iOS Photo No Longer Optimising Storage I have always kept Optimise iPhone Storage under iCloud for Photos on. Since last week however, it has stopped optimising and saving space locally on my phone.

One possible cause is the use of Google Photo's backup and sync function. I turned that on in Google Photos again after a long time last week in order to share an album with Android users. Google search suggests that Google photos would download the full res photos from iCloud in order to upload them. My iPhone's free space did plummet from more than 10GB free to now less than half a GB free.

Yesterday, I turned off backup and sync in Google Photo and later uninstalled the app. But Photo is still taking up 34GB of my local iPhone storage. Now I have 80/200GB free on iCloud, less than 500mb free on my phone, Photo app is telling me it has stopped updating because I am low on storage.

I have kept my phone plugged in all night and on a fast wifi. The Photos storage remained at 34GB after 12 hours unfortunately.

How do I make the Photo & iCloud optimisation runs again to free up my phone storage?

PS: My iCloud photo library is up to date. Yet in my iPad, my photo library is taking up less than 3GB of space. So somehow it has to be the full size download in my iPhone that is taking up a whooping 30GB of space.

This happens on occasion. For some reason Photos stops removing full-resolution versions of photos. If your iCloud Photo Library is up to date, go into Settings / Photos & Camera and disable iCloud Photo Library.

This process may take a long time, and will leave all your full-resolution downloads on your device.

You can open the Photos app to see the number of photos decrease. Don't do anything until it's stabilized. Once it has, wait a few more minutes just to be sure, then delete all remaining photos. Remove them from Recently Deleted as well.

You can now reboot and turn iCloud Photo Library back on with Optimize Storage enabled.


Add shortcut for multiple terminal commands? I find myself doing this too often - navigate to a folder, "Open Terminal Here", then "mate .", then "python -m SimpleHTTPServer"

I was wondering if it's possible to add a button to the finder toolbar that when I click it runs those two commands for me for the folder that I'm currently in?

Thanks

The following AppleScript should work, which you can save as an application and put in your Finder toolbar.

tell application "Finder"
    try
        set folderPath to (quoted form of POSIX path of (target of front window as alias))
        tell application "Terminal"
            do script "cd " & folderPath & "; mate .; python -m SimpleHTTPServer"
        end tell
    end try
end tell


Is it possible to have 2 iCloud email accounts in IOS 5? Under a Mobile Me Family Pack, I set up a secondary email account for myself, giving me two "username@me.com" addresses. When I transitioned to iCloud, I used my primary Mobile Me account, which I set up on my Mac and iPad. In June of 2012, Mobile Me will cease to exist, but I still need to use that second account. Is it possible to have both my primary iCloud email, and that secondary account on my iPad? (On my Mac, i just set up another User Account, and used it to "migrate" that second Mobile Me account to iCloud.)
I would Only need to sync Mail to my iPad for the latter, so would not be concerned with duplicating Adress Book contacts, Calendar etc.

It sounds like you've already discovered that you can migrate each MobileMe Family Member sub-account individually to iCloud. Having done that, you can now add the second account to your iPad as a secondary iCloud account by going to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account… > iCloud.

You can also add secondary iCloud accounts in OS X by going to System Preferences > Mail, Contacts & Calendars > Add Account… > iCloud. This way you don't have to switch users in OS X to access the second iCloud account's mail.

You can migrate remaining MobileMe Family Members by going to me.com/move, instead of having to create a new user in OS X to do the migration.

Primary iCloud accounts can use a few features that secondary accounts can't:

iOS 5: Photo Stream, Documents & Data, and Backup
OS X Lion: Bookmarks, Photo Stream, Find My Mac, and iCloud Storage


mds and lsd going crazy I have noticed big peaks of activity of processes:

mds
mds_stores
lsd
mdworker (multiple processes)

The console loops over two messages from mds:

LaunchServices: Database mapping failed with result -10813, retries = X
LaunchServices: storeXPCRepresentation or url (null) was nil -10813, retrying

I tried to reset Spotlight via mdutil, following https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/191503/204565. The first step kills the processes using the CPU, but after following all the steps, the problem came back (not only the CPU usage which would seem normal when reindexing the system, but the errors in the console failure messages too).

I saw https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8158217 but unlike him, my Time Machine saves seem to work.

My computer is a MacBook Pro mid-2012. I changed the HDD to a Samsung 850 EVO some time ago (more than 3 years).

I also noticed that the modification date of some folders doesn't make any sense.

At some point, I noticed failures of lsd:

*** CSStore corruption detected (2). ffff6d74 54 4ce74318 3

I looked at the console during a backup and backupd shows the same messages as mds (1. and 2.)

Even after sudo mdutil -a -i off, which solves the CPU usage problem, symptomsd logs 1. and 2..

3 months later, I can confirm my comment.

I solved my problem by rebuilding Launch Services with Onyx.

Maintenance > Rebuilding > Launch Services


Bash - Suppressing output to STDOUT I've written a script for fresh macOS installs that installs Homebrew, Cask, and a bunch of apps I like, along with creating a .vimrc file.

Thanks to an answer by daniel Azuelos (located here: Best way to check in bash if Command Line Tools are installed?), a part of the script checks to see if Xcode command-line-tools are installed.

When command-line-tools are not installed, this error gets displayed to the user:

xcode-select: error: unable to get active developer directory, use `sudo xcode-select --switch path/to/Xcode.app` to set one (or see `man xcode-select`)

I'm hoping someone can help me suppress this output.

The function that is ran to do command-line-tools check is:

function check_clt() {
    if type xcode-select >&- && xpath=$( xcode-select --print-path ) && test -d "${xpath}" && test -x "${xpath}" ; then
        echo ""
        echo "The required Xcode command-line-tools are already installed! Moving on!"
        sleep 3
    else
        instructions
        sleep 45
        xcode-select --install
    fi
}

I believe I can use 2 > /dev/null to suppress the error, but I'm not sure in the function where should it go?  I've put it before each && in the if statement, but the error message still appeared.

Using Nimesh's suggestion, I've edited the function:

function check_clt() {
if type xcode-select 2>/dev/null >&- && xpath=$( xcode-select --print-path ) 2>/dev/null && test -d "${xpath}" 2>/dev/null && test -x "${xpath}" 2>/dev/null ; then
    echo ""
    echo "The required Xcode command-line-tools are already installed! Moving on!"
    sleep 3
else
    instructions 2>/dev/null
    sleep 45
    xcode-select --install
fi

}

Running the script still produces the error to the user:

Last login: Tue Sep  4 20:40:13 on ttys000
vimusrs-Mac:~ vimusr$ cd Desktop/
vimusrs-Mac:Desktop vimusr$ chmod +x mai.sh
vimusrs-Mac:Desktop vimusr$ ./mai.sh
xcode-select: error: unable to get active developer directory, use `sudo xcode-select --switch path/to/Xcode.app` to set one (or see `man xcode-select`)

Turns out the xpath=( xcode-select --print-path ) line in the if statement of the original function was the problem.  Additionally, once I got the error message suppressed, I noticed there was an unnecessary stdout message, so I decided to suppress that as well.

I was able to suppress the stderror and stdout messages by changing the function to the following:

function check_clt() {
    if type xcode-select >/dev/null 2>&1 >&- && xcode-select -p >/dev/null 2>&1 && test -d $(xcode-select -p) >/dev/null 2>&1 && test -x $(xcode-select -p) >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo ""
        echo "The required Xcode command-line-tools are already installed! Moving on!"
        sleep 3
    else
        instructions
        sleep 45
        xcode-select --install
    fi
}


How can I use Blackberry emojis on my non-jailbroken iOS device? Ever since moving from my Blackberry to an iPhone a few years ago, I've been sorely missing the Blackberry emoji set. It was pretty brilliant, and contained some KEY emoji which Apple seems to deem unimportant, including the much sought-after face palm (why leave this out Apple, WHY??).

Anyone have any idea on how I can get these prized Blackberry emojis onto a non-jailbroken iPhone for use in Messages? I've been trying to save them as images and paste them into IM, but this method makes the emoji look too large, and it ends up looking pixelated.

Would it possible to create and install my own custom keyboard? Any other methods or idea would be welcome.

Thanks!

Additional note: I can re-create/convert the Blackberry emoji in vector form, all I really need to know is how to install it as a keyboard. Is this possible on non-jailbroken devices? Alternately, is there a way to send a vector image through IM?

iOS 8 supports 3rd party keyboards. There are several that speak in icons and gifs and whatnot. Check the AppStore for something you like or even develop your own.


Many GUI Programs suddenly not appearing on El Capitan I was adjusting Accessibility options and then poof the following programs disappeared from view.

Finder
Google Chrome
Atom (editor)
Opera

Safari is the only guy still working. Note: the processes for Chrome, Atom, Opera are still there: but the GUI's can not be shown.  I have checked in other spaces: there are no apps in the other space.

I also logged off and even restarted the computer: same behavior.  I reset the accessibility settings. No dice. What might be going on?

The issue was I had inadverently had both VGA and HDMI connections from the mac to the same monitor. It was actually working fine until I twiddled with the accessibility options.

Now why it is that the accessibility changes caused some programs to decide to migrate to the unviewable display?  Not sure..


Will changing your Apple ID password affect a pending remote erase request? I had my iPhone stolen a few days ago so naturally I tried to do a remote erase.  However, the device has been offline since it got stolen so the erase is still being requested.  I'm thinking of changing the password for my Apple ID but I'm worried that if I change my password, the stolen iPhone will become disassociated with my Apple ID (since the password doesn't match now).  Will this happen?  Or will the iPhone still receive the erase request once it comes online despite the password stored on the phone being an old password?

