How to Restore the Default Permissions in Sierra? Let's assume if SIP is disabled and permissions get either maliciously or intentionally, but misguidedly changed.  How to restore these permissions to their factory settings?

What is the Current Best Practice to Remedy Such a Situation, Once it has Occured?

It doesn't really matter exactly how a Sierra installation might end up with  less than ideal, 'broken' or 'breaking', or simply altered permissions on its system files or directories.

The question from the title is in slightly longer form:

How do you reset the file system permissions in Sierra that are relevant to the systems operation to their default settings?

This is really quite easy.

Make a back up (Just in case, etc..)
Download and install Mac OS on to the volume using a recovery HD / Internet Recovery or booted from a known good OS external (hold option key when booting)
Clean up user account permissions once the system is fixed.

Since all installs are archive and install, the operation to install Sierra drops a proper, SIP protected, proper permissions system and then calls Apple's migration scripts which should migrate all apps and configurations from the old system with proper permissions in place.

Then you can add a new admin user and remove each old user one by one - leaving their home folders alone. When you rename the old user home as a new short name - when you add those users in - that will fix the permissions on a per user basis.


Text editing: switch to Override mode In insert mode, the text in front of the cursor is pushed forward when new text is inserted. For example, if the cursor is at position ^ and the word word3 is typed:

word1 word2
      ^

The result would be:

word1 word3word2
           ^

In override mode the result would be:

word1 word3
           ^

Can I switch between Insert mode and Override mode in OSX text editing?

As far as I know, normal OS X text views don't support anything like that.

In TextMate 1 you can use ⌥⌘O (Edit > Mode > Overwrite Mode).

In Word 2011 for Mac you can go to View > Toolbars > Customize Toolbars & Menus and drag Commands > All Commands > Overtype to a menu.


How to find if a USB has been plugged in on a certain date? Starting from this great script offered by Daniel Azuelos

cd /Volumes/suspicious_USB
/usr/bin/sudo find . -atime -21 -exec ls -dluT {} \;

How is it possible to modify it in order to find if a USB flash was plugged in, on any random computer, on a certain date?

In Linux, there is a USB subsystem which creates system log events.

So it can tell you what was plugged into your PC. But it can’t in general tell whether it's a USB stick or something else connected to a PC, unless some files were changed. While USB sticks and SD cards are usually formatted as VFAT for compatibility, there’s no reason they can’t be formatted with a more powerful filesystem such as EXT3 or NTFS. In which case, if a USB stick was mounted read-write and not “noatime”, the file access timestamp would indicate if a file had been read, or if a directory had been accessed by a graphical desktop to create folder icons.

Since this is built-in to Linux and is part of the USB specification, it must be possible to get the same level of detail in other operating systems using an appropriate application.


Mail on Yosemite 10.10.5 Can't stop Mail from downloading attachments Simply trying to disable Mail from downloading attachments automatically.

So I went to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Advanced tab and turned off the "Automatically download all attachments" option. I did this for every email account on my system. I restarted Mail. It still downloads attachments from shady senders, many of which are being caught by Avira. Most of the time I right click and delete the message if it looks like junkmail, sometimes I'm quickly reading emails and forget, allowing the preview to start the attachment download. I suppose I could turn off the preview window, but I'd rather not if possible.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Fixed this issue finally. I had to go to Preferences > Viewing and unchecked "Load remote content in messages."


El Capitan bootable installer on Mac Mini - "A required download is missing" On a freshly created USB bootable disk for El Capitan (following these instructions which create a USB bootbale installer with sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app)

On a Mac Mini 2014 when trying to install El Capitan off the bootable USB

I am getting this message  "A required download is missing"

the machine is connected via ethernet to the upstream network

my hard drive is 500GB and reformatted Mac OS (Journaled)

You probably used an old macOS installer app to create your USB bootable disk.

A lot of macOS installer apps downloaded before Oct 2019/Nov 2019 contain an outdated certification chain and thus are invalid.

Simply download a new OS X El Capitan install.dmg (with a valid cert chain this time), open the dmg and open the InstallOS.pkg. The installer package installs the "Install OS X El Capitan.app" in the Applications folder.

The app's ressources can be used to create a new installer thumb drive with the well known command:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

Other installers with valid cert chains:

Sierra: How to upgrade to macOS Sierra – Download macOS Sierra (direct d/l).
High Sierra: How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra – Get macOS High Sierra (App Store link)
Mojave: How to upgrade to macOS Mojave – Get macOS Mojave (App Store link)

As of recently (October 2019) users have reported a certificate issue that may require the system datetime to be backdated via terminal in the installer.


Is there any way to use Preview to view files on another server? I own a Mac and ssh into a Linux server.  How can I view a file on the Linux server using the Preview program on my Mac, without having to explicitly copy it to my Mac beforehand?

You cannot as Preview runs on the Mac and loads all the data into itself before rendering it.

In general this is how all OS X programs work, the data has to be transferred into the app running in the Macs memeory

What can be done is using X11 the normal Linux display mechanism, which was designed to work across a network. You can have X11 programs running on the server that display on another machine. Unfortunately Apple's GUI does not support this (an earlier version did but we suspect for the cost of licensing this was replaced)


How can I enable a notification that a pop-up has been blocked in Safari? QUESTION: Just wondering how to enable an alert message notifying me that a pop-up has been blocked?

I know Firefox has that feature(and other related pop-up options), but I don't use Firefox... also preferably avoid 3rd party apps.

I have Safari 5.1 on Mac OS X 10.6.8.

Better Pop Up Blocker does trigger an alert in Safari when a popup is locked.

And it also improves the effectiveness of Safari's blocking.

But - the alert behaviour does not work in Lion! Snow Leopard only. If the dev updates it for Lion it should do what you request.


Install Autoconf, Automake trying to install pcre I don't asking by homebrew or port only source code /binary

I was trying to install pcre...

$ cd /Volumes/ADATAHD/macOS/Source_Codes/pcre-8.39
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Custom/pcre --enable-unicode-properties --enable-pcre16 --enable-pcre32

pcre-8.39 configuration summary:

    Install prefix .................. : /usr/local/Custom/pcre
    C preprocessor .................. : gcc -E
    C compiler ...................... : gcc
    C++ preprocessor ................ : g++ -E
    C++ compiler .................... : g++
    Linker .......................... : /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/ld
    C preprocessor flags ............ :
    C compiler flags ................ : -g -O2 -fvisibility=hidden
    C++ compiler flags .............. : -O2 -fvisibility=hidden -fvisibility-inlines-hidden
    Linker flags .................... :
    Extra libraries ................. :

    Build 8 bit pcre library ........ : yes
    Build 16 bit pcre library ....... : yes
    Build 32 bit pcre library ....... : yes
    Build C++ library ............... : yes
    Enable JIT compiling support .... : no
    Enable UTF-8/16/32 support ...... : yes
    Unicode properties .............. : yes
    Newline char/sequence ........... : lf
    \R matches only ANYCRLF ......... : no
    EBCDIC coding ................... : no
    EBCDIC code for NL .............. : n/a
    Rebuild char tables ............. : no
    Use stack recursion ............. : yes
    POSIX mem threshold ............. : 10
    Internal link size .............. : 2
    Nested parentheses limit ........ : 250
    Match limit ..................... : 10000000
    Match limit recursion ........... : MATCH_LIMIT
    Build shared libs ............... : yes
    Build static libs ............... : yes
    Use JIT in pcregrep ............. : no
    Buffer size for pcregrep ........ : 20480
    Link pcregrep with libz ......... : no
    Link pcregrep with libbz2 ....... : no
    Link pcretest with libedit ...... : no
    Link pcretest with libreadline .. : no
    Valgrind support ................ : no
    Code coverage ................... : no

Now... make

$ make
CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd . && /bin/sh /Volumes/ADATAHD/macOS/Source_Codes/pcre-8.39/missing aclocal-1.15 -I m4
/Volumes/ADATAHD/macOS/Source_Codes/pcre-8.39/missing: line 81: aclocal-1.15: command not found
WARNING: 'aclocal-1.15' is missing on your system.
        You should only need it if you modified 'acinclude.m4' or
        'configure.ac' or m4 files included by 'configure.ac'.
        The 'aclocal' program is part of the GNU Automake package:
        <http://www.gnu.org/software/automake>
        It also requires GNU Autoconf, GNU m4 and Perl in order to run:
        <http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf>
        <http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/>
        <http://www.perl.org/>
make: *** [aclocal.m4] Error 127
$

Let's go to install autoconf

$ tar zxvf /Volumes/ADATAHD/Downloads/autoconf-2.69.tar.gz -C /Volumes/ADATAHD/macOS/Source_Codes/
$ cd /Volumes/ADATAHD/macOS/Source_Codes/autoconf-2.69

Running

$ sudo ./configure && make && sudo make install

I have this error message:

standards.texi:3229: Unknown command `guilsinglleft'.
standards.texi:3229: Misplaced {.
standards.texi:3229: Misplaced }.
standards.texi:3229: Unknown command `guilsinglright'.
standards.texi:3229: Misplaced {.
standards.texi:3229: Misplaced }.
makeinfo: Removing output file `standards.info' due to errors; use --force to preserve.
make[2]: *** [standards.info] Error 1
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make: *** [all] Error 2
$

How solve this error?
Another Question, Why libz is not detected?

You can use the work-around published here to solve the problem:

https://github.com/iriscouch/build-couchdb/issues/77

The work-around consists of disabling the generation of the info pages (manual).

It seems this error is there because you have an older, incompatible version of TeX. Perhaps you're using an old version of OS X.


