Apple Reverse SSH Tunnelling Issue I've been trying to setup reverse SSH tunnelling from outside my network to home but I've beet getting no-where. My setup is all Apple: two Macs behind an Airport Extreme, one at x.x.x.20 listening on port 22 and the other at x.x.x.30 listening on 10,022.
I've setup NAT on the AP to forward external ports 22 to the x.x.x.20 and 10,022 to x.x.x.30. I want the tunnel to run to x.x.x.20:10022.

I've been using this command from an apple device outside of my home network: ssh -v -f -N -R 22:localhost:10022 homeuser@myhomedoman.com as well as ssh -v -f -N -R 10022:localhost:22 homeuser@myhomedoman.com but either way, the logs on the x.x.x.20:22 listening machine show that the traffic goes to it and the x.x.x.30:10022 machine show no record in the secure.log file. I've even tried ssh -v -f -N -R 10022:localhost:10022 homeuser@myhomedoman.com and the traffic still hits the x.x.x.20:22 listening machine.

The strange thing is that when i run ssh -p 10022 homeuser@myhomedoman.com it connects to the x.x.x.30:10022 listening machine just fine. I've gone through every NAT rule in the Airport as well and there's only one rule covering port 10022 so it's not a NATing problem as far as the AP's configuration is concerned.

Either I'm doing something really wrong, there's a bug in Apple's implementation of reverse SSH tunnels or that the Airport is doing something funny with the traffic.
Has anyone else had this problem or found a workaround?

The guide I'm running to get the reverse tunnel running is http://www.vdomck.org/2005/11/reversing-ssh-connection.html

Thanks in advance!

To avoid confusion I'll call:

x.x.x.20 -> local1
x.x.x.30 -> local2
Apple device outside your home network -> remote1

You say:

  I've setup NAT on the AP to forward external ports 22 to the x.x.x.20
  and 10022 to x.x.x.30.

which I interpret like this:

                 ________                 +-----------------+         +-----------+
                /        \ -  port 22 ----|-----------------|------>  | local1:22 |
+---------+    (          )               |                 |         +-----------+
| remote1 | -  ( Internet )               | Airport Express |
+---------+    (          )               |                 |         +--------------+
                \________/ -  port 10022 -|-----------------|------>  | local2:10022 |
                                          +-----------------+         +--------------+

That is, local2 is reachable on [public IP address of Airport Extreme]:10022.

However, the ssh commands you run in your question use the default SSH port (that is, 22/tcp), and connect to local1:22 (more exactly: they connect to [public IP address of Airport Extreme]:22, which forwards the connection to local1:22).

You must modify the ssh command you run on remote1 like this (notice option -p 10022):

remote1$ ssh -p 10022 -f -N -R 2222:localhost:22 [username at local2]@[public IP address of Airport Extreme]

-p 10022 tells ssh which port to connect to, while 2222:localhost:10022 tells ssh to allocate a socket on local2 to listen to port 2222 and forward any packet sent to that port to port 22 on remote1:

 +------------+                         +----------------------+
 |            |                         |                      |
 | remote1:xx | -- SSH (port 10022)-->  | local2:10022 (SSH)   |
 |            |                         |                      |
 | remote1:22 | <--- SSH tunnel ------  | local2:2222 (alloc'd |
 |            |                         |              by ssh) |
 +------------+                         +----------------------+

Now you can access remote1 from local2 as follows:

 local2$ ssh -p 2222 remoteuser@localhost

(You use -f in your command which sends ssh to the background. The sshd process that binds to port 2222 and runs on local2 will continue to execute even if you stop Remote Login in System Preferences:

To stop it, list it:

local2$ lsof -i | grep 2222
local2$ sshd   855 jaume   14u  IPv6 0x4857f   0t0  TCP localhost:2222 (LISTEN)

and kill it with kill <PID>:

local2$ kill 855

where PID is the second value in lsof's output line.)


How to have Finder open 'Pictures' folder when iPhone connects and photos import via AutoImporter.app? I have a nifty setup on my MacBook Pro, where, upon connecting my iPhone, I have AutoImporter.app (/System/Library/Image Capture/Support/Application/AutoImporter.app) automatically import whatever photos are on my camera roll, delete them off the iPhone, and simultaneously open a Finder window with the folder that I have set as import folder ('Pictures', for me), so I can look at the imported photos immediately and work on them in Photoshop or similarly work with them in the file system directly.

It's lightning quick, and extremely convenient.

Now, on my MacBook Air, I am trying to emulate this setup and I have forgotten how I achieved the final step in this process, where a Finder window automatically opens (on top of whatever you're doing), once AutoImporter opens and starts importing the photos.

(The first step of the process, can be described here.)

I have narrowed it down to observing it being triggered simply by opening AutoImporter.app - whether it imports photos or not. Without the iPhone connected, simply by opening AutoImporter.app - every time - a new Finder window with Pictures folder, pops up.

I have endlessly messed around in Automator and turned off all third party automator-type apps (Keyboard Maestro, FastScripts, Alfred), and I still cannot determine how it is working.

It seems I somehow did this using in-built OS X tools and software - whether a script (in .scpt or .app form), an automator workflow, or something using both, or something else. How on earth did I achieve this?

EUREKA! I found it!

The way I achieved this marvelous setup, was with a combination of a tiny AppleScript saved as an .app file, and the brilliant, free third-party prefPane app, Do Something When.

Instructions:

Set up up the first part of the process as linked to in the question, which will give the following settings in AutoImporter (so that when you insert the iPhone, it will automatically import them to the Pictures folder):

Now go to Script Editor.app (/Applications/Utilities/Script Editor.app), and insert the following code, which is what will open the Pictures folder in Finder (replace yourosxuserdirectory with your own user folder name):

tell application "Finder"
    open ("/Users/yourosxuserdirectory/Pictures" as POSIX file)
end tell

Click Save or Export and select 'Application' as 'File Format' near the bottom. Save the app file (I named it openpicturesfolder.app) to somewhere on the system drive where it won't get disturbed later on or accidentally moved/deleted etc.

Download and install DSW, open it from the System Preferences window, and create a new rule, exactly like below ('openpicturesfolder' simlpy means the .app file that you browse for DSW to 'Open' when Autoimporter launches):

Click on Start up the top, tick Automatically Start on Login, and you are on your way to iPhone/camera photo importing bliss.

DONE.


Will Apple include Mac mini 2014 late in his next OS upgrade after Catalina? Catalina is supporting Mac mini late 2014 models. But I want to know about the next os upgrade. Will Apple include Mac mini late 2014 in his next upgrade?

And one more thing is: for how many year will I get an upgrade of the latest macOS for my Mac mini late 2014.

I know it's very hard to say about it but then also any guesses.

If I take the reference of the following screenshot for all old models of Apple, your macMini should last for a couple of years more. After 8 years also, late 2012 still supports Catalina.

In nutshell, if there are no any major hardware changes in upcoming macOS, I guess your 2014 will definitely support the next version of macOS.


"Hold Cmd-Q to Quit" from Chrome Has anyone else noticed that Chrome refuses to quit instantly when using CmdQ?

Happens with one or several tabs open...

All the other apps I run can be ended by typing / tapping briefly CmdQ, but Chrome insists that I have to hold for an appreciable period of time.

This is becoming annoying, any ideas?

This is a change - Chrome thinks this is correct default behavior and shipped this enabled.

You can double press the Q - hold command and press and release Q twice as quickly as you are comfortable - ⌘ Q Q
Or change the default to match your expectations and all other programs - see below to change the default setting

Select Chrome in the menu bar and select to un-check Warn before Quitting (⌘Q)

This can also be found in Chrome's Preferences (Cmd,), in the Appearance section:


iPhone game center nickname I used my nickname on iPhone 5's Game Center before I changed my Apple ID to [appleid]@cloud.com. After changing my Apple ID to an @icloud.com account, I then deleted my old Apple ID from my iPhone. Now both my nickname and scores disappeared.

Is there any way to get my nickname and scores back?

You can log into your old account again directly in the GameCenter app:

start GameCenter
go to your profile and scroll down
tap on your account name (at the bottom) to log out
log in with the old account


Was the Haptic engine included as part of the iPhone's Home Button ever made available for use by developers? When the iPhone 7 was released back in 2016, rather than the mechanical Home Button that had been included in previous generations, Apple replaced it with a Haptic version. At the time, mentions were made of using this new version of the Home Button to deliver notification alerts, as well as an API being introduced to allow developers to interact with the Haptic engine within the button (see https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/7/12828652/apple-iphone-7-home-button-removed-force-touch for more details). Just out of interest, was this API ever made available to developers - and if so, are there any examples of apps that made use of it?

Yes, Apple made that API available in iOS 10 (released in 2016). The main source of documentation is contained within the documentation for the UIFeedbackGenerator class:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uifeedbackgenerator

Many apps make use of it. For example the Halide app uses it to tell you, when you have the phone perfectly in "sync" with the grid. The Reddit app does it when you vote on a comment. The NBA 2k14 app uses it to indicate when the ball is touched. And many more apps/games exist that use haptic feedback.


