and CSSM, version 2 (with corrigenda) from The Open Group (http://www.opengroup.org/security/cdsa.htm).

Going to that link, we have the following extra information

The Module Directory Services (MDS), which is a standalone service outside of CDSA, implements a database describing CDSA components available from the local platform. Applications and CDSA components can query MDS to obtain the compatibility information and numerous other attributes describing features of the CDSA components. This information can be used as the basis for selecting appropriate and compatible components at runtime.

We can see the source for some of pieces of MDS in Security.framework here and see indeed there are the implementations of the "DL interfaces supported by MDS" as enumerated here
So from the above, if I understand correctly from skimming the docs we can say that at a high level MDS is a database used by the Security.framework component of OSX to manage policies.
Now what about the specific per-app example you noted? We see here that mDNSResponder needs read-write access to pieces of MDS:
; Our Module Directory Services cache
(allow file-read-data                 (regex #"^/private/var/tmp/mds/"))
(allow file-read* file-write*         (regex #"^/private/var/tmp/mds/[0-9]+(/|$)"))
(allow file-read-data                 (regex #"^/private/var/db/mds/"))
(allow file-read* file-write*         (regex #"^/private/var/db/mds/[0-9]+(/|$)"))
(allow file-read* file-write*         (regex #"^/private/var/folders/[^/]+/[^/]+/C/mds(/|$)"))
(allow file-read* file-write*         (regex #"^/private/var/folders/[^/]+/[^/]+/-Caches-/mds(/|$)")) ; Required on 10.5 and 10.6

and that second-to-last line matches the file path you noted. So that could be one reason why such a file exists.
Deleting it should not pose any issue since it is part of the cache directory.


iMac goes to sleep because the battery has 0% left I've got an iMac 5k (Ultimo 2014) running Mojave. Every few days, it just goes to sleep while I'm using it. Looking at pmset -g log for the sleep reason, I find:
Entering Sleep state due to 'Low Power Sleep': Using AC (Charge:0%) 20 secs
Looks to me like it thinks it was a MacBook and needs to turn off to prevent losing data... What's going on here?
Output of pmset -g:
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 standby              1
 Sleep On Power Button 1
 womp                 1
 halfdim              1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 powernap             1
 gpuswitch            2
 autorestart          0
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            10
 standbydelayhigh     86400
 sleep                60
 autopoweroffdelay    28800
 hibernatemode        0
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         60 (display sleep prevented by Spotify)
 highstandbythreshold 50
 standbydelaylow      86400

I would recommend performing a re-install of macOS. This does not require that you delete your existing data and should be non-destructive. However, backups are always good to have.
Reboot into recovery mode (instructions are available on Apple's Website). Ensure that the installer shown in recovery mode is for Mojave (if not, then the system may be updated or downgraded when you do this!). Run the Install macOS option in Recovery mode and choose your existing disk.
It will install macOS on top of your disk, but leave your data in place.


Suddenly see "get the latest update to continue using skype" in Skype. Will it stop working by April 2020? I'm on macOS High Sierra with no interest in updating further at this time.

In Skype, I regularly get notifications of updates being available, which I ignore unless I have a personal issue that would be resolved in the update.  Too many times I've been burned by updating Skype only to have a new version be a disaster.  I'm currently running version 8.55.0.141.

Today, I noticed a new message for the first time... rather than an update being available, I'm being told essentially that I must update:

  Get the latest update to continue using Skype

It's like MSFT is trying to scare people into updating.  Is my version of Skype going to stop working by April 2020?

Are you required to update Skype or it will stop working?  Yes.

From their Support FAQ

  Do I have to update to the latest version?
  Yes. Support for Skype version 7 and below will end on November 1, 2018 on desktop devices and November 15, 2018 on mobile and tablet devices. When support ends, we’ll begin requiring updates to the latest version

I know this first hand as I had a VM with an old snap shot that had an out of date Skype client - 8.1, I believe. It didn’t connect until I updated it.  Additionally, I ran across this thread on the Microsoft Forums.

  Why does Skype stop working after MINOR update?
  For example, several days ago I updated Skype to version 8.27 at several computers.  Today Skype stops running at those computers because version 8.28 was releasing.

Generally speaking, Microsoft has changed its update policy to make sure everyone is running the latest and greatest.   Most of the time it works, but I still prefer to be in control.  I can’t tell you how many times I updated my laptop the night before a presentation only to be presented with an updating screen just as I was about to present or demo.


How to stop the hidden __MACOSX folder from being created when compressing files/folders in Finder When compressing files/folders in Finder, via the context menu, i.e. select the files/folders then right-click and select Compress ..., a hidden folder named __MACOSX is created within the zip archive.

How can the hidden folder named __MACOSX not be created within the zip archive?

Using info from the other answer, here's an Automator Service1 that becomes available in Finder to delete the "__MACOSX" meta-data folder from a zip archive file.

