Opening any LaTeX-made PDF file with a hyperlink or internal link freezes entire computer After a recent software upgrade, opening almost any PDF file I have freezes the entire computer for 15 seconds. The problem is worse for larger files, but present even for tiny files.

The problem is specific to hyperlinks and internal links created by the very common LaTeX package hyperref. This is the default way to create links in LaTeX, and the majority of all files I have to deal with in my work use it. This means I'm spending a significant amount of time every day staring at a frozen computer.

The bug can be consistently triggered using the following simple code:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\hypersetup{pdfborderstyle={/S/U/W 1}}
\url{www.google.com}
\end{document}

Apparently the bug is not specific to Preview, but has to do with the PDF rendering engine on OSX, which all PDF viewers must use. I run into the exact same problem opening the file with Skim. I've tried the usual advice of deleting random cache files in ~/Library given in other questions, but nothing changed.

According to the discussion on the LaTeX StackExchange, this is a known OSX bug and there is no intent to fix it in the near future. I think this is outrageous, but if it won't be fixed, is there a reasonable workaround?

As of the latest OS X update (4/23/19), this problem has been resolved.


Apple calendar 'wireless' icon next to secondary Gmail account calendars I have added my primary Gmail account to Calendar.  This primary account has a few associated calendars associated with it.  On the right hand side of Calendar under the Google heading, my primary Gmail account and its associated calendars appear, but the associated calendars have what looks like a cell phone wifi indicator turned at a 45 degree angle to the right to the right of them.

Any idea what this is?

Using Calendar version 6.0 (1648).


Possible to increase the RAM on a MacBook Air? I have a 13" MacbookAir with 4GB of RAM and I was interested in adding some more RAM.  I have heard some people say that this cannot be done on the Air.

Is it possible to add more RAM to a MacBook Air?

No, the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard to save space.


How bad is Adobe Air I just purchased some software that requires Adobe Air to run it's (NOT EVEN REMOTELY) "native" Mac app.

Alternatively it is supposed to run from the web with Flash.  Right after finding out that was when I found out I don't have Flash installed.  I consider that a really good thing -- I know how bad flash is!

I can actually just call it off and get a refund.  But they also have an iOS version that is probably all I'd really use anyway.  So plan A right now is to install the iOS and not have it on my MacBook.

I'd like opinions on exactly how virulent this particular Adobe virus is and if it is something I'll be happier if I never install.

Are there documented security reviews or some guidelines I can take in evaluating the security of an Air app in general?

Well, it's just an app framework, so depending on what your needs are it could be a savior so you don't have to spend any energy or money working on an app to a really bad piece of software.

I personally have held the line on flash and air and insisted that most apps run on iOS to avoid having to deal with those app frameworks, but not everyone can insist on that.

It wouldn't be less draconian and less secure to insist that developers sign their apps with a developer certificate and that you deny all prompts if you don't understand the security risks.

https://www.adobe.com/products/air/faq.html

  Applications deployed on Adobe AIR have powerful capabilities and access to local data, so this dialog box provides information about who built the application and allows you to decide whether to install it. If someone you trust developed the application and you would like to install it, then selecting Yes will allow the installation to proceed. If you do not recognize the developer or it is someone you do not trust, then you should not install the application.

Since Adobe doesn't even link to their security white paper from the FAQ, you can infer how invested they might be in having people learn about the security of that product. (You could equally give them a pass and ask for that link or search for it as well - It might not be intentional and Apple also has gaps in their web pages from time to time, so I’ll not pile on Adobe too much for one missing KB article link)

If that breaks the software, I would ask for a refund. You'd be well protected if your Mac doesn't allow non-app store / non-signed apps to run. Adobe is really clear, the air apps persist on your machine and are security risks just like all native apps that are not signed and don't work in a sandbox are.

Also, if you assume an educated user, always updating apps and plug in, never giving away admin password - I could see Air or Flash being a security neutral or managed risk. If you don't, I would avoid using them since you do need to learn, understand, manage the risk of more frameworks and letting flash (air) run on your Mac.


Updating iOS always bricks my iPad I have been having terrible problems in uploading my iPad Mini 2 of late.  The upgrade to 7.1 and 7.1.1 have both left my iPad in "recovery mode" - bricked until connected to iTunes where it forces me to reset all my settings and lose all my data.

I had assumed that this was a one off but as it's now happened two upgrades running I'd love to know what's happening in order to fix it for next time - I'm left scared to update!

The upgrade had been downloaded over wifi automatically and the iPad had full charge at the start.  The verifying bubble was then displayed, before the iPad restarted and showed only the connect to iTunes logo.

This is still the case with versions up to 9.3.1 - every iOS update that is applied over the air (downloaded straight to my device) bricks it whilst tethered updates do not.  Does anyone have an idea what is going on?

The situation has progressively got worse for me in that now even tethered updates brick the iPad briefly.  I also tried to do a factory reset without upgrading and had the same problem!  The iTunes updates just keep failing with unknown errors and eventually the device runs out of charge, at which point turning it on again brings the device out of it's bricked state.  I'm guessing at this point this is likely to be a hardware error?

Firmware umbrella may be able to kick the device out of recovery mode after the upgrade:

http://blog.firmwareumbrella.com/

Alternately, try to do the upgrade through iTunes as opposed to OTA.


Use AppleScript to find the currently playing song (and other metadata) The audio section of the touch bar can automatically detect which app is playing audio, and adds media controls to play/pause, skip, and seek through any audio. As an example, this works for Quicktime, Spotify, and even YouTube audio from browsers like Google Chrome. How can I use AppleScript to mimic these functions? I want to get the name of the song, be able to play/pause, skip, and even seeking if that is possible.

This is a very useful tool and I have a recommendation on the best place to learn how to use AppleScript to interact with media.

https://dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php

This is 100% possible and you might even find the exact script you need, already written. Worst case, you can see the code and hopefully adapt one to your needs.


Does Time Machine use internet? I'm not very computer savvy. I recently got my MacBook back after getting a new hard drive. I've now just starting using Time Machine to back up everything. I live in rural Texas and I only have 10 GB of satellite internet data to use each month and I've used it all in 2 days while barely using the internet.

Does Time Machine use data? If not, any ideas on what could be eating all of my data up? My Wi-Fi is secure, even if it wasn't there is no one around to use it anyway.

Time Machine does not use the internet, but iCloud does. If you use an iPhone or iPad, iCloud will backup the images to iPhoto, and that can use significant bandwidth.

Calendar, Mail, Contacts, Messages, Notifications, Twitter, etc all use bandwidth, and all are on by default. iCloud will also backup your documents and data, if you have configured this. If you have more than 10GB of files in your Documents folder, iCloud could be simply backing them up from the new hard drive.


Is loading your desktop before login safe? I came across an article explaining how to load your desktop before you login.

Does anyone know if this works in Lion?
Is there any reason I should avoid attempting it?

Load your desktop before login

Go to System Preferences → Users&Groups → Login Options to enable automatic login.
Then, copy and paste the following code into TextEdit.app:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>AbandonProcessGroup</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.luomat.loginhook</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession</string>
                <string>-suspend</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

3. Go to Format → Make Plain Text and save the file as

    com.luomat.loginhook-2.plist

and put it in

    ~/Library/LaunchAgents

After rebooting your computer, you'll notice the login screen shows up, but when you log in, your desktop and all your startup apps will be loaded and ready to go.

As @eyemyth said above, the script above is the equivalent of choosing "Login Window..." from menu bar when you have user switching enabled.

The only security 'issue' I can see with doing this is that momentarily your desktop will be shown until the computer calls the script - depending on how many scripts you have or how busy your login is that may not be instantly.

Also, someone (correct me if I'm wrong) could boot into single user mode, delete the plist file and then reboot - though this is an extreme.


How to find the running TFTP Server process name? I can use command sudo launchctl load -F /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tftp.plist to start TFTP Server on mac. But what is the process name of the running TFTP server?

I tried ps aux | grep tftp and pgrep tftp, neither give me anything...

My goal is to use script to track if tftp server has been turned on OR not...

I wrote a script for that purpose if you care to use it. The usage for TFTP would be as follows.

sudo what-listens.sh -p 69

You might be surprised to find that it shows launchd instead of the actual TFTP process. The service needs to be running to see the actual TFTP process, and launchd is probably managing that service.

#!/bin/bash
if [[ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo 'This script must be run as root.' 1>&2
    exit 1
fi

CMD_SUDO='/usr/bin/sudo'
CMD_LSOF='/usr/sbin/lsof'
CMD_GREP='/usr/bin/grep'

function port() {
    PORT="$1"
    $CMD_SUDO $CMD_LSOF -n -i4TCP:"$PORT" | $CMD_GREP 'LISTEN'
    if [[ "$?" -eq 1 ]]; then
        echo "There is no program listening on port $PORT."
    fi
}

function usage() {
    echo "Usage: $0 [-p,--port <port> ]"
}

B_NEED_ARG=0
case "$1" in
    -p|--port)
        FUNCTION=port
        B_NEED_ARG=1
        ;;
     *)
        echo "Error: unknown parameter: '$1'."
        FUNCTION=usage
        ;;
esac

if [[ $B_NEED_ARG -eq 1 ]] ; then
    if [[ -z "$2" ]] ; then
        echo "Error: option '$1' requires an argument."
        usage
        exit 1
    else
        if ! [[ "$2" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then
            echo "Error: argument to '$1' option must be an integer."
            usage
            exit 1
        fi
    fi
fi

${FUNCTION} "$2"

unset CMD_SUDO
unset CMD_LSOF
unset CMD_GREP
unset B_NEED_ARG
unset FUNCTION
unset PORT

I see the question was modified with...

  My goal is to use script to track if tftp server has been turned on OR not...

This solution below was working up to Mavericks, 10.9, and probably works up to El Capitan, 10.11.6; but, I have not actually tried it on a Mac with a version higher than 10.9. To disable a service:

sudo defaults write /private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd/overrides.plist 'com.apple.tftpd' -dict Disabled -bool true

It can then be checked:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'print com.apple.tftpd:Disabled' /private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd/overrides.plist

If the return value is not 'true', then the service is not disabled.


dual boot Mountain Lion/Mountain Lion I got a Macbook Pro with OS 10.8 installed on, the usual recovery partition that is created by the OS installer, and a 35GB partition (currently NTFS, but I can reformat in HFS+ if needed).

