Mavericks frees >12GB of SSD Something very bizarre has happened.

Today I upgraded to Mavericks. Before the upgrade my 64GB SSD reported about 5GB free. After the upgrade it reports 18GB free.

While this is fantastic, could someone tell me what is going on?

My initial thought is that there may have been 8GB swap space (I have 8GB RAM) which the upgrade may have freed,  but closing the lid and subsequently opening it again has not made any impression. I still have 18GB free.

ETA: while the guesses below all stand, here’s a better one from Marceil Weiher:

@rentzsch Have you checked with "df" vs. looking in Finder?  I think 10.9 subtracts the space for mobile Time Machine from used in latter.
Marcel Weiher (@mpweiher) on Twitter

I’ve done some poking around on the machines I have lying around, and I think this is plausible and probably correct.
If you use Time Machine, that’s probably your answer.

Without seeing your system, it’s hard to know, but here are some suggestions:

The Mavericks installer is ~5GB in size, but it gets deleted once you’ve finished upgrading. When did you take the first reading? Perhaps you’ve lost the 5GB installer file (which replaces a lot of existing system files, so it doesn’t add 5GB to the system files), which would contribute to the difference.

Caches (temporary files) often get purged during an OS update. I have ~3GB of caches on my Mac, which would significantly free up space if that happened. Perhaps you had a lot of cache files to begin with?

Do you use Time Machine? Starting with Mountain Lion, Apple started keeping backups on your local disk, and writing them to an external drive when you plug it in. Assuming you plugged in your backup drive before you did the update1, it might just have purged all those local backup files and saved some space.

1 You did, right?


Cannot eject from Finder (Lion) I cannot eject anything from Finder, either by clicking the eject icon in the sidebar, or by dragging the icon to the trash (it does turn into an eject icon though). I'm using Disk Utility to get around this, but it's frustrating to have to open that up when I'm staring at Finder all day long.

This is a recent development, as it was working fine before. I haven't installed anything new that I can associate with when this started happening.

ETA: I managed to fix this myself. Trashing the Finder and sidebar preferences and then restarting Finder did the trick.

If this behavior persists past a reboot, you might need to go down some general problem isolation steps:

Isolating issues in Mac OS X

There used to be an article (it's gone or I can't find it at the moment) that walked you through setting aside the application preferences or testing this behavior in a new user. In your case - it looks like you figured it out, but I wanted to at least mention the official guide in case others have the same symptoms but a different cause.


Time Machine wiped my external drive despite pressing "Don't Use" I have an external hard drive(formatted as FAT32) that has been in use on/off for years. I even had backups on it (not using time machine). I mounted this hard drive, it was taking a while to mount. A prompt came up to ask if I wanted to use this drive as a time machine backup. I said "Don't Use". It hanged. Meanwhile, I opened disk utility twice. both I had to force quit. I then relaunched finder.

Assuming it would cancel the time machine prompt. Only when did the finder eventually relaunch that the drive mounted to see that all my files where gone and looking in thermal under ls -a to see their we're spotlight and time machine files along with some oddly named thing. About 1GB Is in use on the drive(I had much more that a gig on it). It is a TB drive

Here is the output from the ls -a in the Volume

.                   ._.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
..                  .com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
.Spotlight-V100             .fseventsd
.Trashes                USBCˆö?␀.␀€␀
._.Trashes

Anyway would a tool like this (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) help get back my files and format back to what I had previously? Or am I going in the wrong direction? Can help get my files back?

I should also mention that I ran verify disk from disk utility on the drive much later on to have this repeating until I manually stop the process

2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: / has entries after end of directory
2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: Truncate? no
2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: Extend? no

Thanks. If you have any questions please comment below

Here is the answer I got on the Apple Support Forums:

  Time Machine does NOT format drives, that I know of. If you connect a drive that is not formatted Mac extended TM should pop up a warning that it can't use that drive for its backup but it should Not indicriminately Format the drive.

  I agree with Thomas that the drive is failing or has failed. More then likely if you copy data to that drive it will become corrupted. Time to get a new drive and throw that one in the trash.


How to check whether my Intel-based Mac is 32-bit or 64-bit I want to install new software that has these two versions, and I need to know which one to install.

How can I tell the 32 or 64 bit capabilities of my Mac?

Run this on the command line:

getconf LONG_BIT


Format external HFS disk without ESP When formatting an external disk larger than 2GB, OS X automatically creates an EFI System Partition (ESP).  For compatibility with other devices, I want to format a large disk with only one partition, and no ESP.  How can I do this in OS X Yosemite?

diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ 002 disk2

I found this Technical Note describing Apple's partitioning policy, but it doesn't say how to avoid creating the ESP.

Edit: Forgot to mention I need to use GUID partition map for compatibility, not MBR.

You can repartition the disk with gpt and format the partition with newfs_hfs:

Open Terminal.app and to get an overview enter:

diskutil list

Get the partition table of the disk in question (below I assume the disk to partition is disk2):

sudo gpt -r show disk2

Destroy the GUID partition table and create a new one:

diskutil umountDisk disk2
sudo gpt destroy disk2
sudo gpt create disk2

If the disk previously was formatted as a FAT volume, a new GUID partition table can't be created because the PMBR turns into an MBR (which blocks the GPT creation) and you have to overwrite it first:

diskutil umountDisk disk2
sudo gpt destroy disk2
diskutil umountDisk disk2
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk2 count=1
sudo gpt create disk2

Get the new partition table:

sudo gpt -r show disk2

Now create a new partition with gpt. Depending on the block size of your disk you may have to align the partition. Disks with a block size of 512 Bytes have to be aligned. On disks with a block size of 4096 Bytes you can use the first free block (block nr. 6) and the size of the free space.

Example (a 2.2 TB disk with a block size of 512 Bytes):

       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34  4292870077
  4292870111          32         Sec GPT table
  4292870143           1         Sec GPT header

Do the math and align your volume to 4k blocks. This means: the start block and the size is divisible through 8 (and has to fit in 4292870071 blocks in my example because the lowest recommended start block is 40). Create a new partition:

sudo gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 4292870064 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk2

with i: index position (usually 1 for the first partition); b: start block; s: size in blocks and t: type of partition (here HFS+ = 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC).

Example (a 6.0 TB disk with a block size of 4096 Bytes):

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2          4         Pri GPT table
          6  976746229
  976746235          4         Sec GPT table
  976746239          1         Sec GPT header

sudo gpt add -i 1 -b 6 -s 976746229 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk2

Format the partition with newfs_hfs (-v name: name the volume; -J: journaled):

 sudo newfs_hfs -v test -J /dev/rdisk2s1

The volume will be mounted automatically. Else enter diskutil mount disk2s1.

Be warned: checking the disk with Disk Utility will yield:

  Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting...

and with diskutil verifyDisk disk2

  Started partition map verification on disk2
  Checking prerequisites
  Checking the partition list
  Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
  Error: -69770: Partition map check failed because no slices were found


Way to utilize iCloud shared album externally I use iCloud to share photos with people, and I would like to use that resources in my personal blogs(similar to AWS S3)

I know there is a way to access the shared photos via web, but is there any way to access it more convenient?

You can make albums, share links and make the albums public on macOS.

On iOS:
Create a "New Shared Album" and turn on "Public Website" in People's tab in the album itself, not the global one.

  You can even share albums with friends and family who don't use iCloud. Just open a Shared Album that you created, go to the People tab on your iOS device or click the people icon on your Mac, and turn on Public Website. Your photos publish to a website that anyone can see in an up-to-date web browser.

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT202786


HD monitor looks blurry with Retina? After reading recommendations online, I bought an LG IPS monitor to go with my MacBook Pro Retina. But things, specially type, look blurry on it. Is there a monitor out there that can deliver the same sharpness as my retina display? Could I have the wrong setting?

Nothing is going to look as good as a Retina display. If your display seems like it should be sharper make sure you are running that display at it's native resolution. Scaling the display to non-native resolutions can make even the best monitor look pretty bad.

That said I run my MacBook Pro's retina display at it's maximum resolution of 1900 X 1200 because it still looks sharp to my old eyes, even with scaling on.


Select the disk where you want to install macOS? I am trying to revive my mid-2015 MacBook Pro.
I installed a new SSD, but when I go through the process of Reinstall macOS, I do not get the new SSD as a choice, it seems like I would have to install a 16GB USB flash drive and store it there.
It also does not seem to recognize the old SSD inside the enclosure that is connected to the MacBook.
I would like to follow the guide below
Can Recovery Mode install OS X onto a blank SSD?
but how would I do this if all I can do is install the macOS Sierra on a flash drive?
I tried going into the terminal and running diskutil list, but my SSD is not found among the long list. It is a 480GB SSD and nothing in that list even comes close.
I installed macOS Sierra on a 16GB USB flash drive, but when I follow this guide:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-mac-os-x-using-removable-usb-drive/
But when I click Option + Power it does go into installer, but then when I go to install from the USB flash drive, it tells me I do not have enough space. I don't get it, I already have macOS Sierra on that flash drive, what is it trying to do?

You are going to need to format your newly installed ssd before the macos installer recognizes it as a viable medium to install your os on. If you cant format it in disk utility, try going to internet recovery and selecting the terminal. once in the terminal type
diskutil list
Then find the your newly installed disk drive labeled in the format of /dev/diskXwhere "X" is whatever disk number your new ssd is. This will most likely be /dev/disk0 or /dev/disk1.
Once you have identified your disk number in the terminal, you can erase and format your new sdd by running the command
diskutil eraseDisk apfs MacHD GPT /dev/diskX
Dont forget to substitute the "X" in "/dev/diskX" with your real disk number.
For example, if your new ssd shows up in the terminal as /dev/disk0, the command to properly format it would be:
diskutil eraseDisk apfs MacHD GPT /dev/disk0

After that your new ssd should show up as an option in the mac installer application and you should be able to install macOS on it.


how to command to get vlc latest version? I want to get vls latest version safely. I have brew.How could I type to terminal ? I dont wanna download it from a website since it may not be safe

curl -O http://mirror.de.leaseweb.net/videolan/vlc/2.1.2/macosx/vlc-2.1.2.dmg
This is the official OS X build by Felix Kuehne, the main OS X VLC maintainer; I doubt 3rd party repositories host OS X / Cocoa specific builds like this one.