To Create the Service:

Open Automator and select: File > New > Service
Set Service receives selected to files or folders and in to Finder.
Add a Run Shell Script Action, setting Shell: to /bin/bash and Pass input: to as arguments while replacing the default code with the following code:

for f in "$@"; do
    if [[ ${f##*.} =~ ^[zZ][iI][pP]$ ]]; then
        zip -d "$f" "__MACOSX*"
    fi
done
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Purr.aiff

What the code does: It checks that each file passed to the service has a zip extension, regardless of case, and if it has a zip extension, and if "__MACOSX" exists within the zip archive, deletes the "__MACOSX" meta-data folder from the zip archive.
${f##*.} gets the file extension, =~ tests the regex, and the ^[zZ][iI][pP]$ regex matches any case combination of each letter within the square braces while ^ asserts position at start of the string and $ asserts position at the end of the string. So it only matches zip in any case combination of those letters.
Note: The last line of the code is optional, just to let you know the service completed, and can be changed to a different sound or omitted if you prefer not to be notified by sound upon completion.

Save the Service as, e.g.,: Delete '__MACOSX' from Zip Archive

1 In macOS Mojave, and later, an Automator Service is called a Quick Action. There are also other minor nomenclature differences but they should be more obvious when comparing them to pre-macOS Mojave Automator workflows.

To Use the Service:

In Finder, or on the Desktop if the zip archive is located there, select the zip archive(s), then right-click and select Delete '__MACOSX' from Zip Archive from the context menu or under Services on the context menu, or from Services on the Finder menu as appropriate.

The image of the service in Automator, below, is from OS X 10.8.6, however, it was tested under macOS 10.12.5 and works there as well.


MBP Late 2011 freezes under yosemite I have an MacBook Pro Late 2011 and it freezes (So the Beachball is turning arround), not completely randomly but when I use the disks, (writing or reading data) over 1/2 Mb/s so if I copy a big file from a DMG it freezes often but randomly during the copy process, or if I download something over internet it freeze randomly during the download.
I can't do anything except of moving the mouse, if i wait a few seconds all comes back and I can continue use my Mac. I first thought it was totally random but it happens more often when I copy data or download anything. I think it's Yosemite's fault but I can not certify that.

Useful pasts:

EtreCheck: https://paste.ee/r/UvuNe

Full console log: https://paste.ee/r/kxZgs

I already reinstalled OSX Yosemite, and after that it continued with the same issue, but before i reinstalled a fresh version, it hung up always randomly, after I reinstalled OSX on my Home made Fusion Drive it only hung up when i started copying files or other things like that

I have read similar topics on internet about Yosemite and Freezing bug that was always different causes and different freezes like total freeze (no mouse) or freeze for infinite time and does not continue after a few secs.

When it freeze ALL stops even iTunes stop playing music. and after the freeze stops, everywhere i clicked clicks in a accelerated mode.
So if during the freeze i click on two apps and open a few menus, it does nothing but after a few secs all opens.

Anyone got the same issue or an idea to solve/troubleshoot this ?

Sorry for my English.

Edit: (my answer to  Buscar웃SD)
I already looked at the system monitor, i forget to say it i'll add it.
When the freeze happens the CPU is at 30% and disks are not at 100% when ii download but when I copy anything they are at 100% So it's weird, the amount of RAM used changes nothing, and the console writes nothing suspect

Edit2: I add a few images from the console and activity monitor during a freeze:

During the Freeze

Another during the freeze

And this is after the freeze

I have another screenshot who is important and it's the lines during the FREEZE, theses lines are these after the blue selected line
On the screenshot we can see that the freeze during from 20:20:58 and the next line appears on 20:21:07 so the crash is during 9 seconds:

So, I installed OS X EL Capitan, (10.11) and i started to transfer a 9Gigs app (xCode) to install it, and I had NO freeze, so it is Yosemite, and fixed in OS X El Capitan :)  It was only a quick test but On Yosemite doing this froze the system every minute.
If I get one freeze during the next days I'l Edit this post. If not I resolve it.

Anyway, thank you for your help :)

Okay it wasn't OS X but Hardware, The second SSD was installed in the Optical Super Drive bay, and on Late 2011 Mac Book Pro there is an issue on the controller so I installed OS X on the Hard Drive without using the SSD, NO freeze, so I decided to swap SSD and Hard Drive but I don't have the right Screwdriver


iOS always "resets" my apps after a while when they are minimized. How can I change that? Example: I'm playing a game and stop for a minute to send a message on WhatsApp. Lock the phone for a couple a minutes, and when I navigate through "frozen" apps and select the game (the game still has the last screen it had when it was minimized), it opens from the splash screen, reseted!

And it doesn't happen only with games. Even Facebook, Twitter, and other apps.

You can‘t change that, only the app developer can (by adding code to handle the unloading of the app and preserving the state). Most games don‘t, unfortunately.


