Does Xcode 7.3.1 run on MacOS Sierra (10.12)? i have both x code 7.3.1 and x code 8 installed on OS X 10.11 and i need them both to manage my apps written with swift language.

i have downloaded both from apple website (not from app store) and i still keep the setup files (.dmg & .xip)

will xcode 7.3.1 still work on sierra if i upgrade?

thanks in advance.

Yes it works. I have macOS Sierra with Xcode 7.3.1.

Tested:

Simulators
Debug on device
Validate/Upload to store
CocoaPods


HEIC image thumbnails don't appear on older iPad Wife has an iPad Mini running iOS 9 or so, and an iPhone 7 running iOS 11. Images shot in HEIC get synced to her iPad via Photos app, but no thumbnails appear. If clicked, the images appear normally. Seems iPhone is converting images for sharing via Photos but is not including the thumbnails... anyone else seen this?

(My iPad is running iOS 11 - so I have only seen this on my wife's device - can't tell if it is a flaky device or a bug in image sharing conversion)

I encountered the same issue with a friend's iPad (running 9.3.5) and iPhone 7 (running 11.1.1). Apparently, the iPad Photo app's thumbnailer is unable to handle HEIF files.

I worked around this by going into the iPhone's Settings > Camera > Formats and selecting Most Compatible. Any pictures taken after that show up properly on the iPad.


Push notifications no longer working? Push notifications for any app are no longer working with my home WiFi network. I'm running an iPhone 4 with iOS 4.3.2. I tried 5223 port forwarding and even disabled my router's firewall.

Strangely, they do work when I use public WiFi. Any idea?

Try resetting your router and add in the security features you use, one by one, until you see what 'breaks' push notifications.


Bluetooth MIDI in OS X Mavericks? I just received a new wireless controller (Livid Minim) that works over Bluetooth MIDI.  It works fine with my iOS devices, but won't connect to my Mac at all.  I'm using a 2011 iMac running OSX Mavericks and will not be upgrading (A previous attempt to upgrade to Yosemite was disastrous and lost my entire system, had to restore from a complete disk image I took before the upgrade)

Is it possible to use Bluetooth MIDI devices in Mavericks?  Everything I read only refers to Yosemite or greater, but I see nothing that actually states it cannot function on Mavericks.  Would appreciate any definitive answer on this matter.

Bluetooth MIDI in Yosemite (and up) Only

You cannot use Bluetooth MIDI in OS X Mavericks as it is not supported.  Bluetooth MIDI was implemented in Yosemite.  For more info, see https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1831/_index.html

  but I see nothing that actually states it cannot function on Mavericks.

It is very unlikely that you are going to see a statement from Apple stating that an OS three versions back specifically doesn't support a feature that was introduced in an OS that one version back.  Features that are listed are what's supported, not listed as to what's not.


How to create /etc/certificates/*.{cert,chain,concat,key}.pem files without reboot? I am trying to move from Comodo to Let's Encrypt certificates on OS X Server (10.7).
Something in Apple's server.app and ServerAdmin.app is broken. I can see and select newly imported certificates in server.app but after a few seconds and re-opening the dialog the selected certificates are back to the original value. In "Server Admin" > Mail > Advanced tab I can select the new certificates and they stick. However the imap and smtp services still use the old certificate.
I see that for the old certificate there are 4 files in /etc/certificates/: host.domain.tld.SHA1.{key,cert,chain,concat}.pem
I know that the only the old certificate is in /etc/certificates/ because SHA1 of the new certificate, looked up with:
$ openssl x509 -in host.domain.tld.cer -noout -fingerprint -sha1 | cut -f2 -d'=' | sed 's/://g'

, is showing a different SHA1.
Security import
According to certbot4osx source code, it looks like the security import host.domain.tld.cer -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain command should

import the certificate into the system keychain, and
create the /etc/certificates/$1.$SHA_NEW.cert.pem

Reboot
After a reboot only 3 files: .cert, .chain and .concat, are there in /etc/certificates/, not .key. Other times all 4 required files are in /etc/certificates/ after the reboot.
CertsKeychainMonitor
I suspect that the CertsKeychainMonitor plugin is involved in .pem files creation. This as daemon started via com.apple.UserEventAgent-System.plist. Because Console lists at the second of the .pem file :

UserEventAgent: CertsKeychainMonitor: ready to process keychain &
timer events.

How to always get all 4 (Let's Encrypt) certificate files correctly in /etc/certificates/ and without reboot?

1. Also import the .fullchain
Beside the .cer file also import the corresponding .fullchain file into the keychain, like
$ sudo /usr/bin/security -v import /Users/user/letsencrypt/fullchain.cer -k "/Library/Keychains/System.keychain"

2. Unload and load UserEventAgent-System
$ sudo /bin/launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.UserEventAgent-System.plist; sudo /bin/launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.UserEventAgent-System.plist

3. Wait
About 1-2 minutes for the 4 certificate files to correctly appear in /etc/certificates/


Sporadic Double NAT problem with Airport Extreme Base Station I am currently using an Airport Extreme N Base Station (firmware version 7.6) connected to a cable modem to connect around 7 wireless clients  and two wired clients to the internet. Prior to this I was using the same Airport Extreme with a DSL modem.

I don't know if my current situation arose when I switched to cable or if it started after a firmware update to version 7.4. My base station will lose access to the internet multiple times per day at random intervals. Attached is a screenshot of an airport status message that describes the Double Nat issue that seems to be causing my internet outages but I cannot understand why this is a sporadic problem rather than a persistent one.

I have googled for a solution and am not seeing any for my exact situation. I have read that this type of problem occurs when there is one router attached to a second and both are using NAT and DHCP. I understand that the way to fix this problem is to put either the modem or the Airport Base Station into bridge mode.

I would prefer to put the modem into bridge mode but it does not appear that my ISP, Cablevision, allows me to make configuration changes to my modem. I have tried putting my Base Station in Bridge Mode and have turned off DHCP and NAT but this results in a green status light on my Base Station with no access to the internet.

Is anyone familiar with my problem and what I need to do to correct it?

Contact your upstream internet provider (Cablevision) and let them know you wish / need to manage the network and want their device to operate in bridge mode. Often someone will post the details on how to get into your modem and re-configure it in cases where the provider doesn't want to assist you, but I've always had good luck asking (especially the techs that will have to come to your location for trouble calls.) If you call once or twice and explain you call each time this Double NAT error happens, they will quickly realize what you need to run your network without having to call them on an ongoing basis.

The Airport hardware doesn't have anything to do with this detection, so the software in the router is detecting a change in the upstream network configuration and reporting it.

Usually I've seen this with metro-wide WiFi networks where a fault will change the routing through another router that is misconfigured or not normally serving the modems of customers directly.

Unless you're changing the settings of the Airport, the cause is almost surely up stream from the device itself.


Group text - I can't reply all I have a group of ladies that are in the states (not sure if that makes a difference)
that have a group text going.
They see the group when they respond and they respond to the group

I see what the group sends out - but as individual messages and when I reply it only goes back to the person who sent the tect I replied to - not the group

anyone got any ideas?

If you send a group message on your iPhone, anyone else who uses iMessage will respond to the entire group, but that is not the case in your situation.

If one or more recipients is using standard SMS (on an Android, etc.), their response will be a standard SMS message back to you.

You can not prevent getting single messages as replies as long the group is not on same system.

In your case you can create a group in your contacts, then use it to reply to all (from the single message you got).

Here are more details from Apple how to.

  You can send a message to two or more people at a time using SMS, MMS,
  and iMessage. You can send messages to multiple people with group
  messaging and have any responses delivered to everyone in the group.


No DNS resolution if custom configured DNS server is not reachable - how to fallback to default DNS How can I configure the DNS server in the network preferences with 8.8.8.8 (Google DNS) for my Mac but have it default to local network DNS servers in case Google's DNS server is not reachable from a LAN?

First go to the terminal to find out what's your current DNSs using the command:

cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver

Then,

in your network settings, under "Advanced"

enter:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
x.x.x.x //local DNS
x.x.x.x //local DNS

If Google DNS won't work it will fallback to google other DNS server. If that fails too the fallback will be your local DNSs.


How do I get a refund after purchasing an app from the Mac App store? I bought an app and it is so bad despite its low price that I am willing to spend time on getting a refund. How do I get the refunded after an app purchased through the Mac App Store?

Do the following steps

open up Your Account in iTunes by clicking Account inside iTunes Store
click see all in the Check Your Purchase History row
click the Report a Problem button
select the App from which you want to refund
explain and write a detailed reason why you think you should get a refund for the app


How do I make `Cmd` as `Meta` instead of `Option/Alt` key on `emacs` runs on terminal(with `-nw` option) A lot of questions and articles about this but I can't find a one that works on my system.

Modifying emacs configuration looks working on other people's but it doesn't work for me.

like this

  (setq mac-command-modifier 'meta) ; make cmd key do Meta

Is this working on your system too?

Currently I have no idea except just swap thos two keys using by third party app which I don't want to.

Please help!

Programs running in the terminal are rather limited in what keys they can get. Gui apps get all the keys. Normally Cmd will go to the gui app only, because there's no ascii equivalent.

Other people's configurations with mac-command-modifier (or ns-command-modifier depending on which version of Emacs you have) are for the gui version of emacs, Emacs.app.
Inside a terminal, it's the terminal app that decides what happens with Cmd. Typically Cmd is only used for the terminal's own features. Terminal.app offers no way as far as I can see to send Cmd to emacs -nw. If you're using iTerm2.app you can tell it to send option instead of left or right cmd, and then you can have option map to meta.
You can globally swap the two keys in System Preferences, but this will mean Cmd/Option are swapped in all other applications too.

Related: https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/32074/cannot-remap-alt-cmd-on-mac-os-in-terminal and https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/7761/use-the-command-key-in-terminal-on-osx/32480#32480


Can you connect iPhone to LDAP on a non-standard port? In a nutshell, I believe I'm having issues configuring iOS to connect to LDAP on a non-standard port.

