killall Dock - all active windows maximize and appear on Desktop I have written python script to change desktop wallpaper.

After I change my wallpaper using the below code:

app('Finder').desktop_picture.set(mactypes.File(imageAddress))

I have added

os.system("killall Dock")

The wallpaper successfully changes, but all the active but minimized windows in the maximize.
My question is
 How do I refresh my Dock without changing the state of minimized/maximized windows?

I know of no way to keep minimized windows from being restored when executing a killall Dock command, by any method.

The long workaround is to enumerate all application processes with visible windows and make a list of all minimized windows before executing killall Dock and then use the list to re-minimize afterwards. I seriously don't recommend doing that, but it's doable if you want to spend the time coding it.

That said, why not just use a method that doesn't require using killall Dock and immediately changes the wallpaper?

Here are two examples using AppleScript:

tell application "Finder" to set desktop picture to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Milky Way.jpg"

Or:

tell application "Finder" to set desktop picture to alias "Macintosh HD:Library:Desktop Pictures:Sierra.jpg"

From the command line, e.g. in Terminal or shell based script:

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to set desktop picture to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Milky Way.jpg"'

Any of these immediately changes the wallpaper without further need to do anything.


How do I change the text size of result displayed via Siri Shortcuts? If I ask Siri for e.g. the price of bitcoin, it shows a nicely formatted text like down below

With Shortcuts, I can display a dialog with arbitrary content, with the "Display Result" action.  However, I have no control over the text formatting.
On an Apple Watch, this is especially bad, as the font size is very small, even when the text is short. I can increase the default font size of the Watch, but then all of the text will be bigger anywhere else, even when the content to display is longer, which is not what I want.
Is there any way to manipulate the text formatting -- or at least the font size -- of Siri Shortcuts output?

I have one small idea - change font size in system (shortcuts/apps/settings/accessibility) then make popup and resize font to normal state.


How can I leave my wifi connection connected after logging the user out of the OS? Lets say the WiF network uses LDAP to authenticate users with a user and password and the  users login to the OS using the same LDAP credentials. Is there a way that this WiFi connection can be always connected, even when no one is logged in after powering on?

Ideally, we can float around a Macbook Air that is always connected to this wifi connection (using LDAP, not traditional WPA etc.) which would allow anyone to login using their LDAP username and password.

Its sort of a chicken and egg scenario and it would be a lot easier if Lion simply allowed you to connect to a new WiFi network when at the login screen.

I figured this out! Lion now supports configuration profiles. These can be used to specify default settings and payloads like VPN, WiFi Authentication, Permissions etc.

The config files are written in XML and can be created in Lion Server's Profile Manager.


What effect does upgrading RAM or the Processor have on the performance of a computer? I am considering buying a macbook pro and have the budget to upgrade either the RAM to 16 gb or get the faster processor, but not both. So I wonder: In what sort of tasks is the performance improved if I upgrade RAM vs. if I upgrade the processor?

Ps: My only really heavy weight application which I use is Lightroom and sometimes Photoshop

You should definitely upgrade your RAM.

The performance improvement of replacing your CPU is minor, and will only be seen while running tasks that require consistent processing, which most modern uses do not.

You can check for yourself how many times your CPU reaches 100% of its usage.

Upgrading your RAM will enable your computer to cache more stuff, hence run a lot faster, and in addition, you will be able to hold much more programs running while still not getting any significant slowdown.


Mavericks: Enable virtual keyboard on login screen How can the virtual keyboard be enabled at the login screen?

On Windows it is really easy, but I haven't found to way of enabling it on a Mac.

This answer focuses on the case where you want to access the virtual keyboard because of layout/external keyboard uncertainties.

If you only have access to a mouse/pad this answer will not help you.

There is a keyboard shortcut that propose you to access to Accessibility Options, and it is working at login screen. (Only on High Sierra.)

Opt-Cmd-F5

And for MacbookPro w/ Touch Bar:

fn-Opt-Cmd-F5 or Triple click on TouchID button

From this new window, you can click and enable the virtual keyboard:

Here is the Mac accessibility shortcuts ref from Apple.

EDIT 2: for macOS Mojave

If the problem is that you're not sure about your keyboard layout, try this:

Opt-Enter : It lets you enter the login in a clear text field. Use it to visually check your layout \o/

EDIT: (added information from comments)

Only available on High Sierra
Shortcut for MacbookPro with Touch Bar


What is the difference between "restore backup" and "restore iPhone" in iTunes? Connect the iPhone to the computer, click on the device in iTunes, and under Summary there are two buttons as described in the question.

What is the difference in terms of what is actually restored?

Restore Backup restores the contents of an iPhone backup performed sometime in the past. It restores content and stored data such as app settings, home-screen layouts, etc. Saved account login information is restored if the backup was encrypted.

Restore iPhone wipes the iPhone of all data & apps and reinstalls iOS, leaving the iPhone reset to factory settings. The iPhone is left with just the latest iOS and the Apple default apps.

Find My iPhone must be turned off for either to work.


Wi-Fi always requires manual choice to select desired network We have Wi-Fi at home but each time I turn on my Mac it goes to an unlocked Wi-Fi not our own and I have to go into Wi-Fi on the menu bar to select our own home Wi-Fi. I just want to eliminate those competing options and save the step of always choosing our home network.

Go to System Preferences → Network → Wi-Fi → Advanced… and remove the network from the list of preferred networks.


How do I find out my Mac OSx admin password without changing it? Please help me as I do not want to reset the password. I inherited this mac and I do not know the admin password but i aslo dont want to change it

OS X does not store a plain-text copy of your administrator password. This makes it impossible to have the computer show you the existing password.

OS X can only test if an attempted password is the administrator password.

OS X has no way to show you the original. The original is immediately thrown away when the password is set; only a hash of the password is kept.

Why? Hashed Passwords

Passwords are stored as mathematically derived hashes of the original. This hash makes it possible to determine if an attempted password matches the real password, but it also makes it impossible to determine the real password.


Reliable instruction on installing Ubuntu on Macbook Pro There are some walk-through kind of instruction on installing Ubuntu on Macbook Pro (as dual boot OS along with Mac OS X), such as Lifehacker's post.  But they are either too old that I worry if the particular details are still currently applicable, or the source is not particularly reliable.  Any pointer to a good, reliable, and current source on this?  I intend to install Ubuntu as a dual boot OS on my Macbook Pro (mid 2011 model).

I think the following link will help you : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MactelSupportTeam/AppleIntelInstallation#Detailed_How-To

Here they have explained it very clearly:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/10/dual-boot-os-ubuntu

Hope this will help you.


Why are .deb files used in iOS? If you jailbreak in iOS, you can install packages using .deb files. Being a Linux user I know Debian-based distros use that file type for apt. I know that iOS is not Debian-based or Linux-based, but it is UNIX-based. Why does iOS use .deb files when you jailbreak?

Jay Freeman ("saurik") is the developer of Cydia and brought Debian APT to iOS.

  The iPhone … is running a pared down Mac OS X with its standard complement of a FreeBSD-based userland over a Darwin kernel.

  For distribution, I have chosen Debian's APT

Source: http://www.saurik.com/id/1

These elements together delineate .deb files as the container for the package to be installed.

  In the world of Debian APT/dpkg, anything you can install is a "package". These packages exist in the form of .deb files

Source: http://www.saurik.com/id/7

dpkg-deb allows these deb files to be installed and managed easily and with little overhead, which is very important for iOS devices.


How to open .plist files in macOS Sierra without using Xcode? Problem
I just went to use Property List Editor to look at a .plist file and it no longer works in Sierra

My Setup
Mid-2010 15" MBP
macOS Sierra 10.12

Crucial Comment
I do not want to use Xcode to open .plist files, it's too much for such a simple task. The Property List Editor was perfect.

What I have Found
As of 2016-09-13 The Apple Developer website describes Xcode as the only option to edit .plist files (search for: About Information Property List Files)
Apple mentions using Xcode to generate and work with .plist files but there has to be another way.

Is the Property List Editor App done in macOS Sierra?

If so, other than Xcode, are there any simple programs like the Property List Editor that people recommend?

Thank you for your responses!

UPDATE

This is not a "duplicate" question. This question is specifically for those who are used to using Property List Editor and have lost it as an option when upgrading to macOS Sierra. So keeping this question thread will help others with the specific issue, especially if they are not a fan of using Xcode to work with plist files and/or do not know how to work with plist files through terminal.

The solution linked in the "claimed" duplicate thread can be useful to those familiar with terminal.

Those familiar with terminal, you can also use rlwrap and PlistBuddy, which IS currently working in macOS Sierra. See: A  Simple PlistBuddy Tutorial

Those not familiar with terminal who want to avoid Xcode: sorry, I haven't found a solution for you but I'll keep looking into it. If anyone else has a suggestion please add it. If there are other *exchange posts with software recommendations please feel free to link them for other users in the future.

OBSOLETE (2020)
I have used Pref Setter in the past to edit .plist files graphically.
brew cask install pref-setter

Any text editor (including Text Edit) will work if the file is non-binary.  If you right click on any .plist file and click "Get Info", under "Open With" there should be an option to change the default editor for it, which you would then change to Pref Setter. If you click on "Change All", it will change it for every .plist file on your system.


Application Keyboard Shortcut not overriding I want to always paste text without its format. Many applications, like Numbers in my case, have a shortcut for that being shift+alt+command+v. Now, that's pretty many keys to press at once so I wanted to override that with a custom keyboard shortcut as suggested in this answer.

[sorry for German language, please assume that the shortcuts' names are correct]

I flipped Paste's and Paste and match style's keyboard commands.
Since that did not do it, I also added shortcuts for Numbers individually.

This is what Numbers' Edit pane shows:

Again, sorry for German language. the first one reads "Paste" and second reads "Paste and match style". The keyboard commands are still the wrong way.

I have restarted Numbers a number (no pun intended) of times but that didn't help. For other applications it doesn't work either.

Any ideas why it doesn't work?
Thanks in advance"

You need to use the exact name of the menu item. It looks like you're using "Einfügen" but Numbers' menu item uses the synonym "Einsetzen". Correcting that should fix it.