Remove Ad Malware Safari El Capitan I used to have 10.11 yesterday when I saw multiple ads from multiple sites opening when I'm viewing webpages using Safari. I updated to the latest version of the OS, 10.11.6 but it hasn't fixed the issue. I've restarted the OS multiple times. I've tried MalwareBytes as it was suggested in forums. I also tried removing all safari data from Library folders to reset Safari and it still hasn't fixed the issue.
The malware redirects websites I visit to offerland.info / bestphoneapps.mobi / mobrevflwms.com and many other sites.

Solutions would be appreciated.

Other malware removers..

MacScan 3 - [Subscription $50 pa] with free trial. idk whether the free trial will let you actually remove anything it finds. Prime task is to remove bad cookies. I've been using it since v1 & have never 'caught' anything it couldn't kill, though that in itself doesn't prove it will kill everything, only the ones I've seen.

For an actual 'antivirus' - rather than me post a list, it would be better to refer you to AV-TEST, which is the closest thing to an actual authority on the subject, or specifically their most recent Mac report . As of their last report, July 2016, they list 4 products with a 100% hit-rate, yet only two which can do that without leaning on your machine & slowing it down, BitDefender & ESET. Neither of those are are free.

They update the report twice a year, so the main link should remain usable in future, as the specific July 2016 report falls out of date.


OS X program to view .xif file I have some old .xif image files from a scanning application (Pagis / Scansoft) that I'd like to view/ convert to PDF. Tried all kinds of viewers - Preview, Xee, Adobe (including Photoshop) with no luck.

Please note, as far as I know, .xif / .xiff has nothing to do with exif for cameras.

http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/xif

Thanks very much,
John

The general image opening magic I would try:

ImageMagick (installed via brew)
GIMP
XNView This explicitly lists it as possible: http://www.xnview.com/old/en/formats.html
GraphicConverter

ImageMagick and GIMP are free GNU software. XNView is free too.

GraphicConverter is not free, not too expensive either, but can handle just about any image format to have been near a Mac in the last 20 years or so. It has a free trial.


How to uninstall LibreOffice from Mac OS Catalina? Can someone let me know how can I completely uninstall LibreOffice from Catalina ?

I have moved LibreOffice under Applications to trash and removed the LibreOffice folder under /Library/ApplicationSupport/

Is this the recommended way to remove LibreOffice?

For any app that comes with an installer package, check to see if there is an uninstaller option.

Check with the developer, to ask what step they recommend for removing the app.

Otherwise, for most apps, delete the following:

the .app bundle from /Applications.
subfolders with the app's name in /Library/Application Support and
<user>/Library/Application Support

There may be subfolders in the company's name, e.g. Adobe.

If you want to go mad, you can also look for folders with the app's name in other subfolders of the user Library:  Caches, Containers, LaunchAgents. They may be named as com.company.appname, or org.company.appname.

There may be files in <user>/Library/Preferences, of type com.company.appName.plist. Typically these will be only a few Kb, and if you miss them (or other small files in other places), they will do nothing but occupy one-hundred-millionth of the space your hard drive.

Essentially, this is all that so-called 'cleaner' apps do: search for files with the app's name in your user Library. They can of course delete the wrong thing and miss obscurely named files just as easily as you can.

Orphaned files left over will just sit on your hard drive and never be read. (Ahhhh.) They won't affect the running of your computer in any way.


Use MobileME to host multiple domain names I have a quick and simple question, is there any possible way to host more than one domain name from a single MobileME account? I am using iWeb11 and already have purchased two domain names and configured one of them with ME, this works fine but I would just like to be sure that I don't need to buy an additional ME account if it isn't absolutely necessary. Thanks you in advance!

Each account only allows one domain name to be listed. To get full separation, you will need either a family pack (for 5 accounts) or multiple main accounts on MobileMe.

Since iWeb does allow multiple sites, perhaps you could use forwarding or redirect for the subsequent custom domains. Making a CNAME pointing www to your mobile me entry point is the cleanest way to pass traffic, but there are other ways if you don't mind the hassle and exposing your mobile me hosting when the redirect shows the URL where you are hosting.

Most web-savvy people can tell a domain is hosted from mobile me even if you use the "offical" one domain per account method - it just is easier to keep your mobile me name from the address bar of most web browsers that way.


keyboard shortcut to jump to the non-whitespace first character in a line control-a is pretty close - it moves the character to the first column. command-left does too.

if my keyboard had a home key this would likely move the cursor there, but it doesn't.

similar to this question, i'm trying to get vim's ^ behaviour without moving my hands too far. unfortunately alt-m outputs µ instead of giving me the goods.

i'm hoping for something i can use system wide, i'm not sure if os x has this though.

There is no shortcut for it by default. As a hack, you can create ~/Library/KeyBindings/ and save a property list like this as ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict:

{
  "~m" = (moveToBeginningOfParagraph:, insertText:, " ", moveLeft:, selectWord:,
  moveRight:, setMark:, moveToBeginningOfParagraph:, deleteForward:,
  swapWithMark:, moveLeft:);
}

Then quit and reopen applications to apply the changes. ~m is option-m, which is bound to back-to-indentation in Emacs.

I copied the macro from https://github.com/ttscoff/KeyBindings/blob/master/DefaultKeyBinding.dict. moveToBeginningOfParagraph:, selectWord:, moveRight: would not work with lines that don't start with spaces or tabs. moveToBeginningOfParagraph:,moveWordRight:, moveWordLeft: would not work with some lines where the first non-whitespace character is a special character.

DefaultKeyBinding.dict does not work with some applications like Xcode or Firefox.

See http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html or http://osxnotes.net/keybindings.html for more information.


Automator to get PDF Annotations and export to Excel I'm trying to make a macOS service using Automator to extract PDF annotations and get the information into an Excel file.

I can successfully get the annotations from a PDF, and export them to a text file. But if I try to parse the same information to a new Excel file, all the information is pasted into a single cell.

What would be the correct steps in Automator, to have each text line in separated Excel rows?

Assuming you know the basics of Automator....Create a workflow with these Actions:

In the AppleScript Action copy & paste the following:

    on run {input, parameters}
    set delimitedList to paragraphs of (input as string)
    set myExport to ""
    do shell script "touch /tmp/myFile.csv"
    repeat with myLines in delimitedList
        set myLineExport to ""
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"    "}
        set listItems to every text item of myLines
        repeat with eachItem in listItems
            set myLineExport to myLineExport & "\"" & eachItem & "\","
        end repeat
        set myExport to myExport & myLineExport & "
"
    end repeat
    write_to_file(myExport, (POSIX file "/tmp/myFile.csv" as alias), false)
    return POSIX file "/tmp/myFile.csv" as alias
end run

on write_to_file(this_data, target_file, append_data)
    try
        set the target_file to the target_file as string
        set the open_target_file to open for access file target_file with write permission
        if append_data is false then set eof of the open_target_file to 0
        write this_data to the open_target_file starting at eof
        close access the open_target_file
        return true
    on error
        try
            close access file target_file
        end try
        return false
    end try
end write_to_file

Note: You may run into issues if your annotations contain quotes, however there will be no problem if you use smart quotes.

You can select your pdf in the first prompt.

Sources: https://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/sbrt/sbrt-09.html


How to Retrieve the Wi-Fi Password of a Connected Network on a Mac I need to find the password for a Wi-Fi network that I am already connected to. I'm using a MacBook Pro that's running OS X Lion. Any guidance is appreciated.

If the password is stored, you can find it using the program Keychain Access.

If you open /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access, it will show you a list of stored entries. If you click the Kind column header, it will sort by kind, go to the section where AirPort network passwords are stored. On Yosemite, you may have to select "Local Items" rather than "login" under Keychains in the upper left.

Double-click the name of the network you are using (if you don't know the name of the network, you can find it in the WiFi menulet (the concentric quarter circles toward the right side of your menu bar).

Check the Show password box, enter your system password, and click the Allow button.

That should show you the password for the wireless network you are on, if it is stored on your computer. If no such entry appears, it means the password is not stored on your computer.

Note that you can also use this technique to find saved passwords for websites or other passwords that you computer has stored but you have forgotten.


Send a (push) message to everyone who is in the range of my Wi-Fi router? I have a large property and rent it out to clients who rented a holiday home. Now I would like to send to everybody an automatic message over Wi-Fi.

I have an old router with Wi-Fi, for example to let all (in the Wi-Fi range) the people know that we have today a BBQ. How could I achieve this?

The only way I can think of doing this over wi-fi is if you have a captive portal, where the users have to accept a TOS each day for example - you could then amend the portal page to include your daily message. There are some open source options available but you'll likely need to purchase a dedicated router/hotspot.

Another option would be to use Bluetooth/iBeacons - a lot of people leave it switched on so they can easily connect with speakers/car kits etc, and there's a lot of options available - a quick Google for "Bluetooth push advertising" or "iBeacon" should help. It's possible to set the low cost RaspberryPi up as an iBeacon, depending on your technical knowledge!


Claims by mobile operator of iOS7 'secretly' using mobile data Apologies in advance for the likely TL;DR.

I have an iPhone 5 running iOS7 on a PAYG deal with Vodafone in the UK. Whenever I top up £10, I get a 500mb data pack that's valid for 30 days. Thing is, I don't need to top up very often (as an example: I last topped up on March 4th, and I still have £6 of credit left), so my mobile data pack will frequently expire before I need to top up.

As of February this year, I started getting messages from Vodafone at random times saying "We noticed you've started using mobile data, so we've charged you £1 for 25mb of data". The problem is that every single time I've had this message, it's after I've come back home and been using WiFi for a good long while.

The first time I complained about this, the rep I spoke to said "Oh, the system miscalculates it all the time, I'll  refund your money. You can always turn off mobile data and it won't happen again."

I duly did this, and the second time it happened I complained again, and the rep I spoke to said "It doesn't matter if you turn mobile data off; your phone uses it anyway in secret to do updates."