Backing up Adobe CS6, Microsoft office, Camtasia on Time Machine - will they completely restore? I have a hard drive problem. If I use Time machine to make regular backups, will Adobe CS6, Microsoft office, Camtasia and other installed programmes completely retore on a new hard drive without any complications? I have been told various things that seem to conflict.

Microsoft Office 2011 will work fine after restoring from Time Machine, but Outlook will generate a new Database.


Where are the sample books stored in the iBooks for Mac OS X? I'm doing an accessibility stuff and I need to access the source file (.epub file) of the sample books in iBooks for Mac OS X. I did look for one at ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks but that only stored bought books. Does anyone know?

(My OS is the newest version of Yosemite.)

Here you can find the iBooks source files:

Go to Library > Containers > com.apple.BKAgentService > Data > Documents > iBooks

Or simply type 'iBooks' in the searcher of Finder and click on the folder named iBooks.


How to get iPhone ECID from MacOS terminal I currently have libmobiledevice installed on my Mac and would like to use it (or another tool) to retrieve the ECID from my iPhone which would be connected via USB.

To install ibmobiledevice on my Mac, I enterned the bash command `` in terminal which has given me access to the following commands.

idevice_id                idevicecrashreport        idevicedebugserverproxy
ideviceimagemounter       idevicename               ideviceprovision
idevicebackup             idevicedate               idevicediagnostics
ideviceinfo               idevicenotificationproxy  idevicescreenshot
idevicebackup2            idevicedebug              ideviceenterrecovery
ideviceinstaller          idevicepair               idevicesyslog

I have tried ideviceinfo, however, I cannot seem to the ECID infomation.

You simply run this command:

ideviceinfo | grep UniqueChipID

The "unique chip ID" is what you know as the ECID.

Note: iTunes shows the ECID as a hexadecimal value, while ideviceinfo shows it as a decimal value.


How do I use the verification code to generate a password for icloud server smtp.mail.me.com password Suddenly I began getting a box asking me to enter the password for my Gmail account for the server:  smtp.mail.me.com.  How do I find that out?  The issue seems to be between my Microsoft/Windows Outlook email box and the Gmail box I access on the Google site.

I had a password before, what happened and why?  Now what?

I've seen this happen from time to time. So you have both a Gmail and a .me/.mac/icloud (Apple) email address?

If so mail.app (or whatever you are using as a mail client) has gotten confused about what server to use for what account. This should be easy to fix.

Open mail.app and select Preferences from the Mail menu
Select the Accounts icon at the top of the preferences window
On the left is a list of your mail accounts. Select the first one
Now select Server settings and see what server is listed at the bottom under Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP).

The latter should correspond to the account you have selected. So if you selected your Gmail account your server should have gmail in the name and not me.com. If it does change it to the one in the menu for gmail.

Now if you are using Outlook for email that is similar but not exactly the same. I don't have Outlook set up for Gmail so I can't help you there.

If I have missed something let me know and we'll go from there.


Can my MacBook 1,1 be upgraded to anything higher than Snow Leopard? and can the machine be updated in its specs? Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook 1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB11.0061.B03

No, your MacBook model cannot be upgraded to a version later than Mac OS X 10.6.8 because of restrictions imposed by Apple.

It is highly likely that even if you could install a later version, your system would run unstable and/or slow.

Regarding upgrading your hardware, yes, it's possible, but I'd say you'll have a hard time finding parts (other than RAM, which is pretty easy to find and replace) since production for this model was discontinued in November 2006.

Also, note that even if you do upgrade your hardware it will not enable you to install a later version than 10.6.8. Your computer will still be recognized as a MacBook 1,1.


Meeting Invite Iphone I would like to be able to send a meeting invite from my iPhone/Calendar - as a text message - rather than to an email address.  Can that be done?

You can't directly send an invite via text message with the stock iOS calendar.

However, you can send an invite to the email address of their mobile device.  For instance, if I want to send a calendar invite to someone who has an AT&T mobile number, I can send it to their number @txt.att.net.

This will be seen as an email address by Calendar and you can send it out. The person receiving it will get it as a text message.  Depending on their mobile network provider, they'll be able to accept to decline the invite.

Of course, this requires you to know the mobile network of the people you wish to invite so it isn't perfect. There might also be 3rd-party apps on the App Store that can provide the service you're looking for but I don't have any names offhand.


Internal vs. External Storage for a new Macbook I want to get a new MacBook Pro, and am confused by the storage options. The Apple website offers 2 different options for storage:

Preinstalled internal flash storage (256, 512, or 1 TB)
Thunderbolt enabled external storage

I assume that the preinstalled flash storage is better, but it comes at a stiff premium ($450). Is there still reason to favor it over the other options?

Specifically, can I use the external storage like the internal storage easily, or will I run into bugs, errors, and other difficulties? I will be using music and pictures from the external drive on programs (iTunes, iPhoto, importing, editing, and exporting.) Will I be able to do that with the external storage, or should I go with the internal storage option?

