Looking for a program similar to Alfred and Keyboard Maestro Despite Alfred and Keyboard Maestro being able to trigger many things by shortcut, they both require you to use a modifier and key to work. Though Alfred does support a double tap of shift, option and command, it appears to stop there.
x
What I'd like is an application to detect patterns like:
double tap command followed by a double tap of option. Which then opens whatever you choose.

Anyone know if such application exists?

Thanks.

Keyboard Maestro can do this in a number of ways.  An entirely extensible way is to make a sequence of self-disabling macros, something like this:

Macro: First Command Key
Trigger: Device Key Command Key
Actions:
Disable Macro "First Command Key"
Enable "Second Command Key"
Pause 3 Seconds <- adjust as necessary
Disable Macro "Second Command Key"
Enable Macro "First Command Key"

and then

Macro: Second Command Key
Trigger: Device Key Command Key
Actions:
Disable Macro "Second Command Key"
Enable "Second Command First Option Key"
Pause 3 Seconds <- adjust as necessary
Disable Macro "Second Command First Option Key"

and then

Macro: Second Command First Option Key
Trigger: Device Key Option Key
Actions:
Disable Macro "Second Command First Option Key"
Enable "Second Command Second Option Key"
Pause 3 Seconds <- adjust as necessary
Disable Macro "Second Command Second Option Key"

and then

Macro: Second Command Second Option Key
Trigger: Device Key Option Key
Actions:
Disable Macro "Second Command Second Option Key"
Perform whatever actions desired.

etc

It'll take a couple minutes to set up, but you can configure it any way you like.


Is there an iMessage client for OS X? Apple's new iMessage sends messages between accounts associated designated e-mail addresses (as well as certain phone numbers). Apple's iChat also sends messages between accounts associated designated e-mail addresses. For the most part, for example if one uses the default iCloud settings, these e-mail addresses are the same. Yet, as near as I can tell, iMessages only work between iOS devices and iChats only work between OS X machines (or machines running specific chat clients).

If this is correct, is there a way to get around this limitation using an iMessage client for OS X, or is it possible to configure iChat as an iMessage client?

Apple has just announced OSX Mountain Lion which incorporates iMessage into the OS in the form of the Messages app. This will work in the same was as iMessage for iOS.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/mountain-lion/

You can currently download the messages beta free from Apple here


Why does my zsh program run fine in terminal, but not as an automator app? I got a mac last week and am trying to learn the basics by coding a few projects I came up with. I've been creating a few apps I can place on the dock that automate simple functions that I use often. So far, all my programs have worked by creating a zsh script and getting Automator to 'Run Shell Script', however this particular program isn't fully working, although, if I run my program through terminal, it works perfectly.
I'm trying to create a program that can be executed after a YouTube url has been copied into the clipboard. The program takes the url and runs it through 'youtube-dl' and downloads the audio into the Downloads folder. I tried to learn how to do this from Z shell alone, but I was very overwhelmed with it and I decided to use python which I already know.
Here's what I'm doing:
My Python3 code:
import os

url = os.popen("echo `pbpaste`").read()
os.system("youtube-dl -f 'bestaudio[ext=m4a]' '"+url+"'")

My zsh file:
#!/bin/zsh

cd /Users/admin/Downloads
python3 /Users/admin/Documents/Scripts/Automation/ytGetAudio/ytGetAudio.py

I then made it executable with "chmod +x /Users/admin/Documents/Scripts/Automation/ytGetAudio/ytGetAudio.zsh"
When I run my program from the terminal, everything works great, and the file is downloaded into Downloads, but when I use Automator to "Run Shell Script" and I get it to run the same zsh script it doesn't download anything. I tested it by creating a pop-up message box in the python script; that worked, so the script is running, but something isn't working because nothing is downloading when I run the '.app' file.
Can anyone please help me with this?

This is the standard issue with GUI apps in macOS. These are launched via lanuchd from desktop, no part of the process has run through a shell so what is in any of your shell start up scripts e.g. $PATH does not matter.
What you need to do is use the full path to anything you call in your case the full path to youtube-dl and if that is a script that might need editing to provide full paths to what it calls.


Connecting Apple Silicon Mini to Apple Thunderbolt Display I have an Apple Thunderbolt Display (APPLE 27" THUNDERBOLT DISPLAY 2560X1440 MC914LL/B A1407) and ordered an M1 Mini.
I'm trying to figure out if they will work together, and if so, what cables are required.

You need to get a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter, e.g. this one from Apple.


How to copy a book from iBooks with highlighting? I have a book on my iMac at work which has highlighting all over the book. But when I put the book in my Dropbox and open it on my MacBook at home there are no highlights. Is there a way to preserve the highlighting?

iBooks is the app that I use and I made all highlights with it.

iBooks version 1.5 on iMac 1.6 on MacBook

The book is .epub file

I assume you added an ePub file to iBooks.app on your iMac and added highlightings there.

Yes, you can in fact sync your highlightings/notes/bookmarks between multiple devices running macOS and/or iOS.

Please follow these steps to sync your highlights:

Prepare iMac

On your iMac go to System Preferences > iCloud.
Make sure that you are logged into your iCloud account. If not, log in.
Depending on your version of macOS you need to check the check mark for Documents & Settings.
In iBooks.app sign in to the same iCloud account it you aren't already.
Make sure that the ePub file is the very same on both Macs.

Prepare your MacBook

Repeat the steps above that you did for your iMac.

Sync your highlightings

Reboot both Macs
Open the ePub in iBooks.app on your iMac and add a note or a bookmark.
Close the ebook in iBooks.app but leave iBooks.app running.
Open the ePub on your MacBook with iBooks.app. Wait for the highlightings/bookmarks/notes to appear. It may take a few minutes for the first time.
If they don't appear on your MacBook, add a new highlighting/bookmark.

Please note

If possible, you should run the same versions of macOS on both Macs. Also check for available software updates.

Using the same Apple iCloud account is necessary for the synchronization to work with Apple's iBooks.app. You can't use another cloud storage provider for this.

Unfortunately there is no other way to sync them other than to re-add your edits by hand.


Easy way to permanently delete all photos and videos from iPad/iPhone It seems really hard to me to permanently delete all photos and videos from iPad. I tried different solutions, like:

Transferring them using iPhoto and then deleting them by iPhoto
Using iTunes to sync the photos from an empty folder on Mac

While these solutions resulted in deleting some photo folders on iPad, some other folders (i.e. My Photo Stream) remained unchanged. Then I tried to remove them by selecting the photos on iPad but there were too many pictures. Finally the "Recently Deleted" folder on iPad remained full of photos! And iTunes shows there is a huge space on iPad still used by photos and videos.

So what's the easiest way to tell iPad I don't really want any more photos and videos on it?

If you wish to "keep" the videos or pictures and also clear your iDevice, make sure you sync or backup your pictures in any way you choose before deleting.
The EASIEST way to delete All pictures and/videos is to attach your device to a MAC with an USB cord. Start the app "Image Capture" and select all content you wish to delete. Once selected, there is a delete function inside of image capture, choose this and all selected content on your iDevice will be deleted.


What happens if I attempt to send an invitation from the Calendar app to an email address that doesn't have an associated Apple ID? If I have a standard IMAP mail account set as my default on an iOS device and I then attempt to send somebody an invetation from the Calendar app, what happens if the recipient doesn't have an Apple ID - how will the invitation appear to them?

No documentation that I could find online makes reference to this situation; the only things I could find were concerning sending invitations to existing Apple IDs (at which point a notification is generated on the device itself), or about using Exchange Accounts - which again works differently. My assumption was that Apple must send an email of some kind to the invitee, but I want to get it tested.

I just tried with one of my friends' email. They receive the mail with buttons like accept, decline etc., and the info of the event of course. The said buttons have URL like: https://www.icloud.com/calendar/eventreply_full/en-gb/<some Key>&cc=IN#reply=accept It was sent from noreply@email.apple.com but with my name in the Sender.

.ics of the event, text and HTML files were also attached.


How do Macs calculate the amount of Hard Drive space left? What kind of algorithm do they use to see how much space is left? I thought that maybe the amount of space it began with is programmed in and then the size of files created is then subtracted from the total amount.

P.S: This is a Mac question or a programming question?

Your question is hard to answer because you don't mention the layer you are looking at.

There at least four layers to consider:

Hardware layer

Usually the hardware consists of some administrative blocks, the "payload" blocks and some spare blocks. A hard drive contains some dozen and an SSD drive up to 15% of the official size of spare/reserve blocks. Bad blocks are remapped to the spare/reserve blocks by the drive's firmware. The operating system only knows the size of the payload blocks. Some low-level disk tools (e.g. Spinrite) may read out the number of available spare blocks.
Partiton layer

Depending on the size of the hard disk - propagated by the firmware/hd-controller to your EFI/operating system - your partitioning tool (e.g. Disk Utility) may create partitions by determining start values and end values for each partition in the partition table. The free space on your hard disk is determined by the final block of the last partition and the beginning of the second GPT table (provided that you partitioned your drive continuously and gaps don't exist). You may read out the free space on your hard disk with gpt.
Volume layer

Usually partitions have to be formatted with a file system to be usable. Almost all important filesystems contain a volume bitmap. The volume bitmap is a representation of all (file system) blocks or clusters of a volume. Free blocks and occupied blocks are marked differently. So one method to determine the free space on a volume is counting all blocks tagged free in the volume bitmap.
LVM layer (Logical Volume Manager) or CoreStorage

The LVM layer is an abstraction layer in between hard disks, partitions and volumes. Though determined by the basic partitions ("Physical Volumes") a Logical Volume may span over several Physical Volumes (Fusion Drive). I don't know it for sure, but a Logical Volume Group probably contains a counterpart of a partition table holding all informations about all contained objects (like Physical Volume(s), Logical Volume Family(ies), Logical Volume(s)). The available free space may be read out by entering diskutil cs list
block/cluster layer (this is not relevant for OS X file systems)

Some file systems support block suballocation. In short words: A lot of files don't occupy a full block/cluster of the volume layer because they are smaller than the block/cluster size. In the free space of the cluster you may store a second/third/forth small file. I don't know how to determine this free space (probably some i-node/B-Tree magic).