I've tried a quite a few different sequences, such as appending the port to the server address, but all to no avail. Has anyone been able to connect to an LDAP that runs on a different port than 389? If so, I would appreciate confirmation that it is possible and steps on how you set things up would be even better.

My LDAP is apacheDS and the port it runs on is not 389, so I'm at a loss how an iPhone or iPad can connect to the LDAP.

To the best of my knowledge, iOS doesn't (as of 5.0) support accessing an LDAP server on any port other than 389.


How to mount local folder with mount_afp in OS X 10.6.8 I tried to use mount_afp afp://user:111@127.0.0.1/home ~/Documents to mount the ~/Documents folder to the shared folder, but it shows the error like below:

  mount_afp: AFPMountURL returned error 62, errno is 62

What am I doing wrong?

I don't think Mac OS X allows you to connect to your own machine for AFP mounts.  For example, if you go to the Finder, select Go > Connect to Server, and type "afp://localhost", it puts up a dialog saying:

  Connection Failed
  The server "localhost" is available on your computer. Access the volumes and files locally.


How to uninstall individual Office365 components in Mac OS X There is [un]surprisingly little or no useful information I could find on uninstalling individual components when you install the full Office365 suite on your Mac.

All I want is Word and Excel, and want to get rid of the rest. Shall I just send the apps to the Bin? Thanks

Just trash the apps you no longer want.

Office 2011 no longer uses a dedicated uninstaller.  See this Microsoft support document for more information.


Can you access an AirPort Extreme (5th Gen) disk from an iPad I have a need to share data between a MAC (Catalina) and an iPad Pro (13.7) and do not want to send it up and down to iCloud due to demands on the home broadband (joys of living in the U.K. countryside).
I have a AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Generation) running 7.8.1 with a USB disk but every time I try to access from the iPad Files app it just reports 'Could not be completed' as it's not supported.

I tried by name, by IP and with / without the smb:// at the front but the above is the result. (I know afp:// is a no-go but Apple do not say this anywhere).
I've tried the USB on the family router but it impacts surfing and creates router crashes.
I could leave the Mac on and share the data directly but I'm trying to cut down power use (esp as it's just gone up 8%) and the poor old Mac is 8 years old (hurry up ARM chips)... I know I could use an SD card and 'sneaker net' but I'm lazy...
Third party firmware for these boxes just does not exist - shame as the are solid boxes I think they were just a casualty of limited sales.
I'm not at a point to buy a NAS and do not to get a Pi to share the disk so was wondering if you have any ideas or know of an AirPort that can share its disks with an iPad?

Unfortunately you can't do it. The Airport Extreme runs SMB1 and can't be upgraded to a later version. SMB1 is not secure and the Files app will not allow connections to it.


I get Pop ups on app? so I use this one app to save YouTube videos offline for later enjoyment and recently I've been getting popup messages that say "you've won" or something generic like that.

They used to appear on safari, but I erased the cache and they've since gone.

Currently they only appear on one app named Turbo DL.

Is this some kind of virus? Should I backup and reinstall?

Most likely, the app is just a wrapper for a regular web page.  You'll see everything in that app that you would see if you visited the same contents in any web browser.  Developers do this because it's easy, fast, and they can use 1 website for both Android and Apple.

Nobody can say for sure if you have a virus or not, but I'd be 95% sure it's just a normal browser popup.  I recommend writing the developer and ask about removing it or, if that fails, provide a realistic app review in the App Store.  Devs really do care about their reviews so this could get their attention.


Make Minecraft (or Java Preferences.app) run on Java 7 Minecraft (and probably some other applications) won't run on a System with the preinstalled Java removed and the current JDK 7 installed. I already symlinked the Java 6 directory to the current one. Other applications like Adobe Illustrator that need Java work with this fix.
The error message states no compatible version of java 1.5+ is available.

What is a reasonable explanation why that application runs on Java 7 on Linux and Windows but not on Mac, and what can be done for it to do so?

Output of /usr/libexec/java_home -V:

Matching Java Virtual Machines (4):
    1.7.0_17, x86_64:   "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
    1.7.0_17, x86_64:   "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home
    1.7.0_17, x86_64:   "Java SE 7" /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
    1.7.0_17, x86_64:   "Java SE 7" /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home

/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines is a Symlink to the /Library/ one, and 1.6.0.jdk is a symlink to jdk1.7.0_17.jdk, terefore only one JDK is being installed.

What is the terminal output stating the error?

Looking at this discussion:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-games-33/minecraft-not-running-on-java-7-a-929983/

The error output indicates that the Minecraft Java binaries are linked against 32bit versions. Looks like you have 64bit installed. Does your Java7 installation support 32bit?

Also, are you running the latest Minecraft code/mod updates/etc?

Edit:

Given the error message in the answer, it lead me to this:

2 things are needed to be changed to make it run on OSX x64 and this is what i done..

1) add in x86_64 to the Info.plist as follows:
JVMArchs

i386
x86_64
ppc

2) Set the execute flag on the JavaApplicationStub file
chmod +x /Applications/Minecraft.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub

now it works :)

That was found at:

https://getsatisfaction.com/mojang/topics/osx_x86_64_minecraft_execution_fixed

Via:

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/487766-fixed-lsopenurlswithrole-failed-with-error-10810/

Regarding checking java version:

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_43"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_43-b01-447-11M4203)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.14-b01-447, mixed mode)

Indicates 64bit server VM in mixed mode. When testing with '-d32' and 'd64', the java runtime should report back with a help screen vs erroring out, though this doesn't rule out 32bit/64bit libraries in the paths that are missing.

java -d32

java -d64

But the chmod above might help more.

Note, I don't use Minecraft.app to start up MineCraft when I run it on a Mac. I do the following:

My wrapper script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
java -Xmx3048M -Xms2024M -cp "$1" net.minecraft.LauncherFrame

And I run it by:

./run-minecraft minecraft.jar

I have the parameter because sometimes, I like running 3rd party wrappers around the MineCraft application itself.

AddOn:

Btw, this is the alternate method I use to fire up MineCraft, since MineCraft.app on the Mac has never worked reliably for me.

http://minecraft.net/download
Download the JAR file for "Minecraft for Linux / Other"
Test firing up with:

java -Xmx1024M -Xms512M -cp minecraft.jar net.minecraft.LauncherFrame


show current playing song (dj, genius, playlist etc) in library When I hear a song playing in iTunes DJ or some other kind of playlist, I'd sometimes like to see which album it is from or even see which other albums I have by that particular artist.

How can I do this?

The only option it gives is 'show in finder'

EDIT:
Meaning to navigate directly to the track in the main music library

EDIT:
not sure how I really clarify this much more but here goes:

When I see a file that is playing as part of a playlist, I often want some kind of 'show in library' function. You can select 'show in finder' and it will take you to the file in whichever folder it resides in the finder window. But I want to see the file in the itunes music library and cannot figure out how to make it do this.

Open Terminal (found in the /Applications/Utilities folder)

Type defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

When you re-open iTunes, you will have some options next to the "Ping" drop down in any playlist to show and goto either the album, artist or genre for the particular selected song.


I can not stop the mackeeper's installing When I wrong installthe MacKeeper, when it is installing I find the evaluation of Mackeeper is bad, but I can not stop the installing.

How to stop its installing and clear it ?

I would recommend just letting it finish then removing it. MacWorld has a pretty good guide, but I'll skip some of it in favor of just downloading MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and letting it do it's job in case some other stuff got installed as well. Let it run, and once it's done, if there are any remaining traces, quit any relevant process and move them to the trash and empty said trash.

If you absolutely need to close it though, you can force quit the installer or kill the process. You can force quit by right clicking the icon in the dock with alt held down, then clicking force quit, or through a menu accessible via  -> Force Quit (accessible with the shortcut Command + alt + esc.) You could also use the command-line command kill or killall to kill the installer process. I'd avoid this, as it may have unintended consequences.


Read iTerm2 last session output history This is probably a long shot but it would be really handy if there is a solution. I am logged in on a work computer I currently cannot access. I know the output of a long running job I previously started is on an iTerm2 window.

I have SSH access to the machine and I would like to read the contents of that window. Is there, e.g., a file where iTerm2 backs up session output? Or any other way to read the content of an open window? Obviously it's too late to select any specific session logging options. Usually after a forced restart, the iTerm2 window will restore the previous output so I presume it is saved somewhere.

This was discussed some time ago on Unix.SE and the bottom line is that there is no general way of doing that, unless you

want to search for that data in the memory of the terminal process
you want a terminal that support querying for the buffers (some says xterm knows that)
You have your commands running in screen/tmux

I would not like to discourage you nor any other possible answerers. Maybe there is some Apple-specific way I don't know about.


No single shortcut to go to end of file I'm new to Mac (10.15.5) and so far figuring out shortcuts has not been a smooth journey. Usually on Windows I would use these -

Home - Beginning of a line
End - End of line
Ctrl + Home - Beginning of file
Ctrl + End - End of file

and these work for any text editor or application like a terminal. On Mac,

Command + Left arrow - Beginning of line in TextEdit (Fn + left does page up I think)
Fn + Left Arrow - Beginning of line in iTerm (Command + left does nothing)

How do I set universal shortcuts to go to beginning/end of a line/file that works in all apps?

On my Mac, command+↑ ("command up arrow") takes me to the top of a file/document/webpage. Same sequence with "Down arrow" takes me to the bottom of a file/document/webpage.

If that doesn't work for you, let us know & we'll try to help further.

For future reference, Apple has a list of shortcuts on their support website. It also includes links to app-specific shortcuts.


Remove OTA downloaded (but not installed) iOS 8 I've downloaded the new iOS 8 update on my iPhone 5 but am getting second thoughts about actually installing it.  Is there a way for me to delete that download or am I at the point of no return?

