Make OS X Server a wireless bridge without DHCP I have a Mac Mini running OS X Server 10.10 (Yosemite). It gets it's network connection over ethernet. I would like to bridge that connection through WiFi. That's easy enough with Internet Sharing, but then I end up with a new private network.

This question makes it clear that Internet Sharing cannot be used this way: Internet sharing without DHCP

However, since this is OS X Server, is there a way I can manually configure things to have the same setup without using the Internet Sharing feature?

I'm assuming you have another device handing out the DHCP leases. If so, try modifying the DHCP settings on the Ethernet Interface directly, and then turn on Internet Sharing. To do this:

System Preferences > Network, click the "Location" menu, and click "Edit Locations," name your new location, and click "Done". For Ethernet, click the "Configure IPv4 menu and select "Using BootP," click "Apply". In the left field, select "Wi-Fi," click the "Advanced" button, go to the "TCP/IP" tab and change "Configure IPv4 to "Using BootP" as well. Click "Apply," then go back to System Preferences and click "Sharing," and enable "Internet Sharing" in the left field. Set "Share your connection from:" to "Ethernet," and click the "Wi-Fi" box in the "To computers using:" field.


How do I install OS X Yosemite without a working Mac App Store application? My installation of the Mac App Store on Mavericks is broken. What alternatives are there for installing the new OS?

My MAS application is still broken and there are glitches everywhere.

Looks like FUBAR BUNDY!

I recommend a clean install.

Backup any additional files which aren't already in your SuperDuper! image. Probably it's faster to just backup/copy your or all user folder(s) to an external drive.
Please check your hardware with your original system DVD (Apple Support: de_DE en_US) or if the DVD is not available with the appropriate Apple Hardware Test image.
Do a SMC-reset (Apple Support: de-DE en-US)
Do a PRAM-reset (Apple Support: de_DE en_US)
Since your recovery volume is probably corrupted, you have to initiate an internet recovery by restarting your mac and pressing alt cmd R.
The prerequisites for an internet recovery are listed here: supported Pre Lion Macs and Recovery/Internet Recovery.
In a few words you need the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated for a successful internet recovery.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into the recovery netboot image which is loaded from an apple server.
(Additionally you might need an external drive or a thumb drive with at least 32 GB if you want to install to an external disk.)
In the opening window choose Disk Utility and format/partition the drive you want to install the system to. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition table (available with the option button). Quit Disk Utility.
Choose Reinstall OS X and Continue. After some verification steps you will be asked to choose a partition for the new system. Continue until the system is installed. Depending on your internet connection it might take several hours to download and install 5.5 GB. If you get a message like 'Could not find installation information for this machine' just restart your Mac and continue with step 5. (The netboot image seems to be very picky with the WLAN connection and it took me two attempts to get around this step)
Set up your new system.
Start App Store.app and log into your Apple Store account.
Download and install Yosemite if it wasn't already installed in step 7 or just download it and quit the installer to get the Yosemite installation app for any further use.


Change FileVault recovery key from institutional to personal recovery key Upon leaving my old job, I was given my old Mac which I've used for years and got attached to it, I realised it has an institutional recovery key but I'd like to change that to a personal recovery key so I can easily store somewhere safe.
Is this an easy process?

I found the answer by opening up Terminal and using the FDESetup tool,  I run  sudo fdesetup changerecovery -personal -keychain and it worked.
Terminal prompted for password to unlock the disk but worked


Background changed on Mountain Lion I have a Mac running Mountain Lion 10.8.2 - previously it was Snow Leopard.
In the past few days I've noticed this happened:

The galaxy background disappeared, and blue background replaced it. I can't recover either of them, resetting PRAM didn't help.

Also, in Firefox and Chrome, Adobe Flash Player is sluggish for sites like YouTube etc. but not Google Maps.

I also can't change user picture either - just an icon with a man's head grayed out appears.

I don't have any Time Machine backups, so what should I do that can keep my existing programs intact and fix this problem? (I've tried the advice I found online of boot into safe mode, or reset PRAM/NVRAM but so far nothing's worked). Would changing the MTU from 1500 fix anything?

All help is much appreciated, thanks!

If you don't have any Time Machine backups, now would be a good time to make one.

The Desktop Preference in your screen grab is displaying the contents of Macintosh HD -> Library -> Desktop Pictures which appears to be empty.  If it really is empty, you may be able to locate, replace, or download the missing files and that could be a simple fix.  But if there are other issues and it seems that Mac OS X has been damaged, I would think about using Recovery HD to reinstall the OS.  User pictures are located in the /Library/User Pictures folder.  Since Disk Utility has verified and repaired permissions on Macintosh HD, I guess those files are missing too.

Step one: make a Time Machine archive of your Mac Mini on an external drive. Once you are sure it is properly backed up, you could try entering this in Terminal to search the Library folder for the Mountain Lion default Desktop picture:

sudo find /Library -name "Galaxy.jpg"

Or search the entire disk like this (it will take quite some time):

sudo find / -name "Galaxy.jpg"

And just for good measure, run a bit of system maintenance:

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

If you are still in the same predicament and decide to re-install Mac OS X, reboot holding down the Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo appear.  You should see a list of utilities including Disk Utility (try it one more time) and "Install Mac OS X"  which is a 4GB download, so a good network connection is going to help. After a clean install, you can use Migration Assistant to import Users from the Time Machine archive you made earlier.  Applications are best re-installed from the App Store, original media, or a source you can trust.


Where did my CoreStorage partition go? I have a 2015 MacBook Air 128GB with Sierra Recent purchase as new from Apple, still under warranty). A couple of months ago I was looking at the SSD using DiskUtility and saw that the SSD seemed to be a lot more than 128GB, it looked like it was 256GB. 128GB was available to me and the rest was a CoreStorage partition. (Give or take a few GB for the Recovery partition.) So I thought that if I could remove the CS partition, I would have 256GB available to me, not 128GB.

A couple of manoths later, I finally got time to try it. Much to my surprise, there is no CS partition anymore. HD Utility doesn't show one, so I tried Terminal and still no CS partition, whereas previously there was a CoreStorage partition shown. And the SSD is only 128GB.

So where did the CS partition go?

It is possible that you misinterpreted what you saw. The diskutil list command in Terminal, for example, would show you both the 128GB physical disk, as well as the 128GB CoreStorage logical volume. These are listed separately, but are in fact the same storage.

Running disktuil cs list in Terminal will confirm if you have a CoreStorage volume or not. To my knowledge, it's not likely that a CoreStorage volume would revert itself. One possible cause that I can think of would be a reinstall of macOS.


iCloud: How to rename a folder on macOS Sierra? I'm trying to rename a folder which I've kept in iCloud.

Mark the folder first and then press return as normal in Finder does not work.

I've tried to google some solution but haven't found anything which has worked.

Are there no way to accomplish that task?

Why is that made that difficult? I really got no idea ...

I'm using a Mac Mini with macOS Sierra.

UPDATE
I have now tried to rename the folder from an iOS device (iPhone).

There it is similar.
I get only options for moving and deleting the folder after selecting the folder.

No idea ... Why?

Try renaming your folders from the command line, by typing the following into Terminal:

cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs
mv "oldFolderName" "newFolderName"


How do you stop wtmp from erasing? I track user login times on a couple of shared computers running OSX 10.10.5 using the last command in terminal. It seems after updating from 10.9 the wtmp file gets frequently deleted and only show a few days of history. Is there a command that can stop this from happening? Or an alternative way to track user logins times for the previous month?

On older os, the periodic script was the culprit. You could see how it prunes the wtmp file by inspecting the source and by reading the manual page.

The actual archive of login data is stored in /var/log/monthly.out.  If that level of detail isn't sufficient, you could customize the daily or even weekly or the monthly script and extract the data you need in the form you need before the file gets truncated.

Some process is still generating the monthly log in data for each user, but it's summary data and not log in / log out data.

Why not enable parental controls for each user to be tracked and simply log the app usage. You'll know what apps are run when by what user.

If you really need console log in and don't have multiple user switching, that info is available, but I haven't done the research on how to retrieve it yet.


Using a iPhone 5 as a bluetooth receiver/audio sink Imagine this: you are in a hotel on a holiday trip and want to see something on TV, but your partner doesn't like it and prefers reading a book. There are a lot of small devices you could plug in the TV to transmit the sound via bluetooth, but i don't want to take a bluetooth headset on vacation when i already have my iPhone with me (including earphones).

Is there an app that allows me to use a iPhone as a bluetooth receiver, so i can listen to the audio transmitted by the TV (via the bluetooth adapter)?

If there is no app, could there be one, e.g. does the iPhone SDK permits receiving audio via bluetooth?

I have the same question (but PC -> iPhone)

Here is a bit more information to help, connecting iPhone -> PC you are able to have an audio sink service on the PC where all sounds from the phone will play through the computer speakers but not where the phone is the sink (receiver)

If you connect a laptop to a PC you are able to have either as the sink (receiver).

Answer:

As far as I am aware Apple has blocked the Bluetooth Audio Sink Service on (at min) the iPhone (4S IOS7)


iPhone 5s, send "volume up" signal As many are aware, one can snap a photo using the "volume up" button and even the same button on the earbud volume controls.  I am trying to control the camera remotely and need more distance than the earbuds provide.  How can I generate the signal?  Are the specs available?  Is it a proprietary control or a simple on/off pulse on one of the three conductors through the stereo jack?  I tried a simple 1/8" stereo cable extension, but it doesn't work.

There is a proprietary micro-controller in the Applebuds, so you won't be able to simulate it.

Maybe you could try a jack extension cord. (beware, you'll need a jack with 4 connectors).


Phone lock app for ios other than assistive touch I would like to use an app to lock the screen instead of using the lock button. Right now I have set the tap on assistive touch to lock the screen but I don't like it always hovering above all other apps.

Is there any app that can lock the phone or make assistive touch appear only on the home screen?

A solution could be to use triple-click on home button to activate Assistive Touch :

  Turn on AssistiveTouch

  When you turn on AssistiveTouch, you’ll see the AssistiveTouch menu. You can drag it to any edge of the screen, then tap the menu to open it.

