Can I use regular mouse with my MacBook Pro 2011 using Mac OS Lion? I saw one of my friends using a regular A4Tech OP-620D USB mouse with a MacBook Pro 2010 and Mac OS 10.6.7.  I tried to use a local brand USB mouse on my machine but it didn't work. It showed properties in preferences but the mouse was not functioning.  Therefore can I use a branded USB mouse on OS X Lion? Also can it be a bluetooth or 2.4G wireless mouse?

I have used everything from wired Bluetooth (incl. Razer Naga and a bluetooth Logitech) on all my Macs. All of the buttons on the Naga work via a control panel interface, and I have had no problem. Nevertheless, the "mouse feel" still isn't up to the standards of the native Mac mouses. No matter the setting, the acceleration goes from too slow to too fast in a heartbeat. It's usable, but I keep going back to my Magic Mouse for everything but gaming (in games where I need those extra buttons).


How to choke network preformance on OS X Possible Duplicate:
  How to simulate slow internet connections on the mac

For testing purposes I would like to choke the performance of the network on my OS X 10.8.2 machine.
I have currently Little Snitch installed, which I can block access to certain hosts with... however I would like to lower the network performance as if I would be using an 56k6 old-school modem.

How can I accomplish this?

Although you can use command-line tools to do this, Apple has a developer tool that allows you to do what you are talking about from a control panel. There are presets available, or you can set your own performance limits. The tool is called "Network Link Conditioner" and is available on Apple's developer download site with a package called "Hardware IO Tools for Xcode".

Here is a blog post discussing the tool (with screen shots):
http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/25/network-link-conditioner-in-lion/


Complicated iOS upgrade - no wifi, no computer So, my niece has an iPhone 4s that I want to help her upgrade from iOS 6.  Easy right? Lets throw in some complications.

Her Wifi is broken. From what I've seen online, this is generally about a bad previous upgrade that didn't get wifi set right. So, this means no OTA updates. A lot of cloud services seem to want Wifi only,  and makes it hard for iCloud backup.
She has no associated computer. From what I've seen before, this may or may not make it possible to do an upgrade at all.  I took those links from an old answer, and I'm wondering if things have changed since then - new iTunes and iOS and all.
She has so much stuff on the device, that she can't do an OTA update - not enough space to download the firmware. She seems to need a computer to download for her phone.
Compounding #3, she is a new mom, and has a lot of pics that can not be lost. Oh, and again, it's hard to offload these with cloud services because of broken wifi.

So, how can I help her upgrade her phone? Is it possible to temporarily use iTunes, say as on a Mac OS X Guest login, have her upgrade, and not worry about iTunes again? It's fine if she blesses that one for downloads and loses it.

The biggest threat is lost media, but without Wifi its hard to use cloud services to get these off.

You can use any computer that has iTunes installed on it. All you need to do is back it up to that computer first. You don't have to sync it with the computer.

Once the iPhone is backed up, you can download and install the update knowing you have a backup of it on the computer.

Once the iOS update is complete, you can go into Preferences -> Devices and then select the backup and delete it from your computer if you don't want it on your computer.


How to debug iPhone overheating when the cause is clearly not the environment when the phone is used? My iPhone 4s with iOS 5.1 started to present overheating very often: 2-4 times a day and this happened while the outside temperature is only around 18-20C and the phone was not under heavy use, in fact in half of the cases it wasn't even used.

How can I debug these?

Going with the phone to Apple store would be the next step, but I don't want to loose precious time. I could bet that this will not happen while a "genius" is playing with the phone. Also, I'm sure they will ask me to wipe the device, something I don't want to do (did it too many times and takes a lot of time to sync ~50gb of data).

Note: Rebooting does not solve the problem!

I would advise phoning Apple first. you will be able to speak with someone regarding the overheating error you are having.

They will more than likely tell you why, and failing that recommend that you go to an Apple store. They will look at the device and run diagnostics.

If you report an issue with a product at the store and the issue cannot be replicated they will usually replace the device with a refurb model on the spot. I have had this happen twice (the swap, not the overheating) once with an iPad and the other an iPhone 3GS, both were replaced.

Yes the sad thing is that they will need to wipe all the data if they cannot fix it after diagnostics. You will hopefully have a backup on your computer, or if you used iCloud a back-up in the cloud, which you can start to download instantly at the store.

Hope it works out for you


Recents on the double click home page Why does the double click home page store recents and how do I delete them?

It's a new feature for iOS 8.

Disable it in the settings app under Mail, Contacts, Calendars

About 2/3 of the way down the settings (swipe up) you can tap on Show in App Switcher and decide if you want either favorites or recents.


Upgrading RAM on old MacBook I need to upgrade the ram on an old macbook. It takes DDR2-667Mhz. Although those are quite expensive (guess they are not made anymore?). If I get higher MHz DDR2 memory will it still be compatible and just run at 667? Are there chances that it won't work? Also what about 1067 DDR3?

DDR3 ram is not pin compatible with DDR2 so you will have to find the DDR2.

The higher speed RAM should work as it throttles down to the speed that the motherboard can handle.


How can I customize the right click menu? With macOS 10.13.6, I'm trying to change the menu item pointed out by the red arrow.
In TextEdit:

in Chrome

I tried the steps on a post, which is based on the existing services in Shortcuts, while my goal is to customize that item to "look up that selected words on the Cambridge Dictionary". Can someone help me on this?
If typical preference setting cannot do that, is it possible to do that
by modifying system plist or by programming for it?

You can't change what the Context menu item does in so far that it is fixed to look up a word in the macOS dictionary.
You can't even change it to use a specific dictionary.
You can, however, make some changes. The look up that is done is according to the preferences of the Dictionary app and it is possible to change the dictionary used to another that Apple makes available, such as switching from British to American dictionaries.
To do this open the Dictionary app and select Preferences... in the 'Dictionary' menu and you will see a list of dictionaries that can be enabled or disabled as you wish.


How to execute pre-defined JavaScript function in AppleScript and pass data to JavaScript In my AppleScript, I want to pass a list of keys to a website's client-side, then query the data on the backend, and get the response and re-render the client-side. All of these should happen in the background so that the user won't notice it.
Previously, I was able to create a dummy button (set it as a hidden button), and click the button in AppleSciprt, then trigger the onClick event in my website:
tell tab t to set RemoveBtRestriction to execute javascript "document.getElementById('myButton').click()"

But now my requirement is to pass data to the client, how to achieve this? Is it possible to execute a JavaScript function like this directly, which the loadKeys function is pre-defined my client-side:
set keys = 'key1,key2,key3';
tell tab t to execute javascript "loadKeys(keys)"

Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

Compose the JavaScript string using the concatenation operator in AppleScript.
"loadKeys(" & keys & ")"

This will run the JavaScript loadKeys(key1,key2,key3).


Is there a way to send a music file from Finder to an iPhone's music library? I have files in, for example, ~/Downloads/music that I'd like to have on my iPhone's local music library. Is it possible to do this via Finder or some Terminal command, rather than having to connect a USB cable and use iTunes? Maybe something with Airdrop? Finder also has a "Quick Actions" command if you right-click a file, is there an extension that would do this?

There isn’t a filesystem based local library on iOS. You will want to put it into Files app and use a different player if you really need to play files from an arbitrary box of files.

Files.app can play most songs without needing an app.

It multitasks and I have some FM radio recordings that are 2-3 hours long and they play amazingly well from Files app. I don‘t want these in my iTunes library so even though I’m all in with Apple Music and a cloud library - I have some esoteric stuff and audio books, lecture notes, radio performances I choose to store in the filesystem. Files on demand from iCloud works so well for my case I encourage anyone to try that.
Is there a reason why you’re using Music app and not syncing the libraries via Apple Music? Same question for using iCloud to sync files same as box.com / Dropbox / google and other file sync options between macOS and iOS.
It’s easy to automate moving files on macOS with services, folder actions and more, the problem here is Basically to chose a different player that works with files dumped in a directory as opposed to adding them to a music library that then syncs.
You are among some very smart and sophisticated People that have this understandable misconception about Photos / movies / books / music. Without an insight into how the ecosystem is designed, people revert to dumping files in a folder and hoping the apps read from a filesystem. No judgement, but this is a common request for something Apple design rejected about a decades ago as a sub-optimal experience on the platform. Since then Apple has doubled down time and time again on managed libraries and incremental sync. You don’t have to buy in to that, just find apps that buy in to how you like to store your data.


Order of sources in OS X Calendar In Calendar, you can have several calendar sources, e.g. Google,  iCloud, other.

However these appear to be in alphabetical order, i.e. Google first. When you add a new meeting by clicking on an ics file, it defaults to the first one. How can I change the order (or at least set the default calendar).

Inside a source, e.g. iCloud, you can alter the order of the calendars but you can't do that for iCloud and Google.

Preferences > General > Default Calendar
You can set a single default, or make it default to currently selected.


How to completely block specific Wi-Fi SSID on macOS? I'm looking for a way to totally blacklist a Wi-Fi network (by SSID) in macOS.

And no, I promise you that I really (truly!) do not need to just have the computer "forget it" by removing it from the network list. I need to completely and  totally prevent the computer from connecting to a certain network entirely.

It's super, crazy easy on Windows. Is there any way to do this on a Mac?

There's no blacklist function (that I know of) but there are a couple of simple workarounds
Restrict to Admins Only
Your first option would be to set up networking and restrict it so only Admins can join networks (Network Settings >> WiFi Adapter >> Advanced)

The caveat here is that the user can no longer be an admin.
Progmatically remove network
Your second option is to have a terminal command run periodically:
networksetup -removepreferredwirelessnetwork en1 SSID

If the SSID doesn't exist, it will just error out without any issues.  If it does exist, it will remove it from the preferred (saved) network.
You could put this is a simple bash script
#!/bin/bash

SSID=MyBannedSSID

net=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en1 | grep ${SSID} | cut -f2)
ap=$(networksetup -getairportnetwork en1 | cut -d ":" -f 2 | cut -c 2-)

# Remove Network if exists in saved networks
if [ "$net" = "$SSID" ]
  then networksetup -removepreferredwirelessnetwork en1 ${SSID}
  sleep 5

else echo "No Network"
fi

#Power cycle wireless adapter if connected to banned network
if [ "$ap" = "$SSID" ]
  then  networksetup -setairportpower en1 off
        networksetup -setairportpower en1 on
fi

then use cron or launchd (preferred) to run it periodically.  The caveat is that while they may join the network, it will eventually (per your schedule) delete it.
You have to run this as root (meaning put in /Library/LaunchDaemons if using launchd) otherwise it will ask you for a password every time.
What the script is doing

Checks to see if banned SSID is saved
Removes the saved network if it exists
Power cycles the airport card if it's attached to the banned SSID


Cannot ls ~/.Trash in the Terminal in Catalina (operation not permitted) Ever since buying a new Mac, which has forced me to upgrade to Catalina, I cannot view the Trash folder in the Terminal. ls ~/.Trash just gives ls: .Trash: Operation not permitted. So does sudo ls ~/.Trash. According to ls -al ~, the permissions for ~/.Trash are drwx------, and the owner is me. sudo chmod a+x ~/.Trash and sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash both fail with the same error.

