Apple Music - The code you entered is not valid My father created a family membership for apple music, and I created an apple account (icloud.com) for that purpose (I'm in the family group).

I'm trying to login from the Apple Music Android app, and keep getting The code you entered is not valid. Try again. in the account review part.

What should I do to set it up correctly? It's a new account, I've never used Apple services before and I also don't have any products except this membership. Should I login to an Apple device, download iTunes for my PC, or anything else? What am I missing?

2018 Update: After more than a year, I still haven't got a response from the customer support. It won't happen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

An Apple Music Family Membership requires iCloud Family Sharing to be set up.

According to Apple:

  Family Sharing requires a personal Apple ID signed in to iCloud and iTunes. Music, movies, TV shows and books can be downloaded on up to 10 devices per account, five of which can be computers. iOS 8 or later and OS X Yosemite or later are required to set up or join a Family Sharing group, and are recommended for full functionality. Not all content is eligible for Family Sharing. Content can be hidden by family members; hidden content is not available for download. Content downloaded from family members or acquired via redemption codes is not subject to Ask to Buy.

  iCloud requires iOS 5 or later on iPhone 3Gs or later, iPod touch (3rd
  generation or later), iPad Pro, iPad Air or later, iPad or later, or
  iPad mini or later; a Mac computer with OS X Lion 10.7.5 or later; or
  a PC with Windows 7 or Windows 8 (Outlook 2007 or later or an
  up-to-date browser is required for accessing email, contacts and
  calendars). Some features require iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. Some
  features require a Wi-Fi connection. Some features are not available
  in all countries. Access to some services is limited to 10 devices.

Since you're saying you're already in the family group, I expect the problem you're having is that you're using an Android device (the above seems to imply you need to be on macOS, iOS or Windows). I would do the following:

Contact Apple to check if there is a way around this conundrum and, if not,
Send feedback to Apple as well as an email to support@apple.com (that's the email address they use for support re their Android apps).

I would think that since Apple offers the Apple Music Android app that this is an unintended consequence of how things are currently set up, so sending feedback is the only way of getting things changed.


How to preserve tray icon position on reboot? The issue seems to occur after updating to macOS Sierra.

After the update, the position of the tray icons changed (from what they had been before the update). Redragging them works, but they are reset to this certain position if the system is rebooted. This didn't seem to happen before upgrading to Sierra. (Either that or the icons are somehow always placed to the position I wanted whenever I install new applications, which is unlikely)

Is there a way to make the tray icon positions persist on reboot?

I have Bartender 2 installed, but I don't think it is causing the issue.

The issue occurs when using iStat Menus v5.2 (or older?) on macOS Sierra.

This issue is addressed in iStat Menus 5.3.


Do I need to reformat the hard drive when updating a Mac? Do I need to reformat the hard drive when upgrading from OS X Mavericks to OS X El Capitan?

You do not need to reformat your drive unless you want to do a fresh install.  You can upgrade in place without having to format.  If you find you are having problems after the upgrade, you can then reformat and start from scratch.

However, if you do reformat, ensure all of your documents and programs are backed up so you can restore them as it will wipe all data.


AirPlay doesn't work when AirPort Exp. extends my network? I have recently acquired an old first gen AirPort Express and wanted to use it solely for airplaying over to my old and amp.

I tested configuring with it's own network and works fine. The problem is, when I ask it to join my house's network, which is not an "Apple network" and is composed of a few routers extending it. The AirPort still shows on my preferences, is detected by the AirPort Utility but doesn't seem to be reached displaying "Error -6753".

I am figuring there is some port configuration I am ought do (?). I don't remember configuring internal firewall in any of my routers (except for the one hooked to the modem), but maybe this is a known issue?

[EDIT] Some more details on my equipment:

I have the ISP's modem, connected to a cheap Huawei wireless router, which has a firewall configured to keep outbound traffic away.
My house has an elongated shape, so midway through the rooms there is another Asus (RT-N10+) wireless router, configured to extend the Huawei's network (configured simply as bridge, no firewall, mac filter whatsoever).
The AirPort Express would be in the lower floor, still, closer to the Huawei router (thus what I believe it would connect to).

The network itself is SSID broadcasted, WAP/WPA2 Personal Encripted.

I will be trying to AirPlay from iPads, iPhones and a MacBook Pro over the house, which will be connected either to the Huawei or Asus router.

It will work wirelessly if you are able to get Wifi from some of the old routers. In other words: you need Wifi signal from your existing network for both your AirPort Express and the Apple device to use AirPlay in this configuration.

The Airport Express will work on client mode and will not extend your network, but it will allow AirPlay. This is because AirPorts do not wirelessly extend non Apple networks. See this question for reference.

I have a similar setup in my home, and my solution was to run an Ethernet cable to the AExp to be able to use it to extend my network, and do AirPlay.

On the Error -6753, I've found someone suggesting you have to enable IPv6 on your router.


Disk needs repaired... but it doesn't? I've been noticing some oddities with my computer lately. Applications running slower than normal. Hanging. I decide to run Disk Utility and I get the following statement:

So I do what it says and restart my computer. Once it restarts, I hold CMD + R until the Apple logo appears. Once the OS X Utilities window comes up, I select Disk Utility. I proceed to select my Mac HD, run Verify Disk and then Repair Disk. Both say they're "Ok." I restart as normal. That should seem to fix the problem, but I am still getting the following message every time I run Disk Utility.

How do I fix this issue? Any help would be appreciated.

My MacBook Pro specs:

OS X 10.9.1
2.7 Ghz Intel Core i7
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
750GB SSD

The apparent issues seems related to FileVault. The following steps seem to be the cure:

Go to “System Preferences” – “Security and Privacy”, click on
“FileVault” tab, click the lock icon on the bottom left to unlock,
then click on “Turn Off FileVault”. The decryption process will
take a while (hours).
When the decryption is done, reboot into Recovery HD.
Use Disk Utility to verify OS X Partition, this time the process
will take much longer and it will give you the same error message.
Click on “Repair Disk”.
DONE!
(Optional) Re-enable FileVault.

Source: http://alanhan.net/how-to-fix-volume-bitmap-needs-minor-repair-for-orphaned-blocks-on-os-x-10-8/


"Breaking News" feature for OS X Yosemite Recently I have gotten more and more "Breaking News" features from the NY Times which appear on my desktop.

(1) How did I initiate this feature?

(2) How do I turn this off?

While visiting the New York Times website, you (probably unwittingly) allowed the site to send push notifications to you on your Mac, but removing them is very simple:

Open Safari
In the menu bar, click Safari->Preferences->Notifications
Once there, check the box for "Deny" to the right of "The New York Times".


Docking station for Macbook Pro that lets you use the book + external monitor Does a docking station exist for MacBook Pros that let you dock it and keep the book open, so you can still use the keyboard, trackpad and monitor plus let you have an auxiliary monitor connected. I am debating ordering a Thinkpad with dock vs. a MacBook Pro but the user I am ordering it for loves her two monitors and was using a Win XP desktop. We are going to switch her to a mobile machine but the "docking" solution is very appealing and manually hooking up a second monitor all the time is not that appealing.

There isn't that many on the market (most users are happy to connect the mac cables manually).  However this solution looks pretty nice :

http://www.bookendzdocks.com/

Hope this helps.

PS Here is another solution,

http://www.hengedocks.com/

but doesn't allow the macbook to remain open, so you'd need an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.


Are all pictogram fonts broken in Lion? Since I updated to Lion (Mac OS X 10.7.2) all pictogram fonts (Zapf Dingbats, Webdings et al.) seem to be broken.
The application I have tested are below.
TextEdit
Zapf Dingbats and Webdings do not show up in the font menu. You can select it by selecting  :

Format > Show Fonts…

OmniGraffle
Selecting either Zapf Dingbats or Webdings has no effect.
Pixelmator
Selecting either Zapf Dingbats or Webdings has no effect.
BBEdit
It seems to work in BBEdit (and TextWrangler), these both have Cocoa text handling.
I have tested this on a MacBook Pro and a Mac Pro running 10.7.2.
Firstly, can someone confirm this is an issue for them and not just an artefact of the way I have installed Lion.
Secondly, any solutions?
Update
I forgot to add that all front look fine in Font Book
Update 2
Unfortunately Chris' idea is no good (for my specific issue) as the character I require is the lighting bolt.

I think the fonts are fine - I've just checked them in Font Book.

I tried Text Edit, Pixelmator and Pages and they all do as you state. But, if you load Font Book and find the fonts they are visible and populated with "dings". Could it be that the codes are different due to using Unicode?

To get to Wingdings characters in the other apps:

In Keyboard Preferences check "Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar".
In the menu bar these is now a new icon.
Click on the icon and select "Show Character Viewer".
Characters can then be cut and paste from the Character Viewer.


What's the best way to import DVD into iMovie 11? My got a new Mac for Christmas and I'm trying to help her import a bunch of DVDs with home movies transferred from VHS into iMovie 11.

Google turns up several results but most are trying to sell you an app to rip encrypted DVDs. Other results suggest using Disk Utility to copy the DVD into a .dmg file which iMovie would recognize as a camera it could import from, but that doesn't seem to work with the current version.

I was able to use Handbrake to rip it to an MP4 and import that into iMovie but I'm curious if there's a more efficient way that avoids two transcodes and would be easier to explain to my mom.

Not really, you've utilised the quickest, easiest and cheapest route available with doing it with Handbrake. Don't bother trying to find another piece of software that will do the job better, Handbrake is really the best when it comes to ripping and encoding Apple friendly formats. Thanks, hope this helps.


Are there keyboard shortcuts for emoji on a bluetooth keyboard for iOS? I've recently started using a bluetooth keyboard with my iPad. I was wondering if there are any keyboard shortcuts for emoji ? Switching to the on screen keyboard is possible but forces me to take my fingers off the hardware keyboard and tap the screen which is a huge waste of time. On Mac the autocorrect replaces stuff "<3" with their emoji equivalent but iOS doesn't seem to do that.

Regards.