  There are a few ways to turn on AssistiveTouch:
      Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch, then turn on AssistiveTouch.
      Tell Siri “Turn on AssistiveTouch.”
      Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut and turn on AssistiveTouch.

  When Accessibility Shortcut is on, you can turn AssistiveTouch on or off from any screen using Triple-click Home. Just press the Home button three times. To adjust the Triple-click speed, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Home-click Speed.

https://support.apple.com/bg-bg/HT202658

This would turn a triple click on home button to a lock screen button click !

Another alternative which is not as good as the first one, I think, is to move all app icon which are in the bottom right of each of your screens so you could place assistive touch here and it won't be hovering an app icon as there is no more app icon here.

Finally, I don't think there is any app which could lock your screen without jailbreaking your iPhone.


tmux always modify my zsh PATH I'd like to use tmux inside my iTerm2.

and I have the following in my ~/.tmux.conf file.

set-option -g default-shell /bin/zsh

set-option -g default-command "/bin/zsh -c 'which reattach-to-user-namespace >/dev/null && exec reattach-to-user-namespace /bin/zsh -l || exec /bin/zsh -l'"

In my iTerm2, I set /bin/zsh to my default shell too.
The output of echo $PATH inside iTerm2 but outside tmux is the following:

/Users/alex/.pyenv/plugins/pyenv-virtualenv/shims
/Users/alex/.pyenv/shims
/Users/alex/tools/gradle-2.13/bin
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home/bin
/Users/alex/.pyenv/bin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin

but inside tmux, echo $PATH prints the following:

/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
/opt/X11/bin
/Users/alex/.pyenv/plugins/pyenv-virtualenv/shims
/Users/alex/.pyenv/shims
/Users/alex/tools/gradle-2.13/bin
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home/bin
/Users/alex/.pyenv/bin

It seems that tmux has put the /usr/local/bin etc in front of my PATH setting, which makes pyenv can not find the correct python.

My ~/.zshenv is :

alias vim="nvim"
PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"
PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home
PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
export CLASSPATH=.:$JAVA_HOME/lib/dt.jar:$JAVA_HOME/lib/tools.jar

export GRADLE_HOME=/Users/alex/tools/gradle-2.13
export PATH=$GRADLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

export HOMEBREW_GITHUB_API_TOKEN=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

eval "$(pyenv init -)"
eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"

and my ~/.zhrc is :

export ZSH=$HOME/.oh-my-zsh
ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell"
plugins=(git)

source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

if [[ -n $SSH_CONNECTION ]]; then
  export EDITOR='vim'
else
  export EDITOR='nvim'
fi

So what is wrong here?

Do I miss something during tmux starts up?

After googling, I've found this:

https://coderwall.com/p/4l16zq/pyenv-inside-tmux-with-zsh-on-a-mac
http://pgib.me/blog/2013/10/11/macosx-tmux-zsh-rbenv/

And the fix to me is that (/etc/zprofile):

# system-wide environment settings for zsh(1)
if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then
  if [ -z "$TMUX" ]; then
    eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s`
  fi
fi


Which running/biking apps (Strava, Runtastic, Endomondo, ...) use barometer for proper elevation gain? After having read this blog (More GPS Cycling Tests: Things are Pretty Bad and There’s Little Hope) about the inaccuracies in apps like Strava and Runtastic, I'm curious which similar apps produces reasonably accurate elevation gain/profile.

Here, Runmeter seems a good option. But which others have you found?
I would consider an app reasonably accurate if it produced results close to a Sigma bike computer with altimeter.

iSmoothRun records elevation data using the iPhone's barometric altimeter. This app can sync with various storage and tracking services, such as Dropbox, RunKeeper, Strava, etc.

The barometric data is preserved when syncing or exporting GPX/TCX files from iSmoothRun (although I currently have to tweak the header of the GPX file and manually upload to Strava in order for Strava to respect the barometric data recorded by iSmoothRun instead of discarding it in favor of its own measurements based on topographic data).


Pyautogui not entering all characters when using typewrite function we are trying to automate the SecurityAgent dialog where we are inputting password using pyautogui in 10.13 OSx

password = "12345678"
using

pyautogui.typewrite(password)

this function solved the problem. However, we are running this script many number of times in the same machine

Am not sure if it is because of the machine slowness or something , only 7 characters are getting written on the screen and enter is clicked which fails the step.

i also tried adding interval and pause value in pyautogui. But it doesnt help. Randomly script is failing.

Instead of typing a whole sequence i tried to run a loop like below

for c in password:
  pyautogui.press(c)

Still it didnt help. Can someone help with the alternate solution ?

With AppleScript I made this for use in Automator:

https://gist.github.com/SuperHofstad/f826985ec536ff2d650699cb37a7fadc

set appPass to "PASSWORD" as text

tell application "System Events"
    delay 0.5
    repeat until exists process "SecurityAgent"
        delay 0.5
    end repeat
    tell process "SecurityAgent"
        keystroke appPass
        key code 36
    end tell
end tell


Where is the Autocorrect dictionary file for Outlook 2015 stored in OS X Yosemite? I make intensive use of Office autocorrect feature for fast typing (which I use as a kind of autocompletion - shorthand / stenography). I have been able to modify the ACL file for Office 2011 applications (which works great in Word), but Office 365 comes with a separate 2015 version of Outlook and I cannot find the dedicated file for autocorrect entries.

After a few tests, I found out that Outlook does take the Mac OS system dictionary entries into account (which are stored in an .sqlite file in /Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/username/UserDictionary/local/store/UserDictionary.db - in case you're wondering where it was...). So I have been able to add my own dictionary entries in this sqlite file and Outlook does take them into account. Heck, Outlook gets real slow when this system dictionary is fed with more than 3000 entries (I bet you're wondering wtf is in this list, never mind).

Luckily, I found out that Outlook's Autocorrect feature also uses its own set of entries (which can be manually updated through Outlook Preferences > Autocorrect) - these work better and faster. So now I just need to find this damn' little file where I can store my huge list of words through a bulk import…

A long search on the Web made me realize I am probably a very lonely user of Outlook's autocorrect feature (at least on Mac)… Any weird guy like me out there who would incidentally know the path to this golden little file?

I believe the autocorrect entries are shared by all Office applications.

Unlike Office 2011 which stores the user's autocorrect items in the ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/ folder, Office 2015 Preview seems to use a more obscure location:

~/Library/Group Containers/*.Office/Microsoft Office ACL [English]

Where the * represents a string of characters which may or may not be significant (so I've removed them).


QuickLook file associations Typing $ qlmanage -m plugins will give me a list of QuickLook plugins and their associated MIME type (at least I think it's a MIME type):

plugins:
  org.openxmlformats.presentationml.slideshow -> /System/Library/QuickLook/Office.qlgenerator (32)
  com.adobe.pdf -> /System/Library/QuickLook/PDF.qlgenerator (622.3)
  com.apple.localized-pdf-bundle -> /System/Library/QuickLook/LocPDF.qlgenerator (622.3)
  com.apple.iwork.keynote.key -> /Library/QuickLook/iWork.qlgenerator (11)
  ...
  public.script -> /Applications/Development/TextMate 2.app/Contents/Library/QuickLook/TextMateQL.qlgenerator (1.0 - loaded)public.source-code -> /Applications/Development/TextMate 2.app/Contents/Library/QuickLook/TextMateQL.qlgenerator (1.0 - loaded)
  public.plain-text -> /Applications/Development/TextMate 2.app/Contents/Library/QuickLook/TextMateQL.qlgenerator (1.0 - loaded)
  public.text -> /Applications/Development/TextMate 2.app/Contents/Library/QuickLook/TextMateQL.qlgenerator (1.0 - loaded)
  ...

Questions:

What is the number in parentheses?
How do I know which plugin will be used by a given file?  Is it just the file's extension or is MIME type (e.g. public.plain.text) embedded in the document's metadata?
How do I get AsciiDoc documents associated with one of the plugins that renders plain text?
How do I change plugin associations?  For example, use Sublime Text's plugin instead of Text Mate's.

The information you are looking for is contained in each Quick Look plug-in's Info.plist file. This file is embedded in the Quick Look plug-in bundle: Contents/Info.plist

The number in the parentheses is the bundle version (CFBundleShortVersionString). This should be a unique identifier for the developer to determine the exact build of the plug-in; compare this to a marketing version of 1.1.

The qlmanage manual details how to see associations and the expanded help shows more options:

qlmanage -h

For details on how to add or change associated files, see Apple's Quick Look developer documentation. The associations are set out in the Info.plist file's CFBundleDocumentTypes section.

The MultiMarkdown Quick Look plug-in provides a useful example of the Info.plist settings.


Scan Mac OS SSD from a Windows PC for malware I have an issue with a Macbook Pro and was told to scan the SSD for malware. My other computer is a Windows computer. So I connected the SSD of the mac via USB externally to my Windows PC. As (more or less) expected, the Malwarebytes Software which I want to use to scan the Mac SSD, does not recognize the SSD drive.

My question is: How can I scan an externally connected Mac SSD from a Windows PC for malware?

Windows can't read either HFS+ or APFS natively, so you would

need 3rd party software to enable that basic requirement, then
need a Windows malware scanner equipped to look for Mac viruses.

Why don't you just scan it from the Mac?


New email message with a global keyboard shortcut I got, for the first time in my life, a Mac this Christmas and I was wondering if it is possible to create system-wide keyboard shortcut.

No matter what app I is using, is there a way to configure a combination of keys so that the new email screen in Mail.app opens? Or, to have the Compose message screen from Gmail?

I understand that I can use command + N in Mail.app, and C in Gmail web interface, but I would like a global shortcut.

I once found a solution for this over at macrumors.com, that works for me. I will quote the important parts (original post from swiftaw):

Create a service in Automator

Open Automator
Select Service template
On the right hand side, use the pull down menus to make it say "Services receives no input in any application.
From the left hand panel select Mail, then drag "New Mail Message" to the right hand panel.
Save, give it a name like "New Mail Message"

Create a keyboard shortcut

Open System Preferences
Select Keyboard
Select Keyboard Shortcut
Select Services
Find "New Mail Message" in the list, add keyboard shortcut (I used Shift+Apple+M) by clicking to the right of the name.

