Do I need to take special steps to fully restore an iPhone after jailbreaking it? I heard that the iPhone has some sort of counter that counts every unauthorized connect or something like that, and with said counter, Apple Geniuses can tell if it has been jailbroken and they won't fix it. I was also told that when you perform a restore on the iPhone, the counter is saved so anyone can tell if it's been jailbroken even after restore.

Is there a way to fully restore the iPhone and leave no "fingerprints" behind ?

This is the first I hear about this so-called "counter". I don't believe in such and I'm pretty sure when you restore an iPhone using DFU modus, the iPhone is completely wiped clean.

As a matter of facts, I've jailbroken all my iPhones so far and passed by the Apple Genius bar several times. Once I even forgot to restore the device when asking a Genius for help. And he just smiled at me and said "jailbreak, right? What's your favorite app?" :)

So, no. I don't think there is such a counter and you're safe with a DFU Full restore.


Why do some app spotlight results show the ".app" extension, but not all? Even though I've explicitly set the Finder preference to display all file extensions, I'm still finding that some apps do not show the file name extension in their Spotlight result.

Here are some examples.

I'm running Mountain Lion.

TL;DR

Basically, it's a bug or bug fix introduced in macOS 10.13 High Sierra: Spotlight now respects the Finder setting to show file extensions. Disabling that setting removes the .app extension from Spotlight.

Full-length answer

I know this is a very old question, but I just had a déjà-vu in 10.13 High Sierra; different to this one but with some similarities, so I searched for it and stumbled upon this question and here's my answer:

Apps are in fact directories displayed as if they were a single file; Apple calls that a bundle (despite the Finder naming it "Package" as in "Show Package Contents" in the context menu). Not just applications are bundles, Apple uses bundles also for frameworks, plugins, application extensions, XPI services, certain kind of installer packages, as well as data storage format if stored data consists out of multiple files but shall appear as just one file (e.g. a RTF document with pictures can be stored as a RTFD bundle). Bundles always have a real name, the name of the file entry on disk. So if there is nothing else to display, macOS displays that name everywhere.

However, bundles have a info file inside, named Info.plist, which contains all kind of meta data about the bundle. One thing such an info file can define is a Display Name. If such a display name is set, Finder will display the display name and not the real name of the directory. That is, unless the directory has been re-named, which the Finder can detect if the directory name does not match the bundle name in the Info.plist file. Well, I admit, it's a bit complicated. Let's try it with an example:

The directory is named My App.app
The bundle name in Info.plist is My App
The bundle display name in Info.plist is My Cool App

With that combination, Finder will show the app as My Cool App.app (or just My Cool App if extensions are hidden). As long as (1) and (2) match in name, (3) is displayed.

If I now rename the directory to My Boring App.app, then Finder will display it as My Boring App.app since as soon if (1) and (2) don't match in name, (1) is displayed, as if the user wants his/her app renamed, of course, Finder should display the user chosen name, makes sense, doesn't it?

Complicated enough already? Well, I'm sorry, but it gets even more complicated now. All values in the Info.plist that are displayed to users can be localized, so if your system is set to US English, the bundle display name may be My Cool App, but if the system is set to UK English, it can be My Amazing App. If a localization exists for the current system language, Finder will display that localization, but again, only if the names of (1) and (2) matches, otherwise (1) will win again.

Localizing is done by placing .strings files into bundles into sub-directories that are named <x>.lproj, where <x> can just be a language code, e.g. en.lproj for English, fr.lproj for French, etc. But in can also be language + country, like en_US.lproj, en_GB.lproj, en_AU.lproj, and so on. Inside is a file named InfoPlist.strings and this file can override the base values of the Info.plist file. If no matching localization is found, the values from the base localization are used (named development region) which is also defined by the Info.plist file. If no such localization is defined, the values from the Info.plist are used directly.

Spotlight behaves like Finder, if (1) and (2) match in name (3) is displayed, either directly or from the matching localization. If (3) isn't set, (1) is displayed. But unlike Finder it does not always add the .app extension, even if requested in Finder preferences. I wasn't able to ever find the exact behavior pattern, but a certain combination of setup will prevent Spotlight from showing the extension, regardless of what you have configured. For some users it is fixed by changing the Finder setting and then running sudo mdutil -E / in Terminal (which re-indexes everything). But it's not working for all users, which may have something to do with the chosen language/region.

Basically it's a bug. Either re-indexing fixes it or it can't be fixed. And the behavior was changed by Apple at some macOS release and stayed constant thereafter... that is, until 10.13 High Sierra. All of a sudden all my apps have .app extension in Spotlight, which matches my Finder setting, whereas in 10.12 Sierra no app had an extension in Spotlight, despite the Finder setting, unless I have renamed it or unless I had multiple copies of lying around.


Difficulty typing on Iphone because of fat fingers I have fat fingers hence this makes typing on the Iphone which has a small screen difficult , I always mistyped

Are there any ways to overcome this problem ???

Practice makes perfect, but the real differentiator between people that struggle to learn to type on glass and those that become proficient is the mindset when you learn.
I would encourage anyone struggling with this to give themselves a huge window to learn. Play around with the keyboard for 5 minutes, don't worry about your fingers covering the letters.
Also, experiment with the voiceover and assistive touch settings to see what different input lag settings do and also changing the entire meaning of a tap (with voiceover) does for your concept of touch control.
Also, when playing - see if you can place your finger in the empty zone between three characters (two on one row and the key below the gap). Plop your finger down but don't lift it. Then pivot it gently, rolling on the fleshy part of your finger and see how the contact area changes as you rotate your finger. You can drop your finger where you think the letter is and then adjust before lifting.
After playing a bit, you will quickly get better as long as you don't get too frustrated with yourself. Just as learning to ride a bicycle can be hard initially, this too is a fine motor skill you need to practice.
I've never met anyone that couldn't learn to type due to physical size of their digits. Of course nerve / control / other physical limitations such as missing bones or digits is an entirely different situation than being used to seeing where you tap and/or not training up a new skill.
If you have an issue typing, there are now switch controls, voiceover, assistive touch, accessibility options galore on iPhone and iOS.
If your issue is attitude or feeling it’s not worth learning a new skill since you prefer a keyboard you can connect a keyboard or buckle up and start learning a new skill.
Don’t allow yourself to think you’re too impatient, too old, too young, too busy, too frustrated or just don't care to learn a new skill. There's nothing wrong with any of that, but if you give yourself a few days to adjust I think you just may start to like the keyboard or at least reach a level of peace and possibly comfort with how the touch detection works.


How to enrol in a program as a Commercial Software House I represent a commercial software house that is about to develop an iOS app for a single client company. Our aim is to develop multiple apps for multiple clients over time.  The client needs the app to be distributed via the App Store. I've read that for the client to appear as the seller in the App Store (although it will be free), they would need to enrol in the developer program.   I foresee that we'll have to advise all our potential clients to enrol which seems illogical as they are employing us to do all the work so to avoid any 'technicalities'.

Does anyone have real life experience of how to manage enrolment in these cases?

Each client will need an Apple Developer ID and membership of the Mac and/or iOS Developer Programs.

There are two approaches:

You can develop and submit applications for Mac or iOS. After acceptance into the App Store, transfer the app to the client's Apple Developer account.
You can develop and submit the applications using the client's Apple Developer ID credentials.

In both cases, the client will need to be enrolled with an Apple Developer Program.

You can delay this cost for the client by developing and submitting the app using your own Apple Developer Account.

Part of the process of enrolling involves agreeing to Apple's terms of service and other legally binding agreements. Without agreeing to Apple's agreements, the receiving client will not be able to participate in Apple's App Store or Mac App Store under their own name.

It is possible to have applications associated with your Apple Developer ID but not participate in the App Stores. However, those applications will not be eligible for sale through Apple.

It is possible to associate your details as the technical contact for your client's Apple Developer IDs. This can help separate your technical role from the client's business role.


PowerPoint AppleScript: How do I set Play = Automatically for a media2 movie shape? I am working on a script that will iterate through a folder/DroppedItems of photos and movies and place each one centered and maximized on a slide. I would like to set the movies to play automatically so it will work with a simple clicker. I've tried a bunch of different things with the syntax and I'm still coming up short. Here's what I have that I thought was most promising. Part of the issue it seems is that "play settings of theAnimation" looks like it is getting compiled to a type rather than a property. It should say "animation play settings" I believe. I've tried forcing it by pasting in the chevron syntax, but that still doesn't help.

tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
    tell theSlide of the active presentation to set theMedia to   ¬
        make new media2 object at end with properties  ¬
        {file name:theMediaFile, lock aspect ratio:true}

    set theAnimation to animation settings of theMedia
    set animate of theAnimation to true
    set playSettings to play settings of theAnimation
    set autoPlay to play on entry of playSettings
    set autoPlay to true -- originally and erroneously omitted; thanks Jack!
end tell

This is the setting in the UI that I am trying to change via AppleScript:

Here is a simplified version. It works in the code (that is, I can see that the property is correctly set to true), but it isn't reflected in the UI nor in the behavior when running a slide show:

tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
    set thePresentation to active presentation
    set theSlide to slide (slide index of slide range of selection of document window 1) of thePresentation
    if (count of shapes of theSlide) = 1 then
        set theShape to first shape of theSlide
        set play on entry of play settings of animation settings of theShape to true
    end if
end tell

To set the play on entry property, use one of the following lines

set play on entry of playSettings to false -- to Start: When Clicked
set play on entry of playSettings to true -- to Start: Automatically


How to restore file permissions after wrong chown All the files whether system files or drive are owned by root:wheel. What should I do?

Currently my Mac only opens in recovery mode.

