Installing WordPress on Mac OS X Server I have a Mac Mini with Yosemite OS X Server, i would like to install WordPress and  Magento on the server and use it for local development before I push my completed sites to the live server with the hosting provider.

How to Install WordPress / Magento on Mac Mini Server?
Is Installing WordPress on Mac OS X server different from installing on Mac?
How to access such Sites on local Network and from outside the local Network (example let customer preview the website).
I don't have a fixed IP address. I understand there are some other free services to solve such issues.

As of now, I can Access my wiki from outside the network with http://xxx.xxx.xx.xx/wiki.

The IP address may change from time to time on my server and I have to make a note of it.

The Apple Help documents are a bit vague to me as I am new to server and especially Apple server and its Server App.

Also I am able to access the website though not the index page but a image placed in my site/default directory named 1.jpg by going to http://xxx.xxx.xx.xx/1.jpg.

If some one could help me shed more knowledge on working with WordPress installation will be of great help.

I'm a big fan of MAMP It's a self contained installation of Apache, MySQL, PHP and that you can hack around in to your hearts content and not mess up your system's configuration.

I've even hosted websites off of it. Highly recommended!


Problem downloading 10.8. Can I use my copy? I am helping a friend with his computer. He purchased 10.8 through the AppStore. However, the internet at his location is iffy at best, and we've tried for days to download with no success. Can I use my own saved copy to install on his system, or will we run into update issues?


Outlook for Mac 2016: How to write a rule to categorize based on body content Outlook appears to have a rule allowing a message to be acted on based on content, but I have not been able to generate the magic incantation to get it to work.  My goal is to get messages containing the text "[External Source]" to be categorized as RED.

Home->Rule->Create...

But when I apply the rule...nothing.  It does not matter if I apply it to one or many messages.

Is this feature known to work?  I can get actions to trigger based on subject content and addressees, but not this.

My problem ended up being a general failure to Read The Screen.  However, since this is not the first time I have tried to solve a problem like this, and because I did not find any answers that warned about the ambiguity, I am posting what I learned.

What I wanted was a rule that will classify incoming messages with "[External Source]" in them as "Red."  My expectation was that I would create the rule, then select all messages in a box and then Right-Click->Rules->Apply->Apply All Rules to test.

The test never triggered the rule.  It was the wrong test, or the wrong rule type.  The test that would have worked would be to have sent an external email to myself.

With that insight, I decided to write a Client-based rule to do the same thing because I more frequently want a rule that I can apply after-the-fact.

However, it turns out that the syntax for a "Body contains X" condition is very different between the two kinds of rules.  For Server Rules, there is a UI for adding various strings and you can specify multiple strings to search for in one condition and you must specify exceptions in a separate section.

For a Client Rule, you need to provide one unquoted string.  However, there is no Exception Section, you must specify your exceptions as negative conditions--which complicates your rules if you want to search for multiple strings with a set of exceptions that apply whenever any of the strings is found.  I will leave that as an exercise for the user, but I will show how to create a basic rule here.

For the TLDR folks, here are images of the two kinds of rules, followed by a sample rule that does the categorizing on the Client Side.  First, the default Server-Rules modal:

And this is what the Server Rule condition to search for strings looks like (note the Except if: heading peeking from behind the modal):

Now, the Client-Rules modal:

And, a sample of how the condition setting is different for the Client:

Note, it has if all conditions are met set.  Also, notice that if I wanted to do the same action for a different string, I must create a duplicate rule with that different string.  This looks like a constraint on the UI for Outlook Client Rules.

Thanks to @seamus for his second set of eyes and test case for this.


Unable to clear Xcode from Trash. Force clear in Terminal returns permission error? Since the App Store seemed stuck with updating Xcode to 7.3, I have decided to delete it and reinstall. However, after moving Xcode to the Trash, it refused to be cleared and instead be stuck on the "Preparing to empty the trash..." window.
So, I've decided to force empty the trash in Terminal by rm -rf ~/.Trash/*, only to get an endless loop of error message saying this:

rm: /Users/jordanchanph/.Trash/Xcode.app/Contents/.../IOCatalogue/reset.xml: Permission denied

How can I empty the trash?

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

is your friend.

I would think cause of the errors are permissions, perhaps Xcode sets files with permissions exclusive to root (superuser).

What sudo does is run the following command (rm -rf ~/.Trash/*) with root privileges - think of it as "when in doubt with permission denied, sudo". Of course, the permission denied error is not to be ignored as it could be a sign of permissions errors. But, if you know what you are doing, sudo solves your problems. (this sums it up nicely)


How to find all iWork documents which are not yet converted to iWork'13? When opening documents in iWork'13, the documents are converted and may wind up looking different if they were created in iWork'09 (see Apple support article ”Working with iWork'09 files"). Documents created with even older versions of iWork can, I believe, not be opened in iWork'13 at all and must first be converted with iWork'09.

How can I find all iWork documents on a Mac which haven't been converted yet to iWork'13? Searching for all documents with a particular extension doesn't seem to be possible as iWork'09 and iWork'13 use the same file extensions.

I’ve put together an Automator Workflow to find all iWork documents that have not been converted yet. The workflow uses this shell script:

find "${1}" \( -iname '*.key' -or -iname '*.pages' -or -iname '*.numbers' \) -and \( -type d -or \( -type f -and -not -exec bash -c 'unzip -qq -l "${0}" Metadata/DocumentIdentifier >/dev/null' '{}' \; \) \) -and -print

Technically this script finds anything with the “key”, “pages” or “numbers” extension which doesn’t look like an iWork’13 document: documents created with iWork’13 are stored as ZIP archives and contain a “DocumentIdentifier”, whereas documents created with iWork’09 are ZIP archives without this “DocumentIdentifier”. The script also matches on directories, as the first versions of iWork stored documents as package directories.

The last action in the workflow creates an alias to the documents found by the script, making it easy to browse the results in the Finder. I recommend you change the action to use another folder than the Desktop though, as there may be a lot of results.

Edit: I have learned that the iWork document format as a ZIP archive with a “DocumentIdentifier” seems to have been introduced in iWork'14 rather than iWork'13, and is only used when saving to a Mac locally, not when saving to iCloud (as mentioned in the Ars Technica review of iWork’14). So the above script finds anything with one of the iWork extensions that does not look like a locally-saved iWork’14 document. I don’t feel a need at the moment to refine the script to only find pre-iWork’13 documents so I will leave it as it is.


Missing 'man' entries after upgrade Having upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion a few days ago, I find that most of the 'man' entries from section 3 (programming functions) are missing.  For example:

phillip-millss-macbook-pro:etc phil$ man fopen
No manual entry for fopen

Exploring with the terminal shows me that all that remains in man3 directories within the 'man' search path are things related to Perl.

Is there something extra that I should be installing to get the reference information back?

You can set an environmental variable called MANPATH that will tell the "man" command where to look for the man pages. I see my mac 10.12.6 (Sierra) does not have that variable set.  According to "man man"  output, it uses /etc/man.conf to know where the directories are. You can add missing paths into that file.  That file may be overwritten by an mac os x update, so you may have to do it again.  To find your missing man3 files, which are probably still on your disk, try "locate \*man3"  and it should list every directory with a man3 folder in it.
Boyd


Will Photo Stream go away when iCloud Photos leaves beta? iOS 8.1 is out and there is a public beta for iCloud Photos.

There are many differences between the new iCloud Photo service and the old Photo Stream, but for the scope of this question I am only concerned about my iCloud storage space. One of the major drawbacks of iCloud Photos is that it counts against your iCloud storage quota. The current Photo Stream feature, however, does not. It is effectively "free".

My question is this:

Does anyone know if Photo Stream will go away when iCloud Photos is finished and released in iOS 8.2 (or whatever)?

This is speculation until Apple makes an official announcement.

Given that the iCloud Photos page doesn't mention Photo Stream once, and refers to "shared albums" instead of shared Photo Streams, I would guess that Photo Stream will be retired, yes.


Chrome popup on random urls? I have a NAS on a local IP address, 192.168.x.x.
When I open Chrome and go to that address, I'm seeing a suppressed popup. If I permit the popup, it goes to Uniregistry (a Go-daddy co). FWIW, this doesn't happen in Firefox. Trying to understand why this occurs.
I am running Yosemite 10.10.5 on a 2010 MacPro.
Update - I was going down the wrong path. This is unrelated to the NAS/local IP issue.

The same redirect was blocked when visiting a math blog.
Aside from confirming that Chrome is set to block redirects, I'm still trying to understand their source.

Using a bit of the scientific method, narrowing down the cause of the popup.
Other browsers didn't have the same issue, only Chrome. And the popup was occuring on my own NAS, with no other users reporting such an infection.
So, back to Chrome. I looked at my extensions. Over 2 dozen. Turned them all off, and the popups stopped. Turned them on, 4 at a time, until I found the one that caused this. When I clicked to look in the Chrome store, it's no longer listed. Mystery solved.
(Thank you, Allan, for the time and patience, and the SW reference, which helped me find unwelcome adware.)


What is the default URL for Software Update on OS X 10.5.x? I am fixing my mother-in-law's computer, and when I ran software update I found that the computer was looking to https://storeserver.local:8088/indes.sucatalog to get it's updates...   Clearly she has brought this machine to the Apple Store for some help at some point.

What is the correct URL for OS X 10.5 to get updates directly from Apple?

I know how to set the URl using:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL "_insert_correct_url_here"

Thanks for your help in advance.

Bill

The link below will take you to a page for multiple 10.5 combo  updates

http://support.apple.com/downloads/#os%2010.5%20combo%20updates

the link below is for 10.5.8 combo update

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL866


Partition Time Machine volume already used I want to partition/reduce size my Time Machine volume to use it also with another Mac.
Now I've this situation

I want to change the partition and do this

But the two tips of the partitions says

--- one

--- the other one

What will happen to the files if I apply this partitions?
Will I lose all the old Time Machine backup files?

All the files currently located within the partition 'Time Machine' will be located in the partition 'Time Machine 1'. The partition 'Time Machine 2' will be empty and no files will be deleted.

Disk Utility should prompt you if the contents of Time Machine doesn't fit in Time Machine 1, but to be safe, check first.


Strange lines and glitches appearing on screen on a Macbook Lately I've been witnessing this weird visual glitch on the screen of my MacBook (non-retina 2012, hi-res screen):

I have had to take a picture of it because whenever I try to take a screenshot it goes away right before the screenshot is taken.

