iMac 8,1: where to put thermal sensor after SSD installation I'm installing an SSD in an early 2008 iMac (8,1) which has a thermal sensor taped to the current hard drive.  After reading nearly twenty threads on the subject I'm having difficulty determining what is the best thing to do with the thermal sensor.

These are the suggestions I've seen:

Short it out.
Disconnect it and use software to control fan speed.
Attach it somewhere else inside the unit where there is a bit of heat to prevent the machine from going into protection mode

I'm most attracted to the last option but have yet to see any definitive answer about where exactly it should be positioned in that case.

I would like to know if anyone has a definitive answer about the correct way deal with the thermal sensor when installing an SSD which generates little to no heat.

I ended up placing the thermal sensor in the small space directly below the plug where it connects.  There are three sensors in a line which connect here and below them an empty space large enough to hold the sensor and sensor bracket.

After reassembling everything the sensor is functioning and fan speeds are normal.


Mail app issue with gmail I have a very frustrating issue with mail app. I am using the mail app for my gmail email address.

The issue is that, when I am writing a new message and would like to save a draft, the app creates a NEW draft for each time I press cmd+S to save the draft state. So, by the time I finish writing the email, I can see 20+ new drafts all sourced from the single message.

I experience this only with mail app. I used another apps, and all did not have this issue.

I am running osx yosemite.

Don't save drafts !!!
Drafts are auto saved by OS.


How are the sound effects in Final Cut Pro licensed? What kind of license do final cut pro sound effects have?

Can I put them into nonmovies?

For example, can I use them in a Flash game?

Hypothetical:

If I'm distributing my own video editor, can I include these sound effects?

There is language saying you can't resell the sounds, but you are granted license to use them royalty free for some very specific uses and not at all in broad general terms.

I am not a lawyer

See the section below from the license for the last version / now discontinued Final Cut Studio

  c) Soundtrack Pro. You may use the Apple and third party audio file
  content (including, but not limited to, the built-in sound files,
  samples and impulse responses) (collectively the “Audio Content”),
  contained in or otherwise included with the Apple Software, on a
  royalty-free basis, to create your own original soundtracks for your
  film, video and audio projects. You may broadcast and/or distribute
  your own soundtracks that were created using the Audio Content,
  however, individual audio files may not be commercially or otherwise
  distributed on a standalone basis, nor may they be repackaged in whole
  or in part as audio samples, sound files or music beds.

Pretty much anything license related from Apple gets placed here fairly quickly after launch (FCP X cough, cough)

A lawyer would be needed to tell you if embedding them in a flash game would fall under "film, video and audio projects". One would hope if your flash game embedded a movie sequence or soundtrack as part of the narrative,  everyone here might call that as "in bounds" or "in the spirit".

Just taking the whole sounds (or even samples of those sounds in isolation and not mixed down) and using it for actions or events in a flash game seems to be more like repackaging as audio samples which seems clearly "out of bounds".

I would purchase a set of sounds that are expressly marketed as for use in software rather than something intended for original soundtracks unless my lawyer gave me the explicit go-ahead.


How to set up Time Machine backup for two macOS disks with third data disk? I'm hoping someone has had experience with this and can offer some advice, here's the lowdown on my scenario.

I have a Mac Pro tower (so 4 drive bays) with all bays filled.

Bay 1 has a 320GB HDD hosting Mavericks
Bay 2 has a 1.5TB HDD JHFS+ formattedd for a data/archive disk
Bay 3 has a 320GB HDD hosting Windows 7
Bay 4 has a 120GB SSD that I just installed macOS Sierra on.

I have a 2TB external HDD that I use for Time Machine backups, and in the past I backed up disks 1 and 2, leaving the Windows disk alone, of course. Now that I have an SSD running Sierra, my goal is to use Sierra as my primary OS, and only use Mavericks when necessary. (And it is necessary, occasionally.)

Ultimately my concern is this: I do not need Time Machine trying to back up three disks to my backup disk from one OS, only to have it attempt to do the whole thing over again when I boot into the other OS. Is Time Machine intelligent enough to know that I am backing up the same three disks from two OS's?

Update: I ran Time Machine from the Sierra disk and it didn't try to duplicate the backup of the storage disk, so that's half of my question answered at least, but I'm still not sure I want to boot into Mavericks with the Time Machine disk connected until I know what to expect from it.

Time Machine backups are organized by machine directory, then by snapshot (date&time), and only then by backup source (see the section on "backup structure" in the man page for tmutil). I might be wrong, but I would expect your Sierra and Mavericks installations to be considered separate "machines", even though they are running on the same physical machine. I'm not sure whether Time Machine is smart enough to realize that the backup sources for these two "machines" are the same, and to use hard links between them to avoid each machine directory to include completely separate copies.

I think the simplest thing to do would be to set Time Machine on Sierra to backup all volumes except the SSD with Mavericks, while setting Time Machine on Mavericks to only backup the Mavericks volume. Or some variation on this of course, like backing up everything using Sierra and turning Time Machine on Mavericks off.


What are Icon\r files and how do I delete them? I notice that within my xcode project I see an Icon\r file.  When I go to the folder where the project is from finder,  I don't see this file.  I believe this is some sort of hidden file that I should not be able to see.  However, xcode sees this file and it's causing some error on my project when I try to archive it.
The following is the error that I got:
error: Codesign check fails : /var/folders/7l/l93zzs6n4h14qb7rmj5r7zn00000gn/T/GtLyx05w1O/Payload/stryker.app: a sealed resource is missing or invalid
In architecture: armv6
resource added: /private/var/folders/7l/l93zzs6n4h14qb7rmj5r7zn00000gn/T/GtLyx05w1O/Payload/stryker.app/www/Icon
resource missing: /private/var/folders/7l/l93zzs6n4h14qb7rmj5r7zn00000gn/T/GtLyx05w1O/Payload/stryker.app/www/Icon

Is there a way I can delete this file?  I can't delete it from within xcode.  When I drag and drop it into trash nothing happened and when I right click it, it doesn't give me the option to delete the file.
The project folder is inside my dropbox folder so I think dropbox is the one that put the file there.
Any idea on how I can delete this? Thank you.

The Icon\r file is used when you're about to change folder's icon: when you change the icon, it is not actually applied to the folder itself but rather to the Icon\r file inside the folder in question.

You can remove the file via terminal with rm $'Icon\r'

Alternatively, if you want to delete the file through Finder, you must make it visible first; also something you can do via terminal: SetFile -a v $'Icon\r'

Somewhat related info on how to change file's or folder's icon via Terminal: Changing a file or folder icon using the Terminal

… And be sure to see Icon? file on OS X desktop on Super User.


How do you change the number registered for iMessage? I want to delete the red one shown in the screenshot.
I can not seem to change it or tap it somehow. Can somebody help?

According to Apple, all you need to do is sign out of your device

 Source: https://appleid.apple.com/account/manageCheck your iCloud preferences after signing out and back in.Settings › iCloud › User Account › Contact Information

If you are unable to remove/modify

Depending on your carrier, you may need to remove your sim and reinstall iOS.


PDF from pdfLaTeX doesn't print correctly I am trying to print a PDF file generated with pdfLaTeX, but the OS X (10.8) CUPS always shifts and scales the content of the page, without me having any chance to change that behavior.

To reproduce:

Create PDF using pdfLaTeX

pdflatex testpage

Choose paper size and/or double sided
Open document

open testpage.pdf

Everything looks as expected in the Preview application, but when I select "Print", even when setting the scale to 100%, the margins are different on all sides, the print size is wrong and shifted. This does not depend on the printer driver I select to print. I have tested with a Canon, a TA and a Dell printer.

Even in the CUPS web interface, I could not find a way to prevent it from altering the document layout.

The print preview in Preview seems accurate, but the scaling and positioning is incorrect as it then comes out of the printer.

How can I fix this?

Indeed, the whole problem was rooted in the generated PDF file having letter paper format.

After configuring MacTeX to use default a4 paper

texconfig paper a4

Everything is printed as expected.


Cannot see my network on Windows 7 running under Parallels 10 I have 4 Sony laptops, a Seagate Central, 2 Wi-Fi printers and an iMac on my home network. The iMac running under OS X 10.10.3 can see all of the network devices using Finder. The laptops can see the iMac. BUT Windows on the iMac can only connect to the internet. Windows cannot see any of the network Laptops, the Seagate or the printers.

Apart from that Parallels works fine! I have emailed them for support but they have not responded. The machines are all networked via a Linksys XAC 1900 which works really well. I want to use the iMac as my #1 computer (it has more memory and disk than any of the laptops) but this network issue is making that impossible.

Probably the virtual network interface of your Windows 7 VM uses "Shared Network". Reconfigure the NIC to bridged network and choose Ethernet or Wi-Fi (like indicated in the screenshot below) depending on your network configuration:

if your iMac is connected to the Linksys XAC 1900 via Ethernet choose "Ethernet"
if your iMac is connected to the Linksys XAC 1900 via Wi-Fi choose "Wi-Fi"

You might want to check the Firewall configuration in your Windows 7 VM as well. If the settings are to restrictive the network devices won't be visible.


Headphones don't go into iPhone 5c So I had these headphones and they worked for about a week and then suddenly they just don't fit into my phone. I have to press them really hard and hold it there. Other headphones fit just these don't. They're Apple headphones btw.

I recommend you don't try push them in to hard just to insure no unwanted damage, best bet is to go to apple. With these types of faults there the best to fix it.


Change Activity Monitor update speed? When viewing the CPU Load on Activity Monitor today, I was curious as how to make Activity Monitor update the chart and data faster.

Is there a setting to change the update speed for Activity Monitor?

To change the update speed, open Activity Monitor and select View > Update Frequency.

You can choose between three options:

Very often (1 sec)
Often (2 sec)
Normal (5 sec)


exe file not found with which after setting the Path I need to have an exe file found in the terminal with "which FILE" command. I set the PATH to this file but I cannot find the file with which?

I added

export PATH=$PATH:/Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/MSM_old/msm_mac

in ~/.zprofile. msm_mac is the binary.

When I type in which msm or msm_mac, the result is msm not found.