I can't add/resize a partition with more than 36 GB - there is plenty of free space I wish to install Linux and shrink my existing volumes + add a new partition with 600 GB for Linux.
diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         2.0 TB     disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +2.0 TB     disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            15.3 GB    disk1s1
   2:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.3 GB    disk1s1s1
   3:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     1.1 TB     disk1s2
   4:                APFS Volume Preboot                 520.9 MB   disk1s3
   5:                APFS Volume Recovery                622.1 MB   disk1s4
   6:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s5

The UI (Disk Utility) does not allow me to create more than 36 GB partition. I can't fill out the number.
free disk space not the issue:

current setup in UI:

add partition for Linux

not allowed to enter custom number bigger than 36 GB.

For create a 600g free space from the terminal, the command is
sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots /

or
tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999 4

then
diskutil ap resizecontainer disk1 1.4t


Is there a free command line program for converting PDF files to SVG? Once upon a time I used Corel Draw to edit vector graphics. Now I'm looking at using Sketch. I previously converted all my old CDR files to PDF but Sketch doesn't seem to like to open PDFs containing vector graphics. Is there a free command-line program I can use to convert PDF to SVG?

Turns out Inkscape has a command line mode. I added this to .bash_profile:

alias inkscape="/Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/bin/inkscape"

and now this command converts from PDF to SVG:

inkscape Logo.pdf --export-plain-svg=Logo.svg

Unfortunately, the current version of Sketch has very rudimentary SVG import capabilities and can't correctly read any of the files I've made even though they display fine in Opera and OmniWeb. The company says future versions will do better.


Can .zip folders created using Windows XP Pro be opened and extracted on Mac without any additional software? I am a Windows user, and I would like to send a compressed archive/folder to my colleague who is a Mac user. I do not want him to have to download any additional software to open and extract it.

Can .zip files created using Windows XP Pro be opened and extracted on Mac without any additional software?  Is the file specification the same in Mac as it is in Windows?

Yes.

The PKZIP format used by Windows is understood by OS X and has been this way since about 10.3. The tool used to extract the contents is called Archive Utility and it is installed by default with every OS X installation.

Your Mac-using friend can either double-click on the archive in Finder to extract it or he can right-click/control-click and select the 'Open' option from the list of actions.


My MBP will only charge with a T shaped magsafe now I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) which came with a L shaped magsafe charger. I have been having problems for sometime now, wouldn't charge properly, cut off randomly, charger would cut out/not good connection. I replaced the battery, bought new chargers, reset the SMC and NVRAM many times. Eventually I gave up on it and let it sit for many months and used a work laptop.

A couple days ago I decided to see if it would start and of course the L shaped charger I bought from Apple wouldn't work, I then plugged in my wife's cheap Amazon T shaped replacement charger and it connected great and started charging perfectly. I have tested many perfectly good L shaped chargers since and they will not work well, keep cutting out.

Any ideas? Is my port wearing out and that T shape just happens to fit better?

Technically speaking, you should be using the L-shaped adapter.

As to why it's working with the "incorrect" adapter and not the correct one is because the pins on the MagSafe connector are probably pushed "in" or just contaminated.  Additionally, the pins on the T connector stick out just a bit further than the L connector.

You may have some luck cleaning out the MagSafe connector, but in my experience, you have to replace it.

You have a few options:

use the adapter that's currently working
attempt to clean the MagSafe connector
replace the DC in board

Replacing the DC-in board is not "difficult" inasmuch as being tedious and detailed.   It involves removing the logic board because the connector is under it; iFixit has excellent step-by-step guide.

If this is not your cup of tea, I would simply continue using the adapter that works.


Change default content's language in MacOS Apple TV app I'm trying to find a way to set English (my system language is French) as the default audio language for Apple TV+ content.

On an Apple TV you can set that in the system's settings.

On MacOS, you can change the language from the player itself but it will not be remembered for the next episode. I can't find anything in the app's preference nor in the system's settings.

How do I change the default playback language for the Apple TV app on MacOS ?

I also had this problem with my German macOS. I found the solution: you can set the language of each Mac app separately.

Go to your macOS Settings -> Language & Region
Go to tab "Apps"
Click on "+" and add the "TV" app with language set to English

Now English is the default audio language for everything you play in the Apple TV app.


Is there a strictly-libre Cydia repo? The Android equivalent of Cydia is the F-Droid app. The associated F-Droid repo contains strictly free/libre/open-source software.

Is there an equivalent Cydia repo that only hosts libre software? (A repo where it is trivially easy to filter for libre software is acceptable.)

No, unfortunately, all the repositories host both open and closed source tweaks and there is currently no way to sort a repo by open-source tweaks.


Set size of window to exact pixels, and place via x, y coordinates I would like to create a tool that allows you to set windows to exact sizes on the pixel scale to be able to have more precise screen divisions.

For example, if I had four Terminal windows (and I didn't have something cool like iTerm to do this for me), I'd like to be able to set each one to 1/2 screen height and 1/2 screen width, and people to position them via x, y coordinates so that they took up the entire screen, and exactly one fourth of them individually.

Can this be done using applescript?

Yes, this can be done using AppleScript. Read this link to understand the code and then try and implement it yourself for your specific situation.
Here is another link that describes the bounds of a window in detail.
Example:
tell application "Finder" to set the bounds of the front window to {24, 96, 524, 396}

would set the Finder window to be in the top left corner.
Mac App Store- BetterSnapTool:
Note: I would check out BetterSnapTool. It does exactly what you want for $1.99. I use it myself and I find it invaluable, especially at such a low price.


Why does my Startup Security Utility window look different? I am trying to check the security of my Mac Mini before installing Windows with bootcamp.
According to this article, the window should look like this:

However mine looks like this:

Why is that and how can I make sure I have the right settings before installing windows?
Mac Mini mid 2011 with High Sierra 10.13.6

The linked support page only addresses Macs with a T2 security chip.
Your MacMini from 2011 does not have this chip.
Keep in mind that BootCamp will not able to install Windows 10 on your Mac.


After updating to Big Sur the process "opendirectoryd" is using 70% cpu I've just updated my Macbook Air to Big Sur.
After the update the process opendirectoryd is constantly using about 70% of cpu.
I've searched for the same problem, I haven't found any Big Sur related problems. There were recomendations to disable LDAP and/or Active Directory, but I'm not using any.

After killing the process it appears again. I've searched /var/log/*.log, but I haven't found any errors that can help fix this problem.

It looks like that I have found a way to fix it.
I've edited /etc/auto_master, commented out the line starting with /home  and then executed sudo automount -vc.
I've found this solution here: https://superuser.com/a/426719/117432.


Mac App Store apps without internet connection I want to set up a Mac running a recent version of OS X but I don't want it to be connected to the internet because of security reasons. Is it possible to copy and activate apps bought and installed from the App Store on an other computer to the one with no internet connection? I know that the App Store validates the license to install such apps and it actually needs an internet connection to do so. But maybe there is a kind of license key file that can also be coppied over to the air gapped box.

YMMV. Every once in a while when the transferred app is opened for the first time, it will need to validate the Apple ID which the app was downloaded with, so most of the time it will work, but sometimes it won't.


iTunes music Library empty I was listening to music a couple of minutes ago, and launched music, and noticed that everything was gone. I have tried respringing multiple times and quitting and relaunching mail, but it keeps telling me that there is nothing in my library. Music that I owned was gone, and so was all of my apple music.

iOS 10.3.3, jailbroken, haven't checked my laptop to see if this is happening there.

My music was really essential to me, is there any way to get it all back?

I've had success in the past using iExplorer to view files in an iOS file system and iTunes backups. I will add as a caveat that these were native iOS devices and not jailbroken, so your mileage may vary.

High level: install iExplorer on your computer, run it, connect the affected device, unlock it as required, and see what files it finds using the various menus on the left column.


Cant connect to google intermittently Sometimes either randomly or after waking my late 2008 MacBook Pro from sleep, I won't be able to access google.com or any of the services. It's mildly annoying, but fixed by turning off my wifi, and then turning it back on.

When this happens, changing browsers doesn't help. I have a feeling this has to do with some sort of DNS issue, but I don't know why restarting my wifi would fix it. Has anyone else experienced this?

Late 2008 MacBook Pro
OSX Lion 10.7.4
Connected wirelessly to a 5th gen AEBS

any other information just ask, and I'm good with the Terminal

To isolate a DNS issue, you might try using google DNS by setting your Mac to use 8.8.8.8 instead of the DNS server it assigned or received from your router.

From there you can use nslookup and ping to test network connectivity and DNS resolution.


Battery status and replacement About a week ago my battery status (MacBook Pro mid 2017) claimed that the battery should be replaced after 250 cycles. Now, all of a sudden the battery status has returned to normal.

ioreg -l -w0 |grep Capacity

| |           "AppleRawCurrentCapacity" = 4921
| |           "AppleRawMaxCapacity" = 5067
| |           "MaxCapacity" = 5067
| |           "CurrentCapacity" = 4921
| |           "LegacyBatteryInfo" = {"Amperage"=0,"Flags"=5,"Capacity"=5067,"Current"=4921,"Voltage"=12751,"Cycle Count"=251}
| |           "DesignCapacity" = 6669
| |           "BatteryData" = {"StateOfCharge"=98,"PMUConfigured"=0,"Voltage"=12751,"QmaxCell1"=5827,"AdapterPower"=1100127202,"SystemPower"=3035,"ResScale"=200,"QmaxCell2"=6504,"QmaxCell0"=6376,"CycleCount"=251,"DesignCapacity"=6669}

Is it possible somehow to identify the problem with the battery that evoked the message to replace the battery?

Is it possible somehow to identify the problem with the battery that evoked the message to replace the battery?

From software?

Not really.  Why?  What you see there is a point in time measurement of your battery.  You’d need a lab with a bunch of diagnostic equipment.

