Find symbolic links (’s names) with Spotlight (Finder) underwhelmed by the fact that OS X’s Aliases got really big with Mountain Lion (Lion?) I basically switched to using symbolic links instead.

Now I’m just learning the hard way that Spotlight (or, Finder for that matter; since Finder’s find relies on Spotlight) doesn’t index symbolic links (or, their names). I.e., when you look for a specific string/word in the name of a symbolic link (by way of Finder’s search-field) nothing shows up. This is different from Aliases (’s names), which do show up.

This is very bad for me and I’m looking for a way to make Spotlight index symbolic links (some mdimporter magic?), or to be able to search for (the names of) symbolic links in some other way.

You see, I’m using the symbolic links mostly to link to larger files that reside on eternal hard drives in order to save space on my internal drive. But I really need to find these files (by searching their respective folders) by entering some search term that matches their name.

I’m searching for (the names of) the linked files, not for the symbolic link-files themselves; that’s why a solution like proposed here:

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1109635

doesn’t help me. If I understand correctly.

Over the last weeks (after switching to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard) I created lots of symbolic links that are now invisible to any search functionality.

You can use the find command to show you the target of the symlink then have awk throw away the rest of the line.  Then wrap that in a loop that tells you what it's doing then feeds the names to mdimport:

for linktarget in $(find ${HOME} -type l -ls | awk -F'-> ' '{print $NF}'); do
    echo "importing ${linktarget}"
    mdimport "${linktarget}";
done

It's probably easier to cut and paste this little script since there are some spaces that are easy to miss.  (like the one after the arrow in the awk statement).


Will the 3G SIM card from my original 2010 iPad work in the new 2012 iPad, or will I need a new SIM card? I have the original 2010 iPad 3G, and when I purchased it I also got a SIM card for Rogers 3G data service here in Canada.

Can I simply remove the 3G SIM card from my original 2010 iPad, and insert it into my new 2012 iPad when it arrives?  i.e. is it compatible and will my data plan continue to operate as before, but on the new iPad?

Then, even if it is compatible, is there an advantage to getting a new SIM card? Are there data features for the new iPad (e.g. higher speed?) only enabled by a new SIM card?

This will depend largely on your carrier. If they're offering 4G/LTE service with the iPad 3, you may need a new SIM card. If they're not offering that service in your area, it shouldn't matter if you have a new SIM card or not. Your best bet is to ask your carrier.


How to permanently disable (defective) graphics card in MacBook Pro? My graphics card has malfunctioned and is preventing my MacBook Pro (2011) from booting.

Based on my research I will have to otherwise have the logic board replaced.

The defective ATI graphics card is preventing my MacBook Pro from booting because it gets stuck on a gray screen sometimes even when using the recovery CD.

I have had this same problem with this same card. I know that it won't boot when I see horizontal blue bars through the Apple logo at the login screen, it goes to white-screen after that and the fans rev up.

I've found the most reliable way to boot up is to let it advance to the white/grey screen after the Apple logo, then I close the lid and wrap it in a blanket or put it in my laptop sleeve. It will overheat and automatically shut down. Almost every time it will start up in that state.

It used to be tense but after 9 months of this it's pretty standard.


MacOS Mojave 10.14.2 ignores network service order preference I've a problem that drives me crazy. My company has a wifi network that, when connected, does not allow me to connect to several services.
For this to work, I need to connect by Ethernet (changing this is btw no option :D)

I've purchased, some weeks ago, a USB-C thunderbolt dock for my 2018 MBP with an Ethernet port. This port shows up in System Settings -> Network and I can easily disbale wifi and my Mac will use the tethered connection.
Sadly, as soon as I connect to the wifi, MacOS will prioritize the wireless connection.

I've moved in System Settings -> Network the Priority of the "Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot 1" to the top, and Wifi below this (even totally at the end!) but MacOS will simply ignore this.

Any ideas in how to debug this?

Make sure you've changed the "set service order" within the "gear" submenu:


Can many iPads have a "master" Apple ID and a second, "personal" Apple ID? Our school district has many iPads.  We are wondering if a "master" Apple ID can be set up for configuing purposes (creating a standard starting point with certain apps for all devices) and if the teacher to whom it is assigned can then set up their own Apple ID (a second, functioning ID for the same device) for personal app downloads, email, calendar, etc while leaving the initial information intact.  Basically, we don't want them to be able to change what the IT dept puts on the iPad.

The Apple Configurator app was designed for deploying large numbers of iOS devices within institutions like schools. The Apple Configurator documentation explains the three different supported configuration modes (Prepare, Supervise, or Assign), and a video introduction is also available. Based on the wording of your question, the either the Prepare or Supervise method will likely be the best choice.


Files missing when connecting iPad to Windows 10 When I connect my iPad to my Windows 10 computer, it shows the device "iPad" with the "Internal Storage" as a folder. This storage contains three folders with a couple of pictures and videos I took with my iPad, but it doesn't show all of the pictures and videos - some are missing. How can I view/access all the pictures and videos on my iPad?

Install iTunes on your PC and connect your iPad. When iTunes launches and sees the iPad, click on the iPad icon at the top of the window to the right of the "music, movies TV Shows" icons.

Click on "Summary" on the left and you can select the options you want (apps, music, movies, pictures) to sync your media and where you want them copied to. Note that you have to have the iPad connected and selected in iTunes to make these changes.

Apple has set up IOS devices so only a limited amount of data is exposed to Windows Explorer. Why you are only seeing some of them, I am not sure, but once you set up Sync iTunes will copy all new pictures and videos to your PC.


"Dead Zone" in multiple-monitor configuration This question concerns a Mac Pro running 10.6 with 2 monitors set side-by-side and configured as one big monitor. Recently I have found that sometimes a "dead spot" appears to my USB Apple mouse in the lower right quadrant of my left monitor. When my cursor was in this area, nothing was clickable (making a window active, scroll bars, buttons, etc.) on that part of the window. Other parts of that window that were out of the dead zone were clickable. I noticed that some of my Safari windows straddled the junction of the two monitors, so when I dragged those windows to be totally in the left monitor, the problem seems to have gone away. Any ideas as to what might be going on? I have had this hardware configuration for several years but this problem is very recent. Thanks.

Check the layout of your displays in the "Displays" preference pane:

Normally it's not possible to position your displays such that there is an actual gap between them (at least on Lion), but perhaps moving them around will fix the problem.


Disable automatic menubar icon sorting in Mavericks? In Mavericks the icons in the menubar changed behavior.

The sorting is not dependent anymore on the order at which the apps were launched, but rather … something else. The icons jump and I now have an app running that adds a menubar icon, when I click it, I see the location services icon for a moment to its right, before it disappears, leaving a gap.

The icon that flashes mostly is the location icon, which appears leftmost in the sequence (sometimes leftmost removed by one). I didn't think OS X menubar icons can even be drawn where I am seeing them.

Is there a hidden preference or something I can do to prevent OS X being smart
about the sorting?

There are two types of menubar items in OS X. The classical one of type NSMenuExtra which is primarily used by Apple's own stuff like the clock, AirPort, TimeMachine, VPN and keychain, etc. These are not officially available for third party developers.
The other type is an NSStatusItem which is available for everyone and almost all apps that provide a menu bar item use this type.

Historically only NSMenuExtras could be sorted by ⌘ (command) dragging them and NSStatusItems were displayed in launch order from right to left. Since Mavericks Apple allow all items to be reordered by command-dragging them.

The chosen order should be persistent across logins. Some items like location services or screen synchronization will only show up when needed so they may change your sort order temporarily. The order is the same for all menu bars if you're using multiple screens.


What does Force Quit do in OS X? How does the GUI interface for force quitting applications (⌘+⌥+esc) work?

e.g.
Does it work like killall Finder which would send a TERM signal by default?

I just probed this with dtrace. The PID of the program in question is sent a SIGTERM (i.e., signal 15) from loginwindow.

I also tried this with a stopped process (sent SIGSTOP), so that the process showed as "Not Responding" in the Force Quit dialog and got the same result, loginwindow sends a SIGTERM.

If you want to try yourself, run the following in Terminal:

sudo /usr/sbin/dtrace -n 'proc:::signal-send /pid/ { printf("%s -%d %d",execname,args[2],args[1]->pr_pid); }'

You'll then see the name of the process sending the signal, the signal number and the PID the signal is sent to.


Change the default application (for a file extension) via script/command line? Is there a way to define the default application for a file extension via an Apple script, command line command (like defaults write [...]).

I know that you can change it manually via the information panel or by using RCDefaultApp but as I have to setup many machines and user accounts I would like to find a way to automate the process.

Launch Services is responsible for default file associations.

Let's say I wanted to change all text files to open in Sublime Text 2.

First I need the kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier for Sublime Text 2. I can use mdls to get this information:

> mdls /Applications/Sublime\ Text\ 2.app
_kTimeMachineIsCreationMarker  = 1
_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot    = 4001-01-01 00:00:00 +0000
_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot    = 2012-02-22 03:49:19 +0000
kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier      = "com.sublimetext.2"
....snip....

I can find out the content type value for text files by inspecting one of them with mdls:

> mdls test.txt
kMDItemContentCreationDate     = 2012-03-25 04:18:50 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2012-03-25 04:18:50 +0000
kMDItemContentType             = "public.plain-text"
kMDItemContentTypeTree         = (
    "public.plain-text",
    "public.text",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemDateAdded               = 2012-03-25 04:18:50 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName             = "test.txt"
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate     = 2012-03-25 04:18:50 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate          = 2012-03-25 04:18:50 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode           = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags           = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon         = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible             = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden     = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery          = 0
kMDItemFSLabel                 = 0
kMDItemFSName                  = "test.txt"
kMDItemFSNodeCount             = 975
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID          = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID           = 501
kMDItemFSSize                  = 975
kMDItemFSTypeCode              = ""
kMDItemKind                    = "Plain Text"
kMDItemLogicalSize             = 975
kMDItemPhysicalSize            = 4096

In this case I'll change the default application for all public.plain-text types.