This has happened three times subsequently, and twice I've been told the same thing: even if I have mobile data turned off, my phone will turn it back on all by itself to check for updates, then turn it back off - and it's that microscopic data use that I'm getting charged for.

This sounds like utter horseradish to me, but is there any truth to this? I've gotten into the habit of turning off Mobile Data and Use 3G when I'm out unless I need to use it; in addition Data Roaming is always off, Background App Refresh is off, and Limit Ad Tracking is on. Am I missing something?

A majority of the time the issue is with a random app or service running in the background.  Less often it's because the carrier has to update their software on the device.  In both cases, turning off cellular data would solve this issue.

Occasionally there is a problem with the phone itself. Go to Settings>Cellular and note how much cellular data is being used.  Then turn off Cellular Data.  After two or three hours check if cellular data usage has changed.  If it has, restore the iPhone, and if necessary replace it if you have the option.

If there is no change in the cellular data usage I would contact your carrier and let them know.


Will moving my photos to photostreams save my iCloud storage space? I've read here that photostreams do not 'eat up' the space however the post is quite old. If this is still correct, is the '1000 recent photos limit' applied per photostream or all photostreams?

According to the Apple Support Article My Photo Stream, "The photos you upload to My Photo Stream don't count against your iCloud storage."

The 1000 photos limit is applied towards the My Photo Stream album, which stores the most recent photos for 30 days.


Apps using the camera API crash after taking a picture on an iPhone 4S running iOS 7 Ever since I updated to iOS 7 in June, I have been having issues using the camera on my phone in apps other than the default Camera app. Regardless of settings, using my camera in any non-Apple app (such as Instagram or Tumblr) will result in that particular app crashing immediately. I have tried everything to remedy the issue short of a full restore on my phone. I'm convinced it's some sort of low memory or high CPU utilization issue, since iOS 7 seems to be much more taxing on my phone's resources than iOS 6 was. Is there some way to fix this issue without simply buying a newer, faster iPhone?

Rebooting always fixes the problem for me.

As for permanent solutions, haven't tried this myself but this comment has a possible solution (pre-iOS 7 however iOS users have reported success):  http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/how-to/how-to-fix-iphone-camera-roll-crash-and-photos-turned-to-other-in-itunes/#comment-347059180


How to unregister an iPad from Lightspeed Systems MDM? So I bought a iPad generation 5 from a school and it had Lightspeed Systems on it I went to the school the admin and everyone else that could remove it and they said “We can’t do anything for you because it’s no longer in our control.”

When I go to settings and try to erase all content and settings, I am blocked by the MDM.

How do I proceed?

Here is the script for taking control of a device you purchase. I’m thinking the support team felt you wanted them to show you these steps or they don’t know how to remove MDM if they can’t touch the device physically due to SARS or just distance.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201441

Take your time, there are a lot of linked articles and if this is your first experience this could take hours or on might need someone to help you with a loaner computer to restore if you don’t know all the passcodes and have a working WiFi and ability to join that network.

If that device is in their DEP, they can control that, so document what steps you performed and again, get someone else to help on the call if needed, that’s a negotiation where yo7 are trying to calmly convince the person / organization to do some work for you after the sale happened. There is no rush for them to take action, so be sure to let them know they have time to research DEP. you can even send them here is they don’t know how to release DEP. If needed, we will help them, too.

How can I clear an iPad from another company's DEP?
Can iPad SSL/TLS traffic be inspected during DEP enrollment?


Key Needs to be Pressed Repeatedly to Start Working When I leave my computer alone for around five minutes, to get the "w" key to function I need to spam press it, after which it starts functioning correctly. Holding down the key for ~10 seconds also works. Thoughts?

If there is a software issue - you could replicate it with an external keyboard.

It's likely a failure in the wiring or mechanics of the keyboard. Depending on how close the Apple Store is, you might have them check for lint or debris under the key cap.

You could DIY - but the pieces are very, very fragile and you might be out some $$ to order a replacement if you break things checking it out.

At the store, they usually have spares on hand and can order the right parts on their dime if they break it during cleaning / servicing.


Podcasts that I have played or marked as played on my iPhone are not showing as played when I sync to iTunes and are not being removed Recently (I'm not sure when it started) podcasts that are marked as played on my iPhone (4 hardware, 5.0.1 OS), when I plug into iTunes, the podcasts are still showing as unplayed on the iphone in iTunes, and so they don't get removed.  How can I fix this?

iTunes 10.5.1.42 on Windows.

This is not an exact answer to your problem, but it helps avoiding it!
I have given up using the Music-App and iTunes for Podcasts. I now use the App Podcaster and I am so happy with it.


Sound output source changes based on the kind of sound? My first Bluetooth headphones ever (Amazon) just arrived today, and they work great on tests in YouTube and QuickTime, but for some reason, when I moved files to the Trash (and out again via Undo), the sound effects played at full volume out of the computer's built-in speakers. I've replicated this several times, and the issue persists even after relaunching Finder. As I was writing this, the "new email" notification sound just played out of the computer's speakers too! How can I fix this?

I'm on an early 2011 13" MBP with an upgraded AirPort card to support Bluetooth LE (gotten for Continuity support), running OS X 10.10.2.

Make sure You have the right output set in Preferences -> Sound -> Sound Effects


How do I remove authenticated Open Directory binding to itself? In attempts to solve my file sharing issues I have at some point on macOS Mojave + Server, using Directory Utility, bound the Open Directory server to itself using Directory Utility (I was quite desperate). Now, with all the changes I made I was able to get the client machine use authenticated binding to the server machine and now SMB file sharing works. So far so good, but I cannot change the passwords of users anymore. When I try, I get the following error:

existing connection is not authenticated and the old password is not present: password change denied

DNS is ok. What I can find is that in the past one could 'rekerberize' the server but that information is old (Mavericks) so I don't want to try.

I was looking at removing the local authenticated binding on macOS Mojave Server. But in Directory Utility that is greyed out. And I do not dare to remove/recreate the LDAP server with Directory Utility on a production server yet (very scared).

While trying to get this done I accidentally found a way to do this:

On the server, in Directory Utility, in Services/LDAPv3 I tried to
add another copy of the local server (127.0.0.1). The same name was
not accepted so I went manual, created it with the name localhost
This was created, but then it turned out that it had overwritten the
previous OD. All my users, everything was gone. Panic.
I stopped OD in Server.app
Ran "sudo slapconfig -destroyldapserver" in Terminal
Ran "sudo slapconfig -restoredb 20200112-albus-odbackup.sparseimage"
(I did make a backup before I went mucking about)

My OD is now up and running again, the users are back it took Server.app a while to sync with reality) and the authenticated binding between the server and itself is gone. /LDAPv3/127.0.0.1 only shows one computer, so I'll need to reauthenticate the client machine.

Probably not the way to do it and certainly not for the faint of heart.


OSX server 10.6 and umask I'm trying to set up our server so that file permissions make sense. We have a mac mini running OSX 10.6.7. Through our desktop Macs, we connect to shared folders on that server and save files on it, in Finder, TextEdit, etc.

I've set up a umask, as documented here. However, this only works from terminal/finder directly on the server. If I save a file to the server using a connected desktop, it doesn't work.

Any ideas on how I can resolve this?

umask is a user- and process-specific setting and can be overridden. Setting a umask on the server does not affect any clients that accessing the shared folder - each of them will use their own default file creation permissions.

If you want to set default permissions on a shared folder, the answer is to use Access Control Lists (ACLs), which are much more flexible.

Here's a somewhat terse support article from Apple on setting up ACLs in Snow Leopard Server.
And here's a slightly friendlier guide.


There is one video which plays but sound not coming in Mac I have one video which is playing well in Windows machine and also sound is coming. But, while I am playing same video on Mac or iPad, sound is not coming. In my Mac and iPad, I have tried other videos which are playing and also sound is coming.

In QuickTime Player, if I view details of the video which does not give sound, I cannot find AAC, whereas in other video, I find it.

Here is the screenshots:

  Screenshot 1 shows the details of video that gives sound:

  Screenshot 2 shows the details of video that does not give sound:

What may be the reason for it? These videos are given by my client and both are giving sound in Windows machine but one of the 2 video not giving sound in Mac or iPad.

Mac and iOS only supports AAC and MP3 Audio CODEC, while my video has MPEG Audio layer 1/2 Audio CODEC. So, while converting/compressing this video, my client has selected audio CODEC to default rather than AAC.

Here are difference between those two video files:

  Screenshot 1 shows the CODEC details of video that gives sound:

  Screenshot 2 shows the CODEC details of video that does not give sound:


Difference between ~/Library/Application Scripts/ and ~/Library/Scripts Does the two folders ~/Library/Application Scripts/ and  ~/Library/Scripts have different meanings? I’m considering where to put scripts for OmniFocus.

The "Scripts" folder I believe is a relic from the past.

Scripts should now be placed in the "Application Scripts" folder. Make a folder within named after the bundle identifier (eg. com.apple.mail), and place scripts that you want to be used for that specific application.


How do delete selective iCloud book copy? I dont want few icloud book copies to be occupying my screen space. Is there anyway possible, going to the folder directly on Mac, to delete the copy of the ibooks?

I can see numerous answers of hiding and some answering that it is not possible. Are there any hacks around?

Is it possible to COMPLETELY delete a Book from my purchased books?

Right Click > Delete
"Are you sure you want to delete this book from your Mac?"
Delete.

It's in the Trash.


Can I block only the Facetime calls from a specific person, not calls or texts? I want to block Facetime calls from a specific person, but not phone calls or texts. How can I do that?

You can't. Unfortunately, you can only block them from all three or none at all. This may change with future iOS updates, but for now, there is no way.


"Save as PDF..." in Safari submenu Is it possible to place the "Save as PDF…" button from the print menu underneath the "Print…" button in the "File/print…" menu in safari?

If you are asking whether it is possible to modify the Safari user interface, the answer is clearly yes, but if the question is whether there is a straightforward way to modify the contents of menus in an Apple-shipped program, the answer is sadly, no, not without deep hacking.

There are workarounds, however. A Safari extension could be written to add an item to the Toolbar or to a context menu, although not to the menubar. Writing that extension would be a developer question beyond the scope of this site.