Can't delete BOOTCAMP partition Bought a second hand iMac that had two partitions on the HDD. One for Mac, one for Windows. Using disk utility I erased the BOOTCAMP partition and formatted it to MacOS Extended (Journaled). All went well until I tried to remove the BOOTCAMP partition. The minus option is not enabled and I can't seem to fin any other way to delete it.

This is what I've tried:

Reboot on recovery mode and try to delete using disk utility. (Same result)
Use Bootcamp assistant to remove the partition. Didn't work as windows is gone from that partition.

How can delete it? I want to have just one partition.

I found the answer in this Apple Support Communities thread.

This is what I did:

In terminal executed diskutil list and the output was

#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            542.3 GB   disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s4
4:                  Apple_HFS BOOTCAMP                449.0 MB   disk0s4
5:                 Apple_Boot                         650.0 MB   disk0s5

Then I executed the following commands:

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s4
diskutil list

And the output was:

#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            542.3 GB   disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s4
4:                  Apple_HFS BC1                     449.0 MB   disk0s4

then:

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4

After that I opened Boot Camp Assistant and I was able to restore the HD to a single partition.


How can I merge primary APFS partition with other empty/free space APFS partition? I am using MacOS Mojave. Below is the diskutil output

There is 150 GB of free Space. After executing the resize command, I am seeing Error 69519. How do I merge the free space with disk0s2?

MacBook-Pro:~ mac$ sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0
Started APFS operation
Error: -69519: The target disk is too small for this operation, or a gap is required in your partition
map which is missing or too small, which is often caused by an attempt to grow a partition beyond the
beginning of another partition or beyond the end of partition map usable space

I have ran the following steps (disk0s4 is not seen in the image as its deleted and is now free space)

Step 1: Delete the container

sudo diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk0s4

Step 2: Erase the volume

sudo diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" %noformat% /dev/disk0s4

Step 3: Resize the container

sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

You need to know the partitioning of the drive. In particular, were the free space is. The diskutil list disk0 command shows the partitions in ascending order and the size of each partition. However, this command does not show free space. The Disk Utility application does occasionally show free space but the value is often incorrect and does not show where the free space is with respect to the other partitions

So where is the free space shown? Here are a few ways to determine where the free space is.

The sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0 command will show the logical sector blocks used by each partition. The command will also show the free space between each partition in logical sector block units. In the days of OS X, you could run this command on the boot drives. Starting with macOS, System Integrity Protection (SIP) has to be disabled to do this.
Use the diskutil info -plist disk0s# command to retrieve partition number # start and size byte values. You need to repeat the command for each partition on a drive. Next, you can compile a table similar to the output from the gpt -r show /dev/disk0 command. Basically, free space is any space not allocated to a partition, the Protected Master Boot Record (PMBR) and the GUID Partition Tables (GPT).
Write a BASH script that would automate way number 2.  A free script can be downloaded from this site. Assuming your downloads goto to the default Downloads folder, you can get the free space by entering the command shown below. Note: You do not need to enter sudo or disable SIP.

~/Downloads/driveinfo-1.0.1/driveinfo -r disk0

  In order to add free space to a APFS container partition, the free space must reside directly below the partition.

When you deleted disk0s4, you created free space directly after disk0s3. Since disk0s3 is between disk0s2 and this free space, you can not recover the free space by using the command given in your Step 3. You could recover the free space into disk0s3 by entering the command given below.

sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s3 R


Mac Dictionary improvements I tend to use the dictionary a lot on the mac. Its annoying to launch the app everytime i need to lookup a word. Are there any other apps/hacks to avoid this annoyance? Spotlight lookup is awesome, but doesnt show enough detail. Do you know any app that can provide a panel view for dictionary definitions. For example, launch bar has a nice panel view for its calculator results.

Try ^+⌘+D while selecting a word (that's ctrl+cmd+d). If the app is well integrated into Mac OS X, it will show a little popup with the word definition.

Like so

If you click "More..", it'll open the dictionary app.

If this shortcut doesn't work, go to

System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard shortcuts > Services

and search Look Up in Dictionary to add the shortcut you want.


MacBook shows flashing question mark in a folder when battery is at > 70% I am sure many of you guys know the flashing folder icon which shows up when the Mac cannot find a drive to boot from. My 2017 MacBook Pro has this issue for some time now, but recently I found something interesting.

The MBP won't find the boot drive, as long as the battery level is at > 70%.

The Mac boots just fine at lower battery levels; no issues whatsoever. Now, the problem is, I don't want to run my MacBook via battery the whole time or keep on disconnecting the AC power when 70% is reached every time.

Does anybody have similar symptoms and did find a better solution? Do you think there is a hardware issue with my device?

I've been to the Apple store before (when I didn't knew this was connected to the battery level) and they couldn't find anything. They suggested I reinstall macOS, which of cause didn't change anything.

Edit:
One detail I forgot to mention was that when I charge my MBP and close the lid, it crashes and gets really hot (fans turn on slowly). I'm not totally sure on this, but I think this also happens with lower battery levels.

Battery Info:

Based on the symptoms and the fact that you have no problem booting from an external devices means it could be, in order of most to least likely, the following:

Defective battery
Logic Board
SSD Drive

The battery and SSD are "simple" to diagnose, but not very convenient (unless you've actually got a shop and spare batteries and Mac proprietary SSDs laying about)*.  Basically, you would try "known good" components to see if the problem goes away.  The logic board is the most difficult as you would need to either eliminate everything else as a possibility or use specialized tools to verify that the SMC and related components (i.e. power rails) were functioning properly.

  If the battery level is high, the internal ssd is not shown on boot (holding Opt),

What we know is that everything works so long as the battery level is not high because it tells us that the computer will boot and do everything it's supposed to but it won't see the actual drive itself; it's not just a missing file system.

A battery can swell and push everything out of alignment just enough to break contact with components.

The SSD could be failing since it's the only component that actually "disappears" from the system, but it works fine otherwise. Since the SSDs aren't SATA anymore and are now directly connected to the PCIe bus, you should be experiencing other difficulties and not just the SSD in isolation.

The reason I put the logic board higher in probability than the SSD is because the circuitry (managed by the SMC) is what regulates voltage.  Regardless of the charge or from where it's coming from (mains or battery) the SMC "system" ensures that the correct voltage gets to where it's going.  In other words, the voltage to the PCIe bus and ultimately to the SSD doesn't fluctuate.  If it does, then the problem is with the logic board, not the battery.

Either way, if and once you elminate the battery as a cause, you'll need to take your machine in for service.  Apple will have you replace the logic board, however a specialist (i.e. Rossman Repair; not affiliated, just a satisfied customer) might be able to find and replace the actual bad component at a far lower price.

* The 2015 and earlier MacBook Pro laptops had a removable SSD whereas the 2016 and later models have a soldered on SSD.  They can still be replaced, however it will have to be done by someone with the proper tools and skill-set for SMT PCB rework.  I left this info in for people with the same issue but earlier MacBook models.


Do Apple's application crash/hang reports contain confidential info.? When an application hangs, and I force-quit it, my system typically generates a long report, and invites me to send that report to Apple.

My question is this:  Does this report contain any confidential information, especially information that could be used to compromise the security of my system, were it to fall into non-trustworthy hands?

I ask because this happened recently with one of my programs, and I offered to forward this report to the developer.   However, it occurred to me I don't know the company well enough to trust them with confidential information.  Thus I'd like to know if it is completely "safe" to forward them the complete report.

Here's Apple's policy regarding info shared in crash reports.  See the part in bold text:

  Analytics information may be sent to Apple when you report a problem; you can opt in or out of sharing the information.

  About analytics and privacy

  Apple would like your help improving the quality of its products and services, > including Siri and other intelligent features,
  by allowing analytics of usage data from your device and your iCloud
  account.

  With your permission, macOS can automatically collect analytics
  information from your Mac and send it to Apple to help improve the
  quality and performance of its products. This information is sent only
  with your consent and is submitted anonymously to Apple.

  You can also allow analytics of usage and data from your iCloud
  account to help Apple develop and improve Siri and other intelligent
  features. Analysis of data from your iCloud account including text
  snippets from email messages or other similar data in your account is
  undertaken only after the data has undergone privacy preserving
  techniques such as differential privacy so that it is not associated
  with you or your account.

  Further details

  If you agree to send Mac Analytics information to Apple, it may include the following:

  Details about app or system crashes, freezes, or kernel panics
  Information about events on your Mac (for example, whether a certain function such as waking your Mac was successful or not)
  Usage information (for example, data about how you use Apple and third-party software, hardware, and services)

  Analytics data contains your computer’s hardware and software
  specifications, including information about devices connected to your
  Mac and the versions of the operating system and apps you’re using on
  your Mac. Personal data is either not logged at all in the reports
  generated by your Mac, is subject to privacy preserving techniques
  such as differential privacy, or is removed from any reports before
  they’re sent to Apple. If you want to add a description of your
  actions when the problem occurred, click the disclosure triangle and
  enter your comments. Please do not provide personal information.


