List USB devices on OSX command line Can I List USB devices on OSX - similar to lsusb on Linux.
I know I can access from System Information.

In addition to system_profiler SPUSBDataType (suggested by @kjs), you can also use ioreg -p IOUSB:

$ ioreg -p IOUSB
+-o Root  <class IORegistryEntry, id 0x100000100, retain 10>
  +-o EHCI Root Hub Simulation@1A,7  <class IOUSBRootHubDevice, id 0x100000227,$
  | +-o HubDevice@fa100000  <class IOUSBHubDevice, id 0x10000027a, registered, $
  | | +-o Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad@fa120000  <class IOUSBDevice, id 0$
  | | +-o BRCM2070 Hub@fa110000  <class IOUSBHubDevice, id 0x1000002b4, registe$
  | |   +-o Bluetooth USB Host Controller@fa113000  <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x10$
  | +-o FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)@fa200000  <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x100000$
  +-o EHCI Root Hub Simulation@1D,7  <class IOUSBRootHubDevice, id 0x100000228,$
    +-o HubDevice@fd100000  <class IOUSBHubDevice, id 0x10000027b, registered, $
      +-o IR Receiver@fd110000  <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x100000288, registered,$

By default it clips to the window's width (80 chars in the example above), so you may want to add -w0 to get a full-width display. Also, adding -l will show details (probably more than you need) about each of the devices:

$ ioreg -p IOUSB -w0 -l
    +-o Root  <class IORegistryEntry, id 0x100000100, retain 10>
  | {
  |   "IOKitBuildVersion" = "Darwin Kernel Version 14.0.0: Fri Sep 19 00:26:44 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2782.1.97~2/RELEASE_X86_64"
  |   "OS Build Version" = "14B25"
  |   "OSKernelCPUSubtype" = 3
  |   "OSKernelCPUType" = 16777223
  |   "OSPrelinkKextCount" = 185
  |   "IOConsoleLocked" = No
  |   "IORegistryPlanes" = {"IOACPIPlane"="IOACPIPlane","IOPower"="IOPower","IODeviceTree"="IODeviceTree","IOService"="IOService","IOUSB"="IOUSB","IOFireWire"="IOFireWire"}
[...etc...]

[EDIT]: If you just want the device names, you can filter the basic list to trim the junk:

$ ioreg -p IOUSB -w0 | sed 's/[^o]*o //; s/@.*$//' | grep -v '^Root.*'
EHCI Root Hub Simulation
HubDevice
Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
BRCM2070 Hub
Bluetooth USB Host Controller
FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
EHCI Root Hub Simulation
HubDevice
IR Receiver


How to install 'MySQL Utilities' using brew or brew cask? I installed MySQL server and client using brew. I installed MySQL Workbench with brew cask, but I don't find MySQL Utilities (something new?).

How to install that using brew or brew cask?

This will do it:

brew tap caskroom/cask
brew install brew-cask
brew cask install mysqlworkbench


OS X's FileVault password screen extremely unresponsive I have a FileVault-protected MacBook with OS X 10.11.6 installed alongside a BootCamp Windows 10 partition.

Lately, whenever I reboot the MacBook and allow it to automatically boot into the OS X operating system, the FileVault password screen is extremely unresponsive. I can type in the password, but have to wait from 10 to 15 seconds after typing each character to allow the system to catch up with my typing.

Besides these symptoms, the mouse pointer and the caps lock on/off light are equally very slow to respond / catch up.

Both operating systems have their latest & greatest updates.

Any clues about this annoying behaviour and how to resolve it? Thanks in advance!

This is normal on FileVault enabled MacBook. There is about 10 seconds latency on my late 2013 rMBP. I suggest to wait a bit more time as the problem improved dramatically two weeks later after I turned it on.


How to mirror a Mac desktop to a larger Windows computer's screen? I've a 15-inch MacBook Pro and a 21-inch All-in-one Windows Computer.
However, I haven't any HDMI or DisplayPort cable but Ethernet.

I would like to transfer the Mac's desktop to the larger computer display, if possible with the native resolution of the latter (1920x1080), with a keyboard and mouse plugged on the Mac to control it. It is possible, just with LAN or Ethernet? If yes, how?

AirServer might be worth a try. It's an AirPlay receiver for Mac and PC. So as long as both computers are in the same network, it should allow you to stream your MBP screen through AirPlay to your Windows computer.

I'm not exactly sure how it will handle resolutions though.


MacBook Pro 15" CPU Overheat My MacBook pro 15" 2010 temperature gets over 150 c. Is this normal? I have attached an image for sensors temperature. I recently faced automatic restarts, is this related to temperature?

The sensor temperatures probably show °Fahrenheit instead of °Celsius.

Open iStatMenus -> Sensors and change the Degrees from Fahrenheit to Celsius.

The Palm Rest will show ~30°C instead of 85°F (mine - a similar MBP - has 31°C), the CPU Die will show 54°C  instead of 129°F (mine has ~63°C)...


How do I prevent my MacBook from sleeping when downloading apps from the App Store When I try to download large apps from the App Store whether on battery or AC power the displays turns off after time set and downloading also stops.

The Energy Saver preferences are set to defaults.

What should I do to continue download even when display is off?

I am using OS X 10.9.4

If you don't want to install any software or change settings, you can use the Terminal utility caffeinate. Open Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities/), type in caffeinate, and press return ↩.

If you want to set a timeout so it will go to sleep after some amount of time, use this:

caffeinate -t 3600

That will make it stay awake for an hour. (3600 is the number of seconds you want it to stay awake.)

To stop or cancel the caffeinate command, press ^ ControlC.


Keyboard shortcut to disable keyboard I am aware that there seem to be two shortcuts for disabling the keyboard. The first being hitting the option key 5 times, and the second being control-f1. However, neither work for me. I have enabled both the setting that allows the function keys to be used as function keys and the control-f1 shortcut. Why can't I disable my Macbook Pro keyboard with a shortcut?

It would be interesting to know where that information came from, as, as far as I am aware, it is totally incorrect.

These are Accessibility Controls...
Opt x5 is to enable Mouse Keys; that allows your 10-key pad to act like a mouse.
Ctrl/F1 I think you are confusing with "Full Keyboard Access" which allows more complete navigation using only the keyboard.

It Toggles between this :-

and this

The only way I know to actually disable it is to use a utility called KeyboardCleanTool [freeware]


5c restore fails, at the "Waiting for iPhone" stage of restore. Does not start back up. I am trying to restore my 5c, it boots to the charging page, then to the apple logo, after its done this once, and the restore procedure fails, at the pre mentioned stage, with error code 2001, it will then boot straight into recovery mode, I am unable to restore my phone. How can I fix this?

According to the Apple site here, error code 2001 is related to USB problems.  Try the following:

Use the USB cable that came with the iPhone or a different USB cable that is from Apple directly (not 3rd-party, even if it is MFI)
Plug the USB cable into a different port on the computer.  Don't use a USB on a keyboard.
Try a different computer.

If all those fail, try the 'Check for hardware issues' on that same Apple site.

.


Java update not working? well I have java 8 45 and when I go into terminal and do java -version it says this

"java version "1.6.0_65"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_65-b14-466.1-11M4716)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.65-b04-466.1, mixed mode)"

But when I go to the java panel it tells me I have the latest version which is java 8 45. And I need to get this working asap because one of my minecraft server plugins needs java 8 and its not working. Can anyone help me with this problem thanks!

You can have multiple versions of JRE installed on your system. To see them all, use the following command:

/usr/libexec/java_home -verbose

The output is something like this:

1.8.0_05, x86_64:   "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/Home
1.7.0_51, x86_64:   "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/Home

It lists all the JRE versions you've installed on your system, and the last line indicates which one is your current system default. To change that or manage it even better for any future needs take a look at this post on SuperUser. I believe this will solve your problem.


Only one way sync with MS Exchange server in OS X 10.9 Calendar Since my fresh install of OS X 10.9 Mavericks I have problems syncing my Calendar with the MS Exchange server (version 2008).

When I add an appointment in the Exchange calender in Calendar on my OS X machine, it gets created without any errors. After this, I sync this appointment with the Exchange server CommandR. Now I expect this new appointment to be living on the Exchange server and I expect this appointment to be synced with my other devices (iPhone and company website), and it does.

But when I reverse things and create an appointment in the Exchange calendar via the company website it gets synced to my iPhone, but it does not show in the OS X Calendar app. What about invitations? I receive the invites in my mail inbox and in my Calendar inbox, but excepted invitations do not show up in my OS X Calendar as well.

For debugging I created another account on my OS X machine, but as a different user the same problems occur. I also used another mac running 10.9 and the same problems occurred, but no problems occurred using my iPhone or a windows PC. There were also no problems when I logged in using the same exchange server but a different account.

With the symptoms described above, it is likely there is a problem with the MS Exchange server. But my colleague, also running OS X 10.9 has not encountered any problems with calendar syncing.

Other versions of OS X worked fine with my setup. Did communication with the MS Exchange server change in OS X 10.9? Are there other possibilities that causes my problems?

Unfortunately the IT department still does not support OS X machines and are therefor not willing to help out.

There clearly was a synchronization error between my Mac with my Exchange account and the Exchange server. Using another exchange account on my mac resulted in normal Calendar syncing.

With the help of the IT department and after making sufficient backups of my mail and calendar itemts, the IT department 'reseted' my account. With a reset everything is deleted from the server, except my username and password.

