iPad USB-C Internet Connection: Tethering to Macbook I have an iPad Pro (2018 3rd Gen) with a USB-C Port and a 2018 Macbook Pro with a USB-C Port. Can I tether the iPad to my Macbook's Internet connection using a USB-C cable?

Yes, you can use a USB-C cable to share Macbook's Internet connection with the iPad just like the USB to lightning cable does on iPhones and older iPads.

Benefits:

The USB-C cable powers the iPad directly from the Macbook reducing the number of mains sockets you need to just one.
WiFi & Bluetooth can be completely turned off on the iPad.
Traffic is proxied to the iPad via the Macbook (which has a firewall in front of it).

Negatives:

Airdrop and Sidecar will not work with your wireless interfaces down.

Parts Required:

Standard USB-C charging cable that came with your iPad will work
Or this short (and tidy) Anker USB-C cable I've found works well

Internet Connection:

You Macbook should have a non-802.1x Internet connection to share, ie: straight WiFi.  If your WiFi connection is secured using EAP-TLS (with certificates) or other 802.1X security to stop this sort of thing, the USB-C Internet connection sharing won't work.

Configuration:

On Macbook Pro: "System Preferences" > "Sharing" > "Internet Sharing" and tick "iPad USB" as below:

Connect the USB-C cable between them and you're done.

It's a tidy, secure solution.


Internal SSD not found when installing macOS I just upgraded my Mac Mini Late 2012 to an SSD. Now, I wanted to boot from my bootable USB and then install macOS to my SSD but it does not find the SSD when I want to select it. The SSD is from here.

This is the screen I'm stuck on:

Also, I rebooted the Mac and held the alt key pressed but there was only the OS X Base System (which appears to be the USB Stick, since when I removed it and rebooted it did not find anything) selectable option.

So I opened the DiskUtility program and I see the SSD. Is there a way to use it?

And yes, I am sure that I connected everything properly.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

You have to make sure the SSD is in the correct format. Go to Disk Utility, and in the Erase tab, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format and erase the SSD, and then the bootable drive should acknowledge the SSD as a disk on which OS X can be installed. Good luck!


FaceTime on macOS cannot connect to camera, but all other apps can MBP 13" 2017, macOS 10.15.7, FaceTime 5.0
After about 10 seconds of trying it pops up the message below:

Restarting my computer does fix the problem.   However, even without restarting my computer, other apps are all able to use the camera.   Photobooth, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom all attach to the camera and use it.  They all do so simultaneously.   But without a reboot FaceTime cannot, even if I quit all those other apps.  The problem recurs from time to time, with weeks in between sometimes.
I have an external USB camera, and the laptop lid is closed.  In the camera menu for FaceTime AND other apps, the internal camera is greyed out, and only the USB one is available, and selected.
[ Edit ]
In response to comment from @IconDaemon here is the state of Facetime's camera menu when this error occurs.  USB Camera is selected and active.
Built in camera is grey (because lid is closed).  This is AFTER a reboot.  Again, Facetime cannot access camera but ALL OTHER APPs can.  Photobooth, Zoom, Teams, Camtasia ... they all work perfectly.

People upgrading to iOS 13.4 or macOS Catalina 10.15.4 have found that their devices can no longer connect to older iOS devices running iOS 9.3.6 or earlier or Macs running OS X El Capitan or earlier. Some say the problem also occurs when trying to call people using versions of iOS 10. And others have found this problem when using a Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15.4 for older versions of iOS and OS X versions.
With this problem, Facetime gets stuck in a "connection" for both incoming and outgoing calls.
To fix these issues, upgrade to iOS and iPadOS 13.4.1 or higher. For Macs running macOS Catalina, update macOS to the latest version of macOS (Apple has released an additional update for macOS Catalina 10.15.4.)
Apple says the problem has been fixed in these versions and above.


Why are Mac requirements for games so much higher than Windows? This just blew my mind. Take for example Medieval II: Total war.

Requirement for windows: 512 Mb RAM + 11 Gb free space on hard disk + 128 Mb GPU

Requirement for mac: 4 Gb RAM + 32 Gb of free space on hard disk + 256 / 512 MB GPU

How come the requirements are so much higher? In particular the size of the games, it's more than double the Windows version! What is going on?

The problem is you are looking at a game, Medieval II: Total War, that was released for Windows in November 2006 (last patch released in 2007 as far as I can tell) and for OS X in January 2016. The Windows version runs on 2000/XP (Windows 2000 was originally released in 1999), whereas the minimum for Mac is OS X 10.10.5, which came out a bit under two years ago. In other words, the game was ported to Mac very recently and therefore requires a modern computer to run it. I am not sure why the disk storage requirement is so much higher; I suspect it's either a typo or the assets in the Mac version have been significantly enhanced.

If you compare Total War: Rome 2, another game in the same series but one that was only released a year apart on the two OSes, you will see system requirements that are much more similar. In fact, the Mac version actually requires less hard drive space. It does require more RAM, but I would guess that's more to do with the underlying OS than anything else.

I looked at some of the games in my Steam library to further confirm that system requirements are not inherently higher for games on Mac. SOMA actually has identical requirements for the two OSes. Marvel Heroes 2016 is very similar for both. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition has slightly higher requirements for Mac than Windows, especially in RAM, but again it runs on much older Windows OSes (XP) than OS X (10.8 minimum). Team Fortress 2 has nearly identical requirements.

Ultimately it comes down to several things: release time frame (again, comparing a game that came out in 2006 with a port that came out in 2016 is not going to yield similar results); the skill set of the developers involved (a studio who may not be as familiar with Mac may not be able to optimize a game as well as one who is, e.g. Aspyr); whether the game is wrapped in an emulation layer (such as Cider or Wine, which some large publishers do as an alternative to having a company like Aspyr port the game to a native Mac version); and ultimately, how much the publisher cares about the quality of the game and spends time (and of course money) optimizing the game for the target platform.


Running a Win XP scanner driver on CrossOver I have a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard.

I own a scanner that was discontinued a couple of years ago (a Mustek A3 USB), and that comes only with drivers for Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS 9.

I am using CodeWeavers' CrossOver and was wondering whether it is possible to install a scanner driver in a CrossOver flask, and utilize a Windows program to scan images with it? I'm not quite sure what aspects of Windows CrossOver emulates (it's not a full Windows kernel after all), and whether scanner support is possible.

I am aware of the "normal" way to do this - using VirtualBox to set up a virtual machine with Windows XP in it. This is the way I will go if all else fails; using CrossOver would just be so much more convenient than setting up a full Windows machine....

The scanner is old, but high-quality and huge (A3 Format), so buying a new one isn't really an option.

CrossOver doesn't emulate or simulate hardware - it just translates a subset of the Windows API - just enough to fool normal apps. You'll want something like VirtualBox, Parallels or VMWare Fusion to scan directly into Windows.

Since VirtualBox is free, start there and then spend money on a commercial solution if or when your time becomes more scarce than your budget.


How to make Safari use the List view not the Column view When I use Safari File-->Open File, it uses the Column view.How can I get Safari to use the List view instead?

Welcome to Ask Different!
On macOS Big Sur, click the button shown on the screenshot and pick another view.

These are the options shown to me:

Ícones = Icons
Lista = List
Colunas = Columns

Edit: alternatively, when you have the window open, you can use the same shortcuts that are also available on Finder: [command] + [1], [command] + [2], [command] + [3] to pick the respective options, as Tetsujin mentioned.


Meaning of "guest" in file sharing One of the options in file sharing is whether to include "guest users."  Does this mean the "guest account" on another Mac, or does it have some other meaning?

‘Allow guest users’ refers to connecting to the server without any authentication as a Guest, in comparison to using the Registered User option which requires a username and password.

If you choose to not allow guest users, it's not possible to connect using the Guest option in Finder, or otherwise not providing credentials when using another tool.

This is not related to the Guest account in macOS, but there is an option in Users & Groups to enable/disable guest access to shared folders here:


What was the first version of macOS to ship with the Vim text editor? Since macOS (originally Mac OS X) is a variant of UNIX, and has been POSIX-certified for a while, I assume it’s always had the vi text editor available. In recent versions, it has come with Vim. Has the system always shipped with Vim specifically, or was there a time when macOS shipped with a different variant of vi?

This capture by the Wayback Machine shows that Vim has been included at least as far back as Mac OS X 10.6.6. Unfortunately, Apple seems to have deleted a lot of old documentation (or at least broken all of the links) so I’m not sure whether you can get older OS versions’ man pages online in this same way.

vim has been included with OS X since version 10.3.0 (Panther); vi has been included from the very first version, 10.0 (Cheetah).

Apple has an excellent Open Source repository - http://opensource.apple.com - where they keep an archive of all the software that they've used in the development of their operating systems.  Looking at details of the 10.3 Project, you will see that vim made its first appearance.


How do I give a CGI script permission to access Calendar? When I run my script from the command line I can use - am actually prompted to use -  System Preferences to add ssh-keygen-wrapper to be authorised to access the Calendar.

But when I run the script as a CGI program it is not authorised to access the Calendar - it is running as nobody and fails - and I don't know how to give the CGI-invoked script required permission.

A related question is even whether I should as giving nobody access to Calendar ... but that's a separate issue.

[FYI]
macOS High Sierra
Python CGI script using an AppleScript to read Calendar events

The nobody user is non-interactive and doesn’t have calendars anyways. You will need to have some component (maybe another custom app/process) running as you to deliver the calendar info.

You really have two options, one of which is very bad.

Firstly, you could have your CGI scripts run as you. This isn’t hard but super dangerous and not recommended.

Secondly, you can build what is essentially a calendar proxy. This could be another program (running as you) which ever five minutes reads the calendar data and writes it out to a file which nobody, the account, can read. You already seem to be familiar and working just fine with calendars so this shouldn’t be an issue, it’s just another script that you schedule with cron.

Another thing, though I’m really not sure if it will work for nobody, is that you can run sudo su nobody and then launch it. Since OSX knows that the PTTY is attached to your user session it will show the prompt there for you to accept. While you still won’t be able to access your users calendars, this trick is useful if you have to use these sorts of permissions as root whom also doesn’t a graphical session.


