Diagnosing what's wrong with "vintage" iMac I have a "vintage" iMac with the following spec:

I've been told by an official Apple store that they won't touch it and neither will any Apple resellers so it's left me with two options:

Buy a new iMac!
Fix it myself!

The problem I'm having is that when I turn the iMac on after it's warmed up it starts to make clicking/scratching noises. The screen flickers slightly and things struggle to load. I managed to run disk utility on it before these problems start and it coming up with lots of failures.

This all suggest to me it's the hard drive.

Is there anything else I can use to diagnose the specific problem? Would the above description point to a hard drive failure for you?

If that's the case I'm willing to spend £100 or so on a new hard drive (would this one be ok?) and attempt to fit it myself (following online guides!!).

Before I had problems, the iMac was running completely fine and not struggling with anything - even high spec games so you can see why I'm very reluctant to buy a new iMac... especially at £1500!

I feel like I'm being completely screwed over by Apple for not supporting a perfectly good machine, so much appreciated in advance for any help given!!

From the sound of things it is likely the hard drive. An "easy" way to find out would be to attach an external HD and install the OS on that.

Be aware that depending on what is going on with the old HD it could eventually just prevent the Mac from booting as the Mac tries to access it even if it is NOT the boot drive.

Note that a USB drive would be SLOW, Firewire would be preferable and, while it is not as fast as SATA, would provide you with a generally usable/bootable Mac while you work up the courage to open it up and replace the drive ;-).


Can I wake up my Mac wirelessly over the internet? I am a university student who leaves his Macbook Pro at home and uses an iPad in lectures.

I thought it'd be great if I was able to wake my Mac back at home if I needed to remote control it using TeamViewer from my iPad.

My Macbook is running Mountain Lion (Latest) and is connected Wirelessly to a Virgin Superhub.

Is it possible to set it to boot from the university from my iPad so I can remote control it? If so, how do I set this up?

OSX has a feature called Wake on Demand (Apple's version of Wake on Lan) which does work over Wifi but:

  Wake on Demand requires an Apple AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule
  with firmware 7.4.2 or later installed. To use Wake on Demand
  wirelessly with a WPA or WPA2 network, the AirPort base station or
  Time Capsule must be hosting the network.

Instead you can use the traditional Wake on Lan, however this requires an ethernet connection (AFAIK)...


What syncs when you don't have enough iCloud storage? When you don't have enough iCloud storage (which happens, for example, when you are downgraded from a higher plan to a lower one), you aren't able to sync many iCloud items anymore because you're over your iCloud storage limit. This prevents iCloud Photo Library photos and iCloud Drive files from syncing. However, it (thankfully) doesn't seem to prevent your contacts or your calendar items from syncing across your devices.

Is there a list of what can and can't be synced when you're over your iCloud storage size?

There isn't exactly a list, but if you look at their suggests as to what to do when it is full (https://support.apple.com/HT204247), you can see the things that are affected. Other types of data are not, such as those listed in https://support.apple.com/HT202158


I have Messages in iCloud but messages still not perfectly synced I have Messages in iCloud on my iPhone (6S, latest OS version 11.4) - or at least I think I do: In iPhone Settings -> [my Apple profile] -> iCloud I have Messages switched to on. I also have Messages on my MacBook Pro, which has the latest version of Mac OS.

However today my iPhone was off because it didn't have enough charge. My Mom (who also has an iPhone with iMessage) sent me a message. The message showed up on my Mac. However even after I restored power to my iPhone and restarted it a couple times, the message never showed up on my iPhone.

So what is going wrong? I thought this, at least, would be solved by Messages in iCloud.

While there is no sync now button, you could force one by turning iCloud Sync off and then back on.


Is any protection for display needed against scratches from keyboard? If the MacBook is closed can it happen that the keyboard touch and scratch display?

I don't mean anything to be put on the screen but something between display and key.

If you got a new MacBook there is some thin paper that cover your keyboard. I think it is there to "defend" display while transportation. Thats why is the question - do we need something like this if the notebook is transported for example in a bag?

On old Powerbooks (the G4 specifically) the keyboard would sometimes leave an annoying permanent imprint on the screen. However, with any new Macbook, this is not an issue: the keys are now softer and further away from the screen, so they should never touch.

In my experience, trekking around with my rMBP, no protection is needed: I've traveled pretty roughly with the computer with no protection on and the screen is in perfect condition (even if I look closely). Just make sure no dust or other particles are on top of your keys because the added height may cause it to touch the screen.

As far as why Apple ships MBs with foam screen protectors, it is apparently to protect they screen during the roughness of shipping (where there is significantly more bounce for the keyboard and screen to deal with than you'll subject it to in your use of it); I think any damage is rare enough that you don't need to protect the screen, though Apple does want to ensure that every MB is opened upon delivery in perfect condition (thus the foam insert).

tl:dr: Don't worry about it! You're much more likely to damage it by spilling liquid onto it, dropping it, or leaving it around pets.

For more, here's a forum discussion about your question.


How can I run MAME on an iMac G4 (PowerPC) I'd like to install and run MAME binaries on an iMac G4 (PowerPC), and information on this seems to be very limited. Official MAME pages link to two pages related to Power PC Macs.

Apple Macintosh OS X PowerPC leads to a long list of which this one seems to be the newest 32 bit version. However, ./mame says "Can't execute file". Evidently because it's an Intel file!
Apple Macintosh OS X PowerPC (10.5) links to another list of versions which I haven't tried yet (because of hardware problems). And my machine has 10.4, so maybe that won't work...?

Is anyone out there successfully running MAME binaries on a PowerPC Mac, that can provide working instructions for how to set this up? Along with any depencies or configuration required.

You can get PPC version 0.103 at MacMAME

You'll need a ROM set of the same vintage, so search for "MAME 0.106 reference set" or similar.

You want either a specific PPC build or a Universal build. All builds labelled 32bit or 64bit are Intel only. sdlmame0140-universal would also work but compared to MacMAME it's more difficult to configure, which also applies to those in your 2nd link.

Finally, I would like to recommend you play SEGA's 1984 classic Flicky.

Have fun!


Where are all those audio files on the iPhone? My 8GB iPhone 3GS claims, in iTunes, that it contains 3 GB of audio files.

However, in "Music" only 1 GB of files show up, in "Podcasts" are another 72.8 MB and there is nothing in "Books" and "Movies".

Where are the remaining 2 GB of audio files?

Edit: I also notice that there are podcasts in one of my playlists that are not in the "Podcasts" category (or the "Music" category). Whey are they stored? In fact only two podcast episodes are in the "Podcasts" folder but about 10 are in the playlist.

I upgraded from iOS 4.3 to iOS 5.1 yesterday. In the process the phone was backed up and restored a few times. Might that have something to do with it?

In the process the phone was backed up and restored a few times.

“A few times”? That doesn’t sound very good…

Try resetting your iPhone to factory conditions and restore your backup once. Make sure the backup doesn’t get interrupted — it should be able to finish in one sitting!


How can I install macOS to an internal HD on a different Mac? I have a MacBook Pro and my girlfriend has a MacBook Air. Her's is broken, so I reset her HD, which I did it from Disk Utility.

Can I reinstall macOS to hers from my Mac?

I have an attachment that lets me access the files from the HD on my Mac via USB. Can this be done through Disk Utility?

You don't mention which versions of the Macbook Pro and Macbook Air you have, but, with more recent (last 5 years or so), you can do an over-the-air restore.

Steps:

Shutdown her Macbook Air.
Power up the Macbook Air and immediately press the following key combinations: Command + Option + R. Keep on holding the key combination until you see a spinning globe. You will be asked to connect to your WiFi network so please do so when prompted.
Once you boot into recovery, simply use the Disk Utility to wipe off your main HDD or SSD, go back to the main screen and click on Reinstall macOS on the drive you just wiped. It’s that simple.

This can be a slow process, as it's downloading the OS installer over wifi.

The official Apple support doc.


How to display icons in finder in newest to oldest order in a grid? Is there a way to make the finder show icons in newest to oldest order in a grid?

As it is when I pick "View->As Icons" and then "View->Arrange By->Date Modified" the finder displays them in long rows. The first row is "yesterday", the second row is items in the previous 7 days, then a row for 30 days, then a row for the previous year. There's 286 files in that row. Navigating by scrolling across the row is nearly useless. There's a "Show All" but that' also useless as it shows all the files a year old but in alphabetical order so for example if I want to find files from November last year I'm S.O.L.

Is there way to just display them in one long grid in newest to oldest order?

To sort by modified in icon view:

Go to the settings for your finder window by clicking on the gear icon at it's top and choosing View Options. You've already set it to arrange by date modified, but you also need to set it to sort by date modified.

Then you'll have groupings to minimize until you reach the date range you are looking through AND a list of items to scroll through that's sorted by date.

*as an aside, in figuring this out, I noticed that the sections aren't entirely accurate for me in 10.9.5 (items from 2014 are in the 2013 section), but the files are in the correct order - so don't necessarily trust the section headers. Interesting glitch.

As a tip - You could change to list view to see where the modification dates are about where you want to be, select an item to mark your place and then switch back to icon view. Another note - to find where you'd clicked after clicking show all, just arrow key to the left or right and your view will scroll to the selected file.

Hope that helps!


Does Catalina detect and warn about incompatible apps? I've been putting off upgrading from Mojave 10.14 to Catalina as I know I have at least one paid-for 32-bit app which doesn't offer a free upgrade.
This question talks about manually detecting 32-bit apps prior to installation: How can I find out which Mac apps are 32-bit?
But I wondered, when Catalina is installed will it check for such apps and warn me they won't be usable? Further, will it tidy up by removing such apps or will I end up with non-runnable apps to manually clean up?

