Would using an iPad as a second monitor be harmful to its battery life? I have a Macbook Pro and an iPad Pro 9.7".

Using Duet, I can use the iPad as a second monitor. That's awesome for my setup - but Duet requires the iPad being connected to the host machine through the lighting cable.

I'm worried that having the iPad connected to the Macbook all the time (and hence, getting charged all the time) could be bad for the iPad's battery life in the long term. (The iPad would be connected for many hours every work day.)

Does this worry have merit, or is it unfounded?

The battery will wear faster when you use power-hungry applications or set the display very bright very often. Duet may be such an application.

You may not notice it, but the battery transfers much more energy in the same amount of time. This leads to more 'battery cycles' which in turn degrade your battery.

It has no negative impact on the battery life if you keep the Lightning cable in plugged in all the time.

However, use the original 12 Watt USB power adapter and a certified Lightning cable for your safety, especially if you leave the iPad unattended.

General tips to increase your iPad's battery life

Keep the device cool. Remove unneccessary cases and don't place it near warm objects.
Use certified Lightning cables. This is for your safety. You don't need to expensive cables made by Apple, as long as they are certified. They are called MFi which stands for "Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad". MFi cables undergo electrical and mechanical tests by Apple.
Use original power adapters. Again, you don't want the power adapter to catch fire.
It's fine to connect the charging cable to your computer's USB port instead.
If your iPad will be unused for some days, discharge the battery to ~50 %. "(…) if you store it fully charged for an extended period of time, the battery may lose some capacity, leading to shorter battery life."

Terminology

Battery cycles

  When you use your [device], its battery goes through charge cycles. A charge cycle happens when you use all of the battery’s power—but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge.

  For example, you could use half of your notebook's charge in one day, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two.

Source: Apple, emphasis mine

Battery wear/degradation/condition/health

The more you use a battery the more its capacity will reduce over time. This is sometimes called 'battery wear'.

Battery degradation can have different causes. Using a device so often that you need to re-charge it daily from 0 to 100 % will lead to a high battery cycle count. The chemicals in the battery will store less energy after each cycle.

The battery condition can give you a hint how much of its original capacity a battery can hold. It may be ok for a battery to retain about 80 % of its original capacity after 1000 full cycles. If you have a new device with the same low battery condition (80 % capacity) something may be wrong with your battery. This can be caused by faulty battery or a few cells within your battery that are not working.
Battery condition is sometimes called battery health.


Imac 20 inch 2009 OSX 10.9.5 I have an issue with Mac App store not opening - probably due to using Clean My Mac which has now been trashed!

Is there any way I can download a new OS without using App Store - the iMac does;t have a restore disk or partition!

Cheeers

Ian

You can try the following commands to fix that.

Open the Terminal application (located in /Applications/Utilities)
Type in the following commands:

sudo rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.appstore.plist

sudo rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.storeagent.plist
Type in your password when prompted, (your password won't appear when you type it, this is perfectly normal).

Now the Mac App Store should work again.


Output volume control isn't working The sound volume in the menu bar and the volume button on my keyboard doesn't change the output volume when I connect headphones or external speakers on my MBP.
When I go to System Preferences -> Sound the Output volume bar does work.
Any clue?

One thing to check is that your desktop volume control is actually connected to the device whose volume you're trying to control. In Lion, Alt+clicking the volume icon allows you to switch its function (and that of the keyboard shortcuts) between all connected output and input devices, plus any software devices such as Soundflower or Boom that might be running. I do find that it occasionally gets confused when plugging/unplugging devices, although not usually with simple headphones/speakers.


iTunes is not recognising my iPhone after upgrading to Lion I've just upgraded my Mac to Lion, and now my iPhone is not being recognised in iTunes.

I've tried...

Updating iTunes (to 10.5)
Checking for all updates
Restarting both the Mac and iPhone
Extracting iTunesHelper.app from the iTunes bundle and installing it into the Login Items list, and confirmed it's running in the Activity Monitor.

For the past 3 years I've been happy with the "It just works" idea, but not today. :(

What other options are there?

Start by checking in the system profiler under USB to see if the Mac see's that the iPhone is connected.
.

Then remove the following to the Trash and RESTART the computer

/System/Library/Extensions and Locate the file AppleMobileDevice.kext


Upgrading OS X 10.6.8 to Mavericks on MB Air As we all know Maverics is not available on AppStore anymore so I downloaded my "purchased" Mavericks from another MB Pro I have. Someone here asked the similiar question and several people advised to make a bootable usb-drive and restore the system from it.
My questions is - can I use the 5,33Gb file I downloaded from "purchased" to simply upgrade without the need to backup my MB Air first? Should I copy the file to a specific folder or may just use Desktop?

Thanks!

I think the best option would be to create a bootable USB drive and install from there. But if you need to do it via a local file, I would copy the Upgrader File to the /Applications folder of the MB Air.

Yes, you should make a backup. Especially since you are jumping a couple versions of the OS.

(In truth, I have not had a problem with any of the 30 or 40 upgrades I have done with Mac OS X in the last 4 or 5 years. But I always had a backup, unless I was planning on wiping the system clean. )


How to mount an APFS formatted volume created on macOS 10.12.1 on macOS 10.12.2? According to this thread from Apple Developer Forums, an APFS volume created on macOS 10.12.1 is not mountable on macOS 10.12.2, because of the incompatible changes.

I put some important files in my external drive formatted as APFS, and now I would like to access the data. I tried this:

diskutil apfs list

This:

sudo fsck_apfs disk1s2

And this:

diskutil apfs addVolume disk1s2 APFS MyVolume

The error message is similar to what mentioned in the above thread:

$ diskutil apfs -IHaveBeenWarnedThatAPFSIsPreReleaseAndThatIMayLoseData list

======================================================================================================
ENUMERATION OF ALL CURRENT APFS OBJECTS
   apfs call: sizeForContainer: err=-69808="Some information was unavailable during an internal lookup"
   apfs call: freeSpaceForContainer: err=-69808="Some information was unavailable during an internal lookup"
|
|-- APFS CONTAINER REFERENCE = disk1s2
---------------------------------------------------------------------

$ sudo fsck_apfs disk1s2

** Checking volume.
** Checking the container superblock.
error: nx_incompatible_features has unsupported flags: (0x1)
   Container superblock is invalid.
** The volume disk1s2 could not be verified completely.

My questions are:

Is there an official utility that help me to mount the volume?

Or to upgrade the old APFS to the new APFS?

Is there any way to downgrade my macOS 10.12.2 to 10.12.1?

I don't have "Install macOS Sierra.app" in hand, is there any "secret" way to download a previous version of macOS? (I mean previous versions of Sierra, not El Capitan or earlier releases)
I don't have Time Machine backups or similar. I would like to fresh install macOS 10.12.1 on my old MacBook, mount the volume, and copy it elsewhere.

Thanks!

I guess you'll have to try find someone still on 10.12.1, or who has the installer.

Lessons learned:

Don't use betas for mission-critical tasks.
Keep installers.
Keep backups.


iCloud PhotoStream syncing to seperate Windows devices with shared App/Music/iTunes sync I have been asked to help out with a friends iTunes/iOS/Phot syncing setup, they have 4 iOS devices (all iOS 5 compatible except one 3G iPhone) and a range of iTunes libraries that they have previously synced to.

What they want to acheive is to share an Apple ID for purchases from the App Store, and also all sync to a single iTunes library on a shared Windows PC for music syncing etc.  This bit is simple enough.

Where it get's complicated is that want to be able to maintain their photos seperately on their own PCs (no Macs anywhere...sigh).  I know that previously in Windows you could select a folder to sync pics to (as a crappy iPhoto replacement) and there was also some vague album support from a couple of Windows Apps (Photoship Elements?), but they dont have any of the apps.  I also know about the Scanner & Camera Wizard/Windows Live Photo wizard also, which may still be the only option for the 3G iPhone which will not support iOS5, and thus iCloud accounts (I think this is true, corrections welcomed).

What I want to propose to them, if possible, is to use the single Apple ID and sync to a single iTunes library for music/apps/backups etc for all devices, but each have their own iCloud account, and use Photo Stream to  keep their photos seperate and not have them all sync to the same shared PC that the iTunes software runs on.

I have no idea how Photostream works on a Windows machine, it is possible to log into iCloud through a control panel widget like you did with Mobile Me on Windows, and sign into iCloud and turn on Photostream to sync photos (either to a folder, or an app) on a per iCloud account basis, allowing them to all sync photos to their individual machines while keeping the iTunes sync relationship to a shared device?

(Note, the Apple ID/Music bit is included for reference and completeness, I am only querying the capabilities of iCloud/Photostream, and would appreciate replies on that, not any suggestions to do anything different with the Apps/Music bit - just setting expactations, thanks)

Simple.

Use one AppleID for purchasing.
Use one or many computers to download this content. Remember that iTunes can sync apps to computer A and music to computer B and photos to computer C. Each person can decide to join the communal computer for App syncing / backup / downloading without it affecting their Photo browsing.
If they each get an iCloud account and use it for the rest - they can use the iCloud software on their PC to get the pictures or sync manually like any other photo device connected via USB.

I haven't tested it, but WiFI sync might also be available on the PC side of iTunes. Good Luck! Let us know how you fare...


Can I find my iPhone if it's lost and turned off? My iPhone lost when I was skiing. I think its in the snow and nobody can find it. I'm sure that my iPhone has about 40% charge but it turned off because of the freezing.
Is there any way to find my iPhone with any apps when its off?

With the phone off there is no way to locate it from remote. And to be honest, a few days embedded in snow will not only kill the remaining charge in the phone but also the electronics itself (water will slowly get in).


Cannot send invitation in iOS Developer program I want to invite someone as team member to the iOS developer program. I tried Invite Person and Bulk Invite but the Send Invitation button has always

Send Invitation

Everything has been filled out but I cannot send the invitation. What is the problem here?

It is the same problem as described here. Haven't received a response from Apple yet ...

When you fill the invitation form, you must specify both iOS Developer Program and Safari Developer Program access type. So if you forget to set Safari Developer Program to "No access" for instance, the button "Send Invitation" stays disabled.