To do this I type:

defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSHandlers -array-add '{ LSHandlerContentType = \"public.plain-text\"; LSHandlerRoleAll = \"com.sublimetext.2\"; }'

If I want the changes to take effect I'll need to restart Launch Services like so:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

And to give credit where credit is due, I learned about this approach from this stackoverflow.com question and answer: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9172226/how-to-set-default-application-for-specific-file-types-in-mac-os-x


Is iCloud Document Sync "delta sync" or "full file sync"? I don't mean iWork docs but for example personal docs in GoodReader iCloud folder and perhaps Mac OS ~/Library/Mobile Documents.

Is there any official documentation about it?

Delta. It splits this intelligently into chunks and only updates the relevant chunks using Rabin fingerprinting.

You can see this in Apple's WWDC iCloud presentation, and
slides.

A pretty good description of this chunking can be seen in Siracusa's Lion review, however the review describes this process in terms of document versioning, but the fundamentals are the same.


iPhone 4 cannot restore to iOS 5 in DFU mode I download the iOS 5 firmware file for my iPhone 4 (GSM): iPhone3,1_5.0_9A334_Restore.ipsw. I put my iPhone in DFU mode and Alt+Clicked the Restore button in iTunes. I then selected the .ipsw that I downloaded and then it extracts the software and gives me the following message:

I just can't seem to upgrade the phone, any ideas anyone?

As iOS 5 is public, there is no need to download the firmware file yourself. Just click on 'search for updates' and let it upgrade.


After Upgrade to Mountain Lion I get blurry fonts Since the upgrade to Mountain Lion, I get blurry fonts system-wide. It doesn't matter where it is: I've seen them on the log-in screen, Safari, Mail, Xcode, and Skype. Every font is very blurry.

It seems as though a non-native screen resolution is in use, but, in System Preferences, the "built in screen resolution" option is chosen.

I have a 15" MacBook Pro (Model A1286) with the High Resolution panel (1680x1050).

Can someone confirm or help here?

Some screenshots:

Toggling LCD font smoothing (subpixel rendering) should have an immediate effect on the System Preferences window with most displays.

LCD font smoothing is not enabled automatically on some LCD displays though. You might be able to force them to use it with defaults write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 2, which corresponds to the pre-10.6 medium setting  or enabling LCD font smoothing on most displays.

10.5 used to allow choosing from two additional text rendering settings, light and strong. If the default was light before you upgraded to 10.8, you can restore it with defaults write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 1.

High Resolution Guidelines for OS X: Advanced Optimization Techniques

  In OS X v10.8, the default value of the NSFontDefaultScreenFontSubstitutionEnabled setting is NO. This setting determines whether or not text APIs (such as NSLayoutManager, NSCell, and the NSStringDrawing categories on NSString and NSAttributedString) substitute screen fonts when calculating layout and display of text.

  Although screen font substitution will no longer be the default, using screen font might still be appropriate to support:

  Compatibility with documents created with previous versions of your app. The difference in glyph advancement measurements between integral and floating-point values can cause a change in text layout.
  Fixed-pitch plain text style output—for example, the Plain Text mode in Text Edit.
  To keep the OS X v10.7 screen font substitution behavior as the default, set the NSUserDefaults key NSFontDefaultScreenFontSubstitutionEnabled to YES.

  To maintain the screen font setting on a per-document basis, specify NSUsesScreenFontsDocumentAttribute as a document attribute when you initialize an attributed string object.

defaults write -g NSFontDefaultScreenFontSubstitutionEnabled -bool true didn't seem to have (almost) any effect in most applications. But for some reason it disabled kerning in AppleScript Editor.


List recent non-recurring calendar events I'm trying to build a shortcut that will show me a list of my ad-hoc non-recurring calendar events to help remind me what I've achieved when preparing quarterly reviews.

I can use Find Calendar Events Where to restrict to an appropriate calendar and time window but how can I identify the recurring ones and filter those out?

As a fall back I thought about maintaining a meeting subjects to blacklist but how do I implement that in Shortcuts?

Currently it is not possible to check wether calendar events are recurring or not.
Therefore the only way to implement this is by checking for duplicate event-titles.

To implement this, you first have to create a list of all calendar events. Now you have to check for every event-title how often it appears in this list.
In the end you can add every title that only appears once to a separate list.

Now you should have a list of everything you achieved (only the non-recurring events).


Can MacBook Air 2014 use passive mini-displayport converter My MacBook Air Early 2014 has a thunderbolt port. According to this article thunderbolt supports dual-mode DisplayPort (DP++), which in turn supports passive converters.

So theoretically I can buy a passive mini-displayport to HDMI or DVI converter, and connect to my monitor and it should work. Is this assumption correct?

I ask because I bought two converters, one for HDMI and one for DVI, but neither of them worked. My monitor just does not detect any signal. So I want to double-check my assumption.

The asker's own answer clarifies that a BenQ BL2420PT monitor was what wouldn't work with the passive adapters. That monitor has a native resolution of 2560x1440, which requires either DisplayPort, dual-link DVI, or HDMI 1.3+ (the monitor might still work with single-link DVI or HDMI 1.2− if the MacBook is set to output a resolution of 1920x1200 or lower):

The MacBook Air (Early 2014, both the 11-inch and 13-inch models) supports up to 2560x1600 over DisplayPort. So if the DisplayPort input on the monitor isn't already occupied, the cheapest and/or least confusing solution might be to use a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.
Passive DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapters do not exist due to DisplayPort's limited number of pins. There are active DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapters available, and these require the use of a dual-link cable:

For HDMI, there are both active and passive adapters available which support HDMI 1.3+, however one vendor adapter (Plugable) claims:

  When outputting a TMDS (DVI/HDMI) signal through Dual-Mode, most DisplayPort sources as well as the inexpensive passive adapters on the market are limited to a 165MHz clock rate. This limited clock rate generally limits the maximum resolution to 1920×1200 and reduces the maximum available color-depth to preserve the limited bandwidth.

  Some mid-range DP -> HDMI adapters such as the Plugable MDPM-HDMIF are capable of operating at up to 300MHz, but ultimately they are still reliant upon the Dual-Mode functionality of the host to transmit the TMDS signal required for HDMI/DVI displays.

So your passive HDMI adapter might be one that is limited to 1920x1200. Nor is it clear from the many existing questions† on this topic whether the MacBook Air can output more than 1920x1200 over dual-mode DisplayPort.

† to name a few: Can a MacBook Air support 2560x1600 output via HDMI using a Mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt to HMDI adaptor?, MacBookAir 2014 MiniDP to DP 2560x1440,
2013 Macbook Air not showing 1440p Option on External Display,
What's the max resolution for mini DisplayPort connected to a 2013 MacBook Air?, HDMI with resolution 2560 x 1440 possible?. Found using combinations of "macbook air", "displayport to hdmi", "passive", "dual mode" "2560x1400", "1440p", etc. Unfortunately many of these contain anecdotes, conflicting answers, or misleading advice (like forcing certain graphics or adapter hardware beyond specified limits, preferring HDMI over DisplayPort, etc.).


OS X Yosemite permanent environement variables Since I upgraded to OS X Yosemite I do have massive problems with environment variables that I really, really NEED for development of some projects.

The Problems is:

Every time I install some kind of update from the app store and my macbook restarts in order to install it, it will delete all, but really all of my environment variables which then costs me nearly an hour to set it up again.

I've tried so many different solutions until now (I don't want to start listing them up here, I really searched the www for some hours...) and nothing has worked as permanent/persistent environment variable.

What I need to do:

System wide environment variables that are NEVER reset without my action. They have to be persistent/permanent!
Environment variables have to be readable by shell as well as GUI applications

I feel helpless and somehow stupid.
It's so easy on all linux distros I know and also in the Windows world. Why does it seem to be so hard for OS X?

have you tried adding them to your .bash_profile?

assuming you know how to use the vi editor:

open terminal
enter vi ~/.bash_profile
add one line like the following for each environment variable you need to persist

export PS1='\[\033[34m\]\w\[\e[m\]   '

Save the file.
Restart your computer.

The only other thing would be to consider backing up your .bash_profile in case somehow you lose or corrupt it.


How to Start Postgres Service in MacOs? I already install PostgreSQL using homebrew "brew install postgresql". But after that, I will start the service of the Postgres service its give me some error message.

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres start

  waiting for server to start....2019-04-28 11:59:51.107 IST [9563] LOG:
  listening on IPv6 address "::1", port 5432 2019-04-28 11:59:51.107 IST
  [9563] LOG:  listening on IPv4 address "127.0.0.1", port 5432
  2019-04-28 11:59:51.109 IST [9563] LOG:  listening on Unix socket
  "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432" 2019-04-28 11:59:51.119 IST [9563] LOG:  could
  not open directory "pg_tblspc": No such file or directory 2019-04-28
  11:59:51.123 IST [9564] LOG:  database system was shut down at
  2019-03-31 19:13:06 IST 2019-04-28 11:59:51.123 IST [9564] LOG:  could
  not open directory "pg_tblspc": No such file or directory 2019-04-28
  11:59:51.123 IST [9564] FATAL:  could not open directory
  "pg_replslot": No such file or directory 2019-04-28 11:59:51.124 IST
  [9563] LOG:  startup process (PID 9564) exited with exit code 1
  2019-04-28 11:59:51.124 IST [9563] LOG:  aborting startup due to
  startup process failure 2019-04-28 11:59:51.125 IST [9563] LOG:
  database system is shut down  stopped waiting pg_ctl: could not start
  server Examine the log output.

And I also not find out the pg_hba.conf file to change's socket related issue.

Normally this should do the trick:

"pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start"
Without the " " of course.


Does the new photos app still try to recognise faces? Will the new photos app still try to guess who everyone is in all my photos? I'm really hoping this is one feature that was deprecated!

FYI if anyone is wondering, I personally did not like this feature because it consumed at lot of CPU and kicked my fans up to 100% with no way to limit or control the process.

Yes, there is a Faces album which will show all recognised faces in your images.


What are the most modern browsers available on Mac OS 10.4 I have two old Mac Minis both running OS X 10.4 Tiger.

One is a G4 so I'm using TenFourFox for PowerPC.

The other has an Intel processor and I'm having some trouble with Opera 10.62.