Is it possible to view the Trash in the terminal in Catalina?

You have to give the Terminal.app Full Disk permissions in the security settings.


Any Way to Remotely Control (or at Least View) an iPad without Jailbreaking? There must be thousands of people in the same situation as me, so I find it hard to believe there isn't a solution.  But I've looked all over and have come up dry.

My elderly Dad got an iPad and is having trouble with it.  He's no dummy, but iOS is new to him and he's not good at describing his problem and what he's seeing to me, 1100 miles away.  I'm sure I could help him if I could just see what he sees.

I had installed LogMeIn on his laptop, and could remotely control and view his screen when he had problems.  I know iOS is different and has different levels of sandboxing and other protection from Windows.

But is there any way to remotely view a WiFi-connected iPad, without jailbreaking?  If not, this seems like a great opportunity for an app developer, or maybe Apple if things are too locked down for a 3rd party app.

The only workable solution I have found to the problem is a second device such as an iPod or iPhone running FaceTime or Skype so that you can see and talk with the person you are supporting.

With a gorilla tripod that flexes and something like the glif - this works amazingly well and everything needed has many other uses which does not lessen the impact on one's budget, but does ease the value proposition of this solution.

And - the approved way to get video off your iPad is through AirPlay mirroring which works with bonjour to find an AirPlay receiver on the local network. Currently, Apple TV and a Mac with some software (like Reflector. So if you had a Mac with your Dad or equivalent software on his PC, you could at least see his screen. The two drawbacks to this (in addition to the extra hardware and software) are you can't see where he is tapping and you can't control the iPad remotely.


Mac App Store: download but don't install A friend of mine has a crappy broadband connection, and he needs to install the latest XCode 4.1 which is only available on the Mac App Store.

For my part, I have a good connection, but already have XCode 4.2 DP installed on my system.

Is there a way I can download XCode 4.1 from the App Store without installing it (I don't want my 4.2 overwritten), and then hand it to my friend?

The Xcode you download from the app store is just an installer, it's not the actual Xcode; downloading it will not compromise your current installation of Xcode (that is if you do not open it).

P.S. The Xcode from the AppStore (4.1) runs only on Lion. For Xcode on Snow Leopard download it from the developer's website(Xcode 3.6).


How to make a clean install of OpenSSL on El Capitan I'm afraid I have made a mess with the version (0.9.8zg) of OpenSSL which was installed on my Mac. While I was trying to update it, now I have some error and for some reasons applications like Apache or Google Drive do not work anymore and they don't even start.

I would like to know which would be the best way to restore openssl to a working version without re-installing the whole operating system.

How can I do that?
Up to now I have tried to download openssl-0.9.8zg and build it with ./config, make and make install but it did not solve the problem.
Please help me if possible.

Update:

I downloaded openssl-0.9.8zg from the official site and I did the following:

./Configure darwin64-x86_64-cc --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

Now the commands outputs are:

$ openssl version
OpenSSL 0.9.8zg 11 Jun 2015
$ which openssl
/usr/bin/openssl
$ /usr/bin/openssl version
OpenSSL 0.9.8zg 11 Jun 2015
$ openssl version -a
OpenSSL 0.9.8zg 11 Jun 2015
built on: Wed Dec 30 19:50:01 CET 2015
platform: darwin64-x86_64-cc
options:  bn(64,64) md2(int) rc4(ptr,char) des(idx,cisc,16,int) idea(int) blowfish(idx)
compiler: cc -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -arch x86_64 -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -DL_ENDIAN -DMD32_REG_T=int -Wall
OPENSSLDIR: "/usr/ssl"

Still the problem persists.

These are some errors I get: for example, when trying to start Apache, it says:

  Syntax error on line 111 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf: Cannot load /Applications/MAMP/Library/modules/mod_ssl.so into server: dlopen(/Applications/MAMP/Library/modules/mod_ssl.so, 10): Symbol not found: _SSLv2_client_method
  Referenced from: /Applications/MAMP/Library/modules/mod_ssl.so
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libssl.0.9.8.dylib in /Applications/MAMP/Library/modules/mod_ssl.so

but libssl.0.9.8.dylib is present inside /usr/lib so I don't know why/what it does not find. Is it possible to fix this?

Or for example if I perform brew install libssl, I get:

  Error: dlopen(/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/openssl.bundle, 9): Symbol not found: _SSLv2_client_method
    Referenced from: /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/openssl.bundle
    Expected in: /usr/lib/libssl.0.9.8.dylib
   in /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/openssl.bundle - /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/openssl.bundle

Moreover Google Drive won't start anymore

Not sure if this is a complete solution but OPENSSLDIR is pointing to the wrong place. Also various compilation instructions include the "shared" option.

So try this and let us know how you get on.

./Configure darwin64-x86_64-cc --prefix=/usr --openssldir=/System/Library/OpenSSL shared
make
sudo make install


Old iPad not charging Old ipad charging indicator comes on but doesn't hold a charge. Doesn't build charge either? Any suggestions already tried cable and new transformer.

It could simply be the battery in the iPad no longer holds a charge due to age and cycles. You may try to replace the battery yourself:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPad+3G+Battery+Replacement/3186


How do you get the Apple Watch out of Power Reserve mode? I got it into power reserve but can't figure how to resume normal mode. I have tried tapping and pressing the screen and holding both side buttons.

You can bring your Apple Watch back to normal functioning mode by pressing and holding the side button, the same way that you do when you wish to power it on.

This command will only work if you plugged the Watch in, or if there is sufficient battery juice available.


Why does using Passbook with the App Store result in a connection error? I upgraded my iPhone 4S to iOS 6.0. Every time I open Passbook, then touch the 'App Store' button, the App Store app is opened, but then I see the error "Cannot connect to iTunes Store". The App Store app works fine for other purposes if I open it from the home screen.

Does anyone know why I might be getting this error? If it's relevant, I'm in the UK.

Ah, OK, I think I found a resolution. It's still not quite clear why this works or why there is a problem, but:

  First, head to the Settings in your iPhone.
  Click on General.
  Next, head to Date and Time which is down the list.
  Once you’re in there, you’ll want to change Set Automatically to Off.
  Go to Set Date & Time.
  Click on Today’s Date. Once you do that, you’ll be given the option to change the date.
  Move the year one year forward to 2013.
  This will prevent the error from happening. If you wish to change the date back to the real date, simply set Set Automatically to On and
  everything will return to normal.
  Head into Passbook and marvel at the apps.

(source)

That fixes the issue on my phone.


macOS Cannot Create Valid Symlink From Terminal Using Relative Paths Using the following snippet it creates an invalid symlink. But according to other answers it should work fine.
# make a temp dir and save path to var.
# set dir (mktemp -d)  # fish shell only!
dir=$(mktemp -d)  # bash/zsh
cd $dir
mkdir a b
echo 'text file' > a/file.txt
ln -s a/file.txt b/
open .

When you see the symlink in Finder it doesn't recognise the file type in Quick Preview and when you open it Finder complains 'the original item cannot be found'.

If you use absolute paths everything works fine. See below:
rm b/file.txt
ln -s $dir/a/file.txt $dir/b/
open .

Then you can see symlink is correctly make and you can even read the file content in Quick Preview.
How is this happening? I've checked that ln is /bin/ln. I'm on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 (19H2).

This is not related to fish nor macOS in general, the resulting symlink is just broken
$ mkdir a b
$ touch a/foo.txt
$ ln -s a/foo.txt b/
$ cd b
$ cat foo.txt
cat: foo.txt: No such file or directory
$ ll foo.txt
lrwxr-xr-x  1 pse  staff  9 Feb  1 13:14 foo.txt@ -> a/foo.txt

Basically you need to think ahead when creating symlinks in a directory which is different from the current one. I find it easier to run
$ cd b
$ ln -s ../a/foo.txt .

or just avoid relative symlinks in general.


Shutter count from NEF photo I know Nikon embeds the shutter count in the EXIF of their NEF raw files.

What's the easiest way to find it?

Just open the photo in Preview, press Command-I (⌘+I) to bring up the Inspector. Click the circled i (ⓘ) tab, and then the Exif tab. At the bottom of the list you'll find Image Number.

This is your camera's shutter count.


Jabber XMPP chat client for iOS with push notifications Chat Secure is working on iOS with Jabber but it doesn't stay active in the background (just for 10 minutes) so it is not really an alternative to the internal iMessage Chat.

Which app is able to save Jabber messages offline and send them as push notifications as soon as you are online again?

I use iOS 7 on an iPad Air


How to disable ellipsis autocorrect on macOS? Every time i write ... in a text editor like TextEdit or Coda, Lion has started replacing it with a single Ellipse character, which doesn't encode to HTML. This started after I upgraded to Lion and happens across multiple programs. This persists in the latest Big Sur betas.
Any idea how to stop it?

Go to System Preferences, select Language & Text, then the Text tab, and deselect the box for that option.

Or you can disable the feature completely by deselecting the box at the top.


How do I re-enable double tap to highlight on my trackpad? I recently did a fresh install of 10.8. Prior to this install, I could rapidly tap twice on my touchpad and, on the second tap, drag the pointer to highlight text. Now, with this new install, that feature is missing. I tried looking in the trackpad settings but couldn't find anything to re-enable this feature.

Here is the answer to your question:

Go to System Preferences
Select Accessibility
Select Mouse & Trackpad
Select Trackpad Options
Select Enable dragging withoug Drag Lock


Regarding geotagged photos I am using an iPhone 4 and I have many photos taken in different locations. Now I am planning to get a new iPhone 6. Can I sync these photos to my new phone? If so, can I see the locations on the new phone?

The geolocation of each photo is stored inside the photo file itself, and goes with the photo when it is transferred to a computer or another device. This information will remain visible after being transferred onto your new phone.


