Why do I have a "HD" in my bootcamp screen and not macOS or similar I have a MacBook 12 with Big Sur. I have also a Bootcamp installation with Microsoft Windows 10. When I open the bootmenu I have the following screen:
I don’t know why this label HD shows instead of macOS or similar. Selecting that icon starts MacOS with a differently named disk on the desktop and OS.

How can I change this label?

The icon label is stored in the APFS volume Preboot in the same container as Big Sur.
The steps to change the icon label for Big Sur (macOS 11.1) is given below. Some of the steps are unique to Big Sur. Therefore, the steps may need to be adapted before being applied to previous versions of macOS.

While booted to Big Sur, get the name of the startup disk. From the menu bar, select →About This Mac. A popup similar to the one shown below will appear. In this example, the name of the startup disk is MyBigSur.

Next, you will need to boot to built-in macOS Recovery for Big Sur.

For Mac computers with an Intel processor:
From the menu bar, select →Restart….
Press and hold the option key immediately after your Mac begins to restart.
Keep holding until the Mac Startup Manager icons appear.
If your Mac is using a firmware password, you're prompted to enter the password.
Press the ⌘+R key combination.
If requested, enter the password for an administrator account.

For Mac computers with Apple silicon:
From the menu bar, select →Shut Down….
Press and hold the power button on your Mac until you see “Loading startup options.”
Select Options, then select Continue.
If requested, enter the password for an administrator account.

From the menu bar select Utilities→Terminal. A Terminal application window will appear.

Enter a command whose output can be used to determine the APFS container identifier and the APFS volume group UUID for the startup disk. Below is the command used in this example.

Note: Replace name MyBigSur with your own value.

diskutil info MyBigSur | grep -e Group -e "APFS Container"

Below is the example output. From the output, the identifier and UUID can be determined to be disk1 and 99740195-F728-458E-85A4-2E42A7932CB4, respectively.
   APFS Container:            disk1
   APFS Volume Group:         99740195-F728-458E-85A4-2E42A7932CB4

Enter a command whose output can be used to determine the identifier for APFS volume with the name Preboot. Below is the command used in this example.

Note: Replace identifier disk1 with your own value.

diskutil list disk1 | grep Preboot

Below is the example output. From the output, the identifier can be determined to be disk1s2.
           2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 297.6 MB   disk1s2

Enter a command to mount the APFS volume with the name Preboot. Below is the command used in this example.

Note: Replace identifier disk1s2 with your own value.

diskutil mount disk1s2

Below is example output.
Volume Preboot on disk1s2 mounted

Enter the commands that will change the icon label. Below are the commands used in this example to change the icon label to macOS 11.1.

Note: Replace directory 99740195-F728-458E-85A4-2E42A7932CB4 and icon label macOS 11.1 with your APFS volume group UUID and desired icon label, respectively.

cd /Volumes/Preboot/99740195-F728-458E-85A4-2E42A7932CB4/System/Libary/CoreServices/
bless --folder . --label "macOS 11.1"
echo -n "macOS 11.1" > .disk_label.contentDetails
chown :wheel .disk_label*

From the menu bar, select →Restart to restart the Mac.

References
Mac computers with Apple silicon
Mac startup key combinations
Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac
Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon


Use a Mac App Store free app without having to associate/login to Apple ID? The scenario:

I'm working on a friend's Mac. To proceed with the task at hand, I need a specific tool. This tool is available for free (and does not use in app purchases) from the Mac App Store, but isn't available as a direct download from the developer.

I do not wish to log into my own Apple ID on my friend's Mac, for a number of reasons: having to deal with de-associating and re-associating my friend's ID with his machine, the fact that there is an apparent limit as to how many Macs can be logged into the App Store under a single account, etc.

My friend is not present and thus I do not have his Apple ID password to download it under his account. It wouldn't be a reasonable request to me to ask my friend to provide his Apple ID password to me. (Assume that before giving me his machine, my friend set his local system password to something generic so I would be able to know it, but has obvious good reasons to not do this with his Apple ID password.)

Another scenario:

I am at work and just received a Mac. The IT management says that employees are permitted to install any apps onto the machine as long as they are free. (So, for example, I'd be allowed to install Homebrew, or stuff from SourceForge, etc.) However, the machine is logged into a "corporate" Apple ID, and thus I cannot re-associate it to my ID even temporarily. Also, I would not be able to "purchase" the free app under the corporate ID as I would not know its password.

In both scenarios, I do have local administrator rights to the machine.

In these scenarios, is there a way to use the free app from the Mac App Store on the machine in question, without having to associate that machine with my own Apple ID, or purchase the app under someone else's account?

An Apple ID in OS X is attached to the account, not to the machine so you can create a new account, use your Apple ID, use the app, then delete the account when finished.

Another alternative is to use another Apple ID.  There is nothing stating that you can't have more than one Apple ID.  Just create one for when you are doing tech work like what you are doing now and use that one.

Finally, you can ask your friend to sign in and use his account so you can download the app under his profile.


iPhone 6 & iOS 9 - ad hoc app will not install I'm having problems installing our developed app (distributed via ad-hoc) to iOS9.

The ipa installs and works fine on iPhone 4 and on iPad 2 (iOS 9.1) but nothing seems to work for iPhone 6 with iOS 9.1.

I've tried to install it with iTunes - install stops at ~60-75% and app icons turns grey, then tapping it just says waiting under the icon and nothing else.
Tried to download ipa file from website via safari - safari says it can't download this kind of file.
Re-build and archived, selected distribute using ad-hoc and installing via iTune. Nothing happens - app icon won't even appear in iPhone and iTunes says installing next to app, sync icon in iPhone disappears after a second. The same ipa works fine on iPhone 4 & iPad 2.

iPhone 6 & iPad 2, iOS version: 9.1 (13B143)

iPhone 4, iOS version: 7.1.2 (11D257)

Nothing shows up in device logs (xCode - Window - devices - device logs). I tried to restart between the installs to ensure nothing was cached. Tried to hard reset (?, on/off button + home button). I'm at the end of my wits, nothing seems to work and I it won't tell me why it doesn't work.

I've been working with this problem the whole day now and I've cleared few things up. First, ad-hoc deployment method is not what I'm actually looking for, in my case correct method is enterprise deployment. I'll get back to it later.

I think my problem was in provisioning profiles, because when I added iPhone 6 to devices list (in apple developer center) and included it in provisioning profile, the app installs just fine. Although, when I disabled iPad from devices list it still worked, weird.

I needed to distribute the app outside of the App Store but I wasn't really sure what deployment method to use. Now I think I finally made some sense in them.

Ad-hoc deployment

meant to use for testing and in-house apps
distributed outside the app store
devices on which the app is used must be added to devices list in apple developer center and selected in provisioning profile
maximum of 100 devices

Enterprise deployment

meant for in-house, private apps (eg. intranet)
distributed outside the app store
unlimited devices

Difference between them is that ad-hoc is available for everyone while enterprise is only available to developer or team which is under enterprise account. Enterprise should be registered by the company which will be using the private app (eg. intranet app) and add developer (or agency) under it. This way they don't depend on each other and can keep finances separate.

I'm sure I've still misunderstood something, so if you find any incorrect information here, please do tell.


Can the display casing from a 13" MBP be used as a replacement on a 13" Aluminum Unibody? Can the display casing for a 13" MacBook Pro be used in lieu of the corresponding part for a 13" Aluminum Unibody MacBook??

Both screens have identical specifications and appear to have the internal connectors. Also, with the new aluminum construction heralding being a new design, it's doubtful that Apple made major changes to the frame or significantly modified the internals when they refreshed the old aluminum unibody MacBook.

That being said, I don't have access to either of these screens, and a fairly innocuous difference (say a difference of an inch on one of the internal cables) could render them incompatible. Another opinion or, better yet, first-hand experience, would be greatly appreciated.

No - the cable routing for the pro comes to the left side and the MacBook on the right. Check fixit.com for the details - it matters if you have a 2009/2010/2011 MacBook pro - each part is slightly different.


Dictionary App constantly downloading dictionaries I've been unable to use my Dictionary App for a few days, as it consistently says that it is downloading the dictionaries. I can't find out why it started downloading them again (it already had them), or how to check on the state of a download, or where it is downloading from. I am at a loss as to how to diagnose this. Any ideas?

This kept happening to me too, again with the recent update to 10.13.4. In dictionary preferences, I had selected multiple dictionaries. Turning them off, restarting the app, and turning them back on resolved the issue.


How do I replace a value in an plist array using plutil? I'm trying to change a value in an array using plutil, but I get the error

  Failed to insert value new value 2 at key path PARENT.0.KEY_IN_ARRAY with error -[__NSCFConstantString characterAtIndex:]: Range or index out of bounds

Here's a sample plist to illustrate the problem:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>SIMPLE</key>
  <string>value1</string>
  <key>PARENT</key>
  <array>
    <dict>
      <key>KEY_IN_ARRAY</key>
      <string>value2</string>
    </dict>
    <dict>
      <key>KEY_IN_ARRAY</key>
      <string>value3</string>
    </dict>
  </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Modifying the SIMPLE value is easy:

$ plutil -extract SIMPLE xml1 -o - sample.plist
<?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">
<string>value1</string>
</plist>

$ plutil -replace SIMPLE -string "new value 1" sample.plist

$ plutil -extract SIMPLE xml1 -o - sample.plist
<?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">
<string>new value 1</string>
</plist>

Getting the array value works fine:

$ plutil -extract PARENT.0.KEY_IN_ARRAY xml1 -o - sample.plist
<?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">
<string>value2</string>
</plist>

but I get the error when I try to modify this value:

$ plutil -replace PARENT.0.KEY_IN_ARRAY -string "new value 2" sample.plist
sample.plist: Could not modify plist, error: Failed to insert value new
value 2 at key path PARENT.0.KEY_IN_ARRAY with error -[__NSCFConstantString
characterAtIndex:]: Range or index out of bounds

I think PlistBuddy is the recommended tool here:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :PARENT:0:KEY_IN_ARRAY valueX" sample.plist

The command modifies the value of KEY_IN_ARRAY in the first dict of PARENT. The one in the second dict would be changed with:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :PARENT:1:KEY_IN_ARRAY valueY" sample.plist

The -c switch executes the command directly. The file mustn't be a binary plist!