I did same on iPad2.  I have managed to remove the download (which wasn't installed).  Select settings, general, usage, manage storage when the app list loads, you should see ios8, select this and then delete. Hope you're successful.


Change 'show desktop' keyboard shortcut I can show the desktop in Yosemite using cmd + F3

However I would like to change it to something else. I've done this in the past but can't remember how, and can't find anything online for that matter.

Also when I look under System Preferences I see nothing relating to this action?

System Preferences → Mission Control → Show Desktop. Hold down a modifier key to affect which keys are shown.

You can also see more keyboard shortcut options through System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Mission Control → Show Desktop.


google calendar in today view in ipad (iOS 14) is displaying "unable to load" Since the upgrade to iOS 14 my work iPad has been showing "unable to load", in the google calendar widget in today view.
Has this widget been broken in iOS 14?, or is it miss-configured. I have searched the setting, but can not get it to work.
How can I get a calendar of upcoming events on my home screen, and lock window?

I just updated to 14.2 and it magically started working again.


How to automate Caps Lock Delay Removal in macOS MacBook Pro? I'll start with quoting another Stack Overflow user:

  Apple's MacBook Pro has a slight delay on the caps lock key. That is, the caps lock key has to be held down slightly longer than normal to register the key press required to engage the caps lock.*

It appears that by remapping the caps-lock key on macOS (in System Preferences, Keyboard, Modifier Keys), the delay goes away until reboot.

I would like to automate this settings configuration remapping with a script and to set it to run at startup. I have tried to use Automator but with no luck.
How can we achieve this?

*Quote reference:
How to remove caps lock delay on Apple MacBook Pro aluminum keyboard when booted to Linux

I don't have a script but I just fixed this a few minutes ago on my Macbook Pro. Here are the steps I took:

Go to System Preferences > Accessibility > scroll down to keyboard > look for checkbox Enable Slow Keys (If it is not ticked go ahead and tick it) > Go to Options... directly across from it.

Then move the Acceptance Delay all the way to Short.

Hit OK and you're done. No more CAPS LOCK delay.

*Edit: Another post mentioned that this will make your Backspace take a little longer than usual to delete individual characters when holding the button down.


Can't opt out of Beta downloads I opted out of beta downloads under System Preferences > App Store, but I still see macOS beta downloads in the Mac App Store.

How can I fix this? Caching issue?

From:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/30929430#30929430

Once you've unenrolled, run this command in the terminal:

sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog

This worked for me!


DVD to iMovie converter for Mac 10.4.11 First of all, is there such a thing? All I want to do is be able to import film clips from DVDs into iMovie so I can make groovy youtube videos. Any suggestions for a Mac 10.4.11 user?

I use HandBrake. It's free and open, and works nicely.


Archiving/Zipping Software What compression application would allow you to also encrypt a file?

The only free (albeit not open source) Mac OS GUI compression utility I'm aware of is B1. It does support password protecting archives, although not encrypting them.

Two commercial applications that do support encrypted archives are:

Winzip
StuffIt

That said, if you're happy using the command line, the zip utility provided with Mac OS can do password-based encryption (look at the -P option).


Will a deactivated SIM card continue to improve location accuracy? I'm wondering if a prepaid SIM card that ran out of funds still in my iPad will continue to improve the devices location accuracy (by scanning nearby cell towers and apply triangulation)?

Will a deactivated SIM card continue to improve location accuracy?

It doesn't matter because it's a moot point.  The cellular location services improves the performance of your location tracking by augmenting the GPS data, but it cannot improve the accuracy.

Improve GPS accuracy by disabling cellular data

If you were just going off of the location data provided by the carrier, it would be at best "broad stroke" in terms of accuracy.  Existing GPS is already accurate down to the cm (centimeter) range; how well your phone performs depends on the GPS chip that your phone uses.  Roughly speaking, it'll give you accuracy within a couple of meters.


Plugging USB hard drive put my Mac to sleep I just plugged a USB hard drive into my MacBook Air and for some reason it immediately went into sleep mode (it also stopped the music I was playing on iTunes). What could be the issue? Is it something I should worry about? I just tried to plug it in again but nothing weird happened, the drive works fine.

This can happen if for some reason it pulls more power then the computer can handle.  If this happens only once, I wouldn't worry about it too much, however if it becomes a repeat issue, it could mean there is a problem with the power regulation, the USB port, or both.


relocating documents folder of ios applications I have a jailbroken iPhone 4s with iOS 5.1.1. One of the things that always bothers me is that apps can't share files with each other.
So I thought I can circumvent that behavior by creating a symlink to a folder in /var/mobile/.

For my first try I used the Dolphin Browser from the AppStore (since you can download nearly everything with it). I renamed the original Documents folder in the apps folder and created a symbolic link to /var/mobile/SharedDocs.
Apparently that doesn't work. Trying to download something simply fails in Dolphin.

Long story short:
Did anyone else try something similar with success?
Any other ideas I can try?
Do I need to program some kind of mobilesubstrate extention?

This is my first post here and I'm sorry if I did something wrong ;)

Greetings
JunkiXL

P.S. Actually I didn't replace the Documents folder but the Downloads folder. Here are the full pathes to the directories:
- Original Download Folder: /var/mobile/Applications/734.../Documents/Downloads
-> renamed that folder for backup purpose.
- created a link with "ln -s /var/mobile/SharedDocs Downloads" in /var/mobile/Applications/734.../Documents

You can't access other folders beyond the sandbox from App Store applications.

There is a library in Cydia called Unbox that allows you to access the filesystem from a sandboxed application but you will need to create your own app to achieve this as it is NOT A TWEAK.

For Information, Sandboxing is Apple's security feature preventing App Store applications from accessing the whole filesystem and also limiting what API's can be used. Some private API's can, others will simply crash if run in the Sandbox.


Where are Wi-Fi passwords stored? Are encrypted Wi-Fi passwords stored in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist? If yes, which string?

I know we can view wireless passwords using the Keychain GUI or using security in Terminal. But where are Wi-Fi passwords actually physically stored in macOS?

Wi-Fi passwords are physically stored in the System keychain at /Library/Keychains/System.keychain


Apple Magic Keyboard connected in Wired mode - turn Bluetooth off Is it possible to turn Bluetooth off when connecting Apple Magic Keyboard over Lightning cable? I would like to use it in wired mode and don't want to empty and charge the battery all the time. Furthermore it would reduce electric smog.

Does the keyboard keep broadcasting Bluetooth when wired, or does it disable the keyboard's Bluetooth?

Yes, it works well when connected via Lightning cable only with Bluetooth disabled or enabled. I just tested it.

By the way, the keyboard charge lasts about 3-4months with everyday typing. 5min charge can last you hours. The Magic keyboard's battery last much, much longer than previous editions.


Why are folders with weird names automatically appearing on my Desktop? Many of these weird folders show up all the time with these titles: 00, 0a, 0b... 0f;  01, 1a, 1b...1f;  02, 2a, 2b...2f;  03, 3a, 3b... 3f; etc up to ff. Why? What is this? What can I do to stop it?
They come back when I throw them out, which I've done many times
here are some screen shots to give you an idea:

They look suspiciously like folders from a iPhone or iPod backup, which is typically not found on the desktop (normally found in ~/Library/Application Support/Mobile Sync/Backup//
If so, the backup would consist of a folder with an iPhone ID as a name and all those folders you see inside it. The folders have 2 character names. Inside one of these folders (say 00) are feels with file names starting with the name of the folder. One example filename for me is 00aabeab60f635dc810b27b8b884e90115caef61. All characters would be hex digits.
In iTunes Preferences under Devices you can see the individual backups, if any. Selecting one, then right-clicking will pop up a menu with the choice "Show in Finder". If this is what it is, then a new window should open showing where the backup is.
It could be some other Apple generated backup as well.


iPhone playing songs not in any of my playlists I share an iTunes account with 4 others in my family and we have different music taste. I have my own playlists but my iPhone (3GS) keeps playing music that is NOT on any of my playlists. I have checked them all. How do I delete them off my phone? I have no unwanted artists or albums selected under the music tab when syncing, I have checked all of my playlists, I do not have 'automatically fill free space with songs' ticked either. What do I do?

Go to Settings>General>Music.
Turn off the "Show All Music" option


Lion OS install for new SSD. Do I need to install Leopard first? I was going to replace my HDD with a SSD - but I need to install Lion for my SSD.

Do I need to install Leopard on the SSD first, then go to the Mac App Store to update?

No, you can install Lion directly if you want. This will save you a lot of time, as you would otherwise have to upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard first, only to upgrade to Lion afterwards.

Buy a bootable OS X Lion USB stick

You can buy a bootable OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive from the Apple Store: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A

Create a bootable OS X Lion USB stick or DVD based on the Mac App Store download

Buy and download Lion from the Mac App Store. The installer should show up in your Applications folder.
Right-click on the installer and hit “Show Package Contents”. Navigate to Contents/SharedSupport and look for a file called InstallESD.dmg.
Open up Disk Utility and drag the DMG file into the left-hand sidebar. If you’re burning it to a DVD, insert your DVD, select the disk image in the sidebar, and hit the “Burn” button. Skip down to the last step to use it.
If you want to burn Lion to a USB flash drive, plug it in and click on it in the left-hand sidebar in Disk Utility. Go to the Partition tab and select “1 Partition” from the dropdown menu. Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” on the left.
Hit the “Options” button under the partition table and choose “GUID Partition Table”. You’ll need this to make the drive bootable on a Mac. Hit the “Apply” button when you’re done to format your drive (note: it will erase everything on the drive).
Click on the “Restore” tab, choose the InstallESD.dmg file as the source and your flash drive as the destination. Hit the “Apply” button and it will create your bootable USB drive.

Reboot into OS X and hold the option key when you hear the startup chime. You can boot into your DVD or flash drive from there.


Use Automator to drop one letter in the naming I've a kind of download-setup on my Mac and it does an excellent job downloading all the files I need. But for some reason the setup is renaming my files with "Title 9x88 Name". And I would like to drop this one "x" whenever a new files is detected in the directory.