Thanks

Changing your AppleID password is an excellent idea, but you want to place your iPhone into LOST MODE rather than to erase it:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201472

Here is an excellent article on choosing a password, from Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science:  https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~help/security/choosing_passwords.html

I have read quite a few articles concerning stolen iPhones.  Many experienced thieves start by putting the iPhone into Recovery Mode, which erases all the data, and makes it virtually impossible to locate by you or the authorities.  Once in Recovery Mode, the only way to reload iOS (and reactivate the phone) is with the correct AppleID and password of the registered owner (you).

Odds are you'll never see your iPhone again, and some schmuck will buy it, only to discover it's unusable.


Is there a way to use a Thunderbolt monitor with Bootcamp (WIndows 7) and not need to restart each time it's connected? So, I'm using a brand new Mac Book Pro with Bootcamp and Windows 7 and I have at giant 27" thunderbolt display.  The problem I'm having is at the office I take my laptop with me to meetings.  Upon returning, when I plug the monitor in (as I did with previous monitors) this one will not turn back on.  I am required to restart Windows each time which is, well, unacceptable.

Since the FAQ says that Bootcamp requires a reboot once the display has been ejected. I would like to spend money on hardware or time/money on software to get around this design limitation.

How can Windows and thunderbolt displays work the same way as OS X with respect to not requiring an OS restart to reconnect the display?

Yes.

  Thunderbolt hot plug is supported under Windows 8 or 8.1 on all 2014 and later Mac computers.

No - if you run older OS or hardware. In that case, this appears to be something you have to live with. The options are running Windows in a virtual machine so that Apple’s OS X drivers handle the hot plug for you or interrupt your workflow to accommodate the Windows drivers. Sorry, but I've not seen any other options so far to address this.

Reference: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204154


Can I use the Recovery Partition on one startup disk to repair another (internal) disk? I have an SSD and an HDD in my Macbook Pro (Yosemite) and I recently cloned the HDD to the (new) SSD.  The SSD is now unhealthy, for reasons unknown and Disk Utility recommends repair from the Recovery Partition.  Unfortunately there is no RP on the SSD, but it happens that the old HDD still has one, as I have not formatted it yet.

Can I run the RP on the HDD to fix the SSD?  If I have this other startup disk, do I even need to start up from the RP?  Can I just do this from the Disk Utility when starting up from the HDD normally?

You may use either the Disk Utility on your Recovery partition or the one on the main volume of your HDD to repair the SSD as long as the Disk Utility version is not too old. It's recommended to use a similar version of Disk Utility as the one installed on the volume to repair.


Can't download old apps I recently deleted a bunch of apps on my iPhone 5 so that I would have room for more photos during a trip. I have returned and moved the photos off of the phone, and there is now plenty of space for me to redone load those apps. However, some of these old apps will not download. If I tap the cloud icon, it shows the loading circle for a second and then goes back to the cloud icon. I was only able to redo load two of the apps and I am not sure what is unique about those two.

Well the problem got fixed eventually over time. I was never able to find an actual solution, but eventually more and more of the apps I used to have began to be able to download onto my phone. Not all at once, but eventually I got them all.


OSX program similar to 'Fences' Is there a Mac program resembling the Windows program 'Fences' (see screenshot below), which allows you to group icons on your screen?

Desktop Groups (Which I would describe as the best alternative to fences) is made by the same people who make Desktop Shelves. The product is paid, but the Lite version of Desktop Groups is free.

A good review of its features can found here courtesy of Fatima Wahib who reviewed it for Addictive Tips last month:


How to remove Skype menu bar icon from macOS? I want to remove the Skype status icons from the menu bar of my MacBook, when the app is running. I see that Microsoft has been ignoring the same question from many user, for years. MS Forum. There is no such toggle in preferences either.
So I looked for the relevant .tiff, .png, .icn, .icns files in various places, including inside the Skype.app, hoping that removing those (or replacing them with blanks) would do the job. But nothing came up.
Can I eliminate the visible icon from the menu bar while running Skype on macOS Catalina?

Since Skype 8 is an Electron app you can modify its source code. Run this command in Terminal:
LC_ALL=C sed -i '' -e "s/this\._tray=new i\.Tray(this\._getTrayIconInternal()),/\/\*is\._tray=new i\.Tray(this\._getTrayIconInternal()\*\//" -e "s/initTrayMenu(){.\{7\}/initTrayMenu(){return;/" /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar

It will prevent the menu bar icon from being created.


MacBook Pro Support for 3840 x 1600 (and higher) resolutions Does the MacBook Pro retina display (late 2013) have support for displays with 3840 x 1600 (WQHD+) (LG example shown below).

If so, at what refresh rate and through what port?

Using these three sites:
Apple display site, Apple Insider site, and MBPr site, I have what I believe to be the correct answer. Using HDMI, you should be able to use a WQHD+ screen at 30Hz. Apple Insider's site recommends the LG 34UM88-P. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that you computer supports 4K at anything higher than 30Hz. Please let me know if any of the information stated is incorrect. I would recommend finding a store that stocks the monitor you are looking to buy, and asking them if you can bring in your laptop and an HDMI cord to test the monitor and make sure it is compatible with your computer.


Displaying difference between APFS snapshots Problem

APFS is amazing... and infuriating with its lack of tools available.

What I'm trying to do is simply an equivalent of btrfs send --no-data -p /snapshots/parent /snapshots/child

My investigation

Most of the google-fu returns usages of tmutil

tmutil is able to listlocalsnapshots / deletelocalsnapshots / localsnapshot (create)
tmutil compare <snapshot_path> doesn't accept 2 snapshots
tmutil compare EXISTING_SNAPSHOT returns cryptic & undocumented Must specify a snapshot root when performing a machine comparison.
tmutil calculatedrift <machine_directory> doesn't seem to be related to APFS snapshots
tmutil contains some undocumented options, but nothing related to snapshots
Snapshot created by tmutil have hardcoded com.apple.TimeMachine.YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.local naming format

diskutil contains limited snapshots support

diskutil deleteSnapshot works as intended
diskutil listSnapshots list snapshots with sizes and some metadata (unlike tmutil)
No facility for creating snapshots

Kernel contains fs_snapshot_* syscalls

The documentation is almost non-existent, but a single man page is available
All usual operations (fs_snapshot_delete / fs_snapshot_list / fs_snapshot_create / fs_snapshot_mount) are supported
GitHub ahl/apfs hosts a small utility which demonstrates the syscalls usage
fs_snapshot_list list only com.apple.TimeMachine.* snapshots
Any write operations (e.g. fs_snapshot_create) end up with application being killed with fs_snapshot_create: Operation not permitted (probably due to documented in the man reason: "require an additional entitlement")

Commercial app, Carbon Copy Cloner, is able to manipulate snapshots

For obvious reasons they don't disclose how they do that ;)

Help? ;)

Is there any method of getting a diff between two snapshots? Any documentation how they can be managed?
The only naïve approach which because of speed is not feasible is running rsync between r/o mounted snapshots... but this is just stupid.

There's no tool available for APFS similar to what you see with btrfs send. The state of APFS is still relatively "early days" when it comes to tools like that. On btrfs it took 3-4 years before they had the btrfs send tool in ordinary Linux - I wouldn't expect Apple to be able to push something out faster than that.

The btrfs tool is very elegant in that it relatively efficiently provides a list of simple commands (such as unlink, rename, write) to transform an existing snapshot (on both the source and destination) into another snapshot that exists on the source, but not yet on the destination.

With APFS you haven't got such a tool to efficiently create the list of diff commands. However, you can use any tool that synchronizes two ordinary folders over a network. It won't be as efficient in generating the list of diffs, but it should be possible to make it just as efficient in applying the diffs (as the btrfs receive command is implemented in user-space).

A well known tool for that purpose is rsync, but you've already mentioned that you do not want to run rsync because of the speed. Unfortunately there's really no methods speedier - unless you happen to have some kind of special use case where you can make assumptions about the changes between your snapshots.

Regarding Carbon Copy Cloner and the entitlements - I don't think it's a "secret" as such how they work with snapshots. You've found the various system calls for snapshot manipulation (which they use), and you can read the the actual on-disk format specification on Apple's web page. You could use dtrace to inspect the actual system call parameters and order of them that CCC uses.

The sad part is that creating your own programs that do something with snapshots (besides listing them), requires the entitlement "com.apple.private.vfs.snapshot". You can get that entitlement only by talking to Apple's technical support for developers. If you're creating backup software for example, you should fit the criteria for getting it - but the only real way to find out is to contact Apple.


com.automator.runner.xpc is not allowed to send keystrokes I have two MacBooks. Both run the same MacOS version. I installed the same Automator script in both.
But on the older MacBook I get:

The action “Run AppleScript” encountered an error: “System Events got an error: com.automator.runner.xpc is not allowed to send keystrokes.”

I added Automator to the Security -> Accessibility section in both. It even works on the older one. But then it suddenly stops. It just don't get why...

I have solved this issue recently in case anyone is interested in how. It is NOT actually necessary for System Events to have direct Accessibility privileges. What you need to add are a total of 3 apps, Automator, Script Editor, and AppleScript Utility.
The Automator and Script Editor apps are found within the ~/Applications and ~/Applications/Utilities folders, respectively. What is harder to find is the AppleScript Utility app, seen below:

To add AppleScript Utility app, click the + button on Accessibility, then navigate to (a shortcut is CMD+SHIFT+G)
/System/Library/CoreServices

then open the application called AppleScript Utility.
Afterwards, run a script in automator again, which updates the privileges and things should run well after. In summary, Automator, Script Editor, and AppleScript Utility need to be added to Accessibility.


Atom editor no longer opens from command line I've been using the Atom editor on my iMac running High Sierra. I usually run it from the terminal by typing atom. I moved many of my apps to an external drive to free up disk space. I originally moved Atom but have since moved it back onto my startup volume.

Sometime during all this I have messed up something and now Atom no longer runs from the command line. I started Atom by double-clicking on the icon. I selected "Install shell command" from the  Atom menu.

