Cycle Finder windows but exclude the desktop My workflow often involves comparing two Finder windows side by side. I use shortcut 2 (see screenshot) to quickly cycle between the windows. However, the annoying thing is that the cycle also includes the desktop as a 'window'. Instead, I would just like to cycle between the two floating windows.

The closest I've come to achieve this is shortcut 1. This shortcut excludes the desktop, but unfortunately it will also cycle between the windows of all apps. It also doesn't work properly in Split View.

Is it possible to make shortcut 2 exclude the desktop? If not, is there another method to achieve what I want?

To be clear: I really want to exclude the desktop from the cycle because that enables me to use one shortcut to switch between the windows. I'm aware that you can go to the previous window using shift, but it's just way, way easier to go back and forth using the same shortcut.

Update 1: I just discovered that my question has been asked before: Command Tilde in Finder, prevent focus on Desktop at end of cycle. However, I don't think the answer there solves the problem.

Update 2: My solution.

First, you're going to need an AppleScript that can swap the position of the two frontmost windows.

tell application "Finder"
    set index of window 1 to 2
end tell

Now you need a way to make this script easily accessible from the Finder. We'll use macOS services, and Automator makes this super easy for us.

Open Automator
Make a New Document of type "Quick Action" (or "Service" in older macOS)
Drag a new Run Applescript action into the workflow. You can find it in the Utilities category, or just search for it in the search bar.
Copy the AppleScript shown above into the script box.
Press ▶ to try it out. You'll get an error if you have fewer than two windows open -- I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader to fix.
Save the workflow as Swap Front Windows. The moment you save it, it will become accessible from the Services menu under the application menu.

At this point you can really try it out. Go to the Finder and open two windows. Then go to the menu bar, choose Finder -> Services -> Swap Front Windows. It takes a moment, but it works. That's cool, now let's hook it up as a keyboard shortcut.

Open System Preferences
Go into Keyboard Preferences
Go to the Shortcuts tab
Go into the Services category
Scroll down to the bottom. Underneath General you should see Swap Front Windows.
Select the "Swap Front Windows" row, then click Add Shortcut.
Enter the shortcut you want to use. I recommend Ctrl + Shift + `.


External USB Audio not being picked up by Macbook Pro I've just bought the brand new 13" Retina Macbook pro. I'd like to hook it up to my USB DAC (An Audio Engine D1) When I plug in the USB to the Macbook it doesn't pick up anything. I've restarted the laptop to no effect. Nothing is being displayed in the Output section of Sound in System Preferences.

The DAC is supposed to be plug and play and has been working fine on my Windows machine for years.

How can I set up external audio on a Macbook Pro?

First, it would be helpful to know the exact model and the brand.

Second, could you please give this a try:

Plug your DAC in,
open the Audio-MIDI-Setup utiilty from the Utilities folder and
check whether it appears?

If not, try to create a device for it... Just a crazy idea...


Using ARD to do mass upgrades? I am trying to find a method of Upgrading many computers, for example to 10.10.x to 10.12.x . Is there a way of doing so using Apple Remote Desktop? Planning to update about 40 computers.

I am able to update from 10.12.4 to 10.12.5 but so far I have not made much progress with an upgrade. Would AutoDMG be a step forward without deleting the files already on the computers?

You can use Apple Remote Desktop to copy the macOS Installer application to the Applications folder on every client Mac, then send the following UNIX command as root:

/Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app --agreetolicense --nointeraction

This command starts the in-place upgrade action to macOS High Sierra. It may take some time for the entire process to complete, but it doesn't require any user interaction.


Is 80-90 degrees celsius hot for MBP 2019 CPU temperature I just converted to apple and bought the latest 16inch MBP with a 6 cores core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM.
I am noticing that it gets hot easily, on idle the temperature is around ~45 degrees celsius and when I have chrome and terminal installing something it can go up to 95 degrees and then goes back to about 50.
I only had the laptop for about a week now, is this normal or should I return it?
Also, I am checking the temperature using istat

I just checked mine, a 2020 16" MBP i5 with 16 GB of RAM and it's running at 83 degrees celsius. So I would say yes, this is normal. I am currently running a Time Machine backup and the fans are running.
You can check the temperature of the CPU die from the Terminal via the sudo powermetrics | grep -i "CPU die temperature" command. You will need to kill this with a Control-C command.


Mac OSX : How to protect daemon process from stopping by root/admin I've a security daemon which performs many security related tasks. Daemon plist is part of /Library/LaunchDaemon/com.xyz.securityservice.plist also KeepAlive flag is 1.

The daemon I've currently can be stopped using this command - sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemon/com.xyz.securityservice.plist

I wanted to restrict security daemon from unloading by this command.

I do not want anyone to unload/stop this daemon. One can stop security daemon only if he has security password(not system password) or if we send some private notification to daemon to stop itself. Daemon will observe this private notification.

Please suggest any pointer on this.

I'm not a developer or a guru in all of the available keys with launch daemons, but that is kind of a tall order as by design, root can do anything.  I'm thinking you would basically be creating a security "virus" that would have a helper mechanism reload the daemon if it gets unloaded.


Run .command with input at runtime I need to run a .command file with input at runtime, but I want to run via double click, not from terminal.

I have a file adbInstall.command file with this code

adb install /Directory/$1.apk

From terminal, I can do adbInstall.command fileName and it will properly run adb install /Directory/fileName.apk

How can I input fileName whilst double clicking on adbInstall.command instead of running it from terminal?

Using Automator.app:

Open Automator and create a new Work Flow
Go to Actions / Library / Text
Choose Ask for Text and enable the Require an answer checkbox.
Go to Library / Utilities
Choose Run Shell Script
Select as arguments on the pass input: drop down.
Type adb install /Directory/$1.apk as the actual script.
Save as Application.

Now you'll have a clicable file which will ask for the parameter for the script.


"Profiles" for any Mac application? Is there a tool that lets me have a set of profiles, similar to Firefox, for any Mac application? So I can have two instances of an application, but each has its own settings...

Check out SwitchUp.

http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/switchup/

It used to be called rooSwitch and it was awesome for managing app prefs and data files. Now it's better and more awesome.


How to disable background blur effect on macOS Sierra login screen I've replaced /Library/Desktop Pictures/Sierra.jpg with a custom background image. Now, macOS Sierra applies the blur effect on my custom background image as well. I am looking for a reliable solution to turn it off e.g. overwriting a plist preference file or any non-hacking workaround?

How can I completely disable the login screen background blur and show a crystal clear login image?

Do this:

Go to /Library/Caches/
Rename the original com.apple.desktop.admin.png file to com.apple.desktop.admin1.png
Add a new image in its place with the original com.apple.desktop.admin.png name

This will replace the blurred original image with the new one unblurred.


save a file to /usr using Mac's Save As dialogue I'm using OSX currently, but I usually use Windows. One thing that's really frustrating for me is that I can't figure out how to save a file to a very specific location (/usr/local/Cellar/apache-spark/2.3.1/conf/xyz.conf)

When I click Save As in Sublime Text I get a save dialogue with only a few very limited choices (I assume this is a generic dialogue to Mac OS and not specific to Sublime). I learned to click the downward arrow next to the file name which expands the dialogue somewhat, but I still don't see how I can save the file in /usr since that folder is seemingly missing. Any idea?

See screenshot:

It does indeed appear to be a regular save dialog, so once you've expanded it (the down-arrow next to 'Where' so you get a mini-finder view), the key combo ⌘ Command⇧ Shift. should toggle invisibles.

(The same combo works in Finder proper, also)


How do I change window size that is not Finder? When I go to open in Photoshop or in FCPX or in other programs - window size is small.  Need the default to be larger. Any Ideas?

(I know how to resize Finder window)

Drag the sides or corners of the window to your desired size. This is remembered across application launches.


ZEVO ZFS and Aperture I'ld like to use ZEVO (ZFS) on my Storage-Device. There shall the Aperture-Library be stored.

Are there any issues using an Aperture - Library on ZFS formatted device.

Thanks allot

You can't run an Aperture Library from a device that's not formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3509

What can work is running a Referenced Library with the Library on an appropriately formatted disk and the Masters stored elsewhere.

Another workaround: Make a Disk Image formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and store that on your device.


Swap first and last name fields in a contact record When contacts/address book was imported from a previous phone most of the entries came in with the last name in the first name field, and first name in the last name field.

Is there a quick key method to swap those two fields without having to retype both of them or cut/paste one and type the other?

Not really. You could change the sort order and display order of the contacts in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars under the Contacts section to give the appearance that the contacts are in that right order, though.


How can I detect in activity log if 'PC repair shop' guy had a look at my files I’ve got sensitive data on my Mac.

I’ve taken it to a repair shop, because my mac was not able to boot. They are keeping it till 28. December.
I gave them my password.

I’m scared they will check and see some of my folders/text files.

So, is there any way to check activity/system log? I would like to see when and what was opened/viewed.

In short, if they really, really wanted to look at your data, they could do it in ways that you could not detect.

What generally happens, though, is that these professionals - whose job relies on their reputation & integrity - simply couldn't be bothered even checking to see if you had anything more interesting than a couple of dodgy torrents.


User home *apparently* scracthed after Big Sur update After a Big Sur update (to 11.2.3) and the usual multiple reboots, when I was able to log into my account I discovered that the whole user folder was apparently scratched away and recreated as if it was a new user. Generally speaking a really scary thing, even though I have a fresh backup done just before running the update; but it is not a good perspective having to spend several hours while restoring 2TB worth of data (SSD are fast, but that amount of data still requires some time).
How to recover from that?
Fortunately I've been able to fix it by myself, so I'm going to post an answer below; just in case it might be useful for others or it happens again...