I am looking for the simplest solution, not the most elegant code ; )

It all comes down to your convenience.

The MacBook Pro (MBP) uses a proprietary interface for their SSD; PCIe 2.0 x4.  This is why they are so expensive as you have noticed.

Upgrading the SSD in the MBP to a larger SSD, whether you get it at time of purchase or you get it later on, is going to be an expensive proposition and the only reason that you do this is because you want as many of your files with you at all times without having to connect a portable drive.  That's the convenience factor.

However, if not having all your files readily available on your MBP and toting around an external drive is not a problem, then going with a smaller SSD and an external drive is definitely a good choice.

As for what you want to do, there is no problem with keeping your files like photos, movies, music, etc. on an external drive.  As for performance, you probably won't notice much of a performance hit depending on exactly what you are doing.

One caveat... You will need at least 2 external drives.

Why?

You are going to back up your stuff, right?  If you are going to be toting around another drive, there is a greater possibility of data loss; physical damage, stolen, or just leaving it on a table somewhere in a coffee shop.  You are going to want this backed up.  A USB 3.0 drive with sufficient space should be more than adequate to do a Time Machine backup during the night (where performance isn't going to hamper anything).

To know how big of a backup drive to get, just make sure it is larger than the total of your internal SSD and external drive.  If you have a 128GB SSD and a 1TB external, get at least 1.5TB.  If you are closer to 2TB of internal and external combined, get a 4TB.  If more than that, you probably want to look at some pro level solutions.

Ultimately, the choice is up to you whether you want the convenient method of having all storage internal to the MBP or you don't mind having to plug in an external drive.


Screen Sharing not working for non-admin local accounts on Yosemite Server Question says it all. Current versions of Yosemite (10.10.3) and Server (4.1).

Under Server > Settings
     Enable screen sharing and remote management checked.

Under Server > Access
     Admin and a non-admin local user listed.

I can log in Screen Sharing as the Admin user but not via non-admin accounts.

Be sure to add the non-admin user/group (depending on if multiple users) to the Remote Management section of Sharing in System Preferences to allow access.

(Thanks Guy!)


USB Hub on monitor non-functional I have a late 2012 Mac Mini running Sierra. I have it set up with a Dell U2715h monitor via the thunderbolt port on my Mac, with a miniDP -> DP cable, as the only way to get the full QHD resolution support.

The monitor has several USB ports (USB3 I think) which could be really handy - except they don't work.

I can't find any settings for this on the monitor but as I understand things, the DP/thunderbolt cable should be providing USB connectivity. How can I get this to work?

You need to connect the USB separately, using a standard USB A -> B connector.

The USB input port on Dell monitors is usually underneath, near the video ports, example below...

Picture from Dell - USB Port on Flat Panel Monitor Non-Functional


QuickLook and plist files I have the latest Xcode installed, but I can't "quicklook" plist files (I mean they appear as an xml file instead of a table). Is this normal?

Afaik yes. This is normal.
You can drag n drop the plist onto Xcode and it should open it in a tree form


Use multi-finger gestures with RealVNC I am using RealVNC for remote access to my Mac from my Android phone. I am also using it for controlling the cursor - like a trackpad. I want to use the multi-finger gestures like mission control, app exposé, etc. Is that possible via RealVNC?

The RealVNC Android app mouse interaction mode doesn't support macOS specific multi-finger gestures. For the list of supported mouse actions see the support article:

How do I use VNC Viewer for Android and iOS? - RealVNC Help Center


Can a standalone JDK 1.5 run on Snow Leopard? There's a bug in JDK1.6 in Snow Leopard that's affecting Netbeans. I could solve this issue by using JDK1.5, but I noticed that /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5 links to JDK1.6.

Is there a true JDK 1.5 for Snow Leopard that can be downloaded and installed rather than just one that points to the newer JDK 1.6?

You can successfully add a true 1.5 version by following the instructions here:
Installing Java 1.5 on Snow Leopard

I'm not guessing about this. I've actually employed this technique for some of my tech support clients.


can't swift auth in Sierra swift auth yields the error:

  error: unable to invoke subcommand: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/swift-auth (No such file or directory)

when I brew install it it does the same thing.  how can I swift auth again?

Xcode is an easy reinstall. Have you tried deleting it and going back to the Mac App Store to reinstall it?

If you’re developing on a beta version, be sure to list that in the body and you can do the same re-download and reinstall.

If you’re comfortable with the command line:

xcode-select -p

Check that your path is correct, and perhaps reset the tools path (which swift-auth ) and call for the command line tools to be installed if needed:

sudo xcode-select -r
Xcode-select —-install

The above commands will be substantially faster and more surgical to reinstall, but if you are missing one Xcode tool, you might need the whole app again depending on what caused the error in the first place.


