Second hand Macbook and Find My Mac Quick question:

Bought a secondhand Macbook pro over ebay.
Seller told me "I logged off from iCloud but forgot to turn off Find My Mac.
Bought it anyway since I do not plan using iCloud.
Now I got news that if he wants he can track and block my Mac.

I have administrator account access, the EFI is not password protected since i asked him to wipe it out, so:

Can I simply log in with my iCloud account to the Mac and disable Find My Mac?

It's not nice to know that somebody can "track me".

More info:

The seller formated the drive before sending it to me, when i turned it off i got to the first time installation wizard. There's no apple id associated to the macbook and the only user is the one i did create in the wizard and has no icloud account associated whatsoever.

So, is it even possible to log off from your icloud account without disabling "find my mac"?. i've read that the tokes for find my mac are stored in nvram and the recovery partition so a hard drive format is quite useless since the device would be still showing up in the "find" icloud account of the seller.

Computers, phones, and devices that are not currently logged in with a given Apple ID and specifically with the service Find My Mac / Find My iPhone enabled will show up as "Offline" in someone's iCloud account etc.

So, basically, if both of you have the same computer in your iCloud accounts with Find My Mac, only the person who is currently logged in can track it. If neither of you are logged in no one can track it. The only way he could track it at this point is if you knew his Apple ID and password and went into System Preferences > iCloud and set-up Find My Mac for him. It is up to him if he wants to keep a line in his iCloud.com menu under Find My Mac that has the "name" of the computer that was retrieved the last time he tracked it that will perpetually search and always fail to find your computer, and just say "Offline". You can't change that for him.

You're safe. With the computer wiped, his user account isn't present, and that's where the iCloud account data is stored. You do not need to track your computer to "block" him from doing. It's just up to you if you want to track it at all for yourself. He will never know where it is again.


Safari complains about SSL certificate on redirect page I have gotten reports from people navigating to our site without entering the www. part of the URL that our SSL certificate does not match and so generates a warning. This is technically correct I suppose since our SSL certificate is for the www. domain and two other subdomains.

But I have a redirect function so that anyone who enters the non-www url gets instantly redirected to the www URL. I have tested this on several browsers and on android phones. It seems only on Safari have any problems been found. Anyone have any suggestions on why this is happening with Safari and how to avoid it? The server is a windows server running IIS.

There is nothing you can do except get a new certificate which covers both www and non-www.

Any redirects will only be done after a successful SSL handshake. But since your certificate does not match the name in the URL used by the client there will be no successful SSL handshake and thus no redirect.


Installing macOS Sierra on iMac 2008 new hard drive I've just installed a new hard drive in my 2008 iMac. As my old one died I put a copy of macOS Sierra on a USB stick, but when I try to boot from it all I get is the no entry sign.

Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? Do I possibly need an older version macOS?

You need at least a 2009 iMac to run macOS 10.12 Sierra.

The latest version of macOS that supports the 2008 iMac is macOS 10.11 El Capitan.


Xquartz crash infinite loop in Mountain Lion? I'm trying to get Xquartz to work in Mountain Lion, but when I click it, it starts up, then crash, then starts up again etc. It loops like this until I reboot or logout.

My console says this for every loop:

    8/15/12 10:00:21.806 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]: lockfile: Sorry, giving up on "/var/folders/vr/6swz_qtn60q0ld9lp_pbdqk80000gn/T//font_cache.lock"
8/15/12 10:00:21.806 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]: font_cache is already running.
8/15/12 10:00:21.806 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]: If you believe this to be erroneous, please remove /var/folders/vr/6swz_qtn60q0ld9lp_pbdqk80000gn/T//font_cache.lock.
8/15/12 10:00:21.830 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[14842]: lockfile: Sorry, giving up on "/opt/X11/var/run/font_cache.lock"
8/15/12 10:00:21.831 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[14842]: font_cache is already running.
8/15/12 10:00:21.831 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx[14842]: If you believe this to be erroneous, please remove /opt/X11/var/run/font_cache.lock.
8/15/12 10:00:21.893 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]: xauth:  file /Users/gav/.serverauth.14954 does not exist
8/15/12 10:00:21.953 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.stub[14994]: Xquartz: Unable to locate waiting server: org.macosforge.xquartz.X11
8/15/12 10:00:21.956 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.stub[14995]: Xquartz: Starting X server: /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app/Contents/MacOS/X11 --listenonly
8/15/12 10:00:22.305 PM SIMBL Agent[11494]: warning: failed to get scripting definition from /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app; it may not be scriptable.
8/15/12 10:00:22.306 PM SIMBL Agent[11494]: eventDidFail:'tvea' error:Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-600 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -600.)" (procNotFound: no eligible process with specified descriptor) UserInfo=0x4001afc60 {ErrorNumber=-600} userInfo:{
    ErrorNumber = -600;
}
8/15/12 10:00:22.307 PM SIMBL Agent[11494]: eventDidFail:'tvea' error:Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-1701 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -1701.)" (errAEDescNotFound) UserInfo=0x4001d7200 {ErrorNumber=-1701} userInfo:{
    ErrorNumber = -1701;
}
8/15/12 10:00:23.956 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]: /opt/X11/bin/xinit: XFree86_VT property unexpectedly has 0 items instead of 1
8/15/12 10:00:24.064 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]: /opt/X11/bin/xinit: connection to X server lost
8/15/12 10:00:24.065 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]:
8/15/12 10:00:25.066 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]: waiting for X server to shut down
8/15/12 10:00:25.113 PM org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[14953]: waiting for X server to shut down
8/15/12 10:00:25.114 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[129]: (org.macosforge.xquartz.startx) Throttling respawn: Will start in 7 seconds

I don't know anything about Xquartz, so I'm not sure how to diagnose the problem.

I'm using Xquartz 2.7.2 found here http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/

I was able to solve this issue on Mountain Lion 10.8.2 with XQuartz 2.7.4 by moving ~/.xinitrc.d out of the way (same effect as deleting it).


CTRL+ALT+FX Equivalent in OSX I am working on some OpenGL development and I get to the point where I can move the mouse but nothing responds (Sometimes I can wait for a really long time). The mouse still moves just none of the apps respond. This is especially strange since I have the sandybridge with 16gbs RAM. I would like to try to go and kill an emulator I am running to fix the issue, in Linux I would do this with ctrl+alt+fx to get to a terminal and type my kill command. This doesn't appear to work in OSX, is there another option?

There are no virtual consoles like in Linux; there is no way to interact with the system using the connected keyboard/mouse/display outside of the regular GUI which you have already found to be unresponsive.

To bail out with a minimum of needed interaction, there is a shortcut to kill the frontmost application directly: ⌥⇧⌘⎋, Command-Option-Shift-Escape. This is precisely the same action as the usual Force Quit dialog, except that it does not ask you to choose an application.

(Tip: If you press modifier keys while a menu is open, in this case press Shift while the Apple menu is open, shortcut variants like this one will be displayed.)
If you have another machine or even a phone around, another thing you can do is connect via SSH (turn on Remote Login in Sharing preferences) and use that to kill the runaway process. However, if your runaway program is hogging the RAM then I recommend you SSH in before you start work, as making a new SSH connection while the system is stuck in swapping will be just as sluggish, but using an existing connection is less problematic.

(Note that in the unfortunate case where your OpenGL program is hitting glitches in the graphics driver, as opposed to merely consuming resources itself, you may find that the system continues to be unusable even after your process exits, since the entire GUI rendering is based on hardware-accelerated graphics processing.)


Just bought MacMini M1, not happy with BigSur can I install Catalina and if so how? Just bought a MacMini M1, not happy with BigSur is it possible to remove BigSur and install Catalina and if so how?

The minimum OS you can run on an M1 Mac mini is macOS 11 Big Sur.
It will not run Catalina.
Sorry.


What are the physical dimensions of the SSD used in the MacBook Air? I need the dimensions of the "gum-stick" SSD (solid-state drive) used in 2011 MacBook Air models, preferably in cm or mm.

Techrepublic says as part of their tear-down the part number is Samsung MZ-CPA1280/0A2. This part is available on Amazon JP where its dimensions are specified as "Size : 24.0 × 3.9 × 108.9mm"


Delete Camera Roll Images What is the best way to delete all images from camera roll.  I am selling my phone and don't want to try deleting them one at a time, nor do I want to leave them.

Connect the iPhone to a Mac or PC running iTunes and do a complete Restore to factory settings. This will wipe out all media & data and install the latest version of iOS for that device.

If you don't have a Mac or PC for this task, on the iPhone itself, you can go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase all content and settings.

NOTE: Be sure to disable Find My iPhone if you have it enabled, and logout of any iCloud services.


Can't update iPhone 5S to the last iOS version (Verifying update) I am trying to install the latest iOS version (iOS 10.3.1) on my iPhone 5S. I've already downloaded it, I just need to install it. However, when tapping on "Install Now", it keeps saying "verifying update...", and so I cannot proceed further (I need to brutally reset my phone).

Can somebody help me fixing this issue?

Restore is sometimes needed from iTunes when an over the air (OTA) update fails you repeatedly. iTunes restores have a couple of other advantages in addition to being far more reliable:

chance to back up locally instead of iCloud
less free space needed on the device (you don't need space to stage the upgrade and contain a download all on the device - just space needed to apply the change)


how to play local video files in thumbnail overlay (similar to skype video calls)? I am very new to OSX, so far loving it. I really like how when you use Skype video call on OSX, and you change the primary focus to an app other than Skype, your video call is persistently visible on the screen as a small thumbnail sized overlay window, drawn above all your active applications.

I'd like to be able to play local video files in a similar manner, where the file is played in a small overlay window on top of all other windows, so that it's not covered up by my active application. I'd like to be able to watch some shows/movies while coding :)

Please let me know if this is possible, and how it can be done! I mainly use quicktime and VLC but if I need a different player to do this, that's okay too.

Thanks!

VLC : Go to Settings ->  Video -> Always on top [check]
QuickTime  : Not possible without Extra Applications like this.


