OS X Partition not resizable 3 weeks ago I installed Yosemite public beta onto a brand new Macbook Air which arrived with Mavericks pre-installed. To carry out the installation I created a new partition for Yosemite and so had the option of a dual boot.

Last week the public beta 4 came through and my existing Yosemite partition was not big enough to allow installation.

I figured that because it was a brand new machine with no data to be lost I could risk using Yosemite as my only OS, and so I decided to remove Mavericks with the intention of having one single partition with Yosemite. What has happened is that I have now 2 partitions - one prescribed Macintosh HD and the other my Yosemite partition. But I am unable to merge the two partitions or to grow the Yosemite partition from it's initial 20Gb, furthermore the partition entitled Macintosh HD is inaccessible.

Through using Terminal commands I was able to resize the Macintosh HD, but I am still unable to resize the Yosemite partition drive.

I have discovered that then Yosemite partition was made into CoreStorage, and so have used the Terminal commands to try to resize this - both the Logical Volume Group and the Physical Volume - but the Physical Volume command reports the volume is too small to be made larger, whilst the resizeStack command on the Logical Volume Group generates the following report "60DF5D65-41F2-41D1-A56E-9C74FFFD3E6D does not appear to be a valid Core Storage Logical Volume UUID or disk"

Boot into Recovery HD, open Disk Utility.  Choose Yo Drive in the list and select the Restore tab.  Make Yo Drive the Source and Macintosh HD the Destination.  This will erase all content on Macintosh HD and replace it with the contents of Yo Drive.  Back up anything important on Yo Drive before hand in case of failure during the restore.  After that you should be able to erase the second partition and extend to take up the whole drive.


Is there any app to monitor how long has each app been actively used? What I'm looking for is basically some monitoring application, which will log how long has each of my applications been actively used. By that I mean it got focus.

The point of this would be to monitor the workflow and to see where do I spend most time.

I believe RescueTime will do this. It will also break down your browser usage by site, which is useful too.


How do I enable "native" scrolling for Emacs? I have two MacBooks running Emacs (both 24.3). On one of them, I get same smooth, native scrolling like I do in Chrome, Finder, or whatever, but not on the other one.

To make it work a bit better, I set up scrolling so that it only scrolls one line at a time. The proper one scrolls pixel-by-pixel, and with the acceleration I'm used to.

Both of these computers use the same set of dotfiles (which you can browse here), e.g. Emacs - including the stuff about scrolling - is configured in exactly the same way.

Not sure if it matters, but one of these MacBooks (the one that works properly) is a 15" Retina one, the other is an older (mid 2009) model.

I have tried Emacs for OSX and emacs-app from Macports, both of them have the problem.

What am I missing?

I still have no idea how I managed to get it working on the Retina MBP, but I found this version of Emacs which supports native scrolling, much nicer full-screen mode, and more.


Why is the Apple menu icon in the wrong place on my secondary monitor? So I'm running Mavericks and absolutely love having menus on each monitor. I have two external monitors working with my 15" Macbook Pro, and one of the two monitors has the top menu kind of messed up. The Apple icon is way over on the right, and is actually overlapping with some of my other icons. I've removed the Apple TV icon to prevent some of the overlap, but I can't figure out for the life of me why the Apple icon is in the wrong place or how to fix it.

I have one monitor attached via standard DVI adaptor through the Thunderbolt connection. The other, that is having this issue, is using a StarTech USB to DVI adapter. Could that be causing this issue? I'm not sure how it would... but that's the only difference between the two setups that I can find for the secondary displays.

Help?

I suggest removing (at least temporarily) all your non-Apple menu bar icons, and then restart your machine.   In Mavericks  you should have two identical menu bars.


save IPv4 address for different WIFI I have a macbook pro, that I use at work and in my house,

the problem is that i have to set up manually the TCP/IP IPv4 address for each place,
the address doesn't change once im on a location,
but I have to change it manually when I go to the office and when I get home,

So how can I save it so that when I connect a specific WIFI the IPv4 address will get configured specially for that place?

Thanks!

I create a location for places like that.  I have the default location(Auto) for my house but for each of my job sites I have a location with specific hard-coded IP/DNS.  You can create a location in Systems Perf -> Network.  Then to select each location go to the Apple icon -> location -> xxx.  That is the simplest way I think to do it.


Default installation folder I am unhappy with the inherent insecurity of having to type in my system.install.root.user password when installing some applications.

I realize this is necessary to install to the system wide Applications folder.

Does anyone know how to set the default installation location to be the Applications folder inside my home directory?

Thanks,
Teo

First of all, they do not (should not) require your root password, but your admin password (superuser privilege). Secondly, if you happen to be working as a standard account (so no admin privileges) on your daily basis, than yes, installing to /Applications requires an admin´s authentication; if you have admin rights, then installing something into /Application/ (and only there) should not be a problem (if it is, you need to fix permissions).

More in general, if we assume that the application developers know what they are doing (which unfortunately is sometimes not the case), then no, installing the ApplicationName.app bundle into your userfolder would still require admin rights. Because if they really need admin-rights to install their software, it´s probably (hopefully) because they need to install stuff other than the ApplicationName.app bundle; this can range from kernel extensions (say, you install a VPN software like OpenVPN, Hotspot Shield, etc.) to simple utilities that display your network traffic and even some Adobe Tools that all need to go into folders that are owned by other users (not in your group) to enhance overall security. And even if they just place an application into /Applications/ , they might still want to play nice and fix the permissions to root:wheel 755 .

Basically, the Applications you install per drag&drop should be free to go where ever you want, but Installers for software that (even just for add-ons) require more than your daily userrights to run need to be run with admin rights, and thats an actual security feature.

Or even shorter: If you do not trust the installers source, do not install. With or without admin rights, your personal data might be endangered.


How to send two keystrokes that repeat in AppleScript? I have something like

tell application "System Events"

set x to "x"

delay 1

repeat

delay 3

keystroke x

end repeat

set y to "y"

delay 1

repeat

delay 5

keystroke y

end repeat

end tell

but it never keystrokes y, it only keystrokes x, and when I reverse it it waits 5 second to do y first, but I just want x to repeat every 3 seconds and y every 5 seconds.

You didn't specify how many times the loop will run.
You can try something like this:

tell application "System Events"
    set x to "x"
    repeat 3 times
        keystroke x
        delay 3
    end repeat
    set y to "y"
    repeat 5 times
        keystroke y
        delay 5
    end repeat
end tell


MacBook Pro gets different (wrong) IP I'm a developer (but not a network guy) and I often need my MacBook Pro and PC working together to do mobile apps coding/debugging.

As of late, on my home network, my Mac has started to get an IP address on the wrong net (192.168.0.X). The Mac and PC is connected to the same switch but the PC gets IP 192.168.2.X, which is correct. I've tried specifying the router on the Mac as 192.168.2.1 but it still gets a 192.168.0.X address.

I'm out of ideas and would love any hints at what might be going on (and how to correct it).

The switch is not responsible for handing out IP-adresses, so the fact that they're connected to the same switch does not matter.

It is the DHCP server that hands out IP-adresses. The DHCP server on home networks is usually inside a cabled or WiFi router, but you can also find DHCP servers in other network devices and as a software feature on PCs.

In your case it sounds like you could have two DHCP servers connected to the same network. That is not a good idea if they're not configured to interact, as this will cause configuration issues such as the ones, you're experiencing.

Hunt down the extraneous DHCP server and turn if off to make sure your devices get the right IP-adresses.


how to fix the parallels so it won't make the cpu work in 100% and above(140%) I have seen that is a common problem:

http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=112661

but there is no solution or any relevant update. the parallel runs my win7 and when it startup it consume all the cpu power immediately and doesn't stop to do that for hours. does anyone know what is the problem?

I have the most up to date max os X and parallel.

You could try using renice with the application/process, which allows you to adjust it's CPU priorty. There are several applications that can assist in doing this, or you can do it from the command line in Terminal.

In Terminal the syntax is:

# renice ## -p PID

where ## is priority (value from -20 to 20, -20 being HIGHEST). PID is the process ID of the application. (For more information # man renice)

So if I open Activity monitor and notice Parallels is process ID 1222 and want to lower it's burden on the CPU I would use something such as:

# renice +5 -p 1222

Several Applications (that I know of) also have the ability to do this too:

ATMonitor
QuickSilver
Appriority


How to get OS X Server (for OS X Mavericks) for free (as Mac or iOS Developer)? The Server.app for OS X Mavericks has a price tag of $19.99. Some websites mention it to be free for Developers who joined as iOS Developer or Mac Developer.

How do I get the redemption code for the OS X Server.app on Mavericks?

Here are two Articles on the topic:

Apple promoting automated continuous integration to iOS developers, providing free OS X Server copies | 9to5Mac.com

A power user’s guide to OS X Server, Mavericks edition | Ars Technica

9 To Mac states this clearly:

  To download OS X Server, developers should access the iOS or Mac developer portal to retrieve an App Store redemption code.

If you have iOS development program go to:
https://developer.apple.com/osx/download/
Scroll down
Click Get download code
Redeem the code
Download your free version of OS X Server 3.0.3

This text is next to the button:

  OS X Server 3.0.3 Includes Xcode Server to enable continuous
  integration. Works with Xcode 5 to configure bots that automatically
  build and test your apps. Requires OS X Mavericks.


MacOS application does not launch when double clicked but does launch from terminal I have written a (GUI) Python script which requires one external file and one module (in a folder). In order to package this script for distribution to others, I am using the following application file structure:

└── Contents
    ├── Info.plist
    └── MacOS
        ├── colors.py
        ├── MainScript.py
        └── <module>
            ├── <module files>

Info.plist looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
    <string>MainScript.py</string>
</dict>
</plist>

MainScript.py begins with #!/usr/bin/env python3 and was made executable with chmod +x.

When I double click the .app, it momentarily appears in the dock then vanishes. The strange part is that open MyApp.app does work correctly when in the enclosing folder (as well as ./MainScript.py when in the MacOS folder). What am I doing wrong?

One thing I’d try is to use a tool like Platypus to help assemble the application bundle.

https://www.sveinbjorn.org/platypus

It might be easier to narrow down what part of the console log errors are relevant if you can diff your hand crafted app bundle and compare it with the one the tool assembles for you.


