How to manually detect infections on Mac My brother installed MS Office supposedly from a pirated site and after he ran the installer, he mentioned it launched terminal automatically and the computer did some stuff on its own.

I ran a few scan using Reikey, Kaspersky Internet Security and Etre Check and was not able to detect anything.
I tried running Malwarebytes, BitDefender & Avast and nothing was detected as well.
I went to Library/LaunchAgents and nothing out of the ordinary was there.
I checked Startup Items under Sys Pref > User > My User and it was clean as well.
I have Lulu running to monitor my network and nothing out of the ordinary was detected.

However I do not feel comfortable since my brother mentioned he saw the installation was done automatically through Terminal, hence we're not sure if it went deep into the system which given Full Disk Access to all Anti-Virus softwares, all results came back to negative.
Hence I checked Mac > System > Library > LaunchDaemons and noticed this

And this under Mac > System > Library > LaunchAgents

Since the non-Apple files are located in System folders, I'm not sure if it is originally from Mac or unauthorised apps which I am more than happy to remove.
I am worried if this work computer may be infected with malware/trojan that the software was not able to detect and might be at risk of data breach. Can anyone advice please? Thank you so much! Terminal after restart (before restart it was showing ttysXXXX on the first line
This is the content of the suspicious installer:

The problem with getting pirated software is three fold:

The websites that host the software will often do contain  trackers, adware, spyware, malware, etc.
The software itself can be modified to install additional malware
Some of it is innocuous - simple scripts to open ports/back doors, log keystrokes or steal your identity.

Microsoft and IDC published a whitepaper entitled  The Dangerous World of Counterfeit and Pirated Software (making it quite apropos considering it was pirated Office software) and this answer makes extensive use as a resource.

In  the  search  for  counterfeit  copies  of  Office  on  the  Internet  (across  270  Web sites and P2P networks), we encountered malware just by visiting these sources: tracking cookies and spyware detected on our virtual PCs from 75%of the sites, Trojans and malicious adware at 14%

What this means is that just showing up to search for and download the software, you're immediately attacked using a wide array of tools like malware, adware, spyware, trackers, etc.  It's a shotgun approach by the site/hackers to see what they can get from you.
Needless to say, not only are they trying to get something on your computer, the fact that they're using trackers tells us they're building a profile.

However, 60% of the downloaded software didn't come with activation keys, which meant  some  users had to  go  back  to  the  download  site  at  least  once  and sometimes  repeatedly  to  obtain  illegal  keys.

This is an interesting technique...what better way to get a better "picture" of your victim than to force them to return to get activation keys or cracks.  This  also inherently treks them that the installation of their compromised software was successful!

Most  of the  CDs/DVDs  came  with  extra  software,  whether  wanted  or  not,  and often the installation process displayed unusual behavior, such as music playing during installation, pop-ups showing up with Web links to dating or pornography sites, or links to other sites known to be potential security threats

Emphasis mine
Granted, you didn't get an actual CD/DVD media, but these care commonly distributed as disk images (ISO/DMG) and the "unusual behavior" is in line with what you and/or your brother saw with respect to Terminal.
This is the crux of the problem!
A simple script (bash or sh) is all that's is required to open some firewall ports or modify a user shell environment file like .bash_profile or .zprofile to source some malicious code every time you open a Terminal shell.  These types of scripts won't necessarily show up as malware.  It could be a simple script using curl to connect to a website run by a hacker sending something as innocuous as you IP address or using scp to silently copy a file like your key chain.
Remember, the genuine installer requires Admin credentials to run and you provide them when you enter your password. Any nefarious steps added will then be installed with admin (sudo) privileges.
I'm assuming that the Terminal screen you're referring to is showing a login from a different TTY. (It's very difficult to see the Terminal prompt in the 4th picture). The script could have opened a backdoor to your computer.
The Risk

A good majority of people worry about data loss and they should be.  Ransomware can bring you or your business to a complete halt because the perpetrators are literally holding your data hostage by making it inaccessible and unusable.
The second is identity theft (this is the bigger risk IMO).  Having the installer add some scripts (even to cron so they run periodically) to  send things like browser cookies, your IP address, your bookmarks, password files (keychain) and even install keyloggers (we'll get back to this one).  It would be super easy to figure out that you banked at ACME bank, did your shopping at H&K and Amazon, you have a VISA from BankOne, and a MasterCard from BankTwo and you use the same username for them all.
Keyloggers
Keyloggers are a very special type of malware.  They straddle the line between bona fide malware and legitimate software.  From Malwarebytes:

Although for our purposes, keyloggers operate in the context of malware, they are not always illegal to install and use. Keyloggers are a common tool for corporations, which information technology departments use to troubleshoot technical problems on their systems and networks—or to keep an eye on employees surreptitiously. The same goes for, say, parents, who want to monitor their children’s activities. Suspicious spouses are another market for keyloggers.

This means a keylogger commonly used by (for example) parents to oversee their children's' behavior while online can be utilized by a hacker to capture your keystrokes.  Using a simple bash script, it would be super easy to scp that file to a website somewhere.
Putting this altogether now, we potentially have a method to gather all of your browsing/surfing info creating a profile or a "picture" of you, your password (key chain) files, your location on the web (IP) and your passwords (and other credentials) all sent to an obscure web location.  All of it operating under the radar because technically, none of it is malware; they're just scripts calling built in tools like curl or scp.
Mitigation

Make a different back up of your data!  Ransomware works by encrypting your existing data with a key only your attacker knows.  If your data happened to get compromised, you don't want overwrite an older, but clean Time Machine backup with bad data.

Wipe your drive and reinstall your OS.  It's not impossible to clean this up; it's tedious and time consuming.  Additionally, you'll always be wondering if you "got everything."  The most efficient way to be positive that you've removed all potential threats is to wipe your drive clean and reinstall macOS (from a trusted source, of course).

Reinstall your Apps manually or restore from a Time Machine backup taken prior to the install of pirated software.  This way you can be certain you're not bringing back compromised files.

Manually copy/restore data that was backed up post infection as you need it.  It's very likely the data is safe, but for piece of mind, take an extra step and give it a once over before copying back to your system.

Change your passwords!  Especially if you reuse credentials for different services.  The problem here is that you don't know what was compromised - so the safest course of action is to change the password so that if it was compromised, the exposure is limited.  It's very important to use different credentials for different services.  Using a (paid) product like 1Password, Keeper or the open source KeePass can help you do this.

Going forward, consider using APFS snapshots before installing software.  This will allow you to roll-back to a previously known-good state of your system.

TL;DR
The pirated software obviously did something when it was installed.  The problem is, if it simply installed some scripts that copy files and installed a keystroke logger, it can circumvent detection by malware scanners and anti-virus tools.
The only efficient and surefire way to fix this is to wipe your drive clean and reinstall.  The problem is, you don't know what was done, so you have to assume the worst and mitigate it from that standpoint.
Loss of data is always a big concern so having regular backups would be (again) a saving grace here. Identity theft is (IMO) more of a concern so changing your passwords to your accounts, especially ones that have critical data on you (i.e. financial, medical, taxes, etc.) is a high priority.  Even though you may have to reuse login/username (lots of websites use email addresses), never reuse your password - don't make it easy for the attackers!
Finally, understand the time/effort that goes into fixing this all to save a few dollars by getting some pirated software.  Hopefully I've painted a picture of the immense risk that you were opened up to, but as you go through the clean up process, you'll see how time and labor intensive this is.   Your brother owes you big time on this one...I see you being treated to a very expensive restaurant visit in the near future.


Can I put this RAM into my iMac 27" mid 2010? (Corsair CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9) I have an aluminium iMac (from mid/late 2010 I believe).

I want to upgrade the memory from 4gb to 8 or 16. I'm no hardware guy, but from the info I read it would appear I can upgrade to any SO-DIMM RAM module.

So just to check before I go ahead and buy... do you guys believe that this will go in my iMac?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002YUF8ZG/ref=asc_df_B002YUF8ZG6968622?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002YUF8ZG

Thanks

Apple's memory upgrade page for your model iMac calls for PC-10600 SO-DIMMs.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4255

Those Corsair SO-DIMMs meet all the stated specifications, even though some sites erroneously list them as PC-10666 (Corsair lists them as PC-10600).

Furthermore, if you look through the reviews on Newegg and other sites for this memory, you can see reports of people using it successfully in their Macs.

So I would conclude that yes, it's safe to use it in your 2010 iMac.


How to prevent dock auto-hiding setting from changing? I prefer to keep the dock "auto-hiding" setting on so that the dock is always hidden unless I mouse over it. I am aware of both the setting in "dock preferences" and the keyboard shortcut (⌥⌘D).

However, it seems that this setting will turn itself off, leaving the dock showing. It's usually when an application on another Space/Desktop steals the focus. It's easy enough to then use the keyboard shortcut to turn auto-hiding back on. But, it happens frequently enough that it's getting old.

It's not always the same app stealing the focus that causes this to happen. I'm not even sure if that's always what triggers it, but it usually seems to involve window focus and another Mission Control space.

I'm just wondering if anybody has encountered this and found a fix or the real root cause? Maybe some kind of defaults.write hack as a workaround?

interestingly, the answer at https://superuser.com/a/454391/196087 solves the problem:

in short, perform killall -KILL Dock and the dock will re-start, without the problem.


Apple spaces switching screens after sleeping I have a 2017 Macbook Pro. I connect to two external screens via a Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD. They are arranged external|external|internal left to right. I have my 'menu bar' dragged to the far left external screen in the Displays preference pane, which is where I want my dock (on the far left hand side).

My issue is that whenever I wake the machine from sleep, the internal and central screen switch spaces, which is infuriating as I have to drag them all back to the correct place all the time.

Some other places say try switching the screen the menu bar is on, but this isn't appropriate for me as it would move my dock position.

I have 'Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use' disabled in Mission Control settings.

Is there any way to solve this problem, so that the spaces remain on their correctly affiliated screens, or failing that a quick way I can (preferably with a keyboard shortcut) cause the spaces on screens 2/3 to switch all in one go without the laborious dragging of up to six spaces back and forth?

Have you been doing an upgrade instead of clean install? If so, you will definitely find issues like these.