How to make Final Cut Pro to use my Tera bytes' HDD and not my Laptop's HDD? I want all videos to my external HDD and not my laptop's HDD and Final Cut Pro does not give this option. I am not wanting to use my MBA's free space for video editing. How can I define the location of videos in Final Cut Pro?

Change the Save to location to be your external drive.

Since 10.1 you can also create a library which can be stored externally. See:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5958


Disable iSight Indicator LED on El Capitan I use a lot my camera and sometimes I need to do a lot of meetings. I don't like to let people around see that I'm in a video call.

Do you know how to disable the indicator light to always be green when the camera is on?
I'm using a Macbook Air mid-2012 with OS X 10.11 El Capitan. If need, I can disable temporary the security from El Capitan.

Thanks,

I would use a small piece of black tape. If you get the right kind it will be hard to spot and since its always there it won't give you away.

Not the modern software approach but it works.


How to get read receipt with Outlook for Mac 2011 with more than one mail account? Regarding How do I request a read receipt when sending e-mail with Outlook for Mac 2011?:

There is a solution which I havent applied yet because it seemed for a single account. Is it possible to go for these steps twice to get read receipt for two accounts, depending on which has sent the email?

I think which the solution is emulate to MailTrack.io

i.e. add a invisible image hosted in cloud and to be verify if it was requested. But I don't know if it is posible in Outlook for Mac 2011.


Son playing on IPad instead of doing homework My son is playing with his IPad instead of doing his homework on it.  Is there an app to see what apps he is using along with how long he is on each app?

Without installing additional applications (since is not your iPad after all), you could use the Battery consumption indicator that comes with iOS as a rough indicator how long a app was running- consuming battery. It does not tell you the time of usage but the amount.

The benefit is you will not be intrusive nor raise any suspicion from the "user" looking at the battery consumption, as compared to some tracking software, since the kids are very clever these days.

iOS 8 tells you what app is draining your iPhone's battery

Example for 7 days (Clash of Clans is a game) and here you can see the heavy usage over a week that might help you managing the situation.


How to delete photos from iPhone 5 without removing already transferred photos from iMac? I have synced my photos from iPhone 5 to an iMac (running Mavericks).

Now I would like to remove the photos from the phone but I'm not sure how the syncing works. Will the photos stay on the iMac or will the removed photos be removed from the computer when the next sync occurs?

Were you transferring photos from your iPhone to your Mac using Photo Stream? If you were, no matter what happens to your photos on your iPhone, the transferred photos will always be on your Mac.

Because the Mac would most definetly have more storage space than an iOS device, Photo Stream photos are automatically downloaded and permanently saved to your Mac's iPhoto or Aperture library; the 1000 photo/30 day limit doesn't apply for OS X or Windows unless you clear the photos and start fresh.

If you moved or copied your photos from your Photo Stream to somewhere else on your Mac, they are still safe.


How to star-rate "Apple Music" files in iTunes on OS X I like rating music as I'm listening to it so I can find my favorite stuff easily later.  But I'm now an Apple Music subscriber and listening to a LOT of new music that the service has found for me.  Unfortunately those streamed songs, don't appear to allow star ratings!  They only allow a "heart" rating.

But here's the weird part.  I discovered that you CAN see the star ratings if you right-click an Apple Music song and Get Info on it.  BUT, you cannot actually edit the rating, it's disabled.

But here's the weirder part.  If you select MULTIPLE files at once (at least two), then you CAN edit the star ratings!

So, is this a bug?  An intended feature?  Is there some other way to actually star-rate a single Apple Music streamed song?

I've had several people ask for help with Apple Music and this has helped them - hopefully it's what you're looking for.

Stars are tracked in your music library - so if you are playing songs from the cloud - it's a bug if you can input stars for tracks that are not part of your actual library.

One you add a song/album to your library - the stars should be there for you to rate things.

Hearts are tracked in the cloud - so you should always be able to use that control whether you are streaming a radio song that's not even in Apple Music for download, streaming Apple Music or playing a song that's in your library due to purchase, rip, or music addition.


I have a keyboard that always comes up at unrecognized. Can I disable osx from telling me? The keyboard is the new typematrix 2030 http://typematrix.com/

When I plug the keyboard in it always shows up as unrecognized and is unable to figure out what type of keyboard it is based on pressing the key directly to the right of the left shift and directly to the left of the right shift.

Can I tell osx not to bother me about unrecognized keyboards or to remember this one for the future?

The solution should be a proper kernel extension provided by the vendor or someone else.

I can tell you what can't help: ControllerMate, KeyRemap4MacBook, Secrets or some other utility for hidden settings, nor USB Overdrive last time I checked.

You could try to ask around those devs if anyone wants to get famous a little.

My present incarnation of that issue: some Logitech and MS mouses(!) manage to trigger that dialog! Logitech even admits it, saying 'just dismiss it'. The drivers they provide are not totally satisfying yet, to quote Colonel Panic's words.


Is there an app to read the Palm Doc format (PDB) on iOS? Any recommendations from actual users ?

The files are non-DRM pdb books that I have on old Toshiba e830 PocketPC.

I am specially interested in software that can handles non English encoding well (Latin2 or Win1252)

Thanks

You can use Calibre on your desktop to convert your PDB books to ePub. See here for the list of supported formats in Calibre.


My MBP freeze on a Back-Up after having installed a SSD I'm having a MBP (mid 2012, 13 inches), and I changed my HDD for a Samsung V-Nand SSD 850 EVO. I had created a back-up with my External G-drive. Now, the screen freeze since a good while.

Question : What do I have to do to fix this problem?

Try to macOS Recovery from Internet.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

With a LAN cable/ WiFi.


How to adjust volume during movie playback on iOS 11? A recent update to iOS 11 eliminated the volume control, which used to be in the corner of the screen when you tapped a movie as it was playing.   My iPad is on a stand and the physical volume controls are not as easily accessed.  I found that I can do a cumbersome double-swipe up from the bottom of the screen, and sometimes get to the control center.  Sometimes I just get the home bar and have to try a third or fourth swipe.  Once I get the control center, the movie shrinks (while still playing) into a tiny window near other apps that are running.  Then, I can tap on the volume control, which looks a bit like a white and black thermometer now, and hold my finger for a while.  It will enlarge and the everything including the movie will blur.  Once it is enlarged, IF I keep my finger on it, I can slide the volume up and down, but if I accidentally remove my finger the control is unresponsive, and I need to collapse it again and press and hold a while more to start over.  Finally, I get to adjust the volume.   Once set, I can tap anywhere in the blurred screen to return to the tiny windows and then select the one containing my movie which has been playing.  It will enlarge again and I will then slide the movie playback controls to find where I was in the movie before I started this complex adventure in volume control.

If you're like me, you may find yourself wanting to quickly adjust the volume up and down during a movie.  If your device is on a stand, how do you do it?  Is there another volume control or way to open an easier to use interface for quickly adjusting volume as you watch a movie?

I allowed an update to iOS again last night to v11.0.2 and Apple has fixed the problem.   They added the volume control back, and it is in the bottom left corner.  To access it, simply tap anywhere while a movie is playing.


Why doesn't my MacBook Pro Retina connect to 802.11n? I've bought a 15" MacBook Pro Retina Late 2013 and so far everything works perfectly. Luckily I'm not experiencing the "Lose Wifi after sleep" issue.

That said, I only rarely connect to high-bandwidth WiFis. I'm currently working with a colleague from his home office. He has a Netgear router capable of 802.11n and his MacBook Pro (also Retina, but not late 2013, so he doesn't have the ac card) connects using 802.11n and 2.4GHz on channel 1 without a problem. My MBP however connects on the same channel using only 802.11g which is pretty slow when we want to transfer files.

The WirelessDiagnostics report shows I connected to a 5GHz 802.11n yesterday when we were at the client's office.

What can I do to fix or at least diagnose the problem? Is it just Mavericks, or a driver issue with these new ac cards?

I had the same problem with my rMBP 15" late 2013. Like Exact same problem. Apple is terrible at quality and consistency control in making drivers.

Intall this older kext(wifi driver) and it will fix your  problem. I can connect to N only networks on 2.4 and 5 ghz  and get 300 mbps transmit rates now.

Here is what I did to get the WIFI working as described above.

Go to you hard drives root folder. Open system/library/extensions
drag & drop the IO80211Family.kext to a new folder on your desktop(as a backup) then delete it from system/library/extensions
Download & Run Kext Wizard

Direct download-->  http://wizards.osxlatitude.com/kext/download.html

Download & Extract - IO80211Family.kext zip. Here are two links incase one goes down

https://www.sendspace.com/file/4v4a4r

In Kext Wizard click install tab then then Drag & Drop the extracted IO80211Family.kext file into the Kext Wizard, Then click Install button.
Click the Maintenance tab and check the S/L/E box to repair permissions & Rebuild Cache.
Restart and adjust your router settings to N only and test. Should fix it. If it breaks wifi(99.5% chance it wont) or makes it worse then repeat these step and reinstall the original Kext that you backed up in Step 1.


Disconnect external monitor without unplugging Mini DisplayPort Adapter Would like to disconnect my external monitor without unplugging the Mini DisplayPort Adapter. Any ideas? Running Mountain Lion, mid 2012 MacBook Pro.

The scenario:

I have another Windows machine connected to this external display via VGA. So when I switch to my Windows machine, I would like to use the MacBook Pro without extending to the external monitor. It's too much an hassle to keep plugging out the Mini DisplayPort Adapter every time I switch.

The Windows machine has VGA connected all the time, but it has an option to select a laptop display only mode without extending to the external monitor.

Thanks.

Do you mean you want to leave the secondary monitor plugged into the computer, but not use it?

You can go to System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement and check the Mirror Displays checkbox. Make sure your primary display is set to the laptop's built-in display. Then just shut the secondary monitor off (so you don't see the mirrored display).

