GPU problem - Boot Hangs on Grey Screen I found this according to my problem in this thread:
Boot hangs on grey screen (even when booting from USB drive with fresh OS X install)

My MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011 with AMD Radeon HD 6750M exhibited display corruption and associated system crashes/resets over a period of two weeks before it entirely failed to boot. The boot would progress through the grey screen with the Apple logo and spinner, but just when it seems it should have switched to the login screen the Apple logo and spinner would disappear and hang on a blank grey screen.

Initially I suspected hard-drive corruption and went about trying to remedy that. Unsuccessfully, I tried the following, with each continuing to hang as described above:

Safe boot
Boot into recovery (including Internet Recovery)
Boot from install media on USB drive
Boot from OS X installation on USB drive
Clear NVRAM
Reset SMC

I also ran the Apple Hardware Test many times without it finding any issues.

Verbose safe boot (Cmd+Shift+V) output everything that I'd expect to see but would then hang as described above.

After coming across more posts online at Apple's discussion forums of GPU related problems I revisited this as the cause:

2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card or
2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Attempting to boot Ubuntu from a USB flash drive, I could only get as far as GRUB. When trying to boot Ubuntu Desktop or run the graphicstest in GRUB the system would hang.

At this point, running Apple Hardware Test hung right before the end of the standard test, possibly [guessing] when doing a video test.

Based on the advice in the Apple Discussions posts above I did the following:

Boot into Single-User mode
Execute the following commands:

/sbin/fsck -fy /
/sbin/mount -uw /
mkdir /Disabled_System_Library_Extensions
cd /Disabled_System_Library_Extensions
mv /System/Library/Extensions/ATI* .
mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD* .
touch /System/Library/Extensions
exit

This time the machine booted all the way through. However, graphics are extremely slow, even just transitions when minimizing windows. I will be taking my MBP to Apple to demand a replacement as the large number of reports of others facing similar issues makes it look like a recurrence of a similar GPU-related failure that resulted in them doing a recall.

But when I use the "mv" command the files won't get moved (neither deleted) and it shows me:
Sandbox deny(01) file-write-unlinked…

Any Solution ?

Background and explanations
Please read all of this post at least once from start to finish before taking any action.
All MacBook Pros from 2011 have a serious design defect. The thermal management and the generated heat together with the robustness of the discrete AMD graphics chips do not match up very well. Apple knew this and acted like a typical  Soapy Smith, only reacting to this after an outrage. This scandal took on the name of RadeonGate. Only with a threatened class-action law suit Apple was finally pressured into offering a so called "Repair Extension Program".
The Apple Repair Extension program is not available anymore. The only real way to fix this problem is to replace the AMD chip alone. Not the logic board. Not "re-balling", not "reflowing", not "baking". Apple replaced a failed chip with a failing chip. Time and time again. Only replacing the graphics chip is still a costly hardware procedure for such a vintage laptop.
The only known way – that is: with software alone – to get a 2011 MacBook Pro (8,2) with 'only' a failed AMD graphics chip to almost reliably turn on again and boot into macOS and be quite useable with an accelerated GUI is this guide or a variation of it. Most previous tips just removed all AMD-kexts and this results in a horrible user experience with no GUI acceleration at all.
It is necessary to know your exact OS version. The following guide will be simpler for Yosemite but assumes El Capitan or newer. El Capitan, Sierra and High Sierra need SIP (System Integrity Protection) disabled. On previous systems (10.6–10.10) these steps are unnecessary.
Important: This guide assumes further that all kexts are still in their default location /System/Library/Extensions. Having all AMD-kexts there except one is beneficial for 'proper' operation. Previous hacks in this direction might have instructed you to move, or worse: remove all AMD*/ATI* kernel extensions. If that is the case: either move the kexts back into their default location or reinstall a system of your choice. Having most of the AMD kexts in place and then having the X3000-kext loaded with a delay will enable power management of the GPU which will otherwise burn electricity for nothing (and might hasten the final heat death of the chip on top of that). To reiterate: Only the file AMDRadeonX3000.kext really has be absent on boot to enable a successful startup, but all other (needed) AMD drivers should be in their default location and the X3000-kext loaded afterwards/delayed to get back into a realm of almost sensible power and temperature management.
Bypassing the discrete graphics chip
To get some display acceleration back it will be necessary to force the machine to not boot in discrete graphics (dGPU) but directly into integrated graphics (iGPU) and stay in this mode.
Booting into dGPU mode is the default on Macs with two switchable graphics cards. The procedure below will set an NVRAM variable that disables the dGPU and forces the system to only use the integrated Intel graphics even when booting.
The NVRAM variable is undocumented but appears to be universally applicable to all Macs with two switchable graphics cards. That means it should work on iMacs and MacBook Pros. Whether they have AMD or NVIDIA chips. The specifics about the drivers that might be necessary to move only cover AMD in this guide. But the NVRAM variable will bypass the discrete graphics chip in any case.
This will give you back your machine – but you will lose some features: e.g. the ability to drive an external display from the DisplayPort, a bit of 3D performance. Thunderbolt data connections should work.
In case this guide fails or is not wanted anymore: this procedure is pure software configuration and therefore fully reversible at any time with simple NVRAM reset.
The initial procedure:
Part 1: Disable SIP, disable dGPU, move one kernel extension

To start from a clean slate: reset SMC and NVRAM:
shutdown, unplug everything except power, now hold
leftShift+Ctrl+Opt+Power
and release all at the same time;

Now power on again and
hold
Cmd+Opt+p+r
at the same time until you hear the startup chime two times.

Boot into Single User Recovery by holding
Cmd+r+s

Disable SIP:
enter:
csrutil disable

disable dGPU on boot with setting the following variable:
nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

enable verbose boot mode:
nvram boot-args="-v"

reboot into Single User-mode by holding
Cmd+s
on boot

mount root partition writeable
/sbin/mount -uw /

make a kext-backup directory
mkdir -p /System/Library/Extensions-off

only move ONE offending kext out of the way:
mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX3000.kext  /System/Library/Extensions-off/

inform the system to update its kextcache:
touch /System/Library/Extensions/

reboot normally:

You should now have an iGPU  accelerated display, but the system doesn't know how to power-management the failed AMD-chip. (In this state the GPU is always idling with relatively high power, consuming quite a bit of battery when unplugged and leading to GPU temperatures from 60°C upwards [on average 60-85°C], despite not being used for anything by system.)
Part 2: improve thermal and power management
For improved power management of the disabled GPU you have to either manually load the one crucial kext after boot by:
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions-off/AMDRadeonX3000.kext

If you have a temperature sensor application you might want to have it open before issuing the above command and watch the temps drop…
Automate this with the following LoginHook that will get executed after the next reboot:
sudo mkdir -p /Library/LoginHook
sudo nano /Library/LoginHook/LoadX3000.sh

with the following content:
#!/bin/bash
kextload  /System/Library/Extensions-off/AMDRadeonX3000.kext
pmset -a force gpuswitch 0    # undocumented/experimental
exit 0

then make it*1 executable and active:
sudo chmod a+x /Library/LoginHook/LoadX3000.sh
sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /Library/LoginHook/LoadX3000.sh

*1: The undocumented use of this pmset command seems to improve sleep/wake/shutdown behaviour. If it doesn't, experiment with leaving it out.
See Disclaimer below. The following is just speculation: sleep/wake/shutdown may remain troublesome. The theory here is that "something slowly corrupts" what is saved in the SMC. Therefore, resetting the SMC and re-applying the variable hack seems to alleviate the situation for a time.  (Permanent solutions for this welcome!) As short time workarounds you might want to try to avoid "lid-closing sleep", that seems to give more trouble than other methods (Apple-Menu, Keyboard-Shorcut). Apparent hangs on shutdown are usually just very long delays that will shutdown, eventually, cleanly and successfully.
Unscientific sampling suggests that Yosemite is worst for this and El Capitan and Sierra much better behaved in this regard.
Manually or otherwise delayed loading of this crucial kernel extension allows the system to handle power management a bit better. The battery will be less used and the temperatures emanating from the unused GPU will drop to a range significantly below 50°C (on average between 15-50°C).
For proper power management the minimal set of loaded kexts are on boot (versions for 10.12.6, check with kextstat | grep AMD):
com.apple.kext.AMDLegacySupport (1.5.1)
com.apple.kext.AMD6000Controller (1.5.1)
com.apple.kext.AMDSupport (1.5.1)
com.apple.kext.AMDLegacyFramebuffer (1.5.1)

And if the above method of loading succeeded this should appear added to the list:
com.apple.AMDRadeonX3000 (1.5.1)

A final step is to reboot once again into SingleUserRecovery
Do this with Cmd+r+s
after the commandline becomes active, enter:
 nvram boot-args="-v agc=0"

and reboot normally.
This will cool down the dGPU a bit further.
It is imperative to issue this command from SingleUserRecovery since the system with SIP enabled will block your attempts to set this variable when booted from the normal boot volume, whether in normal full boot mode or regular SingleUser.
It is important to note that therefor this step cannot be easily integrated into the force-iGPU.sh script (that you will be creating in a minute) and has to be repeated on its own after a NVRAM reset.
This last step assumes that SystemIntegretyProtection has been reenabled. But if SIP is intentionally and permanently kept off, then this step can be integrated in the force-iGPU.sh script above.
But since somehow I intended to keep SIP off permanently and it was turned back on without me noticing it, reliance on SIP staying "off" might be not the best approach. Clearing NVRAM, where SIP settings are stored, might be one such unforeseen disturbance.
Preventive measures for future use
There are two further caveats to know:
This is reversible when the SMC/NVRAM is reset. If that happens the GPU-power-pref NVRAM-variable can or even has to be set again to force the use of the iGPU from boot-time.
Since this can happen quite easily (and is often erroneously recommended way too many times than it is actually useful), you should probably prepare for such a scenario and create a simple script to greatly speed up the process and also make entering the necessary variable much less error prone:
 sudo nano /force-iGPU-boot.sh

– Enter the following content to this file:
#/bin/sh
sudo nvram boot-args="-v"
sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00
exit 0

– Now make that executable:
sudo chmod a+x /force-iGPU-boot.sh

In the future, when the SMC/PRAM/NVRAM gets reset to default values it is now possible to boot into SingleUser with:
Cmd+s
– And after mounting your boot-volume read-write to execute just this single line:
sh /force-iGPU-boot.sh

