Why is a Retina MacBook running 1440x900 grainy under Boot Camp? I have a MacBook Retina running Windows 8 RP, with the driver that comes with Boot Camp.

I understand why running in a none native resolution like 1920x1200 is grainy. But 1440x900 is exactly half resolution of the native 2880x1800 resolution, meaning that there are 4 pixels to paint 1 pixels (aka pixel doubling), and thus should look great.

When running 1280x720 on my 27" Cinema Display (exactly half of 1560x1440) the picture is sharp and crisp, so why is this a problem on the Retina display?

PS: Running 150 DPI is not an option. Windows is really ugly when changing DPI and many applications have UI problems. Many Apps like Chrome and Skype does not support DPI but windows scales them so the look grainy. But worst of all, attaching an external screen forces this to run in 150DPI as well (turning my 27" into an 18"), and some programs like Remote Desktop are note scaled at all, so every thing is very small.

This is because of how Retina is implemented on these new systems. In the Mac OS (and iOS for that matter), resources are doubled in size, therefore each point is roughly the 4 pixels.

To the system though, it still reports the 1440x900 size, even though the actual pixel count is 2880x1800. The Mac OS knows how to handle this looking for @2X resources or using native code to render things at a higher resolution offscreen before painting to the screen.

While on Windows though, it is outright seeing the 1440x900. Since Windows doesn't really have a built in way to handle the 'Retina' feature that the Mac does, things would be grainy. You would see the same problem on a Mac App that doesn't use native text or image rendering, that hasn't been updated yet.

So the only way to make it look crisp on your Windows install would be to run at 2880x1800 - which would be hard to see, or a higher resolution than 1440x900 that you felt comfortable with depending on stretching/artifacts/etc. That is until Windows does have some possible feature like this and implemented in a similar way.

When connected to your external display though, Windows is seeing the 1280x720 px, and rendering that correctly, but at whatever your native resolution is. Also, the pixel density on the larger display may be different.

It comes down to the easiest way to understand - the pixel doubling/retina features are an OS feature, not a hardware feature.


What is the best way to connect a MacBook Pro to a Samsung TV set? I would like to connect my MacBook Pro, which has Mini-DVI DisplayPort and FireWire ports (I have DisplayPort to DVI converter as well).

What is the best way to connect it to a Samsung TV, which has the ports shown below?

Well it really depends on WHICH MacBook Pro you have as there are a number of output options available.

If you have a fairly recent one I would get the mini display port to HDMI adapter available from Apple (or Amazon, or whoever) and an HDMI cable and use that. It also has the benefit of carrying audio as well so you don't need a separate audio cable.

I use this exact setup with my Mac Mini to play videos I get from the iTunes store on my living room TV set. Works a treat!


Is there a URL scheme for sending an SMS to multi-recipients? I just got quickpick from the app store, and of course I have it doing my basic call this person (tel://A), text this person(sms://B), but I would like to know, is there a URL scheme for SMS with multiple recipients? I've tried mms://A+B but it doesn't recognize mms:// as a command.

Any thoughts?

If sms:// launches Messages (and it does), then you don't need an mms:// handler, because sms:// launches Messages but doesn't determine the message type. Simply tap the camera icon and choose the photo to send once Messages launches.

Protocol handlers like tel:// and sms:// are just glorified urls, like http://www.askdifferent.com/, and they were not designed with multiple resources in mind. Resources being domains, files, etc. Note that you cannot request two files from within a single URL.

Example: You cannot do something like: http://www.askdifferent.com/images/uploadedscreenshot1.png+uploadedscreenshot2.png

I've attempted various delimiters for multiple recipients, such as %20, ,, |, +, and &, and none of them working. I would not be surprised if there is no way to specify multiple recipients via the sms:// protocol URI.


Show company name in contacts I'm at work and I'd like to call one of our suppliers, Acme Corp.  I've already saved the contact for our current Acme rep on my iPhone.  Today our rep is Pete, but recently it was Susie, and in the future it might be Phil.  I don't remember what the rep's name is off the top of my head, but I do care that they're the person to call for Acme.

How can I see the company name in my contacts list while still recording the rep's name?

Just enter the company name and omit the first and last name of the representative. Put the numbers under category Work or Main. You can have more than one entry in any particular category, unlike Android.


You can’t open the application “iTunes” because it is being updated After applying the 10.13.3 update, I am not able to open itune and xcode.

In lanuchpad I don't see any update is being applied to these applications

How can I fix this? I cannot afford to reboot again and again (There are too many applications I have to restart for work)

I have tried to download the itune installer from apple. The installer just showed an error message than quit.

I have the same error message with XCode.

I deleted Xcode from Finder. Emptied the trash. Then installed XCode again from the App Store. (I cannot remove iTunes because it is disallowed by macOS)

Now both XCode and iTunes work again.


Screen Recording - NO COMPRESSION I'm looking to record my screen similar to how Quicktime does it, but I need zero-compression, since I need the pixel colors to remain correct.

Basically, I need a automated series of screenshots, if that's possible - lossless PNG at half-second intervals.

Are there scripts or other tools to do this?

perhaps you'd like ScreenFlow; it offers lossless compression.


Can’t get out of failed big sur install Help!
I made the horrible mistake of trying to update to Big Sur and now I’m stuck in a failed install cycle. I can’t start safe mode, the screen just goes black and nothing else happens. When I started in recovery mode I found out the problem with the install was that there isn’t enough space for Big Sur, fine, but I can’t stop it trying to install because I can’t get into the computer to get rid of the install file. I tried to revert to a time machine back-up from an external hard drive but even that failed.
Is there some way of interrupting the install so I can just get rid of the stupid thing?
If not is getting a disc of an earlier operating system and trying to boot from that likely to work? I don’t want to do this as I imagine I would lose all my data...?

I would get A external hard drlve and install the software on that, then use target fish mode to transfer files. Then erase Mac and install macOS. Then you would transfer files over.


Create a WPA hotspot I would like to share my wired connexion by Wifi.

As you may know, Mac OS Internet Sharing option doesn't support more than WEP security protocol. In other words, it's creating a nearly opened network.

Is there any software able to create a more secured Wifi hotspot (at least WPA) compatible with Mac OS ? Something like Connectify or Virtual Router under Windows 7.

I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011).

AFAIK it's not possible in Mac OS X as it is now.

Windows tools you've mentioned are probably relying on Windows 7 native ability to create ad-hoc WPA-protected networks. There is no support for that in Mac OS X and since WPA encryption on ad-hoc network is not defined by the WPA standard it will probably never be.


iPad Mini internet connection (No WiFi) I'm planning to buy an iPad mini + cellular but not on my country. I would buy itt on the United States and someone is going to bring it to me. I have some questions:

The person who is going to buy the ipad Mini would need to choose a data service from AT&T or any of the other services?
If it is necessary and the person picks AT&T... would i need to unblock it or something like that? The person would need to suscribe to some kind of data plan?
In my country there isn't LTE cellular network yet... The 3G will work?

In the US - all iPads (including the mini) are unlocked, pay as you please, no contract devices. The two models of mini are A1454 and A1455 with similar GSM 3G coverage:

Model A1454

GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
LTE (Bands 4 and 17)

Model A1455

CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, 25)

http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/

Accordingly, you can pick whether want to optimize your LTE future bands (or travel bands) or choose a CDMA+GSM model or the GSM only model. Since there are very few countries with CDMA coverage out side the USA, most people end up shopping the AT&T model 1454 - but curiously, the CDMA model 1455 matches many foreign LTE deployments and plans, so it's a bit of a tradeoff which any one person might prefer world wide.


Minimize other windows of an application Is it possible to do the equivalent of "Hide other Applications" for Windows of the same application?

Say i have around 4 main windows open for Chrome and each has 10 tabs. I would like to switch to Window 3 of Chrome and hide the other Chrome windows (Window 1, 2 & 4). Essentially i want to hit a CMD+M on the other "windows".

(this is different from Minimize/Hide other Applications that would allow me to switch to Safari and hide other applications like Chrome).

A keyboard shortcut would be awesome, but cursory googling tells me that i'll have to settle with an applescript?

Cheers.

This doesn't work with Preview or other aplications that don't support AppleScript.

tell application (path to frontmost application as text)
    try
        set miniaturized of windows where visible is true and index is not 1 and miniaturizable is true to true
    end try
    try -- at least Finder
        set collapsed of windows where visible is true and index is not 1 and closeable is true to true
    end try
end tell

I don't know how to get the focused window or hidden windows with System Events. The focused window isn't window 1 or AXMain or AXFocused. Setting AXMinimized to true didn't work with Tweetbot either.

tell application "System Events" to tell (process 1 where frontmost is true)
    windows where value of attribute "AXMinimized" is false
    --repeat with w in result
    --try
    --set value of attribute "AXMinimized" of w to true
    --end try
    --end repeat
end tell

There are many ways to assign shortcuts to scripts, but shortcuts for Automator services don't work reliably in 10.7 or 10.8.


Can't chmod or chown a file in TimeMachine backup directory When trying to restore a certain directory from TimeMachine (TM) I'm getting the error The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access problem_group_file.png. Looking closer at the files in the TM directory it seems that a file has consistently been getting, an perhaps continues to get, the wrong group ownership. Perhaps other file permissions are corrupt too preventing the restore operation from completing.

My next step was to try to change the ownership to be the same as its sibling files. This is something I've done before to successfully restore from TM at occasions when similar problems occurred. In this case though no matter what I tried I got the same error, Operation not permitted. Not even sudo touch is permitted in the directory. Perhaps this is by design.

Below is a listing of some files in the TM directory in question, with extended attributes and ACLs displayed. At the bottom is the problem file, called problem_group_file.png.

$ ls -aehlO@
total 26184
drwxr-xr-x@ 134 seron  staff  -  4,4K 12 Mar 09:41 ./
com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot    50B
com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot    50B
 0: group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown
drwxr-xr-x@   4 seron  staff  -  136B 29 Jul  2013 ../
com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot    50B
com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot    50B
 0: group:everyone deny

...