Now all your windows will be on the primary monitor and you won't be able to drag any to (or open any on) the secondary monitor, but it will still be plugged into the computer.


adding a secondary group for user via CLI in Lion is not working I need to assign a secondary group membership to a user on a client machine running 10.7.4. In CLI

edit3:~ admin$ sudo su -
edit3:etc root# dseditgroup -o edit -a userA -t user QC
edit3:etc root# dseditgroup -o edit -a userB -t user QC
edit3:etc root# dsmemberutil checkmembership -U userA -G QC
user is a member of the group
edit3:etc root# dsmemberutil checkmembership -U userB -G QC
user is a member of the group

When userA or userB logs in to my Isilon cluster, he is denied access (does not have QC privileges)

So I try this:

edit3:~ root# cd /etc/
edit3:etc root# dscl . append /Groups/QC GroupMembership userA
edit3:etc root# dscl . append /Groups/QC GroupMembership userB

edit3:etc root# dsmemberutil checkmembership -U userA -G QC
user is a member of the group
edit3:etc root# dsmemberutil checkmembership -U userB -G QC
user is a member of the group

Again, users denied access.

Getting more details:

edit3:~ root# dscacheutil -q group | grep QC -B 10 -A 10

name: groupX
password:
gid: 1009

name: QC
password:
gid: 1021
users: scook dfarley

name: groupZ
password:
gid: 1012

Funny that QC group lists members with secondary membership but no primaries listed in any group (except system groups)

Again digging for more info:

edit3:~ root# dscl . readall /users | grep Secondary -B 10 -A 10
edit3:~ root#

Questions:
Why is the system not presenting a secondary group membership correctly, since we verified that userA and userB do in fact belong to QC group?
Can I list secondary membership along with primary membership?

Doing the exact same steps on another client running same version of OS works. I've done the reboots, following changes. I then reinstalled clean OS , and repeated the entire cycle, twice. Still no joy.

Anybody?

Superfical answer but perhaps it may help:

groups username

tells me that this command is deprecated, and I should be using

id -Gn

or

id -p

I then get the list of groups that i belong to in its entirety.

man id

dsmemberutil seems more like a way to query the data store, which I was actually looking for,so I hope this helps you. Thanks.


Is it possible to run Snow Leopard on a LATE 2011 MacBook Pro? I want to buy a new MacBook Pro, from Apple. However I want to run Snow Leopard instead of Lion.

I did some Google searches and found a few success stories of people who got SL to run on their early-2011 MBPs. I didn't find much of any experiences of people doing the same on a late-2011 MBP though, so I'm wondering (and really hoping!) if it's possible?

I'd like to confirm that it IS possible to run Snow Leopard on a late 2011 MBP 15" without ANY FLAW although AppleCare technicians told me that it is not possible ! I did it on mine (CTO, 2.2 GHz i7) bought in fev. 2012 and had not the slightest issue since.

But from Apple side it is NOT recommended and certainly NOT supported . - But hey, my love and I have some scientific software and also Adobe products that only run smoothly on Snow Leopard and all our other Mac's in the family are on SL so I had to give it a try to stay productive. And personally, I'm not really happy with Lion, but that's an other story. - For me it's just roaring and definitely not the 'King' of the MacOs as the name suggests...

So here is what I did :

As I couldn't lay my hands on a original MBP 15" Install-DVD from last summer (10.6.7) which should allow you to boot the MBP15" directly from it, I did a clean 10.6.7 install with my iMac 27" (iMac11,1 - i7 2.8 GHz) on an external hard drive starting from a 10.6.3 iMac install DVD and applying all the updates up to 10.6.7.
Then I formatted my MBP internal drive in target disk mode and created 3 partitions (SL, Lion, Bootcamp).
Using CarbonCopyCloner I cloned the clean SL installation one the first partition of the MBP, then disconnected the laptop and booted in SL.
There was one little glitch with the splash screen resolution (not full screen) but nothing serious.
Now I ran the 10.6.8 combo update that I downloaded before cloning and did all the software updates and another reboot.
That done SL runs now without any problem - not one incompatibility issue in one month (would have been surprised because there were no major hardware changes from early to late 2011 MBP15").
As next step I rebooted the MBP holding the alt-command-R keys to start from the Apple servers and did a new Internet install of Lion on the second partition.
And last I installed Windows 7 on the third partition reformatting it using NTFS (be careful to choose the right partition - by the way there is a fourth partition : the rescue partition created by Lion you don't want to touch).
   Once Win7 installed I ran the Bootcamp Assistant and did all updates.

And so now we have a nice triple boot MBP15" allowing us to use all the software we need without the slightest problem. You could probably even try a quadruple boot adding a Linux partition...

But be careful! I wouldn't bet that this method works for all new MBP and MBA so you want to make sure your model ran with SL back in summer 2011 and had no major hardware changes before trying! You can also test booting it first from an external drive with the clean install on it.

I neither do know if my method worked because the iMac 27" and the MBP15" both have a i7 Quad Core.

that's it, have fun!


Check automatically if a drive is mounted I'd like to automate my family backups, specifically I'd like to run a shell script (with rsync) when an external drive is connected.

Since it's a family thing, it should be also sort of GUI driven, maybe an icon like Dropbox. Probably a shell script with fswatch isn't really nice to play with, they would probably complain and certainly won't understand if an error occurs.

I was thinking about Automator or AppleScript (I have the GUI for the backup script in AppleScript already, but no automation), since "Folder Actions" isn't available for /Volumes, but any other solution is more than welcome.

Any suggestions?

Ive always done mine based on user login. You would go to Users & Groups click the current user go to Login Items hit the plus icon at the bottom and you can add it there. I built a similar application to detect my NAS and mount if not mounted:

Sample code, not tested:

on run
    tell application "System Events" to set theDisks to name of every disk
    set theNAS to "Shared" ## Change here to name
    set isMounted to false
    if theNAS is in theDisks then set isMounted to true
    if isMounted = false then mount volume "afp://" & theNAS
end run

Some links to mounting:

How can I mount a volume in a network?
Automated volume mounts on mac

You could do through a LaunchAgent here are some resources:

Run a script at login for all users
Applescript Login Item for All Users
Launch login items for all users at startup

There are other approaches like a launchd but you will sacrifice RAM so it can check. I think at login would be your best approach.


Can't import photos from iPhone 6 to Mac I have taken a lot of photos on my iPhone. But when I connect it to my Mac, the photos do not show up in Preview. I can see the photos on the iPhone, but they are simply not recognised when I plug the iPhone to the Mac - any ideas?

The photos on iPhone doesn't directly show up in Preview.app on your Mac after connecting. You will need to copy (via import or sync) them to your Mac to be able to see them in Preview.app.

After connecting your iPhone to your Mac, launch Image Capture.app. You can find the app in Other folder in Launchpad, or simply search for it via Spotlight.

Once the app is launched, your iPhone is unlocked and both the iPhone and Mac have trusted each other, you should be able to see all the photos and videos in the Image Capture.app window.

Simply select, drag and drop the photos from within Image Capture app onto a folder in Finder to copy them to your Mac.


Transfer speed much slower in Wi-Fi than Ethernet I'm transferring a lot of pictures from my Macbook Pro to a local Synology NAS (DS116), using an FTP software named Transmit.
I noticed that the upload speed is quite different between Wi-Fi and Ethernet:

Using Wi-Fi (ac): ~27 MB/s in FTP mode, and ~22 MB/s in AFP mode

Using Ethernet (via a Thunderbolt adapter): ~110 MB/s, in both FTP and AFP modes

I don't understand why the Wi-Fi transfers are so slow compared to Ethernet. Both of them should handle the maximum write speed of the disk (112 MB/s according to Synology).
Any idea about what could be slowing down the transfers when using Wi-Fi?
Notes about my Wi-Fi :

RSSI: -56 dBm
Noise: -95 dBm
TX Rate: 350 Mbps
PHY Mode: 802.11ac
Router: TP-Link AC750

To make it an official answer:

350 Megabit per Second (Mbps) = 43.75 Megabyte per Second (MB/s). Ethernet is always faster and more reliable then Wi-Fi. So when Ethernet is available, use it.


How to automatically attach E-mail, not embed them How can I add E-Mail-Attachments automatically to an E-Mail, without integrating them?
Especially photos!

Menu -> Edit -> Attachments... doesn't work!

I use OS X Lion (10.7.2) and Mail (5.1).

Anyone have any ideas?

You can do this individually by dragging the image(s) in, right clicking on them and clicking "View as Icon". You can select multiple images at once to do this as well.

If you would like Mail to do this automatically with all attachments, try the following Terminal command:

  defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes

Relaunch Mail for this to take effect.

Hope this helps!


Cannot load rsync daemon in Sierra. Log shows: "assertion failed: 16G1408: libxpc.dylib" I'm trying to start rsync --daemon on Sierra (10.12.6), using launchctl. It used to work fine (last time in Mavericks, I think). But now on Sierra, the daemon does not start and grep rsync /var/log/system.log only shows this:

... rsync[12201]: assertion failed: 16G1408: libxpc.dylib + 20887 [BF896DF0-D8E9-31A8-A4B3-01120BFEEE52]: 0xf

Googling this cryptic message didn't give me a clue either.

I do know about SIP, and have it disabled:

$ csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: disabled.

The way I'm trying to configure my damon is by following this guide, which consists basically of:

creating /etc/rsyncd.conf and rsyncd.secrets
creating /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.samba.rsync.plist
loading the plist file with launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.samba.rsync.plist
and starting it with launchctl start org.samba.rsync

The plist file does get loaded, but the daemon is not running:

$ launchctl list | grep rsync
-   0   org.samba.rsync

What could this assertion failed: 16G1408: libxpc.dylib message mean?

Has something changed in Sierra with how to start daemons?

Apparently, Sierra and possibly earlier versions as well, need the rsync daemon to be started with the --no-detach option, which wasn't needed before.

The error message assertion failed: 16G1408: libxpc.dylib that appeared in the logs when it didn't work remains a mystery. But this .plist file now works to solve the original problem:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.samba.rsync</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/rsync</string>
        <string>--daemon</string>
        <string>--no-detach</string> <!-- This is needed now -->
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <dict>
        <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>


What is the best way to use Gtalk on iphone? What is the best way to use Gtalk on iphone?

Since Google does a pretty good job of making their websites mobile-friendly, navigating to http://talkgadget.google.com/ and logging in should present you with a nice chatting interface.

