Determine an SSIDs Index Value in the Preferred Networks List Im looking for a way to use the macOS networksetup command (and some string/line filtering mojo) to output all SSIDs from the Preferred Networks, and then determine what index my corp SSID is located at (and then take action depending on what index value it has).
Example:
admin@mac1 ~ % networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0
Preferred networks on en0:
    Denny's
    Hipster Cafe
    Hilton Hotels
    My_Mom's_Basement
    Airport
    Marriot - Public-5G
    HOME-OFFICE

You will see each line shows an SSID. 'Denny's' is at index 0 (top) and, therefore, is the prioritized SSID.
Likewise, you will see my Corporate network ('HOME-OFFICE') is at the bottom (index 7 of 7).
How can I get the index value using a shell script? I have tried parsing the output and then building/filtering/appending a list using tools such as wc, grep, etc but haven't gotten the logic right thus far.
I already have the logic to move my corporate SSID up to index 0, but I only want to run that logic if the SSID 'HOME-OFFICE' is NOT already at index 0 - which I can't seem to figure out.

Formulating the problem in terms of “which index does my corporate network have?” makes the problem more complicated. Since you only want to know whether it's at the top of the list, just check whether the top of the list is your corporate network.
Zsh
Here's a way to put the network names into an array in zsh. This uses three nested parameter expansion constructs around a command substitution:

${(f)$(…)} splits the output of the command substitution into lines (f flag).
${(@)…##[[:space:]]##} strips off the prefix matching the pattern [[:space:]]##, meaning one or more whitespace characters. ([[:space:]]#, meaning zero or more whitespace characters, would be equivalent, since removing an empty string has no effect.) The goal is to strip the leading tab. ${(@)…#$'\t'} would work too, but would be fragile in case a different version of macOS uses a different amount of spacing. The pattern needs setopt extended_glob, which is off by default. The @ flag ensures that the data is processed as a list of strings (list of lines from the previous step) and not as a single string.
"${(@)…[2,-1]}" selects the elements of the array from the second one (zsh arrays start at 1) to the last one (-1). This removes the “Preferred networks on …” line. The @ flag ensures that each line ends up in a separate array element. The double quotes ensure that spaces inside a network name do not cause each word of a name to end up in a separate array element.

setopt extended_glob
networks=("${(@)${(@)${(f)$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0)}##[[:space:]]##}[2,-1]}")

Now you can check whether the first element is what you want:
if [[ $networks[1] != "HOME-OFFICE" ]]; then
  …
fi

If you do want the (1-based) index of a network name, you can use the i array subscript flag.
echo $networks[(i)"HOME-OFFICE"]

Sed
You can use sed to extract a specific line by number. Line numbers start at 1. Use the -n command line flag to suppress printing and the p command to print the desired line, or use the d command to delete all lines except the desired one. Use the s command to strip off leading whitespace; note that there is a literal tab character and a space inside the brackets. You can add the suffix p to the s command to print its output without a separate p command.
preferred_network=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | sed -n '2s/^[  ]*//p')

or
preferred_network=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | sed -n '2!d; s/^[  ]*//')

You can get the 2-based index of an element by name with sed by applying the = command to the line(s) matched by a regular expression.
line_number=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | sed -n 's/^[     ]*//; /^HOME-OFFICE$/=')
zero_based_index=$((line_number - 2))

Awk
You can use awk to extract a specific line by number. Line numbers start at 1, and the number of the current line is in the NR variable. After matching the desired line, remove the leading whitespace with the sub command, then print the line. Awk recognizes \t to mean a tab character.
preferred_network=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | awk 'NR==2 {sub(/^[\t ]*/, ""); print}')

If you want the number of a line with a specific content, you can match the line with a regular expression or by doing a string comparison ($0 contains the whole line without a terminating newline character), then print NR.
home_office_zero_based_index=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | awk '{sub(/^[\t ]*/, "")} $0 == "HOME-OFFICE" {print NR - 2})'

or
home_office_zero_based_index=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | awk '/^[\t ]HOME-OFFICE$/ {print NR - 2})'


Is there any difference on power charger between iPhone 6 vs 6s? Is there any difference on power charger between iPhone 6 vs 6s?

I'm worried that there is a difference and that I'll have issues when I use the iPhone 6 charger for iPhone 6s

It looks similar but can I get it confirmed?

Both use Lightning cable, so we are good there.
Regarding power, the 12W charger is compatible with all iPhones. See product Compatibility section of 12W charger.

iPhone Models

iPhone
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3Gs
iPhone 4
iPhone 4s
iPhone 5
iPhone 5c
iPhone 5s
iPhone 6
iPhone 6 Plus
iPhone 6s
iPhone 6s Plus

So you should be confident of charging iPhone 6 or 6s with up to 12W charger. The higher the wattage the lesser is the charging time.


Is USB 3.0 overkill for Time Machine hard drive? I have two 500 Gb hard drives.  One is USB 2.0, the other is USB 3.0.  My intention is to use one of these hard drives for Time Machine, and the other for storing media files on (mp3s, mp4s mostly).

Would it be a waste of the USB 3.0 speeds to put Time Machine on that drive, or will I benefit.

It depends. I assume your Mac does has USB 3.0 support since you asked the question.

Time Machine target does not need to be very fast, since Time Machine only backup all your files for the first time, it's just delta (changes) it backups after that. So if you delete a file, and create a new file, it backup just those two changes.

But of course the faster the drive, the faster the initial backup.

Media drive don't have to be fast. Even a 1080p video won't exceed like 2MBps, and most USB 2.0 drive can easily go up to 20 ~ 30 MBps (real world)

It's your choice. Again, you need to copy all the files to your external drive, and it takes time.

If they're enclosure, then problem solved. The initial backup and media copy can all be done with the USB 3.0 enclosure, and then just choose which goes to which based on your mood.

My personal experience:

USB 2.0 3.5" 28 MBps

USB 3.0 2.5" 55 MBps

USB 3.0 3.5" 110 MBps

All enclosures, I built them myself!


trying to get data off of a late 2008 macbook onto a brand new macbook pro so I have an old macbook (late 2008 aluminum, running snow leopard). The display stopped working last week and since they told me they can't fix it, I've taken the opportunity to get a brand new macbook pro with retina display. It's running the most recent (so far as I know) Mavericks (10.9.4).

My problem is I'd like to get files off the old computer. I did back it up about a month ago, so I can get some stuff off of my external drive, but I'd feel better if I could just get in to the old computer and make sure I got all my photos and stuff.

The problem is that the two computers don't have anyway of connecting to each other. I thought I could get a firewire to thunderbolt and cable and just use the old one like drive (I did this before at some point with some other computers) and I went and got the cables without double checking an apparently my 2008 macbook doesn't have a firewire port, which is really confusing because now I don't know where I was doing that before.

I know I can connect the two with an ethernet cable (if I spend another 30 bucks for another thunderbolt adapter. ugh.) but I'm not sure if that will work because I definitely don't have sharing on on the old computer. I'm pretty sure I could use the old computer with an external screen, after buying -another- adapter, but I don't have access to an external screen either.

I absolutely do NOT want to have the apple store migrate the whole computer over to the new one. There is so much on it I don't need (I was engaged in a long sporadic process of cleaning it up when the screen broke).

do I have any other options? Is there some way I can turn on filesharing without being able to see the screen? Is there really no way to do it with USB? That's the only input the two machines have in common.

Otherwise I guess I'll just have to find someone with an external monitor.

Thanks for any advice!

Al

The other option is remove the hard disk and use a cheap USB adapter to read the old disk. I am not sure about a 2008 model, but more recent (2010) models use a SATA drive.

I have done this to recover data from many dead Macs.


Can volume booster software (like Boom) damage MacBook Pro's internal speakers? As you know, the sound volume of Mac laptops isn't too loud.

I bought Boom, a volume-booster software for Macs, and after some months of using it for listening to music or viewing videos at loud volume, the bass of my MacBook Pro's internal speakers died.

Now the laptop has very feeble sound, no bass at all. Sound through external speakers has not been affected.

Sometimes the bass seems to come and go as if something is loose inside.

I suspect the loud volume achieved with Boom caused vibrations that damaged the speakers.

Am I right ?
Is Boom the culprit ?
Has this happened to anyone ?

Boom is most likely the culprit to your speaker failing. Boom uses algorithms to increase the overall volume of the track to a point without clipping. Pushing speakers beyond what they are supposed to do can and will cause damage to them. The reason the speakers have a maximum volume is that is the safest high fidelity sound they can produce.

Here is a review of how boom works algorithmically http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/review/boom_lets_you_turn_your_macs_volume_up_to_eleven

Note the overall wave form increase in the article. This will cause damage, clipping and distortion with prolonged use.


Outlook for Mac 2011 - how to delete buggy email in outbox that crashes Outlook I have an email in my Outbox that continually crashes Outlook for Mac 2011 with a "rebuild database" error message. Rebuilding the database took days and never completed. If I start Outlook in safe mode (holding the shift key when loading), I can get into Outlook but the moment I hit Send/Receive or switch to the Outbox folder (where the culprit email is sitting), I immediately get the "rebuild database" error message and can either Rebuild or Cancel, the latter exits Outlook.

Is there a way to empty the Outbox folder through the file system without click on the folder in Outlook? Any other solution?

Thanks.

Can you delete the message in the outbox from webmail?  If it is not in webmail then it's on the outlook end of things.  If that is the case I would remove the entire profile in outlook and re-enter the e-mail accounts and let it build all over again rather than trying to just rebuild the database.


open  opening finder window I use zsh. For some reason, with zsh, when I type open <TAB> (which should list the files to autocompletion), it opens Finder in the current folder.

I don't have anything aliased for that. I didn't change any config recently. I don't have any idea about why this is happening. Bash works, though.

Any ideas on how can I fix or debug that?

I can not reproduce this issue, so it should not happen by default. TAB works as expected in zsh (as in bash). What version of OSX are you using? This is in a standard terminal window right? Do you have something in your .zshrc file relating to custom completion settings?

Try deleting your .zshrc file and run the zsh shell again,

mv .zshrc .zshrc.old
zsh

This should fix your issue.