Remember that the agc variable is now also cleared. (See above)
Also, make sure you set the default boot-volume again in System Preferences> Startup Disk.
Part 3: Handling Updates from Apple
This setup has now one kext in a place Apple's installers do not expect. That is why in this guide SIP has not been reenabled. If an update that contains changes to the AMD drivers is about to take place it is advisable to move back the AMDRadeonX3000.kext to its default location before the update process. Otherwise the updater writes at least another kext of a different version to its default location or at worst you end up with an undefined state of partially non-matching drivers.
After any system update the folder /System/Library/Extensions has to be checked for the offending kext. Its presence there will lead to e.g. a boot hang on Yosemite and Sierra, an overheating boot-loop in High Sierra.
Upgrading to High Sierra 10.13: with this hack in place is almost straightforward: Despite applying a  firmware update  the installation process should not touch the NVRAM variable. The installation process also does not use a fully accelerated AMD chip but basic acceleration that is not problematic regarding this hack. However, as noted in the paragraph above the first boot into a system that is finished installing but just about to start the setup process will produce a heat/crash induced boot loop. The offending kernel extension has to be moved again like described above. (Starting at Step 3) After moving the kext, all shall be well.
Recent updates from Apple: Do not update before you have read the following.
Recent updates break the machine again. It updates the firmware, RecoveryPartition, seems to disable the possibility to boot into SingleUserRecoveryMode
and to top it off it installs – even with the DeltaUpdate – a working AMDRadeonX3000.kext!
Without preparation and with just the machine at hand you will be stuck a bit.
In case SingleUserRecoveryMode is gone for good, use regular RecoveryMode. Results are the same, it is just a little bit slower to boot into: the above procedure is still valid, and faster for all previous versions of Mac OS X/macOS.
But if you update to 10.13.6, or later:
Then you have to replace the instructions for SingleUserRecoveryMode (Command+r+s) with regular RecoveryMode (Command+r) and disable SIP via Terminal (Example for this precise use case).
In case you do belong to those where even regular RecoveryMode doesn't work as expected:
Workarounds for the inability to disable SIP with SingleUserRecovery:

First, boot into single user recovery mode. csrutil edits are not allowed in this mode, but can set the gpu-power-prefs nvram property. This will help to reboot  the machine in recovery mode. Then you have to replace the instructions for SingleUserRecoveryMode (Command+r+s) with regular RecoveryMode (Command+r) and disable SIP via Terminal (Example for this precise use case).

Before you update, prepare a bootable volume. That can be an external disk or a stick. Any version that boots the machine will be fine. Such a drive can be created on another Mac.
Keep in mind that on the external drive the AMDRadeonX3000.kext has to be (re)moved as well. Try booting from that drive. Only if that works as expected and you can mount your internal drive with it: reboot from your internal drive and proceed with the update of your internal drive/system to 10.13.6.
After the update is nearly finished, one reboot will hang. Force a shutdown and reboot from your external drive. Mount the internal drive and move the Radeon.kext. SIP only protects the booted system.

Suggested somewhere online, but really a desperate guess and untested: Instead of SingleUserRecoveryMode with Cmdrs you might try InternetRecoverySingleUserMode CmdOptrs.
Alternatively, it might be worth a try to see whether SafeRecoveryMode works CmdShiftr.

Graphical recovery mode might not work too, as it did for me. However, in the last version of High Sierra, it is still possible to boot to single user recovery mode. It just needs good timing. The trick is to first enable recovery mode by pressing cmd+R and immediately after it is recognized the cmd+S command for the single user mode. The exact moment has to be figured out by the user. If cmd+R+S are pressed at the same time, only single user mode will be activated. If first cmd+R is pressed and cmd+S is pressed too late, graphical recovery mode is loaded. – TAKeanice ↵

Screen brightness keys not working in High Sierra?
Apple changed the way that keyboard events for changing screen brightness are handled in High Sierra. With this hack in place the keys will be functionless. One more reason to stay with Sierra. But with this hack you might also resort to using another software solution. Aside from hacking your own AppleScript solution you might want to try out ready made applications or apps.
For example Brightness Slider on the AppStore offers customizable keyboard shortcuts.

To avoid these crashes/hangs/boot-loops – which are never a good idea for your filesystem – on a fresh install or an upgrade: make sure to babysit the installation process and always boot into  SafeMode (keep Shift pressed during boot-ups until the kext is moved into a safe place –– the installation should proceed just fine in SafeMode.
Closing Remarks and Recommendations
Further: this laptop is overheating, no matter what you do. The cooling system is inadequate and the huge number of failing AMD chips are just proof of that.
To prolong the life of this now hacked machine it is advisable to abstain from really heavy lifting over prolonged stretches of time.
Strictly follow the usual recommendations for laptops: use on hard surfaces, keep the fans and fins inside it clean. Using any fancontrol software with relatively aggressive settings should also help: like smcFanControl, MacsFanControl, or TGPro (both commercial).
Disclaimer: This whole procedure is no magic bullet. The state of failure for these chips not 100% predictable. Very few users have issues even with this hack in place: there might be issues with rebooting, going to sleep or waking up properly, most of them coming from users with Yosemite, the least trouble seems to be on Sierra. In these cases it seems sometimes necessary to not use the AMDRadeonX3000.kext, and therefore also not the LoginHook from Part 3. (But see the additional note under *1 above.) High Sierra users report issues with their displays backlight adjustment. So currently, the sweet spot for choice of operating system is in my view 10.12 Sierra.
In some cases, even with all these measures in place it seems that the still functioning Thunderbolt port will cause some issues if any peripherals are attached and active when the machine goes to sleep. After this happens any subsequent sleep cycle might be affected and an NVRAM reset with subsequent variable setting dance outlined above will be necessary, again. It seems advisable in such cases to either prevent machine sleep or unplug any hardware on the Thunderbolt port before letting the machine sleep.
Within the restrictions outlined at the start of this answer: Most users report complete success.

Hardware mods/hacks
Several ways available now, some bad, some good.
Bad solution: A very cheap hardware modification is available at/from RealMacMods:
While they use a relatively complicated way of setting the necessary EFI variable with linux the following has the advantage of cutting the core voltage to the dGPU completely by removing just one tiny resistor! (Pictures at the link)

On this reboot it is essential that you boot once into safe mode (hold Shift throughout boot), and then choose shutdown(not restart) from the menu.
Do this safe boot with the R8911 resistor in place. Without this SAFE BOOT, the next steps may not work.
Do no more boots until you complete the next steps.
The safe boot clears OS level GPU preferences, that may interfere with the following process.
This will now cause your MacBook Pro to stop switching to the Radeon automatically, but it will still draw power, create heat, and be visible to the OS.
We discovered that simply removing 1 resistor will resolve this.
The resistor can also be replaced with a switch, in case you need to turn your radeon back on for any reason.
The placement of this resistor varies between logic board models.
The resistor in question is R8911 on the 17″ MBP and R8911 on the 15″ MBP
a 1 Ohm resistor that provides a current path to the ISL6263C DC to DC Converter.
This resistor controls power to the Voltage Regulator that provides the Core Voltage to the Radeon GPU. Simply put, no core voltage, no GPU.
You will find the resistor just to the right of a cooling fan (in the above orientation). It will be near the ISL Voltage converter chip. This is the chip we will be disabling.
Just remove it. The preferred method is a professional reflow station, but an iron and a steady hand will get you where you need to be.  If you used flux to remove it (not needed), make sure you clean up with a little Alcohol or other suitable solvent.
That is basically it. Next time you boot up you will notice your GPU defect issue is gone, and you will no longer see the AMD GPU as installed hardware.

I have not tested this but it should eliminate any need to care for the kexts and also solve any issues regarding sleep, wakeup, hibernation, reboot etc.
Caveat for considering this method: since it also seems to rely on having this NVRAM variable set it looks like it is likely absolutely essential to have a fully automated method in place to set this variable without any user intervention. (Like a linux stick that makes the necessary changes) Otherwise an NVRAM reset might practically brick the machine. The vendor suggests to protect from accidental NVRAM esets via password and if a reset was made to call them for a 'procedure'.
(If bitten by this method, ending up with just a black screen: it seems possible to remotely access the machine with VNC or ssh, so if these are setup beforehand, it may indeed a not so bad option after all, as the nvram variable can bet set in this way. Remember: Untested internet story.)
Permanent, reliable and cheap hardware solution!
Dosdude1 has found a solution that looks like the holy grail for this problem: Permanently Disable 2011 15"/17" MacBook Pro Dedicated GPU - gMux IC Bypass

Option A, which will be detailed below, is to hard-wire the LVDS output lines from the integrated graphics LVDS output lines straight to the lines connecting to the display.
Option B would be to re-program the gMux IC (which is simply a Lattice LFXP2 micro-controller), with a custom firmware to disable the GPU switching functionality. I may experiment with this in the future, but doing so requires special hardware that I don't have. This would, of course, be the optimal solution, though.

This is almost easy. All that's needed are various lengths of wire.
To get a glimpse:

Also on youtube!
The 'bad solution' from above is now made into an almost professional and pre-made hardware solution, eliminating the previous 'badness' of that approach:

Tiresias (the GPUkiller):
The Tiresias is a small board that can be soldered onto the motherboard of the MacBook Pro 15-inch or 17-inch 2011 (Early or Late) models.
These are all the models that have the 820-2914-A, 820-2914-B, 820-2915-A or 820-2915-B motherboard.
The 820-2914 and 820-2915 board has two GPUs. The internal (Intel) GPU that is part of the PCH, and an external (discrete) AMD GPU. It is the external GPU that fails  in 'a small percentage of MacBook Pro systems' (Apple-speak for: 'very many'). The Tiresias writes the 'gpu-power-prefs' nvram-variable to the ROM so that the Mac does not use the (dead) external (discrete) AMD GPU anymore. If the user clears the NVRAM (PRAM) there is no problem as the Tiresias will write the record again, and the Mac will work again.
This makes this the ideal solution to bring a 820-2914 or 820-2915 with dead GPU back to life. Installation is easy (no wires to solder). You will need to mount a very small board onto the motherboard. An experienced technician can do this in minutes. Other than that R8911 should be removed to turn off power to the dead GPU. This saves energy, generating less heat and conserving battery life. Removing R8911 also prevents the Mac from getting confused by the dead GPU because even with the GPU turned off it will still try to talk to the dead GPU. Depending on what internal contacts in the GPU are ruptured this might confuse or even crash the Mac.
Mac OS X 10.13 High Sierra is also supported. To solve the issue of the backlight not coming back on after sleep also remove R9704 and connect R9704 pin 2 to C9711 pin 1.
OS X 10.6 - 10.12 (Sierra)
The backlight slider (in System Preferences) and the backlight keys (F1 and F2) work. System sleep works. Video out on the Thunderbolt port does not work, but all other functions of the Thunderbolt port do work.
OS X 10.13 (High Sierra)
As far as we know 10.13 (High Sierra) offers no advantages over 10.12 (Sierra). Apple totally redid the video drivers in High Sierra, and seem to have made a mess of it. The backlight controls will not work. And worse, after the machine wakes up from sleep the backlight is not turned back on at all.
To solve the issue of the backlight not coming back on after sleep remove R9704 and connect R9704 pin 2 to C9711 pin 1. This sets the backlight to full brightness. The down-side is that with this modification the brightness will also be on full brightness with the oldes OS's.
Tiresias for 820-2915 (15-Inch) Quantity one (1) Including shipping (world wide) 60 EURO.