The key point of the problem is that my user profile (fritz) is located on a separate encrypted volume Users, so its actually home path is /Volumes/Users/fritz. When I login after a reboot I use another account to enter into the system (administrator) that is regularly located on the root volume (/Users/administrator): then I enter the encryption password for the Users volume and at last I log into my main account.
This setup (which has been working for years) probably messed up the latest system update tool, because it basically recreated a new user fritz from scratch (when I logged in after the system update I was not only asked for enabling Siri - it always does it - but also other preferences, such as the light/dark theme, a thing that happens for users that have just been created). The path of the new bogus account was /Volumes/Users/fritz as it should be but it was not a mount point: it was just a plain directory of the root volume. The Users volume was mounted at /Volumes/Users 1 and everything was still there, but no more associated to the fritz account.
The obvious solution was to remove the bogus /Volume/Users directory, but the system wouldn't let me do that, even from sudo - typical security restrictions of the latest macOS's I suppose. I rebooted in Recovery mode just to find - to my surprise - that the bogus directory had not been created in that mode; so it was impossible to remove in that way.
At last the solution was:

Log in as administrator as usual, without entering the password for the Users volume.
Remove the user fritz.
At this point I was able to remove with sudo the bogus directory /Volume/Users.
Open the Disk Utility and mount Users. Now the volume was mounted in the right place.
Re-create the fritz user with all the previous settings (UID and home folder path).


Duplicate of photos? Given latest versions of MacOS and iOS and one iMac and one iPhone both on the same iCloud account.

I take a picture with the iPhone. It shows up, via photo stream on the iMac. So far so good.

Now I attach the iPhone to the iMac and do a sync. Does the photo now "live natively" on the iMac or still just through photo stream? I think it's not native yet.

Now I use Photos app on iMac and import the photos from the iPhone. Now the photo lives natively on the iMac but it looks like I have a duplicate because the stream copy of it is also there.

That can't be right can it?

I would not sync, so no this isn’t right IMO. Use iCloud if you want to sync photos between a Mac and an iPhone is my advice.


Macbook Pro: Why do colors vary on my macbook pro I recently noticed that the color blue looks kind of ultraviolet on my brand new Macbook Pro, I noticed that from the facebook header it's not really blue, it looks ultraviolet, is it because the screen is IPS screen? is that normal?

Yes, that is completely normal. All monitors / displays fade over time and even vary out-of-the-box. All you need to do is color calibrate your monitor. If you are just using this for everyday use then go to system preferences. If you are using this for something like photography or printing then it is valuable to accurately profile your monitor with hardware calibration.

System Preferences > Displays > Color > Calibrate.


In iphone 5s location of movies is not showing which is received from airdrop My friend sends a movie from his iPhone to mine via AirDrop, and I accept the option to receive the file. However, the movie is not showing on my device.

Photos and videos that are shared with Air Drop are saved to iPhoto's.  Movies are shared to the Albums section.


Has anyone tricked the Apple Configurator to work with non VPP redemption codes? I wonder if anyone has had success or failure in attempting to use the Apple Configurator with normal gifted app redemption codes. The FAQ clearly states that you must be in the Volume Purchase Program (VPP) to import a spreadsheet from the VPP portal - however, I wonder if it would be possible to assemble a DIY spreadsheet with valid gifted apps for use.

Apple Configurator: Using Volume Purchase Program (VPP) Redemption Codes

My guess is no, but figured perhaps someone may have already tried this.

This was only necessary with version 1.0 of the configurator.

Version 1.0.1 (110) allows more codes to be used than just VPP generated ones.


Mounted encrypted disk images are accessible by other users Is it normal that mounted encrypted disk images appear on the other user's desktop as well if you have two different users at the same computer? This phenomena has been around for some time now. I could not get rid of it by reinstalling the system.

Yes, it is normal.

You can use the procedure given here and use mount options based on label to protect your volume.

You can also use access rights to control what can be seen or not if the file system supports permissions (you can change the owner and access rights of the files according to your needs using Finder or command line).


Where does a screenshot come? I've a problem with my Mac Mini.
Sometimes, from some time, it displays some glitches, or "graphical problems", for instance the screenshot below shows some bands in a part of the screen with black or "rainbowed" flashing pixel and sometimes, when Mac wake up from sleep, all screen has a green tint. Everything solves sleeping and waking up the Mac.

I was convinced that it's a GPU problem but I went to Genius bar with these screenshot and they told me that "screenshot comes from the screen, not from the GPU, so, if glitch appears even in screenshot, problem is in the screen or the cable, not in the Mac", is it true?

Your Genius was misinformed. When graphical artifacts or distortions show up in a screenshot, they are a product of the graphics card. It is one of the quickest tests, we did it all the time to classify graphics issues. Most geniuses know this, like I said you got someone who was either new or off their game that day.

Long story short, you're absolutely right that it's the GPU.


Does the Downloads folder always exist? Is a user's downloads folder always called "Downloads" and located in the same path, or does its name and path change due to localization?

It changes according to localization, but just the name as all the default folders in OS X, the path is the same.

Macintosh HD/Users/user_name/Downloads


Cyrillic letter "ч." appears after clock on iOS 12 I have this quite strange issue after upgrading to iOS 12. Right after the clock appear a cyrillic "ч." symbol. I know that it stand there for "час", which is "hour" translated from my native language to English but this is very frustrating to look at. I have make two screenshots:

On the lock screen:

On an unlocked screen:

I am with iPhone X and iOS12. Does anyone else faced this problem? Does someone know how to remove this extra symbol after the clock? I have tried literally everything, so any ideas are great welcomed!

I had the same problem and I did so :
settings/language & region/iPhone Language/English(UK)
My phone was already with this option but I chose it anyway and luckily the symbol get disappeared. I hope I helped. Good luck.


El Capitan "Paste and Match Style" not working in Microsoft Word I want to set up my computer to paste unformatted text by default. When I try to do this (following the advise of several online guides) my paste no longer works. I went to keyboard > shortcuts > app shortcuts > +. See my changes below. When I try command+v in Microsoft Word, nothing happens. What went wrong here? Is there a way I can make this work in Microsoft Word?

When I try ctrl+v

Command+V

Try to delete and add one again.

It works for me (macOS Sierra, Safari):


mdflagwriter using port 21? I have a 17" mid 2010 MBP with 8GB ram.

After reading up on some of the latest vulnerabilities, I did a port scan and found port 21 OPEN vs stealth for all other ports. I cannot figure out what is using port 21, but Activity Monitor shows ports 21 and 24 being used by mdflagwriter (see attached screen shot)

Why would a Spotlight indexing system be using these ports, and how do I close port 21?  The other two show as stealth, but 21 seems to be open.  Is it safe to just kill these pids?

Stealth mode is enabled in System Preferences->Security & Privacy.

Thanks for any answers.

The word "Ports" here does not mean what you think it means. It is not the number of a single TCP or UDP port the process has open. It is not even the count of such ports.

'The "ports" column shows how many "Mach ports", or "kernel queues" the process has open, which basically describes how communicative the process can be with others (eg: reserving memory usage from the system). This information will only be useful to system administrators and programmers.'


/System is hogging memory and I want to know why. Is it dangerous to use sudo du to investigate? System Information says that /System is holding 80 GB but when I search with du I only find 5 GB. I reset my spotlight memory indexing by adding then removing / form the "privacy" list in System Preferences -> Spotlight but the discrepancy persists.

I want to use this du command with sudo, but I will only do that if I am absolutely certain that it will not destroy my system. Is it dangerous to use sudo with du? How can I find what is eating my memory?

$  perl -e'%h=map{/.\s/;99**(ord$&&7)-$`,$_}`du -hs /System/*`;die@h{sort%h}'
du: /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.coresymbolicationd: Permission denied
du: /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.receiptInstaller: Permission denied
du: /System/Library/DirectoryServices/DefaultLocalDB/Default: Permission denied

du: /System/Library/User Template: Permission denied
5.2G    /System/Library
$

The /System folder is different to what System Information reports as System usage. There are plenty of other folders, hidden, at the root of a macOS startup disk which add up to many GBs.


Macbook Air intermittently can't find startup disk About six months ago, my Macbook Air started having a strange issue where it would often not be able to find the startup disk, giving me the flashing question mark. Initially, I was convinced the hard drive (ssd) was dead. If I booted from a recovery USB, disk utility would not even find the drive. However, for whatever reason and luck, restarting the computer eventually fixed it; the startup disk would be found and the computer would boot up with no problem. I then checked the disk with a few utilities, none of which found any problems. But, if I turned off the computer, again it would most likely not find the startup drive. I would say it finds the startup drive about ten percent of the time. So if the computer restarts, then I might be rebooting it a dozen times before it boots up. Another thing is that if the computer has booted up, if I put it to sleep, it will not wake up; or it tries to but then it freezes. So that necessitates another round of restarts hoping it will boot. So I have backed up the hard drive contents fairly well, and I've since never turned the computer off or let the computer go to sleep unless it freezes. Fortunately, OS X is stable and I have something like 95 day uptime going, however, the computer is essentially a desktop now with no portability. Does anyone know what might be wrong with the computer? I'm pretty sure I've tried resetting the PRAM and SMC, though this was a long time ago... Anyway, does anyone know anything about a problem like this? I am running 10.7.5 on a Mid-2011 Macbook Air 11-inch, 1.6 GHZ i5.

Hard disk drive failure

A few weeks ago I found similar symptoms with a colleague's iMac:

sometimes it behaved as if no drive was installed
sometimes during normal use, the Mac stopped working (not a total freeze; the reported symptoms were as if there was an I/O issue) – this was less likely to occur if the Mac was cool
in FireWire target disk mode, every time I tried to fully optimise its disk, the Mac behaved as if the drive had disappeared.

A replacement hard disk solved the problems for the user.

Testing your own hard disk drive

If you have an external optical drive, you could perform a thorough backup then try the most powerful test of HDAT2.

Caution

A routine that is intended to reallocate bad blocks may lead to dataloss.

In response to commentary

A clean installation might complete without error – and you might precede that with a single write of zeros throughout a volume – but still (I could/should have mentioned this in my first edition): I'd be wary.

If an entire drive has failed to present itself to software, at any time in the past, then to me that sounds a quiet but unforgettable alarm … expect the unexpected, and so on.

I should either:

a. no longer trust that hardware; or

b. perform extraordinarily time-consuming stress tests, which might reveal the nature of the failure and/or partially rebuild trust in the hardware.