32-bit apps in Mojave should already bring up a warning when you launch them.
You can check what 32-bit apps you have in System Information: Click to open the Apple menu, then hold Option and click on System Information, which appears where 'About This Mac' was.
Then choose 'Applications' from the sidebar, under Software. This will show you whether the app is 64-bit or not. You can sort the list by that column, giving you all the apps in one place.

Catalina will not remove any apps: it will just leave them in place.


Transferring Photos Library from macOS Sierra Public Beta to macOS Sierra I have a 40GB Photos library on my 2010 13" Macbook Pro, which is running macOS Sierra Public Beta. I just purchased a new 2016 13" TB Macbook Pro, which is running a stable release of macOS Sierra (10.12.2).

I copied my Photos Library from one to the other, thinking it'd be a simple switch. My new machine however refuses to recognise the library, I'm assuming because the library was used on a machine running the (more "up-to-date") beta.

My question is, what's the simplest way for me to import my photos into my new machine? will I have to resort to putting it on the public beta as well?

It's not possible to open a library from a newer version of Photos using an older version of Photos. Photos will inform you of the version discrepancy when selecting the library. If you receive this message, you need to either use a backup of the library made prior to updating Photos, or update Photos to match or be later than the library.


iPhone 5s GSM - unknown error 2006 on restoring the iPhone, stuck in recovery mode My phone is iPhone 5s GSM. I tried to go back from iOS 11 to iOS 10.3.3 and this happens. Now, I am stuck with apparently a bricked phone. Things that I tried:
1. Going to recovery mode in iTunes and doing the restore (I guess this automatically goes to the last iOS version, so 11). Result is 2006 error
2. Going to recovery mode in iTunes, option+click the restore button and choosing the .ipsw file of iOS 10.3.3. Result is 2006 error.
3. Going to DFU mode, option+click the restore button and choosing the .ipsw file of iOS 10.3.3. Result is 200 error.
4. Goind to .....Library/iPhone Software Updates directory and deleting it. Retrying the restore through iTunes. Same result.
What else can I try guys, I am getting desperate.

Solved by pushing it out of Recovery mode cycle by using ReiBoot (https://www.tenorshare.com/products/reiboot.html). I am sure there are some other apps that can do this too. It's very simple to do, I just installed it, run it, plug the iPhone in computer via USB. It detects the iPhone, offers a "push out of recovery mode" button of sort. Click the button and voila!


iOS Mail attachment download behaviour when connected to Microsoft Exchange? When is an eMail attachement automatically downloaded in iOS? From my expierience iOS downloads an attachment up to the size of about 50 kB automatically when on a 3G network, on a WLAN larger files are downloaded automatically (up to around 150 kB).

However I cannot find this documented by Apple and I have users complaining with high roaming bills that tell me big attachments get downloaded automatically.

Our users are connected to Microsoft Exchange 2010 by ActiveSync.

The problem is difficult to reproduce and I'm looking for ways to nail or solve this?

i did some testing with a colleague, and here's what we've found:

if you open an email while connected to wifi, an individual attachment of up to 1027kb will auto-download, and be available for offline use.
if you see an email has been received, but do not open it, an individual attachment of up to 799kb will auto-download, and be available for offline use.
we still have not found the lower limit for emails with multiple attachments, though we do know it's lower than 613kb (we tried an email with two attachments: 365kb + 248kb and NEITHER auto-downloaded).
JPEGs (and possibly other image formats) have a higher auto-download size limit than other attachments, but we were not concerned with them, so we didn't test for their upper limit.


What is the best way to set up multiple iPod / iPhones on the same computer? I have an iPod sync and my wife just got an iPhone.  Before I set up her iPhone, I want to make sure I don't mess anything up.  I have a few questions:

Should I create a separate Apple ID for her, or have her use my id?
Is there anything else I need to worry about to make sure it recognizes her account and sync info and mine and doesn't get confused?

I see a few horror stories on the web and just want to make sure I do this right.

You can do the Apple ID any way you like. If you use the same ID on both devices, then you can sync all the Purchased apps to both devices.

I'm using my iTunes to manage and backup the iPhone of my girlfriend and my iPhone. We have separate ID's and iTunes never got confused.

Update

Oh and remember, if you setup up separate ID's then you still can sync all apps from both accounts, but you can't update the apps from your Wife's account on your iPhone, because your phone is set to your account.

This can be avoided by updating all apps through iTunes, though.


Jailbroken iphone 4S stuck in recovery mode after iOS update I started an iOS update, on my jailbroken iPhone 4s, via Settings and now the iPhone is stuck in recovery mode. iTunes just wants to restore, but if I do this I will lose all my data and I don't have a backup.

Any suggestions?

Updating iOS at all on your jailbroken iPhone (including OTA) will break everything. You will not be able to recover your data from the device and you should restore in iTunes. Once restored, restore from your iCloud/iTunes backup if necessary and re-jailbreak.


csrutil disable "command not found" I'm trying to run "csrutil disable" from recovery mode on El Capitan and I'm getting the error "bash command command not found" when I do. I've tried setting my path as it says here to no luck Mac terminal -bash command not found?

As everyone else has pointed out, check your syntax/spelling.  Here is much more info regarding SIP and csrutil.

Are you sure the recovery volume you used is 10.11?  If you booted from internet recovery, it will bring you to the OS that shipped with your device.

Finally, remember that any status set via csrutil will be erased upon NV clear.  There is really no 'permanent' way to set it.


PPTP VPN not working on Yosemite 10.10.3 with OS X Server 4.1 I've set up a VPN on my Mac mini using Server 4.1 with the "L2TP and PPTP" option set.  I can connect to the VPN from my iPhone over my local network (Time Capsule) using L2TP but not PPTP.  With the latter the VPN service log shows the error

DSAuth plugin: MPPE key required, but its retrieval failed.

I've Googled around the subject and found various answers saying my "VPN MPPE Key Access User" dismissing/corrupt and I need to recreate it using sudo vpnaddkeyagentuser /LDAPv3/127.0.0.1.  These posts tend to point back to this article - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201828.

I've tried this, but I don't see the user being added to the list in Server (yes, I clicked on View > Show System Accounts).

Sorry for being untechnical, but I solved a VPN/Yosemite issue: After a smaller Upgrade my VPN still connected, but didn’t let anything thru. The Update somehow „unchecked“ System Preferences > Network > VPN(PPTP) > More…/Options > Connecting Option > Send all traffic through VPN Connection (third option in the first list in this dialog; I'm translating/guessing from the german version). Setting it back to let everything go through resolved all issues; Mail, afp, ftp, vnc came back just like that.


Why is Apple Mail loading remote content in Spam Messages? For a while now, likely including and pre-Big Sur, whenever I actually go through my Spam box message-by-message, when I click on one message is initially loads with the spam bar, the off yellow bar that includes "Load Remote Content" and "Move to Inbox", but then the message pane "refreshes" and loads like normal.
I am then reminded of this bug and annoyed, because I inevitably leaked information due to remote content loading.
I have 3 IMAP accounts, two Gmail based and then one third party IMAP that gets no meaningful traffic. If any spam is going to it I'd be surprised, but the significant majority of them are no doubt those coming to the Gmail-based addresses I've had and used for over a decade now. (Insert old man yelling at cloud here.)
Why does this refresh happen? Unless I explicitly remember to click outside of a message and then ⌘a to delete them, or right click them first and use that menu to delete them, is the only way I can manage spam messages, and this means messages I'm on the fence about, but ultimately have to delete, still leak information due to the afore-described behavior.
A screencapture recording the behavior
A few things to call attention to:
Quicktime Mouse Clicks are on, you can see when I click the message in the message list the "circle" that radiates outward from it. When I'm mousing over to the header information there is no click, no circle, just the ~2 seconds later refresh as I've described happening in this post. No keyboard keys were pressed at any time.
My workaround for the meantime is to not automatically load any remote content, but that's a bad solution. I'd rather that ok messages in the inbox automatically load as they're intended to be seen, and only those in junk be restricted as they initially are, before whatever happens for the junk message to "reload as normal". I always right click and junk a message that manages to make it to the inbox.
Lastly, possibly relevant preferences:

As I hadn't mentioned them before:

Big Sur 11.1 (20C69)
Mail.app Version 14.0 (3654.40.0.2.32)

Unchecking "Trust junk mail headers in messages" solved this issue for me.


What will happen if I will copy the information from encrypted hard drive? Will it be store decrypted? I have encrypted my hard drive with FileVault.

If I will manually create a backup by copying to some external hard drive - how will the information on this external one be stored?

It will be stored as plain files; FileVault encryption only protects files when thy're on your startup volume. You can encrypt the external drive if you want. You can also create an encrypted disk image, store the image on the external disk, and then store files inside the encrypted image. But unless you do something to encrypt the files, they'll be freely readable from the external disk.

BTW, the same is true of Apple's Time Machine backup system -- backing up a FileVault-protected Mac results in an unencrypted backup unless you choose the option to encrypt the backup.


Can I roll back to a previous OS version on the iphone 5? I updated my phone from OS 8.4 to 9.2. I don't like how my phone lags now and the battery lasts way less then it used. Can you guys please help if there is a way I can go back to OS 8.4?

iOS 8.4, no. iOS 9.1, yes. The reason your iPhone is lagging so much is because iOS 9.2 is beta software. iOS 9.1 is the latest public release of iOS 9 and is what you should downgrade to. Apple has instructions on their website on how to accomplish this.


How to use AirPods as a hearing aid? Can I use AirPods as a hearing aid?

You can try using the Live Listen feature on iOS.

With Live Listen, your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch becomes a remote
microphone that sends sound to your Made for iPhone hearing aid. Live
Listen can help you hear a conversation in a noisy room or hear
someone speaking across the room.