On the iOS app side, imo seems to be a popular choice, though I can't personally vouch for it (the mobile web interface works fine for me when I'm away from a real computer)


"Lockable" stickies on the dashboard? I'm looking for a dashboard sticky-type widget that I can "lock" so that it won't accept edits. I have a number of stickies that I place there with common terminal commands I use, but I have the nasty habit of hitting cmd+v instead of cmd+c when I select the command, and cmd+z doesn't undo the paste, which means I have to recreate the sticky.

Are there any widgets where I can lock the contents, and maybe even auto copy-to-clipboard on click/select?

I'd like to introduce you to a different approach. I had a similar problem (not the copy/paste error, but that the notes were not really too cool to work with).

This was a long time ago, but since I switched to the free Notational Velocity, I haven't had issues, with the benefit of a very fast (instant) indexing and search in all the trash I want to save :)

Give it a look, it's open source and very simple to operate. It may give your Stickies approach some fresh air and you might like it :p


Is Internet Explorer 11 mode available in the new Microsoft Edge for Mac browser? Microsoft announced several weeks ago that it was abandoning its proprietary rendering engine for Edge and replacing it with Chromium. More recently (May 2019), it announced that it is making this new version of the browser available for the Mac.

One of the key things that was announced as part of the release (at least for Windows) is that it would integrate the Internet Explorer 11 rendering engine so that users that have to use IE11 would not have to launch a separate browser.

My question is, is this IE11 feature only available on Windows or is it also being made available in the Mac version?

No. Microsoft Edge team confirmed here that IE Mode is only going to be supported on Windows:

  IE mode will be supported where IE11 is currently supported so yes, it is Windows specific. Thanks!


MacBook Pro 15 (early 2011) display panel joint is broken, can I get a replacement? The black plastic casing around the display joint has been broken (has a crack). Is it possible to get a replacement for the same?

Yes - Apple runs a repair service through AppleCare although the DIY parts are few to none on that model. You can also buy parts from Apple Authorized Service Providers and they are more willing to hand out parts (usually for a price). I'd start with Apple and go from there to AASP and then perhaps third party providers.

That piece is nearly all cosmetic and as long as wiring isn't exposed or loose to catch / snag / snap, you might be able to fix it with tape or other adhesive by following the take apart manuals posted at http://www.ifixit.com


How can I get tab completion back? In terminal, if I try tab completion in a directory e.g. Movies, instead of the movies beginning with S (if I type S followed by tab, I see SetFile, Splitforks and SystemStarter. I suspect I installed something which has messed with my PATH variable. How can I get correct path completion back?

OSX 10.8.2 on Early 2011 Macbook Pro

In the Terminal, at the start of the command line, tab completion is looking for an executable file that is on the PATH (unless a specific directory is indicated).

When you are looking in the Movies directory, and the current directory is likely not to be on the PATH so it will find the three files indicated.

In order to find out where these files are, you can use the which command:

$ which SetFile
/usr/bin/SetFile

To find the contents of the current directory, you would type the ls command. That should list the files that are in the directory. For more information about all the files, type ls -l.

Once you have a command shown, tab completion will look for a file in the current directory to use as an argument.

If you are looking to do something with a movie, you'll need a command. You might want to type open. So, type open Stab, and it should do the tab completion magic for you. The open command will open a file as if you double clicked on it. You can find out more about the open command by typing man open.


Differentiate two instances of the same application in the dock I usually have to launch different instances of the same application (in my case of Eclipse).

I launch them from the terminal as follows

nohup /Applications/eclipse/eclipse -data ${workspace} 2>&1 > /dev/null &

where ${workspace} is different for each invocation.

Everything works well but for the fact that I cannot distinguish among instances in the Dock or while switching applications with command+tab.

Is there a way to differentiate them either by changing the application name under the icon or by dynamically changing the icon?

This is a solution for your particular issue, and not OSX apps in general on which I believe do not have this issue.

Workspace identifiers for Eclipse on OSX


Command-line keychain access not showing any results I have been trying to learn to control my computer through command-line, and keychain access is what I am trying now. I have been using the security command, and attempting to get my wifi password (I know it of course, but getting it through terminal is the challenge). From what I have read on other Stack Exchange pages (like this one) and this often referenced site,

security find-generic-password -a Netgear25 -s Airport -g

should come up with a list of information, including the password. But there is no output at all. So the 'result' is:

Host:~ Batman$ security find-generic-password -a Netgear25 -s Airport -g
Host:~ Batman$

nothing.

security 2>&1 >/dev/null find-generic-password -a Netgear25 -s Airport -g security

does the same thing, no result. What am I going wrong?

EDIT

I think I should clarify - I am doing this remotely for a challenge, and obviously when I do it on the computer itself it comes up with the Authorisation Dialog Box. Remotely though, the dialog box won't come up. So the real question is how to authenticate it remotely (using sudo also comes up with no result).

I have not scored enough points (yet) to mark this as a duplicate, but on  How can I access the keychain remotely from the command line? you will find the solution to help you out here.

In short: Add "security" to the "Access Control", re-login and run security unlock-keychain ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain before running security find-generic-password.


Screen resolution messed up when upgrading to latest Macbook Air I have a macbook air 13' from 2013.

I just bought the same model, only newer.

I backup up everything on an external hard drive via time machine on the old mac, then used migration assistant to copy files and configuration to the new mac.

Of course both machines were updated to the latest Yosemite 10.10.3, as Apple suggested.

Things seemed to work smoothly, with a correct copy of everything.

Alas, no. I have an external monitor, which is perfectly recognized on the old mac, correct model and resolution:

But on the new mac, same exact model, just a tiny difference (Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536 MB, instead of Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536 MB), the screen is not recognized at all and the resolution is all messed up.

Been on this for hours.

I tried SwitchResX, didn't help.
I tried using both the official Apple VGA adapter and a third-party. Same results.
I tried pressing the alt key while choosing scaled on the display
preference pane to force 1920x1080, it works, but the x-axis is all
stretched smaller and moved about 400px to the right.
I tried changing the res via command line, didn't help.
I tried looking for mac drivers for BenqT220HDA, they don't seem to
exist as a separate file.
I tried flashing the NVRAM etc. Multiple times. Didn't help.

Ideas?

Very weird and unusual problem, I solved it this way.

Open a terminal. Fin your DisplayPrefsKey

ioreg -l -x -w0 | grep IODisplayPrefsKey

Came out this:

"IODisplayPrefsKey" ="IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/IGPU@2/AppleIntelFramebuffer@1/display0/AppleDisplay-756e6b6e-717"

The important part is the last, AppleDisplay-756e6b6e-717.

Inside /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/ there is a folder  DisplayVendorID-756e6b6e. Now it's vim time:

vim DisplayProductID-717

Inside there is an XML file with values in Hexadecimal. If you edit it correctly, restart, OS X will do exactly what you told it to. If you get it wrong, you could fry your screen (maybe, didn't want to test that part).

So how do you get the values right? Look at other config files and find a suitable resolution that would work for your screen. In my case, I was lucky that my other MacBook Air from 2013 had the screen working properly. I copied the configuration, replaced the file (which had a different name), and voilà!

Small issue, if you're not perfectly comfortable editing file in hex, you have two options:

Use PlistEdit Pro for Mac (now free and part of XCode)
Use SwitchResX (~$20) to copy the config from one computer and port it on the other.

Hope this saves the 7 hours of work I put in yesterday to whomever is reading this :)

Useful resources:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/274957-guide-how-to-fix-spdisplays-display-in-about-this-mac-window-20120820-update-tiny-app-added/
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030212065523164
http://embdev.net/topic/284710


My iPod 5th Gen won't turn on I have an iPod Touch 5th gen and I use a cheap £1 charger to charge it up.
Recently my iPod ran out of battery so I plugged it in using the charger and the iPod was completely unresponsive.
I tried everything including rebooting it, after that I took it to a local repair shop and he 'repaired' it for me but again my iPod ran out of charge and it won't come on again.
What do I do?

P.S : I have been using cheap chargers for a while now so it's only a recent problem, also if I bought an official Apple charger would it solve this issue?

hold the power button and home button at the same time until the white apple logo appears be patient whenever this happens its a minor glitch in the iOS


How to keep exchange emails from showing up in contacts? (iOS7) After upgrading an iPhone user from iOS6 to 7, I'm having an issue where, in my contacts app, all 2000 email address from my exchange account are showing up in my contacts.

If I go under settings and turn off the contacts tab under the exchange servers. It just deletes all contacts from my phone. Including ones that aren't emails.

How do I get rid of them so that the phone only shows the contacts that are stored on the phone and not synced from exchange?

You can add all the contacts you want to show up in contacts in a group named "visible" and all the others to an "invisible" group. Then in contacts on the upper left there is an option to select which groups you want to be visible. Just select the "visible" one.


How can I conveniently pause and play my iPhone audio with minimal touching of the phone? Okay these are my problem scenarios:

1) I'm cooking something and my hands are covered in animal fat. I'm listening to a podcast on my iPhone, which is sat on a counter nearby. It's been playing for some time so the display has turned itself off. Someone comes in and asks me something and I need to pause it quickly, then play it again when the person has gone.

2) I'm listening to an audiobook and the chapter ends. It's a good point to stop listening and go do something else. By the time I've reached for my phone, swiped to unlock it, opened the app and tapped pause, the next chapter has started and the story has now stopped mid-sentence.

So basically, isn't there some solution for these important first world problems? I don't like using headphones all the time, so a headphone-based remote control is not a solution for me.

The WATCH has been released since this question was posted. If you’re open to buying one, you can of course play and pause by speaking to it. “Hey Siri, Play/Pause.”

Even without an WATCH, starting with iOS 8 your iPhone can also respond to “Hey Siri.” The feature is enabled by going into Settings → Siri. Enable both Siri and Allow “Hey Siri”.

On the iPhone 6s and above (including iPhone SE), the low-power M9 motion coprocessor allows this feature to be invoked at any time (provided the phone is not face down on the table, or in your pocket).

Earlier models can activate the feature while plugged in to a power source.

“Hey Siri” will allow you to start playing music without touching your iPhone.