Try using Onyx - https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html to clear the caches and run some maintenance. Hopefully your issue should get solved.


Is it possible to upgrade from Java 5 to Java 7 on OS X 10.5.8 - Leopard? I'm using OS X 10.5.8 - Leopard.
I updated Java via Software Update and the newest Java I could have installed in MacBook was Java 5.
This is the screenshot:

Can I somehow update Java 5 to Java 7?
If so, how can I do it?

It seems that Java 7 will not be provided for Leopard (or even Snow Leopard), and I haven't seen any work-arounds....

Here are the official requirements and Apple's update page which matches what you got in Software Update.


Use a bluetooth headset JUST as a microphone? This is hopefully a pretty simple question. Is it possible to configure a bluetooth headset to act as only a microhphone? I am using OSX Mountain Lion. I would assume the process would be something like:

Pair the headset with OSX
Set audio input to be the device instead of line in
Set audio output to be the normal audio output, and not the bluetooth headset

If there are any known issues or headsets I should stay away from, I would appreciate a heads up as well. We have a new HTPC, a mac mini connected to our TV via HDMI for video/audio, and we were hoping to install Rosetta Stone for the family to use in the living room. Wireless is a must for the microphone!

You may be able to configure a bluetooth headset only as a microphone, but Rosetta Stone would refuse to recognize that microphone. a USB or an analog microphone is a must. It will NOT accept a bluetooth microphone but will accept the speaker part of the bluetooth headset. I tried to get the microphone to work with Rosetta Stone but no go. Here's the link as proof:
http://support.rosettastone.com/articles/en_US/Text/Will-my-headset-work-with-Rosetta-Stone/?q=Text&l=en_US


Mac stolen in Pakistan My MBA got stolen in Pakistan three weeks ago. I contacted Apple help center to get the location of my device, but they replied that they cannot do anything because the location service is disabled on my Mac, so no one can track the location. But I just learned about WPS tracking on this site in a relevant topic.

Can anyone help me track my device?

I'm sorry to hear about your MacBook Air being stolen.

While there is software built in to macOS and separately available to track, monitor, or lock a device, this software must be installed and turned on ahead of time. Once the device is no longer in your position, there is no way to remotely activate any tracking feature.

If you mean Wireless Protected Setup, this is a feature of Wi-Fi routers to make connecting to the wireless network easier. It would not help you recover your stolen device.

I can't say I know much about Pakistan's laws, but I would recommend providing as much identifiable information about your MacBook Air (serial number, MAC address, proof of purchase, stickers or other external marks) to the local law enforcement. If the device is recovered, I would hope they would contact you.

Good luck.


Encryption of the whole Time Capsule drive I would like to encrypt the whole content of my Time Capsule HDD.

I selected "Encrypt backups" in Time Machine settings but I am not sure if encryption applies to the whole drive or just to the Time Machine backup.

Could you please advise? Also what is the right command to verify this?

My setup:

OS X Mavericks
3 TB Time Capsule with 802.11ac

Your backups are being encrypted, as you can see in the second screenshot (2,57 TB of 3 TB available, encrypted).

Time Capsule doesn't encrypt the whole drive, instead it creates an encrypted .sparsebundle file, which contains the computer's Time Machine backups. One of these files is created for each computer you back up.

If the whole drive was encrypted, then all backups would have to be made with the same key, which would not be very secure.


Can I restore from a Time Machine backup without booting to the Recovery HD? At work we have a Time Machine drive on the network. I'm trying to restore one of our machine's backup to an external drive. When I boot into the Recovery HD, I can't reach the network drive. Is there a way to restore a Time Machine backup without booting to the Recovery HD?

You can restore from a Time machine backup with the Migration Assistant app. You can find it at /Applications/Utilities/

I have never used it with networked Time Machine drives.


Turn OFF the white flash WITH 10.8.5 - the old solution is no longer an option I have ALREADY tried:

Within the System Preferences/Accessibility:  De-Select Flash the
screen when an alert appears.
Toggling Select then back to De-Select
While I found the solution to delete:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.universalaccess.plist - 10.8.5
replaced Universal Access with "Accessibility", which has no
apparent equivalent file within the Lib/prefs.  If there IS, please
let me know.

I really hate the white flash.  REALLY hate it.

BTW: I did do my own research before asking this question, including on this AskDifferent website.  The solution found on AskDifferent and other sites only work on older Mac systems (up to ~ 2011).  The ones with UniversalAccess.

Thanks, in advance for any useful input.
- Scott

The plist you listed is the correct one to remove. Remove it and try rebooting, and your problem should be resolved. If not, create a new user account and log into it, and see if the problem persists.


When you charge your MacBook, does it matter which thing you plug in first? Should you connect the power cord to your notebook and then plug the power cord into the socket, or should you plug in the socket and then the notebook?

Are there any recommendations from Apple?

Update: I have seen both recommendations. Most of the advice says to plug in the notebook first. Maybe it doesn't matter at all?

Apple recommends to plug the adapter into the wall before connecting it to the computer.
For more information, refer to the Apple Support article, Using and maintaining your Apple MagSafe Adapter.

Connecting the MagSafe Power Adapter to power
Make sure that the AC plug or AC power cord is fully inserted into the power adapter before plugging the adapter into a power outlet. And be sure to plug your adapter into the wall before connecting it to your computer.


How do I get a Unix Executable File to run from anywhere, like Java or Git? I've just created my first Command Line Tool in Xcode.

What do I have to do, or where do I have to put the final output file, so that I can run it from anywhere from within terminal, without having to go to the directory the actual Unix Executable File is in.

An example of this is the Java and Git executables, which I can run in the terminal regardless of the location I'm in.

You can add the location into your executable path.

Step 1: Use an editor to open ~/.profile

Step 2: Add the actual path into the file. For example, I added /Users/work/documents/fun/scripts into it and my ~/.profile looks like

export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/Users/work/documents/fun/scripts:$PATH

Step 3: Restart terminal, and issue which command. You should see the path of your program, and should be able to run the program regardless of your location.

which git
=> /usr/bin/git

Or another way, move the program into the existing executable path. To see existing executable path.

echo $PATH


Can I use Siri on my iPhone without having to speak? I have Hey Siri enabled and really love it! But sometimes when I want to use Siri I don’t want to speak out loud. Is there a way for me to manually use Siri with a keyboard instead of having to speak? I do not want to turn Hey Siri off. I just want the extra option.

You can do what you want with the Type to Siri option.

On your iPhone do as follows:

Open Settings
Tap on General > Accessibility
Swipe up until you see the Siri label
Tap on Siri and enable the Type to Siri option at top of screen
Exit Settings

Now when you hold your Home button down you’ll get a keyboard pop up from the bottom allowing you to type directly to Siri (see screenshot below):


How do I install software from a CD or DVD shared from a Windows 7 PC? I have a MacBook Air and I'd like to install CD- and DVD-based software on it without having to purchase an external CD/DVD drive.

I stumbled upon the CD & DVD sharing feature OS X supports but I've been having trouble getting it to work. I'm sharing my DVD and CD based software using a Windows 7-based PC with drive sharing enabled. But when I try to access the drive the Mac "thinks a lot" and then it says (roughly translated from danish):

  Action could not be completed, because the original subject to "Warcraft III" doesn't exist

I've tried this with multiple software discs, all have similar error message results when I try to access the shared disc from my MacBook Air.

How can I make drive sharing work from my Windows PC to my MacBook Air so that I can install this software?

Additional information:

MacBook Air is running OS X Lion
Practically no HDD-space used on the MacBook Air
The PC with the CD/DVD drive is running Windows 7

If you copy the CD to a disk image on the PC, you can put the image on a USB stick and transfer it to your Air. I am not sure how to do this on Window, but I'm sure you can find out how to do this somewhere.

WinImage looks like it should do what you want.

Also look at this article on creating CD images on Windows.


Share Site via local webserver I have a local webserver running on my machine (Mavericks). How can others on my network view the page that I'm hosting?

The easiest method is to find the IP address assigned to your computer by your local network. This is found in the Network section of System Preferences. Other people can access your local webserver by typing that IP address into their browser.


How can I delete some of the built–in text–to–speech voices? I was going to install two additional voices through Speech preference pane. I noticed the size of two voices is 1,3 gigabytes, which is a lot but manageable.

Looking at the list of already installed/downloaded voices (say -v ? in Terminal) I saw & heard many obscure voices that I probably wouldn't ever use; and I value having a few hundred megabytes (or few gigabytes) of free space a lot more than hearing someone talking while drowning or getting tickled.

How can I properly delete some of these (en_US "Funny") voices? By properly I mean in a way I don't accidentally break anything in the process. For example, directly deleting files from /System/Library/Speech/Voices feels a bit dubious…

Many of the voices that say -v ? lists are actually deactivated in the Speech preference pane, but if I tick them I won't get a warning that they have to be downloaded — so they reside somewhere on my Mac.

Removing voices

All voices are in /System/Library/Speech/Voices. Just like most other Library items in OS X, they are inherited, which means you could install them in /Library/Speech/Voices and ~/Library/Speech/Voices.

Removing items from /System/Library is indeed usually not a good thing to do, but here, it does not have any practical consequences beyond making the deleted voices unavailable. Indeed, the list in the System Preferences is dynamically generated from the items found in the said folder, just like the Sound alerts, or the wallpapers. You can confirm this by adding / removing / renaming elements in the /System/Library/Sounds folder, for example.

There's no other way to manage the speech items, but since this one is without consequences as long as you leave at least one voice, it is actually pretty nice to simply manipulate the filesystem. I have personally long removed Alex, along with other /System/Library and /Library items.

Installing voices / what to back up

As you underlined, Lion provides a “Customize” item in the list of voices that allows you to download voices in many languages. Therefore, if you ever delete the original “Alex” voice (the heavy one, 400+MB), you can download it again through this menu.

The “funny” voices, however, are not downloadable. You'll need to back them up if you want to remove them but keep a way to get them back (or you could use a package manager like Pacifist to extract only them from the Lion installer package, but that's a lot of hassle for not much). Nevertheless, considering they weigh, all together, less than 35MB, I'd let them in place.