Random person music library in iTunes I mainly use the USB connection between my MBA and iPhone 5s just to do backups. There is no music on my iPhone. Today, when I have connected my iPhone I have noticed a random music library from the person I have never met.

macOS Sierra 10.12.4
iOS 10.13.2

I can confirm that my iPhone has never been associated with another AppleID as I have bought it brand new.

Any ideas on what might be happening?

It just means someone on the same local network as you is sharing their own library.

As it has a padlock, it means a password would be needed to listen to it.

If it wasn't password protected, you'd see a note symbol instead.

The chances of seeing 'stray' shared libraries are of course greater if you're on public wifi - you need only worry if you were connected to a supposedly private network & you don't recognise the name.


How can I tell which band (2.4GHz or 5GHz) my iPhone's WiFi connection is on? I have two access points for the same network in my house, with some overlap. One runs on 2.4GHz only, and one transmits both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

I have an iPhone 5 (running iOS 6.0.1), which supports the 5GHz band and I'm wondering if there is a way for me to determine which frequency band it is connected to.

You can not tell from the iPhone directly (as of iOS version 7 native). You should be able to tell via the wireless router your connected to in it's logging functions, WiFi client list or some similar mechanism within the router. I can't provide you an exact process as every router is different. This answer assumes you do not want to JailBreak your iPhone. If you are not adverse to doing so there may be an app in the Cydia app store that will show more meaningful information with regard to WiFi frequency information.

You can however detect what cell tower frequency your phone uses by using Field Test mode. This will special mode allows users to find out a range of information about the phone’s connection to the network. In particular, the information displayed in the Field Test mode allows users to discover exactly which tower their phone is connecting to and which frequency band (WiFi) the signals are being sent on.

To access this mode:

Access the iPhone's Field Test mode by typing *3001#12345#* in the
phone’s keypad and press dial. This will bring up the Field Test
menu.
Select the “Cell Information” menu option to display a summary of all
nearby towers. The “RX” code displays the signal strength of each
tower. These RX values are dBm signal strength readings, where lower
values means strong signal (so -60 signifies stronger signal than
-80). The towers are listed by signal strength, and the top tower is usually the tower your phone is connecting to.
Selecting the first tower will take you to a further menu that
displays more specific information. The “Freq” value shows the
frequency block that the network is using. If the Freq number is
between 128 and 251, the tower is using the 850 MHz Cellular band. If
the Freq number is between 512 and 810, the tower is using the
1900MHz PCS band.


Why not have iCloud keychain as default? Yosemite 10.10.1 and iOS 8.1.2

On my Keychain Access on OS X, I have the "login" default keychain and an "iCloud" keychain (I have iCloud Keychain ON for all my devices).

I'm just wondering, could I just copy all items from "login" to "iCloud" keychain, in order to have it available on my iOS just in case? If that is the case, why wouldn't this be the default behaviour when I "save a password" on my Mac?

Thanks

Within Keychain Access the 'login' keychain is the user names and passwords that you have stored for the current logged in user. The iCloud keychain is as the title states stored in the cloud available to be accessed on any devices under the same Apple ID.

The main risk with storing anything within a cloud service is the risk of these online services being hacked. OS/X devices are multi user environments, and under these setups often share an iCloud account, or are using iCloud Family Sharing feature. These features could lead to passwords being available to users/family that you would not want to have access to.

As for copying the items over, as far as I am aware there is no way of doing this, looking within Keychain Access application there is no option for this. Also within preferences there is no option to set the default location, any new passwords will be stored within the 'login' keychain.

Hopefully this has cleared things up for you.


Option+. prints ≥ instead of being recognized as a shortcut Within the terminal, I used to be able to press Option+. in order to insert the last argument of the last command into the current prompt. On my new setup, pressing this combination simply prints "≥" (everywhere, not just in the terminal). I'm using US keyboard layout, but I'm on a German keyboard because I don't have any other at the moment.

The shortcut is incredibly useful, how do I get it back working?

If you're on a different system, it may very well be nothing more than your Terminal preferences being amiss. Check Settings | Keyboard and make sure that 'Use option as meta key' is checked.


Stop Photos.app from opening when any device is connected I know there are thousands of iterations on this question, but I can't find one dealing with Photos.app from 10.10.3+.

I just want to stop it (or anything else) from opening ever. None of the answers I've found for Image Capture or iPhoto work anymore, as far as I can tell.

To be clear, I know I can go into Image Capture and change the setting per-device, but I am regularly plugging in random devices I've never used before, and I want to turn this behaviour off globally.

Is there a way to do this?

Simplest might be to use RCDefaultApp - old but still works on Yosemite & is free.

It installs as a Control Panel, called Default Apps.

Set Media > Camera to 'Ignore'

I actually set everything to Ignore, I prefer to do these things manually.


Search for emails from not a particular user or subject in Apple Mail I am using Apples's Mail application for a while.
I know that to search for mails from a particular user, I need to use

from: abc@gmail.com

But I need to search for emails that are not from a particular user or has a particular subject. Basically a negative/negated search.

I tried below search queries using boolean operation, but these didn't work.

 NOT from: abc@gmail.com

 NOT subject: Hello World

Any help on this will be appreciated.

Mail can perform Boolean searches, but only in message contents, not in headers (such as Subject, From, or Date).

When using Boolean operators, always use uppercase — AND, OR, and NOT — so Mail doesn’t search for the actual words and, or, and not. You can use a minus sign (-) as a shortcut for AND NOT, so, if you type Jack -Jill in the Search field, you’ll see a list of all the messages that contain “Jack” but not “Jill.”

UPD. I've tried with my own mails and it looks like Mail DOES sort headers too. So try to enter into search field: abc NOT whatever-you-want-to-exclude. Shall work.

More info here: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22310?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US


What car stereos work well with iPhone Bluetooth A2DP Streaming Audio The iPhone 3G supports Bluetooth stereo (A2DP) but lacks any volume control.  As a result, my JVC stereo with the KS-BTA200 Bluetooth adapter clipped stereo audio so horribly that I ended up removing the adapter and foregoing the Bluetooth hands free capabilities.  Now, I just use my AUX jack for music and a separate Bluetooth speaker phone (as long as it doesn't do A2DP).

Has anyone been able to get acceptable (not clipped) Bluetooth Stereo Audio from their iPhone to any car stereo?  What models work well?

I bought my wife a Sony Xplod (sorry, forgot the model number) and that works really well with our phones. I would assume that all Sonys work equally as well (if not better).


How to prevent iTerm2's Hotkey Window from changing desktop? I've configured Hotkey Window to slide down from top when global hotkey is pressed (like console). But when I do that when maximized window is active it switches to a desktop. Is there a way to prevent that? I want terminal to just slide over fullscreen window.

iTerm developers answered that this feature is already in a nightly build


iCloud Drive stuck on "Waiting to upload" On both iOS and MacOS, documents in iCloud Drive are never uploaded. Text underneath each document just says "Waiting to Upload"

Already tried turning iCloud Drive off and on again

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Can't speak for macOS, however iOS (iPhone, iPad) iCloud synchronization will be either very slow or just stuck when on a cellular connection. Connect your iOS device to a WiFi and it should sync up almost instantly. This is what resolved my issue with Numbers documents not syncing up on iPhone 6s with iOS 12.1.


Problems installing Audio Unit components on High Sierra Apple Mac Pro (early 2009) Firmware 4.1 -> 5.1
macOS 10.13.0 High Sierra
Logic Pro X 10.3.2

Hello, I upgraded my Apple Mac Pro to High Sierra last week. This may have been a slightly rash move for I find that whenever I have attempted to install an AU based plugin intended for use with Logic Pro X, I am having difficulties in getting Logic Pro to recognise the new plug-in.

I know that deleting /Users/carlca/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache/com.apple.audiounits.cache will force Logic Pro X to run AuScan, and I have also discovered that rebooting the machine just prior to installing a new plug-in sometimes helps, but it's nowhere near 100% reliable and it's a pain in the derriere.

Does anyone know how I can fix this issue? Or has someone found a reliable way to install AU based plugins for Logic Pro X under macOS High Sierra?

I'm hoping I don't need to wait for macOS High Sierra and/or Logic Pro X to be updated.

Actually, I have made progress with my setup. The trick seems to be to be disciplined enough to carry out the installations, then deleting /Users/[USER]/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache/com.apple.audiounits.cache, then rebooting, before finally opening Logic Pro X again, at which point it should rescan all the new plugins. It's a fiddly procedure but it seems to work!


Why do aliases with words not expand in big sur? I have some aliases in my ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile (I tried with and without .bash_profile), they were both sourced.
alias ll=‘ls -l’
alias al=‘ls -ahl’

alias iridium=“~/git/iridium”
alias vscode=“Visual Studio Code”

On Ubuntu, centos and fedora these would work fine.
Even on windows git bash I had long aliases to open games with the huge steam path.
But on big sur:
only the ls aliases work.
is there a reason for this?
I’m also sourcing these files from /etc/bashrc
Look at it in action:
 λ  cat ~/.bash_profile
alias ll='ls -l'
alias al='ls -ahl'

alias vscode='Visual Studio Code'

alias batchelor="~/git/batcheloranator"
alias iridium="~/git/iridium"
alias chem="~/git/chemistry_stuff"
 chemistry_stuff:  (master)
 λ  . ~/.bash_profile
 chemistry_stuff:  (master)
 λ  cd iridium
bash: cd: iridium: No such file or directory
 chemistry_stuff:  (master)
 λ  cd chem
bash: cd: chem: No such file or directory
 chemistry_stuff:  (master)
 λ  open -a vscode
Unable to find application named 'vscode'

$ alias --man
NAME
  alias - define or display aliases

SYNOPSIS
  alias [ options ] [name[=value]...]

DESCRIPTION
  alias creates or redefines alias definitions or writes the existing alias definitions to standard output. An alias
  definitions provides a string value that will replace a command name when the command is read. Alias names can
  contain any printable character which is not special to the shell. If an alias value ends in a space or tab, then the
  word following the command name the alias replaces is also checked to see whether it is an alias.