Store movies/tv shows from iTunes on external drive I'd like to store only movies and tv shows on my external drive. I don't mind keeping my music on my built-in drive. Is there a way to set iTunes so that it only looks for the videos rather than all media?

Use TuneSpan. Here's an article I wrote about it.


Restricting/Disabling imessage capability on my teen's iphone I would like to protect my teen daughter by eliminating the use of imessage on her iphone. We have placed proper limits on her texting and monitor her use through our carrier. Like any resourceful teen, she now uses imessage to reach beyond the boundaries. We wish her to have opportunities to interact with friends via her phone, but we don't want it to go beyond the limits that have been set due to some past inappropriateness.

You can disable iMessages by having your teen go to settings and making all the changes she wants to the following items:

iCloud
Mail, Contacts, Calendars
Messages
Facetime
Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Vimeo

Then you will want to observe that she turns off iMessages on the device and then lets you turn on restrictions with a PIN that you keep confidential from the teen.

In restrictions, under general in the settings app, you will want to prevent changes to Accounts about 2/3 of the way down the screen under ALLOW CHANGES text. Select "Don't Allow Changes" and then check that iMessages is now dimmed out in the settings app.

Now, that will restrict that one app - however there are hundreds of app store apps that allow chatting and you might have to consider also preventing app store installs entirely to mitigate that risk. However, with phones and iPods getting cheaper and cheaper, if a teen wants to communicate, it's going to be hard to prevent that with policies and technological efforts that are more geared for toddlers and pre-teens.

Good luck reaching some balance of control and trust going forward.


How do I import an other family members photos to my iCloud account? My wife have a 16gb iPhone and her phone is now nearly full. I would like to import her photos to my iCloud account and free up some space on her phone. I have a 200GB subscription and she has a 50GB subscription the problem here is the phone's storage.

How can I import her photos to my iCloud account and move the photos off to her phone?

There is no direct way to do what you want.

You don't state if you use iCloud Photo Library. If you don't, you can enable that and select the Optimize Device Storage option as @JaimeSantaCruz suggested. That will reduce the amount of space required on the device but will not eliminate it entirely.

There are a couple of workarounds but neither are ideal.

You could create a shared album, have her share everything she has on her device, then remove her from the shared album (and she can delete all the photos on her phone). The problem is that shared albums reduce the size of the pictures, so you won't be getting the originals.

If you have a Mac, the Photos app could be utilized, but it depends on your current set up. If she uses iCloud Photo Library already and the Mac is set to use the same iCloud account, everything should be in Photos already. If not, you'll need to hook up her iPhone to the Mac, and import everything. In either case, once everything is in Photos, you could copy all of the items into a new, non-iCL library (or an iCL library in a different user account that's hooked up to your Apple ID).


My iCloud and phone storage is full and my camera permissions in all apps have been turned off and disabled. Please suggest how to resolve this? My iPhone storage is full and iCloud as well. I tried to delete some pictures and videos and apps.  But it seems like they are not deleting and nothing is changing on my phone. I have tried uploading videos to YouTube so I can delete them from my phone. I did that for a few days. Now all of my apps cannot access the camera through Settings at all or request permission through Settings or privacy. I need help. I have iOS 13.6. I also have another software update pending but I do not have enough storage to download it.

Apple has an article walking through how to rescue a device that needs space to get to 13.6.1.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211686

Worst case, back up to a computer and then use that to get you past the space crunch. I’m delighted with how 13.6.1 has helped me use space better on iOS.


How to get the release version of Apple's "The Swift Programming Language" iBook I have the prerelease version of Apple's "The Swift Programming Language" book. No matter what I try, Apple won't let me update it to the release version. Has anybody else encountered this problem, and better yet, solved it?

This is the release version:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/swift-programming-language/id881256329?isInPurchasedView=true&mt=11

This is the prerelease version:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/swift-programming-language/id1002622538?isInPurchasedView=true&mt=11


Remotely connecting to Apple Mac mini from MacBook I am using MacBook (2008 model with 4GB max RAM).

I am planning to buy Mac mini (Core i7 Quad Core with Lion Server).

My aim to have a logical system with 12 GB (8GB with Mac mini + 4 GB in laptop) for running virtual machines on both Mac mini and MacBook and be able talk to each other.

I have the following questions:

Can I connect to Mac mini remotely from MacBook? (Suggest the best way for this.)
Do I need to buy any other hardware for the remote connection or I can do thru Wi-Fi available in both Mac mini and MacBook?
What about the performance compared to direct and remote connections as it is vital for virtual machine communication.

Can I connect to Mac Mini Remotely from Mac book?

Yes. You can use OS X's built-in screen sharing. It's a VNC-based application that ships with OS X. You'll need to enable it on your systems in order to use it. Open System Preferences -> Sharing. And make sure 'Screen Sharing' is checked. I recommend the excellent ScreenSharingMenulet -- sits in your menu bar and lists any Bonjour-enabled screen sharing hosts in a drop down when you click on it for automatic discovery and easy connection to shared screens in your network.

  Do I need to buy any other hardware for the remote connection or I can do thru Wi-FI available in both Mac MINI and Mac book?

No additional hardware or software is required. You don't even need ScreenSharingMenulet -- you can find and connect to shared screens via Finder if you like.

You do say something confusing your question though:

  My aim to have a logical system with 12 GB (8GB with Mac MINI + 4 GB in laptop)for running Virtual Machines on both Mac MINI and Mac Book and be able talk to each other.

You cannot tie the machines together using screen sharing. They won't present themselves as one logical, virtual device to any virtualization software with shared memory or CPUs or any such thing. They will act as completely separate machines, but they can be accessed, graphically, from one another.

If you're trying to tie the machines together to act as a single, unified "super computer" you need to look at much more complicated technologies than anything OS X ships with. Beowulf for clustering and something better than ethernet for inter-machine communication will be necessary like a fiber channel connection (and that will require more hardware).

  What about the performance compared to direct and remote connections as it is vital for Virtual Machine communication.

It is difficult to give an answer to this question as it all depends on what you're trying to do when it comes to communication between the machines. On the remote access side of things: over my local wireless network the performance is decent if you use adaptive mode on the screen sharing application but it can get glitchy if you disable adaptive quality scaling. If my macs are all on wires on Gbit ethernet then non-adaptive scaling is quite good. Processes running within VMs on my Macs have good sustained throughput to the Mac's built-in ethernet and wireless network interfaces. Inter-process communication between VMs running on separate Macs is going to be completely dependent on your network and your processes -- impossible to give an answer that'll cover all cases I'm afraid. If you get more specific with what you're trying to do I could possibly answer this more succinctly.


Sourcing and opening multiple files of same name, in specified folder, in Terminal? Is there a way? Say I open terminal and change directory to folder 'folder', I type

cd folder.

Say there're multiple folders within this folder, i.e. data 1, data 2, data 3, etc., and within each of those is an image named 'image_a'. Is there a way to source all of the 'image_a' files, and open them via command line? Or write a script/run a function that does?

This part may be irrelevant, but they're NIfTI gzip (.nii.gz) files that I'll open via FSLview. The syntax to open a single image is

fslview </file>

It depends on whether fslview accepts several filenames at once and does the right thing based on that (the documentation/man page should have more details on this). If yes, you can run

cd folder
fslview data*/image_a

to have it open all files at once. If no, you can use

cd folder
for f in data*; do fslview "$f"/image_a; done

or

cd folder
for f in data*/image_a; do fslview "$f"; done

instead (the second option works better if there are data X directories which don't contain image_a).

PS: For a test run, replace fslview with echo fslview to see which command(s) would be executed.


Does a normal iTunes backup instead of the iCloud one save the wifi passwords? In case I restore my phone or change for a brand new.

Wi-Fi passwords on iOS are stored in the keychain, which is only part of an iTunes backup if encrypted backups are enabled. If you enable encrypted backups, a future backup of the device using iTunes will contain the Wi-Fi network password. Passwords cannot be added retroactively to backups. Backups to iCloud will always contain the keychain containing the Wi-Fi network password.

  Encrypted iTunes backups can include information that unencrypted iTunes backups don't: Wi-Fi settings

About encrypted backups in iTunes - Apple Support

To enable encrypted backups, check the checkbox on the device page in iTunes.


MJRecorder Audio Device I have been using Sound Source to control app specific volume on my iMac 2017. This app shows two separate audio devices - Headphones and MJRecorder Recorder Device. Any idea where this MJRecorder Device came from and which app installed this is an audio device?

I would want to remove this if it is not a default system audio device.

Any help is much appreciated.

Someone on Apple Discussions recommended you Delete "MJRecorderDevice.driver" located in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL then reboot your system.


Disk Utility says: "Error: This disk doesn't contain an EFI system partition." After a clean install of Lion, followed by partitioning which again was followed by a installation of Ubuntu, I noticed some error messages of Disk Utitity.

When verifying the volume I get told that there is no EFI partition. But you can clearly see one in Disk Utility (and with diskutil list). The Mac boots fine. I have no problem choosing between booting into Mac or Linux at boot.

The default results of diskutil list on a clean Lion installation should be as follows:

mac:~ me$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            499.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

My definition of a "clean install of Lion" involves letting Disk Utility from the installer partition the drive as GUID and telling it to use all space as a single partition.