Now everything works fine again. But I still have not found the cause of this problem.


what do App Memory, Wired Memory, and Compressed mean? In Activity monitor, what do App Memory, Wired Memory, and Compressed mean?
For example,

I am used to the columns in the output of free from procps-ng under Linux.
By the way, how can I install  procps-ng under OS X?

Thanks.

This wonderful Apple Support article says it all: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464#memory

I'll give the short version here:

There are three different types of memory, as you have noticed - wired, app, and compressed. Each of these types do something slightly different.

Wired memory
Wired memory refers to memory that cannot be taken out from RAM. The contents of wired memory cannot be paged to your disk (swap), and are used by programs. This memory can't be used anywhere else, and stays in memory until whatever is using it is terminated. Usually, this memory is used by OS X's core functions and belongs to the kernel. In a way, you might consider it meta-memory, the memory that oversees other memory.

this other question on wired memory and its answer expands more on wired memory and its use.

App memory
App memory refers to memory utilised by open/background processes and applications.

Compressed memory
Compressed memory refers to memory (that isn't being used), which OS X automatically compresses to free up RAM for other processes to use.

This may be unrelated to your question, but I thought I'd expand on it:

Swap memory
Swap memory is RAM contents that have been paged out to disk to free up RAM within memory modules. The entire concept of swap memory is sort of "expanding" RAM by taking parts of your hard disk and writing RAM contents into it.

Additional resource: Apple Developer Library: Virtual Memory


Change "from" address in Terminal `mail` When sending mail from shell, e.g.,

echo '123' | mail -s 'subject' name@mail.com

The recipient gets an email from "my-local-username@my-machine-name.local", e.g., "bob@macbook.local"

How can I change this to an email address of my choosing?

Tack an escape to the end of your mail command to pass a header to sendmail.

 -- -f not-bob@address.com

See this answer and others that use the -- terminator to tell the mail program those arguments are for the next program.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/8483239/475228


Use script as custom printer driver to send file to web page At my workplace, I am unable to find a printer driver for macOS which works with the printer. Instead, I'm printing through the web-interface of the printer, and I'm wondering if there's a way to automize this.

The steps I do manually that I want to automize (all or some):

Save document as .ps (works better than .pdf for this printer)
Go to the web address and log in to the printer
Drag the file I want to the browser UI

Writing a script to simulate the web login and transmission of the file is a separate problem which I think I can solve.

My question: Can I use this custom script (probably Pyhton) as a "printer driver" to make it show up in the list of printers and enable me to print using cmd-p? It would have to automatically save as .ps and then do the webb stuff.

You don't need to create a "driver" as the functionality you need is already available.  From the normal Print (CMD+P) dialog window, in the lower left corner, click on the PDF drop-down menu and choose the Save as PostScript option to save the "print" as a .ps file. (This part may have been your step #1 but I wasn't sure how you were saving the page as .ps)

Using a macro/script utility like Hazel, Keyboard Maestro, Automator, etc., they could be configured to monitor a specific folder where you save the .ps file.  When a new file appears, the macro/script could trigger to send the file to the printer.

Also, depending on the printer model, it is likely the script could send the .ps file directly to the printer using a port/interface designed for a script/stream instead of using the web GUI.  IPP/LPD/socket interfaces are designed for exactly this.  Most likely the web GUI is using a javascript to grab the file from you then pass it into one of these interfaces.

P.S. Notice that in the screenshot, the "Save as PDF" option has a CMD+S shortcut.  I created that by using the Keyboard Preference Pane in System Preferences.  If you want to do the same but for the "Save as PostScript" option... Open the Keyboard Preference, switch to Shortcuts, select App Shortcuts on the left then click the [+] icon below.  Set the shortcut for All Applications, Menu Title of "Save as PostScript...", and the Shortcut as CMD+S.  You can use CMD+S because the normal shortcut for CMD+S (File>Save) is not available when the Print dialog is shown.  Another good shortcut is CMD+P for the same reason.  That way you press CMD+P, wait a second for the dialog to appear, then press CMD+P again.


Does iOS have a built-in RSS reader? Do any iOS versions come with a built-in RSS reader?

Sort of... you can go into Safari, choose a website, then click the bookmark icon, select the @ tab, click Subscriptions and then click Add Current Site.

Otherwise Reeder for IOS is a great RSS reader. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reeder-2/id697846300?ls=1&mt=8


iPhone 7 WiFi Connectivity Issue First apologies if this is not the best Stack Exchange site to ask this on, or this is "off topic", but I was directed here from Server Fault as it was "off-topic" for that site. I have asked this question over on Mac Rumors, but received zero responses at this time. Please feel free to redirect me to a more appropriate S.E. site if there is a more suitable one.

I have seen many threads over the net about iPhone7 WiFi connectivity issues, but none of the answers for theirs have fixed my issue.

Problem:

We have an issue at home where the two iPhone 7s often will not connect or if they do connect, wont hold a connection for very long (10 - 20 minutes).

We have multiple other devices, both Apple and non-Apple who connect fine and hold their connection. It is only the two iPhone 7s which are experiencing this issue. The iPhone 6, iPhone 5, iPad 2, iPad mini, iMac, two Android phones, one Android tablet and Windows laptop all connect without issue.

WiFi Infrastructure:

Sky Broadband SR102, connected to internet and working as Fibre broadband modem, DHCP server and WiFi access point and router
Sky Broadband SR102, connected to SR102 by LAN cable, DHCP disabled, working as WiFi access point and router
NetGear WNR2200, connected to SR102 by LAN cable, DHCP disabled, working as WiFi access point and router. Also has Guest account enabled.

All WiFi access points have the same SID broadcast, the same encryption type and same password. All three broadcast on different channels, which only overlap slightly according to “WiFi Analyser” application. All WiFi is 2.4GHz. No 5Ghz in house.

Often when the iPhone has no connection the IP address is well outside of the DHCP range. Often something like 169.254.xxx.xxx. I understand from other threads this is an IP address the iPhone assigns its self when it cannot get one from the DCHP server. Sometimes the IP address is just plain 0.0.0.0.

Solutions which have not worked for us are:

Disconnecting and reconnecting WiFi on iPhone7
Renewing the lease on the iPhone7
Restarting the iPhone7
Forgetting WiFi network and re-adding it on iPhone7
Restarting all of the routers
Allowing SR102 to dynamically assign all IP addresses
Giving all frequently active devices in house static IP addresses in the device access list on the SR102. The static IP addresses are based upon MAC address. The  SR102 still hands out dynamic IP addresses to any other device.
Setting static IP addresses (to match those set on SR102) on iPhone7s
Resetting network settings on iPhone7
Turning Bluetooth off on iPhone7 (advice from forum posts - not practical and did not work)
Disconnect all IP6 DHCP on routers

We have also been to the Apple store and had twenty minutes with a genius, but after running a diagnostic tool on phone he was unable to offer anything other than what we had already tried except a full factory reset to new phone state, which is less than ideal for us.

I have seen posts around the net where other iPhone7 users having this issue can be sat next to partners with iPhone6, iPhone5, Android phones or iPads who can connect perfectly. It seems to be quite a common affliction to the iPhone7.  Please can anyone offer any other advice? Thanks in advance.

It seems as though it's an issue with your local network. You may want to take a look into your 2.4GHz settings, and change them to Apple's Specified 20 MHz bandwith.

  2.4 GHz channel width

  Channel width controls how large of a ”pipe” is available to transfer data. However, larger channels are more subject to interference and more likely to interfere with other devices. A 40 MHz channel is sometimes called a wide channel, and a 20 MHz channel is a narrow channel.

    Set to: 20 MHz

  Use 20 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band. Using 40 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band can cause performance and reliability issues with your network, especially in the presence of other Wi-Fi networks and other 2.4 GHz devices. A 40 MHz channel might also cause interference and issues with other devices that use this band, such as Bluetooth devices, cordless phones, and neighboring Wi-Fi networks. Routers that don't support 40 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band do support 20 MHz channels.

If you choose to use the 5GHz channel width, it is reccomended that you use the 20/40 MHz band.

  5 GHz channel width

  Channel width controls how large of a "pipe" is available to transfer data. Larger channels are more susceptible to interference, and more likely to interfere with other devices. Interference is less of an issue in the 5 GHz band than in the 2.4 GHz band. A 40 MHz channel is sometimes called a wide channel, and a 20 MHz channel is a narrow channel.
  Set to:

    For 802.11n access points, set the 5GHz band to 20 MHz and 40 MHz.

    For 802.11ac access points, set the 5GHz band to 20 MHz, 40 MHz, and 80 MHz.

  For best performance and reliability, enable support for all channel widths. This allows devices to use the largest width they support, which results in optimal performance and compatibility. Not all client devices support 40 MHz channels, so don't enable 40 MHz-only mode. Devices that support only 20 MHz channels cant connect to a Wi-Fi router in 40 MHz-only mode. Similarly, don't enable 80 MHz-only mode, or only clients capable of 802.11ac will be able to connect. Routers that don't support 40 MHz or 80 MHz channels do support 20 MHz channels.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202068


MacOS doesn't fit external screen and I don't know how to stretch it Model: MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
Monitor: Samsung U28E590D 28-Inch UHD
Using HDMI cable to connect to the monitor.
Things I have tried:

Option + click to see all the possible resolutions
Reset NVRAM
Reset SMC
Using SwitchResX
Playing the the monitor's settings

Nothing works! I have absolutely no idea how to fit the OS to the screen. The text also looks a little blurry.
How it looks like: https://imgur.com/2ZZx68D
Help on fixing this would be very appreciated!