Can't get 1680x1050 resolution with Macbook Pro ~2009 and Snow Leopard I have a Late 2009 Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard (with all updates installed).

I have started my move from Windows to OS X as my everyday computing platform and I am trying to connect my external Samsung Monitor (that was used with Windows) to Macbook Pro using the mini DisplayPort to VGA connector.

For the life of me, I can't get OS X to set the monitor's native resolution of 1680x1050 setup. When the external display is auto-detected, the resolution is set up as 800x600.

I have tried using two different mini DisplayPort to VGA connectors and separate VGA cable to rule out the connector/cable issue. The monitors work fine as I have been using them with Windows 8 and they work perfectly fine (all autodectected).

My monitor's native resolution is 1680x1050 at 60Hz.

The issue is probably the VGA adapter (not faulty; just not capable of that high a resolution).  I think you need a DVI adapter to get the higher resolutions.


Can I use the Sites folder for whatever I want? Not realizing that OS X creates a ~/Sites folder when you enable web sharing, I started putting my sites for MAMP within a ~/Sites directory, which did not exist on my new laptop. Is this ok, as long as I don't enable web sharing? Even if I did enable it, would something happen to the other files I put in there?

It's fine, just realize the built in apache server will share the files you have placed there unless you change the apple supplied httpd.conf should you start up web sharing.


Software update never completes I have an eMac (PPC G4) with 512 MB RAM, running 10.5.8. When I run Software Update, the "Checking for new software..." process never completes. I have tried deleting my /Library/Caches/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate/Cache.db and running Software Update again, with no luck. I have also tried Repairing Disk Permissions from Disk Utility, and that hasn't worked either. Both of those suggestions I got from here

Any suggestions??

Try moving the contents of /Library/Receipts somewhere else. I have seen some weird problems caused by corrupted files there a couple of times. Also make sure apps like Little Snitch do not intervene in the process.


Former employee's iPad reset I was given an iPad owned by a previous employee. How do I reset the iPad to like new conditions. I do not have the password to the Apple ID.

There is a nice set of procedures to follow:

Can't log out of someone else's find my iphone without their icloud password

If you can go to the settings app and erase all content and settings, you don't need to mess with Activation Lock or contacting Apple or the employee. If not, then you can start with the linked question for a playbook to solve your dilemma.

Here are the options to bypass Activation Lock:

How can I bypass Activation Lock?

In your case, your Apple Sadler rep or service organization will need to verify that it is a company owned device unless you have an MDM that uses device enrollment program (Apple DEP).


Problems dowloading iphone-user-guide-for-ios-10 I recently upgraded my iPhone5, and want to download the iphone-user-guide-for-ios-10.

I found in iTunes on my MacBook Pro running 10.12, and it shows "Downloading", but has been doing this for hours. It is only 23MB.

There seems to be no progress report.

I also tried iBooks (which I use, but have never used the iBooks Store), and clicking on iBooks Store does absolutely nothing.

How should I be getting the User Guide?

EDIT:-

I successfully downloaded on my iPad, but could not transfer to the Mac.

I booted up an old MacBook running 10.7.5 and iTunes informed me I had already "purchased" this, but let me download a copy. Of course I could not open it on the old Mac, so I copied to the MacBook Pro running 10.12, and could open in iBooks.

I would still like to fix the problem, so I don't have to go through this rigmarole.

Apparently I don't have a problem.

The iBooks Store button in iBooks does nothing, apparently I should purchase Books through iTunes!

EXCEPT for User Guides - These can be accessed through the iTunes Help menu.

The download of the Guide I found on iTunes apparently does nothing, because they have already been downloaded!! - even though it says downloading for hours!

  Thank You Apple for such a simple, obvious, well documented, easy to use application.


Script that outputs number of emails in Mail.app inbox I'd like to have a command-line script I can invoke at the Terminal that will output the total number of messages in my "Work" Inbox in mail.app. Usage would look like this:

$ inbox-count
48

What does the Applescript code look like to do something like this?

If you want to get the number of messages in said inbox, the short form of the code is

tell application "Mail" to ¬
  get the count of messages of mailbox "INBOX" of account "Work"

If you want the global inbox, then you can use get the count of messages of inbox instead.  If you just want unread messages, then you can use get the unread count of mailbox "INBOX" of account "Work".

And if you want a more complete script, this will do the trick:

#!/usr/bin/osascript
property defaultAccount : "Work"
property defaultMailbox : "INBOX"

on run args
  set justUnread to false
  set theAccount to missing value
  set theMailbox to missing value

  if defaultAccount = missing value then set defaultAccount to "-g"
  if defaultMailbox = missing value then set defaultMailbox to "INBOX"

  set theCount to the count of args

  if theCount > 0 then
    if item 1 of args = "-u" then
      set justUnread to true
      set theCount to theCount - 1
      set args to the rest of args
    else if item 1 of args = "-ug" or item 1 of args = "-gu" then
      set justUnread to true
      set item 1 of args to "-g"
    else if theCount > 1 and ¬
            item 1 of args = "-g" and item 2 of args = "-u" then
      set justUnread to true
      set theCount to theCount - 1
      set args to the rest of args
      set item 1 of args to "-g"
    end if
  end if

  tell application "Mail"
    if theCount = 0 then
      set theAccount to defaultAccount
      set theMailbox to defaultMailbox
    else if theCount = 1 then
      set theAccount to item 1 of args
      set theMailbox to defaultMailbox
    else if theCount = 2 then
      set theAccount to item 1 of args
      set theMailbox to item 2 of args
    else
      error character id 10 ¬
          & "Usage: inbox-count [-u] [[account] mailbox]" & character id 10 ¬
          & "       inbox-count [-u] -g [mailbox]"
    end if

    set mailboxValue to missing value
    if theAccount = "-g" then
      if theMailbox = "INBOX" then
        set mailboxValue to inbox
      else
        set mailboxValue to mailbox theMailbox
      end if
    else
      set mailboxValue to mailbox theMailbox of account theAccount
    end if

    if justUnread then
      return the unread count of mailboxValue
    else
      return the count of messages of mailboxValue
    end if
  end tell
end run

Most of that is command-line parsing, because that's a pain to get right in AppleScript.  But the upshot is that with that script in your path as inbox-count, then the following commands work:

inbox-count to check the number of messages in the default mailbox/account pair.
inbox-count -g to check the number of messages in the global (combined) inbox.
inbox-count Play to check the number of messages in the default mailbox for the account "Play".
inbox-count -g Important to check the number of messages in the global mailbox "Important".
inbox-count Play Facebook to check the number of messages in the mailbox "Facebook" for the account "Play".

You can also prepend a -u to any of those commands (e.g., inbox-count -u, inbox-count -ug, inbox-count -u Play Facebook) to just get the unread count.  To change the default account and mailbox, change the lines property defaultAccount : "Work" and property defaultMailbox : "INBOX".  If defaultAccount is missing value or "-g", then the default will be to not use an account; if defaultMailbox is missing value or "INBOX", then the default will be to either use a mailbox named "INBOX" or, if the account is "-g", to use the global inbox.


1 pixel gap between window top and menu bar MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

I have a 1 pixel gap between the top of the window and menu bar and I can't move the window close to the menu bar.

Is there any way to solve this problem?

This appears to be the design of the Safari window.  Safari (and other Apple apps) have a grey shadow border in dark theme and black in light theme :

It seems the color of the border is unaffected by the background - here is dark mode with colorful wallpaper and the border is still grey.

Whereas Firefox keeps a black border for both themes and so it doesn't show in dark mode.

Looking at other apps there seems to be a mix.  Word acts like Safari while ITerm2 acts like Firefox.

There doesn't seem to be any way to remove this in Mojave - see this question.  Older fixes/tweaks (like Toggle OSX shadows) don't work any more.


Can I continue to use Win XP in Boot Camp when I upgrade to Lion? I bought my MacBook in mid-2008 with Leopard (10.5.2) pre-installed. On it, I installed (Japanese) Windows XP using BootCamp. I am now up to Snow Leopard (10.6.7) and I can continue to use Windows XP (currently at SP3) with no problems. If I upgrade to Lion, will I still be able to use my existing Windows XP installation? (N.B. If I can't, I shan't upgrade.)

The bootcamp partition is not affected. The only thing Apple did different in Lion is that the bootcamp drivers packaged with Lion installations only work with Windows 7, however, if you already have the Snow Leopard drivers installed on you XP side nothing will change...if you need to install a new bootcamp partition you will need to get the bootcamp drivers from your Snow Leopard DVD.


Change directory in Terminal if working folder moved to Trash (in interactive shell)? So occasionally I will be working in zsh, in an interactive shell, and will shift to the Finder (or Path Finder) and while there will throw the folder, that is the current working directory in the Terminal, into the Trash.  I'll then later go back to the shell for something else, and find that the shell is still in the now-deleted folder.

Is there a way where zsh can figure out that, if the folder's parent has changed to become ".Trash", it should, say, change its directory (in my case, ideally to the desktop folder)?  But that it should only do this in an interactive shell, as opposed to the middle of a shell script or other app?

I can Google and implement but haven't been able to find the right terms, and am more sort of what I call a splicer or a kludger than any sort of real programmer.  Hoping someone's thought along these lines before.

No, there's no way for Zsh to automatically notice that while you are not actively using it.
But what does it matter? You can just type cd to go back to your home folder.
Update
All right, here's a real solution that I've tested and it works. Thanks to @nohillside for the encouragement!
autohome() {
  # If the present working dir doesn't exist...
  if [[ ! -d $PWD ]]; then
    # Go back to ~
    cd $HOME

    # If the line editor is active, redraw the prompt.
    zle && zle .reset-prompt
  fi
}

# This will call the function above as soon as you start typing.
autoload -Uz add-zle-hook-widget
add-zle-hook-widget line-pre-redraw autohome


Central admin-managed contact list for iPhone what is the solution to provide a group of iPhone users (personally owned devices with users own AppleIDs) with an group-contact list that is centrally managed by an admin (i.e. the group contact list on phone always being sync'ed with central admin version)? E.g. consultants in a workgroup being able to get hold of each other and ensuring contact list is always up-to-date.