Think of it like the gas gauge in your car.  It will only tell you at that moment how much fuel you have in your tank.  Now, if you were to place  a large brick inside your tank, the gauge will still be reporting accurately, but it would have no idea that the capacity would have changed by exactly the volume of the brick.

To accurately identify the problem, you you'd need to measure a number of things like how much fuel you used to fill it, how much you consumed over a period of time etc. The number of fill ups you made would be irrelevant.

Same for your battery.  It’s not a single battery cell that we fill with angry pixies each time we charge it.  It’s actually a series of cells and if, while discharging, it runs into a dead cell (meaning no charge in it), all of the point in time measurements will drastically change “setting off alarms” that you may have a bad battery.

It’s important to remember that when measuring voltage, it looks at the aggregate amount.  If it runs across a dead cell, the aggregate voltage will change, but so will the charge capacity and available current.

Why does it do this?

There’s a good chance your battery is bad or in the process of going bad.  The number of cycles is only a “rule of thumb” and not a hard and fast number.  Batteries can die with 100 cycles and they can continue to function well after 1000 cycles.  The bottom line is that they are man-made devices and not without manufacturing defects.  While rare, they do happen.

So, can you determine the exact cause of a failing battery?  If you had the time and resources, yes.  However, the cost prohibitive nature of this means it’s much, much, more effective snd efficient to just replace it.


I cannot share contacts through text messages with my iphone 5 I am trying to share contacts through text messages just as I used to do with my iphone 3 but I do not know the correct taps and/or gestures to do this.

The easiest way for sending contact to another person is through the Contacts App.
Just tap on the contact you want to share and you'll see the details for that person.
At the bottom of the page is a button "Share Contact". There you can either choose to send this through a Message or email.


iMac Pro microphone doesn't work and camera is not detected I have an iMac Pro. No camera shows in the system report under Camera, just under USB. My microphone is also not working. I tried resetting the NVRAM but it didn't solve the problem.

What should I do to fix it?

The T2 chip is involved in running the camera and microphone to a major extent such that the old way to troubleshoot this need an update.

First, consider powering everything off and then disconnecting from power for 15 to 30 seconds to let the SMC and T2 do a complete cold boot. Portables  have a more involved SMC reset but Mac Pro and iMac Pro are easy to reset.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Next, consider getting diagnostic run from Apple if you have that option and if not consider connecting to the internet and running a reinstall of macOS to give everything a chance to update. Reinstalling the OS online and not from a saved installer or offline image ensures you have a chance to get caught up on EFI and firmware and bridgeOS updates.

In addition to the os, the T2 and the EFI Get updates only when you install the OS. This won’t intentionally erase anything, but I like to back anything important up just in case.

Lastly, take it in for a physical repair.


How do people find out hidden UserDefaults Quite often I come across these online posts about these hidden tricks that, usually entered it Terminal, access the user defaults system and overwrites/creates new defaults which are not normally changed by the system GUI.

What I'm wondering is how do folks "figure out" these so-called "hidden" tricks?

Did Apple document all the usable preferences for their software?
Did these people know people that work for apple and therefor built these tricks?
Are these people just nuts and spend all their day punching in random defaults looking to see if any of them do anything?

Did Apple document all the usable preferences for their software?

Yes.  The first place to look is, well, Apple's Documentation Site.  Virtually everything that has to do with your Mac and the OS will be documented here.

Additionally, macOS is built upon a core BSD kernel so lots of the Terminal commands you see referenced to here actually come from that space.  One of the best places to learn about BSD is from the FreeBSD Handbook; arguably one of the most comprehensive documentation source for BSD.  Personally speaking, coming from that space (and I'm still a "resident") to macOS was very straight forward.

  Did these people know people that work for Apple and therefor built
  these tricks?

They're not tricks; it's Apple's framework.  Everything from how the user interacts with the desktop to what happens when you save a file is based on a well documented framework.

  Are these people just nuts and spend all their day punching in random
  defaults looking to see if any of them do anything?

Nuts?  A very emphatic NO.  However, I can say for certainty we are a curious bunch and always on a quest for knowledge.  I know I have spent lots of time in front of the screen just "see what something does" in the pursuit to expanding my knowledge base.

That said, finding these "defaults" is usually from necessity (i.e. we have an actual problem to solve).  A good deal of it is done via research as well as trial and error.

I have VM (virtual machines) running on my iMac with different versions of macOS just to simply try things so I can experiment without the fear of catastrophically messing things up.

If this is something you wish to explore, I suggest you start by surfing through this site and find "issues" that pique your interest.  From there, try the solutions to see what happens for nothing more than the sake of expanding your skill set.


How to disable the special characters shortcut (Cmd+Option+T) in OS X Lion? I just want to use this shortcut for one other application.

defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add "Special Characters..." nul

Or change the shortcut to something else in System Preferences:


upgrading drive of 2015 macbook air, such thing as too fast? I was considering upgrading the drive of a macbook air that i got and was amazed at the difference between some of the NVMe PCIe M.2 drives at around 3,938 MB per second and other SATA drives (which I am not wholly sure can be used anyway, even with adapters?) that are more in the 700-800s MB p/s.

Would the 2015 macbook air be a bottle neck thus making such a
    blazing fast NVMe M.2 drive a bit moot?

No - storage is the one bottleneck here.

the CPU is always magnitude of times faster than storage and the bus speed between CPu and storage is also faster than both specs.

Go for the speed if you are sure the drivers and connectors are compatible.


old iMac TM HD to a new iMac I have a TM HD from an old iMac
I want to transfer only photos and some documents...
it only give me to transfer all the backup without files and folders selection

is there's away to do it ?
if I define the old HD as the new TM HD, will it still see the old backups , so I can upload selectively... ?

thanks

Option-click the Time Machine icon in your menu bar with your Time Machine disk connected, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks and select your TM disk from the list.
This lets you browse the backed up data on the TM disk from your new machine using Time Machine.app and choose individual files or folders to restore to the new Mac.

If you choose to add the Time Machine disk as a backup disk to your Mac, this will create a separate backup history for your new Mac alongside the old backups, not merge the two. You can manually associate the old backups with your new Mac to use a single history (How to reassociate Time Machine backup with the computer), but I wouldn't recommend this unless you restore the entire backup to your new Mac first.


Recovering a RAID 0 volume In the process of upgrading a 2 4tb disk RAID 0 array from an iffy LaCie drive to a faster/more reliable USB enclosure I have lost data. The backups take a long, long time to restore so I'm hoping to be able to rebuild the RAID 0 array instead. This is all on a Mac Mini running High Sierra.

It was originally a RAID 0 array in a LaCie Thunderbolt drive, but this kept randomly dropping out so I decided to move the drives into a COTS USB 3 enclosure instead. This was set up as a RAID 1 array with 2 2tb drives and I cloned the LaCie contents onto it as a backup. Then I took the pair of 4tb drives from the LaCie and put them in the USB enclosure and switched it to RAID 0 mode, but the Mac Mini did not recognise them. So then I replaced them in the LaCie enclosure, but they just showed up as 2 different drives which the Mac Mini would not mount.
 I tried switching the order of the drives, but this did not help. I wasn't worried because I still had my pair of 2tb RAID 1 drives, which I put back in the USB enclosure, switched it to RAID 1 mode and...the Mac Mini would not recognise it. Data gone - and I hadn't even done a single write operation or formatted anything.

I have tried Data Rescue and 321 Soft Raid Recovery to try and recover the LaCie RAID 0 drive, and while I have managed to get a lot of data from the RAID 1 drive, it's just recovered it as a bunch of files with no usable filenames or directory structure.

My offsite backups appear to be incomplete, and in any case are taking literally days to restore.

distil list output: ...$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *5.0 TB     disk4
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk4s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS HSBACKUP1               5.0 TB     disk4s2

/dev/disk5 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                                                   *4.0 TB     disk5

/dev/disk6 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                                                   *4.0 TB     disk6

/dev/disk 5 and 6 are the elements of the RAID 0 (ignore HSBACKUP1 - that is my offsite backup drive currently doing a restore of most of the company files)

My LaCie enclosure model is a 2big thunderbolt 8tb - comes preconfigured as RAID 0. I didn't install it originally (it was done in 2013) but I assume it was just used with default settings.

So - does anyone know how to rebuild a RAID 0 array on a mac? It hasn't been formatted or written to in any way - just put into another enclosure, taken out and put back into the original.

OUTCOME: Have not succeeded in rebuilding the RAID. Instead between the restores from my offsite backups and £60 for a Data Rescue license, have managed to recover everything that was lost. Lessons learnt: do not use a Mac as a file server, with the best will in the world they're just not built with that in mind, and verify your daily backups to make sure they're backing up everything you need them to, I wouldn't have had any problems at all save that the account doing the backups did not have rights to all the source files.

All consumer file recovery software I've seen and evaluated do exactly what you say. They troll each and every block of the drive and make up stories and file names in the presumption that each block was a file that's now deleted.

Someone has to spend tons of time pouring over each and every file to make sense of them or start looking for metadata (social security numbers, passwords, ascii strings / hex values) and then report how much progress is made finding needles in the haystack.

Normally if you send in drives from a JBOD type RAID to a recovery service - they offer free quotes and can speak much more intelligently about your prospects and if this is a $500 recovery or a $5000 recovery effort.

In your specific case, if the LaCie drive comes RAID 0 by default, there's nothing on the macOS side that made the decision where to store the data - it's all embedded in the firmware shipped by LaCie so your first stop would be to ask them for technical assistance or documentation to see if you can rebuild how they stored the data.

Your diskutil list shows clearly that the drives now aren't seen as a RAID so your diagnosis is correct and you'll want to get software that supports LaCie RAID recovery or hopefully find someone that reverse engineered and documents how to do this. I haven't ever seen such a thing and usually pay if the business need is more than just walking away from the data that wasn't backed up in a way it can be restored easily (or at all).


App was rejected for use of protected 3rd party material My app has been rejected due to 3rd party material clause:

  8.5: Use of protected 3rd party material (trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, otherwise proprietary content) requires a documented rights check which must be provided upon request.

1, What is documented rights check composed of

2, How do I offer it up to Apple so that my App is approved.