Everything works perfect in Automator, except for the dropping the 1 letter.

I know Automator doesn't support wildcards, but is there any other way in how to drop the single X in the naming?
I'm open for every creative solution (shell scripts too).

You could use a Run Shell Script action like this:

for f in *;do [[ $f =~ (.+ [0-9]+)x([0-9]+ .+) ]]&&mv "$f" "${BASH_REMATCH[1]}${BASH_REMATCH[2]}";done;exit 0

Or if the filenames don't contain other x characters, you could replace the script with for f in *;do mv "$f" "${f/x/}";done.


Would like to delete certificates How can I delete certificates on my MacBook? In the All Items category I am having to spend to much time looking for the most current certificates.

Go to the Certificates category instead of All Items
Sort on Expiry Date
The top one is probably the newest and you could delete the other certificates you want to delete.


Restoring OS X Server Data from Time Machine How does one restore OS X Server data from time machine on another server?

I had a Mac mini with OS X Server (Mountain Lion). It had Time Machine backups and this weekend the server experienced a hardware problem. I'm trying to migrate the server to another server. When trying to restore it on another machine, I get the following error.

I then installed OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 and OS X Server and then tried to restore the /Library/Server folder to the new machine. Unfortunately, this failed because some folders are locked.

The KB article HT5139 "Restoring OS X Server from a Time Machine backup" describes how to restore OS X Server (Mountain Lion) or Lion Server from a local Time Machine backup:

  The steps to restore from a Time Machine backup depend on whether your
  data was stored on the startup (boot) volume or a non-startup volume.

  Important: When restoring, restore from a local Time Machine backup. If you try to restore from a network-based Time Machine
  backup, not all settings will be restored correctly.

  (...)

  Time Machine is the native backup service for OS X Server. OS X Server
  also includes a process called ServerBackup which works with Time
  Machine. ServerBackup performs daily backups of Open Directory (if it
  is enabled) and the Postgres databases used by the Calendar (or iCal),
  Contacts (or Address Book), Profile Manager, and Wiki services. These
  daily backups are included in the Time Machine backup of Lion Server.
  ServerBackup also takes part in the restoration of server services,
  running during the first startup after a server has been restored, and
  restoring server services and databases into place after the server
  has started up.

From KB article HT5139:

If server data was on the startup disk proceed as follows:

Make sure your local Time Machine backup drive is connected.
Start up your server using OS X Recovery by holding down CommandR.
Select Restore from Time Machine Backup and follow the onscreen instructions for restoring the volume.

Otherwise:

Make sure your local Time Machine backup drive is connected.
Start up your server using OS X Recovery by holding down CommandR.
If your Time Machine drive is encrypted:

Open Disk Utility, then click Continue.
Control-click or right-click the Time Machine volume, then select "Decrypt".
Enter the volume password and click OK.
Create or make sure that you have a new service data volume that is large enough to store your previous data and has the same name as your previous service data volume.

For example, if your service data was stored on a 500 GB volume named "DataHD", make sure you have a new volume of at least 500 GB named "DataHD".
Quit Disk Utility.

From the Utilities menu, choose Terminal.
Enter the following command on one line.

Replace Time Machine Backup Disk with the name of your Time Machine backup disk, servername with the name of your server, and Startup Volume Name with the name of your previous startup volume.

cd /Volumes/Time Machine Backup Disk/Backups.backupdb/servername/Latest/Startup Volume Name/
Enter the following command on one line. Replace Service Data Volume with the name of your original (and future) service data volume.

./usr/bin/tmutil restore -v ../Service Data Volume/* /Volumes/Service Data Volume
Quit Terminal.
If you also need to restore the startup volume, select "Restore from Time Machine Backup" and follow the onscreen instructions.

I realize that you tried the first option and it failed with a model mismatch error. You may want to try the second option.


Can Facebook read my calendar on iOS? My iOS calendar is synced with a caldav server. If I set up my Facebook account in the iOS settings to also see Facebook events, can Facebook also read my other calendar events?

No facebook wont see your calendar. it doesn't work like that.


How to position cursor precisely on an iPhone running iOS 9.3.x? So I'm trying to find ways where I can easily control cursor position on my iPhone.

example.

I type the following phrase/sentence on Messages: I have a pet cuck.

I want to position the cursor just after the u in the work "cuck" and correct the spelling. Any ideas on it came be done --without-- resorting to jailbreak (which is not even possible on my version anyway).

Thanks :)

Press on the word.

You will then get a round magnifier covering the text. You can then move your finger and the cursor will move by character


How to set a ringtone on iPhone? I have recently bought an iPhone. I don't know how to set a ringtone on an iPhone. Can anyone explain the procedure to set a ringtone in an easy manner?

Open Settings → Sounds → Ringtone. Choose a ringtone from the list. As you choose a ringtone, it begins to play so you can preview it.


Are Apple using COBOL batch processes? As a Apple developer I received an invitation to the iOS7 beta. When I logged in, the website said my developer account was expiring "soon", and I needed to renew it prior to accessing the beta program. I found this a little strange, as I have had a membership all year.

But no problem: I renewed the membership. However, I then received an notice saying would take 24 hours to process my account renewal, and to contact them via email if the renewal has not been processed in this time. I have worked as a Project Manager for large banks and insurance companies, and often transactions are processed in batch via COBOL programs on a mainframe.

In banks it is due partially to the number of transactions, but mostly because the systems are old and to update them is a major effort. I am surprised that Apple has the same system, are they also running COBOL batch programs on a mainframe to process membership renewals?

Apple do not publish information about the technology behind their web site or online services.

It is believed much of Apple's sites are backed by Java based processes stemming from Apple's WebObjects era.


Recover /private/etc/ssh after accidentally deleting I'm working with macOS Sierra and I have accidentally deleted /private/etc/ssh.

How can I recover this folder so I can use SSH?

The last solution is to reinstall the OS, but I want avoid this.

After deleting your ssh folder and no backup you can reinstall some content using the macOS installer and recreate the keys yourself:

The default content of /private/etc/ssh in El Capitan or Sierra are these files:

moduli                          ssh_host_ed25519_key
ssh_config                      ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
(ssh_config~orig)               ssh_host_rsa_key
ssh_host_dsa_key                ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
ssh_host_dsa_key.pub            sshd_config
ssh_host_ecdsa_key              (sshd_config~previous)
ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub

Three of the files are part of the macOS installer and can be extracted and installed from the Sierra OS X Install ESD with Pacifist: moduli, ssh_config and sshd_config.

All other files can be created by using ssh-keygen or copying files:

sudo cp /etc/ssh/ssh_config /etc/ssh/ssh_config~orig #just a backup
sudo cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config~orig #just a backup

Key creation:

sudo ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
sudo ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 1024 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
sudo ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
sudo ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key

This may invalidate some services relying on the old keys!


How free is Mavericks? How free is Mavericks?
Is it free as a free beer?

I want to run in on virtual machine and do not own licence for it (but it's free, right?) - is it OK?

What about hard to find solutions of newest OS - easiest thing to do is to install older system like Snow Leopard and upgrade to Mavericks. Snow Leopard would be at that point without licence, but solely in purpose for installing free new system.

How does Apple licencing define that "free" Mavericks?

You can download the OS X Mavericks license agreement from Apple's Software License Agreements page. It's definitively not free of either license or copyright. The licensing terms stipulate only running it on Apple hardware and furthermore restricted on how to use it with virtual machines on top of Apple hardware. You need to also consider the App Store license terms for your country if you download the free-of-cost Mavericks software from that store.
Below is a relevant extract from the OS X Mavericks licence:

2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
A. Preinstalled and Single-Copy Apple Software License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, unless you obtained the Apple Software from the Mac App Store or under a volume license, maintenance or other written agreement from Apple, you are granted a limited, non- exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple- branded computer at any one time. For example, these single-copy license terms apply to you if you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware.
B. Mac App Store License. If you obtained a license for the Apple Software from the Mac App Store, then subject to the terms and conditions of this License and as permitted by the Mac App Store Usage Rules set forth in the App Store Terms and Conditions (http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/ww/) (“Usage Rules”), you are granted a limited, non-transferable, non-exclusive license:
(i) to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded computer running OS X Mountain Lion, OS X Lion or OS X Snow Leopard (“Mac Computer”) that you own or control;
(ii) If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, to download, install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software for use either: (a) by a single individual on each of the Mac Computer(s) that you own or control, or (b) by multiple individuals on a single shared Mac Computer that you own or control. For example, a single employee may use the Apple Software on both the employee’s desktop Mac Computer and laptop Mac Computer, or multiple students may serially use the Apple Software on a single Mac Computer located at a resource center or library; and
(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b) testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d) personal, non-commercial use.
The grant set forth in Section 2B(iii) above does not permit you to use the virtualized copies or instances of the Apple Software in connection with service bureau, time-sharing, terminal sharing or other similar types of services.

Bold added for highlighting purposes; the bolding is not present in the original licence.


Unresponsive iMessages and FaceTime on Mojave I have this issue with Messages, FaceTime when it gets unresponsive on start. Same issue was with Contacts, but following some recommendations on the web i've reset the Contacts database and it works now. But with messages/facetime no luck, tried many solutions, resetting nvram/pram, deleting configs and databases, etc.

Is there a way to reinstall iMessages and FaceTime completely?

Have you tried deleting files in the ~/Library/ folder? ('~/' means your user folder)
search facetime there, try deleting what you find.
It might sign you out, at the same time it might solve your problem.
You can search 'Messages' there as well.

I don't guarantee it won't do any harm. Yet it's what I usually do when I run into problems. It's sort of DIY mentality.

If you don't see the Library folder, it's because it's hidden by default.
You can change that in "Show View Options" menu in "View" option of Finder. Or by pressing command and j at the same time. (You should be at ~/ for this option to be shown).