Stopping it is trickier, and requires the volume to be turned down very, very low. You have other options, of course, such as Control Center, Lock Screen Music Controls, Today Widgets (depending on the app) and manually invoking Siri by long-pressing the Home button.

It’s also worth mentioning that the built-in Music app prevents the screen from locking if music is playing while the iPhone is plugged in to a power source. The display will dim after a while, but a simple tap will light it back up without asking you to unlock it. Other apps may do the same.


How to disable Time Machine for an external hard drive My wife has a MacBook Pro and two external hard drives; both of which currently contain a Time Machine backup of her MacBook Pro hard drive.

Now she wants to "turn off" Time Machine for one of her two hard drives, so that she can backup the MacBook Pro hard drive and the other external hard drive onto it.

In addition to the Time Machine backup, there are also additional files on the hard drive, so she cannot reformat it unless she first copies the files she wants to keep to somewhere else.

Is it possible to tell OS X "Do not recognise this external hard drive for use with Time Machine any more", so that it can be backed up using Time Machine? Currently, the external drive she wants to back up shows up in the "Exclude these items from backups"-list and cannot be removed, likely because it has been used as a Time Machine drive in the past.

How can she make it so that the one external hard drive (Drive A), can be backed up to the other external hard drive (Drive B), without reformatting it.

I appreciate any help with this.

Go to Time Machine preferences, Ctrl-click on the drive you want to disable, you get a fold out menu with the option to disable the drive.


How to close a new mail without Mail.app becoming active? When I am working on something and get a notification about a new mail I click it and the mail opens for me to read it in front of whatever application I was using as expected.

Then, when I am done reading it and close it Mail.app becomes active and blocks my view of whatever I was doing before getting the mail. I then have to alt-tab to get back to what I was doing before.

It's a tiny thing but having done it for years I've had enough..

Is it possible to disable this behaviour somehow?

When I click on the mail notification, it opens the email in a viewing window, but it's also switching you to the Mail application. When you close that window, the main viewer probably comes up because its the only other window that's open in Mail. You can't have a mail viewer window open and be on top of Safari windows, while still being in Safari. (Safari for example)

But that said, if you keep your regular mail viewer window closed when you're not directly using it, it won't pop up in front of your work when you close the viewer window. You'll still be in Mail.app at this point, but your work should still be right on your screen so the first click you do will bring that app back to the front, whatever app it is.


Change of default behaviour when connecting to external display: mirror mode Some OS generations back the default behavior when a new display was attached was that the screen was mirrored.

I would like to get this behavior back since without it I have to fiddle with the system settings every time I want to give a presentation, since the projector I am connecting with is new to the OS and I have to set up everything.

So question: Is there a plist or something that I can change once and for all?

Just press ⌘ + F1 after connecting the display to your Mac and your screen will mirror.

ps. you might have to press fn as well. This depends on how you've set up your F-keys.


Apple DTK, how long did it take to get an approval? for those of you how got an approval for the DTK.
How long did it take to get an approval? Did you enter an iTunes link?

I’m not going to report anything about specifics here due to NDA but I would recommend everyone assume Apple has multiple queues and waves of hardware to build. Asking Apple directly or discussing the DTK on the private boards Apple has for DTK is the best way to get actual experience and not guess work or people gaslighting you that don’t have first hand experience.
I would apply direct to Apple and then wait or contact Apple via developer support after a couple weeks minimum.

https://developer.apple.com/programs/universal/

There’s not much you need the DTK for today so build your app and ship updates. Having apps love in the store is the best way I know to get priority for limited resources. Along the way you can open a developer support if you have specific compatibility concerns as you encounter them.


Should I Trust a Certificate Basically, my school is apparently having a network 'update' and are telling us to go to keychain access and trust a certificate. This is what they sent us.

Exactly what will happen if I do this any? Do you have any recommendations for what I should do?

Trusting a certificate gives the owner of that certificate the ability to limit security warnings when performing some tasks. These tasks include installing new software, and intercepting & proxying secure connections.

Whether you should follow the request to trust the certificate depends on who owns the computer.

See Should I let my child's school have access to my kid's personal laptop? for a related question over on the Information Security site.

School Device

If the computer is supplied by the school and the school want you to install their trusted certificate, then you should do so.

Personal Device

If this computer is yours, I would not trust their certificate. Adding an always trusted certificate is significant step and should rarely be needed on a personal device.

Minimum Trust

Note the sub-options in step 5:

You can choose to trust the certificate only for certain functions. If the certificate is intended to allow locally developed and signed software to run, then only Code Signing should be required. Maybe X.509 Basic Policy also.

I would avoid trusting Secure Sockets Layers (SSL) until it is proven essential. This trust would allow the school to intercept previously secure Internet connections.

You could incrementally trust/distrust parts the certificate until you found the minimum set of trust required.


How to share files with coworkers via internet? Securely? I have number of co-workers in other countries. I would like to be able to setup something like shared network drive so that we can all access the files and work together. What's the best way of doing that? Do I need Lion server for that?

Why not use something like Dropbox?

There's also Sparkleshare which allows you to host files yourself.


is it possible to buy and download iTunes movies at an Apple Store? My internet connection is quite dismal. It's hard to watch youtube 240p let alone a whole [SD] movie (unless you start about a week in advance)

Is it possible to say buy and download (on my Apple ID) at an Apple Store, on one of the display computers, and then copy it to a USB drive and come home and watch it. (equivalent to going out to buy a DVD; my MacBook doesn't have a disc drive).

Or download the full movie on my iPhone, and then transfer it across to my Computer at home. As when you download a movie on your iphone doesn't it download a smaller (lower resolution) version that fits the phone's screen size?

It should not a problem as you are using your Apple ID to purchase the content. If the store employees are ok,then do it.


How to restore manually Saved State files of Terminal? My MBR crashes quite often. Normally I've multiple terminal windows and usually they're restored after crash.

However from some to time they're not restored, so for that reason I was doing the backup every hour (in cron, not Time Machine) to backup the whole ~/Library/Saved Application State including com.apple.Terminal.savedState.

However when I've replaced back my savedState folder (1. removing the old one, 2. using different type of terminal) and run Terminal - it simply doesn't work as expected (as it seems it doesn't load the state files).

Is there anything that I'm missing? Do I need to do anything extra so Terminal can recognise its state files or simply backing up more folders to keep my window states safe?

The backup folder consist data.data (48M), windows.plist (empty) and window_1.data - window_56.data files (total 55M).

It seems that the windows.plist has been corrupted during the backup, as it's empty.

The Terminal restores correctly when doing the following test:

Run Terminal.
Type anything like: echo test 1.
Kill the terminal explicitly, e.g.: killall Terminal.
Run again, it should have the previous message/state.
Removing files and restoring from it, it'll have the same state.

The corrupted .plist file can be manually rewritten by the following hacky steps:

Convert plist into its XML representation (Terminal will still recognise it):

plutil  -convert xml1 -o windows.plist windows.plist

Edit the file to match its windows id (NSWindowID) to the appropriate files. Or create as many new windows manually to have the same files, kill the terminal, replace only the window .data files and re-run again.

However if the data files are not inconsistent with plist file, the Terminal will restore the default session overriding your files.


MacBook Pro screen broken and was using 2nd monitor fine until I started the process of turning FileVault on I have a MacBook Pro 2015 with a broken screen (most of it is black and not visible).

Before I had it set up where I would just turn it on, connect my HDMI cable to TV or Monitor and it would show up on the second monitor and I would enter my username and password and log in.

I made the huge mistake of turning FileVault on and, when I saw it was taking hours I turned the computer off to resume next morning. In the morning I came to connect the HDMI cable to the TV and nothing - it says signal not detected and I cannot see the login screen on the second monitor or type in my password or user name to get into the laptop.

I've tried blind typing and nothing happens either. I also tried a remote keyboard and a USB connected one.

What can I do to get my laptop to display on the second screen so I can log in?

Things to try in your situation include:

switch your external display on first, followed by switching on the MacBook Pro (within a second or two) - hopefully it'll get the signal it needs to display the MBP's output
if the above doesn't work, and assuming you only have the one user account, then switch on your MBP and wait long enough for it to be at the login screen. Then press the return key once and carefully type your password followed by the return key.
if you have two or more user accounts you'll need to use your keyboard to select the one you want to login with. You can do this by pressing the first letter of the username on your keyboard (assuming each account starts with a different letter), followed by pressing the return key once and carefully typing your password followed by the return key.

If none of the above work, please let me know and we'll see what else we can try.


Cancel Apple Music subscription > Subscribe in future > Playlists lost or not? If you cancel your Apple Music subscription and subscribe again in the future (say months or a year later), do the playlists you had created and other account data(?) "reappear"? Or when you cancel you lose access to all your Apple Music user data forever ever?

All that the relevant Apple Support article says is:
«If you cancel Apple Music, you'll lose access to the Apple Music catalog, any music that you added to your Library, and the features of Apple Music».

Thanks to anyone who can reply with certainty - not speculation!  ;)

From this Apple Discussion:

Apple does not retain your details indefinitely and whilst there is no grace period but I believe if you resubscribe within 30 days you will continue to access the music in iTunes Match.
I would add that your playlists are dependent on what is in your iTunes Library and included in your iCloud music library.
If you have all your music downloaded to your computer and you resubscribe later, iTunes Match will scan your library again to determine what can be matched and needs to be uploaded. Once you turn on iCloud music library on your iOS device, you should see your playlists. You will need to download if necessary.

Summary
Your playlists and data aren’t retained


Automator to save all images in multiple mail messages Is it possible to use automator to save all images from my Mail? I use Apple mail with 3 accounts, I want to filter messages by a criteria and get all the images from the messages? Can anyone tell me how can this be done?

I just tried this and it seemed to work, though you'll have to play with it.


how to transfer low resolution photos ( optimised ) to the computer I deleted all my pics from iCloud and also the recently deleted items in order to reduce the space and revert to the free version ( 5 GB ).