I've found a workaround using the "text replacement" feature. In Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Text replacement, you can add the emoji and assign them their equivalent text-based shortcuts, like in the screenshot below.


How to open FrameMaker files on a Mac with OS X? I have some old FrameMaker documents on my Mac (Intel Core Duo, OS X 1.6.6). Is there any way to open this files (readonly would be ok)? I cannot use the FrameMaker 10 trial from Adobe, because it is windows only. There has been a reader/viewer app in the past but I cannot find it anywhere.

There are two file formats:

*.mif is Maker Interchange Format (an XML dialect)
*.fm is FrameMaker binary

Adobe provides an online pdf creator which they state handles FrameMaker files.

However, it costs $10 a month to use it, but it might be worth a shot. (Albeit, you may convert 5 files to pdfs before you have to pay).

http://createpdf.adobe.com


How can I keep the same desktop arrangement on two different multi-monitor setups? My machine is a late 2012 rMBP which happily powers two displays at home and two different displays at my office in what is essentially the same arrangement. My laptop is on the right with the two additional displays to the left. I consistently plug the same monitors into the same ports.

The problem that I always have is the desktops appear on different monitors depending on my location. Example:

At home, I open Google Chrome and put it in full screen mode on my leftmost display. I open iTerm and put it in full screen on my middle display. I open Mail and put it in full screen mode on my laptop display.

Now I disconnect the monitors and go to the office. I plug in my office monitors to the same ports in the same order, and Mail is on my leftmost display while the Chrome browser appears on my laptop monitor. What the heck? So I go to expose mode or whatever its called and switch them around. No big deal, right?

Well, in reality I have about 5x that many programs open at any given time and I always want them to appear on the same displays. I never want Chrome on the tiny laptop display and I never want Mail on the enormous leftmost display. After two years of dragging windows back and forth twice a day it has become the most infuriating thing in my life! (pretty good life, no doubt)

Is there any way to save the desktop arrangements so that they consistently display on the desired monitor? Ideally, any monitor plugged into the same display port would display a specific desktop.

I have a similar setup and now that I'm thinking about this, using Spaces is the key.

Go to System Preferences > Mission Control
Enable "Displays have separate spaces"
In the Dock, right-click (or option-click) an app.
Under Options, assign that app to the appropriate space and display.

I'm currently at home where I only have a single external monitor but it is working.

Apps assigned to the monitor are on the monitor. I unplug it and the apps all go on the laptop. When I plug the monitor back in again, regardless of port, they appear on the external monitor.


Can I make a new apple ID to use for one specific game? I want to create a new, separate Apple ID to use for a specific game. The reason is that the game glitched; I want to re-download it and start new, which I've been unsuccessful in doing it. If I create a new Apple ID to use for that game, will that affect my current account? Right now, I have one Apple ID associated with everything on my 4s.

Is there a way to do this?

Making new Apple ID is easy but hard to manage long term. It almost certainly won't help you wi your game restart for several reasons listed below.

Unless you have a very special game that somehow asks you to log in and doesn't use Game Center to find your Apple ID, your phone expects all games to use the same Apple ID.

If the developers stored your progress using iCloud, you can simply delete that game from all of your devices and when the last delete happens, it will also delete the saved progress.

If that doesn't work (and in many cases - especially "free" games, this won't work) you will need to ask game support to reset your progress or ditch that old Apple ID forever and make a new one for all your games.


Embedding files in Keynote Is there any way to embed files in Keynote presentation? So, that others can click on it and download/open it in their machines.

Besides images or other media that can natively be placed into Keynote, for a document or binary file of arbitrary format, you would almost certainly have to post it elsewhere (Dropbox/Google/web page) and embed a URL to the sharing link in your presentation.

Unfortunately, it seems you can't make the URL have the format of file:// instead of http:// You can, however use ftp:// or sftp:// or smb:// !


Where are photos imported via iPhoto stored on disk? I imported some photos from iPhoto and want to attach them to an email message after exporting them.

However, Pictures -> iPhoto Library is not a folder. Where is the actual folder that these photos are stored in?

iPhoto Library → Right-Click → Show Package Contents
You have to search for your pictures. The order is not logical - i.e. sorted by events.
It's easier to choose the following options if you send an email:

In iPhoto go to Share → Email or ...
...export your pictures so that you can attach them manually File → Export

Why is the iPhoto Library stored in a package?
The reason is actually quite simple: People break things. When you accidentally mess around with the pictures by unintentionally moving them - you break the library. Photo Booth has its own package for the same reason.
However, if you want to have control over the hierarchy of your picture folders in Finder, you should not import pictures into iPhoto. The setting is located at iPhoto Preferences → Advanced → Importing.


How to disable logging to system.log in OS X? During my time with Yosemite, I've had an innocuous issue that gets logged to system.log non-stop.

This question is not about solving the issue.

I'd like to stop the chatter, because they're writes to the drive which is an SSD, and could do without them.

How can I silence or prevent the writes to the log?

The messages come from the kernel and blame IO80211ScanManager. Example:
Nov 19 02:04:46 Louis-MBP kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::startScan: pid 29 had pending scan request. Deleting.

They dominate the log, whose 4000 most recent messages usually cover about a day.

Logging to system.log is controlled by the /etc/asl.conf file.  The default is to send all kernel messages to system.log.  If you add a priority level restriction, the trivial system complaints won't be logged.

Edit the file /etc/asl.conf and find a line that looks like this

? [= Sender kernel] file system.log

and change it to

? [= Sender kernel] [<= Level error] file system.log

Send a HUP signal to the syslogd process (or just restart your system) and the logging behavior will be changed.  Use pgrep from Terminal to find the process ID for syslogd.  E.g.

$ pgrep syslogd
21
$

Then send a HUP signal to that process ID with the kill program.

$ sudo kill -HUP 21
$


OS X Mavericks App Compatibility? Is there an efficient, quick way to check whether an OS X App is compatible with 10.9 Mavericks (rather than tediously going to each application developer's website) ?

RoaringApps.com provides a compatibility list for multiple versions of OS X. You can search for an application by name or compatibility status, to quickly scan for apps that are known to be incompatible.

Apps can be submitted by users, and also includes iOS compatibility if applicable.

You can also check for feature support, to see if apps contain the latest features available in the new OS, such as iCloud Keychain and App Nap.


OS X El Capitan (10.11.1) guest user can login even if it is disabled After updating to El Capitan 10.11.1 the login screen shows my default user and the Guest account. The Guest user is disabled though.

What is wrong here? I really don't want anyone other then me to login to this computer.

Click on the padlock icon to unlock it (enter password if required)

Select the Gastbenutzer (Guest User) in the left hand pane

Untick "Allow guests to log in to this computer"

Click on the padlock to lock it


reactivate second monitor in el capitan My first attempt to run el capitan 10.11.0 on one of my macintoshes is with a mac mini using a dual monitor setup.

There is one HDMI monitor Samsung Syncmaster and one DVI monitor Medion MD20429 connected via the display port with an adapter.

After getting back from sleepmode the second monitor (DVI) does not come up by itself. In system setup / monitor it does not show and only
if i use the option key and click detect monitors (see e.g. http://osxdaily.com/2014/03/31/detect-displays-mac-os-x/)  will it come back.

My OS 10.9.5 Mavericks computers do not show this unwanted effect.

How can this El Capitan behavior be avoided?
Is there at least a one-click
workaround somewhere?
is this a known bug to Apple?

This is a two part workaround:

an  applescript to click on the detect monitor
a bash script to run the script

I "saved" the applescript to $HOME/source/detectmonitor.scpt (see
Run AppleScript from bash script) how to work around the issue that you can not really start with a text file ...

Then I saved the bashscript to $HOME/dm

I created a symbolic link
ln -s $HOME/Desktop/detectMonitors $HOME/bin/dm

and set my Terminal preferences according to https://stackoverflow.com/a/8822669/1497139

now i can double click "detectMonitors" on my Desktop to work around the issue.

Applescript to click "detect monitor" in monitor system preferences

see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12640643/applescript-to-run-detect-displays

-- Script to click the "Detect Displays" button
-- 2015-12-22 WF
-- see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12640643/applescript-to-run-detect-displays
-- adopt to your language settings by setting the right button name below
-- currently this is german "Monitore erkennen"
-- to create and run this script you need a compiled scpt file to begin with see
-- https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/103621/run-applescript-from-bash-script
-- then you also need to set the security settings
tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    reveal pane "com.apple.preference.displays"
end tell

delay 0.5

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        try --don't even consider not using a try block!
            key down option
            delay 0.5
            --click button "Detect Displays" of window 1
            click button "Monitore erkennen" of window 1
            delay 0.5
            key up option
            tell application "System Preferences"
                quit
            end tell
        on error errMsg --logging out is the only other way to clear these
            key up option
            display dialog "ERROR: " & errMsg
        end try
    end tell
end tell

Bash-Script to run the applescript

#!/bin/bash
# WF 2015-12-22
# run detect monitors
cd $HOME/source/applescript
osascript detectmonitor.scpt
# set Terminal settings
# according to https://stackoverflow.com/a/8822669/1497139
# to get this to close your terminal window
exit 0


Macbook locked with icloud So I was playing around with the findmymac/iphone app just testing it out and hit the "lock" option. My Macbook Pro is now locked, which has been fine up until this point because I just hit "option" on startup enter my passcode and I'm in. The problem now is I'm wanting to reformat my macbook so I can partition it (need to for work) but obviously I cant because the lock mode inhibits me from doing so. I cant find any help on this issue, my situation seems a bit different because most people asking the questions seem to not have their passcode but I have mine, is there a really obvious fix that I am missing?

After locking a Mac with iCloud, a normal reboot (no Option or other modifier keys) should take you to an unlock screen. Enter the PIN there, and it should fully unlock the Mac (unlike entering the PIN after holding Option, which just temporarily bypasses the lock). Is this now working on your Mac?