If you want your vscode alias to work, you need to do something like:
alias vscode='"visual studio code"'

So that the shell doesn't perform word-splitting on the string.
Example:
$ alias vscode='visual studio code'
$ vscode
ksh: visual: not found               <= shell word-splitting
$ alias vscode='"visual studio code"'
$ vscode
ksh: visual studio code: not found   <= shell not word-splitting
$

But what you really should do is follow VS Code's installation instructions for macOS, add /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin to your path, and run code to start it.
$ path
/opt/local/bin
/opt/local/sbin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Public
/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin
/Users/mwilson/bin
/Users/mwilson/.local/bin
/Users/mwilson/Library/Python/3.9/bin
$ whence code
'/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin/code'
$


"XfinityWifi" and "PublicWifi" are being added to my list of networks without my knowledge or consent (OS/X El Capitan ... MacBook Pro)

From time to time, when I go to *System Preferences...Network...WiFi...Advanced," I find that two network-names have been added to the list without my knowledge or consent:

XfinityWiFi
PublicWifi

How do I know this?   Heh ... "Because I happen to live in a hole."   That is to say, "a little corner of Northwest Georgia (USA)" where there is exactly one wireless network: "Mine!"   I work from my home, so my computer rarely leaves it.

I have turned off "Remember networks that this computer has joined," and in any case I can positively say that this computer has never encountered, let alone "joined," either of these networks.

So ... what's going on here?!

Wireless networks are synced across iCloud, so if any other device such as an iPhone connects to these networks and is also signed in to the same iCloud account as your Mac, the networks will appear in this list.


Battery draining fast and Haptic feedback not working I have a 13" MacBook Pro Retina early 2015. A few days ago I was working on a spreadsheet and then it suddenly crashed (black screen for several minutes). Once it finally started up again, the Haptic feedback had stopped working. After more use I have found that the battery is draining faster and when I close the lid from 100% charge over night, I come to it in the morning and it's well below 50% charge.

I believe I have reset the SMC, with no change. Updated the software to Mojave V10.14.

Has anyone else had this issue, or any ideas of a fix?

Thanks in advance.

The simple solution to a battery draining is that it's a faulty battery (which can even happen with a new part - it's less likely, but it does happen) or a faulty logic board.

The simple solution to haptic feedback is a bad logic board, a bad cable (connection reseat possibly) or a bad part.

So, right now you have two strikes against the logic board and can probably open and reconnect all cables before you start to replace parts to isolate this to one failure or two failures.

As far as software triage, you can test by downloading and installing a fresh, new OS onto an external USB drive. Even a slow drive will work for testing that the CPU is low in activity monitor and do a run time test to see how fast the battery discharges in idle and sleep. It also lets you test the haptic feedback on a fresh system. I'd hate for you to go in for more hardware repairs if there's a software cause.


Two Version of an Application Creating two directories in /Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/ with slightly different names and just changing the name to the one recognized by the application works, however, this takes too much time. Is there an easier way to change between versions of an application? For example, somehow editing how the application recognizes which directory to write to and having a shortcut to the original and edited version of the application.

Keyboard Maestro can do this by running a macro upon application launch/quit.

Have your two folders for your application named such as '<app name>-main' and '<app name>-second' then switch them out using macros such as the following:


My wireless has been set to “inactive”, how do I reactivate it? I seem to have inadvertently deactivated my wireless in the "Network" section of System Preferences. When I go to the Airport icon in the menu bar it looks like a semicircle that, when clicked on, says "Airport: Not Configured". When I go to configure it, the status is shown as "Inactive", with no "Activate" button in sight. How can I get my wireless working again?

The toggle to make a network adapter active/inactive is somewhat hidden. Select the AirPort adapter, then click the button that looks like a gear at the bottom of the list. This will open a dropdown and you can select "Make Service Active":


What determines whether podcasts are played individually or sequentially on an iPod? What determines whether podcasts are played individually or sequentially on an iPod?

Basically, I have a lot of podcasts on my iPod.
At one point, it would play just one podcast, and then stop. There was a period of a few weeks where I didn't listen to podcasts, and now when I go to listen to a podcast, when I finish one, the iPod begins playing the next.

This is an issue for me because I generally listen to podcasts when going to sleep. As such, the iPod generally goes through maybe ~10 podcasts overnight, and I loose track of where I was.

Basically, originally my iPod played podcasts one-by-one, I changed something, and now it does not.

However, I've been through the menus on the iPod, and I cannot see anything that looks like it would be related to the podcast playback behaviour. Whatever was changed, It's not readily apparent the effects it has.

I added one of the podcasts to a on-the-go playlist, and suddenly all the podcasts are playing individually, rather then sequentially.

I have no idea why adding one podcast to the in-the-go playlist affected every podcast, or what would actually be required to return the behaviour to the way it used to be (sequential playing), but there you are.


For maximum FileVault2 security, why is hibernation recommended? Many discussions of FileVault 2 security suggest using:

sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 1 hibernatemode 25

Some of those discussion state that FileVault keys are stored in RAM during normal awake use whereas others say that they are stored in EFI firmware.

Where are the keys stored while the machine is awake and running-  in RAM or in firmware?
What, precisely, does destroyfvkeyonstandby do?  For example, if I delete a file I can recover it because it is not wiped.  Does destroyfvkeyonstandby perform a memory release (delete) or a wipe (overwriting the memory that was being used to hold the key)?
If I use destroyfvkeyonstandby, what benefit is there to going into hibernation mode immediately (other than saving energy)?  If the key has been wiped, what danger is there in leaving the RAM powered on?

During normal use, the keys are stored in RAM, which makes them vulnerable to a DMA attack over Firewire or Thunderbolt (using something like Inception). This is an old set of attacks, and Apple does actually disable some of the functionality of those devices during some sleep modes (e.g., hibernatemode 25 which removes power from the RAM after dumping its contents to disk; for added security, you should also disable Fast User Switching, as it's another attack vector.)
That is the only thing that makes sense for Apple to do, since it's pretty trivial. More details might be culled from this analysis of FileVault 2, courtesy of a few security researchers from Cambridge.
RAM can also be written to (see Inception) in order to bypass the actual password; dumping to disk and reloading on wake will ensure the contents is tamper-proof.


Turn on find my mac (and other functions) without admin account I'm managing Macs on my domain, and would like to allow users to turn on find my mac without calling service desk.
I'd need a command line tool for that so I can push it out to all of the users once the script is tested.
I tried to run
security authorizationdb write system.preferences allow
security authorizationdb write system.preferences.security allow
security authorizationdb write system.preferences.security.remoterepair allow

(and all the system preferences settings)
but not all of them worked. They now can install printers, and set time and date. System Preferences / Security & privacy however didn't open and we DO want that.
Thanks

Trying to control “adults” can be like herding cats...
Just give them full access and responsibilty for backups / shared drive.
Then if they have an issue all you have to do is wipe and install latest image.


Which popular apps prevent sleep on Mac OS X? The main reason a Mac won't go to sleep is because of a 3rd party app. If there was a list of popular apps that have been known to cause sleep issues, it would make debugging this issue easier.

Which popular 3rd party apps are known to cause sleep issues?

Known to cause sleep issues:

Better Touch Tool: Even when it is disabled, as long as it's running, sleep mode won't work.
Stack Exchange Notifier: more info here.
Symantec Encryption Desktop: more info here, Symantec's Official Reason here.
NoSleep: App that does what it says.  Although this is the main purpose of the app, for troubleshooting purposes it's good to check whether it's installed and accidentally on ;-)

Could potentially cause issues:

Dropbox caused problems in Snow Leopard.
Spotlight can prevent sleep, especially if you just installed Mac OS X.

Apps that have never caused sleep issues:


Missing Yosemite Recovery Partition After doing a standard, App Store upgrade of Yosemite it seems that the recovery partition is still Mavericks-specific. Whether I hold Cmd+R or Option and select the recovery partition it takes me to the Mavericks recovery. If I choose Reinstall OS X it kicks off the Mavericks (re)install screens.

Shouldn't there be a Yosemite recovery partition that replaced this? Is there any way to manually create the partition? Is this just how it's supposed to be with a Mavericks recovery partition after a Yosemite upgrade?

I had the same issue since the beta and the official release did not solve this issue.
In the terminal I had the following output:

  diskutil list

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            210.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                40.1 GB    disk0s4

a recovery partition was available (but not working)

The following did fix my issue:

downloaded the yosemite installer (again)
created a bootable installation (8GB USB) drive with yosemite (USB drive volume name is Untitled).

  sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction

Removing the not working recovery partition

  diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ ErasedDisk /dev/disk0s3

merging the free space with the Macintosh HD partition

  diskutil mergePartitions HFS+ MacHD disk0s2 disk0s3

Install (like you upgrade) Yosemite over your existing (Yosemite) installation and complete the installation procedure (I used the installer from the fresh created USB).

After the installation was completed I rebooted the machine and I was able to use the find my Mac option again (error related to the recovery partition was gone).

This worked for me, a small (typing) error might result in loosing your installation  + data. Please be sure you have a good working backup before you start!

Used resource: removing-and-rebuilding-a-malfunctioning-recover-hd-partition/


iPhone 5 Car Bluetooth Issue with Incoming Phone Calls I have an iPhone 5 running iOS 10.2 and a 2015 Chevy Mailbu with Bluetooth capability for calls and streaming audio (non CarPlay).

The problem I have is when I am receiving calls (everything else works fine).  When a call comes in and I answer it, regardless if I press the phone button on the steering wheel or the answer button on the phone, the iPhone immediately switches to its internal speaker  I have to manually switch it back to the "Bluetooth headset" (car speakerphone) for the audio to work properly.

I have tested this in 3 different cars - the Chevy, an Infiniti and a truck with an aftermarket Kenwood radio.  The problem is present in all three vehicles.  I have also tested with a Windows Phone and and Android phone and both phones work with the cars properly so it's definitely a phone issue.

I have rebooted the iPhone, deleted the profile and re-paired with the radio and I have even reset the iPhone to factory default and re-paired it as if it was new.  The problem persists no matter what I do.