Depending on the layer you may now choose the appropriate method or tool to determine the "free space of your hard disk".


Deleted /etc/, can't boot from DVD I accidentally deleted the files in /etc/ (yes into /private/etc) and my iMac gets stuck on a blue screen after the initial apple logo now. I tried to boot from install DVD but it hangs at the apple logo when I do that.

Any suggestions on how to fix or reinstall the OS?

This is an iMac with OS X Snow Leopard.

See Startup key combinations for Intel-based Macs (HT1533) for a list of available key combinations during startup. In your case you should use either of

C: Start up from a bootable CD, DVD, or USB thumb drive (such as OS X install media)
Option ⌥: Start up in Startup Manager, where you can select an OS X volume to start from. In your case the volume to select is the OS X Snow Leopard DVD


Apple Music: How to view the list of all loved items? I'm kind of OCD and like to know what data is behind every recommendation system.

Is there a way to view all the loved (hearted) items (songs, playlists, etc.) in Apple Music?

I believe at worst case scenario one could just reset them.

I’m guessing these answers didn’t solve your problem. They didn’t solve mine. Insead I went and got my data from Apple:

Head to Apple’s Data and Privacy portal.
Log in with the Apple ID for which you’d like to download data.
Under Get a copy of your data, click Request a copy of your data.
Select Apple media services information, then press Continue.
Now click Complete the request.
Wait a frickin’ week!
Download the file they email you a link to.
Inside the zip you will find another zip called apple_media_services.zip.
Inside that zip you will find Apple Music Likes and Dislikes.csv.

Super irritating that you have to go through such process to find this.


Entering Time Machine on an external drive does not work If I open an external drive, or an folder on that drive, in the Finder, then enter Time Machine by clicking on the menu bar icon and selecting "Enter Time Machine", then Time Machine runs, but it jumps me back to my User folder, rather than using the currently open folder that I have opened up on my external drive.

This problem does not occur if I enter Time Machine on my internal drive. Does anyone else have this problem? I think it started happening recently, perhaps after I upgraded to Mavericks.

You need to open the backup drive as a different backup disk.

This can be accomplished from the Time Machine menu icon, click on it then press alt and the menu will change from:

to:

I would also recommend reading these excellent pages on Time Machine backups.


Remotely access hard disk of my Time Capsule being used a primary router I tried to follow methods 2 and 3 outlined in this guide https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3413 on accessing my Time Capsule hard disk from outside of my network.

Unfortunately, both these methods are not working for me. When I try to connect I get a "There was a problem connecting to the server" message.

I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that I also use my Time Capsule as my primary router.

More details below:

For the Method #2 in Setup section I skipped steps 1-2 because I have a static IP address and thus I don't need a dynamic DNS service. I continued with step 3 "Enable file sharing" & "Share disks over WAN". Then I followed the "To access the AirPort Disk:" section and tried to connect from another Mac connected to the internet using my iPhone data connection. When I tried to connect from Finder's "Connect to Server" and input afp://mypublicstaticIPaddress:8888 I got the "There was a problem connecting to the server" message.
For Method #3 I followed the Setup section to the letter and when I tried to connect as per the "To access the AirPort Disk:" section, which I also followed to the letter I got the same "There was a problem connecting to the server" message.

Can anyone suggest what else I may need to do to get either of these methods working?

UPDATE August 30, 2019: now, when trying to connect from Finder by pressing CMD+K and not inputting any connection type prefix like afp or smb, I get a different error: "This file server will not allow any additional users to log on. Try to connect again later."

UPDATE January 11, 2020: The issue was that I didn't have a public IP address, my ISP uses carrier grade NAT, so I had to ask for a public IP address.

I have maybe a similar problem. Until recently I was with the AEBS 5th gen and accessed from anywhere in the world to the disk that was hooked up. I changed the router with the 6th gen I made the same settings but nothing, I have no access to the disk, tried with another AEBS and again nothing, tried with TC last generation, but still nothing, I can't connect to the router remotely, what did I do, what I didn't change anything either. When I returned for test AEBS 5th gen everything worked perfectly. If anyone has such a problem it would be good to share.


Type checkmark emoji without variant form I use Notes on my iphone and mac. When I type an emoji checkmark on the mac it is text-sized (✔). However, when I type on my iphone and then view on my mac, the checkmark is larger (✔), and increases the line spacing. Is there a way to type the smaller version on my iphone?

Extra info:

The small mark (✔) is unicode U+2714

The large mark (✔) is unicode U+2714 U+FE0F

Follow these steps:

macOS: Type the character in Notes.app on your Mac.
iOS: On your iPhone open the created note with the character. Select and copy it.
iOS: go to settings > general > keyboard > text replacement
Tap '+', paste the character to the first text field (Phrase) and an abbreviation for the small check mark in the second field (Shortcut).

To insert the small check mark in iOS just type the text shortcut you assigned in text replacement followed by a space.

——-

Please note:

If this should not work it is not an issue with the Unicode symbol but with the way the word processor adjusts for symbol characters. Please let us know what application on the Mac you are experiencing this issue with.

iOS check mark: ✔


How to disable the most recently used items in App Exposé on Lion? When using App Exposé on Lion ( Control-↓ by default), the lower part of the screen above the dock is reserved for minimized windows. A new feature of at least TextEdit in Lion is that it also shows the most recent documents as icons, which makes for an absolutely crowded area. I never use MRUs in my workflow so that's an absolute waste of space and of time.

Is it possible to disable this behavior and only show minimized windows?

Apparently setting the Number of recent items to None in general preferences does the trick.

Unfortunately it also disables the Open Recent submenu, but I honestly care less: having an uncluttered minimized windows list in Exposé is much more important.


Download files and keep archive Is there a way to keep the archive of a downloaded file/folder? Currently, the archive is moved directly to the Trash can as soon as the content is expanded.

Thanks

Update: screenshot following MK's instructions:

You have to change the preferences for Archive Utility, which is the default unarchiver used by the browser.

Open Finder and go to /System/Library/CoreServices/ (from the Go > Go to Folder... menu option or pressing Shift+Cmd+G)
Open Archive Utility.app from that location
Go to Archive Utility > Preferences (or press Cmd+,)
In the After expanding: dropdown, choose leave archive alone (you would currently have this set to "move archive to Trash")
Quit Archive Utility.app


Where is photos.sqlite-shm I am trying to sync my Mac (macOS 11.2.3) "Pictures" folder with my NAS using Synology Drive. I receive an error message stating that photos.sqlite-shm cannot be synced due to missing access rights or because the file is in use.
However, I cannot even find this file. What is it and where is it? It sounds like it has something to do with iOS. Thank you!

If the Photos app is open on your Mac it opens photos.sqlite-shm. You can see what files Photos has open using Activity monitor. For me it is ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/database/Photos.sqlite-shm
Thus your sync process is correctly saying that  the file is in use
Your process thus has to make sure that Photos.app is not running.


Library conflict in MacOS Catalina - UIFoundation vs AppKit I've installed the Beta3 of Catalina (and matching XCode) and my shell spews out this error whenever I open a terminal.

objc[1209]: Class NSDataAsset is implemented in both
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/UIFoundation.framework/Versions/A/UIFoundation (0x112c97160)
and
/System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/AppKit (0x111d85028).
One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

I understand if not everyone wants to dig into the details of the OS under the hood and I have reported this bug to Apple via Feedback Assistant but I want to understand the issue deeper.

I am not finding other posts about this which leads me to think that perhaps I have manually installed one of these frameworks it both of these framework native to Catalina.

How can I pick apart this error so I can learn how or why this error is logged?

macOS Catalina adds a lot of under the hood components to better support iOS on Mac apps. Both UIKit and AppKit are installed with macOS 10.15.

I haven't extensively tested the Catalina beta, but my best answer right now would be that it's still an early beta (beta 3 at the time of writing) and errors like this are to be expected.

If you are testing an Xcode project on Catalina, I would assume that your app will (mostly) work correctly, but you should file a bug report if you come across any problems that you think may be a bug in the operating system or SDK.


How to send an email to myself with Applescript or Terminal automatically when my Mac reboots? I wonder if there is a way to send an email to myself with Command Line or AppleScript service automatically when my Mac reboots? Thanks for your suggestions.

The easiest way I know of to do this is add a line to your crontab with the following format:

@reboot /path/to/your/script

The script could have the mail command invoking the date command.


Intuos creative stylus for iPad use on a MacBook Pro? I saw the Intuos creative stylus for the iPad, and as much as I like it, I am not a fan of having to purchase a new Mac product just to use a pen that works with the iPad only...

Is there a pen out there that works like the Intuos creative stylus pen for iPad that would work with a MacBook Pro? I've heard of using the MagicMouse, but I'm looking for the same concept as the Intuos creative stylus for iPad, where the stylus would connect via a bluetooth, with the same abilities of an Inkling, drawing anywhere...

Is this even possible? Paying for it isn't an issue, it's just I can't justify $400+ for a iPad, the software, and the pen itself...

Any help would be appreciated.

Short answer:
Certainly not possible, and no such product exists. The MacBook screen is not a touch or pressure input device, unlike the iPad.
Long answer:
The iPad stylus uses touch events to communicate position and Bluetooth to communicate pressure. With the MacBook, no positional tracking device exists in the screen.
Getting around this limitation would involve adding a sensor layer to the glass. This would be a hardware modification and you'd end up writing a lot of software to support it, too.


My charger has stopped working. I have AppleCare. How do I go about getting a new charger? My MacBook Pro mid-2015 charger mysteriously* stopped working today. I have AppleCare but I live in Ireland and there are no Apple Stores here.

Can I go into an Apple authorised reseller and get a new charger for free because I have AppleCare?

If not, what's the process?

*I thought I saw a spark in my room 2 days ago. I was falling asleep at the time. I got up, checked the plugs and unplugged everything in the room (including my MacBook). I can't remember if I've charged the laptop since then though.