Update for a one-stop software solution
The procedure above seems to have been cast into an application related to the hardware hack!
Well, at least parts of it. But on the other hand this application is more universal than the soution above, as it seems to handle also NVidia cards, that is: it is for disabling all discrete CPUs in all Macs.
Alas, this app made by dosdude1 is not well documented.
The readme screen says that it would set the NVRAM variable, move all graphic acceleration drivers, and then install a launchdaemon to handle updates and ensure that the variable stays set.
Not tested by me and not endorsed by me if you already have followed the procedure outlined above!
But if the procedure didn't work at some point for you or seems just to daunting to begin with, then you might try this:
dosdude1: Other, undocumented software that I've written is stored here: MacBook Pro dGPU Disabler.zip
You might have to look into the procedure above again, as the application seems to miss out on improving the thermal management part (if you modify the hardware by removing the transistor this becomes mood: mix and match).
If someone tests this out, please give feedback here via comments or an edit.

Update 2019: 20$ solution that uses a 64bit Windows computer and a  Lattice HW-USBN-2A ICSP FPGA programmer to apply a custom firmware to the  gMux IC. Dosdude1 claims this to be 'perfect' solution, meaning that even under HighSierra and Mojave battery life, temperature, brightness control and wake/sleep work as expected. Using that solution is permanent and makes everything above obsolete.
But this new solution is not free and requires hardware in the form of a Windows PC and the programmer); as well as currently soldering a few wires temporarily to the logic board.)
[Update June 2020]: This gMUX Bypass with native brightness control is a cheaper (opensource) version of the Dosdude1 hardware hack. GitHub: gMUXBypass


Microsoft Edge Legacy Virtual Machine doesn't start in VMWare Fusion 12 Pro I have just purchased VMware Fusion Pro 12.1.0 on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7.
I want to run a MS Edge Legacy virtual machine, available from Microsoft here:
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/
I have tried the virtual machines for Win10, Win8 and Win7. The problem seems identical or very similar with all.
I create the machine from the .ovf file in the downloadable zip, in Fusion Pro, via New > Import an existing virtual machine. The .vmdk file included in the zip is grayed out and cannot be selected. Import of the .ovf seems to finish successfully according to the Wizard.
However, when attempting to Start Up the machine, nothing happens even when I wait a long time. First Fusion says "Loading..." for several minutes. After that, a black window opens with a "Play" icon. When I press it, I get the question: "Would you like to upgrade this virtual machine?". I have tried pressing both "Don't Upgrade" and "Upgrade" with the same problems, so it doesn't appear to help.
Next, the virtual machine window stays black with a grayed-out "Play" icon. I wait and nothing happens. In the Fusion main window, I see the clickable option "Clean Up Recommended" immediately after attempting to start the machine.
Under the Menu option Virtual Machine, it says "Windows is off" and on the next row "Starting Up". "Restart" and "Shut Down" are grayed out. The button "Power On To Firmware" is clickable but doesn't seem to do anything.
If I try to close the machine window or quit VMWare completely, it refuses to close the window and/or app, and says: "The virtual machine "MSEdge-Win-10-VMware" is busy". After a very long time, an error message appears:

"Failed to power on /path/MSEdge-Win10-VMware.vmx".

If I want to exit before this long wait, I have to Force Quit the application to get out. After restarting the application, I cannot Delete the virtual machine unless I've first deleted the newly created .vmwarevm file on the drive.
I previously used the Trial version of Fusion 11 with no problems on the same computer and virtual machines. Yet, Fusion 12 does not seem to work.

It appears the VMWare Fusion .dmg installation image file was put under the MacOS Quarantine, which made the application not function properly.
Uninstalling VMWare Fusion (I removed all files with AppCleaner), downloading the .dmg file again, and then running the following commands on the file, followed by running the installer solved the issue for me:
xattr -l ~/Downloads/VMware-Fusion-12.1.0-17195230.dmg
xattr -dr ~/Downloads/VMware-Fusion-12.1.0-17195230.dmg


Change Airport signal strength I want to change the WiFi signal strength of my Airport base. That feature was removed along many others in the Airport configuration tool since version 6, so I used the previous version to solve my problem like this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3974623?tstart=0

However the latest version before 6.0 (seems to be 5.6.1) cannot be installed in Mavericks.

How can I access to the lost AirPort configuration features now?

You can make 5.6.1 work with on Mavericks with a workaround, as detailed here:

http://coreyjmahler.com/2013/10/24/airport-utility-5-6-1-on-os-x-10-9-mavericks/

  The issue with AirPort Utility v5.6.1 under OS X 10.9 Mavericks is
  that a system file upon which AirPort Utility relies was updated in
  10.9 and that update broke backwards compatibility with AirPort Utility v5.6.1. The file in question is Apple80211 in
  /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A.
  Replacing this file with the older version allows AirPort Utility
  v5.6.1 to be run under 10.9, but only via Terminal (i.e.,
  double-clicking it will not launch it, it will throw an error).

  However, there is a way to get around this issue by importing the older library into AirPort Utility v5.6.1 before running it. That is
  what the new solution, downloadable, infra, does.


Force bluetooth usb adapter Mac Catalina I'm having trouble forcing my mac to stay connected to my external USB Bluetooth adapter on reboot/restart.

I've read quite a few posts and have found this command

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=always

I was able to use Bluetooth Explorer and I switched it to the new bluetooth USB dongle but it will still not remain connected after reboot. Instead it remains disconnected and I have to reconnect it every time I restart my computer.

Machine:
2018 Mac Mini

Current OSx: Catalina 10.15.5

External Bluetooth Adapter:
Asus BT400

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Receiver-Keyboards-Controllers-USB-BT400/dp/B00DJ83070

Their are windows drivers but not for mac since it uses the same Broadcom chipset.

Is there another command that I can use that will keep it connected after reboot?

I think that the macOS system integrity protection is stopping your external Bluetooth adapter from getting reconnected after a restart.

You could disable the system integrity protection (https://www.imore.com/how-turn-system-integrity-protection-macos) and try again, but this is not a permanent solution since you shouldn't disable the system integrity protection.


Are there headset adapters usable for MacBook Pros? I bought a headset, and it has a (obviously) male headphone input and microphone output. Problem is, MacBook Pros don't have a microphone input. Instead, they have an audio line in.

However, relatively recent MacBook Pros apparently combine the audio out with a microphone input, allowing, for instance, iPhone headsets to be plugged in the computer and work as expected.

So I was wondering if there were adapters that took the two jacks and merged them into a single, "iPhone-compatible" jack, that I could plug in the MacBook Pro.

Of course the combined jack on Macbook is analog, of course it accepts mic signals (works with apple and other brand headsets for iPhone, for example) and not just line in signals (you can even plug electric guitar with passive adaptor from iRig) and as Zneak properly points in his question, it would not be too difficult to make an adaptor that splits one headset jack on Macbooks into headphone and mic, which is also great if you want to use some top notch headset like Sennheiser PC 360. Unfortunately I was not able to find such a product, only a guide on how to make one.

Last but not least, USB headsets are in no way better. They only use extra CPU power, clutter USB ports and are only as good as the DACs, ADCs, headphone and mic they employ. Now these components are much better inside Macbook and good analogue headset...

The Headset Buddy at Amazon claims to do just this. But I am not sure how well it will work, as the headset pinout Apple uses in Macbook, iPhone or iPad is different from some other manufacturers (that is why you cannot use iPhone headset with, say Samsung Galaxy S)


brew bundle reporting "Error: unknown command: bundle" I'm completely puzzled by this one. I have refactored my install scripts to use the new brew bundle feature. However, I'm getting "Error: unknown command: bundle"

$ which brew
/usr/local/bin/brew

$ brew -v
Homebrew 0.9.5

$ brew doctor
Please note that these warnings are just used to help the Homebrew maintainers
with debugging if you file an issue. If everything you use Homebrew for is
working fine: please don't worry and just ignore them. Thanks!

Warning: You have a curlrc file
If you have trouble downloading packages with Homebrew, then maybe this
is the problem? If the following command doesn't work, then try removing
your curlrc:
  curl http://github.com

$ brew update
Already up-to-date.

$ cat ~/.dotfiles/install/brewfile-basic
# Important early installs

install hub # https://hub.github.com
install git-extras # https://github.com/visionmedia/git-extras
install bash-completion # http://bash-completion.alioth.debian.org

# Cleaning up Brew caches

linkapps
cleanup
prune

$ brew bundle ~/.dotfiles/install/brewfile-basic
Error: Unknown command: bundle

$ brew bundle
Error: Unknown command: bundle

In all other ways, brew is working.

Any ideas? Is this feature not in the current build?

-- Christopher Allen

According to my question on this topic in the issues section of the homebrew repository, brew bundle has been deprecated.

https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/32952


How do I find a recently added contact? I recently met someone and got them to type their info into my contacts.  I was really busy for a few days and didn't get around to contacting them.  Now I can't remember their name.  Is there a way to view the most recent additions to my contacts list?

On iPhone, you can download several different apps.

The one I found was free, quick, and simple called 'Recent Contacts' by Kyle Gorlick.

On Android there are also several apps, but I have not tried them myself.


Why isn't new (erased/formatted) SSD showing anymore in Disk Utility (and can't install OS on it)? I just replaced the SSD in my MacBook Air (early 2015). I erased/formatted it in the Disk Utility (choosing APFS as desired format and GUID partition scheme) and then tried to restore my Time Machine back-up. Looked like it was going well and gave me circa 1 1/2 hours until all restored. Countdown continued. Fine.

