Display configuration problems with Mac Pro I have a Mac Pro (trash can) with dual D600 graphics connected to 3 x 4K displays using mini-DP to HDMI cables that are rated to work 4K @ 60Hz.
Due to the size of the mini-DP connectors, I can fit them side-by-side, but not directly underneath each other. The following diagram demonstrates how the displays are connected to the display ports in the back of the machine.

    [1]    [2]
    [ ]    [ ]
    [3]    [ ]

Problems I'm currently facing

Only two of the three displays is being detected at a time. If I pull out cable 3, display 2 starts working. If I plug cable 3 back in, display 2 remains active and display 3 remains black until I reboot, then they go back to 1 and 3 working and 2 remains black.

None of the displays are working at 60Hz, though they support 60Hz through HDMI and DisplayPort.

Are there any tips, tricks or tools I can use to identify the problems and manually configure the displays to work correctly?

Apparently, there are three buses on the Mac Pro, which can handle either two normal (p.e. Full HD) displays or one 4k display.
[1]     [2]
[1]     [2]
[0]     [0]

The numbers indicate to which bus those ports are connected. Moreover, the Mac Pro has got an HDMI output, which is also connected to bus 0.
Apparently however, if you want to get three 4K displays to work, you have to plug one of them into a port from bus 1, one into a port from bus 2 and one directly into the HDMI-port for some reason. (I assume that this will not be a problem as you are using Thunderbolt to HDMI adapters anyway)
For more detailed information, please take a look at: How do I connect a 3rd 4K monitor to my 2013 Mac Pro?
Good luck!


iPhone 5 : Is my phone normal or not? Please anyone help me, especially expert on iPhone and iPhone 5 or iPhone 5 user.
                My iPhone is second handed, I don't know this thing is normal or not

Fully charge about 2 hours 15 minutes
Battery usage just 6 hours that I use for camera (full hours with airplane mode), and about 2 days (40 hours) with 3g (sometimes use WiFi) with minimal use (just open whatsapp and instagram for a while)
It's easy to warm if I use more than 5 minutes, and easy to cold too.
Touch responsivity in corner screens is less (only touch action), but it still works and smooth for scrolling or touch a large button

Please anyone help me, Suggestions and feedbacks are welcome

I believe your iPhone 5 is in good condition. Your charging speed seem to be similar to other iPhone 5 data. Charging should take around 3 hours. They have a fast charge function till 80% and they'll start filling up slowly.

However, your battery might be a little lesser than expected of a new iPhone. All lithium-ion batteries lose a little amount of capability of holding the energy. They are called charge cycles and commonly, the Lithium-Ion battery degrades to around 80% when charged 300-500 times.

Your iPhone is perfectly normal :D!!

Learn how to maximize your battery performance:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/
Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5568093?start=0&tstart=0


The camera lens on iPod touch 5th gen My iPhone 6 camera protrudes slightly and so does my iPod touch 5th gen, but I don't worry about scratching my iPhone camera because I know it's coated in sapphire. Is the iPod touch protruding camera also sapphire? Or is it just the same glass as the screen?

The iPod touch 5 is older then the iPhone 6 (released with the iPhone 5) so no, it does not have a sapphire coating. However, it generally is durable enough for most things before it scratches.


Are there privacy concerns with the Built-In iSight Camera and LED Indicator? I was having a discussion with some friends about the built in camera of computer and what you can do with them, and I realized that my macbook has one of those. That got me thinking about how the camera and LED are connected; Are they connected to the same power supply or can they be turned on or off individually?

If it's not connected to the same power supply has Apple said anything to ensure my privacy against anyone looking at me without the LED turning on?

I don't think turning off the green light while accessing the iSight is possible. I have checked the following sources for evidences against:

Security software like Prey and Undercover - They are highly motivated to do so, but unable to.
Drivers for other OS-es (Linux).
Forums, mailing lists and security advisories.

And the conclusion is:

  All Apple laptops have cameras that cannot be disabled (unless the LED is burnt out). Due to the way the iSight is set up electrically, the green light will always be on when in use.


What is the best OS X version for iBook G4? I have an old but perfectly usable iBook G4 (1.33 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB disk). I am currently running Mac OS X 10.4.11 but I'm wondering what sort of update should it take.

What is the most recent and recommended version to install in it?

Leopard, 10.5, had some interesting features but I wouldn't recommend upgrading if you're comfortable with your laptop as is. There's a good chance that your iBook won't run 10.5.8 as smoothly as it does run 10.4.11. As far as I can tell, this is your only choice to upgrade because your iBook won't run 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

The only reason I can personally imagine wanting to upgrade is to get any security updates that were issued for the last 10.5 release (10.5.8) but weren't for 10.4.11. There were roughly two years in between the last Tiger release and the last Leopard release, but I'm not sure whether or not any security updates were released in that time.


iOS - Deleting pictures after syncing with iTunes After syncing my iPhone with iTunes, if I delete my pictures from the device, will they also be removed from my Mac on the next sync?

Is there a way to delete my pictures from the iPhone, but keeping them on my Mac?

If iCloud Photo Library, iCloud Photo Sharing, and Upload to My Photo Stream is off, deleting the pictures you import either via Photos app or Image Capture won't delete them from your computer the next time you connect your iOS device (or in the time between), as there is no library sync in place.


Are Boot Camp drivers for thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet available? I have a Retina MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion and Boot Camp with Windows 7 and the Boot Camp 4.0 drivers. I'm also using the Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter.

My problem is that my ethernet port (aka wired connection) is not available in Windows' Control Panel > Network & Internet > Network Connections. Only Bluetooth and Wireless are available. When I try to set up a connection, the only options are wireless and Broadband (PPPoE).

Do I need to download a specific driver to get ethernet working?

First of all, connect the adapter and reboot. In many cases, it will solve the problem. You need to reboot because the adapter is not hot-pluggable. For the same reason, if you remove and re-insert the adapter, it won't work until you reboot.

If you still have difficulties, I've found driver information while looking at the Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter page at Apple Store.