Short answer, you can't
If you have a look at the specs on the monitor It's a 4K monitor 3840 x 2160.
Then have a peek at the specs on your computer. I usually use EveryMac.com.
And under Second display support on the second link above it says:

*This model supports a simultaneous maximum resolution up to 2560x1600 on two external displays via Thunderbolt. Alternately, it can support
a single display up to 2560x1600 via Thunderbolt and a single display
up to 1920x1200 via HDMI. Although it can theoretically power all
three external displays, as confirmed by a helpful reader, it runs too
hot with three displays connected.

To me that says your Mac does not support the highest resolution of that monitor, so you are going to get a resolution that is lower and of poorer quality.
You need to get a monitor that supports 2560 x 1600 native resolution for optimal display output.


Is it possible to have a playback indicator in OSX menubar? On my iPhone, until iOS 6, anytime music is playing a play symbol appears (and disappears when no music is playing).

How can I achieve a similar effect in the menu bar of OSX Mountain Lion?

Here is sample code for doing this in Cocoa (you can paste it in a new XCode project and build it) :

AppDelegate.h :

    NSStatusItem* statusItem;

AppDelegate.m :

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
    [[NSDistributedNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                        selector:@selector(iTunesNotification:)
                                                            name:@"com.apple.iTunes.playerInfo"
                                                          object:nil]; //registering for notifications from iTunes

    [NSApp setActivationPolicy:NSApplicationActivationPolicyProhibited]; //No icon in the dock, menubar only

    statusItem = [[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar] statusItemWithLength:NSVariableStatusItemLength]; // For the icon in the status bar
}

- (void) iTunesNotification:(NSNotification *)note {
    NSDictionary *information = [note userInfo];
    NSString* state = [information objectForKey:@"Player State"];

    if([state isEqualToString:@"Paused"]) {
        //hiding the indicator
        [statusItem setTitle:@""];
    } else if ([state isEqualToString:@"Playing"]) {
        //showing the indicator
        [statusItem setTitle:@"▶"];
    }
}

The only flaw i could see in this sample is i'm using a character for the play icon and not a image. It could be a problem when the encoding messes something up.


Will Mountain Lion run on an early 2008 MacBook White? I know it isn't in Apple's list of supported Macs, but I want to know if anyone has tried it.

Also, my Mac has 4GB of ram and plenty of disk space. It currently runs Lion.

As Steve Moser says there is no support for 32 bit drivers and Mountain Lion will refuse to install on the macs which had 32 bits drivers (someone seems to be too lazy to rewrite them?).

If this answer is not the one you want to hear, then you can install Mountain Lion the hard way. Because there is a way (which worked for the preview).

You will need another compatible mac (support) and you will have to do some hard drive switching.

The idea goes as follow:

Get Mountain Lion
On the target Mac remove the hard drive (target drive)
On the support Mac insert the hard drive (USB or internally)
Install Mountain Lion on the target drive
Put the target drive back in the target Mac
Boot on the target drive holding Cmd + V And write down the ID given in the error message "Incompatible Mac detected: ..."
Put the target drive back to the support Mac and on this drive in /System/Library/CoreServices edit PlatformSupport.plist

Add your board ID in the SupportedBoardIds section.
Add your model ID in the SupportedModelProperties section.

Put the target drive to the target Mac
Boot

You should be able to get to the desktop but without hardware graphics support.

To enable the graphics hardware support you will have to install the right kernel extentions. You could use kexthelper.

EDIT: To avoid all the hard drive switching and messing with internal components you can boot the target Mac in the so conveniently named "target mode" and connect it to the support Mac on which you could install the OS to the target drive and then boot on the target drive to edit the plist files.


Disk Utility in Sierra won't repartition a disk After upgrading to sierra with a clean format and install, I can't partition any disks. When I select a drive (not the partition) and click the partition button, I get this screen. Notice that just about all of the controls are greyed out. I had this problem before and was able to partition and format from the command line - but that's very inconvenient.

How can I unlock this?

BTW, my install was from the pre-release GM, but that should be identical to the final release.

In the Disk Utility Screen, try selecting the next option up. It might be the name of the Mounted Volume. Sometimes if you try to format a Disk nested under another Volume it doesn’t work.

Also try different File Systems, some format troublesome disks better than others. For example try FAT before you try NTFS.


Move Photos App and data to external drive to make room on main drive I am trying to make space on my Mac. It's overloaded and slow. I wanted to know if I can remove my photo application with all it's data and store it on an external drive? I understand that I couldn't access it if the external drive was not connected to my Mac.

Can I do this?

I have a MacBook Pro running Sierra (10.12.3).

All you have to do is move it.

Plug in your external drive
Copy (click and drag) your Photos library from your internal drive to your external drive
When complete, hold down the Option key and launch Photos.
In Photos, select Photos > Preferences, and in the General tab, click Use as System Photo Library.
Once you have confirmed that the library is there and is working, delete your old library off your internal drive


How to format a Seagate HDD to OS X Extended (Journal) with Disk Utility I have just got a new external hard disk, the Seagate Expansion 2 TB, and I am trying to format it to work on my Mac. I was told that I had to erase the disk and format it to OS X Extended (Journal) with the Disk utility program.

However, Disk Utility won't allow me to erase it, and the partition button is greyed out. I will attach some screenshots of the problem:

Any help is appreciated!

In Disk Utility find the HDD you are trying to format in the left hand column. Select the disk and not the volume - that appears as child under it - to repartition it.

Just choosing the volume erases or replaces the file system but not the partition table type. This may apparently fail if the partition map is mal-formed.

If you feel confident with terminal, you may use instructions from other topics, alike this one.


How to selectively enable autocorrect based on language? My (bilingual) mom just recently bought an iPad.  When typing in Korean, her native language, she became irritated by the autocorrect feature -- it would often suggest incorrect spelling corrections, forcing her to pause typing to press the 'x' button to cancel it.  However, because she's not proficient in English, she found the autocorrect feature very useful when typing in English.

We found a way to completely disable autocorrect, but couldn't find a way to selectively enable it based on the keyboard language.  Is there a way to do this, or something similar?  Alternatively, is there a way to configure the settings so that the autocorrect suggestions do not automatically take effect after hitting the spacebar?

(If it matters, she has an iPad 3 (I think.  I'm pretty new to Apple too))

There is no possibility to turn on autocorrect for one language on the keyboard but not on another. There is the setting "Check spelling that only underlines 'incorrect' words, but does not change it. I like to use that feature, as I am also bilingual. When that feature is on, you can first type your text and then tap the underlines one by one and then pick the suggestion you want.

If you want to jailbreak your iPad, then you could install a tweak called 'ManualCorrect' that only changes the word to the suggestion when you tap it.

Source: own experience and http://iphonemonsta.com/manualcorrect-autocorrect-fix-iphone-ios-cydia


Indexing words separated by underscores When searching using Spotlight for, say, the word "Exotic", it fails to report the file Important_Exotic_Class.h, containing a C++ class by that name.

Can you think of a method to make Spotlight index the portions of identifiers between underscores in .h and .cpp files? In the example above, the three words would be indexed.

Even just indexing the words between underscores in filenames would be very useful.

Spotlight should already index these files, it does on my Mac.  Try searching for them as follows:

Open a Finder window
Press Command+F
Change the search parameters to "Name" and "contains" to search for file names or just "Contents" to search text within the files
Enter your search term

Once you start typing, spotlight should start showing results in the window

Note: Check in the 'Privacy' tab of the Spotlight preference pane in System Preferences to ensure you haven't excluded the folder/drive where your .h and .cpp files reside.


Where does the Mac version of the iPhone Configuration Utility store its data? I am using the iPhone Configuration Utility to set up some iPads. I'm just setting up some web clippings and one wireless network and see that the utility is keeping a nice record of all the serial numbers as I attach them and install the same profile.

The export function doesn't seem to save this data so I'm wondering where it is stored so perhaps I can get it into a spreadsheet or other format other than a screen capture.

~/Library/MobileDevice/Devices

The files appear to be stored as a plist with the device's UDID as the name.


Calendar event showing new time change notification every day I have a recurring meeting each day on my Exchange calendar at 8:45 AM. In the Calendar application, I get a notification every morning that the event time was updated to 8:45AM. However, the event organizer is not changing the time, and it stays exactly the same.

The only thing I can think of is something odd with time zones and/or Exchange. The organizer is in CST and I'm in Mountain. Calendar correctly shows my time in the event details both before and after getting the alert about the change...

Any idea what is happening and how to stop the daily notification that the time has changed (since it hasn't!).

Example of the notification:

Finally, a solution.

Unfortunately the meeting organizer will have cancel and recreate the event to solve this problem. The problem is a result of the meeting organizer including themselves as an attendee which creates a sort of loop for meeting updates.

To solve, the organizer must create a new event that does not include themselves as an attendee. If the a distribution list is used, they must expand it and remove their name from the list.

Answer source.


A screen protector or not for the retina screen? Recently, I bought my very first MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

I am hesitating between having a screen protector or not.
Some claim that a protector can prevent the retina display from scratch, while others say that one can only get the best out of the retina display without any extra protection.

Is such a protector worthwhile?

Will the screen get scratched when I use a cloth to clean it, if I do not have the protector?