Can I open files in TextEdit from the Terminal in Mac OS X? I frequently find that a Terminal command to open a file in TextEdit would be very handy. Does such a command exist on Mac OS X?

open -a TextEdit filename should do the trick.
The -a flag specifies any application you want, so it's applicable to any number of situations, including ones where TextEdit isn't the default editor.
Other relevant options

-t  opens in the default editor (i.e. if you use BBEdit, TextMate, etc.)
-e will open the file specifically in TextEdit


Facebook not showing map for places anymore on iPad Under places in the Facebook app for iPad, I no longer get a mapview as it should be, but rather a listview of the places I have visited. Any tips?

I am not really sure if this is the case but sometimes Facebook tests new features and GUI with some users, often without notification. I haven't heard of that being done with places, but it is the only thing I can think of.


How to prevent High Sierra installation after the installer has already been downloaded? I'm currently on macOS Sierra. In order to get rid of the daily nag notifications to upgrade to macOS High Sierra I downloaded the installer, but have not installed it. I have no intention of upgrading at this time.

I believed I would be able to locate the installer and prevent it from running using the steps described here, but I see no file named Install macOS High Sierra.app anywhere on my system. I know it has been downloaded because when I restart my system I am now asked every time if I want to do a regular restart or install High Sierra first.

Maybe Apple has taken further steps to force the upgrade on us since the article was published, so that the installer is named something else or located somewhere hidden? I have searched everywhere I can think of, even with hidden files shown, and cannot figure out where this downloaded installer resides.

Web searches have just led me in circles through outdated articles. Any help appreciated.

Update: Spotlight doesn't find the installer either.

Default Location
When the macOS High Sierra Installer is downloaded from the Mac AppStore, it, like any other application downloaded through the Mac AppStore, ends up in the Applications folder. The name should be "Install macOS High Sierra.app" (or its equivalent in your language).
Typical Auto-Installation Prevention
Since the first Mac AppStore-based Operating System (Mac OS X Lion) was available to download, the way to prevent an automated installation upon completing the download was to cancel (quit) the installer, open the Applications folder and move (not copy) the installer to another location such as the desktop. Having done this every time, including High Sierra (in September 2017), I can verify that it worked then too.
Why might it be beneficial?
Apple has always been known for staying top of security, rather than playing a slow game of catch-up. It's thus only natural that the latest macOS version is somewhat "forced" onto the user's computer. Afterall, for the majority of users, making the conscious decision of clicking the download button means they intend to install it right away. Unfortunately, though, there are many people who think that clicking the download button is all there is to it - that's where the application opens and a window pops up to tell them otherwise, showing them what must be done. To you and me, this is very annoying because we don't fall into the "negligent" category, but just imagine if people think they have the latest version and are up-to-date with Apple's latest technologies and security only to find out they were just half way there.
What could you try next?
I think we can both agree that if it hints at the High Sierra option at startup, it's most likely that High Sierra has been downloaded and does indeed reside somewhere on the mac.

I would firstly suggest using Spotlight: Command +
Space Bar to make a search for "High Sierra", "Install
macOS High Sierra" or any variations of it both in English and your own language (should it be different). I have always had more success with Spotlight than the traditional Finder search bar.

ADDITIONS

Please upload an image of the prompt you get upon restarting.

Perhaps something went wrong during the download procedure and the installer is not complete as a whole, yet some part of it thinks it is (perhaps a property file was written to too early), making it seem as though the update is ready to install when in fact isn't.
For this, I would first like you to navigate to the App Store folder at /Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Application Support/AppStore and check that directory (including subfolders) for anything that may be High Sierra related. You may wish to consider this article to resolve download issues. It may seem a little far fetched but worth a go if all else fails.

Check under the Purchases tab in the Mac App Store, that High Sierra actually appears. Are you sure you downloaded it, or are you simply getting notifications that the upgrade is available (as your comment may hint at)?

Let me know how you make out and I'd be more than happy to assist further.


Books Art Not Downloading from iCloud My books are no longer downloading the art (book cover) from iCloud on my iPhone. They show up on my Mac. I noticed that the new books look different in the finder as well. Anyone one have any idea how to fix this? Seems to be since I downloaded Catalina.

So, I was facing the same problem and it was super bugging me. I have "kind of a fix": instead of uploading the book through Mac OS, do it on the iPhone.

Delete the book from all devices and iCloud.
Put the .epub or .pdf file in a folder on iCloud (just like any other file, like on the Documents folder)
Click on it on your iPhone.

It will open Books and sync it with the cover! But I had the problem that, if I had Books open at the same time on my Mac, the book would disappear. So I just left Books open on iPhone, did all the books, and then opened on my Mac. It worked fine!!

Where I got it: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/dov3x4/books_wont_upload_book_covers_to_icloud/


OSX partitions wiped by NAS RAID So I messed up when I thought it would be a good idea to stick some hard drives into my NAS. It's now changed the partition table to a RAID0 one and my data has vanished. What are my best chances of recovering it?

With the slim details you have provided, your best bet would be to seek professional data recovery assistance.

Most reputable companies will ask you what you have, what you need recovered and give you an estimate on the costs for recovery without needing to charge you for their time to understand the scope of the problem.

See:

Kroll Ontrack
Drive Savers

Both are highly capable at recovering Mac formatted media and filesystems. Additionally, they are fully professional in their skill at all other forms and format of data recovery. I've never regretted choosing either for recovery from personal up to enterprise needs.


Repartition and reinstall on 2012 Air + Mavericks I have an old macbook air (2012 edition), with BootCamp set up, with Windows 7 and Mavericks installed.

I want to wipe everything, all the data on both partitions, safely, and reinstall with a different partition size.

What's the best process for this? Reinstall Mavericks, then resize the partition? Resize, then reinstall Mavericks?

I'd appreciate any advice :)

The safest way to wipe your entire drive and do a clean OS install is this:

Remember to back up ALL of your data!
Open Boot Camp Assistant and select the "remove windows" option. Follow the steps to remove windows and resize your drive to only be MacOS.
After this is complete, shut down your computer.
Boot into recovery mode by holding Cmd + R at startup.
Open Disk Utility in recovery mode. Select the remaining partition (MacOS), then set a name for it in the box provided and wipe it.
After this is complete, close Disk Utility and choose the "Install Mac OS X" option.
Follow the steps to install Mac OS X on the new partition.


Is it possible to a full system Copy and run it in Parallels? i have Mac Server and i want to have a full copy of the System.
So i can play around and test new Software and Upgrades before i apply it to the real System.
I am using Parallels and want to create a image from the System with the Disk Utility.
But i cannot find any Tutorials to do so.

Is it even possible ?

I don't have experience with Parallels, but if you own an external hard disk, you could clone your Mac Server to this hard disk (e.g. with Carbon Copy Cloner or also OS X Disk Utility).

Then boot from the external disk and try whatever you want to try/install - it will not affect your Mac's internal disk. So once you disconnect the external disk and boot from your internal disk again, everything will be as it was before.


High Sierra 10.13.6 - Security update 2019-003 failing install My 15" MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) is running slowly since I attempted but failed to install Security Update 2019-003 High Sierra. After researching the problem, I discovered a number of reports indicating the update has failed other users and quickly decided I will wait for Apple to release an "updated" update. However, since attempting the failed install, my machine is running so slowly I can hardly use it. It's as if it's trying to move "under water". Something as simple as moving a document to a different folder stalls the machine as does opening a Web site. I've tried rebooting to no avail and testing the speed on my IP. I know enough about my Mac to realize that I know very little and am terrified to start opening folders and deleting things without advice from someone who knows what needs to be done. Now that I've revealed that I am a complete computer dodo, I hope not to embarrass myself further. History: I received an automatic update from the App Store that a restart was needed for Security Update 2019-003. However, when I clicked restart, my MacBook Pro changed to a black screen with only the cursor showing. The next morning nothing had happened and the only option I had was to do a hard shutdown and restart. When I saw the upgrade had not been installed, I continued after making room on my disk. After several failed attempts, I found information that the update had failed other users with the same circumstances that I encountered. My problem is that I don't know how to clear out the portion of the upgrade that is there and ready to install, that I believe is causing my machine to run so slowly. I've searched many times and ways but can find nothing on how to remove what was downloaded and pending installation after restart. Does anyone know where I can locate this on my Mac and how I can rid it from my life? The upgrade is obviously flawed and I just want it trashed from my machine. Any help is appreciated. Sincerely, Kathryn

Well it looks like following this should resolve the issue but its not for the faint of heart...

https://davidsimpson.me/2018/11/14/fixing-failed-macox-10.13.6-security-update-2018-002/

Unfortunately the issue doesn't appear to be simple.

Using terminal and running these commands seem to reset the update so it quits trying to install on shutdown.

sudo rm -f /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
sudo rm -f /private/var/db/.AppleUpgrade
sudo rm -f /private/var/db/.SoftwareUpdateAtLogout
sudo reboot

Black Screen With Cursor on Logout in Yosemite


How to offload already downloaded photos to iCloud? I've setup a new Mac two weeks ago and its already full cause of Photos downloaded from iCloud.
I have the "Photos > Preferences > iCloud > Optimize Mac Storage" checkbox set, but it seems too late now when my disk is already full.
How can I "offload" the photos that has already been downloaded so the library shrinks to a sane size?

Seems that it just took some time to take effect, ran the disk util again and free space went back to normal.


The TV app in ios 10.2 is showing deleted movies The TV app is cluttering the screen with old deleted movies.  When I go to my account on the macbook, I can't find any of the movies to delete them again.