I did check all the pics before I deleted them from iCloud if they existed on my iPhone. Now, the thing is that all the pics that I deleted from iCloud were infact stored as low resolution on my iPhone. So, the device shows all the pics, but they are all low resolution. Ofcourse the high resolution that was stored on iCloud is deleted directly from iCloud and even the Recently Deleted items.

So, what is the solution now? I am happy with the low resolution pics as well. Ofcourse, if I could retrieve the high resolution pics, that would be the best solution.

Looking for help.

EDIT to clarify the question -

I can see the low resolution pictures on my phone, because I restored the low resolution pics from a iTunes Backup and as soon as the restore was successful, I disconnected the internet to avoid syncing with iCloud. Now, I can see all the low resolution pics on the iPhone, and the question is how to bring them on to the computer. A definite solution is to use commercial tools such as EaseUS Recovery tool to extract the iTunes Backup, but that just costs money. So, I am here to ask for other solutions that doesnt cost money.

In other words, the low resolution pics ( I really dont care about the high resolution pics anymore ) on my phone has to be transferred somewhere - maybe using AirDrop or Bluetooth..without connecting to internet to avoid syncing with icloud.  Is that possible?

If you deleted the photos from iCloud directly more than 30 days ago, and it appears you did if they're not in the Recently Deleted folder, then they're probably gone for good.

iCloud is a syncing solution and not a backup solution.  It doesn't store a copy of the pictures, in the way that using something like Dropbox does, it give you access to the pictures on all your devices.  At some point, you selected Optimize iPhone Storage in your iCloud settings.  Doing this only stores low-res versions of the photos on your device while the full, high-res photos are stored in iCloud.

If you saved any of those photos from iCloud directly to a computer, that would be your only remaining option to get the high-res versions.


How to manually reset OS X Applications settings without reboot? I want to reset OS X Applications settings, like TextWrangler or some other applications. I kill the TextWrangler Process in Activity Monitor, delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.barebones.textwrangler.plist, but nothing happened, settings doesn't reset. I need to reboot, then reopen the applications, and  the settings are reset. Running OS X 10.10.2 (14C109)

How can I manually reset settings without reboot?

Macos X has changed over time in how it handles preferences.

It used to be in most cases that you could just quit the App and delete its preference file.

But now in many cases that will not work. Deleting the file will have no effect because the preference are read once from file and then stored in memory. Changes you then make are also only in the memory. At some point those settings are synchronised with the file. (written to file). If you delete the file before this is done a new file is created with the stored setting and you will find nothing has changed.

I am not really sure why apple changed this to this behaviour but I suspect it is related to the same reasons Apple now hides the users Library folder in part to stop people from deleting files that should not be deleted.

The tool to use if you want to do it so that the system pays attention to what you are trying to do is the unix command /usr/bin/defaults.

Make sure the App is not running.

Then in the Terminal.app found in the  '/Applications/Utilities/' folder

Type the command and arguments:

/usr/bin/defaults delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.barebones.textwrangler

This will wipe the plist file. But may not trash it.

Now when you open Textwrangler the Prefs will be back to the default.

This will work with many Apps. But I cannot guarantee this for all.

As with any unix command you can screw things up easily if you do not know what you are doing.

So read up on it.
 defaults man page

Apple guide

Google search


Using ffmpeg on MOV files created by iMovie It looks like ffmpeg will not work with MOV files created using iMovie. Is there a way to batch convert these files (which are HUGE) to a compressed format, preferably mp4? I've also tried HandBrake with no success (though I assume ffmpeg is under the hood).

You may try MPEG StreamClip also. There is Batch mode — cmd+b

But it's hard to tell based on your information why Handbrake was not able to help you.


Can anyone tell me a Skype alternative? There are a lot but they don't have screen-sharing,
I want a one with screen-sharing, for windows and free. Thanks

I use the website alternativeto.net when searching for alternatives to certain software. It allows you to filter by platform (macOS, Windows, Linux) and also by licence (ie. open-source/commerical-paid/free-as-in-beer).

Here is their current list of recommendations for alternatives to Skype for macOS and Windows: https://alternativeto.net/software/skype/

Discord
Telegram (no screen sharing currently)
Tox
Slack
Hangouts

There are also web-based alternatives like deadsimplescreensharing.com, which doesn't require any app or plugin to be installed.


How can I copy photos from a Sony mobile phone to iPad? How can I copy Sony mobile phone's photos to iPad?

Note: I have the camera adaptor cable already, that is used to connect to iPad but it doesn't work for Sony XPeria Z mobile phone. When I try to connect, the iPad gives an insufficient power for that device error.

AFAIK you can't use the adaptor/cable for this. Alternatively you can email the photos to an account configured on the iPad or install Dropbox on both devices and use this for syncing photos.


Apple Mail fails to interpret I use Apple Mail Version 4.6 (1085) under OS 10.6.8. From time to time I find this kind of thing in my Inbox:

--_004_366988BF4C7E3E47BD2D208797A90F7E01662044FD892008SERVERL_
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
    boundary="_000_366988BF4C7E3E47BD2D208797A90F7E01662044FD892008SERVERL_"

--_000_366988BF4C7E3E47BD2D208797A90F7E01662044FD892008SERVERL_
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

W2NpZDppbWFnZTAwMS5qcGdAMDFDRUFCMEMuQ0U1Mjk5NDBdDQoNCkRlYXIgUHJvZmVzc29yIEVw
c3RlaW4NCg0KV2VsY29tZSB0byB5b3VyIGxhdGVzdCBMTVMgZS1VcGRhdGU6IDYgU2VwdGVtYmVy

All my mail goes through my university and is forwarded to Apple Mail. I don't think anything is changed by the forwarding process, though I'm not 100% sure about this. When I look at the same message using the university's webmail system, the message has been correctly interpreted and I can just read it without further ado.

Have I got some setting wrong on my Apple Mail preferences, or is Apple Mail unable to deal dorrectly with messages of this kind. I suppose that the message may not adhere totally strictly to the correct protocol.

Any help to get my Apple Mail working as I would like would be much appreciated.

For sporadic email formatting errors:

To look at the original message (email) before format changes

select the email

then click on the View and Message

then select RAW format.

it will show you all details of that file.


What's the purpose of iPhone USB port on the Internet Sharing panel? On the internet sharing panel, there is an option to share the connection from Thunderbolt Ethernet to iPhone USB.

It would be really cool to provide internet access to the iPhone via the USB cable, but unfortunately it doesn't seem that it works.

Does anyone know what's the purpose of that option though?

Thanks!

This panel that you are viewing just shows all available network interfaces, whether they work or not. Theoretically it should work. However, I don't think it works Mac to iPhone but I have tested it reversed with Personal Hotspot and it seems to work. Albeit very slowly.

Hope this answers your question.
Cheers! :)

UPDATE:
The iPhone USB network interface is only for showing whether iPhone USB is connected or not. As a side-effect it shows up in the Network Sharing pane.
The Network Sharing pane just shows ALL interfaces whether they work or not (even if the interface is not meant to work with Network Sharing it will still show.)


applescript to play videos in vlc Hello I am trying to run an applescript that will launch VLC media player and play all the files in a folder whenever a new file is added. It seemed to work fine initially then I restarted my computer and not it wont run. I am running the script as a folder Action. please see attached script. What am I missing?

on adding folder items to theAttachedFolder after receiving theNewItems
-- Get the name of the attached folder

-- Get List of files in folder
    set the_files to get every file of theAttachedFolder

-- open vlc using files in folder which should result in a vlc playlist
of all files in folder

    tell application "Finder" to open {the_files} using application
    file "VLC.app"

end adding folder items to

Any help will be greatly appreciated, I'm pretty new to this.
Thank you.

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
    tell application "VLC"
        set thePlaylist to "file:///Users/Smokestack/Desktop/For Vlc" -- substitute with your own actual folder path to the folder action folder following the format “file:///“
        OpenURL thePlaylist
    end tell
end adding folder items to


Mac Mini startup sound always plays on internal speaker My 2012 Mac Mini (Mavericks) is plugged into a USB audio interface which is selected as my sound in and sound out device. All works great, except for the startup sound which still comes out of the internal speaker. Is there a fix for this?

Seemingly this is a feature and you can't change it. Other Mac have the same problem. You juste can mute the sound of the internal speaker during the boot.

https://superuser.com/questions/770364/why-does-my-macbook-play-the-startup-sound-through-the-speakers-rather-than-thro


Restoring data from both an iCloud and iTunes backup I backup my iPhone to iTunes manually about once a week, and backup to iCloud automatically every night, when I charge my iPhone.

If I want to restore from an iTunes backup, then I just connect my iPhone to my Mac and hit "Restore". It will restore the device to exactly the same condition as the last backup, including all media, etc. because all that media (music, photos, app data) is stored on my Mac.

However, if I restore from my iCloud backup, then what gets restored? And what doesn't? My iCloud backup is about 2.5 GB, significantly smaller than the 50 GB or so that I am currently using on my iPhone (mostly music and photos). So clearly a lot of things are missing, mostly photos, since music and apps can be grabbed directly from Apple's servers since one song here is the same as the same song there.

So how would I go about also restoring photos after I restore a backup from iCloud?

First of all, I see that I can restore those: Notes, Reminder, Apple Mail, Apple Contacts, Apple Calendar, Photos.
Then, you can also restore MANUALLY for those contents: Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks.

PS: I'm using IP 5S. ^^


Authenticating to Server Services "requires storing your password in a less secure form" I've bought and downloaded the MacOS Server application to host a VPN and to host a Satis repository.

When enabling either the VPN or Websites services, a dialogue appears asking "Do you want to change how your password is stored?", with the advice that "Authenticating to this service requires storing your password in a less secure form."

I can't find any further information on this, not from the Server documentation, nor from searching on Google.

What does this actually mean?
Why is this necessary?
Does it pertain to my MacOS user account credentials? If so, will it only affect the credentials of the account that the Server application is being run from (if this is the case, I will create a separate user account to run the Server app)?

Many thanks for your time and help.

OS X stores your passworded in a "salted hash" one-way encrypted format (See this question which "scrambles" your password (combined with a "salt") in such a way that it can't be decrypted, but produces the same value every time.