But then instead I got prohibitory (circle with bar through it) symbol. Reading round, maybe too late an OS for my Mac? Or some other issue?

But when I try reinstalling the version previously on my Mac (using command + R on start-up), it gives me the option to agree to installing El Capitan, but I now can’t see the new SSD to install it to. Likewise, when I go into Disk Utility, I can’t see any internal drive anymore although it was showing up before I formatted it. (And I can’t see an option to ‘View > Show all devices’ referenced in various other threads.)

Any help (and STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS!) appreciated. Just want to get my old stuff onto a larger drive and get on with my work!

Thank you.

I think you bought a NVMe SSD, did you ? What model is your new SSD ?
macOS High Sierra was the first to support NVMe SSDs, that would explain why El Capitan can't see yours.

You may want to try cmd-alt-R at boot in order to boot the latest macOS Recovery available for your Mac from the internet. It should be Catalina, which supports NVMe SSDs.


Is iOS 4.1 faster than iOS 4.0 on the iPhone 3G? There are numerous questions (and good answers!) about the fact that iOS 4.0 is horribly slow on an iPhone 3G.

How about iOS 4.1? Does anybody have any positive experiences to share? I'm staying on 3.1.3 for a long time still, or until any new v4.x isn't any slower.

The rumours are that it is much faster: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/07/27/does-ios4-1-fix-slow-iphone3g-units-yes/


Is it possible to display the current state of modifier keys? I have a keyboard which is a little flaky, and occasionally one of the modifier keys becomes stuck. Realizing I’ve entered this state often takes a while. Is it possible to display — e.g., in the menu bar or in the style of Sticky Keys — which modifier keys are currently down?

I don’t need the Sticky Keys functionality, so turning that on wouldn’t seem to be a solution.

There is one native solution I can think of, and that's to show the Keyboard Layout window. This can be accessed through the input menu in the menu bar*, and will show you all keys and their current states. A bonus to this for normal circumstances is that you can see where option and shift-option special characters are mapped.

Another possible solution involves a third-party app such as Keyboard Maestro. If you create a macro triggered by the press of a modifier key, you can tell it to, say, display a Growl notification with a relevant message. I'm not exactly sure how you'd want to do this, or what exactly you'd want it to do in the first place, but many of these programs have tons of options.

*To enable this, go to System Preferences > Keyboard > "Show Keyboard and Character Viewers in menu bar"


Why is my Mac listening on port 625? My Mac is listening on port 625. This listing by Apple of common ports used by macOS and Apple software claims that it has something to do with Open Directory. However, my machine doesn't have any sharing services on or is connected to any Open Directory services.

The service listening on this port is launchd, so it's likely a system service.

Any idea why this could be the case? What purpose does this listening connection likely serve?

EDIT: Here is the output of sudo lsof -i -P | grep -i "listen":

launchd      1           root   20u  IPv6 0x6cc93710b811f751      0t0    TCP *:625 (LISTEN)
launchd      1           root   27u  IPv4 0x6cc93710b81227b9      0t0    TCP *:625 (LISTEN)
launchd      1           root   31u  IPv6 0x6cc93710b811f751      0t0    TCP *:625 (LISTEN)
launchd      1           root   32u  IPv4 0x6cc93710b81227b9      0t0    TCP *:625 (LISTEN)
launchd      1           root   52u  IPv6 0x6cc93710b811fc91      0t0    TCP *:2300 (LISTEN)
launchd      1           root   53u  IPv4 0x6cc93710b8121ec1      0t0    TCP *:2300 (LISTEN)
launchd      1           root   54u  IPv6 0x6cc93710b811fc91      0t0    TCP *:2300 (LISTEN)
launchd      1           root   55u  IPv4 0x6cc93710b8121ec1      0t0    TCP *:2300 (LISTEN)
vpnagentd   62           root    5u  IPv4 0x6cc93710b81242a1      0t0    TCP localhost:29754 (LISTEN)
ciscod      65           root    3u  IPv4 0x6cc93710b81239a9      0t0    TCP localhost:1023 (LISTEN)
mtmfs      103           root    3u  IPv4 0x6cc93710b81215c9      0t0    TCP localhost:49152 (LISTEN)
mtmfs      103           root    5u  IPv4 0x6cc93710b81230b1      0t0    TCP localhost:49153 (LISTEN)
Nylas\x20  652          brett   38u  IPv4 0x6cc93710ca132ec1      0t0    TCP *:2578 (LISTEN)
Dropbox    701          brett  119u  IPv6 0x6cc93710bed7e751      0t0    TCP *:17500 (LISTEN)
Dropbox    701          brett  120u  IPv4 0x6cc93710cb0119a9      0t0    TCP *:17500 (LISTEN)
Dropbox    701          brett  152u  IPv4 0x6cc93710cb1410b1      0t0    TCP localhost:17600 (LISTEN)
Dropbox    701          brett  158u  IPv4 0x6cc93710ca7369a9      0t0    TCP localhost:17603 (LISTEN)
SpotifyWe  806          brett    5u  IPv4 0x6cc93710c9a0cec1      0t0    TCP localhost:4370 (LISTEN)
SpotifyWe  806          brett    6u  IPv4 0x6cc93710c9a0fb99      0t0    TCP localhost:4380 (LISTEN)
postgres   899          brett    5u  IPv6 0x6cc93710beef5211      0t0    TCP localhost:5432 (LISTEN)
postgres   899          brett    6u  IPv4 0x6cc93710c9a0d7b9      0t0    TCP localhost:5432 (LISTEN)

Anything running it should be within this scope.

dec_dlm - DEC DLMIANA - ipcserver
Mac OS X RPC-based services. Used by NetInfo, for example.
Appledec_dlm - Directory Service Proxy (DSProxy) (Unregistered Use). DirectoryService, Open Directory Assistant, Workgroup Manager. Note: This port is registered to DEC DLM.
Source: http://www.adminsub.net/tcp-udp-port-finder/625

If it is not one of the following, try reading into the launchd docs that some really nice person made. To see all launchd events, open terminal, and paste this launchctl list if that doesn't help, type sudo launchctl list to see what the root user is launching.


Mirror (replicate) an iMac to a 2nd iMac I have two 27" iMac's running Mac OS X Version 10.6.7 with the following specs:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name:          iMac
  Model Identifier:          iMac10,1
  Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:          3.06 GHz
  Number Of Processors:          1
  Total Number Of Cores:          2
  L2 Cache:          3 MB
  Memory:          4 GB
  Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz
  Boot ROM Version:          IM101.00CC.B00
  SMC Version (system):          1.53f10

I use one as my primary machine.  It has all the software and files I use (I don't use a server at home).
I currently use the 2nd iMac just as a second display to expand the desktop of my primary machine.

Does anyone know of a way I could also use this 2nd iMac to fully mirror or replicate everything on the 1st iMac?
And this in as close to real time as possible.

I would like to do this because I run time sensitive applications for clients.
I recently had a hard drive failure and while I had everything backed up by Time Machine,
it took me a few days to get everything restored and working again.

So, I'd like to have a perfect duplicate of my first machine, which I could immediately switch to in the event of another
HD failure or similarly serious problem.

Hooking up the 2 machines via Firewire could facilitate this. Not sure where to go from there.

Someone at the Apple store near me suggested setting the drives of the two machines up as a RAID, but I don't think that would work.

Apple's coming "Cloud" would make all of this easier, because (if it works as promoted) I'd only need to replicate the few non-Apple apps
that I wouldn't have access to from the cloud.  I could put all my data and files in the cloud.

Until then any thoughts or immediate solutions much appreciated.

Thx.


Macbook Pro (Mid 2010) replacement power supply issue I have a multi macbook/macbook pro household, made up of a 2006 mb, mid 2008 mbp, and mid2010 mbp models.  I recently purchased a new 85 watt power supply and immediately noticed that it would not consistently power or charge my 2010 mbp.  When plugged in, it would charge briefly, then alternate between green and amber every 5 to 10 seconds.  The same power supply worked fine with the older 2006 mb and 2008 mbp.

I returned this power supply thinking it was bad, and got a replacement, which of course behaves identically to the power supply it replaced.  So, now I'm trying to figure out what is different about my 2010 mbp that would cause this new power supply to not charge correctly.  The odd thing is, my older power supplies, work fine with the 2010 mbp.

So, there's something with the combination of the new style power supply with my 2010 mbp that is causing problems for charging.

I've tried resetting the SMC on the 2010 mbp, which didn't make any difference with the issue.  Does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this issue?  Any tips or pointers would be appreciated.

Apparently 3rd time is the charm.   I asked to have this replacement power supply replaced one more time, and the 3rd power supply works fine.  Very odd, but things are operating fine now.


Make AppleScript turn a variable into the items between two specified items set theList to {"1", "", "", "apple", "acda", "", "3454", "ImportantStuff", "important1", "important2", "important3", "NotImportantStuff", "2", "", "efrg"}
set theImportant to items between "ImportantStuff" and "NonImportantStuff" of theList

How do I make it so AppleScript takes the items in between "ImportantStuff" and "NonImportantStuff" and assign a variable to those items. the variable "theList" is a substitute, the amount of items that are important (between the two specified items) is indefinite--along with the amount of items before and after the specified items.

Here's an alternative implementation that will be faster and is a lot more compact:

set L to {"1", "", "", "apple", "acda", "", "3454", "ImportantStuff", ¬
   "important1", "important2", "NotImportantStuff", "2", "", "efrg"}

set {i, j} to {1, -1}

tell L
    repeat until item i = "ImportantStuff"
        set i to i + 1
    end repeat
    repeat until item j = "NotImportantStuff"
        set j to j - 1
    end repeat
end tell

return items (i + 1) thru (j - 1) of L
-- OR: set myVar to items (i + 1) thru (j - 1) of L

It doesn't iterate through every item in the list, as that wastes time.  Instead, we hone in from the left to find the index where the important stuff begins; then hone in from the right to find the index where the important stuff ends.

Then you can simply retrieve the items between those two indices.

Method 2: Text Manipulation

Less generally, if you know your list contains only simple text items, then you can use text item delimiters to coerce the list into a string and manipulate the string:

set my text item delimiters to linefeed

set L to {"1", "", "", "apple", "acda", "", "3454", "ImportantStuff", "important1", ¬
   "important2", "important3", "NotImportantStuff", "2", "", "efrg"}

set textList to L as text

set my text item delimiters to {"ImportantStuff", "NotImportantStuff"}

set importantStuffText to text item 2 of textList

The first set of text item delimiters transform the list into a string where each item in the list occupies a single line in the string.  The second set of text item delimiters splits the string at the two places where the keywords are found.  This allows us to retrieve the bits in between, which, as it stands, will return:

"
important1
important2
important3
"

If there are multiple occurrences of the keywords, the important stuff will be all the even numbered text items.