Setting individual cap size on Time Machine storage on OS X Server I help manage Time Machine backups via OS X Server for my office running on El Cap 10.11.6.  Is there a way to manage storage for individual users on the server side? Right now I have it capped out to 750GB, however I ran into a user that has a TB drive.  I don't want to arbitrarily up the cap to 1TB, I need a way around this dilemma, so I can custom manage each user according to their needs.  I researched this and want to learn more about tmutil, but didnt see a cmd that is applicable.

You could use Profile Manager in order to do so and setup individual limits per machine.

Login to Profile Manager and register your device (i.e. by downloading the profile to it) if not already done. Then you should be able to setup every single fine grained setting you want for that device without the need of any terminal-hacks or external tools.


How to Rescue OS X without Visible Startup Disc? I need to delete refind but I cannot do it because I bypass it, since I cannot see visible startup disc.
I stopped partition process where I tried to erase Linux partition because of infinite time in the process.
There are no directories /etc/refind.d/ and /boot/efi/EFI/refind in my system. I am now in Recovery Mode where you cannot see the startup disk in Startup Disk.

The problem with refind is that it shows at startup just the Linux partition which is broken. If I click it, the thing goes to grub> where I already did this based on the thread

grub rescue > ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos3) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos1) (hd1) (hd1,msdos1)
grub rescue > ls (hd0,msdos1) # try to recognize which partition is this
grub rescue > ls (hd0,msdos2) # let's assume this is the linux partition
grub rescue > set root=(hd0,msdos2)
grub rescue > set prefix=(hd0,msdos2)/boot/grub # or wherever grub is installed
grub rescue > insmod normal # if this produced an error, reset root and prefix to something else ..
grub rescue > normal

where I selected the HSF+ disk for the boot. The problem is that this will not bypass refind.

How can rescue OS X without visible Startup disk and with refind?

My solution was to delete OS X because I did not get help enough fast. I needed my computer. Klanomath's proposal seems to be forward

Boot to Recovery Mode please
Do diskutil list
Do gpt -r show disk0 in Terminal.app
Add output/screenshot here


How do I arrange my download folder as "Recently downloaded"? I want to have the most recent file downloaded to be on top when I look in the Downloads folder in the finder. How do I arrange my download folder as "Recently downloaded"?

Wait until Lion's release and then you could sort by "date added"

http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html#finder


Preview.app Signatures - how to unencrypt without old keychain Old mac died. Have a new mac Mac Have all files from old Mac (did a backup before it died). Have been operating with new Mac for several months now.

Needed to use the signatures option in Preview & realized I never transferred them over from the old Mac's backup.

So I read this, Transferring Preview app signatures in Lion, and was able to snag the com.apple.Preview.signatures.plist file.

But, tho I have the keychain file(s) in the backup, how can I extract just the one I need for this without screwing up my current keychain data?

Go to ~/Library/Keychains on your new Mac and make a copy/backup of your actual login.keychain with cmd D

Copy the old login.keychain in /Users/old_user_name/Library/Keychains from the backup to your desktop and rename it to loginold.keychain

Open Keychain Access.app and choose File -> 'Add Keychain...' in the menu, navigate to your desktop and select loginold.keychain

Now you have a new entry in Keychains named loginold. Choose loginold in Keychains and Passwords in Category

Select the object Preview Signature Privacy and drag it to the keychain login in Keychains. You will be asked for a password. Enter the password for the old keychain (probably your old user password) and choose Always Allow or Allow. Now the object will be moved to your login keychain.

Choose login in Keychains and Passwords in Category and check if the new object Preview Signature Privacy is present there.

If everything is ok right click loginold in Keychains and choose Delete keychain "loginold". If you choose Delete Files and References in the following dialog box the keychain loginold will be deleted from your desktop and in Keychains

Quit Keychain Access.app

Test everything with Preview.app

If everything went well go to ~/Library/Keychains and delete the file login copy.keychain built for safety reasons in step 1.

If something went wrong, you might revert to your previous keychain by deleting login.keychain in ~/Library/Keychains and renaming login copy.keychain to login.keychain. Then i usually log out and in again or restart my Mac to be save.

Slightly alternative way if the object Preview Signature Privacy is already present in your keychain login:
Perform the steps 1-4 from above
5. Locate the Preview Signature Privacy in loginold in Keychains and Passwords in Category and double click to edit.
6. Click the Show password checkbox and enter the old user password
7. Now the password used to encrypt the signature images is visible. Copy & paste it into a text editor and save the file or paste it directly into the password field of Preview Signature Privacy in your keychain login.
Any by Preview.app previously signed/protected object on your new Mac might be inaccessible then though.
Continue with the steps 7-11 from above


Number 3.6.1: Cell value needs to be invisible, if the adjacent checkbox is checked I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes:
I would like to keep the cell value (E8), if the adjacent cell (D8) is false (checkbox is not checked), else insert zero or null.
I just keep getting an error, because of self-reference (E8).
("HVIS" translates to "IF")

I also thought about changing the textcolor using conditional formatting, but it seems that it's not possible to do that using other cells as the conditional factor by itself. It is however possible, if the cell value is compared to another cell, but i wouldn't know how to use that to achieve my goal.
Does anyone knows how to achieve this, without using AppleAcript?
I need the spreadsheet to be compatible with iOS as well, which is why AppleScript is not an option.
EDIT: I figured out a way around it by using conditional formatting.
I made the text change to white (same as background), if the value is greater than G8. G8 already has a function that changes the value to 0, if the checkbox is checked.

If I understand your question:

Instead of referencing itself, reference the formula that created the amount.

So, E8 appears to be B8-F8, correct?  Then the formula for E8 can be:

  =HVIS ( D8;"";B8-F8 )

This will return Null or empty string without the self-reference error.

Screenshot is using Numbers 3.6.1 US edition but the formulas should work if adjusted for your localized version:


Make iOS 6 device (iPod Touch) DLNA renderer We got an unused, semi-broken iPod Touch lying around. I would like to make it a DLNA renderer, so i can stream music TO the iPod, which is connected to the Audio-Amp. People often get the terminology for DLNA wrong, a DLNA Client is NOT what i am looking for. It is quite difficult to search for an App on iOS that actually receives DLNA streams: At least i couldnt find one.

I want the iPod to appear on my Network as a renderer and be able to play music using DLNA on it. AirPlay is not an alternative since i don't use other iOS devices.

And no, this is not a duplicate to my question...
Can I stream music from my laptop to my iPod Touch over wifi?
...since there is no DLNA solution mentioned.

AirPlayer seems to be a DLNA Renderer but needs iOS 7.

Ok, found it. Involves jailbreaking the ipod but to my surprise this has become totally trivial over the years.

So, if anyone needs a DLNA renderer, check out intelligentShare UPnP AV Renderer... So far works perfectly using BubbleUPnP on my Android Phone as Controller, playing from my music library on a NAS running twonkyserver!


Can I use bootcamp without reformatting my hard drive? I would really like to install ububtu on my Mac using bootcamp but it requires me to reformat my disk first.  I have programs with license keys that I don't want to loose, or buy another copy of, and also just don't want to go through the trouble of reformatting.

Is there a way I could do this?

Boot Camp doesn't require you to reformat your drive. HFS+ partitions can be live-resized by the Boot Camp Assistant or the Disk Utility without going through the trouble of erasing everything. No file on your Mac OS partition will be affected.

There is, however, the case where you've had your computer for long and Mac OS has written files all across your drive. In this case, you will need to defragment your drive, in order to put all your files in a nice contiguous space on your hard drive, so that all the remaining space is contiguous too and a partition can be made there. As far as I know, iDefrag can do this for about $15. (Disclaimer: I never did it and can't guarantee it will work. But it should. Can someone confirm?)

The other way, if you have an external drive, is to copy all your files to this external drive using a software like Carbon Copy Cloner (free), reformat your drive, then copy them all back to your drive. Everything should be like before and you'll have no hassle except the time required to copy back and forth (your programs and your serial numbers and the such will be intact).


How do I repair a corrupt Admin Password? I'm running a iMac with 10.9.5. Recently I installed Adobe CC, and ever since, I've been having issues with my admin password. My computer no longer recognizes it. So I'm effectively unable to update or install programs, or change any settings. Somehow it shifted from requiring a login password at start up, to logging in automatically, and then I get the message "accountsd wants to use the login keychain." The admin password works in this case. I reset my keychain, but that didn't solve the problem. I tried to repair the keychain, but that requires an admin password and in this case it doesn't work. I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

I'd reset the password from the Recovery HD and then change it in the Keychain afterwards.

Have a look at Reset Forgotten Admin Password OSX 10.10 Yosemite, which is also applicable for 10.8 and later.

Reboot (Apple menu > Restart) to the Recovery HD holding down Command-R during startup.
Go to the Utilities menu and select: Terminal
In the Terminal type resetpassword and press Enter.
In the Reset Password screen follow the directions.
Go to the Apple menu and click: Restart

Then reset the password in the Keychain after booting back normally to the Desktop.


Bent my iPhone 6 Plus, what can i do about this? It was purchased second hand What are some options if I bent my iPhone 6 Plus? I purchased my phone from craigslist so I don't have a receipt. Will Apple even take it back?

Apple don't require proof of purchase for warranty service if the product went on sale less than one year ago.
Your best bet is to make an appointment at the Genius Bar and claim that the product is defective as it shouldn't bend.
The massive press attention on this issue is likely to make them more sympathetic.

(I used to work as a Genius in an Apple Store)


Java and Flash Player do not work on Chromium I've just installed the latest version of Chromium. But, neither Java nor Flash Player work.

How can this be fixed? As far as I can see, Chromium no longer supports PPAPI and NPPAPI.

Unfortunately Google seems to think they know better than everyone else what people need to use online...

Here's the deal. They've deprecated those APIs, meaning if you want Java/Flash to work, you're out of luck.