In a geeky way I'm sometimes happy to spend/waste that time, but option (b) is not for everyone.

Related, in Ask Different

For bad and/or marginal blocks on hard disks, can anything be more effective than a single pass of zeros?

– all three answers were good. The accepted answer there links to a Tom Nelson article that includes:

use of Drive Genius (page 3) – in my experience not extending the scan significantly reduces the likelihood of detection of bad blocks
a Disk Utility approach to stress testing (page 4) – and for that stress test to be most effective, you should aim to repeatedly write over as much as possible of the disk before your clean installation of the OS.

(I wonder … can a Disk Utility approach be thorough enough to repeatedly write over the areas of disk that would be used for the GPT, and so on?)

Personally: if presented with a disk that might benefit from a multi-pass stress test, I would prefer HDAT2 to Disk Utility. Set aside the machine for a few days, allow HDAT2 to write repeatedly to the entire device …


Can I save an hard copy version of my iCloud Photo Library on iPhone? I want to unsubscribe from iCloud and, this way, I'll lose all the photos that I previously uploaded on the iCloud Library. Is there a way to unsubscribe from iCloud and keep a hard copy high-resolution version of the photos on my iPhone gallery?

Before turning off iCloud Photos, you can make Photos download the originals. You'll need enough space on your iPhone first though.

  To download the original photos and videos on your iOS device, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos and select Download and Keep Originals

Get help with iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Allowing MDM users to not only enroll devices (/mydevices) but also assign them to certain groups? So I would love to allow one of our users access to not only add their own devices (as they do now by going to server/mydevices), but also decide which group the device should belong to.

The user has 3 different types of devices all which should belong in separate groups. As of now we allow the user to add the device using Apple Configurator or by going to the mydevices interface and enrolling it directly from the device, but after that there's no way for them to specify that the device should end up in a certain device group.

Is there any way to allow the user to select a group for the device to go into? Or if not, is there any way to set it so that all devices for a certain user goes into a specific device group?

So turns out there is no way to do this now. At least as far as I've been able to tell.


TotalResultsDaemon running as root Someone I know's macOS Mojave got taken over by something called TotalResults.

In the process list it shows a lot of processes TotalResults running as root. There were signs in Chrome first, some extension and a weird gateway setting.

I couldn't find anything about this. Anyone else? Let me know before I wipe the machine

Screenshot:

Before you go all the way to wipe, try

sudo rm -r /var/root/.TotalResults

in Terminal, followed by a restart.


Why does download have a little x icon on left corner? I downloaded PostgreSQL from here. But when I look at Downloads folder, it looks different from other downloads. It has a small x icon on corner:

Why?

The little circled (x), on the icon, is to stop the download. While it shows the reported download size, nonetheless it appears the download hasn't competed yet, and or if the downloading has stopped then something may be wrong and why it hasn't completed.


Apple Agenda totally empty and "updating" endlessly Yesterday my agenda suddenly froze (with the spinner showing for at least half an hour. So I did a force quit, and opened it again, and now it just shows this:

The line "Agenda's bijwerken..." translates as "Updating agendas".

It has shown this for hours now, so I don't think anything is going on anymore. Most importantly though, the whole agenda seems empty in the background (and I don't have iCloud backups from the agenda).

Does anybody know what I can do to A) get the events from my agenda back, in whichever form possible, and B) get the Agenda working again.

I'm pretty good on the command line, so messing around in system files won't be a problem for me. I just don't have a clue where to start. If it's important; I'm on OSX 10.11.2.

All tips are welcome!

I don't know the reason why this is happening, but I had this once. I think it's connected somehow with error of synchronization, it just gets into loop, and never recovers back.

First of all, try to Force Quit for this app, and then to restart. In some cases it helps.

Second scenario, if the previous one haven't helped to troubleshoot, is:

Open up system Preferences and navigate to accounts  > System Preferences > Accounts
Deactivate the iCloud. (try deselecting calendars, as well)
Restart iCal.

If it haven't, then you need to clean the cache. Instructions described here helped to restore:

Quit iCal/Calendar.
Make backup copies of these files before deleting them. (!important in case something goes wrong)
Delete the calendar cache found here:

~/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iCal (if these files exist)

You may try the second scenario, provided by the link above, but in this case, you will lose the not saved events, which were not synced with your account. You additionally would need to do these actions:

Delete the Events directory found here:

~/Library/Calendars/*.calendar/Events
Delete the application's preference files here:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.helper.plist (if this file exists)

And then to reconfigure the preferences and accounts.


iPhone Contacts app Cross-References Facebook? I just added two contacts to the contacts app on my iPhone (iOS 9.1) and after each I had a dialog asking me to enter my Facebook password, presumably so it could cross-reference this with my Facebook account. I didn't enter my password and instead went looking for a setting that links the Contacts and Facebook apps together but could not find anything. Is there such a setting? If so, where? If not, is Contacts sending data to Facebook?

On iOS 9, if you go to the iPhone Settings app > Facebook (that's in the 7th "block" of settings as you scroll down, with social media accounts like Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo—whether you have an account or not), there is a disclaimer:

*Photos and user names are automatically updated for Facebook friends. Choose "Update All Contacts" to temporarily provide Facebook with email addresses and phone numbers from your contacts to update photos and user names for all matching contacts."

There is an "Update All Contacts" button. In addition, you can control there whether Contacts.app has access to your Facebook account (if you have one) on that same settings panel. You can control whether the Facebook app has access to your contacts through Settings > Privacy > Contacts (I think that's the same on iOS 8 and 9).


Turn off MacBook Pro's display while connected to external monitor on Yosemite How do you turn off the MacBook Pro’s display with the lid open while using an external monitor on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite?

All the previous methods—such as the one’s listed here—that have worked on Mavericks no longer work on Yosemite.

Does anyone know the way to do this on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite? Turning down the brightness is not the same as turning off the display as the GPU still sends a signal to the internal display and the external monitor.

These were the terminal commands to achieve this on Mavericks:

Enable

sudo nvram boot-args="iog=0x0"

Disable

sudo nvram -d boot-args

Anyone know how to achieve this on Yosemite?

Found this wonderful free application :

https://github.com/Eun/DisableMonitor/

Works like a charm.


Why are my events disappearing in iCal after upgrading to Lion and how can I fix it? I have several calendars synced using MobileMe and after upgrading to Lion it is often the case that a day's worth of newly added events all disappear. This generally happens when I am in another application. Often, if I re-add the same event later, the old events re-appear, giving me duplicates.  However, if I never re-add the events, the old ones never come back.

The events that are missing from my Mac still appear on my iPhone, but attempting to re-sync does not bring the events back to my Mac.

I have tried clearing my iCal cache and preferences while the events are missing, but this does not seem to bring them back.

So, why are my events disappearing in iCal and how can I fix it?

iOS 5 and iCloud should be coming out tomorrow.  There should be improvements in this area.  Hopefully this will help you.  I know it is not what you would want to hear, but I have seen disappearing content like you describe.  Especially with Exchange, and OS 10.6.x


Broken battery base in Macbook Air 13? I just opened my mac after two years of having it to clean it. Opened it carefully, and found out that the plastic base holding the batteries seems broken where the screws are... is this possible due to heat or something?

It is not a used (well it's two years old but I'm the first owner) or refurbished.

I see this in MacBook Airs, and similarily in MacBook Pros (2012 and earlier non-retina), all the time. It is in my judgement simple material fatigue.

The battery in the MBAs are held down with 5 screws, in MBPs with 2 or 3. The retainer plastic around these screws are thin and therefore relatively weak, which means they are prone to breakage due to mechanical stress. They are stressed from the downward screw pressure, and will get additionally stressed from the bumps happening in normal use, which will induce a mechanical force on the battery relative to the screws. There is nothing more to it. The temperature in these, especially in the corners of the MBAs, do not rise enough to cause the plastic to become brittle.

This breakage might have been a contributing factor to why Apple has switched to holding the batteries in place with glue instead. I have seen a couple of instances where a piece of this retainer plastic has come loose and lodged itself in the CPU fan, stopping it cold.


What is the standard location for the "recent files" information that each app seems to store? The app in question is called RStudio.  When I am using it, if I want to look at a file that I have looked at recently, I can click:  File...Recent Files...and a menu of the last 5 or 6 files used shows up.

I want to sync this activity across devices using Dropbox, but I need to know which directory/file to add to my syncList to do so.  Any ideas?

The short answer is it depends... most apps will store it in ~/Library/Preferences/.  For example, on Mavericks the Preview recently used list is in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist

You can use the terminal/commandline plutil to see what's in there: plutil -p ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.LSSharedFileList.plist

If you want to get into the nitty gritty of modifying the file (outside the scope of this question, but what the heck), man plutil.

For syncing this file, you may find that there is other config info in there, I'm really not sure.  You'll want to make sure it's sane to do before pulling the sync trigger.  I'd suggest manually copying this a few times to make sure you understand what happens to the app if its files change while it's still running, etc.

I think you'll definitely want to stay away from syncing the whole directory since it would be possible to get into a loop where each application is trying to write to the file and dropbox is non-stop trying to propagate the changes across as each app competes for what's "correct."


Sleep/wake Mac mini by pressing power button I have a Mac mini that is on my network but not connected to any displays or input devices. It's running El Capitan.

I want to be able to put the Mac to sleep and awake it as easily as possible (i.e. not using VNC). My main machine is Windows, so ideally I just want to press the power button to toggle the Mac between sleeping and awake.

Is this possible? From what I've read, it seems like this used to be possible but now it isn't? Are there any workarounds that would enable this?

You can no longer just tap the Power Button on a Mac to put it to Sleep. On any Mac running Mavericks or newer the Power Button should function as follows:

Power Button:
1~2 second hold = Sleep
3~5 second hold = Options Dialog
8~12 second hold = Force Shut Down

Alternatively, if you have a keyboard hooked into the Mac you should be able to hit: Control+Shift+(Power Button on the Mac or Media Eject on Mac keyboard) to put your Mac to sleep.

To wake it up just hit the Power Button, or enable Wake On Network if you want to remotely wake the system.