Access Parallels VM files I just finished an install of my debian (7.8) on parallels virtual machine and I'd love to be able to share the linux folders with the osx platform. Any ideas on how that might be done ?
Problem with google is that most people talk about windows or doing it the other way around (which is easy).

Context: the company I'm working for installed their development environment on a VM on my mac. I can access the localhost of the VM from osx but I also have to work on the files, which would be easier if I could do so in osx for thousands of good and bad reasons.

Any ideas ?

This is not something I do myself, so I am not certain of the safety of it, however…

Right click the .pvm file & Open With - Parallels Mounter

This will give you access to the drive contents, including write access.


Pixelmator 2.0 Features I've just started using Pixelmator 2.0, and I love it. It's a beautiful alternative to clunky and overbearing Adobe products, but I can't seem to find some very simple key features that I'm sure (read: hope) must exist.

Center Horizontally/Vertically in Background
Inner Shadows
Transform Tool (I know that CMD+F brings up a transform mode, but is there a tool that can be docked in the toolbar?)

Aside from the latter, which is a UI preference of mine, these features seem (to me at least) to be pretty critical in a full-bodied image editor.

EDIT: If these things are stock-and-standard features, has anyone out there found at least a workaround for them?

How to center horizontally / vertically for text: extend the bounding box.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any way to do this for other items! I am actually surprised I didn't find it very limiting myself. There are several snapping options, but even when activating “Layers” (not active by default), the snapping happens only on edges, not on center (and it is very small, not as easy to manipulate as in the iWork suite, for example).

Tutorial for Inner Shadows on Pixelmator on YouTube (it's a workaround that consists of duplicating layers). Made with / for Pixelmator 1, but I couldn't find more info for Pixelmator 2.

In Pixelmator 2, you can choose which tools you want to add to the toolbar. Unfortunately, the Transform tool is not offered.
However, as you outlined yourself, the Transform tool is just one keyboard shortcut away. You'll have to resolve to ⌘F.


Using OS X Server resources on non-Macs I currently have two Mac Mini servers with several Mac clients and everything works well (DNS, Open Directory, Contacts/Calendar/Messaging, File Sharing, Time Machine, etc). I'm open to introducing Windows 7/10 and Linux (Ubuntu/CentOS) into the environment as BYOD option. Mail is handled by two linux mail servers (IMAP only).

Does OS X server integrate into these environments? I'm sure both can join Open Directory, or at least Linux can.

Most importantly, how can I get Contacts/Cal to work across Android/Windows mobile and desktop devices?

OS X 10.10 Server

Server data app on OS X is highly standards compliant. LDAP is industry-standard (but it's not active directory),  Mail is IMAP, CardDAV, WebDAV and CalDAV. All are quite standard and ubiquitous.  Filesharing uses SMB3.

Unless you have highly specific/rigid client requirements or are wedded to certain client apps, you should be able to make productive use of server.app services across multiple client operating systems.


Recommendations for inter-app audio apps for GarageBand? I have so far learnt to use Apple loops and thirsty to learn more: more loops, try some inter-app audio apps and so on. Please recommend inter audio apps for GarageBand.

From WTF Is Inter-App Audio Apps?

Here’s a list of the apps that currently work with Inter-App Audio in Garageband:

Alchemy mobile
Amplitube (iPhone and iPad, paid and free versions)
Magellan
Nave
Yamaha TNR-i
Yamaha Mobile Sequencer
Yamaha Synth Arp & Drum Pad
AUFX:Space
NLogSynth Pro
iMini
Galileo Organ


How to use USB Ethernet adapter on MacBook Pro I bought an Insignia USB 3.0 to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter with my early 2015 MacBook Pro. I don't have a CD drive, so I downloaded the driver from their website. Now, when I try to go to my network preferences, it takes about 5 minutes to load. Then it g off. I was trying to find how to uninstall the drivers but cannot find them. If it is helpful I can make a pastebin of my syslog.

I maybe want to know how to uninstall the driver for this so I can at least use my wifi.

It turns out I was using an old driver that was given on Insignia's website. I found that it is a Realtek adapter and the most updated driver is found here: http://www.realtek.com.tw/Downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=56&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false. This driver fixed all my problems.


voice or video calls using google talk in messages app Mac I have a problem using google chat.
in the messages app I can connect my google chat account but when I call someone using the messages app via google chat, it doesn't make the call, it just stays in waiting for answer, both Macs are running El Capitan and the chat option works fine, but the voice/video calls option don't work
hope that someone helps me
greetings
rk

If I'm understanding your question correctly, it seems like you're trying to use Google chat to initiate a call.   Google Chat/Hangouts/Meet has undergone a lot of changes in the last few months.  One of them is definitely which of those apps can make outbound calls.   As far as I know and currently experience, the only way I can make outbound calls from my macbook (I'm running Catalina though) is going directly to google voice in Chrome (https://voice.google.com)


How do I get out of split screen mode when I never entered it completely? On occasion, when attempting to either go into fullscreen or maximize a window, I will accidentally trigger the split screen setup, where half of the desktop turns blue.  However, if the application doesn't support split screen, it gets stuck this way.  The top taskbar is gone, so there are no menus.  Cmd + Tab doesn't do anything.  Trying to drag any window into the blue area or the other side doesn't do anything, except maybe move the blue area from one side to the other.  The only fix I've found so far is to completely shut the machine off, as I can't log out (I just Googled and found a way to do so via CLI, but that's not intuitive for most).

Is there a way to either cancel split screen or successfully enter into split screen so that I can then exit?

Pressing Esc has worked for me. In High Sierra, the option is blocked in the first place, and in the case of no other windows supporting split screen you can click in the blurry area with no available windows.


How do I add a picture of myself at the login screen? I need to add a image of myself in the login screen (when user credentials are asked). How can I do this?

System Preferences>Users & Groups. Click on your account name in the sidebar and you'll have the option to change your picture if you mouseover it in the right pane and click edit picture.


Can be iPhone detected in 'Find my iPhone' service after recover? I lost my iPhone and while it was turned on I could lock it and put in 'Lost mode' through  Apple 'Find My iPhone' service.

Unfortunately almost one month it's not found and until now I had hope to find it.

If somebody found it and recovered or re-installed iOS on that phone, can it be detected after turning on in my iCloud service anyway? or I lost it forever?

I assume since it was a month ago that you had iOS 6 on there? If someone found it and wiped it from scratch, your Find My iPhone will not work.

In iOS7, Activation Lock could prevent them from re-activating your phone if they found it, and you might have a chance to find something.


How can I turn off iCloud storage space warning notifications? On my Mac I've been getting many pop-up and email notifications about my meager iCloud storage space.

I only really use iCloud with iOS and chose to sign in to my same account on my Mac.

There's no chance that I'll upgrade so how can I turn off these Mac warnings that iCloud storage is close to full?

I think your options are limited here.

Turn off iCloud Backup altogether.
Some info on how to selectively or collectively switch off iCloud is here: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH2613?locale=en_GB&viewlocale=en_US
Back up less, e.g. by deciding not to back up your camera roll. I carefully manage what gets backed up and what not (and also which app gets mobile internet access).
To see which apps on your phone are taking up the most space follow these steps:

Open the settings app
Tap iCoud
Scroll down to Storage & Backup and open it
Tap Manage Storage
Select your iPhone

If you're on Windows 10 (unlikely in this forum...), type in the Windows 10 search box Settings and select "Settings Trusted Windows Store App"

Click "System"
Click "Notifications & Actions"
Scroll down to "Show Notifications from these apps"
find "iCloud" and turn it off
This works for other offending app notifications


iTunes always asks me whether to back up apps from my iPad and iPhone Every time I connect my iPad or iPhone to my Mac, iTunes gives me a prompt like this:

I’ve been clicking “Back Up Apps” for both devices, and yet I get the same prompt every time I connect. How can I stop iTunes from asking me every time? (I don’t really care whether it backs up my apps or not.)

Please check out this page by Apple

You can change this in the iTunes settings, called Automatic Downloads.
Check the box, as the image displays and the applications should download instead of ask for a backup.

If you cannot click the checkboxes, you have sign in to the iTunes Store with your Apple ID.


Does it help to fully reset a Mac once a year to keep it "healthy"? So I’ve owned the MacBook Pro for about a year or so, upon looking at a list of ways to keep a a laptop healthy; was this operation in particular that stood out. To manufacture reset annually. I then circle around to my question(s), what if I were to reset my MacBook and not for selling? Would I still need to sign out of all accounts, being that I would be logging right back in after doing so? Also being this early in stages of ownership, should this be in option?

I have been really neurotic about keeping it clean and healthy since I’ve tarnished many PCs and traumatized by the aftermath.

Any glimpse of help of info pointing me in the right direction of approaching this would help! Thanks you in all in advance

Resetting your MacBook Pro to factory settings each year definitely should not be necessary. I do not personally experience any performance problems or functionality problems even though I haven't "reset" in a decade (i.e. I migrate my existing system over when I buy new hardware).

If you do chose to factory reset, which I wouldn't recommend, you would need to sign into iCloud again after reinstalling. If you have your Keychain synced to iCloud, you don't need to start from scratch in amassing passwords and logins. However, you would probably need to login into various stuff once again (like for example login to Adobe subscriptions, Office 365 subscriptions, mail subscriptions, etc.).


Headphones Won't Plug Into Macbook Air I have the Macbook Air, Retina 13-inch 2020 which I bought a little over a month ago. Today I took it out and tried to plug in my headphones into the headphone jack but they would not go in. There appears to be nothing stuck in them and I have tried to use a toothpick to try and take dust/dirt out but that didn't work. I've also tried shoving the wire in with force but that did not work either. If anyone has any other ideas they would be greatly appreciated.