Most existing contact-related apps don't seem to have admin/sync functionality to other accounts, just like they try to sync with contact list on the phone which should be an option but not a requirement. (examples on contact list are: ContactSync, Contacts Sync, Get Contacts, Circall, ContactBox, ZXContacts, aContacts+, ...).

A Google account and Contacts could be used for "admin service".

I have been unsuccessful trying to set up Google to delegate contacts, though this may solve some issues.

Has anyone had the same challenge before?

Thanks!

Rune

Hi Rune,

Using [ContactBox][1] a person can share a list of contacts with a group of people/devices. By default anyone the list was shared with can update the list but the list admin (the person who created the list) can prevent the other group members from editing. Any changes made to the list are synched to all group members. What is synched is a list and not an "account" and you can create as many lists as you want and share each one with a different set of people.

Hope that helps, Gal
Disclosure: I the founder of ContactBox


Issue with multiple desktops I have a mac mini with two monitors. On the main monitor I normally keep two desktops and on the second there is only one. I have been noticing that the main monitor seems to add more desktops by itself.

So I am not sure if I might be pushing some sort of shortcut to create another desktop or if there is actually something else happening.

If anyone has any ideas or if if you have had the same issue and fixed it I'd really appreciate your help.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18757?locale=en_US

This link explains it. Its a new(ish) feature. You can zoom to mission control (f3) or for those with a MacBook, and you have new haptic track pad, you just three finger scroll up and if you move your cursor to the top right corner of your screen you will see a plus sign appear. Click on this to add a new desktop.

You can get rid of it by Going back to mission control again (f3), where you will see all open apps, and you can just close it (them) by hovering your cursor over it and an x will appear on top left corner it, or anything else, out from there. If you're in mission control it's easy to inadvertently create additional desktops if you thro your cursor up out of your way.., I've done it a few times.

It can be super useful when you want one open for work and one for play, but that I guess is not the point. Easy to get and get rid of though. Many good publications on how to make most of the feature if you ever want to.


Is handoff / continuity (iOS 8+) supported in iTunes to seamlessly switch playback between Mac and iOS? I'd love to be able to control my currently playing iPhone song from my Mac. Does anyone know if handoff / continuity is supported in iOS 8 or 9 Music.app?

Handoff is not supported in Music.app, however your use case (control media playback on your iPhone from a Mac) would be more along the lines of what the Apple Remote app does, just in reverse.

Tunes Remote allows you to control one device from another device or a Mac. I have not used the software, so YMMV.


Where can I purchase a mini-vga to HDMI adapter for older macbook pro? I have an older macbook pro - purchased in 2006.  Where can I purchase a mini-vga to HDMI adapter so I can watch movies from my macbook pro on my tv?
Thanks!

You can't.

VGA is an analog transmission standard, HDMI is a digital transmission standard. It's not just a matter of changing the connector, the signals they carry are fundamentally different.

You could look in to a USB 2.0 -> HDMI adaptor. Something like the ones on this page. Though how well those work depend largely on the graphics card in your Mac. The older Macs may not have enough horsepower in their graphics chipsets to drive a second display over USB at anything close to a decent resolution to use on a high definition television.


Treat external HD like internal Out of necessity I decided to migrate all my personal/work data to a new external hard drive (HFS, encrypted) and left the internal HD for the OS.

Because of the fact, that I am now fully reliant on this external HD for the iTunes/iPhoto libraries and numerous other things I need to ensure that this drive won't get accidentally ejected/erased and doesn't show up as an option e.g. in the Boot Camp installer creation wizard.

To make it clear - only this specific drive needs this special treatment, the rest (like flash drives) should be treated as usual.

Is it possible to target this via some Mount Point setting, perhaps?

I was thinking possibly have a look at fstab or chflags. Although these methods may not achieve exactly what you need but they may help to avoid unwanted or accidental interaction with the external drive.

One caveat that I have found with chflags is that you don't seem to have Finder access to the disk unless you unhide it. It does support having an iPhoto Library on the external disk. I tried this by making an test iPhoto library on a disk without chflags hidden and then hiding it with chflags nohidden. iPhoto can access the disk but it does not show up anywhere besides the apps such as Disk Utility.

To see the chflags options do:

man chflags in the Terminal.app

Here are two articles relating to fstab and chflags that you might find interesting and possibly help you achieve what you have described:

http://www.macissues.com/2014/08/27/how-to-hide-a-hard-drive-partition-on-your-mac/
http://julipedia.meroh.net/2007/01/hide-volume-in-mac-os-x.html

As far as accidentally un-mounting goes I guess if you have something open on that drive the system will automatically protect it. You might be able to use a LaunchDaemon of some sort to detect requests to unmount a drive also. On the other hand, there is no protection against physically pulling out the cable.

I hope these help.


Where are the Flash temp/cache files in safari 9? They move every version Safari 9.0.2 under yosemite and el capitan: looking for where the cached flash video files are stored. It seems they change location every time there is an OS or Safari update. And are they accessible via Web Inspector when I have the page loaded/video running?

In the past it used to be possible to find cached Flash video files and retain them.

However that doesn't seem possible in recent versions. There are a few "Cache" folders created if you install Flash Player (or use the one bundled with Google Chrome), but when a Flash video is actually playing the data appears to be written temporarily to a location similar to /private/var/folders/t5/zp1103fj4h924mvzysl1m9wh0000gn/T/FlashTmp.T6ja08 but it doesn't stick around long.


Create custom text transformation In a text box, I can right click and select Transformations > Make Uppercase.

Is it possible to create my own text transformations? a super simplified example would be to wrap the selected text in parenthesis.

Make an Automator service which accepts text and use the following AppleScript action:

on run {input}
    return "(" & (input as string) & ")"
end run


How do I enable iTunes Match? I've upgraded to iTunes 10.5.1, which the release notes claim includes the widely publicized iTunes Match feature, but I can't find any way to purchase and enable it. How do I enable iTunes Match?

If you're located outside the US, iTunes Match is unavailable for the time being, due to content licensing deals.

When iTunes Match was first announced I believe Apple stated they would be working on bringing it to more countries, but these negotiations always take some time. Hard to give a definite timeframe unless Apple announces something.


iMac - Can't install a Supplemental Update (10.8.5) Just the other day, I had an iMac issue resolved by a AskDifferent member, but part of the solution pushed me to go from 10.8.4 to 10.8.5.  I am locked to 10.8, due to applications I use that are dependent on it, but I felt it was a good idea to finally take it to the last update of 10.8, which is 10.8.5.  I did it through the 10.8.5 combo installer versus the app store updater.  I also installed the latest security updates.  Now, I'm trying to install the Supplemental update for 10.8.5 and I'm getting an error message.  Here it is:

Any idea what's going on here?  Much appreciated.

As the dates on the pages for both the Combo & Supplemental updates are identical, the chances are the Supplemental may have been later rolled into the Combo. The Supplemental was released on 3 Oct 2013, which is the last modified date on both pages.

Check About this Mac > system report > software [names may be slightly different, I've not seen 10.8 in a while]
10.8.5 should show build number 12F37, the Supplemental 12F45 in brackets after the System Version.

Initial research done using Wikipedia : OS X Mountain Lion

After comments & further research, Build 12F25260 is a specific build for iMacs with NVidia GPUs & does include the Supplemental update.

Refs :

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7292272?start=0&tstart=0
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/aug15/081715.html
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/89564/en-uk


Are there any “sugars” for Espresso which add brace/bracket highlighting to JavaScript editing? By “brace/bracket highlighting” I mean: when you select an opening or closing curly brace or a bracket while editing JavaScript in Espresso, the brace/bracket you’ve selected and its corresponding closing brace/bracket is highlighted with some visual cue (bold, background colour, anything).

If not, would it be possible to develop such a sugar?

As far as I can see, there is not. Developing such a Sugar might not be possible from my (very limited) understanding of the Espresso plugin documentation – JavaScript text Actions look like the best match, but the API does not seem to offer the kind of access needed for automatic highlighting. Note I haven’t delved into the ObjectiveC plugin docs (because there are none – the headers included with Espresso are the docs, and my understanding of ObjectiveC and Cocoa is slim, to say the least).


Max length a USB-C charge cable can be for a Mac Mini 2018? The cables from Apple come in only a 1 and 2 meter length. Can you use longer and still power the Mac Mini 2018 properly?
The Mac Mini 2018 according to the Apple website and AppleCare uses a
USB-C Charge Cable that is connected to a USB-C Power Adapter:
https://www.apple.com/shop/mac/mac-accessories/power-cables?page=1&f=macmini_thdblt3_late2018&fh=4595%2B4a95

No USB-C cable powers a Mac mini properly. USB is direct current, low voltage.

Mini operates from mains power of 110 or 220 VAC.


Three finger drag not working on trackpad I just got the new macbook and the three finger drag does not work in a limited area of the trackpad (between center and top left). I've got a new one and it has the same problem.

Did anyone find the same issue?

yes same here. I had a senior adviser on the phone and apparently they are aware of it, and working to resolve the issue. Should be fixed in the next update.


Is there an iPad app that lets me program animations? I've started using my iPad for my lectures (giving them, not listening to them) and it's working Just Fine ( Is there a PDF annotation app for the iPad with minimal (or no!) annoying page transitions?).  But I want more.

Sometimes, I like to have a little animation to demonstrate something, such as a pendulum under different conditions (friction, coupling, that sort of thing).  Prior to using my iPad, I wrote these using processing which is a set of Java libraries that make it easy to write the sort of thing that I want.  It has the bonus that I can export the programs as java applets to put on the web.

I'd like to be able to do this on the iPad.  Since it doesn't support Java, I can't just run the applets in a web browser (which would be the easiest).  So I need a different system.  Initially, I thought that this was a hopeless task since programming directly on the iPad seemed not possible.

But then I ran across iLuaBox, Luna, and PyPad which seem to suggest that it is possible to have a limited programming environment on the iPad.