Please note that you must leave at least one voice for the “Customize” item to be accessible. So, even if you want to remove all voices, leave at least one there, or you won't be able to install any again. “Fred” is the lightest “serious” voice, so I'd advise leaving it in any case.

Size note / a bit of history

As for the relative sizes, Alex is very heavy because it is of much higher quality, and is actually from a totally different generation than the others: it shipped with Leopard, while others have been around since Mac OS 7 (had a lot of fun with them, actually ;) ). Of course, Alex would have filled a full hard drive at the time. There's no "logic" that's shared between voices in those packages, hence the heavy weight of installing new “modern” voices in other languages.


Morphox plugins show all waves I'm in trouble with my Linplug - Morphox plugin; I mean, yesterday I installed the morphox.component into the right folder Macintosh-Library-Audio-plug ins- component.

When I open Logic Pro 9 (32-bit) and I choose the new AU, I put the correct serial number and everything works perfectly.

Today when I open Logic Pro 9 again, and I choose the AU morphox, any kind of wave, in the waves window, is shown, so no sound for me, but yesterday everything was working fine, and I saw the waves in the "OSC1" and "OSC2" windows.

I've attached a pic of morphox so that you can see what I mean at the left top of the pic, two windows without any wave.

I tried to uninstall it, but if I remove the component and the I paste the component again, I have the same problem; I would try to delete the validation key as well, so that when I restart it, I type the validation key again and maybe it would work, but how can I completely delete all files of the component?

Any idea how to fix this?

As far as I'm aware, Logic Pro X doesn't use 32-bit plugins, only 64-bit.
I'm not sure about Logic Po 9, but I thought that was 64-bit too.
https://splice.com/blog/using-logic-pro-x-with-32-bit-plugins/

Personally, I don't use Logic, I'm Cubase - but the latest Morphox is working fine in both 32 & 64-bit mode.

Install for both is pretty much drag & drop to the correct folders, prefs/sounds in /Library/Application Support/LinPlug/ plugs in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins, so I'm not sure reinstalling would help. I'd check with LinPlug that you have the latest version.  As of writing, that's v1.1.1 - http://www.linplug.com/morphox.html


OS X - AppleScript Question about moving files daily to another folder (folders vary) I am currently using this ( http://lifehacker.com/193778/download-of-the-day--auto+applescript-tickler-file ) for a tickler file system and have it setup in my Dropbox (so it works across systems). There are just a couple of things from making it perfect. If anyone can help me out that would be superb.

What I'm after is a script or workflow that will take the folders contents for the previous day (they change each day and are numbered) and move them to the current day. So then I can set it in as an alarm to perform in the morning every day.

Thanks very much.

If I understand your requirements correctly, then this script should do what you want. Make sure to change the username on the first line to your username.

set username to "lizzan"

set cy to (year of (current date)) as integer
set cm to (month of (current date)) as integer
set cd to (day of (current date)) as integer

set yd to yesterday(cy, cm, cd)

set yy to item 1 of yd
set ym to item 2 of yd
set yd to item 3 of yd

set yFolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:" & username & ":Documents:To Do:" & yy & ":" & ym & ":" & yd
set cFolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:" & username & ":Documents:To Do:" & cy & ":" & cm & ":" & cd

tell application "Finder"
    move every file of folder yFolder to cFolder
end tell

on yesterday(y, m, d)
    set d to d - 1

    if d ≤ 0 then
        set m to m - 1
        if m ≤ 0 then
            set y to y - 1
            set m to 12
        end if
        set thirtyones to {1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12}
        set thirties to {4, 6, 9, 11}
        if m is in thirtyones then
            set d to 31
        else if m is in thirties then
            set d to 30
        else if leapyear(y) then
            set d to 29
        else
            set d to 28
        end if

    end if

    set yd to {y, m, d}
    return yd

end yesterday

on leapyear(y)
    if y mod 4 is 0 then
        if y mod 100 is 0 then
            if y mod 400 is 0 then
                return true
            end if
            return false
        end if
        return true
    end if

    return false

end leapyear

Caveat: The script will fail (and have moved possibly only some of your files) if there is already a file with the same name in the folder it is moving to. If you want to replace the files in that case, and avoid failing, add with replacing at the end of line 18 (move every ... to cFolder with replacing).

Edit to add: Oh, just saw that you had it set up in your Dropbox instead of in the Documents folder. Just change the paths on lines 14 and 15 to reflect the path you're using, and it should be fine.


Google chrome disable autoupdate How to disable autoupdate on Mac OS X without removing any files or changing permissions?

Google has shared knowledge how to disable it correctly. You don't need to remove or mangle any files you have on your system.

You should set check interval to zero like this:

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

After you done you can update google products from command line or Finder by running CheckForUpdatesNow.command command which can be found in one of following locations:

/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/
~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/


Preview on Catalina fails to select or copy text in PDF After entering the Title for this question, I see numerous links to (perhaps) similar questions regarding Preview's failure to select or copy text from a PDF document. And so this question may do nothing more than document another malfunction.

My current system: The hardware is MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019), my OS is macOS Catalina, ver 10.15.3, the software is Preview, Version 11.0 (999.4). My research turned up this not-so-helpful (at least in this case) document from Apple Support.

I need to copy and paste data from bank statements that are delivered in PDF. I've done this for years, across several versions of macOS (most recently Mojave), and it's always worked. Today, for the first time, I downloaded some PDFs from the bank on my current system. Unfortunately, it seems Preview can no longer be bothered:

Preview was unable to select (or copy) any data from any of the three PDFs I downloaded todayNote1. Here's what I did in an effort to isolate the problem:

On my current system: I opened all 3 documents in both Chrome and Firefox browsers using the File... Open... menu. I was able to select and copy any passages I chose in both browsers.
On my current system: I opened several PDFs that I downloaded and saved from older macOS systems (Mojave, High Sierra, etc). I was able to select and copy any passages I chose.
I fired up my Mojave system, and opened all 3 documents in Preview ver 10.1 (944.6.16.1); I was able to select and copy any passages I chose.
I finally called "Apple Care" (now an oxymoron) to get help. After a 45 minute wait, and a lengthy conversation with "first level" support, "second level" support was summoned. Without hesitation, "second level" said this: "Apple doesn't actually support PDF files with Preview. There is nothing we can do to help you."

I know others have experienced problems with Preview and PDF files, but does anyone have any idea (or cogent theories) re the cause or the cure for this? For example, is it possible to downgrade to an earlier version of Preview on Catalina?

Note 1: While the PDF was loaded in Preview, command A would select a few odd passages from the document - these were the bank's logo at the top of each page, and a long string that had no meaning to me - perhaps an internal document number?

ICYI:

As it turns out, there is apparently an issue in Apple's Preview app. I took this issue up with another representative at AppleCare. Fortunately, this chap was not an arrogant idiot as the first one was.

I finally got some feedback on my case today. Here's a brief synopsis:

  I received feedback from our engineers. They confirmed that there is an issue  with the Preview feature in Catalina. They were able to reproduce the issue by testing it on Macs running both Mojave and Catalina and got the same result that you did. This is something that has been reported and will be addressed in a future software update.


Added memory does nothing to performance iMac, 27" screen.  Came with 4 gig of memory.  I never used all 4 gig until I started using IMovie.  Bought 8 gig extra memory, now have total of 12 gig.  Nothing speeded up at all.  When monitoring the memory, it seems that I'm always using over 8 gig and can only clean up the memory to about 6 gig.  How did I ever get by with 4 gig?  Nothing adds up.

The (good) old days where you had to manage your RAM usage are history.

Apple OS X does that for you.

Keeping free RAM is thing of the past. It did not make sense anyway to keep unused RAM.

The OS X manages the RAM for maximum efficiency, and speed.

In doing so it will load the RAM up to what is needed.

If your system appears to be slow, it is usually not the RAM, but some process eating up the CPU.

You can look up in the Activity monitor to see what is it.


Get Info of a hidden file (to change its default app) I have a hidden file (.htaccess). When I double click it I would like it to open with a certain app (Sublime Text for this particular file type). In order to set the default app I have to open the "Get Info" window for that file (Cmd+I).

However, that file is hidden. So I can't right button click (two-finger tap) it to select the "Get Info" option from the context dropdown menu.

So the question is how do I open the "Get Info" window for a hidden file? The goal is to be able to change the default app for that file type.

p.s. I do not want to make my hidden files visible. Even temporarily.

You can use the following shell function. This uses open information window which is much better than GUI scripting or keyboard shortcut scripting which relies on the file shown in Finder.

si() {
    osascript - "$@" <<-END > /dev/null 2>&1
    on run args
    tell app "Finder"
    activate
    repeat with f in args
    open information window of (posix file (contents of f) as alias)
    end
    end
    end
    END
}

Source: https://superuser.com/a/509080/

Run with

si /path/to/file


Issues with Unicode symbols in some applications running in Terminal.app and iTerm2 Darwin DeoGloria 13.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 13.3.0: Tue Jun  3 21:27:35 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2422.110.17~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

Fresh user account. Terminal.app and iTerm2 with UTF-8 set. Accented characters work fine in all applications ("å,ä,ö,é"). But some (wide?) unicode chars is not showing in some command line applications. I first discovered it in weechat, but in the bash shell it works fine.

In stock Mavericks bash:

DeoGloria:~ test$ echo -e "\xE2\x9A\x91"
⚑

Copying and pasting the flag char with mouse.

DeoGloria:~ test$ ⚑
-bash: ⚑: command not found

bash is working as expected. Starting default zsh, no config done

DeoGloria:~ test$ zsh
DeoGloria:~ test$ echo -e "\xE2\x9A\x91"
⚑

Showing alright. But not when I paste:

DeoGloria% <2691>
zsh: command not found: \u2691

Locale settings:

DeoGloria% locale
LANG="sv_SE.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="sv_SE.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="sv_SE.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="sv_SE.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="sv_SE.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="sv_SE.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="sv_SE.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

Starting emacs or vi from zsh and pasting "⚑" works fine. It doesn't work in nano. I get an non-visual character.