How do I delete these movies?

Realised you're talking about the new TV app, sorry.

The same method will work though. sign out of your iTunes account in Settings and then sign back in.

*Your Apple TV might be using outdated data that hasn't refreshed yet. Sign out of your Apple ID on your ATV and ensure the movies are not on your account.

Then sign back in and only the movies you've purchased will show up.


Brew won't uninstall a package because it can't find another formula I'm trying to get rid of the php56-pdo-pgsql formula installed by Brew so that I can install it again with the --without-homebrew-php option. pgsql is installed in the copy of PHP that came with OS X 10.12. However when I try to uninstall it like this

brew uninstall php56-pdo-pgsql

brew complains like this

Error: No available formula with the name "mashape/kong/luajit"

First steps would be to brew update (twice) then brew doctor to make sure all is good in brew. Then check that the XCode command line tools and Xcode itself are up to date.

If, after that, you still get the problem you may have found a formula bug so file an issue at https://github.com/Homebrew/brew


AppleScript: Cannot click Menulet (Menu Bar 2) for Third Party App I am trying to create an Applescript to automate an interaction with an application that has a third-party menulet (menu bar item, top right corner). The application in question is called Pomodoro One. It does not have built-in Applescript support, so I want to create a script that clicks on its menu bar and presses "Start Pomodoro".

After hours of research on the Internet and experimentation with Script Editor, plus the creation of a visual automation with Automator, I have come up with this script that SHOULD work:

tell application "Pomodoro One"
    activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    tell UI element "Pomodoro One"
        tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
            click menu item 1 of menu 1
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

However, it does not work. Surprising, especially since the the automation in Automator works and this script is basically a paraphrasing of the Applescript that Automator converts its visual automation into. This is the error that I get, both from ScriptEditor as well as running the Applescript in Automator:

System Events got an error: Can’t get menu 1 of menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2 of UI element "Pomodoro One". Invalid index.

What I think is happening is that when Applescript attempts to click on menu bar 2 (which represents the menulet), the menu that is supposed to appear does not. As if the click is totally not happening. However, I am indeed able to click on menu bar 1 (which represents Pomodoro One's main menu bar). This is stumping why clicking on menu bar 2 yields nothing, especially since UI debugging apps like UI Browser indeed report that the menulet is represented by menu bar 2 when I do visual profiling of the UI.

I am hours into this and I feel very stuck. I am wondering if there is any way that I can get Applescript to play nice with the menulet of any third party applicaton.

EDIT

Based on this post (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20595708/applescript-to-click-on-a-specific-icon-in-the-mac-menu-bar), I modified my script to be the following:

ignoring application responses
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "Pomodoro One"
        click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
    end tell
end ignoring
do shell script "killall System\\ Events"
delay 0.1
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Pomodoro One"
    tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
        click menu item "Start Pomodoro" of menu 1
    end tell
end tell

This time, it results in the script infinitely spinning and eventually timing out with error -1712: System Events got an error: AppleEvent timed out. I can assure you that I have accessibility enabled, via System Preferences --> Security and Privacy --> Accessibility for both Pomodoro One and Script Editor.

I encountered the same problem (the script infinitely spinning) in macOS Sierra. I spent some time using Automator and was able to solve it by modifying the script slightly:

ignoring application responses
  tell application "System Events"
    click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 of application process "Pomodoro One"
  end tell
end ignoring
do shell script "killall System\\ Events"
delay 0.1
tell application "System Events"
  click menu item "Start Pomodoro" of menu 1 of menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 of application process "Pomodoro One"
end tell


Why my Time Capsule shared drive keeps refreshing? I use my Time Capsule to share files across my machines.

On my MacBook, when I open the shared disk in Finder, and expand some folders, it starts to "refresh" after a few seconds again and again.

If I click on a file, it loses the selection, and the directory tree disappear and appear, like being unmounted and mounted quickly.

Edit: I realized that what was causing that was some folders with accent in their names (like: Música). Once I removed the accent, this behavior stopped. Is this a known bug?

It seems to be a known (or at least widely observed) bug with the Finder trying to display files with non-latin characters in their names on an AFP server (like the Time Capsule) -- see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2426415 for example.


iTunes credit for child's account? My son has a child account under my iTunes and when I approve a purchase for him it gets charged to my credit card, even though I have an iTunes balance credit from gift cards.  Is there a way to circumvent this, because he added his Christmas iTunes gift card under my iTunes, but we can't seem to use it for his purchases.

If you add any iTunes gift cards to his Apple ID (not yours) any purchases he makes (even via your approval) will first come off his balance, not yours.

If/when his balance runs out, then any purchases would be charged to your account balance. If you have no credit on your account, then it would get charged to your credit card (assuming you have entered one).

Perhaps you buy him a new gift card (as payment for the one he added to your account) and add the new one to his account. That should solve the problem.


Wrapping youtube-dl into automator via applescript I am hoping to make an automator application that prompts the user for input (i.e. youtube url), and downloads it using  youtube-dl (already installed via Homebrew). After this, I am trying to use the command youtube-dl URL_HERE -e which fetches the title of the video. I am hoping to make a notification that says "successfully downloaded TITLE_VIDEO" after it downloads successfully (if it downloads succesfully). I am using the "Run Applescript" command of automator.

This is all I've gotten so far:

display dialog "What is the youtube URL you want to download?" default answer ""
set answer to text returned of result

tell application "Terminal"
    activate
    do script with command "youtube-dl -f 140 " & answer
end tell

display notification "Successfully downloaded " & TITLE_HERE sound name "Blow"

I'm new to applescript, so only basic functions/ones that can be explained easily.

What I'm thinking is to do the terminal command youtube-dl URL_HERE -e which will return the title of the video (TITLE), and set that to a variable and then pass that variable to display notification

Nice - a simple UI like that could be very useful in many situations!

Try this:

display dialog "URL to fetch?" default answer ""
set theUrl to (text returned of result)

--> get file
do shell script "cd /tmp/; /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl " & theUrl

--> get title
set theTitle to do shell script "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl -e " & theUrl

display notification "Fetched " & theTitle sound name "Blow"
delay 1 --> avoid quit before notice

Unfortunately the youtube-dl script did not actually download the video when using the -e flag, (and an error occurred when trying to use the --exec CMD option).

Ended up just running the command twice; First download to /tmp, then get title.

Could also use the process id (pid) to track progress, etc.. :)

command 2>/dev/null & pid=$!

Update:
I could not get the output of certain commands through applescript, like 'nettop'. There are probably ways to fix it.
Here is my sloppy attempt at implementing a pid checking.. :)

set question to display dialog "URL to fetch?" default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "Open in Browser", "Download"} default button 3
set pageURL to (text returned of result)
if pageURL is "" then return "No URL"
set choice to (button returned of question)

if choice is "Download" then
    try
        set pid to do shell script "cd /tmp/; /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl --newline " & pageURL & " > /tmp/vidstatus 2>&1 & echo $!"
        delay 1
        repeat while ((do shell script "kill -0 " & pid) is "") -- check if pid is still responding
            display dialog "Status: " & (do shell script "tail -n1 /tmp/vidstatus") -- display last line of output
        end repeat
    on error
        display dialog "Download complete!" -- eh, success, hopefully :)
    end try

else if choice is "Open in Browser" then
    try
        set videoURL to do shell script "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl -g " & pageURL
        open location videoURL -- browser can stream and save file
    on error
        display dialog "Download aborted!"
    end try
end if


I can't boot into single user mode A while back I partitioned my hard drive into two equal parts. I completely forgot about it and then realized that I only had half of my original drive space available. I startup disk utility and attempt to shrink the second partition to a much more reasonable 100GB. However, when I tried this I got an error message that read "partition failed error. couldn't modify partition map because file system verification failed." So I do a little research and try to boot in single user mode in order to fix the problem. But when I do i'm met with a screen that looks like this.

This problem has been fixed. Turns out rEFit had something to do with my boot commands. However if you press f2 when selecting your drive it will give you an option to boot in single-user mode


How do I disable (and re-enable) my Thunderbolt port from the terminal? I've been having this problem with my Matrox DualHead2Go ME and my late 2011 15" MBP (running 10.9.2). When the displays wake from sleep, the external monitor does not re-awake.

I've gathered that this is because the Matrox unit goes into its own sleep mode and is not re-awoken by the OS's wake signal.

What does work is unplugging and plugging back in the thunderbolt cable my Matrox is connected with. This is less than ideal, however, as I worry about wear and tear from plugging/unplugging the cable multiple times a day.

Is there any way I could toggle my thunderbolt drive on and off from the terminal to avoid the constant plugging/unplugging of the thunderbolt cable?

Apple has several kexts for the Thunderbolt-Connection :

AppleThunderboltDPAdapters.kext
AppleThunderboltEDMService.kext
AppleThunderboltIP.kext
AppleThunderboltNHI.kext
AppleThunderboltPCIAdapters.kext
AppleThunderboltUTDM.kext
IOThunderboltFamily.kext

I think the commands you are looking for are either:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleThunderboltPCIAdapters.kext
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleThunderboltPCIAdapters.kext

or

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/IOThunderboltFamily.kext
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/IOThunderboltFamily.kext

I have a Thunderbolt port in my Mac Pro, but currently no devices. So I can't tell you exactly which kext does the trick.

--
Further Information :

Thunderbolt is basically PCIe tunneled through the DisplayPort Connection. I can imagine that it is based on the ACPIPlatform or IOPCIFamily kernel extension. Either way if you unload those you would probably cut off the branch you're sitting on.