-rw-r--r--@ 6 seron  staff  -  4,8K 10 Okt 14:37 good_group_file.png
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot    50B
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot    50B
 0: group:everyone deny write,delete,append,writeattr,writeextattr,chown
add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown
-rw-r--r--@ 4 seron  wheel  -  3,2K 10 Okt 13:29 problem_group_file.png
com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot    50B
com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot    50B
 0: group:everyone deny write,delete,append,writeattr,writeextattr,chown

I've read[1] that the file may be locked with the uchg extended attribute, but this does not seem to be so in this case.

At the bottom of each file attribute list is the ACL. I haven't used those before and don't understand how they work. Perhaps it is the cause of these problems.

The TM disk was checked without errors in Disk Utility. This problem appears on more than one TM disk which leads me to believe that it's not a TM disk error. The problem is manifested on multiple TM disks and backups. On the source side they all have the same (and correct) attributes and ownership sans ACLs. Disk Utility found attribute errors on the source disk, but only on files belonging to OS X, and not this file. All partitions are hfs+ journaled.

Reading up a bit on ACLs[1] I found that I could change ownership by first removing the file ACL with the following commands:

sudo chmod -a "everyone deny write,delete,append,writeattr,writeextattr,chown" problem_group_file.png
sudo chown :staff problem_group_file.png

After that the directory could be restored from TimeMachine backup without errors. This doesn't however explain why the problem occurred in the first place.


macOS Sierra. Safari 10.0. App is hanging while loading site or switching tabs I noticed yesterday this weird behavior, don't how to trace it, actually.

The thing is this: When the https://github.com loads I'm seeing spinning circle for about 5 seconds while Safari is hanging.

Additionally: when I open some other tabs, not github, it's okay totally.  When I'm switching to github tab the spinning circle appears again and Safari hanging for about that 5 seconds.

Similar behavior with bitbucket.org.

I've identified only these two sites.  Not sure what they share in common.

I've removed completely all content inside my ~/ regarding Safari data.

Opened Safari totally stock, as the Apple ships, the same issue.

Also tried with removing all website data and cookies -- the same.

Here's the image of loading content:

it kind of loads/hangs for about 5 seconds in that way.

Anyone got the clue, how I trace this maybe, or identify what might be the cause here?  Thanks.

Ivan.

Seems like this an issue with digicert's OCSP and Роскомнадзор. macOS tries to check certificate revocation every time when you change Safari tab with digicert certificate, but IP address is blocked by provider. Same issue with App Store downloads.

I've added different IP address to the /etc/hosts:

72.21.91.29 ocsp.digicert.com

and everything works fine for me now.

Also you can try other solutions or check details from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39899002/github-is-painfully-slow-on-safari-macos-sierra-10-12


Can you use the iPad to manage your iPod? I am about to get an iPad. My only other apple product is the iPod, and I do not have any windows computer (all Linux).

The iPod has been shelved for some time: I don't sync it very often with my music collection (which is on a NAS).

My question is: can I use the iPad as an interface to sync my iPod with my album collection in the NAS?

Sorry mate, but although it is possible to use an iPad separately from any computer, managing an iPod with an iPad is currently impossible. Both the iPad and the iPod require a computer to sync.

(Unless you jailbreak it, and somehow convince the iPod that the iPad is a computer with a registered version of iTunes. But I doubt you would want to risk that.)

Probably the closest you could come to this, is using the iCloud feature to sync photos, and movies across both devices, via your computer, and the internet. This is, however a different matter altogether.


iPad - Battery symbol on centre of screen My iPad has died, all I've got is in the centre of the screen, when I touch on button, of an empty battery with a red line along the top, any ideas or is it a dead battery?

The iPad battery has drained completely. Plug in the charger and wait for a few minutes for the iPad to turn on automatically.

If the iPad doesn’t turn on automatically, press and hold the power button after charging for 15 minutes to power it on.

To check if the battery is actually getting charged, plug in the charger, and press and hold the power button, the indicator on screen will show the device getting charged.


How can I disable the caps lock key? Is there any way to completely disable the caps lock key without using any third-party apps?

(Virtually, of course—I don't plan on jamming something under the key.)

Just use the Keyboard pane of System Preferences.

Click "Modifier Keys", and set "Caps Lock" to "No Action".

n.b. This setting can be different if you have more than one keyboard.


jDownloader-like command line tool or lightweight GUI App? I use jDownloader which works great, but takes a lot of time to load and surprisingly takes a lot of time also to start and stop downloads.

I'd like to have a similar functionality* but with a command line tool or a really light-weight GUI App. (but command line preferred)

* It mainly processes pages and links to known download sites and gets linked files and manages its downloads.

Plowshare is a command line-downloading tool for Mac OS X: http://alternativeto.net/software/plowshare/


Cannot access Boot Camp partition after OS X reinstall I've already used Boot Camp to install Windows on my computer. A while back I had to erase my hard drive and reinstall Mavericks. Once I did that my Windows portion still exist as a volume, but when I got to my Start Up Disk settings it's a folder and not a disk.

I have a lot of my music I created with sound effects and sound kits in FL Studios on that side I don't want to lose.

Do I have to erase and reinstall Windows using Boot Camp or can I fix that issue by creating another bootable disk for my Windows?

Neither of the suggested proposals is advisable. If you erase and reinstall Windows all the music will be lost. Creating a second bootable disk is a complex and error-prone task.

If the Windows volume really still exists you can access it in read-only mode and save your music to the OS X volume by default. If you also need write access install an appropriate tool like NTFS for Mac 14 or a free tool like NTFS-3G for Mac OS X.

You may also salvage the bootability of the Windows partition by adding appropriate MBR entries. Check for several questions and answers here at apple.stackexchange solving this issue.


Original Parallax Backgrounds for iOS7 It appears that Apple left out of the final version the original parallax backgrounds that were on the original beta. Does anyone know where to locate those old files?

NOTE: I've been able to find some low-res wallpapers in backups (the file is named LockBackgroundThumbnail.jpg), but the actual wallpaper doesn't seem to exist elsewhere.

The example background I used on the beta version is this one:

I'd like to obtain all of the original backgrounds that seem to have been removed from the final release.

There is no appropriate manner in which to get these files AFAIK. But this is how it's done anyway.

You need a copy of the beta IPSW

MUST BE FIRMWARE FOR FIRMWARE WITH BOOTROM EXPLOIT

ARM11; iPhone 2G, iPod touch 1g, iPhone 3G
ARMv6; iPod touch 2g
ARMv7; iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3g
A4; iPad 1g, iPhone 4, iPod touch 4g, Apple TV 2G

Now follow these steps:

Convert it from filename.IPSW to filename.ZIP by renaming it. In OS X you can just highlight the file, press [Enter] and rename the file extension on Windows, you can just rename it from CMD Prompt

C:\>ren iPhone3,1_7.0_11A4372q_Restore.IPSW iPhone3,1_7.0_11A4372q_Restore.zip
Open the ZIP (WinRAR, WinZIP, Extract, whatever) and extract the DMG file that is really big, around 1GB or more
Move it to somewhere easy to refer to. For this example, I am going to use the root of the drive. You will then need to grab DMG. This can be downloaded here for MacOS or here for Windows. Move this to the same location as the unpacked DMG.
Go to TheiPhoneWiki and find the beta firmware you unpacked, and click on the Build Number. This will bring you to a page showing at the top the Root FileSystem Key. Copy the RootFS Key for the corresponding IPSW. I will use BETA 1 as the example.

Use the following syntax to decrypt the DMG:

./dmg extract [main-fs-dmg] rootfs.dmg -k [key]
This will decrypt the DMG for you. Once you have this, navigate to:
/InnsbruckVailPrime11A4372q.N90DeveloperOS/Library/Wallpapers/iPhone

You will now be able to access all the wallpapers in the BETA versions of iOS7.

NOTE: To make your life easier, I have also included a ZIP link with the iOS7 wallpapers in both the long and short sizes already. Enjoy!

Download iOS7 Beta Wallpapers


Delete Repeating Calendar Events in iOS 7.0.4 I have an iPhone 4 and use the calendar feature often.  Deleting events used to be simple, but at the moment I've found that I cannot delete an existing repeating event.

I can tap on the event and view the details.  There used to be an "Edit" button for repeating events, where you could select to delete either one instance of the event, or all instances of the event.  That "Edit" button is no longer there though, and I cannot find any other way to delete the series.

Software version is iOS 7.0.4.  Does anyone know how I can get rid of this?

Thanks!

Tapping on an event should give you an edit button in the upper right. From there you scroll down to the very bottom and will see the option to delete the event(s).

delete event >


Source code to string in variable In AppleScript Editor i can see that source_code has script content but row 2 fails for some reason.

set source_code to load script (POSIX file "/path/to/script.scpt")
word 2 of source_code

This don't work. I try to read AppleScript files to variable.

I don't try to run this loaded code but i need to get it as string.

It seems to fail because source_code is «script» not string. How this can be fixed? Thanks

set source_code to load script (POSIX file "/path/to/script.scpt")
word 2 of (source_code as string) -->error "Can’t make «script» into type string." number -1700 from «script» to string
word 2 of source_code -->error "Can’t get word 2." number -1728 from word 2

The load script command loads a script as an object to be run, rather than as text to read or manipulate.

If you want to access the actual text of your script, you can use osadecompile:

do shell script "osadecompile ~/Library/Scripts/test.scpt"
word 2 of result

Compiled scripts saved with AppleScript Editor usually have LF line endings in strings but CR line endings in other places. osadecompile converts all line endings to LF. do shell script converts line endings to CR unless you add a without altering line endings specifier.


How to use 'cut' with null delimiter This question basically is exactly the same as this question in Stackoverflow.

Using the syntax of cut the specification cut -d '' file should actually work and (given the answers to the question) it seems to work on Linux systems. However, on Mac Os X I get cut: bad delimiter.