I thought this glitch only happened when I had Adobe Illustrator open, which is when I would see it appear more often, but I've now also caught it in situations where the application was not running (the picture above is one of those cases).

I cannot pinpoint the exact cause of this and I cannot tell whether it's a hardware or a software issue, but I can only say it's not one of those flickering effects that appear for a second and then vanish. This is actually very persistent and will only go away when I switch to another application or in some way move the current window.

Does anybody know what this is and what might cause it?

Here are more pictures:

Well, it looks like you may need a visit to the nearest Apple Store,
but first try downloading SMCFanControl: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol and try turning up the fan speed to cool the overheated graphics card and see if that helps.
Please note that I am not sure whether the fan speed on the MacBook is adjustable, but it's certainly worth a try.


This movie requires QuickTime, which is not supported by this version of iTunes. iTunes 12.0.1.26 in Yosemite Rented a movie from iTunes. Tried to play it. Got error: "This movie requires QuickTime, which is not supported by this version of iTunes."

Movie is 720p HD mp4.

Have tried to open the movie in QuickTime but won't open. I suspect that's a DRM issue but QuickTime isn't saying.

I'm not sure if it's related or not but once the download completed I got an iTunes error (We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occurred (3001)).

Has anyone else seen this lately? Anyone have any ideas?

James

Found the answer here: http://support.apple.com/en-us/TS3771
Basically, you need to get iTunes to startup in 32-bit mode.


What can I use to save/restore Safari's history? Is there a way to save/restore the browser history on Safari? I'm asking because I found a way to show the hidden Debug menu on the browser where there is an option Sync iCloud history. The thing is that I don't want rely only on iCloud to restore the browser history. Besides, I really don't know whether syncing iCloud's history would work like that, or rather would merge or override the history or some other particular kind of data in all devices.

Safari history is stored in an SQLite database located at

~/Library/Safari/History.db

You can copy this file elsewhere to save it, then restore it by copying it over the top of the existing file (while Safari is quit).


Make the menu bar in Yosemite opaque In Mavericks and earlier, it was possible to make the menu bar opaque, rather than the default translucent look.

Now in Yosemite, it looks like translucency is the default, and the setting is gone from where it used to be, to toggle it.

Is there a workaround for this? Such as a way to do it through Terminal?

In System Preferences > Accessibility > Display, enable the "Reduce Transparency" option.

(Note, though, that that disables transparency across the whole system; it doesn't seem like it's possible to disable the transparency just for the menu bar anymore.)


Is there any way to auto-close Safari's download window upon download completion? This is the only thing that bothers me with Safari, but it's a big deal. I've looked everywhere but can't seem to find any good suggestions. Is there any way to enable the Safari downloads window to automatically close when a download completes?

I use the Glims plugin for this, which has a host of other useful features, too.


Why can I no longer reply from Messages notifications in macOS Big Sur? I have recently upgraded to macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 from Catalina 10.15.7.
Now, when I receive a Message, I get the notification but I no longer reply through it. This used to work in Catalina.
I found no useful options in System Preferences > Notifications nor in Messages > Preferences.
Any idea why this is happening and/or what I could do to solve this?
It's a very important feature for my everyday workflow at the Mac.

You can reply, it's just not intuitive. When you receive the notification, click the dropdown option to expand/show more and it will give you a text field which you can type in.
I've filed this in Apple's bug-report system as FB8619443


Time Machine error creating the backup folder on a spacious hard drive I have upgraded recently to Mavericks, and am setting up Time Machine on this system for the first time (it wasn't set up with the earlier OS, Mountain Lion.)

Time Machine successfully backs up once after I boot the laptop.  However, every time it tries to back up again while the laptop is running (I don't normally perform a full shutdown and reboot very often!) it fails with the error message: "An error occurred while creating the backup folder."

I would like to eject the drive and plug it in again to see if this helps, but clicking the Eject button in Finder shows this message:

and I have not wanted to do a Force Eject.  I have rebooted, and Time Machine successfully backed up once after that, only to fail again the next time it tried.

I do sometimes close the laptop lid or put it to sleep with the disk still plugged in, and it is still there when it wakes.

I searched the Console for Time Machine-related errors but could not see any.  (The Console won't display system.log saying I don't have permissions, but running syslog -C in the Terminal and scanning the output doesn't show anything either.)

How do I:

Solve the issue, so it successfully create the backup folder
Perhaps, see if it is Time Machine or another app that is preventing the disk eject?

Details:

An early 2011 Macbook Pro, which was running Mountain Lion for a week on a new internal hard drive, now Mavericks
The drive is a 2TB Toshiba USB drive.  I formatted it at as Mac OS X Journaled.  Running Disk Utility and verifying the disk shows no errors.
The drive has about 800GB free space.
I am running from a normal (non-admin) user account.

I had the exact same symptoms with a Nov 2013 MacBook Pro (came with Mavericks already installed) using WD "My Passport" USB drives for Time Machine backups.  The solution was to erase and reformat the external drives using Disk Utility as described in
   http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5911 under the heading "Erase and reformat the storage device".

I had a spare drive so, in order not to lose existing backups, I did the following:

erase spare drive as above
use Disk Utility to "restore" the backup drive's volume to the erased drive
(you have selected the volume correctly (rather than the drive) if the Disk
Utility window shows
    "First Aid; Erase; RAID; restore" as options
not
    "First Aid; Erase; Partition; RAID; restore")

After this I have no problem doing multiple backups in a row, putting the machine to sleep without ejecting the backup disk and then doing a further backup, and no problems with ejecting the disk.

Good luck!


iPad Camera Big Yellow Rectangle Okay I am not talking about the little yellow square of focus, I think this is a different thing.

I was watching some online video and taking photos with my iPad when I notice a huge yellow rectangle, I would like to know what is it, does anyone knows?

It appears very fast (like 1-2 seconds) and then it goes away. I had the change to take a fast printscreen to show you, here is the image:

I notice that it was appearing when there was some movement on that part of the screen, is this live tracking movement? :o

What feature is that? and what does it do? It auto focus on that zone?
Is this something that is only available at the stock camere app I guess right?

EDIT: Also I tried to disable the Live function, that upper right first button and the yellow rectangle still shows! weird, it's okay for me, I would just like to understand what is it, thanks!

Thank you!

That's the face recognition at work.

Yellow rectangles are drawn around any detected faces to inform you that the facial colour/exposure/etc optimisations are in operation. The rectangle doesn't guarantee focus since there could be multiple faces detected. It's a feature of the stock camera app.


iPhone8 Showing Pictures On Device Even Though I Removed All Photos I don't get it.  I removed all my pictures from my iPhone8 but iPhone Storage is still showing pictures are in the iPhone8.

Unless you purged the Recently Deleted, they will stay for 30 days. If you did, reboot the phone. If that doesn't work, make a new backup & restore from it.


iMac iPhone USB Internet Sharing I have a MacBook Pro and a iMac. On the MacBook I see a network interface named "iPhone USB" in my Network Settings. On the MacBook the internet sharing over usb works fine. But on the iMac it doesn't work. On the iMac there is no "iPhone USB" interface and it doesn't appear a "New network device detected" window if I connect the iPhone to the iMac via USB. How can I add the "iPhone USB" network interface?

Please help.

Software Versions:
iMac 10.7.3
MacBook Pro 10.7.2
iPhone 5.0.1

Try this:

Turn off tethering on your iPhone
Plug iPhone into iMac
Turn tethering back on


Upgrade to Yosemite failed - MBR and GPT don't match? Upgrading to Yosemite so I can install the newest version of xCode.
Shortly after starting I get this error:

I've tried going into Disk Utility and repairing permissions, but even though it says it's repairing things, when I run it again the same errors show up.

Not sure what to do here.

Edit: Disk Manager

Edit 2: GPT and FDisk:

Edit 3: in response to n1000

Command (? for help): v

Warning! Mismatched GPT and MBR partition! MBR partition 4, of type 0x07,
has no corresponding GPT partition! You may continue, but this condition
might cause data loss in the future!

Identified 1 problems!

Command (? for help): ?
b   back up GPT data to a file
c   change a partition's name
d   delete a partition
i   show detailed information on a partition
l   list known partition types
n   add a new partition
o   create a new empty GUID partition table (GPT)
p   print the partition table
q   quit without saving changes
r   recovery and transformation options (experts only)
s   sort partitions
t   change a partition's type code
v   verify disk
w   write table to disk and exit
x   extra functionality (experts only)
?   print this menu

Command (? for help): r

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): ?
b   use backup GPT header (rebuilding main)
c   load backup partition table from disk (rebuilding main)
d   use main GPT header (rebuilding backup)
e   load main partition table from disk (rebuilding backup)
f   load MBR and build fresh GPT from it
g   convert GPT into MBR and exit
h   make hybrid MBR
i   show detailed information on a partition
l   load partition data from a backup file
m   return to main menu
o   print protective MBR data
p   print the partition table
q   quit without saving changes
t   transform BSD disklabel partition
v   verify disk
w   write table to disk and exit
x   extra functionality (experts only)
?   print this menu

This post explains the procedure. Now is probably a good time to make a backup. Then proceed at your own risk...

Get gdisk
In Terminal: sudo gdisk /dev/disk0
Press v to verify your MBR
Press r and then o to list the MBR partition table
Press m and then p to display the GPT partition table information
Compare the numbers for partition 4 from the MBR and GPT tables. The start numbers should match, but the end numbers will probably be off.
Press d to delete the GPT partition 4 (Bootcamp). "Note: this does not delete the actual partition from disk. It only deletes gdisk's in-memory representation of the GPT."
Press n to create a new partition 4 (Bootcamp) using the start and end sector values from the MBR partition 4
Change the name of the new partition 4 to BOOTCAMP
Press v to verify
If no errors occurred: press w to write the new partition table
If errors occurred: press q and try again
Reboot

The important part is step 7 where you sync your GPT and MBR. Note that some of the commands (e.g. disk0, partition 4) may be different in your case. Please adapt them accordingly.


What prevents Time Machine backup? I purchased a refurbished MacBook Pro (MPB) to replace a previous one of almost the same model.  (Lest anyone wonder why such a foolish thing, I bought the old one used for cheap and it had signs of being dropped.  The new one looks nicer and has a one-year warranty.)