EDIT:
If you need to sleep your system across the network (with no physical access), and have access to the command line you can do one of the following.

Using AppleScript from the command line.osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to sleep'
From any command line connection you can also try.pmset sleep now

ADDITION:
Network traffic (active network connection allowing file sharing for example) can stop the standard Sleep action on a Mac when hitting the power button. You need to make sure that there are no active network connections, especially if you have "Wake on Network" enabled.

On some system you will need to make sure that the System Preferences... -> Energy Saver settings are set properly to allow the power button to sleep the system. Depending on the Mac hardware you are running on (Mac Mini vs MacBook) some settings will or won't be on the Energy Saver panel.

For a complete list of Energy Saving info, and to learn more about Apple Power Setting for El Capitan head over to Apple's website.


Freeze after "VM Swap Subsystem is ON" My Macbook pro 15" (early 2012) froze and I had to force restart it. But it freezes in startup too.

I noticed that it stops after "VM Swap Subsystem is ON" line in verbose mode.

Is there any solutions for this?
How can I recover my OS X?

I didn't install or modified anything in the last few days.

Just to say what was the issue.

Logic board was dead and needed to be replaced. (hopefully I had 10 days of warranty left hehe)


Mac Mail.app (Yosemite) - preview pane on right WITHOUT individual message previews on left I want something simple - and I have found how to have preview pane on right (as opposed to bottom half of screen) OR remove individual message previews in the email list - but not both.

I just want a list of messages on the left (without preview of their text) - and to show the message on the right. This is simple in Thunderbird - but apparently impossible in Mac mail?

Can I do this?

Thanks.

In Yosemite (I'm on 10.10.1) I can do the following:

Mail > Preferences…
Viewing Tab

Uncheck "Use classic layout"
Uncheck To/CC label in message list
Uncheck Contact photos in message list
List Preview: None

In my toggling of options, the message pane itself disappeared. However it was made available via a grab handle at the right edge of the screen. I now have a message list showing me no previews and a message pane to the right of that.


Restoring an old backup to the latest ios version returns an error I am trying to restore an old backup of mine to my ipod, my backup is a year old. I wouldn't need to do this if apple didn't screw up my ipod during my 8.1 update where it just kept restarting and eventually didn't turn on anymore. What i did then is i restored my ipod clean. Now what i want to do is to recover as much of the files I can so i decided to use that year old backup, everything started fine i can find it in my PC it started restoring but in the middle it returned an error. Any ideas on why this is happening? my ipod is running the latest ios version.

I had a similar problem with an iPod Touch. It went info DFU mode, and could not find the iTunes server, and was throwing up errors. It all began to work again once I shut down both the Mac and the iPod, restarting both. Some sort of I/O or USB issue I suppose. YMMV


How to backup email database of Apple Mail? My Apple Mail email client is a chaos nowadays. There are numerous emails, all unorganized. I need to clean it up a bit and organize the emails in segments. Before I do that I need to backup my Apple Mail email database so that when I organize I don't loose any email and if I did I can retrieve it from the backup I will create.

Does anyone have a solution for backing up Apple Mail email database. I am looking for a quick and handy solution, not the export function. That takes up ages to export the emails.

Why not let the export take three days or whatever is needed? That's the safe bet if you can't afford to lose mails. Also, the longer it takes to export, the more likely you have database issues or a volume of mail that demands a redundant backup in an industry standard format.

Just like exercise, there may not be a quick and handy remedy to months of inaction. If you have years of mail, it might also be necessary to test restoring your normal backup before trusting the export. No one actually wants a backup, they ultimately hope to know they have a good restore chance.


What hardware do I need to use a Kinect model 1414 with a Mac? Want to use a Kinect model 1414 on a Mac. I know I need a power adapter, but will it just plug directly into USB or do I need some other adapter there as well? Thanks.

Based on the information provided here: http://blog.nelga.com/setup-microsoft-kinect-on-mac-os-x-10-9-mavericks/
no additional hardware is required. A lot of software is though. Good luck!


iMac won't restart after upgrade to Yosemite Just made the upgrade to Yosemite but now my iMac wont restart or shut down. Whenever I try to do any of these it stays on a black screen with a mouse pointer, and I have to turn it off and back on manually.

Any help?

Mine was showing a black screen after I updated my iMac to Yosemite.

I unplugged my USB mouse and the new Login screen was displayed.

No restart was necessary.


Get a list of application binary types - Intel or Universal I just upgraded to an M1 Mac mini and did a full migration (including applications) from a previous Intel Mac mini Time Machine backup.
Now I want to see what Apps I have on the new machine that are purely Intel Apps and hence potential candidates for seeing if they now have a Universal Binary version. (Some apps, such as Affinity Photo were already Universal before the the upgrade)
I know that I can go through each application one by one in the Finder and manually get this information, but is there an easier/automated way of doing it.  Basically I just want a list of application names and the application type (Intel or Universal).

Basically I just want a list of application names and the application type (Intel or Universal).

Testing as both an Admin and Standard account, under macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 on a MacBook Pro with an Intel CPU, and I believe it should also work on an Apple M1.
Apple menu > About This Mac > System Report > Applications > Kind
Or in Terminal:
system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType


MacBook brightness set to zero suddenly resets itself to one. Any ideas why? Every night I start some music/audiobook/whatever in iTunes and then reduce the brightness of the screen to zero to listen to the audio without seeing a bright screen. For the past few weeks (I think), my MacBook (2007) automatically increases the brightness to at least level one after five or ten minutes requiring me to press the lower brightness button again to switch the screen back to dark.

Any idea why it does that?

The 2007 MacBook (without "Pro") doesn't even have an ambient light sensor, so that one can be ruled out. My guess would be that some software, maybe even the system itself, turns the background light back on to let you know that the machine is still running.
If you're on Snow Leopard or Lion, you could use the Screen Saver prefs to assign a "Hot Corner" to "Display Sleep" which turns off the display without putting the computer to sleep.


How can I replace Finder with Path Finder in OS X Lion? I downloaded Path Finder and like it a lot, but Finder still takes over some functionality that I'd prefer Path Finder to do. For instance, if I open a folder on my desktop it opens in Finder, and when I mount disk images, they open in Finder. Is there a way (short of going in low-level and replacing Finder stuff with Path Finder stuff, which I don't really want to do) to make Path Finder do everything that Finder does by default?

According to the Path Finder Support Forums, it is not possible to completely replace Finder with Path Finder. For more information see "Can I replace OS X's Finder with Path Finder?"


macOS Bluetooth menu bar show BLE Devices My Bluetooth menu (the one in the menu bar) do not show the Bluetooth Low Energy devices, from example my Razer mouse, it just shows up if I alt/option + click the icon.

Does anyone know how can I make the menu show all Low Energy Bluetooth devices in the menu bar?

This is expected behavior.

BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) devices aren't broadcasting at all times like classic Bluetooth devices, they respond to "advertising packets" sent by the scanning device (your Mac).

  BLE devices are detected through a procedure based on broadcasting
  advertising packets. This is done using 3 separate channels
  (frequencies), in order to reduce interference. The advertising device
  sends a packet on at least one of these three channels, with a
  repetition period called the advertising interval. For reducing the
  chance of multiple consecutive collisions, a random delay of up to 10
  milliseconds is added to each advertising interval. The scanner
  listens to the channel for a duration called the scan window, which is
  periodically repeated every scan interval.

When you hold Option while clicking on the Bluetooth icon, you're telling it to "send the advertising packets to discover the BLE devices".


"Hide Input Source Name" changes to "Show input source name" on every reboot, on Lion I use three keyboard layouts (three input sources), and I chose to show the source in the toolbar (I mean the main bar at the top).

Since I moved to Lion, in addition to the icon for the input source (usually the flag of the country speaking that source) it also shows the name (which takes a lot of precious space). I choose the "Hide Input Source Name" from the menu and the name goes away until I reboot.

Any solutions?

Another thing you could try would be to lock ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.menuextra.textinput.plist in Finder. (OS X performs atomic saves on preference files so chmod 600 wouldn't work.)

At least on my account the file contains just a ModeNameVisible key:

<?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>ModeNameVisible</key>
    <false/>
</dict>
</plist>


Can I use USB headset with iPhone? I have a USB headset. It works just fine on a PC or a Macbook without any install.
If I connect it to an Android phone with micro-USB port, via some micro-USB to full-size USB adapter, it doesn't work. It can even restart the whole phone.
For iPhone with the Lightning port, is it possible to connect a USB headset to it via some Lightning-to-USB adapter?

I've tried the Apple USB -> Lightining dongle with USB headphones. It delivers audio from some audio apps, but not the phone. Even with the phone app, I can hear the dial tones, but not the conversation. The conversation comes out from the phone's speaker.


Which command to only output the IPv6 routing table? $ netstat -nr is great for outputting the Mac OS X IP routing tables.

However its output is long as it contains both IPv4 and IP6 routing tables.

Sometimes I wish to output only the IPv6 routing table. Which short terminal command can I use to only see the IPv6 routing table?

To output only IPv6 info, use the -f address_family option.

Example: netstat -nr -f inet6

From the netstat man page:

  −f address_family

  Limit statistics or address control block reports to those of the
  specified address family. The following address families are
  recognized: inet, for AF_INET, inet6, for AF_INET6 and unix, for
  AF_UNIX.


iOS app to map Wi-Fi signals? I'm looking for an app like OpenSignal but for mapping Wi-Fi signals around my apartment. I have also tried using NetSpot on my Mac but I would really like a mobile app to take advantage of GPS location and automatic data collection rather than fumbling around with a manual process.

Does anyone know of an app that can do this?

The Fing network scanner is the tool I'd use. You'll have to pay their upgrade to get syncing of the data and some advanced tools, but the free capabilities allow you to tap on the SSID and then geo-locate the device for the scanning and save the results for later review when you are elsewhere.

As for making colorful maps, that isn't something I've seen on an iOS map. You can collect that data for free using Airport Utility - but it's not geo-located and certainly not accurate over the ranges WiFi degrades.