Why is iCloud not syncing my calendars on my iOS devices? When I create or update a calendar event on one device, it is not being propagated to my other devices via iCloud despite having iCloud enabled for calendars on all my devices and the Apple ID being the same everywhere.

Your iOS device may be saving new calendar events to a local calendar instead of the iCloud calendar. This is particularly confusing if that local calendar has the same name as the calendar you want to use in iCloud. To change the default calendar for saving events on an iOS device, navigate to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Default Calendar and select your preferred  calendar under your iCloud account:


Migrating just two tracks The Desired End Result is to migrate the iTunes library from the source machine to the target machine.

iTunes Match was happy with all but two songs in the source machine's iTunes library, so all but those two songs are already migrated.

The outliers appear to be DRM'd.

Will Migration Assistant handle this? Can it deal with just copying two tracks? Would it be less headache just to:

Burn the two tracks to CD on the source machine's built-in Superdrive.
Mount the source machine's Superdrive from the target machine.
Re-import the tracks.

I believe the process you detailed in your question is the easiest way to do it.


Stream iPad audio to other devices? I used to stream a music from my desktop to wdtv using VLC.

I would like to stream all the sound from my iPad to wdtv.

I googled about it, but I only found how to stream music from other devices to iPad.

The easiest way is to hook up an Airport Express with audio cables to your external multimedia player, or Apple TV. Then you can stream iTunes directly to either of these devices - the functionality is built-in to iOS 4 and works awesome!


Bad Aspect Ratio in Quicktime on Video from Camcorder I'm trying to use my Samsung HMX-H100N digital camcorder, and I'm having difficulty with the files.

When recording in 1080i/60, the video is badly interlaced (yes, I know it's an interlaced format, but it's painful to watch and it isn't on the camera), and video recorded in 720p/60 is displayed in a much wider format than the 16:9 it was recorded in.

If I open these files in VLC media player, they both look fine and play back smoothly. The issue seems to be Quicktime, and, unfortunately, Final Cut.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do, short of transcoding these files to another intermediate format, to get these files to display properly in QuickTime/Final Cut?

You can use ClipWrap ($50) to rewrap your AVCHD videos to a Quicktime/Final Cut compatible format.

Then, deinterlace your videos using JES Deinterlacer and export them preserving full quality (huge files though).

So the workflow is the following:

Add videos to ClipWrap, select as output the "Rewrap (don't alter video samples)" option and save them to a new location.
Open JES Deinterlacer and drop all videos to input's "hot-box"
Select Project properties:

For 1080p30 go to Project > Deinterlace > Top Field, Adaptive, Local
For 720p60 go to Project > Standards conversion > 1280x720 60p

Finally, go to Output > Export > QuickTime Movie

Settings > Compression Type > Apple ProRes 422 (LT)
and export the video!

So, your videos will be ready to import them to Final Cut.

I hope that helped!

Edit:

If you want to transcode the video files, just for viewing them in Quicktime, then you would have to select H.264 when exporting from JES Deinterlacer, than the Apple ProRes which is suitable for editing.


How to benchmark a NAS from a Mac (Neither fio nor bonnie++ work) I want to test the performance of a NAS before and after I change its setup. I have found two tools for this, fio and bonnie++.
The problem is that they are both broken on Mac right now (and have been for some time it seems). fio doesn't compile (Due to changes in XCode 8?) and bonnie fails to complete successfully (it fails on machines with more than 1 GB memory and also fails when it tries to clean up the files it created).
How can I test the performance of a NAS on a Mac? I am mostly interested in the relative performance, that is, how much the performance change when I make this change in configuration that I am about to try out, which I assume makes it easier?
(Or does it exist some static compiled fio/bonnie that works on current Mac OS?)

Bonnie++ can be installed this way:
Download Bonnie++ 1.98 from here:
https://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/bonnie++-1.98.tgz
Extract the source code:
tar -xvzf bonnie++-1.98.tgz

Download the patch found here:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/formula-patches/913b5a25087d2c64d3b6459635d5d64012b83042/bonnie%2B%2B/remove-large-file-support-macros.diff
Apply it to the source code using the patch utility:
cd bonnie++-1.98
patch < ../remove-large-file-support-macros.diff

Now configure and compile like usual:
./configure
make
make install


Can I add a custom ringtone to my iPhone without syncing to iTunes? We (bafflingly) have two great guides to adding custom ringtones to an iPhone via iTunes. Is there a way to do it without syncing with iTunes?

Unlikely.

Such functionality is indirectly excluded by the iOS Developer Program Licence Agreement under section 3.3.4.

There it is stated that applications may only write data to an application's designated container area on the device. Therefore, the library data for ringtones cannot cannot be manipulted unless there were API to do this.

I am not sure if I'm allowed to post a direct link here, therefore use this google search to get to the document.


How to find the source of a sound on an iPhone? In the last few weeks my iPhone occasionally makes some kind of notification sound.   It's not any of the built-in sounds, and I've gone through all the "Sounds" settings just to make sure.  It's a two-step tone on a marimba or something like it, but not the built-in one.  It happens about once every 10 minutes.

How do I figure out which app is causing the sound?   There is no other notification.  It's infrequent enough that it's hard to tell whether killing any particular app fixes it,  and I use enough apps that killing them is impractical.

Try disabling sound notification permissions for all apps that you don't need sound notifications for in your notification settings (Settings > Notifications, scroll down to Apps and disable from there)


Re-installation from the internet fails with error code -2005F, what does it mean? I tried to re-install macOS on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) via the internet (Command+Option+R). After 5 minutes and some progress the following was shown, what does it mean?

apple.com/support does not know this error code.

It looks like you need to reset your device's NVRAM. Check out Apple's documentation that explains how to do that: How to reset NVRAM on your Mac

This thread on the Apple Support Communities suggests an NVRAM (or PRAM) reset will resolve this issue. If that doesn't work, it wouldn't hurt to try an SMC reset as well.


Trying to connect Pegasus Raid 4TB to MacBook Pro MBP does not see the Raid. I also have an iMac 27" connected to the Raid with a thunderbolt cable, works fine.

You are attempting the impossible. You can't connect two Macs to the same Thunderbolt chain. The two Thunderbolt ports on the Pegasus are so that you can daisychain devices, not Macs.

Second, the Pegasus you have doesn't talk Ethernet.

You could use the second port to attach a display or another disk device but not a Mac.

Since your MacBook Pro doesn't have a Thunderbolt port you can't connect it to the Pegasus directly. You could use a Thunderbolt to FireWire cable, but even then not at the same time as it was connected to the iMac.


iOS - Album metadata displayed incorrectly In the Music app on my iPhone, one of the Albums is showing the name of the album before the song title (unlike all the others). The album shows up correctly in iTunes, ruling out the case of incorrect metadata. I have tried editing the title but without luck.

What could possibly be the reason for this discrepancy and how do I resolve it?

Sometimes things get messed up. Have you considered removing it from the library on a computer - manually fixing the metadate using iTunes or another program and then re-adding the songs to your library?

Before removing it - look for flags like “compilation” and “composer” to try disabling that.

Also - you will want to check how your iOS library syncs - whether it’s iCloud / Apple Music / or a more manual sync. Things could need a resync if you make changes in iTunes off the iOS device.

Since it seems you already tried editing and syncing you might need to remove it entirely and sync to remove the songs and add them correctly.


How do I delete photos from Apple Photos retaining only those marked as favorite? This should be a fairly easy task to carry out, but I cannot seem to figure out a straightforward way of deleting all but favorite photos from the Apple photos app. One workaround is for me to create a smart album to pool all favorites together --> export --> delete all photos --> reimport, but this definitely is a waste of time especially with large libraries.
Am I missing something here? Any ideas?

You can do this using smart albums.
Unfortunately the gif I made to show this is to big so pictures will have to do.

go to all your photos and select all of them (cmd+a).
Create a new smart album for your selection

In the popup select photo is not favorite as filter, you should see the number of matches.

In the smart album are all your photos not marked as favorite, select them all (cmd+a) and delete them (cmd+backspace).

Go to all your photos, only the favorites remain.

Empty the trash in the photos app to remove all deleted non favorites.


How do I quickly select all the photos in an album in Google Photos iOS app? Is there some way to easily select all the photos in a Google Photos album in the iOS app? I'd like to avoid manually selecting 200+ photos individually.

Selecting a large number of images in an album could be quite cumbersome. You can greatly speed up the process by employing a neat trick built into iOS.

Once you are into selection mode, tap down to select an image. Now without lifting your finger, simply drag your finger in the direction of unselected images (i.e. towards the bottom of the grid of images). As your finger moves, the grid of images will automatically start scrolling, selecting the images encountered on the way. The further away you move your finger from the starting point, faster the selection will be.

The GIF linked below demonstrates the same in action:

This trick also works in the built-in Photos app, and greatly speeds up select large number of images.


I need to download photos from iPad, to Microsoft Windows my Windows computer wont read them off ipad becuase they are saved in icloud, if i disable icloud will photos still be on device that took them (the ipad)? or any suggestions on how to download photos from icloud faster.

When you say stored in iCloud do you mean the iCloud Photo Library? If this is the case you can go to Settings - iCloud - Photos and switch from Optimize Storage to Download and Keep Originals to download full copies of your photos back to the device. Turning off iCloud Photo Library will also give you this option.

And as was also mentioned you can also log in at iCloud.com and get them from there.

ETA: there's also the iCloud for Windows option.


Are there any good TouchID enabled banking apps Recently my online savings bank (CapitalOne 360, formerly ING Direct) forced me to change my credentials and now doesn't allow me to use a simple x-digit passcode to open my iPhone app.

I have to type in my strong web password every time - this is stupid; my iPhone is secured with a strong password/TouchID and I shouldn't have to type in my entire website password every time (for access through the web makes sense because anyone could try to access my account from anywhere and TouchID hasn't been introduced on Macs).  So either I have to make my web-password insecure enough so I can remember it every time, or I have to look it up .. every time I use the App!