I use mac OS Catalina

I stuck with recovery terminal what is the default ownership for all these files

first I command this wrong command chown -R _www:_www /
 and destroyed my mac then i command on recovery terminal
chown -R root /
which made things worse i think

I reinstalled Mac now I am stuck here. The old password doesn't work. Does Mac have a default name and password or what

The files and directories in / are always owned by root/wheel, there is nothing which seems wrong on your screenshot.


OSX Auto Audio Adjuster? On many smart TVs or Windows computers, there is a feature called smart audio adjustment. It basically prevents the audio from going too loud or too quite when playing files that has audio output, such as a movie. I like to know if there is a similar feature or if there is an OSX application that can accomplish similar goal.

That depends what app are you using.

For example iTunes, you can set that up in preferences.

For example VLC player, you can set that up in Audio Effects.

It all depends what app are you using.


How to copy plain text from web pages in Safari? When using Safari, I find no plug-in to force copied text from web pages to not include rich-text formatting and only copy the raw ascii characters.

How can I, using Safari, only copy plain text into the clipboard from web pages?

If that is not possible, is there a way in Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 to only paste plain text?

Whilst copying from Safari as plain text is not possible as far as I know, the OS X system shortcut for pasting as plain text is ⇧⌥⌘V.

For Microsoft Word, go to Edit → Paste Special → Unformatted Text or Edit → Paste and Match Formatting.


OS X Automator: Using custom command in AppleScript's "do shell script" I have recently asked a question about automatically inserting a value produced by a custom executable into a prompt field. Please look over this post to know exactly what I am talking about.

The reply I got was exactly what I was looking for except for one but crucial detail.

To make things short: I am looking for a way to make do shell script to accept custom executables. Running my custom command vpnpw in terminal works perfectly fine. However, AppleScript's do shell script says it's unknown.

Does anyone know how to make these custom executables available globally?

What's the fully qualified pathname of the executable?  If it's not within in the $PATH that's passed to the do shell script command, which is /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin, then you'll need to use the fully qualified pathname of the executable.

To make an executable available globally, it must be in a directory that's included in the $PATH.

You can also add an alias or symbolic link to the target executable to a directory that's in the $PATH if you do not want to either append the path to it in the $PATH however keep in mind if the executable is dependent on files that are within its directory then adding the directory path to the $PATH is what you'll need to do.


How do you set custom time limits in Mac OSX? I'm searching for a custom method to limit access to our mac. Parental controls allow you to limit time by school nights and weekend time chunks through system preferences. However, I want more options for the limiting. For example, on Mondays I want access available from 2pm to 5pm and then again from 8pm to 10pm limited to 2 hours total login time. Tuesdays may get different time ranges and total access time.

It seems like I should be able to do this by modifying the com.apple.familycontrols.timelimits.v2.plist file. But it gets rewritten back to the settings I have previously set through system preferences.

I don't want to use a 3rd party software for this. It seems that I should be able to accomplish what I want by manipulating settings "under the hood". Any ideas on how I might do this?

I would use the Automator application and set it there with Calendar events.

All you have to do is crate different events (shut down times and dates).

Example:


Can I play my music on the iOS Music app with a sleep timer? Maybe I’m going crazy, but I'm sure that I could listen to music on my old iPhone 4 and set the Music app to play to a sleep timer. So, if I wanted, I could play music for 30 minutes when I went to bed and it would automatically stop playing after 30 minutes.

I've now got a new iPhone and cannot for the life of me work out how to do this?

Did I imagine being able to do this on my iPhone 4, or was I just using another music app to do it?

I can't tell you what app you were using on your iPhone 4, but I can tell you how you can still play music on your new iPhone using a sleep timer.

To do what you want, follow this process:

Launch the Clock app
Tap on the Timer option at bottom right
Set the timer to 30 min
Tap on the When Timer Ends option
Now swipe up until you see the Stop Playing option at the very bottom and select it
Tap on Set at top right

Now you can use the Music app (and most 3rd party music apps as well) to listen to your music and your iPhone will stop playing it 30 minutes later.

[EDIT]

So, the reason for your confusion (understandably so in my opinion), is that Apple’s implementation of this is OS wide, not as a specific function of the Music app.

The advantage of this is you can use the feature with 3rd party apps like Spotify, but IMHO it would have also been good to have the option within the Music app itself. If you feel that way too, you can submit feedback to Apple.


Bluetooth devices wake Mac OS X persistently I have a MacBook Pro running latest El Capitan and in the Bluetooth preferences pane I have set up that Bluetooth devices shouldn't be able to wake up the Mac. However, recently I have been finding my Mac overheated when I wake it from sleep. I observed the situation a bit, removed all USB devices and looked at Activity Monitor and the processes preventing from sleep were "rcd" and "hidd". After having put the laptop to sleep, the fans go completely silent for half a minute and then they start spinning. As soon as the fans start spinning either the keyboard's or trackpad's green LED turns on without any obvious input. A minute later the fans stop and that cycles until I wake it up.

Reinstalling OS X fixed it in case anyone has the same problem.


What is pingsender and why does it wants to connect to? I use Firefox and I got this message from Little Snitch.

What is pingsender and why does it wants to connect to incoming.telemetry.mozilla.org?

pingsender is a component of Firefox used by Mozilla for telemetry.

  The ping sender is a minimalistic program whose sole purpose is to deliver a telemetry ping.

https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/components/telemetry/docs/internals/pingsender.rst


4k external monitor stuck in 1080p I have Macbook Pro 16" 2019 model. Recently I bought Acer 4k Monitor VG280K.
I'm connecting it to Macbook Pro with HDMI which came with it and attached it with a USB C to HDMI converter which support 4k@60Hz.
I'm facing a very annoying bug. Sometimes randomly Macbook is rendering full 4k and sometimes its rendering only 1080p. I have to restart or replug the cable multiple times for it to render 4k.
I noticed others are also facing the same issue https://piunikaweb.com/2021/02/04/external-4k-monitor-issues-after-macos-big-sur-11-1-update/
I have talked with the Apple Customer Care but they were not helpful.
I'm also using this new monitor with Windows laptop and getting full resolution without a break, so the HDMI cable and monitor is fine.
Thousands of people like me are facing the same issue as mentioned here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252174979
I patiently waited for 11.3.1 update and hoped it might fix it but it didn't fix it. I don't know what to do now. I'm stuck with this problem for months.

I can confirm this is fixed with Big Sur 11.4


Does iOS have a firewall? Does iOS support a built-in firewall like macOS does? I don't see anything about it in Settings.

Page 27 of the September 2015 iOS Security White Paper states that there is not a firewall on iOS.

  On other platforms, firewall software is needed to protect open communication ports against intrusion. Because iOS achieves a reduced attack surface by limiting listening ports and removing unnecessary network utilities such as telnet, shells, or a web server, no additional firewall software is needed on iOS devices.


How can I delete all Time Machine backups of a given folder? The delete all backups of dialog isn’t present when I right-click the folder in question.

I am trying to delete all Time Machine backups of this folder including the ones found in the local snapshots.

You must enter Time Machine by going to the menu icon and clicking on it. One of the options is to "Enter Time machine". This will bring up all your backups on the screen. When I right click on a folder I get the options shown below.

If you chose "Delete All Folders " it should do what you want.


Problem with audio output on OS X 10.10.4 I recently upgraded my OS to Yosemite 10.10.4

After done my volume icon is greyed out and no sound is found. This is not the bug where it is set on HDMI since when i open output there is no internal speakers nor does it find a pair of head phones.

It will still detect bluetooth and HDMI sound.

Any takers on a good answer?

While I've never experienced this issue in Yosemite, I did have issues with audio output on an older OS. If I remember correctly, my solution was to reset the core audio.

The following is reason to believe some have experienced loss of audio in 10.9: http://www.imore.com/losing-audio-os-x-mavericks-heres-what-you-can-do-about-it

This thread shows a means of automating the process, in case that solves your problem: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/create-a-service-to-reboot-core-audio.1697918/


There is no link in the verification email for a new Apple ID I created I got my new iPhone today and ofcrouse made an Apple ID right away. Everything goes ok, I get sent a verification email, but there is no link in it. It has the instructions and they mention a link, but there is none. I tried sending the verification email from my iPhone and from the apple site (https://appleid.apple.com/), but still nothing.

Here is a screenshot of the email I received:

It seems that your email client is not displaying images. (Many email programs disable images by default for security purposes.) However, the verification link will probably be an image button, so you must enable images in order to see it.

(Alternatively, if you configure your email account in Mail on your iPhone, you should also be able to see the button there, since Mail displays images in emails.)


What's the best way to prevent my Mac from updating macOS? I'd like to keep my Mac on Catalina forever. Other than disabling "Automatically keep my Mac up to date", is there anything else I can do to prevent my Mac from upgrading to newer macOS versions? I'm still interested in receiving Catalina updates and Safari updates, but they don't need to be automatic.
This machine will be kept online, but only used for audio software. It doesn't need to be secure.

Actually that is pretty easy to do.
I've got a 16" MBP on which I do not want to upgrade to Big Sur (at least yet) and here is what I have done.
First go to System Preferences > Software update and uncheck "Automatically keep my Mac up to date" like this:

Then click the "Advanced..." button and un check everything except the first option, like this:

Note that is is OK to leave the last option "Install System data files and security updates." But being the mildly paranoid techie I choose to leave that off. Your call tho.
Note that there is really no way to hide the Big Sur "Upgrade Now" button but when there are updates for your current macOS version they will appear below that under a very small "more..." link. That will NOT install Big Sur. Instead it will install just the updates to your current version of macOS.


Can I delete files in /Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Logs? My MacBook is becoming unstable due to limited disk space the major culprit for which is a mysterious category called "Other". Poking around a bit (a lot actually) I find that I have over 650 GB of Other, 330 GB of which is in a single file in
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Logs/Mail

called
imap-mail.outlook.com-<GUID>.txt

What is this file? Is it safe to delete it?