Apple released a document on creating Thunderbolt drivers and how you verify if the device is still online here.

It also says: "In the case of PCI, the I/O PCI family (IOPCIFamily) within the I/O Kit is responsible for enumerating the PCI bridge in the controller chip and any downstream bridges or devices."

Furthermore : "PCI device drivers can determine if a Thunderbolt device is connected by recursively searching over parents in the I/O Registry for the key IOPCITunnelled (...)."

Also have a look into the Developer Library.

Thunderbolt is a complicated technology and you could either write a little program or you can write a launch script that checks and reloads the driver if the device is offline. You could do it manually instead of unplugging it and replugging it in.


How to get git update-index working with macOS? I installed git with brew install git

Now I want to use the update-index parameter, but that doesn't work because git-update-index is not installed.

How can I install this via Homebrew or another way for macOS?

EDIT

I am running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 with git version 2.18.0 (both currently at the time of this writing).

$ type -a git
git is /usr/local/bin/git
git is /usr/bin/git

I'll check that tomorrow on work, because with my home-mac it works the correct way.

You are possible executing the command incorrectly. There is no git-update-index command.

Instead try, git update-index.

There is no additional steps required to install git-update-index.


How to auto-complete url in safari Can someone tell me what is the keyboard shortcut for auto completing a URL in the safari address bar?

PS: Like in chrome or Firefox the keyboard shortcut is Control+return, Command+Return.

When the list of suggestions comes up use the up/down arrow keys to scroll through the options. Press Enter to accept the currently highlighted option.


Why does show hidden files shortcut only work intermittently? I am running Catalina on a 2015 13" Macbook Pro and at random times the default ⌘ Command⇧ Shift
. shortcut for showing/hiding files will stop working. I read previous threads that mostly refer back to El Capitan or Mojave. I did find one thread that linked to a Toggle Hidden Files workflow. I tried it and the system pops up a window saying "Finder is not showing hidden files".

Any ideas as to why it might stop working and how I can fix it?

I've run across this recently and the way I got it working again was to "refresh" the Finder window.  Since there's no refresh F5 like there is in Windows, you have to move out of the directory and then back in.  Additional, you can close the Finder window and reopen it.

It seems to be a bug within Finder


Installing SSD using time machine & external hard drive I am wondering if someone could help me with the following:

I have a 15" macbook pro late 2011 and I am trying to find a way of changing to an SSD. I have backed up my machine using time machine onto an external usb hard drive. I am wondering if the next step is to install the SSD into the laptop OR if there is a step required so that I can install the operating system (or will I be able to install it when I switch on the machine for the first time with the SSD installed and then restore my files via the external hard drive?).

I am able to to find lots of tutorials but they all seem to use a USB cable connected to the new SSD which I do not have.

Any help would be good, thanks!

If you have an internet connection you can just install the SSD, then boot the mac on holding CMD+R to get to the internet recovery screen from here you should be able to select time machine backup and just follow the steps.


How to restore file from iCloud Backup I lost an important sqlite file during the upgrade to iOS 9 beta. Luckily the file is backed up on iCloud.

When restoring from the iCloud backup, iOS downloads the data file along with the app, but then deletes the app and file immediately during the process (most likely due to the app is not a finished app available on the App Store; it is under development).

So my question is, is there a way to restore that beta app's data file?

Or, is there a way to prevent the restore process from deleting apps that it thinks should not exist?

Apple has provided detailed steps about how to restore files from iCloud on this page, you should have a look. https://support.apple.com/kb/ph12521?locale=en_US


Upgrading a 2010 Macbook pro I have a 17" Macbook Pro, mid 2010, with a 2.66 GHz core i7. It has 4GB of memory and a 500 GB sata hard drive (5400 rpm).
With this specification, if I have to update one and only one part of my machine, which of the following gives me better improvement of performance: 8 GB of ram vs. 256 GB solid state drive?
There is a similar question here, but it is not applicable to me since the OP is already having 8GB of ram.
I know that ssd improves the boot and wake up time as well as data transfer rate, however, I suspect that with 4GB one bottleneck in my machine is page swamping. Thus, accruing more memory would make sense.
On the other hand, I read everywhere that ssd makes the computer much more responsive and this is the main reason I want an upgrade.
To add to dilemma, my laptop has sata2 while most solid state drives can shine with sata3 (correct me if this wrong).
So here is the situation. If you had my mac, would you upgrade the ram or the hard disk?
P.S. If I go with ssd, I would remove the optical drive and use its physical space for my current hard drive. Running out of space is not really an issue then.
P.P.S As a side note, if I somehow manage to do both upgrades, i.e. 8 GB of ram and solid state drive. In such case how long would I expand life time of my mac?
Edit
I use this mac for coding (and compiling of course) when I'm not on my linux machine. This also means, sometimes I need to run virtual machines (RAM!). Sometimes I also do photos post-processing which includes using huge raw files. Apart from that, mostly regular daily use of surfing, emailing, reading and writing papers.

I used to work with a 2009 MBP 13" with C2D 2.53Ghz, 8GB ram and 256GB SSD, it worked like a charm with development (Qt, XCode), VM (VirtualBox), image edition (lightroom).

I changed it because the screen was too small but that shouldn't be an issue for you since you're running on a 17". So if you change both, you can hope at least 2 more years.

I would go for the SSD which is awesome : your HDD should reach around 100MB/s in RW whereas the SSD can go up to 375MB/s in SATA2 which is very nice. You'll get more speed in loading softwares, and swapping will be faster in order to compensate the eventual lack of RAM.


Hot iPad charger wall adapter The charger that came with my iPad Air the square adapter that plugs into the socket stays warm even when nothing is connected other than that it works perfectly fine.

I was wondering if this phenomena is normal or is not good worse yet. My biggest fear is it a fire hazard?

While my iPad is connected the charger stays the same warm temperature. It doesn't get hot per se, or else I haven't noticed get too too hot but it stays warm whether I'm charging my iPad or not.

So what's up? Is this normal? Should I be concerned? Is is safe to leave the iPad charger plugged into the socket all the time?

Assuming that the wall socket is providing power (or the switch for the socket is on) it is normal, or rather common, for power adapters of devices to be a bit warm when connected to the wall socket (mains) without a device connected to the other end (iPad, iPhone, laptop, etc.). In many cases, the charger would be considerably warmer while actively charging a device than when it's not.

Here's additional information broken down into bullet points:

The amount of heat produced primarily depends on the size of the adapter, its charging capacity and its build quality (there are other secondary factors as well).
Heat is a product of resistance in electrical and electronic circuits, and is observed in every electrical/electronic equipment to varying degrees.
All power adapters have a "transformer" that first converts the high mains AC (alternating current) voltage, which would be 230V or 110V, to a much lower voltage, which is then converted to DC (direct current) and fed to the device.
An ideal transformer and power supply would not produce heat when nothing is consuming power on the other end. But practically, all transformers (and power supplies) have losses of different kinds (although this has improved over time), and this not only results in heat, but also results in minuscule amounts of power being used even when no device is connected to the adapter.
If you find the adapter being too hot to touch, then it's malfunctioning or failing. If it's only a bit warm, there's nothing to worry about except for an increase in your electricity bills (however small).
As for fire hazard, it's always better to turn off the mains switch (or unplug if there's no switch to control it) on all electrical equipment when not in use and also keep them away from flammable items (or items that may catch fire after prolonged exposure to heat).
If the charger overheats during usage, Apple's genuine chargers have built-in protection to turn them off.

For more information, see:

Wikipedia article - Real transformer - deviations from ideal
iPad charger teardown (Ken Shirriff's blog)


How can I list all my passwords stored in Keychain Access? I am trying to use the 'security find-internet-password' command to show my passwords.
I want to write a script to loop through my keychain and list all of my passwords.
I have read the man page for security and tried the examples but cannot get it to return any of my passwords.

Here is the command from the man page:

find-internet-password [-h] [-a account] [-s server] [options...] [-g] [keychain...]
            -a account      Match account string
            -c creator      Match creator (four-character code)
            -C type         Match type (four-character code)
            -d securityDomain
                            Match securityDomain string
            -D kind         Match kind string
            -j comment      Match comment string
            -l label        Match label string
            -p path         Match path string
            -P port         Match port number
            -r protocol     Match protocol (four-character code)
            -s server       Match server string
            -t authenticationType
                            Match authenticationType (four-character code)
            -g              Display the password for the item found
            -w              Display the password(only) for the item found

I have tried several syntaxes for the command including leaving the keychain value blank. in the below examples admin is a account name for one of my internet accounts.
I would prefer to be able to get all of the passwords at once but when I dump-keychain it gives an unreadable mess of text with lots of tags that I cannot parse. Is there any

$ security find-internet-password -a admin -g
$ security find-internet-password -a admin -g login
$ security fine-internet-password -a admin -g user
$ security find-internet-password -a admin -g /Users/Chilly/Library/Keychains/user

I would prefer to be able to get all of the passwords at once but when I dump-keychain it gives an unreadable mess of text with lots of tags that I cannot parse. Is there any documentation on the web for the format of that dump file or how to parse it. Suggestions I have seen say to just 'grep' the file but I need documentation to know what to look for.
(and to read a manual on grep and awk and sed but those are widely available:-)

This will dump your login passwords:
sudo security dump-keychain -d login.keychain > keychain.txt

And this is a script that can convert it to a human readable format: https://gist.github.com/rwest/1583781
NB: The Ruby script worked for me only after I removed the line containing .gsub!('htps', 'https');.
And, optionally, here is an applescript which will autoclick for you the OS security confirmation dialog: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/137336/66812.