But searching for programming stuff on the App Store is fairly tricky as one gets a whole host of books on the topic and things that turn out to be just text editors (and searching for it off the App Store just turns up stuff about programming for the iPad).  And I'd like to get a sense of all that's out there before experimenting since it seems certain that I'll have to learn a new programming language (and I'm no programmer).

So what apps are there that would allow me to write a simple graphical animation program?

A pendulum is a good example of what would be needed.  It should:

Have basic graphical capabilities: "draw a pendulum of length l at angle alpha"
Be able to do basic maths: "the position of the pendulum at time t+h is computed from its position and velocity at time t by applying Newton's Laws"
Have basic programming capabilities: loops, conditionals, variables, and so forth.

One that I have found that would seem to have all of that is this one.  I have to admit that the temptation to write my animations on an iPad using CBM64 BASIC is very strong (plus it doesn't have such a steep learning curve as, say, Lua since once long ago I used to program in BASIC on a CBM64), but if there's something a little more practical then I might just find the strength to resist.

You may want to take a look at Codify. It's meant for creating games, but it should do animations just fine.


How do I stop my iPod from playing audio books when I 'Shuffle Songs' On my main menu in my iPod, I frequently click 'Shuffle Songs' to play randomly through my songs.  It manages not to include my podcasts but every once in a while will play a chapter from an audio book.

Is there a way to stop the Audio Books from mixing in with the music?

I have an iPod nano if that matters.

In iTunes, view info on the problem audio books and ensure "skip when shuffling" is checked.


Does a Diagnostics & Usage entry imply an app was installed? If an app has an entry in Diagnostics & Usage on a particular day, does that imply that it was installed on that day?

The entries you're seeing in Diagnostics and Usage are crash logs for applications on your device.

If a crash log exists for an app, then yes it means it was installed on your device at the time of the crash.


A command line utility to test the status of files in iCloud drive directory Is there a command-line program that determines the status of files (uploaded, uploading, ineligible, etc) in the iCloud drive?

For example, I would like to be able to use a program such as find to get a list of files that have not been successfully uploaded to iCloud drive.

You can use brctl status.

It outputs alot, but you can grep pretty easily, for example brctl status |grep needs-sync-up |cut -d'"' -f2 will show you all files waiting for being uploaded (without their path), or use brctl status |grep 'somefile.ext' for checking the status of somefile.ext.

See brctl --help for more.


When MDM certificates expire, can I still use my iPhone? My dad gave me an old iPhone 7 from his employer. When the MDM certificates expire, will  I still be able to use my phone?

I asked him to un-enroll my phone, but he couldn’t find it in his system.

I would suggest you do the following things to manage it:

Your dad's company MDM must have synced with Apple Business Manager and as your dad couldn't get it in MDM, then can you ask him to check it in ABM and release the device from there. (assuming your dad has a control on it). https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/apple-business-manager/asmec4d28461/web
Have you checked whether you can remove the profile or not as you couldn't find the device in the portal? Assuming that the device is still there, in the MDM portal, there must be an option "Allow MDM Profile Removal" which you can check and then manually remove the MDM profile from your iPhone.

I guess these two methods could be ideal at this moment for you.


Types of memory: Why do private and shared not add up to real memory? Answers to previous questions define types of real memory used by a process roughly as follows:

Real memory: the amount of physical memory allocated to a process (eg the number of pages)
Real shared memory: the amount of physical memory shared between multiple processes
Real private memory: the amount of physical memory not shared with other processes

I would have expected that real = real_shared + real_private, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I've noticed that real memory can be more or less than shared + private, depending on the process.
Can someone please clarify the differences between these types of memory and why they don't add up?

MacOS Catalina 10.16.6

The answer to your question is given in Mac OS X Process Memory Statistics  by Mike Ash:

RSIZE: The total amount of physical RAM used by this process. (This is not equal to RPRVT + RSHRD because they measure address space, but this measures actual memory.)

Note :

RSIZE is Real memory
RSHRD is Real shared memory
RPRVT is Real private memory

You can find these abreviations by hovering the mouse on the Activity Monitor column headers.


What have I done to Preview in Yosemite? I used to open the annotations toolbar and I could select, for example, the arrow tool. Then I would click from A to B and draw the arrow.

Now when I click the arrow tool it plops an arrow on the screenshot and I have to manually drag both ends.

This seems like extra work compared to the old way, what am I likely to have done to have caused this and what can I do to fix it?

I just tested this. Clicking the Arrow tool does indeed simply add an arrow instead of having you drag it out first.

I rarely if ever use the Annotate toolbar, so I am certain I have not made any changes that would have caused this. More likely, the upgrade to Yosemite changed how this tool works.


How to invoke a UEFI Shell (v2.2) on a Fusion Player virtual machine with Big Sur installed? I am using the current free version of VMware Fusion Player (Version 12.1.0). I have created a Big Sur virtual machine to do some testing, which involves modifying NVRAM variables. This version of VMware Fusion Player has a built-in EFI Shell (v1.0), which does not include the setvar command. This command would be useful for my testing. Currently, an UEFI Shell (v2.2) is available as a standalone download or as part of a package. This shell does contain the setvar command.

For example, archlinux-2021.03.01-x86_64.iso file can be downloaded from Arch Linux to the host Mac. If this ISO file is placed in the virtual optical drive of the client virtual machine, then the UEFI Shell (v2.2) file named shellx64.efi can be copied from the virtual optical drive.

I have been coping the shell file to the EFI volume created during the Big Sur install. I intended to involve the shell by using the built-in VMware Fusion Player Boot Manager by either adding a boot option or directly booting from the shell file. The problem is, when the shell is involved, no output is displayed. I know the shell is executing, because I can enter the exit command to terminate the shell. Also, I can have the shell execute a script where the output is redirect to a file. By viewing the contents of the file, I can verify the shell had executed.
Originally, I thought the problem was with the shell file. However, if I create a Linux virtual machine, then output is displayed when VMware Fusion Player Boot Manager invokes the shell by either adding a boot option or directly booting from the shell file. So I feel the problem lies in how VMware Fusion Player handles virtual machines built from the Install macOS Big Sur application.
My primary question is how to get the output to be displayed? I would also accept alternate methods to invoke the shell with output being displayed. Also, I desire for the invocation have zero delay and not execute the map –terse command.
Note: VMware Fusion Player currently reports the UEFI version as 2.31.

Host Stats
Guest Stats

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)
Mac

macOS Catalina version 10.15.7
macOS Big Sur version 11.2

Memory: 16 GB
Memory: 4 GB

Quad-Core Intel Core i5
2 processor cores

2.9 GHz
2.76 GHz

USB 3 (5 Gb/s) Samsung T7 SSD
SATA HDD

I tested the following UEFI Shell v2.2 binaries. Many of these were suggested on Arch Linux wiki website "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" under the section "Obtaining UEFI Shell". Some binaries required extra effort to extract from the downloaded file.

Arch Linux: The shellx64.efi file in the root directory of the mounted archlinux-2021.03.01-x86_64.iso file. See here for a list of websites where the ISO file can be downloaded.

TianoCore EDK2 package: The Shell.efi file.

EDK2 package from Arch Linux: The Shell_Full.efi and Shell.efi files in the usr/share/edk2-shell folder of the expanded edk2-shell-202011-1-any.pkg.tar.zst file, which can be downloaded from this website.

rEFInd CD-R image: The shellx64.efi file in the EFI/tools folder of the mounted refind-cd-0.12.0.iso file. This ISO can be created by expanding the refind-cd-0.12.0.zip file, which can be downloaded from this website.

OpenCore package: The OpenShell.efi file in the X64/EFI/OC/Tools folder of the expanded OpenCore-0.6.7-RELEASE.zip file, which can be downloaded from this website.

All of the above shell binaries, except for OpenCore, either had an faulty edit command or failed to display output when boot directly from the client firmware Boot Manager.

The shell binary from the OpenCore 0.6.7 release was chosen for use in this answer.

The steps to install the new UEFI shell are given below.

Download an OpenCore package: Open the webpage containing this answer on the client. From this GitHub website, download the current release of the OpenCore package. Currently this is OpenCore-0.6.7-RELEASE.zip, which by default will become the OpenCore-0 folder in your Downloads folder on the client.

Mount the EFI volume: On the client, open a Terminal application window and enter the command given below.
sudo diskutil mount disk0s1

Put the shell in the EFI volume: On the client, copy the ~/Downloads/OpenCore-0/X64/EFI/OC/Tools/OpenShell.efi file to the root folder on the EFI volume. Rename this file to shellx64.efi.

Put the startup script in the EFI volume: This step is optional, however the script does create useful aliases and environment variables. Also, the display mode is set so the shell uses the entire console window.
Open this webpage on the client, then save the script given below as an ASCII text file named startup.nsh in the root folder on the EFI volume.
@echo -off
mode 128 40
set -v AppleEnv 7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82
if x%uefishellversion% == x then
    # Startup commands for EFI 1.0 shells
    alias -v cv "ver -s"
    alias -v ush "shellx64.efi -nomap -noversion -delay 0"
    if "x%StartupDelay%" == x then
        set StartupDelay 0
    endif
    cls
else
    # Startup commands for UEFI 2.2 shells
    set -v ShellAlias 0053D9D6-2659-4599-A26B-EF4536E631A9
    set -v SEnv 158DEF5A-F656-419C-B027-7A3192C079D2
    alias -v csrutil "setvar csr-active-config -nv -rt -bs -guid %AppleEnv%"
    alias -v cv ver
    if "x%ShellOpt%" == x then
        setvar ShellOpt -nv -bs -guid %SEnv% =L"-nomap -noversion -delay 0" =0000
    endif
endif
cv

Restart to firmware: Shutdown the client. On the host, open the Startup Disk pane of Settings for the client. Hold down the option key and select the Restart to firmware… button.

Add boot option: From the client firmware menus, select Enter setup>Configure boot options>Add boot option, then select the EFI volume, as shown in the example below.

Next, select the shellx64.efi file. For a description enter UEFI Shell. and for options data enter -nomap -delay 0. The results should appear as shown below.