An automator service that calls an AppleScript to save the current page as PDF could be added to the Safari menu (not the File menu) and assigned a keyboard shortcut.

As far as I am aware, however, adding a command to the File menu is not possible through the standard (i.e. supported) extension mechanism, and would require hacking the Safari binaries.


Can fiber channel cards be used to connect a Mac Pro server to our unmanaged switch? (I've tried to research this, but I am a newbie when it comes to this topic, so my searches aren't quite yielding the most helpful results.)

Our company processes a lot of Mac Pros for resale, and many come with fiber channel cards that we have at our disposal. I've noticed that the 24 port unmanaged gigabit switch we use for mass net-restores has a fiber channel port. Could we use fiber to connect our Mac Pro netrestore server to the switch to get the highest possible throughput? We could use every little bit.

If it is a network switch then the fibre connection will not be for fibre channel, I'll be ethernet on fibre.  To switch fibre channel you need a fibre channel switch not a network switch.


Moving files >4GB from a Mac to a Windows box Normally, when I want to take video files from my Mac to friends who use Windows, I move the files on a FAT32-formatted flash drive or external hard drive, but FAT32 cannot handle files larger than about 4GB.

I could archive the file into some multi-part format (e.g., RAR) or I could use some not-quite-perfect userspace filesystem drivers (MacFUSE) on the Mac to write to an NTFS-formatted disk, but it seems like there should be a better way.  What other options are there?

If you are under 10.6.5 or later and Windows Vista or above, you can format your memory stick or usb hard drive to exFAT, a newer version of FAT with large file support and almost unlimited partition size. It has no permissions to speak of so it's perfect to transfer files around.

Older systems will not see it however.

I use this file system on my external 1TB WD hdd and it works beautifully.


Accidently installed Catalina I did not have a time machine back up and want to go back to High Sierra 10.13 While installing a security update I accidentally installed Catalina. I do not have a Time Machine backup for my High Sierra 10.13. So now I have made a Time Machine backup in Catalina and my plan is to wipe the HD and re-install High Sierra. The thing is, is that some of my software will not work with Catalina and I really need them.

Now my question is, once delete everything from my Mac and reinstall High Sierra, what process can I use to bring back the files and apps since Time Machine won’t restore a backup from Catalina to High Sierra?

Manually copy the files over from Time Machine.

Just because you can’t restore doesn’t mean you can’t browse and copy.  Understand, that you’re not going to restore applications and settings, but you’ll be able to bring over your data with no problem.

In fact, I’m doing this exact process with my new install of Catalina rather doing a restoration or using Migration Assistant.


Messages sent to which number if iCloud message turned on I have two phones with different phone numbers (A&B) and I turned on iCloud messages and Text Message Forwarding.
When a message is sent to number A or B, both phones received it. For example, when a message is sent to number A, phone A will automatically forward it to phone B so that both phones appeared to receive the message at the same time.
I want to know whether that message is actually sending to number A or number B in the first place. How can I do this?

So, the answer is likely neither. Apple prefers to deliver a message securely and end to end encrypted and not deliver to any phone number for security and privacy reasons. The APNS system uses your contact information that is registered to make a device unique address. The same “message” sent to two of your devices is encrypted differently. When decrypted, they are the “same message” but over the air, the messages are unique and distinct.

SMS messages can be forwarded to devices that have none (iPhone sets up forwarding of the message content to an iPad or Mac using Text Message Forwarding opt-in settings)
The AppleID you use for Messages can have SMS and email as addressees. You can sometimes tap the message and see which if your contact items a message was addressed, but it’s hit or miss for me since it matters if you are reading these on iOS or iPadOS or macOS how it looks. Select yourself at the top of the chat window and see if one of your “addresses” is a different color is my best advice. The software tries hard to just show you who it was addressed to, not which of your data points was the recipient.


Why can't some songs be played with Music? I would like to know why some songs in Apple Music can't get played in an album or in a list and can be played individually.

I will show how I see some albums:

It means Apple doesn't have the rights to stream the song to you, whether that be a locale-specific problem or because the song is Album Only on the iTunes Store.


Installing snort on OS X I am on the lookout for an IDS/IPS solution for OS X 10.6. I tried compiling snort for 10.6 and I'm having trouble compiling a dependency, DAQ.

The error I get is:

mv -f .deps/daq_ipfw_la-daq_ipfw.Tpo .deps/daq_ipfw_la-daq_ipfw.Plo
/bin/sh ../libtool --tag=CC   --mode=link gcc -DBUILDING_SO -g -O2 -fvisibility=hidden -Wall -Wwrite-strings -Wsign-compare -Wcast-align -Wextra -Wformat -Wformat-security -Wno-unused-parameter -fno-strict-aliasing -fdiagnostics-show-option -pedantic -std=c99 -D_GNU_SOURCE -module -export-dynamic -avoid-version -shared  -o daq_ipfw.la -rpath /usr/local/lib/daq daq_ipfw_la-daq_ipfw.lo ../sfbpf/libsfbpf.la -lpcap
libtool: link: gcc -Wl,-undefined -Wl,dynamic_lookup -o .libs/daq_ipfw.so -bundle  .libs/daq_ipfw_la-daq_ipfw.o   ../sfbpf/.libs/libsfbpf.dylib -lpcap
libtool: link: dsymutil .libs/daq_ipfw.so || :
sed: 2/sfbpf/libsfbpf.la: No such file or directory
libtool: link: `2/sfbpf/libsfbpf.la' is not a valid libtool archive
make[2]: *** [daq_ipfw.la] Error 1
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make: *** [all] Error 2

Any hints on how I can solve the problem?
Any links you can point me to where I can get a build for snort that works on OS X?
Any other IDS/IPS solutions you might point me to? Thanks!

Use MacPorts. It's machine work to chase dependencies, not yours.


What happens after you grant accessibility permissions to an app downloaded from the Mac App Store (Accessibility Permission = Control Over Your Mac) I recently installed an app from the mac app store known as commander  one from the mac app store which allows you to transfer files between the Cloud, Mobile devices and your mac, but as soon as I installed and opened it, it is constantly asking for accessibility permissions in - order to control my mac, so I deny it every-time it asks for it, so can anyone tell me why the app asks for this permission and what it would be able to do after granting this permission?

Controlling your computer means that software can type for you and make changes to your settings, copy data off the clipboard (think passwords and social security numbers if you ever copy / type them) and generally get at things without you having to type or move the mouse.

Apple put that question there for you to say no always unless and until you really understand how that access is to be used and hopefully you have appropriate trust with the app developer in question.

The same NO should go with typing your password as an administrator when you install software or it asks to do things as root. The percentage of apps that truly need a kernel extension, admin permissions, control over your keyboard and mouse is far less than ask for it.

Once you give control of the both the UI and admin credentials, that Commander One software could then do whatever it pleases with your files and data and system until you remove or revoke the grants of elevated permission.

I’m certainly not saying Commander One does any of that - just that is asks for all the capabilities and nothing would stop that program if it were programmed to do such things.


Deleting transferred purchases from iTunes cache I'm using a long-lived installation of MacOS X alongside with an iPhone and iPad. Because of backups of both devices and the purchased applications, I'm losing a considerable space (~14GB) in my system.

Is it safe to delete the transferred files (from finder, terminal, etc.) or is there a way to do it from iTunes.

To delete Apps from iTunes just go to the Apps section of iTunes.
Select the desired Apps(cmd+click for multiple selection) and cmd+backspace to delete the files.

Your purchases will not be gone, since you can always download them again from the iTunes Store.


Can I use Siri to tell me the time without using the Internet? I only use Siri when I need to know the time. And she can't do it 80 percent of the time.

In a scenario: phone is in my pocket, I am listening music through earpod. And I want to know the time without taking phone out specially in cold. But on the way internet connection sometimes sucks. When she finds the connection, she brings an article about Time magazine.

After tries and talking to myself on the road. She tells me the time.
But sometimes I have to take the phone out, again it is cold and I already talked to myself in the crowd.

me - Hey Siri, What is the time ?
siri - I can't get any request right now.
me - Ok Siri, What time is it?
siri - Here is a article about Time magazine. (WTF)
me - Ok Siri, Time, time, time.
siri - It is 19:08.
me - fckiss you siri.

So is there a way to force Siri to tell time without going internet?
It would be better if I could make her tell the time in my native language though. It is shorter.

Siri needs the internet to do voice recognition. It doesn't understand your question without first sending the audio of you asking up to a central processing system.


How to get iMessages in sync across an iOS 5 iPhone, iPad and Mountain Lion Mac? One of the new features of Mountain Lion is the Messages app - and the "fact" that all your Messages threads are consistent across all your devices.

I would really like to have my the threads that I have going on my phone, automatically sync to my iPad and ML Mac. I understand SMS messages will not sync. The one caveat that I noticed is that it must be started on my Mac.

How do I get iMessages in sync across an iOS 5 (or older) iPhone, iPad and Mac?

Theres been a few reports online of messages sync being a bit buggy if you don't set it up exactly right. Heres a few solutions that should get everything syncing nicely for you:

Firstly, you need to have all devices set up to the same Apple ID

iOS Devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad):

Navigate to Settings > Messages.
Make sure iMessage is turned on.
Tap on Receive At.
Check your Apple ID. Make note of this Apple ID.
Tap on Caller ID.
Use your email address. If you use your phone number (assuming you’re on an iPhone), then the non phone devices (including the Mac) may not (and probably won’t) see the messages.

Mac version:

Navigate to the Messages app.
Go to Preferences > Accounts.
Add the same Apple ID as you used on the iOS devices.

In a nutshell: everything needs to be consistent. Use the same Apple ID everywhere and an email address as a caller id for best results.

If things are still not syncing, try the following.

Delete all your previous conversations: Some people have reported that they had to delete all of their conversations before things would sync up.
Make sure you have your phone number added to your Apple ID account online.


A way for the Command+TAB app switcher to continuously cycle instead of stop at the end Is there anyway to have the Command+TAB app switcher continuously cycle instead of stop at the end when you hold down command and tab like it did pre Mavericks?