What is the purpose of Docker.raw file on Mac OS Catalina? I have Docker installed on my Mac OS Catalina and recently found very big file Docker.raw. It is 64 Gb. Is it really needed? And if so, why is it so big ?

The answer to your question is in the Docker documentation:

Disk utilization in Docker for Mac
Docker Desktop stores Linux containers and images in a single, large “disk image” file in the Mac filesystem. This is different from Docker on Linux, which usually stores containers and images in the /var/lib/docker directory.

The size of this file is big in your system because you have a lot of images and containers. You can reduce its site by pruning unused objects.


Apple App Store: Create app page for upcoming app From yesterday's iPhone 7 release event, Super Mario Run by Nintendo will be available on iOS soon. After searching same on iTunes, I found out that its iTunes page is available with NOTIFY button instead of the regular GET button.

How to do that? What is provision provided by Apple to show app's iTune page without actually uploading app ?

Notify is a feature created by Apple which appears to be solely for their Nintendo app launch partnership at this current time. It's not available for general developer program members yet and it is unclear if/when it will be available in iTunes Connect.

  The feature is currently only for Super Mario Run as far as we can tell. Whether it will apply across the entire app store is yet to be determined. It's also unlike the "Pre-order" button from the music and film sections of the iTunes store, since it doesn't give you the option to purchase the content ahead of time.

Source: http://www.cnet.com/news/new-itunes-notifications-will-tell-you-when-mario-is-live/


Is there any advantage to different file systems on microSD? I have a two new microSD cards and I'm going to use them for overflow storage and Timemachine using macOS Catalina.
They have exFAT now.
Q. Is there any advantage to formatting them in any other format?  Specifically looking at safety as I've lost files on another microSD that is using exFAT.  The files were lost, yet the drive was still seen and some files came back.  So I'm looking for any file system that is safer or can recover lost files better than others.

Is there any advantage to formatting them in any other format?

There is no advantage of one over the other in terms of speed, reliability, or (as you put it) "safety."
As far as speed goes, the fastest SD card isn't even close to USB 2.0 speeds so your USB port won't make any difference.
As to format, it's more for convenience; ExFAT allows the highest degree of transfer-ability between platforms.  JHFS+ gives you the best compatibility with macOS as NTFS will do the same with Windows.  It's all a personal preference.
Recover-ability (of data) has more to do with whether or not the card can be physically read or not.  Data loss on SD cards is either due to the card failing or the device glitching causing data corruption.  If the card can be read, your chances of data recovery are good.  If the card failed, no software or file format would overcome a physical failure.

Specifically looking at safety as I've lost files on another microSD that is using exFAT.

You need to look at a different technology.  SD cards are notorious for failing, thus the dual slots in DSLR cameras (or the very regimented backup workflow).
SD cards have their place and work wonders when used as designed.  However, if you're using this to augment storage in someway, you need to look at a different solution like an external USB 3 SSD drive or a Thunderbolt drive/array


How to batch download all files in a Volafile.io room? Volafile.io Live Filesharing & Chat

Example URL: https://volafile.io/r/$ID.

There is Feature request: Download all the content of a room in a .zip file. #117. I don't wish to depend on that feature request.

How to download all files in a Volafile.io room? I prefer a command line solution (Open Source, installable by homebrew), something like what's youtube-dl for YouTube.

Jdwonloader at the moment doesn't support Volafile.io. If there is no CLI solution, how to do that with GUI?

You can paste this JavaScript in Chrome’s developer console:

// Get all download links
var fileArray = document.getElementsByClassName('file_left_part')
// Loop through all the file links and append a new link to the DOM
// with a download attribute
for (var i = 0; i < fileArray.length; i++) {
    var dlLink = document.createElement('a')
    dlLink.download = ''
    dlLink.href = fileArray[i].href
    dlLink.className = 'filetype_download'
    document.body.appendChild(dlLink)
}
// Select all the download links we just created
var dlLinkArray = document.getElementsByClassName('filetype_download')
// Create a function to click on each link in series with a delay
// of 2.5 seconds (volafile will rate limit you otherwise)
function clickIt(i) {
    setTimeout(function() { dlLinkArray[i].click() }, i * 2500)
}
// Run our click function on every download link
for (var i = 0; i < dlLinkArray.length; i++) {
    clickIt(i)
}


How can I restore Maps app I would like to know how I can restore my mac Maps App with time machine back up. Maps , although the app opens ,I can only see the grid , either in map or satellite , I can even see the "Pin" drop onto the grid if I enter an address , however  if I try to "report a problem", via the maps sub menu , it tells me I have no internet connection.

You only see the grid because you don't have an Internet connection, which is why you can't report a problem either. The map information is downloaded from the Internet.


2013 MacBook Pro Retina 13" vs MacBook Air 13" I am considering buying a 13" MacBook. Please note that this would be my first Apple device. The two the options that I am considering are:

MacBook Air, 2013, 13", 128GB SSD, 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 4GB DDR3
MacBook Pro with Retina display, 2013, 13", 128GB SDD, 2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 4GB DDR3

There are some issues that I am concerned about:

Performance
Is the 128GB enough? (How much would the OS take up of this?)
The MacBook Pro seems to be quite tough. Does it also apply to the Air?
I am also interested in Windows alternatives... I am looking for "13 ultrabooks with long battery life + SSD and decent computing power. Could you recommend any?
In general, what are the pros and cons of MacBook Air vs. Windows ultrabooks?

Thanks a lot

My first Mac is a MacBook Air.

It is now 18 months old -still a baby :)

I love it:

First it is slim and very light- important for me.

I do have the 256 Gig SSD, and after a Year it is filled up with Photos and Movies consuming 110 Gig.

I travel a lot and love the intelligent WiFi, it always finds me a connection.

The Display is sufficient for my uses, and the Thunderbolt is a killer.
I just connect my TV using a HDMI cable and have huge screen.

Speed is sufficient for what I do and it has not been bottle neck so far, and the 4 Gig RAM seem to do the work.

Since my laptops last about 3 Years, I do not mind not been able to do upgrades.

The Mavericks takes 5.3 Gig, so with all the Media stuff I recommend the 256 Gig SSD.

My MBA is tough (so far taken anything I trow at it), but have not drooped it to find out. The fans are very quiet.


Mirror parts of screen to external monitor I'd like to mirror/clone separate parts of my iMac screen to smaller external displays.

For me the best solution would be to draw a frame on top of the iMac display and let that special frame show up on a smaller external display.

Is this possible? How can I do this?

There are tools for doing this which are visual aids like zooming and following the mouse around, maybe they might work?


cgpdftraster quit unexpectedly: Report sent to apple; just after installing Sierra ; canon 640 will not print from rear tray Canon 640 will not load & print from rear tray after installing Serria?

From Cannon KB : Canon PIXMA MP640

  Please Note: There are currently no macOS 10.12 Sierra printer drivers available for PIXMA products. This issue is being investigated and we hope to have these drivers available soon.

I guess you'll either have to wait, or go back to El Capitan.

It's always wise to check compatibility for mission-critical apps & devices before jumping to a new OS.


Creating boot disk for Windows 7 on MacBook Pro EDIT: I gave in and burned the DVD from a windows PC and I was able to install Windows on my MacBook Pro with Bootcamp. Sorry, that I don't have a satisfying solution.

My goal is to install Windows 7 (32-bit) on my MacBook Pro (late 2007) with Boot Camp. (I'm trying to do all this on Mountain Lion.) I am running into multiple problems creating the disk image for Windows 7. I have an ISO file of the Windows 7 DVD. I am fairly certain, that the ISO image is not corrupted. I downloaded it twice, with the DreamSpark download manager, with the same results.

Initially I tried to create a bootable USB key. The USB key is formatted as Mac OS Extended (HFS+). I opened Disk Utility, went to the restore tab, chose the ISO as source and the USB key as destination. The following errors occurred:

When the ISO-image is unmounted: "RESTORE FAILURE Could not validate source - Invalid argument"
When the ISO-image is mounted: "RESTORE FAILURE Could not validate source - error 254"

After repeating this a dozen times, I tried solve the problem from the Terminal as suggested in many forums:

$ sudo asr restore -noverify -source /path/to/windows/windows_7.iso -target /Volumes/Untitled/ -erase
    Validating target...done
    Validating source...
Could not validate source - Invalid argument

Since this also didn't work, I then tried to burn the image on a DVD. So I went into disk utility, chose the Windows 7 ISO, and chose burn.

I get prompted

  Waiting for a disc to be inserted…

I insert a brand new DVD-R.The drive starts to do something and notifies me

  Waiting for the drive.

And then immediately ejects the disk again and prompts me for the a disc.

Try using dd instead of asr.

Use mount to determine the device path of your attached USB disk.  Find the disk itself and ignore the individual partition numbers.  EG: if you get /dev/sda1 just use /dev/sda for the next steps.
Unmount the disk in the Finder.
Construct and run your dd command as such: dd if=/path/to/windows7.iso of=/path/to/usb/device


Synching iPhone with internet calendar (.ics) Looks like my issue has been around for a while (iOS 5.0.1 (iPhone 4s) unable to synchronize with Internet Calendar File (ics)) — has anyone come up with a fix yet?  I am trying to sync my iPhone calendars with the calendar on my PC that is in .ics format.  The .ics file is located on a home server that allows both me and my wife to see each other’s calendars and its been working great.  Now, I want to be able to see my calendar from my iPhone 4 (with OS 6.1) .. and I’ve tried setting it up with: Settings / Mail, Contacts, Calendars / Add Account… / Other / Add Subscribed Calendar. With every possible configuration I can think of, I get the same response:

  Calendar Subscription — Unable to verify account information

For server name, I’ve tried actual servername, IP address, etc; we do have security on the server but I put in the account name and password … ‘nuthin! Unable to verify. Through the phone's browser, I am able to open up the folder on our server and see the .ics file. The path is

  xxxx.homeserver.com/webcal/nat_calendar.ics.

I've tried sending an invite to myself, opening it in the phone, clicking on the link and I get this error:

  Cannot Subscribe: Could not subscribe to the calendar nat_calendar.ics from myservername.

Seems simple. What am I missing here?
Any ideas?