The points raised are both correct. While having the protector will prevent scratches on the screen, it will also reduce the quality of the display quite significantly. When I bought my Mac, I was also met with this dilemma. After having tried the best screen protector that the Apple Store had, I decided not to go with one. The display doesn't really scratch all that much, and I have not been able to induce a scratch even after using a cheap cloth.
I would suggest you to use a screen cleaning liquid every time you use a cloth, as that is how I have been able to prevent the scratches.


Is it possible to set a keyboard layout per app? I use Dvorak for my day-to-day work, however I find that Microsoft's Remote Desktop application doesn't play very nicely with this: if I connect to an existing session it will use whatever keymap was in place before (usually US), but if I connect and it logs in a new session, it will set the keymap to dvorak which affects other users if they log in!

It would be nice if Microsoft could make it not break, but I don't see that happening any time soon. Meanwhile, is it possible to set a keymap for a particular application? I've tried the option Automatically switch to a document's input source, but this doesn't seem to have any noticeable effect.

I've found a better way of dealing with things than setting a keyboard layout per app, and this is with the excellent Karabiner keyboard customiser.

Simply set the system keyboard to QWERTY, and enable the Karabiner option 'QWERTY to Dvorak'. The only caveat is you have to remember to log in with QWERTY as Karabiner can only start once you have logged in.


How can I compress a folder into multiple zip files? I'm on mac osx.

1.
Is there any tool to compress a folder into multiple zip files ?

2.
Is there any tool to split a compressed zip file into smaller zip files (to open individually later)?

Use the -s switch on the zip command in terminal. So if your folder was called FolderName

zip -r -s 64 archive.zip FolderName/

64 is the size of the split (in this case 64Mb).

Use -s to set the split size and create a split archive.
The size is  given  as  a  number  followed optionally  by  one
of  k (kB), m (MB), g (GB), or t (TB) (the default is m). [1]

Use zipsplit to split a zip file in to multiple smaller zipfiles.  Use the -n switch to set the size of the splits.

[1] http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/zip.1.html


MacBook Pro mid-2010- water damaged - but it still plays the chime? Hey guys it's been a week since my MacBook Pro had water leaked into it, I'm pretty sure something is wrong :(
But now when I try to boot it up I hear the startup chime, what does this mean?
Should I buy an Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable or give up and just try to back up stuff from the hard drive??
http://www.amazon.com/Mini_Dis-HDMI-CB6-Mini-DisplayPort-Adapter-Cable/dp/B003OC6LWM
Thanks for the help!

Your screen backlight might need replacement. After you turn it on, try pointing a flashlight towards the center of the screen. If you're computer is working fine, you'll see the login screen without any backlight (you'll barely see it).


macOS windows requiring an explicit click to make active, before UI elements inside can be clicked I'm a new Mac user, having been issued with a MacBook Pro when I started a new job three months ago.  A Windows and Linux user before, I'm now getting quite used to the differences with using Apple's desktop environment.

One thing that is still slowing me down a little is the requirement to explicitly click in an application window to make it active, before the UI elements inside that window can be interacted with.

For example, if I have two browser windows open side by side with the left one active, it takes two clicks to follow a link in the right hand window: one to make the window active, one to click the link.

This is in contrast to Windows or Linux, where you can click on a UI element in a inactive window and that single click will both activate the window and the element in it.

A similar issue is trying to copy and paste text between windows.  I can select and copy text in an active terminal or editor, then paste it into another with 'right-click, Paste' but that doesn't activate the window.  I still need to left-click the window to activate it before I can type into it.

In Windows and Linux, the right-click to paste would also activate the window.  If I was pasting a command into a terminal, I could then just hit Enter to run it, whereas an extra mouse click is required on my Mac.  This feels a little cumbersome.

Can this behaviour be adjusted to resemble Windows and Linux?

The answer, in general, is "no". There are some exceptions/workarounds though, for example:

You can click through to any control in an unfocused window using Cmd-Click. This will directly operate that control without focusing the window, which might save you a click in your side-by-side browser window scenario. Unfortunately it's up to each application developer to make this work sensibly, and some unfocused applications will still perform any special action assigned to Cmd-Click, rather than treating it as a simple click.
In Terminal.app, Cmd-Right Click will paste the contents of the primary selection (the last text you highlighted in any terminal window) into the same or another terminal, whether that terminal is focused or not.
Specifically for X11 applications running under XQuartz.app (which isn't very many these days), you can specify the "focus follow mouse" option so that X11 windows are focused as you mouse over them. (There also used be a hidden focus-follows-mouse option for Terminal.app windows, don't know if it still works in El Capitan or Sierra.)


Plain text e-mails in Dark Mode Mail 12 I regularly deal with e-mails from a company using SalesForce where the messages are sent with a bright white background for the entire message body, set in the HTML.

In Dark Mode this is exceptionally uncomfortable, as you'll be ticking through your e-mails reading white on black, when suddenly you're hit with an almost full screen of white.

I checked the raw message contents and I do see that there are two parts, an HTML version and a plain-text version. However, I cannot find the configuration option to specify that I want Mail to render the plain text version of the message. So how can I do this, or otherwise override the colours of these messages?

There is a Terminal command to generally prefer plain text E-Mails over rich format. However, I haven't tested it under Catalina.

defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool TRUE


Does macOS's Core Graphic Rendering convert everything into PDF? That is, when you run games like Quake (which are, I believe in OpenGL), is every frame internally converted to PDF and then rasterized?

Or, when I do a game in UIKit/GameKit, it is also internally converted to PDF, frame-by-frame?

At least, I lost as I understood from the source: ARS Technica -Inside Quartz

I think it's essential to know where the PDF model for rendering comes into play in the macOS graphics and windowing system.

From the ARS Technica article:

  it is important to understand that Core Graphics Services deals with
  more or less "ready-to-display" data sent to it from higher layers in
  the graphics system. It is a pixel pusher, not a graphics creator

So, everything is built on top of Core Graphics Services.  The PDF engine is used to render essentially what you are seeing on your desktop (for a lack of a better word).  For instance, the rendering of an App like TextEdit, Numbers or Microsoft Word would go through Core Graphics Rendering (the PDF model).

  Core Graphics Rendering uses PDF for its internal vector graphics
  representation. Apple describes its rationale for using PDF as
  follows:

    As a superset of Adobe PostScript, PDF brings several improvements,
    including better color management, internal compression, font
    independence, and interactivity. However, PDF is not a full-fledged
    language as is PostScript; it is declaratively, not programmatically,
    specified. Consequently a sophisticated and expensive language runtime
    is not necessary, as it is for PostScript.

Basically, what this is saying is that Core Graphics Rendering (just one of the graphics rendering systems) uses PDF because of its features over PostScript.

As for streaming media and "high performance graphics applications" like games it will go through a different rendering engine.  OpenGL is a vectoring engine and it interacts directly with a systems GPU.  It would be wildly inefficient to convert to a PDF model then display the rendered results.

So, to answer your question (and TL;DR):

  That is, when you run games like Quake (which are, I believe in
  opengl), is every frame internally converted to PDF and then
  rasterized?

No, games that use OpenGL are rendered in OpenGL and passed off to Core Graphics Services which just "pushes the rendered pixels."


Touch Bar to only showing my customized layout at all times How do I configure the Touch Bar on the new Macbook Pro's to only show my customized layout at all times?  Forgive for the question if I can't.

In System Preferences/Keyboard, you just set the "Touch Bar Shows" drop-down in the Keyboard tab to "Expanded Control Strip", and use the Customize Control Strip button to set up that expanded control strip however you want.


Cmd+Tab with arrow keys So, I used to be able to cycle through apps back and forth by holding cmdtab while pressing left/right arrow keys. I can't now that I've done a fresh install of Sierra. What happens now is when I press the arrow keys, the next or previous program opens up. I can't cycle anymore. Only tab does that now, and just in one direction.
I tried searching the net, hoping that there's just something in the preferences that I missed, but nothing close to it comes out. Help?

You can cycle through open applications by holding the Command key and tapping (but not holding) the Tab key.
As long as Command remains pressed you can use the → or ← keys to cycle through open applications.


Can I view uploaded photos on iOS? iOS offers some automatic albums out-of-the-box (e.g. selfies, panoramas, etc.). However, I see no "uploaded" album. I have always found this inconvenient, and today I found out that Android has albums with the photos uploaded to each service (Messenger, WhatsApp, etc). Is it possible in any way for me to see (and ideally also delete) all photos ever uploaded anywhere?

No, the Photos app does not offer a computed "Uploaded" folder that automatically gathers all photos ever uploaded across services.
There's also no other place in the system, nor any log file in the system, that automatically gathers a list of photos uploaded to services via apps on the device.


Is it possible to hide or move default macOS apps? I am trying to cleanup/organize my applications folder which is difficult because I can't move most of the apps (Technically I can move them but a copy is locked in the same position).

Is there any way to hide the .app files of apps I don't want to see or some way to force them to move so I can organize the Applications folder?

Most of the methods I have seen involve deleting the apps but I do not want to do that.

What are my options?

Which applications are you having trouble moving? I tried a few: Photo Booth, Calendar and System Preferences.  They all moved to the new location without any issues, and also functioned after the move.

You can hide files fairly easily in the Terminal.app:

sudo chflags hidden "/Applications/Chess.app"

to unhide:

sudo chflags nohidden "/Applications/Chess.app"

You'll need to enter admin password after entering either one of these commands
You can drag a file to the Terminal window to get the file path. It doesn't add the double quotes around the file path, but that should not be necessary in this case. If it doesn't appear to be working, you may wanna try adding the double quotes.