If your headphone jack cannot go in, there are only three reasons why this will occur:

The port is obstructed
The headphone jack is the wrong size
There's a manufacturing defect of the MacBook port

You can't remove dust or dirt if there's no dust or dirt to remove.  Also, you don't want to use a tooth pick as that will push objects in further and can even damage the port.  Compressed air is a better option and if you can do it from the back of the connector (requires opening the case), that would be the most effective method.
Forcing a connector is highly discouraged; if you can't make the connection with the reasonable amount of force that's required, stressing it could break things.  If it doesn't go in, something is wrong and excessive force will make it worse.
Verify that the headphone jack can be inserted into other devices and that you are indeed using a 3.5mm jack.  Finaly, try other headphones.  If  none can fit, then it's very likely you have a Mac with a manufacturing defect.  If that's the case, try contacting Apple Support. You may have some luck with them swapping out the case even if you're outside the warranty period.


How can I force Google SafeSearch on my kids' Mac? I'm pretty sure there's a way to force enable Google Safe Search by editing a hosts file on my kids' Mac. Can someone tell me how?

I'm guessing I need to sudo nano /etc/hosts

According to How to: Enforcing Google SafeSearch I should use:

216.239.38.120     www.google.com     #forcesafesearch

Is that enough?

I did it with Squid and Squidguard.  Add the safe parameter to the URI.  All computers in the house got their DNS and web proxy from that server.

Even this can be defeated by using https to go to a proxy that serves the pages for you.  Then "google" is only in the encrypted packets, not in the URI that your local system sees.

You can block known proxies, but new ones are frequently created.  And Tor Browser can run from a USB drive.

How sophisticated are the kid's tech skills?  Are they actually trying to bypass filters?  If the answers are "very" and "yes" then you can disconnect internet completely and they'll still do it by going to a friend's house.


Why can't I hear my alert sounds or ringer? For some reason, the sounds for ringers, and alerts/notifications on my mother's iPhone appear to not be playing anymore.  Even though the ringer volume in settings is turned up almost to the max, the phone still only vibrates when receiving a call.  And when the phone is placed onto it's charging dock, instead of BEEP ing like it normally does, it simply vibrates.

Interestingly, when I fiddle with the ringer volume slider in settings, the test ringtone plays just fine, and music audio can also be played through the built in speaker.

What's going on?

I would first check to see if the silent switch on the phone, above the volume buttons, is active. That would cause the issue. If that's not the case (the switch is off), I would try powering the phone down (hold down power button at top, then slide to power off), then restarting it.


Black border around iPhone 4 display I just got my developer certificate from apple and I tried to add provisioning to my iPhone so I connected it to my macbook pro and everything went fine suddenly I started to get a black thin border around my screen.

That's standard behaviour on all iPhones, I see the same border on my phone. It is not related to developer certificates/provisioning.


Does iOS 8's MAC address randomization give the actual MAC address once connected? iOS 8 is now implementing MAC address randomization, where it randomizes your MAC address to networks while searching for networks.

One article describes it as:

  One of those features, which is new in iOS 8, is the automatic
  randomization of MAC addresses when the device is searching for a
  Wi-Fi network. This makes it much more difficult to track a device by
  seeing which Wi-Fi networks have spotted its unique identifier.

However, once connected to a network, does it provide the true MAC address of the network card?

Yes. Even before you're connected, your device will give its real MAC address when you tap on a network to connect to it, to allow for MAC address filtering, etc.

MAC address randomisation is discussed in this Apple security guide:

https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/iOS_Security_Guide_Sept_2014.pdf


Mac keyboard shortcut to press the replace button Is there a keyboard shortcut on a Mac that can press the replace button? See image.

You can press Tab to move the focus from Stop to Replace, then Space to select the focused element.


Another device is using your IP address mac, what do I change my IP address too? Our internet router often stops working at home, but for the the second time only I have got a pop-up error saying:

  "another device is using your ip address".

We have an iPhone and a Macbook but as far as a remember this problem occurred for a brief time when we were without an iPhone. In any case, I had a look at this post which suggests the problem is a cause of the iPhone and Macbook trying to use the same address.

I changed the IP address via System Preferences > Network > TCP/IP > configure IPv4 Using DHCP with manual address to 11.11.11.11. I then switched back to Using DHCP and clicked 'Renew DHCP Lease'.

When I checked the IP address again it changed to 192.168.1.11. It works now but I wonder if this is a permanent fix or will this problem keep occurring?

Update: The problem persists, but his time without the error message which would leads me to believe that there another problem in addition to the "Another device is using your ip address" problem.

Often times these issues can be solved by rebooting ALL computers (iPhones, Macs, etc.) on your local LAN. A reboot causes DHCP to request a lease. And your router should only hand out ones that are unused. So every device should get a unique address

HOWEVER it is possible that you have manually assigned an IP address to one or more devices, so check for that. Make sure all are different and all are on DHCP.

ALSO possible, someone unwanted is on your network. Change the WiFi password just in case.

Failing all of that assign everything a static IP address like this

192.168.1.x

Where x is as follows

between 2 and 254
  unique (only one device has any one number)
  Your subnet mask is likely 255.255.255.0
  Your Gateway is likely 192.168.1.1 (your cable modem or WiFi access point)
  Your DNS will vary

The last three should be listed in your network System Preference and will be the same on all devices (only the IP address must be different). Select the connection (WiFi) and click Advanced, then the TCP/IP and DNS buttons. Record the subnet mask, gateway and DNS servers. Then fill that info in on all devices.

It would be a good idea, if you do this, to make a note of all the settings and which device gets which address. Keeping track can be a pain, which is why we have DHCP. It is supposed to hand out all that info automatically. So it is likely that there is a device on your network NOT set to DHCP.


How to restore PHP to the original configuration? I did something wrong and now my PHP is not working anymore.

I'm using OS X Lion. I can I restore it to the original configuration?

There should be a /etc/php.ini.default file that you can copy to php.ini.


How to avoid iTerm2 switching screens before opening hotkey window I've configured a fullscreen hotkey window as follows

If I hit the hotkey when the current desktop is a native full screen app, before opening the hotkey window, the desktop is changed to the first, free (not fullscreen) desktop.
Is there a way to prevent that? I want terminal to just open as an overlay without the annoying desktop change animation.
Using iTerm2 Build 3.4.4

You need to make it a floating window so it can overlap fullscreen windows of other apps:

@gnachman


Copy/Paste creates a hidden files I have a copied music files to USD drive, but after copy/paste, the files are hidden. For example, in Finder:

Console:

And in hidden file there are a many attributes.

Example:

com.apple.quarantine^@^@^@^A^K^@^@^@�^@^@%com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms^@0001;53419077;Google\x20Chrome;BFE9A983-768C-4B56-BC4F-1A2B69A72963bplist00�^A^B_^P9

How can I can a disable the hiding of files for coping/pasting files?

These are AppleDouble files. As you discovered by opening them, they contain metadata for the files that you copied.

Since the disk is formatted as MS-DOS, OS X needs somewhere to store certain metadata for the file. This metadata is stored in an AppleDouble file. Such metadata includes Finder information and extended attributes.

These files begin with a dot, so are hidden. You shouldn't unhide these files, or modify them. You can remove AppleDouble files using dot_clean -m


HDR color problem on MacBook Pro 16" 2019 I am watching same video on a Mac and two phones, iPhone 12 and Android.
There is abnormal glare on the Mac. For example in attached pics the Mac shows too much glare on girls face, clothes.
This happens when I play this video in HDR in Chrome, it does not happen if HDR not enabled in Safari.
How do I solve this problem ?

The trouble with colour is you need to know the start point & you need your workflow to be correctly calibrated & profiled..
I'm not so sure that YouTube is a great start point, as there is no constant definition of how anything is encoded.
After that you get the issue of each device decoding & interpreting differently.
You can only fix this with accurate calibration & profiling using a hardware colorimeter. [This is not cheap, maybe $£€ 250 for a decent one].
From the youtube info on that video…

To view this video in real HDR you need a 4K HDR TV and a device with YouTube HDR such as Chromecast Ultra.
If you are viewing this video on an SDR (normal non-HDR TV) the color and contrast may not look correct.

I have one of those LG OLED 4k TVs, but I don't have a chromecast, so I can't view it on there. What I do have, though is a fully-calibrated workflow on my Mac.
So, this is what it looks like on there, in standard HD…

Which, of course, you can only see the same as I do if your display is also fully-calibrated ;)
However, compared to both your Mac & iPhone pictures to me looks more natural [It's still over-punchy & nothing like "real life", but at least the white point looks acceptable]. Your Mac image is even more contrasty & has a yellow cast. The iPhone image is heavily over-saturated & has a yellow deficit, leaving red & blue too hot.
I'm surprised the phone isn't closer to accurate, out of the box they tend to be reasonably close. I have never, though, seen a laptop screen that wasn't set up badly, unless it's been accurately profiled.  What we're seeing of the phone image, of course, is a photo of its screen taken on another device, meaning we have one, possibly two, further places where the colour-management is poor.
As you don't have the recommended hardware to view HDR, then I wouldn't try to view things that way.
If you could post further images of how they look in SDR, that could be an interesting comparison.
[BTW, my personal opinion of HDR as a semi-pro colour "almost-expert" is that it completely messes up what might have been a really nice picture;)
My LG TV has also been calibrated & all this "clever" stuff switched off, because it's just horrible.
Edit
I just noticed you said it looks worse in Chrome - that's not a surprise. Chrome ignores so much of the Mac standard toolbox I'm surprised anyone puts up with it.
This is taken on the same screen from Chrome - yup, it looks worse. I would expect it to look worse because of Chrome's flagrant disregard for colour profiling. This is not fixable, even with calibration.

Some background qualification, in case my opinions seem too… opinionated;)
I'm a keen semi-pro photographer, used to working in a fully-calibrated environment - every screen in the house has been accurately profiled. I work in the TV/film industry so I am very used to also seeing correct colour imagery on real professional displays, day in, day out. (By 'real professional' I mean 30 grand for a 21" display;)


Recover GPT Hard Disk files on Windows My friends 2008(ish) era macbook pro died recently but the SATA HDD is fine, I have removed it and plugged it into a Windows 7 machine. I can see in Paragon Partition Manager that the drive is a GPT Hard Disk, how do i go about viewing the files on Windows? The PC I have connected it to has dualboot ubuntu, would it be easier to access the files from linux? Any freeware suggestions? I have tried googling for a few tutorials but these tend to focus on a dead HDD.