Using JiTouch with synergy Is it possible to make Jitouch work with Synergy? Jitouch allows me to make gestures correspond to actions in different applications, but it doesn't allow me to select Unix programs (like the Synergy server) as a target.

The reason for this is that the Synergy server doesn't have an OS X frontend. I have the same issue with my Logitech mouse configuration -- I want to have a different scroll speed for Synergy because when I have acceleration enabled, the remote computer doesn't scroll properly. So I'd like to disable acceleration only when using synergy.

The solution would be to package synergys as an OS X app which, when you move your mouse to the remote computer, brings itself to the front (so that the menu bar contains only the Apple menu and a "Synergy" menu). I have planned for a long time to create such a wrapper which would accomplish this but just haven't had the time.

I didn't realize others would be interested in the same idea... If I ever complete that project I'll be sure to let you know! Or, maybe we should file a feature request with the synergy project? :-)


Copying Individual Photos from Messages in 10.12.6 I recently sent 7 photos to myself using iMessage from my iPhone so that I could have access to them on my Mac (it's faster than AirDrop for me). They appeared in Messages on my Mac, and I was able to double-click on them and look at them individually.

However, when I tried to copy and paste any one of the 7 photos, either from the text or from their own (Quick Look) photo window, pasting would just paste all 7 photos, instead of the one I’d copied.

I tried copying using shortcuts and menus. I tried pasting into Messages. And I tried simply pasting into a blank file. All those actions resulted in my only being able to copy and paste the 7 photos instead of the desired 1.

I was able to drag-and-drop with a single photo, though this seems insufficient given how unpolished this feature seems to work within Messages and elsewhere.

If copying and pasting individual photos is possible, any info would be much appreciated!

Click Details in the top-right corner of your conversation window (or right-click the conversation from the conversation list and click Details…).

In the media browser (under either Photos or Files), you are able to copy & paste or drag & drop individual items.


Can timestamps be preserved when copying files on OS X? I'm interested in combining the files from three Macs by copying the files from each one into a single folder hierarchy of my design on an external hard drive.

In my past experience copying files in OSX, sometimes the files lose their Created and Modified timestamps; i.e. they are changed to the present moment when the file copy happens.

How can I make sure this doesn't happen?

I just ran across this myself, and the built in cp command actually handles it.

I discovered a bunch of old CF cards that I wanted to harvest the pictures from. My processing scripts will look at the file mtime to put it in the correct place so I needed it preserved.

From the man page:

 -p    Cause cp to preserve the following attributes of each source file in the copy: modification time,
       access time, file flags, file mode, user ID, and group ID, as allowed by permissions.  Access
       Control Lists (ACLs) and Extended Attributes (EAs), including resource forks, will also be pre-
       served.

       If the user ID and group ID cannot be preserved, no error message is displayed and the exit value
       is not altered.

       If the source file has its set-user-ID bit on and the user ID cannot be preserved, the set-user-
       ID bit is not preserved in the copy's permissions.  If the source file has its set-group-ID bit
       on and the group ID cannot be preserved, the set-group-ID bit is not preserved in the copy's per-
       missions.  If the source file has both its set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits on, and either the
       user ID or group ID cannot be preserved, neither the set-user-ID nor set-group-ID bits are pre-
       served in the copy's permissions.

So, using zsh I was able to run (NO NAME being my cards volume name):

cp -rvp /Volumes/NO\ NAME/DCIM/**/*.{JPG,jpg} ~/Desktop/tmp/pics

I believe that the special /**/* construct is specific to ZSH; however you could do something like

find /Volumes/WHATEVER -type d -print0 | xargs cp -vp {}/*.JPG /my/out/path


Is there a Bowtie theme that looks like a Flurry icon? I have a number of Flurry icons on my desktop linked to applications I use frequently. I envision an almost identical looking icon, but instead of an icon and filename, it displays the album art and track name of the currently playing song using Bowtie.

Is there such a theme in existence? If not, what's the easiest way to create one from scratch?

(Info about developing themes for Bowtie can be found here. It's mostly HTML and CSS.)

You could start by adapting the default theme that comes bundled with Bowtie and is just HTML/CSS as well. Copy it from the application bundle (Bowtie.app/Contents/Themes/Default.bowtie) to ~/Library/Application Support/Bowtie and rename to e.g. Flurry.bowtie.

Make sure to edit all information in the contained .plist file, especially name (BTThemeName) and identifier (BTThemeIdentifier) to custom, unique values.

To get from this theme to something more like Flurry, the following need to be changed:

-webkit-border-radius in #artHolder (I used 18px)
-webkit-box-shadow, same location (e.g. 0px 0px 4px #000)
width and height, same location (I used 96px).
Remove the img tag referencing img/gloss.png.

The result will look like this:

What's missing is a proper border and maybe some glossy overlay. The file img/gloss.png in the theme produces the glossy overlay effect in the default theme. Replace the image file with your own containing a border and some highlight at the top matching the Flurry style. I shamelessly ripped the AirPort Flurry icon apart for this, deleted the background and border contents, and used the result as overlay image. Don't do this unless you know as little about image editing as I do.

The position of the border will be off by a few pixels. Play around with the top and left values in the image CSS until it matches the cover art. Change cover art size or border image size until they match as needed.

This is what it looks like on a darker background now:

Now, this is missing the light highlights at the top and some glossy effect, but this is about all I am able to do in an image editor.

Of course, this is just a rough outline. Much depends on the detailed requirements you need to work out yourself, e.g. whether you also want to flip the cover image to get the controls, and how they should look like.

I'm not sure about the licensing here. To be on the safe side, especially if you want to publish your theme, make it original, especially the border/overlay image.


Hold Cmd-Q to Quit as a system-wide action? I like that Chrome asks you to hold "Cmd-Q" to quit. Is there a way to do this for every app on a Mac?

You can do this by installing and running Hammerspoon, then including the following Lua code in the Hammerspoon configuration file (.hammerspoon/init.lua):

-- config: number of seconds to hold Command-Q to quit application
cmdQDelay = 2

cmdQTimer = nil
cmdQAlert = nil

function cmdQCleanup()
  hs.alert.closeSpecific(cmdQAlert)
  cmdQTimer = nil
  cmdQAlert = nil
end

function stopCmdQ()
  if cmdQTimer then
    cmdQTimer:stop()
    cmdQCleanup()
    hs.alert("quit canceled",0.5)
  end
end

function startCmdQ()
  local app = hs.application.frontmostApplication()
  cmdQTimer = hs.timer.doAfter(cmdQDelay, function() app:kill(); cmdQCleanup() end)
  cmdQAlert = hs.alert("hold to quit " .. app:name(), true)
end

cmdQ = hs.hotkey.bind({"cmd"},"q",startCmdQ,stopCmdQ)

Change the value of cmdQDelay to fit your preference.

A brief explanation:

The final line tells Hammerspoon to intercept any presses of Command-Q. It will run the lua function named startCmdQ when the key is pressed, and stopCmdQ when it is released.

startCmdQ takes a note of the foreground app, then starts a timer. If the timer times out, the function given as argument to the timer is called. It kills the app (really, asks it to quit) and cleans up after the action.

stopCmdQ stops the timer if it is still running, so the application is not quit after all. It too cleans up afterwards.

The action is accompanied by alerts to let you know what is going on.

Edit: Once this is installed and active, you can turn it off by running cmdQ:disable() in the hammerspoon console. Turn it back on with cmdQ:enable(). And if you want to excempt some apps from the delay treatment, you can add a test for those apps in the startCmdQ function, opting to run app:kill() immediately instead of starting the timer.

Edit the second: A word of caution. This will let you quit the Finder. Don't panic, though. The easiest way to relaunch Finder is to click on its icon in the Dock. Or you can use Spotlight: Open it via the magnifying glass icon in the menu bar or its keyboard shortcut and type “Finder.app”, then return. (You will only need to type a few letters, as Spotlight will fill in the rest for you). You can also relaunch Finder by running the command hs.application.open("Finder") in the hammerspoon console, or open -a Finder in a Terminal window, if you happen to have Terminal running.


Apple Mail on iOS 10 loses email message when you switch apps? Can anyone reproduce this behavior?

Open the "Messages" app on iOS.
Find or create a message that contains an email@address.com.
Click the email@address.com to start a new email. (The Apple "Mail" app should open a window on top of the Messages app.)
Start typing your message.
Suddenly, remember that you have to copy a link from Safari or some other app, so bring up the iOS app switcher by double-clicking the physical home-button.
Switch to the other app, copy the link and switch back to your mail message.

Where is your mail message?

This is the same behavior I experience following your directions. In addition, the email is not saved as a draft, which would be the expected behavior. Perhaps Apple expects you to start and finish the email without app switching. You should file a bug report immediately.


Seagate expansion drive 2TB not recognized on windows after mac After i connected my seagate expansion drive to my macbook air, it opened normally as  far as  i remember

But now if i'm connecting it on windows 7, it shows that driver installation and the option for ejection, but it doesnt show it on my computer

So, has the mac made any changes on it?

Try downloading the driver directly from the Seagate site before plugging it back into your windows computer.


How to debug Detect Displays? Having trouble using an external monitor I have a MacBookPro (MacBookPro5,4) with the DVI output connection and I can't seem to get it to connect to my Dell Monitor.  I've tried using Detect displays and made sure the monitor is using the DVI input.  It says there's no power coming from the cable and enters power save.  Detect Displays does nothing.  Any ideas?

A few steps to try:

Try a different cable
Try a different screen
Try a different laptop/macbook

If you get success with one of these then the problem probably lies with whatever you left out, after that you'll have to try combinations of the above.


Open as text option for every file, regardless of what OS X thinks of it Possible Duplicate:
  How to permanently put TextEdit in the Open with… menu list?

Being a programmer, I often work with text files. As you probably know, file extensions are more or less meaningless; therefore, many text files I work with don't have the standard .txt extension.

Usually I use the Terminal so all is well, but it's a huge pain to open these text files outside of Terminal, because OS X doesn't think they are text files based on the extension.

So every time I have to do right click-Open With-Other-look for text editor-Open.