HOWEVER, they haven't been removed yet, merely disabled. It'll get removed in a couple of major versions, but you can still force-enable them in the short term. This WILL stop working when Chrome 45 comes out in a few months. The only alternative then if you need Java/Flash will be to switch to a different browser.

In short:

For PPAPI plugins, go to chrome://plugins, scroll to the plugin, hit Details, and Under "Type: PPAPI," click Enable.

For NPAPI plugins, go to chrome://flags/#enable-npapi. There's an option there that says Enable NPAPI. Toggle that, and restart the browser.

I'd suggest getting used to Firefox or Safari in the meantime :(


Cannot resize APFS partition - "The new size must be different than the existing size" I have a 1TB SSD on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 with the following APFS partitions:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         300.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         254.0 GB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +254.0 GB   disk1
                             Physical Store disk0s3
   1:                APFS Volume macOS High Sierra       225.1 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 23.9 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                519.5 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +300.0 GB   disk2
                             Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume macOS Mojave            241.4 GB   disk2s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 49.0 MB    disk2s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk2s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk2s4

I would like to resize the macOS Higher Sierra partition highlighted above to ideally take up all the free space dynamically, which I tried to do using the command:

$ diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk1 0
Started APFS operation
Error: -69743: The new size must be different than the existing size

Trying to enlarge using a fixed size does not work either:

$ diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk1 500g
Started APFS operation
Aligning grow delta to 246'000'209'920 bytes and targeting a new physical store size of 499'999'997'952 bytes
Determined the maximum size for the targeted physical store of this APFS Container to be 253'999'788'032 bytes
Error: -69771: The target disk is too small for this operation

Neither Time Machine nor FileVault is enabled.

For me it looks like you need to resize the container first. So something like

$ diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk0s3 500g

should help to avoid the error message you get on your second try.

I've got not much knowledge about the diskutil, but as far as I know Apple software overall, this seems to be the step you are missing here.


How can I write to a USB 3 flash drive faster than 15 mb/s? I've got a USB 3 flash drive that should be able to write at about 50 MB/s, but I'm only able to write to it at 15 MB/s. I'm using a Mac Mini 2012, which has four USB 3 ports. I am connecting the flash drive directly to the Mac Mini, and not using a hub of any kind.

Are these normal speeds for the USB 3 ports on the Mac Mini 2012 when writing to a flash drive, or should they be much faster as I suspect they should? How can I get better write speeds to this drive?

The read speed for this drive is about 80 MB/s, so it's a bit more reasonable, although it should be 180 MB/s according to the specifications.

Depends on the speed of the flash. Most flash drives allow faster read then write since writing to a flash is a "destructive operation"

A site like http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/ might provide further information.

As an example SSD drives are rates at a number of Input/Output Operations/s (IOPS) commonly read is faster then on even the best most expensive drives.


MBP Keys 'stick' when it gets hot Short Question
Why do the keys 'stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick' when my MBP gets hot?  More importantly, how can I fix it?

Background
It is not any one key that sticks, I have had darn near every key stick on me so far.  So with this in mind, I do not believe it is a problem with any one key.  Also, the only time it does this is when the laptop gets hot (running Win 7 + charging = 3rd degree burns).  I just starting using MacFan and so far I like it quite a bit; it is very similar to SMC Fan control for OS X.

In addition to the keys sticking at times, the track pad becomes much less sensitive and gestures do not work.  I wish I could say that I only had these issues when I was on Windows 7, but I have had some of these same issues on the Mac side.

System Info
Hardware:
MBP Early 2008
RAM Upgraded to 4g
HDD Upgraded to 500g 7200 rpm

OS:
OS X 10.6.8
Windows 7 Pro (bootcamp & parallels 6)

EDIT
1) The keys do not physically stick down.  They pop back up immediately.
2) On the left side of the display, roughly 1" on the bottom and tappers away to 1/4" on top, is washed out as well.  It seems to get less severe when I turn the back-light all the way up, but I'm fairly sure that's not best thing to do for for it.  Up until now I thought the keyboard/track pad issues were separate from the display, but based on macaco's answer it makes me wonder: Could these issues be related?

UPDATE
I was able to secure a new laptop for work and have somewhat retired the worn-out MBP.  Thanks for all your help!

I suspect that this is the topcase module malfunctioning.

However, a good troubleshooting step would be to connect a USB keyboard & mouse and see if the issue continues with those external devices once the problem manifests.
This will allow you to ascertain if the topcase is at fault and/or if the issue is software based (although it seems to be hardware as you're seeing similar/related issues in OSX and Windows).

Past that I would take the machine to an Apple store or AASP where they can test the machine with a known good topcase/keyboard module to fully confirm that the topcase needs replacing (or anything else if the problem is deeper (read:logic board)). If that's what needs replacing then it's a relatively cheap repair.


Can I connect to my Mac via thin client? I want a remote access to my Mac. I'm looking for a hardware solution - a thin client (zero client), PCoIP client - a hardware client, which can connects my Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse over network to my Mac.
Does such hardware exists?

TeamViewer for your iPad/iPhone?

Setup TeamViewer to run on startup and you should be good to go.

Or are you looking for your local machine to login to your Mac and run the Mac as if booting up?


Mavericks cannot connect to windows share by computer name, but works fine with IP I have a Mac Mavericks and a Windows 7 machines.
On my Windows I have shared some folders, but I can only connect to them using the IP address, but not the computer name.

So Finder -> Go-> Connect to Server… and the smb://my-win/Share does not work, but Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server… and the smb://192.168.1.3/Share works perfectly fine.

If I go into Network (Finder -> Go -> Network), the computer my-win shows up. After I connected to the IP another windows machine shows up with the IP as the name. Going into the IP-named machine works fine again, while going into MY-WIN gives the same error

The error I get is:

There was a problem connecting to the server “my-win”.
The server may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again.

I have tried disabling firewalls which did not help. I have also tried renaming ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginitems.plist. That did not solve the issue but made my-win disappear from the Network window, so I reverted it again

I can ping the IP of the windows machine but if I execute ping my-win I get an error saying: cannot resolve my-win: Unknown host

It seems like my Mac gets notified of the Windows computer name, but can't resolve it when it tries to. Does anybody know what could be the reason for this?

It is likely a name resolution issue, which is usually the case when an IP address works and a name does not.

there are a couple of things you can do

if the PCs have IP addresses that rarely, or never, change you could add those to the hosts file. Just open up the terminal.app and:

sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

After the last entry just put the IP addresses of the PCs in there like this:

192.168.x.x pc-one

192.168.x.x pc-two

(substituting the IP addresses of the PCs for what you have) then save and exit. You'll want to flush the DNS cache. I usually just reboot but there are terminal commands depending on your OS version.

If you don't mind installing some Apple software on your PC, Bonjour is part of the iTunes install and will automatically register names on the local network.

It is unlikely that it is a firewall issue as you can connect via IP. The firewall would block that too.

Also if you give it time any computers that the Mac can connect to (in recent OS versions) will show up in the Finder's sidebar. Bonjour will help with that.

You can also add the IP addresses of all your PCs in the connect to server dialog box, enter in the ip address and click the + button before you click connect. It ain't intuitive but it's better than nothing... ;-)


How can i disable iTunes autoplay when bluetooth device is connected? I don't know exactly when it began but for few months i have problem with bluetooth speakers. When they connected to mac iTunes starts to play music from it's playlist. How can i disable this function?

Also when my mac is in sleep mode and bluetooth speakers are connected, mac suddenly wakes up and start to play music from iTunes.

This is a common issue on Mac. Here is the tutorials that works fine on my rMBP with OSX 10.11:

1) Open a Terminal Window

2) Rename iTunes.app to MyiTunes.app

3) Create a DoNothing.app using the AppleScript Editor

4) Copy the DoNothing.app to the Applications folder

5) Connect a bluetooth device to get the "Where is iTunes?" window prompt and Select DoNothing.app as what to auto-launch instead of iTunes 6) Closing thoughts about updates etc.

Resource: https://discussions.apple.com/message/25425864#message25425864


Can an app window be minimized by clicking its Dock Icon? Something that bothers me as Windows user on OS X is that I can't minimize an app window by clicking the dock icon of the application. Is there a hidden setting for enabling this behavior or a utility that someone could recommend?

You can hide an active application by option-clicking (alt-clicking) its icon in the dock. You can also hide the active window and open another window by alt-clicking whatever application you want to open in the dock.

But I agree with you that it would be more symmetrical to be able to click to minimize all the open windows in an application. I am a long-time PC user and this is one area where PCs got it right. That and combining closing and quitting (and the related window management issue).


Are certain videos blocked by Youtube on the iPhone or is this a technical issue? When I search for any major label band on my iPhone 4 almost none of the official video clips are available.

I can always find the equivalent clip on DailyMotion.

I used to be able to find more results on the "classic" version of Youtube, but Youtube now always redirects to the mobile version. This started sometime in the past couple of months.

Say for example any of MGMTs official or VEVO videos or Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People. These can all be found and watched on a desktop browser, but can't be found anywhere on my iPhone.

Is there some licensing issue?

There is a syndication setting that you choose when you upload a video to youtube in the video settings page under Broadcasting and Sharing Options that allows it to be played on mobile devices or not.


Accuracy of Apple Watch Heart Rate Sensor? I own an Apple watch series 2 and I've recorded my heart rate during sleep for a week now. Twice during this period my heart rate during sleep shot up to around 110 for 1.5 to 2 hours and that seems very suspicious to me.
Since I don't have any sleep problems (that i know of) I was wondering whether this was an inaccuracy of the heart rate sensor.
So I wanted to know whether there is some consistent way to trick the sensor into recording double the actual heart rate (e.g. by pressing the watch against the wrist or something).

If you are concerned, you need to see a doctor.

That being said, dreaming and nightmares during normal REM sleep increase your blood pressure and heart rate. REM sleep lasts, on average, for about 20% of your total sleep time.

To calibrate your watch, you could always purchase a relatively inexpensive heart rate monitor to see if both devices sense the increase, and how accurate they are in comparison.