Does anyone know what the issue is or what I have to do to solve it?

[Update]
Problem still persists after iOS 10.3, didn't resolve the issue.

I think this will fix it :

Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Scroll down to interaction section -> Call Audio Routing -> Choose headset


How can I know which Wi-Fi protocol my MacBook is using? If I have a router that supports 802.11 N, G, and B, how can I know which one of these my MacBook is currently using to connect to the router?

I'd like to see proof that it's connected using the fastest protocol available, rather than hoping everything is working correctly. For example, the N protocol may not be compatible with the MacBook (if it's an early draft), so it would use G instead. Another situation may arrise if the N protocol is disabled on the router via its settings, which would also cause G to probably be used. Thus, rather than assuming that it's using the fastest protocol, I want actual proof that shows which protocol is being used.

Try to Option+click on the wifi icon on the menu bar. You'll see a lot more information about your current wifi connection.

It looks something lijke this:


Does iOS have a transfer/write speed limit? Any time I want to do a batch transfer over FTP to my iPad (Using AVPlayer or Photo Privacy) the transfer only lasts for a short while before the application shuts down and I'm back to the iPad dashboard. Is this due to some internal security meassures in the iPad breaking any application that writes too much data? If not, what could it be that makes FTP servers on completely separate apps crash in the same way?

Any answers even remotely helpful would be appreciated

Thanks

EDIT

I am of course running the application in the foreground. Also the iPad is not going to sleep. I simply start the FTP transfer, and after a few seconds or minutes the application abruptly quits and I'm back at the iOS dashboard.

When any app quits abruptly and you are back at the springboard - that is a crash. iOS is designed to not make a big deal of crashes since most of the time they are temporary and starting up the program again will clean up the error. That doesn't appear to be happening in your case.

You can confirm it the next time you connect the device to iTunes or Xcode. Xcode let's you look into the engineering details as to why the program is crashing.

ITunes instead copies the crash report to your ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice folder. The first time this happens, you are asked if you want to send diagnostic information to apple. This sort of crash will then be sent in the future.

You can connect your device, right click on it in iTunes and reset all warnings to get the asking again - that way you can confirm that this is due to the program crashing and not some other cause.


Transferring Mountain Lion i bought a new macbook pro with mountain lion preinstalled and i dont know how to put it on my older 10.6.8 Imac. There is no file for it on the macbook and says i havent bought it in the app store.

You can only share it if you bought it from the App Store.  Pre-installed versions are single-copy licenses:

  A. Preinstalled and Single-Copy Apple Software License. Subject to the
  terms and conditions of this License, unless you obtained the Apple
  Software from the Mac App Store or under a volume license, maintenance
  or other written agreement from Apple, you are granted a limited, non-
  exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple
  Software on a single Apple- branded computer at any one time. For
  example, these single-copy license terms apply to you if you obtained
  the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4971852?start=0&tstart=0


Is there a free QR code reader for Mac? Is there a QR-Code reader application for Mac OS X? I'm using Mac OS X 10.6 and an iSight.

I just discovered QR Journal, which works fine for me. The latest version requires OS X 10.8/10.9 but there is a legacy version available which works with 10.6.

  Now desktop users with an iSight (or iSight compatible) camera can read QR codes. Found a QR code in a magazine or catalog? Simply hold up to the iSight camera to scan, store and browse to. Received a QR code in an email? Just drag it into QR Journal to read it.


Upgrading Xcode using App Store download problem I have Xcode 4.2 installed, but I need Xcode 4.3 so I can test an app on my iOS 5.1 device. However I have run into problems attempting to download the latest version from the Mac App Store.

Initially when I went to the store I noticed in the 'Purchases' tab Xcode was there, but back from when it was 4.2, so I removed it from purchases and then went to the Xcode page and clicked on the 'Install App'.

It certainly doesn't appear to be doing anything though, and the 'Purchases' tab now looks like this (clicking on the blank button does nothing):

I only use my Mac for iOS development, so know very little about installing/unistalling s/w on OS X. I.e. I'm hoping there's is something very simple and obvious I've missed (and i've been trying to sort this out for an annoyingly long amount of time now!)

Due to my failure with the App Store I'm currently downloading a version of Xcode 4.3.2 via a torrent - but this is a quite a dodgy route and I'd rather sort it out properly!

I don't know if this is your problem but look and see if you have any hidden purchases on your account. The way to check is:

Launch the app store & Select Store > View My Account and sign in.
Look for a section headed iTunes in the Cloud, with a Hidden Purchases entry, and click View Hidden Purchases.
Click Unhide for those purchases you wish to appear in your App Store Purchases window, then click Done.

Let me know if this helps.


How to add some additional DNS search domains without ignoring the DHCP ones? I just want to add my own list of Search Domains but without overriding the ones returned by the DHCP?

As anyone would imagine I already tried to add them to Network > Advanced > DNS but adding them there it will override the ones from DHCP, which is not my intend.

It would be perfect if I could add them after the ones form DHCP, but I would also accept a solution that adds them after.

2nd try would be /etc/resolv.conf but the message from the file is as clear as it can be:

# This file is not used by the host name and address resolution
# or the DNS query routing mechanisms used by most processes on
# this Mac OS X system.
#
# This file is automatically generated.

Personally, I would send the guy who wrote this message to do some phone support for two months. So, he would learn to add some hints next time he documents things: where are you supposed to tune the settings? or include a link to a knowledge base article.

Still, I don't want something that is lost on minor OS X update.

How can I do this for OS X 10.7 ?

Just put a file in /etc/resolver/ with a name such as "searchappend" with these contents:
search example.com

Just don't name the file "com" or some other valid TLD. This works because of OSX's resolver magic.  For more info, read through the documentation on your mac with this command:
man 5 resolver

I have a file there called "consul" that looks like this:
nameserver 127.0.0.1
port 8600
search consul

That magically makes it so .consul is appended to the search path, and any resolving for .consul TLDs uses my local nameserver.


New version of Macbook Pro If this is off-topic let me know and I will delete.

I want to buy a new Macbook Pro, but I don't know if it better to wait to a new version or to buy now the last version.

When Apple should announce the new Macbook Pro?

No-one really knows for certain when Apple are going to release new hardware except for Apple. So any answer is likely to be opinion-based which might get your question deleted.

That said, some sites online try to give an informed guess by analysing previous release schedules. For example, MacRumors who currently recommend against buying a Macbook Pro as they believe a new release is imminent.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Retina_MacBook_Pro

But like I said, this is just guesswork.


hdiutil compact failed - internal error I am trying to compact a TimeMachine sparsebundle (to reclaim space) using

sudo hdiutil compact /Volumes/TimeMachine/MyMac.sparsebundle

and the error message that I receive is:

hdiutil: compact failed - internal error

When I look in the System Log, I see the following message:

diskimages-helper: cannot compact filesystem because it was not unmounted cleanly.

I am running on a MacBook Air (13-inch, early 2014) on Mavericks and the sparsebundle is located on an Iomega StorCenter ix2-dl NAS with 2TB running RAID 1.

When I look via Finder at my Iomega NAS share, I see that it is "mounted" (with that eject icon shown next to the share name). But if I eject the drive (to dismount it), then Terminal can no longer see the Time Machine volume when I use the hdiutil command.

UPDATE: I've tried the techniques on Garth Gillespie's blog and no issues were reported. I also used Disk Utility and it ran cleanly (no repairs).

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

Update: I was running LenovoEMC's Storage Manager in another window and had a webpage opened to the ix2-dl drive.

After closing these applications, I did a full shutdown and restarted.

This time, when I tried hdiutil compact, it worked.

Just putting this answer here for anyone who runs into a similar issue. Most of the web pages that I found during searching were related to problems with sparsebundles that used FileVault.


Trying to import SwiftyJSON.framework I am trying to include SwiftyJSON as found here:

https://github.com/SwiftyJSON/SwiftyJSON#initialization

I installed Carthage with homebrew and setup a Cartfile as described on the Carthage github page under the If you're building for iOS heading.

I have the following directory structure:

x/
x/Cartfile
x/Cartfile.resolved
x/Carthage/Build/iOS/SwiftyJSON.framework
x/MyProject/{my Swift code and project}
x/MyProject.xcodeproj
x/MyProjectTests

Here's my project's General -> Linked Frameworks section:

Here's my project's Build Phases -> Run Script section:

If I don't have any code that references JSON then I'm fine. I can build. I can even get the dummy response from my little server providing some json stubbing.

However, as soon as I add let json = JSON(data: swiftObject) I'm in trouble.

No matter what I seem to do I get the following:

I know I must be missing something obvious or completely silly but I'm at my wits end. I haven't been able to find anyone explaining this issue via Google (Or I'm just having a bad day for searching). Can anyone point me toward what I'm probably overlooking or just totally missing?

Looks like you need to import the framework in the swift file where you try to use JSON().

import SwiftyJSON


How to delete emails stored locally on my MacBook pro? My system was running out of disk space so I checked and found out that Mail is occupying close to 3 GB of disk space. The Mail app is about 40 MB and the restare the files locally downloaded from the Mail. How can I delete these files without affecting the original mails?

What email is the Mail app using? If its not iCloud then you can easily manage how much email is sent to your Macbook directly from the clients website (Gmail, Yahoo, Aol, & etc). If it is iCloud email, then you may want to manage whats coming in. You can also turn mail off and on under iCloud in system preferences.


OSX install DVD showing up as EFI boot on start up My brother's Mac Pro somehow has all of its utilities missing. Its guts have been taken out. I don't know how this happened, but I'm trying to fix that by creating a Lion DVD or bootable USB. I extracted the installesd.dmg from the app and went through the procedure to create a bootable USB, but the USB didn't show up at all on my own Mac and only showed up as EFI boot on my brother's. After that I tried burning the image onto a DVD and that showed up fine on my mac when I pressed the option key on start up. Tried on my brother's, but I got EFI boot again.

Is there any way around this problem? If there's no way I can do a new install of OSX, can I somehow get the guts of the current installation back in?