There are several avenues you can take to resolve this. The first is to log into the developer center for your iOS developer account and go to the Resolution Center and verify that the reason is correct and see if they have identified specific assets (music, artwork, code that could reasonably be protected by copyright in the US.).

There is an App Review board, but I wouldn't rush to that as it's kind of a final step and you'll want all your ducks in a row if you go that route.

If you really have no clue what parts of your app might be problematic, you can use a support incident and ask Developer Technical Support to point you to the specific items that are problematic and flagged by the reviewer. My guess is you will have a good idea and can substitute a royalty free drawing or song to resubmit the app and confirm whether the items you suspect being flagged for rejection are the actual items.

At that point, you will need to decide if you want to push things and use the assets and somehow justify why copyright material isn't in your app or get approval from the copyright owner and submit that evidence to Apple.

You could also ask the reviewer to send you the list of assets so you can start the rights check documentation. Depending on the issue they see, it could be a simple letter from your lawyer to something much more involved if Apple has had previous legal requests from copyright holders and you have run afoul of that with your recent review denial.

All of the above would be most applicable if the app contains assets that were flagged. If your app during testing consumes or downloads other copyright material, you may need to have a more direct discussion with Apple to understand if you are even going to be allowed to distribute your App through Apple's storefront.

Worst case, you can request clarification of the rejection from https://developer.apple.com/appstore/contact/


How to listen to Beats 1 radio outside of available countries? Beats 1 radio is not available at many countries no matter what country the Apple Music subscription account from.

One can use any VPN for tunnel to any available country for Beats 1 radio.

It seems that requests only to itsliveradio.apple.com should be tunneled (so your connection speed would not be affected that much because of VPN).

Example workflow:

use TunnelBear to tunnel to UK or US
in its preferences set tunnel to only itsliveradio.apple.com url.


Once backed up iPhone to iCloud, can I delete an app and redownload it with same data? Let's say I'm sick of Angry Birds, I delete it from my phone. I back up my phone daily to iCloud.

In a few months when I want to play it again, will all my data be there (or is it different implementation every app)?

I know there might be two answers since I may either: 1) go to the App store and download it from there, or 2) Sync back the app from iTunes. What would happen in either case?

As long as you don't make a single backup of your iOS device after you deleted angry birds, you can restore from a backup and the game should have data of progress you've made till the day of that backup. If you redownload the game, you would not have any app-data, regardless of anything, unless you've jailbroken your device and manually made a backup of the app-data, and reapplied it.


iOS 10 message effects send to phone number but not email address If I send an iMessage to my son using his phone number, the new message effects work without issue.  If I send an iMessage to him using his email address (still in Messages), they do not work and show the parenthetical text ("Sent with xxxx effect") when he receives the message.  When I send it, I see the desired effect.  Neither of us have reduce motion or anything of the sort turned on.  Note that they are both "blue" iMessage conversations.

I've tried deleting the conversation where it was failing (to his email) and that didn't change anything.

Is there a reason why he would see the effects if I send to his phone number vs. his email address?

This may sound bizarre but you obviously have searched and checked and/or corrected the most common reasons of why it does not work correctly.

There is one thing that I am seeing a lot of on forums that you have not mentioned.

  I fixed this by going to Settings/Messages, then turning iMessage on
  and off.


How Do I Disable Remote Management and Enable Screen Sharing? I am connected to a headless remote Mac Mini. Under Sharing in the System Preferences both Remote Login and Remote Management are checked though Remote Mangement is "grayed out". I would like to disable Remote Management and enable Screen Sharing.

Currently the Screen Sharing checkbox is "grayed out". When I click on it, I get the following message: "Screen Sharing is currently being controlled by the Remote Management service." This warning to not continue makes sense if I would lose my current VNC connection and not be able to turn it back on remotely.

To access the remote server I Connect to Server (command-k) vnc://IPnumber

I would like just Remote Login and Screen Sharing enabled and Remote Management disabled.

Does anyone know the steps for me to accomplish this goal remotely?

I found the following code in a file I didn't open for a long time. It enables Remote Login on a remote device. Save the script somewhere (from now on referred to as /path/to/script/). Copy the script to the other device.

tell application "System Preferences" to set current pane to pane "com.apple.preferences.sharing"
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    click checkbox 1 of row 6 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of window "Sharing"
end tell

This enables remote login. Now, to disable remote management and enable screen sharing, use the same script, but remove the 3rd line and add these 2 lines:

tell application "System Preferences" to set current pane to pane "com.apple.preferences.sharing"
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    click checkbox 1 of row 7 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of window "Sharing"
    click checkbox 1 of row 2 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of window "Sharing"
end tell

To copy this script on the remote device, use scp (secure copy). To use scp type
scp /path/to/script username@IP.of.other.device:/some/path
OR
scp username@hostnameOfDevice:/some/path/
The second option (using the device hostname) requires that the devices are on a computer-to-computer network, so it will not work on a normal wifi network. You will see a prompt requesting the password of username. When you type the password, you will not see any text appear (obviously to prevent people from seeing the password).

Once it is copied, remotely log into the device:
ssh username@IP.of.other.device
OR
ssh username@hostnameOfDevice
Again, the use of the hostname requires computer-to-computer network. Once logged in, run the script using osascript /some/path/theScript.scpt (remember that using scp we copied the script to /some/path, this will be different on your device). This will disable remote management and enable screen sharing.
Good luck!


What's your favorite multi - editor on OS X? I was wondering if you could post your favorite code editor on OS X.

I'm looking for something lightweight (no netbeans or eclipse) for fast editing multi languages. tag highlighting and code completion highly appreciated :).

On Windows I was using Notepad++ a lot and was really satisfied with it.

btw - I don't like dashcode so much - that's why I am looking for an alternative :)

BBEdit's latest release is REALLY good. I first encountered BB way back in the day on OS7, and it was more editor than I needed at the time, and it only confused me. Since then I've become a much heavier-duty text editor user, and when they brought out a new release a couple months ago I pulled the trigger.

It's EXCELLENT. Every feature I've wanted, it's had for me, waiting to discover. Can't recommend it highly enough. You can find it on the App Store.


How did Starbucks send bold text in an MMS to Messages? I received the discount message shown below from Starbucks on iOS 7.0.3.  Somehow they managed to make part of the message text bold.  How did they do this, or better, how can I recreate it?

I tried sending a formatted email to my phone number, but it was converted to plain text, as I've thought all SMS/MMS messages are.

Note: The bold text accessibility setting in Settings is set to off.

In Settings > Messages, turn on Show Subject Field. The subject will display in bold when an MMS is sent.


Accessing ancient iOS app(s) no longer available on the App Store? There is an iOS app that got removed from the App Store around 2012. It was a freeware game. I would like to study the game's design.

First of all, if I were to find a copy of the game IPA file Online, would that be considered piracy?

Secondly, assuming such activity is not illegal, are there any libraries of ancient app IPA files?

First of all, if I were to find a copy of the IPA file online, would that be considered piracy?

It won't constitute piracy, primarily because the iOS App Store ecosystem has been designed from the ground up to curb attempts at pirating apps. Even if you manage to find the IPA of the said app, you won't be able to load it on an iOS device. Side-loading app like in Android is not generally possibly in iOS.

  Secondly, assuming such activity is not illegal, are there libraries that .IPAs of ancient iOS apps?

No. There isn't any such library/website which will let you download the IPA file for desired app.

Your best bet would be search the Web for reviews/videos of the game app in action. That way you would be able to study the design at-least in a limited/indirect way.

Additionally, considering the app was discontinued around 2012 which were the days of iOS 6/iOS 7, it's highly likely that the app was developed using a now ancient iOS SDK and using older 32-bit architecture. Even if we hypothetically assume that you'll be somehow able to get hold of the IPA and load it on a device, it won't be possible to run in on a modern device (running iOS 11 or later), which is now installed on around 95% of active devices.

Source: App Store - Support - Apple Developer as on 10 April 2019.

P.S.: Quoting @Tetsujin from the comment below:

  If it's that old & has been unsupported for 6 or 7 years, it might even be worth seeing if the original dev would be willing to give away the old source code. It's obviously something they're not currently making money out of. You never know, it might just happen.


Temporary dyld_shared_cache taking a lot of space I am developing an application with Flutter and using an iOs simulator (iPhone 8 13.4).
I noticed that while I am running my application (I am using VSCode), a lot of space is taken by some files.
After some research, I found out that it is dyld_shared_cache_arm64e cache is taking a dump every minute which takes 1.73GB consistently. Location -  /private/var/folders/rc/9jqgfj8148z8cfyz_9qht07m0000gn/T/TemporaryItems

I have 500GB of free space in my Mac, so after 3 hours my Mac is filled up. I haven't found any solution on the internet to stop caching apart from restarting my computer. I don't want to restart my mac every 3 hours. Any solution here?

macOS Catalina 10.15.4 (19E266)
Xcode Version 11.4 (11E146)

Same problem here

It was fixed after opening Xcode and going to Window/Devices and Simulators.
There select your iPhone and wait for the process of "Copying cache files from device" to finish

Then they can go back to their normal flutter workflow.


What lock can secure a 4th generation Time Capsule from theft? The 4th generation Time Capsule has a security slot at the far right of the back panel:

However, the manual does not mention what kind of lock I can attach to it.

What locks are compatible? For instance, does the Kensington MicroSaver work?

Yup, that's a Kensington slot and the product you linked will work and is on the high end in price and fit/finish. Anything compatible will work - you can open http://amazon.com and then search for "kensington type laptop lock" for dozens of vendors at various price points and key/cable configurations.


possible to "push to talk" using iphone's headset? I use my iPhone a lot for business calls.  Improper use of the mute button could be a career-ender.  Is it possible to use the iPhone's headset to toggle the mute button?

Thanks!

Unfortunately the answer is no this isn’t possible however you could look at whether you could find a push to talk set of headphones and microphone. Basically with a physical switch to mute.

And there’s always the mute buttons in call.


How many SMS and contacts can be stored in an iPhone I want to know how many (number of ) SMS and Contact details can be stored in an iPhone 3gs and iPhone 4.