Tap Settings > General > Accessibility > MFi Hearing Devices.
Tap your hearing aid under Devices.
Tap Start Live Listen.
Place the device in front of the person you want to hear.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT203990


how do you cancel a pending purchase in iTunes I have a pending purchase from the app store.  I have not downloaded the purchase and I would like to now cancel the purchase.

Technically, the purchase is not pending, as soon as the payment gets cleared from your bank account the purchase is deemed complete and final. Nevertheless, you can always contact iTunes support through Report a Problem and get refund for your purchase. Some developers bar refunds if the app has been downloaded at least once, since you haven't done so you need not worry about this caveat.

The portal shows purchases you made in the last 90 days, for older purchases you'll need to contact iTunes Support directly.

Follow these steps.

Go to Apple's Report a Problem portal and sign in using the Apple ID used for purchase.
You should see a list of your recent purchases (last 90 days). Find the app in question and tap on report.
Describe your problem and click submit.

Apple Support will write to you with 3-5 business days. All the best.

Reference: Apple Support


Getting Kernel Panics on a fresh Mavericks installation; Can anyone help analyzing the KP logs? Since a couple of weeks, my MacBook Pro has been experiencing random kernel panics. I believe these kps started after installing Mavericks (although I am not completely sure). I decided to do a complete fresh install of Mavericks, without restoring it using TimeMachine. All went well for a while, until last week, in which I had two KPs again.

The crashes seem completely random and are pretty rare. I think I had a little less than 10 KPs in two months time. So the fact that all went well for a while lately doesn't mean much I think; probably pure coincidence... I have a MacBook Pro late 2010 15 inch, 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 and I run OS X 10.9.1. The kp logs always report about a GPU panic in the beginning.

I have quite some stuff running on my mac, including stuff that interacts pretty directly with the core of the OS. This includes NoSleep (which is practically never running, but I know it installs some kexts which I can imagine being loaded even if the actual NoSleep program itself is not running), Tuxera NTFS, RightZoom, TotalFinder, Parallels 8 and iStat Menus. All run on the latest updates. Maybe I should make the upgrade to Parallels 9, as it is currently my main suspect. I have been running a lot of VMs lately, and it is very well possibly that it had been running every time a kp occured. However, I rather not make the paid upgrade as I am Dutch ;)

Could anyone help analyze the KP logs? I am clueless...

I posted the last two here:

http://pastebin.com/3CsCHRsg (KP log 24-dec-2013)
http://pastebin.com/jVmEQsJG (KP log 20-dec-2013)

Your particular MacBook Pro (6,2) has documented GPU problems for some units:

https://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57577329-263/os-x-10.8.3-forces-discrete-gpu-use-in-2010-macbook-pros/

Even if you think you are out of warranty coverage, a call to Apple would be a good move. You've done most of the troubleshooting by cleanly installing Mavericks and still see the panics. Also the first line with details sure points at persistent GPU code involvement in the panics:

 panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff7f9d838fac): "GPU Panic: [<None>] 3 3 7f 0 0 0 0 3 : NVRM[0/1:0:0]: Read Error 0x00000100: CFG 0x0a2910de 0x00100000 0x00000000, BAR0 0xd2000000 0xffffff812f8cc000 0x0a5480a2, D0, P3/4\n"@/SourceCache/AppleGraphicsControl/AppleGraphicsControl-3.4.12/src/AppleMuxControl/kext/GPUPanic.cpp:127

You could also run sysdiagnose and file a bug report with Apple in case this is software instead of hardware - these repeated panic logs would give the engineers a good idea exactly where the code is getting nonsense values from the hardware and perhaps decide to handle it less harshly as far as the user is concerned.


Macbook financing - resale I am potentially going to be buying a MacBook on finance from Apple. As it's my first Mac, I'm not 100% certain it'll be for me and so might re-sell it in the unlikely event it isn't.

If it isn't, am I able to just sell it on or is re-sale not allowed as long as I am still paying Apple?

If I can, am I allowed to use the money I get from the re-sale to re-pay a larger amount off my finance agreement? (E.g., if my finance agreement is for £80 per month and I sell it for £1500, can I say to apple "instead of taking £80 this month take £1500 to pay more off", thus shortening the agreement?)

Edit

Just spoke to Apple, for anyone else searching for this answer you can pay the finance agreement off early if you do have the funds available.

I think once you finance it, it's yours and you are just paying off a loan to the finance company.  So long as you pay back your loan, the finance company won't care what you do with it.

I have no idea if the loan would be open or not, though; that's a very good question.


why cannot I see Library folder under my home directory in Finder? I could see ~/Library through Unix command in Mac, yet I cannot see it in a Finder window. I need to go as Finder -> Go to folder -> ~/Library, then I can find it. Does anyone know why is it like that? Thanks! It's macOS Big Sur.

Yes, that folder is hidden by default along with another bunch of files and folders becasue most users never need or want to go into it.
To make it visible press:
ShiftCommand .
That's Shift-Command-Period, it will reveal all the hidden files. There is also a command to un-hide just the ~/Library folder:
chflags nohidden ~/Library


Why can't find you open source software in the app store? Why do you need macports or homebrew to get open source software installed? Why can't you find this kind of software in the app store?

You can find open source in the app store e.g. The Unarchiver source is on BitBucket

However app store only provides apps and these have to be standalone and not depend on other apps and have other restrictions, thus Unarchiver suggests you download from outside the App Store

Most things in Macports and Homebrew are command line tools or at least launched from the command line so could not be in App Store. Also historically Macports and Homebrew existed before the app store

There are also license issues to go in the App Store you have to include some Apple non open source code - for some licences e.g. GPL this can't be done - if you get all the coders to agree you can do this but if only one contributor disagrees then the app can't go in the App Store e.g. vlc


Managing pictures and videos between my iPhone and iPad I take a lot of photos and videos with my iPhone, and like to have most of them on my iPad. However, often, I take and combine videos with iMovie eliminating the need to have 10-20+ videos of whatever that was in my Photos app. Right now I sync through iTunes into iPhoto, but that has become an immense space hog for two reasons. One is the videos, (I have the one completed video, and don't need all the clips) and two, iPhoto likes to create Photostream events that downloads all my Photostream pictures into separate Events(resulting in loads of duplicates as well). To finish the loop, I have my iPad sync the last three months of events.

Is there a better way to manage pictures and videos?

I would like to use something like a (iPhoto) Smart Album that only imports media, and then lets me delete whatever out that I want to.

Apple wants you to use their PhotoStream or do manual syncing all the time. From my personal experience it's impossible to manage some parts in PhotoStream and some others outside. I'm sure it's possible to do some crazy scripting, symlinking and syncing. But hey... that's not the reason why we use Apple products in favor to the more open Android ones, right?

I ended up re-creating my Aperture and iPhoto libraries and a big upload session to PhotoStream. Works fine so far.


Can't download Mountain Lion from app store on a Mac already running Mountain Lion? I am trying to download and/or acquire an operating system installer for my newly purchased Mac. My objective is to put this onto some form of removable media (USB ideally) such that in the event that my tinkering renders the Mac unusable, I can fix it.

My initial understanding was that I needed to purchase OS X from the app store. I am trying to purchase OS X 10.8.2. I am running 10.8.2. Yet the app store responds with "sorry, this is not compatible with your Mac" !!

So that's out. So, question time:

Is this the right way to achieve what I want, bearing in mind I explicitly want removable media with a full installer?
If so, how do I convince the app store that it is being silly?
I hear rumblings that the installer can be fished out of the recovery partition? Be this true? If so, where on this volume is it (I can mount it, and I looked around, but I don't see anything that looks like an installer).

I would head over to http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433 and follow the instructions for making a USB Recovery drive.

Also note if you hose your machine you can boot with Command-R to enter into recovery mode.  Even if you hose your recovery partition, if you have an active Wifi connection, Apple will pull down the OS from the cloud.


Re-using MacBook Screen I have a MacBook Pro 15" around 2009, that isn't working. Is it possible to take its screen and turn it into an external monitor? Maybe buy some controller and do a little soldering?

You will need an LCD Controller board kit that works with your LCD.
Find the model number of the LCD, make sure the controller will work with it.

You're basically looking for an LVDS controller.

The Mid-2009 15" MacBook Pro utilizes a LTN154MT07-G01 made by Samsung, it has a standard 40-pin LVDS connector.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HDMI-DVI-VGA-LCD-Controller-Driver-Lvds-Board-Monitor-Diy-Kit-for-LTN141W1-L01-/123128016280?oid=280634929240#ht_6675wt_1141

Or

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RTD2281-LCD-Controller-Board-Kit-For-DIY-Apple-A1286-LED-Screen-LG-LP154WP4-TLA1-/152696810140

If you need to find what model LCD is in a different computer, you can easily find out using eBay to search for the LCD for a specific model, find that LCD's model number, then search to find out the connector type.

... coincidently (or not) Hackaday just posted this article:

AN HDMI INPUT FOR A LAPTOP SCREEN, MINUS LAPTOP


How do I add/adjust words in/to the keyboard dictionary on iOS? I want to add some common building names for my college campus to my keyboard dictionary, but in the General tab in Settings, I only see an option to reset the dictionary.

I tried typing the words, expecting to see a red squiggly underneath them and then an option to add the words to the dictionary, but only a suggested edit was there.

It added one of the buildings =, but only because it tried to auto-correct to something else but I corrected it and it added itself to the dict.

But other names that have no auto-correct don't get added.

Also, I want to adjust a word that was added by making it auto-correct to being capitalized. And I want to remove some of the autocorrects like correcting "te" to "the" instead of the preprogrammed "TE", etc.

Go to Setttings > General > Keyboard.
Tap Edit in the top right corner.
Tap Add New Shortcut. Type the word you wanted to add to the dictionary in the Phrase field. You can also optionally add a shortcut.
Add a shortcut with the Phrase TE and the shortcut te. This will auto-capitalise te to TE. It will also prevent it from auto-correcting to the.