SSD for Mac Mini 2012 -- Need Second Opinion I'm looking to replace a drive with unfixable SMART errors, so I've asked my local repair shop about trying to install a WD Blue 500GB SSD on my Mac Mini (late 2012, OS 10.11.6, but building a Sierra bootable flash drive for the reformat/reinstall) -- and they were rather firm in saying that trying to install anything other than an Apple SSD is likely to lead to problems, including a much shorter life for the drive, and that putting an SSD in a machine that didn't ship with one is also inadvisable. They also insisted that installing a hybrid drive would run into similar problems (though their explanation for why that should be doesn't quite jibe with what little I know about how hybrid drives are supposed to work).

Frankly, very little of what they're saying really jibes with what I'm seeing in various forums, so I need a second opinion as to whether or not what they're saying holds up -- is what I want to do reasonably do-able? I'm seeing a lot of success stories from 2013 or so, but I'm wondering about the long term as well....

There is a small element of historical truth in their recommendation. Until quite recently (10.10.4), the Mac didn't support TRIM on 3rd party SSDS. That meant that in some use cases with some SSDs, the drive could theoretically wear out faster and suffer from performance degradation over time. The practical effect was always hotly contested but it doesn't really matter since TRIM for 3rd party drives is supported in Sierra.

There's no obvious reason that your WD Blue SSD wouldn't work

A Fusion drive is a bit trickier as you have to completely disassemble the Mac Mini to install two drives in it. Replacing a single drive isn't too bad as long as you have the right tools, a reasonable amount of dexterity, and are good at following directions. There are a couple of tricky bits and sliding the drive back into the right position can be frustrating but nothing too bad. I've done it about 10 times without screwing anything up. One SSD failed but it was after 5 years so I doubt it was related to the install.

Macsales is a good source of the right tools, adapters/parts, and instructional videos. They also provide good tech support if you buy one of their drives.

Either look for another shop that is more comfortable doing the upgrade, tell the current shop that you appreciate the advice but you want what you want, or do it yourself. For a simple replacement, MacSales sells the toolkit for $5.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/


What's a good Mac app for making timelines (Gantt charts)? What's a good native Mac app for making timelines on Macs? I'm looking for an easy-to-use program that I can use to create timelines easily without delving into graphics programs like Illustrator. (Which I can use, but would be quite time consuming.)

Revised because of edited question...

OmniPlan can create very nice looking Gantt charts and timelines out of project plan data. It is a full-on project planning tool, which might be overkill. But the output is quite lovely.


How can I use family sharing but still buy/download apps without permission? I'm using family sharing to get the Apple Music family discount, but the only problem is that it stops me buying apps with my own account, and instead requires the family sharing organiser to buy them. This is the same even with free apps, which seems a bit weird.

Is there any way to keep family sharing, but use my own account for buying apps?

Ask to Buy funnels all requests for app or media content purchases to the Family Organizer, and anyone else they have designated as a Parent/Guardian, to approve the purchase. For a paid app or media content, once approved it is bought with the credit card designed by the Family Organizer.

When setting up Family Sharing, all Apple IDs which have an age of 13 or less automatically have Ask to Buy enabled for them. When inviting those aged 13 to 17, iOS prompts you to enable Ask to Buy.

Once enabled, the Family Organizer can later disable it for each individual. If their account reflects that they are over 18 when it is disabled, it cannot be reenabled for that account. Similarly, Ask to Buy is not even an option for users who are invited after they turn 18.

In your case, your ID is set up for Ask to Buy. You can give your Family Organizer a link to the Ask to Buy Apple Support page for details on how to disable it. It has to be done from their device.

Free apps are included in Ask to Buy for two reasons:

Ask to Buy is not just about the cost of the purchase, it is also about parental review of the content of the app/media content
Free apps can (and often do) still have in-app purchases, though an Ask to Buy user attempting to do this will still have to get permission to complete the in-app purchase


Free windows tiling manager (similar to ShiftIt or divvy) that can be installed without admin privileges I usually use ShiftIt to manage, tile, and resize windows. I have come to the point where I really depend on it.

I'm looking for an alternative. It needs to be free, and it needs to be able to be installed and used on OS X 10.7.5 without admin privileges.

What are ways you would recommend to easily tile windows in OS X?

I use scripts like these:

try
    tell application "Finder"
        set b to bounds of window of desktop
    end tell
    set item 1 of b to ((item 3 of b) / 2)
    set item 2 of b to 22
    tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
        set bounds of window 1 to b
    end tell
end try

try
    tell application "Finder" to set b to bounds of window of desktop
    set item 2 of b to 22
    tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
        set bounds of window 1 to b
    end tell
on error
    try
        tell application "System Events" to tell (process 1 where it is frontmost)
            click (button 1 of window 1 where subrole is "AXZoomButton")
        end tell
    end try
end try

They don't require access for assistive devices to be enabled (other than for the on error block in the second script). They don't work with all windows though, and I don't know what will happen if you have multiple displays.

Automator services are supported out of the box and you can create them on a non-admin account, but as of 10.8 there is a bug where the keyboard shortcuts for Automator services don't always work until you hover over the services menu from the menu bar. There is also a relatively long delay before Automator services are run.

See this answer for other ways to assign shortcuts to scripts. I use FastScripts, which is free for up to 10 keyboard shortcuts and doesn't require administrator privileges.


How not to have click twice to pause youtube videos Im a complete new Mac user.

When I have a youtube video playing in safari window, and I'm typing an email in a different safari window, I have to click twice to pause the youtube video, once to focus the window, and once again to actually pause the video. But if I double click the video it will switch to full screen! I have to click twice with a pause...

Is there any configuration I can change so that I only have to click once?

I Googled the problem and I see a lot about "focus follows mouse" plugins, but I'm not sure if that's what I need, I just want the click to go through, instead of a "dedicated focus click", because that doesn't make much sense to me.

You can ⌘ CMD+Click on pause button. By default ⌘ CMD+Click does not activate window under the click.


Boot Camp partition broken and can't be repaired in OS X 10.10.4 Suddenly my Boot Camp partition vanished: not visible in Finder, not visible on startup. In Disk Utility I can see the volume, but it's broken (verification log):

Verifying volume "disk0s4"
Verifying file system.
** /dev/rdisk0s4
Invalid BS_jmpBoot in boot block: 2b0601
File system check exit code is 8.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.

…and cannot be repaired:

Verify and Repair volume “disk0s4”
Repairing file system.
** /dev/rdisk0s4
Invalid BS_jmpBoot in boot block: 2b0601
File system check exit code is 8.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk.
Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk,
and restore your backed-up files.

Before there was another message, something about

Mount of disk0s4 blocked by dissenter.

Terminal's diskutil list command:

#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            596.5 GB   disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         199.3 GB   disk0s4

and another one:

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167
     start        size  index  contents
         0           1         MBR
         1           1         Pri GPT header
         2          32         Pri GPT table
        34           6
        40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640  1165055256      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1165464896     1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1166734432   397446048
1564180480   389343232      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
1953523712        1423
1953525135          32         Sec GPT table
1953525167           1         Sec GPT header

Once, I had as similar problem after partition resizing and had successfully solved it with this guide. But here I see some differences - now naming is not detected and you can't see BOOTCAMP in Finder sidebar. So, I'm not taking chances and won't follow this guide until someone will advise me so.

iMac14,3 (21.5-inch, Late 2013) , OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Here is sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
     Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE    0   0   2 - 1023 254  63 [         1 - 1564180479] <Unknown ID>
*2: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1564180480 -  389343232] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

To recover the Boot Camp partition (Source):

Enter:

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

to get some partition informations.

Download and install GPT Fdisk (aka gdisk).

Download and install TestDisk.

Open TestDisk and make a deep search for your Windows partition.

Leave your Testdisk display and start a new Terminal Window. You need to use the following steps. If you see any error messages during the following steps, please stop and post back here with the error message. The following steps have values from your Testdisk output (and you can verify) in Steps 7 and 8. They should be the same as in the gpt output. Please notice the '+' sign in step 8 (this is called offset notation). The text in parentheses is for informational purpose to describe the action being taken. Gdisk has one-character commands except when entering numbers.

Rebuild GPT4 using start/end offsets

sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0
P  (print the full list of parts)
D  (delete)
4  (part 4)
N  (new part)
4  (part 4)
1564180480 ( - Start offset in blocks or the start point for Bootcamp part)
+389343232 ( - Size offset, as opposed to End offset)
0700 (Windows part type)
P  (print list of all parts just to see what changes will be made)
W  (Write the new GPT)
Y  (Yes! really write the new GPT)

This will delete and re-write the GPT partition info for /dev/disk0s4.