I found the answer to my particular issue.  The reason that my iPhone could not subscribe to a published Outlook .ics calendar was because the MIME type of the .ics file was wrong.  As recommended in this brilliant post by Joe Bradford, I went into IIS, changed the MIME type from application/octet-stream to text/calendar, and iPhone could connect and subscribe without further issue. Success!

PS: I did not run into the second issue that Joe chased down, which was having to remove the Byte Order Mark (BOM) from the .ics file via a hexadecimal editor.


File management iPad app I am looking for some free File management iPad app. It should be an offline file viewing app, with features to open common file types and also extract zip or rar files.

It should be exactly like Filer app, if u have used that, but without any file limitation..
Please suggest.

GoodReader may well be just what you are looking for. However it does not unarchive .rars. But it has great File Management, opens most files, and is just amazing. I use it on my iPad for reading journal articles from JSTOR at uni. Great markup tools too.

Also, if you use iCloud Drive and your iPad supports iOS 11, you can upgrade and one of the new features is the built in files app.
You can look in .zip files on it, but I don’t know if it supports .rar archives


Can I grab the content from a .pages file, without using Pages.app? I’m interested in automatically extracting the content of .pages documents, preferably via a programming language on a web server.

There are quite a few references around the web that say Pages documents are actually zipped archives containing various files (e.g. http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/02/iwork-secret-life-as-zip-file-revealed-includes-pdf-preview/), but a Pages document sent to me by a friend doesn’t seem to be unzippable by Mac OS X’s Archive Utility, or The Unarchiver, no matter what I change the extension to.

Is there a way to get the content from recent Pages files?

Apple provides a hosted solution called iWork.com and has snazzy videos showing how it works. I believe it is still in beta despite being available for tens of months, and was announced that "As of July 31, 2012, you will no longer be able to access your documents on the iWork.com site or view them on the web.".

It's not clear if this will roll into iCloud once the iOS versions and the OSX versions of the apps reach parity in file format. At the moment, the capabilities and file formats are not close enough to work together well. Also keep in mind that Mountain Lion is slated for release this summer and the current versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote are all marketed as iWork '09 and perhaps could be revamped to provide this interface using iCloud.

Lion Server does this for you as part of the Wiki Functionality. Many documents - including Pages will be rendered into a mostly html5 / css3 web page so that viewers of the wiki and embedded/uploaded documents on mobile or other client platforms do not need a Pages viewer app and can just use a modern web browser.

I could expect you were looking for more of an open-source solution where you had inner workings of the tools better documented, but this is a widely available and quite low cost solution for some to the problem you ask.


How can I stop my iPad from asking me about logging in to iCloud? I do not want to use the iCloud in any way. I do not want it running at all. I want it gone. How do I stop it from asking to log in? It is asking every 10 seconds. It has made my iPad unusable. How do I get rid of it so I can use my iPad?

Have you turned off all iCloud features?  To do that on your iOS device’s Home screen, go to Settings > iCloud, then tap to turn on or off iCloud features.

More information here: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2613


icloud- use with different apple id I have an iPad retina display (4th gen) and my mom has iPhone 5S. We use different apple ids. Can we use iCloud sharing so that the photos that I take can be viewed in her iPhone?

Yes, you can create a shared photostream and invite her.
To create a shared iCloud photostream, you have to check that you have enabled iCloud Photo Sharing (Settings -> iCloud -> Photos -> Photo Sharing). Then you can create a shared photostream by going to the Photos app and tapping the + button in the Shared tab.

The only disadvantage of this solution is that you have to add new photos to the shared stream by yourself. (The automatic photostream works only across tow devices when you are using the same Apple ID)

If you want her to get your photos automatically, you can use Dropbox, as heir app has a auto-upload feature and share the dropbox-folder with her. The question is if you want to save your photos in a dropbox account.

I hope my answer solves your problem.


How to calculate RAM disk size on OS X Mojave—500 or 512 byte block size? I created an APFS RAM disk on macOS X 10.14 Mojave using these commands:

diskutil partitionDisk $(hdiutil attach -nomount ram://12582912) 1 GPTFormat APFS 'RAMDisk' '100%'

Which should create a 6 GB RAM Disk. I ended up with a "6.53 GB" Ram Disk. The question is does hdiutil calculate block sizes as 512 bytes or 500 bytes?

The old way was:
1 block = 512 bytes

2 blocks = 1024 bytes (KB)

1024 bytes X 1024 = 1048576 bytes (MB)

1048576 bytes x 1024 = 1073741824 bytes (GB)
1073741824 bytes / 512 = 2097152 blocks per GB

But maybe storage is now calculated differently:
1 block = 500 bytes

2 blocks = 1000 bytes (KB)

1000 bytes X 1000 = 1000000 bytes (MB)

1000000 bytes x 1000 = 1000000000 bytes (GB)
1000000000 bytes / 500 = 2000000 blocks per GB

EDIT: Just tested this myself and ended up with these numbers which seems to indicate that hdiutil does indeed use 500 byte block size for calculation. There is some overhead for EFI which reduces available size but the GUID partition was 6.1 GB.

$ diskutil partitionDisk $(hdiutil attach -nomount ram://12000000) 1 GPTFormat APFS 'RAMDisk' '100%'
Started partitioning on disk15
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for partitions to activate
Formatting disk15s2 as APFS with name RAMDisk
Mounting disk
Finished partitioning on disk15
/dev/disk15 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +6.1 GB     disk15
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk15s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk16        5.9 GB     disk15s2

This seems simple enough. You asked for 12000000 sectors. The sector size is 512 bytes. So 12000000 * 512 = 6.1 GB which is the size of disk15. If a block size of 500 bytes was substituted for the 512 byte sector size, then the calculation would be 12000000 * 500 = 6.0 GB. This is not what is shown.

The output from diskutil info disk15 | grep -e Size should be as shown below.

   Disk Size:                 6.1 GB (6144000000 Bytes) (exactly 12000000 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:         512 Bytes


Remove Re: AW: and other from subject in Mail Is there any possible way to avoid these long "Re: AW:"(and so on) in the subject field of Mail? I know that Thunderbird can replace e.g. AW: (that is the German version coming from Outlook) or SV: (Danish) with the proper Re:. Up to now, I could not find anything similar for Apple Mail.

I wrote a plugin for mail.app which does exactly that. You can find it at:github feel free to use it.


Controlling which address my outgoing mail is seen to be from I have access to the company's general email as well as my own. Both are Gmail accounts. Seemingly randomly, even when I send from my own account, the other party's reply is to the general email account which everyone sees. How can I prevent this on my Mac Mini running Lion?

There is a preference you can set so that composing a new message defaults to a specific mailbox rather than the currently selected mailbox.

Replies go from the account to which the message was addressed. I'm not sure how it breaks a tie if both of your addresses are included or copied, but you can always override the "from" account by clicking on your name / email under the subject field.

In the message composition window, there's a pulldown above the message body, on the right, to select which email address you're sending from. The default for this depends on which mailbox you have selected in the main Messages window. It sounds like you're doing this.

If you're sure the above is being done for sure, then it's possible some gmail filters or tagging is getting in the way and making it look as though the reply lands in the inbox for one when really it's in another.

I would check the webmail and see if the issue is also seen there. If it is, then you're likely not sending from the right account, even if you think you are.


Single-purpose app to prevent .DS_Store creation under Mavericks Asepsis is currently not working under Mavericks. It's, in my knowledge, the only single-purpose app existing for this job. Therefore, what is the less intrusive solution to prevent .DS_Store creation after the update to Mavericks?

Asepsis updates have been officially released for Mavericks compatibility - http://asepsis.binaryage.com/

I've personally tested it, working like a charm!


Trying to install a .sh that will automate installation of .pkg As title, I'm trying to install a .sh file but I cannot get it to work. When I run sh or bash autopkginstall.sh

I get the following error;

/usr/local/bin/autopkginstall.sh: line 18: zmodload: command not found
/usr/local/bin/autopkginstall.sh: line 20: strftime: command not found
/usr/local/bin/autopkginstall.sh: autopkginstall.sh: line 119: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Below is the .sh that I'm trying to install.

#!/bin/zsh
# Purpose: automatically install any pkg file put into a certain folder
#
# From: Tj Luo.ma
# Mail: luomat at gmail dot com
# Web:  http://RhymesWithDiploma.com
# Date: 2013-12-11

    # variable to refer to script name without path
NAME="$0:t:r"

    # directory to check for pkg or mpkg files
DIR="$HOME/Action/AutoInstallPKG"

    # where do you want files to be moved after they are installed
SUCCESS_MOVE_TO="$HOME/.Trash/"

zmodload zsh/datetime

TIME=$(strftime "%Y-%m-%d--%H.%M.%S" "$EPOCHSECONDS")

    # where do you want files to be moved if they FAIL to be installed
ERROR_MOVE_TO="$HOME/Desktop/"

    # log our output here
LOG="$HOME/Library/Logs/AutoInstallPKG.$TIME.log"

    # quick function to
log () {

    echo "$NAME: $@" | tee -a "$LOG"

    if (( $+commands[terminal-notifier] ))
    then

        # if terminal-notifier exists, use it

        terminal-notifier -group "$NAME" \
                -sender com.apple.installer \
                -subtitle "Click to show folder $DIR:t" \
                -title "$NAME via launchd" \
                -message "$@"
    fi
}

die () { log "FATAL ERROR: $@" ; exit 1 }

if [ ! -d "$DIR" ]
then
        die "DIR is not a directory: $DIR"
fi

[[ ! -d "$SUCCESS_MOVE_TO" ]] && mkdir -p "$SUCCESS_MOVE_TO"

[[ ! -d "$ERROR_MOVE_TO" ]] && mkdir -p "$ERROR_MOVE_TO"

cd "$DIR" || die "Failed to chdir to $DIR"

    # remove .DS_Store file if it exists, so it won't keep launching `launchd`
rm -f .DS_Store

command ls -1 | while read line
do

    EXT="$line:e"

    case "$EXT" in
        pkg|mpkg)
                    log "Installing $line"
                    sudo installer -verboseR -pkg "$line" -target / -lang en 2>&1 | tee -a "$LOG"

                    EXIT="$?"

                    if [ "$EXIT" = "0" ]
                    then
                            log "$line installed!"