Messages shows wrong informations in the recent chats list For some contacts the preview in the recent chats list shows wrong informations. When I click on the preview, I get a totally different chat in the detail view.

Running Mountain Lion 10.8.2

Any ideas?

It's a bug. Messages will work when it works, and fail when it fails. Unfortunately there isn't a solid fix from Apple (yet).


Installing more than one battery pack in Macbook? I am interested in installing two standards aftermarket batteries (wired in parallel) in Macbook 11 inch 2017.

Please ignore the issues with the physical housing constraints - I am purely interested in the electrical details about the power supply and charging.

Is this possible? If so, has anyone done it?

From a battery controller logic standpoint, I am fairly confident that is not possible, in the sense that the result will not be a stable configuration. The reason is simply that there is no mechanism to handle such a scenario on a logic level.

My understanding is that a MacBook battery has some simple logic and communicates the charge level and other battery internal states to the charging controller on the mac logic board. If you parallel-wire two batteries together, the logic on those two batteries will generate cross-talk when the logic board controller tries to talk to the battery.

The logic board sends an enquiry, which will go to both batteries, and the two batteries will answer back at the same time, possibly with different answers. That will not go down well in the logic board controller.

So I think the only way this would be possible is if you could connect the two batteries to a hypothetical 3rd party battery controller board, which in turn would be connected to the MacBook logic board, mediating the communication between the logic board and the batteries.


Is there a good app for uploading podcasts to my website? I have an old iPhone 2 (and an old 3GS, if necessary), that I'm planning to use at church for capturing sermons and uploading them to our website. I'd like something so simple that even our senior pastor can't mess it up :)

Ideally, all the pastor would need to do is:

Hit record when he starts preaching
Hit stop when he's done.

I'd like the resulting recording to then be automatically uploaded to an FTP directory on my website, from which I could write a script or something to add it to the podcast.

I don't like Cinch.FM, because it doesn't appear to let you upload to your own website, and most of its competitors seem to be the same.

Any ideas on an app that could do this?

You could try iPodcaStudio. It allows your to record, edit, then upload to a server using its FTP client. It costs a dollar though.


MacBook Pro failing Internet Recovery with exclamation mark My MacBook Pro from 2009 restarts itself and doesn't charge, I tried recovery hd but I hadn't used Time Machine so the option is not there and now I'm trying Internet Recovery it give an exclamation mark on the big round web icon.

That Mac is too old to use Internet Recovery.
Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery

Your choices are …

the Recovery Partition
a boot DVD
a USB key, made on another machine
Hardware test


CalDigit TS3+ dock station causes Kernel Panic (macOS 10.15.6) I've a CalDigit TS3+ dock station with a DisplayPort external 1080p monitor, 100 baseT Ethernet, Apple USB extended keyboard (yes, wired USB keyboard) and Logitech UniFi receiver (for MX Master 2S) connected on it. It runs fine after upgrading to firmware ver 44.1, until system update 10.15.6.
This work station is set in my office and I'd take my MacBook Pro (personal property) home every day. So every morning I wake up my laptop and plug one single cable to it, then I can bring everything to work.
After updated to 10.15.6, USB 3.0 bus on CalDigits TS3+ are slow in response whenever plugging in. It would take about 5~10 seconds before the external keyboard/mouse set be responsive, and the situation is getting worse.
Since two weeks ago, the USB 3.0 bus on TS3+ stopped working completely when plug in TS3+ thunderbolt 3 cable. The hardware report from "About this Mac" shows that both USB 3.0 bus on TS3+ are not detected at all. But other peripherals, including DisplayPort display and Ethernet, they all work normally. And if I plug all my USB peripherals (keyboard, UniFi, iPhone, flash drive) directly onto MacBook Pro type-C ports, they will work normally, too. This situation can only be fixed by system reboot.
Furthermore: if I disconnect TS3+ from MacBook Pro when TS3+ USB bus going down, I'd get Kernel Panic after 10 seconds. And, this is very weird: there is no system crash log after rebooting from Kernel Panic. The system crash log in "Report to Apple" dialog is plain blank, and I could find nothing related to these KP events in Console.app. It's almost like "pull the power plug abruptly" on a desktop computer.
This situation does not happen every time but the rate is quite high, about 40% or so. And it needs not to have the laptop sleep overnight; sometimes I unplug my MacBook Pro for a meeting and reconnect after returning to my desk, and it will also trigger the problem.
I've tried to do NVRAM/SMC reset and, as expected, not working at all.
Can anyone give me advice ? I'd also considering replace the dock to a different model, but I'm not sure whether it's the problem of macOS or dock.

This may not be applicable however the bundled support and drivers for the TS3+ available at https://downloads.caldigit.com/ contain a kext called CalDigitThunderboltStationChargingSupport.kext found under /Library/Extensions/
This seemed to be the root cause of all my issues once this was removed I was able to restart & shutdown without issue for the past 4 weeks without issue.
the documented removal process can be found at https://archive.caldigit.com/KB/index.asp?KBID=142&viewlocale=1
If you have installed this it may be the cause of your issues.
I have held off responding until I had a significant amount of time without the issue re-occouring before commenting.


iOS 8 and problems with iWork's accessing iCloud I upgraded my iPad 3 to iOS 8.  Now, when I go to any iWorks app, my iCloud files do not show up.  However, my iCloud contacts, calendar, etc. are all perfectly fine, the problem seems to be localized to iWorks.  Further, the 'use iCloud' button in the each iWorks app settings will not stay on.  At the same time, the iWorks apps on my new iPhone 6 show the iCloud files.

I have tried resetting my iPad, as well as deleting and reinstalling the iWork apps.

Any ideas or suggestions?  What is going on?

It seems that you've inadvertently upgraded yourself to iCloud Drive via Pages for iOS on your iPhone, but not on your iPad.

To activate iCloud Drive on your iPad, follow these steps:

Go to the Home Screen.
Find and open Settings.
Scroll down to iCloud, and tap iCloud.
Tap iCloud Drive.
Toggle the switch to the right of the text "iCloud Drive" to the ON (green) position.


iPad screen is black and won't turn on after charging and resetting Yesterday I dropped my iPad 3 but luckily the screen did not crack. However the screen is now black and will not turn on. I can still here sounds from the iPad. How can I fix this?

What I tried:

Charging it
Resetting it (Home+Power)
Shutting it off

Have you tried restoring the device using iTunes? If that doesn't work, you may wish to take it into the nearest Apple Store, or finding a place that'll repair your iPad, because if none of the above worked, then I'm afraid your iPad is dead.


Why do some applications ignore resize requests from finder I have an AppleScript which allows me to maximize a window (not fullscreen just maximize (keep top bar & task bar)). For some reason certain applications ignore the request and just stay the same size (Adobe products consistently ignore it). You can read the script here, I got this from somewhere else (a stackoverflow post). Why might the script not work for certain windows and how could I possibly fix it?

Since you've referenced Adobe products (and Photoshop specifically) in your question/comments, I'll refer to those here.

There is really nothing inherently wrong with the script - it's just that some apps are designed to work differently. Below are some considerations using Adobe Photoshop as an example:

If you open an image, Photoshop will ensure it's initial state is at a zoom percentage that allows the user to see the whole image.
Now, if you manually click on the Zoom button (i.e. the little green circle at top left of the window) you will observe how Photoshop works with this button. It's typically not very helpful in the case of Photoshop, and it behaves differently to most other apps. This is because Photoshop has multiple windows (e.g. you want the script to work so that it maximises a window while keeping the top bar & task bar, but Photoshop has other windows on screen such as Tools) so the Zoom button only applies to the image window.
The only way to essentially change the view of the image in Photoshop is to use the View menu or shortcuts like ⌘0, ⌘1, ⌘+ or ⌘-.
Photoshop also uses a tabbed window view by default (i.e. as you open more images, Photoshop opens these in separate tabs within the same window).
You may be able to achieve the view you're wanting in Photoshop by changing the Screen Mode (go to View > Screen Mode).

So, I guess what I'm saying is that many applications use multiple windows (or panels). With Photoshop most users will have the Tools panel, the Layers panel, and so on open while using the app. It's the same for most of Adobe's apps and most other creative apps.

You may be able to achieve what you want with a specific script. And you may find the Adobe Photoshop CS6 Scripting Guide a handy reference.


How to change screensaver user name and/or iterm2 top bar name on mac I am new to macbook pro. A few weeks ago I bought used macbook pro. I tried to change user name and it looks somewhat well. But when I open my iterm2, something that I don't want is wroten(MBP085ui). My user name is bmy4415 and MBP085ui is not I want. And this also appears in my default screensaver. ScreenShots are below. How can I change MBP085ui to my custom name? And What is the official designation of that(for eaxmaple, It's username or It's unique name of device)

p.s I also changed my 'account name' and 'full name' from 'User & groups' tab.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/RSQXS.png
https://i.stack.imgur.com/WNZc8.png

If you want to properly change your account username, it is advisable to create a new account to ensure that absolutely nothing goes wrong and everything continues working as expected. However, it is very likely that someone may want to change their macOS user account name and/or home folder name, and Apple conveniently has a support article this.

I'm not sure which of these steps you may not have taken, so take a look at the support article and find out what you may have missed. As with any system modifications, I would suggest you to create a working backup with you can use in case anything goes wrong.


How to sync mail accounts between iMac and iPad2 properly? I'm trying to sync my email accounts between my new iMac and an iPad 2.
The problem is that if I read or delete a message on the iMac, the same email appears on iPad as not deleted and not read.

Any help?
Cheers

It sounds like the account type might be POP instead of IMAP. POP stores messages and all message attributes on each client (iMac, iPad, etc). IMAP stores messages and attributes on the server, so every client has the same view of the messages (including unread/read state). So, the solution for you is to use IMAP if the account supports it.


MacBook Pro 9,2 can't read an SSD with a macOS High Sierra OS Good day everyone.

I have a Macbook Pro 9,2 that can't read an SSD that has a macOS High Sierra installed on it.

For the background context, a friend gave me her Macbook Pro for me to retrieve the files, and told me I can keep the laptop after. What I did was I took out the current hard disk, inserted it on an enclosure, and gave it to her.