I suspected some issues with ncurses, but bash, zsh, nano, emacs are all linked with

/usr/lib/libncurses.5.4.dylib (compatibility version 5.4.0, current version 5.4.0)

I'm out of ideas. Any pointers?

Interesting question! I did some tests on my side.

zsh

xXx:~/ $ <2691>
zsh: command not found: \u2691
xXx:~/ $
zsh: command not found:
xXx:~/ $ ℃
zsh: command not found: ℃

I did also several tests with other shells and results are not the same:

sh

sh-3.2$ ⚑
sh: ⚑: command not found

bash

Ok, that should be the same as sh:

bash-3.2$ ⚑
bash: ⚑: command not found

csh/tcsh

[LeBouc-xXx:~] xXx% \U+2691
⚑: Command not found.

Apparently, all that shells are not set with the same input/output options. I tried with xterm/terminal and iTerm2 to see if I could be a software dependant problem. That's the same everywhere.

I don't have the time to search/read that but you might find some useful informations about the zsh line editor here.

If you find it, keep me up-to-date, I would be pleased to have the final answer to your question.


How do I use cmd+1 as a keyboard shortcut? cmd+2, cmd+3, etc, work In Preferences > Profiles > Keys
I've mapped cmd+1 through cmd+9 but cmd+1 alone does not respond.

Does anyone else have this issue?

This is for the latest iterm2, v2.1.1 and several earlier versions as well; it has never worked for me.

The problem is that iterm2 uses cmd+1, cmd+2 ... etc for switching between tabs by default. As long as you have first tab, cmd+1 is binded to switch to the this tab.

Workaround is to change Keys -> Navigation shortcuts -> To switch tabs: value to alt or any other except cmd.


iTunes 12.2 xml file is not present after upgrading my OS X to 10.10.4 and iTunes to 12.2 After upgrading my Mac OSX to 10.10.4 and iTunes to 12.2, the iTunes music library XML file is not created under /users/music/iTunes folder.
I tried creating the xml file manually, but it gets deleted after 5-10 seconds automatically.
Any workaround to resolve this problem?

iTunes 12.2 definitely still generates an iTunes Music Library.xml file. From my machine, running 10.10.4 and iTunes 12.2:

~/Music/iTunes$ ls -l "iTunes Music Library.xml"
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mj  staff  109833070 Jul  2 14:20 iTunes Music Library.xml

That date and time stamp are the date and time I last exited iTunes.

That said, you can recreate the XML file. Apple has document HT201561 that describes the process as well as the purpose of the XML file and when it gets recreated, but note all of the warnings in that document.

Update: The generation of the XML is now optional in iTunes 12.2 - check Preferences > Advanced and set the option Share iTunes Library XML with other applications


Boot iMac from Macbook The new MacBooks are the best

But their processors are pretty anemic. Not a big deal when I'm out and about, but not great for serious work.

What I'd like to do:

Get an iMac with decent specs, use its processor, RAM, etc., and boot from my Macbook's SSD.

What I've tried:

It looks like Target Disk Mode could accomplish this, but several things are unclear:

Would that even boot, or just allow me to browse the Macbook's SSD?
Could I use the Macbook as a secondary display? Feels a shame to waste it.

Yes, you can boot an iMac from the Mac Book volume using Target Disk Mode. The main issue to be aware of is many programs will ask you to log in again, including App Store apps.


iTunes track notifications for Mountain Lion In OS X Lion there was the preference (via a Terminal command) to enable iTunes track notifications that were displayed as a popup in the dock.

So far it seems as though Mountain Lion does not allow this, I was wondering if anyone knew whether the command had changed or if this is just not possible in OS X 10.8.

The Terminal command I had been using in Lion was:

defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool TRUE; killall Dock

As best as I've been able to tell, this feature has been removed.

There are two alternatives to the Lion-provided notification mechanism that provide a few more features and customizability.

If you have Growl installed, you can use GrowlTunes to provide Growl notifications on track and playback changes.

The official Last.fm Scrobbler app provides notifications via Growl as well, the bonus being that it's worth using if you also scrobble your playback history to Last.fm. If you don't you probably want to stick with GrowlTunes.

Growl is a generic notification system with a large amount of customizability, like the ability to customize the alert style. Growl has existed for OS X for as long as I can remember, years and years pre-dating even Tiger, iOS, and the Notification Center as well.


iPhone app install- automation I am trying to automate the installing procedure of iPhone apps (i.e) installing apps for around 5000 phones. For this I am planning to deploy an MDM server in Windows Server 2008 containing Active Directory. Once the successful registration of handsets is established the complete control of iPhone can be taken by the admin. I have following doubts:

1) My main objective is to push the apps that are available in the app store, hence Apple Push Notification Certificate will be sufficient to set up my MDM server and install apps?

2) Once the user registers his iOS device will I be able to install/uninstall applications into the device?

3) Can I implement payload mechanisms like AppLock Payload by just having Apple Push Notification Certificate?

What you want to do sounds possible with the steps you describe, except for 3). You haven't said which MDM server you plan on using but I'll assume it's one that implements the concept of Managed Apps.

Once your device(s) are enrolled with the MDM server, it can automatically push down whatever apps you wish to the device (either in-house/corporate or App Store). Those apps are considered Managed and you will have some control over them, including the ability to remove them remotely.

In specific answer to your questions:

Yes, once you have set up an MDM server and configured the APNS certificate (from https://identity.apple.com/pushcert/) you can enrol and manage devices through it.
Yes, once the device is enrolled you can push apps to it. The mechanism for this differs a little depending on which MDM server you use. Most will allow for auto-push during enrolment or a push notification prompt asking the user to install from the MDM server's App Store.
In order to use AppLock, the device must be Supervised. To enable Supervised mode on an iOS device, it must either be configured physically via a Mac + Apple Configurator or be a device purchased through DEP (Device Enrolment Program). Devices can be Supervised through an MDM server (so over-the-air) but they must be purchased as a DEP device through an authorised reseller in a supported country. Devices that are purchased outside the DEP program cannot currently be converted to DEP / Supervised at a later date.


Running Mac OS X in non-apple hardware I want to know if its "legal" to run Mac OS X in non apple hardware.

If not, what is the point of having to run Mac OS X in a apple hardware, when apple hardware is running Mac OS X already.

It is against the terms of the EULA:

  2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
  A. Single Use License . Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, unless you have purchased a Family Pack or Upgrade license
  for the Apple Software, you are granted a limited non-exclusive
  license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on
  a single Apple-branded computer at a time. You agree not to install,
  use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-branded computer, or to
  enable others to do so.

However, Apple has historically not prosecuted individuals who violate this for hobby purposes, and have only gone after people who sell preinstalled systems (such as Psystar) or published how-to guides that involve downloading pirated/pre-modified versions.  And, of course you get absolutely no customer support or guarantee that it will continue to work.


Replaced external monitor not recognized MBP 13" Retina I was successfully running two external monitors (not Apple Thunderbolt) from my 2015 MBP 13". They were both connected to the left side thunderbolt ports via HDMI to Thunderbolt cables. No problems.

I replaced one of the monitors and now both are the exact same monitor (ACER R240HY). The new one is not recognized. Cables are fine, when I swap thunderbolt ports the new monitor is recognized.

Cleared NVRAM, PRAM, and SMC. Didn't work.

Tried unplugging monitors and booting up with cables in first then plugging in monitor. Didn't work.

Searched and read threads for over an hour so asking here.

Thanks for any help!

Update per request:

Old/replaced monitor (Viewsonic) works in either port by itself
New replacement monitor works in only 1 port either by itself or with the original.
Original monitor works in only 1 port either by itself or
with the replacement.

In other words, both ports work, all monitors work, all cables work, but the replacement monitor is just not recognized in one of the ports (but it is recognized in the other.)

SPECS
Original Two Monitors that worked
ACER R240HY - using HDMI to Thunderbolt Cable
Viewsonic VA2455 - using HDMI to DVI/Thunderbolt adapter

Replacement monitor
ACER R240HY - using HDMI to Thunderbolt Cable

So you're not connecting them exactly the same. You're using two adapters on the Viewsonic (an HDMI-DVI cable and an HDMI-Mini DisplayPort cable daisy-chained together) and one on the old Acer. Now you're trying to connect two via HDMI-Mini DisplayPort cables.

I would suggest trying to connect one of your Acer monitors using a normal HDMI cable to the HDMI port on the right side of the MacBook and the other to the left Thunderbolt port using the HDMI-Mini DisplayPort adapter.


Why would the "Enable LTE" option be missing in an iPhone 5? I have a iPhone 5 updated with the latest IOS (6.0.1); when going to the cellular options, there is no "Enable LTE" option.

Could this be because my carrier (TIM, Italy) doesn't currently support LTE/4G? But shouldn't at least the option be there?

My carrier will start implementing LTE/4G in the next weeks/months, it should be available shortly in major cities, at least for testing; but if I can't even enable it on my iPhone, how am I going to test it?

The LTE toggle shows up when your carrier settings indicate LTE is available for your device.

If you have data, you can update OTA by going to Settings > General > About and waiting (or tapping on your current carrier settings to see the details).

A tethered check is also available by connecting your iPhone to iTunes and checking for an updated carrier profile for your provider. If there isn't, the most likely explanation is that your provider has not enabled LTE in their carrier settings. If so, contact your provider on whether any LTE (even if not theirs) will work on your iPhone.


How to change font color of notes made on Preview? Its possible to add notes in a pdf file with macOS Preview app, by doing:

Tools > Annotate > Note

Or usinng shortcut ctrl+cmd+N.

The note is enclosed by a colored box and its possible to change its (background) color by right-click on it.

While editing/composing note text color is black.

But (the issue is) notes showing on left panel by:

View > Highlights and Notes

Or using shortcut opt+cmd+4.

They appear with white font color and its almost impossible to read them, because color contrast between font and background is not good.

Main question: How can I change font color?

Additional question: Can I make font color the same on the left panel as it is on the note which appear on a page in the pdf file?

For me, this problem happened when I switched to "dark mode" from my system preferences. when I switched back to light mode, I could read the notes again. I didn't find another way around this :(


Mount password protected Samba share with Kerberos ticket My iMac is connected to the Active Directory server, with no additional GID and UID setup, I can login to the OS X using AD user credentials, but I also need to mount the Desktops and probably other shares.