Previously I did that so I could run atom from the command line. Well, it didn't work this time. How can I tell what that menu option actually does? When I select "Install shell command", what does Atom actually do? And how do I find out what a command does?

If I knew what the Atom command does, I could maybe fix this. Most questions I've read that pertain to this offer alternative ways to run Atom from the command line. I know how to do that, I'm trying to get things back to the way it was before my messing around caused all of this.

Looks to me as though it's running

/Applications/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/atom.sh

but you should be able to edit your ~/.bash_config and add the line

alias atom="/Applications/Atom.app/Contents/MacOS/Atom"
then re-open terminal and you'll be able to launch atom by typing atom [filename], assuming your copy of Atom is installed in the /Applications folder


Disable "Share Mac Analytics" with defaults command? I'm trying to disable all analytics feature with the defaults command:

Any ideas?

sudo defaults write /Library/Application\ Support/CrashReporter/DiagnosticMessagesHistory.plist AutoSubmit -int 0


How to make file operations like move/delete without mouse in Finder? I was on Windows for a long time and switched to Mac about year ago.
Some things still looks strange and confuses me:

How to remove a file without mouse in Finder?
How to move (cut) a file without mouse in Finder? (Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V in Windows)
How to get common info about several selected files (for example their size)?
How to go back to previous folder in Finder without mouse? (Backspace in windows)
How to open one image and be able to move between pictures with keyboard (without another picture viewer software)?

You can find many answers here:  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

Specifically:

Cut (for cut copy paste, indeed for almost all windows shortcuts that use CTRL simply use Command instead):
Command+X

Move to Trash:
Command+Delete

Open Get Info Window:
Command+I

Open an aggregate Get Info Window for multiple files:
Option+Command+I

Show Inspector:
Command+Option+I

Get Summary Info:
Command+Control+I

Goto Previous Folder:
Command+[

Goto Next Folder:
Command+]

Quicklook (Preview):
Spacebar (or Command+Y)

As for this "why Apple decided not to do such obvious operations in Mac OS X?" you just need to remember that what you are used to in Windows isn't necessarily obvious, it's just what you are used to.  Everything has an equivalent in OS X, you just need to learn what is different, and eventually you might even come to think that the OS X equivalents are actually more obvious than what you use now (Command+R instead of F5 for Refresh, for example...)


Unable to connect to a website on some WiFi networks? I'm unable to connect to nytimes.com as of now with these WiFi networks in my college: secure, secure High-speed(5-GHz) and Eduroam recently (All are one time Sign-on and show lock icon in WiFi list). I could do that last week and I have not changed anything in network settings.

The error is standard offline error in Safari “You’re not connected to Internet” and sometimes “Server unexpectedly dropped the connection”. However I'm able to access a lot of other websites at the same time. I have tried this and got the same condition in multiple buildings.

On network say "X" (doesn't show lock icon in WiFi but requires authentication), I can visit the website after logging into Fortinet popup.

After switching back to the aforementioned networks and typing the IP address instead of textual URL, I got an error which said something like unrecognised domain. and some cache info.

What can the reasons behind this and what can I do to solve this?

Edit: The said WiFi "X" is also an college network.

It's a fairly common practice for schools and universities to block sites that they deem inappropriate. For example here's a snippet from Azusa Pacific University's Internet Filtering policy:

  Background

  APU’s internet filtering is performed through a
  subscription service. The hardware and database, referred to as an
  application in this policy, is developed and maintained by a
  nationally recognized, publicly held company.

  How Filtering Works

  The internet filtering mechanism uses several
  categorization technologies to group URLs. These include human review,
  a licensed contextual URL filtering engine, internally developed
  neural net analysis programs, and automated recognition of content
  labels generated by the Internet Content Rating Association that web
  developers often put on their sites. In addition, to ensure that
  categories are continually refreshed with new URLs, the mechanism
  relies on a technology called adaptive filtering, which automatically
  logs accesses by existing users to URLs that are not included in the
  existing categorized database. These URLs are then sent to a central
  repository, where they are reviewed along with the requests of other
  filtering appliances that subscribe to this service on a daily basis.
  The URLs are then categorized, added to the database, and an updated
  database is automatically sent to APU’s filtering appliance. The same
  process works similarly in reverse when a legitimate website has been
  labeled inappropriately—the customer appliance marks the URL as
  legitimate, and the URL is uploaded to the central repository and
  evaluated.

So your blocking is likely being done by your College.

If you're still unsure you can also use an online service such as downforeveryoneorjustme to also confirm if the website you're trying to access is actually down or if it's just your college that's blocking it.

Eduroam

Based on one of your updates to your question I was able to find some additional information regarding Eduroam. Here's an excerpt from their FAQ.

  Does eduroam monitor or filter access?

  eduroam provides authenticated
  network access at any location where the service is enabled.

  Each participating organisation offering network access to
  authenticated users is able to apply its own filtering policies as
  long as it is clearly informing users about the filtering rules.

And also from their legal disclaimer:

  GÉANT may add, revise or remove any content, and vary the site’s
  navigational structure, without notice.

Methods to further test

To investigate your supposed filtering you can attempt to look up the IP address of the website's domain and then use ping and curl to verify if you're being filtered at a particular point or if you're having a legitimate technical difficulty.

For example, using the command host to look up the IP:

$ host nytimes.com
nytimes.com has address 151.101.65.164
nytimes.com has address 151.101.129.164
nytimes.com has address 151.101.1.164
nytimes.com has address 151.101.193.164
nytimes.com mail is handled by 5 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.com.
nytimes.com mail is handled by 10 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.com.
nytimes.com mail is handled by 1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.com.
nytimes.com mail is handled by 5 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.com.
nytimes.com mail is handled by 10 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.com.

And you could also use ping to see if you're able to ping the IP addresses and/or hostname of the domain you're attempting to view.

$ ping -c 3 151.101.65.164
PING 151.101.65.164 (151.101.65.164): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 151.101.65.164: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=26.398 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.65.164: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=20.649 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.65.164: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=21.376 ms

--- 151.101.65.164 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 20.649/22.808/26.398/2.556 ms

Lastly you can use curl to see if you have physical access to the website's ports 80 and 443 which are where web content is typically served.

$ curl -v telnet://151.101.65.164:443
* Rebuilt URL to: telnet://151.101.65.164:443/
*   Trying 151.101.65.164...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to 151.101.65.164 (151.101.65.164) port 443 (#0)
^C

NOTE: Use Ctrl+C to stop the curl command. If you see Connected ... then you know you at least have physical access to the server's port 443.


VNC from Windows gives blank login screen I'm trying to VNC into my MBP running Lion using TightVNC on Win7.

Under Screen Sharing I have Allow access for All Users turned on, and Anyone may request permission and VNC viewers may control screen checked.

When I try to connect, it connects fine, but all I see is a screen full of the textured dark grey background used on the login screen.

If I log out of my Mac then VNC in, I'm presented with the Login screen proper, can login over VNC and everything works fine, but this is not how I expect VNC to work and not how I require it to work.

Is there a way to make it so VNC-ing in simply controls the currently logged in user like it usually does?

Anthony

VNC server changed on lion. You can now log in without a vnc password but instead he os users each get their own loginwindow allowing simultaneous log in distinct from what the local display shows.

Some discussions on what exactly changed can be found here: Are the changes to Lion's screen sharing documented anywhere publicly?

I do know the mac screen sharing client as well as edovia's iOS screens apps work well with the new lion changes, so there's hope other third party clients can get updated to work better with the new changes.


Flash screen for Slack alerts I have enable the option to "Flash screen when an alert sound occurs" under Accessibility setting in System Preferences.

It works successfully with many apps such as Microsoft Outlook but not with Slack. How can I get the screen to flash when I receive a Slack notification?

Further information:

It looks like Slack uses the native notification interface as you can control the notification type under the Notification Centre settings:

From an email with Slack support:

  The MacOS flash screen setting is based on the system default "alert"
  sound. If an application uses the system default "alert" sound, the
  screen will flash. Since Slack never plays the system default sound,
  we'll never flash the screen.

  For now, I'm afraid this means there is no way to flash the screen
  when Slack receives a notification. That said, I've let the team know
  that this is something you'd like to see in the future.

This was written on the 16th May 2019. Slack v3.3.8


Group Chat problem with Messages app I have this problem whenever a group chat is created in Messages with me included. Any time somebody sends a text to the group, it sends it to me directly, but to everybody else it is shown in the group chat.

Because of this I get a bunch of random texts with no context from the people in the group chat. I can text to the group chat just fine, but whenever I receive texts they're not within the group.

How do I troubleshoot/resolve this?

Try going to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. Under the "You can be reached by iMessage at" header, make sure your contact info is listed and checked i.e. the contact info at which your friends are trying to reach you.

I think this is what Tetsujin was suggesting in the comments.


Audio Out Different from Retina Model MacBook Pro? I have somewhat of a weird issue. I have a client who wants to send their audio out from their MacBook Pro 15" Retina to their TV from the headphone jack output on the MacBook. The TV has a 1/8th audio input, so that all plugs in very nicely. After it's plugged in, the audio stops coming out of the MacBook's speakers, just like it would if you had headphones plugged in, but there's no audio coming out of the TV speakers.

When I plug in my MacBook Pro 15" (not Retina) with this setup, the audio works just fine. Is there something in the Retina model that's blocking this? Any advice would be great. Thank you.

You say it works fine with your set up. Are you connecting to his TV?
If so, it points towards the issue being with his MBP.

One quick bit of troubleshooting you could try - plug a set of earphones into his MBP and ensure audio is being sent. That'll help to isolate the problem.


Can't install new Seagate HD on mac -- greyed partion option under disk utilites On my mac, trying to set up new Seagate Expansion Portable Drive. I get to the Disk utility, but the partition option is greyed out.