10.11 Installation on old Macs I want to clean install 10.11 on a MacBook Air 2008 and an iMac 2007.Both seem unable to boot from netinstall or an USB Stick. Which options do I have to get them quickly to 10.11?

Unless your models are Early for the years, they should be supported.

http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/#hardware-requirements

Apple requires you to have 10.6.8 or newer running since that's where the Mac App Store runs. If you have access to any Mac running 10.6.8 or newer, you could sign in to the App Store and download the 10.11 installer. It has a script to make a bootable USB installer - one shot command:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

If you run into issues, this thread has several other methods to work through fixing your installer.

How do I make a bootable USB flash drive a Mac?

If you're not seeing the USB drive or network boot, perhaps resetting the NVRAM might help with that.


Bootable USB created on Mac to format PC I'm trying to create a bootable USB in my mac to fix a windows PC. However I've tried everything and didn't find exacly the way. I've tried with boot camp but don't even appear the option to create a USB drive. I've tried with terminal (sudo dd if=/location/of/iso of=/dev/diskN) and after all the waiting i've only return with a message from my windows PC "create a bootable drive and insert it again".

Can you help?

This won't work as you noticed.

I'd recommend using unetbootin from https://unetbootin.github.io/. Just follow the instructions there or use the instructions from the ubuntu page (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-macos)

If you want to use the command line, do e.g. (MAKE SURE TO REPLACE WITH THE CORRECT PARTITIONS!)

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o destination_file.img source_file.iso
diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk2 1 "Free Space" "unused" "100%"
dd if=destination_file.img.dmg of=/dev/disk2 bs=1m
diskutil eject /dev/disk2


Has my computer been hacked I'm trying to find out if someone has hacked my computer. In case I get the following message in my Terminal window: "Last login: Tue Sep 30 02:02:18 on console" does that mean a person has logged in, or could it be an automatic programme running?

Popmoi, the last login on console is exactly that: Somebody (likely you) logged into a bash session on your computer at 2:02:18 on Sep 30. Generally, 'console' is shown for the first shell login and then ttys000 would be the next. I see this every login/reboot for my Terminal group, which opens two bash sessions in different tabs.


iTunes is changing the number/order of tracks in an album when it loads into my iPod. I want the tracks to stay in order iTunes changes the number (and therefore) the order of tracks in an album when make a new playlist. Therefore, I cannot listen to an album in the correct order. I want the tracks to stay in order when I create a new playlist. It is worse than shuffle because the actual number of the tracks gets changed, so I cannot tell what order the tracks should be in.

I'm not sure why this is happening, but you can fix it by clicking on a track, going to File > Get Info (or ⌘ Cmd-I) and changing the track numbers back to the correct information.

To get the correct track number, you can try googling the album. Somewhere will surely have the titles and track numbers.


How can I put my iPhone 4 in DFU Mode if the Home button is broken and it is turned off? So basically I have a tethered reboot iOS 6.1.4 on my iPhone 4. Recently the Home button broke and now I'm unable to put it into DFU Mode to turn it on. Is there a way I can put it in DFU Mode, or maybe get iTunes to install the latest iOS on it? I just need it to turn on again so I can listen to music.

If the home button is non-functional, and the device requires a working home button to even power up, then it seems you're in a chicken-egg situation.  There is of course software that lets you remap some other button or UI action to correspond to the home button, but if you can't get the thing turned on you're out of that realm.

I suppose you could open it up and try shorting the contacts of the home button assembly, but once you're that far into it you may as well just replace the home button or the front panel.  The home button replacement part is only a few bucks, and the whole front panel is under $20 [in the US].


Why (else) would my Calendar icon have a red badge (with numbers) on it? Supposedly, the red badge that shows up on the Calendar icon in the app switcher (and the Dock, if anyone still uses that) represents invitations that you've not dealt with.  That's a nice theory, but I have no invitations waiting for me to act on, and I still have a red badge with a "3" in it.

I realize that I can disable the badge, but that seems like taking a hammer and smashing the light on the dashboard, instead of figuring out why it is lit up.

I want to know what (other than invitations waiting) could cause a red badge to show up on the Calendar.app icon.  If this is a bug (e.g. where Calendar is failing update its count of invitations) is there any way to fix it?  Is there any way to reset it?  If it's not a bug, what other entities get counted besides invitations?

I had the same issue, disabled and reenabled the icloud account in calendar preferences and it got rid of the phantom badge


Automatically lock screen if I leave the MacBook I want my MacBook to get locked automatically if I leave it.

I am open to ideas.

How could the MacBook detect this?

Switching off after one minute of inactivity is not enough. The screen most get locked sooner. And locking the screen after 20 seconds creates too many interrupts for the daily work.

I wear an Huawai GT2 Smartwatch. But that is just one idea.

Maybe I could install a physical sensor in my seat.

Any idea is welcome.

Background: I change the job and in the new company you need to pay pizza for the whole team if you forget to lock your screen :-)

I want it to be automated: I walk away and the screen should lock. No additional action should be required. Keyboard shortcuts, special mouse movements, unplugging devices from USB, bluetooth distance to mobile phone (I don't always carry around the phone) are not valid answers.

We have the same culture in one of the environments in which I work. . . it's ruthless, so I know where you're coming from.

It's a good habit to get into to lock your screen whenever you leave it unattended, and soon you won't be on the hook for buying anymore pizza.

I find it helpful to set a "Hot Corner" for this.

Go to Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Hot Corners

chose the corner of your liking, and set it to "Lock Screen"

I use the lower right, for example, and just sweep my mouse to that corner whenever I am about to stand up and walk away from my desk.  Easy peasy!

You can also set the hot corner to "Start Screen Saver", but then you will need to set the following as well:

Also under Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver

choose the screensaver of your liking, and set it to come in withing
a comfortable amount of inactivity.  (Realize, of course, that if
you're reading something of length, and not moving the mouse of
interacting with the keyboard, your screensaver may engage while
you're reading/thinking/daydreaming.)

Go to Preferences > Security & Privacy

under the "General" tab, ensure that the option to require password
"after sleep or screen saver begins" is selected.  Set the timing
option to "immediately".


16 gb RAM specs for mid 2012 macbook pro I have a mid 2012 Macbook pro.

I want to upgrade it to 16 GB -- I know Apple does not support this but is possible.

I would appreciate it if someone can give me the specs of the RAM to order.

Thanks.

A simple answer: PC3-12800 , or to be more specific, a DDR3-1600MHz 204 PIN SODIMM.

DMS Sells a 16GB kit, as does Crucial and OWC.


Record FaceTime audio call on Mac Can I record a FaceTime audio call using my iPhone X on my Mac?

There is no option available natively in macOS to record a FaceTime audio call.

However this can be accomplished easily with the help of a 3rd party software.

You can use Audio Hijack for macOS to record an audio call in progress. The instructions for same are outlined by the developer in this blog post.

As outlined in the blog post, you can record both a FaceTime audio as well as a regular phone call. However, make sure about the legality of the act. You may be required to inform the other party about the recording.

No affiliation whatsoever with the developer, they are very well known for the quality software they make.


Do I have to run a disk integrity check after a kernel panic? Relatively new to Macs, I'm used to Windows wanting to verify HD data integrity after an unexpected shutdown. I know they use different file systems, but do Macs need to do anything like this?

Mac OS X's default file system is HFS+ Journaled. This means that before files are written, the data is first written to a special log called the journal. In the event of application or system crashes, when the machine re-starts it will re-run all the remaining entries in the journal to bring the file system back into pristine order. In theory anyway.

That said, it is still probably a good idea to use one of the included utilities to verify your filesystem.

You can run fsck in the Terminal or use Disk Utility to check your hard drive if you want. After a Kernel Panic or power outage, this is probably a good idea.

Disk Utility is the simpler option, just log in as normal and go to /Application/Utilities/Disk Utility and select your boot drive and choose "Verify". You can also run Disk Utility from your Mac OS X DVD that came with your computer (you will need to do this if you want to repair, it can't repair the boot volume if you are running the computer on it).

If you want to run fsck, you will have to do it from the startup terminal.  I'm a little fuzzy on the details, since it has been years since I last used it, but on startup hold down ⌘S during startup to boot in single user mode. Then run fsck to run the diagnostic. You should also look at man fsck to look at the manual.

TL;DR
No, you don't generally need to. But it's not a bad idea to run a utility.


How to add separators (vertical lines) in the dock? Is this even possible? Could be very handy for me.

Here is an example:
I have some folders right next to the trash bin. Sometimes I accidentally put a file in the trash bin instead of in the folder.

You can put a spacer in the dock that separated documents from the trash. This is not the same as the vertical line, but may help you. From the terminal type or paste:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

after that run

killall Dock

The Dock will disappear briefly but reappear with new setting. This spacer is like an icon and can be moved along the Dock by clicking and moving the spacer to where you want it. The source I included has methods for customized spacers. It may show you how to add a vertical line.

Removing them is similar to removing any other icon from the dock. Click, hold and drag it out.

Source https://www.lifewire.com/add-custom-and-standard-doc-spacers-to-mac-2260861


Export and import data from iPhone after restoring with iTunes (or 3rd party apps) I want to backup my iPhone to my Mac with iTunes, but the problem is I cannot backup because my iPhone needs to be wiped first but I have no backup data on my Mac and I don't know how to force it to backup without wiping so I can restore my iPhone and reimport the data back to my iPhone such as messages, emails, photos, videos and music.

I looked at PhoneView, it can export messages, but it cannot import anything to the iPhone, how can I import important data because I want to import my messages that I do not want to be wiped.

I need an effective program or solution for this to be possible, I do not want to do illegal activities such as jailbreaking my iPhone.

Interesting... What happens when you plug in your iPhone to the computer? What's the message of iTunes? As far as you can find the iPhone from your iTunes, you can always do the backup by right-click on your iPhone icon in iTunes and select "Backup" to force it to back up.