MacbookPro 13 or 15 2010 for software development From my own research and asking on other Mac forums. The answer to my question seem to be split. People who prefer mobility chose 13 over 15 and people who like better screen resolution pick 15.

How about this? If you going to dual boot OS X/Win7 and do .Net development on Win7 and PHP/Ruby on OS X. Is Core2duo enough for it?

It's a little tricky to see what your question is here so I'll give my views but my short answer is that 15 inch will be a better experience but not in the sense that a 13" MBP could not do what you need at all.

Dual-boot will be fine although I find OSX much more efficient in terms of resource needs. You'll have no problems doing web development using either of those two frameworks on either OS.

As for mobility, the weight and size difference seems negligible when carrying it around but once it is sat down in front of you, the extra screen space is useful.


How to get Tx-Power of wifi adapter in MacOS? In linux there is a command called iwconfig which shows Tx-Power in its output. How to measure antenna power in MacOS?
The airport utility in mac just shows the datarate and not the power in db.

I want to see the current Tx-power value. I do not want to change it or mess with it. I know that it changes dynamically according to the Region or other factors, but how to monitor the current value?

The Tx- Power is coded in to Firmware and has a maximum allowed by law. (FCC in the US)

Apple did offer the possibility to change the Tx-Power in its older version of Airport utility Ver 5.6

You can download it and try.

The 802.11n (5th Generation) - Airport Extreme card is set to

20 dBm (nominal) Output Power.

The iwconfig does not actually report the output power of the antenna. That is not possible. An antenna can not measure its own output, but a secondary antenna can. The iwconfig power output is a misnomer, it reports the power going in to the circuit that powers the antenna.


Dual external monitors? I am trying to switch from using my desktop to my macbook pro as my primary machine.

I have 2 monitors (each 1600x1200 resolution) I'd like to use as external monitors for my macbook pro (from 2013).  Both monitors support VGA and DVI input (along with s-video and composite, although I've never used those before).

Looking at the laptop, it has 1 hdmi port, and 2 thunderbolt ports.

The 'about this mac' reports I'm using osX 10.10.4, with a early 2013 15-inch Retina display.  Graphics card is nVidia GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB.

How do I find out if this is possible?  If it is possible, how do I do it?

It's possible. You can run one monitor off the HDMI port and another 2 off of the  Thunderbolt ports. You can get adapters for both of these.

There's more out there than this but here's one Apple sells.

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MB570LL/B/mini-displayport-to-dvi-adapter

BTW: Thunderbolt ports can work Mini Display port adapters.


BBEdit - Have the Sidebar closed by default Currently whenever I open up BBEdit the Sidebar is open by default.
The Sidebar is where it shows a list of files that were already open in BBEdit. I could shut it down by going to: View > Hide Sidebar

How can I make sure the Sidebar never opens up by default?
I even tried doing in: Preferences > Appearance > Sidebar > Automatically show to Never

Any suggestions?

Goto Menu View/Hide Sidebar

Goto Menu Window/Save Default Text Window

After that, each new window will use this settings.


Why do certain packages fail in NetInstall? We are using NetInstall to image Macs at work. I build the NetInstall images with System Image Utility, and customize them with the "Add Packages and Post-Install Scripts" workflow item. NetInstall itself works great but I've noticed that several third-party install packages cause the imaging process to fail. A good example is Symantec Endpoint Protection.

My workaround has been to use JAMF Composer to snapshot an installation on a test machine to use that to create a new installer package. This works 99% of the time. However, I was wondering... What is it specifically about certain installation packages (.pkg files) that causes them to fail during the NetInstall process?

There can be several reasons for this. Probably the most common is that installer writers may not consider the possibility that their package might be installed on something other than the startup volume (i.e. with NetInstall, you're booted from a network volume but installing onto the local HD). The Installer application knows how to put the package's install files where they need to go, but if there are any associated scripts and such in the package, they may not cope with running from one volume and installing onto another.

Another (closely related) problem is that the package may have scripts that depend on resources that don't exist in a NetInstall environment. NetInstall runs in a pretty stripped-down version of OS X -- it includes everything most package scripts would need, but if they need something unexpected (like Finder, for example), they will fail and possibly cause the install to fail.


Why are my Login Items cleared upon restart? Since I have been using OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 (Beta 15D13b), most of my login items are not remembered. With the exception of Dropbox and WD Quick, all other applications I put into Login Items (e.g. Chrome, Mail) are removed from the list again after a reboot.

This is quite annoying; none of my apps launch (regardless of whether I've set them to hide at default) and the list is apparently cleared upon launch.
What is the cause for this, and how can this be solved?

I can't comprehend the behavior of LoginItems in El Capitan 10.11.3.

But one measure is to delete com.apple.loginitems.plist and then re-populate it from scratch.

Another workaround is to simply lock the file after adding all items which should be started after logging in.


What URL does Facebook app use for data? I want to block the Facebook app on my iPhone. I've blocked facebook.com in restrictions and every single Facebook URL for servers I can find - this works great in safari, but open the Facebook app and nothing is blocked. What URL do I need to block to fix this?

EDIT: I know school filters somehow are able to do this so there has to be a URL..

When you are blocking URL in iOS you only block them for Safari and applications using an in-app browser.

So you won't be able to block Facebook that way.


Does just 'rm -rf' delete any files? I recently ran rm -rf, not rm  -rf /, but nothing happened. I just get a result like this:

I was scared because I am worried that it could've deleted some files, but it didn't. Just be sure, could this have deleted any files from my directory?

No, rm -rf will not delete any files because you did not supply an argument to the command.


Why can't my iPhone 4 show edited music info? When I use iTunes to edit various song attributes, like adding lyrics, album art, song titles etc, iTunes shows that the song is edited. However, when I look in my iPhone, it is still not edited. How can I make it show what I have edited previously?

You may have to use iTunes to remove the song from your iPhone, sync, then add the song back to you iPhone with another sync.  That will upload a fresh copy of the song with your new metadata to your iPhone.


Installing & running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion from an external hard drive onto my Snow Leopard Macbook Pro? I am currently running Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard on my late 2010 Macbook Pro. I am perfectly fine with running Snow Leopard at present, but I feel I may be missing out on features or indeed updates to the Apple Operating System that maybe being provided to later versions of OS X ie Lion or Mountain Lion, that are not available or being provided to Snow Leopard. Someone told me that Snow Leopard is no longer officially supported by Apple anymore (whether this is true or not, I don't honestly know).

I am apprehensive of upgrading from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion outright on my Macbook Pro, however I have been told there are a number of other ways to utilise both OS Xes on my computer, without having to forgo one OS X (in my case Snow Leopard).

The one method that interests me is installing & running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion from an appropriate external hard drive.

I would therefore appreciate step by step guidance on how to install & run OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion from an external hard drive onto my Snow Leopard Macbook Pro.

It should be as simple as:

Step Zero: Make sure you have a verified, complete, bootable backup of your Snow Leopard setup, "just in case". (And make sure that drive isn't attached when you are installing Mountain Lion, so you don't accidentally choose it.)

Attach external drive to MacBook Pro. Format as "Mac OS Extended (journaled)". Give it a clear and distinct name such as "EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR LION"
Launch App Store.app. Purchase Mountain Lion.
Wait wile the installer downloads. It's ~4gb, so you'll be waiting awhile.
When the installer finishes downloading, it will automatically launch and prompt you to start the upgrade process. DON'T PANIC. Nothing will be done until you tell it to proceed.
(OPTIONAL BUT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED STEP) Before you start the installation process, quit the installer. Then, go to Finder and open the /Applications/ folder and look for an app called something like "Install OS X Mountain Lion.app". Drag it from /Applications/ to somewhere else, like your Desktop. (You may be prompted to enter your password to do this. That's OK.) Why do this? Because if you leave the installer in /Applications/, it will be automatically deleted when the installation completes. I recommend keeping it around because it is useful if you want to make a USB installer or something like that. Once you have moved it, launch the "Install OS X Mountain Lion.app" again.
Very early on in the process you should be able to choose which drive you want to install Mountain Lion to. (You may have to click on a 'Customize' button in the installer.)
Choose the "EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR LION" drive and follow the rest of the prompts in the OS X installer.
After the installation starts, it will reboot your computer from the external drive and continue the installation. Make sure this is not interrupted.
When it is done, you can choose the default Startup Disk in System Preferences, or hold down the Option/Alt key when the Mac is booting up.

Bonus Tip: QuickBoot is a free app which will let you reboot your Mac using a different drive than the default startup disk without changing the default startup disk.

Just go slow, watch what you are doing, and it should be very straight-forward.

(Nevertheless, don't forget Step Zero. Have you booted from your backup drive lately to make sure it really boots?)


Can I configure the auto duplex feature of my Canon Pixma printer on Mac OS X? I am trying to configure a printer (Canon Pixma mg3150) to my mac... everything looks fine, I can print a page of 1 side. The specification of the printer shows auto duplex print, but the Two Sided is not permitted from the PDF viewer as follows:

Does anyone know if the printer really permits auto duplex print?

Go into the system preferences, Print & Scan, click on the printer, and click "Options & Supplies...".  Under the "Driver" tab, check and see if there's some sort of option to turn a duplexer on & off.


Can't save all photos to iPad air from photostream It might sound strange but trying to save the photo portfolios to my iPad using photostream to transfer from iMac, noticed that in one of the folders not all the photos were saved.

Repeated several times, the weird thing is that is always the same number of photos missing from photo stream to the destination folder. I really don't know how to address this problem.

I don't understand your question completely, but I'm pretty sure:

You have reached the sharing limit on Photo Stream or iCloud. Apparently you can only transfer so many photos per hour, or per day. (Read more in the Apple support article.)

It might also be that there is a limit on your iPad for memory space. Is your iPad memory full?


Reset Password app in recovery mode not showing and disks Note: this question is a duplicate of Unable to reset password in Recovery Mode, but the solution mentioned there was to reinstall the OS, which is not really the solution I'm striving for if there is any other way to solve this.

Due to a problem with my keychain mentioned here OS X is repeatedly asking for login keychain password, I now wanted to reset my user folder permissions by booting in recovery mode and then via the resetpassword app.

But none of my disks shows up here:

(My Mac, which I got with Mountain Lion, is meanwhile on El Capitan. I have only one user, which is also the admin user. Beside the keychain issue I linked above, I haven't noticed any other issues with my system / users so far.)