(The point is I want to use trello.com and old browsers like FireFox 3 or standard Safari from the 10.4 OS won't work).

What other options am I missing?

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but the answer has changed since last year. I'm posting this mainly for the benefit of people who will find this thread by googling "modern web browser for tiger". If you still use this computer, I would have to recommend you upgrade from Camino to Omniweb.

Camino stopped updating their browser a few months ago and has no plans to continue support. Omniweb on the other hand is still being updated and supported and still runs on Tiger. Here is Omniweb running Trello.


Restore iPhone 3GS without backup Please help.
I updated my iPhone 3GS and have lost all my contacts/data. I did not make a backup as I am on a borrowed computer.
How can I restore my old settings?

If you setup your phone to use iCloud, it is easy to restore.  My wife broke her phone and when the Apple store replaced it everything was easily setup and downloaded via iCloud.

Because at this point I don't know if you ever backup up via iCloud, I will provide directions in case you have... hopefully, you did.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4859

If you didn't, you should do it moving forward ... it is never to late to learn from something like this.
Turn on iCloud follow the steps, try to normally connect to a wireless router and from now on make sure to backup via iCloud.


Create a standalone photo album I have one series of photos that I show to people I meet often. Using the iOS Photos app with an album is fine, except that it takes a while to launch and then find the right album, and sometimes that app is slow.

What I'd like is to have an app (or an export process, or something) which allows me to select some photos maybe the first time I launch it, and then just displays those photos, and only those photos, when I start it up. I'd just like them to fill the screen and I could swipe between them.

Then, I could just pop open my phone, launch that app, and be showing the photos immediately.

Does anyone have any good ideas?

Create an iCloud Shared Album and give it a web URL, then "bookmark" that URL with a home screen icon.

Open the Photos app and tap on the Shared tab.
If you don't see the + icon at the upper-left, tap "< Sharing" there. Tap the + icon.
Give your album a name and tap Next. Optionally, share it with contact(s). Tap Create.
Tap on the album you just created. Add photos by tapping on + in the grey square.
Tap on the People tab. Turn on Public Website. You'll be provided a URL.
Tap Share Link and then tap Copy.
Open Safari and paste the URL into the address bar. Tap the Share icon at the bottom and tap Add to Home Screen.

Anytime you want to share the photos in this album with people, just tap on the icon on your home screen.


Is there a way to rename a sound card in Mac OS X? I have multiple sound cards connected and would benefit from being able to rename them from their device name to something like "Headphones", "Surround system", etc. Is there a way to do this?

The Sound Card’s name comes from the Device itself, which “publishes” its name. The operating system reads the name from there. I don’t believe you can rename it, but you can definitely go to /Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup and create an Aggregate Audio Device (with the names you want) and select the input/outputs of each.

For example, you can create your headphones like this:


"New Folder with Selection" question I'm looking for a way to change the minimum number of files required to 1 so I can make a folder from a single selected file rather than having to have 2 selected before it becomes available.

To see what I mean...

Go to Finder
Select any two (or more) files in the same folder or the Desktop.
right click on the selection
you will see a choice "New Folder with Selection (x items)"

I would like to be able to only select one and have that choice appear.

Thanks.

I would suggest creating a new Service in Automator. Adding a service to the finder will add it in the contextual menu !

Create new service
Servicce receives selected  in
Add a run AppleScript Action
Paste the following code

Using just a simple AppleScript

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "Finder"
    set thePath to first item of input
    set ParentFolder to container of thePath
    set theFolder to (make new folder at ParentFolder)

    repeat with aFIle in input #For each file in input
        move aFIle to theFolder
    end repeat
end tell

end run

Save it and enjoy the new service by selecting your new service in the contextual menu of one of your folders.


Does an iPad last in a public exhibition? I want to use an iPad as an interactive part of an exhibition. Will it last or will it break? Does anyone have experience?

Anecdotally, I attended the Detroit Auto Show this year.  Audi had cleverly embedded iPads into the information stands next to all their cars, running their own information app. The home button was covered by the stand, so the app couldn't be exited. It made for a very impressive display.

I was there during the final weekend of the (very high traffic) two-week show. All of the iPads were functioning marvelously, and the screens were all in very good shape. That said, there was no well to tell if any had needed to be replaced. Take it as you will.


Is there a way to (or another app that) automatic download new tweets? I really like when I go near to a wi-fi connection and my iPod-touch automatically connects, send the Outbox e-mails and download the new ones.

Is there a way to do the same with twitter? Automatically download the new tweets and send the "drafts" when connect to the wi-fi?

The iOS Mail app has special abilities not available to 3rd party apps, under the App Store rules. Specifically it has greater leeway on how it can act in the background. 3rd party apps can't update every x minutes, nor can they receive a trigger when connectivity is restored (I'm not actually sure that Mail.app gets this either, it may just be that it's push/scheduled check doesn't fail once connectivity is restored), although they can trigger downloads based on geofencing.

This sort of thing would be possible on a jailbroken device, but I don't know if any apps actually offer this functionality, perhaps someone can chime in.


Contacts.app won't sync iCloud contacts Just upgraded to macOS 10.12.16. For some reason my iCloud contacts are empty. Contacts.app does not show anything.

I tried signing out of iCloud, deleting AddressBook caches and files in ~/Library/Application Support and then signing in again. Still, no Contact gets synced.

I can see all of my contacts via www.icloud.com and on my iPhone.

Can anyone help me?

I've been having this issue for a couple of months and fixed it by doing the following:

Quit Contacts.app
Delete all content of ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Remove Contact sync from iCloud preferences in System Settings
Wait couple of minutes, and re-enable Contacts sync
Open Contacts.app and wait. Everything appears, and now Contacts syncs properly both ways.


Accessing archive of iPhone backups? So I dun goof'd up (tm) while updating a friends iPhone 4 to the latest OS.
I obviously started by creating a back up of the device, but I think I messed up and after the device had factory reset due to the update. I think what happened was after I did the update to the phone I backed it up again because when I went to 'restore' the iphone from a back up (which completed successfully) the iphone was put in its factory state, even asking for a username/password and giving me the whole 'welcome' screen thing.

So either I didn't back up properly the first time or I backed up properly the first time but then I backed up the device again AFTER the update was installed meaning the back up is of a factory reset install of the iPhone.

is this reversible or have I just lost everything (except for photographs which for some reason I was smart enough to back up myself).

I'm mostly trying to get his contacts back at this point...

If you are lucky you have more than 1 backup file on your hard disk if you are doing the manual backup. Go to ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup/ and move the most recent backup (the one that you don't want to restore) temporarily to another location and then try to restore the backup in iTunes again.


What do I need to provide a wired guest isolated access to my home network? I have an AirPort Extreme (APE) with the Wi-Fi setup for guest account and this works just fine.

I was wondering if I could also provide a wired ethernet guest access without letting this user see my computers AND without me having access to his computer while plugged into this network as well.

I do have a "switch".  Could I plug this into my broadband modem (first) then the APE? Would a switch give the isolation I need?

No - you need a specific switch that would create a wired VLAN (virtual LAN) to segment the guest network from the rest of the house's network. VLAN are how the wireless system works as well but the software doesn't have a way to identify or switch one or more than one of the wired ethernet ports to anything but the main VLAN.

If you add a switch (or router) to handle the VLAN - it will need to either have physical ports to differ from the AirPort so you might be better just letting it run your entire network. Cisco makes many of these - mostly for the enterprise / medium business - but there are other options if you don't like the Cisco brand.

Heading onto 2020 there are lots of options and for someone that likes Apple ecosystem and somewhat wants privacy controls, start with Plume and check out other packaged router / management / isolation tools.

https://www.plume.com/

If you want to be a network engineer, The ubiquity line is amazing and their new DreamMachine is the gateway  drug of choice for prosumer networks.

https://www.ui.com/


Is there a jailbreak for iOS 4.2 I want to jail break my 3Gs running 4.2.1.
Possible?

There is a howto in redmondpie.com for jailbreaking the iPhone 3GS with iOS 4.2.1, but it appears there is no unlock yet.

http://www.redmondpie.com/jailbreak-ios-4.2.1-iphone-4-3gs-3g-ipad-ipod-touch-with-redsn0w-0.9.6b4-guide/


How to disable One-Finger swipe for Magic Mouse on windows Using Magic Mouse 2.0 on Windows 8.1 turns into disaster.

It is hard to click anything without scrolling the screen. Is it was possible to disable one finger swipe?

Is there any utility for windows that enables control over mouse settings?

The Magic Mouse is Apple's proprietary mouse, meaning that there won't be an Apple certified way to change it within Windows.

Utilities to change Magic Mouse settings in Windows probably won't exist either for the same reason – the Magic Mouse is specifically made for Macs and OS X.


Did Apple shut down the Activation Lock checker? Why? I have an used iPhone 6s that is pin locked and I wanted to check whether it was locked to iCloud or not.

I opened icloud.com/activationlock to find out that the service is no longer available.

Is there any reason Apple decided to disable this tool? Now it will be harder to tell if an used iPhone that you want to buy is stolen.

Apple has closed this tool. It is no longer available without being an employee of Apple or being a member of Apple's Authorised Service Provider Program.

As for why, Apple hasn't publicly given a reason, but I speculate that it is due to the ability to find serial numbers of devices which have not been registered with Find My iPhone.


How do I use my own money for purchases rather than using family sharing data? A couple of months ago I made a couple of (guilty) in-app purchases for a game, under the impression that even though my family has Family Sharing, that my details would still be used for the purchases. I was later informed that they had in fact been charged to my mum's card (the one who's details are in Family Sharing) instead of mine.
Is there a way to set it up so that my details are used instead of my mum's, so I don't have to use her money and can instead use my own?

Family Sharing uses a single credit card for all users on linked account. You cannot change this on an account by account basis.

You can purchase and redeem an iTunes Store gift card and add that to your account. iTunes and the App Store should automatically pay for the item with your store credit before using the family credit card.


Client SSL certificate failing in Safari (and what is SOSCCThisDeviceIsInCircle?) I'm having difficulty using an X.509 certificate to do client authentication from Safari (9.0.1, as on OS X 10.10.5).