  Google "broadcom driver windows netxtreme". Select the netxtreme I
  Desktop/Mobile driver.  Install via device manager (select location
  where you unzipped driver).  Note, the PCI ID for this device
  14e4:1682 is not listed in Broadcom's web page list of supported IDs.
  However the driver's .inf does include the requisite matching for the
  new device ID.

Hopefully, you can solve this with a reboot due to it not working as a hot-plug device, and each time you need to boot Windows with the adapter attached for the driver to load.


How many photos can iPad handle? I have a large-ish photo library on my home network server of over 20,000 pics. I am considering syncing it to my iPad 2nd generation 64 GB, but I am not sure whether the built-in Photos app would be capable of managing that many photos. I know they woudn't fit in the memory, but I am willing to make some kind of selection. My question is not about the raw size (that's easy to compute), but about the following:

Can the built-in Photos app handle several thousands of photos?
Is it still usable and responsive?

Any experiences are welcome. Suggestions on alternative apps, in case the built-in one is not good, are also welcome. Thanks.

Assuming that each picture you shoot is 1 MB, 20000 pictures will take up 20000 MB which is approximately 20 GB. Now if you put these on your iPad 2, you have around 40 GB to work with keeping the reserved space in mind, which is okay. Looking at that information, you can upload 40000 more if you need. An alternative is to upload them all on a photo-hosting website to save all the 20 GB if you don't look at them often.

Responding to your second query, yes: it is quite responsive. My uncle has 8436 pictures and 129 videos on his iPad 2 and it is working perfectly.


How can I run a YouTube video in Picture in Picture mode on iOS? On iOS, while watching a video in YouTube app, when I go to the Home Screen, the video stops playing. I found no setting to enable it.

I know it is available for Android, but is there a way to do so in iOS? Is there any setting, or a 3rd party app that I can use?

iOS enables PIP easily, there are standard ways to classify all video and unless the web site takes active measures to disable PIP it just works.
Youtube has continually taken steps to disable and remove PIP functionality on iOS, but there are a still few ways to bypass their efforts to control how you consume their video content and watch Picture in Picture:

Bite the bullet and subscribe to Youtube Premium (AKA Youtube Red). If you subscribe to Google Music, it is included. To watch PIP with Youtube Red, swipe down or diagonally across the video to minimize it. Plays in bottom right corner.

Use an app to open and process the links. I found links to two, but can't vouch for either one. Including name of developer in case the location of link changes at some point:

Cornertube by Tiny Whale Pte. Ltd.
https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id1073199994?mt=8 costs $2.99

Pipifier, made by Arno Appenzeller, can be found at
https://itunes.apple.com/app/pipifier-pip-for-nearly-every/id1160374471?mt=12
free app

Scriptable.app with this YouTube PIP script - both are free

An alternative that needs no payment or extra apps is Safari in split view. This is a part of iOS and is documented at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207582.
How to use Split View:

Open an app. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the Dock.

On the Dock, touch & hold the second app that you want to open, then drag it off the dock.

When the app opens in Slide Over, drag the dash icon down.

This question was answered a few years back at How do I play a YouTube video in the background on my iPad? but the solution doesn't work on iOS 10+.


Is it possible to disable Apple Watch iMessage notifications while my MacBook Air is unlocked? I know that Apple Watch notifications are silenced while you are using your iPhone in order to prevent duplicate notifications. Is it possible to extend this functionality to silence my Apple Watch notifications while I am using my MacBook Air? I would only like to receive iMessage notifications on my Apple Watch when I am not using both my iPhone and MacBook Air.


Why does the Network icon in the Finder sidebar in Lion have no function on my Mac? Since installing Lion on my Late 2007 MacBook Pro, which cannot support AirDrop, an icon called "Network" has appeared under Favorites in my Finder sidebar. This icon seems to have no function. Clicking on it only reveals the error message

  "Network" can't be opened because the original item can't be found.

There is also no option to disable its appearance in Finder Preferences.

The Network icon seems to disappear on occasion, only to reappear later.

I can find no documentation of this mysterious icon, and no reference to its existence anywhere.

Can anyone suggest what this icon is and why it is being displayed?

Addendum: Note that there are indeed other network computers visible on my LAN in the finder, whereas the little gray Network icon in the Sidebar does not display any of them.

Note that there is no item named "Network" for me to remove in my Finder preferences:

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

In Terminal, run the following command. You should find the word Network mentioned at least once in your .plist preference file:

defaults read com.apple.sidebarlists | grep Network

Applicability

As I can't drag Network to my Finder sidebar — and as sidebar takes a different approach to showing shared items — I guess that:

in Lion, Network is no longer applicable in the FAVORITES part of the sidebar
maybe for you, Network was amongst sidebar favourites in a previous version of the operating system.

Removing unwanted items from the property list

Probably easiest with Xcode.

If you don't have Xcode, then use TextWrangler or anything that's capable of editing this type of property list.

Identifying items in the .plist

Xcode views of the property list:

A TextWrangler view:

To view Network, with or without the sidebar

⇧⌘K

In the sidebar

show SHARED
click All…

If the option 'All…' does not appear

First try removing, from the property list, unwanted or redundant items relating to Network.

A guess: it may be necessary to quit Finder, or log out, before some types of change become effective.

If following removals and a log out you find that SHARED is still without All…, consider asking a separate question.


Does macOS 11 Big Sur support FireWire? I'm attempting to use legacy FireWire hardware peripherals in macOS 11 Big Sur.
Apple has provided an OEM hardware dongle connectivity path that is confirmed working in macOS Catalina:

Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter
Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter

Unfortunately, the one piece of FireWire hardware that I'm trying to use does not appear to work in Big Sur (on an M1 Mac).
Various threads online seem to indicate that FireWire products are either not supported in Big Sur or have various incompatibility issues.

Oh, Firewire UA products are incompatible with Big Sur!!

To confirm: was FireWire support dropped in Big Sur, on Intel and/or Apple Silicon?
Was there an Apple announcement of this change?
Do any of your FireWire peripherals work in Big Sur? Has anyone tested a FireWire device and found it to work correctly?