Next, select Commit changes and exit>Exit the Boot Maintenance Manager. The window should appear as shown below.

Test the shell: Select UEFI Shell to boot to the UEFI shell. When finished, enter exit to return to the Boot Manager. If desired, select Shut down the system.


How can I create text-based aliases? (Local hyperlinks?) I need to use deeply-buried files/folders on a hard disk at work. I can create aliases, which is helpful. An alias gives me an icon that I can double-click to open the original. But I would like to create clickable text "hyperlinks" to use in things like Excel spreadsheets, TextEdit, to do lists, etc.

Clicking one of those links would open the corresponding file/folder in Finder. It would function essentially as an html hyperlink, only referencing a local file. That would let me set up my workflow in advance with all the links in place for each project.

Use case:

  TODO:
  • Read the Quarterly Report
  • Review new applicants in the Product Manager Applicant Folder

I have researched automator and aliases but haven't found anything to create text-based aliases. I appreciate any help.

I'm not aware of any way to do this without 3rd-party software.

However, you can definitely do this with OmniFocus.

You can "attach" files, but have that attachment simply be a "link" to the file, so it's not actually moved inside your OmniFocus database, it still exists on your filesystem.

Then your reminder/to-do could be something like "Review Quarterly Report" and have that report attached as an OmniFocus link.


iOS - how to merge "on my iPad" Notes to iCloud after iCloud already activated? I keep encountering this problem at friends' and it's always the same thing. They wonder why Notes does not sync up to iCloud.

I grab their iPad or iPhone and realize that their notes are written to "On My iPad" or "On My iPhone".

I then google around for a decent app, never find one (is there really no such thing?)..

And wind up copy-pasting them from "On My iPad" to "iCloud" one at a time. Thankfully this time he only had 27 notes so it didn't take that long.

Sometimes I panic and start emailing the Notes one at a time to his email address and then paste them onto his iCloud via OS X action.

Is there really no better way? I've checked around for advice and it seems to always be "Just email them" "Just copypaste them".

Any ideas?

Here is what you can do, on at least iOS 9.

Launch Notes on your iPhone or iPad.
While on the list of notes, tap Edit to enter edit mode.
Tap Move All to move all notes or, alternatively, select the note(s) you want to move and tap Move To...
Select iCloud Notes

That's all.


Mini Thunderbolt to VGA not showing video on external monitor but Mac says it is The external monitor used to be working before, but now, there's no video being sent. The monitor is sleeping when I connect, even though the mac says it's connected.

I am using a SyncMaster390b as the monitor.

I tried turning it on and off and reconnecting everything, but still no luck.

Any help?

The problem that you are facing is simple to fix. Actually there is no inbuilt Thunderbolt to VGA drive inside a MacBook/Mac mini. So what you should do is install a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Firmware Update v1.0. After installation restart the system, then connect your thunderbolt to VGA connector. It will work perfectly fine.

Here is the link for the driver where you can download it:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL799?locale=en_US


"Internet Radio" gone from iTunes 12.7 The "Internet Radio" feature to stream from hundreds of suggested URLs around the world, and allowing me to add my own URL for a stream, is gone from iTunes 12.7.

Did Apple move this feature to a different place in the user-interface, yet again?

Or did Apple remove this feature altogether?

The traditional "Internet Radio" feature is not gone from iTunes 12.7.
The feature for offering free for all internet radio streams was not removed from the application but may be hidden and is now named competitively with another "Radio" feature within iTunes.

Check Restrictions for Traditional "Internet Radio"

It may be invisible to you because you may have a setting active in

 iTunes > Preferences > Restrictions > Internet Radio

Obviously, the checkbox under Disable: Internet Radio needs to be off.

Re-Add Traditional "Internet Radio" to the Sidebar

More likely is that the new default preferences violate again Apple's own Human Interface Guidelines:

The first "Library Sidebar" for "Music" in its default state is simplified: without Internet Radio visible. And you do not see how to customise it until you hit an invisible spot to the right of the sidebar section title called "Library" when your sidebar is set to display "Music". Hovering to the right over an apparently empty spot then reveals an "Edit" option where you can then activate the "Internet Radio" setting. Click "Done" if you are done with your customisations in the same spot to re-hide that user-confuser and traditional "Internet Radio" will be in your sidebar again.

That gives you the old big list with a tree structure to choose from.

Adding Custom URLs for Traditional "Internet Radio" Streams

Opening a custom stream is accomplished by entering the URL in the box that appears when pressing Command+u or choosing the menu item File > Open Stream.

Adding this permanently seems not possible.
But again: right-clicking into the info area (The Apple logo in the picture) reveals the option to "Create Station".

Interestingly you can also create playlists with those streams to get them organised to your liking.

The new "Apple Music"-"iTunes Store"-"Radio"

An alternative to this method of interfacing to streams is a much more prominent store-like interface for radio stations that looks like it is somehow tied to Apple Music (this one requires from you to give up at least your AppleID or even subscribe to the "Apple Music" service):

Possible restrictions for that are in iTunes Preferences as a subset under "iTunes Store" and a part of "Apple Music".


How do I restore a Windows 7 DMG file to Boot Camp (and make it bootable)? My iMac's HD died last week, and so I was unable to access OS X (I had a Time Machine backup of it though). Fortunately I was able to boot into the Recovery HD and use Disk Utility to backup Boot Camp to a DMG file on an external drive before I lost that forever.

So, now I have a DMG file containing Windows 7. From what I understand, it's much more difficult to restore Windows Vista/7 than it is to restore Windows XP because the boot method has gotten more complex.

However, could someone point me in the right direction in order to restore a Windows 7 DMG file to Boot Camp, and of course make it bootable? I already tried the method shown here, which is quoted at a lot of places, but it definitely only works with WinXP and nothing newer.

Thanks in advance!

Try this variation on what its stated there:

Run bootcamp to allocate the space 2-
Install W7
Go back to OSX (Install REFIT or similar as bootmanager (optional))
Restore your DMG image over the W7 partition

With this you dont need the fdisk commands as bootcamp should mark the partition as active (bootable).

This SHOULD work.

The problem with the linked page process is that w7 (just as osx) is actually in 2 partitions, a small boot one and a large with the OS, your DMG only contains the OS partition.


How do I vary the repeat an alert in say 2 hours then 30 min. then 5 min.? Before Mavericks, I would respond to Alerts (was Alarms) to repeat in 2 hours, 5 min., 1 day, 1 day before event starts, etc., and when, for example, an alert repeats after 2 hours, I can then change the next repeat to 5 minutes...

Snooze-ing every 15 min. doesn't work (and gets very annoying): is this the 3rd or 6th snooze?

I don't want to have to create a new event each time an alert occurs. How do I vary the repeat?

You should be able to click and hold the snooze button for a drop down list of available snooze times.


Can [Update Needed] be removed without disabling/enabling FileVault? I have an additional user [Update Needed] appear on login screen at every boot, which doesn't affect usability but a bit annoying. I googled for solution, but all of them are just disabling and enabling FileVault again. That would be time-consuming, somewhat harmful to the SSD, and would leave bits of sensitive data unencrypted on the disk. Is there any other way? Like some terminal commands?

If the Mac in question is running OS X 10.8.x or later, you can remove users from the list of FileVault enabled accounts using the fdesetup remove command. To remove the account using the username, run the following command:

sudo fdesetup remove -user username

Successful removal of the account will not produce any additional output.

If the account being removed is not currently enabled for use with FileVault 2, an error message will be displayed.

Does the icon you're seeing look like this?

If it does, this isn't a user account. It's a password directly associated with the disk's encryption. You will need to decrypt in order to get rid of it.


Outlook IOS sync to Outlook Mac? Now that Microsoft's released Outlook for iOS, does anyone know if it will sync calendars, contacts and tasks with Outlook on a Mac?

If you mean directly, then no. It's primarily intended to use Exchange server to sync those.


Three Finger Gesture on 2007-2008 Macbook Pros Is the three finger gesture supported for the 2007-2008 nonunibody macbook pros? Wondering if I can change spaces on Mountain Lion.

No, sorry.

See this: Are non-unibody macbook pros capable of lion's 3 and 4 finger multi-though gestures?

And this: Pinch to zoom on macbook pro 2007

If you would like to use these gestures you can buy a magic trackpad or magic mouse from Apple.


Allow Shell Script to Access Protected Library Folders (launchd) I'm trying a bash script that works fine when run from the command line (Terminal).

Apart from the shebang, it just has:

ls -alt /Users/<username>/Libary/Mail/V6/.../Lists.mbox

(Using ls as a simple command to illustrate the problem.)

However, when I try a test run using launchd (which I set up using the Lingon X app) I get a permissions error.

1: Operation not permitted
ls: Lists.mbox: Operation not permitted

Terminal and Lingon X both have Full Disk Access allowed in Privacy pref pane, but I don't see any way to allow an individual shell script to be given such access.

I've tried running the same script using AppleScript's do shell script but I get the same error.

The (.sh) script permissions are set to 755, so this should not be a factor.

How can I get around this please?

I overcame the issue by creating an application wrapper for the script using Platypus - https://sveinbjorn.org/platypus.

I gave the resultant app Full Disk Access in the Privacy pref pane and this allowed it to run.

(Any subsequent change to the core script means regenerating the app and removing and re-adding it in Privacy as the new file is not recognised as having Full Disk Access.)


Is there anything we can do on iOS to stay safe while waiting for Apple to issue an update for the latest FREAK SSL vulnerability? I guess the vulnerability has been around for a decade [ars technica], but should we just stay away from using any personal information until there is a security patch?

Use Chrome for the moment. IIRC, Mac Firefox (and Chrome) uses a vulnerable crypto library, but Google has promised a fix for Mac Chrome is imminent.
See this site for a table of vulnerable and safe browsers.