My question is : can I use the recovery partition to do a full OS 10.8 installation on the small partition, in parallel with my everyday-use installation (i.e. will it let me do that without erasing/wreaking havoc on my current OS, is there any known caveats, and so on)?

You WILL need to reformat the smaller partition from NTFS to HFS+ before booting to the installer but otherwise it's pretty straight forward.  When you boot to the installer / recovery partition you will eventually be prompted to select the installation destination, choosing the smaller partition will tell the installer to install 10.8 on that partition rather than your main partition.

Once the installation is complete you can choose which one to boot into either by specifying it in System Preferences > Startup Disk or by holding option at startup and selecting the proper partition.


Time Machine : Can't find deleted files in Time machine I just took Backup of my mac via Time Machine, the problem is :

I can't see my file in Time Machine which i deleted it from mac.
Is it true that if i delete some files from mac they will be deleted from Time Machine also (on next back up)?

Secondly, Does Time Machine takes complete Back up every-time or it just add updated or newly added files to old backup?

Thanks for your time.

Can you see the files if you just browse the backup volume directly in /Volumes/?

If a file is deleted, it won't be included in new snapshots, but there will probably still be older snapshots that have it.

The folders for backups only contain files that have changed. Other files and folders are just hard links. If a file has been modified after the last snapshot, the whole file is copied instead of storing a delta. See the Wikipedia article for more information.


How can I capture a screenshot of an entire webpage in iPhone's Safari browser? How to capture screenshot of entire webpage in iPhone's Safari browser like I can take in my Desktop with Help of Firefox Addon called Fireshot?

After searching a lot on this thing finally I got the solution.
Website Screenshot worked perfectly for me.


Netbeans or Eclipse on macOS Sierra - Java problems I want to install Eclipse or Netbeans on macOS Sierra. When I try to run Eclipse, I get an warning that Java 6 is needed. I downloaded the latest version of Eclipse to be sure.

So I tried Netbeans:

While at the same time the System settings report that Java 8 is installed and up to date.

How can I get either Eclipse or Netbeans working on macOS Sierra?

You need to install the full JDK version of Java 8 (jdk-8u121-macosx-x64.dmg) rather than just the JRE.

The JRE install does not include the support to run Java programs outside of a browser.


How do I enable fine volume control via a keyboard shortcut in Lion? Possible Duplicate:
  Is fine volume adjustment possible in OS X Lion?

Is there a way to re-enable the fine volume control using

shift + option + volume

It has been removed in Lion, but I use it often.
Maybe there is a globals pref that works?

Yes, you can do some modifications & scripting to get the effect.

See instructions here: http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/jrgxx/how_to_quarter_step_volume_adjustment_in_lion/


Difficulties with El Capitan SIP On installing the new OS a problem with logging on after the machine has been asleep  started immediately. Occasionally my keyboard input is ignored and, after a brief pause, junk was loaded into the login input field. When I extend the time-out before the machine goes to sleep I get the same occasional reaction when I go back in without needing to login, but this time it's with typing into URLs in the browser. When the happens I always have to reboot!

Technical people at Apple, who placed 'Capture Data' app on my desktop, say the problem originates with home-brew, my package manager! I've since reinstalled homebrew  as suggested on several sites so it will work with El Captain.

http://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/installing-homebrew-on-os-x-el-capitan-10-11-package-manager-for-unix-apps/

http://digitizor.com/fix-homebrew-permissions-osx-el-capitan/

I still get this issue occurring in a random fashion about 10%+ of the time.

Related to this issue? I can't install all that I need to set up IPython. Here pip doesn't always work.

pip install readline Ends up displaying :clang -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -g -O2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes arch x86_64 -DHAVE_RL_CALLBACK -DHAVE_RL_CATCH_SIGNAL -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_APPEND_CHARACTER -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_DISPLAY_MATCHES_HOOK -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_MATCHES -DHAVE_RL_COMPLETION_SUPPRESS_APPEND -DHAVE_RL_PRE_INPUT_HOOK -I. -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/opt/openssl/include -I/usr/local/opt/sqlite/include -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.11/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -c Modules/2.x/readline.c -o build/temp.macosx-10.11-x86_64-2.7/Modules/2.x/readline.o -Wno-strict-prototypes
    clang: error: no such file or directory: 'arch'
    clang: error: no such file or directory: 'x86_64'
    error: command 'clang' failed with exit status 1

----------------------------------------

Command "/usr/local/opt/python/bin/python2.7 -c "import setuptools, tokenize;file='/private/var/folders/bj/chzjff753fz0hr1l5r9kcc1c0000gn/T/pip-build-OS8w2B/readline/setup.py';exec(compile(getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(file).read().replace('\r\n', '\n'), file, 'exec'))" install --record /var/folders/bj/chzjff753fz0hr1l5r9kcc1c0000gn/T/pip-selOV9-record/install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile" failed with error code 1 in /private/var/folders/bj/chzjff753fz0hr1l5r9kcc1c0000gn/T/pip-build-OS8w2B/readline

Same results when I try to install psycopg2!

Any suggestions on fixing the initial problems and getting stuff installed?

Thanks!!

The only way I've found to do the installs I need is to disable SIP! Was attempting to avoid this but it seems the way to go.

Do not know yet if the login issues is still unresolved!

Note: Login Issue NOT resolved!


Reject incoming call while on waiting If I get a call while I'm busy with another call (call waiting, normal call, not FaceTime), can I reject that incoming call?

I'm using an iPhone 5 running iOS 8.2.

I didn't try anything till now, and I don't want to turn the call waiting off. I want to decide whether to accept or reject the incoming call while I'm on another call.

The screen that appears when I receive another call has only three options:

Hold the current call and ANSWER the coming one
Hang up the current call and ANSWER the coming one
Reply with a message to the caller (of the new call)
none of the options actually allows me to REJECT the incoming new call and keep the current one going

Just press on "send to voicemail" (the middle option) and the call will be rejected.


Is it possible to update timestamps on multiple photos using new Photos app? I'm using El Capitan 10.11.1 and Photos app 1.2

The new version of the the Photos app allows you to update the metadata for photos via the 'Get Info' menu option.  For a single photo, you can update the timestamp by opening the Info inspector, and double clicking the date/time.

The resulting Adjust date and time of selected photos dialog strongly implies that you should be able to do this for multiple photos at once.  It says:

  "The original date and time of your first photo is shown below.  Adjust it to the correct time, and all 1 photos will be time-shifted accordingly."

So... I have about 100 photos I need to do this to, but if I select them all (or any number greater than 1), the Info inspector changes subtly - the timestamp changes format from e.g. "11 November 2015 12:11" to simply "11 Nov 2015", and double clicking the date now does nothing except select the date in the Info inspector.

Is it possible to shift the date/time of my 100 photos within the Photos app?

Select the photos you want, then select the menu command "Image" -> "Adjust Date and Time..." which pops up the window that you are looking for. It seems as though it also gives control over the time zone for images with location data.

When adjusting the date/time of a group of photos, you adjust the date for one of the images, and all the other images time stamp is changed by the same amount, enabling you to correct for time zone shifts or improperly set camera date/time issues, rather than making the time/date of all the photos identical.


"Other" folder is too big My "Other" folder in my mac taking every free MB it has. Note that I tried to find where it coming from but I just can't figure it out. It's 418GB in size and I have nothing on my machine that takes up so much room.
macOS Catalina v10.15.4
Filesystem      Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s5   466Gi   10Gi  8.3Mi   100%  487565 4881965315    0%   /
devfs          334Ki  334Ki    0Bi   100%    1156          0  100%   /dev
/dev/disk1s1   466Gi  452Gi  8.3Mi   100% 2187628 4880265252    0%   /System/Volumes/Data
/dev/disk1s4   466Gi  3.0Gi  8.3Mi   100%       3 4882452877    0%   /private/var/vm
map auto_home    0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%       0          0  100%   /System/Volumes/Data/home
/dev/disk1s3   466Gi  504Mi  8.3Mi    99%      40 4882452840    0%   /Volumes/Recovery

after running: sudo du -hxd1 /System/Volumes/Data
 45G    /System/Volumes/Data/Users
 28G    /System/Volumes/Data/Applications
873M    /System/Volumes/Data/opt
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/Volumes
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/.TemporaryItems
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/cores
449G    /System/Volumes/Data

running sudo du -hxd1 /System/Volumes/Data :
total 2
drwxrwxr-x+ 56 root  admin  1792 Apr 20 15:52 Applications
drwxr-xr-x  70 root  wheel  2240 Dec 16 09:07 Library
drwxr-xr-x@  3 root  wheel    96 Aug 25  2019 System
drwxr-xr-x   7 root  admin   224 Sep 29  2019 Users
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel    96 Apr 20 23:08 Volumes
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel   103 Apr 18  2018 com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist -> /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel   104 Apr 18  2018 com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist -> /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  wheel    64 Aug 25  2019 cores
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel     1 Apr 20 23:13 home
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  wheel    64 Aug 25  2019 mnt
drwxr-xr-x   6 root  wheel   192 Oct 11  2019 opt
drwxr-xr-x   6 root  wheel   192 Jun 30  2020 private
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  wheel    64 Aug 25  2019 sw
drwxr-xr-x   5 root  wheel   160 Sep 29  2019 usr

I tried several methods from the comments to solve this problem
As shown above, almost the entire hard disk is occupied by "Other". Since the operating system could sometimes get confused by the multitude of tasks, a restart could possibly solve the problem. (Enter in the terminal sudo reboot)
Since "other" can be anything, except
Books
Documents
Xcode Build caches of a project
iCloud Drive
iOS files
Mails
Programs
Other users
System