The symptom is that I go to a https://... site which does client certificate checking, but Safari appears to simply hang as if it were waiting from a response from the server.  In the error console it reports Failed to load resource: cancelled (and on one of the servers I've tried this with, which I have control over, the relevant logs report that the browser appeared to abruptly close the connection – there's no other indication there of a protocol botch).

The certificate is valid and has a good CA signature, as verified by openssl, and by the fact that it works as expected with Firefox, Chrome, and curl.  Note that Chrome and OS X curl do use the Keychain, and Firefox doesn't, so there's no common factor there.  Also, OS X curl is built against SecureTransport as opposed to OpenSSL, so is, I think, using the same SSL library as Safari (I don't know about Chrome in this respect).

This isn't a server-side problem, because others using the same version of Safari can get to the same URL with certificates from the same CA.  Also, I can connect straightforwardly to that site using Chrome, which of course also uses WebKit, and which uses the same certificate, via the Keychain.

The nearest thing to a diagnostic I can find is that a message appears in the Console whenever I do this, saying

2015-11-13 18:43:53.329 Keychain Access[1373]:  SOSCCThisDeviceIsInCircle SOSCCThisDeviceIsInCircle!! 58

(the final number increments each time).

I have been able to find nothing at all relating to that string, apart from passing mentions in a few clearly puzzled forum posts.

I have tried deleting identity preferences from Keychain Access without success, tried deleting similar (expired) certificates from the keychain, and tried exporting deleting and re-importing the relevant certificate; all without effect.

I'm stumped!  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Since this appears to be a Safari-specific problem, I'm asking here before trying on the security SE.

I like to use the Keychain Access app to troubleshoot cryptographic trust issues and also find making a clean VM of OS X or at least a new user account helps to make sure I know I'm starting from a known trust chain.

Open Keychain Access
under the Keychain Access menu, select Certificate Assistant and then Evaluate a Certificate

From there you can use the SSL tool to evaluate things and start to pick apart what is failing or succeeding. Bouncing between that tool and Safari usually is worthwhile in sorting errors.


Backup files from corrupt disk to usb drive in single user mode I try to backup my files of a corrupt system. I can start into the single user mode and want so store my home folder to my backup system. To mount my usb drive I need to mount the root disk as writeable. Therefor I used the command

/sbin/mount -uw /

The command will be executed withoud any response, after that I tried to create a folder

mkdir /backup

But this returns

mkdir:backup: File exists

But there is no folder or file which has been created??? What am I doing wrong?
Thanks

Single user mode is the wrong tool for this job.   Connect an external drive if you want to use one and then restart in to Recovery HD ( or Internet recovery).

Use the terminal application from there to make your copies and backups. It's handles mounting all the filesystems properly so you can move things around.


Cannot install Hamachi on macOS Sierra 10.12 My Mac book won't let me install hamachi or use some programs. The problem I tried to install says hams.kext or hamns.kext was installed incorrectly and told me to reinstall it, I tried looking into the web but no one has the same problem. How do I reinstall hams.kext, Hamns.kext? I waited 5 days for a response on my other article I made, but no response.

macOS Sierra 10.12
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

You need to go to root Library => Extensions and remove the old Hamns.kext then re install Hamachi. Seems to work for about a month then needs a re install.


How to limit RAM in an OSX device? Related to my other question, I'm about to buy a new Mac Mini. I would like to reduce RAM to 8GB in order to see if 8GB is enough to my daily tasks in my MBP retina 15 early 2013 16GB RAM.

The idea is I’ll let this mac not make use of any more RAM than 8 GB for the running applications to see if they swap to disk or run well with 8 GB of RAM.

Can I do this sort of artificial restriction on a mac that has RAM soldered or when it’s inconvenient to go physically remove RAM for testing purposes?

Create a ram disk :-)
From the answer to Mount a RAM disk on boot:

You can create and mount a RAM disk with the following Terminal (i.e. shell) command:
diskutil erasevolume HFS+ "diskName" $(hdiutil attach -nomount ram://2048)

Where 2048 can be any number and represents the number of 512 byte blocks you want to allocate. So 1,000,000 will get you 512,000,000 bytes. (Of course, you have to leave out the commas.)

So in your case the command would be
diskutil erasevolume HFS+ "diskName" $(hdiutil attach -nomount ram://$((8*2**30/512)))


Help getting Nautilus running under MacPorts I have been trying to run Nautilus on OS X 10.6.8 without any luck. First, I installed MacPorts, then installed Nautilus. However when I try to run it from the command line, I am getting an error. I came to this thread and followed the instructions given. However I am still getting this error:

(nautilus:27170): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
    Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Xlib:  extension "RANDR" missing on display "/tmp/launch-42nv45/org.x:0".

** (nautilus:27170): WARNING **: Can not calculate _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS

** (nautilus:27170): WARNING **: Can not calculate _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS

** (nautilus:27170): WARNING **: Can not get _NET_WORKAREA

** (nautilus:27170): WARNING **: Can not determine workarea, guessing at layout
nautilus: Fatal IO error 0 (Unknown error: 0) on X server /tmp/launch-42nv45/org.x:0.

And then X11 stops unexpectedly. Can anybody tell me how to solve this?

This sounds like a problem in X11 itself. To find the real issue with X11, you would have to take a look at the generated crash reports. You will find these within the application Console at "Diagnostic Reports".

As a workaround, you could try to use XQuartz instead, which is a package providing an usually more up-to-date version of the X server for Mac OS X.


Should I upgrade my iPad 2 to iOS 9.3 from iOS 5.1.1? ( Late March 2016) I recently recovered my lost iPad 2. I cannot afford a new tablet at the moment and I will use my iPad 2 as a daily driver (to browse the web, read books, college lectures, play games and other light applications). My biggest concern is that the iPad might become unusably slow with iOS 9. It runs smoothly with iOS 5 at the moment but most of the applications are not compatible and many features are not functioning (mail etc.).

This Wikipedia Page states that "Although the A5-based iPad 2 is relatively archaic, showing signs of its age in iOS 8, iOS 9 is said to feature performance improvements that may help the aging device function more smoothly, and initial tests suggest that it did not significantly impact available space."

I upgraded three iPad2s last week, and did not notice any degradation in the short time I had for testing. I was making sure that they could be managed by our MDM and that a small set of common apps we use worked.


Finder: keep sort-by per-directory Some directories make sense to be sorted by date modified, while others make more sense to be kept sorted alphabetically.

How can I make it so that finder will apply a specified sort by selection on a per-directory basis?

If no such feature exists (In which case I hope somebody at APPL is paying attention), I suppose using/remapping the keyboard shortcuts (Defaults being Cmd+Ctrl+5 for Modified and Cmd+Ctrl+1 for Alphabetical by Name) is the next best thing.

Finder should already remember both arrange by and sort by modes for all normal folders. But in column view and list view the current folder is the root folder of the window. Or if you use column view, it is usually some location in the sidebar or the computer view.

I don't think there is any way to change that, but if you open folders by selecting them from the sidebar (or for example from Alfred), you could add folders to the sidebar.

I'd actually like the opposite and make all folders default to arranging by none and sorting by name. Deleting .DS_Store files only does that temporarily until you change the sort by or arrange by modes manually.


XCode 6 on Yosemite crashing in fullscreen mode when build & running app on device Xcode 6 on Yosemite crashes everytime when pressing Build&Run on Device.
Current window disappears and Start screen appears.
Anyone else experiencing this?

UPDATE:

As it seems Xcode is not crashing, but clicking "Run" triggers "close" and clicking "Stop" triggers "minimize". It's not whole buttons it's only area of closing and minimizing buttons behind.

So concluson is that new fullscreenmode somehow sometimes shadows click to underlying controlbuttons.

Reported this to Apple.

UPDATE 23.4.2015

This seems to be fixed now in Yosemite 10.10.3 (14D131).

It's not that it's crashing but it's executing the red close button when you hit the play button.  I have also seen it exit full screen when you press the stop button.

But Yes I have been seeing the same thing.


Can I "restrain" safari from using large % of CPU? Some websites make safari go crazy, and use 70% CPU! This causes everything else on this desktop to grind to a halt.

Is there a way to restrict safari to never go beyond a certain amount of CPU?

(btw - It's not just flash)

Enable the Debug Menu in Safari. One of the commands is Pause Web Process, another is Crash Web Process. Or the web process can be quit (or Force Quit) in Activity Monitor or any similar app.

And be sure to keep your Flash plugin current. Keep everything current/updated!


The Download of Apps from the Mac App Store is very slow I've wanted to download an app from the Mac App Store. But the download is much slower than normally.

What can I do?

To download with normal speed again, you can do the following trick:

(These first two steps weren't necessary for me and it worked for me without doing that.)

First open System Preferences → Network → Advanced and choose the tab "DNS" and add another DNS-Server by clicking on the +. A list of free DNS-Servers can be found at about.com.
Now we choose a third Level DNS (Primary DNS 209.244.0.3, Secondary DNS 209.244.0.4)
Now we have to flush the DNS-Cache of the system, that OSX can use the new DNS-Servers.

Command under Mavericks:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

Command under Mountain Lion:

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

The reason this may improve download speeds is that DNS servers may return endpoints to Apple's CDN according to the location they think you are coming from.  If you use a general one (not one from your ISP, or otherwise close to your location) you may get a CDN endpoint that is not optimal for you, resulting in slow/stalled downloads.


reFind boot options does not show after installation of Ubuntu 16.04 Server LTS My Base OS is Sierra 10.12.5
Model MacBook Pro Mid-2014 Model
Model ID: 11,3

I have encountered an issue with reFind after installing Ubuntu server 16.04 LTS.  It seems that the boot options doesn't appear anymore and it automatically boots the Ubuntu OS.  The only way I can go back to my base OS is pressing the ALT key after rebooting it and before the chime sounds.  Anybody knows what I need to do with reFind or what commands to issue on the MacOS terminal in order to show the reFind boot options again?

Thanks,

So the designer of reFind was kind enough to respond to me and pointed out that the issue I am facing is a boot coup
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/bootcoup.html
Re-installing reFind did the trick.