Depending on how Apache is configured, it uses different (normally salted) algorithms, including MD5, SHA1 and crypt: see the documentation

These are easier to crack than SHA-512, but also fairly secure (they do use a salt, and are one-way hashes. An attacker would need to get the htpasswd file to crack your password)

The same is true of the VPN server: I'm not sure what hashing algorithm it uses, but it's one with less entropy than the internal user database, which is what the warning means.

It's necessary because each piece of software is written by different maintainers (the web server by Apache, for example) and not by Apple, and because they store your password rather than authenticating you against the OS X user database.

It pertains to whatever users are allowed to authenticate to those services (the VPN and Web services) and not the user account that the Server app is running as.


Can I use a formula as a Table Name? I would like to have a table name automatically generate when a root value is
updated. For example, in my budget spreadsheet, I have Groceries 11/07 -> 11/06.
In a cell, if I have a cell starting date with value 11/01/2019, I can use

=CONCATENATE("groceries ",MONTH($B$2),"/", DAY($B$2),"->",MONTH($B$2+6), "/", DAY($B$2+6))

to calculate the desired string without having to update it manually (when I make next month's spreadsheet, for example.) Is there a way to have a formula be the name of a table? Or should I just have an extra header row instead of displaying the table name?

There's no way to make a table name the result of a calculation. You will need to use a table cell and hide the table name. Sounds like a good idea for a feature request, though.


Macbook bricked completely Was trying to update to the latest version of OS Sierra (10.12.6) and Mac suddenly shut down.

It gives me question mark on a file when trying to boot.
Power and then command - opt - R gives nothing, the same question mark.
Power and then command gives mouse cursor only.

I have Macbook Pro Mid-2010 (A1278)

What to do next?

If you have another Mac, boot this one in target disk mode and check the disk / repair it. If you have another bootable OS - you can hold option and try booting another OS.

Lacking those tools, you my have to see if you can test the hardware itself

Run Apple Hardware Test

Your model MBP uses Apple Hardware Test. To use this, follow these steps:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears.
After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start.
When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow.
When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. However, I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Note 1: The extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

Note 2: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.


No NTFS Access Using Paragon and Tuxera in Yosemite I earlier used OSXFuse/NTFS-3G method to access my Bootcamp Windows partition and my portable drive while using Mavericks. Recently when I upgraded to Yosemite I noticed that NTFS read/write access was not present as is, so I decided to use the opportunity to try out the trial version of Paragon NTFS 12 (latest).

I uninstalled both OSXFuse and MacFuse but noticed that Paragon does not even recognize either of my NTFS drives in both the Finder and in the System Preferences section. I've tried disabling/enabling, uninstalling/re-installing to not avail. I even experienced the same when I tried the trial version of Tuxera.

What might be the issue here? Is some remnant from the earlier NTFS-3G installation causing this issue?

Here's the only thing that worked for me, w/ 3 Seagate & 1toshiba w/ Paragon NTFS dominant over all till 10.10.3, - no access at all. Uninstall Incl** all plist files, you may need to look past your user folder library. Shutdown and disconnect pwr / & HDD's for 5 min. Boot /install a fresh full working copy of Paragon, restart / attatch HDD's / they should reappear normally. Don't forget to check the AccessPermissions in Paragon once booted. It's a combo perm' s & USB hiccup. Unhooking pwr made the diff 4 me btw( I'm stubborn). Hope it helps.


How can I disable the Option+click hiding behaviour? In Mac OS X Mountain Lion at least, if you Option+click ( Alt+click ) on another a window of another app, this will make the other application to gain focus, and the current app to be hidden as if you'd pressed Command+H.

Is there any way to disable this behaviour? Perhaps with some defaults write like command entered in a terminal?

I'd like to use Option+click for some different behaviour (moving windows by Option+clicking anywhere on them, using a third-party tool, Zoom2), and having Option+click trigger the hiding behaviour instead is very inconvenient.

One option would be to remap Option+Left Click to something else using KeyRemap4MacBook.  It might not have exactly what you want, but I think it's not hard to add new shortcuts (or ask the author to add them for you).  One option that I saw was Option+Left Click -> Middle Click.  You could then (assumedly) set middle click to do what you want in Zoom2, and retain the Option+Click shortcut.

Of course, if you do this, it will change Option+Click everywhere, even if you aren't clicking on another window.


How the low battery message graphic is loaded? When your iPhone battery is "almost" dead, it turn off, and then if you want to turn it on again it loads this very informative graphic:

The problem is that when you turn on "power button" this picture show up almost immediately, without starting up operating system or anything.

I just wonder how they done it ? Is this behaviour is hardcoded in hardware ? Is it configurable and could be changed (to flatter design) when iOS 7 will come ?

My understanding is that, they have to make it in hardware, make special circuit that when battery sensor inform about very low battery status, show this picture.

PS: I saw similar behaviour in Nexus 7 (2013)

I believe it's just an early stage of the bootloader that checks to see if the battery has enough charge before going on to boot iOS. It's no different from being able to display the Apple logo while iOS is booting.

If you download one of the IPSW files (iOS images), you can unzip it and find several images inside - applelogo, batterylow, glyphplugin, and so on. A full listing can be found on this page: IPSW File Format, and I also came across this page which has instructions for replacing the low battery image with something else (essentially just replacing the file inside the IPSW with another one in the correct format).

That would seem to indicate that iOS 7 will (or does) have a new version of the image for all devices, just like it has a flatter Apple logo at boot time.


Automatically mount AFP for Time Machine (without saving a password in plaintext) I have a Linux box running Netatalk that I use to store Time Machine backups. My machine running OS X sees this as an AFP service and Time Machine is happy with this arrangement. The only issue is that I need to manually connect to the Linux machine. I can do this by pressing buttons in Finder or I can do this form a shell with a command that looks like this:

mount -t afp afp://user:password@domain.tld/location /Volumes/mntpnt

This lets me automate connecting to the server but now I have a password saved in a plaintext shell script. What's a better way to automate this? My goal is to automatically allow Time Machine to access the Linux Machine if it can be reached.

To automate something like this with SSH I would authenticate with a passwordless key. Is there a way to do that with AFP?

I also have the password in my OS X keychain and I'm not prompted for a password if I go through Finder to connect to the Linux machine. Is there a sensible way to access to use this from a shell script?

I can provide more info about the Netatalk setup if that helps but it seems like the issue is on the client side.

Here's how you can pull the password out of the Keychain in OS X.

pw=$(security find-internet-password -wl mntpt)

This presumes the item is stored in the keychain with the name "mntpt"

Then you should be able to use your script on the next line:

mount -t afp afp://user:$pw@domain.tld/location /Volumes/mntpnt


Will ethernet work off of Thunderbolt/mDisplayPort/Ethernet adapter? I'm trying to restore from Time capsule (via fresh recovery). Attempting to use Ethernet so the restore is faster.

So I'm using an old mini displayport Ethernet adapter I have. But my MacBook needs thunderbolt. So I have a thunderbolt to mini display port adapter.

Is this form of daisy chain going to work? I ask because it's not getting an IP and the router doesn't light up either (tested both cables by directly connecting router to TC and it lights up so I know the cables and dhcp ability is working) A

You seem to have your terminology mixed up, which makes it difficult to answer your question.

Mini-DisplayPort is a standard for transferring display signals only. There exists no such thing as a Mini-DisplayPort to Ethernet adapter. In fact what you have is probably a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter. Thunderbolt uses the same physical plug as Mini-DisplayPort, but it is completely different thing.

When you say your laptop requires Thunderbolt, I think you're mistaken again. The picture you have included shows what appears to be a Thunderbolt 3 plug. Therefore I think your laptop really has Thunderbolt 3 ports, and not just Thunderbolt.

Again when looking at the photo, it seems to me that you are mistaken in saying that you have a "Mini-DisplayPort to Ethernet" adapter at all - i.e. it's not even Thunderbolt. The way you have taken the picture makes it impossible for us to see which plug goes with which adapter unfortunately. I do think I recognize the product as being a USB-C to Mini-DisplayPort adapter. If that is the case, you cannot use this adapter at all for this purpose.

You can buy a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter for connecting the ethernet adapter to your laptop:

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter

However it's probably cheaper to just buy a USB-C to Ethernet adapter in the first place. It could be something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Thunderbolt-Gigabit-Network-Compatible/dp/B07XTGKP5M/


Fan Speed and Temperature on MBP Retina 13 2013 I have a 13 inch MacBook Pro retina (bought new in 2013).

When running normally (which is usually online downloading and editing in Eclipse - nothing too heavy, often 90%+ processor idle) it runs fairly warm. To the touch it's hot in the top-left above the keyboard (where everything plugs in) and iStat gives the CPU temperature as between 50-70 degrees C (CPU Die, CPU proximity usually 2-3 degrees less).

I see from various searches this seems pretty normal for MBP and shouldn't in itself damage anything.

My question though is about the fans - they're always just plugging along around 2000 rpm.

If, using iStat, I set them to use a profile with say minimum 4-5000 rpm then, naturally, everything cools right down. With the default profile I get the temperatures above.

So, is this right? Presumably when I say 'default' it's using Apple's determination for fan speeds. But is it normal for it to get to 70-degrees or thereabouts without the fans automatically speeding up?

And as a supplementary question assuming it is working correctly in not speeding up for those temperatures; is it a good idea to perhaps use iStat to have the fans speed up when charging/plugged in (when it gets the heaviest use via Thunderbolt connectors)? Other than battery life being less my guess would be running everything cooler would give a longer life to components?

Many thanks in advance for reading my long and meandering question!

You should check the fans(s) in a MBP on a somewhat regular basis. There is a grid in the exit that channels the air coming out of the fan which tends to plug with lint. Remove the bottom cover of the machine and remove the fan(s). You will probably find a wad of lint obstructing the grid.


How to verify iOS app integrity? If I write an app for iOS and it's accepted by the AppStore, how do I know if the app is actually the app I compiled and has not being substituted/altered by, say, a "Man in the middle" style interception/attack? Is there a way to do a checksum either after the fact or from inside the app itself?