It is best to work at the root level to see what exactly is being used in conspicuous high disk space. We are examining the data partition.
$ sudo du -hxd1 /System/Volumes/Data
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/sw
1,0K    /System/Volumes/Data/home
979M    /System/Volumes/Data/usr
271M    /System/Volumes/Data/boot
 15G    /System/Volumes/Data/Library
3,1G    /System/Volumes/Data/System
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/mnt
 23M    /System/Volumes/Data/.fseventsd
400G    /System/Volumes/Data/private
 30G    /System/Volumes/Data/Users
 50G    /System/Volumes/Data/Applications
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/opt
5,3M    /System/Volumes/Data/.PreviousSystemInformation
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/Volumes
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/cores

In my case, the /private/var directory pulls a lot. Again, I can examine the output further.
$ sudo du -hxd1 /System/Volumes/Data
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/yp
8,0K    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/networkd
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/install
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/empty
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/ma
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/mail
 59M    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/spool
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/jabberd
 24K    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/MobileSoftwareUpdate
1,0M    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/vm
4,0K    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/msgs
4,0M    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/logs
 11M    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/audit
104M    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/root
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/lib
400G    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/db
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/at
 57M    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/log
1,8G    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/folders
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/containers
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/select
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/netboot
 36K    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/run
 36M    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/protected
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/rpc
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/tmp
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/backups
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/agentx
  0B    /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/rwho

Now in my case I know that /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/db is the problem.
Reapplying the same method on that directory and digging deeper finally led me to /System/Volumes/Data/private/var/db/powerlog/Library/BatteryLife/Quarantine which was using practically the whole disk space. Deleting it solved the problem (for now).
Note: These are invented memory sizes.


What is the most efficient and reliable method for transfering/copying a large number of files from one external hard drive to another? I have an NTFS external hard drive with ~300GB of data on it, and I'd like to be able to start writing to this drive without having to use any third-party software or other hacks/workarounds. I've recently purchased a second external hard drive, and so now that I finally have something that's large enough to hold all of the data from my old drive, I want to copy everything over to this new drive so that I can format the old drive to use a file system that my Macbook Pro is capable of writing to without having to use any extra tricks.

My instinct was to just copy all of the files from the old drive and paste them into the new drive, but I figured this would take a long time so I wanted to see if there was a more efficient way to do this. But then when I started looking into this, I found all this stuff about people using things like "rsync" or some different types of third-party software to transfer large amounts of data between drives, and people being worried about the transfer process failing midway through and leaving them with no easy way of figuring out where to start back up from, and all kinds of other stuff like this that made me feel anxious about this whole undertaking.

Nonetheless, I still haven't been able to come across any source that gives a definitive, bottom-line answer for what the "best" way to transfer large of amounts of data like this is, which is why I'm asking this question here now.

Essentially, all I need to know is (i) Am I safe to just copy and paste all of the files from the old drive to the new drive through Finder?, and (ii) If I'm safe to copy and paste with finder, what method should I use to transfer all of these files?

The one promising method I did come across was to use the "restore" function in disk utility, but I'm not sure this will work here given that my source drive is NTFS, so it seems like restoring my new drive from the old drive would just leave me with the same problem of now not being able to write to my new drive. Is this correct?

If you would like to copy drive A to drive B exactly you can do this with Disk Utility.

We will be using Disk Utility's restore function. Some background on the different between Restoring vs copy and pasting:

The Restore function in Disk Utility makes use of a block copy
function that can speed up the copy process. It also makes an almost
exact copy of the source device. When we say "almost exact," we don't
mean to imply that useful data may get left behind, because that's not
the case. What it means is that a block copy copies everything in a
data block from one device to the other. The results are almost an
exact copy of the original. A file copy, on the other hand, copies
data file by file, and while the file data remains the same, the
location of the file on the source and destination devices will likely
be very different.
Using a block copy is faster, but it does have some limits that affect
when it can be used, the most important being that copying block by
block requires that both the source and destination devices be first
unmounted from your Mac. This ensures that block data doesn't change
during the copy process. Don’t worry, though; you don’t have to do the
unmounting. Disk Utility’s Restore function takes care of that for
you. But it does mean that neither the source nor the destination can
be in use when you use the Restore capabilities.

Source: https://www.lifewire.com/use-disk-utility-to-clone-macs-drive-4042367

Instructions
for copying all files from Device A to Device B

WARNING: When you restore one volume to another, all the files on the destination volume are erased. Before you restore a volume, copy
any files on the destination volume that you want to save to a
different volume.

Choose View > Show All Devices.
Select the volume in the sidebar you want to restore, then click the Restore button  or choose
Edit > Restore.

This is the volume that is erased and becomes the exact copy. [Device B]

Click the Restore pop-up menu, then choose the volume you want to copy [Device A].
Click Restore, then click Done.

Source: https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/restore-a-disk-dskutl14062/mac


Remove sticked Webcam Cover from MacBook Pro display I few months ago I thoughtlessly placed a sticky Webcam Cover on my MacBook Pro 2015 display. More in detail here is the C-SLIDE product page.

I decided it's time to get rid of it but I'm not sure how to do so properly without damaging the display's protection layer.

Does anybody have experience with this kind of delicate operations? Is there any solvent expressly produced for that? Or would it help handling the laptop to a specialised shop or an Apple Store?

The damage is already done by whatever adhesive was applied. Apple only recommends one solvent, pure water, so I would use a plastic spudger to gently dislodge the slide and then clean as best you can with water.

If you need a solvent, flip the screen upside down so any solvent drips over the normal top, now bottom onto the aluminum as opposed to dripping down the glass.

Chances are, the anti reflective coating will only be weakened or damaged in that top area or not at all. Damage to that layer there doesn’t spread, it’s only where a solvent or physical abrasion is present, so carefully control abrasion and solvents and your screen area should be safe.

Taking it to a shop that has tools and experience with solvents might be well worth the trip. Take them a pie or cookies, they will love the challenge and you’ll be in good hands if you’re not sure of your skills.

My hunch - you’ll get it off and whatever damage happened will be negligible and no issue. Please post a follow up picture once you’re done or answer how you solved this!


Remove package using terminal on Mac I installed a package (asciiart) a while ago but it appears that it did not install properly or is currently not working due to updates. Even the help command doesn't appear to be working:

$ asciiart -h
Traceback (most recent call last):
    13: from /usr/local/bin/asciiart:23:in `<main>'
    12: from /usr/local/bin/asciiart:23:in `load'
    11: from /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/rasciiart-0.0.9/bin/asciiart:3:in `<top (required)>'
    10: from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
     9: from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
     8: from /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/rasciiart-0.0.9/lib/asciiart.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
     7: from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
     6: from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
     5: from /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/rmagick-2.15.4/lib/RMagick.rb:1:in `<top (required)>'
     4: from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
     3: from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
     2: from /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/rmagick-2.15.4/lib/rmagick_internal.rb:12:in `<top (required)>'
     1: from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require': This installation of RMagick was configured with ImageMagick 6.9.10 but ImageMagick 6.9.11-7 is in use. (RuntimeError)

I couldn't find any documentation to remove this package. Is it possible to remove this package so that the asciiart command will not be recognized (i.e. I will get the standard -bash: asciiart: command not found error message instead)?

I searched on Github using https://github.com/search?l=Ruby&o=desc&q=asciiart&s=updated&type=Repositories, and discovered that this is a ruby package so I was able to remove it using

sudo gem uninstall asciiart


Face detection in iOS 5.1 on iPhone 4S I have read several places, that iOS 5.1 is supposed to contain an updated version of the camera app that has a face detection feature.

I have updated my iPhone 4S to 5.1, but can't find any such feature.

Am I missing something, or are the rumors/mentions of the face detection false?

The rumors aren't false, but perhaps misleading. Unlike face detection in, say, iPhoto, this isn't about actually associating a face with a contact you already have (through similar photos), but rather about helping the camera focus on what you'll likely want to have in focus (namely, faces). Here's Apple's marketing text on it:

  This camera loves a face.

  With new face detection, the iSight camera is smart enough to know whether you’re taking a portrait or a group shot. It focuses on the most prominent face in the frame and balances exposure across up to 10 faces. So you’ll definitely catch smiles. And maybe even a smirk or two.

You'll know face detection is working from the green rectangle that appears.

New to 5.1 is that more than one such green "detected face rectangle" may show up:

  Camera face detection now highlights all detected faces


Create bootable Snow Leopard USB drive/stick from Ubuntu I need to create an USB drive/stick booting Snow Leopard on an Ubuntu system. Any pointers on how to accomplish this are appreciated.

If you have the install DVD or an .ISO rip, you can use the dd command to write it to your USB drive.

sudo dd if=~/osx-snowleopard.iso of=/dev/sdb

Just replace "~/osx-snowleopard.iso" with the path and name of the ISO file and "/dev/sdb" with the device node name of your USB stick.

Use the lsblk command to figure out which device name is your USB stick.  It's probably going to be sdb or sdc.  If your geek stick automounts when you plug it into Ubuntu, make sure you unmount it first; just right click the USB stick's partition and click "Eject".


iMac mid 2011 RAM upgrade compatability Is this RAM going to be compatible with a mid 2011 iMac 21.5"?

The RAM you are pointing are DIMM. Your iMac is only compatible with the SODIMM form-factor.


Remove partition failed - the partition is gone, but now there is missing space. How do I get it back? I was trying to get rid of an old Bootcamp partition I didn't want anymore. I followed these instructions to remove a partition using Disk Utility, but the removal failed. Now the partition is gone, but the space it used to occupy hasn't been merged back to the main disk partition - it's just gone. My SSD is 1 TB, but Macintosh HD is only 775 GB, the same as it used to be.

What happened to this extra space and how can I get it back? And why did it leave me in this weird half-removed position instead of removing the partition properly?