Thanks.

GTP isn't the issue, it's the HFS+ (aka Mac OS Extended) volume inside it; in order to read that, you need HFS+ drivers for Windows (or Linux or whatever). Paragon sells a driver for this, or you could use the drivers from Apple's Boot Camp software. I can't vouch for their authenticity, but I found downloads claiming to be just the HFS+ parts of Boot Camp at MacRumors.com and MacBreaker.com.


Schedule multiple wake up times for Mac? I have systems running Mac OS X 10.5.8 and 10.6.8 that I would like to schedule some cron jobs for with the Cronnix GUI application.

I prefer those computers be asleep until the scheduled jobs start. I know the Energy Saver System Preferences pane lets me schedule daily wake up times for the computer, but my cron jobs run at different times in the day.

Is there a way to set up more than one wake up time per day on these Macs? I prefer a GUI based approach but any ideas you have would be great, thanks!

Sorry, I only know command-line tools to do the job.

You can use pmset for that (like in pmset schedule wake "02/12/2012 12:42:00").

More explanations here and, of course, man pmset.

  Setting Multiple "Power On" & Power Off" Events

  Currently, it appears that pmset will NOT allow you to set more than  one pair of "power on" & "power off" events when using a repeating schedule.

  For example...

# pmset repeat shutdown MTWRFSU 02:00:00 wakeorpoweron MTWRFSU 06:45:00

  The above command would set a repeating schedule that would shutdown the Mac nightly at 2 AM in the morning and startup daily at 6:45 AM.

  But, if you want to set multiple "power on" & "power off" events, you could specify a specific date/time and with a little scripting you could setup a schedule for a month.

# pmset schedule wakeorpoweron "06/07/2007 07:00:00"
# pmset schedule shutdown "06/07/2007 22:00:00"
# pmset schedule wakeorpoweron "06/07/2007 00:00:00"
# pmset schedule shutdown "06/07/2007 01:00:00"


Is LCD digitizer different on iPad 2 for different languages? I have an iPad 2 from Japan as like to have ability to input Japanese characters. When recently trying to replace the screen and Wi-Fi antennae I managed to damage the LCD.

Before I go out and buy a replacement digitizer can anyone confirm whether these are all the same i.e is a digitizer for a US model iPad going to be different to one for a Japan model?

No, all digitisers for a certain model of iPad are the same regardless of where the iPad was purchased. Input of Japanese characters is a software feature independent of the location where the digitiser was purchased.


cannot associate csv file with excel I have multiple versions of Microsoft Office installed because who knows when I'll have to open some old version of a file that may not work well in newest Office.

I want csv files to open in the most recent version of excel (~16.12) by default. I press cmd+i with the csv file selected and i tell it to open with the newest version of excel and then i choose Change All... I get a confirmation dialog:

Are you sure you want to change all similar documents to open with the application “Microsoft Excel.app”?

This change will apply to all documents with extension “.csv”.

So I confirm (Continue).

Then promptly the info window shows the previous/wrong version of Excel.

update: this seems to be resolved, but I honestly have no idea why. Possibly Microsoft or MacOS updates? Possibly (more likely?) the restarts those updates caused?

This is an issue if you have two versions of Excel installed at once (like 2011 and 2016) in Mac OS. There is a way to sort this out.

Click on the file in question and drag it into the icon for the Excel you want to associate it with (like the 2016 icon in your dock). It will now associate all CSV files with excel 2016.

Caveat: if you have only Excel 2011 open and not 2016 and you click to open that file it will open in 2011. If you have 2011 and 2016 open at the same time it will open in 2016. If you have neither excel open it will open in 2016.

Note: the Get info will now read the association correctly but do not hit the Open With button as that will re-associate it with 2011.


Outlook on Mac: Move email messages between different accounts I am using a Macbook with Outlook, with three mail accounts configured.
I want to be able to move an email from one account with drag & drop to another mail account in the left sidebar.
This works fine for Outlook on Windows, but in Outlook it just does not work at all. Even with right click on the email > copy (or move?) > I can just select other folders in the same account.
How can I do this?

I haven't been able to try moving with drag & drop but exporting and importing works well.
Exporting : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/export-items-to-an-archive-file-in-outlook-for-mac-281a62bf-cc42-46b1-9ad5-6bda80ca3106
Importing : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/import-email-messages-contacts-and-other-items-into-outlook-for-mac-6cc48404-a65c-4b8c-a12a-95a905249414


My iPhone 5s will not sync with my iTunes anymore! My iPhone 5s will not sync anymore. iTunes reads it once it's plugged in and comes back with an error message saying "You do not have enough access privileges for this operation.".

I have only seen this with beta versions of the OS and/or iOS.

The first step is going to be to reproduce the problem.

Connect everything power off the iPhone
Save your work on the Mac and shut it down as well
Power on the iPhone and then put it in airplane mode
Start the Mac and fire up iTunes (only iTunes if possible )

Then keep good notes on what you see - all dialogs and exact text, what operation causes the issue and the times. From there, you can look over access logs and iTunes logs on the Mac and/or get support involved to read the legs from the iOS device if needed.

Feel free to comment or ask a follow on question once you have it pinned down. For me, the restarts fixed the issue or it was a server side issue and not reproducible past the time Apple's servers were busy or slow.


Safari slow to load, flooding system.log with launchd errors Safari has become very slow to load pages. 5 to 10 seconds to begin to display a page. The problem is isolated to Safari on this computer. Other systems and browser are ok.

The system is a 13" Early 2011 MacBook Pro running El Capitan 10.11.6. I have done all of the stuff I would normally do to diagnose as problem: run Disk Utilities, purge caches, check permissions, login via a clean user account, etc.

In Console.app I notice that the system.log is getting filled constant stream of with messages from launchd related to Safari. Most of these are related to WebContent and WebFeedParser and History.

9/22/16 6:30:28.428 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.xpc.launchd.
domain.pid.WebContent.2063) Path not allowed in target domain: type = pid,
path = /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/SafariShared.framework/
Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.Safari.WebFeedParser.xpc/Contents/
MacOS/com.apple.Safari.WebFeedParser error = 147: The specified service
did not ship in the requestor's bundle, origin = /System/Library/
StagedFrameworks/Safari/WebKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent.xpc

To a lesser extent there are also ones related to ImageDecoder:

9/22/16 6:03:05.314 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.xpc.launchd.
domain.pid.ImageDecoder.1379) Path not allowed in target domain: type = pid,
path = /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/SafariShared.framework/
Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.Safari.History.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.
apple.Safari.History error = 147: The specified service did not ship in the
requestor's bundle, origin = /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/
SafariShared.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.Safari.ImageDecoder.xpc

Any ideas of why these are getting through into the system.log, if they are related to Safari's slowness, and how to fix.

I was experiencing the same symptoms: sluggish Safari, with identical errors in the console. I was also experiencing launchd using exorbitantly high cpu capacity.

After much gnashing of teeth, I discovered my problem was a bad spotlight index on an external drive, and after re-indexing the drive, the problem went away. Launchd behaves normally, Safari is responsive.

I do however get the same error in console, although I get it less frequently. It comes in batches of about 20 at once, every 12 hours or so. There seems to be no effect on performance.

Particulars:

'09 MBP 13" running 10.11.6 with the latest public beta security update.

Hope this helps!


Will rsync copy extended attributes, ACLs, etc. reliably enough for Time Machine? I am copying a TM backup to a new drive over USB by drag&drop per Apple’s recommendation.  But since it is more than two terabytes, I am concerned about the risk of interruption.

If I try to resume with rsync -avAX will Time Machine be able to continue using it?  Another question/answer suggests I might have to ensure I have the latest rsync but will that be enough?

Rsync, with the -E option, will copy the extended attributes and ACL of a file. The man page for rsync states:

    -E, --extended-attributes   copy extended attributes, resource forks

    -E, --extended-attributes
                  Apple-specific option to copy extended attributes,
                  resource forks, and ACLs.  Requires at least Mac OS X 10.4
                  or suitably patched rsync.


How can I reformat a drive that contains an encrypted volume? After OS X 10.7 came out with its disk-encryption features, I encrypted an empty USB thumb drive just for grins. I never used it, and eventually decided to reformat it as a normal drive for use with Windows and earlier versions of OS X.

When I opened Disk Utility to try to erase and repartition the drive, however, things looked weird. I clicked on the drive in the left sidebar, but there was no “Erase” tab on the right—only “First Aid” and “Partition”—and the “Partition” tab said, “You may only split this partition into two. To do this, click +.” There was no option to change the partition layout or to remove the encryption from my volume. How can I reformat this drive to remove the encryption?

It turns out that Disk Utility didn’t want to touch a disk that contained an encrypted partition, but it had no issue with changing the encrypted partition itself. I clicked on the encrypted partition (not the drive) in the sidebar, and the “Erase” tab appeared on the right. From there I reformatted the disk to Mac OS Extended without encryption, and afterward Disk Utility had no hangups about reformatting or repartitioning the drive.


"open" command starts separate Emacs.app processes, or none at all I recently moved to a MacBook Pro with Catalina from a different MBP running Mojave. I use Emacs.app from https://emacsformacosx.com/. For all previous Mac OS versions, the command

open -a /Applications/Emacs.app myfile

would, initially, start a new Emacs process and open my file; if Emacs was already open, it would open a new buffer for that file.

Now, in Catalina, it either (a) starts a completely new copy of Emacs with that file open, or sometimes, if Emacs is running already, (b) does nothing, neither of which is what I want.

Any ideas how to get the old behavior back?

Might be easier to use ˋemacsclientˋ:

Add (server-start) to your .emacs file
Run emacsclient FILE to open a file in a running Emacs


iTunes output goes exclusively to Airport Express when it should not My AirPlay setup is messed up since a few days : I have headsets plugged to an Airport Express (AE) and it used to play music synchronously with my macmini, as expected.