Check that it works. (You can also launch it by clicking on AppName->Services->New Mail Message in the menu bar of any App.
Note, if Mail isn't running, Mail will launch and then create a New Message.

But there is also a built-in solution for composing a new e-mail from anywhere, although it is not a keyboard shortcut: ctrl+click or right click on the Mail.app icon in the doc to get the menu and select Compose New Message.

Also, there are some individual application shortcuts from within the applications like CMD+i from within Safari.


How to install Mountain Lion on a disk that cannot be formatted in recovery mode? I'm trying to do a clean install of Mountain Lion but I'm not being able to format my partition.

I previously had Lion, encrypted the disk, then upgraded to Mountain Lion, then booted into recovery mode to format & reinstall Mountain Lion.

On recovery mode (Cmd+R), when I tried to format the encrypted partition I got an error saying something like "not enough space on core something". Now the partition doesn't show up on Disk Utility; only the disk, "Macintosh HD", but I am not able to repartition it.

The Mountain Lion installer doesn't find any disk to install itself on.

I cannot boot the system either (without booting to recovery).

If I open the terminal and type diskutil list I can see that there's an Apple_CoreStorage on /dev/disk0s2, but I cannot reformat that volume ("The disk is in use by Core Storage as a Physical Volume").

How to format the disk and install Mountain Lion?

You should be able to use dd to destroy the partition's header. You can then format (erase) it and run the install.

From the installer run Terminal and type the following:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0s2 bs=1024 count=1024

Do be warned, this will irrecoverably destroy all data on that partition. But it looks like that's what you're expecting. Make sure you don't accidentally target the wrong thing.

Also note that I haven't done this, exactly. I've used this technique to destroy the entire partition table, not just a single partition. But I think it should work.

When you're done quit Terminal and run Disk Utility. You won't get any complaints about Core Storage.


Know installation source of PHP I'm finding myself in an awkward situation. I need to install PHP and Nginx for development but I do not want to mess up my Mac with multiple installations. I have found that PHP and PHP-fpm are already installed. I would like to uninstall but I have no clue on how to do it as I don't know through what means it has been installed (Brew or Ports).

I have searched the php binary and it is in /usr/bin/

PHP 5.5.30 (cli) (built: Oct 23 2015 17:21:45)
Copyright (c) 1997-2015 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.5.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2015 Zend Technologies

Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.3

PHP 5.5.30 (cli) (built: Oct 23 2015 17:21:45) is the version of php shipped by Apple with OS X 10.11.3.

You can use brew to install a current version of php – without affecting the built-in version.

brew installs its binaries in /usr/local/Cellar. A modification to your PATH ensures the brew installed version is found before the OS X provided version.

MacPorts uses a similar approach. Which package provider you use is a matter of personal preference.

Install php via brew

To install php via brew, first install brew using the instructions on their web site:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Then install php:

brew install php

Remove php via brew

When you need to remove php installed via brew – thus reverting php back to the version shipped with OS X – run:

brew uninstall php


Authorise my iPhone SE 2020 to see it among devices in iTunes for Windows tl;dr I am using the same Apple account / AppleID on both my iPhone SE 2020 and iTunes for Windows 10. Yet, Windows version of iTunes does not see this iPhone among my devices and "Sync" menu item is disabled. What should I do to fix this problem?

I am using the same Apple ID in both iPhone and iTunes / Windows 10:

I have even authorised my PC within my account (not sure, if that was necessary):

And yet my iPhone is not among my devices. Actually, it seems that I don't have any device, because corresponding menu items are disabled:

As an effect, I cannot see these audiobooks in my iPhone, as they are not being synced up to that device.
What should I do fix this problem and get File > Devices > Sync menu item enabled?

Logging-in to the same Apple account / using the same Apple ID on both iPhone and PC isn't enough to enable sync between these two devices.
In addition, it is also needed to physically connect iPhone to a PC (in this case) for the first time.
Only then iTunes for Windows 10 will:

recognise device and ask to add it to iTunes library for given Apple ID,
configure both device and iTunes on PC and
perform initial data and files sync.

Only after then given mobile device will appear in File > Device menu with its unique name next to Sync in a corresponding menu item.
Some details may be found at Apple Support site in this article.


How to uninstall Corel Painter Internal Audio Driver in OS X Yosemite I had installed Corel Painter 2016 on OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 with its .pkg installer. I removed installed files from /Applications/ by dragging them to the Trash.

Today I noticed that there is an additional item in the Output/Input Devices list at the menubar named Internal Audio Driver (Corel Painter).
How can i uninstall it?

I found a post about uninstallation of this audio driver. There is a kernel extension named PainterAudioDriver.kext in /System/Library/Extensions/ that adds the audio driver to the kernel space. To ensure that the kernel extension is loaded I used kextstat:

kextstat | grep corel

The result was:

  131    0 0xffffff7f80fde000 0x4000     0x4000     com.corel.painter.PainterAudioDriver (1) <96 5 4 3>

Then to unload the kernel extension I used kextunload that is explained here:

sudo kextunload -b com.corel.painter.PainterAudioDriver

After that the Internal Audio Driver (Corel Painter) is removed from both Sound menu bar and Audio MIDI Setup. To prevent the driver from loading again while rebooting the system, the kernel extension file must be removed from /System/Library/Extensions/ with this command:

sudo rm -r /System/Library/Extensions/PainterAudioDriver.kext

The Corel Painter Internal Audio Driver is uninstalled now.


iPad Air 2 microphone not working since iOS 11 update Is it a common problem for iPad Air 2 microphone to not work? My method of communication is dictation, so the microphone is critical. It works on my synced iPhone 6.

Backup the iPhone and then restore to factory. Then as you set up the iPhone restore the backup.

If the issue persists. Restore again and then dont restore the backup, set up the phone as is. If it works then your files have corrupted the audio. If it doesnt work, then it needs to be repaired. Take it to the Apple Store for repairs.


Mojave spell check keeps flagging correct words and tries to change them to grammatically incorrect words So this has been driving me crazy - it feels like I have a grammar troll living in my computer.  MacOS's spell checker keeps flagging words as misspelled that aren't. I notice it mostly in Mail, because that's what I use most.  However it's also happened in Messages and other Apple apps.  It does not happen in MS Word.  Usually it's trying to get me to use another similar word that is grammatically incorrect.  I've attached some screenshots as well.

Hardware is a 2017 iMac 5K running 10.14.1 (non-beta), and I don't remember seeing this before Mojave. I don't have any other languages installed other than U.S. English, am located in the U.S., and don't have any settings that are anything other than what a regular, American English speaking person would have. I also don't have any other spell-check programs installed that I know of.  This is only a work computer with the basics installed.  Has anyone else come across this, or have any idea what it could be?

For example, the following sentences have popped up as issues (quotes are added by me here, they were not in the original text):

"The second claim is what's left, and is what you should respond to here." It flags "here" and tries to change it to "hear".

"We should go somewhere in town that's closer to downtown". It flags "to" and tries to change it to "too".

"I just contacted your office."  It flags "your" and tries to change it to "you're".

"You had the proper address and were going to bring it to her."  It flags "were" and tries to change it to "we're".

Does anyone have an idea of what this could be? I would suspect some rogue app doing this, but I am careful with what I install, and only have trusted apps on the machine.

According to this apple support discussion many are experiencing the same issue.

One way to get rid of is to install Grammarly for Mac and turn off apple spell check.


Change the shortcut for Inserting a New Equation in MS Word for Mac I am having trouble changing the shortcut to add a new equation in MS Word for Mac.

Currently, the shortcut is set to: Control + =

I want to change this to the new shortcut: Shift + E

As per my findings on the internet, the procedure to do so is:

Word >> Tools >> Customise Keyboard and then search the command am looking to add/delete shortcut for and then edit it.

So when I do this, I go to the Category of:  Insert >> InsertEquation

Now the problem is, neither do I see the existing shortcut which should appear in "Current Keys" text box as visible in the screenshot, nor can I add a new shortcut in the "Press new keyboard shortcut" textfield, visible in the same screenshot. (My new shortcut does not show up in the text field even when I press it, so the Assign button next to it is greyed out and can't be pressed)

Help me solve this please

You could use the Keyboard to reassign
(i dont have my mac with me but this shows the idea)


Can't reset iPhone because iTunes must update the phone at the same time I have a iPhone 6s at my work. A former colleague have quit and he have set a password to it so we can't login. This is what we've tried so far:

DFU mode and tried to reset to factory settings trough iTunes. Can't
reset because of storage space is too small and iTunes is demanding
to update the phone at the same time!
Tried to deactivate the phone by entering false passwords so that it
forces the phone to reset.

So I can't reset the phone with this. Is there any other way?

Edit:

This is the message I see on the screen on the iPhone:

  iPhone is deactivated - connect to iTunes

When I try connect the phone with USB in the computer I get the following error:

  iTunes could not connect to the iPhone "iPhone" because it is locked
  with a passcode. You must enter your passcode on the iPhone before it
  can be used with iTunes.

These are the options: More Information, Try Again, Cancel

On the phone I cannot enter any passcode...

We found a solution to the problem. We logged in to our collegues computer and used his iTunes and preformed an reset and it did work.

Thanks all for all the help!


Network Sharing Dies Constantly I posted this on the Apple forums but, as usual, it goes weeks and weeks without answers.

I have strange problem that has happened before but now is many times worse.  The issue is that I have a Mac Mini running High Sierra and it will stop publishing its shares to my network after between an hour and four hours (I haven't nailed this down exactly) and every one of my Mac's, regardless of OS version, will be unable to access the shares anymore.  If I try to connect to that system in any way from any computer it just tries for a few minutes and tells me it is unavailable.  One interesting additional issue is that when the computer stops publishing shares I can also no longer access the sharing preference pane, always getting the message "Preferences Error - Could not load Sharing preference pane".

This has happened before with much less regularity back when I had upgraded my "server" to El Capitan but it seemed to settle down eventually.

Coincidentally when this computer is in this "state" I can no longer shut down or restart, I have to physically power off the system to reboot it and get it to publish shares for another few hours or I can go to terminal and issue a sudo shutdown -r now and that will reboot it.