As far as I remember there used to be a limit in early iPhones on early software, something around 2000? But I don't think there is a limit these days.

Text messages are stored in SQLite database which has very, very large limits of number of rows. I managed to store over 3000 messages on my iPhone 3G.


Where is the option to disable iTerm2 confirm window on Log off? I have MacBook Pro with macOS Sierra. When I try to Log off system I get annyoing confirm dialog each time. Here is it:

It says that it was prompted because of some option enabled. This option here:
“Prefs > General > Confirm Quit iTerm2”.

What ‘Prefs’ is this about?

I have this in System Preferences > General, and iTerm 2 context menu > Edit Session….

Nether System Preferences nor iTerm2 prefs has this checkbox. So how I can disable this confirm dialog on log off?

In macOS, you can find the preferences for any app by choosing the app name in the menu bar, then selecting Preferences.

In this case, the preference being referred to is this one:


Connected new charger with Macbook Pro. Both Macbook Pro and Charger stopped working. Any reasons? My macbook pro charger stopped working sometime ago. In the meanwhile I have been using friend's charger without any problem.

Today I bought a second hand charger and when I tried to connect it with my Macbook, the charging light on charger blinked for few seconds and then stopped working. The Macbook Pro also stopped working and it doesn't turn ON, no matter how long I press the restart button.

The Macbook was 60% charged before I connected this new charger. So I am assuming the reason it stopped working is because I connected this new charger.

Any ideas, what could be happening?

Try resetting the SMC (System Management Controller) — the SMC controls many hardware features of the Mac and resetting it can fix problems such as a Mac not responding to the Power button:

  Power
  The computer doesn't respond to the power button when pressed.

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Connect your friend's known working charger.
Press ⇧⌃⌥ and the power button, then release all at the same time.

The Mac shouldn't boot and will remain off. The LED on the MagSafe connector may change colour and/or flash briefly.
With the charger still connected, press the power button to turn your Mac back on.


Phone calls from sons phone showing up on my phone How do I stop my sons phone calls from showing up on my phone?

You may create a different Apple ID for your son (or for you), or disable iPhone Cellular Calls. Go to Settings > FaceTime and turn them off.

You can use Family Sharing –as suggested– to share purchased apps and media, among other things.


What's causing kernel panic on mid 2011 iMac? (a freed zone element has been modified) I've got a mid 2011 iMac that kernel panics roughly after 30 to 45mins of being powered on. Then the panics seem to get worst eg after every restart of the imac.

I've tried x2 different boot drives both using OS X 10.10.5 as the base system, one being a USB drive and other being a thunderbolt drive.

At the moment my theories are it's more of a hardware problem then software, either ram or possible gpu.

See screenshot of report below:

This turned out to be one piece of bad ram installed in the iMac.


How can I use the "signature" function in Preview on Mac Mini with no camera? I have a Mac Mini with no attached camera. I would like to use the feature of Preview that allows you to insert a signature. This relies on taking an image of your signature using an isight/facetime/webcam. I do not have on.

I do have a MacBook pro on which I use the signature function. Is there a way to copy a file from the the MacBook Pro to the Mac Mini to enable this function on the Mini?

You apparently can transfer the signature from your Macbook to your Mac Mini. This webpage explains the process:

http://www.stuartcarnie.com/2011/08/transferring-preview-app-signatures-in.html

Hope it helps! If you run into any problems feel free to ask.


Can't remove "Install macOS High Sierra.app" I had to make a bootable macOS High siera install, everyhing went well and it worked. I'm trying to remove the app that I used to install it and trash won't let me. Everytime I try I get an

The operation can’t be completed because the item
“Install macOS High Sierra.app” is in use.

error. I tried to circumvent this by option+click and selecting "Delete immediately" but that just gives me an

“InstallESD.dmg” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by macOS.

error. Any help for getting this thing off my computer will be greatly appreciated.

I was experiencing this problem after downloading High Sierra to fix a friend's Mac. I found Rick's solution worked for me, but I've added a few more steps.

Click the  symbol in the Menu bar.
Click Restart….
Hold down Command + R to boot into Recovery Mode.
Click Utilities.
Select Terminal.
Type csrutil disable. This will disable SIP.
Press Return or Enter on your keyboard.
Click the  symbol in the Menu bar.
Click Restart….

Extra Steps

Log in / boot up the Mac.
Empty Trash.

I also found that somehow Previous System folder appeared under the Mac HD. So I also trashed that (which wouldn't trash previously).

I then rebooted the Mac a few times to check that everything was working fine. Then rebooted into recovery mode.

Hold down Command + R to reboot into Recovery Mode.
Click Utilities.
Select Terminal.
Type csrutil enable. This will enable SIP.
Press Return or Enter on your keyboard.
Click the  symbol in the Menu bar.
Click Restart….


Terminal path bar style for prompt I recently saw this in a demonstration online in someones Terminal:

Notice the path-bar-like style of the prompt, any ideas how you can get that? Some kind of customisation I'd assume?

You're looking for Powerline which originally came about as a Vim plugin (although the bash version has a different author). You need patched fonts to deal with the symbols. Like these

Edit:

This screenshot is also using the Solarized theme I believe.


Do pre-built Little Snitch configurations exist and are they shared? Is it possible to import configurations that have been created elsewhere into Little Snitch? For example, a ready to go basic ruleset for someone who wants to block iCloud's more intrusive features. Is this possible? Do such communities exist that share these?

Yes, there are pre-built rule sets, and someone shares them.

I just stumbled upon this:

Little Snitch rules for blocking ad servers

Here they provide a list of pre-built rules for blocking ad-servers.

It is not related specifically to iCloud, but in general yes, there are shared sets of rules for Little Snitch.

Edit: now I see what Dylan was referring to with "are you going to manually...". A little explanation is in order.

At the time, the only way (I thought) was to copy the list and paste it into Little Snitch ruleset. It was not a difficult process (literally, cmd+c, cmd+v on Mac) but the "Rule Group Subscription" on LS makes it even easier.

The website I posted earlier now provides a link to the subscription: click and be happy.

I guess Dylan's answer and mine provide a couple of alternatives for subscriptions, but I wouldn't know the difference. I admit that I stumbled upon pgl.yoyo.org just by chance.

Further edit: It seems that Steven Black (linked in Dylan's answer) collects a few sources, including yoyo, so I'd say it is more comprehensive (more rules is better?).


Find Record with List by key in AppleScript Is there way to get a Record by the value of one of its keys without looping?

I've been doing this:

set theKey to 22

set theRecords to {{key:11, value:"foo"}, {key:22, value:"bar"}}
repeat with theRecord in theRecords
    if key of theRecord = theKey then
      display dialog (key of theRecord as text) & ":" & value of theRecord
    end if
end repeat

I suppose that you are worried about the speed of iterating.  Iterating would be a time of order-n O(n).

In AppleScript, you can possibly use a record of records instead of a list of records, but I believe that then the class of the key would  have to be an identifier -- not integer like in your example.

Here is a link to somebody with a similar question:
Emulating associative arrays in AppleScript

Lauri Ranta's answer is to use the command-line tool called "awk".

The solution that I toyed with was to make a faceless background app that would be what is called an "Agent" which AppleScript's could call upon for using its datastructures such as an associative array (also known as a dictionary or a Mapping.)

I didn't get my solution done.  It's just an idea, but you could use Lauri's answer, she usually knows what she's talking about.

Since I know a little Pyton, and since Pyton comes with OS X, pre-installed in the System Folder, I would consider using Python myself.

I tried it again in "pure AppleScript" with the following code which I'm not really happy with:

set theRecords to {fooKey:{key:"fooKey", value:"fooValue"}, barKey:{key:"barKey", value:"barValue"}}
try
    set theRecord to get barKey of theRecords
    display dialog (key of theRecord & ":" & value of theRecord)
on error errorMessage number errorNumber
    if errorNumber is not equal to -128 then
        display dialog "No match"
    end if
end try

You can mix shell script and AppleScripts:

-- in AppleScript, you can call a shell script
do shell script "<enter your shell script here>"

Or, you can call an AppleScript from a shell script with the command-line tool called "osascript".


How do I see the queue of untagged faces in the 2015 Mac Photos App? In the old iPhoto, I could go to a screen to see a queue of faces that hadn't been tagged, with tag suggestions.

In the 2015 Photos App, whilst I can tag photos, I can't find the bit where I get the tag suggestions, where you can see the queue of untagged faces.

My question is: How do I see the queue of untagged faces in the new Mac Photos App?

Albums > Faces - the pending list should appear at the bottom of the page, if there are any new faces to tag.


How to fix the OS X Server "LibClamAV Error: mpool_malloc(): Attempt to allocate 8388608 bytes." reboot loop? Since last friday (October 21st, 2016) a reboot of both 10.6 (Snow Leopard Server) and 10.7 (Lion Server) result in numerous repetitions of the logged error message:

LibClamAV Error: mpool_malloc(): Attempt to allocate 8388608 bytes.

and

WARNING: [LibClamAV] mpool_malloc(): Attempt to allocate 8388608
bytes. Please report to http://bugs.clamav.net Log size = 1048612, max
= 1048576 LOGGING DISABLED (Maximal log file size exceeded).

Workaround (not a fix)
After disabling "Server Admin" > "Mail" > "Settings" > "General" > "Filters":

[ ] Enable junk mail filtering
[ ] Enable virus filtering

the error message was gone and the reboots stopped.
Regression
It seems that the ClamAV engine ($ /usr/bin/clamscan --version ... 0.97.8) is too old according to ClamAV.net bug 11647.
How to fix?
How to fix the ClamAV "LibClamAV Error: mpool_malloc(): Attempt to allocate 8388608 bytes" error permanently and having email junk and virus filtering functionality? In other words How to upgrade the built-in clamav scanner of Mac OS X Lion 10.7 server (without installing Xcode on the machine running the outdated ClamAV)?