To change the string back into a list again, you can do this:

set importantStuffList to paragraphs 2 thru -2 of importantStuffText
    --> {"important1", "important2", "important3"}


How can I tell what kind of iPod Touch I have if the case can't be removed? I'm buying a gift that requires an iPod 3 or newer and I'm trying to get my brother to tell me what kind of iPod he has, but he is unable to open the case it's in.

How can he, using software, tell me what kind of iPod Touch he has?

Plug the device into any computer with either iTunes or the iPhone configuration utility and it will tell you the model, serial number and much more about the device. Both software packages run on Mac and Windows and are a free download from Apple.

An alternate method of determining whether the Phillips Hue app will run is to have them download that app since the App store includes built in checks to ensure the device meets the app's minimum requirements. I could see how this might not be ideal if part of the gift is to be a surprise that downloading the app might spoil.


Different colour for new tabs in iTerm2 Is there any way to change tab colour for new tabs in iTerm2 (automatically, random colour)?

With iTerm open, go to the iterm2 menu item and select preferences. From preferences, you'll get a panel that looks like the image below.

From this image select the Profiles icon in the top row. This shows the following panel.

From this panel click on colors that brings up this final panel.

you can see in this panel there is a checkbox labeled tab color. This allows you to set your tab color. All tabs opened now will use this new color.


Is the CT3309352 Crucial memory the same as CT2K4G3S1067M? I am trying to help my brother and sister in-law upgrade their 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mid 2009 MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro5,5) to Mavericks.

The Mac is currently running Mac OS X 10.6.8 and has only 1 GB of DDR3 memory. I know that Mavericks requires a minimum of 2 GB of memory. Therefore I'd like to upgrade the installed memory to at least 4 GB if not 8 GB.

According to the Crucial website I should upgrade to a 8GB Kit (4GBx2), 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-8500 memory module. In searching for this module's part number on Amazon I am given the result Crucial 8GB Kit (4GB x 2) DDR3 1066 MT/s (PC3-8500) CL7 SODIMM 204-Pin Mac Memory. The specs appear to be the same but the part numbers are not:

CT3309352 - Crucial
CT2K4G3S1067M - Amazon

Given the mismatched part numbers I am unsure if they are the same memory module. Is the module from Amazon the same? Which should I purchase to upgrade this aging MacBook Pro?

Here is the result of my conversation with Crucial. Given their quality and reliability as manufacturer and supplier, I personally am tempted to spend a little more and source the upgrade kit directly from them. If any problems then should be easy to have it fixed.

[Mark:  Hi Can you tell me if CT3309352 - Crucial and CT2K4G3S1067M are the same part numbers for a Crucial upgrade 8GB kit for the MacBook Pro mid 2009 13" or are these two similar but different units produced by Crucial?

Crucial Agent :  When you order by advanced search or by motherboard/system information online, you are shown the “external” part number CT3309352. The part number that you see on your module is the actual module base part number CT2K4G3S1067M. If you order by advanced search or motherboard/system information, the external part number is included in the packing list with your memory module. The modules are exactly the same. They are the same part. And will work in your MacBook Pro mid 2009 13".

Mark:  Thank you. So you are saying depending on the method of search, you will get two different numbers but they are a reference to the identical unit that will be compatible, with above MacBook Pro?

Crucial Agent:  For some systems yes. Some times you can look up just by the part number CT2K4G3S1067M and put it in to find it, but it is not always show any results when doing this. Normally only the servers show the actual part number. But this one is listed as compatible for your system and will work.]

So there you go this should help.
Cheers
Mark


AirTag can’t be used to recover stolen item if thief has an iPhone? The AirTag has an anti-stalking mechanism, so than when an unknown AirTag moves with your iPhone you will get a notification.
This would mean that a thief who has an iPhone will get notified that the stolen item is being tracked. The thief then can locate the AirTag with their own iPhone and disable it.
So for theft situations the AirTag seems to be pretty useless to me.
Am I missing something? Is there a solution to this built in?

AirTags are not marketed by Apple as an anti-theft solution. It is for lost items only (i.e. when you can't remember where you left your car keys in your home).
If an AirTag is stolen, the thieve can detect the tag (given that they have an iPhone running a sufficiently new version of iOS) and disable it. Indeed even if they haven't, the AirTag will after a time emit a sound when moved, alerting the thief to its presence. However, you will still be able to see its last known location in Find My.


Is there a Mac FTP client that will open SSH at current location? I often find myself looking at files in an FTP client and I need to do something from the shell. My workflow is to open terminal/iTerm, SSH in to the same server, and navigate to where I need in the file system.

On windows using WinSCP there is a "PuTTY at this location" that I love. Anything similar on Mac? I see Forklift has a launch terminal button but it seems to only work for the local file system.


How can I delete contacts from iCloud? After OS X 10.9.3 with the restored ability to sync contacts with iTunes (over USB) was released, I finally upgraded from Mountain Lion to Mavericks. Before I boycotted OS X 10.9 because I didn't want to give my contacts to iCloud (or any cloud, see also What's the best solution to sync contacts from Mac to Android Phone?).

But when I went in the iCloud settings after the upgrade, the contacts sync was active (Isn't Apple capable to migrate a simple setting like this from OS X 10.8 to 10.9? ;-)). I immediately switched it off, but I suspect that some or all of my contacts were already synced to iCloud.

I'd like to check that no contacts are in iCloud (and delete them if some are there). What's the easiest way to do this? Just create another account, use the same Apple ID for iCloud and delete them from there?

Start Contacts on your Mac and export/archive all contacts (as a backup)
Go to System Preferences -> iCloud and disable syncing of contacts (and anything else you don't want to sync to iCloud)
Log in to iCloud.com directly and delete any contacts stored there


How to keep your MacBook Pro cool (unibody) I'm a developer/system admin/unix guy so I have many IDEs/Editors/Terminals running and I'm also temperature freak... I like it cold, here are a few tips I did to keep my MacBook Pro Unibody under 46 degrees C ~ 115 degrees F. Please list your tips.

Clean your MacBook Pro fans from within... it's simple, open the bottom closure and blow the hell out of these fans.
Download and install Fan Control and run your fans @ 2800-3000 RPM
Position your MacBook on a hard surface
Ditch all browsers to Safari, i tried them all Firefox up to version 5 and 7 (Aurora), Chrome and Opera... nothing beats the CPU usage (less of it) than Safari. Also flash youtube videos run with less resources on Safari for some reason. Block unneeded content (Ads)
If possible - don't use Adobe Flash
Use your faster GPU on AC Power, and lower on Battery power (use gfxCardStatus for source-based GPU switching)
Replace your internal hard drive with an SSD
Keep your monitor running @ 90% brightness or less
Keep your keyboard lights off or low

I tend to remain sceptical of anyone making claims without valid and reliable data. With that said, some practices you list are of critical importance; others, I'm not sold on one bit. Please don't take this a slight against you, but rather as a criticism of your general claims (and lack of scientific data therein). Moreover, if you enacted all those changes at once, you'll never know which one made a real difference, and which one did absolutely nothing. Proper scientific methodology calls for the manipulation of one variable against a control (unless you want to run the more complex ANOVA).

  Clean your MacBook Pro fans from within... it's simple, open the
  bottom closure and blow the hell out of these fans

Absolutely. This is by far the most effective way to ensure your system continues to operate nominally over the years. It is sadly also the most neglected. Dust sticks to the blades (and most of the internals) creating a "sticky" residue and not only prevents the fan's blades from spinning at their optimum, but seriously restricts air flow. Computers generally accumulate far more dust than people expect. Regular cleanings are essential!

  Download and install Fan Control and run your fans @ 2800-3000 RPM

This of courses comes at a sacrifice to noise (increasing it) and I'd like to see data on how much cooler the chips operate with such a small increase to RPM.

  Ditch all browsers to Safari, I tried them all Firefox up to version 5
  and 7 (Aurora), Chrome and Opera... nothing beats the CPU usage (less
  of it) than Safari. Also flash youtube videos run with less resources
  on Safari for some reason

Again, I'd like to see some data being this claim. These guys have conducted some very loose tests that support your assertion, and I'm inclined to agree that Safari, being so tightly integrated into OS X should net improvements over its competitors across the board, but a few CPU cycles here and there aren't going to amount to a drop (drastic or modest) in temperatures (these saw extremely small differences in performance).

  Use your faster GPU on AC Power, and lower on Battery power (use
  http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus for source-based GPU switching)

GPUs put off heat, wether they're integrated or discrete. I can see a reduction in power, but a reduction in heat, again, I'm not sold. In the case of MBP, models that possess discrete video cards have dual fans (one for the CPU and one for the GPU). So using the discrete card may kick off additional heat, but it's also got a dedicated fan to push that heat away from the machine. Stressing the integrated chip will see the CPU spike in temperatures, which means that fan will be doing more work to handle the additional load. It may be the case that the fan on the CPU (together with the integrated GPU) may be sufficient in pulling away the excess heat, but at no doubt the cost of excessive noise (generated by 6,000 RPMs). I don't know if anyone has done testing, but from my own anecdotal experience with my old MBP1,1, the GPU fans rarely switched gears (unless playing intensive games and then the issue would be moot as you'd want to use the discrete video). It was always the CPUs fans that took the brunt of the work.

  Replace your internal hard drive with an SSD

Not only will this greatly improve performance, but it can't hurt in reducing temperatures. The idle/active power consumption of an SSD is about 0.5W to 2w, respectively. The average power consumption of a traditional HDD is about double that (1W to 2.5W, respectively). I won't know what that transfers to in the temperatures department, but it certainly can't hurt.

  Keep your monitor running @ 90% brightness and keep your keyboard lights off or low

I'd love to see data on this. LED backlighting is already quite efficient and distributing heat, but I'm not sure a reduction (at least that small) in power would have any effect. As for the keyboard lights, those are LEDs and as is with such small LED bulbs, they are incredibly power efficient and produce little to no heat as a result.