In all likelihood, the drive is formatted as NTFS - Window’s proprietary filesystem - which operates as read only in OS X. In order to partition the drive, or even use it, you need to reformat it first.

Open Disk Utility. Select the hard drive from the sidebar. Click “Erase”
Choose a name for the volume. You must also choose a format and scheme. The default OS X configuration is HFS+ Journaled with a GUID partition map. Unless you require universal compatibility, just go with that format.
Click erase
Now you’ll be able to partition/modify the drive to your liking.


How should I configure AppleTV in a shared space/living room? I have an Apple TV in a shared space with roommates/friends.  I don't want my personal photos to be shared or accessible there.

I do like the idea of sharing some purchases and other apps in that space.

Since Apple TV doesn't have the concept of "multiple users", and as of the latest iOS10 beta, that still seems to be true... what is the best way to configure Apple TV to preserve my privacy?

In particular I'm referring to the

App Store account
The iCloud account
Gaming accounts.

I'm not terribly interested in restricting content / movies, but I simply don't want people to be able to see my personal photos.

I also don't like the theoretical sharing of the iCloud keychain, which could put my account & PII at unnecessary risk in case of device theft.

Require password to buy - this keeps you in control of spending money
Don't sing in to iCloud for Photos - you can AirPlay photos from another device when you wish to show your photos.
There is no interface for reading keychain contents from the Apple TV - so unless you are worried about sophisticated hackers reverse engineering and decrypting keychains - your threat model would be one to not worry about keychain syncing for WiFi credentials.

If you're worried about game center - then you might have to not allow the device to run when you're not present. I don't think there's any control there if you leave that signed in.


How do I disable Do Not Disturb While Driving in iOS 11 if I'm a passenger? Do Not Disturb While Driving in iOS 11 looks like a helpful feature unless I'm a passenger. How do I disable it if I'm an passenger?

If you have a 3D Touch device, 3D Touch the notification on the lock screen and choose the "I'm not driving" option.

If you have a non-3D Touch device, you will need to long-press the notification and then choose the "I'm not driving" option.


Where is the "Double click on titlebar to minimize" setting located in Mavericks? I just updated my MacBook Air to Mavericks and I can't find the checkbox to enable the "Double-click on window title to minimize it" feature.

I thought I was in the System preferences > General pane, when I activated it, but that was in 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

The setting is in System Preferences -> Dock


Why is my Time Machine backup failing to fire at the hourly interval? At some point after upgrading to Lion my Time Machine backups have stopped firing on the hourly interval.  It works manually, but not automatically.  It also works first thing in the morning when I plug the external drive into my laptop.

I have basically gutted the Time Machine config files, launchdaemon files with no luck.  I've even reformatted my TM drive.  So far, no matter what I do, TM just never fires on the hour.

The interface shows when the last backup occurred as well as when the next one is set to happen.  When the time comes, TM never backs up but the "next backup" time is moved up one hour as expected.  I have no errors in console.

Is anyone else seeing this and if so, did you get it fixed?

Update with logs from today, last backup is indicated as 9:01AM

10/11/11 7:09:55.020 AM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
10/11/11 7:09:55.272 AM com.apple.backupd: Error -35 while resolving alias to backup target
10/11/11 7:10:05.287 AM com.apple.backupd: Backup failed with error: 19
10/11/11 8:18:07.490 AM com.apple.backupd: Starting standard backup
10/11/11 8:18:08.386 AM com.apple.backupd: Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
10/11/11 8:18:34.350 AM com.apple.backupd: 48.19 GB required (including padding), 731.56 GB available
10/11/11 8:50:08.828 AM com.apple.backupd: Copied 15193 files (38.5 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
10/11/11 8:50:20.136 AM com.apple.backupd: 20.83 GB required (including padding), 693.03 GB available
10/11/11 9:01:59.574 AM com.apple.backupd: Copied 3613 files (15.8 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
10/11/11 9:02:12.462 AM com.apple.backupd: Starting post-backup thinning
10/11/11 9:02:12.462 AM com.apple.backupd: No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
10/11/11 9:02:12.848 AM com.apple.backupd: Backup completed successfully.
10/11/11 9:05:36.179 AM mds: (Error) Backup: Couldn't stat source path '/Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb/workbookpro/2011-10-11-081810/Macintosh HD/Users/dustin/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/ytgtapq6.default/extensions/trash/onepassword@agilebits.com/install.rdf' -- importing from backup path instead

EDIT: Some more info, as this is STILL a problem for me.  I have now found that com.apple.backupd-[auto|wake|attach] all quit at about the same time, either at the time the backup should fire or just before.  The job then never runs.  There are no logs at all that the services quit or why.

I know you've said there are no messages in Console.app, but you haven't specified how you've searched.  So firstly follow the steps below, and just add a comment to say whether you find anything.

Open Console.app
Select 'All Messages' in the left hand pane
type 'backupd' in the search box in the top right

Are there any messages in here related to the backup doing anything at all?


Sidecar: use tap gesture as "click" with a mouse I'm using Sidecar with iPad Pro 11 and MacBook Pro 15 2016.

I noticed, that I could use Apple Pencil to interact with the interface elements on the second screen, e.g. open a new empty tab in Safari.

However, in order to scroll the page, I have to use the "two finger drag" gesture. This is inconvenient and I'd like to use "single finger tap" gesture to interact with elements on the screen, so that it would simulate a mouse click. How can I achieve this result?

The problem is that the switching between having a pencil on the screen or the two fingers is inconvenient and I'd like to either do both actions using gestures or with a pencil.

As of iPadOS 13.4.1, it is only possible to use your Apple Pencil as a cursor movement technique while using Sidecar. However, I have found it useful to connect my mouse to my Mac and assume that the mouse was connected to my iPad to move the Mac cursor.

You can find more detailed info about this here!


Move file to folder in dropbox How do I move a file from one folder to a different folder in Dropbox? I cannot find any links or tabs to do this from the iOS / iPad app.

I'm working from the iPhone app so it may be different on the iPad, but try this.

Browse to the file you want to move.
Tap the ellipsis ( ... ) at the top of the screen next to the folder name, and choose 'Edit'.
Tap the checkbox next to the file you want to move.
Tap 'Move' at the bottom of the screen.
Navigate to the folder you want to move the file to.  You can use the arrow at the top left to go to the parent folder.
When you are in the desired destination folder, tap 'Choose' at the bottom right corner of the screen.


NTFS drive isn't writable even after installing Fuse I have installed fuse using steps which are linked below in an article. Each and every step was successful but after mounting my WD external drive, still it was not writable. Everywhere I found same steps. I am currently using macOS high Sierra 10.13.4 on my MacBook Pro.
After installing Paragon for WD drives only, it worked for my WD drive but FUSE still does not support or come into action as I plug my another Sony's 1 TB external hard drive.
Is there any problem with FUSE?

Link to install FUSE & ntfs-3g

I have faced similar problem with my WD external 1 TB drive. Despite installing FUSE, my drive was mounted in read only mode.

Turns out, for writing to WD external drives formatted with NTFS you will need to install a proprietary NTFS driver for macOS called Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac.

You can follow the instructions on this support article on WD website, How to Install the Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac.


Where are pages files stored after I export them to itunes? With my iPad connected to my MacBook, I exported some Pages files to iTunes in docx format. Now I'm using my laptop without the iPad, and I want to find these files. Where/how are they stored? Tks.

This is a 2 step process:

1/ mark the files to transfer (Export) to iTunes while in Pages on the iPad,

2/ once the iPad is connected, transfer the files from the IPad to the Mac.

I fear you did not do step #2.

In Pages on the iPad, Export in .docx (or .pdf and .pages) format. This creates the file in the selected format and makes the file visible to the iTunes interface on the Mac.

When the iPad is then connected in iTunes, go to the Apps tab > File Sharing section at the very bottom and select the Pages app & its documents. Select a filename or filenames from the list of files. Once selected, you must click the Save to... button to pull up a save dialog. You can then save wherever you like - local or external HD, networked NAS, webDAV server, USB key - whatever.

NOTE: There is no default automatic downloading mechanism - you must first select the destination and then initiate the file transfer(s). If you didn't manually download the files from the iPad, they won't be on your Mac.

To avoid this in the future, I suggest you save your documents using iCloud, for example, or into Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote and other apps Pages can access in iOS, and which can be retrieved by OSX and Windows. This will guarantee that an important doc is available whenever needed. I use all these technologies on a mixed environment of iOS devices, Macs & PCs.


Bash history not initially remembered with iterm2 I've got an annoying problem with iterm2 not remembering my history when I close out a terminal window. I'm not sure if it might be my .bash_profile config or what.

Here is what is happening:

1) type in some commands
2) issue `history` command
3) commands are listed
4) close terminal window and open brand new terminal window
5) issue `history` command
6) commands from previous sessions are NOT listed
7) close terminal window and open brand new terminal window
6) issue `history` command
7) commands from very first session now appearing

Anyone know why the previous commands aren't showing up right away when a new window is opened and only after a second terminal window is opened?

UPDATE: Everything works as expected with the plain old terminal app.

Update 2: I have the shell integration feature installed

Update 3: It turns out the first update was incorrect. It is also flaky on Terminal. Sometimes it will work and other times it doesn't.

So it turns out iterm was actually working in iterm. It just waits 5 seconds before saving to .bash_history when you close out of a shell without using the exit command. This 5 second delay is to give you time to command-z the session back open, apparently.


How can I read a pdf with Firefox 5? I'd like to upgrade Firefox to the new version but I don't know if I'll still be able to read pdf on it with this this plugin. Is there another way ?

The PDF Browser Plugin from Schubert|it recently added support for Firefox.
It's free for personal, non-commercial use.  I've found it to be a very capable in-browser PDF viewer.