Looked around and don't see many options - does anyone know of a good bank or credit union (US-based) that has a decent iOS app with TouchID functionality?

Note: thought about using 1password browser/safari plugin, but features like check-deposit don't exist on the mobile site, and require the app.

I am willing to move my account to whatever bank takes my iPhone banking seriously.

After a bunch of searching, decided to move my CapitalOne 360 to Discover Bank.  Only app I found, and they do everything I need so far (cash checks, bill pay, direct deposit).  App has TouchID :)

Still not clear why no other major financial institutions offer TouchID support - even USAA!


Enter "vertical bar" (or "pipe symbol") in Windows I have my MacBook late 2008 sometimes running Windows 7 via BootCamp. The keyboard has a German layout. Pretty much like the Wikimedia image below except that the blue symbols in the lowest line are not accessible.

How could I enter the vertical bar | via my keyboard?

Unfortunately Right Alt + < does not seem to work. (However, I can enter @ with Right Alt + Q et al. as I can do on external keyboards.)

Update2: From what I can tell from the languages settings, the Windows layout is missing the <-key between Left Shift and Y. What layout would provide it?

Update 3: On a co-workers current MacBook Pro its working as expected.

I'd also be happy with some comments suggesting ways to have it entered. I'm tiered of copying it from Wikipedia every time.

My US English Qwerty keyboard has it as Shift-\, with the \ key right above the Return key.


Switching the desktop enviroment Would it be possible to change the default environment to something like Cinnamon? Or to a window manager like openbox or awesomewm?

Yes. Reference the XQuartz Project, which is developing an OS X friendly version of Xorg: http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki

Awesome WM has been successfully installed by at least this user: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.window-managers.awesome/7939

They go on to list a step by step. Your mileage may vary, but it looks like it is possible to replace the default:

Once Xquartz was installed, set the following prefences:

 CHECK option key sends alt instead of mode_switch
 UNCHECK enable key equivelants

I installed the following ports from macports

 port install awesome
 port install xmodmap
 port install xev
 port install rxvt-unicode

Then, I made the following configuration file changes to get it
configured with the X server.  B

.xinitrc

  cd /Users/≤username>
 xmodmap .Xmodmap
 exec /opt/local/bin/awesome

.xmodmap

 remove mod1 = Alt_L
 add mod4 = Alt_L

Now, create an rc.lua file based on the stock version from macports,
and make a few changes to set the keys up

 mkdir -p ~/.config/awesome
 cp /opt/local/etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua ~/.config/awesome

Making it more Mac-like

Define the commandkey as a variable.  Also set urxvt-unicode as

the default terminal:

    commandkey = "mod2"
    terminal = "/opt/local/bin/urxvt"

Command-W to close a window, like the default MacOS shortcut

    awful.key({ commandkey }, "w", function (c) c:kill() end)

Fixing the Tag navigation

The Mod4 + N key combination doesn't actually send you to tag N
using the default rc.lua.  You must add the following

    tagkeys = { "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9" }

and then change

    "#" .. i,

to
    tagkeys[i],

In the section where the awful.keys() functions switch tags

There are still some quirks with this setup, but overall I find it
better than having to resize and place terminal windows by hand.


Macbook pro does not connect wifi I have mac book pro late 2013 with os x 10.9.2. When i clicked on the wifi network i want to connect, it doesn't connect. It doesn't even give any response. There is only an animation in wifi: on option in upper right side with loading circle and becomes  wifi: looking for networks . And it goes back to normal repeatedly

I tried to fix it by looking into settings, i even re-installed os x but it still doesn't connect. The network i want to connect is fine, there are 2 more devices connected to that network and they work just fine. How can i fix this problem?

before we go on fixing lets find out it is working at all.

In Terminal type (to turn it on)

networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

Next type (to scan)

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport scan

Finally type (to connect)

networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 WIFI_SSID_I_WANT_TO_JOIN WIFI_PASSWORD

Also:

While holding the alt key click on the wifi icon

In the pop up window select Open Wireless Diagnostics...follow the instructions.


What does the emergency dialer let you do? I’m curious, but haven't tested: What does the emergency dialer let you do? If you don’t unlock the phone and press the Emergency button, it shows a phone keypad. Can you only dial emergency numbers? What happens if you try calling a normal number?

You can only dial emergency numbers, which vary by country/region (911 in the US; certain countries such as France have multiple emergency numbers). Dialing regular numbers produces the following error:

Starting with iOS 8, you may also dial emergency contacts by opening your Medical ID. Interestingly, as of iOS 9.3.4, if you have one of those numbers memorized, you cannot punch it in directly. You must go through the Medical ID to ring it up.


Fusion Drive seems to be messed up I felt that my iMac late 2012 became pretty slow, above all after login. Now when I look into disk utility, it seems that my disk doesn't behave as Fusion Drive any more:

An output from terminal:

➜  ~  diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Untitled                121.0 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            3.0 TB     disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3

➜  ~  diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

How can I repair this?

To rebuild your Fusion Drive almost non-destructively you have to convert your main volume (the HDD) to a Core Storage Volume Group first, then add the SSD as a physical volume and expand the Logical Volume to the full size of the now expanded Volume Group. All data on the SSD (volume: Untitled) will be erased, so back it up.

Backup your main volume and if necessary the volume "Untitled" on your SSD to an external backup drive.
Detach the backup drive and all other external drives
Boot to Recovery Mode by entering cmdR immediately after the boot chime.
Open Disk Utility and check all volumes and disks for errors and repair them.
But don't repair/rebuild the Fusion Drive without a backup, if you are asked to. You will loose all your data.
If you have a (Time Machine) backup, you may now repair the Fusion Drive, check it for errors, quit Disk Utility, open Restore From Time Machine Backup, restore your backup data and finally reboot to the restored system.
Quit Disk Utility
Open Terminal in the menubar

Enter diskutil list
Example list

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS SSD                121.0 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS HDD            3.0 TB     disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                         *1.3 GB    disk2
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OS X Base System        *1.3 GB    disk2s2
/dev/disk3-disk13 ...belong to the OS X Base System (your recovery system you booted to previously)

Disk0 is your SSD, disk1 is your HDD and disk2 is the OS X Base System of your Recovery HD
Now convert your main volume (the HDD) to a Core Storage Volume Group:

diskutil cs convert disk1s2

If you get a message stating that "the disk can't be unmounted, converted volume won't appear until it's unmounted", exit Terminal and reboot to Recovery Mode
Open Disk Utility and check the newly build Core Storage volume.
Quit Disk Utility and open Terminal
Now you have to convert the SSD to a Physical Volume. Enter:

diskutil list

to get the disk identifier of the HFS volume on the SSD and

diskutil cs list

to get the Logical Volume Group UUID (LVGUUID) and the Logical Volume UUID (LVUUID). It's the first and the last one listed.

To add the SSD volume to the Volume Group enter: diskutil cs addDisk LVGUUID DiskIdentifier

Example:

diskutil cs addDisk DA484337-F888-474B-90B5-232D14FD9B30 disk0s2

Now expand the Logical Volume with diskutil cs resizeVolume LVUUID size with size a little bit smaller than the size of the Logical Volume Group

Example:

diskutil cs resizeVolume 999ACBDC-045E-44FF-BBFD-54F56D069722 3106g

I also have a 3,1 TB Fusion Drive (the output of diskuil cs list is listed below) and the size of the LVG is 3,120,722,075,648 Byte and the size of the Logical Volume is 3,106,191,572,992 Byte:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group DA484337-F888-474B-90B5-232D14FD9B30
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         3120722075648 B (3.1 TB)
    Free Space:   114688 B (114.7 KB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume A3326508-CF3D-4ABC-8157-839074724063
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     120988852224 B (121.0 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 24BB36F1-B9E5-418E-BD8C-3F2C6DBF4B44
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    1
    |   Disk:     disk1s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     2999733223424 B (3.0 TB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family AA514A06-08D2-4F56-A0C5-E82A94E60A82
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 999ACBDC-045E-44FF-BBFD-54F56D069722
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk3
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          3106191572992 B (3.1 TB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

After successfully expanding the Logical Volume enter exit and quit Terminal
Open Disk Utility and check the Fusion Drive volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility and reboot to your Fusion Drive

If everything fails check the second part ('Rebuild Fusion Drive' (recommended if you have a Time Machine backup)) of my answer here.


How can I repair EFI? The computer is a MacBook Air. I have OSX Yosemite and Linux Ubuntu 14.04 dual boot. I messed up and damaged my Mac EFI and hence OSX ceased to work. Recovery disk was destoyed too. FileVault is on and I just changed my login password (which I remember but can not use) before the problems appear.

Please help..

If you have access to another mac, you can make a yosemite bootable install usb. http://liondiskmaker.com/ has a applescript program that will creae one, you just need a usb stick with 8gb and the installer downloaded.
Boot the messed up computer from the USB stick by holding shift during the boot sequence and selecting the USB stick.

There you can restore from time machine if your time machine works. Otherwise just reinstall over your old install. It shouldn't delete data but messing with the EFI is always dangerous and might need to be repartioned.

If that is the case you could try booting from an external mac, either with a harddrive that has mac, or time machine etc, and with that you should hopefully be able to mount the messed up disk partition that has the data and get your data off it.


Why does my Mac have Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD1? I have a VMWare virtual machine of 256GB. The HD capacity on the Mac is 750GB. In terminal under the Volumes folder, I see Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD1. About 300 gigs seem to be wasted.

How do I cleanup the hard drive and why do I have 2 HDs?

When you installed your vmware, you must have partitioned your HD and allocated some storage to the virtual OS. Macintosh HD 1 is the result of a partitioned drive. If you go to disk utility you will be able to see this. I am not sure if you can undo the partition without formatting the entire drive.


How can I repeat a Playlist? I have an iPhone 5, iOS 8.4.1. How can I repeat a Playlist? I've found how to repeat a song, but I want to repeat a playlist.