One day, while I did not do anything special, the macmini stopped to play music as soon as I switched on the AE headset, as if the music stream was redirected exclusively to the AE.
Yet, iTunes is properly configured in multiple sources mode :

If I uncheck the Fabrice's Airport source from iTunes and leave Computer as the only source, the problem remains : music still played exclusively by the AE ! Only switching off the AE makes the macmini emits the music again.

I tried unplug/replug the AE with no success.
Next step would be to reinitialize it but I'm open to others suggestions.

By looking at the menu bar to see selected output device, I noticed that the Bluetooth icon was ON and thus interfering with Wifi Airplay.
By setting Bluetooth OFF on the mac mini, it corrected the problem.


Sometimes Mac doesn't recognise my external hard drive I have a Western Digital My Passport Ultra 1 TB external hard drive that is formatted FAT32 and a 16 GB Silicon Power USB thumb drive and both of them uses USB3 but my MacBook Pro sometimes doesn't recognise them and I have to remove them or restart MacBook several times until they show up.

What could be the problem?

Specs: MacBookPro12,1 2015 with OS X 10.11.5

There can be a number of reasons why your Macbook Pro won't recognize a drive.

For instance, if you have a drive mounted and your system goes to sleep, it will also power down the USB port, putting your drive to sleep.  When your Mac wakes up again, the drive may not have come out of its slumber.

To verify that your USB port is detecting devices, open "Console" (Applications > Utilities > Console).  For example, I inserted a Windows (FAT16) formatted USB flash drive that doesn't mount and doesn't show on my desktop.  However, in Console, you can see that it is detected and an error is generated:

When you attach your USB devices, have Console running and watch to see if the device is detected and whether an error is generated.  If nothing happens here (with both devices) then you have ruled out your USB devices.

If they are being recognized in the system, but not showing up, you may have to disconnect them and remount them in Terminal.

First, see if they are listed.  Issue the command

diskutil list

My relevant output, again using my non-mountable USB as an example is as follows:

/dev/disk4 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        +15.6 MB    disk4
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk4s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS True Key                15.6 MB    disk4s2
/dev/disk5 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk5
   1:             Windows_FAT_16                         2.1 GB     disk5s1 <----- My Problem Child

Eject the disk using the command

diskutil eject disk5

(Obviously use the disk number that associated with your USB device)

Running diskutil list again shows the device is gone:

/dev/disk4 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        +15.6 MB    disk4
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk4s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS True Key                15.6 MB    disk4s2

Now, physically remove, then reinsert the USB drive.   Your drive should be functioning again.


same power chord for Magsafe 2 and Lightning I have a Mac Air 13" and an iPhone 5. Is there a power cord / adapter that will work for both of them? My goal is to be able to plug one power cord into both of them.

No - there isn't. MagSafe is a 5 pin (mirrored - so really three total pins) for high current and wattage charging. The other is a 16 pin, much more adaptable digital interface that can embed USB as well as carry data and charging and audio signals.

Newer USB-C Charging MacBooks will charge over the same sort of USB power delivery that Lightning is supporting - to the future you wish will be here as soon as you step away from MagSafe based hardware.

See these similar questions for more details and possible options:

Magsafe to USB-C converter for charging Macbook Pro 2016
Is it safe to use this 60W PD charged for a late 2016 MacBook Pro 13"?


Removing purchased ringtones from iPhone I purchased ringtones from Apple when I had my iPhone 6s. When I bought a new iPhone 8 Plus, everything as expected transferred to my new iPhone, so my ringtones are in Settings app → Sounds & Haptics. I wish to remove the purchased ringtones.

I chatted with Apple Support and they suggest I back up new iPhone and reset to factory settings to get rid of the custom ringtones.

Is there any other way?

Backing up and restoring your iPhone would restore the ringtones again, and thus is a pointless exercise.

Connect your iPhone to a Mac/PC with iTunes installed. Select you iPhone in the toolbar, locate your iPhone under Devices in the sidebar and click on Tones. You'll should be able to locate the purchased and custom ringtones.

Select the desired ringtones to remove, right click and select Delete from Library option in the context menu.

You'll be prompted to confirm your action. Click on Delete button to complete deleting downloaded and custom ringtones that were installed on you iPhone.


How Do I Set the Default Language in Pages? In Pages, you can change the default language to British English in the Inspector --> Text --> "More" tab --> Language: British English.

However, this reverts somehow in every launch of Pages. How do I set British English as the default language so that vocabulary checks are done according to British English?

You have to change the settings in the "International" panel in System Preferences.

Go to System Preferences.
Go to the Language & Text (In 10.6) panel (the language tab appears first by default).
Put your preferred language at the top of the list (you might have to edit the list).

Relaunch your iWork application (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) and your preferred language will be used as default language.


Unresponsive mouse wheel on macOS Sierra Since I upgraded to Sierra, mouse wheel scrolling has become a lot worse. When I scroll the wheel fast, it behaves like it did before and scrolls a bunch of lines, but when I scroll the wheel one notch at a time, nothing happens.

I use a Steelseries Sensei gaming mouse but I also tested with a basic Dell mouse. (There's no model number on it.) As of macOS 10.12.1, this issue affects all programs.

Are there any workarounds? Please don't suggest USB Overdrive or any other nagware.

Edit: I found a video (not me) which shows the issue perfectly. Clearly it's not just me.

I've looked for many solutions and USB Overdrive, is the only one that I've found that fixes it. Would love to hear if there are others, because I agree the nagware aspect is annoying (although it's only on boot, so it's not actually that bad).

Install it, then, in the settings, set "Wheel up" to scroll up "2 lines" and "Wheel down" to scroll down "2 lines". For whatever reason you have to use "2 lines"—"one line" still exhibits the issue. It's possible your mouse will require different settings.


I cannot sign in to App Store with my Apple ID I created a new Apple ID and verified it. In the App Store, when I want to update or upgrade my OS X, it is asking me to sign in to download. I try to sign in but I cannot — there is no error or warning. I click sign in button and the sign in button appears again.

I tried to reinstall OS X but during the reinstall I am asked for my Apple ID and clicking the sign in button has no action and I am asked to sign in again.

What is the problem?

If you've created a new Apple ID, you need to have a valid OS X purchase  under this new Apple ID? Otherwise you might have to use—at least for the install—the Apple ID you used to buy OS X.


How can I log all notifications? Dropbox, PushBullet, Thunderbird and a dozen other apps create notifications. Is it possible to log these in a Unix-like way?

I dislike the tiny messages popping up for a few seconds and then disappearing without a trace.

Basically, I want to be able to grep a file which contains a line for each notification.

As was linked by Arthur Hammer, https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/142811/37689 states that notifications are stored in an SQLite database. The following python script should get you started:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import re
import sqlite3

# Location of notification centers database under Yosemite
tmp = os.environ['TMPDIR']
conn = sqlite3.connect(tmp + '/../0/com.apple.notificationcenter/db/db')

for notification in conn.execute('SELECT * from notifications'):
    encoded_data = str(notification[-1]) # last item
    clean = re.sub('[^\w\s-]', '', encoded_data) # remove some funny stuff (fixme: removes too much?)
    sp = clean.split('\t')
    # Find NSActualdeliverydate, message content seems to always come after this
    for ix in range(len(sp)):
        if 'NSActualdeliverydate' in sp[ix]:
            break
    # Skip blanks
    for ix in range(ix+1, len(sp)):
        if sp[ix] != '': break

    print 'notification', sp[ix].replace('_', '\n').strip()

conn.close()

You can then either pipe this to a file and then grep the file, or just grep the output of the script directly.


How can I fix things when LaTex issues a package minted error for "Pygments" or pigmentize? I am trying to install the "Pygments" package to Python via terminal on my Mac so that I can utilize the "minted" package in Latex.

I have downloaded the package via the terminal by using the following code:

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py > get-pip.py

followed by:

sudo python get-pip.py

and then

sudo pip install pygments

It took a couple tries of repeating the same commands but it finally successfully installed. I don't know what to do now though. I'm still getting the same error from LaTex:

Package minted Error: You must have `pigmentize' installed to use this package.

Does anyone have any experience with this issue and could possibly provide some assistance?

First, Locate the folder where pygmentize is saved

$ which pygmentize
/Users/ggautier/anaconda/bin/pygmentize

Add the path i.e. /Users/ggautier/anaconda/bin in the "texpath" field

// Platform settings: adapt as needed for your machine
// ------------------------------------------------------------------

 "osx":  {
  // Path used when invoking tex & friends; MUST include $PATH
  "texpath" : "$PATH:/Users/ggautier/anaconda/bin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/texbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:"
  // Path to PDF viewer, if needed
  // TODO think about it. Also, maybe configure it here!
 }


Sounds are not working on Mountain Lion Notification Center Although I see an option in System Preferences > Notifications to enable applications to pop a sound on new notifications, Mountain Lion is not actually playing those sounds.

Has Anyone run into similar problem?

I upgraded my mother's new iMac to Mountain Lion and noticed that the mail sending and receiving sounds were not occurring.  I found the following URL which was a temporary fix, but the problem comes back... so I think there's a bug here.

You might try the following to see if this helps:

http://applehelpwriter.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/no-sound-or-volume-after-upgrading/

Lynn


Many websites not opening from a certain WiFi connection My MacBook air is not opening many websites from my smart phones WiFi hotspot, it opens all from other WiFi's and my smart phone's hotspot opens all in other laptops. It shows that the sites can't be reached for them after trying to establish a secure connection in chrome, it is same for other browsers like safari.

I have had similar issues in past and suspect this is because of the WiFi connection.

It is most likely an issue with the Router's/Modem's MTU size settings and not necessarily because of an issue with your MacBook Air.

There are many helpful links online on what settings you can try with. One which might give you some insight is here- https://serverfault.com/questions/70075/why-does-lowering-the-mtu-from-1500-to-1499-allow-me-to-access-most-websites

A quick suggestion could be to compare the MTU settings of a working router with those of the non-working one.