Applescript date manipulation to get multiple formats I need to get a date (month, day, year) in multiple different formats for each part. So, for January 2, 1999 I need:

the month as January and Jan and 01 and 1
the day as 2 and 02
the year as 1999 and 99

I'm currently doing it with this hodgepodge including a shell call to the date command as seen below. Clearly I do not know much about Applescript. Equally clearly, there has to be a more efficient (code-wise...performance isn't really an issue) way!

set {year:y, month:m, day:d} to (current date)
# aka 1999 - January - 2

set shortmonth to text 1 thru 3 of (month of (current date) as text)
# aka Jan

set nummonth to do shell script "date '+%m'"
# aka 01

set dd to text -2 thru -1 of ("00" & (day of (current date)))
# aka 02

set yy to text 3 thru 4 of (y as text)
# aka 99

set theMonth to do shell script " date -v2d -v1m -v99y +%B%n%b%n%m%n%-m"

-> "January

Jan

01

1"

set theDay to do shell script " date -v2d -v1m -v99y +%A%n%a%n%d%n%-d"

-> "Saturday

Sat

02

2"

set theYear to do shell script " date -v2d -v1m -v99y +%Y%n%y"

-> "1999

99"

-v  flag  adjusts the date item without changing the real date.
-v2d   is 2nd day
-v1m  is first month
-v99y  is the year 1999

The date formatters are:
%n  new line
%B  full month name
%b  abbr month name
%m   month number with leading zero
%-m   month number without leading zero

The other formatters follow the same way.  You can find more format info by simply googling.

If you want to do it all in applescript then I suggest you read through
MacScripter / Dates & Times in AppleScripts

---------- update

I do think it is more efficient doing it with the shell script. But if I was going to try and do it in Applescript alone. I would use handlers to either pad or shorten the item. And the just pass the month, year and day to them to sort.

set {year:y, month:m, day:d} to current date
--set m to m + 1

set theYearLong to y as string
set theYearShort to shorten(y)

set theMonthNumberZero to pad((m as integer) as string)
set theMonthNumber to ((m as integer) as string)
set theMonthLong to m as string
set theMonthShort to shorten(m)

set theDayNumberZero to pad((d as integer) as string)
set theDayNumber to ((d as integer) as string)

on pad(thisNumber)
    if length of thisNumber = 1 then
        return "0" & thisNumber
    else
        return thisNumber
    end if
end pad

on shorten(thisItem)

    if class of thisItem is integer then
        return characters 3 thru -1 of (thisItem as text) as string
    else
        return characters 1 thru 3 of (thisItem as text) as string
    end if
end shorten

There probably is a better way of doing it but this example may give you an idea..


cd 'brew --prefix': no such file or directory > cd 'brew --prefix'
-bash: cd: brew --prefix: No such file or directory

Additional errors:

> brew update
fatal: 'origin' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
Error: Failure while executing: git pull -q origin refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

> brew doctor
fatal: 'origin' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
Error: undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
Please report this bug:
    https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/reporting-bugs
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb:840:in `check_for_outdated_homebrew'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/extend/pathname.rb:310:in `cd'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/extend/pathname.rb:310:in `chdir'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/extend/pathname.rb:310:in `cd'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb:837:in `check_for_outdated_homebrew'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb:907:in `send'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb:907:in `doctor'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb:906:in `each'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/doctor.rb:906:in `doctor'
/usr/local/bin/brew:83:in `send'
/usr/local/bin/brew:83

Any ideas what's going on here?

To do your cd command, you need to use backticks, not the quotation mark (putting this in an answer because difficult to format)

cd `brew --prefix`

The backticks make the shell execute the command and return the value. (in this case brew --prefix transforms into the directory where homebrew is installed).  For example, in a very simple case:

cd `echo '..'`

Transforms into:

cd ..

Which goes up a directory.

It looks like something is wrong with the git repo for your homebrew install. If you haven't installed a  lot, might be easier to just uninstall and reinstall and try again. You should go to the docs for brew, but you can just rm -rf on your Cellar folder and have everything return to its original state.  More info here.


How to close all windows of MacOS Finder EXCEPT the foreground window The number of times I want to drop something from the Finder to another application but I'm stopped by endless open windows below. I have never found a simple shortcut to close them all except for the active one.

Could this be scripted?

As far as I can see there isn't a keyboard short-cut to hide all windows except the foreground window. macOS hides applications not individual windows of an application (and the Finder is just an app).

What you can do is Option-TAB to your target application after grabbing the item in the Finder. Basically once you "grab" a file, don't let go of it, but rather, use the application switcher (invoked by Option-TAB) to swap to the application you want to drop the file into.

Once the app is highlighted in the app switcher, release the Option and TAB keys, which will bring your app and it's windows forward, then you can drop the file on your target window.

I made a quick GIF to show this in action:


External display works on 30Hz I have MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports) with macOS High Sierra installed. I plugged it in to external display: LG 24UD58 24" via DisplayPort through USB-C

For unknown reason Macbook works at 30Hz instead of 60Hz. I managed to achieve 60Hz once somehow by switching between resolutions in Display settings, but I couldn't reproduce this anymore :(

How to achieve 60Hz with external display on Mac?

I had the same issue for a long time. At first, 60Hz worked. Then something happened and I'd only get 30Hz on my 4K Lenovo ThinkVision 27".

I stumbled upon this article and simply went to Display settings and hit "Resolution: Default for display". Immediately the display switched to 60Hz. Then I could reapply my Scaled text size setting and 60Hz remained.

What an unsatisfying fix!


Is it possible to reinstall iMovie in case I delete it? I'm considering to delete iMovie since I'm not using it at all and it takes more than 2.5 GB. But before deleting it, is it possible to reinstall it in the future in case I want to use it?

Its on the app store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id408981434?mt=12
You can reinstall it from there.


How do I set iOS 6 iCal start of week preference to Monday? Since I installed iOS 6 on my iPhone and iPad, iCal shows Sunday as the start of the week, rather than Monday. These iOS iCals are synced over iCloud with iCal on my Mac OS X desktop, which has a General Preference for "Start week on" and which I have set to Monday. How do I make a similar setting for the iOS 6 devices?

Unfortunately, the region format for Ireland sets the start of the week to Sunday.

There's no way to override this other than to set the region format to United Kingdom, which has Monday as the start of the week.


Do any iOS Email Clients allow the folders to expand/collapse like Outlook? I have a 12+ gb exchange account, with hundreds of files & sub files.

The iOS mail client doesn't allow the folders to collapse & expand, which makes searching for files a real PITA.

Are there any mail clients that have the expand/collapse feature?

The best folder management app for email I have used is eMailGanizer Pro.

  Folders
  Expand/Collapse style folder navigation
  Find folders by searching
  Add, move, rename, & delete folders
  Off-line operation for later synchronization
  Universal Inbox, Unread, & other 'Smart' folders
  Show all folders/labels for email


Two value-based axis for chart in Numbers 3.5 I am trying to achieve a chart in Numbers 3.5 where both axis scale linearly.

Right now, my chart looks like this:

Obviously, I want the x-axis to scale because the 100.000 bytes message is MUCH larger than the 10.000 bytes message, and the current chart is misleading.

I can't find a way to do this - the x-axis is always labeled as a "Category" instead of a "Value". Any way to achieve this?

Took me a while, but I figured it out: The solution is to choose a scatter plot instead of a line chart.

Select Insert -> Chart -> 2D Scatter
Select the chart, then select Add Chart Data:

Now simply select your entire table, including the x axis. Numbers will figure out the rest and automatically select your leftmost column as the x-axis.

Finally, to make it look like a line chart, select the chart, then select the "Axis" tab in the inspector Chose Data Symbols: None and Connection Lines: Straight.

Result:


Tranferring Apps from 1 ipad to another I received an Ipad from my employer for work.  I also have a personal Ipad.  I set up 2 different apple ids, one for work and one for personal use.  I now want to return my work Ipad but tranfer the apps etc to my personal Ipad.  How do I do this?

There is, unfortunately, no way to transfer apps between Apple IDs. The closest thing you can do is switch between the Apple IDs on your personal iPad. You will have to use your work Apple ID to download the apps. First you will have to login using your work Apple ID (Settings.app -> iTunes & App Stores -> Account) on your iPad then redownload whatever you want on your personal iPad.

Please understand one important thing that once there is an app update, or if they change your work Apple ID's email or password, you will have a problem in the future.

I suggest that you redownload all the apps using your own Apple ID.


How can I set Time machine interval to several minutes in Mojave? I want to set Time machine interval to 15 minutes, instead of Apple default 1hr.

What I want is:

Time machine Interval of 15 minutes.
Time machine backup should respect battery/power status, meaning backup should not occur while not connected to power.

I tried sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800 but it doesn't work.

I also tried disabling csrutil and modified /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-helper.plist's Interval, Delay, GracePeriod but it also does not work.

How can I configure that in Mojave? (Currently running 10.14.2)

NVM I figured it out.

This is a great timing to finish the answer, right? ...No? Okay I'll show you what was the problem then...

What is required to do that in Mojave is:

disable csrutil.
sudo vi /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-helper.plist, and then edit Interval, Delay, GracePeriod. I just set them to 1/4 of original value.
Reboot. You were going to re-enable csrutil anyway, right?

After that, time machine prefpane will still say it's going to backup 1hr after last backup, but automatic backup happens 15 mins later in my case.


How do I monitor the Airport base station currently used for wifi? I need to do a few tests and I will need a tool to check which Airport base station I am connected to.

I want to be able to monitor any changes (switching from base station to base station, signal, speed...) in real time.

The switching between base stations remains the primary focus of this question.

What are the tools for that?

timothymh's solution is definitely the simplest if you just need to know occasionally, and is built-in, but if you need something more advanced (e.g. monitoring), then the following may be useful:

iStumbler (free), though I'd recommend the latest beta if you're on a recent version of OS X
KisMAC (free)
inSSIDer (about $5)

From the screenshots, inSSIDer actively displays which network you're currently connected to, but otherwise all three show lots of details of all networks your card can pick up, including channels, signal strength and BSSIDs.