Now, I have two "spare" SanDisk SSDs:

240 GB -- macOS Sierra
480 GB -- macOS High Sierra

At first, I inserted the 480GB SSD, but it wasn't booting. I was given the blinking folder icon which indicates that the laptop wasn't able to read the hard drive. I then rebooted the SMC and PRAM, and on the normal boot, I held the right option/alt key to see the bootable devices, but I didn't see any, which established that the laptop couldn't read the 480GB SSD as a bootable device.

I then inserted the 240GB SSD, and I was able to boot normally. I then inserted the 480GB into an enclosure, and then attached it to the laptop. The laptop was able to read the contents in the Finder, as well as list down the item in Disk Utility. However, the top level was read as AppleAPFSMedia, and then the SSDName under it. This gives the impression that the laptop cannot properly read the 480GB SSD as a bootable Hard Drive.

Now, we how will the MacBook Pro read the 480GB SSD APFS as a bootable hard drive?

Right now, we're thinking of upgrading the 240GB SSD from macOS Sierra to High Sierra. We think that doing so would upgrade the BIOS, and enable the laptop to read APFS format hard drives. However, we're very reluctant to do this, because if it doesn't work, we will need to wipe a hard drive and try to install High Sierra again.

Has anyone experienced this situation before? Any lead would be very much appreciated.

Okay, if you have a macbook pro that works on an older OS (pre High Sierra), and you want it to boot from an SSD (SSD1) that has a High Sierra, you have to make it read an SSD (SSD2) that has Sierra at the most, and then upgrade that to High Sierra.

Once the upgrade is done, you can slap on SSD1 and your laptop should now boot on that drive.

I'm not all too sure what happens here. We just jumped the gun and updated to High Sierra and it fixed the problem. We aren't so sure if installing the firmware updates would have helped.


How to make some space on iPad? Is there a way to delete music, podcast or iTunes-U to make some space available (to take more pictures for instance) without a computer ?

You can delete videos from the Videos app by tapping and holding on the thumbnail, then pressing the red X that appears in the corner (just like deleting apps from your home screen).

To delete audio podcasts, find them in the Music app, swipe your finger across the name of the podcast (or episode) and press the delete button. (The same way you would with emails.)


Finder not showing DVD/CD drive even when it is checked in the Preferences I am playing a DVD so it's definitely "understood" by macOS to be present. But not by Finder ?

I tried unchecking and re-checking  the CDs, DVDs and iPods: no change.  I have also rebooted the system a few times: the behavior persists.   What can be done here?    I am on Catalina 10.15.3
Update  The DVD drive is found without any issue on the command line: the following works:
diskutil eject /dev/disk2 .

From comments, it seems like a simple 'wrong pref'.
The pref in the posted image is for Desktop visibility.
To show in the Finder sidebar, the one required is in the 3rd tab, Sidebar.


Will Siri work with 3rd party apps after update from iOS 9 to 10? I want to purchase iPhone 6s having iOS 9. I will update from iOS 9 to 10 but I want to know if after updating the iOS version Siri work with 3rd party applications or not? Are there any changes in Siri features in iPhone 6s to iPhone 7? I want to work with 3rd party applications using Siri in iPhone 6s. Is it possible?

SiriKit, or third-party integration with Siri, is available on any device compatible with iOS 10. According to Wikipedia:

  Siri is compatible with third-party app-specific requests, such as starting workouts apps, sending IMs, requesting the Lyft or Uber apps or to use payment functions.

Note that not all apps utilise SiriKit, and only those that do will work with Siri.


Display multiple email accounts in screensaver a number of use our 'family' OSX Lion Mac Mini in the kitchen.  We track multiple gmail accounts by each of using a different browser.

But, none of us can tell at a glance if we have any pending emails - not without switching browser panes.

What would be ideal would be for a screensaver to show pending emails across multiple email accounts.

Can anybody offer a solution for this?

You could try to

Create an additional gmail account collecting all mails (by setting up rules in the original accounts to auto-forward mails to the collection account)
Add the RSS feed of the collection account (https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom) to the RSS Screensaver in OSX


How to have a specific contact make a ring sound even in silent mode I have an iPhone 4, and I have the switch on the side set to switch silent mode on and off.

I'd like specific contacts (for example, She Who Must Be Obeyed) to ring when they call, even in silent mode.

I've seen various hacks on the internet suggesting using a "silent" ring tone, but that's not what I want. I basically want two states:

All callers cause the phone to ring (according to their individual ring tone settings)
Almost all callers are silent except for VIPs

Is this possible?

This is an old question but I stumbled on it when trying to find an answer for my iPhone 8.  There is now a real solution to this problem— edit the contact and turn “Emergency Bypass On”.  The text says it overrides Do Not Disturb, but I tested it and it overrides the silent switch too!


AppleScript: How to close notification alerts from a specific application? In AppleScript, one can clear all notifications from all applications, like so:

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "NotificationCenter"
        set numwins to (count windows)
        repeat with i from numwins to 1 by -1
            click button "Close" of window i
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

(Source)

Is it possible to clear the notifications from a specific application? For example, the script should remove the notifications from Calendar.app, but leave those that are from Google Chrome on the screen.

It may be necessary to explain what I intend exactly when I say, "clear." I am not trying to remove items from the list of notifications found in the "Notification Center" (i.e., the expandable vertical pane on the right side of the screen). I am trying to automate the action of pressing the "Close" buttons of the pop-up notifications that are superimposed in the top-right corner of the screen, so that these pop-up dialogs disappear from view.

This question concerns the "Alert" style of OS X notification (rather than the "Banner" style, which disappear on their own shortly after appearing).

OS X El Capitan, version 10.11.6.

I tested the following example AppleScript code under macOS 10.12.5, and it closed the Alerts style messages from Calendar.

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "NotificationCenter"
        set windowCount to count windows
        repeat with i from windowCount to 1 by -1
            if description of image 2 of window i is "Calendar" then
                click button "Close" of window i
            end if
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

Note: This is example AppleScript code which contains no error handling. Add appropriate error handling as needed, required and or wanted.


How to kill stuck Screen sharing authentication dialogue? Sometimes when connecting to a screen sharing machine in Finder, the authentication dialogue hangs indefinitely. The only way I've been able to get rid of it is log out.

So far I've tried killing a number of processes including:

Screen Sharing
Finder
Dock
SystemUIServer

To no avail. Any idea what process this UI is attached to?

Yes, it's called NetAuthAgent.

You can tell I've had this problem before! :(


Why is bash unavailable even though installed? My goal is to run a script, where the shebang line causes bash to be used. Somehow running bash always runs zsh for me, even though I installed bash 5 using Homebrew and Mac (10.15) comes with bash 3.
I would still like zsh to be the default shell.
My goal is to run scripts with bash, and the  shebang lines with bash give me zsh, as shown by the syntax that the script recognizes. The use of -c below is just for ease of illustration (as compared to a file with shebang).
Here  are my attempts to access bash and the content of /etc/shells

    $ /usr/local/opt/bash/bin/bash -c "echo $SHELL"
    /bin/zsh
    $ whereis bash
    /bin/bash
    $ /bin/bash -c "echo $SHELL"
    /bin/zsh
    $ /bin/bash -c 'echo $SHELL'
    /bin/zsh
    $ /usr/local/bin/bash -c "echo $SHELL"
    /bin/zsh
    $ /usr/local/bin/bash -c 'echo $SHELL'
    /bin/zsh
    $ cat /etc/shells
    # List of acceptable shells for chpass(1).
    # Ftpd will not allow users to connect who are not using
    # one of these shells.
    /usr/local/bin/bash
    /bin/bash
    /bin/csh
    /bin/dash
    /bin/ksh
    /bin/sh
    /bin/tcsh
    /bin/zsh
    $ /usr/bin/env bash -c "echo $SHELL"
    /bin/zsh
    $ /bin/bash  -c "ps -p $$"
    PID TTY           TIME CMD
    6775 9 ttys011    0:00.31 -zsh
    $/usr/local/opt/bash/bin/bash -c "ps -p $$"
    PID TTY           TIME CMD
    69799 ttys001    0:00.38 -zsh
    $ /usr/local/bin/bash -c 'ps -p $$'
    PID TTY           TIME CMD
    69985 ttys001    0:00.01 ps -p 69985
    $ /bin/bash -c "echo $0"
    -zsh
    $ /usr/local/opt/bash/bin/bash -c "echo $0"
    -zsh

Also, I created the following file and ran it directly
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# With /bin/bash on the shebang we get the same output
ps -p $$
echo $SHELL
echo $0
echo bash $BASH_VERSION
echo zsh $ZSH_VERSION

The result is:
$ ./bashtest.sh
  PID TTY           TIME CMD
70188 ttys000    0:00.00 /bin/bash ./bashtest.sh
/bin/zsh
./bashtest.sh
bash 3.2.57(1)-release
zsh

Your examples do not show that the shell you are running is zsh.
What they show is the default shell is zsh and the ps one shows you ran bash from inside a zsh shell.
A way to see the current shell is echo $0 from https://askubuntu.com/questions/590899/how-do-i-check-which-shell-i-am-using However this only works in some cases. It does work if you call bash from zsh as you are doing. It does not work on the non POSIX shells I use e.g. fish and xonsh
$SHELL is the default shell and not what you are running (and that is zsh as you want) login man pages e.g. http://man.openbsd.org/login.1  (or run man login on macOS) $SHELL is set by the login program . However as noted in the man page shells might do other things and also you can (not by default) run a non login shell in Terminal.app and I think that might also have $SHELL set
For the process the $$ is the pid of what the command line sees e.g. trhe shell that runs the bash line you gave.
To see this

Start bash e.g. bash
In the bash shell now run ps -p $$ you get  something like

    ~ bash
     bash-5.0$ ps -p $$
      PID TTY           TIME CMD
    28098 ttys000    0:00.01 bash
    bash-5.0$ exit

~ is my zsh prompt. bash is bash 5.0 installled via macports


Can I capture a zoomed-in screen with the "Screen Capture" feature of OS X? Sometimes I use the Accessibility -- Zoom gesture to zoom in on one part of my screen by holding down the CTRL key. But if I do a Screen Capture (using Command (⌘) + Shift + 3), the point-of-view of the image produced is the standard full screen, not the zoomed-in area that I was actually looking at when I pressed the keys.