After disabling FileVault under System Settings > Security & Privacy, it's working fine again.


Activation lock problem I've recently dug out an old iPhone to sell.

It has activation lock on it which is pretty normal. However, it's linked to an Apple account which has had its password changed since then. I've also removed it from the iCloud interface.

It now refuses to unlock with either my current password or the password I used then... :(

Is there anyway to reset this iphone without having to go through tech support?

Since you removed that device from iCloud list of locked devices, just put the device in recovery mode and restore iOS from iTunes over USB. That wipes everything, including the cached old password.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201263

If that fails, post a follow up with the details of the failure like error message.

You could also go through support if needed to prove if you are the original purchaser of the device.

How can I bypass Activation Lock?


Can't launch calendar, contact, app store, etc Issue
Whenever I try to launch an app, it opens for a split second and then disappears.
System

MacBook Pro
Retina, Mid 2012
Processor  2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory  16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
Software  OS X 10.9 (13A603)

Console
App store says
10/25/13 11:42:06.515 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[593]: (com.apple.appstore.26432[2414]) Exited with code: 1

Contacts says
10/25/13 11:42:44.151 AM Contacts[2421]: Unable to load nib file: MainMenu, exiting
10/25/13 11:42:44.153 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[593]: (com.apple.AddressBook.31536[2421]) Exited with code: 1

Dictionary says
10/25/13 11:43:03.592 AM Dictionary[2426]: Unable to load nib file: MainMenu, exiting
10/25/13 11:43:03.594 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[593]: (com.apple.Dictionary.2144[2426]) Exited with code: 1

1Password says
10/25/13 11:43:30.354 AM com.apple.SecurityServer[16]: Killing auth hosts
10/25/13 11:43:30.354 AM com.apple.SecurityServer[16]: Session 100030 destroyed
10/25/13 11:43:30.356 AM com.apple.SecurityServer[16]: Session 100032 created
10/25/13 11:43:30.422 AM 1Password[2433]: Unable to load nib file: MainMenu, exiting
10/25/13 11:43:30.425 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[593]: (com.agilebits.onepassword-osx.24144[2433]) Exited with code: 1

Calendar says
10/25/13 11:44:10.895 AM Calendar[2441]: Unable to load nib file: MainMenu, exiting
10/25/13 11:44:10.898 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[593]: (com.apple.iCal.28368[2441]) Exited with code: 1

Needed to go to Apple Store and reinstall Mavericks.
Couldn't install from computer as app store was broken.


Can I boot from an external drive with hardware encryption? Can I boot from an external drive with hardware encryption?

For example I can add a password to my Samsung T5 that turns on the drive’s hardware encryption. Can I boot from that, as long as I know the password? (I assume yes, but that I’ve got to install Samsung software on the target machine first.)

Is the answer any different if I additionally enable FileVault on the external drive (APFS, GUID)?

I don't think so, because the drive can't be unencrypted by the Mac before an OS is loaded.

If you want to encrypt your data, then using FileVault is the best way, and your Mac knows how to boot from a FileVault drive.

However, it will boot to Recovery first, then ask you for the drive's password, then let you boot up.


Using dnsmasq when not connected to the Internet I'm routing dns requests through dnsmasq so that domains I'm using for local development point to 127.0.0.1. This works great when I'm connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi or ethernet, but I start to have problems when I'm not connected to the Internet at all.

In dnsmasq.conf, I have this setting:

address=/gentoo/127.0.0.1

Turning off all network connections, I run:

$ dscacheutil -q host -a name test.gentoo
name: test.gentoo
ip_address: 127.0.0.1

$ ping test.gentoo
PING test.gentoo (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.043 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.107 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.177 ms
^C
--- test.gentoo ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.043/0.109/0.177/0.055 ms

So that seems to be working fine. But if I try to open http://test.gentoo/ in Chrome, I get the message:

  Unable to connect to the Internet Google Chrome can't display the
  webpage because your computer isn't connected to the Internet.

  You can try to diagnose the problem by taking the following steps:

  Go to Applications > System Preferences > Network > Assist me to test
  your connection. Error 106 (net::ERR_INTERNET_DISCONNECTED): The
  Internet connection has been lost.

Chrome sees that I don't have a network connection, and it doesn't even try to make the request.

Any idea how I can work around this? Can I create a dummy network interface to convince Chrome I'm connected to the Internet? Can I make it send the requests even though I'm not connected? Any other ideas?

I tried the solution at https://serverfault.com/q/22419/92378 but it did not work, as I'm on OS X 10.7.3, so resolver is ignored when not connected to a network.

The solution on https://serverfault.com/q/22419/92378 is working for me (OS X 10.9.4). Just make sure to do this step:

Create a file /etc/resolver/whatever:

nameserver 127.0.0.1
domain .


Recover deleted files from MacBook Retina's SSD I need to recover deleted files from my MacBook Retina. The files were deleted by an app update and didn't make it into the Trash.

Is it possible to recover files from an SSD? I have used programs in the past that worked on spinning platter hard drives and was wondering if there was anything similar I could use for an SSD.

Unfortunately, most SSD firmware permanently wipes pages soon after they're marked as free by the OS sending a Trim command, so unless you've only deleted it within the last couple seconds, you're basically out of luck.


Airport Extreme sharing 1TB disk I just bought an Airport Extreme thinking it was easy to share a USB disk.
I'm very disappointed that this is taking so much time and still not working.

The disk is 1TB NTFS formatted. It works well while connected directly to my MBP but via Airport Extreme I just can't get it work. Both on Mac and on Windows I can't connect, it's not discoverable. Even connecting via smb://10.0.0.1/mydisk won't work.

Is this due by the NTFS format or I'm just missing something?

Thank you

Airport Extreme does not support NTFS disks.

You can format your disk as FAT32 or (preferably) HFS+, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and it should then be accessible to both Mac and PC clients.


What's the OS X equivalent of a BSOD? As a Windows user, I've seen my share of BSODs. I've also seen some errors from Macs, but as I haven't used them as long, I don't really know what the Mac OS X error screens are like.

I've seen some kernel panics and some other error screens, but what I want to know is which one is the basic equivalent of a BSOD. Is it a kernel panic? Is it something else?

What's the OS X equivalent of a BSOD?

A BSOD is the equivalent of kernel panic in unix and unix-like OSes. From the wiki article:

  In Unix-based operating systems, a similar term is kernel panic.

That said, I've seen the following image two times over the past 3-4 years. This is a kernel panic screen, as described in this support article.


Is there is a way to send a local message from a Mac to an iOS device *without* the Internet? I know I can send Prowl notifications from OS X to iOS, but that requires going over the Internet.

I'd like to accomplish the same thing, except that I want to be able to be able to do it without an Internet connection, to be able to send a message from a Mac to (an) iOS device(s) on the same LAN/Wi-Fi network.

(It doesn't have to be with Prowl, it could be with any iOS app, as long as it can receive a message from OS X.)

If I understand you correctly you're asking how to push local notifications on your Mac to your iOS device (hence using Prowl as an example)? Well since Mavericks/iOS 7 if both your Mac and iOS device support Bluetooth Low Energy, you could use a service based on the Apple Notification  Center Service.
This feature is also covered in this 9to5mac article.


After upgrade to Yosemite Time Machine says "Disk Full" even if there's 350GB free space I upgraded to Yosemite yesterday, and just now I got a Time Machine alert

  Disk is Full

although there are 350+ GB on the backup disk according to Finder. It said it had deleted an old backup (boo).

Just now I did a manual backup (from the TM preferences panel) and it backed up 2 MB to the free 350GB disk and all was fine.

What gives?  What can I do to make TM happy?

If on top of your Mac's hard drive, you are also backuping an external USB drive, you may want to check this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/message/27031297


Why does iTunes sometimes decide it HAS to stay open at any cost and to reopen every time I quit it up to crazy numbers of quit or force quit? This happened yesterday, and I posted on Quora. No answer. It happened again today, so here I am cross-posting.
Sometimes, iTunes decides that, despite me quitting it, the right thing is to be open, with the result that I have to constantly quit or force quit it over and over again. It happened today, and between 10:35:01 and 10:44:33 I had to quit it OVER THIRTY-THREE TIMES. It happened yesterday as well, and between 9:35:26 and 10:28:27 I had to quit it AT LEAST FORTY-NINE TIMES.
Not only does it open, but it plays random stuff that it's got in its "All". Luckily most of its picks are low-volume MIDIs from stuff I wrote on Finale, but it's still extra annoying because it typically happens as I am checking song lyrics so I have to listen well and the extraneous tune is distractive.
I thought it might be an update check, so I turned auto-checking for updates OFF in the settings, but to no avail.
After many of those 49 times, I tried deleting iTunes (a drastic solution given I basically never delete anything), but it is "required by OSX", so nothing happened.
I am using Mac OSX 10.9.5, though I'm pretty sure this madness happened with my older 10.7.5 too, and iTunes 12.2.2.25.
So what in the world is going on, and how do I stop this fu..., err, copulator from doing this nonsense?
EDIT
Looks like the culprit are my earphones. In particular, there is this thingy on them:

I note that, on my mobile, if I press that, Google listen is triggered almost all the time. The exceptions are typically when I pressed it under 5s before. The same effect is registered on the Mac with iTunes instead of Google listen. It also seems that thing is faulty, because thise things trigger even if I don't press the thingy.
So is there a way to disable this trigger?
(Btw, another thing that gets triggered on the mobile sometimes is the ringer or media volume, and the volume also very rarely gets triggered on the Mac. No idea what triggers that though: the thingy triggers iTunes and Google listen, and there is nothing else on the headphones except for the thingy where the two cables for the ears join into the one that gets plugged into the earphone hole, but that doesn't seem to trigger anything.)

https://thebitguru.com/projects/itunes-patch

Play Button iTunes Patch
The application will patch the Remote Control Daemon to prevent it from starting iTunes whenever you press the play button on the keyboard or an external remote control.

This does require SIP to be disabled, but it can be re-enabled once you've run this patch.
This does not work with macOS 10.13. Since you're still on 10.9 it should work fine, however I have not tested it myself.


When using Sidecar on MacBook Pro, built-in display is tinted I don't know why, and if this is expected, but I noticed that the built-in display on my MacBook Pro was tinted, as if the system was applying another and incorrect color profile on it, when using Sidecar.

I had the exact same problem. Disabling True Tone should fix this.

I believe this is a graphic bug at the moment.