Here's what my Disk Utility looks like now:

Here's what comes up when I enter "diskutil list":

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE
IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            774.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE
IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +774.3 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 8679E121-03C8-47B0-844E-961A437E5CA5
                                 Unencrypted

Backup your main volume.
Open Terminal.app
Check the file system integrity of your main partition: diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2
If everything is fine, expand your logical volume group (and the inherent logical volume):

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size

In your case that's:

diskutil cs resizeStack 8679E121-03C8-47B0-844E-961A437E5CA5 0g

If you run Sierra the magic size 0g may fail and you have to enter a distinctive size:

diskutil cs resizeStack 8679E121-03C8-47B0-844E-961A437E5CA5 999300m

If you get an error like: Error: -69771: The target disk is too small for this operation choose a slightly smaller size like 999200m until you are successful.
If you get a different type of error, the whole (previous) Disk Utility operation failed and corrupted the internal structure of the LVG. You have to restore the main volume from your Time Machine backup then.


Unsupported hack or workaround to get 64-bit OS X to install on a MacBook Pro having only 32-bit EFI? I want to install the 64-bit OS X 10.7 on my MacbookPro 2,1, which has a 64-bit processor, but only 32-bit EFI and Kernel Boot mode.

I know that this is not officially supported, but I assume there is some workaround since the hardware provides everything needed to run a 64-bit OS, except for the EFI.

"Select Startup Mode" tells me, that: "While your Mac is technically able to run a 64-bit kernel, this is not currently enabled by Apple."

How can I get that to work? Is there an unsupported hack or workaround?

I found a post on the subject from the guy who wrote this book about Mac OS X internals.  His post mentions Snow Leopard (10.6), but the issues would be similar for 10.7. See Mac OS X Internals - Is Your Machine Good Enough for Snow Leopard K64?

Here's the part I found most relevant to your question:

  [...] Unfortunately, a 64-bit processor alone doesn’t suffice. Out of the
  box, boot.efi will not boot K64 even if you have a 64-bit processor
  and explicitly request K64 if at least one of the following is true.

  The machine has 32-bit EFI.
  The machine’s model is prohibited from booting K64 through a hardcoded list within the boot loader. (A cursory look suggests that
  the list excludes "non-Pro" machines.)

  Both of these "limitations" are technically artificial, albeit to
  different degrees.

  The first limitation actually does have merit and is arguably not all
  that artificial. Although a 32-bit EFI could launch a 64-bit kernel,
  the kernel, when running, would not be able to use firmware services. [emphasis mine]
  In particular, you wouldn’t have NVRAM. For kernel developers merely
  wanting to run a 64-bit kernel for testing and debugging, this may not
  be an issue [...]

On the one hand, the author states that the limitations may be artificial, which still indicates some promise of a workaround, but on the other hand, as @Koen van Rhee's answer also already pointed out, you may end up with devices without support under 64-bit.

(Aside: Why do you want to run the 64-bit kernel, anyway? The OS X 32-bit kernel can run 64-bit programs.)

I did some more digging searching for a real workaround of some kind, not just theory.  I found the following: OS X Daily - Got an Older Mac? MLPostFactor Installs OS X 10.8.3 on Old Unsupported Macs.  OS X Daily's article links to a series of forum posts at MacRumors - [Guide] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac.  It is a very long thread.

I still don't definitively know if you can get the OS X 10.7 64-bit kernel running on your specific kind of Mac, but I suspect for the reasons mentioned in this image from the MacRumors forum thread that you can't: "Problem is cards like [...] Does NOT have 64-bit Kexts [...] 64-Bit Kernel will NOT load these 32-bit kexts".  Essentially, what @Koen van Rhee already said.

But then I found this. Quoting: "Apple has included 64-bit drivers for GMA950 in the OS X 10.6.2 update. These drivers can be used to provide partial support for GMA950 under OS 10.8."  ... and I'm thinking: maybe such kexts exist for your card and might work on 10.7 too, if they'd work on 10.6 & 10.8? You may have to hunt and mix & match bits from elsewhere.

To sum up:  I don't believe there to be a single or simple workaround for your desired OS version and hardware version.  If you want to proceed, everything I've read indicates it may be possible (to some degree — accept there may be missing drivers and so missing functionality and/or poor performance), but your work will be cut out for you.


Invalid code signature preventing kernel extension from loading on macOS Sierra I have an LTO tape drive with a built-in ATTO Thunderlink SH 1068 that relies on an end-of-life(EOL) ATTO SAS/HBA kernel extension, the ATTO ThunderLink SAS HBA Driver 1.25.

Upon upgrading to macOS Sierra, the kernel extension won't load, so the LTO tape drive doesn't show up in the SAS device tree. It was working fine on El Capitan 10.11.6.

It seems that Gatekeeper in Sierra is now blocking this kernel extension.

Running kextutil -t in Terminal as a diagnostic reveals that the code signature is invalid:

MacBook-Pro:~ user$ sudo kextutil -t /Library/Extensions/ATTOThunderLinkSASHBA.kext
Password:
Diagnostics for /Library/Extensions/ATTOThunderLinkSASHBA.kext:
Code Signing Failure: code signature is invalid
Untrusted kexts are not allowed
ERROR: invalid signature for com.ATTO.driver.ATTOThunderLinkSASHBA, will not load

What do I need to do to safely load the kernel extension so that my LTO tape drive will work again?

I think I've got this to to work. Further to Jason Conrad's answer above, ATTO seem to have rolled the SH 1068 driver into the SH 2068 package.

Now, why they don't make this clear to anyone without actually downloading the driver and attempting to install, I don't know.

What I do know is that after installing the driver for the SH 2068 (that is signed, so works on Sierra) I can now see my LTO tape library.

Grab the installers from here:
https://www.atto.com/downloads/165/


My Apple ID and phone number are being used on a new phone -- what does this mean? I received a message that states my Apple ID and phone number are now being used for iMessage and FaceTime on a new phone. I haven't gotten a new phone, so what does this mean? The same message appeared on my IPad.

This may mean that someone is logged under your AppleID on some other phone. Change your AppleID password and security questions as soon as you can.

Changing the password will log everyone out of the AppleID, but changing the password will not allow the other iPhone back onto the AppleID.


iTunes - How to actually synchronize libraries between 2 Mac with Google Drive I have two macs (Mavericks) plus the latest version of iTunes.
What I want to do is to mirror any change I do on one library to the other iTunes library using Google Drive (iTunes Library Mac 1 to iTunes Library Mac 2 and vice versa).

I installed Google Drive on both of my Macs. It works pretty well at mirroring changes in .mp3 files names changes I do (i.e. My_Song.mp3 to MY_SONG.mp3), new files I add or files I delete.

But there are two things I can't sync right now. Playlists and files info attributes (i.e. when I switch the soundtrack Genre of one of my soundtrack it doesn't sync with the same soundtrack on my other mac).

I know I can export+import playlist but I don't know how to actually sync using Google Drive. iTunes has a special way of "storing" playlists. What I want is, for example, I create/modify a playlist on my Mac1 and it sync to Mac2 via Google sync. I allready put all my mp3 files in my Google Drive. That doesn't help synching the two iTunes library.

So, how can I make my playlists + any changes I make on my soundtracks (not the mp3 files) sync between my Macs using Google Drive?

I find Hazel to be a very useful app for this and many other tasks. It works similarly to Folder Actions, only it has more flexibility and actions, uses less resource, and it actually works. On Mac1, I assigned the Sync action to each of the iTunes folders I want to keep in sync. (I advise against syncing the Applications folder. It requires user interaction.) It only syncs one direction, so it won't start deleting or duplicating items on Mac1.
On Mac2, I assigned the Import into iTunes action to the parent iTunes folder, naming a generic playlist. It detects any new files added to any of the subfolders and adds them to the library.
The only thing is that it will also delete files if you delete them from Mac1, and it doesn't delete them from the library in Mac2. I have a scheduled job for Track Sift to run routinely, anyway, and it cleans up dead tracks, amongst other housekeeping chores.


How to run an image of El Capitan macOS as a virtual machine on another Mac? I am running Mojave macOS on a Mac mini. I would like to run a virtual machine of El Capitan on Mojave (or Catalina).

I am looking into this because I need to refer to a database using FileMaker 11 and El Capitan was the last macOS to support it.

What is a proven/reliable way to do it? Virtualbox, Fusion, Parallels?

Is it possible, for example, to create an image of an existing Mac running FileMaker 11 on El Capitan (so I don’t have to install and configure everything all over again)?

Need instructions please.

Is it possible, for example, to create an image of an existing Mac running FileMaker 11 on El Capitan?

You can definitely create an image of your existing Mac. The question is whether or not you can then use that image to create a virtual machine in Vmware or Parallels (whenever I have looked into Virtual Box, it has always appeared to me to be a giant pile of time-sink and frustration, so I have avoided using it.)

Disk Utility can create an image of your hard drive. So can apps like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Instructions for doing so are easily found via Google, etc.

However, these images will be .dmg files, not .iso files.

The question is whether Parallels or VMware can be use a .dmg to create a new VM.

There are instructions online about changing DMG files to ISO files, and I am fairly sure that ISO files can be used by both VMware and Parallels.

So I would say that, at least theoretically, yes, you can create an image from your existing installation of El Capitan. But I am not convinced that the process would work in practice as well as it seems like it should in theory.

However, if all you are doing to use the VM for is to run FileMaker, so I'm not sure that it is either necessary or a good use of your time to try to do so.


How to disable Facebook Messenger vibration on iOS 12 I want to disable Messenger notifications from vibrating on my iPhone iOS 12, but keep them silent. How to do that? There doesn't seem to be an option for it anywhere.

To disable vibration in Facebook Messenger on iOS 12, open the app the tap your profile icon in the upper left hand corner.

This will open your "Me" page. You'll see the fourth option, notifications. Tapping on it will open the notifications page. You can then select the option "Notifications in Messenger."

That will then open a page where you can toggle sound and vibration for notifications.


How does /etc/hosts or /private/etc/hosts work on 10.11? I've been trying to test my knowledge of what /etc/hosts is but I'm not getting anywhere. From understanding the point of /etc/hosts is it can round host names to ip addresses. So if you put the following in your /etc/hosts file:

127.0.0.1:3000 foo

then a curl foo should send a GET request to the local host on port 3000.  However there is a wrinkle, because aparently on OSX 10.11.6 it doesn't use /etc/hosts instead it uses /private/etc/hosts, so then adding the above line to that file should work. But it doesn't because there is a further wrinkle, you have to reset the DNS cache, which according to this site can be done with the following command: sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder. Am I missing something here?