Email is not an Apple ID or email is being used as an Apple ID? I am getting these errors when trying to login with my mother's email.

Can it be a bug in Apple?

Sounds like you are trying to create an apple id. The email you are trying to use already exist as an apple id so you need to create a new apple id (using a different email address) or try to login with that one. If you can't recall the password click on "forgot password?"


What is it about 3G that kills the iPhone battery? Why does turning on 3G data make my iPhone's battery die faster?

The 3G radio requires more power. If you live in a weak 3G signal area, it may also cycle a lot between EDGE and 3G; setting up the 3G connection draws more power. Finally, you may be able to save power by setting the iPhone to Fetch New Data less often (Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > Fetch New Data).


Mac Preview-- Cannot drag note icon while highlighting pdf I am trying to annotate pdf on Preview and when I add note a highlighted text, I cannot drag or reposition the note icon (box). I have attached a screen shot to explain my question.
Is it a bug or feature ? because I can move the Note icon if I add a note separately (not combined with the highlighted text)
.

Unfortunately this seems to be a (rather ill-implemented) feature. You can test it out by right-clicking on the highlight and changing the color—you'll see that the color of the note changes as well. It's ill-implemented in my opinion because it hides text underneath the note icon.
I would recommend you to add notes and highlights separately with different colors to differentiate them.

Alternatively, you can use a third-party app which shows notes associated with highlights much better, like PDF Expert:

However, to add or save the notes (instead of just viewing them), you'll need to buy the full version for a hefty $80.


How do I reset DHCP address allocation on my iPhone 6? I need to briefly connect several hundred devices to the iPhone 6 Hotspot to test their Wi-Fi functionality.  I only need to connect 3 or 4 at a time, and each is only connected for a few minutes.  After checking about 12, no more devices would connect to the phone.  If I power any of the first few back up, they connect to the phone just fine.  If I try to connect any of the later devices to a new Wi-Fi source, it works just fine.

It really seems like the iPhone has run out of IP addresses to allocate to new devices.

Is there any way to reset the allocation so it will reuse addresses it has used recently?

You might also try Settings -> General -> reset -> reset network Settings

I believe that will flush DNS and DHCP and should have the desired effect.

Note that you will also have to re-enter any WiFi passwords that were previously saved.


How do I prevent iPhone USB "hotspot" from commandeering laptop's Internet connection? Looking for phone setting preferably. Turning off Hotspot not acceptable option.

Is turning off USB network in System Preferences on the laptop the only way?

If you have a laptop that you never want to utilize hotspot tethering, just delete the tethering interface from the Network control panel in System Preferences. Screen shot attached. This will prevent any network activity through your laptop, if for some reason the wifi or ethernet connection is lost.

If you want to tether in the future, you will have to add it back by hitting the "+" button.


byobu using invalid 'readlink -f' option on OS X Mountain Lion I just installed byobu on mountain lion by running

./configure
make
make install

The install seems good. But byobu is trying to use 'readlink -f' which is an illegal option with OS X and any other BSD system (I think).

Is there any kind of hack I can do to get around this?

If you lack readlink -f functionality, the coreutils and tmux are likely the missing dependencies. Please edit your question if you have them installed and this doesn't fix the issue.


how to configure Surfraw on OSX? Has anyone had success configuring Surfraw on OSX? How do I get a working configuration for OSX? http://www.surfraw.org/

Once you've installed it (I used Macports) your ~/.surfraw.conf file should look like this, at a minimum:

SURFRAW_graphical=yes
SURFRAW_graphical_browser=open

The open command opens the default GUI application for whatever it's passed. In this case it's passed a http:// URL so it opens it in the default browser.


Navigate terminal scrollback using keys On most (all?) Linux terminals (eg gnome terminal, tilda, guake etc,..) and the virtual consoles you can browse up through the terminal's scrollback buffer using the keys (ie without the mouse).  Is this possible in OSX's terminal?

eg:

In Gnome Terminal you enter ls
oops - 50 lines of output on a 48 line terminal
Ctrl-Shift-UpArrow scrolls back to see the first few lines of input (and eventually your command invocation

On VC's switch UpArrow for PageUp - is there anything equivalent on OSX?

I'm using OS 10.10.5

There are shortcuts for Page Up/Down and Line Up/Down in Terminal. You can find them under View menu item. For Page Up press ⌘ cmd+⇞ Page Up, for Line Up press ⌘ cmd+⌥ alt+⇞ Page Up.

Edit: you can get ⇞ Page Up on Macbook by pressing Fn+↑ Up Arrow.


Apple TV (2nd generation) - video quality seems poor I thought I'd switch from a Mac Mini to the new Apple TV (2nd generation) as my primary video device.

Unfortunately I find the video quality disappointing: Text (menus, etc.) is shimmery, and video seems coarse, like broadcast TV. I've tried it with an iTunes rental, with Netflix, and with a movie streamed from a computer. The results were poor each time. I switched back and forth between the Apple TV and the Mac Mini to confirm, and the image is indeed much sharper on the Mini.