                            command mv -n "$line" "$SUCCESS_MOVE_TO" ||\
                            command mv -n "$line" "$ERROR_MOVE_TO"

                    else
                            log "Failed to install $line"
                            command mv -n "$line" "$ERROR_MOVE_TO"
                    fi
        ;;

        *)
                    log "$line is not a pkg or mpkg file"
                    command mv -n "$line" "$ERROR_MOVE_TO"
        ;;
    esac
done

REBOOT=no

fgrep -q 'installer: The install recommends restarting now.' "$LOG" && REBOOT=should

fgrep -q 'installer: The install requires restarting now.'   "$LOG" && REBOOT=must

case "$REBOOT" in
    must)
            log "You MUST reboot to complete installation!"
    ;;

    should)
            log "You should reboot to complete installation!"
    ;;

    no)
            log "No reboot required"
    ;;

esac

exit
#
#EOF

I'm trying to follow TJLuoma's autopkginstall project.

The file's shebang #!/bin/zsh (first line in the file) means the file should be run with the zsh shell. Bash and sh have different syntaxes to zsh — you should use the zsh shell to run this file.

The shebang is used so that the file itself can specify shell that should execute the file. By specifying /usr/bin/env /path/to/file.sh in the launch agent's plist you force to run the file with the shell determined by the variable SHELL which usually is bash on macOS. Instead, just provide the file path, /path/to/file.sh and the shebang will cause zsh to be used automatically.


Migrating / Syncing iCloud Email to Exchange account I'm trying to migrate all mails and folder from a IMAP email to a another.
I selected all the folders and drag them to the new mailbox.

I can see some of the folder but not all the sub-folder, also when I check mailbox detail, the count is not the same.

the issue is I start moving some new mail to the new mailbox only.

How can I get the two mailbox completely synced ?

PS one is from iCloud, the another is from a exchange server.

I find the solution, it's was too obvious, but just Mailbox menu > Export mailbox

and then can move them to correct account :  ~/Library/Mail/V4

(or import them from the menu)


Boot camp attempting to boot off wrong MBP internal drive I have an early 2011 17-inch MBP running the latest version of Mavericks. The primary drive is a 1TB SSD and I also have a 512GB SSD in the optical bay. BootCamp is installed on a partition on the primary drive, however when I attempt to boot into BC I get a black screen with a blinking cursor. If I remove the 512GB drive, however, BC launches properly. (Also, in case it makes a difference, the BC partition does not show up in the Startup Disk preference panel but does show up in the EFI list on startup.)

The primary drive shows up as disk1, while the drive in the optical bay shows up as disk0. What I suspect is happening is that the MBP is attempting to boot Windows from disk0, which causes a problem when the 512GB drive is installed. However, I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix this.

Is my theory about what's happening a reasonable one? Is there somewhere in the Mac that the drive assignment for BC is set that I can change? Any help is greatly appreciated...this has been driving me crazy for a while now!

According to a few people on the Apple Forums (https://discussions.apple.com/message/22626184#22626184) it is not possible to use windows on the 2nd drive (disk1).

Perhaps put Windows on the SSD, at least the System, and create a NTFS partition on your HDD for large files.


Move macos user home folders on external drive I got a shiny new Mac Mini but couldn't afford a 1TB internal SSD to hold all my stuff, so I'm testing ways to leverage an external disk for user storage. I know I can point Photos and iTunes to libraries on the external drive, but I'm more interested in transparently locating the entire home folder on the external drive. Thru trial and error, might have landed on a winner: setting the external drive's mount point to /Users/ . Is this a feasible approach? I couldn't find any stories of others attempting this, which could suggest that it's a terrible idea; or maybe it's just not a common solution. Laying out my process:

Formatted external drive to match Mac mini SSD, with APFS and permissions enabled
Started by moving bulk documents from iMac to external drive, to reduce size of folders for migration
Created new Administrator account on Mac mini before migrating existing users
Migrated user accounts from iMac to Mac mini (internal SSD, no option to select other location in Migration Assistant)
First, just copied home folder to external drive and pointed user account to it; this resulted in major permissions errors and iCloud connection issues
Tried manually resetting home folder permissions via finder, via recovery mode, via diskutil ResetUserPermissions; seemed to resolve some but not all errors
Re-migrated and used finder's “exact copy” to maintain permissions; again, not a full fix
Ultimately, left migrated user folder in place on internal SSD; no issues with migrated user accounts when left in place
Re-migrated all users from iMac and left in place on internal SSD; delete failed migration home folders
Ensure external drive always auto-mounts at boot, test across logouts, reboots, cold boots and different users:

https://superuser.com/questions/360276/automount-external-hard-drive-on-mac
How does Mac OS X decide which volumes to mount? One of my disks doesn't mount at boot

Test setting mount point of external drive to a different location on the root drive filesystem

Permanently change mount point of volume?
choose a non-critical mount point first, try mounting to a location that already exists - no issues, mounting "replaces" the mount point folder with the drive; has the drive name in Finder but the mount point folder's name in Terminal
try mounting to a location that already has data - the existing data becomes inaccessible as the mount point "obscures" the data with the drive's filesystem, but unmounting the drive reveals the data is still there
try mounting to a location that already has data by same name - no issues, ditto

NEXT STEPS (a little bit scared to try)

“exact copy” /Users to the external drive
try mounting the drive to /Users
reboot, cold boot, different user logins - any issues?
Try logging in with the drive detached — what happens? should fall back to the "original" home folders still in place; or recovery mode? command-R

If that doesn’t work, set music folders and photos libraries to locations on external drive

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201625

Having an old internal drive and a new external one which is a clone of it, I managed to move user accounts, from /Users to a new folder /Users/.legacy/ (for keeping them around just in case). I then created symbolic links of cloned user folders in /Users folder.

# cd /Users
# mkdir -p .legacy
# mv username .legacy
# ln -s /Volumes/New_drive/Users/username


Witch and Youtube Fullscreen Windows I just installed Witch for one reason only which is that if I make a youtube video fullscreen in Chrome then ⌘tab to another app, when I ⌘tab again to get back to the youtube video OSX instead just switches to the browser in the current space.

Unfortunately when I tried Witch it lets me switch back to the youtube video but the youtube.com is now full screen prompt appears AND NEVER DISAPPEARS.

How can I fix this?

It turns out Chrome is apparently creating some special window called "Window". Witch sees that as the previous window and ⌘tab switched to it, not the actual video window. This takes me to the correct space for the video but it's the wrong window.

The solution is to tell Witch to ignore windows with the name "Window" by adding ,Window the the "Ignore windows with titles:" Behavior settings.


Is there any way to block automatic IOS updates? I know my personal devices (iPhone / iPad) wont install updates automatically but it is downloading them automatically even with the settings turned off. What can I do to prevent automatic downloads of these updates so I can conserve my data usage?

Google-fu would seem to think the only way is to keep your device too full to take the download.
You can prevent it from downloading over 'mobile data' but not if it can see WiFi.

To prevent mobile downloads, go to Settings > App & iTunes Stores & disable the Use Mobile Data option.
The specific types above are to prevent the phone downloading other data types at all - meaning you will need to update via iTunes on your computer.

None of those options will prevent an iOS update from downloading [even Updates, which you may think would be the one] but the Mobile option will prevent it using your phone's data plan.


I can't use the iPhoto library as desktop backgrounds on Mavericks Since updating to Mavericks, I can no longer select my iPhoto library (9.4.3) as source for the desktop background. In the left hand list, the iPhoto entry is present, but no folders and if I select the "root" iPhoto entry, only the default wallpaper will show.

I have rebooted several times without solving the problem.
The screensaver will find the library just fine.

Does anyone have a suggestion on what to do?

Edit:
I added a screenshot of how it looks

I solved my problem by using iPhoto's Photo Library First Aid and repairing the permissions of the iPhoto library.

To activate the Photo Library First Aid

Hold down Option+ Command  while starting iPhoto.

A Window with several options will appear.

To repair the permissions check Repair Permissions and click the Repair button

If that does not solve the problem, again activate Photo Library First Aid and try the next repair option, "Rebuild Thumbnails." Continue through repair options until problem is solved. (In my case, "repair permissions" was not sufficient, but "rebuild thumbnails" solved the problem, so that "Photo Library" appeared in selection list for screen saver.)


How do I write to NTFS drives in OS X? What is the best, easiest, preferably cheapest way to make OS X write to NTFS-formatted drives in Mac OS X?

Updated at May 2015, with current solutions.

Free solutions

FUSE for OS X - Successor to MacFUSE

NTFS-3G
Requires a build from source for anything newer than 2010. Last "pre built" version linked from http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/ntfs-3g-for-mac-os-x-2010102.html You can build it from source using homebrew in the other answers.

Paid solutions

Paragon NTFS

Tuxera NTFS

MacFuse is abandonware, and hasn't been updated since 2009.


How To Trick WeChat Into to Thinking My iPhone Is An iPad? so I use a chatting app called WeChat and I have two phones. It only allows me to sign in on one phone at a time. But I can sign in on an iPad and a phone at the same time. It's an universal app, which means there is no iPad specific ipa. I like to know how I can put WeChat into a sandbox and makes it think my iPhone is an iPad. Thanks.

The WeChat app can ask iOS whether it is running on an iPad or iPhone. It is not something you can set in Settings, or "fake" through the Messages settings as indicated elsewhere.

The only way to overcome this is with a jailbroken iPhone, where you can intercept the relevant method calls. In practice it is not possible to do so for an "ordinary user" without strong technical skills.

Try contacting WeChat support to see if they have a work-around, or they might consider lifting the restriction in coming versions.


Is there any decent Wordpress blogging client for Mac? On Windows I used to blog to Wordpress using Microsoft Word 2010 blog feature, but the Mac version is missing this feature.

I am looking for alternatives, preferably free ones. If you specify a commercial solution please include the price:  name (x$).

Please do not suggest generic text/html editors and submit different suggestions as separated answers.

You might consider Flock, a free, Firefox-based browser with many other features, including a built in blog editor. It's quite an unusual program, as you can also use it to manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts and feeds. It's worth a look.


safari inspector how to add complex rules? I haven't been using safari for long and this appears to be only in the newer version from what I can see online.

When using the inspector I cannot add chained rules (IDK the technical term for them...something like this...