In getting ready to migrate, I wanted to do one last backup.  It was then that I noticed Time Machine says the last backup was at the end of the previous year (two weeks ago).  I am fairly certain I had the drive connected several times during those two weeks, and even clicked "Backup Now" more than once.  There were no "unable to back up" notifications.

When I looked at TM preferences, the "Preparing to backup" progress bar gets to the end (or almost—it's hard for my eyes to tell whether the "last pixel" is still not blue).  But it stays there until I order it to cancel.  (Five minutes/sixty minutes according to my level of patience)

fsck_hfs found nothing wrong with the drive.

I found at least one web page that said this happens sometimes and a supposedly simple fix is to trash the *-in-progress backup, reboot, and try again.  Not only did that not help, SIP prevents emptying the trash.

Any explanation and/or solution?

I would like to "inherit" the backup, but if it's corrupt, I would wipe the disk instead and start over.

I would go with the general thrust of the suggestion of NoahL in comments (i.e. move the inProgress folder to the trash, disable SIP, empty the trash, reenable SIP, and then try backing up again).

However, if you do not know how to disable/enable SIP, you can follow these steps:

Start your MBP
Immediately hold down the commandR keys to boot into recovery
Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal
Type csrutil disable and press return
Close the Terminal app
Select Restart.... from the  menu

Once you've rebooted, empty the Trash (assuming you've already placed the inProgress folder in the Trash). Once emptied, shutdown your MBP and follow the above steps again, except that at Step 4 use csrutil enable instead of csrutil disable.


Changing default app to open a certain extension, but keeping the previous icon? I use TextWrangler to open code files, such as .php, .ccs, .js, etc.

But it assigns the same icon to every file. How can I get the original icons back to each extension while TextWrangler is still the default app to open them?

The behavior you want is what happens when using Xcode as the default application.

The behavior you want is not possible with TextWrangler for the following reason:
Textwrangler does not distinguish the icons for *.php *.ccs... like Xcode. Therefore it does not store different icons for different filetypes (PHP.icns, CCS.icns...).

Instead TextWrangler only stores one icon for all filetypes: TextWranglerTextDoc.icns

This icon is located at:

right-click on TextWrangler -> show package contents
navigate to .../Contents/Resources/TextWranglerTextDoc.icns


Apple wireless keyboard is outputting an " character when I expect an @ character I just bought a Mac Mini and a wireless apple keyboard. Whenever I type Shift+2, expecting the @ symbol to appear, I get a " character instead. How can I diagnose the problem and correct the mapping so Shift+2 produces the @ symbol as expected?

Several other Shift keys in that row are also wrong:  6 is &, 7 is ', 8 is (, 9 is ), 0 is 0.

For some reason your mini thinks the keyboard is a JIS (Japanese) keyboard "type".  This note might help:

http://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2009/12/fixing-keyboard-type-problems.html


Automate package installation via shell script for macOS? I am trying to write a shell script to automate installation of a bunch of dependencies for a project on macOS which will be an equivalent script for the same that works on EL6/EL7 and uses the yum package manager. This script will try to leverage HomeBrew to do the same.

A few of the tools/dependencies/packages that I want to automate installation are gcc, wget, make, cmake and git and so forth. I want to first check if any of these exist already, then update them or else install them. As you can see in this following snippet I am first trying to check if brew exists already, then update it or else simply install it.

#!/bin/sh

echo Checking brew
#Check if Homebrew is already installed else prompt the user to do so.

BREW_INSTALLED="/usr/local/bin/brew"

#Variables to check if dependencies exist.
HOMEBREW=$(which brew)

echo $HOMEBREW

if [ "$HOMEBREW" == "$BREW_INSTALLED" ]; then
    echo "Brew is already installed."
    echo "Update Brew"
    brew update
else
    /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
fi

Now, my questions are (multipart question!)

Is it the right way to use which brew or which X where X can be gcc, make etc. and then compare them with hardcoded /usr/bin/X to check their existence? Since I have quite a list of them I need to check and install so declaring variables for all and cross checking with paths somehow doesn't seem appropriate to me.
How to handle the situation where the user has these packages installed but at some different location for whatever reason they might have? (This seems a bit objective but to ensure the project compiles and builds upon these dependencies should I force these paths only?)
Also, one or more packages might be git repos and need to be cloned, compiled, make installed on the fly. What should be the proper place to put the generated .dylibs and create symlinks to make sure all these interdependent packages can find one another and work in peace?
Is there anything equivalent to virtual_env or jenv to isolate all these installations (of course using HomeBrew they end up in /usr/local/Cellar)? But, as macOS does come with at least a few of them (git, gcc etc.) I don't want to duplicate installations.

P.S. Any help in terms of a direction, resource or an example project working with large amount of dependencies will help. I just can't figure out the right keywords or the right resources to look for a solution or a partial solution. Thanks. :)

To piggyback off nohillside, I was gonna say you might be able to just achieve a lot of that by creating your own tap! You can even tap a repo hosted elsewhere (say like a private one, bitbucket, or anything) as long as you specify the git url after brew tap


Change volume of speakers before unplugging headphones I have a 15" Macbook Pro mid-2015.

If my headphones are currently plugged into the audio jack, is it possible for me to control the volume of the speakers?

So that, after unplugging my headphones, the speakers can already be muted for example?

If you had already set your speaker to be mute before you plug in you device into your audio-jack port after you unplug your headphones it will still be mute.

Here's an example.

Before the headphone jack:

You can see that the speakers are set on mute.

When you plug the headphone it will be on the last set volume:

And again when you unplug them, you can see that they are still on mute:


Change Apple ID primary email address Ho can I change my Apple ID primary email address.  I do not have access to the one listed

I have been through all the support articles but they all tell you to sign on (which I would have to do with the old details and password and then wait for a verification email which of course I cannot do now.  This is not an iCloud related question, I just simply want to change my email address.
Thanks

For obvious security reasons, in order to change one's account Email, you need access to that account in the first place. If you don't have access to the email in question (and you can't login) then you are pretty much out of luck. The verification email will go to the new email address to confirm it.

In the past few days, Apple added a Google-like mechanism to allow you to access your account in the event of a problem with the primary email. Essentially it allows you to answer three security questions. If you don't or can't access those, then a backup email is provided (and verified) so they can help you recover your account.

But… these things must be done before you lose access.


Frequent, lengthy voice recording damaging to iPhone? Possible Duplicate:
  Apple iPhone 4 flash memory

I have an iPhone 4S and lately I've been seeking a way to record some class lectures. Today, I decided to try out using the Voice Memos app on my iPhone and I was absolutely stunned by the quality.

However, if I use my iPhone I'll be recording 1/4GB - 1GB every weekday for the foreseeable future and I'm worried the frequent data read/write will damage my iPhone. I know that flash drives will die after 1000 read/writes, and I'm pretty sure that iPhone's memory is flash-based. I'll need to keep my phone healthy for another year.

Will frequent, intensive daily R/W kill the phone?

Not likely. Use your phone to do whatever you want to do with it.

Per iFixit's teardown there's a Toshiba MLC NAND flash chip in there. You've got at least 10,000 write cycles for the flash, which means you could fill the phone up 10,000 times before you had any problems. If you're figuring a gigabyte of recording each day, a 16GB phone gives you 40+ years of recording time.

(If somebody can find a datasheet for the part, you could confirm the potential number of write cycles. My 10,000 is an educated guess based on typical MLC.)


Fusion Drive: free space on SSD Is there a possibility to find out how much storage is free on a SSD of a Fusion Drive disk (SSD + HDD as a logical device)? The structure I use is this one here:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         255.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.3 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Fusion                 *1.3 TB     disk2

I would like to see how much space there is free on my SSD (disk0s2) but I cannot find out how to do this. Perhaps it's important to say, that I've encrypted the whole fusion drive. The standard way does not work in this case:

$ df -h /dev/disk0s2
df: /dev/disk0s2: Raw devices not supported

$ df -h /dev/disk0
df: /dev/disk0: Raw devices not supported

Thanks in advance for your effort.

At least 4 GB of the SSD portion of a Fusion drive is left empty at all times. That space is used for incoming writes. If there's less than 4 GB of empty space on the SSD, Core Storage will start offloading data to the HDD.

So if all your data is less than your SSD capacity less 4 GB, then you have whatever your SSD capacity is (128 GB on all Apple supplied Fusion drives) minus the amount of your data. Otherwise, you've got 4 GB free.

As an aside, the reason df doesn't work in this case is that it only reads filesystems. The filesystem sits atop the logical volume created by Core Storage (the software behind Fusion) — there's no "SSD portion" or "HDD portion", to the filesystem it's all one big drive.


Can someone read messages on my locked iPhone? I left my iPhone in a taxi cab. I locked the phone to make sure nobody finds it and makes expensive calls. But does locking the phone prevent someone from seeing the texts I am sending? What if the battery dies? After the phone is recharged, will the texts I send still be readable if the phone is locked?

Your sending a lock doesn't change the settings you had on the phone prior to losing it.

If messages were showing on the screen - they will still show.

If not, they will not.

If you have find my phone enabled and are concerned about changing this, you could send a remote erase (and then lose all ability to track it again) and have it resort to the default behavior. I'm hesitant to erase my phone now to test, but am fairly certain the default is towards privacy and further messages would not be displayed on the lock screen when the phone reboots or is powered on again.


iTunes 10.6 - iPhone no longer connects I'm using the 64 bit Mac version of iTunes and my device appears in the sidebar for an instant before disappearing again. I've successfully connected and stored files using iExplorer and so forth, so it's definitely an iTunes issue. Any thoughts?

The best way to resolve issues where a device is not connecting to iTunes is to uninstall and re-download iTunes. This has almost always worked for me and is also high on the list of things to do when troubleshooting this type of issue on Apple's website.

The list details are

Update iTunes
Restart iPhone
Recharge iPhone
Check USB connections
Restart Computer
Reinstall iTunes (Windows)
Resolve Software Conflicts

If all these steps fail Apple reccomends

Make an appointment with a Genius or Contact Apple Technical Support


Automatically open mounted volumes in Path Finder I may just be missing some simple setting, but if I mount a volume in Path Finder, it never switches to show me the contents of the volume.  I have to manually click the volume in the sidebar.  Is there a way to have it immediately switch to that volume after I mount it?