If your aim is to test the coverage of wifi access points, you will probably find more benefit from something like NetSpot (free). This lets you map the signal strength as a 'heat map' in your home/office/etc, effectively letting you see where each/any access point is available from, where you will/won't get access, and how strong the signal will be.

Edit:
To monitor AP switching, using the terminal, it is possible to watch the system logs:

tail -F /var/log/system.log | grep BSSID

Or simply use the console: Applications > Utilities > Console. In the filter write BSSID and you will see when your computer switches across BSSIDs.


YouTube videos not loading fully Safari won't load YouTube videos fully like a 10:00 video it only load 6:50 of it

A. Iv tried restarted  my  wifi.

B. Iv tried refreshing.

C. Restarted my I pad.

D. Iv tryed the YouTube app

Kindly uninstall your current copy of Flash and then reinstall new >  Troubleshoot Flash Player | Mac OS

Then quit and relaunch Safari.

From the Safari menu bar click Safari > Empty Cache

Restart your Mac, try a video.

If you continue to have problems, go to ~/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.flashplayer.installmanager

Move the Cache.db file from the com.adobe.flashplayer.installmanager folder to the Trash.

Quit then relaunch Safari, try a video.

Safari extensions can prevent some video from streaming. Go to Safari > Preferences then select select the Extensions tab.

If you have any installed, switch to OFF, quit then relaunch Safari, try again.

If you have ClickToFlash installed in ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins, move that plug in to the Desktop. Quit then relaunch Safari to test


Wallpaper cycling option disabled In Desktop & Screen Saver, the Change picture and Random order checkboxes are completely disabled. See scrennshot.

What does it mean? How do I enable these features?

Just pick "normal desktop pictures", the one you've picked is dynamic wallpaper, the new type of wallpaper that will change itself.


How to read iBooks offline I can't figure out how to download a book to my iPhone 7 iOS 13.6 that's currently stored in iCloud.
How can I download the book so that I can read it offline later?

You can right-click on the book of interest and you get a menu of options. Under 'share', there is an option to email the book. You can email the book to yourself and then save it on your iPhone.


Syncing Google Calendars through iCloud I subscribe to a bunch of Google calendars on my iPad, and I have my iPad fully set up with iOS 5 and iCloud. The only calendars that are currently syncing with iCloud are Reminders—is there any way I can also sync my Google calendars?

Other info: the Google calendars are a mix of read/write and read-only.

Your Google Calendars won't sync with iCloud. The two are entirely unrelated services. However, you can do a couple of things as a pseudo work-around.

In one sense, if you have your Google Calendars on the iPad, they'll automatically sync with Google calendar and any other device that's configured to read the calendar.

Another option is to use something like BusyCal to combine the Google and iCloud calendars. I wouldn't recommend this, as it's a much better idea to keep the data from the two services seperately.

Your main decision is to which will be your main calendar. It's solely a personal preference, as both calendars will largely give you the same functionality. If you prefer editing your calendars on the web, maybe stick with Google calendar. If you want to be able to share calendars with other iCloud users, move to iCloud calendars.


Moving object inside MacBook: is it a big problem? When I tilt my MacBook, I can hear a moving object inside it (like a screw or grain). It should either be something that belongs inside and for some reason got loose, or something from the outside that entered the MacBook (via the fan?).

I plan to go to an Apple Store to get it repaired, but is it an urgent issue? Could I damage parts inside my computer?

If the object is metal, it has the potential to short circuit something and possibly cause an expensive repair, especially if it shorts the system board. Even if the object is not metal, if it can get in the fan it may have potential to damage it.

I would immediately shutdown the computer and take it to an Apple Store or qualified repair center if you cannot investigate yourself.


Is it possible to grab a screenshot from the AppleWatch? Just wondering.. The watch can remotely control the iOS camera, and keep it's photos. I was hoping their would be a similar capability re screen images.

Thanks

There's a way to take a screenshot on the Apple Watch, and it's exactly what you'd expect it to be if you're familiar with the iPhone's screenshot function.

Press and hold the Digital Crown.
Immediately press and release the side button.
Release the Digital Crown.

You should see the screen flash and get some haptic feedback acknowledging it, and then the screenshot should show up in Camera Roll. Good luck!

Source


How to show "only mails with attachments" in MacOS Mail? In the search box in the top right of Mail, I enter the search term but then want to restrict the results in the same way you can with Outlook on PC "has attachment" to only show those mails that include the search term AND have an attachment.
Is this even possible?

Just start typing "attachment" in the same search box and then select it when the prompt comes up. It will then show only those mails that have attachments.


External drive performance for iMovie I love iMovie and used it to create several projects on my wife's iMac.  I'd like to move all my iMovie resources (from an HD camcorder and my iPhone) to my Macbook Air but I don't feel there is enough hard drive space for me to do so.

Has anyone here used iMovie sourcing documents from an external hard drive?  Could you comment on the performance?  I am not sure if I should be looking at an external thunderbolt hard drive, a usb3 drive, or if even a usb2 drive would suffice as I am not a heavy user.

I haven't used iMovie specifically but I have used Final Cut Pro X. And AFAIK they source media the same way.

Generally, it works excellently if you keep the following things in mind:

The external drive needs to be "fast enough" (Basically: USB 3 or Thunderbolt)*
To save power most external HDDs will enter sleep mode after a certain amount of inactivity. When that happens, it'll generally take a couple of seconds for OS X to wake the drives when you start poking around in iMove again.

(Optionally, HDD sleep can be disabled in System Preferences > Energy Saver but unchecking Put hard disks to sleep when possible)

Short answer

USB 3 should be totally fine for you.

Long answer

"In the old days" (or on older Macs), when using USB 2 drives, you'd run the risk of not being able to read/write fast enough. But with your use-case and a modern Mac, that shouldn't be a problem.

The main rule: In general, the faster the drive, the better. This means Thunderbolt over USB 3 and USB 3 over USB 2 and so on. Opting for 7200 RPM instead of 5200 RPM is also a great choice. In the end it comes down to how much you're willing to spend.

I can't point to an official source but Apple-Certified trainer Larry Jordan has a great article that explains the above points in detail. Also, I work at media company so I have a bit of experience on this.

*I could throw numbers at you but since you mention "camcorder" and "iPhone" as sources, I'm guessing that telling you the number of ProRes 422 streams each connection type can handle, would be immense overkill :)


Apple Software RAID: Add disk to array online I recently purchased a WD Thunderbolt Duo, which has two 4 TB drive, now running in RAID 0 with Apple Software RAID.

My question is simple, if I am to get another Thunderbolt Duo next year, is it possible to add the two additional disks to RAID 0 without going offline? (Copying files out, and then destroy the RAID set, build the new RAID set and then copy the file back.)

So you currently have Disk1 + Disk2 = RAID Set1(striped)
You want to know if you can RAID Set1 + Disk3 + Disk4 = RAID Set(striped).  Disk Utility doesn't allows this.
You can however have Disk3 + Disk4 = RAID Set2(striped) and then use a symbolic link or mounting to move the set to a location that is convenient for you.
You would think that you could Disk1 + Disk2 = RAID Set1(striped), Disk3 + Disk4 = RAID Set2(striped), RAID Set1 + RAID Set2 = RAID Set3(concatenated). Unfortunately it doesn't look like Disk Utility allows this.
Or you do what you mentioned earlier, and backup everything then blow away your existing RAID Set to create a new one with all 4 disks.


Ical has incorrect timezone My ical has recently started to default to GMT as the timezone.
I have my correct timezone selected in the top right drop down of the ical, but every meeting goes in as GMT and has to be manually changed back? Would appreciate any tips

If you have the Time Zone enabled in Calender Preferences it will do just that, show you events in different time zone.

That is indicated by the ability to select time zones in top right corner of the Calendar.

So when you enter new event it will default to the Zulu time :), aka GMT , aka UTC time. That is the world wide basis time to which all others are show as positive or negative variation.

If you disable the Time Zone support, it will stop showing you different time zone and use yours.

That can be also automated based on your location in the date time preferences with the "Set time zone based on current location".

It uses your IP address and knows in which time zone you are currently.

So now when you make a shopping trip to Paris, it will automatically adjust the time/date to Paris and back to home (if you ever decide to go it home).


Use macbook to cancel ambient noise I don't own noise-cancelling headphones, but I do own a macbook (which has a microphone) and a pair of headphones.

Is there a way for me to use this set-up (some macOS app or such) to cancel noise in the same way active noise-cancelling headphones do?

In short, no.

The measurement required to provide correct phase-cancellation in a headset is measured in microns, not inches.
You could neither measure it accurately enough nor stay still enough for it to work.
You would also suffer so much throughput latency in hard & software that any attempt at correction would arrive far too late to be of any use.

Some people seem to object to my definition of the precision required for this to be effective.
Let's add more to that.

Not only do you need your distances to be accurate for the gap between mic & speaker, but you also need to be feeding the resultant audio back at the correct phase with regard to the speaker/mic orientation.
If you are trying to do this using a mic oriented at approximately 90° to the headphone speakers, assuming you are facing the computer, your chances of success are even smaller.

You then need to decide which phase you are going to send to which ear. Are you going to guess at an approximation of the 90° & then flip one by 180° compared to the other?

Does that better explain why these systems are measured in microns, not inches? It has little to do with the wavelength at any given frequency & more to do with the orientation of your phase... otherwise you are just as likely to reinforce the wave as to cancel it.