This may be unrelated but when this happens there is also a process i see in Activity Monitor that reports that "Login window" is not responding" which cannot be quit or force quit from Activity Monitor but can kill manually with a sudo kill in terminal (but killing  this and then it auto starting again doesn't fix the problem).

Before I erase what is my server (so thus a major issue to totally blow it away and start again) I wanted to see if anyone had some ideas.  I have booted into safe mode and gone into sharing and then shut down and I have reset the PRAM on the computer.

Today I watched Console as I tried to access the now-locked-up Sharing Preferences and did notice this message (not sure if this is relevant or not):

  ERROR: _willSelectSemaphore timeout! (com.apple.preferences.sharing)

Update: Today I've been really logging everything and watching the system constantly and found that if I kill SMB and restart it then everything works again, including unlocking the sharing pane. I use: sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist and sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist

So it appears to be an SMB issue and I'm not sure what I can do to resolve it.  I did add a PLIST script to 'touch' the SMB process but have to wait that out to see if it does any good because it was actually a Mavericks fix that touching SMB would force it to restart.  I put it in Library/LaunchDaemon.

We are having the same issues since the last Server update, which deprecated file sharing, and relegates it to OS X (we have a mini). Besides the issues you are experiencing, it seems like we went back years in compatibility since High Sierra.

All of our workstations are Windows 10. When we updated to 10.13, the first issue was anytime opening an AutoCAD file, all MS Excel links required us to acknowledge read-only, which hasn't been an issue in at least a couple years (but it's back). Then when we went to 10.13.2 and the corresponding server app, we had all the problems you mentioned. Additionally, our Windows workstations are slowing to a crawl. Issuing a save command from any application takes at least 5 sec in any application. Windows explorer (desktop and file explorer) crashes when it needs to copy/overwrite a file from the workstation to the server. It actually seems like it's getting worse each day.

Anyway, we've been doing this dance with Apple for 10 years and I don't think they are going to do anything. We just ordered a Synology DS918+ NAS to take over file sharing. I'll keep the mac mini server running Website and Mail until they are deprecated in the next OS X Server "update".


AlphaSSL intermediate CA certificate revoked I'm unable to access JQuery CDN as Safari states that the certificate AlphaSSL CA - SHA256 - G2 is revoked.

Recently, I also had this problem with Wikipedia. However, accessing the page in Firefox works, it only shows the error in Safari and Chrome.

Why did this happen even though the certificate states that expires in 2024?

What would happen if I click 'Continue'?

Browser: Safari Version 10.0
OS: macOS Sierra 10.12

Certificates can be unexpired but still revoked, as shown in your screenshot.

Specifically the issue here seems to be a problem with GlobalSign; a configuration problem caused some browsers to believe that intermediate certificates (such as those issued by AlphaSSL) were revoked when in fact they were not.

As of five days ago, the issue was to work itself out in about four days, as cached responses for intermediate verification expired. Obviously it's not quite there yet. In your case, you can safely check the box to Always trust "AlphaSSL CA - 256SHA - G2", and click Continue.


Page Up / Page Down shortcut keys with moving keyboard cursor I am trying to find an equivalent to Page Up / Page Down keys on a Windows machine. On a Windows machine if I press Page Up or Page Down in a text editor (such as Microsoft Word or notepad++) the keyboard cursor moves as well.

The closest I found on a MacBook is to use FN + Arrow Up or FN + Arrow Down. This does do Page Up / Page Down for viewing. However, it does not move the keyboard cursor. How do I get the keyboard cursor to move a page up or down?

I found that if I do:

FN + Option + Up Arrow

or

FN + Option + Down Arrow

this does move the keyboard cursor a page up or down. It's still a bit clunkier than how things work on Windows, but it does solve the problem.


Snow Leopard, Active Directory : cannot save a file, but 'save as' is working I'm using my Mac to connect to an Active Directory drive.

When I was running on Leopard, it worked fine : I could open, modify and save files from the remote drive.

Last week I upgraded my computer to Snow Leopard (10.6.7) and since that, I'm having problems : I still can connect to the remove drives, I can open files, but when I want to save them I get the following error : "The document mydoc.txt could not be saved."

But if I do Save as and save the document under the very same name, then, it's working !

I have no idea what's wrong ! I tried to disconnect from the domain and reconnect, but I still have the problem.

I found a workaround to the problem :

The path to the document was the following :

smb://srv-fichiers1/Personnel/myhome/mydoc.txt

The problem was that I didn't have read/write access to the Personnel folder.

The administrator added read/write access to this folder and now, everything is working fine.

I agree that this is more a workaround than a real solution, but it does the trick for me !


Memory upgrade options for iMac Pro? I'm considering getting an iMac Pro. I'd love to max out the crazy amount of memory but beyond my budget. Thinking of getting 64 GB RAM. If I did want to upgrade after purchasing, would I need to get 3 more 64 GB units to fill it out or does it not work like that for this machine?

Note: I do understand that upgrading is not easy and I would take it to a certified place to get it upgraded - just hoping to save some $$$ this way.

If you get the 64 GB option, then this would be four 16 GB units. Basically, Apple is going to ship the computer with the four memory slots balanced with the same memory size. So when you upgrade later, some (if not all) of the memory you paid extra for will be replaced.


iPod touch 6 not showing all albums? I recently bought an iPod Touch 6 and synced my entire music library, but some of my albums are not showing up under the artist. For instance, I would click on Demi Lovato, and a couple of her albums will be there, but other ones won't be. If I search for those albums, they're on the iPod, it's just really frustrating that they're not sorted with the artist.

I've noticed that the albums I'm having an issue are albums that I originally ripped from CD's, but I don't think that's the reason because if it was, I'd be having trouble with a LOT more albums than I am. (Right now I'm only having trouble with three albums that I've noticed, but there might be more I haven't discovered yet. My music library is pretty substantial)

Any help would be much appreciated!

This may or may not help you, but I actually had the same problem.  Which lead me to this page because I did a Google search.

I had an artist with 11 albums in iTunes.  But on my iPod it only showed 10 albums.  However, when I searched for specific tracks on the "missing" album they would show up and play fine.

I messed around with iTunes a little and followed the other answer's suggestion.  I selected the album in artists view, right clicked on the album art (this will open up the properties for the entire album, not for a specific song.  You can also make changes and apply them to the entire album rather than having to go song by song).

At the bottom of the window there is a box "Album is a compilation of songs by various artists."  Somehow, that was checked.  Which is odd because way back when I started ripping my CDs to iTunes I would let iTunes download the information for the CDs from their database.  Anyway, I unchecked that, synced the iPod again, and the 11th album showed up under the artist.


Create custom keyboard shortcuts in GBoard in iOS I know it is possible to create custom keyboard shortcuts with the default keyboard (General > Keyboard > Text Replacement). Can the same thing be done on GBoard for iOS?

For example, per this tip, I would like to set @@ to autocorrect to my email address.

You can create keyboard shortcuts with GBoard, it just uses the default apple keyboard shortcuts. If you go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Text Replacement, you can create shortcuts by tapping the + symbol and entering the phrases and shortcuts.


Deleted Macintosh HD. Need to create a new partition/ partition table I was trying to install El Capitan. I went to erase Macintosh HD in recovery> disk utility as I wanted to do a clean install. It then deleted the Macintosh partition then gave me an error code saying it couldn't delete the disk image or something like that.

After that I go to partion my fusion drive and the partition button does nothing. I am now left with just the 'Fusion Drive', nothing else in terms of partitions. I tried to check the disk but that button didn't work either. After some research I think disk utility must have deleted the partition table?

Basically I need to create a new partition in my Fusion Drive hard drive. However disk utility is not letting me. I have gone into the properties of the fusion drive and it says 'Writeable: No'.

I think my only option is to create a partition using the terminal in recovery but I don't know how to do that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Boot to Recovery HD (or Internet Recovery) and then use Disk Utility to format the drive(s) as part of this documented process to erase and install the OS.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21973

Booting from recovery is what makes the partition map writeable. You were very close to the solution. If erasing doesn't work, you may have to repartition the volume per https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22240

As a last resort, boot to single user mode and/or Recovery and start terminal and get a screen capture/picture/verbatim listing of the output of:

diskutil list


How to install windows on Macbook Pro having Apple File System? I've MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch Mid 2015 having 250GB SSD storage.

I'm trying to install Windows 8.1 (which my MacBook supports as per Apple's Documentation for BootCamp) but not able to do so, in a while.

It looks like my MacBook is on Apple's new file system that is APFS and windows support drivers are not supported yet. (Or I do not know if they support it)

If anyone knows how to do it on a System having APFS, please let me know.

Here's the update on error screens and what I'm seeing:

Step 1: Launch the Boot Camp Assistant and I see this:

Step 2: It asks me to locate and select the ISO file of Windows 8.1 which I downloaded from Microsoft website.

Step 3: I see that it started downloading the Microsoft Support software. Also, I observe that a 4.2 GB of unknown format disk is created in disk utility. (Which I suppose, is a placeholder for the currently downloading Windows support software since Apple says, my MacBook version do not need any external bootable thumb drive)

Step 4: I see that downloading is completed and installation has begun.

Step 5: I check the disk utility once again to see available partitions. (To make sure if boot camp is doing partition in next step or not)

Step 6: I see that disk partitioning has begun

Thanks in advance.

Step 7: I get an error in boot camp which reads: Disk cannot be partitioned.

Step 8: Now, I check disk utility once again to see if any changes are there:

I see that two partitions named as OSXRESERVED and BOOTCAMP are created but they are unmounted by default.

Step 9: I try to rerun the boot camp assistant to try my luck and I get the following error:

Read the error description: It reads as my Macbook's startup disk should be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). But, my MacBook is having APFS which is different from Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Any proper help is much appreciated.

Use bootcamp assistant to partition the SSD, then install windows on the new windows-supported partition.

Alternatively boot into recovery mode, use disk utility to delete the existing partition (this will wipe everything, if you have anything you need on the Macbook's SSD back it up first), then install windows and let the windows installer partition the SSD.


macbook pro 2017 battery drains even in charge I have the strangest problem ever my mac drains even if it's charging. I have attached a picture to let you understand: as you can see the battery level decreases even if it is plugged in. I am not doing anything special than what I used to do with my previous mid 2014 mac but still this machine is not able to cope with it. It's a disaster. Any help appreciated.