Not switching but show in a new window.
Preferences->Browser->Open mounted volumes in new Window


use some apps on ethernet, others on wifi? Is there any way to tell an application to use a specific network interface?
I'Ve got the problem that iMessage and other apps need to run on the proxy-free wifi network while other apps such as Xcode need to run on ethernet to connect to the repository in the wired network.

Is there any way to do this?

Some programs specifically gives you the option to choose the source interface. That's the easiest way if this is the case.

Another possibility is to use source routing (policy routing) to ensure that requests from your specific source is routed via the interface you need. This is often quite complicated to setup and maintain.

A third possibility, which is really not about choosing a specific interface, is a practical approach where you change the routing based on the destination instead.

I.e. if it is only important for you that your app uses the wired ethernet conncetion when talking to the specific repository, you could determine which IP address (or addresses) that repository has - and then add a specific route for that IP over the wired interface. This route would take priority over your default route.

From the Terminal run:

  route -n add -host xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -interface en0

(for net local)

or

  route -n add -host xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx gw yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy -interface en0

(for routed destinations)

where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx should be replaced with the IP of the repository. Similarly yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy is to be replaced with the IP of your gateway for the wired interface.

If you have several wired interfaces, change en0 to the specific interface.

If your repository have multiple IP addresses, run the command above multiple times with the various IPs.


How can I get gdk-x11-3.0 on OS X? Building an application from source (yikes), I get this on cmake:

-- checking for module 'gdk-x11-3.0'
--   package 'gdk-x11-3.0' not found
CMake Error at /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.3.1/share/cmake/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:340 (message):
  A required package was not found
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.3.1/share/cmake/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:502 (_pkg_check_modules_internal)
  src/CMakeLists.txt:12 (pkg_check_modules)

-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

I have already homebrew install gtk+3 and a bunch of other things that came to mind (and were listed as dependencies), so I have no idea what this is and where I can get it, or if it is, indeed, missing.

Any help would be appreciated.

Config and Steps Taken

brew doctor is clean: Your system is ready to brew.
homebrew is upgraded and updated
I am running OS X 10.10.5

Brew's got:

atk 2.16.0
atkmm 2.22.7
autoconf 2.69
automake 1.14.1 1.15
bison 3.0.4
boost 1.58.0
brew-cask 0.53.3 0.54.0 0.54.1 0.56.0
cabextract 1.5 1.6
cairo 1.14.2 1.14.2_1
cairomm 1.11.2_1
cloog 0.18.1 0.18.3
cloog-ppl015 0.15.11
cmake 3.3.1
ctags 5.8 5.8_1
ffmpeg 2.6.3 2.7.1 2.7.2 2.7.2_1
fontconfig 2.11.1
freetype 2.5.5 2.6 2.6_1
gcc 4.9.2_1 5.1.0 5.2.0
gcc46 4.6.4
gd 2.1.1
gdbm 1.11
gdk-pixbuf 2.30.8
gettext 0.19.4 0.19.5.1
ghostscript 9.15 9.16
git 2.2.1 2.3.6 2.4.0 2.4.1 2.4.2 2.4.3 2.4.4 2.4.5 2.4.6 2.5.0 2.5.1 2.5.2
glib 2.44.0 2.44.1
glib-networking 2.44.0
glibmm 2.44.0
gmp 6.0.0a
gmp4 4.3.2
gnutls 3.3.17.1
gobject-introspection 1.44.0
gsettings-desktop-schemas 3.16.1
gst-plugins-bad 1.4.5
gst-plugins-base 1.4.5
gst-plugins-good 1.4.5
gst-plugins-ugly 1.4.5_1
gstreamer 1.4.5
gtk+ 2.24.28_2
gtk+3 3.16.6
gtk-mac-integration 2.0.8
gtkmm 2.24.4_1
gtkmm3 3.16.0
harfbuzz 1.0.3
hicolor-icon-theme 0.15
icu4c 55.1
isl 0.12.2 0.14.1
jasper 1.900.1
jbig2dec 0.12
jpeg 8d
lame 3.99.5
libepoxy 1.3.1
libffi 3.0.13
libgee 0.16.0
libgpg-error 1.13 1.17 1.19 1.20 1.20_1
libgphoto2 2.5.7 2.5.8
libicns 0.8.1_1
libksba 1.3.0 1.3.3
libmpc 1.0.3
libmpc08 0.8.1
libpng 1.6.17 1.6.18
libsigc++ 2.4.1
libsoup 2.50.0
libtasn1 4.5
libtiff 4.0.3 4.0.4
libtool 2.4.2 2.4.6
libusb 1.0.19
libusb-compat 0.1.5
libvo-aacenc 0.1.3
libyaml 0.1.6 0.1.6_1
little-cms2 2.7
makedepend 1.0.5
mpfr 3.1.2-p11 3.1.3
mpfr2 2.4.2
nettle 2.7.1
node 0.12.7 0.12.7_1
openjpeg 1.5.2_1
openssl 1.0.1g 1.0.1j_1 1.0.2a-1 1.0.2c 1.0.2d 1.0.2d_1
p7zip 9.20.1
pandoc 1.13.2 1.13.2.1 1.14 1.14.0.2 1.14.0.4 1.15.0.4 1.15.0.5 1.15.0.6
pandoc-citeproc 0.6 0.7.0.1_1 0.7.1.1 0.7.2 0.7.3
pango 1.36.8_2
pangomm 2.36.0
pcre 8.36 8.37
pixman 0.32.6
pkg-config 0.28
poppler 0.35.0
ppl011 0.11 0.11_1
py2cairo 1.10.0_1
pygobject 2.28.6
pygtk 2.24.0_1
python 2.7.10_2
qt 4.8.7
readline 6.3.6 6.3.8
ruby 2.2.0 2.2.2 2.2.3
sane-backends 1.0.24_1
sqlite 3.8.11.1
tcl-tk 8.6.4
tree 1.7.0
unrar 5.2.6 5.2.7
vala 0.28.1
wine 1.6.2
winetricks 20150316 20150416 20150706 20150810
x264 r2533 r2555
xvid 1.3.3 1.3.4
xz 5.2.1

Short answer

I think the problem here is that a lot of homebrew packages don't include X11 support by default if there is a more relevant (i.e. OS X specific) backend available. But PDFPC is looking for the X11 backend for GDK.

Long answer

GDK is distributed as part of GTK+ and if you look at the formula for GTK+3 it explicitly disables the X11 backend.

args = %W[
  --disable-debug
  --disable-dependency-tracking
  --prefix=#{prefix}
  --disable-glibtest
  --enable-introspection=yes
  --disable-schemas-compile
  --enable-quartz-backend
  --disable-x11-backend
]

You could edit the formula to include the x11 backend and then run brew install --build-from-source --verbose gtk+3, but then the build fails before it even gets to the compile stage.

configure: error: Package requirements (atk atk-bridge-2.0) were not met:

No package 'atk-bridge-2.0' found

So you can then add `depends_on "at-spi2-atk" to the GTK+3 formula to get homebrew to install that package, and now GTK+3 gets through the configure stage and starts build. Unfortunately it then fails with errors because by default Cairo isn't installed with the X11 backend.

In file included from gdkapplaunchcontext-x11.c:27:
../../gdk/x11/gdkprivate-x11.h:46:10: fatal errorIn file included from gdkdevice-core-x11.c:In file included from 26gdkasync.c::
47:
../../gdk/x11/gdkprivate-x11.h:../../gdk/x11/gdkprivate-x11.h46::4610::10 :fatal error : fatal error'cairo-xlib.h' file not found
In file included from gdkcursor-x11.c:33:
../../gdk/x11/gdkprivate-x11.h:46:10: fatal error: 'cairo-xlib.h' file not found
#include <cairo-xlib.h>
         ^
#include <cairo-xlib.h>
         ^
: 'cairo-xlib.h' file not found
#include <cairo-xlib.h>
         ^
: 'cairo-xlib.h' file not found
#include <cairo-xlib.h>
         ^
1 error1 error generated.
1 error generated.

So then you can remove cairo and reinstall it with the X11 backend option.

brew remove cairo
brew install --with-x11 cairo

But now it fails with problems in libepoxy.

In file included from gdkdisplay-x11.c:40:
./gdkglcontext-x11.h:28:10: fatal error: 'epoxy/glx.h' file not found
#include <epoxy/glx.h>
         ^
  CC       gdkglcontext-x11.lo
1 error generated.
make[3]: *** [gdkdisplay-x11.lo] Error 1
make[3]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
In file included from gdkglcontext-x11.c:23:
./gdkglcontext-x11.h:28:10: fatal error: 'epoxy/glx.h' file not found
#include <epoxy/glx.h>
         ^
1 error generated.
make[3]: *** [gdkglcontext-x11.lo] Error 1
make[2]: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: *** [install] Error 2
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1

This is because the author of libepoxy dropped support for GLX on OS X back a few months ago.

  Another big change is that OSX drops GLX support. I had had
  near-universal complaints about including it, and its seems like X on
  OSX is really not used these days (The lack of activity on its X
  server makes that pretty obvious).

And this is where I throw in the towel. :)


how can I download ios 7 manually to be able to get my podcast app back? I am on an iPhone 3Gs with iOS 6.1.6.
Unfortunately  my podcast app has been removed.
Now, if I want to install it Again, I need iOS 7. However, in my setting for software it states that my software is up to date.
How can I manually download iOS 7 so that I can get my podcast app back?

Unfortunately the highest supported iOS by an iPhone 3Gs is 6.1.6, you cannot do anything in that regards, the possible solution is to Jailbreak the iPhone and try to get access to Podcast application with that.