How do I detect if headphones are connected (via the jack) in bash? I have a script, and I want it to behave differently if headphones are connected. How can I get this information?
I tried using SwitchAudioSource, but its output is the same, whether or not the headphones are connected:
~/tmp
❯ SwitchAudioSource -c
Built-in Output

~/tmp
❯ SwitchAudioSource -a
Built-in Microphone (input)
Background Music (input)
Background Music (UI Sounds) (input)
Built-in Output (output)
Background Music (output)
Background Music (UI Sounds) (output)

I found an answer from here:
if system_profiler SPAudioDataType | grep --quiet Headphones; then
  echo plugged in
else
  echo not plugged in
fi


Google Keep for iOS - Is there a setting to play a sound with reminder? I'm trying out Google Keep for iOS 9 on an iPhone 5. I've given the app permission to produce banners, sounds and alerts in the Notification Center. Timed reminders from Google Keep do show as banners, but no sound or vibration is produced. For me, alerts without sound or vibration are easy to miss. The silence switch is OFF for this phone (sound is on).

Has anyone found a combination of settings, or some strategy to cause sound and/or vibration with banners raised by Google Keep for iOS?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

Google Keep for iOS was updated today 11/5/2015, after some quick tests the issue appears resolved. Sound/Vibrate on reminders is working in my case.

Thanks to all who read or posted on SO or elsewhere regarding this question.

Also, thanks go out to Google. Well played.


Disabling automatic en dash when editing files in TextEdit I've noticed that typying -- in text edit results in those signs being converted to en dash: –. This is highly undesirable behaviour. For example correct formatting for the SRT files is (related problem):

  time --> time

automatic en dash insertion is unnecessary here. Hence my question, how to disable it in TextEdit (the problem does not occur in Atom or TextWrangler)?

Open TextEdit Preferences (⌘,) and uncheck Smart dashes.

You will need to close and re-open your documents for the change to take effect.


Does ransomware on Bootcamp Windows affects macOS disk? If Windows on bootcamp partition is infected by ransomware, and encrypts all files stored in disk, can it encrypt macOS disk files?

Because windows can't write to a Mac formatted disk, it can't do anything bad to it. If the ransomware contained an HFS+ or APFS driver for windows, it could in theory also attack the host Mac drive. Of course that won't be a problem, because your Mac drive is all backed up safe and secure with Time Machine. But back to ransomware, does Windows ransomware typically attack/encrypt your external drives too, or just the main boot drive containing the current system?


Can Aperture open/view/edit a Photos library? I'm currently using Aperture for all my photos, but I'm considering migrating to Photos to get better support for Burst photos and other such features.

Once I've migrated, will I still be able to open the library with Aperture, and use it to edit my photos?

Here's what it says in an Apple Support article:

iPhoto — and Aperture, if you downloaded it — remains on your system in the Applications folder, and you can continue to use it. If you open iPhoto or Aperture after you upgrade to Photos, you’ll be asked if you want to open your library there or in Photos.
Any changes or edits you make in iPhoto or Aperture aren't reflected in Photos. And any changes or edits you make in Photos will not be reflected in iPhoto or Aperture.

It appears that you are able to open photos within both applications however edits will not be synced between Aperture and Photos.


Disable pinned tabs being in every window in Safari 9 Is there any way to disable pinned tabs showing up in every Safari window? I typically have several Spaces going and the pinned tabs are only relevant to those spaces or even just to the specific Safari window.

You can open a new private window and those will be gone


Proxy requires password and user name Running High Sierra.

I started getting this message when I first open chrome:

the proxy http://11.adams-aqua.ga/ requires user name and password

A couple of weeks ago I stopped being able to browse with any browser because some problem with the proxies. Searching the internet I found as a solution to just disable all proxy settings.

I found this solution rather lame, but it worked. Also I read that it was better to have use some proxy as it would take less time to request pages from servers.

I would like to just have whatever is normal as proxy settings but failed to find a tutorial explaining this.

Thanks!

Most users do not use a proxy server when browsing the web from home.

On macOS the computer wide proxy settings are found in Network settings of System Preferences.app. See Remove Proxy Settings:

Select Apple (menu) > System Preferences…
Select Network
Select Advanced… for the active Wi-Fi network
Select the Proxies tab
Disable all protocols checkboxes, before selecting OK, then Apply


Can you delete documents from the library on Mac without serious consequences for your computer? When I checked my Mac's harddrive I noticed that it was almost completely filled with files in the category 'other'. I used mac cleaning software to see what files were taking up a lot of space and those were mostly documents with names like: d8434hjk3hj5v3kj
Without any extension.

Will deleting these folders harm my mac?

Mac specifications:
- Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)
- 21.5-inch, medio 2011

I'm not much of a technology guy so if I need to be more specific please let me know.

I realize you might want a short answer, but in reality, the real question is have you set yourself up with a backup system that works well enough for you to go ahead and experiment and delete these files without serious repercussion.

My feeling is:

You shouldn't delete anything from /System or /Library unless you have a backup and have time and energy to perform a restore from that backup. No matter how good information you have, eventually your instructions, hunch, training or experience let you down and your machine won't work as you need it to.


dtrace/dtruss command to see what files a command tries to open? Is there a dtrace one liner that will run a command, and tell me all the files it tries to open?

The Linux strace equivalent of what I'm trying to do is strace -e trace=file -f cat /etc/passwd > /dev/null

I am on El Capitan

You may want to try iosnoop.  See here: http://dtrace.org/blogs/brendan/2011/10/10/top-10-dtrace-scripts-for-mac-os-x/

It's been a long time since I used it; the Sierra/High Sierra equivalent is fs_usage, so maybe you have access to that too.  Also if you install Homebrew (brew.sh), you can download and install many command-line utilities not already present in the OS.


Archive Utility password Right when I opened Archive Utility for the first time, it asked me for a password for "activated.info". What password is it talking about and what would I put? I've never used it before so I've never set up a password.

It's possible to put passwords on archives as a protection measure.
The password here would be a user-chosen password when compressing the original content to the zipped archive that you're trying to open.

Go back to the source where you downloaded the file and see if there's a password listed somewhere.


Pages: Is point in custom object with only one control handle possible? In Pages, I notice with a rounded rectangle if you make it editable and click on any of the points, they all seem to have only one "control handle". Normally there are always two. Is there really only one control handle on those points, or does it just look that way? Assuming there is indeed only one control handle, how can I do that too?

If the handle you are speaking about is the little blue dot used to adjust the roundness of the corners of a rounded rectangle, then yes, there is only one.

(I am assuming the above assumption is true)

To use this handle, simply grab it with the pointer, and drag it. Depending on the object, it will do one of a few things.

On a rounded rectangle; it will round all the corners to the amount set by the handle.

On a star, it will adjust the sharpness of the points. (The amount of points can be set by the slider that will appear when a star is created.)

On a speech bubble, it will where the 'speech' is originating from.

And on an arrow, it will adjust the shape of the arrowhead, making it sharper, or less sharp.


Chmod add multiple groups I have this command:

chmod -R +a 'group:test1 allow  list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit' /PATH

Which works fine. Question is, how do I add another group in the same command?

This does not work:

chmod -R +a 'group:test1,group:test2 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit' /PATH

You can't. chmod +a adds one entry to the ACL, and each ACL entry refers to one user or group. From the man page:

  Each file has one ACL, containing an ordered list of entries. Each entry refers to a user or group, and grants or denies a set of permissions.

So you'll need something like

for g in test1 test2; do
    chmod -R +a "group:$g allow ... " /path/to/directory
done


Mac not accepting Password even with Password Resets My MacBook Pro stopped accepting my password. I have reset the password several times by restarting with Command+R, but every time my username is prompted to enter a password, the new passwords are refused.
I am able to log in under the separate Admin login and have made all the available changes to try and login automatically but no matter what is done, switching to my usual username requires a password and the password is refused even when correct.
All my files are under this username so I need to access this specific login, but it seems I have exhausted all the information I am able to find on how to fix this. Any ideas?

I would make sure all the data is backed up and then make a new account.
Test that new account - one possibility that comes to mind is that there is a keyboard mismatch when entering the password at login.
If all is then well, install the data from the backup and proceed as normal.


Can I access TimeMachine data from a machine other than the one that was being backed up? I have an iMac with a dead internal drive. And I have it's TimeMachine drive. I'd like to know that the TimeMachine-based data is safe and sound so I'd like to restore it to my MBPro. But not over top of my MBPro data.

Is it possible to connect the iMac's TM drive to the MBPro and rebuild my Documents folder in to a random location (not over top of the MBPro's Documents folder) on my MBPro?

You can navigate your backup drive in the Finder.
Mount it, go to the Backup folder > [name of machine] > [name of volume] > latest > Users > [user name] and restore the files you want.

(You can also choose a date instead of latest to restore earlier versions of the files/files that have been deleted.)


'alt vs option': Is the 'option' key still used somewhere? Where exactly (geographically)? My first Apple computer that I bought in 2011 had a "Ctrl" key, an "Alt" key, a "Cmd" key and a Shift key. My second Apple computer too.

I haven't seen a single Apple computer or a single Apple keyboard with an "Option" key though. I know "Alt" and "Option" is the same from any practical point of view. I've been working as an iOS developer for years. I learned about the "Option" key only a few years ago. I heard it in a Youtube video, I think. It is often used in contexts like this:

  If you are a Windows user, press Alt P, if you are a Mac user press Option P

Obviously, I'm a Windows user then..

This is probably a history question..

When was the last time Apple did produce keyboards with a key that is labelled "Option"? Do they still produce these keyboards? (Notebooks count as well.)

Were they sold everywhere, or just in particular countries? For example, I'm from Europe, so maybe the "Option" key is a US thing and it was never sold in Europe, which would explain why I never saw it, and which would also explain why we still hear about "Option" keys from time to time.

Interestingly, the "Alt"-key is sometimes called "Wahl-Taste" in German. It sounds really strange, and I didn't ever hear a Mac user call that key "Wahl-Taste" in real life. It seems like if Windows users are trying to be nice to Mac users without realizing that they just messed up.

Images from Apple KB - How to identify keyboard localizations

US Keyboards say  alt
Option

Other keyboards say   alt
⌥

Basically, it's one & the same key.

Best guess is there are so many people who know Alt is but don't know Option that the terms have just merged over the years.

I haven't had a keyboard in at least a decade that actually said Option, though I remember they all did back in the 90s.