Edit

as @Buscar suggested I reviewed my battery info from the menu here is the result:

So the battery number I so it positive but it seems it's not recovering but slowly decreasing...

If your MacBook Pro is discharging while in use and plugged in, you are probably using the wrong charger.  The 2017 MacBook Pro uses either a 61W or 87W charger.  See:  Find the right power adapter and cable for your Mac notebook

When selecting a charger, always go equal or bigger than what you need.  The wattage rating is the maximum that will will supply, not "push".  In other words, if your device needs less, it won't harm it.  However, if it needs more, there won't be any more to give.


MacBook Pro running Linux - only 3.6 GB RAM available (This is a repost of my question on SuperUser.com, hopefully it's better suited here ).

I've happily installed Linux on my MacBook Pro with 4 GB of RAM, but I only get 3.6 GB available:

robert@raptor ~$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3684       2184       1500          0         83       1096
-/+ buffers/cache:       1004       2680
Swap:         6149          0       6149

I'm running a 64-bit kernel so this should not be a problem:

robert@raptor ~$ uname -a
Linux raptor 2.6.34.7-0.5-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-10-25 08:40:12 +0200 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

What can I do to get the whole 4 GB available?

Update: this is what I get when running top on MacOS X:

PhysMem: 540M wired, 640M active, 231M inactive, 1411M used, 2685M free.

where used + free = 4096 MB.

Update 2: There's a thread on MacRumors.com where a user complains of the same problem with Windows 7/64 bit.

Update 3: /proc/meminfo output:

MemTotal:        3773288 kB
MemFree:         1164244 kB
Buffers:          109096 kB
Cached:          1270520 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:          1446756 kB
Inactive:         962728 kB
Active(anon):     803404 kB
Inactive(anon):   230556 kB
Active(file):     643352 kB
Inactive(file):   732172 kB
Unevictable:           0 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
SwapTotal:       6297596 kB
SwapFree:        6297596 kB
Dirty:               792 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:       1029880 kB
Mapped:           185096 kB
Shmem:              4096 kB
Slab:             131260 kB
SReclaimable:     106212 kB
SUnreclaim:        25048 kB
KernelStack:        2680 kB
PageTables:        21248 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:     8184240 kB
Committed_AS:    3113016 kB
VmallocTotal:   34359738367 kB
VmallocUsed:      123884 kB
VmallocChunk:   34359596028 kB
HardwareCorrupted:     0 kB
HugePages_Total:       0
HugePages_Free:        0
HugePages_Rsvd:        0
HugePages_Surp:        0
Hugepagesize:       2048 kB
DirectMap4k:       54444 kB
DirectMap2M:     3852288 kB

Memory info from dmesg:

[    0.000000] Memory: 3759972k/5242880k available (4780k kernel code, 1336600k absent, 146308k reserved, 6603k data, 892k init)

Some of the memory is used by the hardware -- for example, most MacBook Pros have 256MB of main memory used by the graphics adaptor. OS X knows about this and can account for it, but Linux doesn't. Your Linux installation has access to all of the available memory.


Text messages returning to original phone Since updating to iOS6, every time I text my husband, the text comes to my phone. Any idea how to stop this?

Under Settings / Messages / Send and Receive, remove the check mark from your husband's phone number.


How to use a different mirror of macports rather than the offical mirrors? How to use a different mirror rather than the mirrors in the list?

Well, I mean not only download port.tar from other mirror, like the question here, but also download packages from a different mirror.

I have noticed that when downloading packages, the port just download packages from this link. But I don't know how to change the mirror it get packages from.

Many thanks!

I will appreciate every answer or comment.

I guess you wanted to use a mirror for the binary archive , while the linked question on Stack Overflow is only about the port metadata. So instead of looking at /opt/local/etc/macports/sources.conf, you should be looking at archive_sites.conf under the same folder. The default content of that file is at GitHub; see the file comments for usage.


OS X Mavericks startup Apple logo location Where is the gray Apple logo shown on system startup stored in OS X Mavericks? I'd like to change that image. I know there's BootXChanger that works on older versions of OS X, but it doesn't work on my Mavericks computer.

This post explains how to change the logo on the login screen, using a tool like Deeper. Perhaps Deeper can be used for what you are asking about?


Why do you need a SIM to "activate" an iPhone Why do you need a SIM to "activate" an unlocked iPhone, even to use with iTunes?

What happens if you use a SIM from another network than that you intend to use?

iPhone is a phone.

In order for it to work as a phone you need a phone service provider.

Also in order for the software to complete the boot process you need a active SIM even if you do not intend to use it as a phone.

That comes in a form of a SIM card from a network provider.

If you activate it with one provider but later you want to switch to another, you can do that providing your phone is unlocked from any providers.

In your case the unlocked means you can use any SIM from any provider to activate the phone function.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT3406


How do I troubleshoot "An error has occurred" when trying to update the Kindle app in the Mac App Store? I'm able to update other apps, but for several days now I get "An error has occurred" when I press the Update button for the Kindle app:

I wonder if the App Store is confused since it's displaying "No Updates Available" above the update for the Kindle app.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.7.1.

How do I get more information on this error?  I don't see anything in the Console app related to the App Store.

Update: I turned on the Debug menu, but it wasn't clear how I could use it.  (So I turned it back off.)  I then deleted the Kindle app, which removed it from the Updates tab.  But now I get an error when I try install it again:

If you like XML, you might consider turning on debug mode.

Does the Lion App Store have a debug menu?

If not, use spotlight to find/move to trash all kindle apps and partial downloads, reboot and try again.


My new MBP Retina needs to be recharged after 2 1/2 hours I got my 13" retina MBP a few weeks ago, and used it quite a lot since then. However I noticed that battery drains incredibly quickly, I'm asked to recharge it after 2 1/2 hours of usage.

I'm using it for programming, and I have a lot of stuff running in the background (nothing takes a lot of CPU except Chrome; just playing music, mail, some chat programs). Is that why the battery drains so quickly?

The system report says that the battery is in good condition. According to the activity monitor the process "Google Chrome Renderer" needs ~100% CPU. I have no clue why it needs that much, can that be a reason for the low battery life?

Edit: I did a bit of research about Chrome's CPU usage, and it looks like a lot other people had the same problem. I followed some advice that those people gave, and now Chrome is back to less than 1% CPU usage. :)
I now have 5+hrs battery life when I'm using my MBP intensively. I even had 7 1/2 when I wasn't connected over Wi-Fi and the screen didn't use a lot of light.

Open a support ticket with AppleCare if you'd like expert help in determining whether they can run diagnostics remotely to measure a few more data points than the overall summary.

It could be a high GPU / CPU / firmware thing that needs updating, but it also could be a battery that soon enough will show less life than designed and you'll be offered an exchange under warranty.

You can also open terminal and issue a few commands to look in more detail at power management.

 pmset -g rawlog

 pmset -g pslog

If you record the settings you have, correlate things with date; io_stat 300 you should get a good indication if the estimates are off and why. Of course, start with the machine 80% charged or more and let them run as your battery drains. AppleCare might not need all the logs, but you can send them / save them and run a check in 3 or 6 months to see if the battery is substantially worse / same / better than now.


Share iTunes library using a blank disk image? Is it possible and safe to share an iTunes library between users on the same Mac using a blank disk image to hold the library?

The goal would be to have all albums in one place only and to be able to handle sync'ing both iPhones to the same library and holding all backups on this image.  Also this simplifies library management and backups (we switch computers every 6-9 months)

What I'd be afraid of are things getting "screwed up"

Also with this solution is it possible to use 2 iTunes accounts?

Why go so far as a disk image? Make a folder both users can access (maybe /Music) and put the iTunes library there.

Using one iTunes library with multiple accounts depends on how you use them. The best way is to have a primary account that is signed in and all purchases happen with that account, then authorize the machine for any other accounts that want to play music/sync apps.


Dock not restarting after killall Dock I recently needed to restart my dock in the terminal via killall Dock as I have done many times before. However, after doing so, the dock did not restart and my wallpaper is black:

This is very worrying as, despite multiple restarts and a host of other attempted solutions, I have been unable to resolve the issue. I have also looked in Activity Monitor for the Dock process but I have been shown nothing when searching for it:

This leads me to believe that the process has not restarted. My question is: How can I restart the Dock process to fix this issue?

Thank you in advance for any help, this is a very worrying issue for me as it has greatly limited the functionality of my Mac.

Kind regards, Rocco

P.S. this was the first time I tried killing the dock with that command in OSX Mojave which may be the cause of the problem. Maybe it is an issue with Mojave as I have never experienced this with any previous OSs

EDIT:

This was the exact, full command I ran before the problem occurred: sqlite3 /$HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db "update data set value = '~/Desktop/wallpaper.png'" && killall Dock

tl;dr Run: killall 'System Preferences' > /dev/null 2>&1 && rm '~/Library/Application Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db' && killall Dock

For anyone who may experience this issue in the future, my issue was with the file located at ~/Library/Application Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db.

After doing some googling, I cam across the following two threads, here and here. Both of which suggest removing the desktoppicture.db with rm '~/Library/Application Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db' && killall Dock which solved the issue for me. You can read in more detail about the issue and proposed solution on the second of the two linked threads above


How can I convert a .eml file to a .mbox file for Apple Mail? How can I convert a Windows Live Mail eml file to Apple Mail mbox file

Assuming you have access to the PC with windows live mail.

Install thunderbird on the PC. This will allow you to import windows live mail, outlook express
mails etc.
Create a gmail account, with IMAP enabled. Upload your imported email from thunderbird to gmail. This should be as simple as dragging the mail over.
Point your Mail.app at gmail and download your mail.


Does FileVault prompt for passwords more often? If I enable FileVault on Mountain Lion, will it make my machine ask me for my password more often?

For example, right now I have my machine configured so that when it goes to sleep, if I wake it up within 15 minutes, I don't need to enter my password when I wake it up.  Can I still do that, if I enable FileVault?  Or will FileVault force me to enter my password every time I wake up my machine, period?