FireWire support, in general, has not been removed from macOS Big Sur or Apple Silicon.
This video demonstrates daisy-chaining 3 FireWire peripherals to an M1 MacBook Pro running macOS 11 Big Sur:

FireWire Hard Disk
FireWire Audio Interface
FireWire Video Camera

So all-in-all I'm really surprised all this equipment still works, or at least it works the same way as it did in the previous versions of Macs with Intel processors.
I honestly expected Apple would have dropped FireWire support on these newer Macs but, surprisingly, it's still possible as long as you have the right adapters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ISyI3VcWo


Will installing Lion on a MacBook 5,2 improve performance? Will Installing Lion on a MacBook5,2 with 4GB or ram, currently running Snow Leopard, improve or decrease its performance?

I was going to add only a comment, but it was too long. The truth is that Speed/Performance is almost always relative when the difference is not too big. The question is, would Lion be a better option for you? I certainly find some of the Lion "new features" almost a must-have for my daily workflow. The overall OS improvement makes it better for me.

The truth is, that the first releases have proven to be more disk intensive/CPU intensive in a few tasks, presumably because there are more services (autosave, resume, etc.) running in the background. This alone may be the culprit of most of its "performance" problems. It has slightly improved, but I've seen very fast Snow Leopard installs. To be fair, SL have had a few point releases already, and Lion only 2, so one can assume that it will get faster over time as things are optimized (at least this is what has been happening with Apple for the past eight years).

All in all, evaluate wether you find Lion a good addition to your OS rather than the raw performance. Some people really like the SL "Spaces", Dashboard, Exposé, etc. on the other hand, Launchbar, Mission Control, AutoSave, etc. are features that some people hate, and most of the time, there's no way to revert to the "previous" behavior.

In the end, you get used to it, but it takes some time.


Cannot drag a window in Catalina Beta I am running macOS Catalina 10.15 Beta in a virtual machine on Parallels Desktop for Mac version 15.0.0.

I installed the Beta on top of Mojave what was working well within the VM. Unfortunately, after installing Catalina Beta, I cannot drag any windows.

When I click on the title bar of a window and drag, the window moves a few pixels and stops. If I repeat, I can barely make progress, progressively moving the window a few pixels at a time. Obviously inching along a few pixels at a time is unworkable and renders Catalina Beta useless.

This problem affects windows in all apps: the Finder, the "About this Mac" window, the Feedback Assistant window, and so on.

Any workarounds or fixes?

The workaround is to go into the VM’s settings and on the Mouse & Keyboard pane change the mouse and keyboard to be “Optimize for games”.  The drawback to using that setting is that it automatically activates the “Mouse pointer sticks at window edges” function, with no way to disable it.


-d option for split is illegal on OS X 10.9 I have bash script that works on Ubuntu but for OS X 10.9 i get the
error for split command:

split -b 1000000 -a 3 -d $F $F && rm $F || { echo "Error: 'split' command not installed" ; exit 1 ; }

split: illegal option -- d .

According to the split man page, -d is

   -d, --numeric-suffixes
          use numeric suffixes instead of alphabetic

Is there workaround for this?

The GNU version of split is different to the OS X version of split.

OS X is based on BSD Unix, and Linux (often referred to as GNU/Linux) uses the GNU toolset.

The GNU version of split is part of the coreutils, and the good news is that these are available in MacPorts. If you have MacPorts installed, you can install the coreutils port using the command:

sudo port install coreutils

This installs the GNU core utilities (including split) with a g prefix, so you call split using the command gsplit.


Why do full-screen applications change their order in Mission Control? How are fullscreen apps organised? This is usually my workflow:

Dashboard / Desktop / Safari / Pages

I sometimes go to Pages and type some things and go back to Safari, and then I find that it becomes like this:

Dashboard / Desktop / Pages / Safari

It has shifted location for some reason.

Why?

Uncheck it if you must :). Then it will retain 'as launched/created' order.


Is it possible to install an old version of Mac OS on a new Mac? I know that Apple doesn't want me to run a version of Mac OS older than the one my Mac came with, but is there a way around this?  For example: if I buy a new Retina MacBook Pro, is there a way to run OS 10.6 on it without a VM?

It's not directly that Apple doesn't want you to do so, it's more that older OS versions are lacking the drivers etc. required for hardware which wasn't even known at the time the older OS was released. The most obvious example for this in your case is the Retina display (and the graphics driver required for it), there are probably a lot more parts including the CPU which require special handling by the OS.


Do splitters for mac combined mic/headphones exist? I am looking for a splitter that turns my 3.5mm headphone and mic port on my Mac mini into two 3.5mm headphone and mic ports or one audio out port and one audio out/mic port.

I want to be able to leave my speakers plugged in and use my headphones/mic at the the same time. I will turn off speakers when using headphones and mic, but don't want to keep reaching around to plug and unplug.

I was unable to find anything that does what I want. Most splitters seem to only split the combined port into one audio out and one mic port.

How about the "Wiretap" from Extrasensory devices?

(source: shopify.com)


Using iPhone 4s camera to record video live on OS X I have a late 2010 13" MBP. I have OS X 10.9.5 installed. Also I have iphone 4s. I would like to record video directly from my iPhone's HD camera to my computer since I can't record long videos because I only have 8GB on my iPhone. I tried to use iMovie but when I select the iphone camera, it only shows the videos I have on my iphone. I want to record from the camera directly! However choosing the iSight camera from iMovie, it allows me to record. This is very strange.

Any ideas?

Go to App Store put "iPhone webcam" into search and you will find few apps that can help you use your iPhone cam as webcam for you Mac.

Of course every such program relies on desktop client that you need to run or install in order for this functionality to work.


How do I fix the 3-5 second lag when typing with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard on a Windows 7 PC? I've been trying to use an Apple Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard with my Windows 7 PC (My own build, not Apple hardware).  If I stop typing for as few as 10-15 seconds, when I start typing again and if I type continuously, there is a lag of 3-5 seconds before the text shows up on the screen. If I type a few keystrokes and then stop, nothing happens. However once I start typing again, all of the previous keystrokes are sent at once.

I'm not sure if this is a driver issue or a problem with my bluetooth adapter.  In Device Manager, it shows 2 Keyboard Devices; 1 on Blutooth HID Device and another on USB Input Device (Logitech Download Assistant).  I am not sure what the Logitech one is. I do have a Logitech Performance MX Mouse, but why that would be under Keyboards, I don't know. Under Bluetooth USB, it shows my Bluetooth adapter from IVT Corporation, Driver Version 6.2.71.213 from June 24, 2010.