I ran across this page dealing with the issue on a carefully rebuilt OS X server running 10.6 (I have reasons). The compile-it-yourself answer by Pro Backup is fantastically detailed, but I may have run across a simpler answer, at least in the short term. I noticed another machine I had, also using 10.6 Server, didn't have the issue. Checking the versions of each using /usr/bin/clamscan --version, I saw they were the same engine versions, but different definition versions:

Has the issue

ClamAV 0.97.8/22421/Sun Oct 23 22:58:38 2016
ClamAV 0.97.8/22422/Mon Oct 24 12:02:38 2016

versus

Doesn't have the issue

ClamAV 0.97.8/22470/Wed Nov  2 19:05:24 2016

Manual download clamAV definitions

So, decided to try manually downloading the virus definitions using /usr/bin/freshclam (as sudo). It ran through lots of versions, finishing with 22471. Not yet sure if this will do the trick, but I'm hoping it's on the right track.


Is my mac book pro suitable for CUDA? After visiting this page:
http://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-getting-started-guide-for-mac-os-x/

I don't know if my MacBook Pro is suitable for CUDA developement. After About This Mac I see this:

It does not seems to be a graphic card in this list:
https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus

But I asked several times before buying this machine if it is capable for gpu stuffs. And I can correctly runs program that uses shaders. And, more important, I have installed CUDA driver and toolkit and they doesn't seems to give any error. But If I try to compile manually something with CUDA.. it doesn't work.

Your model has only the Intel HD 4000, so you can't use CUDA

Full specifications:
http://support.apple.com/kb/sp649


Problems connecting to HTTPS websites on unsecured WiFi I am on a MacBook Air running OSX 10.10.2. I try to connect to an HTTPS website on Firefox and I get the message

  Your connection is not secure

  The owner of www.google.co.il has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.

  This site uses HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to specify that Firefox may only connect to it securely. As a result, it is not possible to add an exception for this certificate.

When I click on advanced I see

  www.google.co.il uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate is unknown. The server might not be sending the appropriate intermediate certificates. An additional root certificate may need to be imported. Error code: SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER

When I try to open a non-HTTPS website it seems to work and when I connect to a WiFi with a password it everything works. I have tried clearing browser caches and clearing history, turning off and back on again and using chrome.

I used Safari and I was able to bypass the error but then it tells me "העמוד אליו הגעת חסום לגלישה!" which means "The page you reached is blocked for browsing!" but it doesn't say why.

I don't have access to the router but everyone else whose computer is connected to this WiFi seems to work just fine.

The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate is unknown.

Given the google host, it is not very likely that the host itself is the cause of the error.

It sounds like there may be a SSL proxy, or some other form of deep packet inspection on the network.

This may be a rogue agent, or a legitimate part of the corporate network.

The idea is simple enough, each client has a root certificate installed for which the private key is known by the router or proxy. The proxy then acts as a "man in the middle" and decrypts and re-encrypts data on the secured connections. This allows the proxy to do a deep inspection of then content to and from external sources, such as https sites.

Some may argue this is a bad thing, since the proxy (and possibly whoever has access to the proxy) can now see all the data that is thought by the user to be secured end to end. Some may argue it is a good thing since the corporate can inspect and verify, and protect itself against, data leaving and coming into the network before it reaches the end point.

The other users may not be experiencing the same symptoms as you if they already have the proxy certificate source installed as a trusted CA, but the deep packet inspection is still being done.

There are many resources in the internet covering this issue, here are some of the first hits covering this;

http://cookbook.fortinet.com/why-you-should-use-ssl-inspection/

And

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack

  "The page you reached is blocked for browsing!"

Given the above possibilities, I would suspect a firewall (or the proxy) is blocking you as well.


iOS and OS X Photos.app - duplicate photos when adding new photos to my OS X Photos.app and afterwards sync my iPhone with my Mac I see every photo I just added twice on the iPhone: One synced via iTunes and the other one via Photostream. Once I delete the photos in the photostream there are no duplicates anymore.

I'm using most recent versions of OS X, iOS, Photos.app, Photostream activated, iCloud photo Library NOT activated on all devices.

Is there any solution to get rid of the duplicates without deleting them in the Photostream? Doesn't iOS notice? The solution I would prefer is using photostream only "one-way" from iPhone to my Mac. I remember an option in the good old iPhoto.app making this possible, which is not present any more in the new Photos.app, as far as I know. By "one-way" I mean that only new photos I take on my iPhone are uploaded to the Photostream, but not photos I add to the Photos.app on my Mac. Is there a way to do that?

I'm curious on your ideas on this. Thanks in advance!

Sascha

If you have activated Photostream, why do you use photo sync by iTunes? Just turn it off. And check setting about HDR version of your shots. May be you just see original and HDR version of shot?


Solution for syncing directory hierarchy of images from Mac to iOS? I'm a photographer and need to keep an updated set of portfolio images synced from my Mac to my iOS devices and available for offline viewing. I have around 300 images totalling ~150MB)

Right now the directory that I want to sync looks like this on my Mac:

Portfolio-2015/
 Project 01/
   Car.jpg
   Boat.jpg
   Bus
 Project 02/
   Zebra.jpg
   Lion.jpg
 ..x 150

I've found several solutions that accommodate the syncing part of this problem but for some reason none of them them allow you to mark a folder (and its hierarchy) to work off-line on the iOS device.

So far I've tried Google Drive, Dropbox and OwnCloud. All of these have iOS clients that allow you to 'favorite' individual files for off-line access but none of them allow you 'favorite' a folder.

Does anyone know of a solution that will work for me?

You could use Box.

To my knowledge, they used to offer this feature.


MBP won’t wake up from sleep I have this strange problem with my early-2011 MacBook Pro, running on OS X 10.6.8: as of a month or so, sometimes it does’t wake up from sleep unless I press the power button for a longer period (5-10 seconds). However, when I do that, it starts waking from hibernation (the grey screen with the progress bar appears) and then it restarts. Usually the battery shows half full, so theoretically it shouldn’t go into hibernation.

Anybody else running into this problem? How did you solved it? (I should mention that upgrading to Lion or Mountain Lion is not an option, so please don’t suggest that.)

It sounds like your battery is in bad shape. Your MBP goes to sleep and when it runs out of juice it simply dies.

If that's not the case - meaning the battery got's juice after a hard reset (holding power button for 5+ secs) without hanging to power supply then: First check if there are any Firmware updates. Then try the following:

Open up a Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and to disable hibernation type:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

then remove any trace of previous hibernations:

rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage

After that reset the SMC aka System Management Controller:

MBP with removable battery:

Shut down the computer.
Disconnect the power adapter
Remove the battery.
Press and hold the power for at least for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Reconnect the battery
Turn on the computer.

MBP with non removable battery:

Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter if not already connected.
Press the Shift-Control-Option left side keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Turn on the computer.

The LED on the MagSafe may change states - if so it means your SMC reset was successfull. To enable Safe Sleep again open Terminal and sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3. Hope that help's.

Update
To have total control of Sleep try this http://semaja2.net/insomniaxinfo


PowerPoint presentations won't open on mac but I can see their preview on Finder. It says password-protected but it is NOT password-protected Below is the powerpoint presentation I am trying to view. I can see it through Finder, as you can see below, but when I try to open it on OpenOffice or LibreOffice I get the dialog below. Again this file is not password-protected in any way, it is just one of those powerpoint presentations that people send by email.

Any ideas?

It's shown because Preview can open PowerPoint files in view only mode; so I suppose you can open it with Preview.


CalendarAgent hogs CPU to 100% every time I get network connection The CalendarAgent service takes all my CPU, every time I get a network connection.
This is really annoying in many situations (one example: closing the lid for 2 minutes, change train and open it again) and slows down everything.

I already tried many solution:

reset the calendars
clear the cache files
change configs for the accounts
renice the CalendarAgent process
set ALL my accounts to manual refresh (Command + R)

The service doesn't care; if it's active it will hog the CPU.
Only alternative is to disable the service; but, what a surprise, the Calendar app won't work anymore and crash.

I have calendars in sync with iCloud, Exchange, Google.

I'm struggling with this issue and would really like to take control back on this annoying process.
I am fine with having to refresh manually the calendars but at least decide when to hog the CPU with updates.

How can I solve this?

OSX: El Capitan

I had the same problem with El Capitan, High Sierra, and now Mojave (seems to have worsened).
For me the removing the google delegation seems to have solved the issue:
How can I diagnose or fix the CalendarAgent occupying a whole CPU on Mountain Lion?


Google Calendar reminders for events created on iPhone I use Google Calendar with an iPhone, syncing several calendars. My main calendar has default reminders set up so that if I create an event on the web, I get emails and SMS messages. When I create an event on the iPhone though, I don't get these default alerts.

Is there any way to configure the phone or the calendar so that, when I create an event on the phone, the default alerts work the same way they do if the event is created on the web?

No, the built-in Calendar application does not have a default alert setting.

However, third-party apps can do it (and access the same calendars). For example, Quick Event (found here) looks like what you want.


Remove Jailbreak and restore to factory settings without iTunes A friend has an iPhone and they need to wipe it and remove the jailbreak on it. They don't need a backup.

The problem is they don't have access to a computer with iTunes on it to do this.

Can this be done without iTunes? Will doing an 'erase all content and settings' lock the phone? Some posts I have read suggest if you do this the phone will get bricked.

I believe all of the current jailbreak solutions work by modifying an IPSW file for the device, and flashing that back on to it. To remove it, you would need a clean IPSW and to do that you need to restore it through iTunes. If you don't back it up first (wether that be on iCloud or iTunes), then obviously you'll lose all of the settings, apps, and app data on the phone as well.


What do the different colors of the tab title in iTerm2 mean? While using iTerm2, I have noticed that sometimes the color of the title of a tab changes to pink with a loading indicator or changes to red. What do these things mean?

The iTerm color change of Tab labels indicates activity.

It can be turned of in:
Preferences > Appearance > Color tab labels on activity

The help file explains this "Color tab labels on activity" appearance preference as follows:

  If selected, tab labels become purple when a non-selected tab has new
  output, and red when a non-selected tab has output you haven't seen
  but that is not very recent.


awk/sed output from system_profiler on 10.6.8 If I have:

foo
bar

..and I'd like to awk/sed this to:

foo-bar

..what's the syntax?