My question is: is there a way to specify a null delimiter in cut on Mac Os X?

(I know that one could just something else than cut but I am just wondering now ...).

The standard cut on macOS doesn't support this, but you can get the GNU version (which does) by installing coreutils through Homebrew.


Quick way to toggle between "Larger Text", "Default", and "More Space" on Macbook Retina On Macbook's with retina display you are able to select between 4 different scale modes as showed in the picture below

It takes some clicks to get into the Display settings and choosing a new scale. I guess I am not the only one changing the scale frequently so I am confident that an easier solution to this exists.

Question:
Are there any keyboard shortcuts that toggles the different scale modes without the need of third party software?

You can use Automator to script things like that since OS X does't include a built in command key for that option. Once it's scripted, you can then assign a key shortcut to that script/action.

Open automator and search for the "watch me do" action for scripting of the UI.

Relevant tutorials are at https://macosxautomation.com/automator/foo.html


Changing background colors in my folders How can I change the folder color from black to grey in my folders. I am using OS X 10.6.8. I tried going to View, Show View Options and there is nothing there for me to change colors

If the option isn't under 'Show View Options', make sure your folder view is set to icons. You can't change the colour in list view.


How to know under which account/Apple ID an app was purchased? I uninstalled/removed apps I used to purchase using a family member's Apple ID; then I re-purchased apps using my own Apple ID.

Is there a way for me to check whether the apps are now under my Apple ID? I would like to ensure.

There are 2 ways I can think of now:

Follow this step-by-step program to see your complete purchase history
Remove the app, make sure you're logged in on the right account and check if the just removed app has a cloud-symbol instead of "purchase" next to it.

Hope this helps.


Is it possible to put a iPad data sim card in an iPhone 5s? I would like to purchase an iPhone 5s for data use in the US and as an international phone when overseas.  Is it possible to use an iPad SIM card in the iPhone 5s to use for data only?

Depends on what iPad you have. Here's Apple's guide to SIM cards in their devices.


Adobe Photoshop CS5 PC version running via boot camp I just bought my first MacBook Pro as I will be doing more work on the road, but I just realized my Windows license of Photoshop CS5 won't work on my Mac.  I guess it's OS-based?  Someone suggested installing Boot Camp or Parallels to run Windows via the Mac and use my Windows Photoshop CS5 license that way.

Anyone ever tried this?  If not, I guess it'll be GIMP for me.

Thanks.

Parallels is fantastic. You can either install Windows to a Bootcamp partition (so you have the option of booting straight into Windows), or just as a virtual machine. Either way, Parallels can then run in "Coherence Mode", which will allow Photoshop to appear on your Mac desktop as though it were a native application. I use Parallels for developing Windows software and for games, and the performance is brilliant.

Of course, you could talk to Adobe about a crossgrade to the Mac version - if you don't already own Windows the cost may be comparable.


RTF files created using the 'touch' command will not open I'm no expert on CLI or using the terminal or anything, but I like playing around with my computer.

When I create a .txt .html or .md file or whatever using the 'touch' command in terminal, they work fine. But .rtf file I create just give me the error

"The document “foo.rtf” could not be opened."

What am I doing wrong? Are you not able to create files in this manner?

As you've likely discovered, touching a nonexistent file will create a zero-byte file with the name you specify.  (touch is also used to update the modification time on an existing file.  See man touch for further details.)

The problem you're running into is that though a completely empty file is valid HTML, text, or Markdown, it is not valid RTF—this is true of many file formats, actually, which are structured in a particular way and require some data to be present be valid.

Based on my experimentation, the bare minimum RTF file appears to be

{\rtf1}

If you'd like to create a blank RTF file from the shell, try this:

echo '{\rtf1}' >Foo.rtf

Note the above will overwrite Foo.rtf if it exists.


What does iPhone new contacts "outside of specific account" mean? In iPhone Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Contacts, there is a message:

    New contacts created outside of a specific account will be added to this account.

What does that specific account referring to?

This happens if you also have your iPhone setup to sync to outlook via a microsoft exchange server.

The key here is to setup your "default account" to also work the same way when you are manually adding contacts to your iPhone.

Under Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Contacts -> Default Account you can select an account to have your contacts created in when you create a new contact.

"outside of a specific account" refers to your exchange account setup.

If you have any issues where contacts created on your iPhone don't sync correctly with your exchange account then you should change the default account to point to your exchange account.

more info and discussion about this (as well as potential sync issues with exchange server) can be found here.

Hope this helps.


Learn about basic OS X applications I have been a Windows user and have recently started using OS X (I have Snow Leopard on my machine).

I wanted to learn about the basic applications in OS X (e.g. Terminal) and other commonly or some important utilities used in OS X. I know a lot of important apps come bundled or pre-installed with OS X, but I am not aware of a lot of them.

Could someone please point me as to where I can learn about such apps and what are the important apps which I should know about?

The Mac 101 on Apple website seems like a good place to start.

And of course, Ask Different.


Printing to HP DesignJet 4000, no official or open source drivers? I want to use an HP DesignJet 4000 (Not the PS version). I don't find the way to print on that device because it prints the actual postcript code instead of the image or text itself. Is there a way to send "raw" or bitmap file to the printer ?

There is not a supported driver from HP, only for the PostScript model.

I have had the same issue in the past with a non-PS LaserJet 5, and I now use the 'Generic PCL driver' for mine.

The Gutenprint drivers currently do not have a version for your printer, although you may find some success using a similar model with a driver.


Why does time machine backup take "3 days" over USB 3? I have an external hard drive connected using USB3 to my macbook pro retina and I am running time machine for the first time.  It is going very slow and estimate says "3 days".  I don't understand why its taking so long because my hard drive is 335 GB and I would expect a backup to take a few hours tops maybe.

Can anyone explain if this is normal or if i am doing something wrong?

This is not normal if every backup takes that long and/or it never finishes.

You should let the backup end if at all possible. Each time you interrupt a backup - you add even more time to check the slow work that was made and then pick up where it left off. If you interrupt a back up too many times, it could take a week to get over a problem spot.

You could:

Let it run and see if the next time is quick.
Interrupt it and delete the partial backup
Clear the backups and start with a clean slate if you don't need the backups or don't care to troubleshoot a temporary issue.

If you want to troubleshoot, you have several options. Apple has a tmdiagnose tool that they use to collect logs and statistics relating to items that can cause problems.

If you can get help from Apple, I would do that and let them provide the training and expertise needed to make sense of the volumes of data that the diagnosis provides.

There are some other things you might try in this article:

Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues

Feel free to post back a more specific question if you find the issue doesn't resolve itself or you need more information about how to interpret your results from the article or the diagnosis tool. Also as you commented, it could simply be a bad hardware situation.


Why is iphoto creating un-deletable albums? When I sync all my photos to my mac mini iphoto then goes and creates albums on my iPhone like: Events, Last 12 Months and Last Import among others. I do not want these albums on my iPhone at all....

How do I get rid of them

If you go to iTunes and select your device there is a tab called "Photos"

If you check and uncheck the boxes as shown:

Check "Sync Photos"
Chose "Selected albums, Events..." radio button
Un-check "Last 12 Months" and "Last Import" and any you don't want
Then check any albums you do want

You should be set.


Blackboard theme for iPad Keynote I'm creating a presentation with my MacBook Pro and Keynote.

I'm using the theme Blackboard which uses the font Chalkboard.
When I import the presentation on my iPad Mini via iCloud the default font becomes Chalkduster and the presentation is messed up.

I noticed that the font Chalkboard is present in the iPad, however it would take a lot to change all the text fonts manually.

Why does the iPad Keynote change the font? Is there a way to prevent it?

Actually my problem was that Blackboard on OSx uses Chalkboard while on iOS use Chalkboard SE.

So I had to change all the fonts form Chalkboard to Chalkboard SE.


Why won't the Calendar app sync all of my Google Calendars? I have a Facebook Events calendar in Google Calendar, but the Calendar app won't synchronize it. It will sync all the other calendars like Meetup, ZipCar, etc, but not Facebook. The Facebook calendar won't even show up in the phone. I disconnected the account and re-connected it again but it still fails to show up. It does show up in the Google Calendar web page.

iOS 10.3.2, iPhone 5

Had to go to https://calendar.google.com/calendar/syncselect and select Facebook Events.

https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/99358?hl=en&ref_topic=3417927


How to get Mac OS X printer preset to save paper size and not default to system default paper size? I have a receipt printer and regular printer on my Mac and have the system default paper size set to Letter and default printer set to "Last Used"

In Safari I've setup a preset for my receipt printer but when I select it, the paper size still defaults to letter instead of the receipt paper.

I change the paper size to receipt size, select "Save current settings as preset" and all settings are saved in preset except the paper size.

How can I get the preset to save the paper size?

The Printing from Safari setup sequence for multiple printers.

Click on Print and in the pop up choose your printer and the settings you saved for it.

It will show it correctly in Presets!

When saving you will be asked for which printer the settings apply.


I accidentally removed all files with "rm -rf *". How can I recover? I accidentially deleted every single file in my home folder of my Mac using rm -rf * in iTerms. I intended just to clear one folder, but clearly did not know what I was doing. Yes feel free to laugh, it's terrifying as well!

How can I recover my deleted files?

The files are not in Trash.
There is no Time Machine backup.
OS X Yosemite 10.10.4

If I was in the same or similar situation, this is what I'd try...

Using another Mac I'd download Yosemite from the App Store and then create a USB Installer.  Next I'd boot the Mac with the Yosemite USB Installer and install Yosemite to an External USB Drive, preferably a USB 3.0 HDD/SSD or even a large Thumb Drive.  Once the install to the External USB Drive is complete I'd boot the Mac from it and then download and install Ontrack EasyRecovery (on the external disk) then shutdown and move the External USB Drive to your MacBook Pro and boot from it. Then run Ontrack EasyRecovery and see what can be recovered.  If the trial shows promising results then purchase the product and recover as much of your User Data that you can.