How can I run a PHP script by dropping file on icon? I have a php script that takes a filename as an argument. When I run it from a terminal window I type

./my_script.php file_to_process.txt

It works great!

What I would like to be able to do is to have an icon on my dock that when I drop a file onto it, it would excute the php script and supply the complete path to the dropped file as an argument to that script.

Is this possible?
Can you please provide step by step instructions?

Yes, this should be possible using Automator. I haven't worked with php from the command line, so I'm unsure exactly how that works, but this is a general instruction.

Open Automator (It's in the Applications folder).
Choose to create an Application.

Select Utilities under Library and choose Run Shell Script and drag it to the area on the right.

In the text area for the run shell script action, remove 'cat' and write the full path to the script you wish to run.
Select to Pass input to stdin.
Save the Application somewhere and drag it to your dock.
Try it out by dragging a file to it.


Link formatting in Automator's New Mail Message I would like to send an email with automator and have a link that shows a couple words (for e.g. name of the site) instead of the whole URL like you can do with the add link inside of Mac OS.  I have tried just writing the link as HTML as shown below but that didn't work.  Is this possible?

foo

This is not possible.

Mail's AppleScript API also does not allow for proper RTF mail. The following fails to create a proper mail body with links and everything, something clearly there in /Developer/Applications/Utilities/Clipboard Viewer (part of Xcode 4):

tell application "Mail"
    set theRTF to the clipboard rule «class rtf »
    set msg to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:"Test", content:theRTF}
    make new recipient at end of to recipients of msg with properties {address:"danielbeck@example.org"}
    send msg
end tell

You can try to use GUI scripting to copy&paste rich text using the clip board and the actual Copy/Paste menu items.


Mac OSX Mail; how to delay 'Mark as Read' In OSX 10.10 Mail app a message gets read immediately when as soon as it is selected.

Often this happens by accident; i.e. when organising folders, or it gets auto-selected when you delete/move another mail. Suffice to say this behaviour can disturb a workflow.

From other mail clients I'm used you can give it a small offset (few seconds for example) before it is 'Mark as Read'. Does anyone know if OSX has such a setting?

The Plugins MailHub and Mail Act-On have such options:

MailHub

  MailHub is a 'smart' plug-in for Apple Mail that revolutionises email management. It learns as you work, suggesting likely filing locations to take the pain out of keeping your mail organized. It also allows you to set reminders on emails, so you can follow-up later.

Mail Act-On

  Mail Act-On 3 new features give you unparalleled ability to manage your messages. Use Act-On's new templates to quickly reply to messages. Use Act-On composer options to specify when messages are delivered, where sent messages get archived, and even which outbox rules are applied.


How to properly sync Gmail with Apple products - OS X and iOS, via iCloud or Exchange? I am a happy @gmail.com user and do not plan to switch to @me.com in the foreseeable future, still I do have a Mac and an iPhone and I do want to keep all my info in sync.

So far I used the Gmail Exchange setup (m.google.com method) because this allowed me to sync calendar and email.

What is the best way to use Gmail contacts and calendar with Apple OS X and iOS?

As I do have an active iCloud account, does it bring any new functionality for a gmail user?

How can I sync tasks and notes from Gmail with iOS?

Using iCloud doesn't really add new features for a Gmail user.
Contacts
Contacts on iOS are perfectly synced when using Google via Exchange.
Contacts on Mac OS X are synced using Address Book "Sync with Google" feature.
Calendar
Calendar is a bit more tricky.
On iOS, you have to activate each calendar individually in http://m.google.com/sync. But then, it syncs perfectly.
On Mac OS X, it can also be added to iCal, except it's via "Delegates".
It works but doesn't feel as just work as iCould does.
Mail
Mail has it's quirks, too.
On iOS, via Exchange, it doesn't bring all the Gmail goodness (archiving, etc.). And it miss push via the Gmail template.
On Mac OS X, via Mail, it's the same, archiving puts the mail in an "Archive" folder instead of the "All Mails" one.
Using an app like Sparrow resolve this issue.

To conclude, iCloud, like using the iWork suite instead of say Office, doesn't add value, but it feels more integrated with the OS (whether it's Mac OS or iOS).


safari and firefox now crash immediately on launch in yosemite 10.10.1 my browsers started crashing immediately on launch on my late 2012 mac mini.

i reinstalled yosemite 10.10.1 again, and for a whole day, safari behaved perfectly. then both browsers started crashing again.

i reset PRAM, installed latest java, ran virus check, but no dice.

any solutions to this found?

Genieo Adware is installed.  Removing it will help.

  If you have another browser installed, use it.
     If not, launch App store and get another  browser for temporary use.
     Remove it afterwards.

  Use  free  AdwareMedic by clicking “Download ” from here

  http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php

  Install , open,  and run it by clicking “Scan for Adware” button   to remove adware.
     Once done, quit AdwareMedic by clicking AdwareMedic in the menu bar and selecting
     “Quit AdwareMedic”.

  or

  Remove the adware  manually  by following the “HowTo” from Apple.
     http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987
  Safari > Preferences > Extensions
      Turn those off and relaunch Safari to test .
      Turn those on one by one and test.

Originally posted to the Apple discussion forum


Delete Duplicate Users Folder Catalina Due to issues while upgrading to Catalina a duplicate users folder was created on my system. This folder is named "Users 1" and is ~85gb. I tried deleting it using sudo rm -rf "Users 1" but get Read-only file system. How do I get around this security measure to delete the folder?

Went to the genius bar and the genius booted from an external volume and was able to see both Catalina partitions as volumes. From here it was as simple as moving the "Users 1" folder to the trash and emptying the trash. This can most likely be accomplish through target disk mode as well.


Map screen sleep (ctrl+shift+eject) to F19 How can I map screen sleep (Ctrl+Shift+Eject) to F19?

Other services I can find under keyboard shortcuts in settings but not this one.

As suggested out by Mateusz Szlosek, BetterTouchTool solves this for me where I very simply could set F19 to execute the Sleep Display action.


print option lost after Mountain Lion upgrade After I recently moved my data from a Mac Mini '09 to a new Mac Mini with Mountain Lion, I find my print options no longer allow me to print "fast"  (on Canon pixma mx712).  The print quality options now are "draft," "normal," and "best" but "draft" is greyed and not available.

Are there any settings I could look for and change?

Do you mean the Presets drop-down in the Print window that comes up when you select Print (Command-P) in any app?

In this Print window, click on Show Details. There you can build your own Presets -- Draft, Fast, Slow, Color, Paper, whatever combination of variables you like -- by selecting from the choices shown and saving for future use.

BTW, to see this expanded Print window by default, enter in Terminal:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain PMPrintingExpandedStateForPrint -bool true


Need to know how to have my own iCloud account? If me and my two kids share the same iCloud and I constantly see them sharing my materials. How can I separate without loosing my personal stuff?

The only way to do this is for all of you to have your own iCloud accounts.  As long as you share the same iCloud account with your kids, or anyone, they'll be able to view and edit your documents.

You didn't mention the ages of your kids, but Apple allows you to create iCloud accounts for minors so you can have parental controls over various aspects of their accounts.  FWW, I had the same problem and created accounts for my kids and wife.  Doing that solved the problem for me.


Automatically tagging files that were last opened more than x days ago I want to set up a process to run each day and identify files that were last opened x days ago, then apply a tag like "to review" to those files. Those files would appear tagged in Finder with the appropriate color / tag and that tag would be searchable.

Is Automator the best bet and, if so, does anyone have a script that does something like this that I can refer to?

When a file is tagged in Finder it has an extended attribute set on it:

      com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags

General Information

The easiest way I've found to apply a custom tag to a file programmatically is to use xattr to get the value of a custom tag, not one of the default tags, and apply it to the target file(s) via a shell script. For example, I created a new custom tag named Review, giving it the color yellow. Its hex representation is:

62706C6973743030A101585265766965770A35080A0000000000000101000000000000000200000000000000000000000000000013

      Hint: Mouse over and horizontal scroll to see full code.

To get the value of the custom tag's com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags extended attribute, after having set it normally in Finder, the following example compound command was use in Terminal, e.g.:

xattr -px com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags "/path/to/file" | tr -d '\n' | tr -d ' '

      Hint: Mouse over and horizontal scroll to see full code.

Note: When using the above example compound command the prompt is not returned as normal and is directly after the hex string instead of being on the next line, so when copying the hex string make sure not to copy any of the prompt!

The output of the xattr command to see standard output would be, e.g.:

$ xattr -l "/path/to/file"
com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags:
00000000  62 70 6C 69 73 74 30 30 A1 01 58 52 65 76 69 65  |bplist00..XRevie|
00000010  77 0A 35 08 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00  |w.5.............|
00000020  00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000030  00 00 00 00 13                                   |.....|
00000035
$

      Hint: Mouse over and horizontal scroll to see full code.

However, for this purpose just the hex string is wanted, hence the use of the -px option previously, and why piping the output to the tr command to delete newlines, \n, and spaces is necessary.

Applying Custom Tag

To apply this custom tag in Terminal to a file for testing, use e.g.:

xattr -wx  com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags '62706C6973743030A101585265766965770A35080A0000000000000101000000000000000200000000000000000000000000000013' "/path/to/file"

      Hint: Mouse over and horizontal scroll to see full code.

Note: The xattr man page does show an example of copying the extended attribute from one directory to another, which can be applied to files too, however for a programmatic solution I prefer this method. See man xargs in Terminal for additional information.

Programmatic Usage

This could be used in a bash script or in Automator using a Run Shell Script action, however the Find Finder Items action and Filter Finder Items action in Automator has a bug with the Date last opened setting.

This leaves using the find command or the mdfind command, the latter being better at finding files for the Date Last Opened as shown in Finder in List view or the Get Info sheet for a given file, which is the kMDItemLastUsedDate attribute used with the mdfind command using a properly formed query. Note that mdfind does require Spotlight Indexing of the target directory, and is turned on by default.

In Terminal, this compound command example uses mdfind to locate files matching the query and its result it passed to xargs to run xattr on the files to apply the custom tag:

mdfind -0 -onlyin "$HOME/Documents" 'kMDItemLastUsedDate > $time.today(-7) && kMDItemLastUsedDate < $time.today(-6)' | xargs -0 -I % xattr -wx com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags '62706C6973743030A101585265766965770A35080A0000000000000101000000000000000200000000000000000000000000000013' %

      Hint: Mouse over and horizontal scroll to see full code.