The problem is that I use Linux hosted Samba servers, and I need to push the Desktop's share path to the OS X clients somehow. I can mount that using OS X' Samba client, but I need to do that automatically. As I'm already authenticated against AD, there must be a way to use my Kerberos ticket to access the share without password, isn't it?

Some guys say that it is possible with passwords stored in keychain, but I don't get it much, when are passwords stored in keychain?  Should I add it once, and will that work forever?

We use the dsconfigad tool - to enable single sign-on we need to fire the dsconfigad -enableSSO command, after that there is no need to retype the passwords, Kerberos tickets are being reused.

To mount a Samba share subfolder automatically, you need to enable "Show connected servers" in the Finder preferences, then use cmdK to connect to the subfolder in Samba share, and create an alias on Desktop or wherever you want, after you can disable showing connected servers on Desktop. Then you can just click on the alias and it will open the shared subfolder.


Video broadcasting application for OS X I need tips on a good application that you can stream "live" video and publish that on a website.

The source is raw video from a video mixer and i will have my os x machine in the middle and then out to one of my webservers.

Would UStream be what you are looking for?

Ustream is a free service (with a paid upgrade) for streaming from any platform to any platform. Users can view the video stream online or via a native app (iOS and Android). I highly recommend Ustream, as it works great and (best of all) is free. You can broadcast from the web interface:

Or from Ustream Producer (free), which is a native app that runs on both OS X and Windows:

Ustream Producer has many features including:

Screencasting
Single camera broadcasting
Save broadcast to watch later
Importing movies, stills and music

There are two paid upgrades for Ustream Producer, Ustream Producer Pro ($199), or Ustream Producer Studio ($549).

Ustream Producer Pro includes all the features of the free Ustream Producer, but also adds:

HD broadcasting
Multiple camera angles
HDV camera support
Titles, Layers, and Picture-in-pictures

Ustream Producer Studio adds:

Chroma Keying (green or blue screen support)
Audio Sync Delay
IP camera support

I highly recommend Ustream, as we use it for church and it works great!


Apple Watch indoor running error in calculating distance I'm using my Apple Watch 2 for indoor running and found that in the first Kilometer Apple Watch show 750 meters and go on. The calibration I found is good for outdoors. Is it possible to adjust and calibrate the indoor distance?

There is no such thing as calibrating WATCH Series 2 for outdoor use, since it has an onboard GPS receiver that is always active during outdoor run/walk/swim activities.

When you run outdoors, you are calibrating your WATCH Series 2 for indoor use. This requires using the default Workout app, with a good GPS signal (clear line of sight to the satellites), for at least 20 minutes.

For best results, Apple recommends running for at least 20 minutes, away from tall trees and buildings, preferably on flat terrain.

Repeat this process for various running paces. If you run a 12-minute mile during calibration, running a 9-minute mile indoors will yield inaccurate distance estimates.


Bonjour/Airplay in restricted College Network I am trying to connect my iPad (running 4.3.3) with my Macbook (running Lion) in my college dorm room using my college's Wifi. It uses 802.1X Authentication. I can't ping my iPad from my Macbook. Is there any way I can make Bonjour or AirPlay work? Is there a tool that proxies or routes the Bonjour service somehow?

If all else fails you can create a wireless LAN directly on your Mac and connect your iPad to this WLAN. TUAW has some good instructions on how to do this. To start pick the appropriate option in the Airport/Wi-Fi menu (picture shamelessly taken from the linked TUAW article):

The rest is pretty self-explaining.


Prevent notifications from other apps when specific app is running I have a GPS app (Waze) and when it runs, I don't want to recieve any notifications from Messages, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, etc.

Actually I don't want to recieve any notifications except phone calls. Is it possible to be in a "Driving mode" on my phone?

"Do Not Disturb While Driving" mode will be available in iOS 11. So a few more months patience and you have the feature you want.

  “It’s all about keeping your eyes on the road,” Apple Senior Vice
  President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said when
  introducing the feature at WWDC in June. “When you’re driving, you
  don’t need to respond to these kind of messages. In fact, you don’t
  need to see them"

Your iPhone will detect when it's in a driving car and put your phone on "Do Not Disturb While Driving" mode. You can also manually turn it on/off via Control Centre.


Remount drive without physically disconnecting? So I have unmounted a usb external hard drive but I went to re-mount it.  Is there a command that I can use to remount the drive?  Only way I know to re-mount a drive is to disconnect the usb cable from my Mac and reconnect it.

One-liner:

diskutil mount `diskutil list | grep "Volume Name" | sed -n -e 's/^.* //p'`

Find the disk identifier:

diskutil list | grep "Volume Name"

Example result:

4:   Apple_HFS Volume Name   100 GB   disk1s2
Mount the disk:

diskutil mount disk1s2


How to get rid of the way Google looks in Safari with the top and left toolbars All of a sudden, when I do Google searches in Safari 5.1.10, it now has a black toolbar at the top, options in a left handed column, and if I choose to look at the "images" tab there are only images displayed in four columns and when I click on the image it takes me to another page.

I checked other browsers (Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Camino) and they still look like Google used to.  They don't have the extra top and left menus and the images are packed next to each other.  When I click on one it opens up a little larger so you can view it.  Then if you like it you can click it to open the website where it comes from.

HOW do I remove this annoyance?  I've removed Safari and reinstalled it to no avail. I "think" this happened when I had to install Chrome a few weeks ago.  I've looked everywhere for some indication as to why this happened and how to get rid of it.

Does anyone have any good ideas?

Thanks!
Nathan

Google are 'punishing' users of old browsers by showing them a different UI. The only real way round it is to update your browser... or you could try this...

I found this advice on how to 'fake' the User Agent, but it doesn't claim to be a permanent fix, nor can I test it as I'm on Safari 7.

  Here's a temporary solution for Safari 5.1.10 on a Mac using Snow Leopard
  If you haven't set up Safari to have the "Devlop" menu available then you'll have to do that first by doing this...

  1: Select from the menu bar "Safari/ Preferences" and then select "Advanced" in the preferences window. Tick/ select the item at the bottom of the window labelled "Show Develop Menu In Menu Bar"

  Now in the Safari menu bar you will have a menu called "Develop"...

  Go to the "Devlop" menu and from the options pick "User Agent" and then "Other"...

  This will open up a window where you must now copy/paste the following line (or type it in)...

  Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/31.0
  Click on "Ok"...

  You should now have got rid of the old style Google look and it should be back to the new look. The only thing you will notice is some layouts will look a bit different but for the time being and until Google fixes this problem you at least have the "new look" back... :-)


Bluetooth audio problems on a MacBook I have a DR-BT50 bluetooth headset (they are headphones) that I want to use with my MacBook unibody. I didn't use to have any problems, but as of recently I am running into gaps/skips in the sound. This happens mostly in third party music players (including flash/youtube videos) although I see it in iTunes, just less often. I know my headset is ok, because it works perfectly with my phone. Also, interference is unlikely the problem, since the headset works well with the phone one foot away from MacBook, and one would think that whatever is interfering with the computer talking to the headphones would also mess with the connection to the phone. Anyway, I know it's a Bluetooth issue because I have absolutely no problems with wired headphones. That said, I have no idea where to start debugging it. I played with all the Bluetooth options I could find, and reset everything to factory defaults (erasing all devices and re-pairing) yet to no avail.

On top of this, maybe related or maybe not (this is an older problem) the Bluetooth audio connection sometimes becomes "garbled". What I mean by this is that, whenever  music is playing on the computer I just hear crazy digital noise on the headphones. No errors, no nothing, just continuous garble. I have to turn off Bluetooth on the computer and re-connect to make it go away.

Is there anything else I can do, or am I stuck with using wired headphones with my MacBook?

The best step to isolating your issue would be to collect some data about the bluetooth environment where you are using your mac. Radio waves come and go with other devices, new phones, degrading antennas and changes in bluetooth firmware.

The Bluetooth Explorer is the best tool I have found to troubleshoot bluetooth hardware and data. It's free as part of Xcode from the Mac App Store.

You can debug data issues, see the protocols that connected devices are using, and get to all manner of engineering data relating to bluetooth such as errors, relative signal strength indication (RSSI). It's hard to tell if this will help you, but it lets me know when a microwave or home phone was causing noise issues on several occasions when my hardware was otherwise working properly.


Google plus zip extracts as .EXE files I went to google plus autobackup and made and downloaded all my photos/movies as zip files. After finish, when I extract the zip files, they contain .exe files and no photos or movies. Anyone know how to fix this?

Btw, I use Archive Utility.

The photos are actually fine (they are JPG) but the videos are of the .exe format (well not really). If one opens the .exe files with (for instance) the VLC player, they play fine.


Bad configuration: cannot ssh As described in many other posts, after upgrading to MacOS Sierra I modified the ssh config file like so:

Host me
HostName login.hpc.ugent.be
User vscxxxxx
Port 22

Host *
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes

Still I get the following error:

$ssh -Y vscxxxxx@login.hpc.ugent.be
/Users/manfredo/.ssh/config: line 8: Bad configuration option: usekeychain
/Users/manfredo/.ssh/config: terminating, 1 bad configuration options

What am I missing?

Just remove the UseKeychain yes line from your configuration. The update broke existing setup by removing this option.


After update, background turned black, the dock is missing As you can see it, after updating the commandline tools for xcode, the background turned black and the dock is missing

the OS is macOS Sierra 10.12.4(16E195)

How can I fix it?

On rare occasions, I have had to go nuclear and clean out specific preference files:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

One might argue that you should back it up first. In that light, I suggest simply moving it out of the way and force-quitting Finder.

cd ~/Library/Preferences
mv com.apple.finder.plist com.apple.finder.plist-orig


Signed Mac Apps - error message Will the message " is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash" occur even if you just rename the application?