However there is one thing you should know: based on my experience when upgrading the iOS 5, even I did the force backup as above, after restoring it still not the same as the point when I did the backup. I am not sure whether it really "backups", but at least this is an option.


How do I distinguish between identical phones that can't turn on? I have 2 identical looking iPhone 7s which are I am not sure came with which sim tray, and that won't turn on.

How do I distinguish between them to determine which one is covered under Apple care?  I don't want to bring the wrong device in.

Edit: I do have the orginal sim trays but I am not sure which goes with which.

There is a cable at all Apple Stores that can obtain the serial number from the great majority of no power iPhones when connected to a specific application. Not all no power devices are able to connect, but upwards of 90% do, in my experience.

The only real issue I can foresee is that technically speaking you should only bring one device per appointment. That said, I really can't imagine anyone refusing to even check the serial number on two phones in one session, especially since you're only planning to get service on the one that is in warranty.

Oh, and be prepared for the no power iPhone to be gone for 10 days or longer undergoing screening before replacement if you ship it from an Apple Store. You can blame years of rampant warranty fraud for that.

If the technician is able to obtain the serial number of the device that has AppleCare for you, you would actually actually be better off getting service through AppleCare over the phone once you have that serial number. They can ship you the new phone while you wait for the device to get through screening at least. Unfortunately, they do put a hold on your credit card, but if the device passes through screening, you are, of course, not charged.

If you can't get to the stores, you get one shot as a consumer seeking warranty service to identify an iPhone 7 or later that won't turn on when connected to power or a computer.

The one item that's externally serialized is the SIM tray.

If you don't have confidence which tray belongs to which phone or it’s lost, Apple or an authorized tech may need to disassemble the device if they need to establish the serial in question before offering warranty service eligibility.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204073

Older iPhone had them engraved on the case as well, but that could wear out, so all Apple warranty providers are well trained in how to help you establish eligibility for repair if need be. It might delay the repair, but you won't lose service due to this alone in my experience.

A long shot might be if you know the phone number for the phone, the carrier might have records of the IMEI / MEID / CDN / ICCID that would help Apple locate your serial. Again, this like the packing slips or packaging or receipt won’t help you if you don’t know which phone is which.


Recomendations for where to assign the hash (#) key I've just bought my first Mac (long-time PC user) and am attempting to solve the problem of the missing easy-access has (#) key. (I know it's there - either Alt +3 or Shift + 3 - but I want to access with one button push).

I've installed Ukelele as recommended in answers to this question but I was wondering whether anyone has any tips or recommendations about where to remap the has key to.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thank you!

I assume you're on a non-US keyboard - my US mac keyboard has shift-3 as #, where my £ is on my UK keyboard.

I think this rather depends on your key usage. Most normal users never use the ` or ~, so that top left key would work. I use them both quite a lot though.

Another alternative would be to use System Prefs to switch to the US layout. Most of the keys are exactly the same, and you'd get the usual shift-3 for #. Not quite one-button, but an easy solution, nonetheless.

F5 and F6 doesn't get much use on my keyboard at all, nor do F13-F19.


Two different audio inputs go to two different audio outputs on Mavericks Is it possible to have two different audio sources go to two different audio outputs? For example, can I have Spotify output through my mini Jambox while having YouTube videos play through my headphones plugged into my audio jack?

I've seen this question but it seems to only address the case of multiple inputs to one output or one input to multiple outputs. Same with this article.

Short answer is yes, it's possible; however, the application must allow this. Most applications default to the System defined audio output which is set in the System Sound Preferences (and can be further tweaked in the Audio/MIDI Setup app). Some apps have the capability to set there own independent output as well (for example, most audio apps (including Garageband) allow you to set it's own audio ins and outs (on a per channel basis)).


would browsing in private mode skew location services data? Recently started noticing a weird location on my  husbands iPhone at odd hours--saying he was in a location across town when he was literally sitting in front of me--it is same location every time.  would switching to private or incognito browsing cause that to happen?

The Wifi location database is created by driving round, street to street, city to city, country to country, testing what WiFi can be 'seen' & mapping it to GPS locations.
None of this requires any login to the WiFi, merely noting where it is located.

This can take a while ;)

In the meantime, someone might move house, from one district to another, & take their WiFi with them. This will confuse the geo-locators until the next time the Wifi guy drives past again.

Alternatively, an ISP may assign a new IP address to a residence's connection - one outside their usual numeric range. This will produce the same effect.
My ISP recently did this here & I "moved" from London to Bristol for 2 weeks, whenever I was in the house, picking up my own home WiFi.


Quicksilver and Spotlight I have found that I need to run both Quicksilver and Spotlight. I consider this to be a waste of CPU and memory and would like to eliminate one of them probably Spotlight. The reason I would like to retain Quicksilver is because it is a tiny bit faster and much more flexible.

The main thing that I current use Spotlight for is searching within Mail. I use that all the time. For all the rest of opening applications and files, I use Quicksilver.

Is there a way to eliminate Spotlight without losing the searching within Mail? Or alternatively, to reduce the overhead of Spotlight but still keeping it available for searches within Mail?

An additional Quicksilver annoyance is that on Mountain Lion, Quicksilver crashes fairly frequently.

Alfred uses the Spotlight index by default, and LaunchBar also has an option to use it. The Spotlight index includes almost all files, so you don't have to adjust what files to index manually.

By default, Alfred is conservative in what types of files it searches for, to avoid muddying your search results. You can tick the boxes for what parts you want to be included in the results by default. If you want to search among all files on the system, you just need to press the spacebar before you begin typing the search term, and it will then search the full Spotlight index rather than just a subsection of it. You also have the open/find keywords, which likewise search the full Spotlight index.

If you always want it to search the full index, then you can enable that option in the preferences. Despite the warning, Alfred is pretty usable (and very fast) even if you enable searching for all files.

(It still excludes the system files that are hidden from normal Spotlight results. But you can search for those by creating a search filter.)


Turn Bluetooth On & Off via Terminal I'm trying to find out how to turn Bluetooth On or Off by using the Terminal on macOS Catalina.

I used to be able to do it with the following commands:

alias bton="sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth ControllerPowerState -int 1"
alias btoff="sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth ControllerPowerState -int 0 && \sudo killall -HUP blued"

Unfortunately these no longer work.

Blueutil, a command-line utility for macOS that lets us turn Bluetooth on and off with one command!

Start by installing blueutil with HomeBrew:

brew install blueutil

The -p flag is a switch for turning Bluetooth on and off:

Turn bluetooth off

blueutil -p 0

Turn bluetooth on

blueutil -p 1


Show duration of event Apple Calendar Is it possible to show duration of each event in Apple Calendar?

Example:

I inserted this text written in red. But I'm looking for a functionality where you can see the duration of the event.

Yes.  When you create (or Edit) an event, you can click on the Start time, enter it, and then click on the End time, and enter that as well.  You can also make the event  All-Day.  These options are in the same window used to create the event.

To start the process, just double-click or right-click on the day of the event.  Your options will immediately be apparent.  You Title/Name the event,, enter the location now, later, or never.  If the window closes before you finish, double-click the event to edit for the times, notes etc.  Right-click will get you the same options.  Get Info on the event will also work for editing.


After installing SSD I replaced my internal drive in my macbook pro 2010 with a new SSD. I started the machine, then pressed alt/option to access Recovery Mode in order to use Disk Utility. So, I opened Disk Utility and tried to erase and partition the new SSD. This is the error I am getting: "Disk Erase failed with error: File system formatter failed". All the video that I have watched seemed to follow the same steps that I did. What am I doing wrong?

Your SSD as you said is empty, so this is why you do not have any recovery partition to reinstall the OS.

You need to boot to an external device (USB key or DVD depending on your Mac) in order to format and install Mac OS on your new SSD. You can use software like DiskMaker X to create a bootable OS X device.

You will need another Mac to create the bootable drive or you can reinstall your old disk, create the bootable drive and then reinstall your SSD.


Bootcamp and SSD issue I have loaded windows on the SSD of the macbook. I have plenty of windows softwares that i wish to install but that will be at the cost of the SSD which has a limited space. Is it ok to install the remaining softwares on the external HDD. Is this what the others guys are also doing???

It will depend entirely on the software. Some programs run from anywhere, some must be on the boot volume.

Also note that you will probably get better answers on a Windows forum. You are running Windows on Mac hardware, which basically makes it a windows machine.


Fresh install or Cloning when migrating from HDD to smaller SSD (considering fragmentation, mostly)? I own a mid 2010 6,2 MBP and I am considering the upgrade to a SSD. I would probably get a 256GBs SSD and replace my optical drive for the older HDD, so I can have a little more of capacity, as I seldom use CD/DVD anyway (and could use an eternal USB wrapper if that was the case).

I recently changed my HDD and used disk utility to clone the older one to the new one (which I assume copies the exact blocks rather than operating on the "file data" itself, right?). Everything went flawlessly :) But here the new HDD was bigger and I did not have to take much care hence.

Now I want to upgrade from a 750GBs HDD to a 256GBs SSD. I have some doubts on the best approach to achieve so. Initially, it would be easy to remove or backup unwanted files so I would reach something below 256GBs, maybe like 200GBs of used space. But Would eliminating data and resizing the partition be efficient, regarding the way the data is stored on disk?

I mean, OSX using HFS is somewhat spoken about as not having to perform defragmentation operations, is that REALLY true? If I have 200GBs of the 750GBs on HDD used and resize that partition to, say, 205GBs, for performing the cloning operation to the new SSD, would that be efficient? SSDs perform better on random access writes and reads, but I would like to have my data as continuous as possible, specially if I consider that I will not defragment a SSD, because of the durability issues. :-) If I resized and cloned that older partition, should I worry about data fragmentation or am I just being paranoid?