The Apple TV is connected via HDMI to a Sony KLV-S32A10 32" LCD with 1366x768 native resolution.

Is this normal?

The problem was with the TV settings - it has three "Picture modes": vivid, standard, and pro. It was set to vivid, which adds artificial sharpening. With this set to "Pro", it looks terrific.


Installed Windows on Mac, now want to go back to OS X I tried to revert back to OS X, but I can't boot into recovery, or USB. It shows the prohibited symbol (a circle with a line through).

I thought it was a good idea to install Windows on a Mac, but it turns out it's a terrible idea (driver issues, slow downs, overheating).

What should I do?

I think my hard drive partitions are messed up.

I used this guide to install windows 7
http://derekhat.com/install-vista-on-a-macbook-without-bootcamp/

Reinstall macOS (OS X)

Boot to  Internet Recovery. See instructions below. You may need to reset your NVRAM. If so, see instructions below.
Use the Disk Utility app to erase the internal drive. Choose for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the format.
Install macOS (OS X).
Boot to macOS (OS X).
If the operating system is Snow Leopard and the version is not 10.6.8, then download and install this Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
If the operation system is 10.6.8, then install this Mac App Store Update for OS X Snow Leopard
Upgrade to 10.11.6.

Start up from macOS (OS X) Recovery over the Internet

Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately hold down the option+⌘+R key combination.
Release the keys when you see the Apple logo or a spinning globe.
When you see the macOS (OS X) Utilities window, you have finished booting.

Reset your computer’s NVRAM or PRAM

Shutdown the Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: option, ⌘, P, and R. You will need to press and hold these keys simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on your Mac.
Immediately press and hold the option+⌘+P+R key combination, before the black screen with the Apple logo appears.
Continue pressing the keys until your Mac restarts, about 15 seconds.
Release the keys.

Appendix

How to reset NVRAM on your Mac

How to reinstall macOS

About macOS Recovery


When is Apple Watch backed up to a paired iPhone? I'm unsure about exactly when an Apple Watch gets backed up to an iPhone with which it is paired. Online sources are a bit vague and say a variety of things (some are perhaps outdated). Is it

only when Watch is unpaired,
whenever the paired iPhone is backed up (and the Apple Watch is connected via Bluetooth), or
periodically?

Or is it something else?

You can be sure the watch backs up only when you unpair it.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204518

Apple says it backs up automatically but since you can’t check on that by tapping anywhere or logging into iCloud or looking in preferences, you don’t know when it happens or the date of the last backup.

The only way to check your available backups is when you pair any watch (e.g. you have a second watch or a friend that’s willing to unpair theirs or has a spare) and step through the pairing process and have your iPhone list the available backups and date ranges of backups. iCloud keeps multiple backups in time, sort of like time machine so you may have a choice of when to restore from your backups.


Generate Safari Developer Certificate for building extensions I have gone through this link.But everything seems to be changed.
Everything redirects to Apple Development Program.So is it mandatory to enroll in that development program to create a safari development certificate to create extensions?

And if so where can I get that certificate from?

Apple unified all the developer programs (iOS, Mac and Safari) under one umbrella program entitled Apple Developer Program. This is what you need to enrol with to obtain a certificate for Safari extensions.


system takes up 50 GB of storage I'm working on a mac and since I've updated to High Sierra, the system takes up more and more space for no reason. I've found out that most of the times the problem comes with time machine, but I never used this program and there was no other solution to fix that problem. Now, I'm running out of space. Thanks for help!

The value that you see listed includes many things we wouldn't consider part of the system. If I do the same on my machine it says System is talking about 130 GB. If I run DaisyDisk on my drive it says System is taking 9.8 GB. You can download DaisyDisk and see what's taking up space. DaisyDisk is not free but they offer a free trial.


Can iCal scroll by week in month view? It seems to be bad design that I can not just scroll down on the month view of Calendar, so that the grid just moves up.   Going prev/next through the months is very uncomfortable any time you are dealing with periods of time that span from one month to the next!

Any method to get this function?  Calendar/iCal has been around a while, they should have built this in -- it is a common and convenient feature.

iCal is limited to the view modes you see in the main window - Day, Week, Month and Year. It's not very customizable.

However as an alternative, you might want to look at BusyCal. It's a pretty well regarded app. The two word pitch is "iCal Pro". It integrates with the system calendar, so all the built-in calendar based functions work fine, and in addition to iCloud sync, it has much better Google Calendar sync if that's a selling point. Most importantly for you it's more customizable in terms of views, and the month view scrolls by week.

Sorry there's nothing to be done with the existing app, but BusyCal is probably the best option to get what you want. There's a 30 day demo, so give it a try.