How this gets wrapped in a shell script or in Automator using a Run Shell Script action and scheduled to run at a regular interval really depends on how one intends to schedule it and other criteria surrounding how one intends to take into account its usage and other controls so as not to just run wild, if you will.

I would probably choose to use launchd to schedule this as a bash script and stay away from Automator, that is depending on what else one is wanting to be a part of the overall process.

For testing purposes, under macOS High Sierra, this is what I did:

1. Create a bash script with the example mdfind compound command from above.

In Terminal:

mkdir ~/bin
cd ~/bin
touch crtag
open -e crtag

The last command above should, by default, open crtag, for [C]ustom[R]eview[Tag], in TextEdit, in which the following lines were added:

#!/bin/bash

mdfind -0 -onlyin "$HOME/Documents" 'kMDItemLastUsedDate > $time.today(-7) && kMDItemLastUsedDate < $time.today(-6)' | xargs -0 -I % xattr -wx com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags '62706C6973743030A101585265766965770A35080A0000000000000101000000000000000200000000000000000000000000000013' %

      Hint: Mouse over and horizontal scroll to see full code.

Saved the e.g. crtag document and closed it.

Back in Terminal, made crtag executable, e.g.:

chmod 0755 crtag

      Note: 0755 translates to: -rwxr-xr-x

2. Create a PLIST file for launchd to run the e.g. crtag shell script daily at the desired time.

In Terminal:

cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
touch com.my.DateLastOpenedCustomReviewTag.plist
open -e com.my.DateLastOpenedCustomReviewTag.plist

The last command above should, by default, open com.my.DateLastOpenedCustomReviewTag.plist in TextEdit, in which the following lines were added:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:</string>
    </dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.my.DateLastOpenedCustomReviewTag</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/bash</string>
        <string>/path/to/script</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <false/>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>Hour</key>
            <integer>9</integer>
            <key>Minute</key>
            <integer>00</integer>
        </dict>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

While setting /path/to/script to the actual fully qualified pathname, e.g. /Users/me/bin/crtag, and the time as shown in the <key>Hour</key>, <integer>9</integer> and <key>Minute</key>, <integer>00</integer> keys, which uses 24 Hour time.

Saved the e.g. com.my.DateLastOpenedCustomReviewTag.plist document and closed it.

Back in Terminal, loaded the e.g. com.my.DateLastOpenedCustomReviewTag.plist file for launchd to run the shell script, per its settings:

launchctl load com.my.DateLastOpenedCustomReviewTag.plist

Now every day at e.g. 9:00 AM, the files meeting the mdfind query will have the custom tag applied to them, which can be viewed in Finder from the Tags section on the Sidebar, or other Finder methods involving Tags.

Note: See the manual pages in Terminal  for mdfind, launchd, launchctl, tr, xargs and xattr, e.g. man mdfind. Also have a look at: File Metadata Query Expression Syntax


8GB model iPhone 4S is only showing 5.4GB capacity (4.2GB available) It used to say 8GB capacity in the General > About Settings menu. Now it only says 5.4. I've done a "restore as new" but it's still showing the same.

Help?

The operating system (OS: iOS 8.x) is using up space as well and you're not able to use this space. The phone comes with 8GB, yes, but minus the space used for the OS. I think Apple got into problems when they advertised with 8GB/16GB etc. while people could only effectively use that space MINUS the space used by the OS.


iPhone data connection types Just curious — could anyone explain the exact meaning of all the connection type symbols in iPhone?

Let's see, wifi and 3G, the fastest connection types, are quite clear, but how about the others: E is probably for EDGE (aka EGPRS), but what does the circle (O) mean? (2G something? GPRS? Or is the latter a higher-level concept in mobile data transfer?) EDGE is presumably the better of these two? (In practice I haven't noticed great difference as both are much slower than 3G.)

Finally, how do UMTS or W-CDMA fit in this picture? And if EDGE is a 3G technology too (as stated in Wikipedia), what kind of 3G technology exactly does iPhone's "3G" refer to?
(Also, please correct me if there are more than the four types I could remember.)

On GSM (All but Verizon/Sprint):

4G = LTE (or HSPA+ on AT&T)
3G = UTMS/HSDPA
E = EDGE
o = GPRS

On CDMA (Verizon or Sprint in the USA):

4G = LTE
3G = EV-DO
E = no equivalent - not possible
o = 1xRTT


apple macos external keyboard right shift and up arrow not work I have "Macbook Pro" where everything goes great

because of my body spine I have to use now big "Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad"

everything works great but not a little but very important function - keystroke Right Shift+Up Arrow NOT work to "select whole above line" - but keystroke Left Shift+Up Arrow works OK

btw that "right shift" with another combination work well

Q any idea what and where set?

Probably that there's no 'shortcut' assigned to what you are trying.
You can verify this when you open your 'keyboard setting' and go to the third tab as in the screenshot.

Check in the different lists if you find the non working combination or not, and if you dont, add it to the function you want it to do.


Target iMac does not wake up with the main iMac I have two 27" iMac connected via a Thunderbolt cable. I press Command+F2, the target computer joyfully becomes a second screen for the primary iMac. Joy of joys!

I come back in the morning, or after lunch, and I press a key on my computer. The display lights up, everything is where it should be.

Unfortunately, the display computer stays off. I haven't found a way to bring it back on, other than pressing the power button, waiting for it a little (this disables target mode),  then pressing Command+F2 again. This, of course, re-enables target mode.

Any idea what I could be doing differently and better, for a wholesome dual-27" experience?

You can bring it back on by going to System Preferences / Displays and choose Detect Displays. It can take a couple of minutes to get it back, though.

Apple suggests a SMC reset when a computer that supports target display mode does not switch into or out of the target display mode as expected.

To do so, just:

Shutdown the computer which is not functioning as expected.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.


How to wake my Mac remotely so I can use screen sharing? I have two computers: a Mac Pro, and a Macbook Air. When my Mac Pro is on (awake), I can use screen sharing to take over its screen. It displays in the Finder sidebar as a networked computer. However, when it is asleep, it does not appear in the sidebar.

How can I wake my Mac Pro (or always have it displayed in the sidebar) so when I am ready to screen share, it is available?

I have already enabled Wake for ethernet network access in System Preferences > Energy Saver. Now I need to figure out how to wake it up.

Update: I am running Snow Leopard on all of them. I am also networked using an Airport Extreme.

Update: From what I understand, you can only use WakeOnLan on computers hard-wired to the network. My laptop is using Wi-Fi and my desktop is hard-wired. I'm trying to wake my desktop from my wi-fi laptop, but WakeOnLan does not allow sending the "WakeOnLan packets" from a non-hard-wired connection. Can someone confirm/deny this statement?

The aptly called WakeOnLan is a free, simple tool for Mac, both available as application and widget.

  What is WakeOnLan?
  WakeOnLan discovers all other computers in your
  LAN, and enables you to wake them up by clicking a button. If your
  remote computer is a Mac you can put it asleep too.


In iOS, where are "Recently Deleted" folders located? (Jailbroken iDevice) I have a jailbroken iPad 4th gen with 15,000 pictures in Recently Deleted folder that iPad is unable to either recover or delete. Probably too many files for those functions to work.

I've installed NoRecentlyDelete tweak but it's a bit late.

So my question is, where is the folder(s) that holds those pictures so I can manually delete or recover them.

Note that I have access to raw file system on my iPad both via PC and iFile on iPad.

Cheers.

The deleted pictures are going to be in /var/mobile/Media/DCIM/ with the rest of your non-deleted pictures. When you delete a photo, iOS modifies a SQLite database located at /var/mobile/Media/PhotoData/Photos.sqlite to change which album the photo is stored in. Essentially, the photo's album is changed to 'Recently Deleted'. To get a list, you can run this SQLite query which returns a list of all deleted photos (including permanently deleted photos, which you will have to ignore).

SELECT
    (
        "/var/mobile/Media/"
        || ZGENERICASSET.ZDIRECTORY
        || "/"
        || ZGENERICASSET.ZFILENAME
    ) AS "FILENAME"
FROM
    ZGENERICASSET
WHERE
    ZGENERICASSET.ZTRASHEDSTATE = 1
;


Can I replace my internal drive with a 320+ GB memory stick instead (MacBook Pro 13" c. 2009) I'm currently only able to see my internal HDs for my MacBook Pro 13 c. 2009 by attaching them to a USB adapter cable external to my laptop.  Drives are great - but either logic board or something else is causing internal failure problem. I don't want to spend any more money in repairs or replace just yet.  So my question:

Can I just use a 320-500 GB USB memory stick to replace my internal drives?  Are there any downsides like speed, reliability, etc. I know it's a pain to walk around with a stick poking out of my USB port but I am seeing 500 GB sticks for under $50 as opposed to shelling out the big bucks to repair the logic board or buy a new Macbook or Air.  Any thoughts?

Yes, you can do this, provided your system will successfully boot from an external volume still. Failing logic boards don't always do this. Each time you boot you will need to hold the Option key down.

The speed will be noticeably slower, maybe even painfully so. The internal drive connects at 3000Mb/s. A USB 2.0 stick will connect at a peak speed of 480Mb/s with regular throughput being much slower.

The largest USB stick you're likely to find is 32GB or 64GB. A 320GB+ drive will be a full portable external hard drive, much bigger than a simple USB stick. And bear in mind above all else that this is not a long-term solution. Your logic board will only get worse over time, not better.


Does the performance increases when the memory increases in Apple products? I am planning to buy an iPad 3. My choices are,

iPad 3 - 32GB with wifi
iPad 3 - 16GB with wifi + 4G

I'm so confused to select my best choice.

Actually the problem is, some of my friends telling that, the performance and the OS update support depends on the memory size only. That is,
the higher memory capacity device has high performance with future OS update supports (Because, the new updates may eat more memory). So they are suggesting the iPad 3 - 32GB (wifi alone).

Is their answer right?

All 3rd generation iPads perform pretty much identically, because they have the same CPU, GPU and RAM (memory). Battery life varies between the Wifi and Wifi+4G models (with the 4G models getting a bit less battery life in exchange for a bit more connectivity).

The 16/32/64gb figure refers only to how much data (music, videos, books, apps and associated stuff) you can store on the device.

I suspect when apple drop OS support for the 1st generation iPad, they'll drop them all at once, no matter how much storage space they have.


Problem with corrupt .rar file I have a big file compressed in split .rar archives. There are 68 archives named .rar, .r01, .r02, etc., annd the problem is that .r36 is corrupted resulting in an Unexpected end of archive. I've looked around and I have found nothing.