Current value of the PATH:

/Users/neurolab/opt/anaconda3/bin:/Users/neurolab/opt/anaconda3/condabin://Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/freesurfer/bin://Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/freesurfer/fsfast/bin://Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/freesurfer/tktools:/Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/fsl/bin://Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/freesurfer/mni/bin:/Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/fsl/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/spjder:/usr/local/munki:/opt/X11/bin:/Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/workbench/bin_macosx64i:/Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/MSM_old/msm_mac

I am using MBP 2019 with Catalina

What can I do?

Best,

The PATH is a list of directories so need to add

/Users/neurolab/Desktop/Stephan/Programmes/MSM_old

to your PATH (and re-read ~/.zprofile) to make it work.


Will Time Machine backup portions of my file system that come from mounted drives? I have used the mount command to mount non-primary drive storage in to my the file system on my primary hard drive. So the path /remote-mounts/some-directory actually places me on a USB-attached drive when I change in to it.

Will Time Machine traverse in to the mounted directories and back them up or does it stop at mount points? Is it smart enough to tell that these mounts aren't actually on my primary drive?

Edit: Here's my personal exclusion list with a USB drive mounted. As you can see STUFF is excluded automatically and I can't prevent that. It's un-selectable in the list.

It's most likely your filesystem is just one that fseventsd is ignoring due to it not being HFS+

Even with a proper Mac filesystem, you could have unintentionally told the system to secure and ignore this volume by having an obscurely documented empty file called no_log in /path/to/your/fs/.fseventsd/no_log.


Automatic App Updates not in the Background anymore since iOS 10 Before updating to iOS 10, I never actively saw the updates happen (the icon going dark, etc), apparently they always happened during the night or something.

Since updating to iOS 10, every morning when I first look at my phone, I see various apps starting to download updates at the same time, which I find pretty unnerving.

iOS 10.0.2 14A456 on iPhone 5S ME435DN/A. I always had Automatic App Updates activated, and never touched the setting. I do not turn my iPhone off during the night, and do not activate night mode or power saving mode. Just Night Shift.

Anyone else noticed this as well? Is there anything I could do?

Thanks,
-M

I think this may be happening to you for a number of reasons:

iOS 10 has determined that you do not use the updating apps at that time of day, so it is updating them during use to be more efficient
iOS may also have determined that this time of day and network are when you have the fastest connection.
If you use Airplane Mode at night (for faster charging and no notifications), it can't update apps at night.
Or there's a software glitch.


Is there an app/solution to quickly send text snippets/links/images from Windows pc (clipboard) to your iPhone? I constantly have the problem that I want to push a text snippets/links/images quickly from my Windows pc to my iPhone, without it being plugged or on the same Wi-Fi.

Every time, it seems to be a hassle. I send myself emails, or whatsapp messages.

There must be a solution. Does anyone know a remedy for this?

Modern Macs and macOS have a feature built called AirDrop which lets you push said content from a Mac directly to your iPhone. No such feature exist for Windows PCs.

There is no straightforward and native mechanism build into Windows to push Text Snippets, Links and Images from Windows PC to an iPhone. The only resort is to indirectly use an app which can be accessed on both platforms.

To keep things simple, you can login to iCloud using a Web browser on Windows PC and paste links, text snippets and images into Notes app. The pasted content can be instantly accessed in Notes app on your iPhone.

Both Windows PC and iPhone need to be connected to Internet, not necessarily to the same Wi-Fi. (both of them can be technically anywhere in the world)


Python script executable opened by text editor I have a simple "Hello world" script that I want to turn into an executable. The problem is that even though I went through the steps of declaring the path of the Python interpreter in the first list of the code and made it executable via chmod, it does not run as an executable. Instead when I click it my text editor opens up the file. This sounds really stupid, but I've tried everything. ./hello.py prints Hello world in the Terminal.

I've tried changing the file to open with the Terminal instead, but it's greyed out.

#!/usr/bin/python
print 'Hello world'

What I typed in the terminal:

chmod +x hello.py
./hello.py

Output:

Hello world

The problem is that double clicking the script opens text editor instead of running it as an executable.

What I tried:

Changing what the file uses to open itself by having it default to the Terminal, but OS X grays out that option.

Removing the file's extension should cause the file to open in your default terminal application. Alternately, you could select "All Applications" from the "Enable" menu in the "Open With" dialog to enable opening with "Terminal.app" regardless of the file's extension.


Fresh Install OS vs Install Update On New User I'd like to ask if there's a difference between:

Fresh installing Catalina using Flash Drive.
Create a new admin user, logout the current user, login the new admin user and delete all the existing users and their files. Then from there, install the Catalina by download.

Will there be a huge difference? In terms of disk space and speed of the machine after installing the Catalina?

I feel like the #2 (my usual way) is more practical in terms of time consumption and effort.

A "Fresh install" usually means erasing the target volume of all files, and then installing an OS, thus removing any possible problems from third-party installed software, and incorrect or inappropriate settings in /Library or /User/Library .plist files.

Simply deleting all the files in one or more user accounts will not remove third-party applications, their /Library files, other installed processes, and things like printer drivers.

So, the latter will keep more data on your drive than a fresh install. Speed is unlikely to be affected, unless your drive was full.

I can't think of a reason why deleting user accounts would be a useful process.

By default, Apple's system installation process upgrades the existing OS, and retains all user files, settings, applications, etc in place. Some listed items, known to be incompatible, are removed by the installer to folders where they are not launched by the OS.

As Apple releases a new OS every year (or every 2 months if you count the point updates): 'slashing and burning' all your settings, files, and applications is entirely unnecessary. (I have updated in place every OS from 10.2 Jaguar to 10.15 Catalina, and cloned my disks across more than six Macs. I dare say there's some 'cruft' from my 2002 G3 iBook now sitting on my 2018 Mini!)

I would recommend only doing a clean install, or other similar process, if you get some problem occurring after upgrading. Alternatively, with a bit of detective work, you can usually find out the 1% of your files that are causing the problem, and then delete those, rather than the removing 100% and putting 99% back.


How does Apple associate file type with (external) applications? I have texlive and texshop for Latex on my external SSD. I deleted my Library preference files for both apps along with a lsregister -kill command to force my Mac to forget all non-default pathing.

But somehow Mac still recognizes to associate .tex file types as a Latex file. Reason I know this is because when I have my SSD unplugged, my .tex file shows the unknown application file icon but as soon as I plug my SSD, the file icon changes to a Latex file icon.

How can I force my Mac to forget all file associations except the default file types (e.g., .pdf, .txt, etc)? I'd like to see a 'Cannot open this file' window when I click a .tex file.

You can find a work-around described here:

https://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-clear-custom-application-associations-in-os-x/

The steps required are:

Locate a .tex file on your system in the Finder and press Cmd-i to open the info window
In the "Open With" section, you'll see a drop-down. Choose "Other" and then select the built-in Calculator.app to open the file with. This is done as Calculator.app does not support opening any document type.
In the info window press "Change All..." so that all .tex files becomes associated with Calculator.app.
If you try opening a .tex file now, you'll get an error saying that Calculator.app cannot open this file type.
Open Terminal.app and run the following command:

$(locate lsregister | grep '^\/System') -u /Applications/Calculator.app

This command first finds the lsregister program on your system, and then runs it to unregister (i.e. clear any document type associations) for the Calculator.app.

Now when you open .tex files, you'll be presented with the default popup saying that the file cannot be opened, and you'll be asked to choose an application to open it with.


Portable External USB drive can be mounted on Windows but not on macOS on the same MacBook Pro One of my USB drives used to mount fine on my macOS, up until last night when I tried to upgrade from High Sierra to Mojave. During the upgrading, I realized that my drive was still connected, so I unplugged it.

Then after the OS was fully upgraded, Finder no longer mounts the drive automatically when it's plugged in, and in the Disk Utility, though I can see it in the list, it was grayed out. I can't mount it or eject it, either.

In Terminal, diskutil list can see it, but mounting with mount got a time out, so did eject.

It works fine on Windows OS through BootCamp. I even did a disk scan using Windows utility, trying to fix whatever that may have failed macOS, but nothing improved from that. All my other USB drives work fine on both OSes. So it must be something between the specific drive and macOS.

I found the solution in another post:

External Hard Drive Won't Mount

ps aux | grep fsck to find the PID where fsck locks the drive.

Then

sudo kill -9 <PID> to kill fsck.

After that, my drive mounted normally.


Unidentified iPhone Vibration Alert When I have my iPhone 4s on vibrate only mode (side switch down), sometimes I a single vib alert from an unidentified app.  None of my apps have applicationIconBadgeNumber set, so, what the heck is making it vibrate?

Look in Settings > Notifications for an app that only shows "Sounds". If you have more than one app, turn on Badges or Banners (temporarily) until you get the next notification. The app with the new badge should be the culprit.

Otherwise, go through the list one by one and disallow Sounds for each app successively until you find the offending app.


Can't move spaces from one screen to another I am using OS X 10.9. I am unable to drag Desktops from one screen to another, I am only able to switch arrangements on the screen that its on.

Here are my Mission Control settings

EDIT: Very strange, after a reboot the functionality seems to be working now without me making any changes.

You can only move non-active desktops between screens.

If the desktop you want to move is the only desktop on the screen, then create another desktop, make that the active desktop, and then drag the non-active desktop.


Get french accent on Linux terminal connected via ssh from MacOS High Sierra I come on this forum since no answers or suggestions on other forums.

I am often connecting from a MacOS High Sierra terminal via SSH to a Debian 8.0.
The locales on my MacOS are :

LANG=
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"

Everything on MacOS side works fine, I can type on this MacOS terminal all french characters, even combined for example to get "ê" character with key "^+e".

My issue is that I am often connected via to a Debian 8.0 and I can't get to have french accents like I have on MacOS.

I have done on Debian 8.0 :

# locale-gen
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  fr_FR.ISO-8859-1... done
  fr_FR.UTF-8... done
  fr_FR.ISO-8859-15@euro... done

So the locales on Debian 8.0 are :

locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_NUMERIC="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_TIME="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_COLLATE="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_MONETARY="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_MESSAGES="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_PAPER="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_NAME="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_ADDRESS="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_TELEPHONE="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_MEASUREMENT="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_ALL=fr_FR.ISO8859

I have also tried with :

# locale
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
LANG=fr_FR@euro
LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_NUMERIC="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_TIME="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_COLLATE="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_MONETARY="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_MESSAGES="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_PAPER="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_NAME="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_ADDRESS="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_TELEPHONE="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_MEASUREMENT="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="fr_FR.ISO8859"
LC_ALL=fr_FR.ISO8859

I don't see where is the problem, anyone could help me to have french accent on Debian terminal from my MacOS keyboard like I have on my MacOS terminal ?