Apache Tomcat Auto Start on reboot I followed these instructions to install Tomcat 8 on OS X El Capitan

https://wolfpaulus.com/journal/mac/tomcat8/

These instructions had section on start/stop using script

/Library/Tomcat/bin/startup.sh
/Library/Tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh

Questions

How can i make these script start and stop tomcat on OS Startup and Shutdown?

Try using login/logoff hooks.

https://support.apple.com/de-at/HT2420

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/CustomLogin.html

https://wiki.afp548.com/index.php/Login/Logout_Hooks_in_OS_X

Note. I should have posted this as a comment, but I do not have the rep.


Searching for mac files of same name but in a different format I have a batch of files and need to search/gather files of the same name but in another format (as opposed to manually searching for the files which would take forever!),
eg. I have a list such as
fredbloggs.pdf
joesmith.pdf
benjones.pdf
..and need to find on my mac
fredbloggs.txt
joesmith.txt
benjones.txt
..is there any software out there that can match up files like this?
Thanks!

You can just type kind:txt in finder search. This will give you all of the txt files on your system.


WiFi wont work but Apple Ethernet Will? I just got back to school today after using Ethernet at home.

The WiFi claims to be connected to my Macbook Pro, but I can't get any internet out of it here after an entire semester of working.

I tried resetting the PRAM. And "-"ing Wifi on the Network Settings.

The Ethernet at the University still works, but I can't stay plugged into the wall once classes start.

Anybody help?

If I was you I'd visit this web page and properly set up your Mac for access to the new WPA2 Enterprise Wi-Fi network at the University of Alabama, but then that would be cheating.


OS X Server Upgrade Path What's the upgrade path of OS X Server? If I bought Lion Server from Mac App Store, am I eligible to upgrade to Mountain Lion Server for free? Or if I'm based on Mountain Lion Server, can I upgrade to Mavericks Server?

OS X Server doesn't follow the same pricing structure as the recent operating systems.  While 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and 10.9 (Mavericks) have both been free their respective server apps have still had a cost associated with them.

The only change from Lion Server to Mountain Lion Server and Mavericks Server was a reduction in price from $49.99 to $19.99.

10.10, Yosemite, has been announced and is following the same free pricing scheme as it's two predecessors but I haven't seen pricing for it's Server app yet.  Personally I'd be surprised to see Yosemite Server cost less than $19.99.

With all of that said.  Apple is typically pretty good about honoring recent purchases when a price reduction or new version is released.  For instance, if you purchased Mavericks Server today for $19.99 and then see that it's been dropped to $9.99 or free next week then Apple will often issue a credit for the difference if you inquire.


Can I script checking for password date changes from ARD? Basically, I would like to know if the root password as been changed on several machines. Can I have Apple Remote Desktop script this for me and automate this check?

I found the info, but the data format is unnecessarily complex. At least in Mavericks (and I suspect several previous versions), it's in a property list, which is wrapped up inside another property list (the passwordpolicyoptions property in /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/root.plist). Theoretically, you should extract that property to a file, then use something like /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy to get the passwordLastSetTime property from it... but hacking it with sed is much easier:

dscl . -read /Users/root PasswordPolicyOptions | sed -n '/passwordLastSetTime/{n;s@.*<date>\(.*\)</date>@\1@p;}'

This command must be run as root; interactively you'd use sudo, but if you're running it with ARD, just use "Send UNIX Command", and set "Run command as: User: root".


How do I set my Logitech harmony remote to control my Apple TV? I know I can teach the Apple TV to "learn" a 3rd party remote, but thats not what I'm looking for.

I want to add the Apple TV as a device, and I know it's possible, but I don't know where to find the right device in the harmony menus.   I know it's possible, as i know others who have done it in the past, but am no longer in touch with them.

Anyone know how to do it?

I believe the correct setting is found in the following location

Computer-> Media Center PC -> Apple -> Apple TV


Lightroom: I did save to catalog and I lost my changes; can I restore my changes? I'm using lightroom 3 on mac. Not long ago I did save to catalog (I don't know what it does) and apparently I didn't select all the photos I have changed.

I opened the saved file and I've been asked if I want to close the software and to open it from this catalog. I pressed yes and I saw just the photos I'd selected before I saved the catalog. When I returned things to the last backup (from a week ago), I saw that all the changes I did from the last week were not there, even if I import a folder that I added in this week it comes up with no changes...

Is it possible to me to restore things to the second before i saved the catalog? when all the changed was there?

What does the save to catalog do?

Many thanks

I'm not sure what "save to catalog" does.  In fact I couldn't even find the command anywhere within Lightroom 4. I always import batches of photos directly into LR straight from an SD card. This automatically adds them to the catalog and saves the raw file in a separate directory.

The catalog is just a database which contains all the edits you do to a photo.  Any changes you make while editing in the develop module are saved the instant you make them.  You can also save the changes as XMP data which is written directly to the raw file so if your catalog ever becomes corrupt your edit data is saved.  There is an option to automatically save xmp data or you can do it manually on a photo by photo basis.

If you use Time Machine or another backup system you should be able to go back and restore to any saved point.


Jailbreaking iPhone 5 How do I Jailbreak my iPhone 5. It is running the latest supported release of iOS (10.3.3).

There are various custom firmware available for Jailbreaking iPhone 5 running iOS 10.3.3.

I'd direct you to releases section of the iOS Jailbreaking Wikipedia page to see the available firmware for yourself.

A few supported ones for your device (from the aforementioned Wikipedia page) are:

h3lix Jailbreak
EtasonJB
Poenix Jailbreak

Note: I personally do not Jailbreak my iOS devices. Please proceed at your own caution. A Jailbreak can be reverted any time by restoring the original firmware.


I phone 4 and Imac Icloud text issue I have an imac and most people that text me on my iphone 4 comes through on my imac via icloud. It's still working well for all my contacts except one and it comes up red. So when i recieve texts from this person on my phone I cannot see it or respond on my imac, and if I try to text them on my Imac it shows undeliverable?? Help

If their name at the top of the message window shows in red, 'apple' thinks it's an sms-only number.

Check & if necessary re-select their proper connection details from that red name
[becomes a drop-menu if you click it - down arrow to the right of the name]
Will turn blue when it connects successfully, or stay red if it is only SMS-capable.


Why am I seeing these weird characters in the popup that asks for my password when I try to update Adobe Flash on my Mac? I'm running OS X Yosemite on a Macbook Pro. I recently had an update for adobe flash but when the password prompt pops up to continue the installation of the update it looks like this:

What's going on here? I don't have any issues with characters missing anywhere else on my laptop. It's only when it asks me to enter my password for any system changes. Is this some kind of malware or just a system font issue?

Your system fonts got corrupted.

Stop/Ignore the flash update and start in safe mode.

Now use the Font Book app in the applications folder.

Use the File- restore standard fonts.


How to force Finder to update file thumbnails? Recently I updated album covers in most of my mp3s, but their respective thumbnails on Finder did not get updated.

Things I tried:

Removed (rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist) without solving the issue at all
"touch"(ed) the files, which refreshed some - not all - the thumbnails

Any ideas on how to force a refresh of my mp3 thumbnail icons in Finder?

See the manifestation of this issue below:

Thumbnails are generated by QuickLook. You can reset its cache by typing qlmanage -r cache.

If this didn't work reset it completly with qlmanage -r.


Choppy Bluetooth audio: How to persist Bluetooth bitpool settings on Mavericks? I am using a Bluetooth 3.0/aptX Audio Device. Pairing the device leads to choppy audio, due to bad default bitpool settings in OSX.

The issue has been widely documented, e.g. here on stackexchange.

There used to be a fix on Yosemite by setting new defaults:

defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Max (editable)" 80
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" 48
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Apple Initial Bitpool (editable)" 40
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool" 58
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool Max" 58
defaults write com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent "Negotiated Bitpool Min" 48

This does not work on Mavericks though:

# defaults read com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent
2015-01-29 17:28:12.522 defaults[80133:934404]
Domain /Users/jottr/Library/Preferences/com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent does not exist

Writing new settings to com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent does not affect the actual bitpool settings on Mavericks.

I am able to set Bluetooth bitpool settings in the Bluetooth Explorer App  (which is part of Xcode):

These settings are not persisted across reboots though.

How can I persist the desired Bluetooth Audio Bitpool settings across reboots on Mavericks?

To force the system to use USB Bluetooth by default, try the following command:

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=always

This will modify your boot kernel arguments.

To do opposite, use never. The change would be applied after the reboot. To return to the default, run:

sudo nvram -d bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior


The application is not open anymore I am trying to open Discord.app but it doesn't open, instead I get a box that says

  The application "Discord.app" is not open anymore.

I press cmd shift esc and I can see Discord.app in the list, but selecting "force quit" does nothing.

Activity Monitor does not contain an entry for Discord.app, when I search "Discord" there are actually no results.

Running ps -ax | grep Discord at the terminal returns no results. sudo pkill Discord error statuses and outputs nothing, sudo killall Discord errors No matching processes were found.

How can I open discord again?

I fixed it by restarting the computer. Annoying bug.


Can Automator pass multiple lines (e.g. from a shell script) to the New Mail Message action? I have Automator running a shell script that ends with cat "tempfile.txt". The cat command should output the contents of tempfile.txt. The file tempfile.txt contains just the following three paragraphs over five lines:

1st paragraph Lorem
2nd paragraph Lorem ipsum
3rd paragraph Ut enim

I have this chained in Automator to the "New Mail Message" action. The instructions for this action say that "If text is received from a previous action, the text is appended to the message."
The expected behavior is therefore that the body of the email message contains those three paragraphs. Instead, it contains only the third—shown here:

Below is the relevant part of the workflow. In it we can see in the Results for the shell script that all three paragraphs are being passed to the "New Mail Action." Why does this not put all of the input text file into the message body?

Update (further info): If I swap in the "Create New Outlook Mail Message" action in place of the Mail.app action, all three paragraphs are successfully passed to the body of the new message in Outlook. However, they are passed without line breaks.