Furthermore, your disk0s1 / EFI partition shouldn't show as partitioned according to disk utility:

mac:~ me$ diskutil info disk0s1
   Device Identifier:        disk0s1
   Device Node:              /dev/disk0s1
   Part of Whole:            disk0
   Device / Media Name:      EFI system partition

   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)

   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)

   File System:              None

   Partition Type:           EFI
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 SATA
   SMART Status:             Verified

   Total Size:               209.7 MB (209715200 Bytes) (exactly 409600 512-Byte-Blocks)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                No

   Whole:                    No
   Internal:                 Yes
   Solid State:              No

Since your mac will boot, it may be overkill to erase everything and start over, but your EFI partition is hitting a check that Apple built into the Disk Utility, so do know that future updates could have problems and you might be forced to re-do things at a time less convenient if the difference between your system and an expected / Apple generated EFI actually breaks something Apple changes down the road (or when certain expected conditions arise like a firmware password, etc...).

On the flip side - it could be a simple check to alert you of a non-standard EFI and not that your EFI is in some way ever going to break. Can another vendor support your Microsoft EFI? If so, you might be able to leave it as is since it appears you are clearly using tools designed to make proper changes even if Disk Utility isn't able to guarantee the changes are appropriate.


Why do iOS devices take such a long time to turn back on? Often I will realise my iPhone or iPad is about to run out of battery, run around the house looking for a charging cable and plug, and get back just in time to see the screen go black and the little spinner appear.

If I plug it into a wall socket it takes about 3-5 minutes (it shows the red battery with power symbol below) to turn back on, but if I plug it into my laptop it understandably takes longer.

Occasionally once it has finally powered back up the battery percent will be more than 1%. Why hasn't it turned on ASAP?

Also if I plug the cable in less than a few second after the screen goes to the spinner, why does it take so long? It just had enough power to function fully, and now I've given it all the power from my socket, how can those few seconds make such a difference?

More importantly is there anyway to try and force the device to come back on quicker? (e.g. If your phone is dead and you plug it in because you need to phone 911) it would be nice to know even if there is way to force it to turn on only to the emergency phone screen, and not the full functionality?

Like you said in a comment, it's more a software limitation. Even though there's probably some hardware safeguard.

If you plug your iPhone a millisecond before it reaches the shutdown limit, then, no harm done, it doesn't need to shut down, power is there to keep the phone running and recharge the battery.

If you plug you phone after the shutdown limit, then the limitation is in place to ensure things will go well the next time you power it up. If it allowed to power up the phone any time, then what if it is unplugged while booting. There wouldn't be enough juice for the phone to be fully back on and it would shutdown while booting.

That's something that could damage the phone or the OS.

So to ensure that this wouldn't happen, Apple probably put the arbitrary 5% limit.


After re-assembly, iMac 27" fans blowing at full speed all the time After disassembly and reassembly to fix an HDD cable issue, my iMac is now a blowhard - the fans are going at full tilt from about 30 seconds after boot. I don't believe the device is overheating - I surely messed up one of the temperature sensors upon reassembly.

My question - beyond carefully checking each JST connection and making sure I've re-attached all the sensor cables on the motherboard, is there any way I can control the fans via software? I believe I have more-or-less permanently damaged the skin sensor - so can I disable that through software configuration or a 3rd party utility?

UPDATE

It's not the HDD / SDD temp sensor, by the way, since it's not the HDD fan that's spinning that hot, but it certainly is one of the other sensors. The ODD fan's RPMs are strangely high, but it's the CPU fan that's out of control. Mac's Fan Control is definitely doing the job for now (I'm using the CPU heatsink temp as my RPM controller). I'll need to get in there and determine which of the sensors is the one acting up.

I wonder whether I can tell which sensor is acting up based on either A) the list of sensors appearing in the Mac's Fan Control sensor list (or, more precisely, the sensor that's NOT appearing in that list) or B) the temperature of a given sensor that's way out of whack.

Yes, there is a 3rd party app called Mac's Fan Control which allows you to adjust the speed of your fans. It gives you the current speed of your fans and has different options for setting the speed. You can set a variable speed which forces the fans to go faster as temperature goes up - as they are supposed to do.

there is also an app Temperature Gauge 4.1 that lets you monitor the temperature of different areas of your Mac and the fan speeds.


iTunes Movie DRM and Legalities Before I start, I'd like to be very clear: I have no intention of pirating anything. I like buying movies, I respect that the money pays for more to be made, lines pockets and generally keeps things ticking over.

With that said, I understood up until now that iTunes Movies were all DRM protected. I have read otherwise (I forget where) but wanted a definitive answer.

I would love to be able to buy all my movies, tv shows, etc from iTunes, store them DRM free in the cloud for my devices and watch them on my TV (Apple TV / XBMC). As far as I am aware, this is not currently possible. Is anyone aware of any legal alternatives that would give me a good legal argument for storing MP4 copies of my (legally purchased) movies and TV shows in the cloud?

Thanks!

Edit: I'm in the UK, but interested in UK and US options.

There are currently no major options for getting legal access to DRM-free video content. Your main options are to download videos with DRM (i.e. iTunes), stream videos with DRM (i.e. Netflix), illegally download movies without DRM (i.e. The Pirate Bay) or stick to watching obscure independent art house films, which you can sometimes find available to purchase with no DRM.


Is an Archive Mailbox just a regular mailbox? Or is it special? Apple Mail 9.3 has an archiving feature. I'd like to better understand what this feature does, how it works, and why someone would want to use it. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time finding detailed documentation about it.

Here's all that I can find in the documentation:

  "You can store messages in an Archive mailbox so you can quickly find them later when you’re ready to take action. [...] Mail creates an archive mailbox in the Mail sidebar for each account whose messages you’re archiving, and moves the messages you selected there. The messages remain there until you delete or move them."
  -Apple Mail Help

Find them later? Well, heck, I can find messages later in my Inbox or anywhere else I decide to store them, right? Does an Archive provide an improvement in that regard?

Other mail apps/services also have Archive mailboxes, which makes me think that they are fairly standard now.

  "If you want to clean up your inbox without deleting your emails, you can archive or mute them."
  -Gmail Help
  "This (system) folder has no additional functionality other than a handy storage place for mail you no longer consider to be current. Mail placed in this folder is automatically marked as read. You may wish to set the folder to Auto-Purge, so that old mail is automatically deleted from this folder."
  -Fastmail.com Help

So, below is a description of my understanding of how Archive mailboxes work in Apple Mail. Can you verify that I'm correct? Or could you expand upon this knowledge, or correct any misunderstandings?

In Apple Mail, an Archive mailbox just a regular mailbox, similar to the Inbox, Sent, and Drafts mailboxes.
When an item is moved to an Archive mailbox, the message will remain on the server where the message originated. It will not move it off the server to a local location, i.e., to On My Mac.
There's not a performance benefit or storage savings to storing items in an Archive. (Because, I presume, Archives are synced via IMAP like other mailboxes, and items therein are not compressed or anything.)
Whereas some mailboxes in Apple Mail can have "behaviors" associated with them, this is not true for an Archive mailbox. Example: In Preferences, I can specify whether messages in a Junk mailbox should be stored on the server and/or deleted automatically after a certain period of time.
If I want to archive messages to On My Mac or a local location, I'd have to manually create a folder and move the messages there; I couldn't do so by using the Archive command.

The computer can track thousands upon thousands of messages no matter what mailbox, so you are right - this is purely a human affordance.

Setting aside any other mail service (since this is about Apple) - the archive is there purely to be a quick parking place for a message you don’t want cluttering your inbox. Most people that have used mail for a while will decide that inbox zero is a good thing so you need a place to move messages you’re not ready to decide to reply / delete or file.

There’s nothing fancy about archive - it’s purgatory for messages and I wouldn’t use it unless you find it helps you out organizationally. I think the list of premises you have stated seem to line up and you’re not missing anything special or dramatic about this topic or the design of Apple mail app.


Downloading two copies of the Yosemite public beta Apple granted me access to the Yosemite Public Beta, and I successfully installed it onto my Macbook Pro. I now intend to replace my Macbook Pro's HDD with an SSD drive and I want to make a clean install of Yosemite onto it. I tried accessing the OS X Beta Program page that gave me the code I redeemed the first time and clicked the code, but the App Store says it's not possible to redeem it again.

I have access to the iOS Developer Program, but it doesn't seem to allow me to download a build of OS X  Yosemite.

I tried searching my computer for the install program but it's now gone, possibly removed by Yosemite itself once it had been successfully installed. Not having access to the software and having no way to download again through the same procedure, I'm wondering if there's any way to make a clean install of Yosemite now that I've already installed it.

Is there any way to recover the software (e.g. could it still be somewhere on my disk?), or to download it again?

If you go to the App Store and select "Purchases" tab while holding Option also called the alt you should be able to re-download the installer.  Then it will show up in the Applications folder again.