Command (⌘) + Shift + 4 does not work either.

Is there a way to way to capture my zoomed-in screen?

(2013 rMBP) -- (OS X 10.11.3)

No, because the capture is capturing the pixels that comprise the selected area, not the 'screen' as it is displayed to you.

It's something I've wished for in the past, too.


Where to Install Applications when using Terminal? I use the command line a lot to download and install applications. I've always downloaded into the /tmp directory then installed to another directory.

But where is the place to install such applications? For example, I was just downloading MongoDB (a database application similar to MySQL).
And I had no idea where to put it.

Where should such applications be installed on Mac?
Whats the conventional way?

As OS X is a UNIX OS at its core you can usually use the installers that come with the open source tools you've mentioned.

Quite often there's some way to install them, usually there's 3 steps to configure, compile, and install the tools.

For stuff like databases and other UNIX tools they might need stuff in a number of places.

In contrast to that a typical Mac application will be just one self-contained application bundle that's supposed to go in to your /Applications folder.

Though it can as well run from your Desktop, Downloads folder, etc. ...


What substances I can use to clean the touch sensitive screens like iPhone, iPad? I heard that you are not supposed to use substances containing alcohol because it will destroy the anti-grease coating layer that's above the glass.

The problems is that just water and microfiber cloth is not always enough and I want to know what is safe to use.

Update: Please do not recommend a specific product, or at least do not recommend it wihout specifing the content. This is important because most products are not usually available outside the US.

I've found that the best substance is no substance. If you can grab some microfiber lens cloths online, you won't be disappointed. They absorb the finger oils well. I usually just breathe on my screen a little bit, then use circular swipes with a microfiber cloth.

If you are careful, any glass cleaner is fine. The reason this isn't recommended is due to the large percent of the market that would just blindly spray cleaner all over their device (causing a short), and the other percent of the market with non-glass screens. If you spray the cloth you are using, then wipe, it'll be fine.

Update 3/21:
My favorite method now is using Zeiss Pre-Moistened Lens Cloths Wipes. They're at Amazon and Sam's Club. I keep a box in the office and box at home.


Apple Music vs. iTunes Match I am a prolific Garageband user, therefore I have lots of my own songs in my iTunes collection, which obviously will not be available via Apple's music library...

I am currently paying for iTunes Match and Apple Music. If I were to quit using Match, would I still get my own songs via upload to the cloud or whatever, or would I only be able to access Apple's music? I'd die if I couldn't stream my garageband projects to all my devices.

Apple has a quit informative support-article that addresses the differences between Apple Music and iTunes Match. Both include the iCloud Music Library witch can store your songs, the main difference between both services is what will be stored within this library:

iTunes Match

When joining iTunes Match, it matches all your local music using the sound profile of each song.
If the song is available within the catalogue of iTunes, it is added to your iCloud Music Library and made available to download or stream on all devices as 256 Kbps DRM-free AAC.
Songs that are not available in the catalogue are uploaded to your iCloud Music Library without any changes. Likewise they are available on all your devises.
If you cancel your iTunes Match subscription, all songs already matched can be played or downloaded open end as there is no DRM in place. Only new songs are not added.

Apple Music:

When joining Apple Music, you local music is matched against Apple Music's catalogue using the meta-data of each song.
If a song is available within the catalogue, it is made available on all devices via Apple Music (similar to how you can click on "Add to library" upon every song in Apple Music). Songs can be streamed or downloaded on all devices, but will always be DRM protected 256 Kbps AAC.
If you cancel your Apple music subscription, these songs will no longer be playable, downloadable etc.
However the songs in your local library you initially matched against remain unchanged (no encoding, no DRM) and can be used as before.
Songs that are not available in the catalogue of Apple Music are uploaded to your iCloud Music Library and available on all your devises. I could not find any information regarding DRM or encoding changes for these "unmatched" songs.

Apple Music and iTunesMatch:

When both are used, songs are matched and made available as described for iTunes Match (no added DRM etc.) and Apple Music just acts as a streaming service without interfering with your local files.

So to answer your question directly, your own projects would continue to be available on all devices if you would just use Apple Music.


Command-Shift-Option-V in Pages When I press ⌘ Command+⇧ Shift+⌥ Option+V in Pages Insert\Choose dialog is opened. (This dialog must be opened when ⌘ Command+⇧ Shift+V is pressed).

What can I do about it? How can I "Paste and Match Style" in Pages?

P.S. 1. The issue is not stable. Some times ⌘ Command+⇧ Shift+⌥ Option+V work for me, some times it doesn't. I don't know why.

I tried both Option keys - this doesn't help. I tried this combination in a row: in Pages (doesn't work) in Numbers (works) in Pages again (doesn't work).

ALL have the same problem!
Solution is simple, but it takes 3 years of hate for this bug!

Just go to System settings -> keyboard -> shortcuts-> add shortcut

(add new)
all applications
menu title: "Edit->Paste and Match Style"
make any hotkey you like, for me its "cmd-shift-X" (free hot key!)

DONE!


Technical details behind Apple's performance throttling of the iPhone What are the technical details behind how a worn battery slows down the iPhone 6?

Why does replacing the battery with a new one fix the issue? Is it iOS doing the throttling or is it physical limitations of the hardware?

Relevant news story on the subject

Short answer

To answer your questions:

The battery itself is not what's slowing the iPhone down, but rather iOS is deliberately doing this in the case of batteries that are below a certain level of health.
Inserting a new battery fixes this because iOS then determines that the iPhone has a power source capable of meeting the higher power demands sometimes required by the iPhone when working at peak performance.
It is iOS doing the throttling, although it is doing this based on it's own assessment of the physical limitations of the battery.

Long answer

There are times when a device (such as an iPhone) will need a sudden burst (or peak) of power to perform a certain task.

When this happens the power source has to be able to deliver the amount of current required by the device, but in the case of ageing batteries1, they often cannot meet this demand. If this happens, an iPhone may suddenly shutdown in order to protect itself from damage (this is similar to how the System Management Controller (SMC) of a Mac computer can kick in to protect your Mac from damage under certain scenarios).

What Apple was trying to do was deal with this issue by having iOS determine when a battery was no longer at a stage that it could meet a certain level of peak current. After iOS makes this determination, it slows down the iPhone so that it's running below its actual capacity.

For example, by running the CPU slower it's limiting the power drawn from the battery. This in turn reduces the amount of power required and therefore prevents a situation in which the iPhone randomly shuts down on users.

Apple took this approach in late 2016 after having received numerous reports from users of their iPhones randomly shutting down. Once they determined that the cause in most situations was an ageing battery, they included this 'feature' in iOS when it released the iOS 10.2.1 update.

1 Strictly speaking, a random shutdown could also occur when an iPhone is being used in cold conditions or when a perfectly good battery is quite low on charge. However, in the great majority of cases this issue arose because of ageing batteries.


SMB connection to external Thunderbolt drive not working in MacOS Catalina After upgrading to macOS Catalina, I can no longer connect to one SMB drive from my MacBook Pro with MacOS Mojave. The share is stored on an external Thunderbolt drive.

It always shows an error message that shows that I don't have permission.

I can connect to other shares which are stored on the internal hard drives.

To solve this issue you have to do the following:

Open System preferences
Click on Security & Privacy
Click on the Lock in lower left corner to unlock
Click on Full Disk Access
Click on the + button
Navigate to /usr/sbin
Seach for smbd and select it
Click open

Now the SMB daemon should have permission to connect to the external drive.


When is a ethernet-to-thunderbolt cable necessary? With the upgraded wireless on the latest 2013 MBP's when would I need this cable? I do have a Time Machine but the rate of data transfer wouldn't increase from having thunderbolt since the speed would only be as fast as its the slowest technology.

What else can I use it for?

The main reason for Apple to develop the Ethernet-to-thunderbolt cable is because the Macbook Pro retina line is too thin to fit the ethernet Port, thunderbolt is thin enough to fit. If you have a MacBook Pro retina you have 2 choses:

Use Wifi
Buy the Ethernet-to-thunderbolt cable to use cabled internet on you Macbook Pro retina

The only reason: People who don't have wifi, don't want to use it, don't have a fast rooter,...

If you have a normal unibody macbook pro there is no reason to buy the cable. :)


Limit the size for backups on a Time Capsule I want to store both backups and shared data on my Time Capsule. Hence, I need to limit the space taken by backups. I see two options:

Partition
Limit the size of the backup sparse bundles.

Which one should I chose? If you say 2.: How to best do that, so it won't take forever?

I've been looking at this as well to limit the space a single machine can use when sharing a time capsule (slightly different application, but same concept). Here is what I found:

External Drive - The quickest and easiest solution. The backups and data are completely separate and won't interfere with each other. The main disadvantage is having the clutter of extra devices and cables.
Partition - This is probably the best option to ensure dedicated space for the backups and the other data. As such it is the least flexible if you want to reallocate space at a later date. The other disadvantage is that it is difficult to do in that you aren't able to do it from within the Air Port utility.
Sparse Bundle Size Limit - At first I thought this would be the best option because it is self-contained within the Time Capsule, is flexible, and not to difficult (though perhaps a bit tedious). However, it seems that there issues with some versions of Mac OS X not respecting the size limit. I am not clear yet on whether this is a bug or a feature. When moving my sparse bundles to a large Time Capsule, at first they all appeared with the smaller size, but then they were resized to the capacity of the larger Time Capsule.