I found this 'keyboard history' article from 2007 - though it's not the main topic, it is mentioned - How Apple Keyboards Lost a Logo and Windows PCs Gained One

  Mac Integration with Windows.
  As it became increasingly useful for Mac users to emulate Windows or work in shared environments, the Option key on Macs became equated with the Alt key on PCs, and the Command key was associated with the ineffectual Windows Start button.

** After comments & other answers
It appears that the Apple have changed the keyboards over the years since they made the keyboard layout page, but not updated the page to cover every current keyboard.
The answer is still really it depends - some do, some don't, in every conceivable combination ;)


Help formatting a file path I'm trying to create a shortcut in Terminal and I need to provide the file path to the folder I want to jump into. To find out the file path, I dragged the folder into terminal and the output was:

/Users/myname/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com\~apple\~Pages/Documents/Filmmaking/Non-VR/Feature

However I feel like the spaces aren't going to be allowed, and I'm not sure if I should be including the parts like "/com\~apple\".

For the record, this is a folder within iCloud so I'm not sure if that makes a difference with the file path.

How can I format this file path to get it right?

This should be the correct format.

Spaces are not 'allowed', but escaped by a preceding backslash that wouldn't be visible in Finder.

To verify, use the exact path and add a cd  (note the space character that's usually killed by SE-rendering) before it, press enter, and find yourself at the location in Terminal. Alternatively, precede it with open  and see a Finder window open at that location.


Apple Watch: Is Apple Watch series 3 wireless speed faster than Apple Watch series 1? One of the problems I have with Apple Watch series 1 is the connection speed. Sometimes it takes a while for the weather, events near me or apple map to appear. I assume this is because of the wireless connection speed. My iPhone can load these data almost instantly when sharing the same wifi network. I wouldn't mind upgrading my Apple Watch series 1 to 3 if the wireless speed is much faster.

In terms of specification, the Apple Watch series 1 and 3 support the same wireless networking protocols (80.2.11 b/g/n on 2.4 Ghz) and their associated theoretical maximum speeds.

However, effective wireless networking speed is affected by many other factors than the wireless protocol used - for example the interface speed between the wireless module and the main CPU, and the processing power of the CPU itself.

In reality, I don't think your problems with slowness in weather data, event data, etc. coming in is really related to wireless networking speed. It makes more sense that they are slow because the main CPU is busy doing other stuff, and background tasks such as retrieving weather information is intentionally underprioritized.

So in practice I would expect an Apple Watch 3 to perform these tasks much faster than the Apple Watch 1 - simply because the Apple Watch 3 has a much faster CPU and is in general a much speedier watch.


Locating A WiFi Network Password Within OS X That Has Been Saved On My Mac? Is it possible to locate a wifi network password in OS X of a wifi hotspot that I may have used in the past (AFAIK wifi networks are saved), in the rare situation that I may need to see it (to share it for example) ?

If you have saved it previously, open Keychain Access (located in /Applications/Utilities or via Spotlight) and search for the wifi network name.

If you have found it, check the lowest checkbox to reveal the password. You need your login password to do so.


What keyboard shortcuts exist for Notes app is OS X? I can do cmd-N to create a new note.  What I'd like to learn how to do is:

get the cursor in the search field, then use up down arrows with enter to select the right note
it would be great to also cycle through notes with the keyboard, similar to cmd+shift+[ and cmd+shift+] in Chrome

How can I learn to do these things?

The app I use for this is CheatSheet  since some shortcuts come from the system (screen shot, etc..), some come from third party apps, and some are from the app itself.

I count 51 keys active in Notes on my Mac, so I'm not going to list them all. Yours are probably different than mine, since I have third party apps that have services with default keys enabled.

The movement request is best served by Mouse Keys - which came from X11 days and has been chosen/implemented as Apple's accessibility solution for using a number pad instead of the mouse/trackpad for you to navigate to the search field.

https://www.apple.com/accessibility/osx/
http://www.mediaatelier.com/CheatSheet/


Smart search (save) - search folder names and list contents I'm setting up a list of smart folders which will search inside my sample library folder called 'Samples'. Each Smart Search Criteria has some conditions, i.e.

Name matches 'Bass'
Duration is more than 2 seconds
Any (Are true)
  Wav
  Aiff
  Rex

All works fine. But I was wondering, my sample library 'Samples' containes folders from the sample packs, and within the sample packs, there are folders called 'Bass Loops' etc.. Some of the sample packs may not have a name of Bass but are placed in the Bass Loops folder.

So rather than search a specific file name, I'd like to list all files in all folders called 'Bass Loops'. Is it possible to search multiple folder names like 'Bass Loops' and list all the contents?

Also, it's important to save the search folders.

I don’t think this is possible in Finder.

To some extend, it is possible in HoudahSpot. Full disclosure: I am the developer of HoudahSpot.

In HoudahSpot you can search several folders at once. You can also save your searches as “Templates”. You can use these as “smart folders” or as starting points for recurring searches. E.g. when you want to restrict the search to only loops of a certain bit rate, you can do so without having to start over.

What you cannot do is to have HoudahSpot find all folders name “Bass Loops” and then search within these folders for audio files that are more than 2 seconds long.

You can however get rather close to achieveing this by filtering your search results:

Have HoudahSpot search your home folder for audio files that are
more than 2 seconds long.
Above search results, you will find the
filter field. Select the option to “Filter by path”
Type “Bass”.

So you start by having HoudahSpot find more files than you need. Then you filter the results to see only files that have “Bass” somewhere in the path or name.

Type “Bass*/*” for a filter if you want “Bass” to appear in the name of a parent folder. I.e. exlcude files named “Bass” located in any other folder. The “*” serves as wildcard. It matches any number of characters. In this case: a sequence of characters followed by a slash and then some more characters. Thus “Bass" must be anywhere in the path, but not after the last slash. I.e. not in the file name.


How can I forward web traffic from Mac to iPad? I am trying to setup the iPad as a development station. Managed to ssh from it to my Mac, but the thing is, on the Mac I need to connect to a VPN to be able to access some websites. Those websites would be accessible from the Mac, and I would like to use the Mac as a proxy somehow, so that also the iPad would be able to have access to the same kind of resources.

Does anyone have any tips as to how I could get them to work on the iPad?

I have a similar situation and resolved it by setting up a VPN client on the iPad so that it connects directly to those addresses.

The built in VPN client in IPSec mode works great with Cisco.
The L2TP works great with most standard commercial VPN solutions (like Meraki)
OpenVPN works with many consumer grade VPNs (like NetGear Orbi)

Doing this allows me to use the iPad directly with remote resources behind my company or home firewall.


Can I decrypt and read a partition without booting it from another mac? I have a HDD with a OS X data partition on it that is encrypted with FileVault. It also contains NTFS and ext4 partitions. This is not a boot partition. My boot partition was on a separate SSD. I can not use the boot partition to boot OS X anymore.

Can I take out the HDD with the encrypted partition, plug it with a USB dock into a macbook and unlock/read the data?

NOTE: I just need to recover one small folder from the partition that I could transfer on a usb stick.

You can unlock/decrypt and read any FileVault2 volume – either system or data partition – as long as the invisible Recovery HD partition (for a bootable system partition) or a Boot OS X partition (data partition) is still present and a password is known. Both partitions are usually following the respective encrypted partition. Boot OS X is no bootable partition as the name may suggest but a 134.2 MB partition probably holding some informations about the encrypted data partition.


Xcode 7 performance issues Does anyone know how to improve xcodes memory performance. With iOS9 the mem usage jumps to ~4gb i have a macbook pro i5 2.3 8gb But this damn thing is eating everything! At times it takes 2-3 min to switch between swift files or move to another location in the same file.

If i switch to another program (Chrome, slack or skype) those run perfectly fine.
After some monitoring with Instruments i saw the following (Simulator running)

After running it for 20min or so the issue also occurs on Instruments
I have regular spikes of cpu usage of up to 106% (Not to sure how
that works)
I got the iOS 8.4 simulator to see if 9 was specifically causing the issue, issue still persists.
xcode virtual mem is 5gb
xcode real mem stays between 500-750mb and has the occasional jump to ~1gb
xcode compressed mem is ~350mb
xcode threads climbs to about 32/34 when the issue occurs

Exact issue description
At random intervals(cannot find exact replication steps) xcode will apear to "hang" i am unable to switch between files or scroll on any pane (code, file structure or overview).
Also if I switch to another application while this is happening and switch back xcode will not come into view.
This can occur when xcode or the simulator is not in view.
There doesn't seem to be anything downloading in xcode or on the system.

Since you are developing - fire up Instruments and use it to profile Xcode.

You'll need to determine if storage/io is the cause of the slowdown or if it's CPU or if it's network.

From there, you can ask a follow on question once you have some data on the problem. My guess is Xcode could be downloading the new documentation - check for intalld/active network downloads. Or it could be symbolicating crash logs from all connected devices, or downloading symbol tables from connected devices, or running a sandbox, or ...

Basically, since Xcode is so large a tool, it's hard to know what subsystem you are even using without some data.

FWIW - here's a properly behaving, no simulator running, a dozen other apps running, Xcode done installing documentation Xcode using a hundred meg of RAM while open.

The Mac in question is up 3 days and has has a lot of mongodb and VirtualBox linux VM running which make the kernel larger than it would be at boot, but even that isn't causing any sort of memory pressure.


macOS Big Sur - screen sharing back to Mac mini over Internet Now that "Back to my Mac" is gone, is there any way to connect back to a Mac mini over Internet using Screen Sharing.
Problem is that I have to be physically at my Mac mini to accept incoming Screen Sharing request, even it is the same Apple ID user logged in on both?

Logging in by host name instead of AppleID will not trigger the screen sharing request that requires local user input.


On the MacBook Pro, send file links via iMessage? I have two Macbook Pros in my office.  I would like to send a link to a file (specifying its path) to another user, using that other MacBook Pro. We have a commonly mounted network drive. So I would just like to send the link to the file I'm asking her to reference.  I can see that the 'add link' feature lets people attach URLs.  But what about these semi-private files on the local network?