Thanks Rod!!!


El Capitan Mac: /usr/bin/login tries to run /bin/false Just upgraded from Yosemite to El Capitan, and I started out with an Emacs problem: it wouldn't launch from the Emacs.app icon, complaining that it couldn't find /bin/false.  I tracked this down to the fact Emacs.app was trying to run /usr/bin/login, the default for the "Terminal" app.
I can switch "Terminal" to run /bin/bash, but that doesn't solve the Emacs.app problem or similar problems for any other apps that try to run /usr/bin/login.

It looks like I need to fix /usr/bin/login to run /usr/bin/false and not /bin/false, but I have no idea how.

I tried to trick the programs backwards,

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/false /bin/false

and I get "Operation not permitted."  I tried

sudo cp /usr/bin/false /bin/false

and I get "Operation mot permitted."

I'm stuck looking for "the right answer" or for other work arounds.

I had the same problem, with emacs giving me "Error (use-package): exec-path-from-shell :init: Searching for program: no such file or directory, /bin/false" on startup.
However, I noticed that this only happens when running Emacs (installed from emacsformacosx) from the Dock or Spotlight. If I ran it from my Terminal, or by clicking on it in Applications in finder, it worked fine.

After a restart, the problem was resolved. I suspect that Dock and Spotlight held on to my original default shell, and after a restart, they used the new value (changed from /bin/false to /bin/zsh).


Why are some System Preferences icons "Generic" in macOS 10.15 Catalina? Something weird is going on with the Icons for a few of the built-in System Preference prefPanes in macOS 10.15.x Catalina. For example, "Bluetooth" and "Internet Accounts". When I search Spotlight for these, the proper icon is displayed:

But, in Finder or Alfred only a generic icon is shown:

another example is Internet Accounts:

vs

I notice even in Finder, the generic icons are shown:

Only Spotlight and the System Preferences.app itself seem capable of showing the proper icon. I opened the Contents folder of the prefPane bundle to investigate. It seems like Info.plist contained within specifies icons via keys such as NSPrefPaneIconFile and CFBundleIconFile but even in that case, the file referenced doesn't seem to exist on the filesystem anywhere that I can find.

E.g. for Bluetooth, NSPrefPaneIconFile = "BluetoothAqua.png" — but that file doesn't exist. Similarly, Internet Accounts specifies InternetAccountsIcons.icns and InternetAccountsIcon40.png as icons, but these are nowhere to be found:

Does anyone know what's going on here, or where the icon resources are being loaded from?

edit: Found some additional info about this. The icons for these prefPanes are being sourced from a compressed Assets.car (CoreUI Archive) within the bundle. Here are some related links I found:

Reverse engineering the .car file format

insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer: open .car files and browse/extract their images

Analysing Assets.car file in iOS

steventroughtonsmith/cartool: Export images from CoreUI archives

The icons are present: they're just not being picked up by the Finder. That could be a caching problem (of the Finder's).
In the 10 months since this question was asked, it's possible that a system update may have fixed it (by clearing caches as part of the installation, rather than any pro-active fixing).


A white input bar appear when typing on keyboard while play game I have a problem everytime I play a game on my Mac, and try to use keyboard's alphabet characters, a white input bar appear on the bottom of the screen (and the character go there instead of to the game). What is it and how can I turn it off? Thank you very much

It like this

It happened to me when I use foreign keyboard. As soon as I switch the keyboard input back to "U.S" the input bar disappears. And it seems like it's associated with Finder.


Is there any way to hide the iCloud Drive shared files information which follows the file name? I share a bunch of iCloud files for work and the "Added by Me" text takes up a bunch of the file name space, especially when the file name is truncated. Is there any way to hide this?

No, I don't believe there is a way to remove this information.


Application runs, but I can't find the .app file (Pages, Numbers) If I open up a .pages or .numbers file on my computer (macOS 10.12.4), the respective applications open without delay.

However, when I search for Pages.app or Numbers.app in Finder, I cannot find either application! Neither application is listed in the Applications directory.

Where are these apps located?

You can check where any application is located via the Dock.

Right-click on the app's icon in the Dock and go to Options > Show in FInder.

If you haven't already got Pages and Numbers in your Dock, you don't need to add them. You can still do the above while they're running.


How to change the colors of individual bars in Numbers 3.2 How do I change the colors of individual bars, in a bar chart of in Apple's Numbers 3.2.x

In experiencing this problem, Numbers always treated all of my bars as one series (not sure what planet that makes sense on, but whatever). You need your data treated as separate series so that you can apply a color to each series.

With the chart selected, click the Edit Data References button that appears over the chart. Then, look in the lower, right-hand corner, there will be a little tiny slightly darker gray on light gray button labeled "Plot Rows as Series" (or "Plot Columns as Series"). Change this setting and you should have separate series for each of your data points, which will allow you to change their colors.

Note that none of this is in the documentation.

As of Numbers 3.6 (possibly earlier), that's the lower left-hand corner.


How to ignore second hard drive I have a second hard drive in my macbook pro that is bootable into my older os install after installing a new SSD with a clean build of OSX Mavericks. When booted into my SSD, I want my old drive to be only used storage space, however it keeps using it for other things. For example when I press open with, it shows me all my apps from the old drive. I already disabled Spotlight for the old drive, but how can I prevent all function except as an external drive?

PS. I still need to boot into it occasionally and I cant just eject it when using my SSD because I need to access files on it.

I have a similar configuration. Two physical drives: one Mavericks, the other Mountain Lion as failsafe. When Yosemite comes out, I can leap Mountain Lion ahead.

In your primary OSX, exclude the /oldpartitionname/ (or, /oldpartitionname/Applications) from Spotlight.

Then reset "Open With" menu with Terminal:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Your OSX will rebuild a new list of apps, within the newly defined scope.


How I disable or remove shortcut global (Shift+Cmd+C)? I use shift+cmd+x to delete line in editor vscode but sometimes I accidentally click shift+cmd+c to open a terminal.

How I disable or remove this shortcut shift+cmd+c global?

As far as I know, ⇧⌘C is not a system-wide global shortcut, so it sounds like something Visual Studio is doing. It probably has a way to disable it within the application, but if not, you can try to remap it to something else (this works for any application where the thing you're triggering is a menu!):

Open System Preferences, and go to the Keyboard pane.
Head over to the Shortcuts tab, and then App Shortcuts.
Hit the plus button, and enter the name of the "open in terminal" menu item exactly as it appears.
Put in some other shortcut that you want to trigger it with.

(This works even when the menu you want to trigger doesn't usually have a shortcut. Unfortunately, it only works if the feature is a menu item.)

(Unfortunately, I probably can't release this as CC-BY-SA as per the content policy, because it's a screenshot of copyrighted proprietary software. But I don't see anyone else worrying about this, so....)


How to connect a bluetooth speaker to MacOS and KEEP using the internal speakers Is there anyway to connect any bluetooth audio device (using the bluetooth toolbar icon) and make MacOS NOT change the output to it once connected?

When I connect any external bluetooth speaker the output changes automatically to the bluetooth as soon as I connect it. I would like to connect the bluetooth and tell the system somehow to keep using the internal speakers after connecting the bluetooth one.

In other words, I want to disable automatic speaker switching after connecting the bluetooth speaker.

The situation is: Consider you are already using the internal speakers, then you connect the bluetooth one: MacOS automatically changes the output to the Bluetooth one. I want to disable this auto-switching

Move you speaker fairly close to your computer and go to the bluetooth icon in your menu bar. Click on the and it should open a pane like the one below.

I use my Amazon Echo as my speaker and the Disconnect button would read Connect if if my Echo wasn't already connected. Your bluetooth speaker should show up in the list. Click on it and select Connect. Once your speaker connects, go to System Preferences and select Sound. You'll get a panel that looks likr so:

You can see if you click on the tab where it lists which speaker to use, you can select the internal speakers of your mac.


Screen time: restrict web content on iOS only I'd like to enable the "Limit Adult Websites" Screen Time option on iOS / iPadOS devices only.
Every time the Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Content Restrictions > Web Content is enabled on an iOS device, the laptop / desktop computers on the related iCloud account mirrors the setting as well.
I already have filtering software on real computers and the corresponding webproxyfilterd dramatically slows network connection speed (I get about 1/50th the throughput).
Using iOS 14.2 / macOS Catalina

Thanks for the nudge from @X_841 I ended up turning off screen time altogether for my macOS device in System Preferences > Screen Time


Can I use tethering to let an iPad use an iPhone's 3G? Given an iPad that doesn't have 3G but only wifi, can I make this use the 3G connection of an iPhone 4?

Does this require a cable between the devices, or does it work over (bluetooth|wifi?) ?

I don't believe you can do this with the stock phone, however if you decide to jailbreakyour iPhone, you could use an application like MyWi to share your iPhone's 3G connection over WiFi


How to pass variables from bash script to AppleScript I have a file with a list of URL's. I need to pass each URL from a bash script to be used in an AppleScript.

while read urls
do
    osascript -e \
    'tell application "Safari"
        tell window 1
            tell current tab to open location "$urls"
        end tell
    end tell'
done <file.txt

This doesn't work. It passes the literal string $urls as the location to be opened in Safari. How can I pass the bash variable $urls to AppleScript?

This should work:

while read urls
do
    osascript -e "tell application \"Safari\" to open location \"$urls\""
done<file.txt


How to remove a corrupted Trust Settings Record? I was trying to add a trusted cert using security add-trusted-cert -d ..., but somehow the Trust Settings Record became corrupted. I can see this whenever I try to add another trusted cert, or when dumping trust settings:

$ sudo security dump-trust-settings -d
SecTrustSettingsCopyCertificates: The Trust Settings Record was corrupted.

I tried restoring the keychain from backup, and then deleting the login keychain completely, but I still get the error. This makes me think the trust settings are stored in another db or something.
Any ideas on how I can delete all the trust settings?

I finally found the Admin trust settings. It's in a file called Admin.plist
in the /Library/Security/Trust Settings directory. Deleting this file cleared the error!