You don't need to see the file to unhide it, but it does help so you can easily copy the path and you don't need to remember which files are hidden. Seeing hidden files in Finder is a little less intuitive though...

If you want to see all hidden files in the system, there are applications where this is a built in feature: TotalFinder, XtraFinder, Path Finder, Commander One...but you can show them in Finder as well, using the Terminal.app:

Should be noted that both of these commands here will close all finder windows

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES; killall -KILL Finder

And to hide all hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO; killall -KILL Finder


Is BetterTouchTool the recommended app to improve gestures? I was looking for a way to add more "gestures" for my mbp (to accesss spaces for example) and I read about BetterTouchTool which seems to work quite well.

I was just wondering if there's any other tool like that one, and if another is more recommended.

I personally use it, and believe me it's awesome. I'll give it 4.5/5


Recover Notes from TimeMachine I have deleted an information in a note I need to recover. The note is purely local (not synched in the cloud or on any other device).

I'm using Mac OS X El Capitan V10.11.3 and the Apple app "Notes" Version 4.2 (549.10.1).

I do have several Time Machine backups available.

I did find several solutions on the internet but they seems to apply to older version of the Notes app.

If I open the Time Machine backup and go to:

/Users/<my username>/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library

The subfolder "Notes" has an old databases "NotesV6.storedata" but not modified since my upgrade to El Capitan so it's an old version.

Note that this database could contain the info I'm looking for so a solution to my immediate issue may be to find a way to read it...

The subfolder CoreData/ExternalRecords/NotesV4/6003A0A6.....401 contains many subfolders, among them the ICNote/_records/O/ that seems to contains the notes, but this is all 0 byte size files that, when looked at in finder contains the current version of my notes, so it seems they are some kind of pointer to the notes location rather than a backup of the notes. (In the console they are not symlinks.)

Doing a grep with keyword that are presents in the notes did not help.

So the question is: which files should I restore from Time Machine to recover my notes?

Empirically, it seems that the 3 items in
~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/
are updated as a Note is changed, whereas those in
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/
are only updated periodically [I cannot find how to trigger those to update, I thought making a new Note may do it, but it appears not.]

My research was actually aided by my old faithful - EasyFind (freeware, no affiliation) - which I set hunting for a keyword in one of my existing Notes. It took quite some time, but found it in the end.


How can I update an iOS device using iTunes on Mac without backing it up? Since Apple's weird rule makes me unable to upgrade my phone via mobile data. I have to use iTunes to upgrade.

I have a lot of traffic so it's not a big deal for me.

I have a Mac with me and I can connect my phone to the Mac. And I have downloaded the latest iOS on my Mac.

But before updating, it says "backing up ..." and it seems to take forever to finish.

So is it possible to update my iOS WITHOUT backing up it first?

My current iOS: 12.1.2
My Mac: 10.14.2 (18C54)
The downloaded iOS version: 12.1.3

Thanks,

You can update your device using Mobile Data by creating a WiFi Hotspot, while your data is on and update your device using the WiFi Hotspot.

Try this:

  Quit iTunes.

  Open a Terminal (Applications >  Utilities > Terminal)

  Type or copy the following  command:defaults write  com.apple.iTunes
  AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled - bool true

  Open iTunes.

  Connect the iPhone.

  Make Sync without backing up.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7640010?answerId=32668610022#32668610022


Add a delay to menubar dropdown in fullscreen apps In Lion, the menubar drops down way to fast when I'm in a fullscreen app. This mostly becomes a problem when I have multiple tabs open in Terminal. When I move to the top to change tabs, the menubar drops down and I click it on accident. So is there any way to add a delay to the menubar dropping down? Or maybe change the drop down hotspot to one of the corners instead of just the top edge?

I don't believe this is possible in Lion.

For your specific problem, I'd just use the keyboard shortcuts to move to a new tab; it's much faster anyway.

To move to the next tab, command-shift-}. To move to the previous tab, command-shift-{.


Can't I resize my existing partition? I tried installing Win 7 into my Mac so I can dual boot and use Win 7 but then again changed my mind about it but i have already partitioned a separate drive for windows. I deleted it and tried resizing my start up disk but failed in doing so. I'm using Mountain Lion OS and my lap is a MacBook Pro.

I need to reconnect the Macintosh HD with the free space below. Please help me out.

Since Im new to this forum, I cant publish images. If you guys could be kind enough to give me your email address i could mail the image to you. Thanks a lot.

When resizing the partions you will need to also boot to an external drive or DVD. Once booted to that you should be able to resize the volume without any problems.

If you don't have an external drive with OSX loaded on it. You can download the Recovery Disk Assistant (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433) which has disk utility on it. This will just load onto a flash drive.


What part of Apple's review process might lead to them reject apps with not-complete features? Will Apple decline an app from the App Store if a test feature is in place? I've looked over the generic App review guidelines but don't know how or where the line is drawn.

For an example specific to my case, we want to add a button that will redirect a user to a coming soon page on our website.  We ultimately want to see how many users are clicking on the button to gauge how much interest there is in this product/feature.

Yes.  This has happened to me.  Apple sends your submission through a light testing regime by a human.  If they pick up an egregious bug or substantially incomplete feature, they may reject your submission.

You could change the verbiage on the button to make it clear the feature is not yet implemented, which would probably pass.

One suggestion is to have a live blog and link to discussions, using a redirect from your web server to track which button was pressed in the app.  This way, reviewers arrive at a logical page while you could track which version of the app was used. Why risk rejection for submitting something with an incomplete feature when you can have a simple "coming soon" link before you submit your app for review?


How to stop screensaver with a keyboard button press, rather than a mouse button press When then screensaver is activated, pressing a button on the keyboard does not stop the show and display the lockscreen.  The system bell chimes, but the screensaver show continues.  If I press a button on the mouse, the screensavers stops and the lockscreen shows.

It's been a while, but I remember being able to stop the screensaver by pressing any key on the keyboard.  Is there some way to re-enable this functionality?

Edit: I'm running 10.13.6 (17G65) High Sierra.

I fixed it by following the instructions from this post, which, oddly enough, didn't come up when I searched for it before making my post.

Anyhow: I did the following:

  System Preferences > Mission Control > Displays have separate spaces: checked

Which now allows me to stop the screensaver by pressing a key.


With iTunes 12.7 no longer managing iOS apps, can I delete IPA files from my Mac? The new iTunes (12.7) does not manage apps, this must be done from the device itself, my iPhone in this case.

Can I delete all the IPA files from my MacBook HD?

Yes, you can remove the apps from the Mobile Applications folder in your iTunes library and Transfer Purchases will no longer re-download the apps. However, should the app be removed from your App Store purchased list, the IPA will be the only way to reinstall the app in the future.

This may cause some regret since the IPA that iTunes used to download were special versions of the apps that contain all of the app. Most apps on the store these day have been thinned and when you download an app on the iPhone, it it a thin version skipping parts only needed on the iPad for instance.

If you don’t keep a backup copy of the full IPA and a copy of iTunes older than 12.7 you will lose the ability to reinstall from the full image.

This is not much of a problem if your app of choice neve changes or never gets removed from the online App Store. This also isn’t much of a problem if you upgrade your hardware often. For people interested in running older and not supported hardware and/or abandoned apps or old versions of apps, this can be a substantial problem.


Format of .data binary files for parental control logs? Looking through the parental control logs on the path "/Library/Application Support/Apple/ParentalControls/Users/max/<year>/<month>/", I am finding a bunch of files with the extension .data. Trying to open them in a text editor, however, tells me that they are binary files. What format are the files in, and what program/programs can I use to edit the content of them? If they cannot be edited, is there way to convert the files back and forth between another file type?

Thanks

I checked that area for one of my kids and found a file for today since she logged in earlier this morning.

It looks like these are binary plist files.  You can convert them to XML with plutil -convert xml1 18-usage.data where 18-usage.data is the name of your file.

Here's the contents.  It's not terribly interesting.

<?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>$archiver</key>
    <string>NSKeyedArchiver</string>
    <key>$objects</key>
    <array>
        <string>$null</string>
        <dict>
            <key>$class</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>14</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>NS.keys</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>2</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>3</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>4</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>5</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>6</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>7</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>NS.objects</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>8</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>15</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>18</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>21</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>24</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>27</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <string>com.apple.familycontrols.useragent</string>
        <string>com.unknown.activateSettings</string>
        <string>com.apple.Safari</string>
        <string>__COMPUTER__</string>
        <string>com.apple.finder</string>
        <string>com.apple.iTunesHelper</string>
        <dict>
            <key>$class</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>14</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>NS.keys</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>9</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>10</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>11</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>NS.objects</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>12</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>2</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>13</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <string>duration</string>
        <string>uniqueID</string>
        <string>displayName</string>
        <integer>7</integer>
        <string>Parental Controls</string>
        <dict>
            <key>$classes</key>
            <array>
                <string>NSMutableDictionary</string>
                <string>NSDictionary</string>
                <string>NSObject</string>
            </array>
            <key>$classname</key>
            <string>NSMutableDictionary</string>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>$class</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>14</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>NS.keys</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>9</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>10</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>11</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>NS.objects</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>16</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>3</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>17</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <integer>0</integer>
        <string>activateSettings</string>
        <dict>
            <key>$class</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>14</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>NS.keys</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>9</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>10</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>11</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>NS.objects</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>19</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>4</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>20</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <integer>3567</integer>
        <string>Safari</string>
        <dict>
            <key>$class</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>14</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>NS.keys</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>9</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>10</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>11</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>NS.objects</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>22</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>5</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>23</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <integer>3588</integer>
        <string>Computer</string>
        <dict>
            <key>$class</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>14</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>NS.keys</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>9</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>10</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>11</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>NS.objects</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>25</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>6</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>26</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <integer>12</integer>
        <string>Finder</string>
        <dict>
            <key>$class</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>14</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>NS.keys</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>9</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>10</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>11</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>NS.objects</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>16</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>7</integer>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>CF$UID</key>
                    <integer>28</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <string>iTunesHelper</string>
    </array>
    <key>$top</key>
    <dict>
        <key>root</key>
        <dict>
            <key>CF$UID</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
        </dict>
    </dict>
    <key>$version</key>
    <integer>100000</integer>
</dict>
</plist>


Bind keyboard key (like F16) to execute command? OK, I think this used to be an option in an older version of OSX, but I can't find in in the latest version.