Furthermore, every once in a while I read people recommending fresh installs. The point is that I HATE wiping my O.S. out for reinstalling it. Hence, my MBP initially had snow leopard, which was updated to lion, which was updated to mountain lion. I NEVER did a fresh install. That concerns me in two ways: Could my data be too much fragmented on the disk, without my knowledge (call me paranoid..)? Furthermore! Am I losing too much performance? For instance, I never achieved those incredibly low boot times that I constantly read people reporting (even with similar specs and almost no login itens or additional kexts loaded). My MBP performs well, it is not as if I NEEDED a fresh install because it is annoying me. However, I am a little perfectionist regarding performance/organization sometimes, I have downloaded installed and removed several applications, libraries, frameworks, they all leave some minor and annoying configuration files and stuff. But I do not know if a fresh install would bring me enough benefits.

Any advice here? :) I know the question is not the most deterministic one, but I appreciate any advices! Thanks in advance.

I'd advise just keeping things simple and clone it over if you can easily get your data down to the smaller size, otherwise do a new install and use Migration Assistant (not for any supposed performance benefits, just that it's simpler).

Fragmentation is not an issue with SSDs because the physical location of the data doesn't change the performance characteristics—each block has the same access time as any other, unlike a hard drive where it takes time to reposition the read/write head over the proper sectors.

In my experience the fresh install thing tends to be more of a Windows thing (and an older Windows thing at that). If you're experiencing specific performance issues, the consider a clean reinstall. But otherwise just clone or use Migration Assistant and enjoy the speed of a new SSD.


Why does `g++ --version` say LLVM/clang? I ran the following to see what version of g++ I had:

$ g++ --version
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 9.0.0 (clang-900.0.38)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin16.7.0
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin

I thought g++ was a different compiler to clang/LLVM. Can anyone clarify what the above means?

In modern versions of macOS, g++ is just a little shim that points to the relevant part of clang in whichever version of Xcode you have installed.

Historically g++ was the C++ compiler that was part of the GCC compiler distribution, but Apple stopped distributing that with the operating system when they moved over to LLVM.

If you want to use the GCC distribution you can install it through homebrew.


Separate/different sharing of sub-folders in Notes.app I am trying to share a (sub)folder within a shared folder hierarchy with a different person, but this seems to not be possible in Notes.app on Catalina. ... ?

Let's assume I have a folder structure in my Notes.app as the following

tld
- folder1
  - folder1a
  - folder1b
- folder2

folder1, and thus everything beneath, is shared with user X read-write. Now I want, in addition, to share folder1b with user Y read-only (or, at least, read-write, too).

This does not seem to be possible or, at least, it does not work for me. Sometimes it turns out that Y get's the whole folder1 share, sometimes nothing, but I do not seem to get what I want.

Apple docs do not seem to say anything about this, finding info on the net was unsuccessful, partly because of the generic name (Notes.app). Does this work for anybody? All hints are appreciated!

Yes you are right. You can share folders or individual notes in the Notes App. But you cannot share subfolders individually.

After some testing I found the same issue as you:
When you give person Y access to a subfolder, the whole parent folder with all notes and subfolders will be shared. When you try to remove access for Y from a subfolder, the access to the parent folder and all its content and subfolders will be removed. This is not a clever implementation, I have to admit.

The only solution using the Notes App for this purpose is to convert your subfolders to top level folders and set privileges individually for each folder and collaborator.

Unlike I previously described, you can set privileges on a per user basis to read only or write. But the implementation seems not intuitive at first glance, since the access right dropdown appears first on the folder/file level. As soon as you set different privileges for different collaborators, this dropdown changes the the new option "mixed privileges".


Now that "Activity" is gone from Safari, how do I find and download a streaming flv file on a Mac? Is there a plugin (for any browser) anyone can recommend? An app?

It seems like all browsers got rid of this easy resource tracking feature (Chrome too).

You can see still browse resources in the web inspector.

To download a file, you can copy the URL from the right sidebar, paste it on the location bar, and press ⌥↩.

The web inspector can be shown by pressing ⌥⌘I if you've enabled showing the develop menu in the advanced preferences.


Macs can’t see each other after upgrading to Mavericks I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro. I recently upgraded both of them from Mountain Lion to Mavericks and now neither of them can “see” each other, despite both having File Sharing and Remote Login enabled in the “Sharing” section of System Preferences.

I used to be able to SSH into the other Mac, and the other Mac would show up as a device in Finder, but no more. Is this related to the SMB issue I’ve seen around the Internet?

What can I do so I can browse between my Macs via Finder and SSH again?

From your question it sounds like you can ssh into the machine but not connect via Finder. This leads me to think this is a File Sharing setting, not a Remote Login setting as the two are independent. So my answer applies to File Sharing settings.

If you go to System Preferences, then Sharing and for the File Sharing service, choose Options...
By default Mavericks has Share files and folders using SMB and Share files and folders using AFP selected but no users selected under Windows File Sharing.

It also appears (in my testing) that with these selections, when you try to connect to another computer listed in the Finder sidebar, it attempts to connect using SMB and does not fall back to trying AFP if the SMB connection fails.

The answer I found was to either
a. Specify a user to connect with using SMB in the options... section of File Sharing in System Preferences
b. Specify sharing over AFP only, deselecting SMB sharing
c. In Finder menu select Go then Connect to server... and then in the Server Address: field enter something like
afp://sharedcomputername.local
where sharedcomputername is the name of the computer you're trying to connect to.


Console Mode from Desktop With most linux distros you can hit control + alt + F1 or the like, and get a Console. This is really useful when your X11 / display manager freezes, because you can restart that process / service in a couple of seconds and be back in.

Is there a way to do the same thing with mac (10.8.2)? It's pretty annoying to see your display freeze and know that your kernel is likely chugging along just fine..

I looked around for answers, but all I could find is the login window hack.

Thanks!

No - not only can't you toggle this from your session once logged in, but you actually have to log out of all other graphical based user-sessions before the >console shortcut will work.

>console does not work


Spotlight search bar doesn't show up in middle of screen For some reason, when I activate Spotlight, the bar shows up in the top right part of the screen instead of the middle. I've tried restarting and connecting to an external monitor, to no avail.

The Spotlight window remembers its last location. You can drag it back to the original location — it snaps to the X and Y coordinates of the initial position, so you can ensure it is back where it started.

If the Spotlight bar does not remember its last location, make sure ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Spotlight.plist is writeable, as this plist file is where the coordinates are stored.


OSX 10.9 - Two finger click for middle click? I just got a new macbook (OSX 10.9), I used one previously (also recent OSX version) where I had 2-finger click to act as a middle click in firefox (open new tab, close tab, etc). I also had right click turned on (clicking on bottom right of the trackpad).

I downloaded BetterTouchTool, but the option for "Two Finger Click" is not there. I tried disabling Mac built-in two finger commands to get it to appear but no luck - three/four/five finger click is there, but not 2.

Any ideas?

BetterTouchTool does not support two finger tap/click actions. There was an experimental version a long time ago but it was implemented in a 'hacky' way and never really worked right.

BetterTouchTool does let you set up a TipTap to middle click, so that you can press with a second finger whilst your first is down (sort of like a two finger click but with a delay) to activate a middle click:

 →

Alternatively, you can set up a tap/press with three fingers to middle click in BetterTouchTool. This is supported fine:

If you're really looking for a two-finger click, KeyRemap4MacBook lets you remap right click to middle click using a private.xml such as this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>Right Click to Middle Click</name>
    <identifier>remapRightClickToMiddleClick</identifier>
    <autogen>
      —PointingButtonToPointingButton—
      PointingButton::RIGHT, PointingButton::MIDDLE
    </autogen>
  </item>
</root>

See private.xml documentation for more information and to limit to certain apps.


How to automate execution locate.updatedb by using a bash script I am looking for a bash set of commands that will enable me to schedule the execution of /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb once every day.

Please respond only with a set of command line commands, because I want to include this in a "setup" script (in order to be able to reuse it when I go to another machine).

After additional (re)search I found an easy solution:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist

This is also persistent, so it will run updatedb daily.


How can I automatically keep track of in-office hours when I connect to my office Wi-Fi? I'm looking for a solution that starts a timer whenever I sign in to my office wifi and stops it when I've left. It should essentially log the hours I've spent at the office. I'm aware that there's iOS software for this, but I like my battery time as it is.

Extra bonus would be if the solution could log the hours in iCal automatically.

ControlPlane might be something you can use to accomplish this:

  ControlPlane determines where you are or what you are doing based on a
  number of available evidence sources and then automatically
  reconfigures your Mac based on your preferences.  Evidence sources can
  include your current location, visible WiFi networks, attached USB
  devices, running applications and more.  You can even write your own
  evidence sources using shell scripts!

In a nutshell, you can give ControlPlane an "evidence source",  such as

  WiFi, either networks within range or based on the network you are
  currently connected to

Then perform a set of actions when entering (or leaving) a particular context, such as

  Open any file, including starting Applications
  Run a script, such as AppleScript or shell script

My thinking here is that if ControlPlane knows what your office wifi is called, you can create rules so that when you connect to it you start an application or shell script to start logging your hours. Then, when you disconnect, you stop the application or run another shell script to stop logging your hours.

I realise this might not be the "silver bullet" solution you were looking for, but it might be worth a try. You'll still have to find some kind of timer app/script, but thats probably the easier part of the problem :)


Unique wallpaper for desktop and lock screen I recently got a macbook pro 2018 and was trying to change the wallpapers. I would like to be able to set a different wallpaper for my desktop and lockscreen. Googling around, I managed to change my lockscreen by modifying mojav.heic; however, that changes my desktop too.

How can I set different wallpapers?

I found this blog post titled: How to Change the Login Screen Background In macOS Sierra, Yosemite, and El Capitan which illustrates a method where you first select the Change Background option by double tapping on the background.