Is there a way to force OS X to always display my text editor in the Open With list?

You can add an action to the context menu to do this, with OS X's Services feature. Depending on your text editor (I'm pretty sure BBEdit offers this), there may already be pre-installed services available, you may just have to activate them.

To manage your services, open the Keyboard pane in System Preferences, and select Services from the left hand pane in the Keyboard Shortcuts section. You'll get a long list of services, each with a checkbox (to enable them), and the option to set a shortcut key. Check this list (probably in the Files and Folders section) for a service from your editor. If you find one, make sure the box is checked to enable it, and you should be able to access it in the context menu when you right-click a file (or a hotkey if you set one).

If you don't find a pre-made service, you can make one easily.

Open Automator, and select Service as the document type.
Change the options at the top to read "Service receives selected files or folders in any application" (change the last part to the Finder if you prefer).
Add the Open Finder Items action into your workflow, and change the Open with: drop down to your text editor.
Save, and it will prompt you for a name (which gets displayed in the menu). The actual service file gets saved in ~/Library/Application Support/ if you need to access it later.


Avg load goes up after upgrading to Mavericks Just upgraded to OSX 10.9 Mavericks. Everything is good and shiny. However, when I open my iTerm to code, I notice that the performance is lower. If I run a uptime command, the average loading is always bigger than 1 even if I run almost no other user process. Before the upgrade, the number is usually near 0.

Anybody got the same problem? Any idea how to solve it (except rollback to 10.8)?

Finally found the culprit. I'm using zsh and the plugin vi-mode from Oh-my-zsh interacts poorly with git tools. Disabling the plugin made my zsh usable again in terms of responsiveness and reducing CPU load.

There are conflicting reports whether Apple's git needs to be upgraded and you can follow that process at https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/issues/2189

Still many thanks for all the people reply to the answer.


Switching Time Machine to a new iMac I used Time Machine to restore the hard drive of the old MacBook to my new iMac. I now have what seemed to be two back up files with the same name except the new one ends with the number 2.  This morning I got a message saying I don't have enough room on my 2T external drive to back up the 1T iMac with 264 GB available.
The MacBookPro was also a 1T drive with 90 GB available.

That is a BIG difference. It seems TM didn't migrate all my data.
And how is it possible that the 2T drive used for TM can't back up this new iMac?

What is going on and what can I do to get TM to just continue the backup. It is the same exact data just on a new computer and a 2T ext HD should be adequate.

And why the discrepancy in the amount of space available on the two computers when it is supposed to be a complete restore of the data?

Please help!

Try formatting your Time Machine drive/partition and then add it back to TM. Time Machine's backups are device-specific so you can't overwrite/continue using a backup on another machine.

You could also try deleting your current backups manually, and then clean the .Trashes folder, however formatting is faster. If emptying the trash doesn't help, try cd /Volumes/drivename and then sudo rm -rf .Trashes


Safari: Any way to initiate pinch-to-zoom without trackpad? Command + (Zoom in) and Command - (Zoom out) are different from pinch-to-zoom on a trackpad. The former changes the layout of the page, whereas the latter just enlarges the page as if a magnifier was used.

Is there any way to initiate pinch-to-zoom without a trackpad? Any methods such as a keyboard shortcut or an API.

My mouse has a scroll wheel as its middle button.
For zoom out or in I can use command with scroll up or down.

I don't remember if that was the default behavior, or I selected it at some past time.

This is set at:

System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom


Would it be a good choice to use a Mac mini as wireless router? I know that I can use network sharing to share my cable network connected to Mac mini and turn it into a Wi-Fi hotspot.

I haven't purchased a Mac mini yet. From the description on Apple Store, Mac mini currently has a 802.11ac wireless connection.

I believe using a Mac mini won't perform as well as a Airport Extreme, but I have very few wireless devices(an iPhone, a Macbook and a Playstation), so would there be any big difference between using a Mac mini and an Airport Extreme?

I'd say it's not a good choice. Apart form the energy usage there might be some compatibility issues (since it's an ad-hoc network) and you are quite a few options short (no port-forwarding for example). If budget is an issue, get a cheap router, it will likely still perform better than using the Mac as a router.


2013 Late Macbook Pro constantly mute completely? I find there are some cases where my Macbook becomes completely mute, meaning each application cannot make any sound. Even while adjusting the volume, there is no sound during the operation.

One already spotted action that leads to this case is I make it sleep first, and then wake it up. Then, the computer is completely mute. I am sure there are some other cases.

The only solution is restarting the computer.

How may I fix it? Bring it to AppleCare?

Does this occur when you have stereo or headphones plugged into the jack, or only when using the computer's speakers?

If it is only when trying to use the built-in speakers, then probably there is some dirt or lint in your headphone jack outlet, and the computer thinks that something is plugged in there.

You can try compressed air (safe) or a paperclip (not as safe), or just go to the Genius Bar and let them sort it out.


How can I view the raw XML of an RSS feed in Safari (or Reeder)? I want to see the raw XML of an RSS feed for a podcast.

In Safari, as of Lion formatted XML files is supported. But RSS feeds are not formatted that way and instead presented in Safari's RSS Reader mode. A view source on that page doesn't display the RSS feed as I expected, instead the HTML and CSS used to put the viewer together.

Is there another way to do this in Safari? I also have the RSS Reading app, Reeder, installed, so I'd be willing to do it in there if possible.

Here’s a Safari extension to view the raw XML data: https://github.com/sergeche/xmlview#readme

There’s an online demo, too: http://media.chikuyonok.ru/xmlview/ This works in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.

Edit: Sadly, this extension doesn’t work in Safari 5.1. There’s an issue for that here: https://github.com/sergeche/xmlview/issues/16

Alternatively, you could always open Terminal.app and just use curl to view the raw RSS/XML contents:

curl "http://example.org/some-feed.rss"


Failed to update brew: "The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by merge" I'm trying to update brew but I get this error message:

  error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by merge:
      Library/Formula/curlpp.rb
  Please move or remove them before you can merge.

The directory /Library/Formula doesn't even exist. What should I do?

Be aware of what messages said.

  Please move or remove them before you can merge.

So, let's move it.

mv /usr/local/Library/Formula/curlpp.rb /usr/local/Library/Formula/curlpp.rb.old

Then try again:

brew upgrade


Where is the '^]' character on an AZERTY (French) keyboard? Same question as this one on superuser: where is telnet's escape character, ^] located on an AZERTY (French) keyboard?

Ctrl-$

Mnemonic: the $ key is where ] would be on a QWERTY keyboard.


Reload modified system plist I tried modifying a preference pane plist (with defaults write), but the change doesn’t take effect. Is there a way to make that happen?

Assuming a newer version of OS X (10.9+ ?).

You have to kill two processes: the process that manages the preference you are modifying (e.g. killall Finder if it is com.apple.finder that you are modifying) and "cfprefsd".

"cfprefsd" is a newer preference caching service of OS X.

In Terminal.app: killall cfprefsd && killall Finder.

You could also restart your computer.


Non-Flash Screen Recorder Currently, I use Jing on my Mac OSX with my team to make a short 5 minute screen recording (with optional voice record). Unfortunately, it doesn't save it in a format that can be viewed on iPads or iPhones because it is recorded in Flash. Is there a free screen recorder out there which does the same thing but stores it in webm format?

The problem with Googling for this is that I'm finding that there's a lot of malware for Mac popping up now. Where, if you install the application, it puts adware on your Mac as well.

As @Tetsujin mentioned in the comment use builtin QuickTime Player. Simply choose File -> New Screen Recording... or press ⌃ CTRL+⌘ CMD+n. You can record the whole screen or selected area.


Opening apps at the left of the dock My dock is organized with more commonly used apps at the left side. I would like, that when an app (not already in the dock) is opened, it should show up on the left and not on the right. Is this possible?

Unfortunately not. You can only change the position of the dock, but not where 'undocked' apps appear.

The only solution I can think of is to move the active application to the first position. This, however, will add the application permanently to the dock.


CA storage for cURL on Mavericks I was troubleshooting a problem with Arcanist and Phabricator on MacOSX, a cURL/60 error, but it wasn't clear how to check where the php curl libraries were getting their Certificate Authority trust from.

Where or how does Mavericks handle trust storage for Certificate Authorities and self-signed certificates for cURL and/or the curl libraries?  Is there a source of documentation on this which I'm missing?

Nb, I'm pretty new with MacOS.

For documentation: If you want to read any of the Unix library instructions, you can open the Terminal application. Type "man curl" and you will get the manual for the curl function. There is an app called "iMan" which does a nice job of showing manual pages in a more readable format, and can search for manuals or show variations of similar libraries (https://sourceforge.net/projects/iman-macosx).


Making changes to the iTerm UI permanent I am new to the MacOS, and I have started using iTerm2, and I want to make the changes to my UI permanent, but I am unable to do so.
When I "right-click" in the iTerm window and go to Edit Session... → Preferences → Text → Cursor → Vertical Bar , my current instance of iTerm does what I want it to.
However, when I shut it down and start another window some time later, it reverts back to its old settings. How do I make these settings permanent so I don't have to keep repeating the above process?

"Edit Session" is exactly that - it edits that particular session.
If you want to make it permanent, you have to make the change in your profile.  Go to Preferences → Profiles → Default Profile → Text

Obviously, you select the profile you want that change made to - I'm showing the Default Profile for this example.


Is there a way to match calendar colors without MobileMe? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I change the colors of calendars on iOS5

I have an iPhone 4 that syncs with iCal through Google. However, the colors for the calendars are different on the iPhone than on iCal. Is there any way to set the colors for the calendars on the iPhone so that they are the same as the colors I have selected in iCal?

There's no official way to achieve this, however you can try a trick involving deactivating / reactivating calendars in a certain order until they match the colour you want.


Can I record iPad screen contents over AirPlay to an Apple TV and then recording the HDMI output? Does the AppleTV HDMI output include any copy protection (e.g. HDCP)? If so, is it always present, or only when playing DRM'd content?

I'd like to use the AppleTV (with AirPlay mirroring from an iPad) as a cheap and simple way to record iPad activity (at a school, for their private use only) by simply plugging the AppleTV into a DVD recorder (no computer is available - so capture cards or other tools needing a computer are out).