Even as early as Lion, command+tab when held continuously stops at the end and does not cycle. Releasing the tab key and then pressing it again resets the cycle to the beginning. It is not necessary to release command. Releasing taband then pressing shift+tab will reverse scroll through the app listing.

To the very best of my knowledge, this behaviour is hardcoded and not configurable by the end user.


Will Home Sharing work without a running iTunes instance? This is the idea: if I move my iTunes library to a NAS and enable Home Sharing, will this feature continue to work if I then turn off my PC?

I would like my Apple TV to access my music and videos but without having to keep my PC running, ideally only the NAS should be running. Is there any way this could work?

No. Home Sharing uses mDNS (Bonjour) to advertise. Without a running iTunes instance for the share, it won't be available. Your NAS may have a DNLA server built-in which could make the iTunes library on it available though.


What is the Mac equivalent of Windows "start" command? I'm creating a script that runs several other scripts.

I need them to all start up in their own process (read window) so I can review the output of each, but I also need them to run in parallel, so they can't block each other.

In addition, I need to change the current working directory for each process, so doing something like the following isn't working:

osascript -e 'tell app "Terminal" to do script "someScript.sh"'

FYI, generally speaking, the equivalent of Windows's start is open (man). In their simplest usage, they're each the command-line equivalent of double-clicking something in the graphical shell. open may not be involved in the most efficient means of doing what you're trying to do in this case, however.


Function key does not get passed on to Windows in Amazon WorkSpaces I am using MacBook Pro 2019 with Touch Bar and macOS Catalina 10.15.3. I have installed Amazon WorkSpaces 3.0.4 which I use to connect to Windows.

My Function keys are not getting passed on to my Windows.

How can I solve this issue?

Update 1:

Below are my keyboard settings.

Function keys that I have tried.

F11: Shows desktop on Mac
F5: In IE / Google Chrome does not refresh
the page. It actually does nothing.
F4: In Outlook email message does
not open the Find dialog. It actually does nothing.

I played around with the Keyboard settings and found a workaround. In the Keyboard settings, set the "Touch bar shows" to "F1, F2, etc. Keys". After this setting, my function keys are being recognized in Amazon WorkSpaces. Although it does not recognize F11 as it still shows desktop on Mac. You also lose firect access to App Controls.


My iPad2 won't charge and needs activation I have had similar activation question as others; my iPad2 says activation needed. My problem is I cannot charge my ipad to get to iTunes.  My cable is  fine, my port is fine, but it will not charge past 2% and will not stay on long enough for me to enter my password.  I have tried the hard reboot (hold power and home button down x 1 minute). Nothing.

If the stock charger isnt working on the iPad, schedule a repair with Apple to get the battery tested for diagnostics and possibly replaced. You may have to pay if out of warranty.

As for activation lock-

You will need to remember the password. If you forgot the password, go to http://appleid.apple.com and choose "Forgot Apple ID or password" option below the sign in. It'll take you to http://iforgot.apple.com and then just add your apple ID email address and the captcha code. Once you hit continue (if it asks for a verification code then you need to check your other devices and see if you can get the code from a device that is signed into the same apple id). If you are already signed into the other device with the same account. Go to settings on the device, then your name (or iCloud then your name) and look for password and security. Once you find that, select change password. If you try to do it through the website it may have you go through account recovery, which takes some time before they let you reset your password.

(If it doesnt ask for a verification code then you'll need to choose reset password and ask to either send to email or answer security questions to reset the password.)

If you cant get the password for that account via either method then you'll need to provide Apple with a proof of purchase. You can either check your email for a receipt or contact your carrier/location where you purchased it. Without the receipt AppleCare can't help you.

If you bought the iPad from someone else and they are logged in, then you need to contact them and have them sign in (or reset their password to sign in via the methods mentioned above.)


Any idea why the pkg process in OS X Yosemite (10.10.2) would replace the Markup.appex plug-in Preview? I saw these three console entries today:

2015-02-10 17:31:05.596 pkd[451]: UNINSTALLED:com.apple.Preview.Markup com.apple.Preview.Markup(1.0) 0E04B4EC-64DB-4C7F-B79B-AD11187C18FF /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/PlugIns/Markup.appex

2015-02-10 17:31:05.600 pkd[451]: INSTALLED:com.apple.Preview.Markup com.apple.Preview.Markup(1.0) <__NSConcreteUUID 0x7fb3b8f4d030> 5DD65E58-F722-4DF9-9850-6098D7ADC739 /Applications/Preview.app/Contents/PlugIns/Markup.appex

2015-02-10 17:31:05.653 pkd[451]: PLUGIN REMOVAL:com.apple.Preview.Markup RESULT:3

I do not know what triggered that uninstall/install process.

I have seen that Markup.appex Preview plug-in in other two OS X Yosemite systems, but not in a stock OS X Mavericks system. The plug-in appears to be legitimate, apparently providing some Mail functionality.

But why would the pkg process remove and reinstall it today, with no warning or explanation (in the form of an entry in “Updates installed in the last 30 days” list in the App Store app?

The App Store app doesn’t show that anything got updated today.

Even though the Extensions preferences pane in System Preferences refers to extesions as “third-party” software, Google doesn’t provide me the possible developer for the Markup.appex extension.

I doubt that (if the plug-in is an Apple product), Apple would update it silently, unless this is a security problem being plugged.

I appreciate any insight into this by someone who is familiar with the plug-in or knows how third-party extensions are updated.

Markup.appex is a new extension that was added in Yosemite. It delivers the Markup feature shown on Apple's Yosemite page:

  Mark up attachments right in Mail. It happens often. Someone sends you
  an attachment that requires quick feedback. It could be a form you
  need to fill out and sign or an image you need to comment on. Markup
  lets you respond quickly to these requests without opening the file in
  another app. Just click Reply and add your notations right in your
  response. Add shapes, text, and callouts to images by drawing on the
  Multi‑Touch trackpad. Fill out forms and PDFs, and add your signature
  by signing with your finger on the trackpad or capturing it with the
  camera on your Mac

Is it possible you installed the 10.10.2 update lately?


server & network setup ok - just bought a mac mini server but not sure about the best way to set it up for remote access etc.

At the moment its;
cable modem (has 4 ethernet ports) > airport extreme > lion server (& other machines)

should it be
cable modem eth1:airport extreme, cable modem eth2:lion server
(& other machines connected wirelessly to airport extreme)

what would be best? And which is the easiest to setup or manage?

Basically i want to setup the services so vnc://server.mydomain.com would open screen sharing for the server and not sure if i need to do this on the cable modem, Airport extreme etc.

Currently the modem has DMZ active and points to the airport extreme IP.

hope that's not too vague as this is a bit of a new area for me.

best, dan.

If you only want to host VNC on your Lion server I'd suggest opening the specific port for that service (TCP 5900) on your modem/router and forward it to your Lion server, as opposed to putting it on a DMZ which fully exposes the machine to the internet.

To be able to get to your server using a human readable address like - server.mydomain.com, you need to own a domain (mydomain.com) and then link your actual internet IP address (that your internet provider gives you) to that domain (e.g. server.mydomain.com). It's pretty much as simple as that if your internet IP address doesn't change (is static). If your IP address regularly changes, this kind of approach isn't really possible...

The easiest way to get a DNS (human readable) address is to use a service like DynDNS or No-IP. These constantly check what your IP address is and keep internet DNS records up to date with your current IP address. It requires that your modem/router is compatible with such a service, or that you run a piece of software on a machine (your Lion server maybe) that's inside your network.

So;

1) Forward port 5900 TCP to your Lion server (Port forwarding settings in your modem/router)

2) Set up DNS so that you don't have to remember your IP and so that if your IP changes, you can still connect back to it.

3) Enable screen sharing on the Lion server. Tell it which users you want to be able to connect. Set a password.

I'd recommend looking into using your Lion box as a VPN or SSH server so that you can do all these kinds of things over a single encrypted link. VNC isn't the safest of protocols!


File size per video minute on iPhone 6? What would be an average file size if recording 1 minute of video on the iPhone 6? Normal speed, no slow motion.

I checked now and it is 130 MB / minute.


How can I see traffic from shared Wifi (Macbook AirPort)? I want to see a log.  Something like: 192.168.0.23 www.example.url 13:34 19 april 2011

tcpdump is a command-line utility to see the traffic on any network interface.  It is full-featured, but can require some serious reading of the man page.

Wireshark is a full-featured application that will allow you to see all such traffic.  It provides a GUI (X-windows based) into which you can specify filters on traffic and collect statistics.  See more info and download it at wireshark.org.  I find knowledge of Wireshark to be very, very helpful with lots of network tasks.


In macOS Activity Monitor, why is "Applications in last 12 hours" grayed out / disabled? Any idea why the "Applications in last 12 hours" is disabled in the "Activity Monitor"?

At one point it appeared briefly -- but after days of using it, it has since disappeared.

Using macOS 10.15.2. Many thanks.

It's only available on the Energy tab.

I can just tell from your pic, you're on the Disk tab.


How to enable Time Machine to backup the data ON an SD Card? (NOT backup TO an SD card) Time Machine does not allow the inclusion of an SD Card in a backup.  It is automatically listed in the exclusion list and cannot be removed.

Is there any way to force Time Machine to 'see' the SD Card and back it up?

I use a 128gb SD Card as additional storage in my MacBook Air and would like to have the data on it automatically backed up to my Time Capsule.

Three things will need to come together for this to work:

The Filesystem on the SD card needs a .fseventsd hidden directory and the system to track all changes (which typically gets created automagically when you format the card as HFS+) I haven't seen anyone hack Time Machine to back up filesystems that don't register with Apple's file system events API.
Make a test backup once you've gotten the filesystem into one that Time Machine supports. You can then check if /Volumes/SD is included in the files for that backup by inspecting the preferences for that backup
If you need to manually include the system, you can add it by changing either the metadata flag that is causing the item to be skipped or by editing the system exclusion lists.

You will need to pick parts of these two questions and answers to find both the settings for a specific backup as well as where the various system exclusion rules are stored and configured.

On OS X, what files are excluded by rule from a Time Machine backup?
Where does Time Machine store its settings?