After doing so go through and change your background to whatever image you'd like it to be. After doing this if you look through your system's /Library/Caches you should see a blurred version of your background as a .png file there.

For eg:

$ sudo find /Library/Caches/ |grep png
/Library/Caches//Desktop Pictures/0733888D-B1ED-4F99-B177-108EED834365/lockscreen.png

If you change this file out with another file that you'd like to use for your lockscreen you can then override the blurred version that macOS automatically generated for you when setting your background.

NOTE: Just be sure to keep the name of the file identical to what macOS placed in your /Library/Caches sub-directory.

References

How to Change the Login Screen Background In macOS Sierra, Yosemite, and El Capitan


OS X 10.9 Redistributable? I work in an Apple-only office environment with ~40 Macs. Is it possible for me to download an OS X 10.9 redistributable so that we're not downloading 5+ GB continually over our ADSL link ?

Thanks!

Yes it is.

You can download it once and then distribute it over an external Harddrive, an USB Flash Drive or your network. The package is called Install OS X Mavericks.app and you will find it in the directory /Applications.


Use the same external hard drive for two different Time Machine's? Is it possible to use the same external hard drive for two different Time Machine backups of two distinct MacBooks?
Is yes, how do you have to set up the external hard drive, using which tools?

Yes. Setup is easy.

Connect the drive to the first Mac directly (USB or whatever is fastest)
Add the drive in Time Machine Preferences
Use System Preferences, the menu bar or tmutil to make a backup.
Eject the drive from the first Mac once you have a couple backups completed.
Repeat the above steps for the second Mac.

Now when each Mac tries an hourly backup, if the drive is connected, it will update the backups there. (Make a new interval, expire any old intervals needed). If it’s not connected, you don’t get backups, but do get a warning every 2 weeks to reconnect an absent drive. It’s fine for one Mac to back up to multiple drives as well.

Now, you didn't ask for general advice, so take this with a grain of salt.

With two Macs, I often set up a three drive rotation. Rotate the drives once a month with one always off site is a good place to start if you don’t do backup rotations yet. You can safely remove that disk from system preferences so you are not nagged if you get those alerts.
I like naming drives Backup A, Backup B and putting a file on the root with the serial number of the drive, purchase date, warranty (if any) and date entering service in a text file.

So you'd have three drives like if you entered them into service today and the next three days.
Backup A 20200929
Backup B 20200930
Backup C 20201001
Also, last bit of "advice" that wasn't asked for - I put a drive on the shelf as soon as it fills. I don't erase them, just buy another inexpensive drive and then add it to the rotation. They only come off the shelf when I need to rebuild my index of what files are backed up to where with the excellent tool Backup Loupe.

https://www.soma-zone.com/BackupLoupe/


How do I prevent macOS from thinking a folder is a file? I am usually copy/pasting the name of the projects my team works on into a folder's name, so that they match.
This allows me to be organized and fast, and to find folders that match project names easily.

However, it doesn't always work, since some project names will have words and some won't.

For example the project that ends in "-lists" was named without an error message, but the second one gave me an error message:

Now, I need the names of the folders to be as close to project names. Which can contain dots. This way, I can copy the folder name to search the database and find the corresponding project.

But I cannot manually change every single . into a -, I feel like this would be a lot of trouble.

Should I add the word "folder" at the end to make sure macOS doesn't think my folders have file extensions?

When does a folder's name turn this folder into a file I won't be able to open anymore, and what are ways to name folders freely, without the system assuming they are extensions?

It’s thinking it has an extension because you’re giving it an extension.

Anytime you end something with a .whatever you're giving it an extension.  This is a convention across all operating systems and not limited to macOS.

Instead of using dots as a separator for dates, use a dash or an underscore. You don’t  need to do this for all folders all at once, but with a little bash scripting magic and using a utility like sed or awk the renaming of the files/folders can be done automagically.


Boot Camp won't work: why don't I have disk0s0 or disk0s1 partitions? I'm trying to use Boot Camp after resolving a partition mess. I've gotten back to a single partition after receiving the The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. message from Boot Camp Assistant, so I figure it should be happy, but I'm still getting the same message.

my-MBP:~ uname$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            749.8 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            Boot Camp              +1.4 GB     disk2

For no great reason, I'm guessing that even if there's only one partition, if it's not in the first spot(?) Boot Camp Assistant isn't happy. Is this reasonable? Any ideas to get Boot Camp working?

edit:

my-MBP:~ uname$ diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

edit:

Since it looks like i messed with the EFI partition, i looked at this question. I can't figure out how to make the answer apply to me, but here's some more output:

my-MBP:~ uname$ sudo gpt -r show disk0
Password:
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34      409606
      409640  1464477344      1  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  1464886984      262151
  1465149135          32         Sec GPT table
  1465149167           1         Sec GPT header

Can i maybe use the 409606 block to remake EFI? Looks like it's the right size but isn't a partition?

OS X 10.11.2
MacBook Pro 13-inch, Late 2011
2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
750 GB SATA Disk Toshiba MK7559GSXF

I can hardly imagine someone will have a similar problem, but if they do:

Seems like Bootcamp wants to see an EFI partition. Once again, here was the gpt show output from above:

my-MBP:~ uname$ sudo gpt show disk0
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34      409606
      409640  1464477344      1  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  1464886984      262151
  1465149135          32         Sec GPT table
  1465149167           1         Sec GPT header

As per the details in this question, i learned that the EFI partition should start at 40 with a size of 409600. To mess with disk0 (for me, the current and only disk), i booted in internet recovery by holding ⌘-R, unmounted disk0 with

diskutil unmountDisk disk0

then re-added by EFI partition using

sudo gpt add -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk0

I removed the -i 1 bit (setting the partition index to 1) for fear of messing with the main partition (which had itself moved to index 1). Here's the man page for gpt.

(The above apple.stackexchange answer describes how to reformat the EFI partition. I didn't do that and haven't run into any trouble so far. Maybe i'll regret it.)

To fix the incorrect indices, i followed Rod Smith's instructions here. It's all pretty clear, but briefly:

Download and install the package.
Run gdisk /dev/disk0 (or whatever disk you're working with)
type ? to get to the main menu
typed s to sort the indices, then w to write the changes

No more Bootcamp errors. Hooray!


What might be the problem with the authorization of my laptop while syncing the iPhone? I tried to sync music onto my iPhone using iTunes.

The process was halted by a dialog box that said my computer wasn't authorized to sync the iPhone, so I have to authorize it. I did that and again tried to sync the iPhone, but the dialog box appears every time and the syncing process gets stopped.

Is there something up with iTunes or is the problem with the iPhone? I'm running iOS 7.1.1.

I suspect that you have multiple purchased items from multiple Apple IDs which would explain the multiple messages. Did you authorize your PC for only a single Apple ID? Try to authorize it with a different Apple ID each time you are returned the dialog box.

Of course this implies you indeed have multiple Apple accounts and know the user name and password for each one of them.


Wrong update date in the AppStore lists I have two iPhones (personal and work) that are on the same Apple ID. On the personal one there is the the following problem that doesn't happen on the work one: on the Updates tab of the App Store, the update dates are wrong for most apps. For example, Skype for iPhone right now shows 2 days ago, but when clicking on that app, it shows 2w ago and it was indeed updated about 2 weeks ago (typically I update the apps as soon as updates show up).

The Date & Time are Set Automatically on both phones, the city is found correctly by the location services (Setting Time Zone is allowed). The phones are on different operators, but I don't think that they use the operator time for setting the date and time.

What is most baffling is that it happens only on one phone, although both are on the same account. Any idea what may be going on and how to fix it besides trying to reinstall the phone from scratch?

Not to take away from Allan's or drivec's answers, as I do think they have pieces of the puzzle, but the real answer is a little more complicated.

drivec is correct about a 'bug', but the bug is actually an interaction issue between iOS 11 and the iOS App Store.

This bug presents itself by listing apps as having fresh updates, when many of them do not!

Example

I have an iPhone 6s, as does my wife. I also have a number of apps I've developed, available on the App Store. As you would imagine, I have these apps installed on my iPhone, as does my wife.

Now, here are the interesting things:

During the last couple of weeks, in the Updates tab within the App Store app on my iPhone, I've seen a number of my apps listed at various stages. Now, these apps have not been updated since Feb/Mar/Apr of this year!!!
My wife's iPhone does not list these apps as having updates available, even though the same apps are installed on her phone. So, I got update notifications for apps I know have not been updated, and my wife hasn't received the same notifications.

The first time this happened I was rather confused, to say the least. I looked at my apps on the App Store and they still showed me as the developer, and they still showed the correct version numbers and in the Version History the correct timeframe of when the latest version was released. But, if I go back to the Updates screen, it'll show 2 days ago, or a date from last week, etc.

I reported this to Apple and they are aware of it (having received reports from other developers). And it is something they're working on.

Finally, Allan is also correct because the dates shown on the Updates page does indicate the date the updates were installed, while going into the App's individual pages and looking at the version history shows the date the app's latest version was released.

However, because of this bug, what is happening is that people are installing updates when in fact there is no need to do so, but when they do the dates appearing on the Updates tab change to the more recent date, even though the exact same version of the app may have been released months or even years earlier. And, since this bug is not necessarily presenting itself on all iPhones, or even with the same apps on different iPhones, it's only adding to the confusion.

NOTE:

When speaking with Apple about this, they informed me that they were updating apps so that they're signed with Apple's latest signing certificate. However, in those cases, Apple was pre-populatng the "What's new" text with the following text:

  This update is signed with Apple's latest signing certificate. No new
  features are included.

So, if apps are listed as having updates available, and the above text is shown, then they're not being affected by the bug I refer to here in my answer. However, it is possible that perhaps they're appearing in the Updates tab because of the certificate signing, and for some reason the "What's new" text isn't pre-populating correctly.