Rebuild MBR to match the new GPT information thus resetting the Hybrid MBR. Use defaults for other questions (like partition codes). The only values that need modifications are the Boot flags and step 10. Accept all other defaults that Gdisk offers. These steps can be repeated if you make a mistake before you get to Step 12, otherwise start from Step 1 for these steps. Step 6 has numbers which are typed with a space between the numbers.

sudo gdisk /dev/rdisk0
P  (Print list of parts)
R  (Recover)
O  (print current Hybrid MBR)
H  (chooses Hybrid)
Partitions numbers to be hybridized: 2 3 4
Y  (Good for GRUB question)
N  (part 2 boot flag)
N  (part 3 boot flag)
Y  (part 4 boot flag make NTFS bootable partition)
O  (print current Hybrid MBR)
W  (Write the new MBR)
Y  (Yes! write the new MBR)
Reboot

To make Windows bootable again try the following:

Boot from your Windows DVD/USB-Stick

Open command prompt from Windows recovery option menu. Type “diskpart” at the command prompt.
At the DiskPart prompt, type in “list disk”. You will see the list of disk currently attached to your computer.
Now type in “select disk n”, where n is the disk number. In this example, disk 0 is selected.
Now that correct disk is selected, type in “list partition” to get a list of all the partitions on that disk.
To select the partition you want to set as active, type in “select partition n”, where n is the partition number (probably 3).
Now that you have selected the disk and partition, mark it as active by just typing the word “active” and pressing Enter. Now the partition is set active.
Exit from the command prompt and run startup repair.


autoconf temporary ipv6 address My mac machine has been assigned two public ipv6 addresses with same prefix. One is autoconf temporary and the other is autoconf secured. I know about secured one but what is the purpose of autoconf temporary address?

Thanks

Short answer: because the "secured" address is not secure enough (or, more accurately, doesn't protect your privacy well enough). Specifically, it's still a long-term identifier for your computer until/unless you move it to a different network.
Long answer: When a host is configured via SLAAC, that provides a 64-bit prefix for the host's public IPv6 address(es); the host then has three main ways to choose suffix(es) to use in its public address(es):

It can derive its suffix from the interface's hardware (MAC) address using the modified EUI-64 format. Problem: any host you communicate with can trivially figure out your hardware address, which gives some info about your computer's manufacturer and maybe type. It also allows them to uniquely identify your computer not only over time but also as it moves around the Internet, since when you move to a different net the prefix will change, but your suffix will stay the same.

It can use a cryptographically generated ("secured") suffix. This does not leak information about your hardware, and will be different for each different network you use (removing your trackability between locations/networks), but still allows your computer to be uniquely identified within each of the networks it uses.

It can use a sequence of temporary addresses. Like secure addresses, these hide your hardware information and avoid trackability between locations, and also limits your identifiability while you're on a particular network.
For example, if a website gets hit from several different addresses from the same network on Monday, and then again on Tuesday, it can't tell (at least by the addresses) if it's the same or different computers on Monday vs. Tuesday, and if it's the same ones it can't tell which of Monday's client IPs corresponds to which of Tuesday's client IPs.

Note: I've listed these address types by security (/privacy) level, not chronologically. Apple started using temporary addresses in v10.7 (Mac OS X Lion), and cryptographically generated addresses replaced modified-EUI-64 in v10.12 (macOS Sierra).
Currently, macOS uses both cryptographically generated and temporary addresses, but prefers the temporary address for outgoing connections.


Yosemite Finder Window: See Item count/selection and available size I’ve just upgraded to Yosemite (10.10.2) and would love to know if anyone can help me figure out how to make my finder window display a line at the bottom letting me know how many files i have in each given folder as well as remaining space left in my mac (like i used to have with version 10.9.5).

I know about the command+shift+i, but was wondering if there was this more fixed way of having that info always hanging out on my finder window!

Thanks in advance for your help,

To show this information in Yosemite, do the following:

Open a Finder window
Go to the View menu -> Show Status Bar
Information should now appear at the bottom of the window.

Alternatively,  Cmd ⌘   /  will toggle it on/off.


Will the Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard Case "for ipad2" work with the new ipad? I have an ipad2, and I have this keyboard case: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/1222/8213

Will the "new ipad" fit nicely into this case, physically?
Or, if I get one of the new ipads, will I need to get a keyboard case specifically "for new ipad"?

Yes, it fits. I bought the iPad 2 case and it fits my third gen iPad...$20 cheaper too :)

The latest generation iPad is slightly thicker then the iPad 2.

The iPad "2" is 0.34" (8.6 mm) depth
The iPad "3" is 0.37" (9.4 mm) depth

Otherwise they are precisely the same width/height.

While I don't have the case/keyboard you mentioned, it looks like it may fit in there. If the case has a solid nook for the iPad to fit into, it likely will get (noticably) tighter - but it entirely depends on how much gap is provided. Obviously since the new iPad hasn't been physically sold yet, there wouldn't be a way to actually test - other then measure with something like a micrometer.


How to upgrade Xcode 9 to Xcode 10.1 in mac OS Sierra 10.12.6 (16G1815) I've an Early 2011 MacBook and I am not able to upgrade the operating system beyond macOS Sierra 10.12.6 (16G1815) on it. I am working with Xcode and in my current project I need to integrate Auto-renewable Subscriptions functionality, but discount features such as free trail period, pay as you go, and pay upfront are linked in introductory pricing API class. This is available in Xcode 10, and I really needs to install it on my Mac, because iOS 12 and greater requires this feature in Auto-renewable Subscription modules in order to approve app from iTunes App Store team.

So anyone could help me install Xcode 10.1 or even Xcode 10 on my Mac running macOS Sierra 10.12.6 (16G1815)?

Xcode 10.1 is not supported in macOS Sierra. You’ll need macOS High Sierra it later to run Xcode 10.1.

Since your model of MacBook Pro supports running macOS High Sierra, it's recommended that you upgrade to it. You can install current latest version of Xcode 10.2 in macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.


Should important files in iCloud also be backed up elsewhere? It is commonly accepted that any files stored on a personal external hard drive should also be backed up elsewhere (in at least one other drive/location) since external drives can and do fail and having >=2 copies greatly reduces the chances of important data being lost.
Is the same measure necessary for important files stored in iCloud?
Knowing that any large company's 'cloud' storage would likely be much better and safer than someone's personal external hard drive helps, but are they still susceptible to failure? Do files get backed up within iCloud, that is, are there multiple copies of the files in iCloud in case any one of Apple's datacenters gets destroyed?
The basic question I am trying to answer is: is storing important files in iCloud enough, or should the extra precaution of storing important files elsewhere (e.g. google drive, an external hard disk, etc) also be taken?

The new paradigm is…
"Any data which is stored in fewer than three distinct locations ought to be considered temporary."
Late Edit:
Don't use a sync solution as a backup.
iCloud is not primarily a backup solution, it is a sync solution. It will come back to bite you hard if you accidentally delete a file from one device… the helpful sync service will then dutifully delete it from every device.
For 'distinct locations', personally, I use 4, in degrees of 'distance'.

My Mac, which has not only my Mac data but also my iDevice backups.
Time Machine, containing all of 1.

1 & 2 are both in the same building, so if the house burns down, I need another location, off-site.

iCloud, containing only a subset of 1 & 2 [primarily iPhone backups, just because they happen automatically] which is not enough to recover everything in case of disaster.

Backblaze [other offsite backup structures are available] which has copies of everything in 1, 2, & 3 above.

I also have my boot drive cloned, for rapid recovery in case of drive failure, but that is also in the house, so classes as part of 1 & 2.
I consider iCloud to contain my keychain in case of catastrophe. I don't consider it as any kind of 'storage', per se. I don't trust it with my photos or my music, for instance, I have all that data stored in 1, the Mac. I consider my Mac to be the primary location for all my data. It has 13TB of storage & nearly 20 years of unbroken historical data.


define multiple release years for an album Is there a way to define multiple release years in the mp3 tags using iTunes? The reason I am asking is that I have a lot of "remastered" albums in my iTunes database that were released in the last couple of years but the original ones had been released much earlier. Now I would like to store the release year of the original album with it. So that for example I would be able to sort and search by original release year OR by acutal release year.

As I understand it, there is no such capability in iTunes. However, the ID3 tag description on Wikipedia has some information. Basically, what you want is possible, but varies between ID3 tag version.

In ID3 v2.3:

There is a TORY tag for the original release year
There is a TYER tag for the actual release year

In ID3 v2.4:

There is a TDOR tag for original release time
There is a TDRL tag for actual release time

In effect, v2.4 got more specific with the tags (going from year to time), and any half-decent ID3 tag editor should handle either version of the spec just fine. However, iTunes doesn't handle these tags natively.


How can I prevent OS X from resetting/disconnecting from wifi when left idle? Doing work at home, I noticed that OS X would drop my wifi connection when I left my 2011 MacBook Pro and it went into idle mode (screen black, but still powered on).

When I moved the mouse or touched a key, OS X would "wake up" but not have a wifi connection. Then it would not connect to the wifi for a minute or two, before resuming normal connectivity.

This was new to me since I have had the machine for more than two years and had never experienced this, but recently updated OS X to Mavericks.

Goto System Preferences -> Energy Saver -> Check "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off"

The options may be slightly different depending on what generation macbook you have, but this should help point you to the right place. :)


Remove missing drive from Spotlight I was cloning someone's drive, it was named Macintosh HD, just like my my own. Eventually it showed up in Spotlight as Macintosh HD 1.

Now when I search for apps and such I always hit its applications. At least nothing happens, since the drive has been removed and no longer exists.

How can I get Spotlight to stop showing me results for it?

I've tried reindexing with the following commands but it only applies to mounted devices:

sudo mdutil -a -i off
sudo mdutil -a -i on

Just turning off|on Spotlight indexing using sudo mdutil -i off|on, doesn't mean the metadata stores are cleaned up and or rebuilt. Here's what I'd do...

First delete the Spotlight metadata stores using sudo mdutil -E / and wait for the prompt to return. What actually happens is indexing is temporarily turned off, the metadata stores are deleted and indexing turned back on.

Then run sudo -k to terminate the sudo session.