How do I fix the 3-5 second lag when typing with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard on a Windows 7 PC?

The frequency of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi overlaps and can interfere with the Bluetooth frequency that is going to the keyboard to the Mac.

Some PC have better response with this fix:

You just need to go into your Wi-Fi settings by going into the browser and entering the router's IP address (usually "192.168.1.1"). Enter the username and password when prompted. There should be a wireless setting for your wireless frequency, called 'channels' and normally is put the 'automatic' you just have to change that from 'automatic' to 'channel 1' this should out your router to the lowest frequency. After saving the settings just to be sure turn off the router for 30 seconds and check your keyboard if it is working (may need a restart of the iMac and the keyboard). This should resolve the problem.


I've manually copied files from my time machine backup drive and now I cannot delete them from my computer I got a new computer and I didn't want to do a full time machine restore but rather pick and choose what files I was going to copy off of my time machine drive.

So, I went into the directory, found some files I want, and did cp -Rpv dir /Users/username/dir

However, With the -P it kept the same permissions as the files on the time machine. chmod -R 777 dir doesn't work and neither does resetting permissions from within the 'get info' -> 'sharing and permissions' setting.

How can I get the permissions for the directory back to something that will allow me to delete the directory?

I've sorted it out. First, you need to look at the ACLs that got copied along with the files.

ls -le /path/to/dir

Once you've done that you can see that everything had this:

0: group:everyone deny write,delete,append,writeattr,writeextattr,chown

So, what I did was add a new ACL policy to the directory by doing this:

chmod -R +a "admin allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity" dir

Followed by:

sudo rm -rf dir


MacBook Air 2020 - Unable to Connect to External Monitor I have a Dell monitor which supports VGA - so I am using a VGA cable, VGA to HDMI adapter, and the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (Apple) to connect to my MacBook Air 2020 (running macOS Catalina Version 10.15.5).
However, the screen on my MacBook keeps flickering - in the Displays window (under System Preferences) I can see it detects the monitor and then loses connection very quickly.
I tried the same setup with an older MacBook Air 2015 (running macOS Catalina 10.15.4) - the only difference was that I did not need a USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, instead I used a HDMI to Mini DP adapter. And it worked like a charm!
Is there any reason the newer MacBook Air would cause a problem?
P.S - to troubleshoot this better, I connected the MacBook Air 2020 with a monitor that supports HDMI with the Multiport Adapter and an HDMI cable - and it worked smoothly without any flickering.

Using two or more adapters in series is not recommended. While not dangerous, they rarely work, or at best, work badly. Find the right adapter for your needs.
I've used this Belkin adapter and this one, to connect different USB-C Apple laptops to a small selection of VGA-only monitors.


How to install Windows 10 into a 2011 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, an optical (DVD) drive or third party tools? Apple does not support Boot Camp Assistant installations of Windows 10 on 2011 and earlier iMac models. The exact list of supported Mac models is given below.

The following Mac models support 64-bit versions of Windows 10 when installed using Boot Camp.

  If you have one of the models listed below, then you should not use the accepted answer to install Widows 10.

MacBook Pro (2012 and later)
MacBook Air (2012 and later)
MacBook (2015 and later)
iMac (2012 and later)
Mac mini (2012 and later)
Mac mini Server (Late 2012)
Mac Pro (Late 2013)

I have read where others have successfully used the Boot Camp Assistant to create a Windows flash drive installer. This was accomplished by first editing a .plist file contained within the Boot Camp Assistant software. I have the following problems with doing this.

The Boot Camp Assistant software has to be hacked in order to create the Windows installer.
The resulting flash drive installer defaults to a Windows installation that uses the EFI boot method. Apple did not officially start supporting this method of booting Windows until the 2012 model year. I have always assumed the Windows Support Software, supplied by Apple for my Mac, was designed only for the legacy BIOS boot method of installation.

  I have no problems EFI booting the USB Windows installer, but I still want to install Windows to use the BIOS boot method.

Here is what I wish to accomplish.

Install Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. I have downloaded the latest Windows 10 (Version 1709, OS Build 16299.15) iso file.
Install Windows 10 into a newly formatted volume. I do not want to first install an earlier version of Windows and then upgrade to Window 10.
Boot Windows using the legacy BIOS boot method.
Use only one partition on the first internal drive (disk0) for the Windows files.  The single internal disk in my Mac uses a 512 byte sector size.
Install Windows using the latest version of macOS. Currently, this would be High Sierra (macOS 10.13.2).

I would desire to preform the installation without any of the following.

No third party software
No optical (DVD) drive
No Boot Camp Assistant
Without disabling System Integrity Protection (SIP).

I would prefer not having to boot to macOS Recovery via the internet, built-in recovery or an USB flash drive macOS installer. But, since macOS Recovery is not a third party tool, I am not opposed to its use.

Installing Windows 10 without DVD or Third Party Tools

  Note: If installing Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) Edition, then you should read this question.

This answer applies to Mac models where the following is true.

An optical drive and/or Windows installation DVD is unavailable. Such cases include when the optical drive has been removed or is broken. Also, when a Windows iso file is available and the Mac has a working optical drive, but no blank DVD can be obtained.
Windows 10 needs to be installed to boot using the legacy BIOS method. This generally includes Mac models that where shipped with an optical drive.
Your Mac is capable of 64 bit EFI mode booting from a properly created USB flash drive Windows 10 installer.

  Note: Unless apple officially supports Windows 10 on your model Mac, there is no documented way of knowing if your Mac can 64 bit EFI boot from a USB flash drive Windows 10 installer. The only way to know is to build such an installer and try booting.

The Windows specifications are given below.

Edition: Windows 10 Pro
Processor: 64 bit
Version: 1709
OS Build: 16299.15

The macOS is version 10.13.2 (High Sierra).

Below, are the basic steps needed to install Windows 10 for an BIOS boot, when the USB flash drive Windows Installer boots in EFI mode.

I have made the following assumptions.