Replace HardwareGrowler for hardware and system events notifications on MacOS? I used HardwareGrowler for years to get notified about hardware and system events on my Macs.
HardwareGrowler was initially provided as an extra with Growl, and was then proposed as a standalone app in the Mac App Store.
The Growl developper recently announced Growl's retirement (see also ArsTechnica's recent post).
I won't miss Growl, given that I haven't used it for year. But I'll deeply miss one Growl extra: HardwareGrowler.
Hardware Growler's purpose is (was) to notify about hardware-like events, including

interfaces connect and disconnect (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, WIFI, Bluetooth, ...)
other system events like under-the-hood volume mount/umount
change of primary IP addresses due to DHCP renewal or network interface changes.
connect and disconnect of power adapter

IMHO it's simple, efficient, lightweight, and very useful piece of software for power users (nicely completing a system ressource monitoring like MenuMeters).
Hardware Growler's code is still on GitHub, but the app is no longer available in Mac App Store, nor apparently anywhere else.
I currently still have it installed, and reportedly (in comments) it still works fine on MacOS Big Sur. But the current build will sooner or later become unusable, and so far isn't ported to Apple Silicon.
I looked for an alternative, both on the web and in HomeBrew, but couldn't find any.
So the question is: does anybody would have some suggestions for maintained lightweight MacOS softwares that could provide notifications about hardware and system events, like HardwareGrowler does ?
thanks a million !
[Edited to incorporate information from simonszu's comment about HardwareGrowler working fine on MacOS Big Sur]

Since the BSD-licensed source for HardwareGrowler is available, the thing to do is to replace its use of the Growl API with the OS-provided notifications API. Its hardware detection code should be fine as is. I don't have the attention to give it now, but if no one else does it I will get around to it for my own use (especially since it is my only remaining use for Growl itself).
I don't currently have an active Apple Developer subscription, but I'd consider getting one to be able to release a new version on the Mac App Store if no one else gets around to it first.
Anyone have any ideas on a rename that shows its Growl origins while also showing its independence from the Growl API?


View Song Lyrics in iTunes Assuming I have songs with lyrics already added to them, how do I easily view them when listening to a song?

With reference to the current version (iTunes 10):

Without adding third party software, you will need to actively select the currently playing song to view its lyrics.

⌘+I opens the Info window for the selected song
esc closes the Info window

If you open the Lyrics tab in the Info window, it will open in the same tab the next time you open it.

Visualizers

If you want to view the lyrics without interacting with your Mac, you might want to consider adding a third party visualizer. One such visualizer is Cover Version (freeware).

(NOTE: With OS 10.7.4 & iTunes 10.6.3, CoverVersion shows my lyrics with a upper case letter height of three pixels.  I opened the info window and changed the font from 12 pt. to 144 pt., but it didn't change the Viz.  But it's open source, so I could fix it if I were sufficiently ambitious.)

After you have installed the visualizer, you will need to select it in iTunes. For example:

View > Visualizer > Cover Version

Use ⌘+T to toggle the visualizer on/off
You can choose the menu item View > Visualizer > Options... to configure some visualizers  (For example, in Cover Version you can switch off the background graphics to make the lyrics easier to read)

Other Third Party Software

If you want to display lyrics while using your Mac for other tasks, you'll need to use a third party application.

Examples include:

Get Lyrical from Shullian Productions (Donation Ware)
LessLyrics from Ixhan (Freeware)


Mavericks entering accents into Chrome? So starting in Lion, you have been able to enter accents by simply holding down certain keys and selecting your accent.  However, in Chrome when I hold down on a key it enters a second one: For instance, if I were trying to type état, it would come out as eétat; an extra e would be entered for no reason.  Is there any way to fix this?

I am able to successfully type "état" into Chrome on Mavericks by typing the sequence option-e, e.

In other words, hold down the option key and press the letter 'e'. Then press the letter 'e' again. The accented letter only appears once.


Finder "Arrange by date" splits into Today, Previous 7 Days, Previous 30 Days, etc When I use Finder on OSX 10.11.6, selecting any of the "Arrange by date [modified/last opened/created/added]" splits up the window into various vertical subcategories which I can either horizontally scroll through or go through one by one and select "show all" to have them treated like regular files.

Is there anyway to disable this and just have all the files in the folder sorted chronologically in the same way it treats files when you sort by name? I believe the behavior I'm looking for is the same as Windows 10 behavior.

[EDIT]

Just to clarify, I am wanting to achieve this in icon view, not in one of the other views.

Right Click → Show View Options. In the small window that opens, set Arrange By and Sort By to "None". Close the small window.

Right Click Again → Clean Up By → Date Modified or Date Created.

Unfortunately, there is no equivalent option for "Last Opened" or "Added", as far as I'm aware.


é showing up as &eacute in TextEdit I am opening a text file using Mac's TextEdit that has &eacute; in it. &eacute; is supposed to be showing up as é instead.

Is there a way to make TextEdit read it as é?

&eacute; is one of the HTML forms of é and when &eacute; is pasted as plain text... No, TextEdit will not convert it to é.

Either copy from a source that show it as é or use the Find and Replace... command in TextEdit to find &eacute; and replace it with é.

As a side note, &#233; and &#xE9; also represent é in HTML.


Distribution of the enterprise iOS application We are going to develop iOS application for enterprise. As I see we need take a part in Enterprise Developers Program.  But there is a some points I want to clarify:

Is it right that Enterprise Developers Program allow to distribute the application without the publication of them in App Store ? If it is where the user will get our application ? It will be separate portal ? Or something else ?
Our customers don't want that our (and their) iOS program will be sensed to Apple.  Is it possible to distribute our application  within our customers without the publication it on App Store and event without the sending it to Apple ? How will be working program distribution and the update process in this case ?

An app is just a file. You can distribute them through a sophisticated framework such as a custom App store hosted on your own servers or just place them on a web server. In fact, you could also just email the app or push them through iTunes or other file sharing technology.

When you sign up as any iOS developer - you can install apps on your devices without ever submitting them to Apple. In the case of an enterprise account, you are allowed to install them for production use as well as development use.

The mechanism you choose for Mobile Device Management will affect your costs and benefits for the various distribution methods, but your general question is answered - Yes, as an enterprise developer no Apple involvement is needed or possible if you don't want your apps ever on the App Store in general or getting reviewed by Apple in specific.


How to manually edit locations in iPhoto 9.5 ('11) in a bigger window? With the previous versions of iPhoto, I was used to add a location for an album or batch of pictures taken during the same outdoor trip (backcountry skiing or alpinism tour for instance). My camera is not equipped with a GPS chip so I did it manually by placing a tag on the the Google Map tool integrated in iPhoto.

With the latest version of iPhoto 9.5 ('11), the google map tool has been replaced by the not so well finished Apple Maps. Which is OK from my point of view to use when you are within the civilized world, not really usable outside a city…

For me this tool is not usable, because the location edition area is a small thumbnail picture representing a map, on the lower right corner of iPhoto. I can move the tag, no problem, but it is a nightmare to locate it precisely where I want it to be (e.g. on the top of a mountain I climbed) due to the size of the edition area. I tried to edit the tag in the Maps application included in Maverick, but is seems that the tags are not shared between Maps and iPhoto. I also tried to edit the tag in the "Locations" function of iPhoto (in the left side bar), but it appears that the tags cannot be edit / moved in this view.

Here my question: how can I efficiently and manually edit the locations of a batch of pictures in iPhoto 9.5, within a window of the size of the app main window?

And a subsidiary question, in case the first question has no solution now: does a plug-ing exists to ease the location of pictures in iPhoto 9.5?

I also miss Google Maps in the newer iPhoto, so I use Picasa (which uses Google Maps) to add location data and keywords to the image files before importing them into iPhoto. Using Picasa for this is easier and has the added benefit that if I export them later as "originals" they have the location and keyword data embedded in the exif part of the file. When you add location and keywords to photos (or even change the name) in iPhoto, it stores the info in a database, not in the image file. I work only with JPEGs, so I don't know how Picasa handles RAW files.

Here's my process using standard apps already on my Mac (Mavericks) and Picasa 3.9 (free download):

Use Image Capture to import photos to a folder on my desktop
Use Automator to rename the images with the date and time, for example IMG-2014-01-02-143612. By including the time down to the second, every image has a unique name which will sort chronologically. This might also be a good time to add something descriptive to a group of photo titles, like IMG-2014-01-02-143612-Mount Everest :-)
Open folder in Picasa 3.9 to add location and keywords. Picasa will write this information to the exif part of the file and won't touch the actual image data.
Import images to iPhoto which will make use of the location data and keywords added in Picasa. If you export an "original" from iPhoto later, your location and keywords will be intact.


What format and encoding does iPhone save video clips in? Using the default Photo/Video application. Tried to find any info regarding this on Apple's web site with no success. Does anyone have the specs on this?

h.264 encoded video, AAC audio. Both standards of MPEG 4.


Can I use iOS 13+ without creating a passcode? I was given a hand-me-down iPhone and I just installed the update to 13.3 and upon booting after the update it's prompting me to create a passcode. I do not see any option to skip creating a passcode as I saw previously when I first set up the phone.

Is there any way to skip creating a passcode entirely, or is it required by newer versions of iOS? Is there any way to bypass the requirement?

Screenshot. After the update I get the "Hello" screen followed by a "Software Update Complete" screen with a "Continue button" which leads to the "Create a Passcode" screen below. If I select "Passcode Options" I get only what is displayed here. The phone was factory reset last week and I never created a passcode. Tapping cancel takes me back to the "Create a Passcode" text or number entry. I can't seem to bypass this screen in any way and notifications are blocked. I assume that this is a thing in iOS 13 that now requires a passcode full stop, but I couldn't find any confirmation of that in my searches (everything that comes up is nonsense about bypassing a passcode if you forgot it, which is totally irrelevant).

Cancel passcode options, go back (top-left button) until Touch ID setup, and don’t set up Touch ID (skip). Then when prompted for a passcode, choose Passcode Options and an option will exist for not setting a passcode.

If you can’t go back to Touch ID setup, enter a passcode to get through setup, then once the device is set up, go to Settings and disable Touch ID, then you can turn off passcode.

The text at the top of the page in your photo is different depending on whether you have enabled Touch ID or not. In this case, you have enabled Touch ID, therefore a passcode is required. If you don’t use Touch ID, you have the option for no passcode.


Improve file-info visibility in Finder's preview pane I find the file information in the preview pane in column view is far more useful than the thumbnail.  I wish I did not have to continually resize the Finder window or scroll the preview pane to see the info I'm looking for.

As you can see below, the useful info is hidden in default  size  of Finder's new window under the preview options like rotate etc.

Is there a way to do any of these to achieve the said goal (listed in order of decreasing likelihood!):

reduce the size of the preview "thumbnail" covered by black here,
reduce the amount of whitespace(grey here) around the preview "thumbnail" (only significant for landscape thumbnails),
remove the preview "thumbnail" altogether,
reorder the content of the preview column(bring file info up and send thumbnail down)?

This question includes the options:

resizing the Finder in every new window (which is labor intensive).
Using View menu> Show Preview Options to turn off Quick Actions (which must be done for each file-type, and only reveals a small amount of file info).