Next I'd rebuild the Launch Services Database, using:

/S*/L*/F*/C*/F*/L*/S*/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user


Why is saying verification required on my iPhone 5c? Every time I try to download a free app or update an old app it said verification required. I sign in and it take me straight to the billing/credit card page and I can't get out of it. I have even tried putting in my card number and stuff and it just says that I have entered a wrong number but when I look at my bank account it shows that it took out $5.97. How do I make it stop so I can update my apps?

Apple's servers are responsible for deciding if your device and account are in proper standing to make a purchase.

One of two things is happening:

your device is not working properly - most likely due to having two accounts and/or wrong date or other software corruption
your account on the server needs adjusting

With the little information you provided, more triage is needed to know which. You could get a second iOS device and wipe it clean / update it. If you can sign in and make one purchase there - try entering your card and verification details once there. Then making a second "purchase" which could even be a free app download, you will know if the problem is in Apple's side or on your device.

Alternatively, you'll have to start changing one thing on your iOS device and re-testing. If you have a backup, you could erase all content and settings and then set up the device making sure the date/time are correct and then repeat the steps above.

If not, make a backup and then start here:

http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/features/

You'll either use the Apple ID support link or perhaps try checking the status of the App Store or another link that grabs your eye - posting a new question here with update and details on your issue.


Which `vboxmanage clonehd` variant corresponds to the GUI selection `dynamically allocated`? I wanted to resize a VMDK, which VBoxManage can't resize directly, so I used the Convert to VDI → Resize VDI → Convert to VMDK procedure described here.

For the last step, I could not find clear documentation of which --variant corresponded to the "dynamically allocated" option I chose in the GUI when creating the original VMDK.

The documentation on clonehd has this list of variants: Standard, Fixed, Split2G, Stream, ESX.  It is not obvious from the names which of those is dynamically allocated, and there is no mention of which variants apply to which image formats.

The documentation on disk image files refers to the GUI options of "fixed-size" or "dynamically allocated", but uses the word "variant" to mean file format, and does not refer to the list above or any of its entries.

Which --variant corresponds to selecting "dynamically allocated" in the GUI?

This is with VirtualBox 5.0.32 r112930 on macOS Sierra 10.12.3 (16D32)

According to this forum post:

Standard (the default) - one piece dynamic (sparse) extent file, plus a small descriptor file.
Fixed - extents will be flat (rather than dynamic/sparse).
Split2G - image is split into multiple extents, each less than 2GB.
Stream - image is optimized for streaming downloads rather than running in a VM. This type may be compressed.
ESX ?

so standard is you proper option or no --variant at all since standard is the default.


Deleting pictures sent in a iMessage? When you send a picture via iMessage on the iPhone or computer and ask that person to delete it, is there a way to know they have?
If I delete the picture on my iPhone, will it be deleted on their iPhone?

No, you won't get to know if or when they delete a sent picture. Also, the picture sent is retained on Apple's servers in that person's receive queue until their space gets cleared over time and/or volume of new messages and attachments.

The only way you would know they deleted it was by observation, trust or having access to their account to check. You don't get any delete receipt from the system should they comply with your request. Lastly, deleting a message on one of their devices may not even delete it on others, so you might ask them to delete a message on all their devices that can receive iMessage attachments and monitor new devices for a period of time.


Macbook - put my application in space without full screen mode I am using Macbook Pro and I like to have different applications running in multiple spaces. When I drag my application to a new space it automatically enters in full screen mode. In my terminal, one of the command line tool that I am using requires accessing mac settings UI, and when it's in Full screen mode it can't do so. So, every time I need to run that command, I have to do these steps:

Exit Full screen. This makes my terminal app go to some other space and the current space is not there anymore.
Fire the command, which works now as I am not in Full screen mode.
Again drag my terminal to new space in full screen mode.

Considering the frequency of this thing, this has become a tedious repetitive task.
While this can be due to some bug in the CLI tool that I am using, I was wondering if there is any way to stay in the same space without entering into full screen mode.

Instead of directly dragging an application and creating a new space, if I click on the plus icon on the right side, and then move the application to it or directly drag the application to that + icon, the app is not entering into full screen mode. This fixes the issue.


Reading List in other browsers? Is there a Reading List extension for Chrome? I have a deep, dark hatred of Safari, but Reading List seems more convenient than Pocket of Readability. Or, is there a way to access it by any non-safari means at all?

To add the active tab in Google Chrome to Safari's reading list:

Adapted from a comment by tzarskyz on: Add a URL from Chrome to Safari's reading list

tell application "Google Chrome"
    set pageUrl to get URL of active tab of first window
end tell
tell application "Safari" to add reading list item pageUrl
display notification pageUrl with title "Added to Reading List"

Open AppleScript Editor and save the above code as a new script.  From that point on, you can run this script to add the active tab in Google Chrome to Safari's reading list.  You can trigger this action via Terminal (osascript), by double-clicking the script (in Terminal or on your desktop), via an app launcher like Quicksilver, via Fastscripts, etc.

Enjoy your reading! :)

Update: I've since found a better way to accomplish this, without requiring something like Fastscripts.  Simply use OS X's built-in application, Automator.  You can adapt the steps outlined at the following link to run the AppleScript I included above: Global HotKey for Pause/Play,Next Song, etc.


View HDMI output from another device on a Mid-2015 MacBook Pro I'm looking for a setup that will allow me to view the video output from another device (1080p/60 over HDMI) on my MacBook, at full frame rate and with minimal latency. I assume this would take the form of a Thunderbolt dongle, but I don't know what to look for, or if such a thing even exists.

I don't need to be able to capture or encode video, though being able to save frames would be a plus. I'd also like to be able to view the video output scaled to full-screen, and if there's the option of software filtering (e.g. sharpening / fancy upscaling), that would be a plus as well.

You can use a device such as the Elgato HD60 S, which offers low-latency capture from a 1080p60 HDMI source, which you can view on your MacBook over a USB 3.0 connection.

It also allows you to save and stream the video if you want to do that as well.

It's available from for example Amazon at $179.95:

https://www.amazon.com/Elgato-Game-Capture-HD60-technology/dp/B01DRWCOGA


How to convert mov to swf? I have a QuickTime .mov file which I want to convert to swf format. Is there any tool for Mac? I already search here for a similar question but couldn't find any. The google search directed me to VisualHub which was discontinued and doesn't support Snow Leopard.

Is there a method using an Adobe CS5 app? If not what are the free solutions out there?

TIA

Never mind. I found an answer on Adobe website. For those who are interested, here is the link.


How to validate kexts signatures from the command line? I'd like my shell script to verify if the /System/Library/Extensions folder (and subfolders) contains any kexts that don't pass signature validation. How do I do that?

There are a couple utilities that seem to include that kind of functionality, e.g.

kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

but they either apply modifications to the system or do other unwanted lenghty checks. Only the signature validation is necessary here.

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Here's the script which will output not singed kexts inside this directory:

#!/bin/bash

cd /System/Library/Extensions

find *.kext -prune -type d | while read d; do
    codesign -d "$d" 2>/dev/null
    rc=$?
    if [[ $rc != 0 ]] ; then
        echo "$d" is not signed.
    fi
done


Mid 2014 Macbook Swollen after High Sierra / What should I do? This discovery came after my latest question: High Sierra's External Display bug heats Macbook's, damaged my Retina Screen, what can I do?

I use my macbook on a stand with good airflow, after High Sierra, I noticed unusual high heating along with poor gpu performance, afterwards I noticed screen damage, and now, I discovered that my macbook is physically swollen, 2-3mm's I'm guessing

The issues could be unrelated to High Sierra, yet, it would be too big of a coincidence if it's not the cause, as things were breezy beforehand

Here's a picture of the issue: https://imgur.com/a/feBG7

The trackpad area is swollen, the trackpad doesn't click any more, the battery reports "Normal" condition (Cycle count: 12), the lid doesn't close any more, but everything luckily works for now

I assume it's the battery that's swollen, but even with the high heating I complain about, the GPU temperatures was 80C at most and enclosure temps weren't extremely high

It's a shocking issue for me, I'm wondering whether there is a solution other than buying a new Macbook, unsure how to approach the issue in general, and since I use the device daily, really don't want to part with it even for repairs or inspection, I'm located in Turkey

Also curious why I experienced these issues with High Sierra and whether anyone else has similar experiences

Make a full backup and get it into a store/repair shop for inspection.


View youtube videos in 720p by default in Safari? Is there a way I can force safari to start youtube videos at 720p by default ?? I was wondering if there is an automator code that can achieve this ? Or maybe an extension that solely does that ? (I have found an extension that controls your youtube or whatever but I prefer something that only has one feature).

Although I have the settings already activated as the first answer suggested, I still have that problem.

There should be an option in your Youtube settings to default to HD resolutions if they're available. It should be under Playback Settings>Video Playback Quality.


Have to reset the SMC on Retina Macbook Pro very often Very weird problem. About 3/10 times the discrete GPU on the Retina MBP (Nvidia GT650M) does not engage when I launch a game. The performance for the game drops to as if only the integrated GPU was engaged i.e single digit FPS.

This happens when previously the game would work just fine on the same settings. This also happens under the Windows 7 partition under Boot Camp so I know it is not a software issue.

The first time it happened I was completely flummoxed and simply could not find a solution. Just as a last resort I tried resetting the SMC and it started working fine after that.

Another thing is this problem may be occurring a lot more frequently but I can only get to know when I launch a game and it refuses to work properly. For almost all other tasks there is barely a difference when the Nvidia is working. (Guess that's why they let the 13" retina be with just the integrated chip).

Now this problem is occurring frequently enough to really bug me. I have been using a Mac since 2005 and I haven't had to reset the SMC this much in the last 6 years as I've had to in the last 5 or so months of using this machine.