Actually, it turns out, when backing up to iTunes, the *.ipa file is copied from the iOS device. This file is simply a *.zip with a different extension. Using a tool like 7-zip allows One to examine the contents after the back up to iTunes. A checksum can be run on the individual components in this archive, verifying a lack of tampering.


Cold temperatures cause finger resistance on  iPad screen I have an issue that I've been experiencing: semi-cold fingers, iPad, and/or room make for a very stubborn drawing experience (I'm an artist that uses the iPad).

I'm talking indoors, and it doesn't have to be that cold to trigger the problem: even slightly below normal room temperature.

There's a real resistance that happens. My fingers don't seamlessly glide around. Slows me down like heck.

I can't figure out how to fix it (I can rub my fingers quickly on my pants to create friction for a very quick fix).

Could this be a humidity or a room pressure thing?

It's not about too little oil on one's fingers or if the glass is clean. I can't find anything online, although I've talked to some folks who say they sometimes have this problem with their smartphones.

Anyone know anything about this; and, more importantly, how to circumvent it in a reasonable way?

I've had similar issues, and my guess has been that it's due to poor circulation when the temperature drops.

The solutions I've come up with are to buy either:

a stylus
a pair of gloves with conductive tips (like these)
something like the GloveTips 3-Piece Touchscreen Texting Glove Tips (which you can apply to an existing pair of gloves).


macports is not uninstalling a package Earlier today, I tried using MacPorts to install gnutar.  By doing the following

sudo port install gnutar

But now I've decided I didn't want to do this.  So I tried to uninstall by doing

sudo port uninstall gnutar

but the binaries are still in place and functioning.

Why wasn't it uninstalled?

Most likely you have another port installed that depends on gnutar, so the uninstall command didn't remove it. Run

port dependents gnutar

to see if this is the case (sudo is not required for some port actions like list, installed, dependents, etc.). If you want to uninstall everyone,

sudo port uninstall --follow-dependents gnutar

will do the trick, but obviously could lead to unintended consequences, as all the dependents of all the dependents will be uninstalled, recursively, and you could end up decimating your port collection. Only do this if you know exactly what you're doing. gnutar is fairly small and unobtrusive, so if you can't easily get rid of it you won't be that bad off in terms of disk space.


Restart network config from terminal I've been having a problem where my macbook won't reconnect to the internet after I turn off my work VPN. A simple reboot fixes this, but I was wondering if there was a way I could restart the network configs, or clear cache (not sure exactly what the problem is) from the command line - without having to do a reboot?

I've tried the following, without success

$ ifconfig en0 down && ifconfig en0 up

Is there a way to reset the network config to whatever the default values are after a reboot?

Edit: This doesn't happen every time, I'm not exactly sure what chain of events triggers it.

Lack of network access after disconnecting from a VPN can be a symptom of a routing issue. If your VPN client doesn't disconnect cleanly, the gateway that directs your traffic to the virtual network can sometimes be left in place, effectively routing your traffic to a dead end.

I'd suggest bringing your interfaces down, flushing the routing table of gateway entries, and bringing them up again:

Bring your network interfaces down:

for i in $(ifconfig | egrep -o "^[a-z].+\d{1}:" | sed 's/://'); do sudo ifconfig "$i" down; done

Flush the routing table: sudo route -n flush.
Bring your interfaces back up again: (repeat step 1 with up instead of down).

If you want a reusable Bash function for this that you can drop into your .bashrc (or wherever), you could save the following:

resetroute () {
    echo "Flushing routes...";
    for i in $(ifconfig | egrep -o "^[a-z].+\d{1}:" | sed 's/://');
    do
        sudo ifconfig "$i" down;
    done;
    sudo route -n flush;
    for i in $(ifconfig | egrep -o "^[a-z].+\d{1}:" | sed 's/://');
    do
        sudo ifconfig "$i" up;
    done
}


App Store keeps on trying and failing to update iMovie and iPhoto on Mountain Lion I recently got a Mountain Lion laptop from work and every time the App Store checks for updates, it reports updates as available for iMovie and iPhoto.

However, I have neither installed and when I allow the App Store to attempt to upgrade, it complains You can not update this software since you have not owned the major version of this software. I'm not particularly interested in using either piece of software, but it's annoying to constantly be asked to update and then to have the updates fail.

Screenshot:

Can one of your fine folks please recommend a course of action? If there's any further information I can provide, please let me know.

If the apps show up in "Purchases" up can Control + Click in the item in the Purchases list and select "Hide Purchase..."

That may do it for you.

(Seem's like whoever had the laptop before you was up to some software shenanigans).

FWIW There is a file (/Library/Application Support/App Store/adoption.plist) that looks like it keeps track of pre installed versions of iLife so you can get updates from the App Store.


Is it possible to buy an Apple product in the UK and return it in the US? Is it possible to buy an Apple product, like an iPad mini, in the UK and return it in the US? And vice versa?

More reading on Apple discussions indicates that the warranties are not honored internationally for iPads and iPhones. If you buy somewhere and it breaks, you will likely have to send it back to the country of purchase. Apparently, this is because most countries have their own warranty laws.


Enable full screen mode in iBooks on iPhone A recent iBooks update (1.5, I think) mentions a new "full screen reading mode" that gets rid of the junk on the top/bottom of the screen.

How do I actually get into this mode on the iPhone? I can't find an option for it in themes or font option.

Or is it only available on the iPad?

The official text of the feature says:

  Full-screen layout lets you focus on the words without distraction.

I believe that full screen feature is referring to only having the book title on top and the page number at the bottom of the screen. You can activate it by single tapping in the center of the book. This will get rid of all other UI elements, including the status bar on top.

It doesn't necessarily give you more screen real estate, it just gets rids of these extra distractions.

Here's a good example of the difference between "full screen" (left) and normal layout (right):

As you can see, it doesn't actually increase the reading area, it just hides the status bar and the additional UI elements, and actually adds the book title to the top.


Viewing the HDD activity of active processes The Activity Monitor allows users of Lion to inspect the CPU usage, used memory and some other things for each running process. Unfortunately it doesn't show the drive (IO) activity like e.g. the Process Monitor does for Windows.

Is there any tool for OS X that does the job?

How about this answer on another SE site?

https://superuser.com/questions/89266/whats-causing-all-the-disk-activity-on-os-x

  From man iotop:

  iotop tracks disk I/O by process, and prints a summary report that is refreshed every interval.

  This is measuring disk events that have made it past system caches.

  Since this uses DTrace, only the root user or users with the dtrace_kernel privilege can run this command.

  This may not be precisely what you want - but it's a ksh script which wraps around dtrace, so you should be able to figure out how to make dtrace do what you need, if iotop doesn't handle it by default.

  However, something like iotop -C 5 12 should give you something to start with: it will output 12 samples, each 5 seconds long.


Position windows via command line I've got a little bit of ruby that sizes and repositions windows to a saved layout. It uses a snippet of AppleScript to actually do the positioning:

osascript -e 'tell application "Twitter" to set the bounds of the front window to {894, 22, 1604, 1049}'

There are two problems though:

This doesn't work for every app, for instance when I use it to set the position of Gitbox, I get the following error:

37:43: execution error: Gitbox got an error: Can’t get bounds of window 1. (-1728)

Some window positions aren't saved, for instance if I run the script to reposition everything, then I close the MacVim window and open a new one, it will not remember the position of the window that was just closed.

Is there a more robust way to set the size and positions of windows?

The problem you are having with Gitbox is because not all application are scriptable. Which means you cannot talk to it via applescript. What you can do for apps like that is use System Events to do some of it for you.

*Check if scriptable *

set theApp to "Gitbox"

tell application "System Events"

    set isScriptable to has scripting terminology of application process theApp

    if isScriptable then
        my scriptableApp(theApp)

    else
        my nonScriptableApp(theApp)

    end if
end tell
on scriptableApp(theApp)
    tell application theApp to get the bounds of the front window
end scriptableApp
on nonScriptableApp(theApp)
    tell application "System Events"
        set the props to get the properties of the front window of application process theApp
        set theSBounds to {size, position} of props
    end tell
end nonScriptableApp

Get the bounds via system events

#get the bounds via system events

tell application "System Events"
    set the props to get the properties of the front window of application process "Gitbox"
    set theSBounds to {size, position} of props
end tell

Set the bounds via system events

--set theSBounds to {{799, 490}, {513, 430}} #This is a test line that will set the bounds list so you can see the set bound code working un comment to use it

#set the bounds via system events
tell application "System Events"
    set size of front window of application process "Gitbox" to item 1 of theSBounds
    set position of front window of application process "Gitbox" to item 2 of theSBounds
end tell


iCal iPhone change Exchange calendar color First of all I want ask you how I can change my Exchange Calendar colors to a non-default color.

If I click Calendars in iCal on my iPhone, I get a list of all Calendars. If I click on the blue/white arrow to change the color to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple or brown. However, this is not the color I'm looking for. I've created an own color in iCal (blue-green combined, like an old GameBoy Color)

Is there any way to set this color in iCal on my iPhone?

If you have any questions about my issue, please ask and I'll update :)

On iOS 6 and Office 365 - exchange calendars are fully customizable as long as you like the 7 default colors. :( - which means, you can't customize the colors on iOS as you clearly stated in the question

The only interface for changing colors uses the default picker - Go to the Calendar app, tap Calendars in the top left, scroll to the calendar you want to modify, tap the blue circle with the white > symbol and then choose any of the colors that are listed.

Perhaps an update to exchange or to iOS will fix this in the future, but you're not missing anything obvious. Even using alternate apps like Fantastical or Agenda on iOS won't help you escape the limited color palette.


Changing Apple ID on Macbook to match ID on iPhone and iPad My 13” Mac has a different Apple ID than my iPad and iPhone. I’d like to change the Apple ID on my mac so I can utilize apps properly.

Sign out of the old Apple ID on the mac, knowing that you need to keep all the content there. Apps will lose permissions / update while you switch in the proper Apple ID.
Sign in with the proper AppleID so you can share all the data and other apps. They when you have an update, sign back in with the original AppleID (only if you want) to allow updates to the previously purchased apps, but not lose the data syncing from iCloud on the same account on both platforms.