In short, it might be easier to use rsync or some other tool to copy the SD card contents to a drive that already is being backed up, but as long as you have total control over the drive and the system, you should be able to bend it to your will and get the SD card to be seen and backed up every time it's present and a backup happens.


Retrieving the "Version" attribute of an OSX Application file via Bash I was initially attempting to do this in Java using the UserDefinedFileAttributeView class but it turns out that is only available on Windows computers (This is being run on OSX)

So I switched gears with the hope that retrieving the information via a script would be the simpler route but it seems to not be as straight forward as I expected.

How would one go about retrieving an Application file's version number (file attribute) using Bash?

I've already looked into stat but that only returns the basic file information.
I also looked into xattr but I couldn't get that to return the "Version" attribute.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

You can use defaults to fetch specific keys:

VERSION=$(defaults read /Applications/AppName.app/Contents/Info.plist CFBundleShortVersionString)
echo $VERSION


How should I set up the firewall and DHCP with an AirPort Extreme and Lion Server? I'm trying to set up a network using an AirPort Extreme as a router (connected to the WAN on one end and the LAN on the other). I understand that out of the box I will have a hardware firewall, and the ability to set up DHCP, but am unclear on what the best way to add the capabilities of Lion Server, or if there's even any advantage to doing so.

Specifically,

(1) I'd like to use Lion Server, rather than the AirPort Extreme for DHCP, mostly because the UI is much easier to use and provides finer control.

(2) I wonder if there's any reason to use Lion Server as the firewall, instead of or in addition to AirPort Extreme (or if that even makes sense).

Is there a best practice on how to set this up? Any suggestions on how to proceed would be appreciated.

To use the Lion server for DHCP, you need to simply turn off DHCP service on the AirPort Extreme and turn it on in Lion.

To use the Lion box as a firewall it will need to have two network ports - one for LAN and one for WAN. (Unless you want your LAN side to be provided wirelessly (which I don't recommend)).

I'm a big fan of OSX server and use it at home myself... so here are some other neat things you could do with a Lion server...

Set up your Lion server to provide DNS names and a domain. When using the Lion server to provide IP addresses (DHCP), you can also allow it to provide other info to the clients, like who's providing DNS. So rather than having to use IPs to refer to your machines, you can give them DNS names. This means you don't have to set up static IPs for each device and you don't have to remember IPs! DNS and domain name examples: macbook.mynetwork.net, airport.mynetwork.net, etc. (mynetwork.net being your domain)

Set up RADIUS authentication with WPA2 Enterprise for your wireless connection. You "pair" the AirPort Extreme with the Lion server. This means that people who want to use your WiFi have to log in with a user and password. The user authentication is handled by the Lion server - set up your users in the server's directory.

Set up your Lion server to provide software updates to your Macs This means that your server downloads all the updates from Apple and can then serve them to Macs on your network. Saving bandwidth and time (it's alot faster!) You'll need to either manually point the client Macs to the server for their updates or "bind" the Macs to the server in order to change the appropriate settings for this (which is a big topic best discussed elsewhere).

Have fun.


How to turn off keyboard lights on MacBook? All of sudden my keyboard on my MacBook Pro 2015 has started glowing. I don't know which key I turned on. Is there way to turn it off?

F5 decreases keyboard brightness, F6 increases it.

For more information see the Apple KB article Adjust the brightness of your backlit keyboard. If you don't like that the illumination automatically adapts, you can turn it off in System Preferences → Keyboard → Adjust keyboard brightness in low light.


What can I do to fix my Macbook Air 2011—it is no longer letting me highlight, or click on things All of a sudden, my Macbook Air is no longer letting me highlight or click on things. The keyboard itself is working great, and my computer hasn't slowed down. Any suggestions?

If the trackpad is not physically broken, it is most likely that the batteries have started to swell (as they usually do in older computers). You should probably go to the nearest Apple Store and have your computer looked at. If it is not taken care of, the batteries will expand enough to damage the case of the computer (see below) and possibly become an explosion hazard.


Rename file names in directory to creation timestamp with second precision Is there an easy way to do this for files in a particular directory - to have their names be renamed to the file timestamp, with seconds level precision

Clarification:

For example, suppose a (Mac 10.14.15) directory has the following files, where the notation below shows original file name and file creation time. (But, to be clear, we are working from the Mac file directory, and not from the luxury of just parsing thru a text file.) The filenames are uuid 36 character names:

35eafb32-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png 09:35:01
419f0eb4-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png 09:35:11
43249984-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png 21:02:03

Suppose I want to rename the files based on (original creation) timestamp, but the filename of course has to be in an acceptable format:

prepend-09_35_01.png
prepend-09_35_11.png
prepend-21_02_03.png

(In the actual case, the directory has 2000+ files. If it matters, they are transported from an iPhone X app I made - through iTunes file sharing. The file creation date and time shows up correctly on Mac when transferred.)

If all the files are in the same directory, then in Terminal, changed directory, e.g. cd /path/to/directory and then use the following compound command:

for f in *.*; do echo mv -n "$f" "${f%.*}-$(stat -f'%SB' -t "%H_%M_%S" "$f").${f##*.}"; done

Note: There is an intensional echo command that is there for you to test with, and it will only print out the mv command for you to see that it's the outcome you wish. You can then run it again removing just echo from the compound command to actually rename the files as desired via the mv command.

Example:

$ touch 35eafb32-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png 419f0eb4-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png 43249984-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png
$
$ ls -1
35eafb32-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png
419f0eb4-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png
43249984-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png
$
$ for f in *.*; do echo mv -n "$f" "${f%.*}-$(stat -f'%SB' -t "%H_%M_%S" "$f").${f##*.}"; done
mv -n 35eafb32-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png 35eafb32-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64-19_56_35.png
mv -n 419f0eb4-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png 419f0eb4-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64-19_56_35.png
mv -n 43249984-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64.png 43249984-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64-19_56_35.png
$
$ for f in *.*; do mv -n "$f" "${f%.*}-$(stat -f'%SB' -t "%H_%M_%S" "$f").${f##*.}"; done
$
$ ls -1
35eafb32-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64-19_56_35.png
419f0eb4-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64-19_56_35.png
43249984-8005-11e9-bc42-526af7764f64-19_56_35.png
$

Understanding the bash compound command:

for f in *.*; do ...; done    For every file in the current dir do the following command(s) to them.
echo    Print what follows. (Must be removed for the mv command to actually work.)
mv -n source target    Move files, do not overwrite an existing file, filename, new filename.

"$f"    The source filename.
"${f%.*}-$(stat -f'%SB' -t "%H_%M_%S" "$f").${f##*.}"    The target filename.
${f%.*}    Name portion of the filename without the extension. See Parameter Expansion in the bash man page.
-    The HYPHEN-MINUS character.
$(...)    Command Substitution, allows the output of a command to replace the command name.
stat -f'%SB' -t "%H_%M_%S" "$f"
stat    Display file status. See its man page for more details.
-f'%SB'    −f format    Display information using the specified format. See the FORMATS section for a description of valid formats. In this case %SB represents string output of the birth time of the inode. (The time the file was created.)
-t "%H_%M_%S"    −t timefmt    Display timestamps using the specified format. This format is passed directly to strftime(3). In this case it represents the hour, a LOW LINE character (AKA underscore), the minute, a LOW LINE character, the second.
%H    Is replaced by the hour as a decimal number (00-23).
%M    Is replaced by the minute as a decimal number (00-59).
%S    Is replaced by the second as a decimal number (00-60).
"$f"    The source filename.
.    The FULL STOP character. (AKA dot or period.)
${f##*.}    The extension portion of the filename. See Parameter Expansion in the bash man page.

Note that the upper case character names are that which show in Character Viewer on a US English install of macOS.


How to block downloads from app store? I want to block the iPhone users connected to my home network from downloading apps from the apple app store.I used a similar method to block the auto apple updates but I don't know the server responsible for downloading apps.Does anyone know the Domain address?

I finally found out the domain name to block in order to stop installing apps from the app store using tcpdump. The domain name is “aaplimg.com”.Use this address to configure your OpenDNS account.

I tried this method and it is working great.


Icons in Finder, Safari, Mail, and Dock are not visible I booted my MacBook Pro a few days ago and some of the icons on my dock were not visible. I noticed that there were icons missing in Safari, Finder and Mail. I attach a screen-shot to make my issue more clear.

Try Safe Booting once. It causes all caches(including icon caches) to be rebuilt.

Steps for Safe Boot here

Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
After your Mac shuts down, wait 10 seconds, then press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold down the Shift key.
You should press the Shift key as soon as possible after you hear the startup tone, but not before.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and progress indicator.
To leave safe mode, restart your Mac again, but don’t hold down any keys during startup.


iPad 2 , iPod FaceTime I just bought an iPad 2. My daughter has an iPod. We set up her iPod for FaceTime. How can I set up FaceTime on my iPad using a different email address. I don't want both devices to ring. Is this possible.

Create an Apple ID for yourself and use that for FaceTime on your iPad. It works best if you have a separate Apple ID for yourself in other ways as well.


Install Mac OS X Tiger alongside Mac OS X Snow Leopard? I have recently installed a 1TB hardrive on my Mid-2010 MacBook Pro. I understand that it is possible to install Windows 7 through BootCamp (by partitioning the hardrive) on Snow Leopard but is it possible to install OS X Tiger as well?

I have an install disk for OS X Tiger from (MID -I am assuming) 2005 but I am unsure as to how I would accomplish this. Would this be possible by any means? (legally and within the bounds of Apple's EULA of course)

My current OS is OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

Lion 10.7 was the first consumer Mac OS to be licensed for virtualisation [OS X Server 10.5 was actually the very first]

No Mac can boot natively on an OS from before it was manufactured, as the drivers to support that hardware weren't yet invented.

There is a distant chance you may be able to get Parallels [list is for current version, not compatible with Snow Leo anyway] to virtualise Tiger [even though it is against the EULA], but I would be doubtful.
VirtualBox supports Leo & Snow Leo Server, not Tiger.

It might be simpler, if not cheaper, to get an old Mac that would run Tiger natively.


Are iPhone apps required to work on iOS 5 if it works on iOS 6? My app currently doesn't work on iOS 5, but it does for iOS 6.