Those options cover the 'prevention' approach to make sure that no more space is used than allocated. Another approach is to just let it be and then prune backups when needed. This a good way to go if you have a lot of room. I tried this before getting a new Time Capsule but it was just too tight of a squeeze in my case.

tmutil - As bmike points out, tmutil can be used to clear out old back ups, but was introduced with Lion so may not be an option for some people.
Delete Files - You can delete files from a backup by entering Time Machine, browsing to the file or folder, and selecting the option to delete from backup in the gear icon.
Force Thinning - By artificially increasing the backup space required, you can force Time Machine to run its thinning procedure deleting older backups. I attached a large external drive to my mac and removed it from the exclude list in Time Machine options. This allowed me to clear space from one machine's backup image to make room for the others. It worked, but the downside is that it can take a very long time. I imagine tmutil would do this more efficiently.


How to obtain the direct link to a specific podcast episode in iOS iTunes Store? My friend, on her iPhone, wants to email me an iTunes Music Store link directly to a specific episode of a podcast. She wants to do this without downloading any 3rd party apps.

Problem is....at least half the time, the link she sends me takes me to a page with many episodes of the given podcast. We just want to link directly to one particular episode so I can be assured I'm gonna' download the right one.

How can this be done?

I don't think it is possible to obtain the link to a specific episode, either from the iTunes app on iOS where you can browse the store, or from the iOS music app after if has already been downloaded.

Often a direct link to the episode is included in the show notes that are included, but the built in apps have scant support for allowing you to actually view these properly, they just overlay the text (or the top section of it) without giving you a way to interact with it.

To be honest, and I know you specifically asked not to suggest other apps, but given the above should hopefully be a suitable answer in it's own right I will do so anyway.  Try Instacast, it's a far superior app for both downloading/subscribing and actually listening to podcasts.  As you can see if allows full acces to the show notes, you can just click the download link provided to copy the URL, or use the built in sharing functions.

While you are at it, you should download the Ask Different Podcast to test it ;)


Download ios 7 apps how? I have a iphone 3gs which has a ios 6.1.6.
I want to download ios 7 to run applications like Facebook, SoundCloud, etc.
But it cant be downloaded on my device which seems fully updated.

How may I upgrade it?

This is not possible. Apps requiring iOS 7 can't be installed on any version of iOS prior to iOS 7.


AppleScript set focus on terminal window I have a AppleScript, which changes the position and the size of the application Terminal:

Like here:

tell application "Terminal"
   set position of front window to {1, 1}
   set size of front window to {1, 1}
end tell

When i'm setting the size of the window to {1, 1}, it becomes really small that it's not more visible.

My question is how can i set the focus of the window for a specific time, that neither any user activity nor any application can catch the focus of the terminal window?

Best way would be with AppleScript, but any programmatically solution with python would be nice.

activate application "Terminal"
tell application "Terminal"
   set position of front window to {1, 1}
   set size of front window to {1, 1}
end tell
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "your message here\rexit\r"

Additionally you can get help from
AppleScript get active Application

to put focus back on original application


How do I move pictures and videos from one iPad to another? How do I transfer photos and videos between iPad and iPad 2?

This depends, do you have iCloud? as you can sync through iCloud.

You can also configure all the settings in iTunes. So you can import all the images into iTunes, once they are there you can connect the other iPad and sync them.

If you do not want to keep the iPad 1, you can just connect it to iTunes, sync it and then connect the iPad 2 and restore it from the back up of the 1st iPad.


AppleScript - How to identify buttons and press them? I'm trying to automate the running of techtools via AppleScript. I have got it working but only with full keyboard access (using tab and space to navigate the UI) but not all machines have this enabled when I first turn them on so I need a way of activating the run check computer.
I assume this is possible with the "click button" function but I cannot work out how to find out which button is which with accessibility inspector. Here is the layout of TechTools and you can see in the bottom left is the button I want to press to start the tests.

And here is the inspector info on the button.

As I said, I can activate this fine when full keyboard access is enabled because it's just a case of copying keyboard strokes.

I'm not sure if i'm misunderstanding the concept of identifying the buttons within the program or how to specify which window it's in (I assume it's window 1.)

This is an example of the type of script I've been writing to attempt to achieve this (I know this one just minimises the window.) Do I keep increasing the value of the button until it eventually just runs check computer? When I tried button 4 it activated an option under File on the top bar.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "TechTool Pro 9"
        click button 2 of window 1
    end tell
end tell

Here's a little trick:
Obtain the screen coordinates of that button.  You can do this by initiating a screen capture with crosshairs, usually by pressing ⌘⇧4 (⟨Cmd⟩⟨Shift⟩⟨4⟩).  Navigate the cross hairs over the button within its clickable region.
I did a similar thing with a dialog box in Script Editor:

You can just about make out the coordinates of my button are {896,674}.
Next, in Script Editor, enter this line of code, inserting your coordinates as appropriate:
    tell application "System Events" to click at {896, 674}

I can assume you already have the right accessibility privileges granted from the context of your post.  Therefore, you can simply run this script.
Just ensure the button is visible before you run the script, and that it hasn't changed position on the screen.  Make sure there are no windows obscuring or overlying it.
All being well, two things will happen:

The system will issue a click and it'll click that button;
In the results pane at the bottom of the Script Editor window, you'll see something like this:

    button "Done" of window "Open" of application process "Script Editor" of application "System Events"
That is the reference to the button object, which you can copy and paste into your script.
It works for any GUI item on the screen: just isolate its coordinates, issue a click, and it will return the object reference.
UPDATE:
Having just acquired a copy of TechTool Pro version 8, I have learned that the application is not GUI-scriptable.  Therefore, this explains why the trick I described failed to return an object reference (because there is none), and unfortunately, you won't be able to automate the running of TechTools using AppleScript.


How to switch language of OS X dictionary? In Mountain Lion the OS X internal dictionary that you can fire up by right clicking a word, or by using the dashboard widget, seems to have gained at least one new language: German. Since German is my main language, but I also read a lot of English texts and website, I'd like to switch the dictionary languages on the fly. How can I do this?

Whichever dictionaries you enable in the Dictionary app's preferences will be available in the dictionary popover. You could either change these whenever you want to switch, or perhaps just leave both languages enabled all the time.


Where does Safari store the homepage URL? For unknown reasons I cannot change the once-set homepage URL in Safari (v10.1 on OS X 10.11.6) any more. If I change it in Safari's Preferences window, under General, it simply resets it to the value it was set to before. Same when I use the "Set to current page" button.

The same problem is with Safari 10.1 on another Mac running 10.10.5. I wonder if it's because they're both using iCloud, sharing their bookmarks. However, the homepage is set to a different page on each Mac, which suggests that this address is not synched with the bookmarks (which is good, IMO). And turning off iCloud Safari sharing doesn't help, either.

So I am trying to figure out where it stores the URL on disk, so that I can check if that is somehow locked.

However, I cannot find the current homepage URL in various places. Neither in the Safari preferences file (~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist) nor in any file inside ~/Library/Safari/ (including Bookmarks.plist) and ~/Library/WebKit/, at least not in plain ASCII text.

Where is that URL stored?

In older Safari versions you could set it via defaults write com.apple.Safari HomePage -string "http://example.com". Safari seems to have done away with that at least since MacOS 10.11 (and possibly earlier). From this device management thread it looks like it's stored in iCloud, but in a rather opaque way.


How to enable disk access on Ipad mini? I remember there used to be a check box that allows "enable disk access", but now iTunes 10 has taken away that check box. What should I do if I want to enable my Ipad mini for disk access (preferably without using a 3rd party software..)?

Enable Disk Access was a feature on the iPods, but has never been an option on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.


AppleScript: Find all instances of "Folder" and list the contents in a drop down box/list I'm trying to make a script I can use to find all instances of a folder, be it on the root drive, external drive or mounted networked storage, and list all the contents in either a drop down box or a selectable list in a dialogue window.

To pseudo-code it:

tell application "Finder"
    for (every instance of "*/Folder"
        append items in "*/Folder" to contentsList
    end for
end tell

I honestly have no idea how to actually do it in AppleScript since it doesn't natively have for loops, and I'm not sure about adding items to arrays in AppleScript.

Is anyone able to give me any pointers? Alternatively, being able to do the same in a shell script would be just as good.

Thanks in advance!

set l to {}
tell application "Finder"
    repeat with f in (folders of entire contents of (POSIX file "/Users/username/" as alias) where name is "Folder") as alias list
        repeat with i in (get items of f)
            set end of l to POSIX path of (i as alias)
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell
choose from list l

find ~ -name Folder -exec ls {} +

shopt -s globstar # bash 4.0 or later
printf %s\\n ~/**/Folder/*

mdfind 'kMDItemContentType==public.folder&&kMDItemFSName==Folder' -onlyin ~ |
while IFS= read -r l; do ls "$l"; done


How to completely uninstall iCloud? I know how to disable iCloud, but I want to completely remove the possibility of using the service from my Mac for security reasons. I tried to delete the related files, but I do not have permission.

So how can I make sure that no user or application or system process is able to access iCloud?

First of all, iCloud is built into OS X and iOS deeply and you can't just remove it completely, but you can avoid its use by disabling it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2613

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, select "sign out".

This way iCloud will not be used on your mac and could not be used by any application.


Where does homebrew install a legacy php version? In order to make some old software work, I need to downgrade my PHP version from 8 to 7.4. I run this command without any problems:
brew install php@7.4

... and homebrew buzzes and whirs and dutifully installs php 7.4.
Now the problem is that I have no idea where the binary for php 7.4 lives.
I tried ls -al /usr/local/bin/ | grep "7.4", but that didn't come up with any results.
When I do php -v, I still get version 8 showing up.
Where can I find the version-specific legacy binary for php 7.4?

Since PHP 8 is already installed, Homebrew won't link an earlier version of PHP to php.

Try brew link php@7.4
Otherwise access the Cellar directly: /usr/local/Cellar/php@7.4/*/bin/php


MacOS X Randomly Logs out while working A friend of mine experiences the following behaviour while using a macbook quite normally (no heavy loads, etc.). She is returned to her log in screen and apparently logged out, because after logging in again all applications are closed and sometimes work is lost.