Simply delete the file. It's even safe to do this while Mail is running.
Accumulation of these files can be prevented by choosing Window > Connection Doctor in Mail and making sure "Log Connection Activity" is unchecked.


How do I calibrate the colors for two monitors for web development? I have a Mac Pro with a dual setup running an Acer P243w and Samsung SyncMaster B2430. I have attempted making my own profile but have difficulty matching them.

Is there any better way to make my monitors match color wise? Do you have any tips?

My problem is that I am creating interfaces and the coloring appears to be 'off', between the two.

There some hardward-based display calibrators that usually cost $80 and up. Some names are "Datacolor Spyder3Express",  "LaCie Blue Eye", "PANTONE huey".

An important issue with calibration for the web is to:

Calibrate with gamma 2.2. If you're on Snow Leopard, especially if you started with it on the Mac when you bought, then it will be gamma 2.2 already. But if you use Leopard or calibrated on it, you might have gamma 1.8, which is not standard for web (and doesn't fit Windows, which also has 2.2).
Learna about sRGB color profile, which was build for CRT monitors back in the day. Many browsers don't support embedded color profiles for images (Safari does support, though), which means they'll render uncalibrated, which means they'll be rendered in your (and other visitors') monitor' profile, which might be close to sRGB.
You should preferably export all your graphics without profile or with sRGB profile for them to display most propertly with all brosewrs.
Calibrating with Mac OS X build-in software calibrartion is possible but might require several iterations to get right. If your display has non-LED backlighting you should let it work for about 10 minutes before calibrarting or otherwise judge its colors, while the lamp warms up.
You're better off try to compare some images that have embeeded sRGB profile and the same that isn't  and see if the colors match in browser.

Resources:

A good place to test your monitor (but not calibrate color profile) is: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
sRGB and other color profile information: Has great tests with hover-switching images to see how different profiles and no-profile images display on your monitor. http://www.gballard.net/psd/srgbforwww.html
The above website has specific instructions on calibrating a Mac: http://www.gballard.net/photoshop/hardware_calibrate_monitor.html
Calibration theory and some test images (even though more photography oriented): http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html
Some Mac OS calibration process tips at http://www.khulsey.com/monitor_calibration.html

Also, S-IPS panel monitors have more consistent color reproduction at different viewing andles. If you have regular TN monitors, you might have a problem see them both at the same color from the different angles that you see them, even if each one is calibrated 100% when viewed hean-on.

And yes, it might take huge amount of time and a lot of disappointments, so be patient.


How to silently update OS X and reboot if necesary? I am looking for a silent (unattended) way of updating OS X that would not require use intervention.

Is this possible, how?

$ sudo softwareupdate --list
$ softwareupdate -a -i && shutdown -r now

The && shutdown -r now is purely optional - if you want to only reboot when needed (or never) you can process the output as softwareupdate will print out messages that a reboot is needed when appropriate. This tool - even if updates come from the App Store app, does not update any purchased apps. You need the GUI to update those apps at present time since Apple did not include a tool to automate those updates.

The first just scans for appropriate updates. The second installs all updates followed by a reboot of the Mac. Play around to see what works best for you. It's trivial to automate these using launchd if that suits your needs as well.

I've had better luck rebooting the Macs before the update. If I'm going to cut users off with unsaved data, I'd rather do that first and let the update go cleanly. Updating a program that is currently running is something I like to avoid.

Here is a nice article explaining the details from Apple. It works fine on non-server version of Mac OS X as noted at the end of the article.


How can I print varying number of multiple pages per sheet on Mac? (Standard layout / print multiple pages option does not suit) I've got a bunch of pdfs containing text. Each page is of the same width, but each page is of a different height. Some pages only contain a few lines of text, other pages contain a lot of text.
I want to print this pdf on a Mac so that each sheet I print on is filled nicely with text. The problem is that the standard 'print multiple pages per sheet' option does not suit, as some pages of the pdf could fill their own page, whereas others are so narrow that 3 or 4 of them could be combined on one sheet.
Anyone know of a simple software / workaround that solves my problem? Thanks so much!!

I wait to be corrected, but I'm not convinced that any 'simple' software exists to do this easily. (I'm wondering whether Safari will split up PDF content for printing in the same way as it does for web pages -- though of course that can cut the page in the middle of a line of text.)
Your best bet is to manually place each PDF page onto the fixed pages of some DTP software, like Affinity Publisher, or Scribus, or InDesign. Unless you've got more than 100 pages, this shouldn't take too long.
Having written a number of python scripts that interact with MacOS's CoreGraphics, it is conceivable that a utility could be written to 'consolidate' the pages onto the pages of a new PDF; though this would require some work.


Maximise to half screen and choose other window I might have imagined it but I think I just did something to maximise a window to half fullscreen on a new desktop and then was presented windows to show on the other half, very much like windows does. I'm not sure howe I did it but would like to know how.

I do have Better touch tool which has sort of that functionality but it's not the full screen desktop version - it does the equivalent of Option clicking the green button.

Anybody have any ideas how to actually do this? (I'm on High Sierra, believe it or not).

I worked it out.

A long press on the green button then allows you to drag it to the half of the screen you want. (Better touch tool not required, default MacOS behaviour)


Does Time Machine need the Spotlight index? On OS X, does Time Machine need the index maintained by Spotlight? Will disabling Spotlight completely (via mdutil) affect Time Machine?

Maybe it changed ever since, but these days I think the given answer Nope is wrong.

Apple explained this by stating:

If you add a Time Machine backup disk to the privacy list, you will
continue to see messages that Spotlight is indexing your backup disk.
This indexing is necessary for Time Machine to function properly and
can’t be disabled. Spotlight does exclude from searches any items
you store on your backup disk that are not part of a Time Machine
backup.

I have just tried adding my TM backup drive to the exclusion list in Catalina 10.15.4 and it was refused stating that I cannot add a Timemachine Backup to the privacy list of spotlight. - Others have tried the same in Mojave 10.14.2, in Sierra and High Sierra, with the same result.

Again others have tried doing this more ingeniously in the command line, only to find that mdworker continued to access the backups making indexes.

Oddly, though, Apple has removed its earlier article(s) about this altogether, and there is no longer any official line as to whether it’s possible.


Using Existing Time Machine Backup over Time Capsule I have an external 2TB drive that I've been using for Time Machine Backups directly connected to my Mac. I've recently gotten a Time Capsule and would to continue backing up with the existing backup, so that I keep the history I already have and do not need to start from scratch.

I'm able to see the drive and can see the Backups.backupdb directory, as well as the subdirectory that contains my backup, but if I try to backup, it starts from scratch on the drive in a toplevel directory (/Volumes/T2/mbp instead of /Volumes/T2/Backups.backupdb/mbp). This also does not look like the same type of content of the backups made from the direct connect drive.

Is there some way to use the existing backup and continue from where I was?

Is this a safe and reliable method for using Time Machine?

You are correct. Time machine makes a sparse disk bundle to hold backups on Time Capsule and instead uses a folder for attached hard drives.

Due to the security settings on the backup files, it's not as easy or reliable, but here's how you could start:

Get a first backup or two on the TC to set up the sparse bundle
Disable Time Machine
Mount the Bundle and disable the security that keeps you from writing to it
Delete the current backups since they likely won't mesh correctly with the old ones. (I'm not 100% sure this is needed - but I would do it)
Copy in the old history
Re-enable the security and ensure file permissions on the Time Capsule files are correct.
Enable Time Machine and start a backup to see how it goes.

See this macworld article for a version of the commands to disable and then re-enable the protection on the sparse bundle disk image. I haven't done this as I would rather not muck with the internals of Time Machine. I know I only have to connect the old hard drive to my mac to see all my old history. The risk of using old incorrect information isn't worth it to me - but that doesn't mean you don't have a good reason to move the files over. If I were to do this, I'd consult with a Apple technician as they gave me specific instructions on 10.5 when I had a MLB swap on how to migrate the old Time Capsule backups to work with the "new" mac. Do have a look at the end of the Time Machine lesson in Mac 101 There's a nice tip on option click of the Time Machine menu bar icon to view files on older volumes than the current one.

Good Luck


Do iPhones have a built-in mouse or trackpad and how do I use it? Quite some time ago someone told me (or maybe I read it) that iPhones have a built-in trackpad or mouse pointer that makes it easy for you to move the cursor around for editing text. I want to know if this is actually possible?

Right now my computer is in for repairs and I’m stuck using an iPhone to edit a Word document and being able to do this would be great if its possible, but I can’t see any options anywhere in the settings.

So is it true that iPhones have a built-in trackpad or mouse pointer function? And how do I get to use it?

iOS 13 and later
As of iOS 13 and above the process for using this feature has changed.
The steps are largely the same as for iOS 12 and earlier (see below), but instead of pressing hard on any of the keys on your keyboard, you need to press on the space bar and not let go to see and use the trackpad.
The other change is that this feature is now available to any iPhone compatible with iOS 13 or later, not just iPhones with 3D Touch. So, models like the iPhone SE are now covered!
iOS 12 and earlier
Yes, this is true but not for all iPhones. It has to be an iPhone 6S or above (basically any iPhone with 3D Touch, which unfortunately means the current iPhone SE is not included).
The way to access it is via the keyboard, so you need to already have the keyboard visible on the screen.
More specifically, follow these steps:

Press hard on any of the keys on your keyboard (but don’t let go)
After a moment your keyboard will turn into a grey “trackpad”, so to speak (remember, don’t let go)
Now move your finger around the grey trackpad area (where your keyboard was) and this moves your cursor around the editing area (so if it’s only a small field, you can only move the cursor around that, if it’s your Word document, you should be able to move around the page).
As soon as you let go, the trackpad disappears and your keyboard returns, and you can start typing from where you left the cursor.