Renaming the application won't actually change anything in the file itself, hence not affect the restrictions from the App Signing, so no, it will not.


pinch to zoom with magic mouse in Mountain Lion I am unable to "pinch-to-zoom" on my magic mouse in mountain lion.  I am using better touch tool (but have tried disabling that and pinch-to-zoom still doesn't work).  In better touch tool under mouse > other gestures (zoom, etc.), it talks about changing sensitivities for normal predefined actions (which I think is what I want) and keyboard shortcuts (not what I want).  I have tried setting these higher and lower, but I still can't pinch-to-zoom with my magic mouse (like I can with my trackpad).

If anyone has any suggestions, I would much appreciate it!

Thanks,
Kevin

Maybe this app called MagicPrefs could help: http://magicprefs.com

It's expand standard capabilities of Magic Mouse.


New photos added to iPhoto aren't available for creating books Some time ago I started creating a book with iPhoto. Since then I uploaded new photos to iPhoto, but they are not available amongst the photos I can use to create the book.

How can I have them available? They are in the library.

I have always had to place new photos into my project to be able to use them.  Once I do they are listed among the available options in the Keepsakes editing screen.

To do this:

Select photos you want to use.
Drag and drop into your project shown in the left column under "Keepsakes".
Open your project.

Voilà! They should show up as options for use in your book.


Why is iMovie muting detached audio? I am using iMovie '11 on my MacBook Air. I am editing two video sources (used to capture the same action from different angles) together into one video, using the audio from one video source as the source throughout. This involves inserting Video B in place of Video A, and then detaching Video A's audio and expanding it so that it syncs up with Video B. I always detach Video A's audio, thus muting the clip's audio and creating an editable version of Video A's audio that I can then stretch out to sync with the inserted Video B footage.

Except now when I detach Video A's audio, it mutes both the clip AND the detached audio. The audio is still at 100% (I can see the waveforms too). It is not muted, as I tried muting and unmuting it. I have shut down iMovie and restarted it, as well as restarting my computer. None of this is fixing it. And it's vexing, of course, since I haven't changed any of my editing methods and this problem has just arose, and it's never happened before.

This is a fairly time sensitive problem. Does anyone have an idea?

Open a new project , make your audio changes, share into mov and move the new clip into your events to make your project. This isn't really the answer buta way around it tip some one hasan answer.


Apple TV - Remember Airplay speaker choice We have our Apple TV 4 connected to a projector and we're using an Airplay speaker. Upon wake-up the Apple TV defaults to the physical audio output; we have to switch it to the Airplay speaker each time.

Is there a way to persist the Airplay speaker choice so that the Apple TV keeps using it upon wakeup/startup?

As this issue still persist in 2019, wanted to add a temporary solution.

Big thanks to the answer from user quip above that pointed in the right direction: the Apple TV checks for Speakers before looking for a Network Connection.

The semi-solution is to set the Network Connection on the Apple TV to Manual.

Go to Settings > Network > Ethernet > Configure IP and select Manual.

You can just click on "Done" on all the prompts if you want to use the same settings as before.

After this fix, most of the time, the Apple TV remembers the AirPlay Speaker selected after wakeup.

Update: Here is a step-by-step video tutorial for the procedure: https://youtu.be/wb4-U0TUB0Y


Fix apple macbook pro 10.6.8 I have a Mac Book Pro 10.6.8 and I cant operate safari, and chrome is outdated? Is there anythingI can do, or do I just need a new computer? I was told my lap top was ancient.

On the assumption that your laptop is as old as the last Snow Leopard OS (10.6.8) that makes it 7 years old, and well into the age where it can be expected to stop working without warning. Browsers that ran on Snow Leopard are no longer supported by many websites so if you want to keep using it, you will be limited to mail, documents and basic internet usage.

So yes, whoever said your laptop was ancient was correct. Time for new hardware.

Good news is performance is way up, and prices are down. For example, My Air boots in 8 seconds and runs for 12 hours on the battery.

Do you have a backup of your laptop? My guess is No. Go buy an external drive and run Time Machine before your 7 year old internal drive decides to quit on you.


Why can't I see horizontal scroll bars in Finder? I have a MacBook, with el Capitan.

I am in Finder, looking at a folder which contains a lot of files. I have arranged by kind, which means that I have to scroll horizontally to see all my folders. But there is no horizontal scroll bar. The only way I can scroll is by using the arrow keys. This happens in any folder in icon view using Arrange By kind, where there is so much content that you need to scroll.

I tried going into Settings | General | and selecting "Always" for "Show scroll bars" but it made no difference.

Does anybody know how I can fix this?

This is what I see:

You're not missing anything, this is just how Apple chose to design this view, presumably because there could be hundreds of items of each file type, but they wanted to show as many file types as possible at once. You have to scroll through using the arrow keys, by two-finger dragging, or using Shift-scrollwheel (I assume—I don't have a mouse to hand). Or you can click "Show All" to show all the items arranged in a more conventional grid.

The "stacking" of folders at the right hand side is meant to be the visual cue that this is the case.


How to remove .DS_Store from command-line auto-completion using cd? I understand that .DS_store files serve a purpose. That said, they are a nuisance when auto-completing with the cd command. When I type cd in Terminal and press tab twice it lists all directories in the working directory.

Is there a way of removing .DS_store from this auto-complete directory listing in the terminal?

export FIGNORE=DS_Store works for me.

The GNU Bash manual provides extensive information on programmable completion.

Specifically, from the documentation on bash variables

  FIGNORE [is a] colon-separated list of suffixes to ignore when performing
  filename completion. A file name whose suffix matches one of the
  entries in FIGNORE is excluded from the list of matched file names. A
  sample value is ‘.o:~’

If you are concerned that there might be existing suffixes in FIGNORE, then you can use:

export FIGNORE=$FIGNORE:DS_Store


Apple IpadOS / ios HTML editor which will sync with Amazon AWS S3 buckets Hi so I'm looking for an Apple IpadOS / IOS app that'll edit a HTML file stored in an Amazon S3 bucket, and update, and upload it back. I could only find "Code Editor" by Panic for Ipados, but there seems to be no other app to sync to Amazon s3 buckets?

Can anyone suggest me an app or upcoming app? The only other way I can think of is to open a SFTP link to the bucket somehow. Does aws s3 have this feature? Thanks much!

There's an app now that does this in iphone and ipad .. Filebrowser for Business, supoorts AWS S3 syncs.

Link to Apple App Store


Does it make sense to turn a closed Mac upside down when it's hot? After some period of work with my MacBook Pro its bottom part can be hot.

If I want to take a break and close the Mac - does it make sense to turn it around - the bottom part will be on top. Is it better for the working of the fan?

I have seen some users turn their notebooks around the way that the bottom part doesn't have contact with the surface anymore.

There is no need to do anything special with regards to your Mac feeling hot. Your Mac's fans are managed by the System Management Controller (SMC) which will ensure that your CPU etc are protected in the event your Mac overheats to the point that it could cause damage.

Your question doesn't actually specify what temperature your Mac is at, so it's impossible to comment on whether it's too high. However, MBP models usually range from about 40ºC (104ºF) to 100ºC (212ºF) depending on whether the CPU is idle or under load. CPU temps (just like ambient temperatures) typically have a bearing on GPU temps too, especially within the extremely confined spaces of a MacBook.

If you'd like, you can refer to the Intel Mac Temperature Database to see the various temperature ranges reported by users. You can also filter the list by model etc.

If you're still concerned, you can also Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac to see if this has any noticeable impact on what you're experiencing.


MacbookPro Won't Boot without Live USB-Key. Screwed up bootloader? Following a Hard-drive crash, i replaced the Toshiba original HDD With a brand new Seagate ST500LT012-1DG142 Media Hard Drive.

The OS X Mountain Lion installation went fine, however i'm stuck at the white screen durring boot. after a few minutes the question-marked folder shows up.

The workaround i've found is booting with a Ubuntu live USB key. In that case, the HDD is seen in ubuntu, i can browse it just fine, and if i reboot after opening a session in Ubuntu, MacOs Boots up normally.. oO
So i assume it's not a hardware problem. Partitions seems to be okay as well, diskutil list output :

/dev/disk0
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            499.2 GB   disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

Any ideas? Is there any way to check the EFI Partiton? OS X works fine in itself, and i'd appreciate to avoid a re-install, as my bandwith is not so good it takes a lot of time...

You can mount the EFI partition with diskutil mount /dev/disk0s1
It should be empty, save for some firmware files etc in the APPLE dir - it's not normally used for the bootloader, but does make use of applicable files there if it can find any - so it is indeed a good guess that there is something in there throwing it off. The reason it works when you start by booting externally is likely the clean ESP on your external USB.

You can have a look around, and if you wish, just nuke the entire contents - again it's not used for booting OS X and anything in there will be recreated as needed, on the Apple side anyways.


Can I prevent my (jailbroken) iPhone from retrieving mail between certain hours? I have a jailbroken iPhone which is set up to retrieve mail every 30 minutes.

Is there a way I can prevent this from happening at 3am when I'm trying to sleep?

It does not look like there is that level of configuration granularity on iOS for the iPhone out of the box (non-jailbroken).

One of the common jailbroken apps; 'SBSettings' also don't seem to have a specific setting option for scheduling push times...

One option might be, if you don't want to be disturbed at all is to switch to "Airplane Mode" before you go to sleep. But note this will prevent receiving calls and text messages also.

Or simply turn off "fetch data" (or set it to "manually") before you go to sleep.

Steps:

Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data > Push = Off | Fetch = "Manually"


Starting macbook air automatically How could I possibly eliminate the user accounts at login to start my mac automatically?

Actually I have a couple of user accounts both admin / guest however I do not want to login by entering passwords..

How could I set it up such that it starts automatically without requiring any verification?

Sure you can. On System Preferences → Users & Groups under Login Options you have Automatic login where you can chose an user.

When you select an user there, It will automatically login when you switch your Mac.


how to swipe Mail in iOS I don't remember if I was using android or the gmail app, but I was able to swipe to move to the next or previous mail (in any of the mail apps).

I am now using an iPhone, so how can I achieve this? is it configurable? another mail app?

Apple's native mail app doesn't allow swipe to work that way on iPhone since swipes are for marking / archiving / moving or deleting by design.

On larger iOS devices - portrait mode works the same as the iPhone (non S size) but landscape mode has a navigation sidebar for navigating.