#mydiv *

Which is selecting everything after the #mydiv. I have poked around the settings and I have been trying to search, but

One option is to first focus on an element that would satisfy the rule (this is because the rule list only shows rules that apply to the current element and the second you would input a rule that does not it would "disappear")

Then you simply go to Elements Tab -> Styles -> Rules and click on New rule. Input your new rule (you can edit both the selector and the rule).

Alternatively you can create a new rule (+ New Rule) which is automatically created on the current element. Fill the CSS and then change the selector.


How do I make my Mac stop responding to an Apple remote? I've got a MacBook running OS X 10.5 and an Apple TV sitting next to each other.  The remote for the Apple TV is being picked up by the MacBook.  I want it to only control the Apple TV.

OS X 10.5: Go to Security in System Preferences.app, then select Disable remote control infrared receiver at the bottom.

newer versions of OS X: Go to Security and Privacy in System Preferences.app, then click on Advanced at the bottom and select Disable remote control infrared receiver.


Is there any way to record video on an iPhone 3G? My friend has an iPhone 3G, and is wondering if there's any way to record video on the iPhone 3G.

I believe the latest iOS update available for the iPhone 3G didn't enable the video feature and that it was only introduced with the iPhone 3GS. Are there any good apps which enable this feature? Ideally, my friend is looking for a free solution.

Correct, and yes.

Here's one you can try: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/record-video-for-free-iphone/id376582359?mt=8

You can probably find others by searching 'free video recorder iphone 3g'.

You will also find some extra options on Cydia if your phone is jailbroken.


Using the Numbers app, how to make 2 plus +0.25 become 2.25? When a row in a table from a webpage is copied to the Numbers app, such as

2       3    4      5

and another row is copied, as some "deltas" (minor addition or subtraction):

+0.25   0    0   -0.5

Then the numbers are added up vertically.  The number in the first column adds up to 2, while the last column adds up to 4.5.  So the first column is incorrect, and the last column is correct -- I think the reason is +0.25 is treated as a string, while -0.5 is treated as a number.

Is there a way to make it work on Numbers?   (manual editing is not preferred, as it is error prone and there are actually a lot more numbers, and finding the + by eye and removing it can cause an error when it is not seen, and if there are 200 such numbers, then doing it 200 times by hand is quite a time consuming method.)

(and actually, this happens on Google Apps as well)

You can use the Search/Find functionality (Cmd-F) in Numbers to replace the + with "nothing". Don't worry about + in formulas, they won't get replaced. Summing the the rows should work ok afterwards.


How to skip files with ditto command line utility? I'm trying to import a large (100GB+) iPhoto library located on a seemingly faulty external drive, that always yields an error -36 when I attempt to copy the library using Finder. I therefore tried the ditto the approach suggested in this article:

ditto -v ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary/ /Volumes/MyDrive/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary/

The problem is, when ditto reaches the faulty file, I get these errors logged:

  ditto: (...)/MVI_5490.MOV: Device not configured

  ditto: (...)/IMG_5489.JPG: No such file or directory

Then suddenly macOS complains about the drive being ejected improperly, and the copy stops.

These two files seem to have contiguous IDs and reside in the same directory. So I guess that they're both located on a single faulty block.

I'd like to try preventing ditto from attempting to copy these files altogether, in the hope that this will prevent the disk from failing and allow the copy to complete (I don't care about a couple photos/videos missing, and I can always rebuild the iPhoto library later on).

Is there a way to instruct ditto to skip a known list of files?

If not, I'd accept an alternative solution (cp command based or any other), as long as it can handle the copy the way ditto does it (preserving ownership, permissions and such).

I've worked around the problem by booting on the failing drive and copying to the external drive.

I still get the I/O errors when attempting to read the same files, but at least the drive does not eject (and the system does not crash) so I was able to go through with ditto and ignoring/logging files in error.

Otherwise, the answer to my original question seems to lie with rsync:

rsync -av --exclude='path1/to/exclude' --exclude='path2/to/exclude' source destination

or:

rsync -av --exclude-from=FILE source destination

See this answer for more information.


Root User Cannot Reset Another Users Password I wanted to enable Root user on macOS Mojave Version 10.14.4 so that i can use it in case another users or admins lose their login credentials. I tried this and when i tested out password reset for an admin user i get the following:

I am not sure why root user fails to reset a password of another user, in my case it was an admin account, but the on the other hand the admin user is able to reset another admins password. I dont mind settling for having an admin account to actually serve as a reset password alternative but i am very curious why i cant reset a password with a root user. Any feedback is welcomed.

Thank you for taking your time to comment on this post!

Mac info:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
Disk is encrypted with FileVault

Don’t use root user on Mac in the GUI. Use any admin account and credentials for the easiest time to make changes like this.

This is a fundamental design decision - Apple is even going towards a read only system volume, system integrity protection and all manner of things to make root and admin users go through security layers and barriers and API to secure the experience and user data.


Couldn't open device I can not partition nor use a removable USB disk without file system.
I obtained the following informations:
sh-3.2# diskutil info disk2
   Device Identifier:        disk2
   Device Node:              /dev/disk2
   Whole:                    Yes
   Part of Whole:            disk2
   Device / Media Name:      IC1100        CF

   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)

   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)

   File System:              None

   Content (IOContent):      None
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported

   Total Size:               8.0 GB (7994327040 Bytes) (exactly 15613920 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)

   Device Location:          External
   Removable Media:          Yes
   Media Removal:            Software-Activated

   Virtual:                  No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported

After following this guide, I am now able to see the disk in Disk Utility, but it is uninitialized, and when I try to format it, I get the error
Couldn't open device
EDIT: I tried the following:

Disk Utility > Erase
Terminal > diskutil eraseDisk MS-DOS NAME disk2
Terminal > diskutil eraseVolume MS-DOS NAME disk2
Terminal > diskutil partitionDisk disk2 1 MBR MS-DOS NAME 7.8GB

They ALL lead to the same error: Error: -69877: Couldn't open device
EDIT 2: This is the partition table:
    sh-3.2# fdisk -e /dev/disk2
    fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory
    The signature for this MBR is invalid.
    Would you like to initialize the partition table? [y] y
    Enter 'help' for information
    fdisk:*1> p
    Disk: /dev/disk2    geometry: 971/255/63 [15613920 sectors]
    Offset: 0   Signature: 0xAA55
             Starting       Ending
     #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     1: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
     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

EDIT 3: If I type fdisk /dev/disk2 , this is shown:
sh-3.2# fdisk /dev/disk2
Disk: /dev/disk2    geometry: 971/255/63 [15613920 sectors]
Signature: 0xD913
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: D5  843 125  41 -  856  48  15 [3289417632 - 1579849264] <Unknown ID>
 2: B0  380 233  63 -  580 252  34 [1433382022 - 2359874114] <Unknown ID>
 3: 21  542 173  50 -  368 171  22 [ 805962412 - 2236752874] <Unknown ID>
 4: C1  311 233  33 -  417  95   7 [3864719105 - 4292535645] DRDOSs FAT12

How can I solve? Thanks
(I'm using Mac OS X 10.11.3)

Restore a DMG (maybe an OSX InstallESD.dmg or any other application) to the disk/drive via Disk Util. This will overwrite it (deleting all data). Then you can partition again how you like.

I have encountered this several times myself with USB pen drives as well as SSDs inside a MacBook Air. Formatting and Erasing brought up the exact same errors you describe. DD didn't work out, Resizing the partition gave me an error about corruption on the disk. First Aid/Scanning & Repairing the volume didn't yield any results, the tool completed with the message that there wasn't anything to repair.

Only the Restoring of a random DMG to the drives made it manageable again.

Hope this helps!


Can't open mov files in QuickTime, but can do it in VLC After reinstalling the operating system (OS X EL Capitan) I can't open video files in .mov format. I can open them using VLC but I can't open them in QuickTime and Adobe Premiere - what could be wrong? Maybe I need some codecs?

Here's what Google says:

  According to the info in Apple official site, QuickTime does support MOV files. However, MOV is a multimedia container file that contains one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects, or text (e.g. for subtitles).

So it could be possible that a part of the .mov file may not be supported by the QuickTime player. In this case, I would suggest you to convert the file to a .mp4 or a QuickTime compatible .mov format using a third party application.


Phone Numbers to be ignored Apparently someone has given my number has his telephone number to a whole bunch of offices, and I am getting a lot of calls on my phone asking for him!

Is there a setting on the iPhone 3GS - OS 4.0.2 to set a phone number to not ring, and not vibrate?

You can always make a silent ring tone as your default ring tone.  Be sure to assign ring tones to your contacts that you want to hear from.


Historically, how soon does Apple implement new wireless standards in their routers? With the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard set to become the new wireless standard, I am wondering how quick Apple has been, historically speaking, to implement new standards like these in their AirPorts and Time Capsule.

More to the point, would these changes be likely to take effect before the end of the summer, historically speaking?

To be clear I am not asking about rumors or speculation, but rather would like historical evidence to back any claims made.

The two wikipedia articles below have an easily searchable summary of both the Airport and 802.11 timelines in the past:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

Looking specifically at 802.11n - Apple shipped product in November 2006 supporting the draft in MacBook Pro cards. The AirPort hardware followed in January 2007 and the standard didn't get published until October 2009.

Apple clearly isn't allergic to getting way ahead of a standard, and often builds the flexibility to roll out new standards in shipping product and will never mention it (and sometimes the people disassembling the hardware when it's released are in the dark as to these undocumented abilities).

Historically, if a protocol were ready for robust service this summer, you would be safe to presume Apple has considered and built for that more than 18 months ago.

The real problem with these sort of "crystal ball" extrapolations is that Apple only backs things it knows will be a long term success. Take for example Blue Ray and HD DVD. Those standards are clearly far superior to DVD, yet Apple skipped those and has never spent time or money putting those faster, better, and more data dense formats into production. Clearly fast networking is more core to computing and a desirable competitive edge for marketing hardware than an optical media format choice, but you'll want to carefully examine how any "advancement" fits into the big picture for consumers and/or businesses.

I personally don't see large percentages of the consumer population needing faster Wireless network access than 802.11n since fiber to the door and the rest of the network infrastructure in the US is lagging what current AirPort hardware can deliver. I would look instead for smarter devices that proxy app store downloads and undercut various cloud storage services with an Apple solution in the coming months rather than a spec bump.