Highlighting text
Since you’re stuck having to edit a Word doc on your iPhone, you’ll probably need to know how to highlight text while using the above feature. This is a little tricky, but you just move the cursor to a word you want to highlight and then reduce the pressure on your finger ever so slightly for a moment and then press hard again. This should highlight the word for you.
Note:- This may take a little while to get used to and, while handy, certainly doesn’t make the job of editing a Word document on your iPhone easy! But it is handy for small notes or adding comments to news stories, etc.
[EDIT]
Below are two screenshots showing a before and after shot of how this works when using this mode to edit this very answer!


Contacts from Address Book Disappeared I just installed El Capitan (I used to have Lion OS X), and I lost my address book. So I googled about it and I can restore them from my time machine. I did that but the file can't be opened in the address book app. What can I do to solve this? Thank you.

If your contacts were connected to an account (e.g., iCloud or Exchange), you may need to re-authenticate after an OS upgrade. Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts and make sure Contacts for the account you use is checked.


Can be iPhone used to burn CD/DVD? Is it possible to burn CD/DVD with iPhone and USB CD/DVD Writer?

I have a camera module for the iPhone to make it as if it has USB female socket instead of lightning one.

I’ve verified it works for my portable keyboard (musical instrument) to send signals to GarageBand nicely. The module also includes another port for a power supply!

It was once a problem for iPhone to transfer any data to different device before the Files app became available, but it is not now, I assume.

That being the case, is it possible to transfer data stored on an iPhone to a CD/DVD using the camera module and CD/DVD writer?

The Apple Lightning to USB adapter is not powered, so the trivial answer is no. As you've already realized, many powered pass through USB devices exist and some surely have enough power For most USB bus powered devices - even a motor and optical drive.

The slightly more complicated answer is also no. The software interface and software drivers to recognize a burnable media device isn't programmed into iOS (or iPadOS).

All your good work connecting the device will be for naught without software changes. I bet someone with a jail broken phone and skills could cobble together open source drivers and attempt to load them, so I'm not saying that this isn't theoretically possible, just that it's not plug and play due to software issues and potential power issues.


Custom iPad theme not showing up correctly I created a theme for iPad and am having a couple problems with it. In my theme are two custom icons, a wallpaper, and two png files for dock (one for landscape and one for portrait). The file structure for the theme is as follows:

CustomTheme.theme

Bundles

com.apple.springboard

SBDockBGT-Landscape.png
SBDockBGT-Portrait.png

Icons

Coverflow.png
MediaVideo.png

Info.plist
Wallpaper.png

1.) The two icons were created as the same size in Photoshop, but when I SSH the theme to the iPad, one is displayed bigger than the other.

2.) The other problem is my theme wallpaper is zoomed incorrectly and does not change orientation. It displays correctly when I use the Set As Wallpaper option from iOS though. I just want to know how do do it in a theme...

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Thomas

Switching off SummerBoard Mode fixed the icon issue.


Can I set a Timecapsule to connect to a wireless network, and hook up more network equipment to it with cables? Currently I have an older style Timecapsule 2GB, the flat type, connect to my cable modem, and distributing network to my apartment both through cables (Xbox, PS4, Apple TV) and WIFI (everything else).

I want to move this to a different room and in its place put a newer Airport Express thus having three base stations to provide wireless access to the network.

Reading the article leaves me with three concerns:

Move the Timecapsule to a different room and ask it to join the WIFI network set up by the Airport Express
Hook up nearby equipment (a computer and a NAS) to the Timecapsule, and thus spread the network to those units as well?
Still continue backing up my iMac and MacBook Pro to it, without changes (provided I keep its name)

I read this article: Wi-Fi base stations: Extending the range of your wireless network by adding additional Wi-Fi base stations and it has this section:

  Wirelessly Extended Network (802.11n)

I understand the part about being nearby, but the webpage mentions base stations as the unit you can use to extend and I'm not sure if a time capsule counts as a "base station" as it also mentions other types, so my question is, with the above setup, and the existing time capsule being the unit on the right, can I hook up a computer and a NAS to it using cables, and access them while connected to the left apple router over WIFI?

The setup would be:

Leftmost apple unit, connected to the cable modem with yellow cable, would server my Xbox, PS4, tables, MacBook Pro, iMac, using a combination of WIFI and cabled network
Rightmost apple unit, old time capsule
A server-like computer + a NAS connected to the time capsule using cables

So, in short - is the Time Capsule capable of working as a true Airport Base station?

Yes - Time Capsule is a fully functioning Airport and you can bridge, extend or perform any other function of Airport networking as needed without regards to there being a hard drive inside the unit.

You needn't worry about changing the network topology and having Macs not find the backup. Even if you actually change the name of the Time Capsule or change the password needed to mount the drive - once you remove the old "Time Capsule" backup as a destination from each Mac, you can add it back with the new name and/or password and the system will know it's the same volume and continue backing up just as it left off - no duplication or other ill effects will ensue due to you changing the names / networking.

I do exactly as you propose/describe with one change. I have a new AirPort Express that wirelessly extends (dotted lines) my network and I hard wire it (solid line) to the Time Capsule that used to provide wireless extension. I then turned off the wireless on the TC and run it in bridge mode (it's basically a gigabit ethernet switch now that provides three ethernet connections for two servers and a NAS) so that it's part of the network and still accessible as a backup volume.


How can I limit the amount of memory available to a process? I am developing a program in go; it occasionally ends up allocating very large amounts memory (>>10G on a machine with 8G of physical memory), causing the system to become unresponsive.  I want to limit the amount of memory the process can allocate.  The usual way I would do this is:

ulimit -m 4000000 ; ./myprogram

...which should kill my program if it tries to use more than 4GB of memory.

On OS X El Capitan this appears to have no effect; even ulimit -m 1 (limiting all programs to just 1kB of memory!) is ineffective.

How can I set an upper bound on the memory available to a particular process?

There are two approaches to constraining your memory usage: Ex post facto, and preemptive. That is to say, you can try to kill your program after it has gotten too large, or you can program it not to get too large in the first place.

If you insist on the ex post facto approach, you can use the following Bash script. This script first finds the amount of memory (as defined by "resident set size") the process with processid pid is using, filters out all non numerical data using grep, and saves the amount as variable n. The script then checks if n is greater than your specified x. If it is, the process with processid pid is killed.

Please note:

You must replace <pid> with the process id of your program.
You must replace <x> with the rss = "resident set size" (ie real memory size) you don't want the program to exceed.

n=$(ps -<pid> -o rss | grep '[0-9]')
if [ $n -gt <x> ]; then  kill -9 <pid>; fi

If you want this to run every y seconds just inclose it in a loop, and tell it to wait for y seconds after every iteration. You could also write a similar command using top. Your starting point would be top -l 1|grep "<pid>"|awk '{print $10}'.

@kenorb's answer helped me with my script

While I believe that answers the question, in the long run I believe it is better programming design to take a preemptive approach using manual memory allocation.

Firstly, are you sure the memory usage is really a problem? The Go documentation states:

  The Go memory allocator reserves a large region of virtual memory as an arena for allocations. This virtual memory is local to the specific Go process; the reservation does not deprive other processes of memory.

If you still think you have a problem, then I encourage you to manually manage your memory as is done in the C programming language. Since go is written in C, I suspected there would be ways to get into the C memory management/allocations, and indeed there are. See this github repository which,

  allows you to do manual memory management via the standard C allocator for your system. It is a thin wrapper on top of malloc, calloc and free from . See man malloc for details on these functions for your system. This library uses cgo.

The use case is given as:

  Why would you want this?

  When a program is causing memory pressure or the system is running out of memory it can be helpful to manually control memory allocations and deallocations. Go can help you control allocations but it is not possible to explicitly deallocate unneeded data.

This seems like a better long term solution.

If you want to learn more about C (including memory management),
The C Programming language is the standard reference.


MacBook Pro 13" 2011 not booting -- question mark folder My MacBook Pro is not booting. It only shows me a question mark folder. If I try to manually boot, it doesn't give me any options than to go into recovery. And if I go into recovery and then disk utility, it looks like the drive isn't even connected. Has anyone experienced this before? Could it be that the hdd cable is faulty and should be changed? I doubt this is a software problem.

Folder showing ? means, that there is no bootable system found on your hard disk.

Booting in Recovery Mode means, that your HDD is still working.

Disk Utility not showing HDD means, that there is no formatted HDD.

To recover your data try following step:

Shut down computer
Turn on again pressing "T"-Key down till Firewire Icon is shown.
Take another Mac and a Firewire-Cable
Turn off "new" Mac
Plug your "Firewire"-Mac into the "New"-Mac

Hopefully, your "Firewire"-Mac will show up as an external Drive.

go here for detailed information


How can I mount a network share on a schedule? I have two macs, that need to mount each other's respective network shares but also both need to restart every night.

The trouble is, neither computer can mount the other until the other is fully booted up with the volume ready.

How can I solve this without needing to use a paid 3rd party application?

I did find this question which is asking about a very similar need, but the top answer doesn't work because the user will always first be prompted to select the share they want to mount and this needs to happen unattended in the middle of the night.

If I can schedule the mountings, then each computer can just unmount the volume in question and restart (easy to do in Automator), and then some time later after both machines will easily be ready, re-mount their needed shares.

So, how can I simply schedule each machine to mount the required remote share, at a specified time?

Believe I have solved this on my own.  The part that wasn't working for me, was that Automator would always prompt me to select the specific share/folder I wanted to mount.  Turns out I missed the obvious - specify the folder in the path provided in an Applescript!  Like so:

tell application "Finder"
    if not (disk "FolderName" exists) then
        mount volume "afp://MyMac.local/FolderName"
    end if
end tell

Now I'm just going to put a few-minutes pause before this command, and set the resulting Automator app to run at startup.  If both machines unmount the remote volumes and reboot at the same time each night, all should be well with the world.  In order to schedule the execution of my automator commands, I'm just using the Calendar's ability to launch a file on alert.