With all that said, I'd saying re-application of Arctic Silver 5 (or thermal compound of equal quality) and the cleaning of dust from the internals is the most effective (and proven) way to keep your system cool. I've never seen data to convince me that turning off some service, or placing your system on a pad with a couple of fans does anything (other than perhaps keep the case cooler to the touch) worth merit.


Getting a list of currently running processes I'd like to get a list of all the applications currently running on my machine using the command line. It should be similar to what you get when you open up Activity Monitor and choose to save the list.

I noticed that the ps -a command does something similar, but it cuts off the names of the processes.

I'm only interested in the name of the processes, so I don't need all the columns that Activity Monitor outputs.

Update: I should have been more clear... I don't want the entire path to the process to be displayed. I just want the name of the process, as it appears in Activity Monitor. For example, ps causes lanchd to be displayed as /sbin/launchd rather than as it is displayed in Activity Monitor (i.e. just lanchd). This is a problem because processes that have very long paths end up being truncated (depending on my terminal window's size), and I can't even see the process name.

ps -axc -o comm

-a displays processes from all users (or root)
-x includes processes that don't have a controlling terminal
-o comm outputs command paths or names
-c makes -o comm output names only

tell app "System Events" to name of application processes would list only processes launched from an application bundle.


Find lost photos that show in screen saver Wonderful older photos that aren't in my library show up on my screen saver. I would love to be able to get to them! I currently use 10.9.3, but this has been happening for a long time.

Photos in the screen saver come from the source that is selected in System Preferences → Desktop & Screen Saver. This means that your missing photos will be in whatever source has been selected there.


Fast user switching: how to prevent volumes from being unmounted? I have a volume mounted. If I switch to another user, this volume gets dismounted. The problem is that I want this volume to be available for every user (but putting it in their login items is not the solution I'm looking for), so: how can this behavior be prevented?
(I'm on Mountain Lion)

You can stop Mac OS X unmounting user disks on log-out. This behaviour is controlled with a default (preference).

In this discussion on the Apple Support Community, Király shares the appropriate command to issue:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool YES

This command needs to be entered into Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app. Aftwards you must restart your Mac for the change to take effect.

Note that the autodiskmount tool has been replaced by automountd; it is possible Mac OS X 10.8 has migrated this default to another file.

You may also find this Super User question useful, Automount external hard drive on Mac.


Using UI scripting to enter text in a file dialog I am very, very new to using AppleScript. I need to enter text into the search box. So far the script looks like this:

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "myApplication" to activate

    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "o" using {command down}
    end tell

    return input
end run

This launches the app and fires the command-o keyboard shortcut to show a file dialog. Now I just need to enter text in:

The trick is figuring out how to address the correct control item in the window.
See this hint for an explanation of how to get the needed information:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20111208191312748

This Applescript code will work on a Finder window named "Titan":

-- text field 1 of group 5 of tool bar 1 of window "Titan" of application process "Finder" of application "System Events"
-- button 1 of text field 1 of group 5 of tool bar 1 of window "Titan" of application process "Finder" of application "System Events"

set windowname to "Titan"
-- set this to name of open Finder window you want to deal with

tell application "Finder"
    activate
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Finder"
        set value of text field 1 of group 5 of tool bar 1 of window windowname to "Here is some text"
    end tell
end tell

Anyway, the code'll insert "here is some text" into the Finder window's search box.  The first 2 lines are comments showing the pieces of the search box. You can probably click on that button too.


Can't connect to App Store on iPhone 6s when on Wi-Fi I don't understand why this is happening now. This was never a problem.

I have tried the following without success:

Reset network settings.
Make sure the date/time are correct — they are.
Reset my internet modem.
Sign out of Apple ID for iTunes, then sign back in.

What worked was turning off my Wi-Fi.

Here's my problem with that though: why would Apple make you turn off your Wi-Fi for you to update your apps and software, or even to sign in using an Apple ID? Why do I need to use my Mobile data to update my phone?

Apparently it's because of my DNS. When adding DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, everything started to work. I replaced some IP address with the 8.8.4.4.

Why was this happening? Why was there a different IP address in there? Why now? never had this happen to me in a decade.

This is nothing to do with Apple and Apple do not have any problem with you using Wi-Fi for connecting to the App Store. Your DNS was likely provided by your ISP, which seems to have been having trouble routing the Apple domains. By changing the DNS to Google's DNS which can perform the routing correctly, the problem is resolved. I suggest you contact whoever provided your previous DNS.


OS X - 'Clickable' script to erase files? I use Latex to write my documents. Latex creates MANY auxiliary files to compile a document. I often times want to clean my working directory.

When I was working on Windows, I used to keep a .bat file in the working directory that looked like this:

del *.aux
del *.pdf
del *.log
del *.bak
del *.gz
del *.bbl
del *.blg

which I could just click on to get rid of all auxiliary files.

Now, I want to do the same on my Mac. I have created a .sh file like this:

#!/bin/bash

cd `pwd`

echo "Cleaning files..."

rm *.aux
rm *.bak
rm *.bbl
rm *.blg
rm *.gz
rm *.log
rm *.pdf

echo "Done!"

which I know I can run (i.e. invoke from command line), but I cannot click on - which is more convenient because not always I will be using Terminal.

How can I convert this script into a "clickable" one?

I appreciate any input!

Create a text file like this:

#!/bin/bash

cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" || {
    echo "Error changing directory." >&2
    exit 1
}

echo "Cleaning files..."

rm *.aux
rm *.bak
rm *.bbl
rm *.blg
rm *.gz
rm *.log
rm *.pdf

echo "Done!"

Give it a ".command" extension, and add execute permission to it. This will make it automatically open and run in Terminal when it's double-clicked.

Note that there are two important differences (and one minor one) between this and @thiagoveloso's script:

It uses double-quotes around the path it's cding to, which will prevent problems if any directory names contain spaces (which is entirely normal on OS X).
It checks for errors while cding, and if there was a problem it exits (rather than deleting files in an unexpected location). Always check for errors on any script command that affects what the rest of the script will do; cd is a good example of this.
(Minor) It cds directly to the script's directory (rather than cding there, capturing that location in a variable, then cding there again based on the variable).


Effects of Current Fluctuations on Charging iPhones, iPad, etc, all have their optimal specifications for charging. A power source that does not meet those specification results in a slow charge. However, what happens when the specifications (volt/amps) increased & decrease (fluctuate)? Will the power fluctuations cause damage to the battery? Assuming there is a voltage regulator to keep it from going too high, will this still cause damage?

Connecting directly the solar panel to your iPhone will have negative influence on your battery.

Solar system that are design to charge the phone/GPS/what so ever, use a second battery as buffer. Do you use a system that has not one.


How to create Dock entries via Terminal in macOS Sierra? So I found a command that lets me create Dock entries via Terminal. This was working fine on OS X El Capitan, but not with macOS Sierra.

Any ideas how this can be done with macOS Sierra?

This is sample command that works with OS X El Capitan:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add "<dict><key>tile-data</key><dict><key>file-data</key><dict><key>_CFURLString</key><string>/Applications/VLC.app</string><key>_CFURLStringType</key><integer>0</integer></dict></dict></dict>"

As a test in macOS Sierra, I just downloaded the vlc-2.2.4.dmg file and installed VLC to /Applications via drag and drop to the Applications alias within the installer window.

In Terminal, I ran the following command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add "<dict><key>tile-data</key><dict><key>file-data</key><dict><key>_CFURLString</key><string>/Applications/VLC.app</string><key>_CFURLStringType</key><integer>0</integer></dict></dict></dict>"; killall Dock

Note that I added ; killall Dock directly after the command line from your question.

As the Dock reappeared, the VLC Dock Tile was present and I then click it. VLC opened as expected.


What does the cloud icon with lines underneath mean? In the iOS Weather app what does the cloud icon with two horizontal lines beneath mean?

It means fog, a list of the icons can be found at About the Weather app and icons on your iPhone and iPod touch.

  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207492


Titling tabs in Terminal I'd like to be able to set the titles on my tabs to short, easy-to-remember things, since I often have a few open. You can use Command-I and set the Title that way, but OSX appends the name of the currently running process to that title, (e.g. "test title -- bash").

Is there any way to set the full text of the tab title?

This is on OSX 10.6. There used to be a way to do this on 10.5 using SIMBL, but that no longer works.

In Preferences choose the windows tab for your set of settings. There is an option Active process name - if this is not ticked then you should not see the command in the title bar.


MacBook Pro keycap broken One of the keys (keycap) of MacBook Pro keyboard broke.

It's one of the hooks that keeps it in place.

What can I do?

Buy it online here http://www.powerbookmedic.com/MacBook-Pro-Keys---Individual-Key-Keycap-p-16753.html

or other places and do it your self.


Not able to connect to NFS server from my MacBook I have an NFS server running remotely on my network, but I am not able to connect to it.

I am using NFS Manager  which shows this information:

but getting the below error:

Does it work when you use the mount command? For example, I can mount my NetBoot server's NFS export with:

sudo mkdir /Volumes/nfsmount
sudo mount -t nfs 192.168.1.8:/Volumes/Data/Library/NetBoot/NetBootSP0 /Volumes/nfsmount/


Remap Control+Command+F from Facebook to Full Screen Many of my OS X applications have the "Enter Full Screen" action mapped to Control+Command+F. When I hit this key-combo though I get a dialog that tells me that no Facebook account is configured, and the app does not enter full screen mode.

I've gone into System Preferences and looked for anything else mapped to Control+Command+F and nothing was.

I also went into System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Application Shortcuts  and mapped Control+Command+F to "Enter Full Screen" for all applications. Nothing changes.

Does anyone know how I can disable this annoying dialog?

I had this problem too.  Turns out the PandaBar app was to blame.  It had overridden the Control-Command-F keyboard shortcut for posting to Facebook what I was listening to.

Go into PandaBar Preferences -> Shortcuts and change or clear the "Post to Facebook" shortcut.

Then the full screen shortcut will work as expected in all your other apps, without having to override it with System Preferences changes.


iPad in corporate environment Company portal has Windows authentication with SSO.
But iPad is not domain member, so ask password on every SSO company site.
Is there a way to setup iPad for domain authentication ?

No, it isn't possible. That would require an OS that supports username/password authentication, which iOS doesn't do.


Does OS X support a mechanism for security updates similar to apt-get? I have used brew to install software, is there a similar command line mechanism to download the OS's security updates?

softwareupdate can perform updates to macOS.
List updates with softwareupdate -l and install recommended updates with

sudo softwareupdate -ir

where -i installs specified updates and -r selects all recommended updates.