How do I bind a certain key (like F16 for instance) to run a Terminal command?  I'd rather not install any additional services.

I just checked my 10.9.5 and 10.6.8 systems, and both have this under:
    System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts

This allows you to bind a key to a command available via the menu, either globally (for all programs) or just a specific program.

If what you want to bind isn't a standard command, you can create an Automator plug-in that becomes available via the Services menu of a program, so that you can bind it to a key.


Keyboard lag, lost keystrokes, and high fan speed in Filevault's EFI pre-boot unlock/login screen (MacBook Pro 2017) I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) with macOS 10.15.4 and FileVault enabled.

When I boot the machine, the Filevault's pre-boot unlock screen appears as normal, prompting me for my password.

Now, while the system remains on this screen, and all the way until the correct password is recognized, the following symptoms occur:

Built-in fans start spinning at top speed within seconds from boot (which, I assume, indicate high CPU use).
Built-in keyboard very noticeably lags: key inputs are buffered before actually appearing in the password text field and some of them are disregarded altogether.

Now, this presents a very practical problem: sometimes it takes me more than 10 attempts to actually get my password to be recognized.
Even worse, with each mangled password the screen almost seem to work slower and slower, all very reminiscent of high-CPU-load situations.

I usually type my password fairly quickly, but any other password prompt within the OS takes it without a hiccup. And even when I slow down, lost keystrokes are still a problem and are hard to detect in a password field, where actual characters are not shown.

The problem repeats itself between macOS installations, and is definitely not caused by system still booting up in the background: as I said, the apparent high CPU load always continues until the password is recognized and stops immediately after.

What exactly does Filevault do on that screen? Is it some sort of deterrence against hacking attempts? Can this behavior be tweaked?

I would try resetting  NVRAM: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063


Input language stuck in English I tried to change input language by pressing shortcut commandspace and also by choosing language on the menu bar. It automatically switches to English language.

The only way I found to fix it by rebooting the Mac.

Maybe someone knows another way?

I'm using English, Japanese and Russian on a MacBook Pro running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

By putting Mac to sleep(holding the power button for couple sec) and then log in again it solves the problem, and I'm able to switch languages again.


declare -x messages appear in my terminal. How can I get rid of it? declare -x Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render="/tmp/launch-qoybJQ/Render"
declare -x Apple_Ubiquity_Message="/tmp/launch-DWchNf/Apple_Ubiquity_Message"
declare -x COMMAND_MODE="unix2003"
declare -x DISPLAY="/tmp/launch-zF43Un/org.x:0"
[...]
declare -x TMPDIR="/var/folders/43/z74xnym15tg55c3kyl0c05340000gn/T/"
declare -x USER="reshad"
declare -x __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING="0x1F5:0:0"

These messages appear in Terminal, how can I get rid of them?

Here's my whole bash_profile:

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/mongodb-osx-x86_64-2.0.2/bin:$PATH

# Aliases
alias apache="sudo apachectl restart"
alias httpd.conf="mate /etc/apache2/httpd.conf"
alias php.ini="mate /etc/php.ini"
alias bash_profile="mate ~/.bash_profile"
alias reload="source ~/.bash_profile"
alias vhosts.conf="mate /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf"
alias vhost="mate /etc/apache2/vhost"
alias hosts="mate /etc/hosts"
alias php.ini="mate /etc/php.ini"
alias mysql="/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql"
alias mysqladmin="/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin"
alias cms="cd ~/Sites/cms"
alias webapps="cd ~/Sites/webapps"
alias zf="/Library/PHP/Zend/bin/zf.sh"
alias mysqld="mysql -uroot -p"
alias reload= "source .bash_profile"

# Git
alias gst="git status"
alias gl="git pull"
alias gp="git push"
alias gd="git diff | mate"
alias gc="git commit -v"
alias gca="git commit -v -a"
alias gb="git branch"
alias gba="git branch -a"

# SublimeText
export SUBLIME_HOME="/Applications/Sublime Text 2.app"
export PATH="$PATH:$SUBLIME_HOME/Contents/SharedSupport/bin"

# MySQL
export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/mysql-5.5.20-osx10.6-x86_64/bin"
source ~/.git-completion.bash

There are many different Bash script files that get executed before and after your .bash_profile file is executed. This Bash Reference Manual page explains all the various Bash script files that get executed upon starting up a Bash shell.

p.s. Keep in mind that any one of those files could include commands to load/execute yet another file.


How can I upgrade my GPU for my early 2011 17" MacBook Pro to run Mojave? I'm currently running 10.13.6 and have a MacBook pro 8,3, 2.2 GHz.

How can I upgrade my GPU for my 2011 17" early to run Mojave?

I've heard I could replace the logic board with a newer GPU and processor but can't seem to find the company.

I also heard they offer a 1 year guarantee.

To run Mojave on this machine you might to check out macOS Mojave Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs. A software solution that allows installation – and offers some serious limitations for an unsupported configuration. It does work, but it's probably not worth it in every case. Although you can't beat the price at 0 Dollars…

Test it out to see if you can live with the limitations inherent to this solution.

The 17 inch being a major obstacle for this plan:

In 15 inch MacBook Pros you might source a newer logic board that fits into the case. That is probably what "you heard they offer…"
But 17 inch was never made by Apple after your model. So there never will be anything that was once officially supported by Apple and or Mojave.

So your hackish options for that machine are:

making your own logic board (perhaps not overly realistic)
upgrade just the GPU on your existing logic board

The second option is doable (just one example showing the effort and equipment needed). Albeit quite complicated. But it also requires you to find an independent repair shop or other expert willing to do that, and source a replacement GPU. People willing and actually being capable of this will be rare in any case. This is absolutely forbidden by Apple to do for anyone being an Apple Authorized Service Provider. Forget about asking a genius at the bar about this.

You'd need to find a 'hacker'-type to solder that in. That will probably not be very cheap, not overly reliable, and again completely unsupported. One problem is that graphic switching gets in the way.

Only exchanging the GPU would still leave you with the Intel 3000HD integrated into the Sandy-Bridge CPU. Which is still commonly used then when graphics switching is enabled.

So upgrading from a  Terascale Radeon HD 6000 series to a Radeon GCN. For example going from a Radeon HD 6490M to a Radeon HD 7730M. Note how confusing AMD named, and re-branded their chips and cards. And compare how these 'newer' but now equally old chips compare to for example newer integrated Intel iGPUs of the type HD Graphics 620.

It also would sensibly require a CPU swap as well. Going to Ivy Bridge, generation 3. Or advanced tinkering with hackintosh configurations, boot loaders, drivers or patches.

With "support" I not only mean "never bring that again near an ASAP" but hardware and software of such a FrankMac (including EFI, smc, OS…) were never tested in this config. The electro-physical connectivity is one thing, the limited compatibility of options Apple decided to ship and support are another. Laptops are so highly integrated these days… I doubt it would be worth it, neither in terms of money, time, effort or ensuing reliability and lifetime of the machine – except for "we made it do".

The realistic run down is:

Stay below 10.14
Use the patcher
Make the machine stationary and use an eGPU (also not supported and obviously taking away mobility)
Buy a newer machine
burn some money on an adventure that may very well ruin the still functioning hardware you have for an exciting experiment with unclear outcomes


500GB Macbook Time Machine Question I have the new Macbook 12 inch with 500GB, which half of the storage goes to the Windows 10 system. I wonder would 500GB Hard drive be enough for Time Machine for backup?

Also, I'm thinking of the Seagate Wireless Plus hard drive for it. Will wireless hard drives work just fine?
Waiting!! :)

Yes. You could even get by if you had 500 GB of data to back up.

If you don't use Bootcamp, tell time machine to exclude the VM hard drives.

Wireless is fine - the initial backup could take longer and restores will take longer than a USB drive, but you'll get more backups if you don't need to remember to connect a USB.


Find specific apps by name, getting their version, via command line For a support information gathering tool, I like to be able to look up several apps by name (or rather by their bundle ID) and fetch their versions.

I don't like to use the find command for this as that's not going to find all possible apps, or it'll take forever.

There's lsregister -dump, which knows about all those apps that interest me, but that command seems to offer no option to look up information only about specific apps. I'd have to filter the result with grep, but can't figure out how to filter it so that I can look for an app's bundle ID but also get the version (which appears in a different line).

There's also mdfind, which might be suitable for my purpose.

Let's, for instance, say I want to know about all installed "Word" apps, such as the 2008, 2011 and 365 versions.