Apple Watch Series 3 with Cellular not receiving phone calls I think I have a problem with my Apple Watch 3 with cellular. I have set it up with my carrier to use mobile data when away from my iPhone, but even though I’ve followed the setup steps ok, and my carrier says it’s all setup and working, it doesn’t seem to be working! :(

This is how I’ve tested it-

Using another phone I dial my cell number and my iPhone rings.
I then place my iPhone into Aeroplane Mode and dial my cell number again, but this time it goes straight to my iPhone voicemail message.

This confirms my iPhone is off, but shouldn’t the call now automatically come through to my Apple Watch first before it’d go to voicemail?

I’ve gone through the steps and I don’t think I’m missing anything. And yes, Mobile Data is enabled on my Apple Watch.

How can I fix this? Or is my Apple Watch faulty?

Based purely on what you’ve described, your Apple Watch is working as intended. Let me explain…

When an iPhone is in Aeroplane Mode, its Bluetooth is not necessarily switched off. This means your iPhone and Apple Watch are still in fact connected via Bluetooth and that’s why calls aren’t coming through on your Apple Watch.

The reason it’s been designed this way, is the assumption that if your Apple Watch is still connected to your iPhone, then your iPhone is in the same area as you (e.g. at home, at work, etc) and that if you’re not wanting to receive phone calls on your iPhone, then you’d also not want to receive them on your Apple Watch.

To test my assumption, you can either repeat your test but manually ensure that Bluetooth is also switched off on your iPhone. Likewise, you could just go for a walk (it doesn’t have to be very far - 50 metres is enough) so that your Apple Watch loses connection to your iPhone and arrange for someone to call your cell phone.

If I’m right your Apple Watch will ring when your cell number is called. However, if it still doesn’t work, let me know and we’ll investigate this further.


How can I disconnect from all WiFi networks, yet leave WiFi antenna on so Internet Sharing will work properly? I would like to have my MacBook's Wi-Fi antenna on, but not be connected to any wireless network. Instead I would like for my MacBook to share its Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet connection so my iPhone can get a taste. (My office was built on an ancient Bermudian triangle sanctuary.)

I am using the same settings, toggling things hasn't worked yet:

[x] Internet Sharing
Share from: [_Thunderbolt_Ethernet___]
To computers using: [x] Wi-Fi

(green light) Internet Sharing: On

However the Wi-Fi icon in the notifications area usually shows a vertical arrow when it is working properly. Right now it just connects to the nearby networks (public and login walled) and refuses to broadcast, even though the green light still says 'On'.

Anyway I suspect that my computer's trying to connect to Wi-Fi networks, it indefinitely forgoes its opportunity to broadcast its own SSID. How can I make this work again?

Change your network profile so that the preferred order has your thunderbolt connection at the top. This will make OSX use it over wifi even if a known wifi access point is available.

With a working internet connection just configure internet sharing and it should just work.

I know from experience that this works, I have done it many times on snow leopard, should work the same way on later releases of osx.


Screen Sharing won't allow me to paste into remote system I am connected to a remote system via Screen Sharing.  I have text (plaintext) on my clipboard locally.  I am unable to paste into the remote system.  How can I make this work?  Here are some details:

When I open the Edit menu, only "Copy" is available, "Paste", "Send Clipboard" and "Get Clipboard" and so on are grayed out.
The buttons for "Send Clipboard" and "Get Clipboard" are grayed out.

Some other facts:

The clipboard functions work ok with JollyFastVNC and Chicken of the VNC (but I have other problems with these).
Both local and remote systems are on OSX 10.6.8
Keyboard and mouse functionality works fine to remote system
The remote system's local clipboard works fine -- if I CTL-V in a screen on the remote system, I paste what is on the remote system's clipboard (hope that makes sense)
It doesn't matter what app I'm in on the remote system

Apple answer: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH14152

  Choose Edit >Use Shared Clipboard.
  Using the shared clipboard, you can:

  Copy text and images from documents on one Mac and paste them into documents on the other.

  Select and drag text and images from one Mac to the other.

  Copy a link from your web browser and paste it into a web browser on the other Mac.

  Copy text from a document on one Mac and drop it on the desktop of the other Mac to create a clipping.


Is there a keyboard shortcut to organize or align two finder windows? I know that there were some 3rd party apps that could do this in the past, but with each new version of Mac OS X, it seems that many of those 3rd party apps stop working or the project ages and loses it's maintainer.

I'm wondering if there is a Mac OS X built-in keyboard shortcut to do this.  I suppose this wouldn't be limited to finder windows, but for windows of any application.

As far as I know, there is no "out of the box" way or any system shortcut, to be able to align or arrange Finder windows.  However, using Script Editor.app to create an AppleScript to set the bounds (size and location) of the finder windows, you can then bring your finished AppleScript code into Automator.app by creating a new document in Automator and selecting "Service" as the new document type.

The next step would be adding a run AppleScript action to the workflow, then paste the previously mentioned AppleScript, which we compiled in Script Editor.app, into the run AppleScript action in Automator

Next you would save and name the Automator service (I named it "Arrange Finder Windows").  After this, your new service will be available in system preferences at which point you can assign it a keyboard shortcut.

Now let's take a look at the process involved in creating the script in Script Editor.app, to manipulate the Finder windows.  Using my 15" MacBook Pro, I have 5 different Display Resolutions I can choose from.  What I'm getting at is, if my current display resolution is set at "Default", whatever code I create which will manipulate finder windows, Will function correctly only when I'm using the default display resolution.  At a later point if I decide to change my Display either higher or lower, the code I created while using the default display, will actually place the Finder windows in different locations as they were originally meant.

In short, the goal here is to be able to align and arrange Finder windows(processing from one up to six windows) no matter which Display Resolution I am currently using.

This first part of the following code sets property values for all five different display resolutions I can choose in system preferences

-- ALL POSSIBLE DISPLAY RESOLUTION VALUES IN SYSTEM PREFERENCES --
property displayRezolution_Lowest : {0, 0, 1024, 640}
property displayRezolution_Lower : {0, 0, 1280, 800}
property displayRezolution_Default : {0, 0, 1440, 900}
property displayRezolution_Higher : {0, 0, 1680, 1050}
property displayRezolution_Highest : {0, 0, 1920, 1200}

This next snippet of code will retrieve the actual display resolution currently being used on the monitor

-- GETS THE CURRENT DISPLAY RESOLUTION BEING USED --
tell application "Finder" to set getRezolution to get bounds of window of desktop

This next snippet determines which script object to run based on the current display resolution.  (I created five different script objects, one script for every Display resolution... Each of which contains different values for the bounds of the finder windows

-- DETERMINES WHICH SCRIPT TO RUN BASED ON THE CURRENT DISPLAY RESOLUTION --
if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Lowest then
    run script displayRezolutionLowest
else if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Lower then
    run script displayRezolutionLower
else if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Default then
    run script displayRezolutionDefault
else if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Higher then
    run script displayRezolutionHigher
else if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Highest then
    run script displayRezolutionHighest
end if

Here is the full script which will be placed into Automator

-- ALL POSSIBLE DISPLAY RESOLUTION VALUES IN SYSTEM PREFERENCES --

property displayRezolution_Lowest : {0, 0, 1024, 640}
property displayRezolution_Lower : {0, 0, 1280, 800}
property displayRezolution_Default : {0, 0, 1440, 900}
property displayRezolution_Higher : {0, 0, 1680, 1050}
property displayRezolution_Highest : {0, 0, 1920, 1200}

-- GETS THE CURRENT DISPLAY RESOLUTION BEING USED --

tell application "Finder" to set getRezolution to get bounds of window of desktop

-- DETERMINES WHICH SCRIPT TO RUN BASED ON THE CURRENT DISPLAY RESOLUTION --

if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Lowest then
    run script displayRezolutionLowest
else if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Lower then
    run script displayRezolutionLower
else if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Default then
    run script displayRezolutionDefault
else if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Higher then
    run script displayRezolutionHigher
else if getRezolution is equal to displayRezolution_Highest then
    run script displayRezolutionHighest
end if