How does OS X detect a PowerPC application? I use an application called Anki for learning foreign languages and professional terminology.
This app creates a default folder in /Users/user/Documents/Anki, which I did not want.

You can circumvent this by calling the app from the CLI with the -b option. Because of that, I went into the app bundle and looked for executable in Anki.app/Contents/MacOs/, which is simply called Anki.

I renamed this file to Anki2 and made a new executable called Anki, which simply reads:

/Applications/Anki.app/Contents/MacOS/Anki2 -b /Users/henrikgiesel/Library/Application\ Support/Anki

And I can open the App bundle perfectly fine!... Until the next reboot, then it will complain:

You can’t open the application “Anki.app” because PowerPC applications are no longer supported.

Why is this? How does OS X detect PowerPC application? Would it work if I wrote a C-file doing basically the same and putting the compiled version in the place of the Shell script?

EDIT:

I can still open it from the CLI like this:

/Applications/Anki.app/Contents/MacOS/Anki

But not like this

open /Applications/Anki.app

Try wrapping the shell script as an app using Platypus. I've packaged multiple perl and bash scripts using the program, all appear as simple applications, with an icon of your choice, none have ever been misidentified as PPC apps.


To exclude bak files in Finder's search? I create bak files after every Perl operation.

How can you exclude all bak files in your Finder's search?

The answer to this question is to add .noindex -extension at the end of .bak. Thank you, Tetsujin!
I refer this one liner to do it

find . -name "*\.tex" -exec bash -c 'mv "{}" "{}.noindex"' \;


Mac Air 13” Wi-Fi Hardware Issue I have a MacBook and the other day i spilled a little bit of water on to it, nothing big or anything i soaked it up with the towel. The next day it would not turn on but eventually i managed to turn it on. However, the wifi started displaying stating that it had no hardware installed. I tried the shift+ctrl+option+power button restart and it started working again. However, after 20/30 mins it stopped working and it continuesly said wifi off and it would not let me turn it on. I spoke to an apple worker and they said it is a hardware problem, they did a diagnostic on it. Everything else works perfectly, i just wanted to know if this could be due to the water spillage (so i can prepare myself for a big bill) or is it just a general hardware problem (also have looked into the settings and it says Thunderbolt 1 inactive). If anyone could help i would appreciate it so much. Thanks

In a word, yes.

If I may 'esplain. While it is possible that a board level repair shop might be able to resurrect the system to full functioning. Cleaning, drying and the like.

You didn't specify the model year of your MBAir but in this case I am not sure it matters as MBAirs are famous for being small and light and generally not upgradable. I believe (not sure but pretty sure) that the WiFi radio is likely integrated into the system board and not replaceable. Or not easily replaceable unless you find someone to do board level repair and have them replace the damaged components.

If a new Mac is not currently affordable you might find a USB WiFI adapter that is Mac compatible and that would give you WiFi at the expense of having a USB stick sticking out of your MBAir all the time.


How to make calendar notifications work in Sierra In iCal, I add an event. I then set alert to alert, at the time of the event, Message with Sound, Basso.

Before upgrading to Mac OS Sierra, at the time of the event, I would get a pop-up banner in the Notifications area. (The banner would pop-up even if the Notifications panel was closed).

Now nothing happens. If I click on the Notifications panel, it's listed in the side bar, but it doesn't pop-up.

In System Preferences > Notifications, I have iCal set to Alerts. I've also made sure that Do not disturb is disabled.

How can I bring the pop-up banner back?

I'm seeing this problem too, though it's inconsistent and only impacts my iMac. My MacBook Pro always gets all my calendar alerts, and both are linked to the same Exchange and iCloud calendars. I have tried fully re-installing Sierra on the iMac, which helped for about a week. Sometimes the missed notifications will trigger later (15 minutes to an hour later), but sometimes they'll never trigger.

There is a temporary fix I found:

Open System Preferences -> Internet Accounts
Select any account that has a calendar
Uncheck that calendar, then immediately re-check it

All of your pending or missed alerts will trigger at once! They'll keep working for another day or so. I'm in the process of reporting the bug to Apple at bugreport.apple.com now.


MBP can't connect to Starbucks Wi-Fi, only restart helps Tough question to frame ;) .. but I have a situation that plays out often: firing up the laptop (latest MacBook 15") at Starbucks will often never connect unless I restart the entire box. This tells me there is something amiss somewhere, to which I have no clue. I run nothing out of the ordinary and see no pattern.

I wondered if there was a terminal command that could somehow "reset" network settings. The Wi-Fi is seen properly, and attempts the connection but sits and sits and sits. It eventually connects but it is far faster to restart.

Tough one perhaps, just thought to ask.. thx..

Easiest way is to create a new Location. Go to System Preferences > Network

Click on Location as the top and pick Edit Locations...

Click the + at the bottom and call it Starbucks or something.


Can I set a slideshow background on iOS? I know that on a Windows PC I can set my desktop background to be a slideshow of images that changes periodically. Is this possible on an iPhone in any way? If so, how can I do it?

Short answer, no. iOS built-in feature set doesn't support a background slideshow.

App Store apps can't automatically change the wallpaper on a device, so you won't find a third-party app to do this for you.


Phone numbers in iPhone's Notes are automtically hyperlinked and hard to see When I type a phone number in iPhone's Notes app, it gets hyperlinked -- against my wishes. It then takes on a yellow font colour, making it impossible to see.  Is there any way to avoid this?

I'm not a fan of cavalier installation of apps (which is why I moved to iPhone from Android), so a native setting is preferred over having to install an app.  I am using iPhone SE.

Even if there was a way to just change the color of the hyperlink from yellow to a colour that is actually visible on white background, that would help.

One answer to this question (below) suggested increasing the font size to compensate for the relative invisibility of yellow text.  It's certainly not ideal, but it seems that I can't even experiment with that.  The Notes app on my iPhone SE doesn't have the formatting buttons found on an iPad (see image below). The respondent's iPhone, also running iOS 11.4, does have formatting buttons. If anyone with an iPhone SE specifically can confirm whether they have formatting buttons, that may corroborate the speculation that the formatting buttons are absent for the iPhone SE specifically, due to its thin width.

One option on your iPad is after to type in your number tap the Aa button on the left side over the keyboard. This won't allow you to change the font color but you can change the font size by selecting Title and make it bold. This increases the visibility by a lot on my iPad. You must do it immediately after typing the number in.  Here is the location of the formatting buttons.


Maverick and adobe CS6 - is there any definitive answer? I'm on an iMac 2.7GHz i5, 16Gb RAM 1600MHz, mountain lion.
I use regularly licenced CS6, especially photoshop, illustrator and acrobat pro.

I'd like to upgrade to mavericks, but frankly, on the web there are too much rumors that this or that won't work then... I use my imac to work, I'm a freelance web developer, so I cannot have problems on my machine. It must work.

So, is there any DEFINITE answer to this issue? Apart to definitely stop using adobe products (I'll do it..).

thank you!

Yes CS6 works, and also please check out these notes by Adobe, about compatibility for Mavericks.

I've got a CS6 myself and do not see anything going wrong with it. And since Adobe claims to be fully compatible with the products you name in your question you should be fine too.


Siri suggestion still showing after turned off I had install iOS10 and i don't like siri suggested app, so i had turn it off according to this, but it didn't work. It still shows on notification center.
I tried restarting it as well but nothing. Is there any other way around?

On the Notification screen, scroll to the bottom and tap Edit.

On the list of apps, tap the red circle next to Siri App Suggestions, then tap Remove.

On the top right of the screen, tap Done.

This should remove Siri App Suggestions from Notification screen immediately, no need to reboot.


Can multiple email addresses *with names* be pasted into Mail.app? I read this post, but it doesn't answer my question:

How to paste multiple email addresss into iPhone mail To: field?

I have noticed that it seems to be possible to include a name along with an email address, even for names/emails that are not in my address book.  After the email is sent, looking at the header shows blue bubbles with the correct name for each email address.

However, when I try to paste multiple email addresses along with names, I can't tell what Mail.app is going to do with them.  It doesn't turn them into the blue bubbles that make it intuitive.  (It seems to only do this after the email is sent.)

Example of the format I'm talking about:

Joe Blow joe@blow.com
Jimmy Dean jimmy@dean.com
Sally May sally@may.com

By contrast, when a list formatted like the following is pasted into a recipient field, all the email addresses immediately turn into individual blue boxes that indicate how Mail.app will separate them:

joe@blow.com,jimmy@dean.com,sally@may.com

Possibly related; when I saved a draft that included multiple email addresses in the BCC field formatted like this, and opened the draft later, I found all but two emails (out of about fifteen) had disappeared from the BCC field.

Is there a correct standard format for pasting multiple names and email addresses into a recipient field?  (Not names from the address book.)

If so, what is it?

The expected format for multiple e-mail address is:

Joe Blow <joe@blow.com>
Jimmy Dean <jimmy@dean.com>
Sally May <sally@may.com>

Copying and pasting this into Mail.app on macOS 10.12 works as expected. Three people are added to the e-mail; each with their name associated with the e-mail address.

Individual entries can be separated by a comma:

Joe Blow <joe@blow.com>, Jimmy Dean <jimmy@dean.com>, Sally May <sally@may.com>

The angle bracket format originates from RFC 822 Section-6.1. This Request For Comment (RFC) defined the basis of the e-mail standard used on the Internet.


How do I extract an ECM archive in Mac OS X Lion? I came across a ECM archive that I need to extract.
The Unarchiver can't handle this format, and I'm not sure about other utilities.

How do I extract ECM in Mac OS X Lion?

You can use the ECM tools created by Neill Corlett, the creator of ECM. Just run "unecm" on the file.

There are binaries for Mac here

If that seems intimidating, there is a youtube walkthrough here that uses a GUI and contains links to the tools used.


How can I download photos from Photo Stream onto a new iPad? I bought a new iPad and I want to download all my photos from Photo Stream there. How do I do that?

Currently, it only syncs newly taken photos, but not all those taken in the past which are available in Photo Stream through my other devices.

Photostream isn't really a synchronise mechanism, it's a push mechanism.

When you take a new photo on any iCloud enabled device with Photostream turned on, it will inform whatever gubbins sits in the cloud which then accepts an upload of that photo, and pushes it out to other devices which are also registered.

As such it can never cater for pictures that were taken before the device was registered to use the service.  It has no way of performing the checking to see if you already have the photo, or options to perform what would effectively be 2 way sync at all, it has precisely no knowledge of your previous photos, and will merely start throwing down photos that are new after being registered to receive the updates.