With lsregister -dump | grep 'com\.microsoft\.Word', I'd get these lines:

identifier:    com.microsoft.Word (0x800460c2)
activityTypes: NOTIFICATION#:com.microsoft.Word, pv-e851f8544284d1

That's not helpful to inquire the version, is it?

With mdfind "kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier == com.microsoft.Word" I'd get the paths:

/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Microsoft Word.app
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Word.app

But how would I get the version from that? I thought I'd filter the resulting paths with xargs but that doesn't work with the spaces in the paths.

A solution using mdfind and mdls as a one-liner:

mdfind "kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier == com.microsoft.Word" | while IFS= read -r path ; do echo "$path"; mdls -name kMDItemVersion "$path"; done

This would print (if both Office 2008 and 2011 are installed):

/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Microsoft Word.app
kMDItemVersion = "12.3.6"
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Word.app
kMDItemVersion = "14.6.9"

That's good enough for my needs. I still wonder if there's a way to get the information from lsregister or a similar tool that looks into the Launch Services registry.


Safari not saving password on iPhone 4 I have the AutoFill option enabled in my Safari settings, and I am not doing Private Browsing. However, Safari will not offer to save my Ebay password no matter how many times I log in. I have also tried clearing cookies and history. Anyone have any ideas?

The eBay mobile site requests Safari not to have passwords saved, and Safari honors it.

eBay is not the only site that behaves like this, PayPal is another prominent example. Many online banking sites (that I know of) prevent autofill too.

On a desktop browser you can get around this limitation with an extension (see for example https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4160095?start=15&tstart=0). I don't think you can force your iPhone to ignore it. You can download eBay's app, though.

The technical explanation is that the username field in the login page sets autocomplete to off and so prevents autofill:

  < input type="text" name="userName" id="v4-0" value="" autocomplete="off">

To see this fragment of HTML I changed my browser's user agent to Safari iOS 5.1 (I use Safari 6 on OS X):

loaded https://signin.mobileweb.ebay.com/login?mfs=ftr, showed the page source and searched for autocomplete.


My iPhone has decided to wipe all Firefox bookmarks out of the blue From yesterday on, my iPhone decided to just delete every single bookmark from bookmarks and now I have nothing on Firefox. Why does this happen? I have connected the Firefox accounts on my Macbook and my iPhone and the boomarks on iPhone and Macbook were always in sync, until now.

I solved it by signing out and in again to my Firefox account on my iPhone, but this is not a good solution, if you ask me.


Permission denied error when copying to /usr/local/bin The GitHub setup page at https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git has a section on password caching.  It states to download the osxkeychain and copy it to /usr/local/bin.  I downloaded the file, but get a permission denied error when I try to copy it to the directory specified.  How can I get this file copied?

You will need to use sudo cp instead of just cp to copy a file to /usr/local/bin because /usr/* is only writable for root.


How to mount /dev/disk1 with write permissions from Recovery Mode? Using Command + R at boot, I entered recovery mode but the /private/etc/ directory is Read-Only. Is it possible to unmount the disk then mount it again with write permissions?

# sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion:    10.8.5
BuildVersion:    12F45

When started in the Recovery Partition, choose Disk Utility from the list and click Continue. I'm assuming you are using 10.8.5 Mountain Lion.

Select Macintosh HD in the list of volumes on the left side and click Mount button on the toolbar. The volume will be mounted read-write and you can close Disk Utility, open Terminal and type:

cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/etc

and work on files in that folder as you please.

Note that /private/etc and /etc are the same folders.


How to get Open File selector to show hidden files? I would like my Open File selector to be showing hidden files.  I am not sure if the same Open File module is shared among many applications that use it or each app has its own.  The specific app I have in mind with which I would like to enable this functionality is Sublime Text 2.  However, I do NOT want the Finder to be showing hidden files.

What I tried to do is execute

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

from the Terminal but that changed it only in the Finder and not in the Open File selector for Sublime (exactly the opposite of what I was trying to accomplish).

You can use ⇧⌘. (shift-command-.) to show hidden files in a file dialog temporarily.

To make Sublime Text show hidden files by default, run:

defaults write com.sublimetext.2 AppleShowAllFiles -bool true

To show hidden files in all applications but not in Finder, run:

defaults write -g AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false

You can apply the changes by quitting and reopening applications. AppleShowAllFiles also affects other views besides file dialogs.


OS X 10.11 El Capitan GMT time issue I upgraded to OS X 10.11 El Capitan Gold Master last week, and ever since I've been having weird time issues. All of Apple's apps think the time is the correct Pacific Time zone that I'm in, but third-party web apps and other tools don't think the time is correct. Among them are Slack, Intercom, and a few other team communication tools I use.

I then resorted to Terminal, using the date command. Unfortunately, I found an issue: It reports the time is seven hours ahead of what it's supposed to be. I've tried a lot of random troubleshooting, looked in Console for errors, set the time manually, and all that other boring nonsense. I have no idea what's going on. I would love help troubleshooting this if you guys have any suggestions at all.

I have a simular issue.   Only on start up/reboot MBP defaults to PST.  I go to Preferences and as soon as I unlock padlock it reverts back to EST.


Mail.app thinks I'm a new user My laptop locked up (black screen, spinning beachball), and after leaving it to see if it would handle whatever it was doing on its own overnight, I went and held the power button down to force it to shut down.

When I brought it back up, everything seemed okay until I went into Mail.app ... which is asking me about my account information, as if I had never used it.

I unfortunately don't have a recent backup.  I see that I still have a ~/Mail directory, which looks to have lots of my local folders defined.

Should I go through with the 'new user' setup, to see if it finds my existing local mailboxes, or is there some other recommended procedure for this process?

I'm running OS 10.6.8, and Mail.app 4.6.  (And before I get lots of comments, yes, I know they are old, and yes, I know that the newer OSes are free upgrades)

I don't think Mail has changed too much from 10.6.8 to now, but you should take my advice with caution, since I don't have the old system at hand.

Before starting this process, quit Mail. Any time you want to do a new test or reset to the existing state, quit Mail -- don't go copying or restoring things while Mail is running.

Now, copy your ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Mail directory to a safe backup location. Also copy ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. That should enable you to revert to the current status if something you try goes south.

I'm not sure what the ~/Mail directory is (I'm pretty sure I never had that in 10.6.8), but make a backup copy of it too.  It might be worth comparing that to ~/Library/Mail, especially the timestamps; if you're like me, it's likely an old copy.

Kent observed many corruption issues can usually be traced to a single file (~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index in 10.6). After you have the backup safely tucked away, you could try removing that file from the actual directory before starting mail for what follows. I think it will be regenerated, though that could take a while for big mailboxes.

I would then try setting up the user account. Either it will find the existing mailboxes, or destroy them. If it destroys them, you copy them back in from your backup, possibly delete the user, and try something else; or you can import the contents of those mailboxes.

I don't have time to check it now, but this advice could probably be compared to advice for 10.6 by searching on mail issues for that OS. You could find out exactly where the various information is stored, I'm pretty sure.


Why won't wget work with cron? I've been using the bashpodder script recently, and while the script works beautifully when I use it in the command line, the crontab I created for it doesn't work at all. It fails when it has to use wget. I downloaded the most recent OS X binaries for wget, but the script still fails, and I get a log with an error that reads thus:

Users/username/Downloads/audio/podcasts/bashpodder.shell: line 73: wget: command not found

Lines 71-75 read like this:

if ! grep "$url" podcast.log > /dev/null
      then
         wget -t 10 -U BashPodder -c -q -O $datadir/$(echo "$url"  | awk -F'/' {'print $NF'}  |  awk -F'='         {'print $NF'} | awk -F'?' {'print $1'}) "$url"
         let "show += 1"
    fi

Any recommendations?

wget isn't in the default path used by cron. Give it the /full/path/to/wget and it should work.


Apple Internet Sharing doesn't stay enabled I'm trying to get my Mac to latch onto my friends wifi signal and use Internet Sharing to share it with my other non-wireless desktop, but I'm running into a problem:
Apple Internet Sharing doesn't stay enabled.

I enable wireless networking and connect to my friends network on my Mac Mini, enable Internet Sharing on the same machine, and go to my other computer to start using the internet, but when I get to my other machine I find it has no internet. Going back to the Mac Mini shows that Internet Sharing has been disabled. This is most frustrating, I'm not the only one who uses the non-wireless machine but I am the most tech savvy and as such I'm expected to make sure the network works properly. I need Internet Sharing to stay enabled so that when I go to work, my room mate can continue using the internet.

How can I set Apple's Internet Sharing to stay on permanently?

PS, I suspect that Internet Sharing is disabling itself when the Mac Mini temporarily loses connectivity with my friends wireless network, but I don't understand why it doesn't (and why there is no setting for) automatically re-enabling it when reconnecting to the same wireless network.

I never did find a way of making Internet Sharing stay on, but I did come up with a way of achieving the same result.  With a quick bit of Ruby, I whipped up this solution.

Load IRB by opening terminal and typing irb

Copy and paste this into irb, and hit Enter to activate.

 while(true);sleep 15;puts Time.now.to_s + ": " + `launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.InternetSharing.plist 2>&1`;end

As it stands, the code will re-activate Internet Sharing every 15 seconds. Now, that may seem like too short of a period, but at 15 seconds there's a good chance that the connection will be re-enabled before any connection drops occur.  You can change 15 to any number of seconds that you like.