Is there a way to name an Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro? On the 2018 seamless design (matte finish / no lightning connector) Apple Pencil with the 2018 iPad Pro (USB C charger) I'm not seeing a way to give a name to the Apple Pencil that shows when I charge it.

Is there a setting that lets you name the pencil similar to on macOS where you can name bluetooth accessories?

On iOS 12.1.1 and lower, there is no way to name pencils if you have more than one or just wish to see a different name when it connects or looking at the battery levels.

You can open settings app and see the serial number of the paired pencil if you tap in General and look towards the bottom of the data. Tap Apple Pencil and you can see details.
You can't edit the name in the bluetooth settings - but the name there does match what's shown elsewhere "Apple Pencil" in English.


iPhone 6 won't connect to Windows 7 My computer was dead for 3 months and when I bought a new battery, I tried to plug my iPhone 6 and nothing pops up. It doesn't connect at all not even to charge like it would before. I updated my laptop and iTunes, I verified the Apple mobile device support, I restarted the Apple mobile device, I checked the unspecified and nothing, I went to the device manager and there's nothing about Apple on there, I need to upload all my stuff to my computer but I don't know what to do anymore.

Go to Control Panel / System and Security / System.
In the System window check the System type for wether your operating system is 32-bit or 64 bit type.
Make sure your iTunes is 32 or 64 bit as per your operating system.

If this is ok then -

Type services.msc and click Ok.
Make sure Apple Mobile Device Services is set to Automatic.

If this is ok then -
I would suggest you search - "Apple Mobile Device Driver" and install them.


Slow in opening videos on iPod Touch I have an iPod Touch 3G 64GB with 4.3.3, and, with just 5 videos loaded i get a problem with this symptoms:

When I tap Videos, it takes ages to load, crashes, then I can load again, still slow
Every video has the same preview thumbnail, taken from a genius playlist
When playing a video, I tap on it, the menu appears after several seconds. I press pause, the video will stop playing after 10 seconds
If a video has closed captions, will show a subtitle every 3 sentences (slow)
No problems at all with Music/podcast/books/apps

I tried to remove all videos but even with no videos, the video app continues to crash
This behaviour started from day one, not happened suddenly

What i can do?


Alias multiple folders into one Here's the thing:
I'm organizing my document (for example to organize papers). I divide them into subsections, (ex: astrophysics & quantum physics) and all those sections have a "Read", "Reading" and "To Read" folders. Could I alias all the files contained in the folder efficiently to have a folder where all papers (or at least their aliases) are present (no matter if they were in astrophysics or quantum physics). I wouldn't mind using automator folder actions if shown how...

Example Folder Structure:

All Read:
    Nice paper I read about astrophysics.alias
    Nice paper I read about Quantum Physics.alias
All Reading:
    Nice paper I am reading about astrophysics.alias
    Nice paper I am reading about Quantum Physics.alias
All To Read:
    Nice paper I should read about astrophysics.alias
    Nice paper I should read about Quantum Physics.alias
Astrophysics:
    Read:
        Nice paper I read about astrophysics.pdf
    Reading:
        Nice paper I am reading about astrophysics.pdf
    To Read:
        Nice paper I should read about astrophysics.pdf
Quantum Physics:
    Read:
        Nice paper I read about Quantum Physics.pdf
    Reading:
        Nice paper I am reading about Quantum Physics.pdf
    To Read:
        Nice paper I should read about Quantum Physics.pdf

Something like find .. -name "*.pdf" -exec ln -s {} basename


Can I Enter Sleep Mode While Downloading File? When I try to enter my rMBP into sleep mode while downloading file via iTunes U, the downloaded file is aborted. Is it possible to enter sleep mode while keep downloading the file?

EDIT: Until I find better option I put my display to sleep and not the computer. Check this to see how quickly enter this mode: What Is the Keyboard Shortcut for Sleep Display Without Eject Key?

Have a Mac in sleep mode while also downloading a file with iTunes, is currently not possible.

However the idea is not out the question, doing things while in sleep is possible on certain new Mac hardware running OS X 10.8, via the new Power Nap feature.

What you asking to do is currently not a feature of Power Nap, however it is something that might be possible with a hack or a future version of  Power Nap.

Therefore Power Nap can only do the following:

  When your compatible Mac goes to sleep in Mountain Lion, Power Nap still gets things done silently

  Mail. Receive new messages.
  Contacts. Your Contacts update with any changes you may have made on another device.
  Calendar. Receive new invitations and calendar updates.
  Reminders. Reminders updates with any changes you may have made on another device.
  Notes. Notes updates with any changes you may have made on another device.
  Documents in your iCloud account. iCloud pushes any edits you made to a document to your Mac notebook.
  Photo Stream. Your Photo Stream updates with new photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  Mac App Store updates. Your Mac notebook can download updates from the Mac App Store.
  Time Machine backup. Your Mac notebook can back up while it sleeps.
  Find My Mac. Locate a lost Mac notebook even when it’s sleeping.
  VPN on demand. Corporate email updates securely.
  Configuration profile. Macs in managed environments can receive configuration profile updates.

  Power Nap does more when your Mac is plugged in to an AC outlet

  When your portable Mac is connected to a power source, it also downloads software updates, makes backups with Time Machine, performs Spotlight indexing, and can continue Mac App Store downloads.  It also updates Help Center.


Would AirTags be useful if you lose your item in a unpopulated area? If I get it right, then AirTags send a Bluetooth-signal to other iOS-devices within the reach of Bluetooth. The iOS-device then sends the received message to iCloud and iCloud then messages the owner.
Now, I ask myself: If I lose an item in an unpopulated area, like for example in a wood, would I benefit of having an AirTag attached to it? Even if it's very unlikely that someone with an iPhone passes by?
Yesterday I made an trial. I got the impression, that an iPhone memorizes the last location on which it had contact to a coupled AirTag. I'm I right there?
If that's the case then the AirTag would be still useful as marker, where I parked my car or where I lost my wallet.

Your iPhone scans for both AirTags it knows and ones it doesn't, and updating the location for both ‘types’ of AirTag. This means you are correct that your iPhone would show the last location it knows for your own AirTags even if that location is not updated again by anyone else.


iPhone went through wash - charging flashligh comes on Someone, please help me I really don't want to buy a new iPhone! Also it isn't recognised by iTunes.

Check if you able to power on the device after making sure that it's sufficiently dried.

In case the device isn't powering, unfortunately, there's nothing much you can do. Liquid damage to iPhone or iPod isn't covered by warranty.

Still, it would be advisable to get in touch with authorised service personnel to check for the extent of damage and to evaluate recovery options.


Is there any virtual machine which works on a PPC Mac running 10.4? Is there any virtual machine which works on a PPC (non-Intel) Mac 10.4? I am killing myself finding a virtual machine for Mac 10.4. Everything that I found needs an Intel Mac.

The primary solution for PowerPC Macs was Microsoft's now-defunct Virtual PC.  It was discontinued several years ago, so you'll really have to do some digging to find a copy.  (Be warned -- it runs slow as molasses.  You'd probably be better off buying a cheap PC.)

There's also Q emulator, which supposedly runs on PowerPC, but I have never tried it.


Importing photos from Photos app on iPhone to Mac I'm trying to transfer (make a copy of) all of the photos/videos in my iPhone's Photos app (what I see under the Photos builtin) to my macbook laptop.

If I go to Photos then "Import New Photo" or use image capture, nothing is available for import potentially because these are no longer on the 'camera roll' itself.

What's the best way to do this in bulk?

This answer assumes:

your iPhone is not jailbroken and therefore does not have jailbroken options
your MacBook is running macOS 10.10 or later
that you have iTunes installed on your MacBook
that you don't mind purchasing some software that can help you do this (and more).

You can download/purchase Macroplant's iExplorer software. This software has been around for a long time now and generally works very well.

Using this software you can browse the contents of your iPhone, including photos and videos stored within the iOS Photos app. Below is a screenshot of the options I get when I've selected an album or folder within the Photos app and clicked on the Export > button:

Note: Just to be clear, the above screenshot is taken from a Mac with iExplorer installed. I am browsing the iPhone from within iExplorer on the Mac, selecting an album, and clicking on the Export > button.

iExplorer also allows you to mount albums/photos as a disk within Finder on the Mac so you can drag and drop files from the iPhone to your Mac. Once copied across you can then deal wth them like any other files on your Mac (e.g. you could import them into the Photos app on your Mac).

Below is a screenshot showing right-clicking on the Recorded Videos folder and selecting the Mount as Disk option.

Note: Just to be clear, the above screenshot is taken from within iExplorer on the Mac. I have selected the Recorded Videos folder and mounted it as a disk on the Mac.

I strongly suggest you check out the iExplorer page because it does a whole lot more than just transfer photos. You can also try it our for free and, if I recall correctly, can transfer a limited number of items.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Microplant or the iExplorer software.

Finally, there are other software packages that claim to be able to do similar things to iExplorer. However I have never personally used them so cannot attest to how good they are, but you may want to try these out:

iMazing
Phoneview


Pages: How to put a word between horizontal rules How can I make something that looks like this?

--------   Text   ---------

where the horizontal rules extend to the margin on either side?

With Pages it helps to think in terms of layers.  Combinations of Text Boxes and Line graphics layered and arranged, should achieve the desired result.  Determine beforehand if the graphic and text box should cause wrapping and/or move with the rest of the text in the document or remain static.
Create a Horizontal Rule with Text Centered

Add a Line graphic to the canvas (Just one line will do)

Position the line horizontally to the desired width
Set the Object Placement properties in the Arrange tab on the Inspector as desired.

Add a Text Box setting the Text style Alignment properties to Center and Middle

IMPORTANT: Change the background color from None to a color matching your document's background.  (White typically)
Set the Object Placement properties as desired
Position the text box over the line.  Use the alignment guides to center on the page

By using layers, one can create many interesting effects.  Some of them can be explored by examining the built in templates.