It looks like there may be a bug in New Mail Message action in Automator. If you are interested in an AppleScript workaround, where the output of the Run Shell Script action is formed into the content of the new mail message using AppleScript code to create a new mail message, here's an example workaround.

In place of the New Mail Message action use a Run AppleScript action, after the Run Shell Script action, with the following example AppleScript code:

on run {input, parameters}
    set theMessageContent to ""
    repeat with i from 1 to (count of input)
        set theMessageContent to theMessageContent & item i of input & linefeed
    end repeat
    tell application "Mail"
        activate
        set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, content:theMessageContent}
    end tell
end run

This creates a new message that looks like the following example image.

If you need too, you can add additional properties, as in this example AppleScript code:

on run {input, parameters}
    set theMessageContent to ""
    repeat with i from 1 to (count of input)
        set theMessageContent to theMessageContent & item i of input & linefeed
    end repeat
    tell application "Mail"
        activate
        set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:"Hello World", content:theMessageContent}
        tell theMessage
            make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {name:"John Doe", address:"johndoe@domain.com"}
        end tell
    end tell
end run

Obviously, you'll need to change the value of the additional properties, and or add more properties then shown, to fit your needs. You can look in Mail's AppleScript Dictionary in Script Editor for additional applicable properties.

This creates a new message that looks like the following example image.


Can I prevent Chrome from storing passwords in Keychain, instead just save it to itself? Can I set up Chrome to not store passwords in the Keychain?

I'd like to be able to use Chrome as my browser on her Macbook, without having my passwords shared into Safari and Firefox (which she uses).  That's how we've shared this computer for a long time (which means I don't have to bother logging out fully and logging in as my own account), and since upgrading to Yosemite it has changed behavior here.

Open Chrome then on the right site click on

Click the Chrome menu Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.
Select Settings.
Click Show advanced settings.
Under the "Passwords and forms" section check the "Offer to save your web passwords" checkbox if you want Google Chrome to prompt you to save your password every time you sign in to a new website.

Open your KeyChain and find the Google/Chrome passwords that you do not want to share. Open and select Access control. Now use one of the available options to your desire (to share or not).


Unable to manage or delete songs from my iPod Shuffle I have 2 iPod Shuffles and iTunes will not let me manage my music manually. It won't show playlists using a brand new MacBook Pro. When I delete a song and confirm the delete twice, the song still remains.

The latest macOS doesn’t have iTunes.

Here’s a guide to get you started on the recent changes.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210200 - What happened to iTunes?


iCloud email - server password changed? I have been using iCloud for a few months now with no problems until today.

My mobile flagged up that I cannot login to my iCloud email account due to:

Server password has been changed. Input the changed password.

I didn't change any passwords. Can someone help point me in the right direction of where I can find help please?

I just contacted Apple Support and they confirmed this was a new Apple ID authentication issue. Basically, iCloud has deemed that my account should not just have one password, but a dual-verification which, once completed, generates app-specific passwords for each device used (Apple devices or not).

Two-step verification for Apple ID
Using app-specific passwords


Why do some softwares have memory leak? Can anyone simply explain the reason of memory leaks? My Firefox seems to use up to 500Ms of memory though it is only for reading news Online. It seems that certain browsers use significantly less for the same pages viewed although I like how Firefox is mostly fast.

Google and Bing are your friends.

A Memory Leak is due to bad memory management of the application.  Basically, it allocates memory but fails to release it when finished.  Therefore, as the application continues to run, it keeps allocating free memory until there is no more.

The fact that certain browsers use more or less memory has nothing to do with there being a memory leak.  Chrome likes to have individual processes for each tab  or session (more memory) where Firefox does the opposite.  Memory is cheap now so there is less of a need to be efficient, but there is a need for higher performance.

The real issue is what to do about memory leaks - since most people don't reprogram and self-patch a program like FireFox - you can quit a program that has leaks or just log out. Mac OS (as well as most other operating systems) then release all the leaked memory and return it to the system pool. Leaks happen, so as an educated user you can watch for them and tend to leaky programs as opposed to letting them run continually.


What meta-data does iCloud drive save and restore for each file or directory? Observation: Machine A had HPFS+ with iCloud drive subscription. Machine B had APFS and joined the same iCloud drive. When the content was downloaded, all the directories had a fresh modification date on them.

Experiment / Observation 2: Machines A and B are using the same iCloud drive. Disconnect the network connection on B. Create and empty directory on A. After some time connect B back to the network. The empty directory gets downloaded on B but with a fresh modification time (time of download on B). This does not happen for files.

Setup: In the above "experiments / observations", machine A is running macOS 10.12.6 on an HPFS+ (case-sensitive and encrypted). Machine B is running macOS 10.13 beta on an APFS (case-sensitive and encrypted).

Question: I would like to know what metadata are saved and restored for files in iCloud drive. For example what kind of time stamps are kept (creation time, last read time, last modification time, ...)? Are file names case-sensitive? Are they normalised?

Has Apple published any reference on this?

iCloud Drive is not stored on a traditional file system per se on Apple's servers.

On your Mac, the files in iCloud Drive are stored simply on the existing file system on your hard drive - usually HFS+. You can find the files at the following path:

~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/


Mac requires password every time I wake it I have my Macbook set to require a password one hour after sleep or inactivity, but it still asks for my password even after a moment of sleep. Am I misunderstanding this setting or is there another setting I am overlooking?

You didn't say where you set the preference, or your OS X version.

System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General has a setting:

In OSX 10.9 / 10.10: "Require password Immediately after sleep or screen saver begins."
In OSX Mavericks: "Require password for sleep and screen saver", followed by the time.

That item should be turned on and set to your preferred time.

If it already was, turn it off, quit System Preferences, then relaunch System Preferences and turn it on, then set your preferred time.


Running Compiled AppleScript from DMG Doesn't Work As a follow up for my previous question (Set the Working Folder of .app Created by Apple Script) I have the following problem.

I have an AppleScript which is Poor man's Installer:

tell me to activate

set appPath to POSIX path of (path to me as text)

set folderName to "'MyFolderName'"

set copyFolder to "cp -r " & appPath & folderName & "'/.' '/Library/Application Support/'" & folderName & "'/' & "

set exitScript to "exit 0;"

display dialog "Run Installer?" buttons {"Run", "Cancel"} default button 1

if the button returned of the result is "Run" then
    do shell script copyFolder & exitScript with administrator privileges

    display dialog "Finished Successfully!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1

end if

So the script above is compiled into Installer.app.
Inside it I put the folder MyFolderName which contains all the sources.

I create a a DMG with the title (Also the Path) My Project.
I run Install.app from the installer and it doesn't work.
I run the Installer.app from Desktop (Or any other place on HD) and it works.

I also changed the DMG title to have no spaces MyProject and it works.

So something in the parsing of appPath into the Script doesn't work if it contains spaces.

Any idea?

As I mentioned in my answer to your other question:

Note that when using this in a do shell script command, use quoted form of to allow for spaces in the path filename.

Otherwise you'd need to escape spaces with a backslash \, and that can get messy.

Example: quoted form of appPath
You might want to do the concatenation separately and then pass it to the command.


Remove Shut Down from Login Window Is there a way to remove the Shut Down option from the login window on Mac OS X (10.11.x) while preserving the ability to restart?

In Terminal type this:
defaults write com.apple.loginwindow ShutDownDisabled -true to hide the Shutdown option.

To restore it again, type:
defaults write com.apple.loginwindow ShutDownDisabled -false


Thunderbolt display not charging MBP battery I have a mid-2012 Retina MacBook Pro and two Thunderbolt displays purchased in mid-2014. The MBP sits plugged into one of the Thunderbolt displays almost all the time, unless I'm using it away from my desk.

Lately, I noticed that the computer's charging behavior was odd:

The menu bar's battery indicator did display the "charging" lightning bolt;
The percent charged number did not change over the course of many plugged in hours;
The indicator light on the MagSafe charger did not turn on.

Some power was clearly coming through, since the battery was not draining; it was just also not charging. Restarting did not solve this, and neither did resetting the SMC (my go-to move for weird power or peripheral glitches). But: plugging the laptop into the other Thunderbolt display did solve the problem.

Thus it seems there's a problem with that particular Thunderbolt display. How do I troubleshoot it?

I just did what AdamJ said, took my magsafe adapter off and clean it up with a toothbrush to remove dust. It really worked and now my thunderbolt display is charging my macbook pro! :)


How to make a Macbook Pro lock and not sleep when connected to power? My 2018 MacBook Pro is connected to external displays and peripherals via a Thunderbolt 3 dock.

When I step away from my desk I lock the computer by pressing ctrl+cmd+Q on my external keyboard.

This works as expected, kicking the system back to the lock screen.

However, after a few minutes of this state, the system goes to sleep, turning off the screen and requiring time to become interactive again after jabbing the power button.

How can I prevent the laptop from going to sleep once locked if connected to power? The most important aspect of this is that Touch ID stays active, so I can instantly resume work at my desk with a single touch of the sensor.

This can be done in Energy Saver:

Open System Preferences
Go to Energy Saver
Select Power Adapter
Check/mark the "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" option
[Optional] Uncheck "Put hard disks to sleep when possible".


How can I remove my old iPhoto library after migrating to Photos? I upgraded to Yosemite and migrated my iPhoto library to the new Photos app. I'm happy with Photos and don't plan to go back to iPhoto.

This Apple support article makes it clear that the photos don't really exist in two places, but leaves it vague as to where they actually are.

I don't like having an iPhoto Library that my Photos library is dependent on, and I'm bothered by the weird and misleading sizes reported by the Finder.

How can I get rid of the iPhoto Library without damaging my Photos Library?

Once you are certain you are happy with Photos, & you are certain the Library has migrated successfully, you can delete the old iPhoto app & iPhoto Library if you wish.

The Library, as you mentioned, is 'virtual' as both are hard linked to the same files. Deleting either Library will not delete the pictures, only deleting both Libraries will do that.