There are other files in that directory that are named <UUID>.plist, where UUID is the value of the GeneratedUID key in the user record. You can see this value with this command:

dscl . cat /Users/<short login name> GeneratedUID`

These files store the per-user trust settings.


How do I create a loopback adapter for Parallels VMs? I have several windows VMs that needs to connect to the OSX host in Parallels.  Rather than hard coding all the VMs to use an IP that my Wifi router uses, Id rather have something that works even while WIFI is down.

How can I have network communication between my VM and my mac while disconnected from all other networks? (wifi, lan, etc)  I

If you are using Shared Networking for your Parallels VM, there is an IP address allocated for the host OSX machine as well as the VM. By default, shared machines use the 10.211.55.x subnet, and 10.211.55.2 is the host. You can use this IP to access the OSX host from your Windows VM. This subnet can be adjusted in Parallels Preferences:

If you check the box Show in System Preferences, you will see the host IP:

Shared networking is independent of the LAN that the host machine uses, so it can be used while disconnected from a network.

An additional networking type is Host-Only, which  will work similarly, though with a different subnet: 10.37.129.x. By default, host-only disallows connectivity from your VM to the external network.

The 3rd networking type is Bridged, which will use your network adapter (ethernet or WiFi) directly, so this networking type will not work for the setup you are asking for.

For reference - here is a description of the networking modes that Parallels uses.


How do I temporarily exclude a folder from a search? I often use spotlight to locate documents quickly. The one annoying thing is that I often email documents to share them and spotlight will find the version of the document indexed in my mailbox attachments folders. Is there any way to selectively exclude certain directories while searching? I'm thinking something along the lines of:

http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/225786-advanced-spotlight-features.html

I'd love a "not:message" operator or something.

I don't want to tell spotlight not to index any of my email--it's useful and sometimes I search for "kind:message". The only way around it I see would be to drag all of the "Attachments" subfolders under all of my .imapmbox folders (I'm using gmail imap). Anyone know of an easier way to do it?

Thanks.


OSX Server 10.9 File Sharing - not working properly I have a 10.9 server with file sharing enabled.  One of the users decided to change the permissions on the folder and was doing some "spring cleaning" now all of my shares are not visible from the workstations except one "Home Folders"  This is the only share that has staff(primary group) where as the others and new shares have "administrators (primary group)".  How can I change this as the users that are not administrators cannot see any other shares when browsing to the server.

If it's the group ownerships, from the command line you could do:

chown -R yourusername:staff /Path/To/SharedFolder

for each of the shares, if the other non-admin users you mentioned are in the staff group. Otherwise, replace staff with the correct group. It's possible you may not want all the directories underneath the shared directory shared, so you'd have to go in and alter the permissions/ownership for each of them too, or remove the -R and change folders individually.

See some examples of chown here and an explanation of the command I've given here.

I'd also note down what the current ownership and permissions are using ls -l, so that you can change them back if this doesn't work.

(obviously, replace yourusername with your username, and /Path/To/SharedFolder with the path to the shared folder. I say "obviously" but I'm writing this because, according to my experience, it's not always obvious!:)


How to create a bootable disk for an older Mac? The file system on an older Mac mini (early 2009, latest supported OS 10.11) got corrupt, and disk utilities ended up in an infinity verify-can't-repair loop. Thanks to a insightful tip I could mount it on a different machine and restore my files. (I physically removed the disk and mounted it with a USB-to-SATA cable).

I proceeded to reformat the disk, and now want to install a bootable macOS on this disk.

The best action seems to follow the Apple guide "How to create a bootable installer for macOS", which requires me to download macOS 10.11 (El Capitan). It's normally hidden in the App Store, but I found the direct link. Unfortunately, I can't seem to download it on my new Mac: It gives me a warning "OS X can't be installed on "MyNewMac" because the version of macOS is too new.". I know, but don't want to run it, just install on the disk for the older Mac, so I can run it on the early 2009 Mac mini.

How to proceed?

Note: A more complete and up to date answer to this question can be found at this link: How can I download an older version of OS X/macOS?

I tried your link https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12 and received the following error message. Assume your error message was the same.

The answer below assumes the Mac is running High Sierra.

If you purchased El Capitan for free in the past, then you will find this recorded in your App Store account. Open the App Store application, then click on the Purchased button. Enter your username and password. If you purchased El Capitan in the passed, then El Capitan will appear in the list. You will be able to download even if the macOS is newer than El Capitan.

If El Capitan does not appear in your list of purchases, then try to find someone who has purchased El Capitan and use their username and password.


Upload a image to a website without downloading that image Windows has a feature where when we paste a direct image link ( xxx.com/xxx.jpg ) in the "file name" input field of the upload file explorer (the small window that pops up when we click "Choose file"/"Upload" on any website) the image is downloaded automatically (as a temp file) and uploaded.
You don't have to save the image, then upload it somewhere...
Is there any way to achieve the same thing in macOS?
This question has been asked previously:
Upload file via URL
Upload file directly from a URL in upload (File/Open) dialog
However the answers are quite dated. Maybe this feature has been implemented now?

Unfortunately, I think the short answer to your question is no, this is still not (reasonably) possible on macOS. The simplest approach still seems to be to download the image, upload it, and then delete it. This is probably the approach I would personally take. However…
If you are truly desperate to find a way to download a temporary file from the file dialog, there is technically a way to do it, although I don't think there's any practical use case for this approach. But, if as nothing else than a proof of concept, here's what I pieced together. (This will work without any additional setup on macOS Catalina and later; earlier versions will require a manual installation of Python 3.)
The basic premise of the approach is to use a file name as a URL input. That is, you enter the URL you want as the name of a file (which, thankfully, can be quite long on APFS) in a special location on disk, and a script will automatically temporarily download the correct resource from the web into the same directory for you to insert. (Note one important caveat: the URL must not contain any colons, since macOS can't handle those in file names. Crucially, this means you'll have to omit the http:// or https:// portion of URLs when typing/pasting them.)
Here's how to implement this:

Open System Preferences and go to Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access. Click the padlock in the lower left to unlock the pane. Then, in Finder, navigate to /usr/bin/, and drag the python3 icon into the list in System Preferences. Make sure the checkbox next to python3 is checked.

Save the following as com.badidea.url-file-watcher.plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents. Replace [PATH TO PYTHON SCRIPT] with the absolute path to the Python script you'll create later on (I put mine at /Users/[myusername]/Documents/fetchurl.py). Also replace [PATH TO WATCHED FOLDER] with a relative or absolute path to the folder where you'll put the "magic file" (I chose ~/Desktop/filefromurl/):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>url-file-watcher</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/python3</string>
        <string>[PATH TO PYTHON SCRIPT]</string>
    </array>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>[PATH TO WATCHED FOLDER]</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Create the Python file at the path you selected in step 2 (again, in my example, this would be at ~/Documents/fetchurl.py), and paste the following code:

import os
import time
from urllib.parse import urlparse, unquote
from urllib.request import urlretrieve
from pathlib import Path

def main():
  dir_path = os.path.expanduser('~/Desktop/filefromurl')
  files = os.listdir(dir_path)
  if '.DS_Store' in files:
    files.remove('.DS_Store')

  url_from_file = files[0].replace(':', '/')

  if url_from_file == 'url':
    return

  file_name = unquote(os.path.basename(urlparse(url_from_file).path))
  file_name.replace(':', '_')
  file_name.replace('/', ':')
  try:
    urlretrieve('https://' + url_from_file, os.path.join(dir_path, file_name))
  except:
    try:
      urlretrieve('http://' + url_from_file, os.path.join(dir_path, file_name))
    except:
      return
  os.remove(os.path.join(dir_path, files[0]))

  time.sleep(10)  # customize as desired -- # of seconds to wait before deleting temp file (can't use again until it's deleted)
  for file in os.listdir(dir_path):
    os.remove(os.path.join(dir_path, file))
  Path(os.path.join(dir_path, 'url')).touch()

main()

Create the "watched folder" you entered in step 2. (In my example, this is ~/Desktop/filefromurl.) Then open the Terminal and type touch [PATH TO WATCHED FOLDER]/url, replacing [PATH TO WATCHED FOLDER] with the relative or absolute path to your "watched folder" that you created. (So for me, this would be touch ~/Desktop/filefromurl/url.)

In the Terminal, run launchctl load ~/LaunchAgents/com.badidea.url-file-watcher.plist.

Now, when you want to upload a file in your browser, simply navigate to your "watched folder" (I would put it in your Finder sidebar for convenience) and then change the name of the url file to the URL you want to download (again, without http(s)://). After a moment, you'll see the downloaded file appear in the file browser, and you'll have ten seconds (the delay can be customized on line 30 of the Python script) to select and upload the file, after which time the temporary file will be automatically deleted and replaced with the placeholder url file for next time.

And just to prove it all (technically) works, here's a brief demonstration:


Can I stream media from one Plex server to another Plex server? I have Plex on a laptop and I can use Plex for the iDevices to stream media to them.

Can I do the same with Plex on another computer around the house like ZumoCast?

Yes.

For more complete information:  http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Plex_Nine_Configurations_test


Can Macintosh HD partition be resized while a BOOTCAMP partition resides on the same physical volume? I have a HFS-partiion, a bootcamp partition and 100GB free unpartitioned space "in between". How can I resize my Mac partition to use it? All resizing controls seem to be disabled, here's the screenshot:

Guess I need some more advanced tool than the built-in Disk Utility?

This is under OSX 10.7.5. With Paragon NTFS driver installed, if this matters...

Disk Utility won't touch things once you have a BOOTCAMP partition.

Look for third party utilities like CampTune for on the fly adjustments (or at least ones after a reboot in some cases). You'll discover the same company Paragon that made the NTFS drivers, also makes CampTune


What is the best way to listen to music in my shower/bathroom from iTunes? I have all of my music catalogged in iTunes, and have no intentions of changing the software I use to listen to it. Therefore, I came here to gain some advice on the easiest/cheapest way to listen to my music in my shower. It's a big plus if I can use a remote to change the song while showering. Previously, I used my iPod touch docked in batter-powered speakers placed on my bathroom counter. The speakers had an included remote. This method worked great, but my iPod has since been broken and I do not think it was a great idea to expose it to the high-levels of water vapor in the first place. Would the cheapest method be purchasing another iPod? Or would an Air-play supported speaker system be the best option?