Reinstalled my MacBook Pro, resync with iPad issues I just wiped my MacBook Pro clean as part of my yearly reinstall habit. The problem is, now when I connect my iPad or iPhone, there is no really trivial way to sync my PDFs and ePubs back with the clean MBP. If I sync Books, it will overwrite my iPad and I'll be left without said PDFs/ebooks. I have all of them backed up, that's not the problem. I was just wondering if there's a way to do a two way sync, meaning take the pdfs/epubs I have on my ipad then sync them with the MBP. Or is this going to require me manually putting back all of my content sourcing from the MBP first?

I do this all the time - introduce an iOS device with content to a new library (whether it's on the same or a different computer).

In your case, if you simply don't sync until you reintroduce the last good backup of iTunes then everything will be fine again. But let's assume you don't want to do that and continue with the question as asked.

You can cancel the sync when the warning about erasing the content appears. At that point go and deselect the automatic sync option so you have time to transfer the documents.

Then you can use the File menu
Transfer purchases from "device" to get all the "apple iTunes store" content into the new library. This is a smart merge so you don't get any duplicates. Lastly, inspect the Apps tab to check for any third party data you might want to transfer.

I also use the iBooks email to get a few PDF off an iOS device but you may want to look into trying and later purchasing PhoneView which lets you move documents to/from your device to a mac with ease. It's very powerful and goes far beyond what iTunes allows.


iPhone does not respond to DHCP request/discover from our Linux-based system We have the following problem:

An iPhone is acting as a Network Access Point under the PAN Bluetooth profile, but it does not respond to DHCP request/discover from our Linux-based system. The PAN connection can be established, but no IP address is assigned.

Steps to Reproduce:
- Activate Bluetooth on iPhone (5C iOS 10.3.2, but also seen in 6S iOS 11.x)
- Activate Bluetooth tethering on iPhone
- Pair our Linux-based system to iPhone via Bluetooth (PAN profile, NAP service)
- Execute dhclient in our Linux-based system.

Expected Results:
- The iPhone assigns an IP address via DHCP to our Linux-based system.

Actual Results:
- The iPhone does not respond to DHCP request/discover from our Linux-based system.

Is there any special handling/protocol in order to get an IP address and establish the PAN communication?

Thank you all,

The problem was solved by setting the MAC address manually right after the TAP interface was created


How to remove folder in '/private/var/root/Android'? Please help me remove folder '/private/var/root/Android' on my Mac.
I make sudo rm -rf /private/var/root/Library/Android/ but nothing happens.

Any ideas, I will be very grateful.

Those paths don't match. To remove a folder, you need to provide the exact path to the folder:

sudo rm -rf /private/var/root/Android


Has coreaudiod been fixed in Lion yet? I tried Lion a few months ago, but had to revert to 10.6 because of the "coreaudiod bug" – where audio via QuickTime would stop working every few minutes, requiring a killall coreaudiod each time. Since I'm a video editor, this would interfere with Final Cut and After Effects, making Lion unusable.

Does anyone know if this issue has been fixed yet in Lion?

Nope it hasn't. I'm still having problems in Logic because of it. I plug in a headphone cable, unplug it, and suddenly the computer doesn't have sound. Try killall /usr/sbin/coreaudiod then relaunch it, I get this:

[...] Error: FIXME: IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8, "?-8?????-8????PDa????@Da????0??????Ԕ?????<????????c".
Aug 14 01:56:48 Benjamins-MacBook-Pro.local coreaudiod[7392] Error: FIXME: IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8, "?-8?????-8????PDa????@Da????0??????Ԕ?????????????c".
Aug 14 01:56:48 Benjamins-MacBook-Pro.local coreaudiod[7392] Error: FIXME: IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8, "??c".
Aug 14 01:56:48 Benjamins-MacBook-Pro.local coreaudiod[7392] Error: FIXME: IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8, "??c".
2012-08-14 01:56:48.994 coreaudiod[7392:707] Exiting due to uncaught exception in main

Apparently I've got some low level bug in my operating system or coreaudiod just wasn't compiled right.


"Critical software update required for your Mac" loop after erasing EFI partition So I accidentally erased the EFI partition when I was trying to erase my usb and im now stuck in a "Critical software update required for your Mac" loop, Ive already tried: resetting nvram and pram, reinstalling macOS big sur from recovery mode, using a mobile hotspot and updating in safe boot but none of them worked, what can I still do to solve this problem?
I also cannot wipe my disk.
diskutil list internal:
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data EFI                     313.5 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.0 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     369.1 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 503.7 MB   disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                622.1 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            15.3 GB    disk1s5
   6:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.3 GB    disk1s5s1

I finally got a disk to back up the mac and I was able to clean install big sur and that solved it. Thanks for the help!

Why not boot to internet recovery and reinstall the current OS to let the installer write a good system and migrate your existing apps and data back in place.
I would probably get a good backup, since at some point you’ll need to wipe your disk, but the steps above do not intentionally break things or delete data. The worst that will happen is you have your data intact and render the Mac unbootable. Unless there is hardware failure or the filesystem is also damaged, no real risk is added by reinstalling the OS.


Make Mac act as Bluetooth headset for PS4 I would love to route my PS4's audio through my macbook pro. Is there any way to make my macbook pro pretend to be a headset for the PS4?

It's possible to use your Mac as a speaker for other Apple devices (e.g. using software to turn your Mac into an Airplay receiver). However, there's no current way to turn it into a Bluetooth speaker for devices such as a PS4.

I suspect this would be possible in theory, however there probably just isn't the demand. The reason why software exists to turn your Mac into a receiver for other Apple devices is that there is a lot of demand for this, especially from iOS users, so various developers have answered the call over the years.


How do I convert this Applescript to Terminal osascript? I'm trying to convert this AppleScript into osascript format that can be run from terminal:

tell application "System Preferences" to activate
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "input" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    repeat until exists tab group 1 of window "Sound"
    end repeat
    tell table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
        select (row 1 where value of text field 1 is "Internal Microphone")
    end tell
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"

What is the appropriate syntax to do this? Do I have to type osascript -e before every line?

There are several ways to accomplish the goal. Here is the method I would use...

In Terminal run the following compound command, e.g.:

f="myscript"; touch "$f"; open -e "$f"; chmod +x "$f"

Note: Change myscript to the name you'd like.

In the new blank TextEdit document that opens, add the following as the first line:

#!/usr/bin/osascript

Then add your AppleScript code under the shebang you just added.

Save the document.

Now to use it in Terminal, e.g.:

./myscript

Or:

/path/to/myscript

Or place in in a directory that is within the defined PATH and then simply use its name, e.g.:

myscript

This method also works; however it's not practical for long scripts:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Preferences" to activate' -e 'tell application "System Preferences"' -e 'reveal anchor "input" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"' -e 'end tell' -e 'tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"' -e 'repeat until exists tab group 1 of window "Sound"' -e 'end repeat' -e 'tell table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of window 1' -e 'select (row 1 where value of text field 1 is "Internal Microphone")' -e 'end tell' -e 'end tell' -e 'quit application "System Preferences"'

Please read the manual page for osascript for additional information. In Terminal:

man osascript

On a separate note, if you omit the following line of code you'll not have to see the System Preferences window flash on the screen:

Saved as as script, remove:

tell application "System Preferences" to activate

In the very long drawn out command line, remove:

-e 'tell application "System Preferences" to activate'


Yosemite white-screen crash (with avatar) Recently upgraded to OSX 10.10 on a Mid 2012 MBP (13 inch) - no problem encountered.  But a few times now I've experienced a white-screen crash.  When waking from sleep the system just shows a white screen with the round user avatar picture in the middle.  Nothing I do can bring up the proper login screen except a hard reset.
Does anyone have a solution for this?

I have experienced this - if you type in your password and press enter, it will 'unlock'. I think it's a glitch.


Do I need to repurchase apps if I moved countries? I recently moved countries and had to update my billing address in iTunes (change of full address and credit card info). This went fine, no problems whatsoever. It also meant that I had to change App Stores.

Unfortunately in this process all items from my Purchased list disappeared. If only they're not listed, I don't much care for it, but I'd like to know whether I won't be charged again when I want to update them which would essentially mean re-buying the apps.

So... unfortunately the answer is...

Yes, but there are ways around it...

All the apps you bought in country A are permanently assigned to your AppleID. Once you move to country B and you updated your details (billing address) you:

still can use them
you cannot re-download them
you cannot update them
you cannot convert your music to iTunes Plus (but still can listen, obviously)

There are two solutions to this:

Switch Store's country and update your billing details each time you want to get your apps up to date (or re-download them). But this is a rather painful process, so a better solution is to...
Create a new AppleID with the billing details for the country B. Switching between AppleIDs is much easier and quicker than switching Store's country and updating your billing address.

Let me quote why it has to be this way:

  [...] this how iTunes has been designed.

So. It's gonna be problematic, but nothing can be done really. :(


Restrict sftp user to a single directory in El Capitan Searched the web for quite some time and still can't find a solution.

Is it even possible at all to restrict ssh user to a single directory in 10.11? I have set up an user account via System Preferences Users & Groups. Under Advanced Options I specified a home directory. This is the highest level directory he can go.

Followed some instruction to modify ssh/sshd_config to include:

Match User ftpuser
  ChrootDirectory <the directory path>
  PermitTunnel no
  AllowAgentForwarding no
  AllowTcpForwarding no
  X11Forwarding no

but it doesn't work.

You need to make sure that the <the directory path> fulfils the next requirement specified in the manual pages for sshd_config(8):

  All components of the pathname must be root-owned directories that are not writable by any other user or group.

If you don't, then

  it doesn't work.