The apparent size on disk is incorrect [or rather, somewhat misleading], as each Library will claim to be approximately the same size, yet they refer to the same files.

Also see - Does migrating to Apple's new Photos app actually double my storage requirements?


Can't reboot mac os siera to factory settings I want to delete everything and restore my MacBook Pro to factory settings. I followed these steps https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-factory-reset-a-mac deleted disk, and after that tried to reinstall macOS, but I keep getting an error: "an error occurred while preparing the installation. try running this application again"
I tried to fix the issue by setting the correct date in the terminal, but that doesn't help. I tried to revert everything in disk utilities, but I also can't do that. This is how my Disk Utility looks like

Can someone help me how to reboot mac to factory setting or at least to revert everything back? Thanks.

The reason you are having issues with this is because the guide incorrectly tells you to press Command + R which is Recovery Mode but uses your local drive and means you can't erase the whole drive.
You need to run Command + Option + R which will run Internet Recovery Mode, and from there you'll be able to show all the partitions and erase the top level one as APFS then quit Disk Utility and install macOS to this new empty drive.


iPhone SE on iOS 9 - Possible to restore messages from an iOS 10 backup? I have an iPhone SE that was recently updated to iOS 10 by mistake.  Since it can't be downgraded, I've acquired an identical iPhone SE running iOS 9.3.4.  I know I can't restore a full iOS 10 backup, but is there any way to restore just the Messages from the iOS 10 backup?

I don't just mean to extract and save them as a text file or something, I mean actually restore them in Messages so they show up as they normally would, as the history of the people being messaged.

No, the database used has changed between iOS 9 and 10, and as such you can't copy the messages database over, since iOS 9 will detect an error with the database and start fresh.


My whole startup disk has gone blank After a botched arch Linux install, my whole ssd got wiped. I used a bootable USB drive for Ubuntu to see what happened and saw that all my partitions from the SSD had vanished and the drive was showing up as free space. I am loading up internet recovery but I am not sure what I'll do there.

Everything went to hell after I typed
parted mklabel gpt /dev/disk2 or something similar along these lines.

I don't care about recovering my data but all I want is my MacBook to boot up again

System: MacBook Pro Retina Display late 2011

Granted that gparted didn't erase/secure erase data (overwriting important parts of your disk with zeros or arbitrary data) you probably can recreate the old standard GUID partition table which follows a fixed Apple scheme. gparted or similar gpt partitioning executables usually only modify the first and last 34 blocks (512 B) or 6 blocks (4096 B) of a disk.

The fast approach below won't work, if you've modified the disk previously (e.g installed Windows, resized the main volume and added a second partition). It only works with the "vanilla" OS X install partition scheme.

Recreating the old GUID partition table should restore the previous volume(s). Here is a related answer: HFS+ invalid number of allocation blocks.

The standard Apple GUID partition scheme looks like that:

                0           1         PMBR
                1           1         Pri GPT header
                2          32         Pri GPT table
               34           6
               40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
           409640  part2-size      2  GPT part - partition type
part2-size+409640     1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
    total_size-40           7
    total_size-33          32         Sec GPT table
     total_size-1           1         Sec GPT header

Here total-size is the total size of the disk in 512 B-blocks. part2-size usually is total-size - 1679216 in 512 B-blocks.

The partition type of the second partition is either 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC (CoreStorage) or 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC (HFS+).

Newer systems on SSDs preferably have a CoreStorage- and older systems on HDDs an HFS+-type main partition.

Preparation:

Detach any external drive
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.

The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan). If you boot to a full system and login as admin you have to prepend sudo to execute some commands like gpt ... or newfs_hfs ...!

Remove the an old/wrong MBR/GUID partition table

Enter diskutil list and gpt -r show /dev/diskX (with x=0,1,2,3 etc) to get an overview. Usually the internal disk has the disk identifier disk0. Below I assume your internal disk is disk0.
Enter gpt destroy /dev/disk0 to remove any current GUID pt.
Enter gpt create -f /dev/disk0 to create a new empty GPT partition table and replace any MBR by an PMBR.

Restore previous partitions

EFI:

gpt add -b 40 -i 1 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B /dev/disk0

Recovery partition:

Now do the math: the start block $sbrecovery of the Recovery HD is total-size - 1269576. $sbrecovery has to be dividable by 8!

gpt add -b $sbrecovery -i 3 -s 1269536 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B /dev/disk0

Main volume

Do the math again: the size of the volume $mainvolumesize is total-size - 1679216. $mainvolumesize has to be divisible by 8! Your main volume may either be a CoreStorage or a HFS+-type partition. Here I assume it's the first one:

gpt add -b 409640 -i 2 -s $mainvolumesize -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Now check if diskutil list finds a CoreStorage volume:

diskutil cs list

If the GUUID partition table is properly restored and your main partition was a CoreStorage volume you should get an output similar to this one:

  CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group A629E051-D7B0-4B8C-A803-074F62704636
    =========================================================
    Name:         System
    Status:       Online
    Size:         53946696192 B (53.9 GB)
    Free Space:   16777216 B (16.8 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 90C09FC0-4215-4871-901B-70E2C9C7D464
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     53946696192 B (53.9 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family F6962E38-50E4-4458-BFE6-CF2E179352F5
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume BD36C73D-860D-4DC6-B125-AD624F448B88
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk2
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          53496696192 B (53.5 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
            LV Name:               System
            Volume Name:           System
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

verify the CoreStorage volume with

diskutil verifyVolume diskX

(in the above CoreStorage example diskX is disk2 - check (Disk of Logical Volume), your diskX probably is disk14 or disk15)

If you get an error or no output your main volume either is a HFS+-type partition or the boundaries of the partition are wrong.

Then try the following and remove the CoreStorage-type partition and create an HFS+-type partition instead:

gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 409640 -i 2 -s $mainvolumesize -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Verify the volume:

diskutil verifyVolume /dev/disk0s2

If you run into problems or get strange errors please post a comment to the answer!


Does iTunes consider a one-star rating worse than no rating at all? If I want to tell iTunes I don't really like a track very much (but don't want to uncheck the track or delete it from my library) should I rate it as one star or leave it with no stars? Which would iTunes consider to be the lesser rating for a track?

No stars is a lesser rating than one star.  This can be verified by sorting a playlist by rating, and having at least one song on it with one star, and at least one with no stars.  The one with one star will float above the one(s) with none.


New iPhone 6 bought 4 months ago still restoring from iCloud backup Every time I try to download an update (iOS 9.2.1 in this case) on my iPhone 6 that I bought 4 months ago, it says I can't because my phone is still restoring from an iCloud backup. Why is it still restoring? The little wheel at the top is constantly going around.

Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive and turn that off - This worked for me after turning it off, back on, then off again. Restore stopped and then i turned it back on and did a back up.


compressord starting up every time I turn on my MacBook I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) running macOS 10.12.3 and have Compressor 4.3 installed. Every time when I restart my Mac, there are 2 processes called compressord, and CompressorHelper that got automatically started and causing my MacBook to use the discrete graphics card (which consumes a lot of battery power). One way to get rid of them is to open Compressor and quit it afterward. But it is annoying since every time I startup my Mac I need to do this process.

Is there a way to stop these two processes from opening up every time I start up my Mac? (Possibly without reinstalling Compressor as that takes up a very long time to do for me)

This problem cropped up for me when I used Compressor after not having used it in a long time. I've found that if I launch and quit Compressor after starting my computer then the process goes away but I haven't yet figured out how to make it stop running on boot.


Error code 80070022 and 80070057 when trying to backup music from iPod Classic I'm attempting to backup all of the music from my 80GB iPod Classic to my Windows Vista computer. My old computer (the one originally with the backed up music) died on me, so iTunes wont backup music from my iPod to the computer. So I am forced to either use a 3rd party transfer software or transfer the music from the iPod's file system. Attempting a backup either of these ways results in errors that prevent the computer from transfering 95% of the music. The 3rd party software offers no information about the error, but copy/pasting from the iPod file system to the PC returns the following errors:

error code 0x80070022 (first error message)
error code 0x80070057 (subsequent error messages for 95% of music files attempting to be copied)

If I try transferring through the iPod's file system on my Macbook Pro, I get error code -36.

I've tried restarting both the PC and iPod, and I've also tried the transfer in safe mode and copy-pasting files instead of just dragging a whole folder from ipod to computer. All attempts eventually have the same resulting error messages. I've even tried to transfer files onto a Linux machine to cover all bases. Most of the  12,000 songs on the iPod were ripped long ago from CDs I own. I've also painstakingly rated every one of these songs. I'm very worried that one day my iPod will crap out on me and the ratings will be gone forever and I'll have to spend tons of time reripping those CDs again. I've also googled this problem and have found little help.

Other details - this iPod was originally set up on a WinXP PC. Additionally, I should note that I have no problems connecting to iTunes or playing any of the music files. These errors are only preventing me from copying music files to my PC or Mac.

Thank you in advance!

The only thing I can currently think of would be swapping out the cable at this point and seeing if performance improves. You've tried on different computers, so that kind of rules out fault with the PC/Mac. It has to be something with the iPod, and the cable is the first thing I'd check.


Shouldn't iPad2 have the "frosted blur" effect with iOS7? My iPad 2 looks like an iPhone 4, without 'frosted blur'. Is it correct for the iPad 2 to not have the blur/frost effect?

My iPhone 4S has it and some videos on YouTube purport to be iPad 2's and have it (not sure if release version of iOS7 in those videos). So is it correct that my iPad2 runs iOS7 without this effect? I cannot find any documentation to confirm they left this feature out on iPad 2 but in on 4S.

According to AnandTech (http://www.anandtech.com/show/7343/the-ios-7-review), the blur effect requires at least iPhone 4S or iPad 4.

  On the iPhone side, the iPhone 4 lacks the cool blur effect in a number of places (notification center and control center are the most obvious), and iPad 3 does as well.