UPDATE 1 :

I tried the solution suggested by @Spiff by doing :

 $ locale-gen "en_US.UTF-8"
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  en_US.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.

$ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="C"
LC_NUMERIC="C"
LC_TIME="C"
LC_COLLATE="C"
LC_MONETARY="C"
LC_MESSAGES="C"
LC_PAPER="C"
LC_NAME="C"
LC_ADDRESS="C"
LC_TELEPHONE="C"
LC_MEASUREMENT="C"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="C"
LC_ALL=C

But this doesn't seem to work since when I type on french accent character, nothing displays.

UPDATE 2 :

I have found a partial solution : if I put into a new file ~/.bash_profile :

LANGUAGE="en_US.UTF-8"

Then, I can type french accent characters.

But now, the issue is that I have no more the file ~/.bashrc executed (so no more environments variables, no alias, nothing more).

If I do at the end of ~/.bash_profile : source ~/.bashrc, nothing happens.

How to circumvent this issue and make take into account my ~/.bashrc file ?

SOLUTION : uncomment in /etc/ssh/sshd_config :

# Allow client to pass locale environment variables
#AcceptEnv LANG LC_*

(made community wiki; credit to OP)


Weird auto-correction in Office for Mac? I have some really weird auto-correction issues in Office for Mac (not sure if this also happens in other apps, as I am primarily using Office for texts).

The auto-correction changes of the to oft he and for that to fort hat. There are also other examples, but those are most common and irritating.

The system-wide auto-correction is disabled (in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Text):

The Autocorrection setting in Outlook is also disabled:

I use Grammarly in Chrome, but it should not affect any system applications.

I noticed that this become more notorious once I added German and Russian to my keyboard layouts. It also had happened before, but it wasn't that irritating. Can it be somehow related? That would partially make sense, as oft is a common German word, but the auto-correction happens while I am using the US keyboard layout, not German (that I rarely use).

I know this is an old post, but I think I may just have figured it out.
I am using Outlook on PC, but I have had the exact same issue, such as "for the" becoming "fort he".

I have German and English languages installed and I believe this is the source of the problem (and it goes back at least 14 years if you try Google. Good bug fixing MS).

Anyway, the solution I found was to turn off "Detect Language Automatically" in the email editor. In the PC version this can be found on the Review ribbon under Language. I hope the Mac version has a similar layout.

This has appeared to work so far. It's a pain because changing languages in email will require a manual flip each time, but if I can avoid oft he, fort he, fort hat, etc. then it is worth it.

Hope this helps, even so late after the fact!


How to add a .crt certificate to iPhone's keychain? I moved a .crt certificate file onto my iPhone device via Dropbox and tried following these instructions to add it to the device keychain:

It suggests to open the certificate file but my iPhone doesn't know what to open the .crt with?

How should I proceed from here to add the certificate to my keychain?

Updated for iOS 12.0.1
As Andrew and Michal mentioned, apparently iOS only allows the Mail and Safari apps to open and install certificates. Other apps are blocked from opening certificates.
So here is how I got mine working:

Put my certificate file (mycertificate.crt) on my private local server temporarily.
Using iOS Safari (very important), browse to my https://mylocalsite.test/mycertificate.crt
You'll probably see a "This Connection Is Not Private" warning and need to click "Show Details" > "visit this website".
When prompted with "This website is trying to open Settings to show you a configuration profile. Do you want to allow this? [Ignore or Allow?]", choose "Allow".
You'll now be in your iPhone Settings > Install Profile. Click "Install" to install the certificate.
Enter your passcode to confirm.
You'll see a warning telling you "This certificate will not be trusted for websites until you enable it in Certificate Trust Settings." Press "Install" to proceed.
Press "Done".
Visit Settings > General > About > Certificate Trust Settings
"Enable full trust for root certificates" for the newly-installed certificate.
(Restarting the phone does not seem to be necessary.) I was immediately able to use Chrome to browse to my site using https, and it worked as I hoped.

These other links helped me, too:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204477
https://support.securly.com/hc/en-us/articles/206978437-How-to-deploy-Securly-SSL-certificate-to-iOS-
For generating a local Certificate Authority and self-signed certificate, my favorite approach as of 2020-09-14 is https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert


iMac hangs when waking up with MAMP running I recently installed the latest MAMP version on my iMac running Yosemite 10.10.4. MAMP runs fine, used it all day and left it running overnight. Upon waking up the iMac, I have noticed the system is hanging:

Websites not opening in Chrome
Stopping servers in MAMP doesn't respond
Force quit Chrome and tried to restart but doesn't work
Opened Safari but it won't open any URL
Beach ball appears when hovering over the Wifi icon
Restarted Mac but system gets stuck on a black screen with a white, spinning icon as if something is in progress
Only way to reuse iMac is through holding the power button and powering back on

I'm relatively new to OSX so not entirely sure where to look and how to diagnose. The only theory I have at the moment is that MAMP is somehow hanging the system (it's the only recent change to the system other than Ruby on Rails and a few other development frameworks installed but I haven't used these in a few days).

Any ideas on where to look or how to diagnose?

This may not answer your question directly, but it is a solution....

I am not a fan of doing dev work on my production Mac.  I also don't see any value in setting up a MAMP server because it will be a very rare occurrence that you get a hosting provider with MAMP setup.  Chances are it will be LAMP and by a very small margin, WAMP.

Why not set up a LAMP box with CentOS in a virtual machine.  VirtualBox would be a good choice for this.  The beauty with this is that when your Mac goes to sleep, it automatically puts the VM into a saved state - meaning when wakes, it is right where it left off.

The other huge benefit is that you can move that VM to other machines where as your MAMP setup, you are pretty much bound to your hardware.

Just a thought....


Backup without Time Machine I'm trying to downgrade from Catalina to Mojave, and I need to backup all of my files without backing up operating system files. Time Machine takes a backup of everything on the disk meaning that macOS Catalina files are also included. I need a way in which I can install macOS Mojave on my Mac and keep my personal data. What's the best way to backup a hard drive without Time Machine?

You can try copying all of the home folders located in /Users. After copying all the folders there to the external hard drive, you should check if all the data you want is there. After that, you can boot from macOS Recovery and erase the startup disk. After doing that, use a bootable macOS Mojave installer to reinstall macOS on the Startup Disk.

To do that, first read this on creating bootable macOS Installers: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372.

To boot from that drive, you need to shutdown or restart your computer with the macOS Installer plugged in. Then, hold "Option" while the Mac is starting to boot from the installer. Once you are in, click reinstall macOS and choose your startup disk.

After macOS Mojave is installed, boot from the internal startup disk. Finish setup and create a new user. Once you are in, copy all your home directories from the SSD to the /Users directory. Then go to System Preferences and create new users and set the home directories to the home folders that were copied and remove the user that was created at the setup of macOS Mojave. Reboot the machine and you technically have your data back.

NOTE: Some compatibility issues may occur with personal files when switching from macOS Catalina to macOS Mojave.


In bash, can test -e look for a file with a semi-variable name using *? I have an if then looking for a certain set of files. They all start with lib, so I could either set an if then up for each one or I was hoping there's a way I can use an asterisk.

Here's what I have and what I tried.

 d=myfolder
 if [[ -e $d/lib* ]]; then
  mv /etc/launchd.conf $d/launchd.conf
 else
  2>/dev/null; true
 fi

so as you can see, if any of those lib files are present I want to move the launchd.conf file as well. but the asterisk isn't doing it. Any ideas?

From man bash

[[ expression ]]
      Return a status of 0 or 1 depending on the evaluation of the conditional
      expression expression.  Expressions  are composed  of  the primaries
      described below under CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS. Word splitting and pathname
      expansion are not performed on the words between the [[ and ]]; tilde
      expansion, parameter and variable  expansion,  arithmetic expansion, command
      substitution, process substitution, and quote removal are performed.
      Conditional operators such as -f must be unquoted to be recognized as primaries.

Or in short, the pattern is not expanded.

A simple alternative could look like

if [[ $(echo $d/lib*) != "$d/lib*" ]]; then
    mv /etc/launchd.conf $d/launchd.conf
fi

Short explanation on how this works:

echo $d/lib* expands to a list of library files if any are present, this list is not equal to $d/lib* (which doesn't get expanded) so the mv is executed
OTOH if no library files are present, the echo returns the string $d/lib*, the != evaluates to false and the mv is not executed


`dd`command: ISO to USB Changes Partition Table to APM I am trying to dd an ISO to a USB so I can install Linux on another computer, but the USB changes from any partition table (GPM or MBR) to APM when it finishes.

I'm using the following command:

sudo dd if=[path of iso] of=/dev/disk2

The command "diskutil list" successfully shows the usb is /dev/disk2 and Disk Utility shows the partition table before has changed to APM.

I've worked with dd and Disk Utility several times in the past and have never until now had this problem. I believe it changed after I upgraded from OS X to macOS.

APM is not able to be used on this computer so the ISO on the USB can't be read. Help?

You're overwriting the disk device, not a partition on it, so yes, some chunk of the data from the ISO is going to overwrite the partition table on your USB device.

You don't provide enough details to determine anything else.


How to focus on MacVim in terminal using keyboard shortcut? I have three Applications open, one window for each:

Google chrome

MacVim in server mode

iTerm2

How I can set up some keyboard shortcuts to focus this apps ?

One Idea is do it via Alfred 2 Powerpack, after double click ctrl, run the iTerm2 command, this will start the iTerm2 app when not running, or focus it when it is already open.

Same for Google Chrome with different shortcut.

But I have no idea how to focus MacVim, because the app alone will run always a new window (no --remote option) when run like the both above.

Is there a method to focus to an existing already open application ?

See this question for different ways to assign shortcuts to opening applications.