You'd want to get a tool like AeroHive software and hardware to do enough measurements to map signal levels in a building or network area. Pretty much any enterprise managed WiFi solution has this.


iCloud unlock with new Apple ID's password I have a iPhone 5s which is iCloud locked. I know the Apple ID's email but I don't know the Apple ID's password. I can access to the email which is the Apple ID's email. I want to reset the Apple ID's password and then enter my email and password to the iPhone.

If I reset my Apple ID's password and then enter email and new password on my iPhone, will it unlock?

I think the answer is yes because when I turn on iPhone it will require a Wi-Fi network. And when I will enter my Apple ID to the phone it will check my login information with Apple servers.  Am I true?

Yes, the login will authenticate with Apple's servers to verify the password, ensuring it is verifying the latest possible password, hence the network requirement.


Refreshing Finder window view after sorting files I have a simple script:

tell application "Finder"
    activate
    set sort column of list view options of Finder window 1 to size column
end tell

It works, but the problem is that the window is stale and does not immediately reflect the new order of the files. I have to change the target of the window to a different directory and then navigate back to see the files sorted by size.

There doesn't appear to be a proper solution to this. Here is a workaround hack:

Applescripts not working in Finder since Mavericks


Where can I find a list of changes to Terminal.app in Lion? I'm thinking of upgrading to Lion after hearing that they've upgraded Terminal.app somewhat. The main thing I've heard is that Terminal.app now supports 256 colors, but I don't care about colors. I want mouse events in screen without using MouseTerm.

Where can I find all the changes to Terminal.app provided by Lion? Are mouse events included in this update?

I don't use mouse events, but they appear to at least partially work in iTerm 2, which does not require Lion or MouseTerm.  I tested with "set mouse=a" in vim and was able to select using the mouse, etc.


Opening apache conf file with write permissions I'm trying to open the /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf file to make some changes. I thought I'd be able to open this with the correct permissions from the command line, so I tried:

cd /private/etc/apache2
sudo open -a TextEdit httpd.conf

This opened the file in TextEdit, but TextEdit gave me this message:

  You don't own the file "httpd.conf" and don't have permission to write to it.
  You can duplicate this document and edit the duplicate. Only the duplicate will include your changes.

Fine. Apparently using open even with sudo opens the app as the user. So I tried this:

sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit httpd.conf

But I immediately get this popup:

  The document "httpd.conf" could not be opened. You don't have permission.
  To view or change permissions, select the item in the Finder and choose File > Get Info.

This makes TextEdit hang too, so I have to force quit it.

I also tried to open the file using my Komodo text edit, which is my normal development environment:

sudo -b /Applications/Komodo\ Edit\ 8.app/Contents/MacOS/komodo httpd.conf

The terminal spits out this strange message:

  2014-09-24 11:48:29.583 komodo[30647:507] * WARNING: Method userSpaceScaleFactor in class NSWindow is deprecated on 10.7 and later. It should not be used in new applications. Use convertRectToBacking: instead.

And Komodo opens, but doesn't open the file. How do I edit this file with my program of choice?

The reason these applications can't write to that files is to do with application sandboxing feature of OS X, which you can read about here if you are interested.

One GUI application that can write to these files is TextWrangler which you can download for free here. There is also a version of TextWrangler in the Mac App Store (MAS) but it doesn't have the ability to write to system files by default (MAS guidelines don't allow applications with those abilities), but you can find an update here that will update the MAS version of TextWrangler so that it can.

Alternatively you can use command line tools to edit these files. For example sudo nano https.conf works okay, and nano is relatively user friendly.


How do I monitor bandwidth use of specific websites? I'm using Chrome on SnowLeopard.  I use the www a lot.  I want to monitor how much bandwidth I use for all SE sites in one month.  I don't care how much bandwidth is used on any other website.

What is the easiest way to do this?

Best answer will be an accurate tool to measure; but a reasonable estimate is acceptable too.

Historygram is a neat extension for Safari, but it appears to only measure visits, not bandwidth. Feel free to email the author and ask if this extension could easily be modified to include bandwidth measurement.


iOS app for decorating Virtual Reality rooms I'm looking for a simple (or complex) iOS app that will allow me to put some pictures in virtual "rooms" (like an art gallery) that can then be viewed on the web or smartphones. That's all.

I think one of the many interior home decoration apps might do the trick but I don't know which is the simplest for my very narrow use case. I don't care about creating or placing any 3D models. I only want to hang some virtual paintings on some virtual walls and let other people virtually walk through them.

Your best bet is Aurasma. It is a simple yet powerful augmented reality platform, and will do what you need and more. Should you want to add videos and 3D 'realities' to the virtual space, you can do it with ease. It is simple enough for Middle School children to use effectively and powerful enough for professionals.


"networksetup is trying to modify the system network configuration" dialogue wont go away! I keep getting this dialogue on a recently upgraded MacBook running El Capitan -- it doesn't matter how many times I enter my password, it just keeps opening and opening:

This is appearing when trying to launch the Private Internet Access VPN client.

I've contacted their support numerous times and they just keep saying "ask Apple for help" (great..), but Apple has been unresponsive as well. I've been told it may have something to do with either

1) corrupt disk permissions ( which I've repaired, did not help)
2) corrupt keychain ( I rebuilt my keychain, did not help)
3) corrupt admin permissions (wasn't entirely sure how to repair this one..)

If ANYONE knows how I can get this stupid dialogue to go away so I can connect to my VPN client it would be much appreciated!

On a previous OSX install I had the client working fine (in Yosemite). When I did a fresh install for El Capitan, I tried to install it via HomeBrew, but that is when it stopped working. I've since uninstalled it from HomeBrew and tried to install via the website package, but I just get this error over and over and over. No matter how many times I enter the password.

EDIT additional information:

The client installs / runs fine if I create a fresh user account and install it there. This will not work for me -- I need it to run on my main (admin / primary) account.

I've tried installing the client both via Homebrew (Cask package manager), as well as through the download link from the PIA website. Both have the same issue.

I believe the issue began when I attempted to install through Homebrew -- I had had it installed the "normal" way in the past and it worked fine. Uninstalled the app. Went to reinstall it a few months later, this time through Cask, and then the issue started.

EDIT 2:

Here are the contents of my PATH.

My user account (the one that needs fixing):

/Users/Tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p645/bin:/Users/Tom/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p645@global/bin:/Users/Tom/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p645/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/Tom/.rvm/bin

A "fresh" user account:

/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

I tried to replicate your environment in a OS X 10.11 VM (including homebrew/cask and rvm). After some trying I have been able to reproduce the error at times.

In my opinion the error is related with wrong permissions in your user folder, a really crappy app (the private-internet-access app) and probably your ruby/rvm environment.

The error you get is (probably) related with SCHelper and nehelper which can't fulfill their tasks successfully.

  File Created: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist-new
  Modifying Program: SCHelper      Process ID: 773
  Process Owner: System Admin     User ID: 0
  Time recorded: 22:21:04, Sat. Jan. 16, 2016
  ...
  File Renamed: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist
  Modifying Program: nehelper      Process ID: 183
  Process Owner: System Admin     User ID: 0
  Time recorded: 22:21:04, Sat. Jan. 16, 2016
  ...
  File ownership changed: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist
  Modifying Program: nehelper      Process ID: 183
  Process Owner: System Admin     User ID: 0
  Time recorded: 22:21:04, Sat. Jan. 16, 2016

Please try the following:

Rename your bash config files:

cd ~/
mv .bash_profile temp.bash_profile
mv .profile temp.profile
mv .bashrc temp.bashrc

Remove all traces of private-internet-access in homebrew:

brew cask uninstall private-internet-access
brew cask uninstall --force private-internet-access
brew cask cleanup
brew cask doctor
brew doctor

Enable your root user, log-out your current user and login as root
Remove the following files and folders:

/Applications/Private Internet Access.app
/Users/your_user/.pia_manager (folder)
/Users/your_user/.pia_manager_crash.log
/Users/your_user/Library/Private Internet Access (folder)
/Users/your_user/Library/LaunchAgents (folder)

I tried to remove all these files and folders with sudo rm ... which wasn't successful. Some files were recreated immediately even after stopping/unloading the respective plist with launchctl. Therefore I used root.
log-out as root, reboot, login as your main user and disable your root user.
Recreate your LaunchAgents folder:

mkdir ~/Library/LaunchAgents

Download, reinstall, setup  and test Private Internet Access
Rename your bash config files:

cd ~/
mv temp.bash_profile .bash_profile
mv temp.profile .profile
mv temp.bashrc .bashrc

I recommend the following:

Follow the instructions and install and use Tunnelblick (instead of installing Private Internet Access).


Old reminders are gone from macOS 10.14.6 I'm so confused about what happened to the macOS version of the Reminders app.

Reminders 6.0
macOS Mojave 10.14.6

My mobile version of Reminders has the old data and it seems to work fine.  I don't think it is syncing with the desktop version though, because the desktop version is showing, "The creator of this list has upgraded... learn more here, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210220..."

All the reminders are gone, with only two lists, Scheduled and Reminders.

The link isn't super helpful, I followed the iCloud link and signed in there, and I can see the list of my reminders in the browser.

So how do I recover in the desktop app?

According to Apple:

To use the new Reminders features in iOS 13—smart lists, a new quick toolbar, and more—you need to upgrade the reminders in your iCloud account.
Upgraded reminders aren't compatible with earlier versions of iOS and macOS. If you upgrade your reminders on your iPhone with iOS 13, your iPad and Mac using the same iCloud account can’t access your reminders until iPadOS and macOS 10.15 Catalina are available.

You will need to wait until you upgrade your Mac to Catalina before Reminders start to sync to your Mac again.


Does iOS support IEEE802.11e QOS functionality? As the title says, I would like to understand if iOS devices (iPhone, iPad mainly) support the IEEE802.11e (IEEE802.11-2007) protocol?

This protocol enhancement enables QOS support on WiFi.

Certainly on the Airport range, MacBooks, and iOS devices there's no QOS, Apple doesn't support it. Not sure about the Mac Pro or Xserve.