When I curl localhost:3000 I get the rails hello world blog (because I have the default rails hello world blog running)

➜ curl localhost:3000
.
.
.
Rails version: 5.0.0.1

Ruby version: 2.3.1 (x86_64-darwin15)

➜

however when I try to curl the custom domain name it doesn't work:

➜ sudo vim /private/etc/hosts
➜ sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
➜ cat /private/etc/hosts
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.0.1:3000 foo
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost
➜ curl foo
curl: (6) Could not resolve host: foo

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks :)

The /etc/hosts file on UNIX systems is for local DNS resolving.

As such, it doesn't take into account ports - it links hostnames with IP addresses, like the Domain Name Service.

Adding the following line:

127.0.0.1 foo

to your /etc/hosts file tells the internal DNS responder to send requests for foo to 127.0.0.1.

It will allow you to do the following:

# curl foo:3000


Unable to locate an executable at "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_144.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/apt" (-1)? this error comes when i use this command:-

  sudo apt install wireless-tools
  Unable to locate an executable at "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_144.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/apt" (-1)

echo path gives an output like this :-

  /usr/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

don't know what to do ? just a fresher in OS.

To install AirCrack (as the author has indicated is his intent), you can either use MacPorts, Brew, or build from the source.

Apt, Yum, Pacman, and other package managers do not exist on macOS; the closest you'll get is MacPorts or Brew.


Ripping a whole website to PDF Adobe Acrobat Pro allows the user to convert an entire website (or subset) to a PDF. Is there anything else available for OS X to do the same thing? I don't want to spend several hundred dollars.

Ideally, it would allow the user to rip a URL and all other URLs on the same "prefix" to a single PDF. For example, given the URL "http://example.com/a_web_page", it would pull "http://example.com/a_web_page/index.html", "http://example.com/a_web_page/a", "http://example.com/a_web_page/b", etc., but not "http://example.com/index.html" to a single PDF.

I have found whole books released under Creative Commons licenses as HTML pages (one per chapter, or section). I would like to capture the entire book to a single PDF to read on my iPad.

Thanks.

It doesn’t do “whole websites” because it would be hard for it to know “how deep” (tho I agree it could be configured in a way of: go down XX levels), but in any case, if your HTML pages contain a full chapter and assuming the books have about 20-30 chapters, is not that “bad”.

With that in mind, I have an inexpensive application that does this job, and it’s called Web Snapper.

  What's so special about Web Snapper?

  Web Snapper is drag and drop simple.
  When you want to grab a page, you drag
  the URL and drop it onto the drop zone
  in Web Snapper (or the app icon in the
  dock) – it really could't be any
  simpler. With the 'Snapper, you can
  save pages as scalable/vector PDFs (we
  even preserve the links!), or in any
  of the image formats that are
  supported by MacOS X. If you want to
  make a multi-page PDF - simply drag
  and drop multiple URLs and then click
  the "Save to Multipage PDF".

It may help you because the price tag is $15.


Turn off iMessage on computer but not on iPhone I've recently bought a new Mac.

iMessage is on it.
I'd rather not have it on my computer.  I want my texts to be kept private.
How do I keep it on my iPhone and remove it from the Mac?

In the Messages application on your Mac, go to

Messages > Preferences > Accounts
select your iMessage account
uncheck the "Enable this account" checkbox that is below your Apple ID.


Stuck on grey screen after internet restore My early 2011 MBP 15 stopped loading one day and is stuck on the grey screen when I start it up.

I have changed the hard drive with a formatted one (that I did on my
Mac Pro) to the journaled file system
cleared the NVRAM reset SMC
tried booting from a restore USB I created with OSX on it (wouldn't
load)
replaced the thermal past on the heat sink
tried to run in single user mode to diagnose firmware problems but now it won't boot into single user mode holding CommandS no matter what I do, it just
keeps loading to the folder with the question mark (no operating
system yet on the new hard drive)

I can get it to start the Internet restore except it gets to the point where the Apple logo comes up, with the spinning wheel below it, then the screen flashes black then grey and stays grey forever.

I have gone through every thread I can find on this and am now lost.  The last idea is to reload the firmware but I haven't found exactly how to do that yet, or at least check it to see if it is corrupt.  Any ideas on how I can get into single user mode?  Any ideas as to what is going on?

My iMac 2011 had grey screen hanging like yours - same exact issues. I also wiped out my hard drive, internet recovery would hang, turns out both RAM sticks in my iMac went bad at the same exact time. Replacing those fixed the issues for me.


MacBook Pro (Tiger): Get keyboard defaults to stick I have a circa 2007 MacBook Pro with fully-patched Mac OS X Tiger installed.  I recently plugged an OEM USB keyboard into the laptop after leaving my Mac keyboard at home one day.

Now that I'm back on my Mac keyboard (and just the laptop's keyboard for that matter), the control/command/option keys are all switched around after every reboot and after waking up from sleep mode.

I have to go in to System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys and Press the "Reset Defaults" button to get my control/command/option keys mapped back to their normal configuration.

I don't have to change any of the drop down options, they're already correct.

I've searched in vain to find a way to clear out the offending settings the OEM keyboard must have injected into the configs.  How can I fix this without reinstalling everything?

Based on this hint, you may be able to open System Preferences as the root user and configure the keyboard layout there (which will cause it to become the default).

1) Open System Preferences as root:

sudo open /Applications/System\ Preferences

2) Select the "International" System Preference pane

3) Click the "Keyboard" tab

4) Select the layout that you'd like to use, and quit System Preferences


Upgraded to iOS 9.0.1 and lost all health weight data I just upgraded my iPhone (model MG5D2LL/A) to iOS 9.0.1 yesterday, and I did one backup restore to resolve an issue with the Podcast app (still not resolved).

I lost most of my Health app data. I lost all of my manually entered weight data (several years worth) and my Medical ID. For some reason the dashboard is still showing the last 7 days of steps, walking, climbing data.

Is there any way to recover that data?

Backups don't backup health data unless they're encrypted backups.

Thus, if you restore one of these unencrypted backups, you won't restore the health data. This data is gone—it's not stored in iCloud for privacy reasons.


Command-+ style zooming in iOS Safari I'd like to be able to zoom in on a web page in iOS Safari the way you can in the Mac OS version using Command-+. Note that this is different than pinch/spread zooming in iOS. If I spread my fingers to zoom a page, everything is magnified but the browser window just gets wider so you can no longer see the whole thing, making side to side panning necessary. On a well-designed web page, if I use Command-+ to zoom in, everything gets larger but the margins don't change. The text gets bigger and re-flows so that it still fits in the same margins. Is there a way to do that in Safari on iOS?

Unfortunately this isn't possible with native iOS controls. A work around is a Javascript bookmarklet. First, bookmark any page and then bookmark another page. Then, choose bookmarks and edit them. For the first one, rename it the minus (-) symbol and change the URL to:

javascript:var p=document.getElementsByTagName('*');for(i=0;i<p.length;i++){if(p[i].style.fontSize){var s=parseInt(p[i].style.fontSize.replace("px",""));}else{var s=12;}s-=2;p[i].style.fontSize=s+"px"}

Do the same for the other bookmark, but rename it the plus symbol (+) and change the URL to:

javascript:var p=document.getElementsByTagName('*');for(i=0;i<p.length;i++){if(p[i].style.fontSize){var s=parseInt(p[i].style.fontSize.replace("px",""));}else{var s=12;}s+=2;p[i].style.fontSize=s+"px"}

Now to increase or decrease the size of text, simply tap the bookmarks.


iPhone 5c says I am out of storage when I'm not I have 8.1 GB on my 5c and 11.3 GB on iCloud but I can't take a picture because my phone says there's not enough storage. What's going on?

I had the same problem - there was 1.6 GB free but it would not let me take pictures because the memory was supposedly full.  Restarting the phone did not help.  I just connected the phone to the PC and it synced in iTunes and then it was fine.


Which are the OS X Dashboard Widgets you can't live without? I don't use widgets that much, but one particular widget makes the dashboard useful to me. That's iStat

  iStat Pro is a highly configurable
  widget that lets you monitor every
  aspect of your Mac, including CPU,
  memory, disks, network, battery,
  temperatures, fans, load & uptime and
  processes. iStat Pro can do it all.

And it's FREE

Do you have one outstanding widget to share? How do you use it?
Please follow these simple rules:

Please search for duplicate answers before posting. You can search
this question like this: inquestion:this iStat Pro
Limit one dashboard widget per answer.
Add a link to the website in the name of the application if possible (no direct downloads).

Tea Timer

It's simply a timer. Notifies with:

Sounds
Speech
Growl

Text completely customizable (food pictured). ready in can be changed to just in.


How can I reset my iPhone 1 without using the (broken) power button? The power button on my first-gen iPhone is broken. I remember last time I came across this problem I found a utility (for windows) which caused the phone to reset to enter restore mode (the one with the yellow alert symbol), but I can't for the life of me find it again. Does anyone know what it is?

Thanks for any help,
Wyatt.

I don't know about the yellow alert symbol, but a quick google for "iphone recovery mode utility" revealed RecBoot, which looks like exactly what you're looking for.

Also, Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings should restart your iPhone.


Compare battery life between two (same model) iPhones My friend and I both own an iPhone 5s, which we have been using daily since bought (2013). Recently, he bought a $10 battery (0 cycles, manufactured 4 months ago) on eBay and replaced it, while my iPhone has the factory battery.

How do I test both iPhones to see if it's worth to change my battery too?

Note: cellular data is not available, only WiFi.

Monomeeth provides a good guide on how to do the process of testing your battery manually, but there are two ways to do this automatically (and with fewer variables that could affect results).
Method 1: App
Battery Life (free ad-supported app) lets you check the health of your iPhone's battery immediately after downloading. In my experience, it's very accurate, and reviews seem to agree. Opening it up, you'll see a battery wear percentage on each of the iPhones, and approximate runtimes for talk/browsing/video usage.
The app is a simple way to objectively see if it's time to replace your iPhone battery.