Is there an easy fix for an old iPhone 5s battery? I have had my iPhone 5s for almost two years now, and the battery has been dying quickly. For example, even when my phone is on airplane mode, it will drop from 90% charged to 85% charged within two hours. I'm pretty sure this is due to the battery life.

Is there an easy fix that will not cost me more than replacing the phone?

Battery Drop of 5% in two hours is not bad

A battery drop of 5% within two hours is not bad at all. How much does it drop throughout an entire day? How long can you use it for taking a few calls, browse a little?
If it only drops heavily, when not in airplane mode, please check your battery usage: Settings -> General -> Usage -> Battery Usage

Replacement

Apple offers an about $80 (+ $7 shipping) battery replacement-program for iPhones https://www.apple.com/batteries/service-and-recycling/

Alternatively, if you - or a friend of you - like to fix things yourself you could consider a iFixit iPhone 5s Battery replacement kit, which is about $30 (without shipping)  https://www.ifixit.com/Store/iPhone/iPhone-5s-ReplacementBattery/IF124-002-2

iFixit provides very useful guides of how to fix electronic devices from Apple or other manufacturers.

Check warranty

You might want to also check your warranty status: https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

If you have an AppleCare Protection Plan they might replace the battery for free!


Login Items does not start in 11.2 I just installed a clean 11.2 and the opening elements in login are very random in Login Items windows. Telegram iTerm and Flux does not start. But Notion yes and 1password, karabiner and other not listed in Login Items. I have removed and put back the elements, but no change.

I gave up trying to fix it using the UI. Instead, I've created a launchd agent in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/. This can be done by writing a .plist file with this content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- This is ~/Library/LaunchAgents/my-login.plist -->
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>my-login.agent</string>
    <key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key>
    <string>Aqua</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/$myuser/.local/etc/scripts/my-login.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>AbandonProcessGroup</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/my-login.err</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/my-login.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>

As you can see, it runs a script in .local/etc/scripts. In turn, this just runs everything it finds in .local/etc/scripts/login/ (you can choose another dir for this, eg, Library/scripts):
#!/usr/local/bin/bash
# This is my-login.sh

cd `dirname "$0"`/login
for script in *.sh
do
  . "./$script"
done

Finally, login/*.sh files usually contain very simple commands, eg:
# google-drive-client.sh
open "/Applications/Backup and Sync.app"

(and of course, this is the same mechanism that many *NIX distro use for /etc/profile.d or /etc/cron.d).
Everything can be enabled by running:
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/my-login.plist

(or, logging off and logging on again should do it too).
The .plist options runs the script upon load, and only once. Moreover AbandonProcessGroup ensures that the applications launched in background (eg, using open) are not killed when the main script ends.
This isn't for the non-expert, sorry, I couldn't fix the problem at UI level and I think the macOS quality is getting worse.


How do I revert to a previous version of a file using Lion's file versioning tool? I can't seem to figure this one out.  I have filevault running if that makes a difference.

Open the file in question.
If the application you are using supports Versions (not all of them do yet) you will find a downward pointing triangle to the right of the title of the document at the top of the window.
Click on that and it will take you into Versions.  If there are previous saved version, you will be able to "scroll" back through them and select the one you want.

Some applications have not yet been updated to take advantage of Versions...  In that case, you will find that you are out of luck for now.

Bill


Is there a presentation mode on mac? When watching a video, or making a presentation, is there an option or a tool to disable all screensaving, energy savings and all? Regardless of if the power is plugged, I'd like to keep the screen fully on.

I know I can manually adjust the settings everytime. But is there a "presentation" mode, in addition to "battery" and "power adapter" modes?
Or a tool to achieve this?

Thanks

The best 3rd-party based solution for you is to use Caffeine.

  About Caffeine:   A tiny program that
  puts an icon in the right side of your
  menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac
  from automatically going to sleep,
  dimming the screen or starting screen
  savers. Click it again to go back.
  Hold down the Command key while
  clicking to show the menu.


Disable HiDPI resolution My macOS High Sierra install keeps switching to 720p HiDPI in stead of running at the native 1440p.

When I click on the 1440p setting it shows me the correct res but it switches back after about 1 second.
When I reboot my Mac I also log in with the correct res but it changes to HiDPI after ~5 seconds.

The monitor is from Asus, 27" 2560x1440.

I tried changing the res with SwitchResX and jhford's screenresolution utility.

I found a way to disable this behaviour through the this command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool NO


Permanently saving changes to $PATH I have ruby and homebrew running for a while and I'm starting to play with Bash. I have encountered a problem with my PATH variable as echo'd:

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin??n’export

As you can see, there is both redundancy and junk at the end int he form of illegal characters (causing a host of other issues).
I can change the PATH with

export PATH="/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin"

which does indeed return the desired PATH when echo'd:

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin

But I can't figure out for the life of me how to save the PATH so that it doesn't reset on reopening. I don't need to add paths. I just want to make this the new value of that variable. Please, how can I make this change permanent?

You can simply add your export PATH... line in your bash_profile file. This file is run every time you start terminal and will modify your PATH variable as you want. You can open/edit this from anywhere in terminal using

 open ~/.bash_profile

You probably also want to check that there are no conflicting export PATH... statements that overwrite each other or something.


iPhone 6S storage issue I have iOS devices since the 3GS but this happened to me for the first time tonight.. I have the 16GB model. It's quite enough for me. I had 2.2GB free. This afternoon I performed 3 updates and 2 hours after that my storage started declining and went to 0 bytes. Since then it stack 0 bytes for no reason. Any opinions?

I've talked with Apple Support, and they determined that it is probably a software glitch. The only solution is a reinstallation of iOS.


Screen Time: how can I disallow bypassing limits? It's too easy for me to click on those "one more minute" or "15 minutes" Screen Time bypasses.

Is there a way to really really block apps and websites and not being allowed to bypass the limit at all (unless going to settings etc.)?

I thought at some point there was a way but I cannot find it anymore.

Require a Passcode to bypass Screen Time limits:

Settings > Screen Time > Use a Screen Time Passcode

Once this is set, you will need to enter the passcode to bypass the limits. Arrange so that you do not have access to the passcode and you will not be able to bypass the limits.


The difference between clean install from bootable USB flash drive and from the built-in recovery disk I would like to clean install my MacBook Pro (Early 2015) with macOS Sierra which is also already installed up to the latest 10.12.5 version.

I Googled how to and found the macaw article How to Run a Clean Install of macOS Sierra. This article covers clean installing with a bootable USB flash drive.

I also found on Apple Support article macOS Sierra: Erase and reinstall macOS as erase and reinstall from the Internet or the built-in recovery disk. I also found the same instruction on Apple Support at How to reinstall macOS.

I want to do a clean install because of wifi connection issues. I'm currently using internet from an iPad Personal Hotspot. I have difficulty downloading MacOS Sierra on mobile data from Mac App Store or reinstalling from the Internet. Downloading 5GB from a coffee shop is also not convenient. I do have bootable USB flash disk of the original macOS Sierra (when it was first released).

May I know the difference between clean install from bootable USB flash drive and from the built-in recovery disk?

The short answer is that there is no difference to the end result. The difference lies in the process.

As an example, your current USB installer will install macOS Sierra 10.12.0. After installation you will still need to update it via the Mac App Store to get it back to macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

If you erase and install from the internet the version installed will already be macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

You can also startup from macOS Recovery and may be able to install macOS Sierra again without the need to re-download it.

But to answer your question, whatever you do makes no difference to the end result. In this case you just have a number of roads all leading to Rome.


What's the difference between launchd and folder actions? Could someone please briefly explain to me the difference between launchd and folder actions?

Do folder actions use launchd?

Is one more efficient than the other?

Is one more powerful than the other?

Is one used more over the other?

What is the difference between launch and launchctl?

Thanks!

Launchd and Folder Actions are two vastly different concepts.
Folder Actions
Folder Actions allow you to attach actions in the form of Apple Scripts folders which get triggered if the content of the folder changes. Typical use cases are e.g.

a folder to auto-upload photos to a website
removal of file attributes (e.g. the "downloaded" attribute)
triggering import into Evernote
etc.

launchd
launchd is a system-wide feature to run and control system-level background tasks. These can be either running all the time or get triggered by specific events (e.g. a connection request coming in over IP, a changing folder, a specific point in time etc.). OS X makes heavy use of this concept for all kind of things, have a look at the names in /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons to get an idea of functionality depending on launchd.
Because launchd is a system service running in the background all the time it can't be accessed by the user directly. To send commands to launchd, the launchctl command is used.
Answers to specific questions

Do folder actions use launchd?

Most probably not. You can use launchd to do everything folder actions can do but at least on a level visibile to the user these are two different concepts

Is one more efficient than the other?

No difference here, both get triggered by OS X upon special conditions.

Is one more powerful than the other?

launchd is definitively more powerful.

Is one used more over the other?

In a newly installed system there already is a great number of active launchd scripts but no folder actions. Because the later must be explicitely activated and configured by the user, it's probably a safe guess that launchd is used more often.


How to I access documents saved in iCloud with Mountain Lion on my iOS device I know that I can save a pages document in the cloud in Mountain Lion and then open it in Pages for iOS, but how do I access something saved in iCloud on TextEdit or Preview.

For instance, with Preview on Mountain Lion I could save a pdf in the cloud, but is there anyway to view that pdf on my iPhone?

Is this coming with iOS 6?

Although the files saved from TextEdit and Preview are actually saved in the cloud (and not just synced), they don't have corresponding iOS apps.

One of the biggest problems with iCloud is that an app can only access files in its container. There is no ability to open files from other apps. This is even more of a problem now that apps like Preview and TextEdit, which deal with generic files, are iCloud enabled.

If you are a developer, you can view all the files from all the apps stored in your iCloud account at developer.icloud.com. You can also download most of the files from there, but normal users are stuck.

So, if you only have one Mac (and any number of iOS devices), then the iCloud part of Preview and TextEdit is useless, other than that it provides another method of manually backing up a select number of files.