--  INDIVIDUAL SCRIPT OBJECTS   --

script displayRezolutionLowest
    property savedBoundz6 : {{0, 22, 479, 456}, {480, 22, 959, 456}, {961, 22, 1440, 456}, ¬
        {0, 458, 479, 892}, {480, 457, 959, 891}, {961, 457, 1440, 891}}
    property savedBoundz5 : {{0, 22, 479, 456}, {480, 22, 959, 456}, {961, 22, 1440, 456}, ¬
        {0, 458, 479, 892}, {480, 457, 1440, 891}}
    property savedBoundz4 : {{0, 22, 517, 366}, {518, 22, 1024, 366}, ¬
        {0, 294, 517, 638}, {518, 295, 1024, 639}}
    property savedBoundz3 : {{0, 22, 342, 640}, {343, 22, 684, 640}, {685, 22, 1024, 640}}
    property savedBoundz2 : {{0, 22, 517, 640}, {518, 22, 1024, 640}}

    tell application "Finder"
        if (count of every window) = 6 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz6
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 5 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz5
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 4 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz4
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 3 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz3
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 2 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz2
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 1 then
            run script centerWindow
        else if (count of every window) = 0 then
            return
        else if (count of every window) is greater than 6 then
            return
        end if
    end tell

    script centerWindow
        property sidebarWidth : 259
        property theBoundz : missing value
        property theBoundz_1 : {163, 76, 876, 547}
        property theBoundz_2 : {260, 119, 1060, 652}
        property theBoundz_3 : {305, 73, 1126, 812}
        property theBoundz_4 : {353, 122, 1324, 868}
        property theBoundz_5 : {466, 201, 1467, 1129}

        property displayRezolution_Lowest : {0, 0, 1024, 640}
        property displayRezolution_Lower : {0, 0, 1280, 800}
        property displayRezolution_Default : {0, 0, 1440, 900}
        property displayRezolution_Higher : {0, 0, 1680, 1050}
        property displayRezolution_Highest : {0, 0, 1920, 1200}

        tell application "Finder" to set getRez to get bounds of window of desktop

        if displayRezolution_Lowest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_1)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Lower is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_2)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Default is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_3)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Higher is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_4)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Highest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_5)
        end if

        on centerFinderWindow(theBoundz)
            tell application "Finder"
                try
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its current view to column view
                        set its bounds to theBoundz
                        delay 0.1
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                        delay 0.1
                        set its toolbar visible to true
                        delay 0.1
                    end tell
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                    end tell
                end try
            end tell
        end centerFinderWindow
    end script
end script

script displayRezolutionLower
    property savedBoundz6 : {{438, 410, 879, 800}, {0, 22, 437, 409}, {438, 22, 879, 409}, ¬
        {1, 410, 437, 800}, {880, 22, 1280, 409}, {880, 410, 1280, 800}}
    property savedBoundz5 : {{657, 410, 1280, 800}, {0, 22, 437, 409}, ¬
        {438, 22, 879, 409}, {1, 410, 656, 800}, {880, 22, 1280, 409}}
    property savedBoundz4 : {{657, 410, 1280, 800}, {0, 22, 656, 409}, {657, 22, 1280, 409}, ¬
        {1, 410, 656, 800}}
    property savedBoundz3 : {{846, 22, 1280, 800}, {407, 22, 845, 800}, {0, 22, 406, 800}}
    property savedBoundz2 : {{648, 22, 1280, 800}, {0, 22, 647, 800}}

    tell application "Finder"
        if (count of every window) = 6 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz6
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 5 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz5
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 4 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz4
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 3 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz3
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 2 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz2
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 1 then
            run script centerWindow
        else if (count of every window) = 0 then
            return
        else if (count of every window) is greater than 6 then
            return
        end if
    end tell

    script centerWindow
        property sidebarWidth : 259
        property theBoundz : missing value
        property theBoundz_1 : {163, 76, 876, 547}
        property theBoundz_2 : {260, 119, 1060, 652}
        property theBoundz_3 : {305, 73, 1126, 812}
        property theBoundz_4 : {353, 122, 1324, 868}
        property theBoundz_5 : {466, 201, 1467, 1129}

        property displayRezolution_Lowest : {0, 0, 1024, 640}
        property displayRezolution_Lower : {0, 0, 1280, 800}
        property displayRezolution_Default : {0, 0, 1440, 900}
        property displayRezolution_Higher : {0, 0, 1680, 1050}
        property displayRezolution_Highest : {0, 0, 1920, 1200}

        tell application "Finder" to set getRez to get bounds of window of desktop

        if displayRezolution_Lowest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_1)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Lower is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_2)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Default is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_3)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Higher is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_4)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Highest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_5)
        end if

        on centerFinderWindow(theBoundz)
            tell application "Finder"
                try
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its current view to column view
                        set its bounds to theBoundz
                        delay 0.1
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                        delay 0.1
                        set its toolbar visible to true
                        delay 0.1
                    end tell
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                    end tell
                end try
            end tell
        end centerFinderWindow
    end script
end script

script displayRezolutionDefault
    property savedBoundz6 : {{0, 22, 479, 456}, {480, 22, 959, 456}, {961, 22, 1440, 456}, ¬
        {0, 458, 479, 892}, {480, 457, 959, 891}, {961, 457, 1440, 891}}
    property savedBoundz5 : {{0, 22, 479, 456}, {480, 22, 959, 456}, {961, 22, 1440, 456}, ¬
        {0, 458, 479, 892}, {480, 457, 1440, 891}}
    property savedBoundz4 : {{722, 22, 1440, 456}, {0, 22, 721, 456}, {722, 457, 1440, 900}, ¬
        {0, 458, 721, 900}}
    property savedBoundz3 : {{0, 22, 479, 900}, {480, 22, 959, 900}, {961, 22, 1453, 900}}
    property savedBoundz2 : {{0, 22, 715, 900}, {716, 22, 1438, 900}}

    tell application "Finder"
        if (count of every window) = 6 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz6
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 5 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz5
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 4 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz4
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 3 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz3
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 2 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz2
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 1 then
            run script centerWindow
        else if (count of every window) = 0 then
            return
        else if (count of every window) is greater than 6 then
            return
        end if
    end tell

    script centerWindow
        property sidebarWidth : 259
        property theBoundz : missing value
        property theBoundz_1 : {163, 76, 876, 547}
        property theBoundz_2 : {260, 119, 1060, 652}
        property theBoundz_3 : {305, 73, 1126, 812}
        property theBoundz_4 : {353, 122, 1324, 868}
        property theBoundz_5 : {466, 201, 1467, 1129}

        property displayRezolution_Lowest : {0, 0, 1024, 640}
        property displayRezolution_Lower : {0, 0, 1280, 800}
        property displayRezolution_Default : {0, 0, 1440, 900}
        property displayRezolution_Higher : {0, 0, 1680, 1050}
        property displayRezolution_Highest : {0, 0, 1920, 1200}

        tell application "Finder" to set getRez to get bounds of window of desktop

        if displayRezolution_Lowest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_1)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Lower is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_2)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Default is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_3)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Higher is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_4)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Highest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_5)
        end if

        on centerFinderWindow(theBoundz)
            tell application "Finder"
                try
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its current view to column view
                        set its bounds to theBoundz
                        delay 0.1
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                        delay 0.1
                        set its toolbar visible to true
                        delay 0.1
                    end tell
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                    end tell
                end try
            end tell
        end centerFinderWindow
    end script
end script

script displayRezolutionHigher
    property savedBoundz6 : {{560, 530, 1120, 1050}, {1121, 22, 1680, 529}, {0, 22, 559, 529}, ¬
        {0, 530, 559, 1050}, {1121, 530, 1680, 1050}, {560, 22, 1119, 529}}
    property savedBoundz5 : {{560, 530, 1120, 1050}, {829, 22, 1680, 529}, {0, 22, 828, 529}, ¬
        {0, 530, 559, 1050}, {1121, 530, 1680, 1050}}
    property savedBoundz4 : {{829, 530, 1680, 1050}, {829, 22, 1680, 529}, {0, 22, 828, 529}, ¬
        {0, 530, 828, 1050}}
    property savedBoundz3 : {{1130, 22, 1680, 1050}, {0, 22, 551, 1050}, {552, 22, 1129, 1050}}
    property savedBoundz2 : {{834, 22, 1680, 1050}, {0, 22, 832, 1050}}

    tell application "Finder"
        if (count of every window) = 6 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz6
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 5 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz5
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 4 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz4
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 3 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz3
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 2 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz2
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 1 then
            run script centerWindow
        else if (count of every window) = 0 then
            return
        else if (count of every window) is greater than 6 then
            return
        end if
    end tell

    script centerWindow
        property sidebarWidth : 259
        property theBoundz : missing value
        property theBoundz_1 : {163, 76, 876, 547}
        property theBoundz_2 : {260, 119, 1060, 652}
        property theBoundz_3 : {305, 73, 1126, 812}
        property theBoundz_4 : {353, 122, 1324, 868}
        property theBoundz_5 : {466, 201, 1467, 1129}

        property displayRezolution_Lowest : {0, 0, 1024, 640}
        property displayRezolution_Lower : {0, 0, 1280, 800}
        property displayRezolution_Default : {0, 0, 1440, 900}
        property displayRezolution_Higher : {0, 0, 1680, 1050}
        property displayRezolution_Highest : {0, 0, 1920, 1200}

        tell application "Finder" to set getRez to get bounds of window of desktop

        if displayRezolution_Lowest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_1)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Lower is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_2)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Default is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_3)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Higher is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_4)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Highest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_5)
        end if

        on centerFinderWindow(theBoundz)
            tell application "Finder"
                try
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its current view to column view
                        set its bounds to theBoundz
                        delay 0.1
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                        delay 0.1
                        set its toolbar visible to true
                        delay 0.1
                    end tell
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                    end tell
                end try
            end tell
        end centerFinderWindow
    end script
end script