You generally shouldn't bring any electronics into an area with that much water vapor on a regular basis unless they are labeled for such use.

If you search for waterproof speakers on Amazon you'll find many affordable options, including several that are designed specifically for iPods.


Is there a way to completely erase an iPod Nano 3rd generation without installing iTunes? I've had this iPod lying around for years. I'm about to sell it and I'd like to erase all the data. Is there a way to do this without installing iTunes?

I was particularly hoping that there might be a magic combination of click wheel presses and switch toggles, or maybe a menu item I'm missing somewhere that would perform a factory reset including wiping all the data.

The iPod nano and classic iPods get loaded a custom firmware that could be downloaded from the internet and possibly loaded with a tool other than iTunes, but on a PC you could easily use whatever disk tool you want to erase the drive by reformatting it.

Since this would render the device unbootable, you will not want to sell it to a user that's not familiar with why it's not working, so the elegant solution would be to rent another computer with iTunes and restore it.

Apple's retail stores usually will even loan you a cable to restore your device from any of the display Macs. iTunes on a new computer would want to erase all the content anyhow - so going another step to wipe and restore the device will leave a clean slate and you might even be able to sync some demo content to the device depending on how iTunes is set up in the store you visit.


Strong inteference from mini DisplayPort I have a 2015 Macbook Pro 15", and when I connect the mini DisplayPort to my external monitor, the WiFi speed drops significantly (from > 100 Mbps to < 10 Mbps). I noticed that the WiFi noise level jumps from -95 dBm to -75 dBm after I plug in the DisplayPort cable. I tried several different WiFi channels (1, 6, 11) and there is no significant difference between them, so it's some sort of broadband noise. Since the SNR is so low, the MCS index is set at 0.

The other annoying thing is, once MCS is set to 0, even after I unplug the DisplayPort cable and the noise level drops back to -95 dBm, the MCS is still stuck at 0 and my WiFi speed will not recover. Even turning WiFi off and on again won't help. But this is a secondary issue. My main problem is why display port will introduce such strong noise which kills my WiFi speed in the first place.

The cable I use is a Monoprice mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable.

UPDATE

I got a new mini-DP to DP cable and this time the noise level dropped to the normal level of -95 dBm. However, the MCS is still at 0?? The WiFi speed increased to 20+ Mbps but still not where it should be.

Turn off the Wi-Fi Direct function on your LG 4K monitor if it does have one (check the LG documentation) and you will be able to recover a Wi-Fi network working.

If your cable isn't a shielded one (this should be written explicitly on its packaging) or doesn't have a ferrite core , just replace it. Sooner than later you will have interferences on your image displayed and on all use of radio frequency within a few meters.

Another way to workaround this huge noise level could be to switch your MacBook Pro on a 5 GHz network = channel above or equal 40. This configuration has to be done on your equipment building your Wi-Fi network. This is your Belkin wireless router. But this won't fix the origin of the problem.


How to edit the metadata information displayed by mdls from CLI? How to edit the metadata information displayed by mdls from CLI?

[-zsh] sarbbo@rushpress-lm:~  吽 mdls ~/Music/BANGLA\ BAND/MOHINER\ GHORAGULI/MAYA/BHALOBASI.mp3
kMDItemAlbum                   = "Maya"
kMDItemAudioBitRate            = 128000
kMDItemAudioChannelCount       = 2
kMDItemAudioSampleRate         = 44100
kMDItemAudioTrackNumber        = 1
kMDItemAuthors                 = (
    "Mohiner Ghoraguli"
)
kMDItemContentCreationDate     = 2009-02-17 00:35:48 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2009-02-17 00:35:48 +0000
kMDItemContentType             = "public.mp3"
kMDItemContentTypeTree         = (
    "public.mp3",
    "public.audio",
    "public.audiovisual-content",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemDateAdded               = 2013-05-31 06:57:37 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName             = "BHALOBASI.mp3"
kMDItemDurationSeconds         = 284.8210625
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate     = 2009-02-17 00:35:48 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate          = 2009-02-17 00:35:48 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode           = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags           = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon         = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible             = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden     = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery          = 0
kMDItemFSLabel                 = 0
kMDItemFSName                  = "BHALOBASI.mp3"
kMDItemFSNodeCount             = 4558848
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID          = 285597778
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID           = 69664
kMDItemFSSize                  = 4558848
kMDItemFSTypeCode              = ""
kMDItemKind                    = "MP3 audio"
kMDItemLogicalSize             = 4558848
kMDItemMediaTypes              = (
    Sound
)
kMDItemMusicalGenre            = "genre"
kMDItemPhysicalSize            = 4558848
kMDItemTitle                   = "Track 01"
kMDItemTotalBitRate            = 128000

Thanks,
Sarbbottam

The Spotlight metadata attributes are not stored in the files, but they are based on other metadata values or properties of the files.

ID3 tags can be edited from iTunes or with for example mid3v2 from mutagen
Modification times and creation times can be changed with touch or SetFileInfo
File flags like kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden can be edited with chflags
kMDItemContentTypeTree depends on the filename extension
kMDItemLogicalSize depends on the size of the file

Changes to files are usually reflected in mdls output within a few seconds, but if they are not, try using mdimport.


When I want to install TeamViewer 10, why can't I select my system disk as the destination? Seems it happened when I want to install other softwares before (but I can't remember which). I have a 128G SSD as the system disk, but it doesn't even appear as an option in the installer. How can I deal with this?

BTW. My SSD's name is Macintoch SSD, which is not appeared on the following window.

UPDATE: 2014-12-30 I've reinstalled my OS X and now the TeamViewer .pkg can be installed correctly.

Translation of this window (according to my poor English, messages with en-US locale should be different):

Top: Installing TeamViewer

Left:

Introduction
License
Destination Select
Installation Type
Installation
Summary

Right:

Select a Destination
Select the disk where you want to install the TeamViewer software.

GlacJAY: ...
Macintosh HD: ...
TeamViewer: ...

TeamViewer can't be installed on this disk. You can only install this software on the disk that is running OS X.

This might be a silly suggestion but if you select the "GlacJAY" drive and hit the down arrow key on your keyboard does the "Macintosh SSD" drive appear?

Unfortunately the Installer window can't be resized and with the current style of disappearing scrollbars, if there are more than three available disks it might not be obvious.


How to store sleepimage on secondary HDD on Mac OS X 10.6? I have a MBP 2010 with Snow Leopard on it. I put an SSD in the place of DVD Drive and am using an awesome SSD(80GB)+HDD(500GB) combo for speed and efficiency for the right price.

All I want to do is store the sleepimage on the HDD rather than the SSD since I have 8GB RAM and I can't afford to use 8GB SSD to store the current state of my Mac. Looked for a plist to make this change but failed. Not even sure if this can be done.

I have smartsleep pref pane in case anyone is wondering. It is a handy tool(setting) but I want the state to be stored if possible!

Thank you guys!

Nice HDD setup!

Load Terminal.App in the utilities folder, and use the following command:

  sudo pmset -a hibernatefile /Volumes/OtherVolume/sleepimage

Obviously change /OtherVolume/sleepimage to /YourOtherVolumesName/sleepimage

From explanatorygap.net.

(EDIT: that webpage shows even the author did not succeed with this method. Likely reason is the other drive is not ready to read the image when trying to wake up. Apple says the sleepimage must be on the root drive. I myself am getting a crash when trying this.)


Terminal: how to use `at`? Could someone provide some example usages for the at command? I'm finding the man super confusing.

$ man at

For example, if we wanted to run a command 10 minutes from now, can this be done using at? (and without using sleep)

The time spec for "10 minutes from now" is now +10 minutes. For example,

echo 'open ~' | at now +10 minutes

However, the at system is disabled by default in macOS, as mentioned in the at man page:

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
     Note that at is implemented through the launchd(8) daemon periodically
     invoking atrun(8), which is disabled by default.  See atrun(8) for infor-
     mation about enabling atrun.

The atrun man page says that you need to run

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.atrun.plist


Disabling all lock screen notifications How do I disable all notifications from the lock screen on Mavericks? I want to receive notifications while using my computer, but don’t want anything to show publicly when I lock my screen and walk away.

I’ve already gone in to the Notification System Preferences and disabled the “show notification on lock screen” option for every app. But when I install a new app I have to remember to go in there and change that settings, and there are other things built-in to Mavericks that show notifications on the lock screen anyway without any apparent option to hide: the App Store notifying about new updates, a system warning when a USB key is unplugged without ejecting it first, and so on.

How do I globally disable all notifications on the lock screen?

To disable this you will need to go to the Notifications and uncheck Show notifications on lock screen. There is no global disable, so you will have to do this for each app. To get there:

Click the Apple icon in the upper left hand corner
Click on System Preferences
Click on Notifications
Click on the App you don't' want to see notifications from.
Under the alert style, uncheck the box for Show Notifications on Lock Screen.

That will removal all the notifications from your lock screen.


How to keep lock screen always on when connected to external monitor and charging I'm using a 3rd party utility to set very eye pleasing wallpapers on my 2013 MacBook Pro running macOS Mojave 10.14.2. Now I don't get to enjoy the beautiful sceneries in the background while I'm working but when I leave my desk, it would be really nice to leave the machine on (and locked) so that I can enjoy these gorgeous wallpapers.

Attached is an example of my locked screen with an amazing background. I would like to keep it like this as long as the computer is charging and the lid is not closed.

Note: I definitely do not want to the keep laptop running all the time especially with lid closed as I travel a lot for work.

How might I achieve this?

You can use a utility called KeepingYouAwake. The app sits in the Menu bar and prevents your computer from sleeping (but lets the computer sleep normally when the lid is closed).

With the app running, your lock screen will not turn off. The app is simple to use with necessary configuration options available.


Restoring new iPhone from iCloud backup deactivates old iphone? I gave a friend a new SIM card for her unlocked direct from Apple iPhone 5.

She put the SIM in, and went through the setup process, restoring her iPhone 5 from an iCloud backup.  At this point, her old phone lost all signal and refuses to connect to any carrier.