You can always update your Mac OS Software by downloading the latest release (usually Yosemite) from the App Store. You don't need to create any bootable media, since the installation can be downloaded on the target device itself and will be installed after a reboot (onscreen instructions). The new installation should always bring back all of the utilities you might be missing now.


VMware ESXi compatible RAID card for the Mac Pro I have a 2009 Mac Pro that I'd like to add a hardware RAID card to. I am running VMware ESXi with various OSes running as VMs. The Apple RAID card is not what I'm looking for.

I would also like to utilize the 4 hard drive bays and get 6G speeds. I have run into a few potential solutions, but have not been impressed. Anyone found a good solution?

Have you looked this RAID cared benchmark page from 2009? It seems that the HighPoint RocketRAID would be a decent choice but doesn't seem to be available as a new item from the manufacturer any more:

  Not knowing there was a workaround, HighPoint removed the RocketRAID
  4320, 3520, 3510, and 2680 from the Mac Pro product list on their
  website. We're hoping to persuade HighPoint to put them back on the
  product list now that MaxUpgrades has a solution.

A quick check on eBay shows the 4320 RAID card, 3520 RAID card, 3510 RAID card and the 2680 RAID card are still available as a used/refurbished item.

But if buying used/refurbished equipment is not for you, one thing that seems promising and is currently available and in production is the MAXPower RAID mini-SAS 6G-1e1i from Other World Computing. The description seems to be exactly what you are looking for:

  Eliminate the SATA drive bus speed limit! Adding the MAXPower RAID
  mini-SAS 6G-1e1i to your Mac or PC provides a SAS/SATA 6G (6.0Gb/s)
  drive bus with up to twice the data transfer speed, regardless  of
  your computer's built-in SATA 3G (3.0Gb/s) data bus. Utilizing the
  MAXPower's RAID processor, you can maximize your total performance up
  to 4800MB/s in RAID 0 mode or achieve the perfect balance of
  performance and protection in RAID 5 mode.

  This feature-rich, high-value mass storage controller card is an ideal
  solution for those working with multiple high-speed HD video streams
  and/or anyone seeking high performance daily IT operation and back-up
  for an SMB. With mini-SAS, there's no loss of throughput as it
  provides full data transfer of four drives through one connection.


"Contextual Menu Items" folder missing on my Mac. I just can't find the folder "Contextual Menu Items" on my Mac.

I tried these paths :

/Library/Contextual Menu Items

/System/Library/Contextual Menu Items

/Users/nnnn/Library/Contextual Menu Items

Nothing found.

I didn't use "Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature lately".

Thanks for your anwers.

I know exactly what's going on:

...drum roll...

You don't have that folder.

If you need it, you can just create it.


In OS X Yosemite, FileVault, "Enable Users" is not available This is an inconsistency I've found compared to Apple docs on this, and to all the answers in forums online, and to another laptop in my care, similarly configured.

My user account is an Admin account.

Even after unlocking the preference pane for FileVault, "Enable Users" is not an option. Every help page or web search I've found has shown the "Enable Users" button in a screenshot of the prefs pane.

However, other users can still log in from the login screen!

Can anyone explain this behavior? I need to know what's up so I can administer my office's population of 20 or so Mac users.

Screenshot:

The Enable Users…-button is only available in the Preferences Pane Security & Privacy > FileVault if one or more users is/are not enabled to use FileVault.

You may test this yourself: open Terminal and enter:

sudo fdesetup list

to list all FileVault enabled users

Remove one user:

sudo fdesetup remove -user user_name

wait a few seconds and open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault.

Quit System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault.

Add the user again:

sudo fdesetup add -usertoadd user_name

and enter some passwords/recovery keys.

Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault et voilà: the button is gone.


Change File Picker Dialog folder location (avoid latest visited folder) Whenever a File picker dialog (MacOs Catalina) is being open by a website or in general within the operating system, the UI shows as a default folder the latest used/visited one.
Let's consider this typical workflow:

I'm saving a file in Word using the Save button, which brings up a File Picker Dialog and I save my document in let say ~/Desktop/myfolder
After some time (even hours later) a website prompts me for a file Upload, which opens the same File Picker Dialog
Here's the issue: File Picker Dialog opens - by default- into the latest used folder from the Picker Dialog, so the file Picker UI will show files in ~/Desktop/myfolder.

This is pretty inconvenient as it can expose privacy files when screen-sharing or when having someone next to me when collaborating at the laptop .
Is it possible to use a Default folder for the file picker that opens up always for example in ~/Desktop or just ~ ?

As far as I'm aware, there's no way to do anything like this natively.
There is such as Default Folder X which can remember 'last folder per app' or just always return to a specific location per app, with navigation history & fast click-through to any folder already open. You can set up different default sets depending on workflow.
I've actually had it on every Mac I've ever had since before they added the 'X' to the name, before OS X. I can't even remember how limited the standard filepicker is; I'm reminded only when I use someone else's Mac.


Does the MacBook battery cycle count reset when replacing a battery I've been reading up on battery cycle counts and checked out my current count on my MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008) - recommended maximum cycle count is 500.

I've had this laptop now for over 4 years and at the 2 year mark I had the battery replaced by AppleCare. The first time I checked out the cycle count was today and it's currently on 1004. Now my question is, is this the cycle count of the battery since I replaced it (as in, it reads the cycle count from the battery), or is it the combined cycle count (as in, it stores the count somewhere and increments occasionally)? My assumption is that it's the count of that battery but I have no idea how to verify this.

Either way, it looks like I need a new battery ;)

The cycle count is logged on the battery itself.

I've never actually dug into the idea to see the method or technology used to store the cycle count, however I do know this to be true thanks to personally refurbishing hundreds of MacBooks.  When checking over a MacBook's battery life in System Information / System Profiler I would often switch out batteries and check again, deciding if a battery replacement was worthwhile.  Once the battery is switched out you will see the cycle count (along with capacity, etc) change.  If you don't see it change then you either need to refresh System Profiler (command + R) or the second battery just happens to have the same info.

If you're curious you could always visit the Genius Bar at an Apple store and have them pop in one of their spare batteries that they use for testing.


What is the material difference between iPhones ordered from different countries? I brought an iPhone 6 from Malaysia. One of my friends claim that Malaysia has lame quality and also a material difference. So people like to order only from Europe, because they have best quality, like Germany. He also claim that Germany has the best material. Is it? If so, what is the quality and material difference?

There is no difference in quality whatsoever.

The only difference is that the actual phone hardware (the small bit that creates a phone connection) will be different to work best in the country where you purchased a phone. A US phone will work with all phone networks in the USA, a German phone will work with all phone networks in Germany, and a Malaysian phone will work with all phone networks in Malaysia. They all will work fine in many other countries as well, but possibly not in all.

Plus, because the laws in various countries are different, that may cause differences. Obviously that Malaysian phone has to conform to Malaysian laws, but I wouldn't know if that makes any difference.


Can this model of MacBook Pro satisfy my scientific needs? I've recently decided to buy a 13-inch MacBook Pro. Although this costs me a lot, first-time experiencing this machine could be very interesting for me. Its weight is the other reason that attracts me. However, I'm a little bit afraid of buying this machine.

One reason is its specs. I work with Python and Matlab in my daily work. My programming work is not very intensive and most of the time deals with satellite image processing. I also work with some satellite-image-processing pieces of software, such as ENVI, PCI Geomatica, etc. I don't know how much this laptop is powerful, especially its integrated GPU, to run these apps on Mac.

The other reason that causes me to not think of buying this laptop is its overheating problem. I saw some complaints about the overheating and annoying warmness on the right side of the laptop. Moreover, when it comes to intensive computing, this problem could be become more severe.

With regard to to the above descriptions, do you think buying this laptop can be suitable for me?

I have to add that my current Lenovo laptop has a core i5 CPU and a GT 720m GPU and so far I have had not any serious problem with it for my scientific work.

It is impossible to determine if the laptop you described would be suitable, because you have not described it. Apple has been releasing 13 inch MacBook Pro laptops since 2008.

Matlab seems to have had performance issues on Mac OS X, I'm not sure if this is still a problem, but you should try to find out, a good place to start is the official minimum requirements of Matlab for Mac OS X: http://www.mathworks.com/support/sysreq/current_release/index.html?sec=mac

Python would probably work fine, however not much can be said about the rest of the software you use, because you did not mention what that software is. First of all, make sure all of your software also runs on Mac OS X or if there are alternatives for Mac OS X that you could use.


iMac's Built-in microphone doesn't work on Windows 7 I have an iMac on which i have installed Windows 7 32-bit. I have used Bootcamp version 4.0.4033.  I have done it with the Apple tech support person. My built-in microphone doesn't work in Windows. I set it up correctly, according to specs in the Windows help. I realized that it doesn't work when I tried using Skype.
Could you please help me figure this out?

I assume your microphone works fine under OSX?

Did you download and install the bootcamp drivers for Windows 7?

Windows needs the driver installed to "see" the microphone and access it.

Can you see the microphone in the device manager?

Did you check the input levels for the microphone in Windows audio setup control panel? The gain may need to be adjusted.


How do I disable hiding of the mouse pointer while typing text? I think I'm finally annoyed enough with my mouse pointer disappearing as I start typing to want to do something about it.

I want to move the mouse. I want to click. I want to start typing, but I want the mouse pointer to stay as is. I end up having to move the mouse just to figure out where the pointer is and I hate that.

How do I do this? Is this a switch I can toggle from within Mac OS or will I have to use a third-party app? I dug around System Preferences and Keyboard settings, but I didn't find anything relevant.

I'm running Mountain Lion 10.8.2 on an iMac. At this moment, it's a Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 1000 along with the regular Apple Wireless Keyboard.

This is the default global behavior and can't be changed through a system preference. (I can't find any third-party utilities to change this either.)

Apple's reasoning is probably that users (but not all users) don't want the mouse pointer to obscure the text while typing. A developer might work around this by using NSCursor with setHiddenUntilMouseMoves:NO or unhide, etc., but this would be considered bad form due to creating an inconsistent user experience compared to other apps.