No. It will not prompt you for your password when it wakes up unless you have that selected in the "Security" pane in System Preferences. I've had FileVault enabled for as long as I've had my Macbook, and I don't believe that it has asked me for my password once except for when I was first setting it up.


Remove parts from AppleScript result I want to remove a part of an AppleScript result. The part of my whole code is following

list disks

I get the result: {"Macintosh HD", "MobileBackups", "home", "net", "USB-Stick"}
How can I remove the part "Macintosh HD", "MobileBackups", "home", "net", so that only volumes that are not the whole time available are shown.

Try something like this:

set mydisks to list disks
set newdisks to {} as list
repeat with currentdisk in mydisks
    if ((currentdisk as string) is not equal to "net") and ((currentdisk as string) is not equal to "home") and ((currentdisk as string) is not equal to "Macintosh HD") and ((currentdisk as string) is not equal to "MobileBackups") then
        set newdisks to newdisks & currentdisk
    end if
end repeat

You will have your desired list on newdisks.


How to selectively (un)subscribe IMAP folders in 10.9 Mail.app I cannot find a way to selectively subscribe to IMAP folders in Mail.app in 10.9

Is there a way? Am I missing something there? It seems the IMAP implementation in Mail.app is still quite buggy and plays especially bad with dovecot IMAP servers.

In theory: Control+click an IMAP folder in Mail, and select Get Account Info from the context menu. In the resulting dialog, select the Subscription List tab. Then subscribe and unsubscribe as desired.

In practice, I'm not sure whether that actually works; I can't test it on my particular system.


How to run multiple commands on reboot using launchctl/plist? In OS X, you can write a plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ (or something similar, depending on what permissions/users you like it to be operated on), and load it using launchctl to make it function on reboot. However, is it possible to define multiple commands in the plist file, and if that's the case, how can I define it?

For example, suppose that I want to run a series of Python programs, such as:

python first_script.py

And then I want to run the script after the first script is done (so I cannot just define those two scripts in two different plist files, since it doesn't guarantee which one to be executed first), I want to run this script:

python second_script.py

I use OS X Mavericks 10.9.2.

bonus

This is not what I want to do right now and comes from nothing but curiosity, but is it also possible to execute the second program depending upon the result of the first program? So for example:

python first_script.py

And if this script succeeds:

python second_script.py --result true

And if it fails:

python second_script.py --result false --reason XXX

Run a shell command that starts the other commands:

<?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>some.label</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>bash</string>
    <string>-c</string>
    <string>python first_script.py;python second_script.py</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Or change the ProgramArguments key to

<key>Program</key>
<string>/path/to/script</string>

and use a script like this:

#!/bin/bash

output=$(python first_script.py 2>&1)
if [[ $? = 0 ]]; then
  python second_script.py --result true
else
  python second_script.py --result --false --reason "$output"
fi


Applescript - AppleEvent handler failed on set properties {visible messages: } I have the following applescript working under Lion, but it returns this Error: -10000. Mail got an error: AppleEvent handler failed. error under Yosemite.

try
tell application "Mail"
    set theViewer to front message viewer
    set theMsg to messages of theViewer
    set msgList to {}
    repeat with thisMsg in theMsg
        if read status of thisMsg is false and flagged status of thisMsg is false then
            set the end of msgList to thisMsg
        end if
    end repeat
    if msgList is {} then
        display dialog "There are no read messages in this mailbox."
    else
        tell theViewer to set properties to {visible messages:msgList}
    end if
end tell
on error the errMsg number the errNmb
if the errNmb is not -128 then
    set the errTxt to "Error: " & the errNmb & ". " & the errMsg
    display dialog the errTxt buttons {"Cancel"} default button 1
else
    error number -128
end if

end try

Any help would be appreciated.

From comments…

As it would appear that many people across the net are struggling & failing to get set properties to {visible messages:msgList} to work at all, it might be simpler in the long run to just pop up a count of unread/unflagged messages & optionally sort by flagged then unread for easy discovery in the Mail window.

I added in a 'sort by date or flags/unread' option in the dialog, too

tell application "Mail"
    tell the front message viewer
        set unReadMsgs to every message whose read status is false and flagged status is false
        display dialog ("There are " & (count of unReadMsgs) as string) & ¬
            " Unread/Unflagged messages." buttons {"Sort Unread", "Sort Date"} ¬
            default button "Sort Date" giving up after 300
        set theResult to button returned of result as string
        if theResult is "Sort Date" then
            set properties to {sort column:date received column}
        else if theResult is "Sort Unread" then
            set properties to {sort column:flags column}
            set properties to {sort column:message status column}
        end if
    end tell
end tell


Is there a 64-bit app for working with image sequences to replace Quicktime 7? I've been using Quicktime 7's "Movie to Image Sequence" and "Open Image Sequence" export and import options forever. It's useful for creating and working with time-lapses, modifying a single frame or a couple of frames in a video, creating short animated gifs, etc.

Unfortunately Quicktime 7 is 32-bit, so once I upgrade to Catalina it will be gone forever. I'd like a recommendation for a 64-bit app with similar features: the ability to export every frame of a movie to a sequence of still images, and construct a new movie at a specified frame rate from a set of still images.

Is there any good replacement for this Quicktime 7 feature? Free is optimal but not necessary.

ffmpeg
The command line tool ffmpeg can be used to create videos from images:

How to create a video from images with FFmpeg?
How to create a video from images using FFmpeg?


Is it safe to still use an iPhone 4? I've received an iPhone 4 for free and I would like to use it. Last iOS version available is iOS 7.1.2 released on June 30, 2014 which is now unsupported.

My questions are: Is there some known security vulnerabilities on iOS 7.1.2 and is there known hardening techniques available.

This phone was almost not used and the hardware including the battery is almost new. It would be a shame to use it only as a clock watch.

A full list of security protection systems is available on Apples website here.

It contains the impact of the issue and what is fixed. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide.


Problem with opening new window in Safari in Full Screen mode When Safari window is in Full Screen mode there's a combination option+command+N to open a new window (not a tab!). But on my MacBookPro2020 it doesn't work sometimes. I can't figure out when it would work and when not and why there is such a problem. Is it just a bug or I'm going something wrong?

P.S.: I have this problem for several months. I reloaded my MacBook during this period lots of times and I still bump into it.

When the shortcut doesn't work, do this:

File menu > New window.

Then onwards, alt+command+N will start working.


MacOS Server DHCP lease duration change Running MacOS Server 5.2 on El Capitan. I'd like to change the DHCP server's lease duration.  I'd like to use 8 hours but the GUI only gives me a choice of 1 hour, or 1 Day, or higher.

Can anyone help me with a terminal command to achieve this please?

I've found sudo serveradmin settings dhcp | grep lease which lets me see DHCP settings, but I just cannot work out how to change the lease period.

First enter - to get an overview and the appropriate array_idUUID:

sudo serveradmin settings dhcp

Then (with the proper array_idUUID)

sudo serveradmin settings dhcp:subnets:_array_id:array_idUUID:lease_max = 28800

Example:

sudo serveradmin settings dhcp:subnets:_array_id:A387646D-BBC1-88CD-993E-2D36E15C5089:lease_max = 28800

Then restart the DHCP service:

sudo serveradmin stop dhcp
sudo serveradmin start dhcp

Check the new settings with sudo serveradmin settings dhcp


Cannot remove photos from iPhone I have some photos I want to put into my iPhone. So I used iTunes when I chosen my folder with photos:

I synced it and they appear in my iPhone. But I can't remove any of them (from iPhone). How can I make them "deletable"? If this is a feature, it is a really stupid feature.

Photos synced from iTunes can't be deleted on the device because they'll be synced back to the device next time. To remove synced photos, uncheck Sync Photos.


'Use mobile data for' toggle changes won't save on iPhone 6, iOS 9.0 When I change an app's setting to use mobile data (or not), the changes aren't saved when I exit settings. It's infuriating as, for example, I can't use WeChat at all unless I'm on wifi.

Elsewhere on this forum it's suggested that the only way to rectify this is to restore not from backup. Is there really no other way? And if I do need to restore not from backup, how do I do it? And what will the consequences be - e.g. lost contacts, etc?

Many thanks for any help.

As a troubleshooting step, I often will back up an iPhone to iTunes and then the cloud (just to be safe/sure) and then erase all content and settings.

Settings app > General > Reset

At that point, set up the phone as new and don't sign in to iCloud. I opt in to all the other settings and then go check the setting that was "stuck"

At this point you will know if the setting works or the phone needs the OS restored. If so, do the restore or seek service. When that's done, you can either decide to erase all content and settings to then restore one backup or if you want to just start downloading your apps, signing into iCloud and moving forward with a base that works.


Can I just move SSD from 13inch MBP to 15 inch? Mid 2010 13 inch MBP is under 10.11.6 while the 15 inch is a 2012 non-retina model that is under macOS Sierra. I've been told that this is possible earlier but would like to hear form more people. Some are saying Macs are hardware independent, some say they are, so I need a consistent answer. The 15 inch currently has a HDD which is not going to cut it for me.

What do you suggest I do to move my 13 inch's SSD + data into the 15 inch safely. I have a bunch of environments setup which would take so much time to set up again, so I'm trying to make the switch safely.

Yes you can make that move. Whether or not your environments will transfer I cannot say: it depends whether they are hardware-independent like MacOS. You should have at least one (possibly two, if you're very concerned) backups of your data. These can take the forms of: clone the drive (using Carbon Copy Cloner or similar), time machine backups, or a disk image of the entire SSD. This way if there is a problem during or after the move, everything will be recoverable. After making sure your data is secure, follow a repair guide (I have found that generally iFixit and Other World Computing make good tutorials/video guides) to remove the SSD from the first computer and put it into the second computer.

A few people recommend doing NVRAM and SMC resets before booting the new combination. Try doing these and then booting. Test your apps and environments to make sure everything is working okay. I'd suggest keeping a backup on hand until you know that everything worked. If things didn't work, you can try wiping the SSD and restoring to the new computer from backup, or if you want to revert back to the old setup you knew worked, you could do that as well.