If the AppleTV output is set to prevent recording, what about the output directly from the iPad via the HDMI dock connector ("Apple Digital AV Adapter")? This isn't as convenient, since it's a physical tether to the recorder, but it would be ok (and still cheap and simple).

There is a more elegant solution: Reflector

Unfortunately, it is a $15 app, but it serves a perfect function for your case. You can use your computer as an AirPlay receiver, and screen record the screen via ordinary computer screen capture software. No need for an Apple TV nor any cords, just a $15 app and a WiFi lan.


Is it safe to delete "~/Library/iTunes/Mobile Backups"? Good morning-

Is it possible to delete the contents of ~/Library/iTunes/Mobile Backups?  This seems to be where backups were stored in older versions of iTunes/iOS?  It appears like it is every backup of iPods, iPhones, etc. I've owned since 2003.

It seems like backups of an iPhone/iPad done locally are now stored in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync and that it would be safe to delete the contents of the other folder (~/Library/iTunes/Mobile Backups) but would appreciate any confirmation that this is accurate :)

Thanks in advance for your help.

Yes, you are correct. The new location for iOS backups is:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

This Apple KB article was recently updated to reflect this change. Hope this helps.


Keep download window open in Safari 5.1 under OS X Lion Under OS X Lion, when downloading a file with Safari, is there a way to keep the downloads window open? After clicking on the "Show downloads" icon, a dialog-like window appears.

Unfortunately switching tabs or clicking in a text area makes the downloads window disappear. Is there a way to keep the downloads window open just like in OS X 10.6 running Safari 5?

One minor workaround is to have the Downloads folder in your Dock, set to Stack. That way, at the very least, you can see the status of the most recent download without needing to open/manage a separate window by just glancing at the Dock. It's not the same obviously, but it's something.


Trouble Installing Pygame on Mac - error code 255 in None I need to install pygame on my MacBook for a class, I was able to get it installed fine on my Windows machine, but the OSX installation process has been much rougher. The error I'm getting when try and clone the mercurial repository:

pip3 install hg+bitbucket.org/pygame/pygame
Command "hg clone --noupdate -q http://bitbucket.org/pygame/pygame /var/folders/97/gp7g9lv51w92vlqkbskfx55c0000gn/T/pip-zu8qunw4-build" failed with error code 255 in None

Also all of the other steps in the installation worked fine and Mercurial is properly installed.

Using brew and not hg fixed the problem, I used this line for installation:

brew install homebrew/python/pygame


How to recover a compromised Mac OS 10.8.5 Computer got Safari hijacked by the "police" virus. Temporary solved by using Firefox instead.
Questions:

Read on numerous forums that you could reinstall OS X by holding
down cmd + R keys. However, this computer ignores this.
Also tried the CD/DVD which came with the computer. Clicking on Install OS X renders something like You cannot install this version.
Also tried starting with the CD/DVD by holding down the C key but that makes the screen go all gray and stay such.

If you are having issues during installation of OS, run Disk Utility from the Install DVD and see if there are any issue reported from checking the disk.

If you have a backup of all your files on an external drive already and are comfortable with erasing your internal drive then you might have to erase and install the OS from the DVD.

Booting with alt will give you a listing of all bootable volumes your Mac has including the main hard drive partition (10.8.5), optionally it can show the Recovery HD, and with the install DVD inserted you will see that as well.

If you see the Recover HD then select that and proceed with OS install. If it doesn't show up then use the DVD as your best tool.


How do you wrap the title text of a sheet in Numbers? Wrapping the text of a cell can be done by control clicking and selecting the Wrap Text menu item so that it is checked (or by using the formatting side-bar.  However, there is no obviousuly intuitive method of wrapping the text in the zero or title cell of a sheet.

If I have a really long title text, how do I shorten the line length but keep all the title text?

By going into cursor edit mode (eg, clicking into the title cell's text editing area), and then by typing the combination of 'Shift-Enter', you can insert a line break to shorten the line lengths of the title cell.


Some dvorak shortcuts aren't working. 10.8.2 I just got a new Macbook Air, and was all excited to code: but then wham.

For example I cannot do command + / Which is pretty valuable when coding. It treats it as Command + {

I'm trying to use standard dvorak, not the Dvorak-Qwerty (not that I want to either) though it has the exact same issue.

It happens in both Netbeans and PHPStorm which leads to believe that this may be a mac issue and not an IDE issue. It's pretty frustrating trying to code when some keyboard shortcuts aren't working. While some like Command + C,V,Z work just fine.

How do I get these keyboard shortcuts to work as they do in any other operating system?

I'll repost here my answer from SO to the same problem:

It turns out this is a problem in Java that has existed for some years, and is still present in Java 9. See the bug report here: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8022079

JetBrains has been aware of the problem for some years, but is waiting for Oracle to fix it. See these JetBrains bug reports: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEABKL-6493 and https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-63779

In those reports you'll find a work-around using a free tool called Karabiner. I have just verified that it works for IntelliJ. It will probably also work for other Java-based tools.

The work-around is:

Download and install Karabiner from https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/
In the OSX System Preferences, set your keyboard to the default "U.S. International" PC. If you don't often type diacritics and other international characters, it's easier to just set the keyboard to "U.S" instead.
In the Karabiner settings, type "dvorak" in the search box, then scroll down to the section For U.S. Input Source and check Ùse Dvorak Keyboard Layout (QWERTY to Dvorak)`


MacOS dock freezes when I launch Java application I have a late-2016 MacBook Pro (without Touchbar) - MacOS High Sierra 10.13.2 - Java 9

Since one or two weeks, when I launch a Java application (NetBeans, a JavaFX app, Eclipse... etc) my MacOS docks freezes for at least 5 seconds before unfreezing and showing the application in the dock (and launching it). I can't switch between applications. It does the same thing when I try to compile applications from my development environment. It's unusable for now...

Do you have any solutions?

EDIT : Tried to uninstall Java, still the same thing. When I launch the Java installer it does the same problem : dock/mac freeze for 5 seconds...
EDIT 2 : Tried to launch a console program : no problem. This is only when I launch a GUI Application.

When I launched these Java programs (why only Java applications I honestly don't know...) I remember I inserted a network sharing shortcut in the Mac OS dock.

I think MacOS as a side effect tried to analyse this folder (which is in fact a network storage) while it was in the dock ; which causes all these lags since the network shared folder is not all the time connected (when I'm not @ home, or even if I am at home and the NAS is sleeping).

TL;DR If you have any kind of network shared / FTP folder as a shortcut in your Mac OS dock you may try to remove it to see if the lags are disappearing.


Mail.app crashes after update to El Capitan OS Apple Mail app crashes for me nonstop after I updated to El Capitan. Every time just a one or two right after opening.

I started to have this problem right after I installed El Capitan to clean HD and migrated within Migration assistant my old account and settings (everything except of applications).

Would be nice if someone could help me with that..Thank you!
Here I am copying the beginning of text from the crash report-Crash is at Thread 22 (it is not whole text because of restriction of limited number of characters(if needed I will send it via email)):

Process:               Mail [11820]
Path:                  /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail
Identifier:            com.apple.mail
Version:               9.0 (3094)
Build Info:            Mail-3094000000000000~1
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           Mail [11820]
User ID:               502

Date/Time:             2015-10-11 22:25:22.716 +0200
OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.11 (15A284)
Report Version:        11
Anonymous UUID:        8601D8B6-77BF-16F6-A40D-390BC39A2A45

Sleep/Wake UUID:       2F46000D-690E-43A0-846B-4E7AAF410C31

Time Awake Since Boot: 14000 seconds
Time Since Wake:       1200 seconds

System Integrity Protection: disabled

Crashed Thread:        22  Dispatch queue: Task Manager Serialization Queue :: NSOperation 0x7ff64d7c4930 (QOS: LEGACY)

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Attempting to perform a synchronous operation while on the serialization queue'
abort() called
terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

....
Thread 22 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: Task Manager Serialization Queue :: NSOperation 0x7ff64d7c4930 (QOS: LEGACY)
0   libsystem_kernel.dylib          0x00007fff95c880ae __pthread_kill + 10
1   libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff8797a500 pthread_kill + 90
2   libsystem_c.dylib               0x00007fff90fd137b abort + 129
3   libc++abi.dylib                 0x00007fff8f4bef81 abort_message + 257
4   libc++abi.dylib                 0x00007fff8f4e4a47 default_terminate_handler() + 267
5   libobjc.A.dylib                 0x00007fff8bdd608d _objc_terminate() + 103
6   libc++abi.dylib                 0x00007fff8f4e219e std::__terminate(void (*)()) + 8
7   libc++abi.dylib                 0x00007fff8f4e2213 std::terminate() + 51
8   libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff8774d467 _dispatch_client_callout + 28
9   libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff87752083 _dispatch_queue_drain + 754
10  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff877586c9 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 549
11  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff87750d9b _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 538
12  libdispatch.dylib               0x00007fff87750b48 _dispatch_worker_thread3 + 91
13  libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff879774f2 _pthread_wqthread + 1129
14  libsystem_pthread.dylib         0x00007fff87975375 start_wqthread + 13

There is a good work around for this, that can be found on the apple discussion forum, here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7251820

Should you be in the same position as the author of this, and have multiple mail accounts active, try the following steps:

I had the same problem, but I believe I've fixed it.  It's seems to have been related to the fact that I have multiple email accounts active in the app, as many people do.  The initial download of all messages from all accounts seemed to be overloading the app, causing it to crash.  See if this works for you:

Before opening the Mail app, turn off your wifi connection (prevents mail from trying to download mailboxes from all accounts at once).
Launch Mail app and go to Mail -> Preference -> Accounts tab.
Click each of your accounts on the left side of the Accounts window, then uncheck the box next to "Enable this account."  Disable all of your mail accounts.
Close Preference and close the Mail app.
Relaunch the mail app and reconnect to wifi.
Go back to Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts tab, and enable the first account.  Give the app plenty of time to download all messages until you no longer see "Checking for Mail..." at the bottom left of the app screen (may take a few minutes depending on how many messages you have on the server).
Once the app is no longer "Checking for Mail..." repeat this server for each of your other accounts.  I saved Gmail until last since it's my biggest, which took the longest - about 5 minutes (I use multiple Gmail accounts).