script displayRezolutionHighest
    property savedBoundz6 : {{1277, 22, 1920, 602}, {0, 22, 632, 602}, {1277, 603, 1920, 1200}, ¬
        {0, 603, 632, 1200}, {633, 603, 1276, 1200}, {633, 22, 1276, 602}}
    property savedBoundz5 : {{961, 22, 1920, 602}, {0, 22, 960, 602}, {1277, 603, 1920, 1200}, ¬
        {0, 603, 632, 1200}, {633, 603, 1276, 1200}}
    property savedBoundz4 : {{961, 22, 1920, 602}, {0, 22, 960, 602}, {961, 603, 1920, 1200}, ¬
        {0, 603, 960, 1200}}
    property savedBoundz3 : {{1277, 22, 1920, 1200}, {0, 22, 632, 1200}, {633, 22, 1276, 1200}}
    property savedBoundz2 : {{938, 22, 1920, 1200}, {0, 22, 937, 1200}}

    tell application "Finder"
        if (count of every window) = 6 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz6
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 5 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz5
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 4 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz4
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 3 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz3
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 2 then
            set theBoundz to savedBoundz2
            repeat with theWindow from 1 to count of theBoundz
                set theItem to item theWindow of theBoundz
                try
                    set the bounds of Finder window theWindow to theItem
                end try
                delay 0.1
            end repeat
        else if (count of every window) = 1 then
            run script centerWindow
        else if (count of every window) = 0 then
            return
        else if (count of every window) is greater than 6 then
            return
        end if
    end tell

    script centerWindow
        property sidebarWidth : 259
        property theBoundz : missing value
        property theBoundz_1 : {163, 76, 876, 547}
        property theBoundz_2 : {260, 119, 1060, 652}
        property theBoundz_3 : {305, 73, 1126, 812}
        property theBoundz_4 : {353, 122, 1324, 868}
        property theBoundz_5 : {466, 201, 1467, 1129}

        property displayRezolution_Lowest : {0, 0, 1024, 640}
        property displayRezolution_Lower : {0, 0, 1280, 800}
        property displayRezolution_Default : {0, 0, 1440, 900}
        property displayRezolution_Higher : {0, 0, 1680, 1050}
        property displayRezolution_Highest : {0, 0, 1920, 1200}

        tell application "Finder" to set getRez to get bounds of window of desktop

        if displayRezolution_Lowest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_1)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Lower is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_2)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Default is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_3)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Higher is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_4)
        end if
        if displayRezolution_Highest is equal to getRez then
            centerFinderWindow(theBoundz_5)
        end if

        on centerFinderWindow(theBoundz)
            tell application "Finder"
                try
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its current view to column view
                        set its bounds to theBoundz
                        delay 0.1
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                        delay 0.1
                        set its toolbar visible to true
                        delay 0.1
                    end tell
                    tell its Finder windows
                        set its sidebar width to sidebarWidth
                    end tell
                end try
            end tell
        end centerFinderWindow
    end script
end script

Be sure to set the property values to  your monitor's available Display Resolutions, at the top of the script

To set the size and locations (Bounds) of the Finder windows, manually position and size (with your mouse) each finder window.  Then in Script Editor, run this following code then simply copy the result coordinates and paste them back into the main script

tell application "Finder" to set getRezolution to get bounds of window of desktop
tell application "Finder" to set theCount to count of every Finder window
tell application "Finder" to set theBoundz to bounds of every Finder window

Here is an example running the Automator service (which can be invoked by a keyboard shortcut) in Finder, starting with six windows, then all the way down to one window...


Itunes music moved over, but the rating did not I transferred music from one PC to another using Home Sharing.

The music all came through, but the ratings did not.

How do I make it move my ratings over?

I'm afraid you cannot do it, or at least you cannot do it via the home sharing mechanism at least.

Certain items of Meta data, (including play counts, last played, ratings etc) are not stored as a part of the songs own Meta data (Title, Album, Track number etc), but instead belong to the iTunes library as a whole.  When you transfer a song using home share, you are effectively making a copy of it and placing it into a second library, where the flags are effectively zeroed out as if they have never been set (which, they haven't, for the new library that is).

That's just the way iTunes works, it all revolves around your library as much as the individual items within that library, so a play count would not copy over as it is not considered a part of the song itself.

You may be able to script up a method of transferring such library Meta data, but it's by design that you see this behaviour using Home Share.  Tools may exist, but I'll leave it to others that may have used them to mention them as I have no relevant experience.


List of graphics cards supported by Snow Leopard (10.6.x) but not OpenCL capable? (In older Intel Macs.) I want to know what graphics cards without OpenCL capabilities are supported by Mac OS 10.6 ‘Snow Leopard’? The list is probably really short.

Based on Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, Compressor 4: Graphics card compatibility those cards are

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100
ATI Radeon X1300
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
ATI Radeon X1600
ATI Radeon X1900 XT
ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500


Will updating Mac OS affect my Windows/Bootcamp partition? On Macbook Air, I have OSX 10.9.4 and it allows me to update to Yosemite, will this affect the Windows 7 partition that I installed using Bootcamp ?

Edit: seems to work ok for one windows/bootcamp partition, but an additional windows partition will cause problems. I will add a detailed answer to my own question.

Unless something goes wrong during install: no. But it's always smart to have a backup.


Streaming iPlayer from MBP to AppleTV I'm thinking of getting an Apple TV and streaming BBC iPlayer to it via my 2009 MacBook Pro. So:

Is it possible?
What is the quality like on ATV content? Does it break up or buffer continuously or is it more or less like watching TV?
Another solution I am thinking of is to hook up the MacBook Pro to the TV without ATV but using an HDMI (?) cable. Is this going to be good quality? Is it a viable option? Worse than Airplay?

Based on an article in 2012, it should be possibile to AirPlay this easily.
The quality will either be 720P or 1080P, buffering based on the quality of your internet connection. If your connection is fast you have no problems as long as your stream can handle it ;)
Yes you can do this too, a cable is a direct connection not using Apple TV. It's cheaper as you don't have to buy an Apple TV. However, with Apple TV you can do much more - and it will show subtitles for example in a pre-chosen style.


How can I manually install applications on a jailbroken iPad? I've had my jailbroken iPad for nearly a year. Over time, I've completely abandoned the idea of connecting it to iTunes at all - it just doesn't seem necessary, it's basically a full fledged computer itself. In addition, with it being the 64gb model, I wouldn't have the space to back up everything I have on there anyhow. Recently I decided to upgrade to 4.2.1, and as a safety net against data loss, I tar'd up the entire contents of the iPad to a USB drive (permissions, soft/hard links and all).

The upgrade was successful, but I'd like to be able to restore applications directly instead of re-downloading them from iTunes and then copying over the data/documents/library directories from my backup. Once caveat of doing things this way is that there may be a newer version of the app now on iTunes and my backup is no longer compatible with it.

What I'd like is to have the ability to restore the app directly to "/private/var/mobile/Applicaitons/[RANDOM HASH OR WHATEVER THIS IS]/". I've tried to do this, but I get a blank icon on the screen that doesn't successfully launch. I assume that during a "normal" application installation, there is some sort of registration process that takes place and that's the part I'm missing.

Can anyone provide some clues as to how the app install process works or shed some light on how I might accomplish a manual install?

Make sure you have appsync and installous from cydia installed on your iPhone, installed from the source
The app has to be a .ipa file.
Place the file in /private/var/mobile/documents/installous/downloads.
Open up installous and install from there.

Or use iPhone Explorer as described in this LifeHacker post:

  Using iPhone Explorer, you can backup or copy apps (and their settings) to your computer or to other iOS device—and it can do all of that without a jailbreak. To backup system files or default applications, like iOS's built-in calendar, you'll have to jailbreak your iOS device. (Even if you're not interested in backing up apps, iPhone Explorer is still great for mounting your iOS device as a disk.)


Force QuickTime Player to auto-play files I want QuickTime Player to auto-play a file when I execute that file from Finder.

The default behaviour is to simply load the file and wait for you to press play.

I found a default pref that you can set to force QuickTime X to play movie files automatically.

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGPlayMovieOnOpen 1

How can you force QuickTime to play all its files automatically, regardless of their type (mp3, wav, aac, etc)

Using the default will command QuickTime to start playback of the loaded file.

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGPlayMovieOnOpen 1

It's not file specific, or movie specific. It will play all files, regardless of type if you run this command, and restart QuickTime.


Why does the Apple iPad cost less than the iPhone? What is the primary reason for the cost difference between the two devices?
 For example, in my country the newest iPhone (iPhone 8) costs about $1,070 at the lost configuration (normal size, 64gb), while the newest iPad (Just the generic iPad, no cellular) costs less than half that at around $465. This is a significant difference.

It may seem rather naive to assume that the larger device would cost more. And I do realise that the current iPad has a slightly older processor than the iPhone. But the iPad does have both a larger screen and battery, amongst other costs. Is it based on the manufacturing price, or is it more to do with the market and how much people are willing to pay?

There are a few factors to this.

The iPhone 8 has lot newer technologies inside it the the iPad 5.

A11 Bionic CPU vs the A9 (used on the 6s)
True Tone display
3D Touch
Better LCD used for display (supports P3)
The iPad 5’s LCD isn’t even laminated to the front glass
and a lot more changes

Even though the iPad 5 is released in Q1 2017. It is using technologies that dates back to 2015. A more fair comparison would be the new iPad Pro announced in WWDC17. Which costs similarly (just a little bit less than the iPhone 8). If you want to compare the 5th generation iPad with something, that would be the iPhone SE.