Should I get it checked at the store, ask for a replacement, or is there a more permanent solution that I'm not getting?

Edit Can a mod please change the 'power-management' tag to SMC?

Instead of resenting the SMC (a painful procedure) try this free software.

gfxCardStatus
It is an unobtrusive menu bar app for OS X that allows MacBook Pro users to see which apps are affecting their battery life by using the more power-hungry graphics and

Manually switch to Integrated Only or Discrete Only mode to force one GPU on or the other.

Since I am not sure of your model year, it works on:

OS X Lion (10.7) or newer
2008-2012, 15-17" dual-GPU MacBook Pro


Why isn’t my Mac charging with 60 Watts? The Adapter is 61W Apple Adapter.

Your laptop is turned on - this means that it is consuming energy. That energy is subtracted from the number of watts you're charging the battery with.

If you want to charge faster, a sure way is to shutdown the laptop or put it into sleep mode, before charging.


Time Machine performing a mobile Backup to a location I can't find anywhere First of all:
I'm running OS X Lion 10.7.4 on a recent MacBook Pro, have a local USB hard drive (1TB) Time Machine is configured to use for backups – this works perfectly fine.
Additionaly, I once tried to setup a network share to use for mobile backups so I wouldn't have to plug the USB drive in to have a backup ready. I setup Netatalk on my Ubuntu machine which works as some sort of NAS in my local network, chose a Folder I setup on a 750GB disk, tried to use it as a Time Capsule on my MacBook but it would not work, so I reverted to using the USB disk instead since I did not have the time to figure out what went wrong.

Now, when I go to /Volumes on my MacBook, I see a Time Machine configured Drive named MobileBackups, the name I chose for the experimental Time Machine Volume. I can enter the folder and browse the backups, they are updated every few minutes and seem to be working perfectly fine. I can even start Time Machine with the USB backup drive not plugged in and can see previous file versions.
The MobileBackups drive is said to be 749,3 GB in size, the exact size of my MacBook Pro HDD and the size of the network shared HDD I tried to setup as mobile backup volume.
But when I access said network shared volume, there is no indication of my Time Machine backup. I accessed it via ssh on my Ubuntu box which it is connected to and ran ls -la on the location I setup as Time Machine backup folder, I ran du | sort in the root of the volume, but still I couldn't find the Time Machine Backup.
Since my MacBook Pro HDD contains already about 300GB of data, I would expect to easily find a complete Time Machine backup of that, but as I was saying… I have no idea where it is located.

I even ran GrandPerspective on the MacBook just in case I screwed something up and Time Machine is performing a full backup to a folder on the same drive, but that doesn't seem to be the case either.

So… either I have generated vacuum disk space out of nowhere, or I am incredibly stupid.

PS: When I access my Time Machine backup, it says it's inactive since my USB backup drive is not connected, yet the MobileBackups folder is still being updated.
This confuses me the most.

The folder you're seeing has nothing to do with the network volume you created; it just happens to have the same name. This is a new feature in Lion which keeps track of file changes on laptops when you're away from home so that you still get the benefit of file versioning that Time Machine provides even when your external backup drive is not connected.

You can find more information about this feature in John Siracusa's Lion review at Ars: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7/18/


Total memory doesn't add up in Activity Monitor My computer's been really slow, to the point where it's almost unusable, and according to Activity Monitor, it's because the physical memory's basically all being used (the CPU usage is fine). However, the processes' memory don't all add up to the total memory usage reported by Activity Monitor (I did show all processes, not just the user's). Where is the extra memory usage coming from?

The overall picture of your RAM is that it's healthy and there is no memory pressure. Something else is the bottleneck causing slowness.

Onle 2 GB of RAM is used for App Memory and less than a gig of File Cache and Wired Memory seems fine. Some IO would be faster if you had more File Cache, so you could try quitting Apps you don't need, but I'd focus on the CPU and Disk/Network tabs of Activity Monitor and start benchmarking the things that are slow.

What are you waiting for? Switching an app that's running? Starting a new app? Viewing web pages? Something else?


How do I correctly set strictly only one desktop? With Desktops, you can have more than one Desktop.

I want to assign absolutely only one Desktop, not two.

How do I do this exactly?

When I click F3, it looks like this:

(Does that mean I have only one?)

Resolved!

Buscar웃 has identified the issue.  I manually deleted the 400 desktops and now this issue:

Absolutely eliminate "Automatic new Desktop when dragging"

is finally resolved.

That is amazing.

You have created so many desktops that macOS can only display them as a dot.

That line of dots represents your desktops. I did not count but it must be more than 50.

How to delete them.

Press F3

Hold Option Key and keep clicking on the X showing to delete them.


How do I quit Apple Music? So recently I started listening to Apple Music, but I didn’t realise that I had to pay 10 dollars every month. Now I want to quit it.

Anyways, I tried going to my account, but there wasn’t a button to stop using Apple Music.

Should I delete the app?

Open the Music app, then tap For You.
  Tap the profile icon  or your photo in the upper-right corner.
  Scroll to the bottom of your profile page and tap View Account. If you haven't set up an Apple Music profile, skip to step 4.
  Tap View Apple ID. You might be asked to authenticate your Apple ID.
  Scroll to Subscriptions and tap it, then tap Apple Music. If you don't have any other subscriptions, you'll go straight to Apple Music.
  Tap Cancel Subscription, then tap Confirm. After you cancel, your subscription will stop at the end of the current billing cycle.

Manage your Apple Music subscription on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, or Apple TV


Running a Mac Remotely Over a LAN I have a Mac Mini that I use as a build platform, from within Visual Studios 2017 for Windows, to write and debug iOS apps.

I've noticed that when I establish a connection between VS and the Mac, I have to log into the Mac remotely (I use TigerVNC) before launching the connection process. If I don't establish a remote desktop session on the Mac, the connection will fail part way through because the Mac has gone back to sleep (i.e., the power LED has gone dark).

This is a different behavior than what I'm used to when accessing a Windows machine remotely. For them, once you establish a connection, the machine stays awake until the connection is closed, and the sleep timeout period expires.

Is this by design for Macs? Is there a setting that I can change to make it stay awake without first creating a desktop session?

You can prevent the Mac from sleeping in the Energy Saver preferences panel. There are a few options, but if you want to simply keep it awake the either:

Dragging the Computer sleep slider to Off.
Checking Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off.

You can find more options and details in Apple’s Support Document.


Run Keynote Presentation in a Window Is there a way to run a Keynote presentation in a window instead of fullscreen?  I changed the resolution to one smaller than my display, and it displays it centered.  I need it in the upper left corner of the screen to record it with Camtasia.

You can export it as a QuickTime movie and choose the Manual Advance Playback mode. It will behave exactly as a Presentation (click to advance and so on) and you will not loose any of the effects (animations, transitions, etc).

Once you have it in Quicktime then you can just present it in a window. Make sure you select Full Quality so you get the best possible movie out.


How can I "Delete All" from Inbox or Sent mail folder in iOS? The sent items folder is about 8 GB and I need to clear it out to free up space. Is there any way to do it without selecting each individual message?

Go to your Sent folder
  Tap on the "Edit"-Button on the top right
  Select the first email in your list
  Hold down the "Move" button
  While you are still holding the "Move"-Button, deselect the first E-Mail
  Put away all your fingers from the screen and wait a few seconds
  Now Mail asks you where to move ALL of your emails
  Select the Trash-Folder
  Inside the Trahs-Folder, you can delete all items at once


terminal create file(file_name as bash arguments) then write text into it, relate to .bash_profile I am using sublime, I guess any text editors work the same.
I've just learned from this form that alias won't work and I should use function.
here is what I come up with, in .bash_profile:

function sln() {
    sublime "$1" | echo "'use strict';" > "$1";
}

type sln does return the function I defined, as this:
sln is aliased to 'sublime "" | echo "'use strict';" > ""';
but when I do sln test.js, console says: No such file or directory
FYI: it works when I do sublime test.js | echo "'use strict';" > test.js, and test.js will open with text 'use strict'; at the beginning.
Can someone explain and offer some solutions? Thanks.

After modifying .bash_profile you have to either source the modified bash profile with source ~/.bash_profile or close the current and reopen a new Terminal window to have the changes take effect.
UPDATE: I had done some testing, now the solution is definitely restart Terminal.app. source ~/.bash_profile to reload is not enough.


Can you get blackboard letter N, R, etc., symbols for mathematical notation? The Special Characters palette includes many mathematical symbols, but I cannot seem to find blackboard bold versions of N, R, and Z, which are commonly used to denote the set of (respectively) the natural numbers, real numbers, and integers.

Right now, when I use the Special Characters palette and configure the Unicode section, and then look for the mathematical symbols, I find blackboard versions of A, B, and others, but inexplicably, certain characters including the N, R, and Z are missing. Here is a screenshot to show what I mean:

Are the blackboard characters available somehow, and I am missing something really obvious?

N is at U+2115, R is at U+211D... just as described in the wikipedia article you linked to.  Odd that they aren't in the normal ABC order.  But, they are there.


How can I install an application from a .pkg without admin password? I'm trying to install the "Unity Web Player" so that I can play this game I've been waiting for for a while. The installer is a .pkg package installer which I can't use because I do not have admin access (long story). Is there a way to get the application out of the package and install it manually in my own folders?

You might be able to extract the main .app file from the .pkg using "Pacifist", downloaded from http://www.charlessoft.com/

Depending on what system settings are updated (or, if any global libraries or frameworks are installed) by the installer, this process may or may not work completely.