After enabling all accounts, the crash issue stopped for me.  Hope it works for you!


How can I add some SSD goodness to my MBP? I have a decently modern (late-2010) Macbook Pro, with a 7200 RPM 500GB HD. I need this much space, but I'd like to have an SSD for compiling code, running the OS, and running games.

Is there any way to add an SSD to my machine? Without voiding its warranty? If not, what's a good choice for a 500GB replacement SSD?

Warranty coverage gets denied if you present your mac for service and it's obvious that damage has been caused that wasn't made in the factory. Adding anything that isn't user replaceable (according to the user manual from Apple) means special tools, special training, and/or limited availability of proper replacement parts. Not being static safe can cause damage to other components, so it's not so much "can you install the hard drive" and more "will you not damage anything else while you're in there".

You'll want to ask the seller if the replacement drive has equivalent temperature sensors and firmware to work with your mac and what their return policy is if you find your mac won't sleep or overheats with a replacement drive added. The risks are very low for DIY repairs if you take your time and can work on things small as eyeglasses screws. But the cost of failure could be a major repair - logic boards are often in the $600 to $800 range. Once you have a unibody back off, that part is exposed. Use care to not disturb the battery - a loose screw between the battery and case is a serious fire hazard.

I find the manuals at ifixit.com to be a great place to see how involved a repair is so I know if it's worth investing in the tools and time to attempt a repair.

Armed with more information, you can decide how much your time is worth and whether you want to pay a professional.

The pros will let you know to bring the mac back so they can put in the original HD for warranty service and they will ensure their work is up to Apple's standards so you don't lose warranty protection.

DIY is an awesome feeling and less expensive when things go well.

As to specifics, there are some great mid price level SSD around and the kits for mounting a SATA drive in place of the optical drive from MCE and OWC look to be equally fabulous items. The new SSD that run at 6Gbps are starting to ship so the "old" models are starting to drop in price. I plan to take advantage of this price drop and grab an SSD myself in the June time frame. Adding about any SSD will add significant snap and more useful life to any 4 year old or less MacBook Pro.


Can I view a list of applications currently running background jobs in iOS? A growing number of applications for iOS, especially those adjusted for iOS 7, support background tasks (so they complete a download or sync or whatever also if not in front).

Is there any chance to print a list of applications that are running background tasks (or have been currently), for example like the one used for location based services?

The only option I have found is in Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh that shows all apps that are currently capable and enabled to do the refreshing. Unfortunately there is no indication of which one was active recently.


IKEv2 VPN on macOS Sierra disconnects after eight minutes When I establish a connection using the integrated IKEv2 client on my Mac (OS Sierra 10.12.1), I get disconnected after eight minutes. Until then it works perfectly as well. Any idea how to resolve this issue?

The essence of the solution described there is plausible – that it has to do with the re-keying process which occurs periodically.  You ought to see something in the Console log, and perhaps also in logs on the server side, that will point you in the right direction.

At random times during the lifetime of the tunnel, the two sides will re-negotiate the symmetric-cipher keys that they are using, so that the conversation does not continue to use the same keys for too long.  If this process failed, the connection would be dropped, and if it consistently occurs "after eight minutes," this could well be it.  All of the parameters on both sides must match exactly, and there's nothing easy about debugging IPSec.  I'd start with Console as my starting point.  (There are several logs – look at 'em all.)


Possible to transfer WhatsApp history from Android to iOS? I have an Android phone with WhatsApp installed on it. I want to move this Sim-Card to an iPhone and installing WhatsApp on it.

Is it possible to backup/transfer/restore the history over to iOS?

I saw that there are third party apps. So it seems it should work.

Quoting Quora user Julio Cesar Sanchez Hernandez:

  The only free way I’ve found is using watoi:

  It requires a mac with Xcode and iTunes, and the unencrypted
  msgstore.db with the Whatsapp conversations from Android (you can get
  it using WhatsApp Key/DB Extractor)

  Won’t give much more details as the watoi project link has a README
  with the instructions and are easy to follow

Watoi has two limitations though, per its github page:

Media files and shared locations are not imported (got placeholders
instead)
Messages from contacts that changed ids (phone numbers) are
not linked


Always open a file in a specific program I'm having an issue with forcing a file of a certain type to always open with a specific program. In this case, it's .indd (Adobe InDesign) files. I have Adobe CS6 installed, and also Adobe InDesign 5.5. I would like to always open .indd files with InDesign 5.5.

I've tried using Get Info > Open with: > InDesign 5.5 > Change All... but it keeps automatically switching back to CS6, immediately after clicking Change All....

Is there perhaps a way I can force this in Terminal?

If you don't mind specifying InDesign 5.5 every time, then this command line should work:

  open -a 'InDesign 5.5' myfile.indd

If you're going to do this often, you can wrap it in a shell script or bash function like

  function indd() { open -a 'InDesign 5.5' "$@" ; }

Then you'll be able to simply say

  indd myfile.indd


Unable to install python mysqlclient - OSError: mysql_config not found I installed mysql through XAMPP.

When I try pip install mysqlclient I get this error

MBP-of-admin:django_project aanto$ pip install mysqlclient
Collecting mysqlclient
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/f4/f1/3bb6f64ca7a429729413e6556b7ba5976df06019a5245a43d36032f1061e/mysqlclient-1.4.2.post1.tar.gz
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    /bin/sh: mysql_config: command not found
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/private/var/folders/jw/4xk541g14mq3ljnws61fbt_m0000gn/T/pip-install-0u41r1pb/mysqlclient/setup.py", line 16, in <module>
        metadata, options = get_config()
      File "/private/var/folders/jw/4xk541g14mq3ljnws61fbt_m0000gn/T/pip-install-0u41r1pb/mysqlclient/setup_posix.py", line 51, in get_config
        libs = mysql_config("libs")
      File "/private/var/folders/jw/4xk541g14mq3ljnws61fbt_m0000gn/T/pip-install-0u41r1pb/mysqlclient/setup_posix.py", line 29, in mysql_config
        raise EnvironmentError("%s not found" % (_mysql_config_path,))
    OSError: mysql_config not found

    ----------------------------------------
Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in /private/var/folders/jw/4xk541g14mq3ljnws61fbt_m0000gn/T/pip-install-0u41r1pb/mysqlclient/

How can I solve?

I found this answer on StackOverflow titled: How to use MYSql from xampp for python 3?.

An answer there shows 3 ways to install the Python drivers/connectors for working with MySQL DBs.

method 1 - MySQL-python

To install the MySQL-python package, type the following command:

 $ pip install MySQL-python

Method 2 - mysql-connector-python

To install the mysql-connector-python package, type the following command:

$ pip install mysql-connector-python

Method 3 - pymysql

To install the pymysql package, type the following command:

$ pip install pymysql

Examples

$ cat mysql_connector_exs.py
hostname = 'localhost'
username = 'USERNAME'
password = 'PASSWORD'
database = 'DBNAME'
def doQuery( conn ) :
cur = conn.cursor()

cur.execute( "SELECT fname, lname FROM employee" )
for firstname, lastname in cur.fetchall() :
    print firstname, lastname
print "Using MySQLdb…"
import MySQLdb
myConnection = MySQLdb.connect( host=hostname, user=username, passwd=password, db=database )
doQuery( myConnection )
myConnection.close()
print "Using pymysql…"
import pymysql
myConnection = pymysql.connect( host=hostname, user=username, passwd=password, db=database )
doQuery( myConnection )
myConnection.close()
print "Using mysql.connector…"
import mysql.connector
myConnection = mysql.connector.connect( host=hostname, user=username, passwd=password, db=database )
doQuery( myConnection )
myConnection.close()


Problems in restore backups to iPhone from PC My dad wanted me to update his iPhone X to iOS 14, so I tried to, and iTunes in the PC gave some error about connecting to the iPhone (unfortunately I don't have the exact message error), so then I went to my Mac and updated his iPhone from there.
Now I can't restore his iPhone from backup (from the PC), due to "read and write" error. I have checked the access privilege to the backups folder and discovered it was empty!
iTunes says that the iPhone was backed up.
I would have checked if his iPhone was backed up on my Mac, but I went back to my apartment.
Any thoughts on how to restore from backup (or how to check if its a lost cause)?

On Windows 10, there's two different backup folders you may have, from older iTunes versions.
In the Windows 10 search box, paste in each of these locations separately and see if Backup isn't empty:

%userprofile%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup
%appdata%\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Assuming you find the backup safe and sound in the other spot, the read or write error itself has several possible causes, but the one I'd start with: is the PC very low on disk space?


Pomodoro application which shows time in menubar Please advice a free application for Pomodoro time management which:

Can be minified to menubar and shows remaining time there (like tomighty):

Has a tasklist (like pomodairo):

Here is what I dislike about  mentioned apps:

Pomodairo can't be minified in menubar (instead it has annoying mini window which covers application you work in)

Tomighty is a timer without tasklist so you need to keep tasks on paper which I don't really like.

Here is related question I've asked at superuser.com.

Pomodoro looks like it might do what you need.

Can be minified to menubar and shows remaining time there (✔)
Has a tasklist (possible ✔) Its called a log in the app and the webpage says for each timer you can "add a meaningful description, press Ok and pomodoro starts")

The latest release is available on the MAS for $5. However, the developers site also says you can either download an older version for free, or build the latest source yourself:

  Buy the latest approved release from the Mac App Store℠, go to the
  Downloads section to get old 0.31 binaries, or access the source at
  the git repository to compile on your own the latest and greatest
  version.

  Pomodoro is open source: you can donate a small amount of money if you
  really liked it and don't want to buy it from Mac App Store℠.


Set off alarm when receiving text from a certain number? Is there a way to set off an alarm or make an audible notification when I receive a text message only from a certain number? I like to keep my notifications on vibrate while I sleep, but my district sends important notifications out sometimes in the middle of the night when I'm still asleep, so I'm not likely to notice the vibration.

Kinda. If you go to your sound settings and change the default text tone to "none" and then go to your contacts and change the text tone for whichever contact you want a notification from to something that DOES have sound, you will only get audible text alerts from that specific contact.