There is no way to repair the file.

And now my question is if it's possible to skip the file. I mean, extract all files except the .r36. The result should be a big file with a small part of it corrupted, but it doesn't matter.

Is that possible - to skip a file from extraction? Because my main problem is that all the apps I've tried stop the task when they find the error.

If your archive comes with recovery files(.rev) you can regenerate missing or broken parts.

I use command line version of rar for this.
Just execute this command: rar e archive-name.r01. This will extract from all the parts and rebuild the broken ones.

Instead if you don't have rev files you can't do nothing. You can't just skip.


IPhone 6 Plus and 7 locking up I had a locking up problem on my 6 Plus and after talking to a Apple Tech higher up the food chain he said it was a software bug somewhere and that I would need to reset and start over as a new phone. Instead I bought a 7 and started over with my 6 as a backup. The 7 worked fine until I turned off the Icloud Contacts at which time the problem is now on teh 7 too. I even reset it as a new phone and teh problem continues. What can I do?

you could try downgrading to an older version of ios. you would need to put the device into what is called DFU mode or recovery mode, see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15qaTA4lQPc

you will also need to download the version of ios you want from here
https://ipsw.me/

once downloaded, put your device into dfu mode, open itunes, hold shift and click restore, browse to where you downloaded the firmware file and install it


How do I uninstall Bitdefender Endpoint Security for Mac? This application is not listed in my apps, nor does it ship with an uninstaller I can locate. The support site says to contact their support team, but the product is not listed in the drop down for support requests.

Here's what I tried so far in order to get it to stop running, so I could safely delete the program from disk, but it didn't help:

sudo ps aux | grep -i endpoint
sudo launchctl list | grep -i bitdefender
for each bitdefender product listed: sudo launchctl remove
reboot

The application ran again after reboot.

I might be a bit late on this one, but the uninstall script is one of
/Library/Bitdefender/AVP/Uninstaller/BitdefenderforMacUninstaller.app
/Library/Bitdefender/AVP/Uninstaller/EndpointSecurityforMacUninstaller.app

There should be a shortcut in the applications folder too.


Will this Mac mini setup work as I intend? I'm thinking of switching to a Mac mini setup, this one in particular:
New Apple Mac mini (3.6GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB) — https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08636S4KV
For my display, I'm thinking this 24 inch Dell P2415Q 4K IPS Monitor — https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00QAJ2MOM
Would a Mac mini be able to output at Ultra HD 4K 3840 x 2160 resolution so that I can make the most of the display? or would I be better off buying a lower resolution display?
Also I've noticed the Mac mini only has two USB ports, I could do with 4 in total, for the following:

Phone charger
External hard drive (for Time Machine backups)
Keyboard
Mouse

So I was thinking of buying this 4-port USB hub — https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Y25XFGK
But I think I've had problems with these in the past, where they don't generate enough power for certain devices. Am I likely to have this problem using this with a Mac mini?

The 2018 Mac mini can output two displays at 4096 x 2304 from its Thunderbolt connectors, and one 4096 x 2160 display via its HDMI port.
So a single 3840 x 2160 display is well within its capabilities.
The mini has 2 USB A ports, but 4 Thunderbolt ports, which also provide USB C. You could use a USB C to A adaptor or cable to connect a USB device.
I have a mini with an Anker 7-port USB hub, and that powers both my iPhone and external USB drives. My iPad, however, does not charge through the hub. Keyboard and mouse take minimal power. You might want to connect the drive to the mini directly, and the hub to the 2nd USB A port.
Most hubs do come with an optional power supply, but I would expect that would only be needed for multiple high-power devices.


To install pgfplots for OSX Yosemite? Old discussion about this topic for OSX Lion here.
However, I think there is no good answer to this topic, since pgfplots is not already installed so not only a .sty file problem, like Alan writes there.

I am trying to run this script here but get the error about the missing pgfplots, after the generation of the Liste.dat:

I run ls /usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/scripts/pgfplots/ and get

matlab2pgfplots.m   pgf2pdf.sh  matlab2pgfplots.sh  pgfplots.py.

This suggests me that have the command but the error is internal in pgfplots.

I reinstall the system and run the command sudo tlmgr install --reinstall pgfplots but I get the some error message as above.

How can you install pgfplots in OSX Yosemite?

pgfplots is available as part of MacTeX:

To forcefully reinstall it from the command line, you can use

sudo tlmgr install --reinstall pgfplots


Why can't I install Xcode 4.4 on Mountain Lion? When I try to download the Xcode 4.4 update I'm presented with this error:

Xcode can’t be installed on “Mac HD” because the version of OS X is too new.

But the change log says that the update is for Lion and Mountain Lion.

You can manually clear the store where the App Store saves the downloads before completion:

Quit the App Store app
Open Terminal.app (search with Spotlight)
rm -r /private/var/folders/*/*/*/com.apple.appstore

This step is the removal part...
Restart the App store.app


Subtitles in videos don't appear on iPad? I've searched around for an answer to this, but I can't seem to find it. Perhaps someone here can help?

I've created several M4V files through Handbrake from a DVD I own, and added them to iTunes. The episodes of the TV show appear OK, but the soft-coded subtitles I selected in Handbrake don't appear as an option when playing the episode on my iPad. But, if I open these same M4V files through VLC Player, the subtitles are there, and can be turned on and off.

If they're in the M4V file, why can't I enable these subtitles on my iPad? :(

As you discovered, DVDs often store subtitles in the VobSub format, which are images, not text. QuickTime and the iOS Video app only handle SRT/3GPP format text subtitles.

Using the very handy (and free) Subler, VobSubs can be converted to SRT subtitles and packaged in an MP4/M4V. It does this using OCR, but I've found the results to be quite accurate, since the source material is pretty clean.

If you need support for non-english subtitles, you need to go here and download the proper Tesseract language file, unzip it (so you have a .traineddata file), and place it in the Contents/Resources/tessdata folder in the Subler.app bundle.

Converting from VobSub to SRT with Subler

Open Subler, and create a new file.
Import your existing MP4/M4V (or MKV) file (File → Import → File…).
The import settings should be automatically set up properly, but make sure that the subtitle track's action is set to 3GPP Text, not Passthru.

Other tracks should be set to Passthru, unless you have audio in a format the MP4 container doesn't support (but this should have been taken care of by Handbrake).

Click Add.
Optional: Click on the subtitle track and change the Forced setting to All Samples Are Forced, if you need forced subtitles (i.e. always on, for foreign languages).
Optional: Add any metadata you might want. Subler has a nice auto-search option (File → Import → Search Metadata Online…).
Save the file. This should be relatively quick, since it's not transcoding any of the video or audio.


Ubuntu bootable USB drive does not show up as bootable I tried to make a bootable Ubuntu installation USB drive according to these instructions.

However, when the procedure is finished, the USB drive does not show up in the "Startup Manager", nor does it show up on boot with alt pressed. What could I have missed?

EDIT:

To clear things out; what I want to do is to end up with a dual boot system with MacOSX and Ubuntu 10.10. My CD/DVD drive is kind of dodgy, thats why I want to use an USB drive.

The computer is a MacBook2.1 (Mid 2007) with a C2D 2.16 GHz and 2 GB RAM, native OS is OS X 10.6.5

You don’t mention which Mac you have, OS Version or anything like that. It’s as if this question belonged on Ubuntu’s forums :)

In any case, I’m assuming you have some Mac computer and want to install or Boot an operating system other than Windows via BootCamp or the native OS X. In your example you need to boot from Ubuntu.

Turns out your Mac uses EFI instead of the archaic BIOS. So you need a little “helper” program in the boot process to tell the EFI to also look elsewhere.

The steps for installing the tools and the process are perfectly described in the Ubuntu Community Wiki.

Before you go there, bear in mind the following things:

The instructions do not work for new iMacs.
The instructions are for CD booting (tho you have a link for USB at some point in the document).
You will need to install rEFIt, I did it on an old Macbook (White) and had zero problems, but the usual warning about “have a backup” applies.


AppleScript added value inside text Let say I have the following text file :

  DEMO
  TEXT1
  TEXT2
  DEMO
  etc....
  DEMO
  TEXT1
  TEXT2
  DEMO
  etc....
  DEMO
  TEXT1
  TEXT2
  DEMO
  etc....

I would like to added some text between the first TEXT1 and TEXT2 (line 2/3)

so the text would be like :

  DEMO
  TEXT1 MY TEXT HERE
  TEXT2
  DEMO
  etc....
  DEMO
  TEXT1
  TEXT2
  DEMO
  etc....
  DEMO
  TEXT1
  TEXT2
  DEMO
  etc....

I know how I can filter the text to get the value of any text that would be there with the code bellow, but how can I add some text on my text file at this empacement ?

property leftEdge1 : "2. TEXT1"
property rightEdge1 : "3. TEXT2"
set myNewCaseNote to ""
set newFile to (path to desktop folder as text) & "_Note_Backup.txt"
set theSource to read file newFile
set theText to Unicode text
try
    set saveTID to text item delimiters
    set text item delimiters to leftEdge1
    set classValue to text item 2 of theSource
    set text item delimiters to rightEdge1
    set myCaseNote to text item 1 of classValue
    set text item delimiters to saveTID
    myCaseNote
end try

Text processing should be done with shell script. Usually it can be done in one short line:

sed 's;^[^0-9]*2 TEXT1;& MY TEXT HERE;' text_file.txt

Assuming there wasn't some sort of indentation problem above. Based on what it sounds like you meant though, here's another solution:

sed 's;^[^0-9]*2 TEXT1;&\'$'\n'' MY TEXT HERE;' text_file.txt

AppleScript is not the right tool for this job.


What is involved in converting a PC video card to have boot screen on the Mac? I've got a PC video card that I'd like to get boot screen support for on my Mac Pro. In particular, it is a Gigabyte R9 270X. The card is supported on the Mac once it boots, but I would like to get boot screen back since my old 8800GT has been baked in the oven a few too many times by now :-)

I've seen numerous guides on the internet about flashing the BIOS on the video cards and also ones that speak about adding the EFI BIOS, but in the haphazard forum approach, it isn't clear how this all works. To some degree, I've recently come away with the notion that you don't get rid of the existing BIOS, but rather add an EFI partition to it that the Mac would recognize. If that assumption is correct, then it would lead me to believe that adding an EFI BIOS that works on a similar card (R9 280X or 7950 which are both close but not quite) should work since I'm assuming that the existing BIOS would be similar enough to hook in. Failing that, I'm not clear how you would get a card-specific EFI BIOS for boot screen support.