I'm trying to use:

system_profiler SPMemoryDataType | awk '/Type/ {print $2} /Speed/ {print $2}'|sed 's/\r$/a\"-"/'

to output type-speed (ie DDR-1067).

Use this sed instead:

|sed '$!N;s/\n/ /'

system_profiler SPMemoryDataType | awk '/Type/ {print $2} /Speed/ {print $2}'|sed '$!N;s/\n/ /'

output:

DDR3 1066
DDR3 1066
DDR3 1066
Empty Empty


OSX service with custom user does not write Java Preferences This is the setup:

OSX Yosemite
Java based service that is being started using a LaunchDaemon
The service is started with a custom user that is being created during installation
The user has a custom home directory to save certain information, like preferences

Here is how is the user created:

DEAMON_USER="{{daemonUser}}"
HOME_DIRECTORY="{{homeDirectory}}"
SERVICE_DESCRIPTION="{{displayName}}"

# find the next UID and GID that is below 500, so that we can create the service user
# if the user or group already exists, it will use this existing ID and still do the rest. We might have changes to commit.
NEXTUID=$(ID=`dscl . -read "/Users/${DEAMON_USER}" UniqueID 2> /dev/null | awk '{print $2}'` && [ ! -z "$ID" ] && echo "$ID" || dscl . -list /Users UniqueID | awk 'BEGIN{i=0}{if($2>i&&$2<500)i=$2}END{print i+1}')
NEXTGID=$(ID=`dscl . -read "/Groups/${DEAMON_USER}" PrimaryGroupID 2> /dev/null | awk '{print $2}'` && [ ! -z "$ID" ] && echo "$ID" || dscl . -list /Groups PrimaryGroupID | awk 'BEGIN{i=0}{if($2>i&&$2<500)i=$2}END{print i+1}')

echo "Will use '${NEXTUID}' as UserID and '${NEXTGID}' as group ID for User '${DEAMON_USER}'"

#########################################################################################################
dscl . -create "/Users/${DEAMON_USER}" UniqueID "${NEXTUID}"
dscl . -create "/Users/${DEAMON_USER}" PrimaryGroupID "${NEXTGID}"
dscl . -create "/Users/${DEAMON_USER}" NFSHomeDirectory "${HOME_DIRECTORY}"

# Can't login as standard user
dscl . -create "/Users/${DEAMON_USER}" UserShell /usr/bin/false
dscl . -create "/Users/${DEAMON_USER}" RealName "${SERVICE_DESCRIPTION} Administrator"

# Unusable password for standard users
dscl . -create "/Users/${DEAMON_USER}" Password \*
#########################################################################################################

#########################################################################################################
dscl . -create "/Groups/${DEAMON_USER}" PrimaryGroupID "${NEXTGID}"
# Unusable password for standard users
dscl . -create "/Groups/${DEAMON_USER}" Password \*
#########################################################################################################

# make home directory
mkdir -p "${HOME_DIRECTORY}/Library/Preferences" && chown -R "${DEAMON_USER}:${DEAMON_USER}" "${HOME_DIRECTORY}" || true

The service usually creates user preferences which are then stored in the ~/Library/Preferences directory - in a plist backed store.

But not with the user created above. The preferences are never saved. I know that there is a service that keeps the preferences in sync with memory and filesystem (it is not running for the new user).

The question is: what is wrong with either Java - what would it take to correct it - or with the way the system user is created.

Even a simple java program like the following does not trigger the preferences to be written:

import java.util.prefs.BackingStoreException;
import java.util.prefs.Preferences;
public class prefTest {
    public static void main( String[] args ) throws BackingStoreException {
        System.out.println( System.getProperty( "user.home" ) );
        Preferences userRoot = Preferences.userRoot();
        userRoot.put( "Test", "Value" );
        userRoot.flush();
        System.out.println( userRoot.get( "Test", "DEFAULT" ) );
    }
}

Running this program with the service user will result in the wrong output and will not create a Java preferences file for update an existing.

Looks like I found a solution on my own. John Keates has made some good points which made me check the web a little more.

I solved it using the following two lines with the user-creation script:

dscl . -delete /Users/_helpdesk PasswordPolicyOptions
dscl . -delete /Users/_helpdesk AuthenticationAuthority


Check iPhone factory information This is my first question here. I am going to buy a new iPhone 6s and got confused. In my country we do not have any Apple authorised seller. So I have to buy from any mobile shop. I searched Google but not found exactly what I look for. Here is my simple question:

How can I see factory information of my iPhone?

As some criminals may buy a locked iPhone from Apple cheaply and illegally unlock it, then tell me that it is an original unlocked iPhone. I heard of some techniques of unlocking that we can do everything after illegally unlocking. This is why I want to see original data by serial/IMEI so that I can be sure that the iPhone was sold unlocked from Apple.

Apple doesn't provide any carrier unlock status. You need to be vigilant and protect yourself from a buyer by using an escrow agent or other payment arrangement / pre-sale inspection. Furthermore, the original Serial Number and IMEI can be unreliable if there was a service event, error in several databases, etc... It's better to have in writing what you are purchasing and the ability to return the goods if you can't inspect them before you pay.

As for iCloud activation lock, Apple has a nice page to check that before you commit to a potential purchase:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365

Scroll down to the section titled "How do I check for Activation Lock before purchasing a used device?" and the link for that is:

https://icloud.com/activationlock

You need to contact a cellular carrier to clear the IMEI so I would expect that the carrier you will be paying for service would help you out unless they make their money selling hardware and you are cutting them out of their compensation by buying a used device.


How can I get the iPad bubbles wallpaper (since it no longer shows up as an available wallpaper after changing from it)? How can I get the iPad bubbles wallpaper? It no longer shows up as an available wallpaper after changing from it.

I pulled the "bubbles" wallpaper from an old file cache of mine.


iPhoto 8.1.2 grayed out in OS X 10.9.1 screensaver, both internal HD and external on iMac I have iPhoto 8.1.2 grayed out in OS X 10.9.1 screensaver, both internal HD and external on iMac. I have tried reinstalling OS.

How do I use iPhoto as a screensaver?

Update iPhoto first. That might solve the problem. I am running the latest iPhoto and OS X and it allows me to select Photo Library-which then brings all iPhoto stuff (Events, Photos, Faces, Places, etc.)


Deleting Custom ringtones from iPhone / iTunes 12.7 I've followed the instructions from How to delete/remove custom ringtones (tones) from iPhone in iTunes 12.7?, but the ringtones are still on the iPhone after I sync, even though in iTunes the tones are no longer there. How can I remove the tones from my phone?

You can delete custom ringtones right on your iPhone using GarageBand.

Launch GarageBand on your iPhone
If you’ve never created a song on GarageBand, then you need to create one. It doesn’t matter what you create, you just need to have a song on the “Recents” screen.
Navigate to the “Recents” screen and long-tap on one of the songs.
Some floating options will appear
Select “Share” and then select “Ringtone”.
If a message appears about ringtones being 30 sec long etc’, just press “Continue”.
You should now be on the export screen. Press on “My Ringtones”.
A list of your custom ringtones will appear.
Press on “Edit”.
Delete the ringtones you don’t need.
That’s it. You can now cancel back to the main screen


iphone 6 ios 8 siri only working with external mic! I have a jailbroken iPhone 6 running iOS 8.2. My problem is that Siri does not work with the internal microphone. Siri and dictation work fine with any  external mic like the kind that you'd find on the stock Apple iPhone headphones.

do you have any tweaks or something that works with bluetooth, and or the mic?

to rule out jailbreak, turn off your phone and turn it back on while holding the volume up button, this disables all the jailbreak tweaks... like a safe mode, if siri works fine, then you know it has something to do with your JB if not? then it has something to do with your OS


How can I change Finder's "Name" column width in "List" view in El Capitan? My question is essentially the same as this question:

AskDifferent.SE: How can I change the default width of Finder columns?

But I am concerned about "List" view, not "Columns" view.

Is this customization possible in El Capitan? It is a nuisance to be required to manually extend the Name column width each and every time I open a given folder.

I have tried holding down the option key while adjusting the Name column, but when I re-open the folder, the default Name column width has returned.

The root of Finder's peculiar behavior is explained here:

  Finders tries to expand List View to occupy full window width. The "Name" column is flexible so it stretches as needed. That is why Finder does not try to remember its width. It just occupies remaining space.

In other words, Finder will under no circumstance open a window with a scrollable horizontal bar; Finder will shorten the Name column—and exclusively the Name column—as necessary to ensure that all selected columns fit to the window.

A sub-par workaround exists:

Remove all of the columns in "List" view except for the Name column (such as the Date Modified, Date Created, Size, and Kind columns) by right-clicking on any given column title and then left-clicking on the titles that feature a checkmark.
Once you only have the Name column remaining, close and re-open the window.
You will notice that the Name column has now expanded to fill the length of the Finder window.

But, two downsides exist for this workaround:

If your filenames are lengthy (as are mine), they will still be truncated to ensure that the window does not have a scrollable horizontal bar. This means that you have to double-click the Name divider anyway if you want to view the truncated material.
And, of course, if you want to view any file's metadata at a glance, you would have to either "Get Info" or re-add the columns to the Finder window.

Ideally, I would like every folder's Name column to automatically adjust to accommodate the longest filename in that folder, so that no filename is cut off or abbreviated. I've created a separate question to address this desire.

However, I understand that this particular functionality is wishful thinking. I would be happy to simply set the default width of the Name column manually one time per folder, and have that position recalled indefinitely.

Actually, the solution in your linked question still works as of 10.11.6 - I think your issue is you are confusing Column View & List View... based on your stating '"Name" column', which column view doesn't have.

For List View, just drag the column header divider.
To make it default,  Cmd ⌘   J  & Click 'Use as Defaults'.

I am uncertain as to whether that will override any existing ._DS_Store setting for other windows - you may need to clear them if you want to start afresh with your new defaults.