When I tried using Alfred to assign a keyboard shortcut for MacVim, pressing the shortcut did not always open a new window. You could try using a script like this though:

tell application "MacVim"
    reopen -- open a new default window if there are no open windows
    activate -- make frontmost
end tell

Or try just using activate app "MacVim" or adding different arguments to open -a MacVim.


Problems syncing purchased music from iPad to Mac iTunes I have purchased music on the iPad but it does not appear in the "bought" section on my Mac's iTunes.

It doesn't make any sense! Everything is fully updated (except for my Mac's OS which is OS X Lion)

Why is this happening and how can I get it to sync?

Have you authorised your Mac's iTunes for the iTunes account used to purchase the Music?

Apple's KB article on transferring and authorising


iOS 9 and most recent contacts on top of screen in app switcher There used to be icons at the top showing who you recently texted or called when you double clicked the home button. But with iOS 9 update, it's no longer there.  Is it gone forever or is now a setting that needs to be fixed?

That feature is no longer located in the App Switcher, but instead (on iPhone 5 and later) can be found when one swipes to the very left page of the home screen.


Manually submit crash reports When an application crashes, OS X usually presents a little dialog with the opportunity to report the bug to Apple.

However, in my current situation there seems to be a problem with the window server so although I get the aforementioned dialog, I cannot interact with it, and hence cannot submit the crash report. A reboot is required to make the system once again responsive.

But I’d really like to get this report to Apple because it’s symptomatic of a problem with Lion which regularly crashes my machine, and I’d like to get this fixed as soon as possible.

There seem to be two alternatives here:

Use the feedback form on Apple’s website
Use bugreport.apple.com

Neither is ideal: the first is aimed at non-technical customers and doesn’t really offer the  possibility to provide technical details, let alone crash reports. The second presents a website that seems to date from the 90’s and apparently hasn’t been touched since. That, and I’ve already submitted a bug report there once, which has subsequently been deleted without comment. Neither fact instils much confidence in me that Apple actually cares about this platform.

Ideally, I’d like to trigger the “report a crash” dialog manually. Is this somehow possible? I haven’t found any way to do so in Console.app.

Since the opt in status is no Longer present in the Lion Console app, you can't see whether you are opted in or out.

My system does resume sending non-received reports when the next crash or force quit happens. I would poke and force quit the problem and watch that all the reports get submitted.

It is extra hassle to file it formally at http://bugreport.apple.com - but that way you are assured a human or two touches the report rather than it going into the summary reports.


How to prompt user confirmation on Mac from Windows/Linux VNC connections? is there a way to ask confirmation from the user when someone try to connect via VNC from a Linux or Windows based PC to his Mac?
I succesfully connected via VNC from Mac, Linux and Windows, without any problems, but only in Mac to Mac connections the user of the computer I want to access is prompted for confirmation to share is screen. When I connect from Windows or Linux PCs, I just have to type the VNC password and I'm in, without the user knowing that there's someone watching his screen (only if he's fast enough to see the small change in the binocular icon).

I'm using the native VNC server of Mac, activating the Remote Management option in sharing preferences. I use also ARD to manage software updates, that's why I can not disable that option. But ARD is installed only on the Macs of the support team (wich are few), most of the team uses Linux based PCs to provide IT suport in our college.

Is there a way to warn the user or ask for his permission to acess his screen using the native Mac VNC/Screen Sharing when connecting from a Windows/Linux PC??

System preference => Sharing => Remote Management => Computer Settings
Check the box: VNC viewers may control screen with password:
And allow access for only the users needing access. That should do the trick


Is there a way for me to view my Apple Watch Activity data on my mac desktop? I'd like to be able to view my apple watch Activity data on my mac desktop or laptop.
So for example, workouts, steps, etc, today, and for the last week, much like what I can find in the Activity app on the apple watch.
I've logged into iCloud.com to see if it was there, but it's not, and I looked for an Activity app on my mac desktop, but don't see one. I've also googled this a bunch, and found this suggested answer - not supported - on Apple's communities site, but would love to find a third party solution to do this, if one exists.
Is there anyway I can see some of my personal health data secured in the health app on my Mac?

Not today from Apple. You would need to screenshot images from the iPhone or get a third party app to request permission on iOS and export the data. The health app data is tightly restrained and only interacts with electronic health records and iOS/watchOS apps.
Apple documentation is quite out of date, since the advice on finding compatible apps is no longer correct.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204351

I’ve tried a couple and can not recommend any. Should that change, I’ll edit this answer to say which apps I trust and that do a good job extracting summary data like you requested. I just use my phone for now to review it when I can’t get what I need from my watch itself.


What is the best free hard drive diagnostics app for Mac OS X? My MacBook Pro (described below) fell 5 feet while it was powered on. Would the sudden motion sensor be able to turn off the hard drives in time? Also, can anyone recommend the best (free) hard drive diagnostic tools Mac OS X?

Thanks, Chirag

  Model Name: MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5
  Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
  Number Of Processors: 1
  Total Number Of Cores: 2
  L2 Cache: 3 MB
  Memory: 4 GB
  Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
  Boot ROM Version: MBP55.00AC.B03
  SMC Version (system): 1.47f2
  Serial Number (system): W89241NW66E
  Hardware UUID: D62F2A33-E5BA-5208-B300-28730564D27F
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State: Enabled

System Software Overview:

  System Version: Mac OS X 10.5.8 (9L30)
  Kernel Version: Darwin 9.8.0
  Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
  Boot Mode: Normal
  Time since boot: 5:20

About the only "free" tool that's worth anything is smartmontools, IMHO.

smartmontools is a free SMART monitoring application that comes from the Unix, BSD, and Linux world (OS X is based on BSD). This tool can provide extensive SMART monitoring but it's command line which a lot of people don't like. Everything else costs money - I suppose some people have actual costs, like food, water, heat, mortgage, etc. etc.

ZVH, over on MacRumors, has written a list of drive testing tools but beware most of these cost money:

  Mac hard drive test software - creating the definitive list

  Disk Utility, diskutil (FREE, comes with OS)
  Smartmon Tools (FREE, Open Source)
  SMARTReporter ($4.95 for commercial version, but an older version is FREE)
  Scannerz Lite ($21.95)
  Scannerz with Phoenix and FSE-Lite ($39.95)
  Disk Tools Pro ($79.99)
  Disk Warrior ($99.00)
  Drive Genius ($99.00)
  TechTool Pro ($99.99)

That's actually a really good report. Interesting that nearly no one commented on it. In any case, I think you get what you pay for. Tools like Disk Warrior and Scannerz are known to do very limited things but do an extraordinarily good job of doing it, while other "Swiss Army Knife" tools apparently do a decent job, but not really all that thorough. The author only identifies a few applications as "free."

Although I find SMART status useful, I wouldn't base my life around SMART reports and would recommend that people do web searches about the reliability of SMART testing before using it as a defacto standard.


iPhone Personal Hotspot via USB stopped working after OS X 10.10.4 update I installed OS X 10.10.4 and right at the end of the process, my iPhone (which was plugged in to the Mac via USB with a Personal Hotspot connection) vibrated as if the USB cable had been reconnected, the Hotspot connection disconnected and hasn't worked since.

Connecting the iPhone via USB makes it vibrate and start charging as expected. Connecting to the Personal Hotspot via Wi-Fi works normally. The iPhone has been updated to iOS 8.4.

What's this all about?

Edit 2015-07-15:

I had previously gotten this working, here's how:

  Odd. I started up Xcode 7 beta, it asked to install some updates /
  additional components. My iPhone was connected via USB this whole
  time, and immediately after the updates were completed, I heard a
  sound on my iPhone: the Hotspot connection was on again.

But today, the Hotspot stopped working again in OS X 10.11 beta (my iPhone also has iOS 9.0 beta now). Same symptoms, but this time, launching Xcode 7 beta won't help. What to do?

The reason for USB tethering not working is in 99% cases bad iPhone driver - yes, even on OS X. It may sound weird, but going to http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ and re-installing iTunes from the latest iTunes installer will probably solve the issue for you. Sometimes the driver can get corrupted during a system update etc. Give it a shot and report back :)


Apple MacBook Pro display shows black screen I have a MacBook Pro 15 inch 2015 model. Until yesterday it worked fine. But now it shows a black screen. But when I connect to external display through HDMI it works fine.

Is there any solution to solve that problem?

Unfortunatly, it looks like a hardware issue.

Use the external monitor to see what you are doing and go to the system preferences and check the settings. Check the monitor preferences and see if it listed. Try turning the brightness all the way up.

If it is a 2015 model and less than 1 year old Apple should repair it for free. If you have AppleCare extended warranty they will repair it for 3 years for free. Take it to an Apple Store or an Apple approved repair vendor.


Should I be worried about my iPhone overheating? There have been a few times where my iPhone (and iPod as well) has gotten slightly warmer than I would like after extensive use or a specifically  demanding app (infinity blade). Should I be worried about my iOS devices overheating?  If so what are some steps to prevent this and overall protect the device?

Yes and no.

The newer iOS devices have internal temperature sensors and will let you know when the internal temperatures are so high that damage is of concern. You basically get locked out of the device until it's cool enough to run again.

As long as the sensor is working, it is safe to use the device up until it shuts itself off. This protection should cover you from charging or operating the device and causing harm to the components in the short term as well as drastic long term damage to the battery.

If you are concerned about the long term health of the battery - then yes, do worry about temperature. At 0°C - you can expect to lose between 2 and 6% of the capacity per year depending on the average charge in the battery (the lower is at 40% average charge - the higher is 100% average charge). If the temperature is 25°C - these losses jump to 4% to 20% capacity loss. If you store/use the phone for one year at 40°C which most people would consider very hot to hold - the losses in capacity are 15% to 40% annually. Charging the battery this hot or hotter is even worse for the health of the battery.

So, a few times of limited use under 40°C shouldn't be of concern, but leaving it in a very hot car (> 50°C) can be very damaging if it's charging or there for hours or days.

Whenever you can keep it cooler, and not fully charged for long periods of time, your battery will degrade less over time. You can weigh the need to use the battery when warm with the eventual replacement cost of $79 if you should ever just need a battery swapped out by Apple.


prevent networksetup from asking for password I am trying to get rid of password when changing proxy with networksetup. I changed permissions to read and write of /private/etc folder and propagated change to subfolders.