Selecting multiple icons in Finder using the keyboard? Is there a way to select icons (using the keyboard) that aren't directly touching? In Windows, I'd press Ctrl+Down, but it doesn't work in the Finder view. I've tried all the usual keyboard shortcuts, but it doesn't seem to work. I can multi-select other icons just fine, but I can't multi-select these two.

The picture explains it better than I could. The icons in this folder are aligned to the grid.

You could use cmd ⌘ + 2 to change to the list view and then just use Shift + Down.


MacBook Pro with TouchBar - Compatibility with Ubuntu? I use a lot of Ubuntu Gnome 16.10 (Linux). Will the new MBP with TouchBar support the function keys? Specifically, are the 'F1' to 'F12' keys compatible with Ubuntu? I practice a lot of programming (Python, MySQL, TensorFlow) and need these keys to work as they normally would.

The Macbook Pro's Touchbar runs software similar to the Apple Watch's WatchOS (I'll call it TouchbarOS), entirely separate from the macOS the computer itself runs on. TouchbarOS automatically switches to standard function keys when the physical keyboard's function key is pressed.

I can only assume TouchbarOS sends the exact same message when a function key is pressed on the Touchbar than when it is pressed on a physical keyboard, so yes, the standard function keys (though almost definitely nothing else the Touchbar does) should work with Ubuntu.

For more on the Touchbar and standard function keys, see this Apple support page.


How to accept Xcode license? I want to install a C based toolbox on MATLAB software. To do this, I need to install the GCC compiler. I think I have done that already. And I have Xcode too.

To setup the toolbox, I need to write mex -setup; in the MATLAB command window. I've got the following warning and don't know how to solve it:

  Warning: Xcode is installed, but its license has not been accepted. Run Xcode and accept its license agreement.

  Error using mex
  No supported compiler or SDK was found. For options, visit http://www.mathworks.com/support/compilers/R2014a/maci64.

In Terminal:

sudo xcodebuild -license

Which should view/accept it on behalf of all accounts on that particular Mac.

In recent Xcode versions you are able to accept it in one step:

sudo xcodebuild -license accept


How to tell Timemachine that the Machine Dir has moved? On my Mac, I used Time Machine to backup to a Drobo that was directly attached. I've now connected this Drobo to my TimeCapsule. I however want to continue backing up to the Drobo, not the TimeCapsule.

I have told the TimeCapsule to share its disks, and can mount the Drobo Disk fine, and it appears under /Volumes as "Drobo".

However, when I tell TimeCapsule to use the new disk, it does not recognize the presence of the old backups on the disks. Instead of using the machine directory present it starts a new sparsebundle. This is not what I want.

How do I get Time Machine to continue backing up in the original machine directory?

I've tried

tmutil inerhitbackup <machine dir>

but this didn't work... Anything else I can do?

I think I have found the answer. The following site was very helpful:

http://pondini.org/TM/18.html

There are important differences between how Time Machine backups to local disks, and tonetworked disks. In the first case the backup goes to a "Backups.backupdb directory, in the second case to a "sparsebundle".

So my solution will be:

First have Timemachine start a new back up to my now networked
Drobo.
Interrupt the backup after the sparsebundle has been made.
now move the Drobo temporarily back to my Mac, mount the sparse bundle, and use diskutil to erase it.
Copy the existing back up in to the monted sparsebundle.
Attach the Drobo again to the Time Capsule once this is finished.

However I can't try this out yet. First have to expand the disk space on my Drobo. So the first step for me really is: Get two 4TB disks on Monday...


Retrieving password for non working email address that is attached to an iCloud account I have an iCloud account out that there that is attached to an email address that is no longer working. So I cannot do a password reset, because that email address is not working. So I cannot re-set it.

I need to get the pictures downloaded from that old iCloud account and add them to my new iCloud account. But I can't log in to get that done.

Hoping someone can help.

While I can assume that you ask due to having forgotten the password, it is not clear from your question.

In case you still know the password, you can log on to the iCloud account at appleid.apple.com, change the e-mail address and make it the primary e-mail address.

NOTE: Obviously, you cannot use an e-mail address you already associated with an Apple ID in a different account.


How to make Finder show icon thumbnail for some Excel documents? I have two Microsoft Excel documents that are, except for the data contained within, virtually identical. One was created as an offshoot of the other. In the Finder, the original displays a thumbnail for the icon but the offshoot copy displays the standard Excel icon with the (XLSX) "button" in the lower left corner.

I've tried:

"Save As" and giving the file a different name. That didn't work.
Checking Get Info on both and the only anomaly I see is that the offshoot is a larger file, despite containing fewer tabs and less data.

How to make the Finder show the icon thumbnail for all Excel documents?

The document filename doesn't matter as much as its extension. Usually .xls or .xlsx will preview OK where comma separated values, tab delimited documents, or something other "spreadsheet" format, which are really just text files rendered in Excel or Numbers, may not preview the way you expect in the Finder.


Is my private key available in the Time Machine backups? Where can I find it? I've used Time Machine on my Mac to perform backups of my Lion install. My SSD failed and I installed Mountain Lion on my machine.

Now, I want to recover my private key from my backup so I can continue to sign my iOS apps without having to regenerate all of the certificates and provisioning profiles online.

Is my private key available in the Time Machine backups? Where can I find it?

Keychain keeps its files inside of ~/Library/Keychains.  In there is a "login.keychain" file that you can add to your current list of keychains in Keychain Access.


2011 13inch MBP - Can I use 2 external displays - one with MINI DVI and one with Thunderbolt? I have 2011 13 inch MBP running OSX Mavericks (10.9.4). 2.3 GHz i5 processor, 8GB DDR3 Memory and Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB (VRAM) Graphics.

I want to know if I can run 2 external monitors alongside my MBP display. That would make a total of 3 Monitors - 2 external and the MBP monitor.

I have read about solutions like Matrox DualHead2Go but I would like to know if there is anyway I can use one display on the Mini DVI port and the other on the Thunderbolt port?

I would prefer a solution which didn't require me to combine 2 monitors into 1 screen like the Matrox does. The reason for this is: I would like to use fullscreen apps on all 3 monitories.

Duplicate question, see: Can I have multiple monitors on my MacBook Pro (Early 2011)?

Any 2011 MacBook Pro model will support Thunderbolt. You can daisy-chain 2 Thunderbolt displays. You can also connect one mini DisplayPort monitor to the end of a Thunderbolt chain and connect your Mac to your Thunderbolt Display.
A non-Thunderbolt solution if you don't have a Thunderbolt Mac: a DisplayLink-style USB to DVI display adapter.


On iPhone, don't backup videos in a video app to iTunes I've got a video app, AVPlayer, on my iPhone. When I put videos in there, and then sync and backup to iTunes, the videos are also backed up. This can take up a lot of time and space to backup those videos.

How can I instead skip backing up files in AVPlayer specifically? The app, in fact, has a setting to disable backing up to iTunes, but the setting doesn't work for me because I've already got it disabled. Is there a way to control this myself, so that this app and its contents are not backed up to iTunes?

On your iPhone go to Settings -> General -> Storage & iCloud Usage -> Manage Storage -> . Here you have Backup Options and you can select which apps to include in the backup.


I heard that Siri can be installed on iPhone 4 but can't find it in the App Store? Is it because it is a non-approved app on iPhone 4 and why?   If so, is it only installable if it is a jailbroken iPhone 4?

The Siri app was withdrawn from sale to new people, but if you purchased it you can download it still from your history. It won't work without servers running, but you can still "get the app" from the store.

The app does nothing but check to see if the Siri servers are running. Since they are no longer operational - even people who have the app can launch it to see this announcement.


Notes.app: Notes from iCloud show title but bodies are blank! I have been using notes.app for a while, especially for its ability to use iCloud to sync. Everything has seemed fine, though it seems like some of my older notes' bodies are showing up blank.

I suspect that this is merely a retrieval/format issue, but I am also concerned that by looking at a note triggers an automatic save, which in turn does in fact replace iCloud's copy of that note with the now-blank version. I have stopped looking at older notes pending a solution in case looking is destructive.

How do I download an archive of my iCloud notes that I may preserve and peruse at my leisure?

Notes have been left from Mavericks, Yosemite, and iPhone 5s with iOS 7.1.2. I am currently retrieving them using Yosemite.

Welcome to my world.

I had same problem and ended up killing the Notes in iCould.

Before that I moved my precious notes to "on my mac" at least the ones that were still there.

No more iCloud stealing my notes.


iPhone default Bluetooth music app How does my iPhone choose which music app to start when I pair with the Bluetooth unit in my car? I'd like it to automatically start Spotify every time, but sometimes it starts playing from the Music app, even if I've used Spotify earlier that day.

I don't know if there would be a way to change the app that plays but maybe in your car's Bluetooth settings there may be an option for disabling auto play.

Not exactly what you're looking for but at least the same song from Music won't keep playing?