Apple clearly has the money and expertise to skate to where the puck is going to be in terms of Wi-Fi improvements, but we as consumers often don't have the perspective Apple's engineers have of what's really in the queue for technology so our guessing is more of a parlor game than something I'd plan a purchase or investment around.


Scripting the unhiding of Library folders on Time Machine disks Here's the context: I have about 400 students with Time Machine backups from Lion computers. We wiped and re-imaged their laptops with new software AND with Mountain Lion. We just discovered that you can no longer use Time Machine to "Browse other Backup Disks" in Mountain Lion. (The option is there, but the functionality is broken.) The students will have to navigate in Finder to their most recent backup and manually drag the files to their new computer.  However, the Library is hidden on the disk, and they can't access it without unhiding it.  I know how to unhide the folder using this method in Terminal:

cd ../../Volumes/WhateverTheyNamedTheirBackupDrive/Backups.backupdb/Student's MacBook Air/2012-07-30-192502/Macintosh HD/Users/StudentsUserName
ls
chflags nohidden Library

Does anyone have any idea how I could script something that unhides the mounted backup folders' libraries? I'm struggling with the extreme variability of student backup disk names and folder names within a Time Machine backup. (And I can't exactly expect 400 kids to get it right in terminal.)

Could you use something like this?

sudo /System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Helpers/bypass chflags nohidden /Volumes/*/Backups.backupdb/*/*/*/Users/*/Library/

bypass was in /System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Contents/MacOS/bypass on Lion.


NTFS mount issue in Lion I am getting this error. Can anybody help me?

/Library/Filesystems/fusefs.fs/Support/fusefs.kext failed to load - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found;

You probably need to upgrade to a new version of MacFuse. Unfortunately there isn't one available. See this blog post. So there is a new project called OSXFuse which is going to support this. Here is the link to the Github project. https://github.com/osxfuse

I hope this helps a little.


How to make battery indicator show battery status instead of UPS battery on MacBook Air I have a UPS system setup connected to my MacBook Air's dock at home. Whenever I look to check for the percentage of battery remaining on my MacBook Air (when not plugged in), it shows the percentage remaining on my UPS instead of my MacBook Air. Is there a way to change this to show my MacBook Air's battery instead?

You can disable the UPS status by turning it off in the System Preferences > Energy Saver > UPS settings:

Just uncheck "Show UPS status in the menu bar" and you should have only your internal battery being displayed.

Update:  That check box shows in either the "Power" or "UPS" tab; not just the UPS Tab as described above.  It's still in exactly the same place as the image above, but I wanted to be accurate.


Can I remove items from my App Store updates The App Store wants me to update my Pages 4.3 to Pages 5.0.

Given the changes to and reviews of Pages 5.0, I wish to stay with 4.3.

Can I somehow delete the upgrade reminder from the list?

I would also like to remove the Keynote and Numbers upgrade reminders as well.

Note that my current Pages, Numbers and Keynote were purchased on CD's and not via the App Store.  As such, they do not show up on my purchases list in the App Store.

Your old iWork versions are not removed, so you can safely upgrade and keep both versions.

As Apple rolls "upgrades" to the newer version back in you can decide when it has restored sufficient functionality for it to do what you need it to.

Sorry if this doesn't specifically answer your question but it will get rid of the updates reminder...


iPad won't turn on after a complete battery drain My iPad mini retina is out of warranty,

I forgot to plug in my iPad after the critical battery warning and it went some minutes following the warning. I was not worried because same thing had happened a few times before and iPad was perfectly okay after charging it. However, this time I remember seeing a flash of blue screen immediately after it went black. Then, I plugged it in an waited for a while and tried starting it. Ever since, it fails to start hanging on the apple logo with white background screen.

I tried to connect to my Mac but nothing showed up in iTunes. I am worried now. Can I troubleshoot this or is it broken and needing repair?

Assuming it is now charged…

Hold Home & Power buttons for at least 45 seconds, see if it starts up normally.

If not…

Plug your iPad's USB cable into a computer with iTunes.
Hold down the Home button [keep holding] and connect to your iPad.
Keep holding the Home button until you see a screen telling you to connect to iTunes.
iTunes should show you a popup saying that there is an iPhone or iPad that is in Recovery Mode and needs to be restored before you can use it.
Click OK.
Click on Restore iPhone/iPad.

If the above doesn't work, you may need to get a fully operational iPad charger and plug it into the wall. The current and voltage needed to wake an iPad with a deeply discharged battery (or one that's malfunctioning due to age) is higher than a computer can provide over USB.

Plug into a known good iPad type adapter (higher current than iPhone charger)
Wait 15 minutes
Try powering on
Wait 10 minutes
Try a hard reset (hold home button and sleep wake button together for 15 seconds)
Wait 5 minutes
Try powering on

At that point, you can let it charge for another hour and try again or start with a different cable or a different charger. Eventually, you'll need to have the iPad serviced if it cannot wake from sleep due to a very low batter charge condition even when plugged into power.


What are the Best Ways to Speed Up a Mac? I have a 2012 Macbook Pro and although it seems to be working fine, over time it has seemed to become more sluggish and less snappy / responsive. So is there any good ways ways that I can 'speed up' my Mac? - this includes stuff like: maximising youtube videos 'lag', the RAM being used up very quickly, Photoshop operations taking a long time to load and Preview struggling to open very large (10000s x 10000s px in size) photos.

My Specs - Macbook Pro 13" (Retina, Late 2012):

CPU: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
RAM: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB
OS: OS X Yosemite 10.10.4
SSD HD: 245/249.77 GB Used
Typical RAM Available with Safari + Chrome Open (with lots of
tabs): 2.5 GB

The only thing I can see which might help is freeing some space on your hard drive.

With the lack of free space OS X won’t be able to make use of Virtual Memory as efficiently as it should, or possibly at all. I’m not 100% sure about Yosemite, but I’ve experienced a big performance hit on previous OS X releases when the OS can’t allocate as much RAM as it wants to.

With tools like Photoshop, are you using a separate scratch disk? If not then you’ll be relying on the little internal storage available which will result in OS X having to free up RAM (rather than swapping it) to apply effects/filters/etc.


Why is my macbook pro non-retina slow to sleep (15-20 s) despite no sleepimage? So, the situation:

non-retina macbook pro mavericks OS X or newer
have to wait 15+ seconds for macbook to sleep
already tried setting hibernatemode=0 (no sleepimage)
see the following text after typing pmset -g log in the terminal:

TimedOut InternalPreventSleep "com.apple.powermanagement.darkwakelinger" 00:00:15

The XLab website says that this 15 sec delay is likely something Apple has added for Mac's that support PowerNap. DarkWake is assumed to be an internal name for PowerNap, and is referenced on a Patent.

For more, please visit the article on Xlab:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/mavericks_post_install.html#Delay_before_sleep


Cannot download apps from AppStore [English is not my mother language]

I cannot download any app from AppStore(it shows the downloading process in AppStore and it shows the icon of the app in setting>General>usage) but I can't find it on the home screen and I cannot open it through AppStore. Does anyone know how to fix it?

My iPhone is:
iPhone 4s
iOS 7.1

Try with a soft-reset on the device. Settings/General/Reset/Reset All Settings and try again. No data will be lost (other than passwords).


Setting to stop opening a new instance of an already open application? On my iMac this works perfectly. I have application open, I open a file extension handled by that application and it will open in the already open application. Just got a new Macbook Pro and each time I open a file it will open the same application again.

Examples:

I open an HTML file in Sublime Text 2, instead of using the application that is already open like on my iMac, it opens in it's own Sublime Text 2. Doesn't matter how many files I open. Each time it will open a new application.

Click a link from an email? New Chrome window will launch. I have Chrome open already, but it will open a new window every time. Double click an HTML file on the desktop? New Chrome window.

Very annoying so what is the setting I need to check that will stop this behavior and always open in the already open instance of the application?

If you are saying that you want each double-click to open the new file in a new tab of the current Sublime window, rather than opening a new window in Sublime, then that is going to be an application-specific preference.  Meaning, you'll need to look at the preferences for Sublime and see if there isn't some equivalent of "Open new file in tab" or "Open new window in new tab" setting.


Does reducing message history on one device affect other devices? If I have one apple account signed into multiple devices, and I change the iMessage message history from Forever to 30 Days on one device, will this have any impact on any other devices with this same apple account?

I'm just trying to make sure I don't delete older messages on any other devices when deleting older messages on the one device.

No it does not. Each holds messages it received from the servers irrespective of other devices.


Why are Firefox and Safari having problems with certain PDF files on the web? I'm having fits with a certain web PDF document using both Firefox and Safari.  Basically the document in question doesn't consist of one big pdf file; rather it consists of a bunch (20 or so) smaller files, one for each chapter or section, and the main page has file links to each of them.  In Firefox on a PC, clicking on the link for section 22 simply opens that PDF in the existing in-browser window.  In Safari or Firefox on Mac... it doesn't do anything - I can't navigate to or view section 22.  Similarly, downloading the individual files and saving them doesn't seem to work very well either, though I am thinking of downloading them and trying to re-create locally the directory/file structure the links seem to expect - still kind of a PITA.

Link to PDF document

Does anyone know of any browser add-on or other tool that could be used to view something like this on a Mac?

Adobe's Safari plugin for their PDF Reader doesn't work in 64 bit mode (and they don't supply a Firefox/Mac plugin at all!).

Try this Adobe kb article to see if setting 32-bit mode for Safari will work for you.  I had similar isses a while back, and I had to reinstall Reader (after upgrading to Snow Leopard) after doing this tip.


OS X not recognizing Surface Keyboard as a keyboard When I connect the Surface Keyboard to macOS, it seems to go fine, I enter the pairing code and everything works, keyboard works.

However I want to switch the modifier keys (Option and Command) to work like the Mac keyboards, and I can't do it, because macOS seems to not realize this is a keyboard. The icon shown in the Bluetooth preferences is the generic Bluetooth icon, and this keyboard is not listed at all in the Keyboard preferences.

Note the Surface Keyboard claims full compatibility with macOS, (see link above), so I'm not sure what I need to do to get it fully recognized.