In most cases you can drag a file into a terminal window to get the full path and that would be something you could paste into an iMessage window.

If you want it to be a true link to the file, prepend the path with file://

file:///Volumes/NAS/path/to/file


How to open all Safari history at once? I was navigating through a website but I forgot which one was it now going back to Safari History and searching for the website is a painful thing to do so I was asking is there anyway to open all your safari history with one click?

Go to the Safari menu "History" and click on "Show all history"
Find the lines you're interested in and highlight them
Drag these lines into the tab bar and they will all open in separate tabs


How do I get the file path of an image in Spotlight? Alright, so I pulled an image off my phone, edited it, and now it's not in Desktop, Pictures, Downloads, etc. I have no idea where GIMP saved it. If I search for the file in Spotlight, it will list the file and preview it if I hover over it. How can I find the file path of said file?

Select the picture and then hold down the command (apple) key.
If you're not running Yosemite, the shortcut is: CommandOption

The Path'll show at the bottom of the spotlight window. It's not scrollable, you might just be able to see part of it.

Or,double click on the Spotlight result to open the image, then right-click on the image windows title.

If you want a copyable text version of the path, just drag the icon next to the window title into a Terminal window.


Archive submission failed: ITMS-4238 "Redundant binary upload" When attempting to submit an app from Xcode 6 Organizer to iTunes Connect, I receive the following error:

  ERROR ITMS-4238 "Redundant binary upload. There already exists a binary upload with build version '1.0' for train '1.0'"

Application Loader also fails with the same error. How can I upload my app?

If you have already uploaded a binary and have rejected it and wish to upload to the same version number:

Go to your plist file and change "CFBundleVersion" so if you're uploading version 1.2 change it to 1.2.1 but keep the "CFBundleShortVersionString" as 1.2 so you should have

CFBundleShortVersionString - 1.2
CFBundleVersion - 1.2.1

Archive and submit, then in iTunes Connect you will see all the builds you have submitted for the version 1.2


How can I mix audio from separate devices and output to one device? I have a USB audio interface which I use for recording. When I use some recording app (like Audacity), I can select the USB interface from a drop down menu, which will tell Audacity to use that device for audio input.

Sometimes I want to record from that device, and also add voice-over using my computer's internal microphone. I cannot record from more than one device simultaneously using Audacity (as far as I know), so I'm looking for a program to mix the inputs first.

I have the Soundflower driver installed, so all I need is a program where I can select both my USB interface and my internal microphone for input, and select the Soundflower device for output. That way, I can select the Soundflower device as input in Audacity to record the pre-mixed audio.

Is there such a program, and am I on the right track (no pun intended)?

I have a similar need when recording Skype calls. My setup is somewhat different, but the fundamentals should work for your setup. Best of all, you can do it without buying any specialized applications. Rogue Amoeba has a great application called Line In that will allow you to pipe your system's inputs to whatever outputs you are available, including Soundflower.

Go to System Preferences -> Sound:

Select internal mic as your input if that's what you want to use as your second device. Your output is probably headphones if you're recording. Select that.

Start Soundflower.

Click the menu bar icon. Select Audio Setup from the bottom of the popup menu

This will bring up the Audio MIDI setup application. From here, you'll create an "Aggregate Device," which is accomplished by clicking the + icon in the lower-lefthand corner.

I've attached a screenshot so you can see how what the Aggregate Device I've setup here looks like. Your USB input should show up in this menu - add it as an input, along with your internal mic. Don't sweat the output part (that's in the next step).
Please note that the settings in this screenshot are not meant to be representative of how you should configure this on your machine, and are just for a visual cue.

Start Line In:

Set your input as the Aggregate Device you created, and pass that as output to Soundflower (2 Ch). When you're recording, you can select "pass thru," which will allow you to monitor the audio. Nice.

Finally, fire up Audacity, and make sure Soundflower is selected as the input. This should create a chain that ultimately pipes your inputs into Audacity.

I hope this helps, and good luck!


How to connect an iMac 21.7 inch 2009 as a monitor to a MacBook Pro late 2013 I’m trying to use my iMac 2009 as a second monitor for my MacBook Pro 2013 but can’t work out how to connect. Any ideas? My MacBook Pro doesn’t have a Mini DisplayPort.

You can't.

Only the 27" iMac's from 2009 were able to use Target Display Mode via mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt

How do I connect my Mid-2010 iMac to my Late 2015 Macbook Pro
Use your iMac as a display with target display mode


Mail for mac does not find e-mails of the last month Mail for mac on MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6 is not able to find messages received over the last month.

i.e. if I search for messages "from tony bruce" it only shows messages received until the 30th of august, but nothing in September.
Alternatively, if there is a message from Tony Bruce in a thread, it goes to the message of the thread of the last month. But never the last one. Doesn't matter if I search for name, address, subject ecc... always the same problem.

I have synched two gmail mailboxes with IMAP configuration, nothing very special, but it's very frustrating and annoying. Any suggestion?

Thanks

If you don’t get expected results when you search for email messages in the Mail app  on your Mac, try these suggestions.

If a specific mailbox is selected in the Favorites bar, Mail searches only that mailbox. To search all mailboxes instead, click All.
Mail may not be looking in the Trash or Junk mailboxes or searching encrypted messages. To include them when searching all mailboxes, choose Mail > Preferences, click General, then select the options.
You may need to sync the mailboxes on your Mac with those on the mail server. Choose Mailbox > Synchronize > [account].
The Mail folder (located in your home Library folder) may be excluded from Spotlight searching. To check, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Spotlight, then click Privacy.
This solution can take quite some time because all messages will be deleted from your Mac. Therefore, it’s wise to try the other methods first if your mailbox is particularly large. To rebuild a mailbox, proceed as follows:

In Mail, select the desired Mailbox from the left-hand panel.
From the Mailbox menu, choose Rebuild.


Mid 2010 MacBook Pro kernel_task extremely high CPU usage (150%+) lags and kernel panics I recently acquired a 2010 13" MacBook Pro. When attempting to boot to a Leopard installer on a USB drive, I am greeted with a kernel panic. There is no specific error message but instead prompts me to restart.

However, I tried booting from a hard drive in my early 2008 MacBook (with clean install of Lion) and it runs. However, there is extreme lag due to the high CPU usage. Task manager indicates kernel_task is using 150%+ of the CPU. This Lion install is near clean and runs perfectly on my MacBook. Upon successfully getting into Lion, I was greeted with a "problem report for mac os x". I can't copy paste it because of the lag (and I'm using a different machine to type this question) but one of the lines in the details suggests CPU issues...
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001A9C68): Kernel trap at 0x4c76a81c, type 14=page fault, registers. The next lines detail the registers and following that is a backtrace. I don't know what register and backtrace are.

Also, the computer is quite hot and there is no load. I performed a PRAM reset because, initially, the issues booting and no audio prompted me. Audio works now when it turns on.

I'm concerned the CPU is failing on the motherboard but I'm curious about what you [the community] think. Does this involve reflowing/replacing the CPU? How can I fix this?

I took photos of the kernel panic log window and the task manager. Upon request, I can post those.

The line you have quoted is not an indication of CPU issues - you seem to be misinterpreting that.

The meaning of that line is that the kernel (i.e. the operating system core) failed because of a page fault. A page fault means that the operating system core tried to access a part of memory that isn't accessible to it (i.e. not mapped). This should not happen.

The causes of this are either a software bug or software incompatibility (for example if you run an operating system version earlier than the one originally supplied with the computer), or it is a hardware error. Usually the hardware error is due to defective RAM or insufficient cooling.

Page faults caused by defective CPUs are extremely rare.


iOS Untrusted Developer error when testing app I am trying to make my own iOS applications by using Xcode 7 and iOS 9.0. I have successfully been able to install the app on my own iPod by following Xcode 7 develop for iOS without developer account however when I run the application I get this error:

I had a quick look in the Settings app but cannot find a way to allow this application that I made. How would I 'trust' this application running iOS 9?

Enterprise and other certificates have to be manually trusted on iOS 9 when they didn't have to on iOS 8 and earlier.

Open the Settings app
Open General
Open Profiles (you won’t see this until after the first profile is installed on an iOS device)
Choose the affected profile and trust it

If you don't see "Profiles & Device Management" then your device needs to reinstall the app or get the appropriate profile from MDM / other enrollment. Also, if your network or system blocks any outbound traffic to Apple servers for time sync, OCSP/CRL or notarization checks, you will see errors or potentially have other challenges to run apps.


My apple account and gmail account are messing up my email I have a registered apple account ending in @me.com and a gmail account as well. This is causing extremely frustrating email problems as I am not able to view any emails sent to my @me account on my phone email and they don't show up in my gmail other places so I am missing important emails. How do I get rid of this damn @me account or at least solve this mixing problem?

As far as I know, MobileMe (@me) has been changed to iCloud. Update your settings in Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. If you don't use the iCloud (MobileMe) account for email, just switch off email and leave Calendars and Contacts selected.


How to block adding new keyboard input sources from login display? I'm interesting is there any way to leave only one input source for login display and block (disable) adding new input sources?

UPD: I want to get only 1 (one, single) language (input source), for example english (ABC) and block a possibility (chance) to choose another one (any other) language (input source). To uncheck checkbox with "Show Input menu in Login window" doesn't help in my case. Does anyone (anybody) know any other method?

System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options

Uncheck "Show Input menu in login window"


Show Desktop and Stacks in Lion In Snow Leopard, I would routinely swipe up to show the desktop and then click on my "Documents" or "Downloads" stack from the dock in order to quickly move a file to the desktop.

In Lion, if I swipe up to show the desktop, as soon as I click a stack, the windows that had been cleared return to their original position. Now if I want to move a file from a stack to the desktop, I have to open the stack first and then swipe up to get a clear desktop. I realize this may be a minor point for some, but it's a feature I used all the time in Snow Leopard and I can't get used to the change in Lion.

Is there any way to change this setting in Lion so that clearing the desktop functions like in did in Snow Leopard?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I assume you have 'tap to click' enabled?

Instead of just tapping on the stack in the dock, do a mouse click and hold down until the stack directory opens.