I tried this:

sudo chmod u+s /usr/sbin/networksetup

and it says:

    `/etc/sudoers is world writable`
no valid sudoers sources found, quitting

Changed permission back to readonly, now it says

Unable to change file mode on /usr/sbin/networksetup: Operation not permitted

I also tried with visudo -f /etc/sudoers, but I don't know how to edit file from here. Can you help me out?

EDIT: after running visudo -f/etc/sudoers I get this error. Should I delete the swap file? No additional program is editing sudoers folder

E325: ATTENTION
Found a swap file by the name "/etc/.sudoers.tmp.swp"
          owned by: mainuser   dated: Sun May  1 16:28:25 2016
         file name: /private/etc/sudoers.tmp
          modified: YES
         user name: mainuser   host name: Mains-MacBook-Pro.local
        process ID: 39284
[O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (D)elete it, (Q)uit, (A)bort:
-- More --   dated: Sun May  1 16:23:40 2016

(1) Another program may be editing the same file.
    If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two
    different instances of the same file when making changes.
    Quit, or continue with caution.

(2) An edit session for this file crashed.
    If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r /etc/sudoers.tmp"
    to recover the changes (see ":help recovery").
    If you did this already, delete the swap file "/etc/.sudoers.tmp.swp"
    to avoid this message.

Swap file "/etc/.sudoers.tmp.swp" already exists!
[O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (D)elete it, (Q)uit, (A)bort:
-- More --

EDIT: For future reference, if you edit file manually, make sure to do this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7262040?start=0&tstart=0

Open Terminal and enter sudo visudo to modify the file /etc/sudoers.

Change the part:

## User privilege specification
##
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

to

## User privilege specification
##
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL
your_username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/networksetup

and save the file.

If you don't know vi: after entering sudo visudo you have to change to insert mode by hitting i. Enter the additional line as indicated above. To leave insert mode hit esc. Then enter :wq and the Enter key to write the modified file to disk and quit vi.

Using sudo networksetup ... shouldn't require a password anymore.


Is there any not-scary explanation for Finder's memory usage? OS X El Capitan 10.11.6. MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015).

I wouldn't worry about any memory issue until there's pressure or a problem - specially if things are clean after a restart as you report in the comments. If Finder had a horrible bug, you and everyone else would be able to reproduce it taking 6 GB. In fact, when there’s a substantial leak, I expect 10 times as much allocation, runaway page file growth/swap and high memory pressure in short order.

Since you have none of those, I’d chalk this up to a transient condition or hard to trigger edge case at best.

The system is designed to use all the memory it can since memory access is faster than network or storage access. Self-managed systems can reduce the allocations once you have other needs. What your snapshot shows is nothing else needs RAM, so the system is using it all for other tasks.

I rarely see finder with high memory in the GB range so you might have something allocating this that you can control, but even so - your screen capture has no signs of pressure. You could dig into Finder's allocations or try removing Dropbox to see if there are leaks. Even if Finder is leaking, it's not causing any harm (perhaps yet). You can also log out and log back in. If you check on the RAM usage / pressure usage each hour for several hours, you can quickly determine if Finder indeed is leaking memory or if you just have a usage pattern where it allocated a lot of RAM and hasn't released it yet.

If you need to know, the heap command will let anyone diagnose their current Finder allocations:

$ heap Finder|more
Process:         Finder [853]
Path:            /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
Load Address:    0x1071b6000
Identifier:      com.apple.finder
Version:         10.14.5 (1143.5.1)
Build Info:      Finder_FE-1143005001000000~1
Code Type:       X86-64
Parent Process:  ??? [1]

Date/Time:       2019-05-21 06:36:12.965 -0500
Launch Time:     2019-05-19 09:56:56.140 -0500
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.14.5 (18F132)
Report Version:  7
Analysis Tool:   /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/heap
Analysis Tool Version:  Xcode 10.2.1 (10E1001)

Physical footprint:         31.5M
Physical footprint (peak):  33.9M
----

Process 853: 4 zones

All zones: 90996 nodes malloced - Sizes: 300KB[1] 172KB[1] 132KB[2] 68KB[19] 60KB[1] 56KB[2] 48KB[2] 44KB[4] 40KB[1] 36KB[1] 30.5KB[1] 27KB[1] 24KB[1] 22.5KB[1] 22KB[4] 19.5KB[2] 18KB[1] 17KB[1] 16.5KB[2] 16KB[2] 14.5KB[5] 14KB[3] 13.5KB[3] 13KB[3] 12.5KB[4] 12KB[1] 11KB[1] 10.5KB[1] 10KB[5] 9.5KB[3] 9KB[4] 8.5KB[20] 8KB[13] 7.5KB[5] 7KB[6] 6.5KB[4] 6KB[4] 5.5KB[9] 5KB[16] 4.5KB[17] 4KB[43] 3.5KB[21] 3KB[62] 2.5KB[119] 2KB[144] 1.5KB[243] 1KB[63] 1008[3] 992[9] 976[3] 960[15] 944[4] 928[6] 912[5] 896[28] 880[24] 864[9] 848[6] 832[13] 816[9] 800[3] 784[15] 768[22] 752[11] 736[4] 720[7] 704[13] 688[14] 672[63] 656[17] 640[2] 624[32] 608[24] 592[25] 576[120] 560[10] 544[15] 528[219] 512[94] 496[23] 480[9] 464[59] 448[34] 432[85] 416[179] 400[59] 384[39] 368[91] 352[60] 336[615] 320[1231] 304[275] 288[196] 272[690] 256[364] 240[129] 224[1329] 208[253] 192[1413] 176[348] 160[354] 144[1809] 128[2413] 112[6448] 96[3460] 80[5112] 64[21054] 48[20747] 32[14405] 16[5997]

Found 1231 ObjC classes
Found 214 CFTypes

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
All zones: 90996 nodes (12977600 bytes)

    COUNT     BYTES       AVG   CLASS_NAME                                       TYPE    BINARY
    =====     =====       ===   ==========                                       ====    ======
    21548   5467536     253.7   non-object
    16751   1044544      62.4   CFString                                         ObjC    CoreFoundation
     5222    334208      64.0   CFDictionary                                     ObjC    CoreFoundation
     5029    748640     148.9   CFDictionary (Value Storage)                     C       CoreFoundation
     4836    710864     147.0   CFDictionary (Key Storage)                       C       CoreFoundation
     3485    167280      48.0   NSMutableArray                                   ObjC    CoreFoundation
     3421    134912      39.4   NSMutableArray (Storage)                         C       CoreFoundation
     1540    147808      96.0   NSURL                                            ObjC    CoreFoundation
     1208    386560     320.0   _FileCache                                       CFType  CoreServicesInternal
     1016     65024      64.0   TPropertyInfo                                    C++     DesktopServicesPriv


How to open shell scripts in editor when double clicking on them I'm trying to migrate to OS X. One thing what I find really strange / dangerous that by double clicking on shell scripts, I launch them in Terminal.

I would like to change this behaviour to open them in Sublime Text.

My problem is that while I can do it to single files using the "Get Info" dialog, I cannot apply "Change All..." for these kind of files.

For other filetypes it worked OK, but for .sh / Unix Executable File I cannot assign them.

When I click, I get the following error dialog:
The operation can't be completed.
An unexpected error occurred (error code -50).

Install duti by running brew install duti, save a file like

com.apple.TextEdit public.unix-executable all

as ~/.duti, and then run /usr/local/bin/duti ~/.duti. After that executable scripts with no filename extension should be opened in TextEdit.

Another option is to run plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist, open the plist in a text editor, add an entry like

<dict>
  <key>LSHandlerContentType</key>
  <string>public.unix-executable</string>
  <key>LSHandlerRoleAll</key>
  <string>com.apple.TextEdit</string>
</dict>

under LSHandlers, and then restart to apply the changes.

The default application for shell scripts with a .sh extension can be changed from Finder:


Macbook Pro mid-2012: All applications are "damaged or incomplete", question mark on all apps, no icons Over the past couple days I have experience truly the most bizarre issue with an Apple product I have ever experienced. It has a somewhat long story to it, so I have all relevant details in chronological order.

First off, here's my specs: Macbook Pro Mid-2012 i5 w/ 250GB SSD, 1TB HDD in optical bay, 8GB RAM. Running high sierra 10.13.2

Alright. So, my computer installed some updates overnight last weekend. Worked fine the next day, except that Spotlight stopped indexing my applications folder. Rather annoying, but not completely bizzare. I tried fixing it by adding the applications folder to the Spotlight blacklist, then remove it. That did nothing.

Monday night, I tried the following three commands to try to force it to reindex my entire drive:

sudo mdutil -i on /
sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo mdutil -E /

That did nothing immediately - again, unsurprisingly. But the next day, it still hadn't indexed the drive. The progress bar in Spotlight was stuck at the beginning.

Last night (Tuesday) was when the really bizzare stuff started happening. I tried to launch Fusion 360 (CAD software) from the dock, to be greeted with a "Fusion 360 cannot be opened because it is damaged or incomplete." I did the reasonable thing, and did a system reboot. I tried opening other software from the dock, but was greeted with the same message for all items in the dock. I then tried opening items from the launchpad, only to be greeted with no apps having icons whatsoever. Same thing with apps directly from my Applications folder - attempting to open any app, including system utilities like Terminal and Disk utility - resulted in the same damaged or incomplete error. Additionally, all the apps had their icons missing in the Applications folder. Right-clicking > show package content > browsing to the actual executable also does not work - it asks what software you would like to open the file with. I would have launched them from the terminal, but... well... I can't open it!

At this point, I got seriously freaked out about a corrupted drive, malware, etc, so I shut it down for the night. Today, I pulled the drive and took a full image of it for backup purposes. After some SMART analysis and the massive copy without any errors (used ddrescue on a linux box to clone the drive to an iso), I can say definitively that the SSD is not dying. After backing up the drive, I booted off a recovery USB drive and ran first aid on the main partition on the SSD, which found no errors.

I also tried other user accounts. First I tried another admin account, and google chrome launched on login fine, but no other software would open. After quitting google chrome, it refused to open again - same damaged or incomplete error. I then tried the guest account, where all the app icons on the dock are replaced with question marks. Again, nothing would open. However, I could open "About This Mac", and get a system report, etc. Clicking on software update results in a cryptic error about not being able to find the app to open that link with.