Validate signature on Apple updates I had a short window of opportunity to install the 10.12.5 update today, but the update wasn't showing up on the App Store, so I decided to download it directly. I noticed that the download was over unencrypted http.

That would be alright if I could validate the signature on the downloaded file. I could not find a checksum digest of the file. I have the Apple PGP key, but it's not clear to me that Apple actually signs the downloaded packages in any way. The instructions imply they only use the key to sign security notifications. Is there any way to validate the downloaded file?

You can verify the signature of the package:

Mount the dmg file (assuming it's downloaded to your Downloads folder):

hdiutil attach ~/Downloads/macosupdcombo10.12.5.dmg

Verify the pkg:

pkgutil --check-signature /Volumes/macOS\ Sierra\ Update/macOSUpdCombo10.12.5.pkg

which should yield the following result:

Package "macOSUpdCombo10.12.5.pkg":
   Status: signed Apple Software
   Certificate Chain:
    1. Software Update
       SHA1 fingerprint: 1E 34 E3 91 C6 44 37 DD 24 BE 57 B1 66 7B 2F DA 09 76 E1 FD
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    2. Apple Software Update Certification Authority
       SHA1 fingerprint: FA 02 79 0F CE 9D 93 00 89 C8 C2 51 0B BC 50 B4 85 8E 6F BF
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    3. Apple Root CA
       SHA1 fingerprint: 61 1E 5B 66 2C 59 3A 08 FF 58 D1 4A E2 24 52 D1 98 DF 6C 60

Compare the SHA1 fingerprint of the Apple Software Update Certification Authority with one of the two valid Apple fingerprints:

SHA1 FA 02 79 0F CE 9D 93 00 89 C8 C2 51 0B BC 50 B4 85 8E 6F BF
SHA1 9C 86 47 71 48 B3 D7 04 24 7A 3C 3F 56 EA 2D E5 94 4B 01 C2


Using MacBook Pro's monitor for Windows PC I want to use my 2014 macbook pro 13's monitor for my windows 7 pc .
How can I do this ?

my MacBook is running yosemite.

You can't physically connect your Windows PC to your MBP so just using the monitor is not possible. You can use any of the various screen sharing solutions out there to access your PC from your Mac:

TeamViewer is kind of straightforward to setup on both machines
TighVNC Server can be installed on the Windows side and connected to from your Mac by typing Cmd-K in Finder and entering vnc://name-of-windows-pc as an address


AppleScript in Distiller I found a simple script to run Adobe Distiller on some file.

on run argv
    with timeout of (8 * 60) seconds
        tell application "Acrobat Distiller"
            Distill sourcePath item 1 of argv
        end tell
    end timeout
end run

How can I change page size inside this script?

Or should I modify x.joboptions file and ask Distiller to reload it?
How can I do it?

I'm new to AppleScript, and the documentation for Distiller API is not enough for me.

The right answer is probably this:

Distill sourcePath in_file destinationPath out_file adobePDFSettingsPath opt_file

And the paths have to be absolute, not relative.


What are those _report_pb.dump files? In the past few days, there are some files in my Documents folder. Typical filename is like: 1400115281_report_pb.dump, a few digits followed by report_pb.dump.

The file seems to be kind of log file where the 1400115281 is app_id. Here is a part of the file:

  {"common":{"platform":7,"apn_type":"UNKNOWN","app_id":1400115281,"scope":"common","os_type":"mac_10.15.3","biz_id":"200000001","app_version":"1.3.0.437","net_type":0,"device_name":"x8
  6_64","sdk_version":18874398},...

What is this file for? How can I prevent it from showing up or default the file to another location instead of the Documents folder.

Update, the only Google result about app_id 1400115281 is:

It happened I installed Tencent Meeting lately, and the app version is also 1.3.0.437:

Yes, it also happened on my mac.

The file occurs everytime after I use Tencent Meeting, you can just delete it.


How can the internal SSD be cloned onto an external 1 TB SSD (for swapping)? I want to clone my internal 500 GB SSD onto a new 1 TB SSD which is going to replace the internal 500 GB SSD in my MBP.

Currently the 500 GB SD is partitioned like the following:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.1 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.1 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Mac OS                  459.4 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 46.4 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                510.4 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

I tried to use the following command in Recovery Mode:

dd if=/dev/rdisk0 of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m

Will this work?
After dd finished, I was not able to mount disk2.
Do I have to change the dd command?

I was not yet able to swap the internal 500 GB SSD by the 1 TB one to check if it would boot. But I guess it won't :-(

disk2 looks after dd like this:

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS                         1.0 TB     disk2s2

But Apple_APFS can't be mounted.
I am also wondering why it is recognized as 1.0 TB - I think after using dd it should be 500.1 GB (the size from 'Apple_APFS Container disk1').

I tried to find some information about cloning APFS volumes with EFI, Recovery, VM and Preboot stuff, but I could not find any useful information.