How to transfer Mac Mail signatures between computers So, I need a way to transfer one Mac mail signature design to another computer. I don't know why this is so obtuse and hidden from users, but here's my issue. I'm using a Signature generator to produce our company's email signatures but we have users across most of the major platforms. Other mail clients seem to behave well, but pasting the signature generator's output in Mac Mail on Mojave fails, and the signature design is broken. All the mac's being targeted are running Mojave.
For my process here, I have 1) copied the generated signature, 2) opened preferences in Mail, 3) created a new signature, 4) unclicked the default font option, closed the preferences tab. When I add the signature to a message the design is changed to the point of unusability.
Alternatively, I have also tried the creating a placeholder signature method (by creating an empty signature with no default font, identifying the signature file in the library and the replacing the body tags and locking the file) as well as just copying over the signature files. Each method either produces bad results and it's unclear why (even worse changes to the design) or no results at all.
So...how do I easily copy and edit mail signatures for multiple users.

A theoretical solution...

I find my Mac Mail signatures are stored in the folder at ~/Library/Mail/V6/MailData/Signatures. You may be able to copy the contents of the folder at this location from one computer to another.

Hit ⇧⌘G (or Go > Go to Folder... in the Finder) and enter ~/Library/Mail/V6/MailData on the computer that has the signatures you wish to copy. Locate the "Signatures" folder, and copy it over to your target computer.
Then (on the target computer), navigate to the same ~/Library/Mail/V6/MailData location, replace the Signatures folder (if present) with the version you copied.
Open up Mail and check if the signatures are there.

Two warnings:

I haven't tested this, so it might not work/it might mess things up. Make sure you have a backup copy of the signatures folder from your target computer before overwriting it so you can revert if anything goes wrong.
If there are already custom signatures on the target computer, they will be overwritten.


iTunes Smart Playlist - currently playing track Is it possible to include the currently playing track in a smart playlist?

Ultimately, what I'm after is a smart playlist that includes tracks without a rating and tracks that I've already rated 3-5.  If I rate something 1 or 2, I want it to keep playing until the end of the song instead of just automatically kicking it out of the playlist and skipping to the next song.

I think there's a two-step solution to this:

First create a smart playlist for tracks that are unrated or have 3-5 stars.

Second, set that playlist as the source for iTunes DJ, and play tracks using that. Last I checked, tracks would play through even if they wound up getting tagged in mid-play in a way that would remove them from the smart playlist.


how to have an active display but keyboard locked I have found much information about locking screens on MAC's but what I cant find is how to have the display continue to show whatever is on it, but to have the keyboard locked and require a password to allow the computer to be actively used, not just as a display.
This is so I can have a live status screen displayed but the laptop cant be messed with without 'unlocking'
Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks...
Stewie

There's a program for this called Lockey

I have not tested this, nor I own this. But you could try it out.
It's not free (at this moment) and they do not support Mavericks (yet) as they claim OS X 10.5 up to 10.8


Set default pdf icon with Foxit Reader On macOs High Sierra I am trying to set a default icon for .pdf files: when I used Adobe Reader all the pdf files showed its icon, then I uninstalled it and replaced it with Foxit Reader as default app to open the same file. However all the pdf files now show a white icon and I would like them to show the Foxit logo instead.
I tried to copy-paste the logo from Foxit to a random pdf and it does work, but this cannot be applied to the whole configuration (this means that I should copy-paste everytime the logo in every single pdf file).
Is there a way to set the default icon?

Once you have changed the default application using Get Info, you may need to clear the icon cache.

To get started, close all open applications and then launch Terminal from Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities. Copy and paste the following command at the Terminal prompt and press Return to execute it:

sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name 'com.apple.dock.iconcache' -delete
sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name 'com.apple.iconservices' -delete
sudo rm -r /Library/Caches/com.apple.iconservices.store

Restart, job done.

From Safari download bar rar file icon show as VLC icon,which associate to The Unarchiver should shows its icon


iCloud access through browser My iphone takes photos, automatically uploads them to the cloud in a cool way and then they arrive on my iPhoto without me having to do anything - that's excellent but is it also possible for me to view the photos online through a browser or similar? Apologies if this is a particularly easy question - my google-fu is failing me today...

Modern Answer (2016):
This is a feature of iCloud Photo Library, that launched in 2015 (and was in beta in 2014). With the updates to Photo Stream/iCloud Photo Library, your photo library is now viewable on iCloud.com.

Original Answer (2012):

This feature is called Photo Stream, and at this point, there is no web version of it.

The previous iteration of iCloud, which was called Mobile Me, did have a gallery option, but did not have the direct upload integration like Photo Stream (you had to manually post images).


How to I block a yahoo contact that is spamming me in Messages application? How to I block a Yahoo messenger contact that is spamming me in Messages application?

I tried Buddied > Remove buddy but it has not effect.

Do I really have to install the  Yahoo! client in order to do that or there are alternatives to this?

There is no blocking mechanism built into iOS 6 and lower or on OS X.

On iOS 7, you can add contacts to a block list and not receive calls, FaceTime, or messages from that contact (and the rest that you block).

From the settings app, use iMessage and FaceTime preferences to add numbers to a block list.

On OS X or iOS before iOS 6, You will have to convince that person to stop sending messages or stop using that account.


Some of my text contacts appear in red on Ipad/wont send Have a new iPad Air.

When I try to send a text, some of the contacts come up in red instead of blue and I cannot send a text message.

Any ideas?

This happens when the person you are contacting is not registered with iMessage. Because your iPad is not connected to your phone policy (just data if anything), you are not able to text regular numbers. Your iPad is still a tablet, and so it cannot send regular SMS messages outside of iMessage, which is Apple's, not Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile/Sprint's.


Apple Mail marks mail as read when searching Since a while back Apple Mail marks mail as read when searching. It's really bad when handling a large mailbox since it's easy to miss an email because you accidently marked it as read while searching.

Can anyone reproduce the error? When did it appear? Is there a setting to change it?

There is no setting in Mail to fix this problem. People have been notifying Apple about this bug since at least 2006. Obviously, Apple has no interest in fixing it. You can get plug ins to fix it. Truepreview, which is free, and Act-On from Indev.ca, which costs about $25. (Act-On's main purpose is to allow you to apply rules to messages as you send them.)

There may be others.


Is there a quick way to switch between iTunes accounts in AppleTV? Is there a quick way to switch between iTunes accounts in AppleTV?

The Apple TV Software Update 5.1 supposedly supports 'Save[ing] multiple iTunes accounts and switch quickly between them.'

You can save multiple accounts, but going into settings doesn't seem to be a quick way to switch?
the KB lists the feature ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4448 )- but I can't find any other mentions?

The only way to switch is via the account settings.


Using USB-Keyboard (connected my mbp) to control IPad via Bluetooth Connection Hey guys I wonder if there is a way (a third-party solution maybe?) to control my IPad with the keyboard thats connected to my mbp.

Someone else on Stackexchange also asked link for this feature (Nov 2010) back then there was no other way but jailbreak the Device (whats not possible right now for the IPad 2).

It is not currently possible to control a non-jailbroken iPad in the way you've described.

Out of curiosity, is there a reason it has to be an external USB keyboard and not the keyboard built into the MacBook Pro itself?

Perhaps if you mention why you'd like this functionality (e.g. game control? typing into a notepad app?), someone could propose an alternative.  The Ask Different users can be quite creative when questions are worded broadly enough.  :]


Is there a way to undo the "Show all available episodes" option for a podcast in iTunes? To easily download the latest episode, I selected the "Show all available episodes" option for a podcast to which I haven't subscribed. The podcast listing now looks like this:

Is there a way to undo this selection, so that all un-downloaded episodes of the podcast are once again suppressed?

Note: I'm seeking a way to switch off display of a podcast's un-downloaded episodes all at once, as an alternative to manually deleting them from the list.

There isn't a simple "undo" that will achieve this, so it looks like you will be looking for the least hassle workaround to acheive the same result. There are always ways of fudging it, some are more hassle than they are worth, others work pretty well and are quick but have drawbacks:

You are aware of the ability to manually delete, but this is a multiple step process that could take a long time for established podcasts with many episodes.

You could delete the podcast, and then redownload the ones you are interested in, which will also revert the extra episodes visibility, but this will take extra time to redownload, and you might have to make a list of the ones you want etc.

So, still a workaround but the one that produces the results with the minimum of steps:  Delete the podcast from your lists, it will ask you if you want to remove the files, or keep them in your itunes media folder.  Select keep, then go to (Windows example, this may be different on your Mac)  File > Add Folder to Library > Navigate to your iTunes/Media/Podcasts folder, and select it.  This will rescan the contents of the podcasts folder, and re-add anything into your library that exists as a file, but is not already in your library (Don't worry, you won't get duplicates) - this will restore your podcast including all your downloaded episodes, and remove the list of other available ones.

On the assumption that you have the option for iTunes to organise your folders for you, the podcast should already have it's own folder structure inside the general podcasts directory, thus ensuring you only scan the folders you need to increase speed etc.

Note that any ratings, and watched flags etc will be reset by this method.

Alternatively you could always try to ignore the list, and create a smart playlist where Album = Podcast name, and Plays = 0 to show downloaded and unplayed episodes (or any other criteria, the smart folder will not search through the undownload extra episodes that are visible and so the results will be filtered from your downloaded episodes only).


How can I play "The Sims" without an optical drive? I'm trying to play “The Sims 3” on my MacBook Retina which doesn't have an optical drive.

From what I understand, my options are:

Buy/Borrow an external optical drive
Use the Bonjour service on a PC (never used it)
Copy the CD to my PC as an ISO/IMG file of some kind?

What is the best way to allow my new Mac to play the Sims 3 without the power drain and physical weight of an external CD ROM?

Like most PC/Mac games sold now, The Sims 3 is available for purchase as a digital download. It looks like you can buy it from the official site (note the distinct download and physical options).

Once you purchase it, you’ll be able to download it and install without any physical disks.

It also seems to be available for sale on the Steam online store, also as a download, and as of July 15, 2013, it’s 50% off.