What is the purpose of the process RelayUploader in macOS? There is a running process called "RelayUploader" on a Mac machine. The user associated with that process is "nobody". What is the purpose of this process? Is it something legit or should this process be a security concern?

This isn't a proper answer, just some things you may want to try:

RelayUploader (aka Relay.Uploader) seems to be associated with a company called TechSmith... do you have any of their apps?
If you have a malware of virus scanner, you should run a scan on it.
Have you looked at the info available in Activity Monitor? (If not, open Activity Monitor, select the process from the list, then click the i icon in the Activity Monitor dialog). What does it say in the Open Files and Ports tab? Do you recognize any of these files?


How to recover missing notes since Mavericks update? Very recently I've updated my computer via the Mac App Store to Mavericks. Today when I opened Notes I noticed the background had changed but even more startling was that all my notes were gone! It shows "error 43".

I have an external hard drive and backed up my computer.

Is there any way to get my notes back?

The notes should be stored in your backup, at least. Check here

Solution is to navigate to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes and restore:

NotesV1.storedata
NotesV1.storedata-shm
NotesV1.storedata-wal

Where ~ is your home directory e.g. /Users/your_username

Refer macrumors
or apple discussions
for more info.


Video out from MacBook to iMac via thunderbolt I know there is no way to receive a video input from HDMI to most macs, however, I am curious if this could be done over thunderbolt.

If so what protocols would be used (RIP target display mode) to "screen share" from one mac to another?

Target Display Mode can use Thunderbolt, but as you observe it was only supported on iMac models from late 2009 to mid 2014.

If both Macs are on the same network then the easiest way for one to share the other's screen is with macOS Screen Sharing, but this won't offer the same performance as Target Display Mode.

Some other options are discussed in the answers to this question.


Automate Conversion from m4a to mp3? I have hundreds of sound effects - clips just a few seconds long each - that are all m4a files.

I need to convert them to mp3 files. What's the best way of doing this? I see Automator can automate some conversions, but m4a to mp3 isn't one of them.

Is there a good free program or command line utility or something I can use or this? Is there maybe some way I can get QuickTime or iTunes to quickly do this conversion for me?

I can load an NSSound using an m4a... I don't see any way to get NSSound to spit out a file, though...

You could install ffmpeg, a command line tool for audio/video conversion, and then create an Automator service invoking a shell command.

For installation of ffmpeg please refer to their website. Once you have installed it, find out the location of it with this command:

$ which ffmpeg
/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg

Then, open Automator, create a new Service, change the dropdown menu "Service receives selected" to "files or folders" in "Finder", then add the action "Run Shell Script". Select Pass input "as arguments" and in the textbox, write

for f in "$@"
do
    /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i "$f" -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k    "${f%.m4a}.mp3"
done

where you replace /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg with the path to ffmpeg on your computer.
That's it!

Now, you can open the Finder, go to a directory containing *.m4a files, select files you want to convert, right-click, go to Services and select your newly created service. There will be no progress bar shown, but ffmpeg will convert your files one after another.


How to reorganize labels in iPhone contacts? How to rename and delete these customized labels generated during adding or editing contacts on the iPhone?

Install iContacts app then remove the Custom label


mount not working for utf-8 I've set the locale:

$locale
LANG="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

However, while this mount works:

$ mount -t smbfs "//Mercury/Echo" "/Volumes/Echo"
Password for Mercury:

This mount fails:

$ mount -t smbfs "//Προκρούστης/DiningRoom" "/Volumes/DiningRoom"
mount_smbfs: URL parsing failed, please correct the URL and try again: Invalid argument

Any suggestions as to how to fix this?

URL-encode the server name:

Προκρούστης > %CE%A0%CF%81%CE%BF%CE%BA%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%8D%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82

The quotes aren't required here, so the following should work:

mount -t smbfs //%CE%A0%CF%81%CE%BF%CE%BA%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%8D%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82/DiningRoom /Volumes/DiningRoom


Download folder/dock stack settings Where do if find the download dock folder stack settings so I can change them to see fan or somehow get the most recent download to show up first?

Right click on any folder in your dock to change the way files are sorted, how the stack displays in the dock, and how files are displayed.


Does Dropbox Auto Camera Upload work with iCloud Photo Library? Currently, I store all my photos in iCloud Photo Library. However, I'd like to have another copy of them in Dropbox. Ideally, I'd want my iPad to upload all new images that I add to my iCloud Photo Library on my Mac or iPhone automatically to Dropbox. I have iCloud Photo Library configured to store only thumbnails on the iPad.

Does the automatic Camera Upload work when I do not download the full-res images to my iPad?

The answer seems to be "No". I tried various things around iCloud Photo Library and Dropbox Camera Uploads.  Here are some results.

Already since Sierra 10.12.2 (or slightly earlier?), Camera Uploads seems to only work if the iPhone is plugged in in an unlocked state.
After first enabling iCloud Photo Library, the "camera roll" contains a random selection of photos of different ages (most of them not even shot with the iPhone).
The program "Image Capture" (comes with MacOS) which can be used to manage the Camera roll shows also these old photos.
Image capture can not delete any photos from the iPhone anymore, but it can still import these old photos and new photos taken.
Dropbox camera upload does not seem to do anything anymore after iCloud Photo library has been enabled.  It does not even display the little "Camera icon" right after connection.
I share pictures with my wife through Dropbox and I do this now by periodically exporting the unmodified originals from Photos on the Mac.


how can I back up my contact name list My contacts on my IPhone 4s was lost. If I backed up my phone to the computer, will the contacts also be saved? where can I find that or how can I restore my contact list?

Yes, contacts are saved in iPhone Backups, or in iCloud if you have that enabled.

This Apple support page illustrates restoring backups. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766

For restoring computer backups:

Connect your iOS device to the computer that has your backup
Make sure this computer has the latest version of iTunes
Choose File > Devices > Restore from Back up
If you're using iTunes 10.7 or earlier, right-click the device from the list and choose Restore from Backup.


Acmen5030 appearing in shared computer tab on mac I have this mystery Acmen5030 (PC) appearing on the shared computers section on my mac's side bar. I am just worried that someone might have access to my files. I have checked the sharing options but everything is unchecked, how do I remove this mystery computer from my shared computer section?

Your Mac is just letting you know another device on the network is advertising some sort of SMB share. It could be a printer with a card reader, it could be a legitimate PC sharing a printer or a folder on the disk, or it could be some sort of appliance or internet of things device.

If you log in to your router, you can see each other device and power them off one by one. Once you know what's causing the "mystery" share - you can either investigate limiting it's configuration or removing it from the network.

It's not a security risk or a virus on your Mac.


Google Calendar not syncing with iOS 7 (tried deleting account, creating Google or CalDAV, nothing worked) I restored my iPod-touch 4 data to my new iPod-touch 5, and the calendar was looking good, until I realize it was not syncing.

I tried deleting my Google Account and creating again, twice, with no success (now the calendars and events are not even showing in the app).

Also, I tried both Google account and CalDAV account, but none of them are even downloading my calendars.

I use two-step authentication, and I'm using app generated passwords each time I try to add a new account to sync.

The GMail sync is working properly, only the Calendar have some problem.

Is there anything more I can try? Or should I restore and keep my iOS 6?

(By the way, the Reminders are not syncing with iCloud, and Safari is crashing as soon as it opens, even after a few restarts of the iOS. But the calendar is the big problem right now)

Go to https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect and make sure that you have all of the calendars enabled.

See https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/151674 for more information --- However!  Be sure to ignore the part about Google Apps unless you have a paid Google Apps account. Specifically do not use https://m.google.com/sync/settings/ unless you are using a paid Google Apps account.)

http://productforums.google.com/d/msg/calendar/G4ClHD46kP4/LekDrZoyCo0J is also helpful to understand the changes that happened when Google switched from Exchange ActiveSync to CalDAV. The author of that posts suggests https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect and/or
https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/YOUR.DOMAIN.HERE/iphoneselect
(the latter being for Google Apps hosted accounts). In my experience they all seem to lead to the same place, but YMMV.

If you have more than one Google Apps/Gmail account, but sure to log into the right one before you try any of this.

Last but not least, you may need to 'force quit' the calendar app on the iOS device (in iOS7, double-press the 'Home' button, then 'flick' the app off the top of the screen). My suggestion would be to start by deleting the Google account from your iOS device, then go and enable the CalDAV settings, and then re-enable the Google Account. That should give everything enough time to re-sync and notice the changes.


Mac Pro upgrade path I'm considering a Mac Pro purchase but cannot afford the one I really want.
The question is this; Can the cheapest Mac Pro 5,1 single quad-core Nehalem 2.8 GHz be upgraded to the dual six-core Westmere 2.93 GHz at some point in the future?
If not, what would be the cheapest one that could?

Short answer:

The lowest end Mac Pro that can be upgraded to a 2.93 12-core Westmere is the 2.66GHz 12-core Westmere.

Long answer:

The single socket Nehalem and Westmere Mac Pros literally have one socket. Aside from that, most of the lower end configs ship with a 1066MHz memory bus instead of a 1333MHz bus. In order to upgrade to a part that uses faster ram you will need to replace all your ram, and probably solder some resistors to change the clock multipliers on the board.

Without SMD soldering you will need to match the bus speed of the processor, which means if you have a 1066MHz memory interface the highest end part you will be able to install is are quad core 2.66GHz Xeon E5640s. There is also no guarantee the firmware will actually initialize it correctly, though odds are good that it will.


Launchd process behavior just wanted to ask a quick question I can't seem to find a straight answer to.  What is normal "launchd" process behavior I should be seeing in Activity Monitor?  Right now it is writing GB's of data daily, I usually just browse the internet and stream videos. Feels like my HDD is constantly spinning up and down and when I watch disk activity the only thing that consistently goes up is the launchd process, which from what I understand is basically the OS.  So is this normal or do I need a fresh reinstall of High Sierra?

As far as system performance this isn't aversely affecting anything, I am just worried it will wear out my HDD faster than usual.  I am on a Macbook Pro Early 2011 13" with a third party battery from OWC (about 2 years old) and 16GB of RAM from OWC (just installed within the last month).