Apple has not supplied the drivers for a 64 bit Windows 10 installation. It is a common misconception that the latest Windows Support Software from Apple should always be used to install Windows 10. This is wrong. Microsoft Windows is designed to use legacy drivers when current drivers are not available or nonexistant. You should use the latest Windows Support Software that apple has released for your model Mac. I assume this is what you get when the latest Boot Camp Assistant application available for your Mac is used to download the Windows Support Software.

  Note: I actually have a 2007 iMac running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. The software was installed (from a DVD) on a freshly formatted partition using the Windows Support Software designed for a 32 bit Windows 7 installation.

Windows will be installed on the primary internal drive. In other words, the drive with the disk identifier of disk0.

  Note: Windows can be installed on drives other than disk0, but this may also require a 500 MB "System Reserved" boot partition on disk0. In any case, the procedure to implement this situation is beyond the scope of this answer.

Windows will be installed on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th partition of the drive.

  Note: Windows can be installed on partitions greater than the fourth partition. Again, the procedure to implement this situation is beyond the scope of this answer.

Below are the installation steps.

  Note: To get a better view of the images shown below, either click on an image or open an image in a new window.

Download the latest Windows Support Software for your Mac. For the 2011 iMac, this software can be found at Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621. On my Mac, these files were downloaded to the ~/Downloads/BootCamp5 directory. This software can also be use with the Mac models given below.

MacBook Air (11-inch & 13-inch, Mid 2011)
MacBook Air (11-inch & 13-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, & 15-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (13-inch,15-inch & 17-inch  Late 2011)
MacBook Pro (13-inch & 15-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch & 15-inch Early 2013)
Mac Pro (Early 2009)
Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
Mac Pro (Mid 2012)
Mac mini (Mid 2011)
Mac mini (Late 2012)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (21.5-inch & 27-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2011)
iMac (21.5-inch & 27-inch, Late 2012)

  Note: The Boot Camp Assistant can also be used to download the Window Support Software. Look for the "Action" pulldown on the Boot Camp Assistant menu bar. On my Mac, these files were downloaded to the ~/WindowsSupport directory.

Create a ExFAT formatted volume labeled "BOOTCAMP" on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th partition of the primary disk. If this volume already exists, then erase the contents.
Make sure the drive is using the GPT/MBR hybrid partitioning scheme. See my answer to the question "How to convert a drive from the GPT format to the hybrid GPT/MBR format when using High Sierra (macOS 10.13.2)" for a procedure that accomplishes this task.

  User Semi has noted that the Boot Camp Assistant (BCA) will correctly GPT/MBR hybrid partition the drive. So, you may be able to the the BCA to partition the drive, then use the flash drive to install Windows.

Use the Disk Utility application to erase a 16 GB or larger flash drive. Choose the parameters shown in the image below.

Mount the Windows iso file and copy the contents to the "BOOTCAMP" volume. In my case, the label "ESD-ISO" was used to identify the Windows iso. To perform the copy operation, you will need the enter the cp command from a Terminal application window. Below are the commands I usually enter. If necessary, make the appropriate modifications.

cd  /Volumes/BOOTCAMP
cp  -Rv  /Volumes/ESD-ISO/  $PWD

  Note: This command will take a while to complete. Be patient!

Copy the Windows Support Software to the "BOOTCAMP" volume. Below is the command I usually enter. If necessary, make the appropriate modifications.

cp  -Rv  ~/Downloads/BootCamp5/  $PWD

Use the command shown below to rename the AutoUnattend.xml file.

mv  AutoUnattend.xml  NoAutoUnattend.xml

Copy the contents of the "BOOTCAMP" volume to the "WINSTALL" volume. Below is the command to use.

cp  -Rv  $PWD/  /Volumes/WINSTALL

Disable the ability to EFI boot from the "BOOTCAMP" volume. This can be accomplished by entering the command shown below. This will rename the folder containing the EFI boot files.

mv  efi  noefi

Next, you need to boot from the flash drive. Hold down the option key immediately after restarting your Mac. Release the option key when the Startup Manager window appears. Select the icon labeled "EFI boot". Next, select the arrow below the "EFI boot" label.
Open a Windows Command Prompt window by pressing shift+F10. The result should be similar to the image shown below.

Use the commands diskpart and bootsect to make the "BOOTCAMP" volume BIOS bootable. The commands you need to enter are given below.

  Note: Sometimes it can take a while for the diskpart command to produce the first prompt. Be patient.

diskpart
list disk

You should see output similar to what is shown below. If there is a * character in the Gpt column for the Disk 0 entry, then you have not successfully converted the internal drive to use the GPT/MBR hybrid partitioning scheme, as described in step 3. If there is a * character in the Gpt column for the Disk 1 entry, then you did not select "Master Boot Record" as the scheme in step 4.

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          500 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online           14 GB      0 B

If no * characters appear in the Gpt column, then proceed and enter the command given below.

list volume

From the output of the command list volume, determine the number (###) for the volume with the Label "BOOTCAMP".  Also, determine the drive letter (Ltr) for this volume. In this example, I will assume the number is 1 and the letter is C. Your number and letter could be different. The next command selects this volume. If you determined a different number for the "BOOTCAMP" volume, then make the appropriate substitution.

select  volume  1

The next sequence of commands mark the volume active (bootable) and then quit diskpart.

active
exit

The next command writes the boot code to the MBR and the "BOOTCAMP" volume. If you determined a different drive letter for the "BOOTCAMP" volume, then make the appropriate substitution.

bootsect  /nt60  C:  /mbr

Enter the command shown below to quit the Windows Command Prompt window.

exit

Press Escape or click the X button to close the Windows installer. If the popup shown below appears, then click on the Yes button. Wait for your Mac to reboot.

You need to finish the installation of Windows 10. Hold down the option key immediately after your Mac turns on. Release the option key when the Startup Manager window appears. Select the icon labeled "Windows". Next, hold down the control key while choosing the circular arrow below the "Windows" label.
Once the installer opens, open a Windows Command Prompt window by pressing shift+F10.
Restart the Windows installation. The commands you need to enter are given below.