How am I supposed to fix a disk from single user mode? I have an orphan directory on my main disk.

I restart the computer in single user mode.
In single user mode, the main disk / is mounted as read-only.
I type /sbin/fsck -fy.
fsck points the problems but does not fix them. I suppose because the disk must be unmounted or because the disk is read-only.
I try to unmount the disk by using umount / or umount /dev/disk2s1, I get a Resource busy, try diskutil umount error.
I try diskutil umount. I get an error telling me that diskutil cannot run from single user mode.

The main disk is APFS.

WTH is that? How am I suppose to fix the problem?

For Mojave and other recent os, recovery HD and disk utility are far superior for repairing the containers and volumes.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

Once you try twice to repair using disk utility, I might either look at the exact output from Disk Utility or then do the additional work repairing / deleting using the fsck family of tools, but I would use terminal from recovery instead of single user mode.

Basically, you aren’t supposed to use single user mode for this anymore from what I can tell. Also consider, some errors Disk Utility will not fix. You are expected to back up your files and erase the disk at that point, reinstalling the OS and restoring from a backup.


How to force quit an app that doesn't show in the Force Quit Applications menu? I have an app running that is showing in my statusbar icon menu, but it's rainbowing - I can't click on it or interact with it in any way.

The same application doesn't show in my Force Quit Applications menu.

What choices do I have?

The Force Quit menu will only show foreground windowed applications, not all processes.  Launch Activity Monitor, and search for the name of the app, or look for processes marked in Red with "Not Responding". There is a Quit button in the toolbar, where you can choose to Force Quit a process.

Items in the menubar are sometimes controlled by the SystemUIServer process, which may also need to be restarted.


Is it possible to jailbreak an iPad 2 (A1395) after updating to iOS 6.0.1? I have a jailbroken iPad 2 (A1395) running Version 5.0.1 (9A405).

If I update to 6.0.1, can I jailbreak untethered?

Will I have to re-install all my Cydia apps & settings, or do they get backed up and restored?

Confused by too many Google results!

This is no longer true; Both answers were written before evasi0n came out. Now it's more than possible to JB 6.x devices, in fact up to 6.1.1/6.1.2.

As for backing up, you don't need to back up Cydia - it gets reinstalled anyway. What I would back up are any manually installed (i.e. hackulous-type) apps you may have (cd to /var/mobile/Applications, then do a tar)


Repeatedly asked to install firmware update 1.8 In the last few days I have seen the same update keep appearing in my App Store updates list. The details are:

Software Update: MacBook Air SMC Firmware Update 1.8

"This update address a rare issue on some Apple notebooks where a battery..."

I'm on a Mid-2011 Macbook Air running OS X 10.9.

I have installed the update and the machine reboots as expected, but then a day later the App Store prompts me to install the same update again.

Is there a way to reset or somehow suppress this so I don't keep getting asked?


El Capitan 10.11.3 Preview app missing move glove tool How can we get it back the Hand Tool (use to be a glove icon) for moving enlarged images in Preview (OS X El Capitan 10.11.3)?

This was most helpful tool Apple had for working with graphics!

Hold ⌥ + Space and you able to drag image.
Or

Draw small rectangular and drag it over image.


Macbook started to consume battery more quickly This seemed to happen after I did several things at once (all of which I have since reversed in trying to track this down):

installed a (Crucial M4) SSD drive (replacing my old SATA 5400 RPM drive),
upgraded from 2GB RAM to 4GB, and
upgraded to Mountain Lion (from Snow Leopard)

For weeks I've been trying to track down what the problem could be.  I've read all sorts of things about Mountain Lion using more power and various conflicting things on the Crucial forums about whether or not their SSDs consume more or less power (SSDs are generally advertised as being less power-hungry but there are a few conflicting reports!).

Anyway, I'm now back to my old SATA drive, my original 2 GB RAM and a completely clean install of Snow Leopard.  But I still have a reduced battery life and I can't figure out why.

Where I'm at now is that the milliAmps consumed by my MacBook when it is pretty much completely idle (i.e. 1-3% CPU usage in Activity Monitor, All Processes) it is consuming about

925 mA (according to System Profiler)

It fluctuates, but often goes up above 1400 mA and never lower than 750 mA.  I never paid attention to this value before but I know two things:

I used to get > 6 hours battery life in normal usage (emails, browsing) and now I get < 4.
My friend's MacBook idles at around 450 mA.

My fan speed is 1800rpm during this normal usage.

Any ideas how I can solve this?  Is there perhaps anything else I can reset?  It feels like a hardware issue.

Alternatively, is there a way to see the number of mA being drawn by the various components of my MacBook?

I would look at top -u to see if there are active processes that should not be there.

I would look at the system profile: Apple => About This Mac => More Info... => System Report => Power and see what it says about the battery... In particular the Condition and Cycle Count.

To compare two Macs, be sure the brightness is the same and both are spinning down their disks.


Allow program to make changes I have a program called ServiceCenter from Native Instruments which is basically a downloader and installer for updates etc. But every time I open it it prompts for my password to allow it to make changes.

Is there any way to whitelist trusted software so it doesn't prompt for admin password?

Yes, this can be achieved with the NOPASSWD directive in the /etc/sudoers file. Editing this file should only be done by an experienced user, because it is a system-critical file and mistakes could be difficult to troubleshoot.

Edit the file from the terminal with sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers
Add this line under the user privilege specification section, %admin ALL= NOPASSWD: /absolute/path/to/your/program
Save the file.

The visudo command uses your editor set in the VISUAL variable or if that is unset, the EDITOR variable. Please refer to the visudo(8) man page.


First cycle of MacBook battery: runs at 97% capacity, is this normal? I ordered my brand new Macbook Air with 8 GB RAM and picked up from Apple Store two days ago. However after fully running out of battery for first time, I recharged it to 100% and coconutBattery says the capacity is 97%.

I think 3% is considerably high for Macbook batteries, they can still last at 70%-80% capacity after 2-3 years.

Is this normal, or should I return the device? Any thougts are appreciated.

This seems well within the range I've seen. What really matters is how the voltage decays and you won't know if the battery is performing until you've had it through about 5 charge and discharge cycles.

If you are worried that your battery isn't going to perform, don't. With details like this, you can make a case for a battery swap from Apple before the one year warranty expires. With tools like pmset -g batt and the one you are using, a bad battery is one of the easiest things to diagnose and get fixed on a Mac these days.


How do I hide the "open window icons" in the dock in OSX 10.10? I recently got my very first MacBook Pro. It has OSX 10.10 Yosemite on it.

After some time, though, I noticed that there are many icons accumulating in my dock that just represent open windows. Note that I do not mean the application icons themselves (see screenshot for clarification).

How can I disable these "open window" icons so that only application icons show up?

Bothersome icons:

I actually found an answer to this question now.

Apparently, there is an option "Minimize windows into application icon" in System Preferences > Dock that will accomplish what I want.

The option mentioned:


Mail.app won't recognize a contact's name from my Address Book I use Mac OS X Mail and have all of my work contacts in Address Book. When I receive email from one contact, the "From" field just displays his email address (as opposed to his first and last name) even though I have a contact card for him in my address book. For all other contacts, Mail displays their first and last names appropriately.

What's really weird is that if I hover over his address in the "From" field and click to bring up the context menu, there is an option for "Add to Address Book" (as if he doesn't have an entry), whereas for other contacts the option is "Open in Address Book." If I click "Add to Address Book," a new contact card is created for him even though I already have one with the same email address set up!

I've tried both assigning a first/last name to the duplicated card as well as merging the duplicated card with the original. In both cases, Mail "forgets" that the card exists and treats his email address as a new contact.

How do I get Mail to realize that there is, in fact, a contact card with his address?

Choose the Window > Previous Recipients menu item in Mail, and see if the email address is listed there without a first and last name. If so, try adding the email address to Address Book and merging the new entry with the existing one. In Address Book, one method of merging contacts is to select both entries and choose the Card > Merge menu item.


Change Command_R to Shift+Alt I am trying to change my right command key to be ShiftAlt. This is because it gets annoying to press AltShift8 to get a "{", and i never use the right command any way.

I have been trying to do this using Karabiner, but i have not been able to map one key to multi key (can get the Command_R to be either Alt or Shift), and i can not find any documentation on how to do this.
Can any one help me with my settings file to get this to work?

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
        <name>Change Right Command Key to Shift Alt</name>
        <identifier>private.right_command_to_shift_alt</identifier>
        <autogen>
            __KeyToKey__
            KeyCode::KEY_8, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R,
            KeyCode::KEY_8, KeyCode::SHIFT_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L
        </autogen>
        <autogen>
            __KeyToKey__
            KeyCode::KEY_9, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R,
            KeyCode::KEY_9, KeyCode::SHIFT_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L
        </autogen>
    </item>
</root>

There are some errors in your private.xml like SHIFT_L/OPTION_L are no KeyCodes but ModifierFlags. The | to link the 2 modifiers was just guessing (and luck).

Use this xml snippet instead:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
        <name>Change Right Command Key to Shift Alt</name>
        <identifier>private.right_command_to_shift_alt</identifier>
        <autogen>
            __KeyToKey__
            KeyCode::KEY_8, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R,
            KeyCode::KEY_8, ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L | ModifierFlag::OPTION_L
        </autogen>
        <autogen>
            __KeyToKey__
            KeyCode::KEY_9, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R,
            KeyCode::KEY_9, ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L | ModifierFlag::OPTION_L
        </autogen>
    </item>
</root>

Tested with a german keyboard, danish keyboard layout, Mac OS X 10.7 and KeyRemap4MacBook:

{}{}{}{} :-}

Please don't forget to reload the xml in the Change Key tab in Karabiner/KeyRemap4MacBook (that's the same but different named app for Mac OS X < 10.9) after applying the changes in the private.xml.