Something definitely doesn't sound right with what you're describing. Most descriptions of Launchd describe it is mostly doing nothing as described in this article titled: What Is launchd, and Why Is It Running on My Mac?:

  It’s very rare for launchd to take up many system resources, and when
  it does happen, rebooting your Mac is usually enough to fix it.
  Occasionally a buggy program trying to launch faulty daemons can cause
  launchd to use up a bunch of CPU. If you’ve installed something
  recently, try removing that and seeing if it helps.

You can check on what it's doing with this command:

$ launchctl list | head
PID Status  Label
-   0   com.apple.SafariHistoryServiceAgent
-   0   com.shazam.mac.ShazamHelper
-   0   com.macpaw.CleanMyMac4.HealthMonitor
36706   0   keybase.updater
702 0   com.apple.Finder
1256    0   com.apple.SafeEjectGPUAgent
64713   0   com.apple.quicklook
-   0   com.apple.parentalcontrols.check
-   0   com.apple.PackageKit.InstallStatus

From the sound of it with the logs being written to it sounds like Launchd is logging debug level on either one or more processes on your system. You can read more about changing the log level here:

How do I activate launchd logging on OS X?

There's also this aSE Q&A titled: New stats file created every 20 seconds in /var/log/com.apple.launchd.peruser.94? which doesn't have an answer but does describe and show another issue related to Launchd where it is excessively logging files.


TextEdit turned HTML file into RTF while open - how to undo? I was on a Mac with no plaintext text editor installed, and needed to make a very quick change to a HTML file saved on a shared drive. I opened it in TextEdit, set it to "Plain text" in Preferences (which had no effect), hit Format > Make Plain Text, hit undo since that didn't help, then I closed TextEdit without saving.

It gave some warning about not being able to store previous versions of the file because the shared drive doesn't support that, and wouldn't quit until I chose "okay". I thought this would be fine since I hadn't saved any changes.

Somewhere along the line, TextEdit had quietly deleted the original HTML file and created an RTF version. This unwanted RTF's creation date was from around the time I opened it.

There's nothing in trash, and I've tried "Revert to" in TextEdit (no previous versions).

Is there anything I can do to get the original file back?

Operating system is 10.9.5 if that's relevant.

TextEdit is a plain text editor it you first set the preferences for Format to "Plain text" before opening the file.

Unfortunately Auto-Save has it drawbacks and if you do not have a proper backup of the file I'd say you're out of luck since the file was stored on a volume that could not store versions of the file.


Get Swipe Left in Mail To Show 'Delete' Instead of 'Archive' A new swipe-left feature to delete emails was promised to us in iOS 8 for the Mail application.  And yet, when I swipe left, it only shows More, Flag and Archive.  That is beyond disappointing.

How can I get it to show Delete instead of archive from the inbox?

I need a fast way to delete mails so they go straight to the Trash.  And so far, the only time I see Delete when I swipe left is if I'm actually in the Trash folder.

Note: This is for a Gmail account.

Go to Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Select the Gmail account in question.
Select Account → Advanced.
In the second section called "Move Discarded messages into" change Archive Mailbox to Deleted Mailbox.

The messages will then be deleted instead of archived.

Apple KB Article: Archive your Gmail messages


Which Linux distro best to install on a Mac mini 2011 server? I own a Mac mini 2011 server which I use as workstation. Currently Mac OS X Lion and Windows 7 Professional are installed in parallel (via Boot Camp). Both are 64-bit operating systems.

I'd like to install a Linux system on the machine. Which distro would you recommend the most? I thought of Ubuntu but I'm not sure about the 64-bit support in it (which I believe is needed to make use of the full 8 gb RAM).

By "best" I mean "best hardware support". Specifically:

drivers for 64-bit operation
support two displays
support Bluetooth in general
Bluetooth support for Magic Trackpad, specifically
good WiFi support

Of the above, most important would be full support for:

Two displays are connected, one via HDMI, one via Thunderbolt
A Magic Trackpad via Bluetooth

From a few minutes of searching, it looks like Ubuntu 11.04 would be a good fit and match most of your requests, and what you were looking to use as well.

64bit would be needed to reach more than 4GB of RAM. And there is a 64 bit version, although (to me) confusingly named AMD64. This would be the version you need.

There are also Magic Trackpad drivers available, and a good writeup available on the Ubuntu Wiki.

I also found a good site documenting installing 11.04 on a MacBook Pro. This should be rather similar to your instal.

Finally, in most cases, choosing the right Linux distro is also a feel and how you like the install. But in accordance with your list of support, it looks like Ubuntu will cover this.


Is screen sharing under Sierra secure, i.e., a fully encrypted connection? I'm trying to figure out if the screen sharing data is encrypted when I connect to my Mac at home from another Mac at work. I've seen a lot of questions and answers but I can't really find a definitive answer. Basically, I just have my Mac sitting at home with Screen Sharing turned on and I'm port-forwarding 5900. It works but again, I'd like it to be secure.

Now, before anyone mentions SSH tunneling, I had it set up the first day I tried this (Remote Login, port-forwarded 22, tunnel created, etc) but then it stopped working. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on there but if Screen Sharing is completely encrypted, then I'm not going to worry about the tunnel anymore.

The answer depends on how you connect to it.

If you're using a standard VNC client to connect with a password only, nothing is encrypted. Not even the password.

If you're using the Screen Sharing app on macOS 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or later to connect with a username/password or AppleID, everything is encrypted.

If you're using the Screen Sharing app on macOS 10.7 (Lion) or earlier to connect with a username/password, the exchange of credentials as well as keypresses and mouse moves are encrypted by default. However the actual screen display (i.e. the graphical content) is not. You can enable full encryption from the Preferences menu in the Screen Sharing app.

If you're using VNC, I would recommend wrapping it in encryption using for example an SSH tunnel, encrypted VPN or similar measures.


Control-F2 "Move Focus to Menu Bar" only works occasionally I don't want to use my trackpad too much due to a strain injury, hence I use the Control F2 "Move Focus to Menu Bar" a lot.

However this feature only works occasionally, it can work for hours and then suddenly stop working, sometimes I can fix in the Keyboard Shortcuts pref pane by unchecking and checking the "Move Focus to Menu Bar" checkbox, at other times it takes a restart of the system.

I'm a big Apple fan-boy, and I always marvel at the cool features in OSX, this is the first time I have a Windows-esque experience with the OSX UI :(

When you're sure you've got your Fn key settings the way you want them and it STILL doesn't work:

My solution:

Go back into Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts pane.
For the item "Move focus to the menu bar",
assign a DIFFERENT function key, other than F2.
(Something you're not using, like, say...^F9...or whatever.)
Now use THAT key instead.

Sounds kind of nuts, I know.  And it's annoying to use a different key.  But I've found that ^F2 just won't consistently work after I've been using enough 3rd party programs, particularly if they're complex.  Sometimes ^F3 will also fail, and that keyboard pane can start acting a little strange on its own to be honest.  This does seem to work though.

coder


Is there an app to disable everything but GPS on iPhone? I use my iPhone 4 as a GPS device when I go tramping, but since the phone is constantly searching for signal in remote locations it drains through the battery extremely quickly.

The simple solution is to remove the sim card, although I've lost one microsim this way, and it's not an ideal solution.

I'm looking for a method to disable the phone/transmitting functions, while still being able to use GPS. Does anyone know of any apps (I guess from the Cydia store - I doubt Apple would allow this) or method to achieve this?

Edit: Just to be clear, what I'm meaning is that all transmitting functions on the iPhone are turned off - the only thing that should still be functioning is the GPS.

The 'phone' toggle in SBSettings doesn't work because it disables most things including GPS, and just leaves wifi enabled.

Update: Just to be clear, the same result I'm looking for can be achieved by removing the microsim, it's just that it feels like there should be an easier way to accomplish this without removing the sim.

If jailbroken, SBSettings allows one to turn off everything: Data, Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G, Edge, Phone, SSH, etc. but leave GPS enabled.

If not jailbroken, Settings > General > Network lets you turn off WiFi, 3G, BlueTooth, and Data, which leaves GPS, Edge, and Phone. Turn brightness all the way down. This ought to extend battery life quite a bit.


What are these two keys, ⇞ and ⇟? I see keyboard shortcuts in the menu of Brackets. There are two symbols that look like up arrow and down arrow, could anyone tell me what they are?

Those are the page-up ⇞ and page-down ⇟ keys (on keyboards without them, use fn-Cursor up/down). For a list of other common key symbols, see this answer.


Is there a list of commands unique to the OS X terminal? I tend to find out about unique OS X terminal commands piecemeal. As problems arise, or as I read askdifferent, I'll find out about handy things like mdls and mdfind.

Is there a place that lists all the unique OS X commands and gives me an overview of what they do?

Check out the Unix Commands Unique to Mac OS X / Darwin page by Matisse Enzer. It's not current (OS X 10.4.2, August 2005), but it's pretty good.

Edit: @bmike said to me things sure have changed since 10.4 so here's hoping he's got a more up-to-date resource! :)


Change CSS style in Safari on all sites I am looking for a Safari extension that allows me to change any CSS on any website.

The things I want to do is change the white background to black and the black text to white, I also want the links to be green.

Is there a extension that allows me to do this?

This is the OS X safari and not iOS.

I have looked at this one but don't know how to use it.

Thanks

You don’t even need an extension; Safari has a built in setting in the advanced settings to use a custom CSS for all webpages:

You need to create your own CSS file, but that’s a completely different beast. Something that will work nice on some pages might not on others, but I’d create a file named whatever.css and have it contain something like this:

* {
    color: #ffffff !important;
    background: #000000 !important;
}
a {
    color: #00ff00 !important;
}

and then load it into Safari via the preferences. To reload any changes to the CSS while Safari is open, you need to select None Selected and then re-select your custom file.

You’ll probably find lots of people on the web that have put lots of effort into similar CSS files. Good luck!