EDIT: In response to requests for sources, it's very hard to find an official source for something that isn't implemented, but a simple google search for "does apple support qos" will result in many links to posts about someone asking the question about various Apple products, several on Apple's own support communities. Everything points to no QOS because it simply doesn't exist on Apple products.


Shop for new ipad apps from web? I've ordered a new ipad pro; yay!  It has yet to arrive.  In my anticipation; I'd like to browse the app store and make a list of apps to investigate.  How do I do this?

While I've owned some iphones in the past, I currently only have a mac.  The Music app, only browses the music store.  The Mac App store appears to only offer mac apps (I tried searching for Procreate and nothing shows).  If I try the web at https://www.apple.com/ios/app-store/, it only directs me to the app.  Searching generically for an app (e.g. procreate), I find https://apps.apple.com/us/app/procreate/id425073498, but url manipulation doesn't avail; I find no generic search box or navigation page.

Have I missed anything obvious?  Is there no way to see the ipad/iphone app catalog outside of one of those devices?

Apple unfortunately removed that option some time ago, same time as app management was removed from iTunes.

[Kept brief under advisement from a mod ;)


iPhone 6 discharging instead of charging I have an iPhone 6. It's (unfortunately but unavoidably) had repairs at a third-party repair shop for a new battery, and later a new USB connector - I think the contacts finally wore out, I use it a lot.

Now, suddenly, my phone is complaining about my cable, which I'm fairly sure is an authentic Apple cable, and failing to charge my phone. I can still transfer photos and use the hotspot, but even though the "lightning bolt" appears next to the battery icon, the % charge value is going down, rather than up, and rather fast!

Before resorting to another trip to the third-party repair place, is there anything I can try, or check, to see if I can get it to start charging again?

Yesterday:

Today:

Today (five minutes after the 53% screenshot!)

If you have a Mac compter you can use you can connect iphone to the comuter and use coconut battery. This Mac app will give you information about your battery. Best to have your phone fully charged if you can do that. It will work though without that constraint. I used it and it showed me that even though phone was fully charged it only had about 50% charge stored. My battery was dying.

Based on your graphics though it appears your cable or charger is not adequate for your phone. I'd check the battery first. If battery is ok, you might try a different cable and see how that works.


MBP (2016) to Thunderbolt Display with Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter and extension cable I have a MBP15 (2016) and connected it to my Thunderbolt Display via the official [Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter]. but the cable is too short for my needs right now. I tried 3 different Extension Cables (1, 2, 3) but none of them worked (no image on the screen). Is there a cable that works? If not possible is there a dock that can do this?

Sure. Any thunderbolt 3 or 2 dock will work. Be sure to read the friendly manual - not all cables that fit physically in a thunderbolt slot are thunderbolt cables and cables can be faulty.
I’ve only seen 10 foot 2 cables in copper. You’ll need optical to go further and they are pricey but very long range. Two feet is the longest 3 cable I’ve seen.

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Certified-Thunderbolt-Black/dp/B01AKP8Z4C
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24721
https://www.owcdigital.com/products/thunderbolt-3-dock-14-port


Contacts.app: How to merge duplicate contacts? The Apple article If you see duplicate contacts after setting up iCloud Contacts, suggest using the Card > Look for Duplicates option. However I can clearly see three or four contacts all with the same exact details in the list (e.g. for each contact, there are 3 or 4 duplicates of it), but the "Look for Duplicates" option simply can not.

Is there a way to select, by hand if I have to, the contacts and moosh them together into just one contact?

This is in macOS 10.12.6 and Contacts 10.0:

Select the cards you wish to merge.
Then in the Card menu, select "Merge Selected Cards."


How much RAM can I add to my macbook I have a 2008 macbook with a 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

I am in the process of upgrading to Lion.

I currently have 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

What's the maximum amount of RAM I can put in and it have an effect?

everymac.com is an awesome source for this kind of information. They've got detailed specs for all Macs.*

Yours is listed as supporting a maximum of 6GB of RAM. Technically, Apple says that this computer only supports 4, but it has been proven to actually support 6:

  Apple officially supports a maximum of 4 GB of RAM but third-parties
  have been able to upgrade the system to 6 GB of RAM using one 2 GB and
  one 4 GB memory module.

You can buy a 6GB kit from OWC, a great company, for $120.

If you use a lot of apps and regularly run up against the edge of your available memory, everything you add will make a difference; the computer can take advantage of all of it. However, since you've currently got 2, you should consider if 4 will be enough or if you want all 6.

*In additon to Everymac, I recommend the app Mactracker for Mac and iOS (free). It has detailed info and specs for all Mac models.


How would my friend install my iOS application without App Store? I am developing my first serious application for iOS and I am doing it for my friend (not for public use). So it will be a gift. Now question:
How would my friend be able to instal this application? Is there any easy way to share my app with him? I am very confused on how I can share my app on private basis with few people only and how they can easily install it.

You can share apps you develop by means of Ad-Hoc distribution. This involves adding the UDID of their device to your developer account (and consequently a provisioning profile) which lets you install the app on devices outside of the App Store.

For more information on Ad-Hoc distribution, see:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/TestingYouriOSApp/TestingYouriOSApp.html

Apple does not operate a private App Store for non-apple use other than the custom business store and it's unlikely individuals would be accepted into that program so you have to self host the content as described above.


Print from iPad without AirPrint or Wi-Fi Consider the following configuration

I have a Wi-Fi iPad without 3G support.
I also have an HP printer that doesn't not have Wi-Fi capabilities.
My printer supports USB.
I am planning to buy a 3G Wi-Fi Router.

I understand, in order to print from my iPad to a printer I need an AirPrint-compatible printer. I am also aware that for certain selected printers (let say mine is one of those privilege) you can use iOS Apps from OEM such that you can print from your iPad. But even to use it, I need a Wi-Fi enabled printer.

I am planning to purchase a 3G Wi-Fi router so that I can connect my iPad outside a Wi-Fi network.

Now from here I was wondering, if I can use such a 3G Wi-Fi router which suppose has a USB Port to connect my printer and provide me the option to print from my iPad?

Note
I am not sure if this question fits in Ask Different as my target device is an Apple Device but even then there is more than that this question would cover. So in case if you feel this question fits there, feel free to migrate.

To print to your HP printer using AirPrint you will need some kind of AirPrint server.  It is not enough to just get network connectivity to the printer, you need some software running somewhere to handle some of the communication details.  It is conceivable that someone makes a 3G WiFi router that includes AirPrint support but I think is unlikely.

Probably your best bet is to run AirPrint software on the computer that is connected to the HP printer so that computer can act as the AirPrint server.  You can get NetGear Genie for free (though I removed it because the version I used with the OS version I was running caused my computer to crash with kernel panics, but maybe that's fixed now) or something like handyPrint (never tried it).


What are some good / feature rich mail clients that support Exchange? I'm a developer at my small office and we exclusively use Exchange 365 for our email, and I am getting incredibly tired and frustrated of the web interface. I would like to use a local mail client.

Postbox looked great, but some research reveals it does not natively support Exchange. I would like to have a client similarly feature rich (particularly when it comes to tagging/organization), but natively supports Exchange protocols.

Any recommendations?

I'll state the obvious one: Outlook:Mac supports Exchange natively, including support for Exchange's categories (which Exchange uses instead of tags)

There are third-party add-ins like MailTags which add support for categories/tags to Apple Mail.

Thunderbird + ExQuilla doesn't support categories/tags.


Using iMessage with my phone number when I don't have an iPhone anymore Until recently, I was using iMessage on both iOS and macOS. Now, my phone is dead with a black screen, so I did a full erase from iTunes. ("Find my iPhone" and iCloud was turned off already.)

Currently, I am still able to use iMessage from macOS. My iMessage account is connected only to my phone number, not my email address, and I'd like to keep it that way.

If I don't buy a new iPhone, but a basic phone, can I use my phone number for iMessage on macOS forevermore? Or will this "time out"? What must I do to avoid running into a situation where I will be forced to have an iPhone to continue using iMessage with my phone number?

I believe there is not gonna be a timeout. iMessage on macOS has no reason to ask you to log again once you already signed-in.

However, I advise you to link a mail address, because in case your mac gets into trouble, I think you will have a hard time to get everything back with your phone number only.

Edit: In that last case, I guess the Apple Support will be your friend.


Would the Mac mini or Macbook Air have better sound hardware for speech recognition? I'm a windows user looking to make the jump across.  I have narrowed my choices to Mac mini or Macbook Air.  Looking at the tech specs I don't fully understand the sound hardware.  I use speech recognition extensively is there a clear favorite between these two when it comes to specifically looking at that use case?

I believe I am correct in saying (without a Mini to cross check against) that they both (along with all the Mac lineup) use the integrated Intel HD audio chip, and as such there should be no real difference between the 2.

I would say that you limiting factor would be that the Mini does not have an integrated microphone, whereas the Air does, so you will need to bring your own mic.  Also, neither have separate mic input/audio output ports, and require you to use something like an iPhone headset (modified 3.5mm audio connector with both channels on the same connector), which may not provide the quality (or comfort) you need.

So, on the Mini, you will need to buy a headset in order to get mic input, and if you already have one you may need to replace it with a USB one or iPhone one.  On the Air you're good to go unless you are already a regular headset user, in which case you may beed to replace if it uses 2 discrete connectors for headphone/mic.


New Smart Folder keyboard shortcut doesn't work For some reason the keyboard shortcut for New Smart Folder doesn't work for me in Finder and I can't figure out why.  I have quit every program I use that can modify shortcuts - Alfred2, BetterTouchTool, TotalFinder, and PathFinder.  Still, CMD-Shift-N does absolutely nothing in Finder.  Selecting from the File Menu manually works fine, but the shortcut refuses to do anything.

I've also checked in the System Prefs in case there was a rogue shortcut mapped to the same keystroke there, but there is not.

How can I figure out what is preventing this shortcut from working?  I've also seen other shortcuts refuse to work for reasons unknown so I'd love to really get to the bottom of this.

OK found it.  Turns out it was a program I didn't even realize HAD shortcut keys - eNounce MySpeed.  Turned them off since I never use them anyway and now all my shortcuts work correctly again.  What a relief.