Upgrade svn on OS X 10.9 On OS X 10.9.5, there is /usr/bin/svn, which is version 1.7.19 (r1643991). However, the most recent version is 1.8.13. Apperently, with version 1.7.19 I cannot access certain subversion servers.

How can I upgrade svn? Do I really need to download and make svn (or build it via homebrew)? Why is Apple keeping me out-dated with an old version?

Easy way is installing via Homebrew. Just need to type the following:

$ brew install svn

These are the options:

$ brew info svn
subversion: stable 1.8.13, devel 1.9.0-rc2
Version control system designed to be a better CVS
https://subversion.apache.org/
Not installed
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/Library/Formula/subversion.rb
==> Dependencies
Build: pkg-config ✔, scons ✘
Required: sqlite ✔, openssl ✔
Optional: gpg-agent ✘
==> Options
--universal
    Build a universal binary
--with-gpg-agent
    Build with support for GPG Agent
--with-java
    Build Java bindings
--with-perl
    Build Perl bindings
--with-python
    Build with python support
--with-ruby
    Build Ruby bindings
--devel
    Install development version 1.9.0-rc2
==> Caveats
svntools have been installed to:
  /usr/local/opt/subversion/libexec

If you need to install homebrew, just use this sentence:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"


Is it theoretically possible for DirectX to work on OS X natively? As far as I can tell, DX as a software-component is tightly wound to Windows as for hardware-acceleration and is provided as a set of DLLs and a runtime system for applications that depend on it; however, OS X uses GPUs that support DX. The problem seems to not lie in the inability on the hardware side, but on the non-existent runtime on the software, and the inability for winding between applications and a DX runtime system.

OS X uses OpenGL only for hardware-acceleration, so if my cards are right, isn't it possible to reverse engineer DX's COM interface and re-compile it back as an Objective-C interface with static or dynamic linkage and enable the runtime to work on OS X, along with re-writing device drivers to enable mapping to GPU address space to implement the features of DirectX operations on the GPU (shading, GPGPU, etc.)? I know it sounds crazy, but I can't find any way to believe this to be impossible. Most GPUs today support DirectX.

It's more than theoretically possible, it's how many PC games are ported to run on OS X - using Cider from TransGaming.  This is from TransGaming's web site:

  Cider works by directly loading a Windows program into memory on an
  Intel Mac system and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32
  APIs. TransGaming's Cider implements common multimedia Windows APIs
  such as Direct3D, DirectInput, DirectSound and many others by mapping
  them to Mac equivalents.


DefaultKeyBinding.dict: moveWordBackward: is not overridden on macOS Sierra I've recently started using a new computer (actually a Hackintosh) with macOS Sierra. My previous development machine is still on El Capitan. In the process of setting up the new machine I've added ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict.

Most keybindings (specifically option+f for moving the cursor a word forward) work fine. However, option+b for moving the cursor a word back simply acts as a dead key and types a ˘ character.

The relevant section of DefaultKeyBindings.dict looks like this:

<key>~b</key>
<string>moveWordBackward:</string>

Adding this specifically to, e.g. TextMate's specific ~/Library/Application Support/TextMate/KeyBindings.dict file results in option+b working in TextMate, but obviously has no effect elsewhere:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>~b</key>
    <string>moveWordBackward:</string>
</dict>
</plist>

How can I avoid having to change my habits with regard to moveWordBackward:?

I finally solved this after realizing that the difference between my El Capitan (10.11) machine and Sierra (10.12) was the new dead key on Option-b. Whether this is a difference between keyboard layouts or OS versions I haven't been able to determine.

It seems that KeyBindings are unable to override dead keys. Using Ukelele I was able to change the output of option-b to some other character. I then installed this keyboard layout and moveWordBackward: began working with no further modifications.

In Ukelele, Choose File->New From Current Input Source
Right click on the Layout Name and choose Set Layout name and Script

Rename to something like U.S. No B Dead Key

Double click on the layout name to open the layout editor.
Hold option, then right click the b key; choose Make Output
Enter any other character; it will be overridden by DefaultKeyBinding.dict
Save
Choose File-> Install For Current User
In the Keyboard Preferences, choose your new keyboard layout.


How to Change the Attribution Line in Mail 6.0? The current Mail attribution line reads:

  On [Date], at [Time], [Sender Name] [Sender Email Address] wrote:

I would like it to read:

  Hello, [Sender Name] -- on [Date], at [Time], you [Sender Email
  Address] wrote:

Before upgrading to Mt. Lion and Mail 6.0, I was able to accomplish most of the above via this command line in Terminal:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set :REPLY_ATTRIBUTION "\nHello, %3$@ -- On %1$@ at %2$@ (local time), you wrote:\n"' \
  /System/Library/Frameworks/Message.framework/Versions/B/Resources/English.lproj/Delayed.strings`

Unfortunately, when trying this in Mail 6.0, it no longer works.

If anyone has any suggestions regarding how to get this to work, I will be grateful.

After some searching, I am pleased to advise that I found the solution to my own question, as well as the solution to a few questions from others here:

There is a small utility app called Quotefix that is available here:

http://code.google.com/p/quotefixformac/

With Quotefix, you can change the attribution line to anything you'd like, and for those
asking about it, you can make the cursor appear below the quoted text in replies, and there are several other goodies that I haven't tried yet, as well. Kudos to the creators
of Quotefix for this -- it works as advertised and my attribution line is now exactly as I want it.


How to "not reject" an incoming call during do not disturb? The Do Not Disturb feature in iOS 6 is great but i really dont like the part where it rejects the incoming call. Is it possible to just let it ring (without notification or sound)?

Is there a tweak in cydia that can change the way Do Not Disturb behaves? I have suspended using this feature because many people confuse this with me not wanting to pick up their call (rejecting).

No jailbreak needed, just set the option found in Preferences/Notifications/Do Not Disturb/Allow calls from to Everyone.


Whats the difference between backing up my photos on iPhone and storing them in iCloud? If I go to settings -> iCloud -> manage storage
There are 2 categories:

Backups (118 GB)
Photos (18.3 GB)

In my backups, there's photo library (109.25 GB)
I'm confused, what's the difference between storing my photos in iCloud and backing them up then storing them in iCloud.
What happens if I click on " turn off and delete" the backup for my photo library?

iCloud Photos is for syncing between your devices and replacing your photos if you lose your device. It retains a full copy of your photos in iCloud (accessible on iCloud.com as well).
iCloud Backup is a one-way backup of your current photo library on your device. It can only be restored by restoring your entire iCloud Backup.
You can safely turn off Photos from your backup - unless you prefer to manually manage your photos, I'd recommend doing this instead of turning off iCloud Photos.
If iCloud Photo Library is on, there will be a note saying "Photo Library is backed up separately as part of iCloud Photos" - if you don't see this message, double check that your device is actually syncing with iCloud Photos. You can do this in the Photos Setting or in iCloud Settings > Photos.


Is there a hot key to refresh a browser that is in the background? I want to have a key combo to refresh active window in Google Chrome, which normally would be Cmd + R. Keep in mind that (a) I am using two screens, (b) Google Chrome is not presently active window.

Is it even possible?

I am trying to bind this script https://gist.github.com/51b459e5e93210f37e24 with hot-key. What I did is: created a service using Automator (no input, any application). Using services hot key, I've set cmd+r. However, that doesn't do anything.

My expected result is: cmd+r does what it should already do in the present app + executes my apple-script.

You can put either of these in an Automator service using a applescript Action.

Then set a keyboard shortcut with the Services in keyboard system preferences's Keyboard Shortcuts.

Note the  'Service receives' settings in the screen shots. This will make sure the Menu appears in all app's services.
(The other apps may need to quit and re open before they pick up the short cut)

Chrome.

tell application "Google Chrome"
    reload active tab of (get window 1)
end tell

Safari.

tell application "Safari"
    tell document 1 to do JavaScript "javascript:location.reload(true)"
end tell

Services.

Service Menu -In iTunes


Why does my Mac keeping connecting to Apple? netstat -na | grep tcp

shows two connections to

17.249.28.29.5223

The IP address 17.249.28.29 happens to be to Apple.

The modem blinks rapidly every time I go online. Other than it being annoying, it also takes up bandwidth.

Is there a way to disable this?

It could be the softwareupdated process which is looking to see if there are any available OSX / macOS patches or updates to other App Store applications.

You might see an improvement if you disable automatic software updates. This should be possible by going to System Preferences -> App Store and then unchecking the option for "Automatically Check for Updates".

Of course, this means that you won't get automatic updates anymore and you'll have to check manually from time-to-time.


Disable internal keyboard on high sierra I recently decided to bathe my keyboard in liquid and have lost functionality in my keyboard. My plan was to just plug in an external keyboard and run with that but it appears that my internal keyboard must be holding down the shift key so I'm forced to boot into safe mode. Is there a way to fully disable the internal keyboard? I've tried installing Karabiner Elements while booted into safe mode but the changes I make there don't seem to be doing anything.

I assume you're talking about some sort of MacBook model. I would reset the Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) to see if that resolves things for you.

Resetting the NVRAM

You don't specify your specific Mac model, so these generic instructions should cover all Macs (except for the iMac Pro which I'm assuming you do not have). Follow these steps:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then immediately press the commandoptionpr keys.
Keep these keys pressed down for at least 20 seconds!
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Notes:

Do not be concerned if your Mac appears to restart during the 20 second period.
When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).
If the problem is still present after you've rebooted, then proceed to resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) below.

Resetting the SMC

As you haven't specified your specific Mac model, these instructions apply to all MacBook models on which you cannot remove the battery (i.e. it's a built-in battery). If you have an older MacBook model or a desktop Mac, please refer instead to How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac. Otherwise proceed as follows:

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