So, in short, you can't.  To give you an analogy, it's like iMessages.  When you register a new device to receive messages, it picks up from that point onwards, and doesn't catch up on your previous history of messages.


SSD in iMac 21.5" Mid 2011 I'm not sure if I should buy an SSD for my iMac 21.5" Mid 2011 alongside the internal 500GB hard drive. First Question: Should I replace the CD drive with an SSD or use an external (Thunderbolt) one? Is that hard, and is it easy to keep all the applications and system data on the SSD, while storing media on the HD? And should I buy an SSD now or wait for maybe a year until cheaper and better SSDs come out? Thanks!

I can tell you that unless you have extensive experience working on iMacs and have all the right tools, it's a huge pain. Even for Apple technicians that have all the right tools and training, it's not the easiest machine to work on.

I would recommend using an external solution if you can. However, using an external SSD to boot from isn't the most ideal solution since it's not going through the internal SATA connection. Configuring it this way will cause you to erase your internal iMac hard drive, which isn't the best idea. My recommendation would be to take your iMac to an Apple Authorized Service Provider and have them perform the SSD addition since they'll have the right tools and training, plus they'll be liable if they mess it up. As for the waiting to purchase the SSD, we are unable to make shopping recommendations on Ask Different.

Good luck!


My Macbook Pro gives electric shocks. How can i measure it? I'm getting electric shocks/strong tingling sensation with my Macbook Pro whenever the power chord is plugged. It happens all the time, anywhere, and is unrelated to wearing shoes or not. It's disturbing enough to prevent normal use, and really makes me wonder if it is a health hazard (what's the limit again for DC, 30 milliamps before you're history?).

I tried measuring it with a multimeter. I got some readings at 18V (quite typical of a charger voltage).

I'm unhappy with this, and the net is littered with people complaining about this same problem.

How can I properly measure the voltage?  What do regulations say?

you already answered your first question. as for your second that depends on what regulation you are talking about. I could tell you what is causing it but you didnt ask that


Will Updating macOS delete Bootcamp Windows? I wish to update my Macbook Pro from El Capitan to Sierra. But I'm afraid it would remove files from my Windows 10 running on Bootcamp. Will it by any means, delete my data from the Bootcamp Partition?

Updating macOS should not impact data on any other partitions on your disk.

Nevertheless it's always a good idea to ensure you have a backup of everything important before performing major maintenance activities (as e.g. an OS upgrade).


Trying to get bluetooth to work in guest windows vista in virtual box I assigned the bluetooth host controller to the guest and vista detected it. I installed the driver that boot camp is providing for my computer and for 32bit windows, which is broadcom 4.0.3.0 from 2011. The driver installs fine, but the device fails with code 43. I am stuck here. I can't find any different driver or see what the issue with the code 43 is. Any newer drivers I saw are large installers (>120MB) that fail installation when they can't detect the "bluetooth device".

The 4.0.3.0 driver I used can also be downloaded from the following page, note that none of the other downloads installs for me.
https://www.driverscape.com/download/apple-broadcom-built-in-bluetooth

Got the driver updated using Driver Booster application. Oddly the device shows up in the device manager as "BlueSoleil Generic Bluetooth Driver", the device does not show an error now, however, I can't discover any bluetooth devices :|. Still stuck


Can I still get charged for data if I dont use my sim card? First of all my broadband is orange and it doesn't tell you when it's gone over the mb so I pay around £20 a month and the end of last month it came up to £65 so mostly I use the phone at work and at home so I thought that if I took out the sim and use the wifi, would I still get charged for that if I took out the sim?

If you have a contract, the fixed monthly fees will still apply (if you use it or not) with SIM installed or not.

If you do not use your mobile data (true your carrier) but use free WiFi, you will not be charged any fees for that by your carrier..

You can always go into your Cellular settings to turn off data which will allow for you to receive phone calls and text without the use of data.


Does anyone know a Socks5 server I can run in OsX which allows chaining to an HTTP proxy? Does anyone know of an OSX (Lion) Socks5 proxy that allows chaining to an HTTP(s) proxy with authentication?  I've been searching the web, but can't seem to find anything.

A lot of searching around, and I finally found cntlm which works quite well.  There is a slight build problem with v0.92.3 when compiling with Lion and XCode 4.5.1 - there is a make error that it does not recognize "-Wno-unused-but-set-variable".  Just comment out that warning from the Makefile, and it compiles and runs well.


iOS - supervised mode and always-on VPN Is it possible on iOS to activate a non-leaking always-on VPN? I've heard this can only be done through supervised mode and with a VPN provider that supports "IKEv2", is this correct? Are there any downsides to this approach, for day to day use on a personal phone?

Also, is supervised mode configurable on Windows / Linux?

It is rather possible to activate "always-on" VPN activating the "Connect on demand" option via a VPN profile both in iOS and OSX/MacOS.

For instance, some commercial VPN providers do that.

However that only applies to any kind of VPN done/configured via the native client, and not 3rd party VPNs like OpenVPN.

The behaviour of the Connect on demand VPNs, is that as soon a TCP/IP packets try to leave the iDevice, the VPN goes up.

I have been using it with VPNs with IPsec with IKEv1 in iOS 8 and iOS 9, so the IKEv2 requirement does not seem to apply. I also been using it without supervised mode.

The profile file is a xml file, that can be written by hand, or with the help of Apple tools. The file has to have an extension .mobileconfig, and has to be loaded by the Safari browser in iOS.

As an example, I am using this file, for a full VPN tunnel, "Cisco" IPsec with group password and user XAUTH authentication.

I put "Cisco", because in my case, the VPN servers are respectively, a PfSense firewall, and a Linux Debian server.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>PayloadContent</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>IPSec</key>
            <dict>
                <key>AuthenticationMethod</key>
                <string>SharedSecret</string>
                <key>LocalIdentifier</key>
                <string>*group_name*</string>
                <key>LocalIdentifierType</key>
                <string>KeyID</string>
                <key>RemoteAddress</key>
                <string>*11.11.11.11*</string>
                <key>SharedSecret</key>
                <data>
                *ksjksdjksdf*
                </data>
                <key>XAuthEnabled</key>
                <integer>1</integer>
                <key>XAuthName</key>
                <string>*username*</string>
                <key>XAuthPassword</key>
                <string>*password*</string>
                <key>DisconnectOnIdle</key>
                        <integer>0</integer>
                <key>OnDemandEnabled</key>
                        <integer>1</integer>
                <key>OnDemandRules</key>
                <array>
                    <dict>
                    <key>Action</key>
                    <string>Connect</string>
                    </dict>
                </array>
            </dict>
            <key>IPv4</key>
            <dict>
                <key>OverridePrimary</key>
                <integer>1</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>PayloadDescription</key>
            <string>Configures VPN settings, including authentication.</string>
            <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
            <string>*VPN (MyHOME)*</string>
            <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
            <string>*com.myhome.pt.vpn*</string>
            <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
            <string>*MY-HOME*</string>
            <key>PayloadType</key>
            <string>com.apple.vpn.managed</string>
            <key>PayloadUUID</key>
            <string>D758D99C-7CCE-44DC-8CAE-B2A5FFC86985</string>
            <key>PayloadVersion</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
            <key>Proxies</key>
            <dict/>
            <key>UserDefinedName</key>
            <string>*VPN My-HOME*</string>
            <key>VPNType</key>
            <string>IPSec</string>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>PayloadDescription</key>
    <string>*VPN provisioning for My-HOME*</string>
    <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
    <string>*MY-HOME*</string>
    <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
    <string>*com.myhome.pt*</string>
    <key>PayloadOrganization</key>
    <string>*MY-HOME*</string>
    <key>PayloadRemovalDisallowed</key>
    <false/>
    <key>PayloadType</key>
    <string>Configuration</string>
    <key>PayloadUUID</key>
    <string>A8E086BE-C9B1-4EA8-9E6A-F25001E0A293</string>
    <key>PayloadVersion</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

As you correctly suspect, there are downsides to this approach. While the connect on demand profile is active, the regular wake ups for fetching data seem not be done (at least until iOS 9, still have to test iOS 10), and as such FaceTime calls are not always received while the device is "sleeping").

The Apple documentation about this directives is here. "IPSec Dictionary Keys" is of particular interest.


Does enabling Enhanced Dictation in Mac dictation improve the speech recognition accuracy? In Mac Dictation, I wonder whether enabling  Enhanced Dictation impacts the speech recognition accuracy.

According to that link, it affects only speed, duration & offline ability, not accuracy.

It downloads the database locally to your machine, allowing the Mac itself to do the work, rather than having to send it to Apple.

Presumably, though it's not mentioned, the learning accuracy will still improve over time, as it learns from its mistakes.


Is is possible to multiply ranges and the sum over the new range in pages? I want to multiply the price times quantity and summ it up. Obviously multiplying columns is not valid. I know i could make a second column where the "price X quantity" is represented and then summ it up. But I dont want some additional space be used, and I beleive numbers should be smart enough to handle this request. Is it possible?

I found it out. There is a SUMPRODUCT() function, that multiply ranges. This makes the result

=SUMPRODUCT(D3:D15,C3:C15)


Possible to use Command+Tab to bring up only top Window? If you switch to an open application in Alfred, it only brings up only the window on top of the windows stack for that application, i.e. only the most recently focused window of that application. Is it possible to replicate this behavior using command+tab?

I didn't find any hidden preferences for it by using strings or gdb.

Witch only raises the selected window. It also displays the titles of windows and sorts windows by the order they were focused in.


Multiple-partition hard drive on Airport Extreme Is there a way to have multiple partitions on a hard drive plugged into an Airport Extreme? I have a 3TB hard drive, and would like a 2TB partition for storage, time machine backups (mac formatted), and then a 1TB ntfs formatted for stuff accessible to windows computers. However, if I have more than one partition, the disk doesn't show up at all in Airport Utility or in Finder. Is there a way around this limitation?

No, this isn't possible. According to Apple Support:

  Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort
  Extreme, or to an iPod, iDisk, or disk formatted for Windows.

However, the same KB also notes that:

  You can use Time Machine with a Time Capsule, and with USB, FireWire,
  and Thunderbolt disks. The backup disk can be directly connected to
  your computer or be on a network. If the backup disk has been divided
  into partitions, you can use one of the partitions.

You just can't have that drive hooked up to the Airport Extreme.