Disclaimer: I have personally used the app but I am not affiliated with its developer in any way.

Method 2: Genius Bar
If you bring your iPhones into the genius bar, a genius can help you run diagnostics on the iPhones to see each battery's wear and current capacity (at no charge).
This is definitely the more official way to do it, but it does require taking a trip to an Apple Store. Read more about Apple's battery diagnostic here.

tl;dr: Download this app or go the genius bar for a battery diagnostic (which is a real thing).

Note: In my personal opinion, whether it's time to replace your battery is more subjective than objective. If the battery life is significantly worse than you remember it being, it's probably time to get a new battery!


Finder copies files in two steps and does it as a transaction I need to organize thousands of files between different locations and there is an unpleasant issue with file copying from a local computer to a NAS. The problem is that Finder copies large bunch of files in two steps. In the first step it creates all those files in the destination location for a some reason, they are all empty there. It's a lengthy process. In the second step Finder actually starts copying content. It takes even more time. It looks like a transaction. Finder copies all files or nothing. But I don't need a transaction. In my opinion, a more common way is to copy files sequentially, one by one (or in a small groups). It's faster, it allows user to cancel copying in any time and prevents him from losing progress in operation.
Is there any way to prevent Finder from doing such a transactionality and make it copy files sequentially in one step?

Local computer: MacBook Pro, OS X 10.10.4 (Yosemite).
NAS: homebuilt server, FreeBSD 10.1 and Samba 4.2

ps: I do know about the alternative ways to copy files (console, file managers). My question is about the Finder and OS X behavior.

From many years of experience* with transferring sets of many hundreds of thousands of files (with tens of thousands of nested folders,) the safest and quickest methods avoid the Finder completely and uses the console commands.

Don't beat your head against the wall - Finder just won't do it satisfactorily. Investigate rsync as a possible method for transfer.

*manual backups of FirstClass PostOffice directories.


Installing Older Version of MacOS/OSX alongside current So with the end of 32-bit App support, I was thinking
maybe if I run across an app that I really need to run than will no long run post 10.15, that it might be a good idea to have an older version on a small partition for this purpose. I was personally due to my likening of that version of OSX thinking about trying to install 10.11 on a separate partition on my Mac. However I keep hearing that it’s not possible to install an older version of MacOS/OSX (in dual boot) while a newer one is installed, is this the case?

My Mac will happily run 10.11 as it did back when it was current so that’s not the issue. It’s rather can I just get an installer ready and plop it on a blank partition and then just select it in the bootmanger with 10.15 and Windows, or will it not install because of having 10.15 installed currently?

Yes, you can certainly install two versions alongside.

The answer from benwiggy is incorrect in assuming that you cannot have APFS and HFS+ coexisting on the same physical drive. It is indeed possible, and very easily achievable using Disk Utility to create two partitions on the drive. One for the APFS container (which holds your APFS file systems), and one for the HFS+ file system.

Instead of running 10.11, I would recommended having 10.14 and 10.15 coexisting. The reason being that support for 10.11 ended a year ago - this means that if you want to connect it to a network, you'll probably end up with security related issues.


5 minute battery life I have a Late 2011 Mac Book Pro 15" and recently the battery has very quickly gone from several hours of battery life to all of a sudden only apparently having 5-10 minutes

and by quickly I mean over the course of just a few weeks..

What i want to know is is this the End of life for my battery or is it malfunctioning and need a battery reset

If this a battery reset issue how do I do this on a mac I used to do this in the BIOS when I owned a PC Laptop but no idea how to do this with a Mac Book since there isn't one

Is this something that can be done through AHT?

  Battery Information:

  Model Information:
  Serial Number:    D86130308TRDGDLAW
  Manufacturer: SMP
  Device Name:  bq20z451
  Pack Lot Code:    0
  PCB Lot Code: 0
  Firmware Version: 406
  Hardware Revision:    2
  Cell Revision:    158
  Charge Information:
  Charge Remaining (mAh):   156
  Fully Charged:    Yes
  Charging: No
  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):   156
  Health Information:
  Cycle Count:  358
  Condition:    Service Battery
  Battery Installed:    Yes
  Amperage (mA):    0
  Voltage (mV): 11896

System Power Settings:

  AC Power:
  System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
  Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):   10
  Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    10
  Wake on AC Change:    No
  Wake on Clamshell Open:   Yes
  Wake on LAN:  Yes
  Current Power Source: Yes
  Display Sleep Uses Dim:   Yes
  GPUSwitch:    2
  PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep:   0
  Standby Delay:    4200
  Standby Enabled:  0
  Battery Power:
  System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
  Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):   10
  Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    2
  Wake on AC Change:    No
  Wake on Clamshell Open:   Yes
  Display Sleep Uses Dim:   Yes
  GPUSwitch:    2
  Reduce Brightness:    Yes
  Standby Delay:    4200
  Standby Enabled:  0

Hardware Configuration:

  UPS Installed:    No

AC Charger Information:

  Connected:    Yes
  ID:   0x0100
  Wattage (W):  85
  Revision: 0x0000
  Family:   0x0085
  Serial Number:    0x0058432a
  Charging: No

While I can't explain the rapid loss in battery life, the best way to determine the battery health would be through the system profiler. There are instructions on how to check the battery cycle count on a Mac here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1519

Along with benchmarks for healthy cycle counts.

For what it's worth, my 15" MacBook Pro needed a replacement battery a few months ago. Although the decline in battery life was a little bit more prolonged.


How to download youtube videos in Safari? I am looking for free alternatives to download youtube videos in Safari.

There are a few extensions that will add a nice download button to the Youtube video page, and give you the option to download in various resolutions.

Youtube Video Downloader
Fastesttube
YouTubeDownloader

You can also try ClickToPlugin, which does a lot more than just offer a download link, but it does that, and it's one of my favourite extensions. Makes watching web video much nicer.


Always open with check is getting ignored I'm running into troubles with my mac 10.9.4 because I'm unable to assign default programs for certain file types.

In my example I'm trying to assign .xml files to always be opened with TextEdit. But no matter how often I check that "Always open with" checkbox it will always be ignored. XML-files remain to be opened with Safari no matter what I can do.

I'm pretty new to mac so I have no clue where to look for help regarding this.

Not sure if you've tried this:-

Right click on an XML file and select Get Info

find the Open With section and choose TextEdit.

Underneath you should find an option for Change All

Clicking on that should change all XML files to open with TextEdit.


Using iMac 2012 as a monitor for MacBook Pro 2012 Can I use a Macbook Pro as a monitor for an iMac?

Both of them are on sale from a startup that went out of business, and were originally bought in 2012.

The answer you are looking for is Target Display mode.

And yes it is compatible with this setup (If they are 2012 machines with Thunderbolt). They must have thunderbolt ports (also work on 27" iMac with Mini Display Port)


Default profile with Active Directory As a warning: I'm no specialist at all. I work as a student here and trying to help to fix the Mac environment. I might use the wrong terminology at times but I try to be as clear as possible.

Assume we have a bunch of users with windows network accounts that they only ever used in our windows domain (we use AD). Now they start using Mac (joined to the domain) and we wanted to have a default profile that every user gets the first time he logs in with his network account with a preset background and lets say a shortcut on the desktop.

What would we have to do that a user that logs in on a mac the first time that a copy of our default profile is used and then stored in his personal network folder.

Have you looked into creating a local user template? Here for example: http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-create-a-custom-user-template-in-snow-leopard/

The template folder is copied to the new user folder at first login. The problem now is how to deploy that user template to every new mac, but that's easily solved by other means (you can create a package and distribute it via ARD/munki/Casper, you can use puppet - which you should do anyway).

Mind you that every change to the User template will only affect new users; existing users have to be managed by other ways too (MCX via augmented AD schema, for example, is what we use).


Mail.app inbox becomes blank after a few minutes of use On a newly installed and fully updated Mountain Lion system, I see the following problem:

After a few minutes of using Mail.app (or even just letting it sit in the dock), the inbox becomes empty.  More precisely, the inbox of an Exchange mail account becomes empty.  If I let the program sit in the dock, I receive new mail notifications, but I can't read the messages because the inbox looks empty.

Restarting Mail.app is a temporary fix, but the problem will come back in a few minutes.

Has anyone seen this problem?  Are there any solutions?  I did not do anything special which could have caused this and my inbox is small (less than 100 MB---I did read that this can happen when the inbox is too large)

Is your exchange environment hosted? Office 365 perhaps?

My mailbox occasionally does exactly what you describe. This was a known issue in ML, I would expect a fix at some point, but for now here are the few steps that I take that fixes it for awhile.None of this seems to be a "permanent" fix, but should last a bit longer.

Select the folder in Mail that is missing items.
Select "Mailbox"
Select "Rebuild" from the bottom of the menu.

OR...

You can rebuild the Envelope-Index by throwing it away, it's located at ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/

Your Library folder is hidden by default. Select Finder (in the dock) > “Go to Folder” and then enter “~/Library.”
In ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData, delete any file that begins with “Envelope Index,” such as Envelope Index or Envelope Index-shm.
Mail will rebuild the Envelope index when it is reopened. It will take a few minutes to rebuild the entire index.

If you're using Office 365, I've had more success by disabling the "Use Auto-Discover service" on those mail clients that are misbehaving.


What makes macOS 11 Big Sur supported on a 2013 MacPro and not a 2012? In the past, older Mac Pro machines have not been supported by newer macOS releases due to standard features on the machine (e.g. Bluetooth wasn't standard on 2008s, limiting Sierra) or by CPU extensions (SSE 4.2 required for Mojave). With the announcement of Big Sur, Apple states that you must have a 2013 "trash can" Mac Pro or later leaving the older cheese graters behind.
What is it about the 2013 that would prevent Big Sur from running on a 2012 Westmere or even back to a MacPro4,1? One of the benefits of having a Mac Pro was that you could upgrade the Bluetooth and GPU modules and this is how we got (say) a 2008 machine to work all the way up to High Sierra and even Mojave if you were brave enough. But those upgrades aside, I believe the CPUs of a 2012 and 2013 supported the same features so I'm wondering if there is something else?