You can always initiate service from https://locate.apple.com and choose your provider of choice. The online self service is much, much better now, so starting with Apple support is often the fastest way for you to get things through the hoops and to a technician to do the exchange for you if a mail in exchange isn't offered.

In your case, you can direct the service to Ireland at https://locate.apple.com/ie/en/ and just click the box that says service.

Not all resellers also provide service, so doing a little digging usually saves you a trip and some time.


Unable to SSH to OS X Server over alternate port Mac mini running OS X Server 10.11.6, CommuniGate Pro, and nearly no other stock OS X Server services.

Server's owner recently found himself on a network that blocked ports for both VPN connections and SSH, so we're trying to set up the server to allow for an SSH tunnel via SOCKS proxy to port 443, which is nearly always left open. (We have no plans on running web services over that port on this box.)

Research indicates this should be a two-step process: 1) edit /Library/Server/Web/Config/Proxy/apache_serviceproxy.conf to remove web listeners on ports 80 and 443; 2) edit /etc/ssh/ssh_config to add an SSH listener on port 443; then reboot.

Upon doing so, HTTP services indeed are turned off on 80 and 443, but I can't connect to SSH on port 443. Works fine over 22 still. Nmapping the server indicates that there's nothing open on port 443. Is there something else I need to do to open this up?

Here are steps to get SSH listening on port 443. Note that if you have SIP disabled, you can directly edit (as root) /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist and therefore can skip steps 1 and 3, and use the above path in steps 2 and 5. Note in that case you will want to run the unload command before editing ssh.plist.

Copy the existing ssh.plist file into /Library:

sudo cp /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist

Edit the file as root:

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist

There are two things that need to be changed. First is the <Label>. Change this:

<key>Label</key>
<string>com.openssh.sshd</string>

To something like this:

<key>Label</key>
<string>com.openssh.sshd443</string>

Next change this:

                <key>SockServiceName</key>
                <string>ssh</string>

To this:

                <key>SockServiceName</key>
                <string>443</string>

Save and then run this command to load the service:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist

If you ever need to unload it, you can do so with:

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh2.plist


Chinese input crashes programs The problem is that when I type in Chinese, the program crashes. It happens in every program (Chrome, TextEdit, Line).

It started shortly after I added Simplified Chinese. I since removed it and also Traditional Chinese and readded, but the problem remains.

Here is the stack trace:

http://pastebin.com/raw/h0RsGM6k

Go to applications/fontbook and do File > Restore Standard Fonts and restart.


Automator - Deleting files with date modified older than 30 days, except if in a folder labeled red I am trying to do an automator calendar event where every Friday, it deletes files whose date modified is older than 30 days; EXCEPT files within folders labeled red.

I have my Documents folder with 3 files, one folder created today and labeled red, a folder last modified a week ago, and a pdf that was modified more than 30 days ago.

My automator script goes as follows:

[Find Finder Items] Search "Documents", ALL of the following are true:

-Date last modified is not in the last 30 days
-Label is not red

[Move Finder Items To Trash]

//end

But this moves the red labeled folder and the older pdf, when it should only move the pdf to the trash.

Can anyone help me? Thank you!

Edit: Running macOS 10.13.3

My initial suggestion to the problem was to replace the actions you currently have in your Automator workflow with a Run AppleScript action that uses this command:

    tell application "Finder" to get every item ¬
        in the (path to documents folder) ¬
            whose modification date < ((current date) - 30 * days) ¬
            and label index is not 2

You would then have either added an action after this to trash those items, or change get every item to delete every item in the script.  However, as @user3439894 pointed out, this won't traverse folder trees, so any items inside a folder that are older than 30 days (and not tagged red) will escape detection.

The following script is an example of a method that uses recursion to descend through the directory tree deleting files (or marking them for deletion) as it goes:

    property D : {}  # The files to delete
    property R : path to documents folder  # The root of the directory tree structure
    property age : 30 * days
    property red : 2

    descend into R

    # tell application "Finder" to delete D
    return D

    to descend into here
        local here

        tell application "Finder"

            # Mark files which are older than 30 days for deletion
            # EXCEPT any that are tagged red
            set end of D to every file in here whose label index is not red ¬
                and modification date < (current date) - age

            # This checks to see if, following the purge, the
            # current folder will become empty.  If so, it can
            # be deleted too.  It adds to processing time, so
            # remove this code block if you don't need it.
            count the last item of D
            if the result is equal to (count the files in here as alias list) ¬
                and (count the folders in here) is 0 then
                set the end of D to here
                return
            end if

            # This ensures folders tagged red and their contents
            # are spared from the purge
            get the folders in here whose label index is not 2

            repeat with F in the result
                set F to the contents of F  # de-referencing

                descend of me into F
            end repeat

        end tell
    end descend

I have tested it briefly on my own fairly complex tree structure, and it appeared to work successfully.  However, I'm writing this and testing it whilst quite tired, but regardless, I would always strongly advise that you test this script yourself on dummy files and folders to ensure it works.  Please report back on how it goes, including—if they arise—any errors, with specific details on how I can reproduce the error myself.


Macbook Pro 15" replacement Keyboard / Keys i am using a macbook pro 15" early 2011 unibody with an german (DE) keyboard. and that sucks really hard. So ive decided to change it, and it should be working because the english international and the german keyboard-layout are the same.

But here's my problem i dont really know where to buy it. Nor Apple Store neither ebay haven't something like that. Any suggestions??

BIG thanks in advance. I'm going crazy with this german keyboard. :(

Here is an English-language keyboard cover for the European keyboard that you already have. It costs US $30. This would provide a good solution to your problem with no need to install any parts. It is designed to remain in place all the time, while you type, and you can leave it on when you close the MacBook. In addition, the cover provides protection from spills and wear-and-tear.

Make sure you are ordering the exact correct part for your exact model of MacBook.

http://www.kbcovers.com/servlet/Detail?no=487


How fast does a BootCamp installation wake up from sleep? Currently I can't test this myself so maybe somebody could tell me based on their experiences.

If you have installed BootCamp on your MacBook, how fast is it ready for usage when you open the lid? Is it comparable with OSX?

I've used BootCamp with Windows XP and 7 installed on several models of MacBook and MacBook Pro over the last five or so years; in my totally unscientific experience, XP is considerably slower than Windows 7, which is an improvement but still not as fast as OS X.

You might want to refer to this SuperUser page which links to several different AppleCare discussions.


Protect my files from local admins Is there any way for me to protect my home folder and keychain from other users with admin privileges on a single machine?

EDIT: Here's some background on the situation. In my office, we have several shared workstations. Everyone on the development floor has access to a general admin account that we use to maintain the software on the machines. I'd like to be able to personalize an account on the machine, but I worried about leaving myself open to the possibility of the other "admins" accessing my files. (I'm not keeping anything particularly sensitive; just my ssh keys for GitHub, my work Dropbox folder, leaving gmail logged in, etc.)

Nobody can get into your keychain without the password.

You may be able to protect your home folder if you are running a version of OS X with the original Filevault, which was introduced in OS X Panther (10.3) and replaced by Filevault2 in Mac OS X Lion (10.7). So if you are running 10.3 through 10.6 then all you have to do is enable Filevault protection. The old version encrypts a user's home folder.


iPhone app which syncs Outlook memos while maintaining categories I am looking for an iPhone app which will synchronise with Microsoft Outlook memos, while maintaining the categories which I have set up in Outlook.  From my understanding, the Notes application which comes bundled in with the iPhone doesn't have any categories.

Any recommendations about an app which will do this for me?

It sounds like iMExchange 2 ($8 after trial period) might do the trick for you if you or your company are running an Exchange Server.


How to undelete notes on iPhone "Notes" app? iPhone has a default "Notes" app which allows us to store notes. Stored notes can be deleted by hitting the "Delete Note" button:

How do we recover a note that is accidentally deleted?

Is there anyway to undo the delete?

There is a way to undo the delete.  You just have to shake your iphone, and this will activate the "undo" feature which seems to have been forgotten by most people (it was a feature of an iOS update a few revisions back around 2009).

In case you think I am kidding, click here.


The work E-mail address you entered is already associated with a different Apple ID. Please, try a different Work E-mail I can't open a VPP account.

https://deploy.apple.com/qforms/open/register/enroll1/avs?program=vpp

No matter what details I put in, I get the same message:

  The work E-mail address you entered is already associated with a different Apple ID. Please, try a different Work E-mail

I am using a Windows 7 machine to do this and have tried various browsers.

You have two options if your company has no prior VPP set up.

Choose a different email string to register.
Log in to the email you wish to use at http://appleid.apple.com and change the ID/email to get off the one you wish to use for VPP.

The VPP portal does things to the AppleID you enroll that isn't handled/allowed for pre-existing accounts. Unless you can substitute a new email for the one you want, you're really bound to choose a new account.

Now, if you are trying to register a second VPP you will run into many different problems. First exhaust internal measures to recover that account or work with the holder of that AppleID.

In your case, the responsible person has left the company, have you contacted them to see if they turned it over to someone or left the password written down with their other papers?

If not, you have options:

Contact IT and explain you need to get access to the former employees email account. Offer to handle the password reset or provide them the Apple links and assist them if it's faster. I've brought a pie or brownies to ensure the IT staff are properly motivated to help me out. :-)
Have HR contact the employee and ask if they turned over the password to this account and arrange to have that information returned to the company. If that fails, contact legal and request return of the company property (the company VPP account).
If that fails, have these people write up their efforts and take that to your Apple Representative. If you don't have one, contact the local Apple Retail store and ask to speak with a business representative.

I've never seen a case where someone couldn't get control of an Apple ID, but you might need to do some work to prove you are now the rightful company contact to get traction. Working with people you can see in person or face time with is far easier than 1-800-APL-CARE in my experience, but even over the phone with the right data and patience, you can often get what you need or have your problem escalated appropriately to a person that can help you.


How to use Picture-in-Picture in Chrome Is is possible to use the new macOS Sierra PiP (Picture-in-Picture) feature in browsers other than Safari?

Nope?