Select your playlist.
Tap on or drag the mini player up to display the full player.

Then tap the repeat icon.

If tapped twice, it will repeat the song currently played only (a tiny "1" appears on the top right side of the icon).


commandline equivalent of PDF export with preview I have several PNG images that I intend to include in a LaTeX document, but it does horrible things to non-vector images. I've been using preview to export the PNG as a PDF which remedies the problem.

I'd like to script this, so what would be the equivalent command in terminal to:

Open specified PNG file
Export as PDF to a file
Specify the page orientation (as it defaults to portrait which is rotating all my images 90˚

Pretty much any solutions considered, applescript, automator, shell etc.

This can be completed with the following Automator service workflow:

The Size Each Page to Fit option preserves the orientation of the original image(s) in my testing, so no rotation is required.


Wi-Fi could not be joined, error -3902 Sudently I can't connect to the wify at home anymore from my mac (all other devices are ok).

When trying to connect I get the dialog:

The Wi-Fi network "My_Wifi" could not be joined.

Try moving closer to your wireless router. Alternatively, run Wireless Diagnostics to troubleshoot.

And on the logs from /private/var/log/wifi.log:

Info: <airportd[51]> Failed to associate to WI-Fi network My_Wifi on interface en0, returned error code -3902

I found that rebooting either the router and or the computer solves the problem. Why it happens I don't know.


quicktime resets playback speed after pausing Hi usually on players when you set a playback speed it doesn't reset after pausing the video but on quicktime this happens does anyone have a solution?? (I know that you can change playback speed using option key + clicking on fast forward button)

Here is an AppleScript code that will make QuickTime Player remember the playback speed of a video after pausing it. Go to Script Editor and paste the following code into a new document, replacing # with the desired playback speed.
tell application "QuickTime Player"
    set theWindows to windows
    set win1 to item 1 of theWindows
    tell win1
        set visible to false
        set visible to true
        set index to 1
    end tell
    tell document 1
        repeat while miniaturized of win1 is false
            if playing and rate is 1 then
                set the rate to 1.5 as real
            end if
            delay 1.0E-3
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

The playback speed ("#") can be any real decimal number (i.e., 1.5). Values larger than 1 will speed the video up, and values between 0 and 1 will slow the video down. A negative value will cause the video to play backwards.
Note: The audio will drop out at speeds less than/equal to -2 or greater than/equal to 2.
Press Command+S (or File > Save) to save the script in a location where you can easily access it, and then open the script and run it (press the Play button at the top) whenever you need it. You can pause and play the video as many times as you want, and it will play at the selected speed each time, as long as you do not minimize the QuickTime Player window. You can resize and move the window, and also open other applications in the foreground, though. When you are done, click the Stop button (to left of Play button) and you can close the script.
It can be a little buggy at times, but this is the only method I have found to remedy this issue.


Cannot purchase from Mac App Store ("Connection failure" msg) I have a 2008 MBP with 10.7.4. I use a WIFI and ethernet connection. I cannot purchase or download anything in the Mac App store on my computer. I can, using other folk's computers. After putting in the password, I receive a red "Connection Failure" message. Despite this message, I can click on apps in the Store to read about them. I turned off Little Snitch to no avail. Everything else on the internet works just fine. No useful assistance from Apple. Any ideas?

Try this: log out of your iTunes account (within the App Store choose Store > Sign Out), restart your Mac and then try to purchase/download something.


Macbook Pro Retina 15" Mid-2015 and Ultrawide Monitors (LG and Acer) I'd like to be able to use a 38" ultrawide LG 38Uc99-W monitor or the Acer XR382CQK with my 15" Mid-2015 Retina Macbook Pro with an Intel GPU (not the Radeon).

Here are the specs for my Macbook Pro: https://support.apple.com/kb/sp719?locale=en_US

Here are the specs for the LG monitor: http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-38UC99-W-ultrawide-monitor

Here are the specs for the Acer monitor: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/UM.TX2AA.001

My understanding is that the Thunderbolt 2 digital video port can connect to the DisplayPort 1.2 on the monitor and that the Macbook can drive the 3840 x 1600 monitor.  In fact, it can drive two of these displays.

Is this the correct cable to connect the laptop to the monitor: http://a.co/6p9WBrV?

Is this correct? Am I missing anything?

Yes, Thunderbolt 2 is indeed compatible with DisplayPort 1.2. On top of that you should have no issue running a resolution of 3840x1600 on an external monitor via your MacBook. You will likely have to set the resolution manually though. After connecting the monitor, just head to System Preferences>Display>Your Monitor and hold option while clicking the "Scaled" radio-button to show a full list of available resolutions.

However do be wary that Night Shift is not officially compatible with any displays besides the internal Mac displays, the Apple Thunderbolt Monitor, and the LG UltraFine 4K/5K monitors. There is a common problem on unsupported external monitors where Night Shift will become permanently enabled, and will even stop Night Shift's scheduling and intensity settings from working properly on the Mac's internal monitor. I wrote a guide about fixing this by tricking your Mac into thinking your external monitor is internal. This will also prevent another problem where some external monitors get stuck in mirroring mode on newer versions of macOS. You can find that here: Fixing Night Shift incompatibility with external monitors


How to open a folder in Finder by a single mouse click? (using Icon view) Is there a setting, key combination or similar to open a folder/subfolder in Finder with a single mouse click ?  I need a general solution which works on any folder in effort to minimize needless clicking ... that tiny triangle aside the folder icon will work yet its just too small and only appears using list view ... inspired by same behavior on osx inside a browser to hold down command key and single click a web link ... forcing users to double click is so 20th Century

Is there a way to enable this on macOS (High Sierra or higher)?

On ubuntu this single click preference is a simple setting ;-)

I agree with you on double click.  I bought a multi-key mouse.  I assign a key to double click. Not a perfect or free solution, but better.


Share IOS app twice between Apple ID's A while back, I got a friend to share an app with me which was no longer on the app store. He logged in to his Apple ID on my iPhone, went to 'Purchased', and downloaded the app for me(Which, according to Apple, is perfectly legal- the app was free to get).

Now, I'd like to transfer the app to another friend. However, the app in question doesn't show up in my 'Purchased', because I never downloaded it from the app store. Is there any way I can give that app to my friend without the use of my first friend's Apple ID?

The app was never shared to your Apple ID and was not associated with your Apple ID in any way. If the app was still on the store and needed updating, your friend's Apple ID would be used. The app remains bound to your friend's Apple ID and thus you need your friend's Apple ID again to install it elsewhere.


How do I unhide the Mail preview pane? In my default view when using Apple's Mail on macOS, I used to see 3 coluns, from left:

Mailbox
Inbox
Email

I stretched the Inbox column / pane to width of the full window, and now have only 2 columns:

Mailbox
Inbox

I cannot "pull back" the Email pane with a mouse.

How can I restore the missing Email preview pane?

You have moved the divider line to the right to set the email pane to zero width. You move it back the same way, but you have to move to almost full width for it to "hold", after that you can vary the width as you like.
It is the same in Classic View: if you do not move it up very high it will not hold.


Restore OS after Harddrive upgrade I planning to upgrade my 2010 MBP's Hadrdrive from 160GB to 500GB, I have alrerady lot of data on the existing disk, including Bootcamp partition.

Could anyone suggest how to do I go ahead with restoring the data? I don't want to recreate/reinstall bootcamp after upgrade.

It looks like Carbon Copy Cloner cannot backup non-hfs+ volumes for you, which would be the main piece of software I would recommend for this. However, with the addition of Winclone, it seems you can do it without too much extra work.

I would first get an enclosure so I can work with both drives at the same time, but you don't actually have to, you just might need another Mac to be the middle man.

You will have to recreate the bootcamp partition on the new machine using the bootcamp assistant, but Winclone will automatically shove your Windows data back onto the volume, even if the sizes are different (of course, destination needs to be larger or same size as your previous boot camp partition).

So for the easy part:

Download CCC
Launch Carbon Copy Cloner
Choose the volume that you want to clone from the Source Disk menu
Choose a properly-formatted volume from the Target Disk menu
Set the Cloning method to "Backup everything"
Click the Clone button

This will put your Mac system on the new drive. Only use this method when it is staying in the same type of machine however, otherwise there can be issues.

Then, use Winclone to backup your Windows partition, and save it on the drive. The instructions below are lengthy so I didn't paste them that much, but overall its check 3 buttons, it will unmount the partition and save it as a file.

Next, switch the drive configuration, and boot into your normal system verifying all but the Windows partition is working. You then would need to run bootcamp, create a Windows partition, and follow the Winclone instructions to restore it from the file you created on your old disk.

https://www.macworld.com/article/131253/2007/12/winclone.html
https://gigaom.com/2010/01/12/how-to-image-os-x-and-boot-camp-to-a-new-mac/


Scale ARD to match client screen size, rather than host size? When accessing a host machine using Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) that has a bigger screen that the client machine, is it possible to scale the clients view so that their remote desktop window is actual size for their computer ?

EG. if the host has a 24" display, but the client has a 13" laptop display ARD would scale the view on the client machine, so that it would look like the host machine also had a 13" display.

Microsoft remote desktop on OSX dose a similar thing and ive found it really useful. I think the way it achieves this is only by locking the host screen so that it can rescale the view on the host.

View menu > Fit in Window, or the indicated icon on the appropriate remote screen

Then you can make the window any size you like & the contents will always fit.
This is done client-side so the host's desktop is not re-distributed at random, similar to how Microsoft's Mac version of RDC does it.

Just for fun... this is how small it will go


How do I send an image via Bluetooth from my Mac to my iPhone? I need to connect my Mac to my iPhone and send a picture via Bluetooth. Can someone give me step by step instructions as in how to do this ?

note: if there's any other way i could do this, then please share it with me

Bluetooth transfer is only available to jailbreakers. If you want to go that route, AirBlue Sharing claims to be able to send/receive files over Bluetooth.