I found that I could remap the keys using Karabiner Elements. Credit to this blog post.


Functions keys in windows 7 macbook I have a late 2007 MacBook 3,1 with windows 7 x64 installed on it as part of bootcamp. I can't set the function keys to behave as they would on a pc... I have to press fn each time in order to use their original functionality. I don't have any kind of boot camp option under control panel, so I'm puzzled what to do.

Ok, I have downloaded bootcamp 4 and installed it with BootCamp64.msi and now I have a BootCamp option under control panel. Works like charm!


How do I backup my complete iTunes library (to new a PC)? I am currently using XP on my laptop, which has the iTunes library.
I use it to sync my iPod/iPad.

I am planning to buy a new laptop (Windows 7). How do I make the transition seamless to the new iTunes library switch ?
i.e. I should get all the Music/Movies/Apps/Photos,etc on my new Win 7 laptop seamlessly.

Apple has a support document for this: iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer. It also covers things like de-authorizing your old computer from the iTunes Store etc.


What kit enables iPhone or iPad use for wearable computing? I am wondering if there are wearable computer kits for the iPhone or iPad, or are there resources on how to do it.

I would like to be able to, at a bare minimum, type text while walking, possibly do more like read text documents.

Wearable computing is an interesting problem. You can do some of it by getting something like the google glasses, which won't be released until next year at about $1500, or finding a vendor for the project. You would then have to get the adapter for your iDevice to output svga/dvi and interface that with the HUD (Heads up display)
Next, for input, you would likely have to get a bluetooth keyboard. There used to be a frogpad (not sure if they still make them) that supports bluetooth, but it is a chorded keyboard. Chorded keyboards take some getting used to, but can be very good and very fast once you do.

At the moment, I don't know of a kit you can buy to do this, it will likely take some work sourcing the parts like the glasses and keyboard.


Replace non-functioning system applications Yesterday I used Drive Genius 3 to clear up some space on my primary drive. I may have been a bit too aggressive, allowing it to delete localizations and a few other things. Long story short, apps like App Store, Preview, TextEdit and Terminal would no longer open. Clicking on the dock icon it would light up for a second and then immediately fizzle out. Opening Console, I saw things like this:

  Terminal[728]: Unable to load nib file: MainMenu, exiting
  com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[211]: (com.apple.Terminal.60048[728]) Exited with code: 1

  TextEdit[724]: Unable to load nib file: Edit, exiting
  com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[211]: (com.apple.TextEdit.58816[724]) Exited with code: 1
  librariand[255]: client process 724 does not have a valid com.apple.developer.ubiquity-container-identifiers entitlement
  error in handle_container_path_request: LibrarianErrorDomain/9/The client process does not have a valid com.apple.developer.ubiquity-container-identifiers entitlement

This was not a user-based or permissions-based problem, as I tried logging in as an existing user, and created a new user and logged in as them as well, both of which experienced the same issue.

So thank you, Drive Genius, and next time I'll be a lot more careful. In the meantime, I needed to figure out how to get these applications running again. I saw suggestions out there to use things like Pacifist to extract the original application files, but that only seemed to apply if you have original media, which we don't get anymore. And I'd have downloaded the software from the App Store, but catch-22, I couldn't open the App Store...

Luckily, I had another system at the exact same OS level (this is important), which was working fine. I copied the following apps from that machine to a basic folder on the broken machine:

App Store.app
Terminal.app
Preview.app
TextEdit.app

Of course OS X won't let you copy those apps directly into the Applications folder, so I did this, which recursively copies all of the contents (since the .app files aren't just files) and replaces the existing, non-functioning copies:

cp -R ~/<folder>/<file>.app /Applications/

You may have to really ask for a sandwich:

sudo cp -R ~/<folder>/<file>.app /Applications/

And joy, my system works again (but I haven't deleted the copies yet, just in case).

Hope it helps someone else.


How can I change mouse button to work with Safari? I got a Mac-mini but I'm not using Mac mice, I have a Razer Imperator mice. Checking under System Preference, there are only options that allow modifying scrolling speed, and tracking speed. So my question is how do I modify the left/right button of my mice since I want to navigate back and fourth between pages within Safari. Plus, I also want to change the scrolling behavior, it's completely opposite with Window, I scroll down, it goes up, I scroll up it goes down :(.

With BetterTouchTool you should be able to re-assign all the buttons as you wish for a particular program or system-wide.


Why is a black iPhone 4S is shown as white in iTunes? I've recently got a new black iPhone 4S, but in iTunes and Xcode organizer it is shown as white (see screenshots below).

I purchased this new within the UK (model MD239B), but I'm not sure if it was refurbished. The search request says it is a white one. Could it possibly be a refurbished device? I've checked the serial number on support.apple.com, there is no single word similar to 'refurbished'.

iTunes deduces the color of the iPhone from the serial number he finds on the logic board.  For example:

MD269LL   = Black AT&T 64GB 4S
MD271LL   = White AT&T 64GB 4S
MD277LL/A = White Verizon 16GB 4S
...

So, check your model number and look it up to make sure you've got a black one.


How will Apple's Notarization impact programs written in Python? Apple has announced that all programs in the next release of its operating system must be notarized.

  Beginning in macOS 10.14.5, all new or updated kernel extensions and
  all software from developers new to distributing with Developer ID
  must be notarized in order to run. In a future version of macOS,
  notarization will be required by default for all software.

How will this affect programs written in Python? Will they need to be notarized? Or will notarization be required for using certain APIs? How about browser plug-ins? Will they require notarization?

I'm starting to research this to better understand its implications as well, since I installed a number of 3rd party apps on my laptop and never use the store. Everything I install is either DMG or via brew.

Background & Python

For starters I would suspect any applications that are in binary form would be what Apple's referring to when they executables have to be notarized. A Python script, though executable, is not technically a binary, the shebang, #!/usr/bin/env python at the top is what makes it executable, so I would expect that only the literal /usr/bin/python binary would need to be notarized to appease GateKeeper.

APIs

If you look through the documentation around Notarization, you're uploading your build artifacts from your project to an Apple server where they'll analyze it and then provide a will return a unique ticket that you'll need to "staple" to your application. This ticket will allow GateKeeper to later verify your application for authenticity with Apple.

So they won't be doing anything through high level APIs, but rather through forcing applications to use macOS 10.9 libraries or later SDKS, per this bullet:

  Link against the macOS 10.9 or later SDK.

So they will be restricting applications through low level libraries (APIs) that they may be using.

Plugins

By default plugins will inherit whatever notary their native application they're running in will provide:

Notarizing Your App Before Distribution

  Plug-ins don’t declare their own entitlements. Instead, they inherit
  the entitlements of the host process. Therefore, a host app must
  include all the entitlements that prospective plug-ins require, even
  when the plug-ins are notarized separately.

However, this paragraph looks to state that basic plugins should be able to just work through their parent, but if they're doing something low level themselves, perhaps in some C plugin to Photoshop, this extra level of capabilities will need to be addressed by the parent app as part of its entitlement on behalf of the plugins that may run underneath the parent app.

Notarizing Your App Before Distribution

  For example, if a plug-in employs deep integration with the host
  executable via C function pointer overrides, or uses a JavaScript
  engine for custom workflows, the host executable must declare the
  Allow Unsigned Executable Memory Entitlement or Allow Execution of
  JIT-compiled Code Entitlement, respectively. In some cases, a plug-in
  fails to even load if the host executable lacks the proper
  entitlement.

An author's perspective

I found this blog post from the author of Acorn, a commercially available image editor.

MacOS Notarization

  And automating the notarization steps weren't as bad as I thought they
  would be. I wrote a Python script which calls out to the notarization
  tools with the addition of having the response format set to xml (and
  it was in the plist format, which was then easily fed into
  Foundation.NSDictionary). The script analyzed the current state of
  things and either waited a while before querying the notarization
  servers again to see if it's done, or stapled on the notarization bits
  if it was. Then a new build of Acorn makes its way to the internet.

  Notarization adds a few minutes to the build time, but maybe it'll be
  worth it? I don't like having to depend on Apple's servers to put
  something up on mine. But if notariation prevents those "Foo.app is an
  app downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?"
  boxes from scaring customers unnecessarily, it will be worth the
  hassle. I can hope at any rate.

I felt like this author's perspective was reasonable. I've always just dismissed the warning when installing 3rd party software, but can understand some people's reluctance.

This article had some additional takes on Notarization that I found germane to you question but didn't want to overload my answer with too much more info. The article is titled: What the Apple Notarization Program for macOS Apps Means for You.

References

Notarizing Your App Before Distribution
How to notarize your software on macOS


How to fix Macbook that did not completely install a new version of OS, so now its stuck in a error loop every time its turned on. I tried to install the latest version of the mac os, computer was turned off mid installation. Now when i try to run the computer it goes through a error, keeps repeating the process of trying to fix the error.

Your best bet is to just start over from scratch.

Hold down CommandR while powering on the Mac to get it into recovery mode.
Once the recovery mode menu comes up, choose disk utility, elect your Mac's hard drive and format it. If you have an SSD choose APFS, if not HFS+. If you are not sure, go with HFS+.
When that is done (we reformatted just to be safe) Quit out of Disk Utility and choose the option to install macOS.
You may need to either plug the Mac into your router with an Ethernet cable (fastest) or sign onto your WiFi network as the Mac will now download macOS.
Make sure it is plugged in and is getting power. Older (magsafe) power connectors) have lights on them. Green for charged, Orange for charging and let it do it's thing.
Follow the prompts to choose your language, etc. Note that your Mac will likely install the macOS it shipped with. You can upgrade to Mojave once you have a bootable Mac.
Now just let it do its thing. You will know it is done when it starts asking more questions about your User account, to sign into iCloud. Etc.

Note that in step to I have you reformat your drive. This assumes you already have a backup (Time Machine or other) to restore your data from. If not you have a whole 'nother set of problems. Let us know if that is the case.

I have you reformat your drive in case something (disk structure, files, etc.) is damaged. It's more of a precaution than anything else. you MAY be able to reinstall without this step. I would not do that unless I absolutely had to and had data on the disk I didn't have a copy of.