Maybe someone can help me here?
Thanks
Daniel

I am currently typing this from the system on the cloned 1 TB SSD, my solution was:

Clone internal 500 GB SSD with Carbon Copy Cloner 5 to the 1 TB SSD (using QNINE NVMe enclosure)
Swap 500 GB internal with 1 TB Sabrent Rocket NVMe
Directly boot into Recovery Mode
Added the missing VM container with the command: diskutil apfs addVolume disk1 APFS VM -role V I was not afraid of doing this because I found an Acronis script for cloning APFS volumes https://kb.acronis.com/content/60425 which executes the command pre restore. Interestingly the size of VM after the command was only some KB.
After booting Mojave the size of VM was 1.1 GB like before

Sadly we won't know if dd and afterwards diskutil repairDisk disk1 would also have worked.

Thanks and I hope this post will help people with a MacBook Pro up to mid 2015 to upgrade the internal storage. (After mid 2015 Apple started to solder the storage onto the mainboard).


Catalina: Purpose of /System/Volumes/Data/Previous Content/? After the update from Mojave to Catalina I noticed that the used disk space has increased from about 1TB to almost 2TB. And there is hardly any free disk space left.
A closer inspection of the file structure of the whole system shows that about half of the data is in the folder /System/Volumes/Data/Previous Content/Users/myusername. It seems to be a mirror of my user data that was created during the upgrade. This would explain the sudden doubling of the disk space used.
I can't find any clear information about the purpose of the folder /System/Volumes/Data/Previous Content/Users/ neither here in the forum nor on the web. Is it possible that after upgrading and setting up all user data from the backup, the contents of the folder /System/Volumes/Data/Previous Content/Users/ can be deleted without problems? Since it does not seem to be necessary for the operation of Catalina?
(Note: this question is not about the general purpose of the APFS partition /System/Volumes/Data/ of the new APFS)

I think it was originally used for Archive and Install macOS installs.
However, you haven't been able to select a Archive and Install for ages.
To me it looks like it is continuously updated in real-time which makes me think its actually linked to the original sources and the files you see are the actual files not copies. It also seems to be well hidden from the file system. Perhaps left there for comparability reasons.
Perhaps look at your drive using DaisyDisk to find where the space is getting used. macOS allows purge-able space take up to 80% of the drive, however, it should automatically reclaim when the storage is required.
https://daisydiskapp.com/manual/4/en/Topics/PurgeableSpace.html?source=PurgeableSpace&appEdition=Standard&appVersion=4.10&osVersion=10.15.5


How do I get iOS 5 on my iPod touch? I have a third generation iPod touch. I believe that it should be possible to run iOS 5 on this, and I have bought an app that requires iOS 5.  However, in iTunes, when I click on the iPod device, it says that my iPod software is up to date. It says that the software version is 4.2.1. I'm registered with Apple with a Belgian account, though I hope this wouldn't make a difference to updates.

Any suggestions appreciated.

According to Apple, the 3rd gen iPod Touch can be upgraded to iOS 5. However, you may want to confirm that your iPod is not a 2nd gen version - those can only be upgraded to 4.2.1.

Apple Support has the following information to confirm your version (full page):

  iPod touch (3rd generation) features a 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen
  multi-touch display and 32 GB or 64 GB flash drive. You can browse the
  web with Safari and watch YouTube videos with Wi-Fi. You can also
  search, preview, and buy songs from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on
  iPod touch.

  The iPod touch (3rd generation) can be distinguished from iPod touch
  (2nd generation) by looking at the back of the device. In the text
  below the engraving, look for the model number. iPod touch (2nd
  generation) is model A1288, and iPod touch (3rd generation) is model
  A1318.

Also, per Apple Support - make sure that you've upgraded to iTunes 10.5 before you begin the upgrade.


Share Web through another port I have a webserver running on a MBA at port 4431 and I want to access through my local network.

But web sharing uses port 80 by default and I can't access to my_mba_ip:4431

Can I add ports to web sharing? I found this old, old post (Changing the OS X Web Server Port) where seems the solution to my problem, but I don't know how to do that in Lion :(

The location of the httpd.conf in lion is the following:

/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

And you will search for the line to change that has the following:

Listen 80

The rest of that document you linked should work.

I would however recommend using MAMP for much better control of apache and mysql.

MAMP


Android SDK - Install Intel HAXM I've just been looking at updating my SDK install for Android with the Intel Atom images and the x86 emulator using these instructions:

I've gotten to step 3 but I have so far completely failed to locate this file and run the .dmg to install it.

Looking at the path where the SDK is installed it says the SDK is here:

/Users/<name>/Library/Developer/Xamarin/android-sdk-mac-x86

But Finder won't let me in to my own Library folder (assuming this is where the .dmg is.  How do I get in there?

In finder in the top menu bar:

Click Go
Press and hold the shift-button on your keyboard
Library will show up, and you can click it.