But you are certainly notified about the problem in system log.


Remove app names in OS X Yosemite Dock How can I disable/hide the App Name in the OS X Yosemite Dock?

You have to edit the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist.

You need to replace every label like "file-label" => "AppName" with "file-label" => "".

Restart the Dock or logout and back again to activate the changes.


Complex Appear In Keynote Presentation In my presentation, I have a slide with six lines.  I'm trying to set it up so lines 1 and 6 will appear, then 2 and 5, and finally 3 and 4.  I know I could throw a box over them and have the boxes disappear but there must be a better way to do this.  :-)

Create 3 groups of the line pairs. Then schedule the appearance of the groups via the Inspector.


Siri says "speak you like to"; is there something messed up with my phone? Whenever I ask Siri to call a business, she will go through each result and say "Speak you like to call it, get directions...". Is there something wrong with my phone? "Speak you like to" is definitely not idiomatic english (at least not in the US), so it's hard to believe something like this would slip by Apple QA. Am I missing something?

EDIT:

I've found exactly how to reproduce it. I'm using Best Buy as an example, but I would imagine any business will do.

Connect a bluetooth device (I use my car, but a headset may work)
With the phone locked, activate Siri and say "Call Best Buy"

She'll say something like "I've found two places named Best Buy fairly close to you. The first is X miles away. Speak you like to...".

No, there's nothing wrong with your phone.

Yes, Apple messed up.

Ever wonder why you have to have an Internet connection to use Siri? All the voice-to-text transcribing is done on Apple's servers - and those servers tell your phone exactly what to display and what to say.

So, you should probably tell Apple about it - post something on their support forums, file a Radar, something. Most likely, it can be fixed server-side.


Where are digital touch messages kept? I have recently upgraded to iOS 10 and notice the new digital touch feature in Messages offers a "keep" button. Where are they kept? Can I see them in any other app, or do anything with them outside Messages? Can I export them? In what file format?

The keep option simply means they are not removed from the conversation - just as with audio messages, it's a space-saving measure.

You can long-press on a digital touch item to get a Copy option. From there you can paste it anywhere that accepts photos as paste data (such as the input field in WhatsApp or Messenger, or an image editing app that supports it). Note this will copy it as an image, and not as a GIF/video that contains the motion present in the original.


Get audio files from onedrive onto iphone I have a large number of audio files in a folder on my onedrive that I want to listen to on my iphone. I have the onedrive app installed, I can see a way to listen to individual files, but what I want to do, is get all of them onto the phone so that I can listen to them as a playlist. How can I do this?

Download Microsoft Groove from the iTunes Store.

  Groove brings you all the music you love, every way you want it.

  OneDrive
  • Add your MP3s to OneDrive and play them wherever you go
  • Download playlists, albums and songs from OneDrive to enjoy your favourites even when you're off the grid
  • See at a glance what's available where (online, offline, both)

  Music Pass
  • Discover new songs, albums and artists right from your iPhone
  • Play ad-free music from one of the biggest music catalogues on the planet
  • Add songs, albums and playlists to your Groove music collection and access them from your phone, Xbox, PC, tablet and the web
  • Listen to radio stations based on your favourite artists


What is the life expectancy of a Magic Mouse 2 battery? I would like to know what is the battery life cycle of a Magic Mouse 2. Or the approximate number of charge/recharge cycles before its battery's performances will start to reduce visibly?

The Magic Mouse 2 uses a lithium ion battery and generally speaking those have a useful life of 3 to 5 years1.
That said, it's important to note that:

Apple products (including accessories) have a 1 year warranty
Only accessories included with a Mac computer are covered under AppleCare.  In other words, if you buy AppleCare for your iMac that includes the Magic Mouse, it's covered.  It won't cover it if you bought the mouse separately (like with a MacBook)

From personal experience, I've had rechargeable batteries in a Logitech Mouse last the better part of a decade and brand new batteries (genuine OEM) from Dell and Apple fail after a year. YMMV. (your mileage may vary)

1Manufacturers' information typically specify lifespan in terms of the number of cycles (e.g., capacity dropping linearly to 80% over 500 cycles), with no mention of chronological age.[162] On average, lifetimes consist of 1000 cycles,[163] although battery performance is rarely specified for more than 500 cycles. This means that batteries of mobile phones, or other hand-held devices in daily use, are not expected to last longer than three years. Some batteries based on carbon anodes offer more than 10,000 cycles.[164]


troubleshooting connections issue between two macs I often want to move files between my MacBook and iMac, but its such an issue that I usually resort to failure. They will see each-other on the network (shown in Finder) but after selecting the machine and waiting a while there will be a message like "connection filed" or similar. The other MacBook in the house doesn't even show on this list at all. So I am wondering is there a secret to getting networking happening, or at least something I can use to troubleshoot these issues?

First, make sure File Sharing is on for both computers. Then connect an Ethernet cable directly between the two machines. Each machine should appear in the other's sidebar of the Finder. Connect to it by double-clicking (login using your credentials if needed), and then drag your files or folders across at 1Gbps!

Later,

Mike


Help with AppleScript to automate Numbers Cell Formatting I do several mundane repetitive tasks using Numbers App on a Mac, and wish I could just automate the same with the help of AppleScript.

I got Numbers Spreadsheet with several tables, on the selected table, I want the script to run through all rows of selected column (which is column 1 mostly) and format cells (color the text blue or red) depending on even or odd value condition.

thanks

I finally got what I wanted. I used an app called Script Debugger 7, though not necessary, it really helped me with all the classes & options available with each application and detailed help.

Further, it was really easy to write scripts in this app. For anybody needing a similar solution, I hope this helps. This script is not the best, in terms of error checking or dynamic names, but that's for another day.

------Script below--------

property rBlue : {1721, 15020, 27788}
property rPink : {48626, 3448, 26715}

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use scripting additions

tell application "Numbers"
tell document 1
    tell active sheet
        tell table "Table 1"
            set rCount to get row count

            repeat with r from 2 to rCount
                set valCell to formatted value of cell ("A" & r)
                set remCell to valCell mod 2

                if remCell = 0 then set text color of cell ("A" & r) to rBlue
                if remCell ≥ 1 then set text color of cell ("A" & r) to rPink
            end repeat

        end tell
    end tell
end tell

end tell


Accidentally ran partitionDisk command on disk1 I accidentally ran a command (once) that I copied and pasted on disk1 instead of changing it to the appropriate disk and now I'm really worried I may have damaged my primary disk's (SSD) partition table. The MacBook's still running fine, but I'm afraid to reboot it.

The command was:

diskutil partitionDisk disk1 GPT ExFAT "Seagate_02" 0g

And the error was:

  You cannot manually partition an existing APFS Container disk.

Would this have actually made any changes since it errored out? What can I check?

I also still have the diskutil list results from before and after I ran the command, which look the same:

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +912.4 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            444.2 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 19.7 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                506.6 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      4.3 GB     disk1s4

I'm running macOS 10.13.2.

Your real (physical) disk is your SSD/disk0. Disk1 is a virtual ("synthesized") disk based on the APFS physical store disk0s2.

Disk1 doesn't have a partition scheme. Additionally it contains your boot volume disk1s1.

Therefore the command diskutil partitionDisk ... run booted from your main boot volume (Macintosh HD) shouldn't be able to completely repartition and reformat neither disk0 nor disk1.

You can verify the disk and the APFS container/volumes with:

diskutil verifyDisk disk0 # verify physical disk
diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2 # verify APFS container
diskutil verifyVolume disk1s1 # verify APFS boot volume

The second command may yield something like:

warning: Overallocation Detected on Main device: (626695+1) bitmap address (28278)

which seems to be normal.

The third command usually checks all available APFS volumes despite passing on only one slice (disk1s1).

Therefore you will/should see the output:

Checking the APFS volume superblock
Checking the object map
Checking the fsroot tree
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the snapshots

several times.

"The partition map appears to be OK" or "exit code is 0" indicates that everything is OK.


Dealing with macos Versions feature and file syncing services Full disclosure: I'm yet to come to terms with the Versions feature and that saving ain't saving anymore. I've had no shortage of dramas losing work and losing track of files since the feature was introduced, so maybe "I'm Doing It Wrong"TM.

The latest drama comes about when using file syncing applications. In my case, Box. I have a regular workflow that looks like this:

Open a file stored in my Box Sync folder on one computer, do some work, save it.
Open the newly synced file on a different computer, do some work, save it.
Return to the original computer, where the file is still open...

At this point I'm faced with a challenge. The open file doesn't have the changes from the other computer, which is normal - I haven't re-opened it from disk. However, there is no longer any way to close the file without saving the current contents! I can either close and revert (which replaces the file on disk with the last saved version on that computer) or I can close and save (which replaces the file on disk with the current version on that computer). Either way, I lose the changes I made on the other computer.

The best workaround I've come up with is to force quit the application (which is risky), or to duplicate the open file in Finder, close the open file (choosing revert or save - it doesn't matter), delete the just-closed file and open the duplicated file instead.

Pretty convoluted right?

It gets worse when I'm sharing my Box folder with a second person - in that case I need to be mighty sure to close the file after every editing session, or risk overwriting the other person's changes.

Is there any way to rescue some sanity before macos descends completely into iOS-banality?

Good news. After some prompting over in the Apple support forums and experimentation, I've discovered that the "close and revert" option does not do what it says. In fact it closes the document without touching the file on disk - exactly what I'm after!

To recap, when closing a modified file that supports Versions, this dialog appears:

There does not appear to be an option to close without changing what's on disk. However, the Revert Changes button actually behaves like a Don't Save button, leaving the file on disk untouched.

This is precisely the behaviour I need to support the case where the file on disk has been modified by another application and I want to preserve those changes.

As made clear in the Apple thread, this is all probably subject to change and may be fragile, but for now I have a solution.