I also know that it isn't a broken SATA cable, as I've booted off a clone of the drive via USB and it has all the same issues.

At this point, I plan on doing a full OS reinstall and copying stuff back from my disk image. But if anyone has any idea why this happened in the first place, or what I could do to repair it short of doing a full reinstall, let me know. If you want screenshots of any of this weirdness (taken with a phone camera, because Preview can't open to take screenshots...) then let me know. Thank for any help!

Following your initial description, I had the exact same problem. But it wasn't a malicious cable. So, for future reference and people with this problem, this is my solution, which is way more easier:

Let's assume you don't even have access to the terminal / console and therefore you have to boot into recovery mode:

(re-)boot into recovery mode (hold CMD + R until Apple logo appears)
start console / terminal
locate the folder /private/var/folders/ of your regular installation (!)

Heads up:
If you are able to run the console within your regular installation, the folder is just there: /private/var/folders/.
But if you use the recovery mode console, the /private/var/folders/ is the one of your recovery interface. You need to look for a folder like /Volumes/Macintosh/private/var/folders/ - that's the location of all your regular files.

If you get to the correct folder, you just delete it's content. (For security reasons you may move the content of this folder to a temporary location).

After your done, just reboot. This should fix your problem.

Nota bene:

As far as i know /private/var/folders/ just contains a lot of temporary files which will be deleted every time you restart your mac. If you are using the hibernation mode, this folder may grow constantly. It also could help to reboot the system while holding the SHIFT-key, as this also runs a few routines that will clear temporary files.


Last command source file Despite what I thought, there does not seem to be any concrete/modern answer on the net, so my question is: where does the last command get its information from? I have found the file before, but months ago, and I can not remember where it is. So what is the directory of the file where last keeps its log?

EDIT

This is technically the same as this question, except for one thing: "/private/var/log/com.apple.launchd" DOES NOT EXIST on my mac (perhaps it was pre-El Capitan-only) as proven by the fact that

ls /private/var/log | grep "com.apple.launchd"

returns nothing. com.apple.xpc.launchd does exist, but is empty. So please reopen the question, as something is different

Since Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Apple has replaced the utmp/wtmp mechanism with the Apple logging system. See man 5 utmpx for details.  Here is a pertinent excerpt:

Traditionally, separate files would be used to store the running log of the logins
and logouts (wtmpx), and the last login of each user (lastlogx).  With the avail-
ability of the Apple system log facility asl(3), these separate files can be
replace with log entries, which are automatically generated when utmpx entries are
written.  The API to access the logins and logouts is described in
endutxent_wtmp(3) while the last login info is accessible with getlastlogx(3).

See man asl for the programatic interface to the log system.  Apple Syslog saves all its utmp/wtmp/lastlog-like information in /var/log/asl/*.


How can I fix permission issue when I cannot start Mac OS X? I was creating a guest account and to prevent it from accessing the Macintosh HD as in other applications and stuff I assigned it as in "No Access"

When I switched to the guest account everything blocked, I restarted my mac and all I get is a blue screen.

Now, I can't log in, not even in safe mode.
What can I do to fix this?

Boot to single user mode by holding command + S right after powering the system on (before the chime & apple logo). Once the system has booted to the command line, type these commands without the leading tick mark. Spaces matter, periods matter, it has to be exact.

/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /private/var/db
rm .AppleSetupDone
halt

The mac should shut off. Now power on - you will get played the normal welcome screen. Make a new user (try not to re-use one of the old names - "rescue account" might be a good choice). You can then go to the preference pane and see what happened to the users.


I just want to see the email address in the Apple ID A teacher found a school iPad 2, used by a former student, as a loaner, in the back of the iPad cart and they put their info into the apple id. So, we're locked out.

I just want to SEE the email from the Apple ID, so I can send a request, to the student, to remove the device from their iTunes account. How do I go about seeing the email, instead of d****@yahoo.com?  Did factory restore but, nothing opened up. Can't follow Apple's instructions for recovering because I have No ID or email address and they want one or the other.

There's no way to find that info.  If you don't have the email address and the password you can't see that type of info.

I don't think Apple can see that info, either.  You'll have to take it to them, with proof of ownership, and they can reset the device.  You can contact them at getsupport.apple.com for additional help.


Is there anyway to expand my MacBook Air's hard disk? I have a 2011 MacBook Air(11-inch), I am using OS X 10.9, but I only have 64GB Flash Storage, and I  want to expand the storage of MacBook Air's hard disk. I asked geniuses at Apple and they told me the answer is no. So, is this possible?

It is possible, although not from Apple themselves.

A company called OWC seem to specialise in SSD upgrades for macbook's and have upgrades for your model available here

These particular upgrades offer greater speed and capacity to some of the stock apple SSD's from 2011.


How to find picture in Photos that shows up as wallpaper (after Systems Preferences work) in Mojave I have a large Photos library with approximately 100+ folders in My Album. I have set System Preferences Desktop to use my complete Photos library as source for wallpaper.
Occasionally I have a desktop wallpaper I would like to find the original Photos picture and folder in My Albums where it is located.

Earlier, in this forum,  I found this command:

osascript -e 'tell app "finder" to get posix path of (get desktop picture as alias)'
/Users/snaguru/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters/2013/09/29/20130929-164330/P1010004.JPG

When I search in Photos for P1010004.JPG I get displayed 16 pictures, none of which is the specific pictures used as wallpaper I am interested in. I have tried to use some parts of this path name to search in Photos but come up with a Not Found response.

Is there a way to find out the exact location in Photos (My Albums and sub-folder/sub-directory) of the original picture used as the wallpaper?

Here's a different approach:
http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/20/show-the-location-path-of-current-wallpaper-in-mac-os-x/
In essence, type the following commands in Terminal.app:

Reveal the file path of the current wallpaper on the Desktop:

defaults write com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text -bool TRUE; killall Dock
Once revealed, hide the file path from the Desktop:

defaults write com.apple.dock desktop-picture-show-debug-text -bool FALSE; killall Dock

It works this way on all recent macOS versions from 10.10 Yosemite onward (including Catalina).


Bash Autocomplete Script with El Capitan About a week ago, I added the following to the end of my .bash_profile script so set up tab completion for man pages:

function _man_pages()
{
    local cur opts prev
    COMPREPLY=()
    cur="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}"      #Get the current word
    prev="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD - 1]}" #Get the previous word
    opts=""
    if [ "$prev" = "man" ];
    then
        #We didn't use a section number
        #This lovely regex converts from the file path to the name of the page
        opts=$(find -E "/usr/share/man" -regex ".*/man[1-9n]/(${cur}.*)\.[1-9n].*$" | sed -E 's/^.*\/(.*)\.[1-9n].*$/\1/')
    else
        #We entered a section number
        opts=$(find -E "/usr/share/man" -regex ".*/man${prev}/(${cur}.*)\.${prev}.*$" | sed -E "s/^.*\/(.*)\.${prev}.*$/\1/")
    fi

    COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "${opts}" -- ${cur}) )
    return 0
}

complete -F _man_pages man

However, when I updated to El Capitan this morning, it stopped working. I've successfully run the regex portion of the script in my terminal itself, so I'm confident that they are still correct. Can anyone explain why this is happening, and/or how to fix it?

Thanks!

UPDATE: After doing a little more digging, I've discovered that it still works for most man pages, just not man 2 or man 3. After looking in the correct folder it was before, the folders man2 and man3 are gone. I'm still able to do "man pthread_create" and get results, so those folders must have gone somewhere. I'll be back when I know more.

After some more digging, I found that I can do "man -W" to get a list of folders that man checks when looking for the pages themselves, including the one where pthread_create is.

P.S. It looks like it's in the Xcode app folder now.


iPad 2 won't charge and turn on My iPad won't turn on and when I try to charge it only the red filler icon (battery icon ) display. The red filler keep blinking three times and then the screen went black. Its keep doing the same thing again again and I even let it charge for more than 2 hours but it won't turn on or charging. This happen suddenly cause usually when the battery died then I charge it, it work. But now it happen like this. Someone please give me advice or what can I do to my iPad ? And what it's problem...

That's classic symptoms of a working iPad, working charge circuitry and a rechargeable Lithium based battery that can no longer take a charge.

Depending on your budget this might be worth paying for a repair or paying for parts and learning about the process to replace a battery. Keep in mind - lithium cells can be fire hazards and if you modify your iPad - it could present a fire hazard if both the old and new battery aren't handled carefully and all safety features aren't correctly reconnected or present in the replacement parts.


Core dumps aren't generated in El Captain I used ulimit -c unlimted in terminal to get core dumps in the /cores folder.
However, after reboot (kernel panic) I no longer can get any core dumps regardless what I try - ulimit -c unlimted or sudo sysctl -w kern.coredump=1 - core dumps just don't get generated.

How should I enable core dumps for the terminal session? I used core dumps to debug my console application.

OSX 10.11.5

The issue was missing sticky bit on the /cores directory permissions:

$ ls -lh /
...
drwxr-xr-x    2 root  admin    68B Jul 29 09:55 cores/
...

fixed by:

sudo chmod 1775 /cores


How do I get magnet links to work with Deluge? How do you associate magnet links with Deluge BitTorrent Client on OS X? On other systems, you can associate magnet links with the client through Preferences, but this does not seem to be the case with OS X.

On OS X, Deluge is unable to associate itself with magnet links due to GTK-OSX not supporting the feature (See ticket #2420).

A workaround is to use Deluge Magnet Handler. To use it, download the ZIP, extract it, move Magnet Handler.app to the Applications folder and run it once.

The application works by associating itself with magnet links and adding them to Deluge using a AppleScript when magnet links are pressed.


Mac can't connect to wifi network after password change I've got a Mid-2010 17" MBP freshly upgraded to 10.7.  I went to the coffee shop today to do a bit of work, but I was unable to connect to the wifi network.  I had been there yesterday(though without my laptop) and the wifi password had been changed.  I updated the password on my iPhone and iPad, and those devices have been connecting to the network with no problems.