Sadly, I don't think there is the level of customization in the Finder that you want.

There are "Finder alternatives", like Path Finder, which may lay out information in a better way.

The default size of a Finder window can be set as follows:
1. Close all windows.
2. Open a window and make it the size you want.
3. Close it. Now all new windows will be the same size.

(Since Classic MacOS days!)


Is there a simple script to duplicate files into a new folder based on a csv file? Our challenge is that we need to search and duplicate approx 3000 images into a new folder.

The list of image names is a csv file. The files are all on one drive, but in many different folders.

Using Bash:

#!/bin/bash

cat /path/to/file.csv | while IFS=, read col1 col2 col3
do
    find . -path "$col1" -exec cp {} /DESIRED/DIRECTORY \;
done

IFS is the input field separator. Declare as , for .csv.
find . -path searches through your home directory recursively for names
read from col1, returning the full path.
exec executes the cp command on {}, which represents all the results find returns
the files are copied to /DESIRED/DIRECTORY and \; is required for terminating the exec command


Wireless Mouse only works with USB hub I have a Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 and a mid-2012 Macbook Pro (non-Retina). I normally have a lot of USB devices that I need to have plugged in so when I got my Macbook Pro I just continued to use my mouse plugged into my USB hub along with my other devices. But recently I was out somewhere and I just wanted to bring my mouse along with me and when I plugged the wireless dongle straight into the usb port it wouldn't recognize my mouse. I messed around with settings and tried to reinstall the drivers but that didn't work. When I got home I plugged it back into my USB hub and it worked. It's not really a big inconvenience but it's kind of strange and I'd like to fix it. Has anyone else experienced this or know of a solution?

I have a brand new mid-2012 Macbook Pro i7 15", which I bought on 12-23-2012. I was using my bluetooth mouse but the secondary button wasn't working accurately in one of my applications, so I switched to my trusty Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000. When I plugged the dongle into the USB 3.0 port, I got an error that said my laptop keyboard needed to be identified (?!). I couldn't get it 'identified' until I turned off my Bluetooth option. When I did that, both the mouse and the internal keyboard played nice.


Lag on 4k external monitor and MacBook Pro (early 2016, internal graphics) running in retina mode: can bad cable be a reason or just not enough power? I just bought new monitor (LG 24UD58-B) because of my MacBook's flexgate issue (when you can't really open lead). I can't bring it to service yet, because where I live it takes up to 5 weeks and it's my working computer.

For some reason I experience very laggy behavior while running in retina mode, it's definitely not 60 fps, probably closer to 25-30. It seems that the problem is in CPU spikes because other movements like moving the cursor and scrolling are fine sometimes. It is happening in all applications.

I'm using default hidpi mode, so no additional scaling is present. Laptop is working with closed lid. System is High Sierra.

Currently it is connected it with noname usb-c → displayport cable (the only I could get in my country).

Could the actual cable be the reason of the lag / slow performance?

Can I check somehow whether it's CPU vs cable? Because from apple site it seems that my model should handle 4k just fine.

The problem is I can't really check with another cable unless I order another one from amazon which ship around two weeks. I would probably better to return the monitor before that. I can just buy 1080p monitor for half of the price then.

I also tried running with HDMI adapter and it works pretty smooth in low resolution mode. I have small lag with the current cable even in low-resolution mode.

So, if I read your question, and understood it correctly, you are using a USB-C cable to connect your screen to your machine?
The thing is that a USB-C type cable is not the other!
There are a lot of differences in USB-C cables so you have to be sure that your cable supports what you want it to do.
If the cable's bandwidth is not sufficient for supporting 4K it can result in lags as you explain.


How to get past a forgotten iPhone passcode? I forgot my iPhone 5 passcode when I was changing the code. A window appeared on the device screen saying that iPhone is disabled.

I have Apple ID and password for it. After signing in to iCloud I have erased the device in order to remove the passcode from my iPhone but it still says that device will be erased when device will connect to internet. What would i have to do?

Connect the device to a Mac over USB and restore it using Finder. Since you have control of the AppleID that locks that device, you only need to get it connected to a network again. You can also see the last backup date online and know how much data might be lost in a restore.

Once the restore process is complete, you can restore the backup or just set up the phone as new. The apps, data, passcode will all be erased.


Add Keyboard Shortcut to Mac Is there a way I can make a keyboard shortcut for this?

Tab, Tab, ⬇, S, Return ⏎, Return ⏎

Is there a way I can bind this to a keyboard shortcut, i.e. ⌘ Command⌥ OptionG?

You can use Automator to create a service for this. Open Automator and click “New Document,” then choose the Service template:

Next, click on the “Service receives selected text” dropdown and choose “no input:”

Next, add a “Run AppleScript” action:

Click “Actions” in the sidebar
Ensure the “Library” row in the first column is selected
Search for “AppleScript”
Double-click the “Run AppleScript” row in the search results

In the action on the right side of the window, paste this AppleScript into the text box:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "System Events"
        repeat 2 times
            keystroke tab
        end repeat
        keystroke (ASCII character 31) -- down arrow
        keystroke "s"
        repeat 2 times
            keystroke return
        end repeat
    end tell
    return input
end run

Next, click the “compile” () button to verify that the code was pasted correctly:

Choose File → Save (or ⌘ + S), and type in a name you’ll remember. Next, open System Preferences ( → System Preferences…) and click “Keyboard.” Under the “Shortcuts” tab, select “Services” in the left list. Scroll to the bottom of the main list, under the “General” section, and select the service you just created. Click the “Add Shortcut” button and type the keyboard shortcut you’d like to use.

The shortcut should now work.

Based on the other answer


Change Font Size of entered text on PDF in Preview 9.0 I've read several similar questions but they appear to be outdated.  Many mentioned a "show fonts" option in the "Tools" menu which does not exist.  Others mention a couple ways to show the markup toolbar, which does include a font formatting option, but changing these options does absolutely nothing to the text I'm entering. I've tried highlighting existing entered text and modifying the values, and I've tried changing the values before entering new text. Nothing seems to be working, and my text is far too large to fit on the field I'm trying to fill out.

Any other ways of changing the font size that I'm not seeing? Is this maybe a bug with this version that'll be patched soon?

Thanks.

In the markup toolbar, all you have to do is add a text box and then any text will be customizable using the text formatting options


Is there any network monitor software with a notification area icon? I often use my laptop in the subway / office buildings where internet connection may be laggy / absent for some period of time. Is there any network monitorying software that can constantly monitor my network connection quality (for example, by sending ping to google.com every few second) and display a green-yellow-red icon in the notification area so I will know if i have a normal internet connection or not?

Google search doesn't show any such software :(


Waterlogged iPod Touch A few years back, I accidentally jumped in the pool with my third gen iPod touch still in my pocket. I placed it in rice for a while, and it started working again, but the screen was extremely dull. Every day after that that I used it, the screen steadily got worse and worse to the point where I couldn't even tell what the background was anymore. Since then, it has sat untouched. I plugged it in today, and the screen is static-y and grey and indistinguishable. It still functions, but I can only tell due to my own memory. Is it worth anything? If not, where could I properly dispose of it?

Are you interested in purchasing a new iPod Touch? If so, you could check out Apple's Recycling Program.
From Apple's website,

Bring your old iPod to an Apple Retail Store and receive a 10 percent
discount on the purchase of a new iPod.*

I'm not exactly sure if you would qualify due to its screen, but it is definitely worth a shot. Take it an Apple Store and see if they will give you 10 percent off.
From an Apple Discussion Board,

... you can throw it away, bury it, smash it, take it to Apple as
recycling, use it as a paperweight, leave it in a drawer, etc.

Update
I just checked on Newton's Head, and they will offer you $5.50 for an iPod Touch 3rd Generation, water-damaged with all original accessories.
So, it's not going to be worth that much.


How can I keep my home address private when sharing my vCard? Instead of handing over cumbersome (and likely to get lost) business cards, I like texting my vCard. However, I'd like to not share some of the information in my vCard—most importantly, my home address. Additionally, I taught Siri my entire extended family, which now gets shared with everybody I send my vCard to. This feels less than professional.

Here's the problem: I need my home address in my card if I'm going to get directions to Home using Maps. And I want Siri to know who's in my extended family. But I don't want to share this information when I share my vCard.

I sync my contacts through iCloud, so I was looking at my Mac's Contacts app to see if it had a solution. In Contacts preferences, I found this promising option: "Enable private me card":

What I was hoping for with a "private me card" was a way to set which pieces of information to share and which ones to keep private on a per card basis with just this one special "me card".

The only other solution I can come up with is to create 2 cards:

one for my own private use via Siri, Maps, etc
and another for sharing.

The downsides of this solution are that

it's inelegant (two vCards for one person) and
if a piece of information changes, I have to remember to update two cards, not just one.

Are there other options out there I haven't considered? Are there preferences in iOS, OS X, and/or iCloud that would solve this? And what is a "private me card"?

Working Solution :

Enable Private Card as you discussed in the Contacts Preferences. Then go to your card. (you can find your private card the one with the head silhouette). Then click on edit, and a bunch of share options will populate to the right of all the fields. Select the ones you wish to share and that will be the only information that is sent when you share you card.


Can I clone my existing MacOS and Windows partitions onto a new SSD in my Macbook Pro? I have a MacBook Pro (early 2012) with Lion and Windows 7 installed on the internal HDD. I use Bootcamp to swap between them when booting the machine.

I want to replace the optical drive with an SSD. There are lots of instructions online, but my question is this: can I just install the SSD in the machine, then use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my HDD to the SSD, then afterwards wipe the HDD to be partitioned as storage space? The HDD is 750Gb but the SSD is only 256Gb - but there is minimal data on the HDD at the moment.

What I'm thinking of doing is:
1. install the SSD in place of the optical drive.
2. Clone the HDD to the SSD.
3. Boot from the SSD (how?)
4. Wipe and partition the HDD to be shared as storage space 50/50 Windows/Mac.

Thanks for your help,

David

Yes, you can use CCC to clone your OSX partition, but not the Windows/Bootcamp. (source: CCC Help). If you read that carefully, it says that it can clone the win partition, but won't make it work afterwards.

To clone and make your windows partition bootable, you need to rely on a Windows utility. Take a look at this thread (or google "clone my bootcamp partition") for a good starting point.

Booting from the SSD will be a matter of putting the SSD in the machine and turn it on, if it's the only drive, it will boot from there.