  Note: Sometimes it can take a while for the diskpart command to produce the first prompt. Be patient.

diskpart
list volume

From the output of the command list volume, determine the drive letter (Ltr) for the volume with the Label "WINSTALL". In this example, I will assume the letter is D. Your letter could be different. The next command quits diskpart.

exit

Enter the command below to start the Windows installation. Again, if the drive letter, for the "WINSTALL" volume, is not D, then make the appropriate substitute when entering the command below.

setup  /unattend:D:\NoAutoUnattend.xml

When asked: "Where do you want to install Windows?", proceed as follows. First select the "BOOTCAMP" partition. Next, click on the "Format" button. Finally, click on the "Next" button.
Proceed until you reach the screen where you are prompted for your region. For the 1709 version (OS build 16299.15) of Windows 10, your the screen will appear as shown below.

For other versions of Windows 10, the screen could appear different. As an example, the screen, for the 1507 version (OS build 10240) of Windows 10, would appear as shown below.

  Note: At this point, prohibiting your Mac access to the internet is generally a good idea. For example, unplug any ethernet cables or disable Wi-Fi access that does not require encryption.

Next, press the control+shift+F3 keys to restart Windows 10 in Audit mode. If you are using a wireless keyboard, then you may have to utilize the On-Screen Keyboard. See Ease of Access on the lower left of the screen.

  Note: An unusually long amount of time must pass before the desktop appears.

When desktop shown below appears, the Windows Support Software installer should automatically launch. If this does not occur, use the Windows File Explorer to open the Windows Support Software application named "Setup". This application can be found in the "BootCamp" folder on the "WINSTALL" drive. After the installer application completes, allow the computer to restart.

You will return to the Administrator's desktop. If you are using a wireless keyboard, check to see if the keyboard is paired with the Mac. If not, then add the wireless keyboard to the existing Bluetooth devices.
If you prohibited your Mac access to the internet in an earlier step, you will now want to allow access. In other words, plug in the ethernet cable or connect by Wi-Fi.
Run the Apple Software Update application and install all updates.

  Note: When first executing "Apple Software Update" you may be asked to update "Apple Software Update" itself. If you happens, you should uncheck all other updates and just update "Apple Software Update". Otherwise, you may get an error message saying another update can not be installed. I my case, there were two updates of the "Apple Software Update" to download and install.

(Optional) Download and install Windows updates. You may want to skip this step for now if you believe the updates will be large in number and/or size. However, skipping this step may result in some hardware drivers not being updated.
From the Windows Start menu, select to restart the Mac. You will return to the Administrator's desktop. If the "System Preparation Tool" window is not displayed, then open the sysprep application found in the C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder. In this window, select "Shutdown" under the "Shutdown options", as shown below.

  Note: Your screen may also include a window labeled "Boot Camp", which  can be ignored.

Next, select "OK" to shutdown the Mac. At this point, you have completed the installation of Windows 10.

Next time you turn on your Mac, Windows will start in the "Out of the Box Experience" mode. This is basically the way a newly purchased PC starts up, when Windows 10 is already installed.

  Note: When asked, be sure to select an Apple keyboard.

If asked, I can clarify any of the above steps.

Additional Notes

When the window below appeared, I clicked on the Go button.

Next, I check off Enable AMD Video Quality features in supported video player applications, as shown below.

Finally, I clicked on the Apply button, then closed the window.
The Device Manager window is shown below. Here, there appears to be problem with a Bluetooth HID device. I am not sure, but I believe this device is not needed.

  Note: Additional devices (such as a wired mouse and keyboard) are shown that will not appear in the same windows on your Mac.

This same device appears under on the "Bluetooth & other devices" under "Settings", as shown below.

I clicked on the device to make the Remove device button appear, as shown below.

I removed the device.
This next problem did not occur when I installed Windows 10 using the above instructions, but has occurred during previous Windows 10 installations. While answering questions, the message below appeared with the error code OOBEIDPS.

  Something went wrong – But you can try again

According to the Microsoft website Windows OOBE fails when you start a new Windows-based computer for the first time, the solution is to do the following.

  For Issue 1 (“Something went wrong – But you can try again”), click Try again at the bottom of the screen. The OOBE process should continue as expected.

Actually, you may have to try more than once.


A single click on my trackpad occasionally acts like a double click I have a Macbook Pro and when I click with the trackpad, it will occasionally act like a double click. This happens whether I physically click the trackpad or if I just do a tap to click. I have tried changing the double click speed to no avail. It might be a hardware issue, but the fact that it happens when I tap to click leads me to believe it is at least not a mechanical issue (still possible an electronics/cable issue with the trackpad). I have also reset the NVRAM and the SMC (not sure why it would be an issue with those but I'm attempting everything). I'm on Yosemite.

Try disabling tap to click in the trackpad settings. If you're MacBook has the new vibrating force touch trackpad you could try to disable the force click and haptic feedback. Otherwise it may be a hardware issue.


What happens with my external drive upon using Time Machine? So I got a USB drive I want to use with Time Machine. This USB drive has some files of mine.

If Time Machine creates the backup in it, what happens to such files? Are they deleted?

Two things happen:

Time Machine sees if the format is acceptable and makes a change to enforce enhanced security on that drive if needed.
Time Machine makes a folder named Backups.backupdb if needed and makes a folder for each machine that uses that drive.

Assuming you don't have a Backups.backupdb folder - then everything on the drive won't be touched by Time Machine. If the drive isn't in a mac format, you may be asked to erase the drive and reformat it. Do use care and read any messages carefully before you start that first backup.

Full details on this is at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427 - look for the section titled Changing your backup disk about a quarter of the way down for the restrictions on which format drives are supported and which need to be erased.


After deleting an app, can you (much) later reinstall it and restore its data from iCloud? I have several games that, combined, use up a pretty good chunk of my iPhone's flash.  I haven't played some of them for a while, and would like to remove them.  However, at least before iCloud, deleting an app also deleted its data.  Since I may go back and play them again, I'd rather not lose said data.

After backing up to iCloud, can you delete an app, and (possibly much) later reinstall it and restore your data from the iCloud backup?

The answer is yes and no.

What happens quite easily after a restore (for example after an update) is that iTunes restores the save data for all applications, but not the applications themselves. Therefore as soon as you install them, the old save games will be available (this applies to all apps, not just games). Just by itself nothing will be saved without backup.