Today when I went in with my Macbook, however, I was unable to establish a connection with the network.  I thought it was a bit strange, since it never told me the password was wrong(keep in mind, the laptop still remembers the old wifi network password), it just grabbed a self assigned IP and complained that it couldn't connect to the internet.

This is what I did in effort to establish a connection, with no success:

Removed the network in question from my saved wifi networks.  Upon attempting to reconnect nothing changed, still gets a self assigned IP, never asks for a new password, no internet connection.
Removed all entries for the network in question from the Keychain.  After removing the keychain entry, any time I reconnect to the network, the keychain entry is re-added with the old, incorrect, password.
Edited the password in the keychain entry to the new, correct, password.  This resulted in the same behavior as my first attempt, nothing new.
Removed entry from saved networks, deleted keychain entry, restarted mac.  Exactly the same as before.

So after a good 20 minutes of attempting to connect to the network, I could never even get it to prompt me for a new password(the password it has stored is definitely different than the current, correct, password for the network).  So I gave up and came home to attempt to figure it all out.

Any suggestions on how to get connected to this network with a new password?  Have I done all the right things, and should now just go file a radar on this behavior?

If you have checked both the user keychain and the system keychain for old passwords, we're left with obscure guesses.

Two things come immediately to mind (from the obscure side).

Your mac will join any base station with that SSID. I have seen people literally setting up a second router in busy coffee shops - you have to hold the option key and make note of the mac address you have connected to and see it change to catch this.
If your wifi connects to the router wifi, it doesn't mean the dhcp server has any more addresses to lease. You will need the owner to reset or power cycle the router to see if the leases are all out and unexpired. You basicall have a great pipe connecting you to the main, but no water is flowing to you until you get a lease.


Is there an OSX app/way to batch rename files via a purely text interface? Many years ago - when I was a Windows user - I had an application which made renaming files an amazingly simple experience. You would select the files you wish to work with, and their filenames would appear within what was essentially a huge textarea. Imagine a text editor (such as TextEdit, Sublime Text, etc.) open to a document that simply lists all filenames, with each filename on a new line.

With the files in this interface, you had your "standard" find/replace tools (CMD+F), as well as the ability to use REGEX. You could use the keyboard's arrows to move around the filenames without extra clicks or bulky interfaces. Modified filenames were highlighted with a different background and applying changes to all files was a simple CMD+S.

Does something like this exist for OSX?

// edit - to clarify: I'm aware of OSX's built-in bulk file renaming options in Finder, and software along the likes of NameChanger, Renamer, Automator, ABetterFinderRename, etc. I'm specifically looking for software with the kind of UI I described.

// edit 2 - the original Windows software is called Oscar's Renamer: http://www.mediachance.com/free/renamer.htm

Emacs can do this.

Open Emacs
C-x C-f and open the directory. It will open in dired-mode.
M-x wdired-change-to-wdired-mode RET

You can now edit the filenames just as you asked.  Pressing C-c C-c will end wdired-mode and perform the modifications.

  wdired-change-to-wdired-mode is an interactive autoloaded Lisp
  function in `wdired.el'.

  It is bound to   .

  (wdired-change-to-wdired-mode)

  Put a Dired buffer in Writable Dired (WDired) mode.

  In WDired mode, you can edit the names of the files in the buffer, the
  target of the links, and the permission bits of the files.  After
  typing C-c C-c, Emacs modifies the files and directories to reflect
  your edits.

  See `wdired-mode'.


How to install recent clang++ with Homebrew? I've tried

brew install llvm

but after that I cannot find any clang++* executable under /usr/local.

Thus my question: How to get clang++ via Homebrew?

As of 2018, the Homebrew Versions repository ('tap') is out of service.

The stock Homebrew llvm package still doesn't include clang/clang++, by default. Thus, it isn't part of the prebuilt ('bottled') package.

One can build it via:

brew install --with-toolchain llvm

And then use it via e.g.:

$ PATH="/usr/local/opt/llvm/bin:$PATH" \
    LDFLAGS='-L/usr/local/opt/llvm/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/opt/llvm/lib' \
    cmake ...

But this --with-toolchain induced build takes a very long time and is thus unsuitable in a continuous integration (CI) environment.

However, the clang that comes with recent XCode  (which is available in CI environments like Travis-CI, Version 9 is the default, 10 available, too) isn't that outdated anymore as it used to be (Apple uses an fantasy version scheme for clang that doesn't match upstream clang version numbers but cmake detects e.g. for AppleClang 9.1.0.9020039 the version 4.0.1). Thus, it is sufficient to build C++11/C++14 software with common dependencies like Boost (e.g. version 1.67).

2016 State of the Art

The llvm package in Homebrew doesn't include clang++, by default. When installing it, you have to add --with-clang to the command line (e.g. brew install --with-clang llvm). The extra --with-clang yields a full package compile because there is only one prebuild ('bottled') llvm package available (without clang++). In addition to that: the llvm package is relatively old - currently it has llvm 3.6 - where 3.7 was released 6 months ago.

Thus, to get a bottled clang++ 3.7 you have to install the llvm package from Homebrew Versions:

$ brew tap homebrew/versions
$ brew install llvm37

It is then available under:

/usr/local/bin/clang++-3.7

The formula also notes:

To link to libc++, something like the following is required:
  CXX="clang++-3.7 -stdlib=libc++"
  CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS -nostdinc++ -I/usr/local/opt/llvm37/lib/llvm-3.7/include/c++/v1"
  LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L/usr/local/opt/llvm37/lib/llvm-3.7/lib"


Creating star effect in Pixelmator I have a picture taken with a person in front of a Christmas tree; the lights in the Christmas tree look like small blurry things.

However, I want to make the lights look like stars. Is this possible in Pixelmator?

This is most certainly possible in Pixelmator by using a brush in the form of a star. You can easily create one yourself straight in Pixelmator or you search on the net for an image of a star. Make sure the area around the star is transparent then you can save the star as a png-file and drag and drop that file onto the brushes palette. Now with the brush tool you can click on each blurry christmas light and cover it with the star. Try different blending modes for the brush. It could be you could get better results then.

It is also possible to create a bokeh effect in Pixelmator. The guys at http://pixelmatortutorials.net have had a tutorial about this some time ago. The bokeh effect is done by applying one of the standard filters in Pixelmator.


Launch agent loading question I have the following launch agent that runs on OS X and runs the below script to delete an app when a user downloads an OS upgrade from the App store. It then displays a message to a user after it is deleted.

#!/bin/bash

Version=$(sw_vers | grep ProductVersion | tail -c 7 | cut -d . -f 2)

if [[ $Version -ge 11 ]]
then
    launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/net.company_name.blocksierra.plist
    rm -f /Library/LaunchAgents/net.company_name.blocksierra.plist
    rm -f /usr/local/bin/blocksierra.sh
exit 0

else
    rm -rf /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra\ Public\ Beta.app/
    osascript -e 'display dialog "macOS sierra is not allowed on computers at this time." with title "Technology Notice" buttons {"OK"} default button "OK" giving up after 30'
fi

I am now going to package it and then deploy it to all of our Mac machines. My question is what do I add to the script to get the package to auto "load" the launchagent automatically once the package is installed?

So in other words how do I incorporate this command?

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/net.company_name.blocksierra.plist

Here is the plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"  "http://www.apple.com    /DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>net.company_name.blocksierra</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>/usr/local/bin/blocksierra.sh</string>
</array>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<dict>
    <key>PathState</key>
    <dict>
        <key>/Applications/Install macOS Sierra Public Beta.app/</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</dict>
<key>OnDemand</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>

All jobs related to items installed by packages (i.e. a pkg installer) are done with preflight or postflight scripts which are included in the package.

A preflight script may check if a needed folder exists and if its permissions are set properly. A postflight script may load launch agents and daemons installed by the pkg installer and set their owners and permissions.

In your case you would use a postflight script like this one:

#!/bin/bash

sudo /bin/launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/net.company_name.blocksierra.plist

BTW: Using if [[ $Version -ge 11 ]] will unload and delete the launch agent when El Capitan is installed. You may have to change this to 12.


How to find out if an App in the Mac App Store is 64 bit I want to buy a game in the Mac App Store.

How can I check before buying if the game/app is 64 bit or not?

I would like to know because 10.13.4 is displaying warnings about 32 bit apps/games. And probably 10.14 doesn't run 32 bit apps/games at all.

If the app in question was updated after June 2015, or if it was released after February 2015 the app it's 64 bit.

Why:

Apple stopped accepting new apps without 64 bit support in february 2015 and stopped accepting updates to existing apps without 64 bit support in June 2015.


Why is Google Chrome not seen in the Screen Recording Options in Security and Privacy settings I recently upgraded to Catalina(which I regret now). I have been facing lot of weird issues after upgrading one of which being not able to share the screen on Google Hangout Meet. I followed a few of the approaches mentioned in other forums.

The fix was simple where I have to go the System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Screen Recording and make sure Google Chrome is checked.

The issue for me, though, is that I am not seeing "Google Chrome" on the list when I go to the Screen Recording section and I have no idea how to make Google Chrome seen on the list. Can anyone help with this?

Visit https://meet.google.com/
Start a meeting, then cast your screen
Then you'll prompt the permission window.

After that, it'll appear in the Screen Recording section.


How can I check if the motherboard has been replaced? An authorized repair center said  they changed the motherboard of my iMac 27" but I have doubts since I can still experience the problem for what I had it repaired.

I was told on a forum that if the computer's SN was invisible or started differently in the About this Mac menu it meant that the MB had been replaced.
I'm seeing the same SN so it should mean that the MB was not replaced, but on the phone the repair guy said this method is wrong.

What do you say ?

The MAC address is linked to the logic board. So, if the logic board has been changed, MAC address will have changed too.
I've been told this by a Genius et Genius Bar when he said they need to change my logic board and asked if my router was checking MAC address for allowing net access, as I will then have to reconfigure it.
It also seems to be backed-up by this technical note (look for first occurrence of "logic board").

Edit: For your previous MAC addresses (ethernet and wifi and bluetooth, as I suppose they all change on a logic board exchange), you will find them on your computer's box, if you still have it (but it seems to be the case:)). These are the Ethernet ID, Airport ID and Bluetooh ID. You can then check in System Profiler to get the current ones.