App submission response: "Post-dated Code Signature" I uploaded my app yesterday.  Its status turned to "Waiting for Review" from "Upload Received" today, but I have also received this e-mail:

  Dear developer,

  We have discovered one or more issues with your recent delivery for
  "MyAppName". Your delivery was successful, but you may wish to correct
  the following issues in your next delivery:

  Post-dated Code Signature. Code signature identified by
  'mybundle.myapp' in bundle 'mybundle.myapp' has a timestamp of
  '2013-09-04T06:13:09.000-07:00', but it was submitted to the App Store
  at '2013-09-04T08:48:41.552-07:00'. This might indicate that your
  system clock is not set to the correct timezone.

  If you would like to update your binary for this app, you can reject
  this binary from the Binary Details page in iTunes Connect. Note that
  rejecting your binary will remove your app from the review queue and
  the review process will start over from the beginning when you
  resubmit your binary.

  Regards,

  The App Store team

What does this e-mail mean? Will my app be rejected? Should I re-upload my app?

Seems straightforward enough, the app you uploaded has a timestamp that indicates your machines time is incorrect (namely according to the stamps it was built after you submitted it), so either you have a time machine, or just the wrong time set.  They are just letting you know, and allowing you the chance to correct the issue and resubmit if you like.  It doesn't read as a rejection to me.


Command/Control keys are split on PC keyboard with Mac No matter how many combinations I try in Modifier Keys, unfortunately the control/command keys split responsibilities.

For example:

Control x, c, v all work fine, but Control z, t, r don't work - instead i have to use Command z, t, r.

Is there a way to have one of these buttons for all shortcuts? I tried changing Modifier Keys to use Command for all shortcuts but my Mac would not respect it. Also tried Karabiner. FYI I'm using a Razer keyboard.

TIA

edit: updated w/ image and scenarios -

the above settings allows the following:

1) in TextEdit on my mac, the following commands work:
ctrl x, c, v all works. but ctrl a, z do not work. in order to do ctrl a, z , i have to do windows key + a, z

2) in chrome, i have to do windows t, r in order to open new tab or reload. in chrome url area - i can only do windows + z, x, c, v, a (ctrl doesnt work with any of these despite working partially in TextEdit!!)

3) in gmail - windows a, z works. and ctrl x, c, v works. !

I tried multiple combinations in modifier keys section for keyboard but no matter what combination i try, the commands always split b/w ctrl and windows key. i also tried Karabiner using every variation under the sun but to no avail.

Is a computer reset my only option? Brand new mac been using for 1 month. :/

Please note that <Ctrl> on a "PC" keyboard is the same as <CTRL> on a Mac keyboard.  Normally on a Mac you would need to use <Command>-C for copy, not <CTRL>-C.

Note that on a PC keynote <Alt> and <Command> keys are normally reversed. Maybe this is what you are trying to fix via the Modifier keys in the keyboard control panel?

Below is the mappings hatI have for his exact configuration:


How can I clean Unknown item of kind Unknown from my Account startup items system preference pane? I was running some beta apps that try and insert themselves as log in items and now need to clean up the mess they left.

I'm speculating something went wrong while trying to follow this and this solutions in order to add 'launch at login' functionality to my app.

Now I have many unknown items in there which are not removable.  I was able to retrieve the 20 items only by running this code:

let loginItems: NSArray = LSSharedFileListCopySnapshot(loginItemsRef, nil).takeRetainedValue() as NSArray

However the LSSharedFileListItemRemove method is deprecated and I can't remove them programmatically on High Sierra or later.
Furthermore, now when I click on hide in any of unknown login items, I get another unknown entry below duplicated. I had only one, but when clicked many times(not believing that such a bug can be in OS X) on hide/unhide I got 20 of them. This means attempts to clean one item grows more from the UI.

Checked with no luck:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/
/Library/LaunchAgents/
~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/StartupItems
...loginitems.plist
...loginwindow.plist

Is there a way to nuke all the items in this list to get a clean start?

This appears to be a bug in OS X High Sierra (it may affect other versions too) and has been bugging the crap out of me for the past few weeks. I finally managed to find a solution, thanks to a post I made on this Github issue. Try this solution.

Basically you will want to remove the file $HOME/Library/Application Support/com.apple.backgroundtaskmanagementagent/backgrounditems.btm. Then reboot.

Note that that this will remove all Login Items you currently have set up so be sure and make a note of all of the apps, volumes, etc. you currently have set to auto-launch at startup, because you will have to re-set them up. But this definitely got rid of all the "Unknown" items for me.

The other alternative is to set up a new user folder and migrate in your other files, but having a backup and erase install / migrating in from a backup is a great solution as well.


Is blessing the Ubuntu partition reversible in OS X? I'm considering using Ubuntu as a main OS. So far, I've been using it in a dual boot setup with OS X. The dual boot worked by holding the ⌥ alt key upon boot (not rEFIt).

Blessing the Ubuntu Partition will speed up the boot process. Apparently, all I have to do is this:

sudo bless –device /dev/disk0s3 –setboot –legacy –verbose

I will do this using the Terminal with the Recovery USB for Lion.
I do not yet understand in detail what the command does. Also, I do not know how to reverse it.

You can see my partition layout here:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *128.0 GB   disk0
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            92.7 GB    disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data                         10.5 GB    disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         15.7 GB    disk0s4
   5:                 Linux Swap                         4.2 GB     disk0s5
   6:                  Apple_HFS FREEDOM                 4.2 GB     disk0s7

Short Answer: YES, it's reversible, nothing is "permanent" in a hard-drive partition (other than deleting partitions and information of course). Almost always you will be able to undo what you did, although sometimes at the cost of data loss, naturally.

While you are at the terminal type:

man bless

or if you're lazy, you can read it here.

You are interested in this part:

 --legacy                 If --setBoot is given, set the firmware to boot a legacy BIOS-based operating
                          system from the specified disk. The active flag of an MBR-partitioned disk is
                          not modified, which can be done with fdisk(8) . This is only supported on EFI-
                          based systems.

update:
Yes, the bless command has different modes of operation, one is device, which specifies a device (rather than just a folder or a mount point) as the destination for the 'blessing'. Bear in mind that blessing does two things, it can select the active boot (which is more or less what you want to do) and it can also make sure that a mount point/folder/device has all the required files for booting. (Kind of what the old format c: /s did in DOS. The "s" was something like: Copy all system files there so this drive can boot.

With the -setBoot option you're also telling the system to boot from the specified device (must be unmounted as far as I can remember).

The --legacy basically tells bless that the Operating System that is going to boot doesn't support OpenEFI or EFI and expects a BIOS instead.

Bear in mind that you might need to later use fdisk to set the active partition if ubuntu fails to boot.

rEFIt usually does all this for you and is easily removable if you don't want it anymore, so in any case, I suggest you give it a try unless you have a specific reason to avoid it.

You don't need the --verbose but it's ok to have it to see what's going on.

  So in order to undo the upper command, I would do this: sudo bless
  -device /dev/disk0s1 -file -setboot -file because EFI on disk0s1 is EFI-based But will the pressing ALT still work to start my recovery
  stick?

That command will not work, if you specify --file you have to give the path to an EFI-Blessed boot file. Since you're reverting to OS X, you don't need to pass that, because bless will use a default one.

The Option/ALT will always work because it basically tells the EFI in your box: don't boot, just read the drive(s) and tell me which ones are bootable, show me a list and let me select one; this works regardless of your boot drive.

Hope this helps. Bear in mind that I haven't used bless more than a couple of times and was months ago (if not years). I don't remember having problems with it, but then again, I was just probably moving drives or doing something weird. Whenever I installed Linux on an Intel-EFI based Mac, I always used rEFIt.


How to bypass the Lync for Mac error complying about incompatible version of Lync server? “Cannot sign in because the server version is incompatible with Microsoft Lync. Contact your support team with this information.”

I am trying to use the Lynx for Mac 2011 (v14.0.5) instead of Communicator after our corporate Lynx servers was already upgraded.

The Windows users are able to use Lynx, if they do follow DisableServerCheck trick for Lynx.

Obviously, this doesn't work on Mac as there is no registry.

Any suggestions?

See this link.
Basically, you have to edit the plist for Lync, and enter a registry key equivalent.
The explanation is below:

Basically, the equivalent to the registry keys for windows needs to be entered in the Lync config plist file on the mac, a file named MicrosoftLyncRegistrationDB.xxx.plist that you can find in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost.
In it, you will need to create an entry for each segment of the reg key path for the DisableServerCheck flag (all lower case). It should look like this:
hkey_current_user\
hkey_current_user\software\
hkey_current_user\software\policies\
hkey_current_user\software\policies\microsoft\
hkey_current_user\software\policies\microsoft\communicator\
hkey_current_user\software\policies\microsoft\communicator\disableservercheck
The value for each of the path segments is "<>" and type string. For the disableservercheck flag, the type is "Number" and the value is 1.
You can use a plist editor (there's a few free ones for the mac, or you can also use Xcode) to edit the plist file. The screenshot below shows you how it should look like.


Going back to Mavericks: will i lose my files that I have created on Yosemite? FileVault slowed my MBP. So, I am going back to Mavericks.
How can I make sure that my files saved on Yosemite will not be lost?
If I go back using Time Machine, how do I access my files that were saved on Yosemite?
Do I have to make copies of all these files on a separate flash drive bf going back using TM?

Going back to an older TimeMachine backup will make your other files deleted.

You will have to backup them to another place where you can later access them, because using TimeMachine is kinda like using well.. A time machine.


iCloud Photo Library on Macbook Pro, where? I have iCloud Photo Library enabled on both iPhone 5S (IOS 8.02) and Macbook Pro (Yosemite)

iPhone settings for iCloud (Photo Library) reports that I have 3 photos in iCloud
(gallery only shows 1 photo (?), but otherwise it seems to sync to icloud fine when taking a new picture)

Where are these photos located excactly (icloud), and how can I see/use them on my Macbook?

iCloud Photo Library is available starting 2015 on OS X

Until now, you have the chance to

sync between iOS devices running both iOS 8 and have Photo Library activated.
activate Photo stream and see your photos in iPhoto

iCloud Photo Library is still Beta, and will come to the Mac in 2015, and to the icloud.com as well.


How can I decrypt my HD? I'm trying to decrypt my disk and turn off FileVault, but I can't do that. Firstly, the Turn Off FileVault... button is disabled.