This will result in a log such as:

Mon Jul 25 09:37:07 -0400 2011: com.apple.InternetSharing: Already loaded
Mon Jul 25 09:37:22 -0400 2011: com.apple.InternetSharing: Already loaded
Mon Jul 25 09:37:37 -0400 2011: com.apple.InternetSharing: Already loaded

It's important to remember that closing the window will terminate the script (Internet Sharing won't re-activate every 15 seconds), so if you need to close the window, consider using screen which is included on Macs.


Is there a way to get reminders on iPhone to persist until they're checked? I find reminders pretty useless because once you're reminded once it doesn't remind you ever again, even if you haven't completed the task yet. It would actually be useful if every time I looked at my phone it displayed the reminder until I completed it.

This is a problem os-wide in iOS, for other apps too, like calendars.  Once you have received your alarm notification, whether for a reminder, or a calendar alert etc, you're done.  There's no way to "snooze" or "remind me later" for these functions.

The only way to get this functionality at present, is to use a replacement app.  One such app is Due, the following blurb is copied from their website:

PERSISTENT REMINDERS
WITH AUTO SNOOZE

Overdue reminders stay in sight until you're ready to act on them.

And with auto snooze, your todo list never gets stale.

By default, DUE repeatedly notifies you of overdue reminders every minute* with its auto snoozing feature until you mark them complete, reschedule them, or turn off their auto snooze.

*Auto snooze interval can be changed to every minute, every hour, or none at all. There are no finer auto snooze intervals on iOS due to system limitation.


Macbook Cursor does not show My daughter's Macbook Air does not show a Cursor, although ⌘+Tab shows it.
How do I force it to display normally?

Try following troubleshooting steps:

1 - Start in Safe mode (reboot, hold shift right after the startup chime)

if cursor shows then it is a 3party software

2 - Log in as other user (Guest)

if cursor shows it is your (daughters) user profile that needs fixing

If none of above worked, it is your Trackpad app that needs fixing.


Can the Macbook 12 inch handle XCode/Eclipse for Android/iOS development? I know that Macbook 12 inch was created for battery life and it's lightness instead of performance, but I am really curious about it's performance for development purposes.

Did anyone actually test it on the real device? If so, what do you think? If not, what's your opinion anyways?

While XCode is compiling, will I be able to open safari without seeing "the rainbow"? Slow compilation is not a problem, but I want to know if it hogs the whole OS or not.

The question is quite opinion based. Can it handle development - absolutely. Will it be fast enough - now that's a matter of your personal reception of "fast enough".

The MacBook is quite a capable machine. It will run Development-Tools without any issues. It will perform lower than a MacBook Pro CPU and GPU-wise, so it really depends on your personal needs. Use something like Activity Monitor to keep an eye on your current system load during your daily tasks. If your machine is often at it's limits, you will have to take sacrifices with a MacBook. If your machine idles a lot and is only pushed to the edge rarely, you'll probably be happy with the machine.


Cannot turn on Bluetooth - Exhausted all options Firstly I would like to say that I have never used a Mac in my life before today so apologies if i am a little slow on the uptake. I recently purchased the iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) which i believe is running a Yosemite v10.10 OS.

The iMac was second hand and there was no install discs in the box. It did come with the Apple mouse and keyboard, however i cannot pair them with the Mac as the Bluetooth won't turn on ('Turn Bluetooth On' button is greyed out in System Preferences>Network>Set Up Bluetooth Device...). The Bluetooth icon in the top left is also greyed out with a line through it and says 'Bluetooth: Not Available' on it.

So far i have Deep Breath:

Checked the technical specs to ensure this model has Bluetooth.
Repaired Disk Permissions in Applicatiopns>Utilities>Disk Utilities + Restarted.
Deleted 'com.apple.Bluetooth.plist' in Library>Preferences + Restarted
Reset the SMC + Restarted
Completed a PRAM reset + Rebooted
Installed the 'Bluetooth Switch' widget (Which appears to do nothing)
Some people have suggested that if you shut down and log in a few times it eventually sorts itself out, well i have done that about 10 times now and it has definitely not fixed itself.

... and none of it has made a single bit of difference.

Not such a good start so far from Apple, I am starting to wonder why i switched from PC's. Can anyone help to restore my faith?

Try resetting the NVRAM. After all else failed this worked for me.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT204063

Option key + Command key + P key + R key
Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart.
When your Mac finishes starting up, you might want to open System Preferences and adjust any settings that were reset, such as sound volume, display resolution, startup disk selection, or time zone.


compress jpeg images from terminal I am looking for a way to compress jpeg images on a Mac from Terminal. Basically, a library like pngquant, except it is for jpeg format.

Are you aware of a software that does that?

Use ImageMagick.  Instructions for macOS binary installation are on the linked page.

compress -quality X% source.jpg result.jpg

X is a positive integer value (i.e. 85 for 85%); source and result are the original filename and the output filename.


Does the 2011 iMac have SATA 3 support? I'm excited about the iMac 2011 refresh, but I'm troubled by the news that there are no SATA 3 connections. There's lots of confusion on Mac Rumors and OWC blogged that there is no SATA 3.

I was wondering if anyone has an iMac 2011 and can confirm that there is in fact no SATA 3 controller. I'm trying to determine if I should get a Vertex 3 or just stick with the Vertex 2. No SATA 3 controller would mean you wouldn't get any benefit from the Vertex 3. Thanks in advance.

It turns out that there is SATA 3 on board, it just wasn't enabled until 4 May 2011. The Other World Computing blog has the details:

  While iMac EFI Update 1.6 is described
  as including “fixes that improve
  performance and stability for
  Thunderbolt,” it would also seem that
  an unadvertised benefit is that it
  also unlocks the full 6Gb/s, SATA 3.0
  capabilities of two of the internal
  drive bays.

  Unfortunately, the optical bay remains
  at 3Gb/s.


routined wants to use the "Local Items" keychain alert Today I updated my Mac from Mac OS X Mountain Lion to macOS High Sierra. After I log into my account I immediately see this message:

"routined wants to use the "Local Items" keychain"

I tried to use my Mac account’s local password, but the alert did not disappear.

What is Routine? How do I resolve this?

Did you change your password recently? Probable solution that worked for me:

Go to the app "Keychain Access".
From the side-bar, go to "login".
Click on "Edit" menu from the menu bar and choose "Change Password for Keychain "Login"..."
Enter the old password of your user account in the Current Password field. This is the password you were using before the password was reset.
Enter the new password of your user account in the New Password field. This is the password you're now using to log in to your Mac. Enter the same password in the Verify field.

Click OK, and exit the Keychain Access program.

In my experience, this would happen if you recently changed your system password. Since your login keychain relies on the password to be able to access the credentials, it keeps popping you the question.

Source: Apple


How Do I Lock My Google Drive App (or files) on iPad? How to lock my Google Drive app (or just one file on it) on my iPad so no one can view it if they find my iPad?

It seems that the Google Drive iOS app doesn't have this feature.

There are alternatives that do implement a password lock, like GDrive. However, its user experience seems to be overall less pretty than Google's own app.

As a marginally related side note, Dropbox iOS app does implement a password lock.


Can I sync itunes between my two mac laptops? I want to download a music CD into itunes.  My new Mac doesn't have a disk drive, whereas my old one does.  Can I sync my laptops together so that I can get the music from the CD onto the new Mac laptop?

Or... is there another way I can move the files successfully into the itunes on my new Mac?

Sign in to both computers with iTunes home sharing - then you can import files back and forth as needed. There is a filter to show songs not on the local library and the copying is drag and drop.

Much faster if you really want to copy files than iTunes Match which also would sync things, but take far longer to upload and download the files.

See these posts for some less useful options and extra commentary:

How can I sync my iTunes music library between two Macs for free?
Sync iTunes library across two machines
Sync iTunes library with Dropbox without letting iTunes organize the folders and files


how to get Finder to automatically open a Finder window / or always keep one open? Let's say I have all my Finder windows closed. I'm in an application, like let's say Google Chrome. I ⌘-tab to the Finder icon to switch to Finder. But it shows me nothing... no windows, because I have no windows open. I have to then invoke ⌘-N to open a Finder window.

Is there a way to get OSX to automatically open a Finder window when I ⌘-tab to the Finder icon to switch to Finder, since anytime I switch to Finder, I always want a window?

You can already open a new window if one is not already open by pressing the

COMMAND-TAB and hold down COMMAND.

Release TAB, keep holding down COMMAND,

then press OPTION and hold it down.

While still holding down OPTION, release COMMAND. Then release OPTION.

As far as doing it automatically you'd probably have to script something.

Source: @l'L'l


Can I make my external HD sleep automatically? I have an external WD USB hard disk attached to my MBP which I use for backups etc. I've noticed that even when it's completely inactive, but the drive is mounted, that the disk is spinning constantly and the unit never goes to sleep.

In "Energy Saver" options I have "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" but since I have an SSD I guess it's not relevant. I had hoped that this option would apply to the external USB drive.

This is on an old MBP 2009 model. Is this a known issue or perhaps a fault of the drive housing?

Mac OS X has no explicit option for users to power down external hard disk drives. This capability is managed by Mac OS X's lower level IOKit.

Regrettably, not all external hard disk drives offer energy saving features. However, Western Digital (WD) claim that all their drive spin down when inactive.

It is likely something is accessing your external hard disk drive. It only requires a tiny read or write to cause the disk to stay active. Maybe a log file being written to or back up software that never stops.

Does the drive spin down when you unmount it in the Finder? If so, consider scripting the mounting and unmounting of the drive as part of your back up routine.