However this will not work if the phone is muted, or if Do-Not-Disturb is enabled.

I just tested this theory and it works.  Hope that helps!  ;-)


how to move and merge folders in OSX Mavericks? I have 2 subfolders (which in itself contains many subfolders) in my main folder.

e.g.

main folder
== subfolder1
==== folder1
==== folder2
== subfolder2
==== folder1
==== folder3
==== folder4

some things in subfolder2 are already in subfolder1. If I drag and drop subfolder2 into subfolder1, it will ask me to replace existing subfolders thus losing things. The only way to merge the folders that I know of is to press the option key. But this only makes a copy. This still requires me to delete the unneeded folder.

I want to move subfolder2 into subfolder1 and merge their contents. How can I do it? Thanks much :)

1 Quick answer

Enter this command in Terminal:

cp -r -n ./srcFolder/ ./targetFolder/
Remove the -n if you want to overwrite duplicates.

Update:
ditto source target will also do the trick.

Files in source folder overwrite any duplicates in target folder.

Add -v for details (ditto -v source target)

via How to Merge Folders on Mac OS X Without Losing All Your Files (Seriously)

2 Use Finder (surprisingly more complex)

Possibly a duplicate of Where did folder "merge" or "keep both" go in OS X 10.9 Mavericks?, but I'll sum up:

The weird thing is, the folders can't have any duplicate files if you want to merge.

If you're merging two folders that don't have any duplicate files between them, you will see the merge option if you hold the option key.

However, if the folders you're merging contain any files with the same name, the merge option won't show up.

In that case, you basically have two options:

use the command line or
manually remove duplicates, then click & drag + hold option to merge.


What's  > About This Mac > System Report > Software > Applications for?  > About This Mac > System Report > Software > Installations shows you all of the installations on your Mac, but  > About This Mac > System Report > Software > Applications just says "No information found." I'm curious about what System Report > Software > Applications is for?

On mine MacBook Pro running Mojave 10.14.3 it just shows all the .apps on my computer.


How to create more space for OS X in VirtualBox? I follow this youtube tutorial: How to Create ISO File to install Mac OS X on VMware and VirtualBox. It works perfectly until this step:

What can I do?

Try to allocate more disk space in your VirtualBox configuration (before booting the machine).

In VirtualBox:

Click on your machine
Configuration
Storage tab (on the left)
Click on your disk
Click on the button in the top right (check fig. 1)
Create new disk (it seems that the data will be moved from the disk to another)

Fig. 1 :


Manage Apple devices for small company What's the best way to manage 10-20 Apple computers for a small company?   All the devices are purchased and owned by the company.  We want to be to reassign computers from one person to another, and have the new user be able to update software without needing the original user to authenticate with their Apple ID.

Is it better to have a single Apple ID (e.g. devices@example.com) in use on all the computers, or have each employee create their own Apple ID?  If the latter, how do you reassign a computer from one person to another?

Your ideal deployment scenario depends heavily on a few factors:

Budget for App purchase and volume of apps that will be installed.
Backup solution you choose for each Mac and whether that will facilitate moving apps when a computer is reassigned or hinder that movement.
Whether all the computers will have an identical (or very simiar) app allocation or whether you will have a lot of individual needs and purchase patterns.
Cost of labor and whether you want to hire an employee to manage things or outsource some or all of the planning and assistance.
Availability of Apple Business staff to get free assistance in planning this as well as extremely inexpensive Joint Venture training, support and customized assistance.

You will run into problems using one Apple ID for deployment as well as licensing issues since multiple installs for one Apple ID is only allowed for personal use. I would start by reading Apple's standard software license agreements and decide if you want to have a layered deployment where some apps come from corporate and some personal Apple ID or if you need to do a little more planning before knowing what option fits your needs best.

The cost of labor calculation is the one I see businesses mis-estimate substantially as they sometimes fail to estimate how interested or capable their employees are in self-servicing their computers as well as how effective iterative solutions and building a team that can self-solve and self-train is not only for making good choices for trivial tasks like app updates, but also for productively using technology to solve business problems in general.

By managing the attention and energy of employees, sometimes you will want to make different choices and looking at computer management in isolation can yield a good solution, but taking a broader view and self-assesing where the business needs to head can color the tactical choices you make for managing computing assets.


how to play RTSP video in OSX Hi is there anyway to play RTSP on OSX El Capitan ?
the link in windows play fine in Windows Media Player & Real Player.

on OSX , I tried VLC , Quicktime , MplayerX and I can't get it to work
I tried playing with settings in VLC to make it work but it didn't
please help it's really anonying to have to go to windows everytime just to play the the RTSP link

VLC works for me but it only supports a single video stream. QuickTime Player 10 does not support even a single RTSP stream as far as I can tell. QuickTime Player 7 worked for me up until a few days ago when I upgraded my system. I resorted to making a copy of VLC:

cd /Applications
cp -pr VLC.app/ VLC2.app

Then opening the VLC2 app and using it to open another RTSP stream.


Can't send outgoing messages in Mac Mail I have a Gmail account which I access using Mac Mail.  I still am able to receive messages but cannot send messages in Mac Mail.  I receive the following message for each unsuccessful attempt to send:

Cannot send message using the server smtp.gmail.com: (and my e-mail address)
The SMTP connection to server "smtp.gmail.com" failed.

I called Google for assistance and was on hold for a very long time.  I don't believe I've done anything wrong lately to cause this dilemma. Can anyone offer some assistance?  It will be greatly appreciated.

As stated before, all this means is your outgoing server credentials are incorrect in the Mail App.

In order to check the outgoing server's credentials go to  Mail menu > Preferences > Accounts > find your Gmail account. Click on your gmail account then under "outgoing server" check what server is chosen by default then click "edit smtp server list" at bottom.

Once there double check all the server info. Make sure it has your email spelled correct and password correct, make sure authentication is set to "password" then make sure you use SSL and use port 465 or 587.


Cannot mount encrypted Time Machine I've an encrypted Time Machine with the password saved on the keychain.
Now, trying to plug in, it ask me the password and it's always wrong.
I've checked hundreds of times and it also allowed me to change the password, but the disk won't mount.

I've tried to verify and then repair the disk from Disk Utility,
but after verified it shows me this message:

I can I solve this?

Update:

Update 2:

I've solved this way...
https://beshoy.girgis.us/2013/11/solved-error-disk-utility-cant-repair-disk-backup-many-files-possible/

Tried multiple times to repair the disk...


What is the thinking behind pushing the writing area in Pages to the left? For better or for worse, I am so used to Microsoft Word. The page is in the center of the window surrounded by gray. Pages pushes the writing area to the left. Why is this?

I don't like full screen mode (because I don't like to be fully immersed so as to better grab notes, links, do research, etc), and I don't always like the page thumbnails open. I don't like the window to be any smaller than the whole screen because I don't like seeing the clutter underneath windows.

What's the rationale? Is it just to be 'different' than Word?

Microsoft Word's Page Layout
Apple Pages closest attempt to mimic this layout

The reasoning behind these kind of differences is what makes OS X different from other OSes. The MS Word behavior you describe was born in (or at least comes from) Windows. The Pages “page” allows you to resize the window and make the content fit the size, therefore occupying the entire document window. Since you can option+cmd+P to show the pages thumbnails, my guess is that the way Cocoa control works makes more sense if the page is left-aligned. Since under OS X you can only resize a window from the lower right corner, this also means they don’t have to worry about keeping your page visible if you perform a fancy resize from a different place (because you can’t). Lower right means you’ll just be making the visible area smaller, but never really “covering” part of the horizontal part of the page, and if you do, Pages will make it smaller to a certain degree until it won’t let you make the window smaller (horizontally speaking).

Could all this be made if the page was in the middle like MS Word?

Possibly, but it would have looked much worse and the space on the left of the page would have been wasted space. You would also have a “moving” page when you resize if you had previously  zoomed in in order to accommodate the contents in a proper way.

If you keep you document window the size you want to see it, I don’t see why you need the page in the center, since the MS Word border you talk to, is a wasted screen space. If you want to see the text in a more “relative to a real page” thing, you can always use “Page Thumbnails” (and make it bigger) or turn on “Show Layout” shift+cmd+L, but that’s as best as you can get.

I really never thought about this difference until I read your question, but after using Pages for a couple of years, I can say I like the Pages’ approach better.

It’s a matter of window management and operating system differences I guess.


Tell git not to use my GitHub account (Keychain) for public repositories - it's a privacy issue Whenever some script or Git clones/pulls something from GitHub I don't wish to send my GitHub Account, if the repo is public.

How to make sure I won't be authenticated with my GitHub user with Keychain?

> brew search geoip
geoip                                                                                geoipupdate
Error: GitHub
The GitHub credentials in the macOS keychain may be invalid.
Clear them with:
  printf "protocol=https\nhost=github.com\n" | git credential-osxkeychain erase
Or create a personal access token:
  https://github.com/settings/tokens/new?scopes=gist,public_repo&description=Homebrew
and then set the token as: export HOMEBREW_GITHUB_API_TOKEN="your_new_token"

> git credential-osxkeychain erase
host=github.com
protocol=https

Add the variable HOMEBREW_NO_GITHUB_API to your environment.

For example add this to your .bash_profile to turn off "once for all":

export HOMEBREW_NO_GITHUB_API=1

or put it in front of the brew for single actions:

HOMEBREW_NO_GITHUB_API=1 brew search geoip


Jumbled block instead of mouse pointer in login window This jumbled block to the left of my login screen is my mouse pointer:

I've lost the little arrow.

I'm having trouble determining what the cause could be. I'm not sure if it's the data display cable or the GPU but I'm hesitant to say that those are the causes because everything else displays just fine.

I was hoping somebody has seen this before because I'm a little stumped.

I've seen things similar to this, several years back, but never such a large jumbled block.  I think it was never larger than about 4 times the size of the normal pointer

My guess would be it is not the data display cable.  It's hard to imagine anything that could go wrong with a cable that would affect only the mouse pointer.  I have zero experience with any Thunderbolt display, which might have enough 'intelligence' to do so.