The problem happens approximately once a month for a few years now.
The problem persists after updating to Maverick
I would say there is no issue with a full disk or excessive RAM demands by the programs in use. (mostly browser, skype, etc

If possible, create a new user and check if the problem persists (you can transfer your files via the "for all users" folder in /Your Drive/Users


iTunes won't sync music library back to iPhone 6 or 5 This is my Bizarro Problem.

For a while, I have noticed that my iPhone has lost some of the music files when I sync to the Mac. First it was CDs that I had ripped, and therefore was not associated with an apple id, then it was some music I had downloaded through iTunes.

This week, with iOS8, I decided to upgrade my 5, and I got a 6. I am not using iTunes Match.

To prepare:

Back up to iCloud
Encrypted back up to iTunes on the Mac

2-b - download and installed iTunes 11.4 - rebooted.
Downloaded and installed iOS8 on my 5 successfully
Picked up 6 today, set up by restoring from my encrypted back up on iTunes
All Aps, photos, settings, passwords came over fantastically, Music did not. only 300 of 3800 songs synced.
Went to Music, made sure Sync Music was clicked, and Sync Selected Songs, the blue Audio bar expanded, and I started the sync. It quickly went through the 4 steps to begin copying songs - and then abruptly stopped. this took less than a minute.
Tried the above with sync all music.  I have 50 gig of memory free, so I have room for the library.
Switched cord I was using between phone and computer
Rebuilt iTunes library - which got me to 1400 songs, rather than 300, but still not what I want.

And that is where we are at.

Ideas?  thoughts?

Many users have reported this problem with syncing music on iOS 8. The following steps can be taken to Sync the music back onto your iPhone.

• Uncheck “sync music” in iTunes

• Delete Music (General > Usage > Manage Storage)

• Re-check “sync music”

• Sync

I did this and also had to make sure, under the Summary tab in iTunes that "Sync only checked songs & videos" AND "Manually manage music & videos" were checked. ONLY then did it sync successfully.


Updating iTunes to 11.1.0 gives an error I tried to download the iTunes 11.1 update and received the following error. Does anyone know what could be causing it?

  The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -1102.)

It's due to the overload on Apple's side relating to the launch of iOS 7 a few hours ago.

That part of the download infrastructure should scale up over time well - try again every 30 minutes or so.


Write in NTFS using Mavericks I was able to read and write NTFS filesystems normally in Mountain Lion, but after the upgrade this stopped to work.

I installed ntfs-3g and fuse4x using homebrew in Mountain Lion and followed the instructions displayed by homebrew to finish the installation of fuse4x kernel extension.

To try to solve this problem I removed ntfs-3g, fuse4x and fuse4x-kext and reinstalled them. But this didn't solve my problem.

Does anyone know how to solve this? Thanks.

I found the proper way to do this (also works for Yosemite):

Install Homebrew and cask if you don't already have them:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask

Uninstall any previous versions of osxfuse (unsigned kexts are banned now):

brew cask uninstall osxfuse

Update Homebrew and install osxfuse and ntfs-3g

brew update
brew cask install osxfuse
brew install ntfs-3g

You need to create a symlink for mount_ntfs, in order to make drives mount automatically:

sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original
sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs


Macbook Air charger not working The circumstances of my Macbook Air (late 2010 model) and its inability to charge the battery are a bit unique from the other cases I've read about on forums:

My battery would not charge, and the computer would die instantly upon removing the MagSafe cable.
The MagSafe indicator light would sometimes show a very faint green, but most of the time, it was completely off.
I tried resetting the SMC; nothing changed.
I tried multiple outlets; nothing changed.
Coconut Battery gave a "check battery" status, indicating it needed to be replaced. I did so.

Coconut Battery likes the new battery, but it has the same issues:

When the computer is on and plugged in, the system's power status says "Not charging."
When I unplug, the battery powers the system just fine. But eventually, it will lose power from not charging, and I'll be back at Square One.
The MagSafe indicator light is still off with the new battery. I've tried jiggling it when it is in the port; no change.
I've tried cleaning out the MagSafe port; no change.
I've tried using a different duckhead adapter; no change.
The pins on the MagSafe plug appear fine.
I've tried resetting the SMC several more times; no change.

I'm out of ideas. I suppose I could try using a different power adapter, but I don't have another on-hand with a compatible MagSafe adapter. Apple's next recommended step is to get the machine serviced. But I'd rather pursue more DIY options if they exist.

Once you've reset the SMC once - that's out of the picture. Let's assume your situation is different than all the rest - My MacBook Air won't charge - and it's not the adapter or the pins or something you can fix and identify without turning a screw or opening the Mac.

Now you have to figure if the adapter is bad - you didn't explicitly say that, but it's probably not since you would report that the system is dead and won't power on ever again if you can't get some adapter to put charge back in the battery when the machine is off and sitting overnight.

At this point, you still need a hardware repair.

A repair shop might be able to tell if the battery needs replacing but since you did that - you either have a totally unlikely circumstance that the old battery failed in a non-common way and the new battery happens to have the same non-common failure mode. The new battery should show clean in system information even if it won't charge due to other issues. The real key is if the new battery shows "check battery" status you would want to return that part if you're sure you didn't do the repair wrong (you'll risk being charged for the shipping and not get your money back if the part is good) but it's far more likely the fault is with the charging circuitry and power handling circuitry. Also, you probably needed a new battery too so that's out of the way now.

The likely cause is you need a new MagSafe power in board for the Air or a new logic board. Sorry to deliver the news, but the alternative to this diagnosis is that the cables or the new battery were bad and it will be costly to figure that out as well.


Good resources for those transitioning to Mac OS X from Windows I'm going to be getting a new MacBook laptop as part of the PhD programme I've just started, but have never used Macs before in my life. I'm quite an advanced computer user (running an informal computer repair business for Windows PCs), but I can see that I might just get frustrated with it at first as I don't know some of the standard OS X ways of doing things.

Does anyone have suggestions for resources that could teach me these standard ways of doing things, or any other guides to someone transitioning from Windows?

Apple - Mac Basic Tutorials

Apple has made a lot of videos on how to get started and more indepth guides.

Among the tutorials there is a PC to Mac tutorial.


How should I reconcile dot-underscore files after a manual backup? I recently had to (hurriedly) back up data on an older Macbook before migrating it to a new one. Since all I had at my disposal was a large FAT32 formatted drive, I used that and a manual copy. I've since used rsync to put it back on a (non-journaled) HFS+ drive (under Ubuntu).

Now most of the files have a corresponding ._ file alongside them. I understand that this is how OS X stores extended attributes and other information on non-HFS+ filesystems. So my question is: now that I have these files back on a HFS+ filesystem, how can I reconcile the information in the ._ files? That is, since the data in those files can now be stored in the HFS+ metadata for each file, how do I put it back?

dot_clean

dot_clean(1) Mac OS X Manual Page

Apple's description:

  For each dir, dot_clean recursively merges all ._* files with their
  corresponding native files according to the rules specified with the
  given arguments.  By default, if there is an attribute on the native
  file that is also present in the ._ file, the most recent attribute
  will be used.

  If no operands are given, a usage message is output.  If more than one
  directory is given, directories are merged in the order in which they
  are specified.

Proceed with caution. Whilst the man page lists no known bugs, it is possible to lose data through careless use of the command.


Is SmcFanControl safe to use on 2015 MBP My 2015 MacBook hasn't got any hotter then it normally does since I brought it. The only issue is not it is the hot weather my 2015 MBP is now making me feel hot (due to feeling the heat on my lap).

To fix this issue I would like to use an application such as SmcFanControl. Is this updated for the retina 2015 MBP and will I be able to set my fans back to auto when I don't need the application any more?

Thanks

I think it is safe to use, since the latest update has a reset function:

  New: Reset-Feature to reset fans back to factory defaults, delete settings and favorites

I've also red somewhere they fixed SmcFanControl on newer macs.


osascript to set secondary desktop background? I have been using this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST
1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd>
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
 <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.filmscoring.display.plist</string>
 <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>osascript</string>
    <string>-e</string>
    <string>tell application "Finder"
set f to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/mac cinema desktop yoda.png"
if desktop picture is not file f then set desktop picture to f
end tell</string>
  </array>
 <key>StartInterval</key>
  <integer>10</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

To prevent users from changing the desktop. (And I love it btw!) Original can be found here: How to restrict changing desktop wallpaper?

All of our stations have a secondary screen which I'd also like to fix up the same way using a different image.

Any idea how I can target the secondary display with this code? Thanks for the help!

Quick Google search revealed the following code:

set tlst to {}
--set newtop to (path to home folder as string) & "Pictures:desktop pics folder:BigDipper 916.jpg" as alias -- sample line
set newtop to choose file

tell application "System Events"
   set tlst to a reference to every desktop
   --set picture of item 1 of tlst to newtop -- display 1
   set picture of item 2 of tlst to newtop -- display 2
end tell

Taken from

http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=35840

I don't have a second monitor so I cannot test it.

Hope it helps.


macOS Sierra - why did my Calendar stop free-scrolling? I was able to freely scroll forward and backward in time. I can only go forward via the arrow keys one page at a time now. No idea why this is happening.

I tried a workaround at one point by clearing my calendar (methodical removal of plists, etc...) then restoring it from iCloud. After that restoration it didn't work. Next day scrolling worked. Day or two later, scrolling calendar stopped working and still doesn't.

Put two fingers on the page and move it to the left or the right, stop when you want. It is still there.
The arrows move a page completely, set to day, week or month when you want to use the arrows.


Does the iPad 3/4 charger use a standard C7/C8 interface? The new iPad chargers are sort of a brick containing the transformer, with a detachable corner piece containing the appropriate mains plug for wherever you bought it.

The corner piece looks like it connects to the brick with a standard unpolarized C7 socket / C8 plug:

I'm going from Europe to America and don't have an official bit to swap in on the charger, but I have a dozen C8 mains cables from other electronics. Can I just use one of them?

I happen to have a C8 plug from my PS Vita charger, and my iPad (3rd gen) charger here.  I plugged them into each other, and plugged in my iPhone.  Sure enough, it started charging my phone.

So yes, this does work fine.  C8 plugs will plug into the iPad 3 chargers.