Macbook sleep is delayed I have a late 2011 Macbook pro, and lately it hasn't been sleeping properly. If I close the lid for less than a minute and reopen it, it doesn't go to sleep while the lid is closed. The screen is still displayed immediately after reopening. Also, a few seconds after I open the machine, it will go to sleep on it's own. I have had the software checked and that doesn't seem to be the problem. What could be causing this and how do I get it fixed? It is still under warranty.

If there is a process that is preventing sleep (rather than a bug in the sleep implementation), you can use "pmset -g" in a terminal window to list the process that is doing that. This is covered over on superuser.

Here is an an example on my system. First, with nothing preventing sleep:

$ pmset -g assertions | egrep '(PreventUserIdleSystemSleep|PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep)'
     PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep             0
     PreventUserIdleSystemSleep              0
$

Then I start music in iTunes:

$ pmset -g assertions | egrep '(PreventUserIdleSystemSleep|PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep)'
     PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep             0
     PreventUserIdleSystemSleep              1
    pid 264: [0x0000012c00000108] PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "com.apple.audio.'AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0'.noidlesleep"
    pid 95390: [0x0000012c0001749e] PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "Nameless (via IOPMAssertionCreate)"


Enable Safari Zoom by Script I've got a WQHD (1440p) Monitor hooked up to my 13 inch MacBook Pro when I'm sitting at my desk. Love the high resolution (much screen real estate) but sometimes I find myself toggling Safari's Zoom to 125%:

Is there an option to toggle this setting by Script/Terminal Command or else automatically? If so I could toggle it automatically when connecting the monitor with Control Plane.

This code gets to the right settings tab, but I can’t figure out how to set the zoom level:

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "Safari"
        set frontmost to true
        keystroke "," using command down
        delay 1
        tell window 1
            click button "Advanced" of toolbar 1 of it
            delay 1
            keystroke "w" using command down
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

This Applescript code sets the zoom level globally:

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "Safari"
        set frontmost to true
        keystroke "," using command down
        delay 0.5
        tell window 1
            click button "Advanced" of toolbar 1 of it
            click pop up button 3 of group 1 of group 1 of it
            click menu item 4 of menu 1 of pop up button 3 of group 1 of group 1 of it
            keystroke "w" using command down
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

change menu item 4 to 5 for a 115% or 6 for 125% zoom level.

Using an Applescript is better than using cmd + / cmd + - because it sets the default zoom for all pages.


Configuring Mail.app "From" drop-down menu? When I write a mail in Mail.app (using MacOS X Mavericks 10.9.2 here), I have this "From" Drop down menu which allows me to select from which of my accounts I want to send that mail.

In my case, this drop-down menu has 33 items.

How is this menu configured?

I ask because it is tied to the account list, but not quite the same. My account list has only 17 items for example.

I have a few forward email addresses that show up there, but not all.

At this moment, I would like to have one of my email sent with a "From" header that is a forward email address that doesn't show up in that menu.

Any idea?

There are few ways to do this.

The From field could be preselected in the mail preferences, using the dropdown and select From that would be ALWAYS used from now on.

I still have it as choice since i use multiple emails and want to choose the From.

Next is the multitude of From's, way more then actual email accounts.

Called the smtp servers list

That can be resolved by DELETING all duplicates and others, and leaving only the one you actually have and use.

In drop down Click on edit smtp list and delete the one you do not want.


iMovie with Audio USB Interface I am using iMovie for recording audio during a Lecture (I nees to see video during recording) with a M-Audio M-Track interface (two XLR microphone).

The thing is that I can only record first microhone, because I can-t select the interface BUS on iMovie (or I didn't see it).

I also tested record with a XENYX UFX1204 (12 inputs), but I can only record from first input to.

Can anybody please help me?

Grateful

MacBook, iOS 9.2.1

You can try the following:

Create an Aggregate Device in MIDI Settings.
Use Soundflower app (free) and LineIn to route/combine inputs.

For total control, Rogue Amoeba Loopback (paid app) can create (and save) virtually any routings/combinations you want as inputs to any Mac app.


I want to create a script in script editor that will press a key and then press enter every 60 seconds I want to create a script in script editor that will press a key and then press enter every 60 seconds. However, I don't know how to make a script that presses a key. Does anybody know how to make a script that does this? I tried to keystroke "enter" but what is did was type out the word enter. Also, sometimes the code will crash and an error message will pop up saying that script editor cannot do keystrokes.

The aim for this script is to create an xp farming discord bot to farm xp on a server by sending messages.

How to send enter key using Applescript

In order to send the enter key in applescript you can use:

tell application "System Events"
  key code 36
end tell

Alternatively:

tell application "System Events"
  key code 76
end tell

The Difference between the two:

As shown here key code 36 is used to send the key Return.

key code 76 on the other hand is used to send Enter.

(@user3439894 Pointed out that key code 36 is typically used.)

Fixing Applescript not being able to send keystrokes

  Go to System Preferences --> Security & Privacy --> Accessibility. From there delete the application and add it again.

Article

More Info

Sending Keystrokes:
How to send special keys Applescript, How do I automate a key press in AppleScript? and List of Apple Key Codes

Fixing applescript not being able to send keystrokes: Application is not allowed to send keystrokes


iPhoto claims there is an update available iPhoto came with my Mac. It is currently version 9.1.1.

When I open iPhoto, it pops up:

"An iPhoto update is available. Would you like to open Software Update?"

Then it offers me to start Software Update, but it finds no updates. Some people said I should check in the AppStore, but it asks me to pay if I want to take iPhoto from there.

I am running Mac OS X 10.7.2

I believe this update is to enable Photo Stream.


OSX equivalent for ~/bin in Linux When using Ubuntu I can save shell scripts in ~/bin. To launch them I just type the name of the script in the Terminal.
Is there an equivalent solution for OSX?

There is none by default in OSX.  But you can make a ~/bin folder, then edit your ~/.profile and add

export PATH=$PATH:/Users/Yourname/bin

(Yourname of course being replaced by your username).

or (edited later according to below comment)

export PATH=$PATH:~/bin


Cannot retrieve verification code My Iphone 6 died. Trying to activate a different Iphone 6 with my sim card. Entered my Apple ID and password. Recieved message stating that the verification code had been sent to my trusted number (which is my phone that has died). Tried to then access the verification code from my Ipad which also sent the verification code to my phone that I cannot access. How do I move past this point since I cannot get to the verification code?

Why not have your mobile company forward that number elsewhere, move the sim or set up a temporary device?

Apple’s FAQ covers what to do for recovering an account if it comes to that.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915


Lost my .bash_profile. Is it possible to recover it from Time Machine backups? I recently completely reinstalled macOS on my MacBook but I forgot to save my personalised .bash_profile. I was stupid enough not to dump it on Gist for future use, and now I'm looking into restoring it. I have several Time Machine backups on an external SSD-drive, would it be possible to restore this file somehow, and if so, where can I find this file so I can copy it over to my current macOS installation?

Searching through the entire backup folder didn't show me any useful results. I have gone through several threads to try to locate where this file might be saved, but as of now I couldn't come across a good answer which covers my problem. Thanks!

You do not even need to enter Time Machine, although your Time Machine drive must be connected and mounted.

In Terminal, which by default opens to your $HOME directory, you can use the following command, literally, to copy the .bash_profile file to your $HOME directory:

cp -av /Volumes/*/Backups.backupdb/*/Latest/*/Users/$USER/.bash_profile .

Note that this command assumes there is only one volume attached that has a Backups.backupdb directory in its root directory.


Safari in macOS 10.12.2 is blinking Not sure why some sites in my reading list is blinking/flickering.
Notice those site that blinks has a blank icon.
Anyone having this problem too?
Happening in private mode too.

Safari  10.0.2 (12602.3.12.0.1)

Had the same issue. Fixed it by clearing caches from the Develop menu and restarting Safari.


I forgot the password to Mac OS X 10.5.8 - Leopard.... How can I reset it? A friend of mine gave this MacBook to me because she bought a new one but she forgot to tell me the password. I can't talk to her for some days and need to use the MacBook now. Most probably I will have to boot from some Hirens CD or other similar CD for doing unusual things on your PC or laptop.

I don't have other Mac OS X computer. I only have other laptops which run on Windows.

I also shut down the MacBook and turned it on while I was holding COMMAND + R, but the MacBook didn't get to Lion Recovery mode. Holding those keys while the MacBook is booting should work all the time, right?

I am also thinking about deleting the whole Mac OS X and putting Ubuntu or Windows on it.
However I would like to keep the Mac OS X in it since I don't have time installing new operating system now.

Once you are in single user mode you will need to do the following:
1) mount the file system as read-write
2) navigate to the /var/db directory
3) remove a special file that tells the computer it's already been set up
4) reboot the machine
5) go through the set up process to create a NEW admin account
6) log into the new admin account and reset the password on the original password via the system preferences

The details:
Boot to single user mode, then type the following:

mount -uw /
cd /var/db
rm .AppleSetupDone
reboot

At this point the system will reboot and go through the "out of the box" setup process which will allow you to create a new Admin account. The original account will be intact.

After you've created the new user account, you can go to System Preferences, Accounts (might be Users & Groups, they keep changing the name!), and reset the password on the original account.

Keep in mind that if you do this you will lose all stored passwords on the original account, at least until the original owner is able to give you the old password.

Of course, as the new owner, you might want to just use the new account you create and delete the old one...