Great couple of software to install to get a fully functional PiP feature in OSX from a Chrome browser :

install Helium or HeliumLift
install Chrome extension :
Open in Helium (works for Helium & HeliumLift)

Ah... and one last thing : this is free... ;)


Frame Rate drops to 30 with Dell P2415Q 4K MBP: MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)

macOS: Mojave 10.14

Display: Dell 2415Q

Connection: ANKER Premium USB-C Hub with HDMI

I have done an FPS test and it's only 30 (which should be 60). Is it possible to make it a 60 FPS rate? What can I do?

Update: Anker is innocent. It's NOT Anker's problem.

According to Anker's community site  (which is unofficial, community backed) the USB-C hub only supports 4k at 30 Hz. You would then never be able to achieve 60 fps with this hardware.

I would contact Anker's customer support and get this confirmed, and see if you have any means of returning the product for a refund with the seller.


Why do we install software via `.dmg` files? When I want to install software, I typically download a .dmg (Disk iMaGe) file. When I open it, this .dmg file looks like what I would call a "virtual disk" (hence its name I presume) and is listed in  Finder under devices. It is also listed in Disk Utility under Disk Images and it seems like it can be erased or unmounted just like any other disk.

What is the logic for which software needs to be installed with such a "virtual disk"?
Why doesn't it come as a simple binary file or I don't know what?

DMGs have a few key features which make them superior to plain old zips

They’re a full file system (meaning they can store file permissions, have custom folder backgrounds, etc)
They support “mandatory” EULAs before mounting which is nice for legal stuff
Provide a more reliable execution environment. If you have to do absolute path stuff for installation (which tbh you shouldn’t) you can prepare the DMG, mark it as read-only and use that to install

Really the key feature is that they support the full HFS+ filesystem. Zip (commonly, Linux versions sometimes support permissions) is stupid and only supports bundling files and folders and nothing else. No metadata, just the files.


DNS Server keeps changing to 10.0.22.1 & .2 in OSX 10.9 My DNS Server keeps changing to 10.0.22.1 & 10.0.22.2 in OSX 10.9.5. This causes me to regularly lose internet access until I go into the network preferences pane and delete the two "incorrect" DNS address which cause the correct addresses to automatically re-appear. Then after re-starting my browser, all is well again. If I check my network settings again, the incorrect DNS address have almost always re-appeared by themselves but loss of internet hasn't necessarily occurred. I've checked the DNS settings in my Apple Airport and they are correct and haven't changed and I've also cleared all caches but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

Please HELP!

I discovered that the VPN that I'm running (ProXPN) changes the DNS settings to the ones I mentioned in my original post when I enable it thru its own software. I contacted their tech support who confirmed this. The VPN does not allow me to specify my own settings or disable the settings it loads. They explained that their DNS server is "secure." They also said that their settings are supposed to return to normal when disabling the VPN.  Unfortunately they do not. So in the mean time, when I disconnect from the VPN, I have to go into the network pref pane and manually delete the VPN-set DNS addresess at which point, the correct ones appear automatically.

Tech Support said, "They'd look into it."

Thanks everybody for your input. I'll post anything if ProXPN Tech Support comes up with a solution.

JAY


How can I revive dead pixels on my iPod Touch (second generation)? I've got lines on the top of my iPod Touch (2nd gen) and they won't go away.

I've checked some other forums and they told me to:

Turn the brightness all the way up and go to some funky strobing website for 6 hours.
Put it in the freezer (never again)
Press down on the screen, but the lines are too near the top to do that (without breaking it)

Are there any other old wives tales relevant to fixing dead pixels.  I've seen some come back and go away so I think it's not a totally lost cause.

I dont know about how comfortable you are with taking electronics apart, but it sounds like the connector for the screen might be coming loose, or the screen might be on the way out. I would recommend buying a replacement screen on eBay, or paying apple to fix it for you.


"This Connection Is Not Private" → "Visit The Website" asks for admin password to "Update Settings". Are permanent system changes made? When I try to visit a website that hasn't configured https correctly, this message pops up in Safari.

I appreciate the warning—it lets me know not to enter any personal information on the website. However, if the site is e.g. a standard blog, I still want to read it. So I click "Show Details" and then "visit this website".

This causes Safari to ask for my admin password, in order to make "changes to [my] Certificate Trust Settings". I don't want to make any lasting changes to my system, just read one website! Am I somehow making my computer permanently less secure, and if not, why does Safari need my admin password?

What is actually happening behind the scenes when I update my Certificate Trust settings in order to view one of these sites?

When you enter your password and press Update Settings, what really happens is that the certificate presented by that web site is added to the Certificates set in your login keychain. Your password is needed in order for Safari to have permission to add something to your keychain.

If you open up Keychain Access.app, select the login keychain and then the Certificates category, you'll find the specific certificate in the list on the right. The certificate is marked with a blue circle with a white plus inside it. This means it is marked as "trusted".

I.e. you're essentially overriding standard system behavior and stating that you trust a specific certificate even though it is not otherwise trusted (for example because it is expired). This is what will allow you to browse the site without further warnings.

Does it make your computer permanently less secure? - In some ways yes, because you're now trusting a certificate that is not really valid. If some malicious person used that certifcate to trick you then the system will trust that certificate. As you're manually stating that you do indeed trust the certificate, you're already aware that something is out of the ordinary, so it's not a huge problem. You just need to be aware that the trust doesn't automatically "expire" and disappear the next day or something like that.

If you want to manually revoke your trust, you can use Keychain Access.app to right-click on the certificate to Delete it. If you visit the same web site again with Safari, you'll get the warning again.

Note that some browsers (including Safari in Incognito Mode) solve the problem with overriding invalid certificates by allowing the user to override the warning temporarily. In that case nothing is added to the keychain, thus you do not need to enter a password. You can then browse the web site, but after you have closed down your browser, you'll get warnings again the next time you visit the site.

Also note that in these cases, you're only overriding the warning for that specific browser session. I.e. if you're using some other application (i.e. not the browser) to communicate with the site, such as a temporary override won't work. In contrast, doing what Safari does means that other programs (using the system trust store) will also respect your trust in that site.


How can I disallow all network operations except for browser, mail? I am on a rather low monthly limit with my mobile phone plan. When travelling, I usually write mails and browse the web on my Macbook Air via iPhone Personal Hotspot.

However, I do know several system services send and receive data "in the background" when a network connection is available — but I don’t want my Mac to download hundreds of MB of system updates or similar through my costly mobile data plan.

Is there a way to temporarily limit data throughput to a set of applications, let’s say Mail.app and Chrome.app? CLI solutions preferred, but any help is greatly appreciated!

You'll want a tool that lets you script the changes so you can roll them in and out or perhaps get fancy and script it based on the detected network connection interface.

I would start by evaluating Little Snitch to see if it fits your needs or at least can give you a leg up on the processes that are connecting in case you care to just control them. I wouldn't be surprised if Little Snitch were controllable from the command line - but haven't used it lately to know for sure.


Does Voice Dictation on the New iPad require a network connection? Does the the new iPad's voice dictation require a network connection? I ask because Siri does require an active network connection and I am wondering if voice dictation works in a similar manner.

Yes.

With many methods of voice dictation, what happens is that your voice is recorded and digitized, and your speech is broken up into phrases which are uploaded over the Internet to a powerful computer server which translates your speech into text and then transmits the text back to your device.

However, there is a long history of programs for Mac and PC which perform voice dictation and transcription entirely on your Mac or PC without using an Internet connection.

I don't know of any apps for iOS that perform voice transcription entirely on the device without using a connection to a server on the Internet.


Strange colors on screen Can someone please help me solve ?  The screen suddenly turned blank with strange colors on the left, as the picture shows.

Like Tetsujin commented this is physical damage to the screen. Looks like the computer was dropped or something was dropped on it midway down on the left edge.

That is likely not covered under warranty but you should be able to attach another display to the computer and still use it until you can either take it to Apple for repairs or a third party that replaces screens on MacBooks.

You can start at an Apple store, they will at least be able to verify what exactly happened and quote you a repair price.


Mail crashes when I open a specific message I have an apple machine running Yosemite. I use Apple Mail. I recently received a message from a colleague. When I try to open  this message, Mail crashes.

In fact Mail crashes even if I scroll through the message without actually opening it.

Try this, it helped to me, but mail didn't crashed when I was only scrolling through.

Mail unexpectedly quits when viewing certain messages

Learn how to troubleshoot if Mail unexpectedly quits when viewing a certain message or messages.

This can happen if the mail message is malformed or damaged in some way. In certain situations, Mail may unexpectedly quit when attempting to display the message.

If you select such a message, Mail may quit each time you open the application.

Use the steps below to open Mail without rendering any messages that are currently selected:

Open Mail and immediately hold the Shift key until Mail completely launches. This will cause Mail to launch without any Mail message or mailbox selected.
Follow the steps below to delete the problematic message:
Carefully drag the Message Viewer window pane until only the list of messages appears (or, double-click the pane). This will prevent any Mail message's content from being shown unless you double-click the message.
Click the problematic Mail message one time, then delete it (press the Delete key on your keyboard, or choose Message > Move to > Trash).


Mastering Categories in Numbers I have a budget with a Column for "Categories" and for "Amount". Within the Column for categories, as one might expect, is a category for "Groceries". Groceries is column "C" and Amount is column D.

In a separate column I typed the following formula:
=SUMIF(Category); "=Groceries); Amount

Where have I gone wrong?

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Are you testing for the presence of the Groceries category label before adding the amount into your calculation? Are Category and Amount named collections/ranges?

The format for SUMIF is:

SUMIF(collection_to_test, "test condition", optional_collection_of_values_to_sum)

So assuming Category and Amount are named ranges, your formula should be:

=SUMIF(Category, "=Groceries", Amount)

If they are not named ranges, it would look like this:

=SUMIF(C2:C10, "=Groceries", D2:D10)

Naturally, substitute your own particular cell ranges for the first and last parameters.


Auto unmount time machine drive on sleep I keep a drive attached to my MacBook for Time Machine backups when I'm at my desk. I also regularly work from places other than my desk. Most of the time, if I close the laptop lid I intend to leave my desk, so I need to unmount the drive. Is there any way to automate this, so that the OS automatically unmounts the drive before sleep? I figure my options are

Just be a bad computer user and unplug the drive. (yikes)
Manually remember to unmount the drive… This takes 15-20 seconds altogether, and I'll forget at least some of the time.
Figure out how to make it automatic.