Good luck! Make sure that you understand everything before you do it. Feel free to ask questions or challenge my answer if you have heard otherwise.


Booting Mac OS 10.6.7 from an external hard drive if internal drive running Ubuntu? I have a old Mac Mini. (1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo)
Running Mac OS 10.6.7
That is not able to upgrade to “Lion”.
Also several large external “Firewire” hard drives.

What I would like to do is install and run Ubuntu on the internal Mac Mini drive, and then boot into a clone of my current Mac OS from the external drive, once in a great while.
Is this doable?

I now run rEFit on the internal system so that I can boot into the Ubuntu system on my external drive. I would like to reverse this.

I can not afford to buy a new mac at this time.

Boot loaders are a mystery to me. Do I need to install rEFit on the Ubuntu system?

Thank you in advance

The myths page from the rEFit author has a lot of information about the subject of booting operating systems that are usually booted via BIOS (i.e. Windows and Linux).

In particular:

  Myth: You need rEFIt to install/boot Linux

  You don’t. The firmware’s built-in boot volume chooser (hold Option to activate it) will recognize Linux boot CDs as well as bootable hard disks and let you boot them. (They may be labeled “Windows”, though.) For triple-booting you’ll get only one item in the built-in chooser, but you can use GRUB, LILO, or NTLDR to act as a second-level menu to choose between Windows and Linux. The gptsync tool can be compiled to run on Linux.

While you can install some Linux distributions on a GPT-partitioned disk, it's much easier to repartition the internal disk and put an MBR partition table on it, depending on the version of Ubuntu you are going to use.

This is all described at the Ubuntu MactelSupportTeam site. The fact that you are going to boot Mac OS X every now and then does not change the approach; in fact it is even recommended on that page.

Before you make any changes, just make sure you have at least one, better two backups of all your data.


Updating High Sierra installation is not progressing further I'm updating OS X EL Capitan to High Sierra.

Today morning I was go on App store and download High Sierra. After downloaded the installer opens automatically and I clicked on "Continue". From apple's official document.

But last 3-4 hours my installation process is stuck mean not progressing further.

So what can I Do? Why this is taking to much time? Should I cancel and restart the system and again try to install it? Or keep patience?

If I cancel and restart system and try again then I will be make any major problem? I don't know what I should do. Please guid me on right direction.

From my own experience:

Why this happening? Why my installation is not progressing further? Because issue is in my network. I connected my system with WiFi and sometimes signal comes with very low quality and in between installation for some second signal was lost and at that time installation is stopped/pushed. That was reason of installation is not progressing further.  But I tapped on cancel but even don't know what will happen! and restart my system and clicked again for installation. It will not be started from begging but started from where we stopped/pushed. Its really good things. And I was write comment like

  if we canceled installation and restart again then any major problem will occur?

Answer is No you can do cancel and reinstall process any time It will be managed by core system.


Can I send an iMessage to a iPad user from my iPhone? I'm amazed I can't figure this out - my friend has an iPad running iOS5. He can send me an iMessage to my phone using my AppleID. But (outside of replying to his message) there is no way for me to send him a message using the Message app, since it only lets me enter phone numbers.

So, how does an iPhone user send an iMessage to an iPad user's AppleID?

EDIT: Does this work for anyone else?
ON AN IPHONE (3GS, if it matters, running iOS 5), open Messages.
Hit the 'Compose' button.
Try to type in an email address in the 'To' field.

There is NO WAY to enter an email address there, afaict

How does an iPhone send iMessages to iPad:

Make sure iMessage is set "on" on both devices
On your iPhone, go to Contacts and find your friend's name to check whether or not you have his email address. If not, you need to add his email address.
On the iPad, go to settings>>messages>>recieve at>>add email. Put your friend's email address from step 2. It will say "verify".
Your friend need to verify by checking his email. There'll be an email from Apple. Open the email and he'll be asked to click on the verify link. Click on it and he'll be directed to Apple's homepage. Just follow the instructions there.
Once your friend has verified his email address, the word "verify" in step 3 disappears. Now you can iMessage him.
On your iPhone, go to contacts and choose your friend's name. Click on "send message" and choose the email address that was just verified. You're now directed to the message screen.
In the "To" field, you 'll see that the email adress is missing "@". Ignore it.
Make sure that the send button is blue. Now just type your message and send.

Hope this works!


Mavericks update Applications problem Updated to Mavericks: Now get following message for specific apps in Applications Folder: "you can't use this version of the application "DVD Player" with this version of OS X."
It then lists the version of the app that I currently have. This has affected 16 Apps on my iMac.  Some of them (Safari, Photo Booth) have updated version on my desktop that run.
With all of the other affected apps, do I have to purchase updated versions?
Also, how do I delete the non-functioning versions from my Applications folder?

I would reinstall Mavericks.

You could run the Disk Utility and repair the Permissions before that.


How can I find an iOS app I had installed once but since deleted? i had this app on my old phone and when i got a new phone i could never find the name of it. I thought it was called "InstaFollowers" but i guess not. This app specifically has a calender where everyday for 30 days is something different and you get to spin a wheel and everything! If anyone knows what app this is let me know!

If your old phone and new phone are both iPhones, then all you need to do is check the purchase history under your Apple ID to re-download it.

To do this:

Launch the App Store app on your iPhone
Tap on Updates
Tap on Purchased

You will now be able to access your purchase history and, should even be able to filter by the Not on This iPhone tab.

If you can't find the app in your history, then it's possible that it's no longer available on the App Store. If that's the case, you may be able to re-install it from iTunes on your computer, especially if you have Time Machine backups (assuming you're on a Mac).


Changing text navigation buttons in OSX I'd like to change the default text navigation buttons for OSX (Mountain Lion).
That is, currently the key to move iterate tokens when editing a text file (or in XCode) is alt, and command for BOL/EOL.

I want to edit the default keys such that command is used to iterate through tokens, and either (alt+command+direction) or (fn+direction) is used for BOL/EOL.

I couldn't seem to find it in the key settings of each program, so I suppose it is some sort of default setting of the OS. Where and how can I change to achieve the above behaviour?

Thanks in advance,
Dan

You can create custom key bindings that will apply in most OS X text editors (specifically, those that use the Cocoa framework).

Check out KeyBindingsEditor, which provides a front end to the key bindings system.

Alternatively, you can create a DefaultKeyBinding.dict plist file in ~/Library/KeyBindings/ that allows you to specify custom keybinding actions. You should read Apple's documentation for the precise actions available.

In your case, you'll probably want the moveWordForward: and moveWordBackward: methods, if I'm parsing your question correctly.


How to open files from Safari without having to save them to Mac I recently changed from using a Surface to a Mac and I am having a hard time figuring out how to open files, let say from my gmail, without having to save the file on my Mac. With Microsoft, when I click download it prompted if I wanted to just open the file, Save or Save as... I can not figure out how to get those options on my Mac. Everytime it just prompts to save the file, but no to just open it without saving it first.

That option is located in the Safari Preferences dialog.

in Safari go to the Safari menu and select Preferences.

If it is not already selected click on the General icon in the top left of the Preferences dialog.

At the very bottom there should be a checkbox (likely unchecked) that says "Open "safe" files after downloading." Check that box and you should be good to go.


Workaround for wrong HID usage descriptor sent by Bluetooth Gamepad? I am investigating an incompatibility of some Bluetooth Gamepads with OSX:
I have a Bluetooth Gamepad (NES30 Pro). The problem is that if I connect it over bluetooth, it does not work properly under OSX. I already have found the cause and have informed the manufacturer, and they promised to look into fixing that. However meanwhile I would like to find a workaround.

The cause of the problem is that the Gamepad does not send a proper HID usage descriptor when it is connected via Bluetooth. The Gamepad should send a HID usage descriptor that signals that it is a gamepad. However it sends a HID usage descriptor that signals that it is a compound device of Keyboard, Mouse and Gamepad at the same time.

For illustration, this is a screenshot of the Windows device manager, showing that the Gamepad acts as several device types at once.

Windows and Linux simply create 3 devices, one keyboard device, one mouse device and one gamepad device. However OSX creates just one device which contains all the functionality at once, which most programmes fail to recognize as a Gamepad. So far the only App that could show me that position data of the Analog axes and of the gamepad buttons is indeed transmitted is the HID explorer app by apple (http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/samplecode/HID_Explorer/HID_Explorer.zip)

Now I am looking for a workaround on OSX. Some Linux systems have a problem as well with the wron HID usage descriptor. However they usually can fix it by setting a udev rule that specifically tells the system to treat the device as gamepad/joystick, for example like that:

# 8Bitdo SFC30 GamePad Bluetooth mode(START)
SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{name}=="8Bitdo SFC30 GamePad", MODE="0666", ENV{ID_INPUT_JOYSTICK}="1"

Of course OSX does not have udev. Does anybody know how to tell/force OSX to treat an input device as a joystick/gamepad? Or maybe how to create a virtual gamepad device which takes its input from the axes/buttons of the keyboard/mouse/gamepad compound device? Or any other ideas how to tackle that problem?

Note: I am especially interested in using the analog sticks. So just mapping them to keyboard buttons is not an option. (The gamepad already has a special mode to do that on its own. However then the analog sticks of course do not work.)

I'd look at either getting some software to reproduce what the windows drivers do or look at hardware that has drivers for OS X.

http://joystickmapper.com/
http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/

Also, on OS X, the games you are looking to use need to also support looking for wireless controllers, so that might be an issue for you as well that needs to be overcome.


Bless EFI/GPT Windows installation on separate HDD to boot on startup There is a Windows 10 EFI/GPT installation on a separate drive in my MacPro next to my disk with the OSX installation.

The Apple Startup Manager shows the Win10 disk labeled as "EFI Boot". I can boot to Win10 there.

I cannot set the default startup disk in system preferences.
If I choose the Win10 HDD I will get "No Bootable Device -- Insert boot disk and press any key" error upon next boot.

As soon as I bless the OSX disk again through system preferences OSX will boot again as standard.

How can I "bless" the Win10 disk as the standard disk to boot upon startup?

There is no EFI partition present on the Win10 disk.