Music in Catalina doesn’t remember window size Each time I open the Music app in macOS Catalina (10.15.1), the window size is set to maximum. I then have to rescale it down to fit my use case. But after it’s been quit and reopened, it is again huge. I find it silly to use Music at its biggest size on a 27” screen!

Am I alone in this? If so, are there any steps I can take to fix this?

Had the same issue and on 43" monitor - not much fun.

Solved by deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Music.plist

Make sure to create a backup of that file first and optionally create screenshots of your settings as those will be lost.


White MacBook hangs at gray Apple screen forever, won't boot to single user, won't mount using Disk Utility. What do I do next? After a forced shutdown, my white MacBook hangs at the gray screen with the Apple logo and an infinitely spinning progress wheel.

I can boot in verbose mode, but I didn't see any particular error, just a timeout (I can provide the verbose text, but I'm at work and my Mac is at home).

I can't boot into single-user mode. It just sits at a similar point as the verbose mode.

I booted off my Snow Leopard install DVD. It took nearly 10 minutes! Once it got the install screens, I ran Disk Utility. It sees the internal hard drive. It sees the partition. Info on the partition shows that it is an HFS partition. But, it's grayed out and unmounted. If you click "Mount" it says that it cannot be mounted - run First Aid.

"Verify" runs for about 8-10 minutes, shows messages for each step, no errors, and then says Verify has passed. Still won't mount. "Repair" runs for about as long, shows no errors, shows no repairs. Still won't mount. Grrr.

I hooked up an external drive and created an Image of the drive. This took hours. Completed with no errors. I then tried to mount the disk image (.dmg). It ran a full Verify (I don't know how long - I fell asleep). It Verified, but said it couldn't be mounted and suggested I run First Aid. Verify passed. Repair is grayed out. Won't mount.

What should I do next? I'm going to replace the hard drive no matter what, but my last Time Machine backup was 7 months ago (I know, I know, ...) and I would like to, hopefully, get to the last 7 months of files.

It's the only Mac I have, so I can't do the Target disk thing.

DiskWarrior? Any other utilities (particularly free ones) to try? Bootable Linux utilities?

Also, assuming file-system corruption, could my external disk image be processed by disk utilities just as easily as the hard drive? In other words, if I erased my hard drive and repartitioned and reinstalled the OS, would I be any worse off in regards to maybe recovering files if I just deal with the external Image?

Otherwise, I'll probably replace the internal drive, reinstall, then but the internal drive in an external SATA-to-USB enclosure and work on it from there...

When this happens to me, I've found that resetting the PRAM/NVRAM often works.  (Sometimes it takes a couple restarts to see any results.)

Also, if you haven't already done so, take a look at Apple's troubleshooting steps for this problem.


MacOS and Binary/CPU This question applies to all operating systems and hardware, but I was curious what is going on behind the scenes when you install an OS on hardware. I know that macOS comes preinstalled on Macbooks, but hypothetically speaking, if you had to install it, what is going on behind the scenes between machine code and CPU/quantum mechanics.

Each platform comes with one or more specific platform binary interfaces that define how operating systems (or stand-alone programs that are not operating systems) must be structured.

The first run parts of an operating system is generally defined in binary machine code. The CPU will read the machine code, divide it into instructions and carry out those instructions. The instructions make up the operating system.

All operating systems running on a specific platform must abide to the same (or a small number of) binary platform interface. They again offer an application binary interface (ABI) to user programs running on top of the operating system. The ABI is a mix of the platform binary interface and specific requirements for that specific operating system. Some operating systems offers multiple ABIs.

A platform in these terms is a combination of a CPU architecture and model and various peripherals (for example a platform could be a Mac with an Intel x64 CPU, UEFI firmware interface, etc.).


How to securely erase an SSD drive? I'm pretty new to SSD technology, so I don't know how it compares to hard drives when it comes to securely erasing the drive. Is it enough to run Disk Utility and erase the drive with the option "overwrite with zeroes", or is this designed for hard drives? Are there other actions that should be taken?

I'm not looking for NSA-grade security though, just the kind of wipe you'd do if you're returning or selling the Mac.

It depends on your paranoia level. Because of the way SSDs handle writing data, doing a zero-once on an SSD is not as good as doing so on a hard drive.

When you write a particular data page on an HD, the new data is simply written over the old data, replacing it. Write zeros over the whole disk and all the old data will be gone. SSDs, on the other hand, cannot simply overwrite individual pages. In order to replace the data on a page, the old data must first be erased, and SSDs cannot erase individual pages; they have to erase entire blocks consisting of many pages.

So what happens when you ask an SSD to overwrite, say, page #5, is that the SSD leaves the data on page #5 alone, but marks it as invalid, allocates another currently-blank page (say, #2305), writes the new data to page #2305, and makes a note that next time the OS asks for page #5 it should get #2305 instead. The original page #5 data sits there until some later time, when the drive needs more space, moves any remaining valid pages away from the block, and erases it. SSDs have more physical memory capacity than they expose to the computer, so they can juggle blocks like this for a while before actually having to erase anything (and when they do actually erase something, there's no good way to predict which blocks of leftover data will be chosen for erasure). See this AnandTech review for way more details (warning: it's fairly long, and the relevant stuff is spread around).

Net result: if you write zeros over the "whole" drive, you haven't actually overwritten all the old data. You have updated the controller's translation table so it'll never return any of the old data to the OS (those pages are all invalid). But if someone's hardcore enough to bypass the controller, they could get some of your data back.

Overwriting twice will probably work, but it depends on the controller's allocation strategy. Overwriting twice with random data (diskutil randomDisk 2 /dev/diskN) is a little more likely to work, but still not guaranteed.  Both of these also have some bad side-effects: they uses some of the lifetime of the drive, and also increase the logical fragmentation on the SSD, decreasing its write performance.

Note that recent versions of OS X's graphical Disk Utility disable the secure erasure options on SSDs (for the reasons discussed above), but the command-line version still allows them. BTW, I have also seen several recommendations to securely erase SSDs by converting them to encrypted format, but this is (if anything) slightly less secure than overwriting with random data.

The best way to secure-erase an SSD is to invoke the controller's built-in secure-erase feature. This should (if the controller designers did their jobs) truly erase all blocks, and also have the side-effect of resetting the logical page map, essentially defragmenting it and restoring its original performance.  Unfortunately, most of the utilities I've seen for doing this (e.g. CMRR's HDDErase) run under DOS, which won't boot on a Mac. I did find a posting on macrumors with (rather complex) instructions for doing a secure erase from a GParted boot CD. It might also be possible to use Parted Magic from a bootable flash drive, but I have not tried this.

Researchers at the Non-Volatile Systems Lab at UCSD have tested various ways of sanitizing SSDs by "erasing" the drive, then disassembling it to bypass the controller, and checking for remnant data (summary, full paper).  Their results mostly agree with what I said above (and also show that the built-in secure-erase command isn't always implemented properly):

  Our results lead to three conclusions:
  First, built-in commands are effective, but manufacturers
  sometimes implement them incorrectly. Second,
  overwriting the entire visible address space of an SSD
  twice is usually, but not always, sufficient to sanitize the
  drive. Third, none of the existing hard drive-oriented
  techniques for individual file sanitization are effective on
  SSDs.


How can I use iMac internet in my iPod touch? I don't have a Wi-Fi connection here. Is there a way to connect to the internet from my iMac with my iPod touch?

Yes !

You can share you internet connection via Wi-Fi in the "Sharing" preference pane of System preferences. Once activated, your iPod touch will detect a Wi-Fi network that you can join to share the internet connection of your iMac.

(if you're on Lion, replace "Airport" by "Wi-Fi")

Open System preferences
Click on "Sharing"
Click on "Internet sharing" (but don't check the checkbox yet)
Select "Ethernet" in the dropdown menu "Share your connection from"
Check "Airport" in the list "via"
Click "Airport options" to configure wireless network security
Check the checkbox in front of "Internet sharing" in the list on the left to activate it.
If Airport is turned off, it'll ask you if it can turn it on, say yes.
Connect to the created network with you iPod touch as you would do for any wireless network.


How do you hide App Store app updates that your version of iOS does not support? I am running a first generation iPad with iOS 5.1.1 (the most recent version it will ever have) and I just noticed today that the application Shazam has just dropped support for iOS 5 on the latest version of their app. Seeing that this is probably going to be a first of many apps, is there a way to hide updates that can't be installed on your current version of iOS, so that only updates that is compatible with iOS 5 (and my iPad)  will be displayed in the list of updates in the App Store?

This could get kind of messy in the App Store update list with a future shuffled mess of things that I can or can't upgrade or even worse a complete list of stuff that I can't upgrade to too! Are there any work around or fixes to hide that impending mess?

It's a bug that has been present for years. There unfortunately isn't a way to stop getting notification updates, unless you uninstall the app, which you really shouldn't have to do. Lets hope this bug is fixed soon, you can tell them about it here:
apple.com/support/feedback/


Disable iPhoto auto launch when connecting an iPhone or iPad iPhoto starts launching when iPhone is connected even though it never used to before Yosemite.
Steps described in: On connecting device - iTunes or iPhotos must not open does not work in Yosemite. Yosemite seems to ignore the iPhoto settings.

With iPhone plugged in.

Open application "Image capture"
Select your iPhone
Press the triangle in square symbol in the lower left corner.
Choose "No application" in the droplist under "Connecting this iPhone opens:"


Automator - Launch terminal at certain folder Is there a way in Automator to open the terminal application at a certain folder location with 2 tabs at that location?