It's not a swipe, but it helps triage mails for me.

You might look at Inbox by Gmail on iOS - it has a snooze feature that could be used to swipe past mails like tinder allows you to swipe to filter and file a queue of people.


How to change AppleScript path to a Terminal-style path? I have a custom Service that I've created in Automater (I'm on OS X 10.6.5). The Service executes an AppleScript which in turn executes a shell script. Here is the AppleScript:

on run {input, parameters}
    -- do shell script "/usr/bin/find " & input & " -type f -name .DS_Store -delete -print"
    display alert "Path: " & input
end run

The problem is, the path passed by the Service (in the variable input) looks like:

Macintosh HD:Users:Matthew:Documents:Programming:Apple Scripts:

And for the command to execute properly, the path needs to look like:

Macintosh\ HD/Users/Matthew/Documents/Programming/Apple\ Scripts/

So, is there a way to translate the first path to the second path? I was hoping for a core function which handles this. But I suppose some kind of regex/find/replace/etc would work? I'm familiar with HTML/CSS/Javascript/PHP, not with Cocoa/AppleScript/C. Any direction or suggestions would be great!

Use quoted form of the POSIX path of input.  Without the quoted form of part, it won't handle funny characters (like spaces) in filenames correctly.  See this Apple technote.


Duplicate FileVault setup using using fdesetup I upgraded to OSX 10.10 Yosemite yesterday, and accepted Apple's offer to encrypt my hard drive as a part of the upgrade process. However, Apple did not offer me a recovery key and did not offer to store a recovery key for me on their own server. Is there a way for me to obtain those features without decrypting+encrypting?

I do know that I can set a personal recovery key from the terminal using:

sudo fdesetup changerecovery -personal

but what about saving a recovery key with Apple? My guess is that the OS upgrade did not do this for me:

sudo fdesetup hasinstitutionalrecoverykey
Password:
false

Trying changerecovery -institutional seems to require configuration before usage:

Error: Institutional recovery key could not be added or changed.

The first thing I'd like to point out is that institutional has everything to do with your school, company, or other organization which manages your computer.

If that doesn't apply to you (and you'd know if it did) then rest assured that hasinstitutionalrecoverykey doesn't apply to you.

I suspect that your drive is encrypted & backed with your AppleID. To confirm, run sudo fdesetup list -extended and look for an iCloud User listing.


Remove MacBook from Apple ID, is extended warranty still valid after that? I want to sell my old Retina MacBook.

I know how to erase/reinstall the Retina MackBook, but two more questions remain:

How can I unregister it from my Apple ID?
Is the extended Apple Care Warranty still valid after that?

Just logout (and install it from scratch after format) or check this Kb
Apple Care is bought for a device, so yes.


Change safari microphone input device My microphone is not working in Safari, but works in all other apps. I can't even find the Safari audio input/output settings.

As a general rule, which sound input device is used is controlled by the OS in System Preferences > Sound > Input (as shown in the second image below) and some, but not all, apps one can choose a sound input device other than the one set for the OS. For example, in Audacity you can select other than the one set for the OS.

However, I am not aware of a built-in preference in Safari that lets one choose a sound input device. There is a microphone setting in Safari, but it doesn't offer control over which sound input device to use.

Have a look in: Safari > Preferences > Websites > Microphone


Command + C does not always work from the first try in Microsoft Word (Office 2011) I have no idea why COMMAND + C doesn't always register from the first time. I sometimes try to copy something off Word, but I have to press COMMAND + C more than once for it to register, otherwise COMMAND + C just prints what was copied in clipboard before. This becomes very irritating.

However I realised that if I press COMMAND then pause for a second, THEN press C, the command always registers.

EDIT

I noticed that when I select any text in word, it takes about a second for the Cut and Copy buttons to be highlighted (otherwise they're greyed out). And THIS has direct effect on this problem. Only when they are not greyed out anymore can I copy and paste using keyboard shortcuts correctly.

What is happening ?

This issue is real and I think every mac user experience it on a weekly basis, but likely people continue to doubt themselves over if they actually command c or not properly.
The fix. If you are using Karabiner like real hacker should:
Just add this to your karabiner complex configurations:
[
    {
        "from": {
            "key_code": "c",
            "modifiers": {
                "mandatory": [
                    "left_command"
                ]
            }
        },
        "to": [
            {
                "key_code": "c",
                "modifiers": [
                    "left_command"
                ]
            },
            {
                "key_code": "c",
                "modifiers": [
                    "left_command"
                ]
            },
            {
                "key_code": "c",
                "modifiers": [
                    "left_command"
                ]
            }
        ],
        "type": "basic"
    }
]

Now that should make the copy flash a few times in the menu.
You can increase or decrease as much as you want. Personally I have a few more.


Group Significant locations by date instead of location I find the "Signficant locations" feature in IOS very useful.

(Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> System Service -> Significant Locations)

I will look through it when I do my time/billing as a reminder of where I've been.

However it groups the data by location, so if I want to find out where I was last Tuesday, I have to check every location in the list to try and see if that date is present.

Is there a 3rd party app that uses that very same data that groups it differently?

Unfortunately, this can't be changed and I don't know a way to retrieve this data.

There is an app that does this. Find My Family, Friends, Phone. Whilst the main use is family tracking it can be used to see location history. It offers 7 days history and 30 if you pay.

Another app that offers this is Google Maps. It offers a Your Time Line feature. You can see a history of each day. While not listing the places like iOS it is very similar.


What's a simple & reliable way to transfer & listen to mp3s on my iPhone? Please don't say iTunes.  I've owned countless iPods (including the original) and iPhones (including the original) and iTunes has never been a reliable means for getting content on to an iOS device.

I basically have a bunch of mp3s (~4,000) that I listen to on my desktop & my iOS device.  I regularly run into the "dotted circle" issue, resulting in only some of my music being transferred.

I've searched & tried the various tricks on Stack Exchange, as well as elsewhere on line.

Specifically:

I've reset my device but this is not practical to do on a regular basis and it hasn't worked.  It results in a different, random subset of my songs being transferred.
I've tried removing all my music & resyncing.  This doesn't work.  It results in a different, random subset of my songs being transferred.

At this point, I want to give up on iTunes.

I just want something to get my music on my iOS device & enable me to listen to it.

I'm not interested in cloud services, despite Apple's push.  I already own most of the music I want to listen to & I'm not into new music.  I already paid for the music I have.  It seems silly to now "rent" it.

I'm fine with not fancy.  I have no need to for fanciness.  I don't care about machine learning, auto playlists, content discovery.

Again, I just want to transfer & listen to my music.

I'm totally fine if this is requires new apps.  As long as it transfer music & there is a "play" button, I'm happy.

Similar questions from my research (that don't actually help in this case):

Music files don't copy from iTunes to iPhone, appear grey with a dotted circle
iTunes refuses to copy music to iPad

If you don't use Apple Music I would suggest something like iMazing (satisfied user for over a year) or another iTunes alternative with music management option.

Another solution is using Infuse or VLC as a player instead of the native Music app, you can import songs with File Sharing in iTunes and it shouldn't be affected with the 'dotted circle' bug.


Why are new Apps only compatible with the latest version(s) of Mac OS X & not backward comatible with earlier versions of the Operating System? I have noticed that many Apps require at least Mac OS X 10.7.4 to be installed on an apple mac and some apps even require Mac OS X 10.8 to be installed. Cant apps be made backward compatible for those users who may well be on earlier versions (ie Snow Leopard & Leopard). Is this also therefore a very good reason to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system ?

The main reason is that the OS changes. This means that there are new functions that are available in the new OS to the developer. If the developer makes use of them then it is not possible or at least much harder to write the code to support the OS.

One example is the Mac App Store to be able to use this you need a newish version of SNow Leopard and it is not possible to provide a way to use in in Leopard.

So a developer has to make a choice, provide some functionality that only works on a new OS or write code much more quickly that only runs (or is tested under the new OS) or invest time (and thus money) in supporting the old OS but make the app available to more users.


Control iPhone Remotely Can you control an iPhone remotely using Mobile Device Management protocol? or any other protocol/service? Of course, the user's consent will be obtained before performing any actions.
I am mainly interested in changing the settings and manually selecting a carrier on behalf of the user. Any suggestions are welcomed.

Settings have many MDM hooks. You can experiment for free cloud based solution like JAMF now to get started.

https://signup.jamfcloud.com

Carrier settings are much more tricky, most get set by the carrier over the air and depend on whatever sim is sent out and physically installed, so you’ll likely need something other than a MDM for that.


Do I need a Thunderbolt display adapter or should an older mini DisplayPort adapter work? I am experiencing screen flicker (so bad as to be unusable) from a late 2011 Macbook Pro on an external display connected via a mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter (official Apple version). Is it possible that this is caused by not having a Thunderbolt to DVI adapter? Do I need to update the adapter or should this work?

No, such an adapter does not exist and is unnecessary. Since Thunderbolt is backwards compatible with Mini Display port.   If you look at accessory options for the MacBook Pro, you will see only the following display output adapters available:

  Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter
  Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter
  Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter

So Mini DisplayPort is the correct adapter type. However, there are two DVI adapters to choose from. It depends on what display your are using and if it needs a single link or dual link DVI connection.

Generally speaking computer displays with a native resolution less than or equal to 1920 x 1200 are single link DVI, while displays larger than 1920 X 1200 are dual link DVI. Check your monitor's specification and requirements to be sure.

If you have the right resolution settings and adapter and the flicker persists I would trouble shoot and rule out each piece of hardware to figure out where the problem lies.

In the display
With the adapter / cabling
With the MacBook Pro


macOS - External drives doesn't show up in Finder External hard disks and pen drives connected via USB no longer show up in Finder.

What could be the possible reason, and how do I resolve this issue?

I have had this issue, on my 2017 MacBook Pro (2 USB-C ports) - and I found that the problem is resolved by resetting the Mac's System Management Controller (SMC).

Power your machine down, wait a couple of seconds - then press the left-hand side Shift-Control-Option at the same time, as well as the power button, for 10 seconds (I count slowly, so more likely 15 seconds when I do it). Release the keys and then power your machine back on.