Non-jailbreak options include the $1.99 app Photosync, which uses Wifi and requires a free desktop app to receive/transfer files to it:

  PhotoSync will transform your photo handling forever. It‘s the first
  app that makes wireless transfer of your photos/videos from or to your
  computer and other i-Devices - a breeze.

  Supported transfer
  directions: Device to Computer (Wi-Fi), Computer to Device (Wi-Fi),
  Device to Device (Wi-Fi & Bluetooth)

Or you could use Dropbox, drop a picture in the Dropbox folder on your desktop then use the iOS client to access the picture and save it to the device if you want.


Running sudo when user has blank password? I have a user with a blank password, but now I can't run sudo with that account.
sudo ls
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
sudo: 3 incorrect password attempts

Is there any way around this?

sudo on macOS requires the account to have a password:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202035
Therefore it is not possible to just press ENTER to continue at the prompt, like you would expect from some other systems.
This behaviour is enforced through a configuration of the PAM subsystem. You can change the settings for that in /etc/pam.d, where you have a sudo file that setups the authentication requirements for the sudo command.
WARNING: Changing the contents of the files in /etc/pam.d incorrectly can deny you from logging to your system at all. Only make changes if you know what you're doing, you have a backup - and you feel confident in booting in Recovery mode to undo your changes if it should fail.


Trying to reinstall OS X on a linux drive I have decided I don't want to deal with the bugs of linux and would like to go back to OS X. Sadly no matter what I do I cannot seem to get OS X to read the file system that linux uses. I tried formatting it but could not get it to work. After loads of googling I ave up and decided I would ask here.

Any ideas?

Assuming your internal drive is not a Fusion drive, the following Terminal application command should setup your internal drive for an installation of macOS. You will need to run this command from macOS Internet Recovery. Or, if you are booted from an external drive.

diskutil  partitionDisk  disk0  1  GPT  JHFS+  "Macintosh HD"  R


What is the keyboard shortcut for "Open With" in Finder? How can I open a file with an application, other than the default, using a keyboard shortcut? I don’t want to change the default application for the filetype.

E.g. sometimes I want to open a .html file using an editor instead of a browser.

The best solution for me:

Select file you want to open
Press ⇧+⌘+/ (opens up the mighty Help search)
Then start to type a name of app you want to open
Use arrow keys to select right menu item
Press Enter
Done!

For example I want to open HTML-file with Sublime Text instead of Chrome.
I navigate to this file, press shortcut, type in "su", press down-arrow and press enter!


Simple solution to create a zip for Windows users without __MACOSX or any other "period" hidden folders I've seen questions:

How can I create a zip archive for Windows and Linux users?
How to remove __MACOSX folder in a list of zip files (not a single zip file)?
How can I batch zip multiple folders without _macosx files?

This question is different.

I'm asking for a way to create a zip without the .DS_Store or  __MACOSX for less sophisticated Apple computer users who have to coexist with Windows users who cannot accept a zip with the .DS_Store and __MACOSX.

I've discovered these are called Mac resource forks.

Like I said, for less sophisticated Apple users, so no command line codes please.

Without having to use terminal,
you could try Folderwasher, which is an app that creats a zip without the .DS_store file. You can drop the folder onto the application and it compresses it.

Alternatively, you could try Keka, which also has an option to exclude the .DS_store file. Open Keka, click on zip, and check Exclude Mac OS X resource forks and drop what you want to compress on the Keka window.

There are other questions related to this topic:

Compressing folders on a mac, without the .DS_Store on Superuser
Compress without .DS_Store and __MACOSX on AskDifferent


Macbook pro checkered display, safeboot works My Mid-2010 Macbook gone wild since morning.

I was running snowleopard but has Lion (dual boot). The recent changes I've done today is, installed trial version of AirParrot app and tried to use Extended display (it seems to install a virtual driver or something)

The delta of changes I've today are

Installed Airparrot trial
Updated Firefox 13 to 13.0.1
Tried newly bought wireless combo (Logitech K260)

Booting into OSX Lion also having the same issue. I've manually deleted AirParrotDriver.kext & APExtFramebuffer.kext from system and rebuilt kext cache

Another odd issue i notified is preview is not loading images, but quick look display the image from finder. (attached image) throws msg "invalid pixel format" & "invalid context" in console.app

I use acer 23" as secondar monitor, The issue is on both the display. As i said in the title, the display is working fine in safeboot.

I'm running safeboot to post this question.

Update:

It seems to be issue with hardware issue. I reinstalled Lion on separate partition, it doesn't fix it.

Safeboot works on snowleopard and lion
Reason being it doesn't load Quartz Extreme (related to graphics card?)

Update 2:

Disabling Quartz in Quartz Debug utility clears the Yellow grids in dragged/selected area of the screen.

Update 3:

Attaching the GPU-Z info (windows7 with bootcamp)

Btw, Apple authorized service provider confirmed, GPU is the culprit and cost me Logic board upgrade. To add oil to the fire, they also said battery is dead too (Service status)

Those checkers are usually a Graphics RAM corruption. When you're in Safe Mode, OS X's graphics hardware acceleration is turned off as it is when you turn off Quartz in Quartz Debug.

My opinion is that there is no way to fix it except exchanging the main board.


MySQL service doesn't start in Catalina OSX Installed MySQL 8.0.18 from a dmg file downloaded from the official site. The service won't start when manually started from the new Preferences icon added by the installer. Running sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server start dies with this error message:

  Starting MySQL .. ERROR! The server quit without updating PID file

I tried setting file and dir ownership of /usr/local/mysql/ to the _mysql user, and giving write permissions to /usr/local/mysql/data/ as per other answers suggested but that didn't fix the issue.

Edit: Forgot to make clear this is on macOS Catalina, I think this is highly relevant as this version brought revised security policies setting how/if each app can write to disk.

After hours investigating I found this post from Michael Fraase: https://discourse.brew.sh/t/mysql-8-0-18-on-catalina-wont-run-as-service/6015/2

I just added:

[mysqld]
user=root

to /etc/my.cnf (or where you have your .cnf file) and it solved it (I can not believe it).


Screensaver lost functions since High Sierra upgrade, can't wake screen with keyboard Since the High Sierra upgrade, I no longer can wake my screen with the "esc" key or by pressing any key or moving my mouse. I have to click the mouse a couple of times to wake the screen.

Also, my photos screensaver no longer will respond to backward or forward in order to scroll through pictures while the screensaver is on. Is there a tweak for this so I can get back these functions that I used daily with Sierra? Thanks!

Try turning ON the following setting:

  System Preferences > Mission Control > Displays have separate Spaces: ON (checked)

Then log out and log back in again for it to take effect.

Not really a solution—more of a workaround—since maybe you want that setting disabled.  But I guess it might be a bug in High Sierra, because I don't think the Mission Control settings should affect the screensaver...


Would an Apple Watch charge any quicker if connected to a 12W USB power adapter? I understand that all Apple Watch models ship with a 5W USB power adapter in the box, but I'm curious as to whether the Watch would charge quicker if paired with a 12W power adapter. Is there any official information anywhere that outlines the maximum wattage that an Apple Watch can take?

No.  There is no quick charging feature on any of the Apple watches.

As far as documentation goes, Apple rarely documents what it can’t do; so you’re not going to find anything official.

However, with a little bit of research, we can posit as to why Apple’s watch is limited to 5W: physics.  The Apple watch uses an inductive (wireless) charger that’s held in place with magnets and connected via USB (5VDC).  The thing with inductive chargers is that the receiver coils’ (in the watch) power capacity is determined by the gauge of the wire and the number of “turns” which influences the size if said coil.

In the Texas Instruments paper Designing a Qi-compliant receiver coil for wireless power systems it states that a coil with 5V output at 5W would require a coil with dimensions of 48mm x 32mm with 15 turns (page 4).  Needless to say, thats much larger than the actual watch itself.  The coil in the watch is obviously much smaller with finer gauge wire meaning lower power output.  5W is the smallest USB power adapter they make, so they simply include it rather than create another power adapter specific to the watch (IMO).

This is confirmed with this YouTube video testing both the 5W and 12W chargers.  The charging speed is identical for both meaning the watch won’t “quick charge” with the 12W adapter.  Likewise it continues to show that you can use any USB charger so long as it’s greater than or equal the the power requirements of the device.  You can use a 91W USB-C charger for your watch with no issues (but you shouldn’t the other way around)


Is there a limit as to how many apple TVs i can connect to 1 iTunes account? Im speccing a house that has 8 individual TVs. The plan is to have an apple TV local to each TV. Will i have an issue with limits as to how many apple TVs i can connect to 1 iTunes account ?

Im based in the UK, not sure if that makes a difference in relation to the terms & conditions that govern this.

Use Home Sharing in iTunes, and sign into each ATV's "iTunes and App Store" account setting with the same account, and you'll be all set.  You can also set the ATV's to require the acct password to purchase content (or even to download free content), so you don't have to worry about guests/kids/etc purchasing content.


Can I prevent Facebook from running in the background? I made the observation, that turning off Background App Refresh does NOT prevent Facebook and FB Messenger from receiving updates and giving me notifications and thus still run in the background. This awesome answer shed some light on the matter explaining that there are a quite a bunch of means for apps to run in the background unaffected by the Background App Refresh setting.

However, I want to ask this question point blank: Is it not possible for the user to completely kill an app, meaning no background activity whatsoever, other than removing it from my device?

This is not about battery life or something, but about Facebook (or some other service) being able to track my (approximate) location based on my IP address.

In the iOS device:
you can go to settings > general > Background App Refresh and try to disable Facebook

In Facebook:
to disable Location in Facebook settings > account Settings > location > location chose Never

hope with does 2 options I can give you the answer you want


iPod Touch 1st generation upgradeability How do I restore and upgrade my iPod Touch 1st generation so I can download newer  games on it?

Unfortunately, you can't.

The latest iOS that the original iPod touch can run is 3.1.3 released February 2010
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_iOS