BUT: If the application supports iCloud sync and stores it's data in iCloud (which has to be explicitly supported), your data will be still available after deleting and reinstalling the app.

In short: You should be really careful and unless you're absolutely sure the application in question does support iCloud for your saved data, don't delete it without backup.


What is ~/Library/VoiceTrigger/SAT ? Part of Siri? What is this thing that we're not even allowed to look at?
sudo ls -late@ ~/Library/VoiceTrigger
Password:
ls: SAT: Operation not permitted
total 0
drwxrwxr-x  88 WGroleau  staff  2816 Feb 18 15:34 ..
drwxrwxr-x   3 WGroleau  staff    96 Mar 23  2019 .
WGroleau@MBP ~ %

https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/11/19/hey-siri-may-come-to-imac-pro-with-rumored-inclusion-of-a10-fusion-co-processor suggests it is for Siri.  The name suggests that, but I've always disabled Siri on MacOS (since it always misunderstands me on iPhone).  I understand the need for SIP, but preventing us from listing file names accomplishes absolutely nothing.
Of course, I can disable SIP and look, but that procedure is not fun.

SAT stands for Siri Audio Transcripts.
It's a UF_DATAVAULT, a new type of privacy container in Catalina that restricts who can access the contents by specific entitlement. This means nothing can access the contents except the individual binary granted the individual entitlement.


top, group by command Is it possible to run top and group processes by COMMAND?
Seeing every single individual Chrome process not very helpful

PID                     COMMAND                           %CPU                  MEM
0                       kernel_task                       2.5                   1219M
82793-                  Google Chrome He                  0.0                   427M
15051-                  Google Chrome He                  5.3                   308M+
82557-                  Google Chrome                     7.1                   285M-
14398-                  Google Chrome He                  0.1                   253M-
14580-                  Google Chrome He                  0.1                   250M+
90                      WindowServer                      1.8                   218M-
82626-                  Google Chrome He                  23.1                  194M-
82666-                  Google Chrome He                  0.2                   191M-
86580-                  Google Chrome He                  0.7                   171M-
14596-                  Google Chrome He                  0.5                   164M-
82630-                  Google Chrome He                  1.0                   141M-
82633-                  Google Chrome He                  0.1                   135M-
82622-                  Google Chrome He                  0.5                   134M-
14592-                  Google Chrome He                  0.4                   131M+
82632-                  Google Chrome He                  0.2                   130M+
82663-                  Google Chrome He                  0.4                   130M-
82623-                  Google Chrome He                  0.4                   124M-
82621-                  Google Chrome He                  0.5                   119M-

The key function of top is to offer a life view of all processes in the system, sorted by whatever option you choose. As Chrome spawns several processes (one per tab), they all will be shown (same happens with Safari/Webkit actually).

As an alternative you can install pstree (see this answer for installation instructions) which displays the process hierarchy (but doesn't offer live updating).


The index.xml file is missing I like using numbers 2.2 but also have 4.3.1 installed. I would
much rather use 2.2. as its been working all along and because I like the format bar which is not in 4.3.1.

I've been using "Open With" to get my files to open in 2.2, but now when I try to open in 2.2 I get a "The index.xml file is missing" error message and can only open them in 4.3.

How can I get back to 2.2?

Just "spitballing" here, but do you have a Time Machine backup?

If so, search it for 'index.xml'.  If you find a file that resides in a Numbers 2.2-related folder, copy it to the present and put it in the same spot where you found it in the "past".


Is there a utility that tracks most recently opened folders? Finder's "recents" feature is great, tracking most recently-opened files (from apps that report them to the OS). Is there a third-party app that keeps a running list of your most recently-opened folders?

Default Folder X can do that - amongst many other things.

It's one of the few utilities I think ought to have been part of the OS from the outset.

From their page…

  Directory Assistant   Access your recent, favorite, and open folders from DFX's toolbar. Hierarchical pop-up menus let you quickly
  navigate through folders to get to your files.


How can I open files in the Coda editor file browser using the keyboard? I am using coda as my main editor on mac. But I want to use just the keyboard for navigating through file browser. This I was able to quite easily by installing the plugin to switch between editor and file browser and then turning off the feature which opens files on a single-click or when it is focussed.

Now my problem is how to open a file in editor when I press enter - the file rename mode gets activated when I press enter while navigating in file browser. any ideas?

Both return and command + O work to open files in my version of coda.

Is your enter key only an enter key or combined?

It doesn't look like that plug in changes key bindings so you might have to search elsewhere for something that is altering the standard behavior. Other tweaks or software possibly?


Is it possible to reassign the "Pinch with thumb and three fingers" gesture to activate Dashboard instead of Launchpad? I don't really have a use for Launchpad, but the gesture to me makes sense for Dashboard. I experimented a little with BetterTouchTool, but it doesn't have the gesture available, and I'm not sure it would work well with the sequence of successive pinches and spreads to go from desktop Expose to overlay (normally Launchpad).

Ideally I'd like to see if there's a plist tweak that can be made somewhere that would keep the gesture behavior exactly the same, but substitute Dashboard for Launchpad.

I'm not sure if there's a plist modification you can do to alter the behaviour, but I do know that BetterTouchTool will let you replace the pinch zoom in/out gestures with custom actions. You can assign them to activate Dashboard instead of LaunchPad if you like or any number of other things. It can be a bit involved to set up, but it is very powerful in what it lets you override from the OS X defaults.

TUAW has an article on customizing a Magic TrackPad using Better Touch Tool that demystifies it a bit.


How to parse output from a command in OS X Automator? I have the following code in Automator but it fails to load the variable with the output from the command.

for f in "$@"
do
    output = hdiutil verify "$f"
    echo "$output"
done

I want to parse the output of that to see if it's verified or not however the variable is coming back empty.

output=$(hdiutil verify "$f")
echo "$output"


How to enable NTFS 3G? It is a common issue Mac users, when you try open NTFS external storage you allowed only read mode. And of course there are some solution. One of them it is NTFS 3G - free alternative.