Thanks.

diskutil list output:

/dev/disk6 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.0 GB   disk6
   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk6s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                249.5 GB   disk6s2
   3:           Windows Recovery                         471.9 MB   disk6s3

/dev/disk7 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.0 GB   disk7
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk7s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            255.1 GB   disk7s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk7s3

UPDATE:
Windows installer seems to have used the EFI partition on disk7 to copy the boot files to. I managed to "repair" the startmanager with this guide here. Windows now boots on every startup of the MacPro. I can also access the Apple Startup Manager and choose my Macintosh HD or the Recovery Partition. As soon as I mess around with choosing the startup disk in osx system preferences it will break again with the "no bootable device error". OSX or the Startup Manager does not seem to be able to find the Windows OS on the other disk6 without EFI Partition.
Interesting also is that even when I disconnect the windows disk7 I will still see EFI Boot in Apple Startup Manager. Choosing it will get a Windows Error screen not being able to boot of course.

As soon as I have more time I will continue to experiment further...
Maybe somebody with a better understanding of the Apple EFI Startup Manager can give a hint in advance how to make it possible to switch startup disk from OS side in a "normal" way.

Next step to try: Add EFI partition to Windows disk6 put the Win startup files there and link to the installation on the same disk.

Boot to the Startup Manager and hold down the control key before selecting Windows. For a better answer, I will need more information.

Added the output from diskutil list to your question.
What is the model year or identifier of your MacPro?
Do you still have the media (DVD, iso or flash drive) you used to install Windows?

I suppose it would be possible to have the boot files on the EFI partition of the first disk and the Windows partition on the second disk. If so, this might confuse System Preferences. If this is the problem, then you could either bless the Windows partition from a Terminal application window or add a script to the menu bar that would accomplish the same operation.


I want to triple-boot Lion, El Capitan, and WIndows. Howto? I have a late-2011 MBP that currently has two operating systems on it. Those two operating systems were Windows 7 and Lion, for a long time. However, I have to use Yosemite (or newer) for some applications for work. So I blew out my Windows partition and set up Yosemite on it.

Now, I want to install Windows again. However, 100% of the triple-boot tutorials I find assume that I want to install Linux as my third OS, so I can't just follow someone else's recipe. I recall Core Storage hassles when going back and forth between Yosemite and Win7.

What's the best approach for me? I can't use Boot Camp, because I already have the Yosemite partition. Should I blow out Yosemite, repartition to have one full-disk Lion partition, use Boot Camp to install Windows, and then... something else?

iPartition used to be the go-to tool for this kind of task, but it cannot handle Core Storage volumes, which makes it a bit limited these days.

Paragon have just brought out a new Hard Disk Manager which I have yet to try out for myself, but looks like it's the long-awaited successor to iPartition. Personally, I don't think the interface looks as good, but you can't have everything ;-)

Both apps require you to boot from an external device to work on the boot drive, of course. Paragon has a built-in boot drive creator, I can't remember whether iPartition does [it had a CD maker, back in the day, but I've not used it in quite a while]

For your particular scenario - I'd clone off one of the Mac partitions, re-partition as a single Mac volume [plus EFI/Recovery of course] then let Bootcamp do its regular setup. Afterwards, resize then add a new partition to clone your 2nd OS X back to.


Second monitor - Dell and iMac 27 5 Retina I have an iMac 27" 5K Retina (late 2015) with 32 GB, AMD Radeon R9 M395x 4096MB.   I have just bought a second monitor, Dell Dell 27" UltraSharp UP2715K.   I am running macOS Sierra 10.12.1.

Can someone help me......   When I connect my iMac to the monitor with the DisplayPort Cable (Mini-DP to DP) the Dell Monitor simply is black screen and on its way to shut go in power save.....

When I use 1 of the DisplayPort Cables along with DisplayPort Cable (Mini-DP to Mini DP) I only get 4K on my Dell...

What am I doing wrong? Am I not able to use this second monitor?

Your iMac can support up to two displays at 4096 by 2160 pixels, or one display at 5120 by 2880 pixels.

In other words, to use the second display in addition to the built in display they both need to run at 4K. You can't run them both at 5K.

Your iMac's Thunderbolt digital video output also supports up to two Thunderbolt displays, but these must also be run at 4K.

You can view the full specs here.


How do push notifications work from a networking point of view? I know the data antennas (3G, WiFi, etc.) power down to save battery, but push notifications still seem to come almost immediately. My iPhone and iPad will chime before the email shows up on my desktop. I'd hooked up a TCP/IP sniffer on my Wifi iPad and noticed the push notifications didn't come via TCP/IP. I understand the sending and receiving of push notifications from the App point of view (register the device, send notification to Apple, who sends it to the device), but would like to know more about this last leg of the trip. I see that Apple says port 5223 is involved somehow, but much in the way of details.

I've searched around the web some and not found anything that explains the mechanism of delivering push notifications from Apple to an iOS device. Is it UDP? Is it an existing always on connection? Why doesn't it kill the battery? Basically, how can the notification happen almost immediately without keeping the radio always on, thus killing the battery?

WiFi networks use "beacons" to allow clients to enter power-saving mode, but still be notified regularly if there is any traffic waiting to be sent to them.

Before entering power-saving mode, a WiFi device checks how often beacons are sent from the AP (typically, every 100ms, so ten per second, but some APs will let you vary it) and then wakes up in time to receive it. This beacon tells the client if there is any traffic waiting to be sent to it. Thus, it can still spend most of it's time powered down, but occasionally wake up to see if there's any real work to do. If there isn't, it immediately goes back to sleep again. And therein lies the powersavng.

Good page on it here: http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1492071/


What happens to a Developer Account when I disable 2-Factor Authentication The company I work for does not own any apple devices and due to internal reasons not willing to invest in any (Period. Please don't suggest getting an iPhone 5 or similar). I am tasked with the deployment of an iPhone App.

Apple only allows Developer Accounts when they have set up 2-Factor Authentication. That in itself is not a problem, we need to rent an Apple Computer for deployment anyway. My Question is, what happens when we disable 2-Factor Authentication and return the MacBook?

I presume I would be no longer able to access the Developer Program, but does the Account itself keep running and the App stays in the AppStore, or am I simply not able to disable 2-Factor Authentication?

Yes, this is not an ideal situation but it is what it is. Does anybody have experiences with this or knows where I can find any answers?

You should consider keeping the 2FA enabled on your Apple ID. It is not required to disable the 2FA on your Apple ID if you do not have any Apple device linked to your account.

In the absence of any trusted device(s) (Macs or iOS/iPadOS devices), you can add a trusted mobile number to your Apple ID account, and can receive 2FA codes via SMS.


I uninstalled xcode 4.6 and the App Store still wants to update it A few months ago the app store notified me to update xcode. When I attempted to do this, the download hung and wouldn't complete. I tried several more times after restarting each time. Always the same result of hanging.

Today I was annoyed with the app store still bugging me to update xcode along with the amount of disk space xcode consumes so I tried to uninstall it. I removed xcode it from /Applications and any other references I could find and emptied the trash. I cleared caches, repaired permissions, and more, restarting both the computer and the application several times. I even enabled the debug menu and reset the application. Despite all of this, xcode still wants to update even though it no longer exists on disk.

I'm running mountain lion. I'm not sure if I had xcode 4.5 or 4.6 because it's all gone now (except the app store doesn't know it yet).

Do you have a backup, or external drive connected, that may have something of the Xcode install on it?

I know on my machine, if I have my backup drive connected the MAS thinks anything on that drive is currently installed.


Can't sync photos from Windows to iPhone since iOS 6 Since the update to iOS 6, my iPhone (or iTunes) does not copy the photos I have on my Windows system to the iPhone.

The update to iOS 6.0.1 doesn't seem to have helped.

I have removed all photos from both the iPhone and the sync area on the Windows system, but when I return the photos to the sync area, nothing gets copied to the iPhone.

How can I get my photo sync to work again?

Alright, I got it working again.  Something in the following ritual did the trick:

remove all photos and videos from the sync directory on the Windows system
sync
empty out the directories on the iPhone visible through the windows explorer
remove all photos and videos from the iPhone
sync
recreate the sync directory on the Windows system with all the directories and photos (except the "Thumbnails" folder) as you want them
go back into iTunes while the iPhone is connected, note that the "sync photos" checkboxk is cleaerd, re-check and verify that iTunes is looking at the correct sync directory
sync

...and the photos are there.  I don't know which chicken-wave was the one which actually fixed the problem.


iPhone 6 Battery quickly drains and jumps battery percentage I have this battery problem with my iphone 6(10.0) for over a month now. At 100% battery, it drains very quickly and most of the time the battery percentage jumps from 60% to 30% etc. And from 20% when the warning shows it then jumps to 1%.

I already tried draining iphone and fully charging it then reset the phone. I want to update the os but I need 10.0 in my work. Does my iphone battery have any chance working again properly?

This is the symptom of a weakened iPhone battery that is failing (especially on iOS 10). My recommendation is to determine your battery's current capacity and health by downloading a couple of battery health apps. You can monitor your battery health to determine if you need to replace the battery soon.

If replacement is needed but your iPhone is not under warranty or AppleCare, you can replace the battery yourself for about $35 (battery and proper tools). I was having these issues with my iPhone 6+ and replaced the battery which was not too difficult. My phone is like new now.


Finder: Select a file after Copy & Paste When I copy and paste a file in Windows, the last inserted file is selected automatically in the destination folder. Then I can (for example) press F2 to rename it.

When I copy and paste a file in OS X, the last inserted file is NOT selected in the destination folder. When I want to rename it, I have to look for it, select it and press Enter.

Is there a setting (or a shortcut) in OS X to select (or highlight) the last inserted file(s)?

If you don't have a current selection, the Paste action will select the new pasted file or folder. Therefore, make sure you don't have a current selection when pasting and the file or folder will be selected when you paste.

A quick way to deselect any currently selected items before pasting is ⌥⌘A. If you'd like more automation in this, you can use Keyboard Maestro or equivalent to intercept a ⌘V and press ⌥⌘A first if you wish this to occur every time you paste.

This answer applies to OS X 10.11.5 and I have also tested it in OS X 10.11.6b1.