What is the best way to update the name of a Service? I changed the name of a Service by navigating to /Users/Me/Library/Services/ and renaming the .workflow file in Finder. I tried restarting the computer, but the previous Service name still exists in the menu bar and the context menu.

Is there something that I can do to force the computer to review the names of my Services?

After renaming the .workflow file in Finder, open the file in Automator and then save the file (press ⌘ command + S). The file must be re-saved in Automator if you want the new name to appear in the menu bar and context menu.

Then, restart your computer.

By following these steps, I got my Service names to update.


Opening QR Code reader app from URL When using Android and ZXing for reading QR codes, one can open the link http://zxing.appspot.com/scan to start the/a QR reader app (as mentioned here at zxing)

Are there any similar ways to activate a QR reader from an URL for iPhone?

Your linked example reveals that you would like to use a concept called Intents. Unfortunately, these are not available on iOS. As explained in the latter article, you could try to experiment with custom URL schemes on iOS (this may be pretty much what you want, but with a different scanning app) ... Experiment!


Which application is this icon? it looks like a paw Which application is this? I tried using Google image search to identify this application but was not able to.

This is for Growl a popular notification system before Apple created the Notification Center. You will find a panel in the System Preferences that controls it.


Automator: Find Reminders by list? I would like to retrieve all the Reminders in a specific reminders list with Automator. Searching for reminder, the available actions are “Delete Reminders”, “New Reminders Items”, “Filter Calendar Items“ and “Find Calendar Items”.

Find Calendar Items allows you to search for reminders, but the search parameters available are

Title
Notes
Priority
Completed
URL
Date Due
Date last modified
Date completed
Reminder has (alarms)
Reminder has no (alarms)

The “Reminder has (no)” query is fixed on alarms, no other options are given.

Is there any way to get all the Reminders from a given list?

I’m running Yosemite and Automator 2.5.

I have found a workaround. In that list, let’s call it Downloads, I have put the word “downloads” in every reminder item. Like so:

Downloads

Download http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/os-x-10-10/24/#javascript-automation
Download https://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/

Redundant and not too pretty, but it works.

The way I accomplished this was the following actions:

Find Calendar Items

Find Reminders where
All of the following are true
Any content contains list_name

Event Summary
…Now you can run other actions like “Extract URLs from Text“

Then you’re done.

One thing I have learned is that (so far) there is no way to retrieve the contents of a list from Reminders. These actions will grab any item that has the text of the list name. It won’t grab that list (or all the contents) even though the list has the stirng I am searching for. It makes sense but it is lacking a bit.


How is my iPod Touch able to determine my location when I'm offline? When I'm traveling through a city, as long as there are wifi networks nearby (even if they are secured with a password), my iPod Touch can determine my current location with great accuracy—obviously not as well as a GPS can in the iPhone, but still very well.

How is it able to do this exactly? Could someone explain the technical side of this, or does anyone actually know how this works?

Apple uses WiFi hotspots (and presumably the corresponding signal strength) to triangulate your position using a data from Apple.  Similar to how Google maps a hotspot using their StreetView cars, a 3rd party at one time scanned the area you travelled to and mapped the SSID and probably MAC address of the local hotspots.

Though I don't know if they still do, Apple at one time did not maintain this information internally but sourced it from a 3rd party.  Some of the initial privacy concerns about iOS regarded how this information was 'phoned home' to Apple without consent;  That is, when your iPod was connected and 'knew' its location, it would also scan the local SSIDs and send them to Apple to improve/update the database.

This data was sourced by Skyhook Wireless.

Based on my own inference from experience (though not 100% sure, and I no longer use an iPod, so even if this was true at one time it may not anymore be so), when you map a route in Maps, it caches the relevant SSID information for the areas to which you are travelling before it goes offline.


Install a new color profile on Mac OS 10.8 I have a IIYama screen that curerntly display garbages (very, very poor quality).

On the IIYama website, I found drivers for my screen (ProLite B2409HDS), it contains the following files:

2409hds.cat
2409HDS.icm
2409HDS.inf

And some other files for Windows 7.

But my issue is, on my Display preferences, I can't see any button to add a new profile using my icm file :

If I click on Open profile, I get a ColorSync profile that looks like when I open the given 2409HDS.icm file manually, so I think there is a way to add it... But can't find it!

Any suggestion ?

I finally found how to add profile: put the icm file on that directory:

Macintosh HD\Library\ColorSync\Profiles

And you'll see your profile here....

Anyway, this did not solved my issue, it looks like Apple really want us to buy their incredibly expensive screens. I surely regrets paying 30 boxes to upgrade to 10.8.


Location of Speakers on MacBook Pro Retina, 13-inch This sounds obvious, but I've looked all over the internet and haven't been able to find a simple answer telling me where the sound comes out of on a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro (late 2012). All I can see on the laptop itself are a bunch of vents at the connection between the screen and the keyboard, some longer vents on the left and right sides of the laptop's bottom, and the gaps between the keys themselves. Anyone have a clue?

The speakers on the MacBook Pro 2012 are on the left and right sides between the aluminium case and the battery.  The photos below are of the Macbook Pro bottom case assembly.  The speakers are highlighted in red.

Left Speaker:

Right Speaker:

The best place I have found on the web for information like this has been ifixit.com:  MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Late 2012 Repair


Start the recording using the MIDI piano keyboard? Is it possible, in GarageBand, to start/stop the recording using the midi piano keyboard as it is, for instance with Cubase? My piano is quite far from my mac and I want to start recording from my piano. (I know about the count-down feature)

PS : With cubase, you can define a key on your piano that will be used as command key.

If you have any other buttons available on your keyboard, you can use the GarageRemote software to program them as transport controls for GarageBand. Instructions for M-Audio Axiom series keyboards are available here. I'm not sure about programming an actual keyboard key.


Is there an app for Mac to check app network activity? I want to know what and where one of my apps trying to download from.

I would recommend using an app called Wireshark to monitor internet traffic. It by default shows all network traffic but you can narrow it to your system only using a filter.


Can you damage the file system by forcing a shutdown or cold rebooting during startup? My idea is that during startup (macOS or Windows), you can't damage the file system if you interrupt it as the drive is not being written to, just reading from.  I've heard that's not the case, and that during startup the drive may be written to.  what can be written to a startup drive during boot?

Please clear up my mind. Thank you.

It is possible to damage the file system by forcing a shutdown (i.e. for example by cutting off power) during startup.

During startup the operating system can write to files such as for example log files, pid files, caches, or in very extreme cases also swap files for virtual memory. Therefore the file system on disk can be modified by the operating system during startup - and thus there is a risk that something goes wrong if this is interrupted forcibly midways.

Modern file systems (such as the ones normally used on macOS systems) try to avoid corruption by the way of a technique called journaling. Therefore you'll probably experience that nothing goes wrong if you try interrupting the boot to test this out - however there is a risk.


To improve browsing performance, is it worth upgrading to iOS 5, on the original iPad 16GB Wifi? Currently, running an iPad 16GB Wifi only model with iOS 4.3.5. I have been noticing some slow redraw issues using Safari, generally when scrolling down length pages. I am seeing the checkerboard background, then the page renders.  Would upgrading to the latest version of iOS fix this or make it worse?

Is there a way to roll back to iOS 4.3.5, should I find iOS 5 latest version to be worse?

The version of Safari that ships with IOS 5 has much better performance than the versions that ship with iOS 4, as reported in this blog post and this article. This increased performance may address the checkerboard rendering issue that you've mentioned. HTML pipelining was introduced in iOS5, and may help with the latency that results in slow rendering. Anecdotally, viewing web pages in Safari does seem a lot faster after I upgraded to iOS 5.

Regarding a rollback to iOS 4 if you don't like iOS 5 - cksum's provides some detailed info in this Apple.SE answer.


Why Travel Time is not available for all calendars? I have two calendars set on my iPhone : one with CalDAV and another one with Exchange.
When I create an appointment in my CalDAV calendar, the « Travel Time » field is available, and I can select an address in the « Location field » :

But when I create an appointment in my Exchange calendar, the « Travel Time » field disappeared and I am unable to set a location.

Any idea of why Travel Time and Location are not available for all types of calendar ?
Thanks in advance

It depends on what the server has been configured for.  Travel Time is not something that is configured (normally) or by default in an Exchange Server.  Same thing for the Location field, however, by Default it's on.  On my particular Exchange server (hosted by MS365), Location is available by default.
Check with the admin of the Exchange server as to why those features aren't available.


How come Safari tells me “Safari Passwords are locked”? I recently did a clean install of my Mac (running macOS 10.12.1). After the clean install, I copied over the Library/Keychains folder from my old home directory on my backup drive, to my home directory on my Mac.

When I go to Safari > Preferences > Passwords, it now just says:

  Safari Passwords are Locked

  To unlock Safari passwords, enter the password for the user “Johnny Appleseed”

(It shows my Mac username instead of Johnny Appleseed, but you get the picture.)

I don’t remember ever creating a password for saved Safari passwords before or after doing the clean install. In fact, I don’t remember using saved passwords in Safari at all. (I use 1Password, so I never felt the need to have Safari save passwords.)

Is this something to do with iCloud Keychain, and/or my copying over of its Library folder? Or a bug? Or something else?

Turns out I just had to enter the password for my macOS user account. That showed me the saved password data that Safari had stored (and presumably synced via iCloud), which was mostly records of me clicking on “Never for this website” when asked if I want to save a password.


OSX partition failed I stumbled upon errors when I tried to partition my HD for an ubuntu partition. First it kept saying Partition Failed: Filesystem Verification failed That problem did disappear after a while. Probably when I repaired permissions. Then it kept saying Could not unmount disk "HD"

I tried unmounting disk manually, though that brought up Filesystem verification failed again.

There is a solution to your problem:

Filesystem verification can be stopped by booting to single-user mode, and then typing in order:

/sbin/fsck -fy
reboot

Could not unmount disk is because you are probably using it. Try booting from Recovery HD. If problem persists, boot Recovery from USB or use Internet Recovery to partition disk.