"Operation not permitted" for root when trying to ls or chmod -R /Users/user/Desktop "user" can't do it either. Permission of Desktop/ is set to 700 and owned by "user". Here's the sderr output for ls -R command in the home directory:

  ls: Desktop: Operation not permitted
  ls: AddressBook: Operation not permitted
  ls: CallHistoryDB: Operation not permitted ls:
  CallHistoryTransactions: Operation not permitted
  ls: com.apple.TCC:
  Operation not permitted
  ls: com.apple.sharedfilelist: Operation not
  permitted
  ls: CloudKit: Operation not permitted ls:
  com.apple.ap.adprivacyd: Operation not permitted
  ls: Calendars:
  Operation not permitted
  ls:
  com.apple.CloudDocs.MobileDocumentsFileProvider: Operation not
  permitted
  ls: com.apple.Home: Operation not permitted
  ls:
  com.apple.Safari: Operation not permitted
  ls: com.apple.news:
  Operation not permitted
  ls: Cookies: Operation not permitted
  ls:
  HomeKit: Operation not permitted
  ls: IdentityServices: Operation not
  permitted ls: Mail: Operation not permitted
  ls: Messages: Operation
  not permitted
  ls: CoreSpotlight: Operation not permitted
  ls:
  PersonalizationPortrait: Operation not permitted
  ls: Safari: Operation
  not permitted
  ls: Sharing: Operation not permitted
  ls: Suggestions:
  Operation not permitted

You need to add Terminal to the list of apps that have Full Disk Access in the Privacy pane of System Preferences > Security & Privacy.

Unlock the padlock in the bottom left, and drag the Terminal app icon onto the window.


How to configure the status bar? Does anybody know how to configure the status bar (bar size, icons and font size, and so on)?

I'd like to do it while keeping the screen resolution, of course.

I've browsed and searched both Ask Different and the web to little or no avail.

For the most part the menu bar has no configuration options in respect to font, size, etc.

You can however manage the icons in the menu bar by holding command while clicking & dragging them.  This allows you to re-arrange the icons or drag them off the menubar to hide them.

As others have suggested, I'd encourage you to submit feedback to Apple regarding any customization changes you'd like to see in future versions of the OS.

Apple Mac OS X Feedback


How can I remove a non-MAS app from Launchpad without uninstalling? I have a non App Store app installed so the 'X' does not appear when I hold down the icon.

I don't want to uninstall the app, just remove it only from Launchpad.

It's OS X Mavericks

Launchpad Manager will allow you to delete any app from your Launchpad. Just open it, select the app you want to delete and press ⌘⌫.


Can I download Mountain Lion and install it later? Can I download Mountain Lion from the App Store and install it on my machine later? I have a very slow Internet connection at home, but I am traveling with my MacBook now and have temporary access to a faster connection. I'd like to take advantage of the fast connection to download Mountain Lion, but I don't want to install it until I return home and make a backup of the machine first.

Yes, the App store downloads an installer for Mountain Lion and stores it in the usual spot - /Applications.

You should only need a network connection after installing to get updates, etc.. and not to run the installer outright.

Be aware that the installation process deletes the installer once you are done installing the OS, so you might make a backup copy of the Install OS X Mountain Lion program before you run it.


Iphone videos for Court I have some iphone videos that my atty has told me I need to put on or in something that can be handed to a judge for a civil matter. I originally was just gonna email them or put them on a flash drive but he said that isn't sufficient for court.

Pictures and documents I'm printing & putting in a binder... the videos I'm a bit stumped stumped for ideas. The best I've been able to think of is getting a cheap old laptop (with a decent battery so it doesn't die in court) and put the videos on the desktop of the laptop to be played/replayed on a decent sized screen as needed. Any other ideas? I feel like there has to be a better way but maybe my mind wants technology to be better then it is at the moment. I don't want to get so fancy that judge or whomever has trouble figuring out how to play the videos - just want it simple as possible.

I have enough work/personal stuff on my own devices I don't want to just handover what I already own loaded up with personal stuff not related to the matter.
My attorney is not tech savy, he doesn't email or text, only does phone calls so he has no advice on how.

Burn the videos to DVD, so they can be played in a regular DVD player. Also hand over all data files on a USB drive.


ntpd: consistently incorrect time on mid-2013 MacBook Air I'm using ICMP time stamping on my mid-2013 MacBook Air, and I need my clock to have an accuracy of no worse than 1ms.

I see that ntpd is running, with the default settings, and /etc/ntp.conf contains just one line, server time.apple.com, without even any comments.

However, if I run ntpdate -d time.apple.com (or ntpdate -d ntp1.yycix.ca, which produces the same offset reading for any given time as time.apple.com farm does), always as a non-root user, I'm often getting the reading that my clock is offset by as much as 6ms, or, most often around 4ms (sometimes 0ms, but very rarely).

Why is this happening?  I'm not even rebooting my MacBook, it runs 24/7, plugged in, why is its ntpd not keeping the time correctly?

Syslog has the following:

% syslog | fgrep ntp | fgrep -v sudo | tail
Nov 19 12:59:30 mba.cnst ntpd[86861] <Notice>: proto: precision = 1.000 usec

Last I checked, 1.000 usec is no worse than 1 us, which is 0.001ms, or 0.000001s; why does it claim that precision is 0.001ms, when in reality the clock is offset by as much as 6ms?

The server keyword of ntp.conf(5) would appear to configure only a single server, even if the provided hostname resolves to more than one IP address.

It would appear that the specific server that was being selected is a PoS.

mba: {4899} ntpdc -s ; ntpdc -sn
     remote           local      st poll reach  delay   offset    disp
=======================================================================
*time.apple.com  129.xx.xxx.xxx   2 4096  377 0.07106  0.000248 0.24763
     remote           local      st poll reach  delay   offset    disp
=======================================================================
*17.151.16.22    129.xx.xxx.xxx   2 4096  377 0.07106  0.000248 0.24763
mba: {4900} ntpdate -d 17.151.16.22 |& tail -1 ; \
?           ntpdate -d time.apple.com |& tail -1 ; \
?           ntpdate -d ntp1.yycix.ca |& tail -1
26 Nov 01:49:13 ntpdate[97738]: adjust time server 17.151.16.22 offset -0.000318 sec
26 Nov 01:49:16 ntpdate[97740]: adjust time server 17.171.4.15 offset -0.006493 sec
26 Nov 01:49:16 ntpdate[97742]: adjust time server 192.75.191.6 offset -0.006443 sec
mba: {4901}

Going to Date & Time Preferences, and providing a comma-separated list of valid NTP servers seems to fix the issue.

Providing a comma-separated list in GUI results in several server entries in /etc/ntp.conf, although you have to make sure that the hostnames themselves are different (otherwise, the repeated hostnames don't result in any extra actual servers being selected, as per ntpq -p).

mba: {5104} cat /etc/ntp.conf
server ntp1.yycix.ca
server time.nist.gov
server tick.usask.ca
server tock.usask.ca
server clock.nyc.he.net
mba: {5105} ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
+ntp1.yycix.ca   .GPS.            1 u  138  512  377   56.517   -0.662   0.319
-2610:20:6f15:15 .ACTS.           1 u  117  512  377   27.975   -1.774   0.989
+tick.usask.ca   .GPS.            1 u  456  512  377   31.388   -0.636   0.135
*tock.usask.ca   .GPS.            1 u  124  512  377   31.486   -0.864   0.413
-clock.nyc.he.ne .CDMA.           1 u  139  512  377   26.860   -2.161   0.194
mba: {5106}

A list of servers is available at http://support.ntp.org/servers; you have to try to select the servers that are close to you, especially not just geographically, but network-wise.


mail and mailx fail to send emails to gmail Quite frequently I have to send the outputs of my work on terminal (e.g. when compiling code) to my colleagues via email. I was wondering if it is possible to pipe (|) the output of a terminal command directly to email and I realized there are mail and mailx that can be used for this purpose.

The problem is, when I try a simple message like this

ls -laF | mailx -s 'generated files' colleague@gmail.com

nothing is sent. How should I tackle this problem? In this post a very similar situation is asked and something is suggested but it's not the solution anymore.

OS X has postfix installed by default but it's not enabled (started). You can start it with

sudo postfix start

you can check the status and eventual problems in /var/log/mail.log

The configuration is in /etc/postfix/


Specifying Terminal-only mapping in Karabiner I am trying to remap specific Ctrl+<Key> combinations to Command+<Key> in Terminal.app using Karabiner. The following private.xml is used:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>Swap Ctrl+S and Cmd+S</name>
    <identifier>private.filters_cmd</identifier>
    <only>TERMINAL</only>

    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::S, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::S, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::S, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R, KeyCode::S, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_R</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

For now only Ctrl+S is remapped. However, it only works if no application-level filtering is set via <only>. And i would want those mappings to be active only in Terminal.app.

Probably there is something wrong with my definition. Can someone please advise?

I am using OS X 10.11.3.

My bad. I had to enable AXNotifier in Karabiner, and allow it access in System Preferences->Security & Privacy->Accessibility. Hopefully the above will be helpful for others.

Sometimes posting a question helps resolving it by the very fact of posting it:)

UPDATE: Here is Karabiner's private.xml i'm currently using , in case someone would find it useful. It maps almost all of Ctrl+<Key> combinations, except for some that might still be useful (e.g. Cmd+Q, Cmd+N, Cmd+M).


emulate Linux's `last -x` on Mac OS X I'm currently trying to get a missing cronjob runner script thing to work, but it was written for Arch Linux, which is pretty different from Mac OS X, and one of the things that it tries to do is run last -x, which fails since Mac's version of last doesn't include a -x option.

According to About.com -x displays the system shutdown entries and run level changes.  Is there any way to emulate this behavior in Mac OS X?

Here's an excerpt from the man page for last on Ubuntu Linux:

Is the following sufficient?

uname -a
Darwin Macmini-i53.local 13.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 13.0.0: Thu Sep 19 22:22:27 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2422.1.72~6/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

last | grep -e boot -e shut
reboot    ~                         Mon Dec  2 09:57
shutdown  ~                         Mon Dec  2 09:54
reboot    ~                         Fri Nov 29 12:45
shutdown  ~                         Fri Nov 29 12:40


Sending text to an open terminal window with automator I'm trying to create a simple workflow to type commands into an open Terminal window that has focus. I want to run the script when I give a dictation command with Terminal open.

I created a simple workflow to run a shell command to test this out. It runs, but doesn't do anything inside the open terminal window. How I can achieve this?

OK, I created an AppleScript inside automator that did the trick:

tell application "Terminal"
    set currentTab to do script ("ssh me@10.0.1.25;") in front window
end tell