You can use ioreg to test if your lid is closed or open:

ioreg -r -k AppleClamshellState | grep AppleClamshellState

No= Lid is open
Yes= Lid is closed

You can use diskutil unmount /dev/<mydisk> to unmount the TimeCapsule.
Use diskutil list to find the disk location of the TimeCapsule.

Using if statements you can automate the job:

if [[ $(ioreg -r -k AppleClamshellState | grep AppleClamshellState | grep Yes) ]]; then echo Lid Closed; diskutil unmount /dev/<mydisk>; fi

You can use launchd to set up a automated job that is repeated for example every second (see how to here: http://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-osx-startup-crontab-launchd-jobs)


I can't save my system preferences I can't save my dock and spaces setting. Every time I set them (eg. disable spaces), after I reboot/re-login to the system, the dock and spaces settings will revert back to the previous status. How can I fix this problem?

I've solved it. Change the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist to be unlocked (get info, uncheck the locked label) and it will work fine. I don't remember when I locked it, but whatever.


What os is best for my MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch, Mid 2014? MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) macOS High Sierra. I do not see notifications for me to update to macOS Mojave. What os is best for my MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch, Mid 2014?

"Best" is subjective, but given that your Mac supports macOS Mojave, that would be recommended as it's the most current version (unless you have a specific reason not to install it, like a mission-critical app that you know isn't compatible with it, though that's unlikely).

Additionally, Apple generally only releases security updates for the current version of macOS and the preceding major version. So, when the successor to macOS Mojave is released, presumably around a year from now, High Sierra will likely stop receiving security updates and you'll want to move to Mojave at that point anyway.


Connecting a VGA monitor via Thunderbolt to a MacBook Pro I have a MacBook Pro 13.3" with OSX 10.8.4, which I use mostly at home and at workplace to connect to external monitor.

At home, I have monitor with HDMI input and at my workplace with VGA input. I'm using a Thunderbolt MiniDisplay port to VGA and a Thunderbolt MiniDisplay port to HDMI cable convertors.

When I connect the monitor with the HDMI input at home it works perfectly and it connects quickly; that doesn't happen with the VGA monitor. When I connect it, the MacBook detects the monitor, but the monitor is not showing anything and goes to sleep mode.

Sometimes opening and closing my laptop helps, but not always.

After restarting the MacBook, I'm able to connect.

It's not comfortable to always restart the laptop, since I mostly leave it in sleep mode without closing applications. Does anyone have the same problem and found other solutions to this problem? How should I connect a VGA monitor without restarting the MacBook?

Open System Preferences → Display.

Hold ⌥option which will change the ‘Gather Windows’ button to ‘Detect Displays’.

Clicking it might detect your VGA.


Why Is the Apple Watch Activity App Distance Incorrect by 500m on a 7km Run? Today, I went for a 7 kilometer run on a course with an established distance. I set the MapMyRun app on my iPhone and the Activity App on my watch to record the run. MapMyRun recorded the distance accurately, but the Activity App was off on the distance by 500 meters.

Why is the Apple Watch's Activity App's distance incorrect by 500 meters on a 7 kilometer run?

Specs:

iPhone 6, iOS 8.4 (12H143)
Apple Watch, Watch OS 1.0.1 (12S632)

Apple provide a support article to help improve Activity's accuracy, Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy:

  Bring your iPhone and your Apple Watch.
  Find an open, flat area outside that offers good GPS reception and clear skies.
  Make sure that Location Services is on. To check the setting on your iPhone, tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
  Make sure that Motion Calibration & Distance is on. To check the setting on your iPhone, tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services.
  Hold your iPhone in your hand, or attach it to your body with an armband (preferably) or waistband.
  Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch, and choose Outdoor Walk or Outdoor Run.
  Choose your goal, or select Open, and tap Start.
  Walk or run at your normal pace for about 20 minutes.

You may find  Adam C. Engst's Exercising with the Apple Watch: The Hardware insightful. Adam is a serious runner and he too noted the difference in distances measured:

  Accelerometer -- Happily, the Apple Watch does have an accelerometer that enables it to detect your steps, from which it can determine both distance and pace, even if you’re not carrying your iPhone. It calibrates itself when you use it with the iPhone around, and I’m impressed at how accurate it can be. After a few runs, its numbers match quite closely with those collected by my Garmin and with the quarter-mile markings on San Francisco’s Bay Shore Trail, where I was running recently. Unfortunately, accuracy drops significantly if you run uphill (where your stride is shorter) or faster than normal (where it will be longer).


Applescript to get MS Word current word count? Is there an AppleScript command which will grab the word count of the currently open Microsoft Word® document?

Yes. You could use this:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
    set theDoc to document 1
    return document property "Number of words" of theDoc
end tell

Since you asked for the word count of "the currently open Microsoft Word® document" this does it. This script works ONLY in the case where you have a single Word document open.

It works for Word 2011 and for Word 16.25 (from Office 365).


Activation fails on iPad running iOS Beta 7 This morning my iPad wanted to activate itself once more and at some point I receive the following message:

We're unable to complete your activation on my iPad
This device is not registered as part of the iPhone Developer Program. If you are a member of the Program, please register your device in the http://developer.apple.com/iphone/.

I am member of the developer and I have registered this device. What should I do?

Try updating to the GM. It's the last usable version for the dev's.


Why do I need to type ./mysql even that I am in the folder? So I am in a folder where mysql executable already is..

When I try mysql in terminal I get:
-bash: mysql: command not found

But this will work:
Korays-MacBook-Pro:bin koraytugay$ ./mysql
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 107
etc etc...

So why is the ./ required?

Also how can I add this mysql to my PATH?

The ./ is required because "." is not in your PATH. When you enter a command, the shell will search the folders listed in the PATH environment variable for that command, if you haven't given a path with the command.

If you do not list "." (the current folder) in the PATH variable, it is simply not searched.

You add it to the PATH variable as you would any other directory - it is simply a dot.

Wheere it is set depends on which shell you use, and whether you want it set for just you or everyone. You could for example set it in the .bashrc file in your home directory or in /etc/bashrc to change it for everyone on the system.


Is there any way to change a password hint without changing the password? I have made a typo in my password hint! However, I don't see any way to correct this typo without creating a brand-new password. I don't want to do that either because this is a company computer and the password is managed by the company (and I can't use the same password twice).

How do I fix the typo in my password hint without changing the whole password?

dscl . -merge /Users/username hint "your password hint"

Replace username with the short name of the account you wish to modify.
Replace your password hint with the hint you would like to set for the account.

dscl is the Directory Service command line utility.
. is the local machine.
-merge allows you to add a new key to a record path.
/Users/username is the record path for the key.
hint is the key you would like to assign a value.
your password hint is the string value for the key.


Is it safe to delete ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iLifeSlideshow/Pictures? I was just doing a quick audit of the files on my hard drive and noticed that ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iLifeSlideshow/Pictures is taking up 1.57 GB on my machine! This leads to the following questions.

What is saved in ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iLifeSlideshow/Pictures? The files appear to be from my iPhoto ('09, version 8.1.2) library, but it's not clear exactly which pictures are saved and when.
Is it safe to delete everything under ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iLifeSlideshow/Pictures?
Are there any "best practices" for deleting the content under ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iLifeSlideshow/Pictures? For example, is there any way to tell iPhoto to clear its cache rather than deleting the files directly from the Finder?

By design intent, files stored in ~/Library/Caches should always be safe to delete, at least as long as the application isn't running. You can mitigate any poor programming bugs by moving them to trash and then rebooting the mac before you empty the trash as this ensures whatever programs are running can still write files to that old cache directory but will be forced to make a new Cache folder the next time it starts.

In your specific instance, the folder/files in question are created by iPhoto when you start a slide show. It seems that they do not get removed when you exit iPhoto later on so you have to remove them manually if you want to recover the disk space.


Why will my Mac only load Google and Facebook? I'm running into this really strange problem on my 2013 iMac at home (running Mavericks): the internet will work for a while, then at some point it will stop being able to load any websites except for Facebook and Google (and Google-owned sites, like Gmail and YouTube). These sites work fine, but attempting to access any other site will get stuck on "Connecting..." and eventually time out.

This applies to all browsers. It also applies whether I'm connected via ethernet or WiFi.

Attempting to ping other sites like amazon.com, bing.com, etc. via ping just shows a string of timeouts. nslookup does seem to give back IP addresses, but even plugging these directly into a browser's address bar, I still get nothing.

So I guess that means it's not a DNS issue? All the same, I've tried my ISP's default DNS, Google DNS, and OpenDNS -- no difference.

I can confirm the problem is just with my iMac. Other devices on the same network can connect to any website just fine. Furthermore, if I actually start up a Windows VM on the iMac, the VM can also connect to any website!

Rebooting the computer fixes things for a while. But eventually the problem comes back.

Does anyone know what the issue might be? I've Googled around a bit, and it does seem that some people have encountered similar issues; but I wasn't able to find any solutions that worked for me.

EDIT: Maybe this is the same issue as in this question. However, bouncing mDNSResponder as prescribed in the top answer to that question didn't solve the problem for me.

In my case the problem was IPv6. Websites like Facebook, Google.com and Youtube use IPv6 and work fine while other's don't support it yet.

I couldn't figure out the issue exactly (and the right configuration for IPv6) but I disabled IPv6 and the issue was resolved. This is all I care at this point.

The commands for El Capitan:

Turning off IPv6 support for ethernet:

networksetup -setv6off Ethernet

Disabling IPv6 for wireless:

networksetup -setv6off Wi-Fi

If you ever need to re-enable:

networksetup -setv6automatic Wi-Fi
networksetup -setv6automatic Ethernet

I will edit this if I ever find the correct setting for IPv6 instead of a full disable.