Will it still be accepted to the app store?

Apple's App Store requirements are very vague.  Here is a good resource for learning how to get your app rejected from the App Store.

In short, it says nothing about backwards compatibility.


iphone not recognized by USB (and itunes) by macbook pro From following the steps in the official apple support page, it seems my computer is not able to recognize my iphone.

Other similar questions show an "unknown device" of some sort, which in my case isn't there. The phone is charging, so it's somehow connected and the USB port works with my mouse for example.

I've tried what's mentioned here but it didn't work.
Latest itunes version: 12.4.0.119
Latest IOS version: 9.3.2

EDIT
After connecting an ipad, the connection worked via itunes.

I recommend selling MAC products. This was my "solution". Never had any more issues.


Turn on MacBook Air without keyboard How can I turn on my MacBook Air model A1370 mid 2011 without a keyboard? I need to find the power on pads for the Mac:

I found this for you (follow the red arrow)

and this information

or this video


Open application several times in OS X I am developing OS X version of multi-platform application. In Windows I can start several instances of application by just opening exe file several times.

I noticed that in OS X when I open my app it appears on panel, and when I start it for the second time - nothing happens.

Can I configure my app (edit .app folder) so it can start several instances of same app? I mean without reconfiguring my Mac, so I can deliver configured app to users. Is it possible?

You may open a second instance of an application by entering in Terminal.app:

open -n /Path/To/Application.app

Some apps (e.g. iTunes.app) don't open an additional instance.


How to rename a USB stick using disk number (via terminal and using diskutil)? I'm creating a bash script that will rename the USB stick using a diskutil command. From what I've read in the man and various examples, I need to supply the volume name.

In my situation, the volume name varies so I'm hoping to use disk number (via diskutil list) instead.

Any ideas on how this can be done?

When you insert a USB drive it automatically gets mounted.  You can see the name of the device using the mount command:

$ mount
/dev/disk2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
/dev/disk7s1 on /Volumes/USB-NAME (msdos, local, nodev, nosuid, noowners)

Making the simplifying assumption that you only have one usb drive mounted at a time and it is always formatted with windows, you can then rename the drive like this:

$ diskutil rename $(mount | sed -n '/Volumes.*msdos/{ s/ .*//;p;}') NEW-NAME
Volume on disk7s1 renamed to NEW-NAME

now when you look at the mount output, the name is changed:

$ mount | grep '/Volumes.*msdos'
/dev/disk7s1 on /Volumes/NEW-NAME (msdos, local, nodev, nosuid, noowners)

You may need to adjust the search parameters based on different assumptions, but this is the general idea.


Print at smaller scale I recently received a PDF document consisting of 2 landscape A4 documents, which I would like to print as 1 portrait A4 (or 2 A5). I'm missing the control panel to print at 50% with matching layout. How can I do this on OS X?

You can reduce size and fit to patch size with Preview (which is the default application for PDFs). In the print dialog, select paper size and adjustments as required:


Mac Pro won't start from DVD, crashes while trying I have a Mac Pro 10.6.8 which will not start.

I wanted to re-install my Mac Pro (Intel dual core 2.66) which is currently running Mac OS X 10.6.8.

I inserted the retail Mac OS X 10.6 install disc, and held down the C key on my keyboard to boot the machine.
The disc can be heard spinning up, and the grey Apple logo appears. However, the Mac Pro crashes on start up from DVD, what can I do?

Assuming your disc is clean and damage free it looks like your optical drive may be at fault. If your disc does have any obvious defects (check for scratches etc. on the label side, these can cause totally unrecoverable data loss) you know where the fault lies. Has the drive had any sort of regular use or is it a while since you used it?

If you have access to another Mac you will be able to copy the 10.6 DVD onto an 8GB USB stick using Disk Utility's Restore function, which will then boot the Mac - if the optical drive is at fault.


How to sync videos between a PC and an iPad? I have edited a video on my computer and I want to upload it to my Ipad. The problem is that the video does not end up on my photos/videos library, hence I cannot reuse it in an ipad application or upload it e.g. on youtube. I can transfer it through the file sharing option of iTunes to iMovie and other apps, but it is still useless as the filesharing enabled apps are limited. Is there any "native" way to upload a video and access it from any iPad application?
PS: My desktop is windows, but I wonder how this can be done through itunes.

Use iCloud Drive for windows on the PC and sign in with the same account on iPad. Then save the exported video to the iCloud Drive. It will sync on all devices that have iCloud Drive enabled.
Cross platform apps like OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox etc can help too.
Also install Files app  on iPad for easy navigation.


Scanning a ton of pictures I'm rather disappointed that iPhoto has no direct ability to import from a scanner. I'm reduced to scanning in Preview, which has a less awful UI for scanning than the program that came with my HP scanner, and dragging the resulting files into iPhoto.

Is there some better scheme that I've missed?

Send the photos to a scanning service, especially if you have "tons".


What should I do if Bootcamp keeps saying my disk cannot be partitioned? I am at my wit’s end here.
I’m trying to install Windows on my macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7, but BootCamp keeps saying “The disk could not be partitioned” even though I have more than enough space (400GB available for it.) I tried doing something with /sbin/fsck -y but then my computer says “error: container /dev/rdisk1 is mounted with write access”. I’ve been trying for more than a week now and I still haven’t figured anything out. We even formatted our computer just to see if it could help with the process, but it was still the same as it was before it was formatted. I have already run First Aid, but I still get my problem. Time Machine is already off.
If there is anyone willing to help me or contact me to help with this problem, please let me know because I am so close to contacting Apple Support even though I don’t live in the US. I tried using my braincells to do this, that didn’t work, I tried combining my braincells with my father’s for this, still didn’t work, so I’m really looking for any possible solutions here.
Thanks so much in advance to those who can help me and make suggestions. Cheers.

You may have some space taken up by local Time Machine snapshots. Run tmutil listlocalsnapshots / to see if you have any, and if you do, remove them with
for d in $(tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates | grep "-"); do sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $d; done.


VDCAssistant seems to be causing perpetual crash reports As stated above VDCAssistant seems to be causing perpetual crash reports to the point that the ReportCrash system process will use 50-100% of cpu.

Application Specific Information:
Client is attempting to access a display by index (1) instead of display ID.
abort() called

These crash reports also seem to disappear and reappear. (i.e. the number of crash reports in Console.app never grows but are constantly being generated). The process cannot be force quit.

I have no idea whats causing this as I don't use iSight camera and nothing else is connected to laptop (macbook pro 4,1 osx10.9.2)

Logging out does not cure it, but a restart will.

Apple has changed something that interferes with some applications/drivers using the webcam, mirroring the screen (Airplay and Airplay-like) and providing USB graphic cards.

Uninstalling those (make sure to use Google to find what kernel extension they installed), make sure the system rebuilds the kext cache by running

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

and restarting solves the problem for most people posting to that list.

List of applications I found that might cause the problem, mostly out of a lengthy thread in the Apple support forum:

Air Display
AirParrot
AirServer
DisplayLink Driver
iDisplay
Parallels
Splashtop virtual display driver
ScreenRecycler
VMWare

Not all of this must be affected, and some are actually debated in the thread (like Parallels and VMWare). They might just do the touch mentioned above which some users probably didn't do.

Sadly this all didn't help me, so I decided to give up the camera until Apple fixed this and disabled the VDCAssistant (must be repeated after each boot, when the problem still occurs, and whenever something wanted to access the webcam). Has the advantage over deleting/renaming that you don't have to remind yourself undoing that if it finally is fixed; but you realize very well if the problem still persists after a reboot...

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.cmio.VDCAssistant.plist


iOS: Is there a limit in the number of applications I can leave "running background" in the bar? I know applications don't actually run in background but I was wondering how many applications I can leave open. Has anybody tried? Is there a limit? What is it? If you reach a limit, it starts closing applications by itself to make room for new ones?

Fraser Spiers recently did an excellent article and follow-up video on this question on his blog.

In short, to paraphrase: you don't "leave apps open". By pressing the Home button, you signal them to enter the Background state, from where, depending on how they're written, they are either immediately moved to the Suspended (not-running) state, or are Suspended after completing a certain amount of background processing (such as completing a download).

As Fraser explains, there is no need to manage the number of apps in the 'multitasking tray' except in the case where a specific app stops working and needs to be forcibly restarted.

Indeed, that tray is merely a "recently running" list; there's no way to know at a glance which of those apps have been Suspended and which have not.


Preview disables clickable links in PDF files When a Mac Preview user sees a link in the PDF and tries to click it nothing happens, although the mouse cursor changes indicating that the link is clickable.

Users using other applications than Mac Preview such as Acrobat have no problems.

Does Apple Preview disable clickable links in PDF in general or is it PDF dependent?

The problem was in the encoding of the URL. Apparently Preview is more picky about that compared to other pdf viewers such as Adobe.
Also, it turns out to work better if we put the image inside the link
<a ...>
  <img ...>xx</img>
</a>


Mac OS: 7.5.3 Command-Turn On I'm not a mac user anymore. But I used to be one when I was a kid.
My father had a Macintosh Performa 6200 running MacOS 7.5.3.

On said MacOS you could press command + the turn on key on the keyboard, and a white rectangle with a textcursor would appear.

Does anyone know what type of commands (and in what language) this box expected?

I googled around and found no mention of this textbox. Until this day I have not the slightest idea what that thing was.

That was the Debugger window that was built into the Mac's ROM. I never learned what language worked in it.


Could my iPhone be installing malware on factory reset? Hi I have an iPhone 7s and have been doing the factory reset, erase all content, data, and settings option. Every time I do this I get three loading bars, not the normal two like my other phone. The first loading bar is normal and under the apple logo. The second loading bar however happens after the first loading bar finishes, then the apple logo is the only thing on screen, then the spinning circles occurs, then a mini loading bar appears with nothing else on the screen. After the mini loading bar is done the final loading bar with the apple icon above finishes and the phone boots to the hello start page to put my information back in.

Is this normal and if it isnt what happened. I have never jail broken my device but I did find a video that showcases the mini loading bar, albeit it looks like he has two loading bars, not three. Time stamp is 3:20 to see mini loading bar.