Hopefully it will now register the external drives.


Mac usually can't read data from iPhone over USB I have an iPhone 6 Plus and a 2015 MBP.  Both are running the latest OS.

My goal is to transfer photos from the phone to my Mac.  I've been able to do it before.  But now, here are the symptoms:

When I connect the phone to the Mac, the Photos Import program immediately displays "Philip's iPhone" in the Import section.
When I click "Philip's iPhone", Photos Import sits with a blank screen for 2--10 seconds, then pops up a dialog box that I need to unlock the phone, and the phone prompts me to Trust the computer.  I click Trust.
Photos Import continues showing "No Photos".

Meanwhile, I have iTunes open.  Once I go through the above steps, iTunes pops up one of two messages: "Could not read from the device" or "Could not send a message to the device".  There is no phone icon in the top-left corner of the iTunes window.  Closing iTunes has no effect on the steps above.

Once today the Photos Import app actually showed my photos, and I was able to import half of them until the transfer suddenly stopped.  I was holding the phone in my hand at the time, so maybe something is physically loose.  However, jiggling the cable hasn't helped.

I've tried several cables and both USB ports on the Mac, without any change in behavior.

I am mystified.  Suggestions?

The problem disappeared after I updated to iOS 11.


Software is corrupt that worked only months ago? I have been trying to use the Java Decompiler, JD-GUI, on my 2007 iMac running OS X 10.9.5 for the past week, but I have been running into a road block.

Only a few weeks ago, I did not have this problem. What I've normally done is have the disk image in my Downloads directory, and I open the disk image and used the application from the image directly. However, one day, I received that error for the first time, so I went and redownloaded it from the provider of the software, but kept running into the same issue.

I have tried this from multiple Internet connections to no avail.

Also worth noting I think is that when I drag the application from the disk image, its file size is only 2KB, which is a problem. Upon opening the application then, it says the application is corrupt and it moves it to the trash.

Is there any fix or workaround for using this software? I'm trying to understand why it was working only a few short months ago.

JD-GUI can be found here: http://jd.benow.ca/

Edit: Worth noting is that the checksum values match for both the downloaded copy and the one listed on the download page! Perhaps an issue with 32-bit vs 64-bit libraries?

Apple's OSX Mavericks 10.9.5 update changed some app signing rules.  I'm not sure if that's exactly what's happening with JD-GUI, but it seems plausible.

To bypass the Gatekeeper check that's popping up the error, launch the app directly from a Terminal prompt:

$ /Applications/JD-GUI.app/Contents/MacOS/jd-gui &


Why can't I use my buds as 2-channel now, when I've always used them as 2-channel? I use Razer wireless earbuds with both my Mac computers and my iPhone, but recently, on my 2020 MBP with macOS Catalina 10.15.7 they just stopped outputting any sound and I can't, for some reason, use master volume slider in midi at all.
I have tried to un- and re-pair the buds but to no avail. I tried other headphones and speakers, and those all worked.  More mysteriously, the earbuds work on all of my other devices. I've also tried tampering with the format of the sound - I changed it to 1 channel (16-bit), and the Razer buds worked, but the sound was awful, like from a tin can.
Any theories as to why all of a sudden they appear as muted while using 2-channel format, and how to change that back?

I think it's always been that way, but I have no idea why.
If an output has a joint channel, like the older single speaker "built-in output" then it has a single master fader & the two separate channels are disabled.

If it has distinct channels, then the channels are active & the Master is disabled.


iPhone FTP utility with automatic backup? I am searching for an iPhone utility / application with an FTP client that can do automatic backup without user intervention. More specifically, I'd expect to configure the utility once and specify (somehow) that I want a certain type of file (e.g. photos) backed up automatically, in the background.  As an example, if I specified photo backup, I'd want the new photos to be ftp'ed in the background, shortly after they're created.

I've searched for hours on the AppStore and already bought two top rated FTP clients. Neither does what I want. Perhaps this is due to a limitation of the iPhone architecture?  If so, I'd be amenable to running a jail-breaked phone, if such application were available.

Any pointers gratefully appreciated.

BTW, I've specified FTP rather than than another protocol/service since the goal is to upload photos directly to a host that I control (where the photos will be further processed into a report and sent to a customer).  For this reason, it's important that the photos are moved as fast as they're created and, unlike ITunes/Dropbox/GoogleDrive/etc, they need to move to a computer that I control.  I mention this because IF an application can accomplish the aforementioned task without FTP, that's fine.

What you want can be done with Apple's iCloud backup (on your iPhone go to: Settings, iCloud, Storage & Backup, iCloud Backup). But you ask specifically for a whole iPhone backup over FTP.

You can also use your WiFi to backup your iPhone via iTunes. To set up Wi-Fi syncing, connect your iOS device to your computer with the included USB cable. Click the Device button in the upper-right corner. (If viewing the iTunes Store, click the Library button first.) If you don't see your device, choose View > Hide Sidebar. In the Summary tab, select "Sync with this [device] over Wi-Fi."

There are some good non Apple programs to backup your photo's over the internet (bittorrent sync, Dropbox, Copy for iOS, and much more), but none use old school FTP.

If you specifically want FTP, you should jailbreak your iPhone, setup your FTP connection and run a Cron job which syncs every x hours. I would strongly recommend not to go this way, it will eat your battery and FTP is not the correct way to do this, I would greatly suggest rsync over SSH. Or use SFTP. But yet again, I would strongly recommend not to go this way.

If you want to drop every photo you make onto an FTP host, you can do this if you setup an OS X device in between. You can use iCloud-Photostream to send the photo's to your photostream. Now, when your mac is running, it will automatically download this stream and store the foto's in ~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub. Now you can use any software to start syncing your mac. For example you can create 'Folder actions' to start an FTP upload every time the folder gets a new image.

Another possibility is to make the photo from within file-exchange app like Dropbox or bittorrent sync or one of the others. The app will automatically upload your photo's to other devices.

I would go for the iCloud-Photostream -> Mac -> Client if I had to use it myself. I would go for creating the photo's from within the file-exchange app if I had to explain my mother how to do it. Furthermore, what are you planning to do with your backups? You can not use them to restore your iPhone, you need an iTunes or iCloud backup for that.


What will "rm -rf /" actually do? I know that this is a very dangerous command, but what does it actually do. In other words, to what extend does it delete the hard drive. Does it delete only the user data? Or does it delete root OS files as well. If someone were to activate this command, would it break the OS?
Running as sudo on Yosemite

The command itself is "rm", which is a program used to remove a file.

The "-rf" is the first argument to the program. Arguments can be thought of as "settings" or other information that you want the program to use while performing its task.

"-rf" is really a short hand for two seperate arguments, "-r" and "-f":

-r means that you want the program to not only remove files, but also directories, and that you want the program to remove not only the files/folders that you request, but also any subfolders and their contents.

-f means that you do not want to be prompted for confirmation on each delete, and that attempts should be made to delete every file/folder listed, no matter if you have permissions to do so orr not.

The last part of the command "/" is actually the list of what you want the program to delete. In this case "/" means the "root" (the top) of the file hierarchy. In practice this means to do delete everything on your system - including files on external drives that may be mounted.

The command does not discriminate between user data or operating system files. As long as you have permissions to delete a file/folder, it will be deleted.

When run as sudo (i.e. with root permissions) under Yosemite, it will break the system so that it doesn't function afterwards.

For newer versions of macOS, destruction will be limited by the SIP system that protects the operating system core. However, still do not run the command with sudo, as you risk ruining the system and deleting your own data.


How to print from an iOS device to a remote office? I've done a bit of research on the Internet, and it looks like I'm at a dead end.

My goal is to minimize cost, and be able to send and print documents automatically (approximately 10 or 20 pages per day) to a laser printer in a remote office.

The preliminary method is to use: iOS 5.1.1 (jailbroken) with 3G connection, HP (or other brands) printer with AirPrint, iCloud Documents and maybe write some launchd scripts to monitor any new documents in iCloud. Maybe with other software. I am not sure yet.

By using the cloud, I can upload new docs to the cloud anywhere in my city, and the iOS will be able to see them within a reasonable amount of time, then print it.

But it seems this combo is not workable.

Anyone got any advice on how to make this set up work, or propose other alternatives? Currently I have a 3GS with 3G connectivity spare. Need to buy a new printer though.

AirPrint isn't likely to help you here. It's a basically a local network only technology, because of how it functions, it's very unlikely that you could get it working over an iOS device's 3G connection. The only way I could see it working is with a VPN, but I'm not aware of any solutions that can pipe AirPrint over a VPN.

What I would suggest (in rough form) is using email or Dropbox to send documents to be printed remotely. Pretty much any document you can access on iOS can be sent via email or Dropbox.

The basic idea is a computer running in your office that monitors an email address and/or a Dropbox folder, and automatically prints email attachments or files in the Dropbox folder. How you go about this depends on what software you're running on that computer, but on a Mac, you could print email attachments using Mail.app's rules filtering and some AppleScript, or files in Dropbox using a Folder Action.


Cannot make iCloud backup with iPhone 5 My iPhone 5 cannot make any backups anymore. My last backup is from June 2015. I have checked if:

I have enough space in iCloud (about 3 GB).
The size of the backup (approximately 790 MB).
Removed many photos from my iPhone.

Followed these steps:

Turn off iCloud drive, reboot, and turn on safety backup again (no success).
Turn off iCloud, reboot, and turn on iCloud again (no success).
Sign out of iCloud. turn off phone, turn on again and login to iCloud again (no success).
Removed my latest backup in iCloud (which turned of safety backup) and turned on safety backup. Again with no success.

And what makes it even worse is that the iPhone reports no error message telling me why my backup failed.

How can I make this work again?

Links I already read and used:

iPhone 5 backup to iCloud not starting

Can't backup iphone to icloud

In Dutch: Kan geen reservekopie meer maken in iCloud met iPhone 5

There is an option to start backup manually. Did you tried that? If so what it tells you.

Also, as far as i know you need to have a wifi connection for backup to work.

PS: i wanted to post this as a comment but dont have enough rep yet. So if someone put that on comment i can delete answer, since its really not an answer