How to keep a file hidden in Finder, but readable, writable and visible to an app? An otherwise great app I'm using, annoys me as every time I start it, it writes to 2 files in the root of my user account which are clearly visible. Now, I have used the terminal command sudo chflags hidden with the name of the files to hide them, which does work, but nonetheless, when I launch the app again, it makes those once hidden files visible again!

The files content stays the same, so either its being re-written, or its being made visible again once the app is finished with them after boot, and whatever way it saves, the 'hidden' status of the files is being ignored or changed due to write permissions used by the app (I'm guessing).

Is there any way to ensure that this app can find these files and do whatever writes and saves it has to, but I can still keep them invisible in Finder? As in keep the files hidden to my view but readable and writable to the app? Is a combo chown / chmod command needed alongside a Finder preference setting?

Set an immutable flag on file(s) to prevent changes*:

sudo chflags hidden,uchg /path/to/file

What's an immutable flag?

  "Immutable flags, also known as immutable bits, are file system attributes that, when enabled, prohibit changes to files or folders (objects), i.e. lock them. Enabled, immutable flags supersede permissions: you cannot modify an object whose immutable flags have been enabled despite having Read & Write permissions on that object."

Note*: This will ensure that the file remains hidden, but may prevent the application from running properly if RW access is needed. This is the tradeoff. That being said, to unset the flag, you would run:

sudo chflags nouchg /path/to/file

If this is the case, I advise that you contact the developer of the application since it need not automatically make a hidden file visible in order to be able to RW to that file. That's a bug in the application itself, period.


Facebook messages causing the Facebook app on my iPad to crash I have an iPad mini, updated to iOS 6. I can use my Facebook app well in every department apart from messages. In both the top display and side display, when I click on the messages option the Facebook app will crash. I have tried uninstalling the app, restarting, installing and restarting, but nothing improves or changes. Also I have tried the proper restart by holding down both the top lock/unlock button and home button but that has not worked either.

Is there anything else I can do to fix this crashing problem?

It's not clear if this is a bug that needs to be fixed with a new release of e program, but you could follow this path and try reinstalling the older version of the app from a computer and or computer backup.

What can we do now that Facebook iPad app crashes on launch after update?


How can I get certain types of files dropped in certain folders based on file type? I was wondering if it is possible to have the following:

In my Downloads folder, I have 2 subfolders : IMAGES and VIDEOS. Is it possible to automatically move every image downloaded to the Downloads folder to the IMAGES folder, and if VIDEO files are downloaded in the Downloads folder, it should go into the VIDEOS subfolder?

I thought I could do it with Smart Folders but it does not seems to be working.

You can create two folder actions, one for images:

one for videos:

Both should be setup to receive files from Downloads folder.

The first step filters images and videos files.

The second step moves those files in the appropriate folder.

Be sure that folder action is attached to your Downloads directory (right click on directory, Services\Folder Actions Setup...).

To let Automator wait for the download to complete, you can add a Run AppleScript step, before the Move Finder Items step, similar to this:

on run {input, parameters}
    if input is {} then
        return {}
    end if

    repeat
        delay 1
        set {size:fileSize, busy status:Busy} to (info for (input as alias))
        if not Busy and (fileSize is greater than 0) then return input
    end repeat
end run


Using imessage deleting message When deleting imessages on my mac, I want to press space bar so that i can quickly click on "delete" however tab doesn't work and I can't seem to focus on the pop up that has two options "cancel" and "delete".  Basically I would like to press tab and then press the space bar to delete the imessage.

Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard
Select the Tab "Shortcuts"

At the bottom there is the option "Full Keyboard Access". Switch that from "Text boxes and lists only" to "All controls".

Then you can use tab + space to select the Delete option in the dialog.


All purchases have been downloaded for this Apple ID When I make purchases from my Apple TV it won't automatically download to iTunes on my Mac Mini.

All software is up to date via the current versions available from the App store.
I have reset the Apple TV and resetup the devices.
Created new user on Mac Mini.
Signed into iTunes on the New account and the same problem exists.
Checked for available downloads via the "Store" option and get a message : "All purchases have been downloaded for this Apple ID."

I suspect that the issue can be directly related to the Apple ID and will test with a Different ID tonight. I hope there is someone else who experienced the same issue that can assist.

This is not possible at this time. On iTunes for Windows, as of version 12.2, you can choose to automatically download all music, books, and apps. On iTunes for Mac, you can automatically download music and apps; and defer to the iBooks app to automatically download books. Movies, however, is not available on either platform.

You can automate it using Automator, however. Your Automator flow would look like this: Open iTunes, click Movies, My Movies, then press Command–A, Right-click on the selection, and choosing Make available offline, close the iTunes window. (Based on this.) You would then have to schedule the Automator flow to run at 02 am every night or something. Doable, but inelegant.


How can I retain geotagging information on my iPhone pictures? Most of my phone's memory (almost 11 GB's of it) resides in my pictures and videos. I want to clear most of it but not even my completely empty iCloud storage can handle all of it. Anyways, when you're looking at your photos and you zoom out into "years" and you click one of those years, a big map will pop out and you'll literally see every single place you've taken these pictures at. I think that's really cool since I went to a lot of places last summer and in general think it's a cool feature. Back to the point, is there any way I could save that location information when I export these pictures to my laptop? Would a copy/paste just be sufficient? I don't have a Mac either, so I don't know if it will be harder or impossible. And if it is possible, is there some sort of app that you can use on your laptop to pull up that same view you have on your iPhone and see everywhere you took your pictures?

You can just copy those images. Those location information is coded into EXIF data. It will not be deleted upon transfer.


How Do I Resume an Up Next Playlist? Okay, so I use iTunes for both music and video (movies and TV shows), however, when switching between the two I can't figure out how to resume the music that was remaining in my Up Next queue.

I can open the queue and see the items, but how do I actually resume playing from it (and once the queue is empty, whichever playlist was selected to follow it)?

I've never been able to get iTunes to reliably let me do this, as it usually just asks if I'm sure I want to clear the queue, regardless of how I try to resume; this even happens if I had no queued items at all (just a playlist set to shuffle) and hit play or shuffle from the same playlist.

To give an example use case:

Select a music playlist and hit the shuffle button to start some music playing.
Add some music to Up Next via the Play Next and/or Add to Up Next options (via right-click or plus button in search).
Switch to the Movies or TV Shows tab and start watching something.
Return to the Music tab.

At this point, how do you resume your Up Next queue without clearing it?

You have to click the icon in the upper right of the area that showcases the songs and then double click the first song in the list.

See How do I resume the iTunes queue from when I last quit?

In the case of this picture, I must double click on "Pilotwings 'Liftoff (Get High)'"


Opening Windows 8 through VirtualBox on a Macbook Air How do I open Windows through a virtual box on a Macbook Air?  I tried to select a virtual CD/DVD drive, but was not sure which file to select.

Your question is a little unclear but if I understand you correctly, you can install Windows 8.1 as a virtual machine running within Mac O/S X.

Virtualbox is a good (and free) download that will allow you to install Windows 8.1 inside Mac O/S X. All you need is a Windows 8.1 disk image file (on the PC it's called an ISO for it's file extension) that you purchase from Microsoft or someone who sells Windows downloads and a copy of the Virtualbox installer.

There is an active community that can answer any questions that the documentation does not cover right there on virtualbox.org.

And that should get you started.


Other than enabling Trim, is there anything else I should do with an SSD? I've installed a Samsung 830 series 256gb SSD into my early 2011 15" MacBook Pro, and running 10.8 DP4, and 10.7.4 via a firewire 800 drive.

I've used Trim enabler on both installs as it doesn't enable itself, and both installs seem OK. (I'd read about Trim Enabler causing problems in the early days, but can't find anything else to say it's likely to cause problems recently, feel free to correct me if I should do something different/better)

I'm just wondering if there's anything else I should be aware of using an SSD on OSX?

Yes and No. There's not a final answer on this. There are some basic things you don't want to do:

Never fill your drive, always try to have a minimum of a 20% of the drive free, SSD performance goes down fast when the drive is full or close to it.
Even with trim and whatever the OS does, at some point in 1, 2, 3, n years you might have to completely reformat/repartition the drive to gain some speed. This has been true on Windows Machines (I've seen it). My MacBook Air (1 year old) hasn't yet shown any signs of slowness.
SSDs have a limited number of writes before they wear out. At some point blocks just stop working, so if you are constantly writing/deleting files, you're essentially wearing out your SSD faster than the average (however this number is huge, say it can last 10++ years under normal usage). One is expected to change the drive by then :)

I recommend you google around, there are multiple guides and advice pages. You will find this life hacker article relatively accurate and up-to-date. Bear in mind that technology in the future may change and the article (and this answer) may be rendered obsolete if, for example, SuperSSDs are created and they don't wear out or have a 1.000.000 years life-span :D


Is it possible to trigger a script when drive is ejected from the Finder? I'd like to run a script (removing non-OSX .* files) on a USB drive whenever that drive is ejected - is there a way to trigger a script automatically when a drive is ejected from the Finder?

To clarify: I'm looking for a way of triggering a given script before the umount command runs, i.e. immediately before the drive is ejected. I'm aiming to delete .* files and run dot_clean before a FAT drive ejects, getting rid of OSX-only invisible files that confuse Windows systems.

There is some 3rd party software (UnDock) which allows you to run scripts when drives are ejected.


Take a screenshot of a QuickTime movie frame? I'm trying to export a screenshot of a part of a video in QuickTime Player 10.
How can I save a freeze frame capture from a QuickTime movie?
The saved image should be only the single video frame, not including the QuickTime Player window's chrome or controls.
I can't find a screenshot menu item in the Export menu...

A solution I found with Quicktime:

Pause the video on the still frame you want as an image, then hit cmd+c (copy from the edit menu). Then open the Preview app and select File/New from clipboard.