So for example open terminal with 2 tabs that have already changed directory from the root folder to Documents/Websites

Terminal can be finicky beast when it comes to automation; however, with the use of UI Scripting the following example AppleScript code can be used in Script Editor and saved as an application, or in Automator in a Run AppleScript action.
Note that using UI Scripting may require accessibility privileges be granted.
This was tested and works under macOS High Sierra.
do shell script "open -a 'Terminal' ~/Documents/Websites"
tell application "Terminal" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "t" using {command down}
    keystroke tab using {control down, shift down}
end tell

The example AppleScript code above will open a new Terminal window to the specified location and then open a new tab to the same location while setting focus back to the first tab.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


Calendar App on MacOS Won't Sync After 5PM I have a rather odd problem with my mac... None of my 4 Google calendars (2 gsuite, 2 normal) sync properly after around 5PM. The Calendar UI only shows The server responded with an error.
I've tried:

Clearing the calendar app cache following this procedure
Removing and re-adding these accounts entirely
Entirely removing ~/Library/Caches
NVRAM and SMC reset
Upgrading the entire system from Catalina to Mojave

The only clue I have is this line from logs is:
CoreDAVPropFindTask failed: Error Domain=CoreDAVHTTPStatusErrorDomain Code=403 "(null)"

But still no love. Does anyone have any ideas? This is one of the more bizarre computer problems I've ever had.

Seems to be a fault on google’s end affecting macos / google calendar integration.
The relevant google support thread is here


Keynote 6.0 - How to add animated gif? I recently got Keynote 6.0 and I'm having trouble animating a gif in it. Using Insert > Choose... easily adds the gif to the slide, but without animation. I have searched and found other sources (example) which all seem to point to using the "Quicktime Inspector" to work with the animation of a gif. Unfortunately, the Quicktime Inspector no longer seems to exist in version 6.0 and I can't seem to find the solution otherwise. Any suggestions? Thank you much!

If you change the extension to .mov then drag it over, it’ll ask you to optimize for iOS, at which point it will treat the GIF as a movie.


Unknown number instead of anonymous number I've got a question, sometimes when the Caller ID is hidden, it will show up on my lock screen as "Anonymous". But recently, I've noticed something, there is a distinction between Anonymous and "Unknown", when missing a call.

Who can tell me what "unknown number" means, I suppose a caller either has the number hidden (anonymous) or shown (just the number that shows up, or a contact)? I also received a voicemail from the unknown number, which is just a 3 second message with a computer voice.

Who can clear this up for me?

Unknown means the carrier didn't send a CID response.  Anonymous means they populated it with the word 'Anonymous'.


How to restore previous version of iOS Video app Over the past decade, we've purchased thousands of TV shows and hundreds of movies and songs from iTunes.   These have all been stored on a massive NAS, and served from a Mac Mini with iTunes Home Sharing enabled.

Until just a few days ago, our iPhones and our children's iPads could easily browse and play any previous purchases.  This was great, because well, when nothing new and interesting is available or when guests visit, we can quickly and easily re-play old shows and movies that we purchased without consuming any internet bandwidth.

We allowed both iPhones and our newest iPad to update.  Apple removed the Video app and replaced it with the TV.app.  The TV app sucks.  Not only does it hang and crash often, it lists about 20 of our 4000+ shows and 10 of over 300+ movies that we purchased.

Our old iPad that has not updated yet still has the Video app installed.  It can still access Home Sharing, and thus it still lists and plays any of our purchases instantly.

So, is it possible to copy the old Video app from the old iPad somehow, and then copy that app over to our iPhones and the new iPad?

I really get the impression from what is happening with "TV apps" and "subscription" terminology that Apple is trying to force people to become subscribers to an old-school, cable-like service tv-networks' bundling apps (shwew, that's a mouthful and yes it stinks of expensive cable TV).  So thoughtlessly breaking access to our own purchases, stored on our own networked devices further re-enforces this impression.  I've doubts that it was a total blunder that the new TV app is no longer listing Videos on our NAS, and only allows re-streaming.  So if we could recover by using the old Video app that would let us continue using the thousands of dollars of movies and shows that we paid for.

My answer addresses the OP issue with TV.app, not reverting to the previous Videos.app. The functionality the OP wishes to have is available in the TV.app and that is what my answer addresses.

I know this question is a little old, but I had the same issue with the new TV.app seeing my local Home Sharing library. This question is also addressed/answered here as well.

Home Sharing libraries under the library menu at the top of the TV.app do not appear until;

Home Sharing is setup on all devices. And...
Content is downloaded from the iTunes Store (e.g. a single free tv show.)

Step 2 seems to trigger the TV.app to make Home Sharing available. Once this is done your Home Sharing library will be visible in the menu and you will be able to access and view your content from the shared library on the device.

The below image is my iPad showing our local Home Sharing library iMac Library in the TV.app on iOS 10.3.1 - Hope this answer helps others.


Keyboard remapping in OS X 10.9 Is it feasible to remap my keyboard mapping in OS X Mavericks? For example, I want to swap q and ` (backticks), since I don't require typing q too much and like to owe the position to another key, such as backticks. I've used keyremap4macbook to change : and ;, and " and ' and have no issues on it, but it looks like the app only allows to change on some specific keys like ;, ', ?, {, etc. and not on those alphabetical keys.

Also, I got some video tutorials to modify those keys, but it doesn't work on Mavericks since the system preferences look a bit different than in the prior versions.

So is it feasible to remap my keys in Mavericks? And how can I modify it?

Thanks.

The easy way to do this would be to use Keyboard Maestro and just create two macros, one for 'q' which inserts '`' and one for '`' which inserts 'q'

It also does a ton of other awesome stuff and is one of my favorite OS X utilities, but it’s not free (there's a free trial 30 days it’s ~ $35 IIRC).

However, my guess is that you could also do it using KeyRemap4MacBook using the private.xml feature under "Misc & Uninstall"

I am not qualified to explain what needs to be in the private.xml file, however, I can point you to the documentation for
A simple example of private.xml which shows some examples and explains the format of the file.

There is also a free Mac OS X app Key Codes which you will probably want to use to help you find the correct key code values.


Files are hidden after reinstalling OS X I have an imac which is about 5 or 6 years old. I had been running Leopard on it but my iphoto quit working so I reinstalled the OS X that came with the computer. Although it shows 366 GB are used on my hard drive I can't see any files. How do I restore my computer to where it was? Time machine shows no back up.

One way to do this is to open your hard drive (not your user home folder).

In that window you should see all users on your computer. The one with home icon is the main user folder.

Also you could run this in terminal to unhide the folders/files

sudo chflags nohidden /Users


What are the requisites for RAM in a MacBook? I've just purchased my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (it's not the retina model where RAM is fixed) and I'm considering more RAM. On the system information app, I found this info.

BANK 0/DIMM0: 2GB DDR3 1600 MHz OK
BANK 1/DIMM0: 2GB DDR3 1600 MHz OK

Will any RAM, DDR3, 1600MHz work or does the MacBbook have some other requirement to be compatible that isn't listed above?

Any 1600 MHz DDR3 SODIMM will work.  You do not need to buy one from OWC or any Mac specialty shop.


trying to run Apache James (email server) on Mac -- getting "Permission denied" error -- help? I download Apache James email server on my Mac.  I extracted the zip to a "james-2.3.2" folder.  When I run "./james-2.3.2/bin/run.sh" I get a "Permission denied".

I tried doing a chmod 755 on the run.sh but it still gives me an error (something about permission denied regarding a phoenix .sh file).

I expect I'm doing something fundamentally wrong.  Any help is appreciated!

rob

You have to set chmod 755 for all the *.sh files in this directory. For that you could run

find ./james-2.3.2 -type f -name '*\.sh' -exec chmod +x {} \;

This command will look for files which end with .sh and sets the executable bit (okey, there are only two, the run.sh and phoenix.sh)

But you still have to set JAVA_HOME otherwise james will complain. And you have to run it as 'root' user since it the application will listen to a port < 1024. For me the following let me run james:

sudo JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home ./james-2.3.2/bin/run.sh


Is it possible to connect to AirPods Pro via keyboard shortcut? I want to connect to my AirPods Pro on mac (Big Sur 11.1) using keyboard shortcut. I find it tedious to manually choose the top-right icon on the menu bar and click 'connect', but at the same time I don't want to make the pairing automatic since not always do I want to connect to my mac, such as while I play the music on my iPad.
So I want to connect to it via keyboard shortcut. Is it possible? It's fine to use 3rd-party apps such as Hammarspoon or Karabiner-Elements, though I could not find a way to connect to the AirPods.

Karabiner + Blueutil Solution
I do something like this using a bluetooth cli tool named blueutil. Here is a complex modification you could use in Karabiner.
{
    "title": "Bluetooth Connect",
    "rules": [
        {
            "description": "Connect to AirPods",
            "manipulators": [
                {
                    "from": {
                        "key_code": "a",
                        "modifiers": {
                            "mandatory": ["fn"]
                        }
                    },
                    "to": [
                        {
                            "shell_command": "/usr/local/bin/blueutil -p 1; /usr/local/bin/blueutil --connect \"AirPods Pro\""
                        }
                    ],
                    "type": "basic"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

+ Goku
Goku is a tool for more easily managing your karabiner configuration. I use this to manage mine. I have configured Karabiner to use F10 as a "audio layer"/modifier key for audio related mappings. If you learn a little about how Goku works, you can check out my configuration if you want to implement something like this for yourself.


Touch ID Canceled by another authentication I've had this issue over multiple iterations of OS. This began for me in High Sierra, followed into Mojave, and now into Catalina. I finally figured I'd deal with it. I've tried everything I've found currently, and nothing works.

I've done the following.

Deleted everything in my Keychain folder and rebooted.
Deleted the entire /Library/Keychain folder itself, and rebooted.
Tested another profile, which did work, however it doesn't help me aside from knowing something's messed up with my profile.

Any other ideas before I blow this profile away? This is a work laptop so it'll be a pain to get this back to normal working order.

My suggestion might sound redundant but see if below link helps. I went through same steps and it worked for me. I am also on Catalina.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7765052


if both data and wi-fi are enabled, will iPhone use both? I was using my iPhone with both data enabled, 3G enabled and inside my hose, where I was connected to wi-fi. I just saw that I exceeded my monthly limit and I was billed $10. So when data is enabled, will it always be used? I understand that 3G is only used for data, so I am not billed for it separately. right?

If you just saw that you exceeded your data, it could've been many hours ago while you were not at home. AT&T says it could be delayed by 24 to 48 hours.

In my experience, the iPhone will only use data from one connection at a time, not both; Its choice is indicated by which adapter symbol is showing in the menu bar. When you see the Wi-Fi symbol, your iPhone is only using Wi-Fi for the internet.