Slow wakeup from sleep with 10.7.2 I'm seeing some seriously slow wakeup times for my Mid-2011 MacBook Air. Wakeup times on the order of 30 seconds or more. Note that the computer is incredibly sluggish or beach balling during this time (not like dark) and takes 30 seconds or so to get going. Obviously this is an SSD with a cleanly installed 10.7 OS from the factory. I have tried restarting, clearing the sleep image, and updating to the latest software but am not sure how to proceed at this point. I am completely up-to-date with all software in Software Update. I am only running a web browser (Chrome) with a reasonable number of tabs open along Mail.app and a few other small programs like TextEdit.

Ideas? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

This might be because your system enters "standby mode", where it actually saves all your data to disk and turns off. When you start up, it restores everything. 30 seconds is NOT normal though. However, a fix that you might want to consider is to disable this functionality:

sudo pmset -a standby 0

The result will be that your MBA should no longer enter "standby mode" anymore and sleep like any other MacBook. It will consume battery power while sleeping, but should wake up instantly.


Can I use the battery from an early 2014 MacBook Air in a mid 2012 Air? I just bought a used mid-2012 MacBook Air to replace the early-2014 model my dog killed but the battery life is terrible comparatively.

Can I take the battery out of the 2014 and use it in the 2012 safely?

Yes. According to iFixit, all 2010 through 2017 MacBook Air's use the same battery:

https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBook-Air-13-Inch-Late-2010-to-2017-Replacement-Battery/IF188-113-2

That's assuming we are talking about the 13". If you are talking about an 11", that changes things.


Find IP address of ethernet printer when Location is “Home” I want to find the IP address of my home ethernet printer. When I follow instructions like here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGK3DUbFz2c
in both cases, it says that the Location is Home. How do I do this?

A sure fire way to find the IP address of your printer (any device for that matter) is to ping the broadcast address.

Get your broadcast address:

ifconfig en0 | grep broadcast | awk '{ print $6 }'

Use en0 for wired ethernet and en1 if you are on wireless.  You will get output similar to the following:

 192.168.1.255

Ping the broadcast address

ping 192.168.1.255

Let it run for about 30 seconds or so....Then hit CtrlC  to stop it.

Alternatively, you can specify the time by adding it to the ping command:

ping -t 30 192.168.1.255

Type arp -a and look for your printer.  You will get output similar to what's shown below (IPs have been changed for security).

router.home (192.168.1.1) at 0:1b:21:c4:c5:55 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
? (192.168.1.4) at 0:4:b:b4:6b:d8 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
unifi.home (192.168.1.18) at 80:2a:a8:40:f0:21 on en0 ifscope  [ethernet]
cp2025dn.home (192.168.1.25) at 78:e3:b5:f6:5f:13 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
lex.home (192.168.1.55) at 0:21:b7:10:38:3b on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
allans-mbp.home (192.168.1.13) at 0:26:b0:e8:bb:a6 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
brwc48e8f209375.home (192.168.1.110) at c4:8e:8f:20:93:75 on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
ipad-5.home (192.168.1.115) at b0:34:95:21:68:5b on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
allans-iphone.home (192.168.1.126) at (incomplete) on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
allans-imac.home (192.168.1.123) at a8:20:66:39:2c:1c on en0 ifscope permanent [ethernet]
diskstation.home (192.168.1.221) at 0:11:32:15:da:4c on en0 ifscope [ethernet]
plex.home (192.168.1.235) at (incomplete) on en0 ifscope [ethernet]

In my case, I have two  printers on my network - my HP CP2025dn and a Lexmark E260 with DNS/IPs as cp2025dn.home/192.168.1.25 and lex.home/192.168.1.55 respectively.

As for the "Location" field, this is something that is set up by the user or Sys Admin.  In my case, it's getting the information directly from the printer.  See printer Setting page below for my Lexmark printer.  What you saw in the YouTube video is misleading because the IP address had to be manually populated in this field.


Bypassing the Failed Disk "Read Only" Mode On macOS, if a disk is failing, you will sometimes get the message below. The OS will put the disk into read-only mode. You can get your files off of it but you can't write to it.

My question is, is there any way to bypass this, and put the disk BACK into normal read-write mode?

Have you tried repairing the disk from recovery HD or while booting into MacOS from a different hard drive?

If you truly want to be able to write to that disk again I would recommend this attempt: Clone the HD to a different HD. Check the health of the new HD and make sure all the files are accountable. Then reformat the previous HD, check the health then put the files back...   However, the disk may be writable again, it’s not going to be reliable.

If I were you, I would get ready to retire drive.


Extension cord or "hub" for USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 The picture below shows how my desk looks after I got my new Mac Book Pro (2017). The bright adapter is for USB, HDMI, USB-C and Ethernet. The darker adapter is from USB-C to Mini Display Port.

It's not quite satisfying to have a bunch of cables and adapters right in the middle of the desk. So I'm looking for a solution so that I can put all the adapters and their connected devices to a hidden spot, and just connect them with one (or two) cables to the laptop.

Basically, I would need either an USB-C extension coord or a hub from USB-C to USB-C. Is there anything available?

USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are different protocol in a same physical connector.

For a USB-C hub you can't support both DP(4K 60Hz) and USB 3.0.

A Thunderbolt 3 Hub will be far more expensive than a USB-C Hub. Unless you are ready to pay for it, it might be better to stick on your current configuration.


MacBook Pro external display support (different resolution from notebook display) My MacBook Pro has a Mini DisplayPort and running Snow Leopard. I'm looking to get myself a Mini DisplayPort -> VGA adapter so that I can attach a hand-me-down LCD display. The LCD display has a native resolution of 1280 x 1024.

Can the MacBook Pro use both displays at once, with the main notebook display at 1280x800 and the external display at 1280x1024?

In general, can the Mini DisplayPort output a resolution different from the main notebook display?

Yes, mismatched resolutions are no problem. I'm running a similar set up right now. You can arrange them however you like in the Displays section of System Preferences.


Macbook internet speeds are slow; fine on other devices I have Verizon Fios 50/50. For the past 2 weeks, my speed tests on my macbook pro were more like 5/5. After reading another comment about NordVPN, I deleted my wifi settings files and deleted NordVPN and my download speed shot up to ~50 mbps but upload is still only 10 mbps. I have a feeling this is related to VPNs that I use even though they're not active. Deleted NordVPN seemed to fix my download speed. I haven't used Nord VPN for 6+ months so it was not active at the time, which is confusing. I used Pulse Secure and Cisco AnyConnect on and off for work so unfortunately I cannot also delete those VPNs.  Anyone have any ideas?  FYI - my phone sitting next to me on the same wifi network has consistent 50/50 speed tests.

I booted in Safe Mode and internet speed was normal. I also found another thread that solved the upload speed problem (apple.stackexchange.com/questions/359723/…). Apparently, my PulseSecure VPN client installed a kernel extension that was an issue. Not 100% sure if that was the issue but after following the instructions on that thread and rebooting my computer, my speeds are up to 50/70! after weeks.


Assign an agent app to all desktops I am running an app (Simple Floating Clock) that runs as an agent (LSUIElement assigned to 1 in the app's Info.plist).

I would like to assign the app to "All Desktops" that I run.  Normally, if an app is not an agent, I can right click on the dock icon, select options, and then click "All Desktops".

Is there a simple way to set the all desktops behavior, maybe using the command line or something?

Assign the app to All Desktops, then set LSUIElement to 1. It should remember the change and abide by it even though it now runs as an agent.


Why does iTunes continually ask me to authorize my computer? I just recently bought an album on iTunes and I have a weird problem. All of the songs (18 in all) except for one, play perfectly fine. When I try to play it, it says "This computer is not authorized to play "". Would you like to authorize it?" It prompts me to sign in with my Apple ID, which I did. Then it says "This computer is already authorized." I have no clue how to fix this! I've tried the steps outlined in iTunes: Missing folder or incorrect permissions may prevent authorization and iTunes repeatedly prompts to authorize computer to play iTunes Store purchases, but neither of them work. Any suggestions?

In the end, deleting all the offending track and re-downloading it was the only thing that worked. Why I didn't think about this at first, I don't know, but it worked!


Where does File Sharing store SMB passwords Because of High Sierra 10.13.1, I had to switch from AFP protocols to SMB.

I only got this working by storing passwords in System Preferences > File Sharing > Options > Windows File Sharing

(strange: for iMac to iMac file sharing??)

Now I wonder: where are those passwords stored on my disk?

The dialog already says that this is less secure .......

If you enable Windows File Sharing for a user in System Preferences > File Sharing > Options > Windows File Sharing the method to encrypt and hash the password is modified in the local node of the sharing host's directory service.

The file affected is /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/$user.plist. $user is the name of the user account you enabled in Windows File Sharing. If you enable several users all respective plists are modified.

Technical background: in addition to the existing authentication authorities another one (SMB-NT) is added. SMB-NT is considered weak.

You can get the current authentication authorities of a user by entering:

dscl . -read /users/$user authentication_authority #replace $user with a valid short user name

Usually you have to enable this for older Windows clients (Windows XP etc) only!


Where are the Terminal settings stored on OS X? You'd think A) I'd know this by now, and B) that it's readily available info, but apparently neither is the case.

What I'm looking for is where the config files (colors, etc.) that ship with Terminal are kept on the system. It'd be really handy to point to these in a /dotfiles/setup.sh file.

Am I being oblivious? I've checked the package contents of Terminal.app, but nothing is there of note. It is also noteworthy, that OS X (at least Mountain Lion) will include Terminal settings, sessions, and scripts as pre-defined search parameters in Finder, but I have found nothing.

I've searched online, and dug deep into /usr/ and /Library. Nothing. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

The preferences appear to be at: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist

See also this question on SO and another question on SU that focus on exporting the settings from one Mac and moving them to another.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8350065/
http://superuser.com/questions/204686/

For older macOS, you can edit the file directly but on newer OS (with newer being 10.9 and later) you will want to use the defaults command to write the values to the persistent database (which may or may not flush back changes to the filesystem) rather than editing the file.

defaults read com.apple.Terminal

Or to write the secure keyboard entry function (as one easy example):

defaults write com.apple.Terminal SecureKeyboardEntry 1


I have a company MacBook Pro and I no longer can see my username on the login screen I have a MacBook Pro given to me by my IT department. The macbook has 2 accounts:

Local Administrator
My Account

Today, when I turned on the Macbook, my account didn't appear in list of accounts to sign into. The only account on the MacBook is the Local Administrator, and I don't have its password.