Deleting all songs in a given iTunes playlist using Applescript I'm working on a script to manage my "queue" playlist in iTunes and wanted an easy and fast way to quickly delete all songs in that playlist.

Applescript seemed the best option and I created a little script executable with a keyboard shortcut. However it doesn't seem to work.

This is the relevant part:

tell application "iTunes"
    repeat with t in tracks of playlist "queue"
        tell playlist "queue" to delete t
    end repeat
end tell

The problem is that not all the tracks are deleted, only a part of them. Executing the script multiple times, eventually, deletes all the tracks in the playlist.

I've had the exact same problem. There's more and more AppleScript bugs in each version of OS X.

If you just want to delete all tracks on a playlist, single expressions like this don't seem to skip any tracks and they're also faster:

tell application "iTunes"
    delete tracks of playlist "untitled playlist"
end tell

If you only need to delete some tracks, something like this might work:

tell application "iTunes"
    repeat
        set tr to tracks of playlist "untitled playlist"
        if tr is {} then exit repeat
        repeat with t in tr
            delete t
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell


iCloud requests fail with timeout after a few minutes of connectivity When connecting to a wifi network and waiting for a short period of time (ranging from 20 seconds to 5 minutes), certain iCloud related requests will result in a timeout.

I found the error first in BusyCal, a third party calendar app, when trying to sync iCloud calendars, but it also occurs in the native calendar app. Both apps try syncing for about 20 seconds and give an error sign afterwards. The error even manages to beachball system preference panes for iCloud and internet accounts (sometimes).

I inspected console and found that there are requests failing with a timeout (in German: "Zeitüberschreitung"). Here is a log item for the process com.apple.iCloudHelper:

AOSKit ERROR: Storage usage request failed, appleID=MY_APPLE_ID, url=https://p29-quota.icloud.com:443/quotaservice/external/osx/1060093596/storageUsageInfo, requestHeaders=
{
    "Accept-Language" = "de-de";
    Authorization = "...";
    "X-Mme-Client-Info" = "<MacBookPro12,1> <Mac OS X;10.12.6;16G1114> <com.apple.AOSKit/252 (com.apple.CloudPhotosConfiguration/2.0)>";
    "X-Mme-Country" = DE;
    "X-Mme-Device-Id" = "191F7B8A-ED81-5E19-85BD-5690FA246D47";
    "X-Mme-Timezone" = MEZ;
},
error=Error Domain=AOSErrorDomain Code=1000 "(null)" UserInfo={UnderlyingError=Error Domain=kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Code=-1001 "Zeitüberschreitung bei der Anforderung." UserInfo={NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=https://p29-quota.icloud.com:443/quotaservice/external/osx/1060093596/storageUsageInfo, NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://p29-quota.icloud.com:443/quotaservice/external/osx/1060093596/storageUsageInfo, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-2102, _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=4, NSLocalizedDescription=Zeitüberschreitung bei der Anforde

Here is another log item for process CalendarAgent:

[com.apple.calendar.store.log.caldav.mismatch] [Sync report for calendar home iCloud, failed with error Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1001 "Zeitüberschreitung bei der Anforderung." UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x7fa1138a5c40 {Error Domain=kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Code=-1001 "Zeitüberschreitung bei der Anforderung." UserInfo={NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=https://MY_APPLE_ID@p29-caldav.icloud.com/1060093596/calendars/, NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://MY_APPLE_ID@p29-caldav.icloud.com/1060093596/calendars/, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-2102, _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=4, NSLocalizedDescription=Zeitüberschreitung bei der Anforderung.}}, NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=https://MY_APPLE_ID@p29-caldav.icloud.com/1060093596/calendars/, NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://MY_APPLE_ID@p29-caldav.icloud.com/1060093596/calendars/, _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=4, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=-2102, NSLocalizedDescription=Zeitüberschreitung bei der Anforderung.}]

(If there's anything too confidential in there, please let me know.)

The error occurs on 2 different wifi networks. Once I disable and reenable wifi, everything works for a short period of time until the error occurs again. Error is wifi only and doesn't occur when tethered to an iPhone's 3G connection.

Things I tried so far without success:

deleting /Users/MY_USER_NAME/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist,
rebooting in safe mode and
wondering what I might have done to deserve this

I'm on a MacBook Pro with Sierra (10.12.6). Happy to provide more info if needed.

Any ideas? I'm pretty desperate over here.

Maybe it is an DNS problem.
Could you check if the resolution of host p29-quota.icloud.com works with your DNS server?

admin:~$ host p29-quota.icloud.com
p29-quota.icloud.com is an alias for p29-quota.fe.apple-dns.net.
p29-quota.fe.apple-dns.net has address 17.248.147.21
p29-quota.fe.apple-dns.net has address 17.248.147.19

If not try a differnet DNS server like google: 8.8.8.8


MacBook Pro flashing question mark but I can't repair because hard disk not found in disk utility Today my MacBook showed up some wheel of death and I waited and waited and then after a long time (10 minutes) decide to force shutdown.

Ok, I know its not a good idea but I've done this before and then put in the installation disk and with Disk Utility I could easily repair the boot, if it's crashed.
But this time Disk Utility could not find my hard drive.

I believe its not a physical issue, once started from a forced shutdown and no noises with the hard drive. But how can I repair my hard drive if even the software cannot find it?

Ps.: I have already opened my MacBook, disconnected the hard drive, and plugged it again. You know, just in case, but no effects.

I'd say this is almost certainly a hardware issue. Likely something internal to the drive (if it sounds like it spins up normally, probably some part of the onboard electronics), the hard drive cable or the SATA controller on the logic board.

I'd advise taking it in to an Apple store if you can (especially if it's under warranty), but if you want to try it yourself, the first thing to do is try a different drive, and see if that gets recognized. If it does, your drive is dead, if not, it's a problem with the logic board or the cable. You can get replacement parts from iFixit, but if it's the logic board, then you're better off getting a quote from Apple for a replacement.


What is the security model of iCloud Drive on iOS? If I open a file using the file picker in an app, can the app now see all files in that folder?
Is there any other way in which an app might see all the files in my iCloud Drive?

UIDocumentPickerViewController provides apps with open or import access to one or more user-specified files. Folders are not provided to apps for their own access to, and multiple selections must be user-initiated. When an app saves a file, it can retain access to that file but is not granted general access to the containing folder. Apps have access to their own app folders in iCloud Drive, but not the ability for any folder or all files.


Is there a way to automatically upload photos from an iPhone to Google Drive With Dropbox, you have the option to upload all photos from your iPhone to Dropbox. Is there an equivalent for Google Drive? I.e. is there an app, that when I open it will upload all my photos from my iPhone to my Google Drive account?

I don't see a preference setting for this in the google drive app, and I have searched for 3rd party apps and nothing seems to do this.

You should use the app Photosync which let you choose where to download your pictures, including Dropbox, Google+/Picasa, Box, 500Px and Google Drive (!) to answer your question.


How do I merge multiple dates backup from Time Machine? I can't seem to find an answer for my question regarding this subject. Pardon my ignorance, but I have an External hard drive which I use as drive for my Time Machine backups and I realized that Time Machine makes multiple backups, but there's a lot of duplicated files (as it organizes by dates).
Is there a way to compile or merge all the backups in just one?
I'm sorry if that's a dumb question, but I don't know a lot regarding this subject and would be very greatfull if someone can help me with that.

Don't worry about it.

Time Machine handles all this itself without any user intervention. It keeps several backups per day, then one a week, then one a month… right back to the start of the backup.

It does this without using any extra disk space, but making hard links to any files which appear to be duplicated. This means that there is really only one file, but many places you can see it.


My clock is slow over long period of time - Macbook Pro 2011 13" When i leave my macbook alone for a day (doesn't matter if it's asleep or off), and access it after, my clock is always slow about an hour.

I know this isn't an OSX issue, cause i use bootcamp too and the same thing happens there.

It also doesn't matter if i'm on battery or if i'm plugging in.

I'm certain it's not a time zone issue either... it can be slow 35 minutes, or slow 135 minutes, depending on how long i leave it alone.  Its like the macbook is living in another time dimension.

Some piece of hardware on the macbook that is responsible for keeping the time is messed up... but i don't know what that piece of hardware is and if i can replace it.

Can someone tell me?

The clock time is keep by a battery or capacitor on some models. It is a small battery on the motherboard and used when the computer is off.

When the computer is on and online it will automatically update the clock time.

Normally that battery last 3-5 years.

Try setting the time manually, by getting the actual update for apple time server.

  sudo ntpdate -u time.apple.com

then you will see something like

  8 Jun 14:30:11 ntpdate[28267]: adjust time server 17.151.16.14 offset
  0.000336 sec

You generally don’t need to do this if you use the “Set date and time automatically” feature within the Date & Time settings.

If that did not work, reset your SMC and PRAM (System management Controller)

I can not believe it is your battery but everything is possible :(. Assuming you do not have 2 left hands, you could do that your self.


Dark Horizontal Lines on MacBook Pro Retina Display While I was using my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) running 10.12.1 Sierra, dark horizontal lines popped up and the screen flickered a little. They turned off and on for a bit and I took 2 pictures while they were on and off. It's been 2 days and it hasn't turned off again. I restarted my computer by it's still there. Is this a hardware issue? What's going wrong here?

Top image has lines, bottom image is normal.

Apple just today released the macOS 10.12.2 update. If you have not already done so, check the App Store for this update and install it.

Other general troubleshooting procedures are to reset the SMC, and also reset the NVRAM.

If the problem persists it would be good to know if the problem occurs both when running off of battery and when plugged into the charger. Also, if other peripherals are connected (displays, hard drives, etc.) does the problem occur when they are not connected?


How to change how your Terminal app starts When I launch my Terminal app, it starts in a Basic mode. I'd like to do a few things:

Change default to "Pro"
Control how Terminal is started .. For example, i'd like to either use my keyboard or LaunchBar to bring first terminal as Pro, second as Ocean etc

Please advise.

As far as number one, in Terminal preferences, select the settings tab, select "Pro", and click the default button.