I was usually able to figure out where the 'hot spot' of the pointer was.  Even though the cursor image was jumbled, there was still a point somewhere in the jumble at which clicking the mouse registered in whatever was being pointed at.  I would move the cursor to the corners of the screen, which gave me clues to where clicks would go.  This might be more difficult with your quite large jumbled pointer.

I would suggest trying to get the computer to refresh the mouse pointer, to 'overwrite' the jumbled block and restore the little arrow.  From the login window (as you have it pictured), pressing the return key or the enter key normally hides the arrow cursor until you move the pointer again.  If you can log in by providing the password, that may refresh the mouse pointer.

If that doesn't work, and you have a blinking vertical line in the password field, pressing the 'esc' key should return the login window to the choice of users, and should get the computer to try to switch from the text pointer to the arrow pointer.

If you have another computer on the local network, you could try accessing the desktop using Screen Sharing, which does some sleight of hand to get the cursors to match up on both screens.  This should also take the display cable out of the equation.


Tilde with hiragana-input I'd like to type the two characters "tilde" ('~') and "fullwidth tilde" ('～') with a german keyboard, since I need those characters quite often, for example when writing hiragana in romaji, for example 'っ' which is spelled ~tsu or song titles, for example "惑いて来たれ、遊惰な神隠し～Border of Death".

I tried the combination Alt+N, which produces '~' with the austrian keyboard map enabled, but does absolutely nothing in hiragana-mode.

Could you not create entries for keystrokes to generate these characters in the User Dictionary?  I think the Kotoeri Help tells how to do that in general.

Also you can make a wave dash by typing nami dasshu or part of it in Kotoeri and hitting space once or twice 〜


I am unable to enroll Touch ID on my MacBook Pro 2018 After clicking on add finger and putting my password in the dialogue box, it automatically says failed before scanning the finger. I have tried resetting the SMC, running device in safe mode but none of them works for me.

I like to make a brand new user account to see if it’s a user keychain or home folder issue or a software / hardware issue.
If that works, you know it’s a preference issue.
If that fails, make a backup and get a new clean OS running. Either installing to an external drive or erase the internal drive.
If that fails, you have a hardware issue for support to work on.


Missing Wifi interface after upgrade to Catalina So I took the plung and upgraded my Late 2013 Macbook pro from Mojave to Catalina. Everything else "seemed" okay apart from the fact that I had no wifi. The icon was greyed out. I tried all the usual advice, SMC and NVPRAM/PRAM resets. I even deleted the Network plist file but still the wifi icon was greyed out and from the System Information App all I had under Network -> Wi-Fi was:

  Software Versions:
  CoreWLAN: 13.0 (null)
  CoreWLANKit:  13.0 (null)
  Menu Extra:   13.0 (null)
  System Information:   12.0 (null
  IO80211 Family:   12.0 (null)
  Diagnostics:  1.0 (null)
  AirPort Utility:

In the Network app, the Wifi interface isn't listed when I tried to manually create the wifi entry. In the end I was ready to take my Macbook pro for repairs as I believed that my wifi interface was fried. Then I decided to downgrade back to Mojave and it worked perfectly.

I tried the upgrade again up to Catalina and the wifi problem showed up again. So now I'm back on Mojave. The supprise for me is according to Apple model of Macbook pro is supported by Catalina so I'm not sure whats going on.

I had the same issue. Updated to catalina overnight and in the morning wifi was not working. I reinstalled catalina from Recovery again. Now wifi is working even though System Information App still shows (null) for Network -> Wifi entries


How does Photo Stream Sync work? If I delete photos off of photo stream and leave them on my iPhone, will they just get put back on photo stream once it syncs? Or does photo stream just take the newer pics?

Deleted photos won't be synced over Photo Stream. It's smart enough to recognise that you've deleted a photo and won't sync it.


Is there a programmatic way to save and re-create launchpad groups in Mojave? I have to switch machines from time to time.  I keep a dotfiles that's pretty elaborate, as part of this routine.  I'd also like to make my launchpad folders be portable.

I'm fine with solution that involve the CLI, applescript, or anything that I can do reliably.

A commentor indicated I can run find /private/var/folders -type d -name 'com.apple.dock.launchpad' 2>/dev/null

but it yields multiple results:

/private/var/folders/sy/wnh38ggx3111qkdkjy2gvk940000gn/0/com.apple.dock.launchpad
/private/var/folders/xq/ynvgvft97l9_rx42cvywqx2m0000gp/0/com.apple.dock.launchpad
/private/var/folders/th/gjmmnngn4l13w0_xyxhr4y6c0000gq/0/com.apple.dock.launchpad

A similar question was asked, but that was a while ago.  In an apple forum, someone shared the location of the core / default Dock DB, but not the user-specific one.

If anyone knows how these strings are generated, it might be a viable answer.

In true form, along the way of figuring out how to ask the questions, I seem to have found part of a hint.

There is a folder path /private/var/folders/ that contains a rats-nest of directories with non-human-parseable names.  Supposedly one of these contains my Launchpad's database.

If I can learn which, and how to find it programmatically, I will update the answer

The DB groups name + parents can be found in the DB with via

SELECT *
FROM items i JOIN groups g ON g.item_id = i.rowid
ORDER BY i.parent_id, i.ordering

The issue remains that apps are listed by a UUID, not name.  This suggests that they may not port well to a different computer, since a UUID is typically made in the local context.  However, apps registered via the app store or via Apple's dev program may have consistent UUIDs.


Stop opening Dictionary.app when three-finger-tapping non-text in Google Chrome I have "Look up & data detectors" set to three-finger tap in the Trackpad preference pane. This means that when I three-finger tap on a word, I get a dictionary tooltip/overlay like so:

This is something I use and want. However, there is also something I don't want. When I three-finger tap on something other than a word, like the blank background of a page, or a nonselectable word, Dictionary.app opens, like so:

Bizarrely, this Dictionary.app happens in Google Chrome, but not Preview or Finder, where three-finger tapping on a background does nothing, as expected.

Is there a way to keep the dictionary lookup tooltips for words, but get rid of the Dictionary.app opening for non-words?

In google chrome, you cannot change the functionality of the "Look up & Data Detector" three-finger tap. You can only turn it off completely. More information on the functionality below.

This functionality is called "Look up & Data Detectors" in your trackpad options. This can be turned on and off.

The reason this happens in Google Chrome but not other Apple applications is because it is an Apple functionality. For example, doing a three finger tap in Safari on a hyperlink will cause it to open up a smaller preview window of the page or other very detailed information that the OS can find if it was just a single word.

However it won't do this in Google chrome. In chrome it'll only give a basic dictionary definition, or anything very basic about the word tapped on.


Recover from possible infection by virus attachment via email I clicked on an attachment of a scam email by mistake and the file was downloaded to the download folder. I did not open it, but I feel that this was probably enough to infect my laptop.  The format was filename.z. the content was about an invoice that I was actually waiting for. So I quickly clicked on it without much thought. Then I read the mail which was spam.

I am using MacBook Pro 2017 running 10.14.6. I have never installed any anti-virus or anti-malware software.

Are there any recommended steps I should take? I deleted the file from the download file and permanently from trash. But other than that I do not know what the best course of action is.

GENERALLY speaking just downloading a file or saving it to your hard drive will not infect your Mac. Generally.

What you have done after inadvertently saving the file is trashing it and then emptying the trash, which is exactly what you should have done. While it is possible that whatever you downloaded infected your Mac, I would say the odds are pretty low.

There are a number of free or inexpensive malware scanners available for macOS. Malwarebytes and AVG spring to mind, but there are others and perhaps others that do a better job. Wander over to macworld.com (or just search on AV software for Mac) and see what they say about Mac AV software. Then download and use the one that looks good to you.


How to download any iOS manually? I'm still stuck on iOS 7 because iTunes and the blessed updaters don't work.

iTunes will start the download, but always drops the connection before finishing. It appears to be incapable of resuming an interrupted download.

I rely on an unlimited mobile data plan from a carrier that doesn't push OTA updates, so my device will only self-update over a WiFi connection that I don't really have. Routing the connection by LTE => iPad => USB tethering to Mac => internet sharing => WiFi device-to-device network => back to iPad sort-of works occasionally. Indeed it's how I got iOS 7, but it's way too flaky now.

Is there any possibility of using a sane, stable HTTP client to get the file?

I've had the same issue, when I had connectivity issues - you're right, it never does appear to resume.

You can get the update file directly from https://ipsw.me
this site merely links to the correct location at Apple for the file you require & so is safe to use

Get the latest version for your device.
This is not a way to downgrade your iOS, merely to fetch the current one by an alternative method.

If you still have difficulty resuming, then use a separate downloader app, SpeedDownload for Mac or Wget for Windows, etc.

Launch iTunes.
Plug the phone to your computer.

Then, in iTunes, hold Opt [alt] when clicking the Check for Update button & a file-picker will open instead. Find the file you just downloaded & it will run from there as normal.


Open directory rebound, profiles not working Our Open Directory server messed up last week and it resulted in the whole thing having to be rebuilt over the weekend. Most of it went smoothly however as the Open Directory Host Name was changed things got a bit funny.

User mappings were all different so I unbound from the old OD/rebound to the new OD, chown-ed the home folder to the new user and deleted the old certificates from the keychain. It seems to have worked but the only problem is that user profiles aren't doing what they're supposed to. I've added in some mail accounts to a user profile and, if that user logs in to a machine that they previously have, no mail accounts are being created. If the user logs into a machine they have never logged into before - the accounts create automatically via the user profile.

I know there must be something I'm missing here as deleting the user's home directory and logging in fresh doesn't work (the profiles are pulled from the server but the mail accounts aren't added). Is there some other place that OS X stores user account information or previously logged in users (like mobile users or similar)?

In short I've effectively switched binding Open Directory, trying to keep the home directory. Strangely settings like Dock/Finder being configured via the profile manager are read and accepted by the user's machine so it seems to be just mail (so far) that's not working.

Okay I've managed a solution. Note this only works if the open directory hasn't been corrupted like ours was, you'll need to chown the home directory again after a rebind. Here's the steps:

Login to the machine as the network user
Go to https://your.server.com/mydevices and un-enroll
Log out
Log in as local admin user, not network user
Delete all keychain entries for old Open Directory server and MDM
Open Users & Groups
Delete network user, keep home directory
Delete /library/configuration profiles/username (network user)
Reboot
Log in as network user
Create mobile account
Go to profile manager/my devices and enroll the machine
Reboot
Log back in as network user

Transfer old documents/etc from /users/old user (deleted)/ to new user.