Anyone an expert on this? I'm just really having a hard time trying to sift through all this and hoping to get a more direct answer!

From what I understand, it's not the Mac Pro, it's the graphics card that needs to be flashed so that it's "Apple approved"

For example, on MacUpgrades, they list an Saphire Radeon RX 580
with 8GB RAM

  It has been flashed to work on the Mac Pro 2008 (MacPro 3,1) - Mac Pro
  2012 (MacPro5,1) models.

I ran across a video of the flashing procedure for a newer (but same family) of video cards - though the procedure does require the use of Windows (meaning Bootcamp).

You will need:

GPU-Z to back up your cards firmware
ATIWinFlash to flash the firmware
The EXACT firmware for your Mac and video card

I currently don't have the required components to test/verify this procedure so proceed with caution.  If this is something you are not used to doing, definitely seek out someone who can assist you with this as you run the risk of bricking your GPU.


Is there any way to protect the M1 SSD by sacrificing space / How to over-provision an SSD on MacOS? I've seen all the news around the M1 Mac writing the SSD excessively and I also have very high write counts on my SSD already.
I do know SSDs do have a spare capacity they can assign to blocks once an original block is damaged. But this is only a few blocks as far as I know - is there any possibility to for example Mae the official capacity of the SSD smaller by 10GB and give those blocks as additional spares to the controller so it can prolong the live of the SSD a bit longer once blocks start dying?
Or how would you go about securing the SSD Life? Is it a possibility to shrink the partition and zero out the rest of the drive so the controller can use these blocks? Would this include a firmware update of the ssd controller? I'm a bit lost about where to start with this.

SSDs just don't work like that.
Formatting & partitioning aren't placed in 'zones' like on an HD. The sectors/cells that the drive keeps as spares aren't even accessible to the OS, only to the drive's internal firmware. SSDs 'spray' data right across the usable sectors using complex algorithms really only known to the drive itself to prevent excessive wear.
The way to ensure an SSDs life is to keep a lot of free space on it. The smaller the drive, the larger the percentage. 10-15% minimum free on large drives; teeny ones, 128GB & 256GB, I'd keep a minimum of 25-35GB free.


iPhone 4 free case - replacing phone voids current order? I have recently had my iPhone replaced. An order for the free bumper case had already been placed using my old phone for which I received a confirmation email, but I did not get an email stating that the order had been cancelled when the phone was replaced.

If I launch the free iphone case application I am able to place another order, but I do not want to if my current one is en-route.

Does anyone know what's happening in this scenario?

You likely will be able to order, and receive, another case. I had purchased a bumper for my iPhone 4 a few days after I got it, and yet the free case app let me order another case for free in addition to refunding my bumper purchase.


How Do I Put An App I Wrote On My iPad? I am somewhat new the world of Mac and "i" devices. I have an iMac 9 and I am thinking about buying an iPad mini but have read statements on the web that if I write my own app I will go through the App Store to get onto my own iPad and pay a $100 annual fee. How mush truth is there to this? This is very extreme for someone that wants to write apps for my own use.

Thanks in advance.

You would have to pay around 100$ (annual) for iOS Developer Program in order to upload Your app to the device. You won't have to upload it via AppStore but directly from Xcode.

You need to pay, because Apple provides You all neccessary Provisioning Profiles, Certificates etc. You'll be able to add up to 100 iDevices to Your account.

Here's knowledge base with all informations.


Why am I seeing subtle horizontal lines? (Intel HD Graphics 4000) I can't take screenshot of it and a picture taken with an iPhone doesn't show it, but here is an exaggeration of what it looks like (visible all over the screen):

It appeared very recently; probably linked to upgrading to Mojave a few days ago.

Any solution that doesn't require a visit at the Apple Store / a repair shop would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

As a general guide, if it doesn't show up in a screen-shot, it's a hardware fault.

Potential fail-points are the monitor's video cable, the screen, or the graphics chip itself.
Unless you fancy stripping it apart yourself to try to re-seat or replace the video cable, I think a trip to the repair shop is on the cards.

iFixit do some good teardown & repair guides, if you want to tackle something like this yourself - MacBook Pro Repair - though you'd need to see if they have one for your specific model.


Firefox 54 launched from Dock on Sierra crashes I'm running macOS 10.12.5 Sierra with Firefox 54.0 on a MacBook Air. A Firefox icon is present in the Dock. When launching Firefox from this icon (or double-clicking the icon in the Applications folder), it immediately crashes. However, if I launch it via the command line ($ ./firefox in the app folder), it does not crash. Launching via open -a Firefox also crashes.

I launched Firefox from the command line in safe-mode and disabled all add-ons, but it still crashes when launched from the icon in the Dock.

I'm using the new Compact Dark theme. I disabled this and tested again, but Firefox still crashes when launched from the Dock icon.

Removing the icon from the Dock and adding it back did not solve this.

Downloading a fresh copy of Firefox 54.0 and installing over the previous version of 54.0 did not solve this.

Suggestions to fix this?

Update: This is not resolved in Firefox 54.0.1.

Update: This appears to be resolved in Firefox 55.0.2 (64-bit).

Do the following in a terminal:

cd /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS

./firefox &

Firefox 54.0 will launch successfully with all installed add-ons and themes activated.


I can't change administrator password on G5 PPC OS X 10.5.8 I have a problem with my G5 PPC with OS X 10.5.8.
I bought this Mac from an English friend of mine. He forgot an administrator password. I don't have the system CD or Internet connection.
I tried to follow your instructions in other post (command+s) but this is what happens when I do that (on the Mac).
I wrote the command like post and i tried to write in different mode. If you look the last row the command was not found or nothing found to load.
Now i have a new problem. following your instruction this is the results
!
i hope you can help me please step by step ... because i'am desperate
Excuse me for my english
problem

If you're referring to this thread, then from looking at your screen shot it appears that you didn't enter exactly what was specified. For example, there was the command mount -uw / but you didn't put the space between the command switches and the slash. Since that didn't execute the mount that you wanted, I'm not surprised the rest of it didn't work :-)

As a side note, though Apple HFS+ installations tend to be case insensitive, it is always possible that case sensitivity is enabled on the computer. As such, you entered the rm .Applesetupdone line incorrectly since it should have been .AppleSetupDone.

You'll probably have improved luck with the mount statement, but when working with the UNIX shell you should always be case sensitive and careful with spaces, dashes, quotes, etc. since UNIX traditionally is VERY sensitive to these things and the wrong keystroke can render the OS installation non-bootable.


How can I script the setup of preferences in Mac OS X? I have a couple of Macs and I would like to create some kind of script that I can use to:

Easily setup a new Mac after a reinstall
Update settings to consistent values (so if I decide to change some preferences on Mac A, I can run the script on Mac B to get it to match)

I'd be happy if I could use this script to customize:

System Preferences
Finder Preferences

I would prefer a method where I can use a script or config file to specifically set certain settings I choose to certain values.  I don't really want something that will import/export ALL settings indiscriminately.

I also don't want some complicated IT management solution, since this is really just for me.

I did some more digging and I managed to find a solution that isn't AppleScript-ed UI movements.

You can script most of the settings changes I wanted to make using the defaults command (wiki).

As for figuring out the actual keys/values that correspond to the UI preferences, I've found lists like this to be useful (this one too).  I've also used this little script I wrote to suss out the changes made by the UI:

#!/bin/sh
mv ~/new-defaults.txt ~/old-defaults.txt
defaults read > ~/new-defaults.txt
diff old-defaults.txt new-defaults.txt

It'll give you all the changes to the defaults since the last time it was ran.  There's likely going to be other changes detected (like window positions), but most of the keys seemed reasonably named.  You can then take the changed key and figure out its domain by searching the full file.

There appear to be other mechanisms for storing preferences in Mac OS besides this (e.g. allowing non-App Store apps does not seem to be reflected in the defaults plists), and I still haven't figured those out.  The list I liked above uses some other commands, and I'll have to look into those next.


Right click with Voice Control Is it possible to add (or enable a built-in) Voice Control command to perform a Right Click in Mac OS X?
That is,  similar to the  built-in "Single Click" and "Double Click" voice commands.

This works for me using the latest version of macOS Big Sur.
On my system, all I need to do is speak the phrase “Control Click” and wherever my mouse cursor is at that moment, it performs a Right Click.  However, if I speak the phrase “Show Commands” and search through all of the mouse related commands, I do not see the “Control Click” command listed anywhere.


How can I browse or search the iOS app store from my desktop? Now that iTunes no longer lists apps in the iTunes store, the only way I can find to browse or search the iOS app store is on an iOS device itself. This is rather inconvenient when, say, I'm trying to do research on which of several related apps to get - or even if I just want to look up info on an app while I'm at my computer and my iPad isn't nearby.

Is there any official way to browse iOS apps from a desktop computer?

Apple have very quietly released iTunes 12.6.3 - compatible with iOS 11 & still containing the App Store.

Apple KB: Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes

You need the direct link, it apparently does not appear as an update.
Mac link.
Windows 32 bit link.
Windows 64-bit Link.

If you've already been using 12.7 you may have luck importing your 12.7 lib  to a clean 12.6.3 Library, as outlined on MacRumors, but I had no joy.

I ended up restoring a backup of my Library [just the catalog not all the tunes] from a time before i updated to 12.7.


What does 'current channel' mean in Yosemite wireless diagnostics? I'm trying to troubleshoot some wifi issues I'm having after I updated to Yosemite. I'm using Wireless Diagnostics to try to figure out what channel I should force my network on because I noticed events such as kernel[0]: wl0: Roamed or switched channel, reason #8, bssid ... very close in time to when my connection drops.

As you can see in the screenshot, I am connected to a network on channel 2 (the one in bold) but Network Diagnostics says that the current channel is 1. What is the meaning of current channel
?

Wi-Fi has multiple channels, which specify what frequency the network is communicating on.  On the 2.4GHz frequency, channels 1, 6, and 11 are non-overlapping channels, and all the others overlap on these channels.  (On the 5GHz frequency, the channels are spaced out to avoid overlapping).  You can think of channels as an offset value from 2.4GHz.

Current channel is the Wi-Fi channel your router is advertising and the channel your computer is connecting to.  You might get better performance by using either a 5GHz channel if your Wi-Fi router supports it, or one of the non-overlapping ones on the 2.4GHz.