Locked

Unlocked

Secondly, I try sudo fdesetup disable with Terminal but it also doesn't work. It returns FileVault was not disabled (-69595).

Edit
I've also tried doing it from recovery, but it doesn't work. For more info, see the comment on @n1000 's answer.

I'm running Mac OS Mojave (Version 10.14.1) on a MacBook Air 11" (Released in Mid 2013).
Thanks!

sudo diskutil cs decryptVolume <disk> -passphrase "YOUR_RECOVERY_KEY"

If you don't have a recovery key created separately from your users passphrases, you can follow the instructions here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202385

Usage:  diskutil coreStorage decryptVolume
        lvUUID|MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
        [-stdinpassphrase | -passphrase passphrase]
Start a background decryption process that will convert the on-disk bytes which
back the given logical volume from encrypted back to plain. You must supply a
"Disk" passphrase (not a FileVault User passphrase) interactively or with one
of the above parameters. After this command completes, the conversion will be
ongoing; you can check progress with `diskutil coreStorage list`.
Example: diskutil coreStorage decryptVolume
                  11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555


I'm saving debug logs for iTerm2 but why can't I find them? I can't find the file /tmp/debuglog.txt anywhere using finder.
locate debuglog.txt failed because there is no database, so I've built one using sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist
Database complete, locate debuglog.txt returns nothing.
Question: I'm saving debug logs for Bash but why can't I find them?

Background
I start Anaconda Python 3.7.6 and run scripts from iTerm2 using macOS 10.15.7.
A few times a week iTerm2 suddenly freezes, and I have to use Quit from the application and start it again.

I loose some of the "backarrow history" which is troublesome for me.
I also worry about potential security issues.

I use matplotlib 3.1.3 all the time and I know there are some issues. So far I can't exclude it from the list of possible causes.
From this issue I have found this explanation how to start a log, then I have to wait until the bug happens again then toggle it again to save some log.
I have supposedly captured an issue many times in hopes of collecting many debug logs. I can not find /tmp/debuglog.txt anywhere though.

Perhaps that message is from a time where the temporary directory was indeed /tmp many macOS versions ago. Nowadays macOS manages a private temporary directory per GUI user which is provided as the environment variable $TMPDIR somewhere in /var/folders — try open $TMPDIR/debuglog.txt.


Is it possible to have multiple branding for the same app in the AppStore? I have an app on the App Store

Duolingo-like for various topics

I want to customise the experience based on the user that logs in to my app:

Change branding (logos, colors, ...)
Different content in the app

User 1:
Peter hello@peter.me
Have access to the topics Gaming with 5 coures
Logo X, color blue

User 2:
Sarah sarah123@coolmail.com
Have access to the topics Travel with 8 courses
Logo Y, color green

My question is:

  Am I going to be rejected from the store?

(Cause screenshots of the app doesn't reflect my branding)

Yes, it is certainly possible. Apple should not reject you for this purpose. It is entirely allowed to have different branding, color schemes, etc. according to the logged in user.

You can find the App Store review guidelines here:

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

As you'll see there's no section that explicitly allows nor forbids what you want to achieve. This means that what you want to do would normally be considered OK. Make sure that you comply with section 5.2 and do not use intellectual property (logos, branding text, etc.) that is not your to use.

However, if you also offer different functionalities - make sure that you supply the Apple review team with all the functionalities. It is not permitted to have the app reviewed with one set of functionalities, and then let users have a completely different set of functionalities in the app after they login with a specific "secret" set of credentials.

Also make sure to comply with section 3.1.1 about In-App Purchases, if you want the user to not only have different branding but also have different functionalities after login.

The screenshots on the App Store does not have to display all and every type of branding or color scheme possible in the app. There's no requirement for that, so you should not have problems here. However, the screenshots must be a true representation of the app itself - i.e. for example take screenshots of one of the color schemes / branding and use that. I.e. do not use screenshots that are different from what is actually possible to get within the app if you have the right credentials.


MacBook Air 2011 - External Display I currently have a MacBook Air 13" 2011.

I want to connect two external Displays. Does it work? I think it can speak to two Displays. When the internal Display is closed, it should be possible to connect another display to have two one!

I want to buy a Dock where i can close the display and have two external ones.

Does anyone know if this solution works?

The specs say that it only supports a single external display.


Utility for Visualizing Network Traffic via SNMP I'm looking for a piece of software akin to Cacti, one that is preferably much easier to set up, and has a high-quality frontend to it.

I had a headless Linux desktop that I used to poll my Time Machine and graph network statistics off of, but that computer is currently undergoing repairs, so I'm left with the remaining computers I have in the house, which are all Mac.

I have no specific requirements that I consider as a sticking point. My baseline of features would be something with the granularity that Cacti/RRDTool provide. Graphs with scalable units of time/history (configurable is a plus!), quick/easy to get started with little installation is preferable, something that perhaps just runs as a daemon/program and doesn't require a web server and detailed tailored configuration (read: discovery) would be just fine, and possibly even preferred.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any serious competition to Cacti, but have you considered using a Cacti virtual appliance? There are several pre-configured VMs available with everything pre-installed and ready to go.
Cacti 0.8.7g
rPath Cacti Appliance
You might also want to take a look here:
A Half-Dozen or So Essential Open Source Network Administraton Tools
and in particular at:
Graph Network Performance with NRG - Part 1
He also has a page on how to install Cacti on OS X.
Now I can't say that this meets your desire for something as simple as a typical OS X application install but it certainly meets the free requirement.
I can't say I've played with any of these tools on OS X bar Mac Ports which I consider an essential on any OS X system.

Another really simplistic app (OS X widget actually) is iEyeNet, it definitely meets the free and simple criteria but isn't anywhere as configurable as Cacti. I tried it with my Airport Extreme and it "just worked".

Another option is documented here, it uses a combination of MRTG/Lingon/Geektool to generate and display the network graphs. Reasonably easy to setup...


What external DVD drive should I use my MBP's internal drive is broken? I've got an old MBP where the internal drive starts to refuse reading discs and stopped burning discs a while ago.

Now I'm thinking about getting an external drive (DVD-RW, USB or Firewire). Most of these devices don't explicitly mention Mac compatibility. According to this forum post, most of the drives should be compatible though.

I was wondering if there's some sort of "official" compatibility list for different versions of Mac OS X? I also read somewhere that OS X 10.5 and 10.6 are compatible with most of the external drives... is there some information about which devices won't work?

I've never heard of an external drive that wouldn't work.


How to get Facebook Messenger on my iPhone 3GS I can't get Facebook Messenger on my iPhone 3GS. When I reset my phone, it made a new account. Now it just says I need iOS 7. What should I do?

iOS 7 isnt compatible with iPhone 3Gs.

You need to upgrade your phone.


Recommended charger for iPhone 5? I can see on the Apple store that the standard charger is a 12W charger.

Since it "should" output 5V, I can conclude it outputs 2.4A (12W/5V=2.4A).

Considering the above hypothesis correct, could any charger having the same output be used for my iPhone 5?

Yes, theoretically that's correct and there are thousands of chargers out there that will work with Apple products.  However, Apple includes specific components in their chargers to ensure their charging and communication protocols are followed.  They also have a licensing program for 3rd-party companies to manufacture and sell Apple-certified products, the MFI program.

If you are looking for charging devices not manufactured by Apple but still follow the Apple-certification process, make sure the products display the MFI certication logo (not the 'Compatible with iPhone' logo which actually means nothing).


Prevent the Siri Watch Face from displaying Photo Memories The Siri Watch Face, introduced with watchOS 4, automatically suggests content, including "Photo Memories" from the iOS Photos app.

I'm not keen on having year-old photos on my wrist, I much prefer stuff that actually are day-to-day relevant there.

I've tried to get rid of these Photo Memory items, but haven't succeeded:

Turned off Photos notifications in the "Watch" app.
Turned off Photos notifications in the iOS Notifications settings.
Watched the "Memory", did not help.
Deleting the "Memory" helped getting rid of it, but a day later I get a new one.

Help! I really don't need to see some random old party pics with people I don't even know that well, as opposed to upcoming calendar items, alarms, stocks, or whatever.

Photo Memories, along with other "Data Sources" for the Siri Watch Face, can be turned off in the Watch app on iOS.

Watch app > My Watch > My Faces > Siri (Watch Face) > Data Sources

You can also turn off Breathe, Home, Stocks, etc.


Upgrade available for Open GL graphics card Is there a compatible Open GL graphics card for my 17-inch iMac
(MA590LL) to support 3D software?

It's an integrated chip, so no, no upgrade is possible for this generation of iMacs.


QEMU MacOS host Linux quest audio I installed qemu via brew. Successfully installed ubuntu 18.04 desktop as a qemu guest.

Following is the start up command:

qemu-system-x86_64 \
-show-cursor \
-M q35,accel=hvf,usb=off,vmport=off \
-cpu host -smp 4 -m 2048 \
-overcommit mem-lock=off \
-overcommit cpu-pm=off \
-rtc base=utc,clock=host \
-audiodev id=coreaudio,driver=coreaudio \
\
-device virtio-blk-pci,bus=pcie.0,addr=0x2,drive=ssd1 \
-device virtio-net-pci,bus=pcie.0,addr=0x3,netdev=nic1,mac=52:54:98:76:54:33 \
-device virtio-tablet-pci,bus=pcie.0,addr=0x4 \
-device virtio-vga \
\
-drive id=ssd1,file=/Users/js/code/VM/qemu/u64d01.qcow2,if=none,format=qcow2 \
-netdev user,id=nic1,ipv4=on,ipv6=on,hostname=u64d01,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22

Ubuntu desktop startup correctly and is responsive. However I am not able to get audio working. It just show "Dummy Output" in Settings->Sound.

Anyone have any clue?

QEMU devices are typically split into two parts, host backend and guest hardware device. The backend specifies how data from the guest hardware is processed on the host, e.g. audio can be recorded to a file or rerouted straight to the host output. Guest hardware device is a virtual hardware device presented in the guest. The model was introduced to QEMU audio since 4.2.

In the command line you specified Core Audio as host backend, but no hardware device was added, that's why you don't see it in the guest. You need to add a PCI sound card, e.g. Intel HDA and bind its output to the coreaudio backend:

-device intel-hda -device hda-output,audiodev=coreaudio

Full list of sound hardware is available in -device help.