She did not go through any activation process specifically as you would on a new phone, but I think that what has happened is that the activation has occurred as part of the restore process, and that this has somehow deactivated her previous phone.

Can anyone clear up what the activation process does, if it can be done automatically as part of a restore, and if this is what happened tell me how I can re-activate her old phone without a factory reset?

This is most likely the carrier intentionally deactivating the old SIM.

When iPhones first came out, your current phone would normally get deactivated at the moment you purchased a new phone and told the carriers to move the service to the new phone. Now, they wait until the new phone checks in to perform the swap to account for delivery delays, backups, etc...

Your first step should be to contact the carrier and explain that you want service on both phones and arrange for which number rings to which device. They might be able to accommodate this over the phone, but if the old SIM has been deactivated in the networks, most carriers are very unwilling (or unable) to re-activate the old SIM and instead ask you to get a new SIM from them at a convenient local retail spot or by them shipping you new SIM card(s).

Apple's restore process and activation of the device doesn't affect network activation and for locked phones, you just need a SIM for the correct carrier to activate the device. iOS does not check or care that the contract is expired, not established or live for iOS activation - just that the SIM is manufactured for the correct carrier.


How do I invite a new connection on LinkedIn's iPhone app? I can't for the life of me figure out how to send an invitation to connect using the iPhone app for LinkedIn.  Is it not possible?  I'm using iOS 6.0 and LinkedIn's app version 5.1.

One way to invite a new connection is to open that person's profile (either via person search or viewing someone else's connections). Once that profile is open, click on the blue "Invite to Connect" button underneath the profile picture.

Example image (courtesy of stayingaliveuk.com):


How to "securely" erase my MacBook's SSD I would like to sell my Macbook Pro, but I want to make sure that there is no way to retrieve the deleted data from my SSD.
Is there a way to completely delete all files on a hard drive so that even a forensic expert cannot recover anything?

You don't need to.
Once you erase an SSD on  a Mac, it's unrecoverable even from a forensics standpoint.  This is because of the type of TRIM command that the hardware (SATA controller on the logic board and the SSD) issues.  Basically, if you were to stop an erase mid-process you theoretically could take it to a lab or the manufacturer to recover data.  So, it's not impossible but highly, highly improbable recovery is possible. I've previously written about this topic:

Can the data on an MacBook Pro SSD be recovered after formatting using Disk Utility
How to get the "securely erase" function of Disk Utility on El Capitan & Sierra
https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/288756/119271
Recovering files from SSD and SSD life?

If you want to be even more certain, turn on File Vault (Apple recommends this) when you reset it.  Then disable it (for the next user).


Ejecting USB drive via AppleScript does not make drive power down On startup, I eject my external USB disks with the following AppleScript:

try
    do shell script "diskutil eject \"/Volumes/USB Backup\""
end try

This works as expected: the drive powers down. However, when my MacBook wakes from sleep (through not being used), the drive spins up - no partitions are mounted, but the drive is nonetheless on and humming. If I check the Disk Utility app, I see that the USB drives are all greyed out. If I right click one of the partitions and select "Eject Partition" (even though they are gray and thus symbolize that they are ejected) then the drive powers down.

It is however a little anoying to constantly have to go into Disk Utility, so I made though I could just re-execute my logon script. But that doesn't work.
Even if I modify it to work with the DeviceIdentifier

do shell script "diskutil unmountDisk disk1"

or

do shell script "diskutil eject disk1"

it doesn't work. Does anyone have a tip for me how I can power down the drive, so that this horrible humming stops?

Later Addition: I noticed something interesting. It has nothing to do with the laptop's sleep mode itself, but rather when my Cinema Display goes to sleep (after 1 min.). The USB drive is connected to the Cinema Display and every time the display "wakes up", the drive motor spins up. I have now tried to connect the USB drive to the MacBook Pro itself  (who's sleep timer is at 30 min.) maybe this will solve the problem half-way.

For starters, the greyed-out appearance in Disk Utility means the disk is unmounted, not ejected. An ejected disk does not appear at all.

The reason it shows up is that when the Cinema Display wakes, the computer sees the drive show up just as if you'd plugged it in. (Honestly, I'm surprised it doesn't mount all the way and show up on the Desktop.)

One thing that can help (particularly in the case of your second script) is to use the internal disk identifier instead of the disk name. You can find the identifier by going into Disk Utility, selecting the disk (or partition) in question, and pressing the Info button (or hit ⌘+I). In that window, look at the label next to "Disk Identifier:". A disk (whole hard drive) would look like "disk0" or "disk2", a partition looks like "disk0s0", "disk0s2", or "disk2s1". Instead of using diskutil eject DriveName, use diskutil eject /dev/disk2s0.


Display won't follow sleep settings, uses disabled screensaver instead I've been on the Yosemite and noticed only as of just this morning that my screen was on with a screen saver running.

I have screen savers set to never start, and I have Display sleep set to 10 minutes under Energy Saver.  I went away from my computer again today and came back to find the display on again with the screen saver on again.  I realize I could have processes disrupting display sleep, but why would the screen saver come on if it's been told not to?

Is this some new Yosemite issue?  How might I fix it?

I noticed the same effect in full Yosemite installation: screensaver starts when the computer (macbook air) is put down to sleep. If we add to this the battery "eating" behaviour I observed as well. I have unchecked every item that can use power, icloud and handsoff included, but the system itself needs a lot more energy than Mavericks. The general picture of power management seems to be worse than ever.


How do I connect to my web server on mac? On Ubuntu, I was able to connect to another server using "places". Is there anything like that in Mac OS X?

In Finder, choose Go > Connect To Server (command+K) and type in the URL or IP for the server (including the protocol if not afp).


Is it possible to see list of customers in App Store Connect? We have an iOS app and we sell in-app purchases. Is it possible to see individual customers or purchase events via app store connect or some other admin tool?
This is possible with admin dashboards for Stripe and Paypal (completely different products, I know) and I believe this may be possible for Google Play in-app purchases, but I can find no way to see anything except aggregated stats for iOS in-app purchases.
Why: We're currently troubleshooting a bug where some IAPs are not syncing to our internal systems, and we're trying to troubleshoot.

No, it's not possible to see individual customer information in App Store Connect. You cannot see the details of a single purchase event in order to connect that for example to an internal system based on customer email, account number or similar.


How to share my app with App Manager? I have an individual apple developer account. I bought it mainly so I could use a few of the advanced APIs (e.g. NetworkExtensions) in an app that I’m testing/developing. There’s another programmer with whom I collaborate. I want him to also have access to the app so I assigned him the “App Manager” role in iTunes Connect. However, I’m unsure about what he has to do afterwards so that he can work on the same app as me. Can he directly fork the project and access the APIs? Does he need certificates?

iTunes Connect is a separate service from the Apple Developer portal. Development privileges are not assigned via iTunes Connect.

Additionally, since you are using an individual developer account, there is no way to grant another registered Apple Developer access to your team. That functionality is only available to Organisation account.

The problem can be solved in part by granting your colleague access to your code repository. That way you both can collaborate over code. If you want him to test the app on device, you can choose to export your identity on to his machine (Recommended only if you trust him with this thing).


Turning File Vault on, and instantly upgrading to macOS Big Sur is not a problem? I just got a new MacBook Pro 16 inch from the IT department, and after I turned on the machine, it asked me for a series of set up questions.
One of them is File Vault, so I answered "Yes".  But it takes no time to set it up, as opposed to some online page stating it took forever.
But there is another post stating it will be encrypting silently in the background?
So while I am not sure if it really should take some time or is it instant, due to my work, I need to immediately upgrade to macOS Big Sur from Catalina.
So will it be alright while File Vault is encrypting files in the background and the OS is being upgraded?  I take it the upgrade process should be smart enough to handle that.

I manage macbook pros all day everyday, and I absolutely do not recommend upgrading OS's in the middle of encryption.
That said, since it's a new machine with no files on it, and since you enabled it already, chances are that by the time I post this, the encryption process is complete (only if it has been connected to power! otherwise the encryption pauses until it IS connected to a power source).


iMessage has stopped working on MacBook Pro I have a 15-inch macbook pro that is mid-2012. The latest version of Mavericks is when the problem started, but it wasn't after the update to it. Just happened one day.

My problem started randomly one day when I tried using iMessage on my mac and all the contacts had turned red. So every time I try to send out a message from my mac, it would immediately say "not delivered."

iMessage works on my iPhone, the only problem is my macbook pro.

I have tried deleting the com.apple.ids.madrid file and that didn't work. I also tried removing my apple ID information from my phone, turning off iMessage on both of the devices, and placing my iPhone 5 in airplane mode for several minutes before turning it on and re-logging in. I can't figure out what the problem is.

I've made sure I'm logged in to my Apple ID, it's nothing like that. I've also tried creating a separate Apple ID just for the purpose of iMessage, but that did no good either.

Please help, it's been weeks and it has become very inconvenient!

Try to use one address (for example e-mail) on all your devises, it worked for me.


Display unicode information The unicode entry tool in OS X 10.11 (the one displayed in your menu bar if you tick the appropriate box in the first tab of the keyboard settings) allows me to copy information about a symbol. There is an entry to this effect in the context menu of the symbol. However, I can't find an option to just display that information, so I always have to copy the text to some other application if I want to just read it. Am I missing something?

If you don't see Unicode data in right-hand sidebar, under your chosen glyph's Name, then you need to add Unicode to your list of categories on the left sidebar.

At the top left, click the Gear icon [it always looks greyed-out until you click it]
Select Customise List…
Scroll down the Select Categories list, open Code Tables & check Unicode.

[I've composited this picture, you won't really see both menus at once]

Click Done & click any other glyph to make your new information display.


To where is the Catalina installer saved? I've downloaded Catalina using Mac App Store. Considering the size of several GB and how this worked with the Mojave update I expected an installer to appear in /Applications. It didn't.

It's not listed as a large file, and I can't find it with a tree map of ~/Library.

Can it be found somewhere else?

My end goal is to use it to install onto a USB drive.

It should be in the global /Applications folder. By default all App Store downloads go there. It's been that way for years.