What should I do?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kHSIe8aze78

Yes, it is completely normal to see loading bars / progress while the phone reboots after a "factory reset". It is not a sign of malware being installed.

Perhaps your suspicion is because your phone is managed - i.e. owned and controlled by your employer, school, or similar?


OS X 10.9.3 has two visible cursors Basicaly my problem is, that when i mouse over some text, the default "text-selection" cursor appears. But the mouse pointer (arrow) is still present and i can see two cursors.

What could be causing this? It seems to happen when i "lock" my mac with the login window and then logging in.

Help?

I'm using OSX 10.9.3 on a late 2013 13" macbook pro with retina display and two atached monitors (one on a thunderbolt->DVI connection and another connected via the HDMI out)

It just happened to me on 10.9.5 for the first time; don't know what caused it but unplugging the external monitor and then plugging it back again helped.


Can I use multiple displays on a MacBook Pro using a TV connected by Thunderbolt/HDMI? With a MacBook Pro, can I  watch a film on the TV connected externally to HDMI while browsing the web on the MacBook screen?

Yes - you can control what plays on multiple displays by dragging windows across the combined desktop or using Mission Control to direct a video player to the external connection while keeping your other windows on the internal display.


Understanding keychain I am having a hard time understanding how does Keychain works, whats the default setting for it as long as i dont touch anything? and what if I don't remember my first password?
Can someone explain me?

Thanks

Your default keychain that holds the login info/wifi passwords, etc is called login. If you forget the password, you can reset it from Keychain preferences. It is usually the password of the account when you first created it. Refer to Apple's support documentation for more information:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201609


Cannot merge partitions of external hard drive I have a 2TB Toshiba hard drive that somehow ended up like this:

diskutil list
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 EXTDISK                 43.5 MB    disk2s1
   2:               Windows_NTFS extdisk                 1.8 GB     disk2s2

with those two partitions of 43 MB and 1.8GB. I want to delete and merge into NTFS both of them. When I delete both, using disk utility, it does not merge them. How can I do that?

You can not NTFS format from macOS. You may have been using the ExFAT format.

Below are some possible commands to create a single formatted partition.

For MS-DOS FAT32 format use:

diskutil  partitiondisk  disk2  1  mbr  FAT32  EXTDISK  R

For ExFAT format use:

diskutil  partitiondisk  disk2  1  mbr  ExFAT  EXTDISK  R

For Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

diskutil  partitiondisk  disk2  1  mbr  JHFS+  EXTDISK  R

For example, if you want the ExFAT format, the below is the output you should see by entering the appropriate commands. Of course, your 2 TB drive will probably be sightly different in size from mine.

Davids-iMac:~ davidanderson$ diskutil list disk2
/dev/disk2 (external, physical:
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        +2.0 TB     disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 EXTDISK                 43.5 MB    disk2s1
   2:               Windows_NTFS extdisk                 1.8 GB     disk2s2
Davids-iMac:~ davidanderson$ diskutil partitiondisk disk2 1 mbr ExFAT ExtDisk R
Started partitioning on disk2
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for partitions to activate
Formatting disk2s1 as ExFAT with name ExtDisk
Volume name      : ExtDisk
Partition offset : 2 sectors (1024 bytes)
Volume size      : 3906250061 sectors (2000000031232 bytes)
Bytes per sector : 512
Bytes per cluster: 131072
FAT offset       : 2048 sectors (1048576 bytes)
# FAT sectors    : 120832
Number of FATs   : 1
Cluster offset   : 122880 sectors (62914560 bytes)
# Clusters       : 15258309
Volume Serial #  : 5a7b6783
Bitmap start     : 2
Bitmap file size : 1907289
Upcase start     : 17
Upcase file size : 5836
Root start       : 18
Mounting disk
Finished partitioning on disk2
/dev/disk2 (external, physical:
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        +2.0 TB     disk2
   1:               Windows_NTFS ExtDisk                 2.0 TB     disk2s1
Davids-iMac:~ davidanderson$


Not allowing apps to download I want to permanently delete twitter and facebook off of my iphone6s because they are a constant distractions.

is there a way to delete a given app and then not allow it to be re-downloaded at a later date?

This won't do exactly what you want, but you can make it harder to reinstall them using Restrictions.

First of all delete the apps
Go to Settings > General
Tap on Restrictions
Enter a restrictions passcode
Toggle the Installing Apps option to disable it
Exit Settings

This will remove the App Store from your Home Screen and means you won't be able to install anything else without having to go through the above steps again and toggling Installing Apps back on at step 5.

It's a major nuisance, but maybe you can use this restriction for long enough to break your habit and then remove the restriction later! I've read that in many cases 21 days is long enough, although everyone is different.


What command(s) are ran when you right click on a text and click "open man page" in Terminal? I know it obviously does man, to show the request manual page. However, I wonder what it pipes the output to, because it shows the entire thing at once, but it starts from the beginning. I would love to be able to use that with any command in Terminal, the problem is that less doesn't show everything at once, and cat scrolls all the way down.

I tried looking around in Preferences, but I was not able to find anything.

Looks like

open x-man-page://$1

where you replace the $1 with whatever you would pass to man.
This I learned from here - although I can't find any decent documentation for this.


Directory /cores in Mountain Lion Is the directory /cores in OSX Mountain Lion important? It's empty on my machine and has been for some time, so I was considering deleting it, but I'd like to not mess anything up.

I suggest not deleting any Unix folders on the drive if you not wish to reinstall the OS. It might be that any function trying to access it will create it if not there but might also end in problems and errors.


Device name in Mac Terminal is a random person's iPhone? I was in terminal today and noticed this:

Jeremys-Iphone: I have no idea who Jeremy is or have a friend named Jeremy.

Do you know what this means, and how this might have happened?

Thanks!

Check your $PS environment variable for setting prompt:

echo $PS1

It might be

"\h:\W \u$ "

If so, your computer name is changed and you can edit it. If not, change it to that form by editing ~/.bash_profile

Also check that you are really on your Mac and not on an iPhone by this command:

uname -m

It should be x86_64 and not iPhone...


Parental Controls flooded system.log with errors I was digging around for fun, and found that my system.log was flooded with errors. Here is the output of sudo cat system.log | tail -8:

Mar 19 15:33:06 THE-COMPUTER parentalcontrolsd[113]: -[ActivityTracker appDidLaunchOrBecomeFront:launched:] [1844:ezra] -- Got an error when saving MOC: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 UserInfo=0x34dd00 "The file “events.data” couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format."
Mar 19 15:33:57 THE-COMPUTER parentalcontrolsd[113]: -[ActivityTracker appDidLaunchOrBecomeFront:launched:] [1844:ezra] -- Got an error when saving MOC: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 UserInfo=0x12a6d0 "The file “events.data” couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format."
Mar 19 15:34:02 THE-COMPUTER parentalcontrolsd[113]: -[ActivityTracker appDidLaunchOrBecomeFront:launched:] [1844:ezra] -- Got an error when saving MOC: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 UserInfo=0x129b50 "The file “events.data” couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format."
Mar 19 15:34:17 THE-COMPUTER Safari[155]: __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
Mar 19 15:34:29 THE-COMPUTER parentalcontrolsd[113]: -[ActivityTracker saveData] [411:ezra] -- Got an error when saving MOC: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 UserInfo=0x3451c0 "The file “events.data” couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format."
Mar 19 15:34:37 THE-COMPUTER parentalcontrolsd[113]: -[ActivityTracker appDidLaunchOrBecomeFront:launched:] [1844:ezra] -- Got an error when saving MOC: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 UserInfo=0x3535d0 "The file “events.data” couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format."
Mar 19 15:34:42 THE-COMPUTER parentalcontrolsd[113]: -[ActivityTracker appDidLaunchOrBecomeFront:launched:] [1844:ezra] -- Got an error when saving MOC: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 UserInfo=0x12bbb0 "The file “events.data” couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format."
Mar 19 15:35:56 THE-COMPUTER parentalcontrolsd[113]: -[ActivityTracker appDidLaunchOrBecomeFront:launched:] [1844:ezra] -- Got an error when saving MOC: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 UserInfo=0x34aee0 "The file “events.data” couldn’t be opened because it isn’t in the correct format."

These seem to be messages from Parental Controls, but what do they mean? Also, they are going on all the time. Could anyone shed some light??

I had to remove the account with Parental Controls and stop using that feature. It became a CPU melter in my case. You may also want to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.8.


Boot Into Recovery Partition After Installing Linux I want to install Linux on my mid 2014 Macbook Pro for educational purposes. However, I don't want this to be permanent. I've tried to partition the hard drive and install both OSs but I have not been successful and I would like to avoid using a virtual machine.

If I install linux onto the main partition that currently contains mac OS X and leave the recovery partition, will it be possible for me reinstall OS X from the recovery partition when I'm done with linux? I don't fully understand the process and therefore I am concerned that installing linux will install a new boot loader or something other software in the booting process that will prevent me from booting into the recovery partition.

Can I still boot into the recovery partition after install linux on a mac?

Short answer:
It will be possible.

More elaborate answer:
If you leave the Recovery HD intact, you can still boot from it later on as the boot process Linux uses (usually GRUB these days) will not touch the ability to use the Alt key to boot from any attached bootable partition.

So, pressing Alt at computer startup will then present you with two options:

Windows (even though Linux is installed; some distributions may show their name though)
Recovery HD-<version> (<version> is the version of OS X at the time you installed OS X, which created the Recovery partition)

Additional:
You have a MacBook Pro (Mid 2014).  So, you can always reinstall the original version of OS X (which may be either OS X 10.9 Mavericks or OS X 10.10 Yosemite), which came with your computer as you can use the Internet Recovery even if your internal Recovery HD is gone entirely.

To start the recovery process, hold down Cmd+R at computer startup.  If a Recovery HD is found, it will be used.  Otherwise, the Internet Recovery is used.  To specifically force the Internet Recovery, hold down Cmd+Alt+R at computer startup until you see a spinning (or blinking) globe.

More information can be obtained here: OS X: About OS X Recovery