Example: When I'm connected to a really bad Wi-Fi network (if I am almost out of range or it lost its internet connection), and trying to load a page in Safari, my iPhone will struggle with loading the page for about 10 to 20 seconds. Then, the Wi-Fi symbol switches to the 3G symbol and the page loads using cellular data.

The only exceptions I know of are multimedia messages (MMS) that aren't iMessages and Visual Voicemail – both of these things will not come over Wi-Fi and can't be received with cellular data off. They are not using both, but they could use cellular while you're on Wi-Fi.

Last bit of evidence and future-proofing: In iOS 6 Beta 4, Apple added an option for "Wi-Fi Plus Cellular". (MacRumors: iOS 6 Beta Adds 'Wi-Fi Plus Cellular' Option...)

It will help people who may be on a Wi-Fi network with little or no internet connection be able to get cellular data through to some apps. (Maybe I'm just on the Wi-Fi network for Airplay for example.) It allows you to choose (from their pre-set list) which apps can access cellular data while you're on Wi-Fi. Before iOS 6, this option was unavailable.


Can i Print to a dell 3010cn from Snow Lepoard i have a dell 3010cn printer, and a iMac

having some trouble getting it installed, i know that its not officially supported but i installed foomatic-rip and ghostscript and downloaded the pxldpl PPD file but i wont actually print though it can connect to the printer

the printer is connected to my LAN

I was able to achieve success.
On my Ubuntu box I got it to print over wifi,
And on the mac I could print through the Ubuntu Box as a print server.
I used the windows box I have as a server and it worked. No control of any options though.
 Never Could print directly though.


Python with Catalina : No module named 'OpenGL' I am running the examples provided by the PyQtGraph python graphic module, on a MacOS Catalina. They all work fine for me, except those in 3D. I have a message :
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Applications/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyqtgraph/examples/GLVolumeItem.py", line 11, in <module>
    import pyqtgraph.opengl as gl
  File "/Applications/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyqtgraph/opengl/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from .GLViewWidget import GLViewWidget
  File "/Applications/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyqtgraph/opengl/GLViewWidget.py", line 2, in <module>
    from OpenGL.GL import *
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'OpenGL'

The OpenGL module, though deprecated in Catalina, is present at the location(I checked)

/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework

but I have no clue about how to make python find it. Does anyone have ?
Thanks a lot !!

You need a python library, not the system framework.
The standard OpenGL python library is PyOpenGL. However, that seems to be different from the library requested by the code.
If you installed PyQtGraph correctly, that should install everything you need.


Why Did Time Machine Delete My Old Backups? I recently upgraded my hard drive from the stock Hitachi 250GB to a Western Digital 320GB. I restored from Time Machine.

I plugged in my hard drive today and left my hard drive to back up. Surprisingly, when I came back, the backups were being deleted.

Why?

It was the same installation. Now my unrecoverable backups are gone.

After a full restore, a full backup is preformed (always). It's by design. This is also documented on the wonderful Podini - About Time Machine site, section TM is doing a full backup for no good reason. Other circumstances, that may trigger full backup, are listed too.

I quote:

  And Time Machine may do a full backup after any of the following:
   * A full restore, whether from Time Machine or a "clone" (probably)


Updating from iOS 4.x without iTunes My old computer in which I had iTunes on is broken.  So my question is, are there any other ways of updating an iPad without having iTunes? If not, are there any stores that will do it?

While iOS 5 does, indeed, support iTunesless software update, previous versions don't, which is your case.

Therefore I suggest you to go to any Apple Store, which will certainly help you with your issue, or try any other Apple Retailler.


Macbook pro 13 mid 2010 external monitor I'm about to buy a external monitor to Macbook pro 13 mid 2010, I really like Dell U2515H, can my mac support it without being slow ? I will use it for developing (sublime text) and Videos/Movies.

Your Macbook supports an external monitor with a max resolution of 2560x1600. It will be fine, for better performance, close the lid so that there is only 1 display open.

I had 2x Thunderbolt displays at 2560x14400 (13" Late 2011) and was only experiencing slow movements after I plugged in the 2nd display. 1 will run just fine. :)


How to Kiosk Mode a Web Page OSX - Chrome I have to let members of the public use my laptop to access a member signup web page at a student fair in a couple of weeks.

Chrome doesn't have kiosk mode on Mac, is it possible to disable CMD+Q, prevent the title bar from showing up etc..?

Is there software designed for this?

Any other advice?

Have you considered using Opera as a browser for the signup. It does provide a kiosk mode that is easy to enable:

/Applications/Opera.app/Contents/MacOS/Opera -kioskmode -noexit

The documentation has information about a 'Go To Home' timeout mode that will restore the kiosk after a set interval.


Attempts to install Windows 8.1 onto an Early 2011 MBP are failing So I have spent the past couple of days attempting to install Windows 8.1 onto a MBP with High Sierra. Apparently, this model is unable to create and boot from a USB dive. So the normal Boot Camp method is out of the question.

I've been following a guide posted on this site that uses VirtualBox to install Windows without the need for a USB drive or even a DVD.

Here's the guide for reference: Is it possible to Bootcamp Windows 8.1 using USB on Late 2011 MBP?

So here's what I've done so far...

Installed the latest version of VirtualBox
Created a new VM with Windows 8.1 as the version. I did not add a virtual drive.
Using the Terminal, I found that the internal disk, disk0, had 4 partitions. I had created a WINDOWS partition, identified as disk0s4 when using diskutil list.
I entered the following series of commands:

sudo chown $USER /dev/disk0s4
sudo chown $USER /dev/disk0s1
sudo chown $USER /dev/disk0
diskutil unmount /dev/disk0s4
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/RawWinDisk.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk0 -partitions 1,4
diskutil unmount /dev/disk0s4

in a Terminal application window.
So far so good. No issues here besides having to disable the SIP in order to create the VMDK file.
Back to the VM I created early, I when to the settings and clicked on the "+" sign by the SATA controller. I added the VMDK file that I just made so it appeared below the SATA controller.
This is where I had to improvise. The guide asks to click on "Empty" below the IDE controller... except there was not IDE controller listed. Instead, there was another "Empty" shown under the SATA controller. So, I added a virtual disk (The Windows 8.1 ISO file) and checked in the "Live CD/DVD" option.
And here is where everything goes kaputs. I go to start the VM. The Windows 8 installer boots up fine. I enter in the product key and continue. I am given the option to upgrade or do a clean install. I choose clean. The installation halts with the following error:

  Compatibility report: The computer started using the windows installation media. Remove the installation media and restart your computer so that windows starts normally. Then, insert the installation media and restart the upgrade. (Do not select Icustom [advanced] to perform an upgrade Icustom [advanced] installs a new copy of windows and deletes your programs and settings.)

So now what? I know the ISO file is fine because I have used it before to reinstall Windows. Is there a setting I missed?

Ignore the message. You do want to select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced). See image below.

The answer you are referencing was posted Jun 11 2015. This answer is basically the same as the earlier answer I posed on Apr 9 2015, except for a few omitted steps. The procedure you used might work provided a BIOS booting operating system was previous installed on your Mac. The answers I posted here and here were tested for Windows 7 and/or Windows 10, but not for Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. You might consider trying one of my posted answers. In any case, the Window Support Software for your Mac should be downloaded by using the Boot Camp Assistant installed on your Mac or directly from the website Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621. This software should be used with any 64 bit of version Windows you install (including Windows 10).

  BTW: You and download and try Windows 10 without having a Product Key. Use Safari to download the Windows 10 ISO from this Microsoft website. You can buy a license after installing and testing Windows 10.


Key Remapping on Logitech K750 Possible Duplicate:
  Permanently swapping option and command keys on a non-Apple keyboard

I have a Logitec K750 and it has the left Alt key closer to the space bar than the Windows Key (to be used as Command Key).  How can I remap the keys on JUST my Logitech keyboard and NOT on my built-in MacBook keyboard so that the Left Alt key functions like the Command Key, and the Left Command Key functions like the Left Alt key?  Is there a way to do this without having any apps running in the background, like some kind of key-map file I can edit rather than using a tool to do it? I'm a real resource-conscious user and don't want anything running in the background.

Thanks!

Possible duplicate of this answered question.

The solution seems to remap all keyboards with KeyRemap4MacBook and then remap just the internal keyboard with standard keyboard preferences pane. (not tested by myself)


How long can my MacBook Pro sustain greater than 100% CPU usage? The Activity Monitor app says my macbook pro 10.7.5 is at 300% CPU usage when I'm trying to install and sync my Bitcoin-Qt client.

I let in run like this with the fan going crazy for 4 hours without incident, but stressed about it the whole time.

Is that level of CPU usage sustainable? Is this 300% number even accurate to what is going on?

details:

Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

The thing is that 100% CPU usage refers to a single one of the cores in your CPU being fully loaded (or an equivalent load distributed among all the cores). I assume your MacBook Pro has a dual core CPU with HyperThreading; that's 2 physical cores plus 2 logical cores exposed by HyperThreading. Thus, you could in theory achieve as high as 400% CPU usage (4 cores times 100% each).

As to whether it is sustainable, in principle it should be, if the cooling system is in order and the cooling vents are not clogged with dust or blocked by any objects. Even if it's not and you reach supposedly dangerous temperatures, the CPU should throttle itself to prevent any damage.


How can I view recently added songs in iTunes grouped by Album like the Songs view does? I have just added 6 albums worth of downloaded music to my iTunes library. I know that some of the files will not be identified as the same album by iTunes because of different Album Artist metadata, and some of the tracks will be missing track or disc numbers. These problems are easiest to see in the Songs view, where I can see one album split in half, then select all of the offending songs and apply the 'Compilation' flag or correct the missing metadata. However, the only way I can find to filter my view down to just the newly added tracks is using the Recently Added smart playlist, which does not give me a preview of the Songs view's album grouping behavior.

If I understand your question correctly, in the 'music' section, sort by date added, select the six albums worth of songs and create a New Playlist from Selection (Cmd-Shft-N, or right-click on selection). From that playlist, you should have the view you want.