Can't download El Capitan from Appstore. Constant Spinning Wheel Okay so here is the story..

I had just bought this Mac... I tried installing some software, and nothing was installing... kept getting this stupid error.

  The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail.
  Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.

So I thought it was like that for one particular program, so I began looking on the internet. Eventually I just forgot about it, until I tried to install another piece of software. Again the same issue... I soon realized after that it was happening to every single piece of software that I was trying to install that involved an installer package...

So then I tried to download and install El Capitan from scratch... But now I have run into another issue... app store won't download it... I'm stuck with this spinning wheel at the top left corner where the "Back" and "Forward" buttons are with the "Download" button grayed out after clicking on it. No response or any indication that it is downloading.

Any ideas? Support is out for the day, so I hope I can get an answer by tonight.

This is not really a true answer. But eventually after attempting to download El Capitan several times, it all of a sudden began to download. Once it downloaded I put the OS on a flash drive, booted off of it, wiped the drive, and performed a clean install. After that the system has been operating flawlessly. I guess when they gave it to me, something must have gone wrong during the install that got overlooked? not sure.

To be honest I do not know what software I was trying to install first when this all began. But it was something simple. This happened to me on every installation of any product that involved using an installation package. i.e. Adobe flash, Teamviewer, my logitech mouse drivers. It was happening on everything I tried to install. I just don't remember the first thing it was I tried to install.

Anyways now it's all up and running after the clean install, and performs flawlessly. Hopefully this doesn't occur to me again.

Thanks,
Sicariuxs


Safari tabs rarely restoring to their respective desktops after restarting When I restart my laptop (or log off and back on again), I expect apps like Safari to open up and restore all of the tabs and windows that I previously had. I also expect that the Safari tabs will restore to their respective desktops—so, for example, if I have Safari windows in Desktops 1, 3, and 5, I expect them to open up with their corresponding tabs in Desktops 1, 3, and 5 again after I log in.

However, that seems to happen only about 25% percent of the time. The rest of the time, Safari dumps all of the windows on Desktop 1. This seems to be the behavior which I am experiencing as far as I can remember, since High Sierra at least, all the way now to Mojave.

In contrast, apps like Pages and Finder always assign their windows to the correct desktops.

Other apps have this problem, like Sublime Text and Skim, but since they are third-party apps I'll give them some leeway and won't hold anything on the developers. However, this is not the type of behavior I would expect from stock macOS apps.

One thing to note is that any minimized Safari windows that I have always stay minimized, as they should. The behavior I am describing only affects visible windows.

Is there any sort of way to make the restoring behavior more consistent during log in, or is that some sort of the bug that Apple hasn't fixed?

Apps cannot be assigned to multiple Spaces.

If you split multiple windows of any single app to to separate desktops with no other pre-assignment, they will all open on the desktop that just happens to be frontmost when they launch. This can feel more random at boot time, when the screen is rapidly changing Spaces to place each already-assigned app on its correct Space.

You can fix any app to any Space by right clicking its icon in the Dock, then Options >

All Desktops - the app will follow you wherever you go
This Desktop - will change to show the Space number once assigned, then will always open in that Space.
None - will open in whatever Space you're in at the time.

If you have Mission Control set to 'Displays have separate Spaces' & 2 monitors, you will need a minimum of 3 Spaces before these options will become available to you.


Using iPhone7 as a microphone for MacBook I want my iPhone7 to be an external mic for my MacBook Pro (2015, OS 10.14.6).  I have followed this article -

https://www.macworld.com/article/2367142/understanding-the-limitations-of-a-macs-microphone.html

I’ve followed the instructions (which are very clear). And I’ve double checked. Everything seems to be right BUT the microphone is unresponsive.

Audio-MIDI setup seems fine, except I cannot adjust the ‘Master stream’ levels (this can be done with the built in mic)

Also, the ’Sounds’ preference page says that the selected device has no input controls (again, there are controls for the built-in mic).

Any suggestions please?

Try this steps:

Download Microphone Live on your iPhone
Put the iPhone in Airplane Mode (not sure why, maybe it works even without this step)
Connect your iPhone to your Mac with a Lightning to USB cable
Open Audio MIDI Setup on macOS
Go to Window and click on Show iOS Device Browser
Click Enable under your iPhone
Open the previously downloaded app on your iPhone
Open Preferences on macOS
Go to Sound then Input and your iPhone should appear in the list
Select your iPhone and you should be good to go!


Upload iCloud photos with OS X 10.7 My only Mac is so old that it only runs a maximum of OS X 10.7 which does not support iCloud Photo Library.

I want to upload a few thousand photos from my hard drive to iCloud Photo Library one time and that's all.

Is there a way to do this with my old Mac?

You should be able to do this at icloud.com. After you sign in, click photos, then upload at the top. You should then be able to select the photos you want to upload and click choose. Note all the photos must be individually selected: you may not select a folder.
You may alternatively drag them to the photos interface on icloud.com.

Obviously, it will take awhile for a few thousand to upload.


How can I use a different Apple ID to upload Apps How can I use a different Apple ID to upload my Apps to iTunesConnect?

The Apple ID that I use as Developer Account is also in use for uploading iBooks into iTunesConnect and can't be used to upload Apps anymore.

Is there a way to assign another Apple ID as developer account or to upload the Apps?

Yes - this is covered in the iTunes Connect guide under setting up user accounts:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/SettingUpUserAccounts.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011225-CH25-SW1


3 devices. icloud library I have 3 apple devices (one phone and 2 Ipads). If I turn off icloud library on my phone can I delete photos on my phone without deleting them on the other two devices?

Yes. If you disable iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone, photos will no longer be uploaded or removed from iCloud as per your actions on your phone. The iCloud backup for your phone will update, but that obviously doesn't affect the other devices.

Either way, it would be good to understand and have in place backup procedures. One is that the iPhone saves "deleted" photos for 39 days. After you delete photos from your iPhone I recommend that you check your iPad to make sure they aren't deleted there. Second, it would be good to backup all of your photos to a computer.


Iphone 5 Replacement Program I purchased my Iphone 5 in New-York but i live in London, may Apple restrict me from replacing the Power/Sleep button outside of the US?

call apple, they tend to do it on a case by case basis for full phone replacements.

That being said if it is just the sleep button, in countries like canada you  can just walk into any apple store and they do it for you, maybe try walking into a store, i would be shocked if the recall was not available in canada and not london


Are there QuickLook plugins that show more details about Applications? (.app) Is there a better QuickLook plugin than the built-in for quicklooking applications?

Something that would show more of the info define in Foobar./Contents/Info.plist, like version number and bundle identifier for example would be ideal.

Simple answer, no.

More complex answer is still no, but that doesn't mean it can't be done (Late Night Software's Script Debugger overrides the default QuickLook viewer for applications (com.apple.application) but you as the user don't see any difference).

There are a few sites around such as Quick Look Plugins and QLPlugins that offer plugins (.qlgenerator files), however there are none that enable more information on .app files to be shown.

The qlgenerator that does the job is StandardBundles.qlgenerator and is found in the /System/Library/QuickLook/ folder which is OSX's base folder for all QuickLook plugins that are OSX base types such as applications, Text files or Emails.

It provides the QuickLook functionality for the following base file "types".

com.apple.application (base type for ALL OSX application)
com.apple.systempreference.prefpane (Preference Pane files naturally)

Any replacement plugin would have to provide all the functionality of the existing plugin, in this case the Preference Pane quick look functionality.

Plugins live in 4 different places, and the order in which plugins are preferred is as follows:

Inside an application bundle - an application specific QuickLook plugin usually used to provide QuickLook functionality for bespoke file types
~/Library/QuickLook - your user plugins (does't exist until created by the user)
/Library/QuickLook - your mac's system wide application plugins
/System/Library/QuickLook - your mac's system wide Apple base type plugins

Overriding the system default behaviour for .app can therefore be done with the following caveats:

If another application also provides QuickLook functionality for the
type (com.apple.application) and it appears higher in the
hierarchy (1 highest, 4 lowest) then it will be used instead.
Apple do state in the QuickLook developer documentation that
for each of the above levels of hierarchy, if more
than one plugin is found for a specific type (e.g.
com.apple.application) then only the first one is used and you have no control over which one under normal circumstances except by forcing QuickLook to use a specific plugin using qlmanage -g

So yes it can be done, but nothing currently exists in the public domain that provides this functionality and therefore something would have to be written bespoke to provide it.

If it was implemented, using it has it's issues since it would be for an OS X base type... so replacing the base type is not a good idea; the priority of the plugins is not fixed and you cannot be sure that the plugin would actually be the one to run.


How to customize iOS app icons? Since the release of iOS 14, people have been sharing "aesthetic" iOS Home Screens.
These screenshots often feature fully custom app icons, designed and selected by the user.
How are these people changing and customizing their app icons?

Note that this is different than the app developer providing alternate app icons, which has been possible since iOS 10.3.

You can use the Shortcuts app to set custom icons: https://www.cultofmac.com/723677/customize-iphone-home-screen-icons-ios-14/


Are there adapters to use Thunderbolt Display with non-Thunderbolt computers? That Thunderbolt Display looks great. However, if I buy a monitor, it had better work with all my older computers, not just the latest and greatest Thunderbolt Macs. Is there any way I can get DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, or VGA into it?

The Apple press release says "supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays", but this is referring to the Thunderbolt output port (for daisy-chaining). The Thunderbolt Display will not work with a non-Thunderbolt machine without an adapter.

But unfortunately now that the they have started shipping them, it has become clear that this does not apply to the input side of the display. As covered in the AnandTech review you can only connect Thunderbolt equipped computers into the Thunderbolt display.

That text in Apple's press release is oddly misleading. Because you also cannot connect a second DisplayPort to the Thunderbolt output socket on the display. You can however connect the Thunderbolt output to something like the Promise Pegasus then you can connect a DisplayPort display to the Pegasus. This seems to be a bug in the Thunderbolt Display, which will hopefully be fixed.

I expect someone could create an adapter that takes in HDMI/DVI, converts it to DisplayPort and outputs it as Thunderbolt. That should allow you to use the display with "legacy" formats, but such a thing does not yet exist and would no doubt be fairly expensive if it did.