It would also be helpful if you included your Mac's model in questions like this. Depending on the age of the Mac some features are not available, like Recovery Mode...


How do I split a video every X minutes? How can I split a video every X minutes using iMovie or some other Mac software, outputting the split videos to a folder, named by section (e.g. "video1of4", "video2of4")?

Split a video with VLC from the command line

Open Terminal and run the following script:

It determines the length of the original file and splits it into 2 min intervals.

You can change this by changing the $interval variable, which is in seconds.

You will also need to change the $filename variable to whatever file you want to split.

#!/bin/bash
filename=test.mkv
duration=`ffprobe -show_format $filename | sed -n '/duration/s/.*=//p'`
duration=${duration/.*}
interval=120
start=0
n=$start
stop=$interval
while [ $duration -ge 0 ]; do
    /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC -Idummy $filename --start-time $start --stop-time $stop --sout=#file{dst=$n-out-$filename} vlc://quit
    let start=stop
    let stop=stop+interval
    let duration=duration-interval
    echo "Number of seconds left to process: $duration"
    let n=n+1
done


"User is unregistered with iMessage" error message I use an iPod 4th gen and I text my boyfriend on iMessage to his iPhone- either his number or email. Everything was all good until it came up with a red exclamation mark, I deleted the conversations to start fresh but then it said he's unregistered with iMessages. But I can still text my other friends, it's just him that I can't.

We talked it over and he can't text me either. I asked one of my friends to text his number and it worked. I've tried rebooting my iPod Touch, restarting it, making multiple ID accounts-only one worked then later failed. This has been happening for 3 weeks and its hasn't recovered. Anyone help me out? I've also tried iMessaging him on 1 iPad and 2 other iPods, but none of those worked.

How can I iMessage him again?

Go to the "No longer have your iPhone?" section on https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage, then turn it on again on you iPhone.


Run Boot Camp Windows10 partition inside VirtualBox I have a separate Windows10 partition courtesy of Boot Camp Assistant.

I would like the option of cranking it up inside my OS X session using VirtualBox, as there are times I would like to use some Windows apps without doing a reboot.

I have found a few guides:

Using Windows 7 installed in a Bootcamp partition from Mac OS X simultaneously (June '11)
Using bootcamp partition in virtualbox (old; Win7 & Lion, but 2015?comments)
Discussion: MacOS Bootcamp Partition as a VBox Guest (old; 2012/win7)

..but everything is rather out of date, referring to Windows 7.

I wonder whether maybe now the process is simpler?

Could anyone either detail or link to an updated process for Windows 10? (Or alternatively confirm one of the above as a best solution path...)

EDIT: putting up further research as I find it. Once I dig through it all I will upload my findings as an answer.

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19866&start=90#p290527
^ (mid-2014)

http://danielphil.github.io/windows/virtualbox/osx/2015/08/25/virtualbox-boot-camp.html <-- better! Win10!

However following this guide I hit up against:

Maybe ...

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=58821&start=15#p343017 says: "I finally got this working for my Windows 10 Boot Camp install. You have to disable System Integrity Protection under recovery mode in order to get a write lock on /dev/disk0s1 (the EFI partition)."

?

http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/05/disable-rootless-system-integrity-protection-mac-os-x/ <-- this didn't fix it

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/7811 <-- this did! But now I am here:

Googling gives https://askubuntu.com/questions/162148/virtualbox-machine-boots-to-efi-shell but turning off EFI as directed, now I get:

  FATAL: No bootable medium loaded. System halted!

π

TODO: http://engineer.john-whittington.co.uk/2013/03/bootcamp-partition-virtual-boot-with-virtualbox/ ?

I've started a thread here: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=75360

I also followed the guide at http://web.archive.org/web/20181103074214/http://danielphil.github.io/windows/virtualbox/osx/2015/08/25/virtualbox-boot-camp.html

I will add what challenges I had following that guide, but I was able to run my BOOTCAMP partition using VirtualBox, which is free, so I'm happy.

First, you should have installed:

Windows 10 x64 using the OS X Boot Camp assistant
VirtualBox 5.0.26 r108824

I also downloaded:

VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.26.iso (I don't think this is necessary, but I did it just to be safe)

As far as Disabling SIP or System Integrity Protection on El Capitan (OS X 10.11), I skipped that part. It was not necessary in my case.

As far as setting drive permissions:

I ran diskutil list to get a list of drives on my system, taking note of the drive number of the drive named EFI and the other one named BOOTCAMP, which in my case, the EFI drive was 1 and the BOOTCAMP drive was 4.
I then ran the instructions to unmount my Bootcamp drive and set permissions so that VirtualBox could access the drive. According to danielphil, this needs to be performed each time one reboots.

diskutil unmount /Volumes/BOOTCAMP

sudo chmod 777 /dev/disk0s1 <--- This is the drive no. of the EFI disk

sudo chmod 777 /dev/disk0s4 <--- This is the drive no. of the BOOTCAMP disk

As far as creating the VirtualBox image, the instructions are:

  Run the following commands to create a VirtualBox disk image wrapper for >your HD. Substitute the 1,4 with the numbers of your EFI and BOOTCAMP >partitions as appropriate and put your OS X username in for >your_username_here.
  Make sure you are in the directory where you want to store the VirtualBox image, or you will have to move it later.

sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk0 -filename win10raw.vmdk -partitions 1,4
sudo chown your_username_here *.vmdk

As far as creating the VM, the guide was not so clear. Before I followed the instructions from the screenshots, I created a new virtual machine in VirtualBox, checking "Do not add a virtual hard disk".

Once created, I selected it and clicked on "Settings". At this point, I followed the screenshots in the guide. The only difference was that:

I did NOT check "Enable EFI (special OS only)"
I did NOT have the option to check "Enable VT-x/AMD-V"
I used the recommended base memory of 2048 MB, as I only have 8GB of memory
In the "Storage" tab under "Storage Tree", I had to:

click the "adds optical drive" icon under Controller:SATA to add the "VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.26.iso" file I downloaded.
remove the "empty" image under Controller:SATA
Select the "Add IDE Controller" icon at the bottom
click the "adds hard disk" icon under Controller:IDE to add the vmdk file created


Why is my MacbookPro 2017 Crashing? My MacBook Pro 2017 under heavy loads (gaming, rendering videos in Camtasia, recording screen casts with OBS, etc.).

Here's a video of it

It keeps crashing and it gives me what I call the screen of black death from Apple:

.

Or my games will simply shut down when playing in Windows 10

I notice when it crashes when I run OBS, the cores and other areas don't seem to be overheated the instant it crashes.

When I bought this PC I was able to render video and play games with no problem, even at the same time...but after about 4 months it's now crashing whenever you put any intensive load on it period.

I've also heard a weird buzzing noise as if a robot were to die when it crashes sometimes.  That noise doesn't happen often but has when it crashes in Windows.

It's crashing in both windows 10 and OS X High Sierra, doesn't matter.  I've dual booted it with bootcamp.

Already ran a diagnostic (where you reboot, press D and whatever) and also they ran a light diagnostics test in the Apple store.  They said next step is for me to have to bring it in for a few days, where they run a heavy diagnostics on it for 5 hours.

Also opened the bottom and took a can duster and cleaned out the fans and vents.

This sucks cause I'm a programmer and it sucks because I just paid 4k for this fing laptop.  My Macbook 20-15 started to do this last year in fact!  And that's why I bought this one!  It's weird, my macbook 2015 isn't crashing anymore after turning it on after about a year, my kids are playing minecraft on it just fine but about 6 months ago that PC was crashing all the time even after I had reinstalled OS X. I don't know, I give up.

So is this normal?  I've seen it spike even over 200 degrees on the cores and I'm not even doing any rendering or gaming right now in OS X.  I'm just doing Chrome granted I have a lot of tabs open but no hard core streaming, rendering, or playing games.

Here's what that looks like:

Don't know if this is typical but I see 210 threads for kernal_task:

Troubleshooting is a process of elimination and usually requires some patience, so taking up the Apple Store offer may be a good way to proceed. However, before doing that there's a few more troubleshooting steps you can take.

To start with I would boot your Mac into Safe Mode and determine if it still displays this behaviour.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. does it still crash etc while in Safe Mode)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac as normal
Test again to see if it still crashes when booted normally

If you find that the problem still exists in Safe Mode, you can also try resetting the System Management Controller to see what difference, if any, that makes.

Reset the SMC

To reset the SMC, follow these steps:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
For 10 seconds, press and hold at the same time the shiftcontroloption keys (on the left side of the built-in keyboard) and the power button
After 10 seconds let go of all keys and the power button
Turn your MacBook Pro back on with the power button

After your MBP reboots, test to see if you can still get your temps to spike over 200 degrees etc (however, see my note on temperature below).

A note on temperature

Finally, MBP models usually range from about 40ºC (104ºF) to 100ºC (212ºF) depending on whether the CPU is idle or under load. CPU temps (just like ambient temperatures) typically have a bearing on GPU temps too, especially within the extremely confined spaces of a MacBook Pro.

If you'd like, you can refer to the Intel Mac Temperature Database to see the various temperature ranges reported by users. You can also filter the list by model etc.

UPDATE

Now that you've updated your question a few times and have uploaded the YouTube video, I feel taking it into the Apple Store to look at is the best way to go. The main reasons for this are:

Having problems in both Safe Mode and while booted normally is a strong indicator to some sort of hardware issue
Likewise, having problems when booted into either macOS or Windows 10 is also indicative that this is OS independent (and therefore most likely a hardware issue)
The various display glitches apparent in your YouTube video stringly imply a GPU and/or Logic Board problem

All of the above would require a visit to Apple. Obviously, prior to doing so, make sure you have a current backup of all your data.

If you did want to try one more thing prior to visting Apple, that would be doing a full fresh installation of macOS (to the earliest version that shipped with your MBP - you can do this by using the shiftoptioncommandR keyboard shortcut to reinstall the macOS that came with your Mac) and testing to see whether you have any issues prior to installing anything else. If not, go about installing OBS and see if that runs okay. If so, then go about creating your BootCamp Windows installation to see if that causes a problem.

However, if it was me, I'd plan for the visit to Apple. That is, do your backup, make alternative arrangements for a few days, and get Apple to do a full hardware diagnostic.