Is this a bug, or have I done something wrong? I don't remember deleting anything or even remotely playing with anything that could do this.

I am using OS X El Capitan 10.11  with a 2015 MacBook Pro.

Fixed! Had to go IT department.

The IT Department didn't enable/setup Filevault properly. They just had to login with their credentials and set it


Cannot move files from one drive to another in Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 (they copy instead) When I try to move a file to my WD My Passport Ultra external drive it just copies the file. It doesn't actually move them. What can I do to fix this?

To move a file to a different drive from the one it is on drag the file to the new location while holding down the Command key. The green '+' sign on the cursor should not be displayed.

To create an alias hold down Command-Option while dragging the file. A curved arrow icon will be added to the cursor to indicate an alias will be made.


Monitoring and disconnecting users from an AirPort Extreme Does anyone know a simple way to monitor who is connected to an AirPort Extreme, see the bandwidth they are using, and the ability to disconnect them or throttle their bandwidth usage?

I know for disconnecting two options would be
1. updating wifi password and restarting the AirPort Extreme
2. setting a limit by MAC address

but I am looking for something that wouldn't involve restarting the AirPort each time.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a native way to do this.

With regard to detailed bandwidth monitoring, the Airport Extreme supports SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) so if you want to put in a bit of effort, you could set up Cacti http://www.cacti.net/ and point that at the base station.

As far as remote disconnection of users, there is no way that I know of short of the two options you mentioned.


How to fix mouse scroll delay/threshold/deadzone I have a Logitech VX Nano and a MBP running Sierra 10.12.1 (16B2555). The problem isn't that mouse scrolling is choppy or slow, the problem is anything but a rapid 20%+ turn of the scroll wheel is completely ignored. I'm also able to turn the scroll wheel as far as possible very slowly and not have any scrolling occur. When using this mouse on other OSes, the slightest scroll wheel turn will result in a proportional scroll on the screen.

I was having this problem in Mac OS 10.12 and 10.12.1.  I searched and could not find a good answer related to this.  I did upgrade to 10.12.2 a couple of days ago and, even though there is no mention of changes related to mice in the release notes, my problem went away.


Bluetooth lagging when Magic Mouse and a bluetooth speaker connected I'm having problems with my Bluetooth on my MacBook Pro Retina early 2013 OS X 10.9.3

It is constantly losing connection for a few seconds with my Magic Mouse and my Bluetooth speaker (Bose Soundlink Mini) occasionally even resetting the connection so I have to reconnect both.

I started having this problem just recently but it's not the speaker's fault (I've tried others) or the mouse's fault—I've tried disconnecting it.

I have also tried restarting the computer, freeing some memory and so on...

Any ideas?

I don't know that there's anything you can do about this—speakers just use up a lot of Bluetooth's available bandwidth. While I've never had trouble with JUST a speaker and mouse, I've found that if I connect a Bluetooth mouse, keyboard, and speaker at once, the speaker becomes horribly stuttery until either the mouse or keyboard is disconnected.

You say you've already tried different speakers; I might try different mice as well. You could try a USB Bluetooth adapter, but there's no guarantee that it will be any better. Also, if you have any additional Bluetooth devices you didn't tell us about, definitely disconnect those as well.

(At one point, I set up Eventscripts to automatically disconnect my keyboard whenever a Bluetooth speaker was connected. It worked, but was somewhat fragile, and I don't recommend it.)

You could also try lowering macOS's Bluetooth audio quality in the terminal so it uses less bandwidth. I have never been able to get acceptable results this way, but it could be worth a try. https://lifehacker.com/fix-your-bluetooth-audio-in-yosemite-with-this-terminal-1670380974

You're not going to like this solution, but I would recommend replacing either the mouse or speaker with a non-Bluetooth alternative, such as a wireless mouse with a USB dongle or a wifi speaker that works over airplay.

Sorry this isn't the answer you wanted.


How can I change my Apple ID region from Asia to U.S My Apple ID region is Indonesia but I wanted to change it cause I can't download some app on the Indonesian store

I think this page can help you.
But I'll explain it here too.

On your device, tap Settings > iTunes & App Store.
Tap your Apple ID.
If you're not signed in, sign in with the Apple ID and password that you use with the iTunes Store.
Tap View Apple ID.

If prompted, enter your password again.
    Tap Country/Region. Learn what to do if you can't change your country.
    Tap Change Country or Region.
    Tap your new country, then tap Next.
    Review the Terms and Conditions and Apple Privacy Policy, then tap Agree if you agree to the terms and conditions.
    In the prompt that appears, tap Agree.
    Select a payment method and enter your payment information. Learn more about how to change or remove your Apple ID payment information.
    Enter your billing address and tap Next.

Your Apple ID country updates for all of your Apple services on all of your Apple products.

Open iTunes.
If you’re not signed in, sign in with your Apple ID.
From the menu bar at the top of your computer screen or at the top of the iTunes window, choose Account > View My Account.
    If you’re using Windows and can’t see the menu bar, learn how to turn it on.
    Enter your password, then press the Return or Enter key on your keyboard, or click View Account.

On the Account Information page:

To the right of Country/Region, click "Change Country or Region."
    From the "Select a country or region" menu, select your new country. Learn what to do if you can't change your country.
    Click Change.
    On the Welcome to the iTunes Store page, click Continue.
    Review the Terms and Conditions and Apple Privacy Policy. If you agree, select “I have read and agree to these terms and conditions.”
    Click Agree.
    Enter your payment method. Learn more about how to change or remove your Apple ID payment information.
    Enter your billing address.
    Click Continue.


Copy screenshot to Google Drive Document This question is related to this one : Mac (OS X 10.9.2) no longer saving screen shots

If I use only cmdshift it works as expected, a new image is created on my desktop. If I only want to copy it to the clipboard in order to paste it later  into Photoshop or a Google Drive Document : I hear the sound but nothing append when I paste it (using cmdV) . I'm using Sierra 10.12, I'm new on macOS so that's maybe a stupid thing, the options "copy to clipboard" is checked in the system pref :

Any Idea how to solve it ?

What key combo did you use for capture to clipboard? I just tried it and it worked fine. I'm running Sierra too. I used control-shift-command-3 as my keys and then pasted into Notes. All went as expected. I had same setting in system pref keyboard as you showed. Also make sure that wherever you are pasting it accepts image files.


Reading out a Macbook Pro 2013 (A502) SSD My Macbook Pro 2013 has unfortunately met its demise after many years of service. I would like to access the data stored on its SSD, but I don't know the best way to go about it. The devices I have available are a standard PC (Linux/Windows) and a Macbook Pro 2020.
I have removed the SSD successfully from the MBP 2013, but due to the connectors, I cannot easily connect it to any hardware I have available.
What adaptor do I need?

You can find an external enclosure here : https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENVOYPRO/


What makes OSX say that it's low free space on the boot volume for the program memory? I had 3 GB of free space on my 32G SSD drive when I decided to do an index rebuild in my apple mail. It ate up all the free space. I connected an external drive and moved some applications to free up another 3GB. I redid the rebuild and it ate up another 3GB. Then I moved the V2 folder from my
 home library (mail folder) to the external drive and created a symlink. I relaunched the mail, launched 'rebuild' and during reindexing it popped up a window saying that my boot volume doesn't have enough free space for the system memory, while in fact I have somewhat 15 GB of free space on my main drive. And 1.5TB on the external drivre. How do I fix this?

First off, "system memory" does not necessarily refer to available hard disk space. It sounds like you don't have enough free hard disk space on your system disk to rebuild Mail's index. One thing to note is that an index rebuild is usually done by making a clean copy of the index, keeping the old file around until the rebuild is complete. Even if you've symlinked the file to the external drive, the index may be a separate hidden file on the SSD.

If the message truly did refer to "system memory," it's also possible that you ran out of swap space, which can only reside on the system disk.

Move as much as you can off the SSD and try one more time. You may also want to look around for the files caused by the failed index rebuilds and delete them (making sure, of course, you do not delete the real one).


How to identify a corrupted file system early I recently had an external hard drive develop a corrupted file system.  At first, I started noticing some errors when trying to open certain files on it, and now OSX has told me that it has frozen the disk as read-only.  I have everything backed up, so it is not a catastrophic problem.  But, it is still a hassle to deal with.  I would like to find a way to identify such issues sooner.

I'm not concerned about identifying bad sectors or failing hardware issues (such as discussed here: How to identify and fix files with corrupted / inaccessible disk blocks), as I have other software in place already to deal with those.

My naive approach to this would be to either:

(a) write a script that goes and tries to open all of my key files periodically to check for errors and/or (b) periodically doing full checksums against my backup.  Both of these, however, seem both slow and troublesome in terms of the extra wear they put on disks.

My ideal solution would:

Identify file system corruption early
Pinpoint precisely which files/directories are affected (so that I can address just those affected locations).

If that second point isn't really achievable (I'd need to have a pretty high confidence in getting every problem file and location identified), then I'd at least settle for the first.

I know that there is some third party software (e.g. Diskwarrior) that advertises an ability to diagnose these problems early, but I am unclear about how effective it actually is at that.

This is what SMART status is for.

I use a product called DiskDrill, that besides the recovery tools (paid) they have a number of free utilities including a SMART status monitor that will warn you proactively if a number of erros start popping up.

As for you data, the best approach is the "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" approach.  Create and stick to a back up plan where you have not one (Time Machine) backup, but a secondary (like iCloud and OneDrive).  When you have multiple copies, you greatly reduce the chance of data loss.


iPhone claims diskspace is full My iPhone 5S 16GB is complaining about disk running out of free space.
When I check it in settings, it shows me I have 1,5GB free space.

Why do I get this notice? It started since iOS8.
Is this a bug in iOS?