As to the reason why Apple chose this exact model as the cut-off point for support cannot be answered by anyone but Apple. Everything else is just speculation.
There exists an non-official guide on how to install the Big Sur beta on the older 2010/2012 Mac Pro's (amongst others):
https://parrotgeek.com/bigsur/
Note that because this is non-official, it might not work or exhibit problems. Also it might only work for the current beta, and not when you get to the final release of Big Sur.
As indicated in this guide, the built-in WiFi does not and there could be issues related to sleep mode. This could hint at why Apple does not support this model - i.e. having to support these older WiFi chipsets.


Mac won't boot Windows partition after using disk utility I needed more space on my Windows partition... So I used Disk Utility to free up some space from the OS X partition, and upon restarting to Windows in order to add the free space to windows, I discovered that windows no longer boots! OS X still boots, but how can I fix my Windows partition without reinstalling Windows and losing all my data?

The following worked for me.  I have macOS 10.12.3 and Windows 10.

Boot to Recovery mode (restart, hold "command+R")
Utilities -> terminal
Run

fdisk -e /dev/disk0"
p
setpid 4
[press enter]
flag 4
p
write
y

Reboot


How do I achieve find . -name "*.py" in finder How do I achieve this in finder ?
call_center ➤ find . -name "*.py"
./cr-web/vendor/mockery/mockery/docs/conf.py
./wsssip/build.py
...

I had thought it should be as simple as following, but it is not!

The asterisk is not a glob in Finder/Spotlight search.
Try the search without the asterisk: type .py then choose ‘Name matches: .py’ from the dropdown.
However, searching for file extensions is not the usual way to use Spotlight search, and you can't pin the filename search to the end of the filename using Finder. Instead, Spotlight can understand what a Python source file is, so you can search for python and choose ‘Python Source’ for more accurate searches.


How do I share my iCloud storage with my family in iOS 11? I purchased a 200GB shareable (Family Sharing) iCloud storage plan but my family members can't see it on their devices. How do I fix this?

You have to back out of the iCloud Backup settings screen and navigate to the Family Sharing screen. From there you can tap on iCloud Storage under Subscriptions and Apps. And from there you can invite your family members to share your storage.


How to create new groups in iOS contacts app? Title says it all: how can I create new address groups on iOS devices?


How to boot into High Sierra from Windows without holding the alt key? I'm running Sierra on a Mac pro 5.1 and Windows on a second SSD. So far I'm using a non EFI graphic card and I can just switch between systems through startup disk on mac/Boot Camp menu on Windows.

The point is I would like to upgrade to High Sierra but as far as I've been reading I won't be able to boot into macOS from Boot Camp menu.

Anyone knows some workaround for that?

I am pretty sure that you should be able to switch between Windows 10 and macOS through the BootCamp-Utility under Windows. I am running a Mac Pro 5.1 with macOS Catalina(APFS Partition) on my NVMe Drive and Windows 10 on a SATA-SSD and I always switch between Windows and macOS either via 'Startup Disk' under macOS, or use the BootCamp Utility under Windows.

I recommend you looking at this Guide from Crystalidea. There are detailed instructions on installing Windows 10 on a Mac Pro 4.1/5.1 and they also show you how to switch between the operating systems even if you don't have an EFI-compatible GPU. With never versions of macOS (particularly when using APFS) it is recommended to install the iMacPro1,1 bootcamp drivers in addition to the MacPro4.1's/5,1's. Download them via brigadier and after installing you should be able to switch between macOS and Windows.

It is also important to mention that installing Windows 10 via USB(EFI mode) is NOT recommended (X.509 Boot Certificates can corrupt the Mac Pro's firmware). Therefore, installing Windows 10 on an NVME SSD should be avoided. I recommend using a Windows 10 DVD and a SATA SSD or HDD as System Disk.

Instructions for brigadier:

Download the MacPro5.1 bootcamp drivers by using brigadier.exe -m MacPro5,1 in CMD under Windows. (launch cmd from the same folder where brigadier.exe is stored)
Edit Bootcamp.msi via InstEd It! (path is: BootCamp/Drivers/Apple)
Launch modified Bootcamp.msi
Download the iMacPro1,1 bootcamp driver (brigadier.exe -m iMacPro1,1) (iMacPro uses BootCamp 6)
Edit the new BootCamp.msi via InstEd It! (BootCamp 6)
Launch modified BootCamp.msi (BootCamp 6)

A personal recommandation is to modify the BootCamp drivers with InstEd It!.

Modification via InstEd It!

Right-click on the BootCamp.msi (path is: BootCamp/Drivers/Apple) and open it with InstEd It!
Search for LaunchCondition on the left hand side. Right click -> Drop Tables
Click 'Save' and launch the edited BootCamp.msi

You should now be able to install the drivers with the incompatibility error. Do that both for the 4.1/5.1 Mac Pro and iMacPro1,1 bootcamp drivers and you should be good to go.


Calendar notifications on Apple Watch I'm facing issues with iOS Calendar notifications on Apple Watch.

I use Fantastical as my phone / watch calendar. I disabled the iOS Calendar notifications on my iPhone, and set the iOS Calendar watch notifications to mirror iPhone alerts.

Then, I deleted the iOS Calendar app.

The issue, is that I get two notifications every time, one from Fantastical (which is fine), and one from iOS Calendar app (which is wrong).

How can I prevent the iOS/watchOS Calendar app to notify me ever again?

iPhone 7 (iOS 10.3.1)
Apple Watch series 2 (watchOS 3.2)

This seems to be a bug with Bridge.app (Apple Watch app on iOS) not syncing properly.

To force iOS sync all notification settings properly to your Apple Watch follow these steps.

As this takes some time, please try force reboot each device separately first. Check if the bug still persists.

Fix notification issues with an Apple Watch (watchOS 3.2)

iOS App Store: "Re-install" the iOS Calendar app
iOS: In Bridge.app (Apple Watch app on iOS) enable iOS Calendar notifications for Apple Watch
iOS Settings: enable iOS Calendar notifications
iOS: Force reboot your iPhone. Wait for it to connect to your Apple Watch.
watchOS: Force reboot your Apple Watch. Wait for the Watch to connec to your iPhone.
iOS: In Bridge.app (Apple Watch app on iOS) disable iOS Calendar notifications for Apple Watch (without mirroring)
iOS Settings: disable iOS Calendar notifications
iOS: In Bridge.app, unpair your Apple Watch
iOS: Pair your Apple Watch and restore it from your last backup.

Note: After you restore your Apple Watch backup, you may need to re-pair it to your Mac in order to unlock it with the Watch.


Does my Macbook Pro 15" Late 2013 Geekbench 4 score indicate a faulty discrete GPU? According to my Geekbench 4 results, my discrete GPU Open CL score is ZERO.

Additionally, my discrete GPU Metal score is lower than that for the Iris Pro!

Does this mean my duscrete GPU is faulty?

Below are screenshots of my device and results, and here is a link to my Geekbench results online: https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/compute/2415138

Short Answer

Your discrete GPU is almost certainly fine. The reason for the zero score is that Geekbench is unable to fully test this GPU due to reduced NVIDIA support. Because it can't run a full test, you're getting a score of zero, but this does not mean your GPU is faulty.

Long Answer

According to your Geekbench results, you scored a Depth of Field result of zero because it measured 0.00 pixels/sec for that metric. In other words, Geekbench itself is unable to test this metric, rather than there being an issue with your discrete GPU.

This is a known issue. According to Primate Labs:

  This is due to an issue with the NVIDIA GPU drivers provided with macOS. We’ve contacted Apple regarding this issue and Apple’s response is that they are unable to address the issue due to reduced NVIDIA support.

Source: Primate Labs Support: Zero OpenCL Score

I did check to see if there were any drivers you could download directly from NVIDIA, but non are available for macOS.

So, unless you're actually experiencing any problems using your MBP, I would just ignore this score altogether.


Is there a way to get macos to recognize my external hard drive without rebooting the operating system? I have a 4TB external drive connected to my 2015 macbook pro.
It has 2 2TB partitions.
I use 1 for time machine backups and the other for other files.
From time to time when I plug it into the USB slot, it is not recognized.

Not only are the volumes not mounted, but the device itself doesn't seem to be recognized.

>diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         1.0 TB     disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1.0 TB     disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume d                       815.8 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 43.9 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                522.7 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4

Rebooting the machine solves this problem but it is annoying to have to reboot the machine so frequently.

Is there a way to force macos to recognize the device without rebooting?

I'm currently running Mojave 10.14.4 Beta (18E220a)

P.S. I rarely reboot the laptop because I have many desktops loaded with programs and it would take a long time to recreate them.
When moving between home and work, I will eject the volumes and put the machine into sleep mode so that I can continue where I left off.

There is a 3rd party app named Mountain that lets you manage your volumes. The app sells from the developers for $6 but you can download it and try it out. I've been using it for years and I love it. it creates a menu app that lists all volume mounted or not.


Is it possible to have more waypoints in Maps.app on OSX? Is it possible to have waypoints, or multiple destinations, when getting route directions in the Maps.app on OSX Mavericks?

I would like to change the route like one can by dragging the route in Google Maps, or by adding a waypoint of a city I want the route to go through.

Is this accomplishable?

No, so far! Hopefully, apple will add that option to the next update?


How to make emoji bigger in Messages I just upgraded to Mavericks 10.9.3 from Mountain Lion and the emoticons / emoji are quite small in Messages. Sometimes I can't even tell the difference between one and another emoji.

When I open the emoji panel they are bigger, at the size I was accustomed to in 10.8. You can see in the picture the size they appear in a message, as compared to the panel.

I've tried making the font bigger in Message's preferences, but the emoji won't change their size either.

The only workaround I've found is to use accessibility zoom; old man style.

The problem persists in Yosemite 10.10.3 with the new Emoji picker.