Why do newly added or edited contacts float to the top of my iPhone's contact list? Any newly added contacts, or contacts that have been edited are immediately sorted to the top of my contacts list on my iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0.1 using iCloud. The iPhone has not been jailbroken, or tampered with in any way. I'm not even able to use the quick select letters on the right that are above the letter R (See Example Photograph). I've deleted the contacts, and have re-entered them multiple times. I have even restored the iPhone 4 to see if that would fix the issue, and have even tried using an iPhone 3GS to test on with no differing results. Needless to say that this issue is occurring across the board, which makes me think it may be a setting that I'm unable to find. Has anyone else come across this issue? Does anyone know of a solution? Thanks a lot in advance!

Example Photograph:

It appears something has become corrupt in your contacts backup.

When you say you've deleted contacts and re-entered them, do you mean you have restored them from backup, or manually created new ones?

If the latter, you can try rebuilding your contacts on a desktop and then re-syncing them. Are you using a Mac or PC?


Can I boot Linux (any distro?) from USB on a MacBook Air that has no hard drive? I've a MacBook Air that has burned out three hard drives from OWC.  The original drive is gone somewhere, and it no longer makes sense to purchase a replacement.  The rest of the hardware is in good order.

My question is, is there a linux disto that I can boot off of a usb (or an sd)?  I'm not dual booting (there's no hard drive) and reFit isn't an option either.

Most of what I've read assumes that a local hard drive is available.  There isn't in this case.

Starting to answer my own question now.  I've got reFit booting from a USB, now I'm wondering what needs to be done for reFit to boot a linux distro from another USB.  (Or, should the single USB contain both? refit and the distro?)

I think it may be possible. I only have 2x iMac's, and I don't really want to pull the HDD out of either of them to test. However, that being said, a Mac system uses EFI rather than BIOS so you would need a Linux distro that has support for EFI.
I am a hardcore Debian user, so this would work with both Debian and Ubuntu.
Some things to decide:

Are you using 32-bit or 64-bit version of Linux?
Does your preferred version of Linux support booting from EFI?
Does the Linux distro you want have LiveCD or LiveDVD versions?

Once you have decided this, fill in the blanks with what you need:

Format a USB to Fat32 with MBR record
Create /efi/boot directory on this drive
Download either the 32-bit EFI or 64-bit EFI file and put it in the /efi/boot directory
Download the LiveCD or LiveDVD version of the Linux OS you want to run
Move the ISO file to the /efi/boot directory and rename it to boot.iso

Reboot your Mac with the USB in and hold down Alt/Option key when booting and you should be presented with a USB drive to select to boot from.


OS 10.13.3 IKEv2 VPN automatically disconnects I am unable to connect through IKEv2 VPN. I fill in everything but clicking connect only tries to do that(without actually connecting) and almost immediately disconnects.

Syslog is empty, in wifi.log however I can find:

Sat Feb 17 19:19:54.426 <airportd[115]> _processIPv4Changes: ARP/NDP offloads disabled, not programming the offload
Sat Feb 17 19:19:54.620 <airportd[115]> _processIPv4Changes: ARP/NDP offloads disabled, not programming the offload

I don't really know what that means though.

This is the exact same issue as in macOS Sierra 10.12.6 can't connect to VPN using IKEv2. How to troubleshoot?

That question remains unanswered and unfortunately due to SE policy I am unable to comment and ask if OP resolved his issue.

Is there any way I could possibly troubleshot that issue? The VPN connection worked properly like one week ago. I haven't updated my OS since then and nothing changed in my home network.

I tried connecting using another network and also with sharing the internet from my phone, without any luck.

Turns out it was not an issue with OS X but with my IKEv2 VPN Provider - its certificate has expired.

Too bad the OS X does not state that anywhere and just instantly disconnects you, without giving any message. Even a simple text box with "There is an issue with your VPN server. Certificate has expired. " would be sufficient.


If choosing to disable the Notification Center toggle for an iOS app, does this mean that notifications can't be located after they've disappeared? When modifying notification settings for individual apps from within Settings app on an iOS device (by navigating to Settings app → Notifications → App Name), I've noticed that there's a toggle for the Notification Center.

If this isn't checked, does this mean that notifications for the app in question simply won't be delivered to the Notification Center at all, and impossible to locate if not initially interacted with?

What that switch does is reject the push from the server. One message might still get delivered if the server side doesn’t receive the message but the device send back a “we’re not subscribed anymore” message until you re-enable notifications.

Notifications can come from apps on the device or from the Apple Push Notification Service - so either way - those messages literally are stopped and discarded as opposed for them all to keep piling up and not being visible.


Connect Wi-Fi Hotspot Through OSX Internet I have a question regarding creating a wifi hotspot using a router or a wifi card with a MacBook Pro running OSX 10.9.  Is it possible to create a hotspot using a separate wifi card or router? The connection coming into my device is also wifi.

Any ideas?

This should trivial to do using something like an Airport Express (or Airport Extreme, though I haven't personally done it there). The method I've used involves activating Internet Sharing from the Sharing Preference pane, selecting Wi-Fi for the signal source and Ethernet (or the second Wi-Fi card, if it's set up as a network interface in the Network pref pane) for the check box for "To computers using:".

Sharing Wi-fi -> Ethernet and Ethernet-> Wi-Fi has always worked fine for me using this method, ever since 10.3 or 10.4.


helpd uses 100% CPU after installing any application with documentation I see that after installing a software that ships with documentation in OS X’s help document format, the helpd process uses 100% CPU for up to 5 minutes or so. I also see this when you first install OS X.

I assume this happens because of indexing of the new documentation that was added by the new application.

Is there a way to make this indexing a bit less resource intensive?

Slow it down, maybe?
When it happens, my system just crawls to a halt until it is finished.

Have anyone else experience the same problem?

From thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3209466

« Jan 2, 2012 11:45 AM in response to zeBob

Helpd updates all of the Application help files on your Mac.

However, I hate having helpd launching repeatedly and seemingly randomly, taking up 1 gig of RAM, and using so much CPU time that the fans go loudly full blast on my MacBook Pro.  I prefer having my MacBook Pro be quiet.

Upon investigation, I found that helpd is controlled by a System LaunchAgent plist which is run on startup:

/System/LaunchAgents/com.apple.helpd.plist

When examining the contents of this plist using XCode, what you find is that:

helpd is run when it is loaded by the system at startup or login
helpd is run on every Sunday at 2:30 AM
the launch agent watches the following folders and runs helpd whenever the folders change:

/Applications/

/Applications/Utilities/

The biggest problem is the watch folders.  They change whenever you open them (i.e. their modified date changes when opened).  They change when you install a new application. Many applications change their Application folder content when run. etc. etc.

(Lingon is a simplified launch agent and launch daemon editor.  Lingon 3, by the way, cannot manage anything other than your own user's launch agents and launch daemons.  It is limited by Apple's new App Store rules.  Lingon 2 can open up system launch agetns and launch daemons.  But it is missing many of the plist fields revealed by using XCode. For example, it will show the /Applications/ watch folder. But there are TWO watch folders - the second one is /Applications/Utilities/  Thus, Lingon may cause problems by modifying the system launch agents and daemon plists by missing several fields. I don't recommend Lingon other than to create your own user launch agents and daemons - with Lingon 2 being a much more capable version)

The easiest solution is to use Xcode or another plist editor to modify the com.apple.helpd.plist to change the watch folders.

I changed /Applications/ to /Applications/Utilities/  and left the second watch folder /Applications/Utilities/

Since I seldom open /Applications/Utilities/ this causes helpd to launch far less often.

You can also just simpliy eliminate the watch folders.  This keeps helpd running on Sundays at 2:30 AM or on startup or login.

When users get rid of many older applications, they see helpd launch less often since these older applications may be the ones modifying the /Applications/ folder.

If you have only newer applications or few applications, you don't run into the helpd problem as often or at all. This is why few people complain about helpd. Only the users who have numerous applications (particularly older ones or ones not bought from the App Store) run into this problem.

Here are the contents of the com.apple.helpd.plist:

      <key>EnableTransactions</key>

      <true/>

      <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>

      <dict>

                <key>NSRunningFromLaunchd</key>

                <string>1</string>

      </dict>

      <key>Label</key>

      <string>com.apple.helpd</string>

      <key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key>

      <array>

                <string>Aqua</string>

                <string>LoginWindow</string>

      </array>

      <key>MachServices</key>

      <dict>

                <key>com.apple.helpd</key>

                <true/>

      </dict>

      <key>OnDemand</key>

      <true/>

      <key>Program</key>

      <string>/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/HelpData.framework/Versions/A/Resourc es/helpd</string>

      <key>RunAtLoad</key>

      <true/>

      <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>

      <dict>

                <key>Hour</key>

                <integer>2</integer>

                <key>Minute</key>

                <integer>30</integer>

                <key>Weekday</key>

                <integer>7</integer>

      </dict>

      <key>WatchPaths</key>

      <array>

                <string>/Applications/</string>

                <string>/Applications/Utilities/</string>

      </array>

 »


Is my iPhone model number MC922LL/A unlocked or locked? I have seen that there are many other model numbers of iPhone 4S's, but I have not seen any info about model number MC922ll/A

Is an iPhone 4S of this model unlocked or locked to a specific mobile carrier?

I got a 4S MC922LL as replacement phone from A pple(my 4S was having issues).

I put my friend's T-Mobile sim and it is working.
I've tried it multiple times even after restarting the phone and it is still working with the T-Mobile Sim.

It seems to be unlocked.


How to remove Adobe from menubar? This Adobe menubar item is not making my life any better, how do I remove it permanently?

I tried right-clicking it. That did nothing
Tried command-dragging it. That failed.

When I click it this shows up:

None of these buttons relate to making it go away.

Keywords: creative cloud

You can use Bartender.app to manage your menu bar items.  It's a paid app with a free test period.
https://www.macbartender.com/