Although your device may show you that you have 1,5GB space available, it is possible that the free space notification is popping up due to application updates requiring a bit more space than that. Try resetting your settings (don't worry, you won't lose any data!) to see if that helps.

Open the "Settings" app.
Tap "General".
Scroll to the bottom and tap "Reset"
Tap "Reset All Settings". This will only reset settings to their factory defaults and can often clean out any corrupt preferences that may cause undesirable behaviour. Your data such as contacts, photos, apps etc will not be touched.
Enter your passcode (if you have one set)
Confirm that you wish to reset your settings.

When your device has restarted, check your free space again. It might have increased a little and you should no longer get the notification that you are running out of storage space.


Hidden files in archives When I download any archive file and unpack it, it looks good, but if I copy it to usb stick or lan drive, windows clients see copy of each file with a dot in name. Looks like it's a mac os' system files. How can I disable it? I really don't want to have it in unpacked archives.

Mavericks 10.9.2

You can prevent .DS_Store creation with Asepsis.

  At core Asepsis provides a dynamic library DesktopServicesPrivWrapper which gets loaded into every process linking against DesktopServicesPriv.framework. It interposes some libc calls used by DesktopServicesPriv to access .DS_Store files. Interposed functions detect paths talking about .DS_Store files and redirect them into a special prefix folder. This seems to be transparent to DesktopServicesPriv.

As for ._AppleDouble and other such files (including .DS_Store), you can use BlueHarvest. This lets you provide a folder which the app will clean of such files/folders:

  Perhaps you need to clean a disk, folder immediately? No problem, simply control-click the disk or folder in the Finder and select “Clean using BlueHarvest”. If your sending zip archives to non Mac users do the same and BlueHarvest will remove the Mac metadata from the archive too. BlueHarvest's "set and forget" preferences are very simple and yet extremely powerful.


Resolution scaling and performance When I put the scaling setting of my screen on setting 4 on the scale of "Larger Text" (1) and "More Space" (5), system report says this:
Displays:
 PHL BDM4350:
  Resolution:   6400 x 3600
  UI Looks like:    3200 x 1800 @ 60 Hz
  Framebuffer Depth:    30-Bit Colour (ARGB2101010)

When I put it on setting 5 on the scale of "Larger Text" (1) and "More Space" (5), system report says this:
Displays:
 PHL BDM4350:
  Resolution:   3840x2160 (2160p/4K UHD 1 - Ultra High Definition)
  UI Looks like:    3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz
  Framebuffer Depth:    30-Bit Colour (ARGB2101010)

I have two questions:

My screen is 4k, and has less than 6400 x 3600 pixels. Is my screen not running at the optimal resolution, or is the graphics card doing additional resizing?
Would my laptop be performing better if it is running at 3840 x 2160 pixels and then increasing font size a bit?

Question 1:
In both cases the display is running at the same actual resolution (3840x2160). However, the graphics are rendered virtually at a resolution of 6400x3600 before being downsampled to the actual resolution.
This is done because 3200x1800 is not an integer multiple of the actual resolution, therefore there's going to be some compromises made regarding image quality when viewing it on screen. In order to make the right compromises, the display is rendered virtually to a much higher resolution that is then downsampled to the actual resolution. This enables the computer to use those extra bits of display data to choose a better pixel value for each position on the display, than if it just had a 3840x2160 virtual rendering to work with.
Question 2:
Yes, I think that is the case here.


Impossible to watch videos on the NBC website I am trying to watch Saturday Night Live on the nbc website, but no matter what browser I try (Safari, Chrome, Firefox), or what computer I try (iMac with El Capitan, MacBook Air with macOS Sierra), I get the exact same message:

Sorry, we can't play this video in its intended experience because we're unable to load the accompanying message from our sponsors.

I have the latest version of Flash, there is no VPN or AdBlock installed on the MacBook Air and on the iMac's Firefox and Chrome.
A message bar appeared in Firefox indicating "Firefox disabled Flash for this website" so I allowed it. Didn't make a difference. I also tried checking the browsers' preferences, as well as the Macs' System Preferences, but couldn't find anything that would prevent videos from working. I've looked for answers online but couldn't find any.

Every other website I use to watch videos (YouTube, Vimeo) work well.
Some Flash-based websites require two permission steps to start displaying Flash content, for example here is Nitrome:

Step 1

Step 2

But the NBC website doesn't ask this.
To reproduce, go to this link and click any video in the "Episodes" section.

What is causing this issue and how can I fix this?

I actually was having the same problem, for me it turned out to be that my /etc/hosts file was blocking certain hosts and adservers that the nbc.com site wanted to reach. So I just renamed my hosts file and restarted mDnsResponder.


Why would my Mac be slow after inactivity and then get to full speed after 20-30 minutes of use? My Macbook appears to get slow after a period of inactivity and then get itself back to full speed after 20-30 minutes.

While I have some ideas I'm wondering if anybody else has seen such behaviour or can offer some tips on how to investigate it further.

I have 16GB of RAM and I tend to run a reasonable workload. I have VMWare Fusion with a Windows and an Ubuntu guest running as well as Eclipse and Chrome (and probably Mail and iTunes).

Once I'm done for a while I'll either shut the lid or just leave the machine on and open. What I notice is that when I come back to it it can be dreadfully slow. Eclipse or the Windows guest can sit there for a 10-30 minutes with a spinning icon or not doing much.

After 20-30 minutes everything seems to come to full speed.

My guess is that MacOS is paging out everything in memory and then being forced to page it back in. However, I don't know enough about MacOS to provide evidence for this - nor to look for another explanation.

The clearest way I can see to see whether data is being paged in or out of RAM is the command line program top. Open a Terminal and run top.

Within the first few lines of output look for  "swapins" and "swapouts". The values at the end tell you how many pages have been swapped in and out of memory. The values in the brackets are the delta for that update (top updates once a second by default).

If your Macbook is swapping Eclipse or your VMs back into RAM when you wake it or come back to it after leaving it for a while, then the swains number should be changing significantly each second.


Emoji viewer constantly popping up in input fields A weird problem has showed up the last …weeks? The emoji viewer (Cmd+Option+Space on my keyboard) will trigger at random when I click an input field. At first I thought it was just a Slack bug, user error, or stuck keyboard keys, but the problem has showed up on my other Mac too. It's wildly annoying, as I have to hit Esc after I focus on any new input field. My only lead at the moment is assuming its macOS. The problem comes and goes seemingly at random too (haven't found a pattern yet).

I'm all googled out. Any ideas?

macOS 10.13 High Sierra
Norwegian keyboard layout
Bluetooth keyboard (identical setup on both Macs)

I faced the same annoying bug with emoji viewer in macOS Mojave (10.14.6).

Possible solution

In case of multiple input sources, try to delete one of them (System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Input sources) and add deleted one again. System restart was not required in my case.

If you have only one default input source, try to add some another and then delete it.

I hope this solution comes in handy


How does macOS identify the signing status of an app downloaded from the Internet? I downloaded an app from the Internet using Safari. Upon executing it, macOS notifies that the app is from an unidentified developer.

How is macOS able to determine this information? Where is the signing metadata for an app stored?

The information is stored within extended attributes, with additional information potentially embedded within an application.

Extended Attributes

This quarantine information is stored as an extended attribute. Use the xattr tool to view the attributes associated with a file or application.

The attribute causing this message is com.apple.quarantine.

See How do I remove the “extended attributes” on a file in Mac OS X? and App can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer for more details.

Gatekeeper and Code Signatures

The extended attribute is used by Gatekeeper on macOS and is discussed in How to set (restore) the com.apple.quarantine attribute?

A optional digital signature embedded within an application is used to determine the application's developer. If a signature is not found, macOS presents the application as being from an unidentified developer.


MacBook Pro error report I received the following error report from my MacBook Pro:

UUID: 334D8DD6-1F4F-4E65-8D2A-D8EC96CE2E52
Stackshot Reason: Sleep transition timed out after 180 seconds while entering darkwake on way to sleep. Suspected bundle: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily. Thread 0x74.
Failure code:: 0x9e233908 00000031

================================================================
Date/Time:       2019-06-04 07:34:17 +0200
OS Version:      ??? ??? (Build ???)
Architecture:    x86_64
Report Version:  28

Data Source:     Stackshots
Shared Cache:    0x104ef000 0790ECA1-FEA2-34B5-977F-9114E6FBC1CC

Event:           Sleep Wake Failure
Duration:        0.00s
Steps:           1

Time Awake Since Boot: 360000s

Process:         kernel_task [0]
UUID:            4170BF94-38B6-364F-A1B0-2F7C2C30F9A9
Architecture:    x86_64
Version:         Darwin Kernel Version 18.5.0: Mon Mar 11 20:40:32 PDT 2019; root:xnu-4903.251.3~3/RELEASE_X86_64
Footprint:       459.76 MB
Start time:      2019-06-04 07:34:17 +0200
End time:        2019-06-04 07:34:17 +0200
Num samples:     1 (1)

What has happened? How can I prevent this in the future?

Welcome @user65526! So, generally speaking, more information is  needed for something like this. The closest I can guess is: some kernel extension, possible related to a graphics card or external video display (?) is getting hung up with Apple's "Power Nap" feature, also known as darkwake[s]. I'd recommended disabling the feature entirely, by entering in your terminal:

sudo pmset -a darkwakes 0

This will disable "Power Nap" in all cases. IMO its not a particularly useful feature anyway.


Browsers Keep popping phishing websites (I think) I have a 2017 MBP, Recently a friend of mine installed Logic Pro X via a torrent. But recently I see a lot of pop up similar to websites I visit. e.g If I am nike website, it open a new tab and in milliseconds changes the url and land on nike, same for other websites as well.

I tried disabling kaspersky extension for safari but didn't help.

I tried stopping MacPerfomance but it didn't stop. How can I get rid of it?

Macperfomance is malware advertising mackeeper, so first of all keep yourself out of this soft, never install mackeeper.

In order to clean this shit your should first delete file mackeeper.plist and all other files you can't recognize as your desired software from folders /library/LaunchAgents,  /library/LaunchDaemons,  /users/%yourusername%/library/LaunchAgents

After that close all your apps and reboot your Mac