How do I enable DNSSec on OSX? (Or DNSCurve) I want to support encrypted IPSec communications, and DANE certs in DNS.  Notably, DNSSSec is a prerequisite is IPSec (secure IP addresses from DNS)

How can I configure my OS X computer to use DNSSec when available, and to refuse incorrect responses.

I understand that DNSSec is best done on a server, and have your workstation point to THAT, however, this also applies to OS X Server.

You should install unbound and have that be your dns resolver on Mac OS X.  Unbound supports DNSSEC.   Next, you need whatever apps you want to use, to be aware of and respect the results of the DNSSEC validation that unbound does.  As an example, SSH can use DNSSEC along with SSHFP to validate the fingerprint of the server that you are connecting to.

Here is a blog post that details how to install unbound. https://spatof.org/blog/2013/8/unbound-on-osx/

As to having IPSec using DANE, I believe that is still something that it being worked out.
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-osterweil-dane-ipsec-02


OSX 10.7 Apache can't do file uploads to local server I have Apache running on another machine on the local network but am unable to do certain things that I can on the live server - namely perform file uploads.

Wordpress tells me this may be because Apache doesn't have permissions to write to the website directories - does anyone know how to fix this?

The website folder is shared on the network also so I can't really go around chmoding it incase I break access for someone else.

Any help appreciated

You are having a directory permissions issue. You should ensure that the folder you are uploading to allows read/write/execute access for the web user (typically _www).

In practice, this means you should change the owner and/or group of the folder, or allow read/write/execute for all:

chmod 777 /path/to/uploads


Daisy chain two monitors on a single thunderbolt port I currently have 3 monitors (Asus VN247H) connected to a mid 2014 15" MBP Retina. Two connections are on thunderbolt (with TB->HDMI adaptors) and one on the HDMI port. I would like to use one of the thunderbolt ports for another peripheral. Is there a way to daisy chain two monitors on a single TB port?

You can chain up to 12 thunderbolt devices of any kind. If you want to connect a non-thunderbolt device, make sure you put it at the end of the chain.
Also keep in mind that Apple, for some reason, doesn't allow 3rd party-non-thunderbolt-displays chained directly after their own Thunderbolt Display. However it will work if another thunderbolt-device is inbetween.


Can Camera+ 2 iPhone app record video while playing music? I'm wondering if Camera+ 2 app support recording video while playing music (via Spotify) in the background?

If not, what app could be used instead?

I've got an answer for the first part of the question: Camera+ 2 doesn't have record video function. It's only to make photos.


How can I screen share/VNC to a Linux system (Ubuntu 16.04) from my MAC (10.11)? I'd like to use screen sharing/I'd like to VNC to a Linux OS desktop from my Mac. Mac OS version: OS X El Capitan, 10.11.15A2301. Ubuntu version: 16.04.5 LTS. I have my Mac configured to accept VNC connections by enabling file sharing, remote login and remote management and I use it to VNC to other Mac systems but I'd like to VNC to a Linux system this time. I'm assuming I'd have to use some kind of sudo apt install command to install something and enable this functionality?

Please do let me know any methods you may be familiar with, thank you.

You don't even need to download any VNC client, as a basic one is built-in.

Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server.

Then in the address bar vnc://<your server ip or hostname>. Something like:

I hope it will help,
Jarek


When updating to macOS Catalina will the default Python installation get removed from my system? Apple will stop shipping scripting languages like Python with macOS starting with Catalina. When I eventually update to macOS Catalina, will the Python (2.7.X), which currently ships with macOS get removed from my system? Or is it only if I do a fresh install to Catalina that I won't get the Python installation anymore?

From Xcode 11 Beta Release Notes:

  Scripting language runtimes such as Python, Ruby, and Perl are included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. In future versions of macOS, scripting language runtimes won’t be available by default, and may require you to install an additional package. If your software depends on scripting languages, it’s recommended that you bundle the runtime within the app. (49764202)

So in Catalina these runtimes will still be available.

Also, from the same document

  Use of Python 2.7 isn’t recommended. This version is included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. Future versions of macOS won’t include Python 2.7. Instead, it’s recommended that you run python3 in Terminal. (51097165)


Not receiving iCloud invites On iCloud.com > Calendar > Preferences > Advanced the "send notification to the app" is enabled

If my colleague invites me to his calendar by going into iPhone > Calendar > Calendars > CalendarName > Invite person I'm not receiving anything.

The same happens to 3 other people he invited. He's inviting me by writing the email I use to login into iCloud, and when he does my name appears automatically with the word "Pending" below it.

Into my iPhone > Calendar > Incoming it's completely empty.

Why is this happening?

Logging in at https://www.icloud.com
Go to Calendar -> (Cog) -> Preference -> Advanced
Beside "Invitations" select "Email To  (Use this option if your primary calendar is not iCloud)".

This may solve your problem if:

Someone with an iDevice is sending you the invite.
You have an iCloud account.


iPod touch 4G is stuck and cannot be restarted My iPod Touch 4G got stuck while syncing with iTunes on a Mac Mini. I canceled the sync using the slider on the iPod but "Canceling sync" remained on the screen. I was able to open some apps, but Music would not launch. I tried to restart the iPod and now it just shows the Apple logo and is stuck on a progress bar. It cannot be rebooted.

Now it only connects with iPhoto, it is possible to import images. But when connecting to iTunes the progress bar is turning around and no content appears.

Is there a way to fix this?
Thank you for your help.

First try to simply reboot your iPod and retry sync.

If you still have the same problem maybe the media database on the iPod is corrupted/broken try to uncheck sync Music, sync Movies, Sync TV Shows, Sync Podcasts and Sync iTunes U.

  ...

Then sync

Once the sync is done recheck the sections you want to sync and sync again.

If this still doesn't work reconnect your iPod to the computer. Interupt any sync that could be starting.

Then restore the iPod.

Follow this procedure.

At the end of the procedure you can chose to restore from a backup. If that works, it's fine.

If restoring from the backup doesn't work. Then retry this procedure and at the end choose to setup a new iPod instead of restoring from a backup.

If you cannot do any of the above. Or if it doesn't work the next step is to try recovery mode.This answer explains how to put your device into recovery mode.

Once in recovery restore your iPod with the latest available firmware.

Once this is done you can try to restore your device from backup... If restoring from backup doesn't work again try this procedure and setup a new iPod.

The last resort solution is the DFU mode. Setup you device to DFU mode as described in the same answer as for recovery mode.

Once this is done again you can try to restore your device from backup... If restoring from backup doesn't work again try this procedure again and setup a new iPod.


Can't partition hard drive - "corrupt", exit code 8 I want to install Windows on a partition of my Mac's SSD. Therefore, I had BootCamp install Windows from an .iso file.
Unfortunately, BootCamp could not partition my drive. The error message doesn't say much; it just asks me to repair my drive via First Aid in Disk Utility.
I ran first aid on the physical disk. Result:

Next, I ran first aid on the logical volume. Result:

As suggested, I decided to run first aid from recovery. Since Disk Utility in recovery mode only lets me run first aid on the physical disk, the result is as expected: everything's ok.
Then, I tried manually creating a partition to boot into using a bootable USB. Disk Utility gave the following output:

Now, I'm not sure how serious I should take the message "the volume xxx is corrupt and needs to be repaired", since the first aid on the physical disk says, everything is fine.
Any idea what's causing this and how I can resolve it?
If possible, I'd rather not reformat the drive, except if it's necessary.

Edit:
As requested by @klanomath, I ran the command sudo gpt -r show disk0 in terminal. This is the output:
    start       size  index  contents
        0          1         PMBR
        1          1         Pri GPT header
        2         32         Pri GPT table
       34          6
       40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
   409640  975425848      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
975835488    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
977105024          3
977105027         32         Sec GPT table
977105059          1         Sec GPT header

Edit #2:
In internet recovery mode, I ran the command diskutil list, which returned this list:

I was not sure whether I should use disk1 or disk2, so I tried running diskutil verifyVolume diskX on both of them. For disk1, I received a message saying invalid request. For disk2, the following result and error message was displayed:

I then tried running the command diskutil repairVolume diskX, again for both disks. Same error message for disk1, following output for disk2:

Your main volume has a minor error (orphaned blocks - invalid volume free block count) which usually can be fixed with diskutil repairVolume diskIdentifier entered in Terminal.app booted from another volume or disk.

Either boot to Recovery Mode (cmdR while booting) or Internet Recovery Mode (altcmdR while booting).
In the menubar > Utilities open Terminal
Enter diskutil list to get the disk identifier of your main volume.

with CoreStorage disabled that's usually disk0s2
with CoreStorage enabled that's usually disk2 or in the upper tenth (e.g. disk17). It's the one with the (internal, virtual) supplement.

If it wasn't mounted enter diskutil cs list to get the Logical Volume UUID and try to mount it with diskutil cs unlockVolume UUID (replace UUID here with the UUID found previously). Repeat diskutil list to get the disk identifier.

Now check the volume with diskutil verifyVolume diskXsY (normal volume) or diskutil verifyVolume diskX (CoreStorage volume).
Then try to repair the volume with diskutil repairVolume diskXsY (normal volume) or diskutil repairVolume diskX (CoreStorage volume).


Seeing these strange fonts in Safari only What is this? copying and pasting this text into a text editor revealed perfect english. Why are they shown this way in Safari 9.0.2 on OS X 10.11.2

OS X builds cache files from the fonts installed on your system. Now and again these cache files can get corrupted.

Try running the following command in a Terminal window (you will be prompted for your password) and rebooting. This will remove these cache files; forcing OS X to re-generate them from scratch.

sudo atsutil databases -remove

From the atsutil man page:

databases
     will remove fontd System or User databases along with any cache
     files. Removing databases may cause the loss of font registration state:
     fonts activated outside the standard font directories, font faces dis-
     abled, and font libraries. New databases will be regenerated from fonts
     installed the standard font directories after the user logs out,
     restarts, or the fontd server is restarted.

databases [-remove | -removeUser]
    -remove remove fontd databases for active user and system (used when no
    one is logged in and some background processes).
    -removeUser remove fontd databases for the active user only.