I followed instructions

https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/wiki/NTFS-3G

I set up FUSE then I set up Brew and eventually I set up NTFS 3G

But because lack of experience in Mac and English I can't understand what I need to do after all

According to link

  Even though you have installed NFTS-3G, newly connected NTFS volumes will still be auto-mounted in read-only mode. To change this you need to replace Apple's NTFS mount tool /sbin/mount_ntfs with the one provided by NTFS-3G.

It says that I need to replace Apple's NTFS mount tool with the one provided by NTFS-3G...

How to do it? I don't know any tools provided by NTFS-3G...

Please help me to finish installing process

Edit

I found this two commands to solve my issue

sudo mv "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/sbin/mount_ntfs" "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/sbin/mount_ntfs.orig"
sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/sbin/mount_ntfs"

After I execute first command I got follow output

mv: rename /Volumes/Macintosh HD/sbin/mount_ntfs to /Volumes/Macintosh HD/sbin/mount_ntfs.orig: No such file or directory

After I execute second command I got follow output

ln: /Volumes/Macintosh HD/sbin/mount_ntfs: No such file or directory

Edit2

Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ sudo mv "/sbin/mount_ntfs" "/sbin/mount_ntfs.orig"

Password:

mv: rename /sbin/mount_ntfs to /sbin/mount_ntfs.orig: Operation not permitted

Alternative approach

While you can use NTFS-3G for accessing NTFS drives, it should be noted that recent versions of macOS support writing to NTFS drives natively. This option however is hidden from the GUI and you'd normally need the terminal to do it:

sudo mount -t ntfs -o rw,auto,nobrowse /dev/disk3s1 ~/ntfs-volume

Uwe Hollatz created Mounty, which is a nifty tool to automate this process. It sits in your taskbar waiting for NTFS drives to be detected.

If you use Homebrew, install it with the following command:

brew cask install mounty

Otherwise, download the DMG from its website.


Convert animated gif to mp4 I'm looking for a tool (GUI would be best) to convert an animated gif to a mp4-video to send it via WhatsApp.
Do you have any suggestions that get this job done?

You can use two programs, Imagemagick's convert command and ffmpeg, to do this.
convert -coalesce animation.gif frames%04d.png

Then convert the pngs to a movie:
ffmpeg -r 10 -i frames%04d.png -vcodec mjpeg -y movie.mp4

For a GUI, it would not gain you much convenience, but I know QuickTime Pro (you might have to get the old version) will convert a stack of sequential images into an animation. I don't know if it will read the GIF properly.
Edit: see @Henry's answer for another codec using h264. In short, for a more modern compression scheme on the movie, use -vcodec h264 instead


How does iOS7 detect mail settings? I work at a company that has both POP3 and IMAP email servers. The POP3 server is at pop3.mycompany.com and the IMAP is at imap.mycompany.com. We've noticed that when setting up email accounts in iOS7 it will default to the POP server. I was personally wondering how iOS detects these settings and what it would take to prefer IMAP over POP, or if that's possible. It's worth noting that neither server has SSL enabled currently.

I'm not really sure whether the iOS discovery algorithm is documented anywhere public in its entirety.

The standard way of doing this though is to setup SRV records in DNS to let clients know, which servers are available.

For IMAP (without SSL as you requested) you would setup a SRV record such as:

_imap._tcp     SRV 0 1 143 imap.mycompany.com.

For POP3 you could have a record like this:

_pop3._tcp     SRV 10 1 110 pop3.mycompany.com.

The priority in those two lines are 0 and 10, meaning that the client should prefer IMAP over POP3.

A different way of going about this could be to add a SRV record for Microsofts autodiscover mechanism. That SRV record redirects the client to a file called autodiscover.xml that you must host on a web server. That XML-file then contains the details of your servers.


Why aren't all calendars showing up in reminders When I create a reminder in iCal on Mac OS 10.7 and try to assign a calendar to it then not all calendars seem show up.

Is this normal?

Starting from OSX 10.7 there are 2 kinds of calendars: Calendars and Reminder Lists. Make sure the calendar you're trying to assign is a Reminder List.


How to prevent Matlab from GPU switching? MATLAB 2014a always uses the discrete GPU only, which is not necessary. (2013a didn't do this, therefore I think there might be an easy solution.)

How could I prevent this? I tried setting the NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching flag in Info.plist, but this didn't help.

I don't want to force it using gfxcardstatus as I often work with an external monitor.

Disable automatic graphics switching in the Energy Preferences Panel of System Preferences. This will force your MBP to only use the dedicated GPU, not the discrete GPU.


Mac Finder dates and exif dates I traveled to another country and forgot to change the time of my Nikon camera to local time.
So after returning I used exiftool(exiftool -AllDates+=1 *.*) to change time of all the photos but in Finder, "Date Created" changes to present day.

How can I get real created date displayed in Finder?

I understand a new file is created with exiftool so Date Created is present date.

Exif data after shifting the date:

File Modification Date/Time     : 2018:08:24 09:44:32-03:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2018:08:24 09:48:10-03:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2018:08:24 09:44:32-03:00
Modify Date                     : 2018:08:19 18:46:46
Date/Time Original              : 2018:08:19 18:46:46
Create Date                     : 2018:08:19 18:46:46

A Get Info of an original file

The image was created at 9:04.
9:30 I was still taking pictures, not editing or something

I don't get why Apple does not have a "Date/Time Original" or "Create Date" tab in Finder

You can create your own service in automator to provide this info in a popup.

Create a New Service in Automator and set it so the service receives image files in Finder
Add a Run Shell Script Action. Pass input as argument. One-liner shell script should be (depending on your path to exiftool) /usr/local/bin/exiftool -b -DateCreated $1
Pass the result into a Set Value of Variable Action. Create a new variable (I called mine EXIFDateCreated
Add a Get Value of Variable and select the variable you created above. Make sure to check the Ignore this actions input (...the first time you use this action, to separate the creation of variables chain from the getting. You can repeat the above steps numerous times to add other files you want to display, but for subsequent Get Value of Variables you would not ignore input).
Add a Run AppleScript Action the AppleScript could be:

    on run {input, parameters}
        set dateCreated to first item of input as text
        display dialog "Date Created: " & dateCreated

        return input
    end run

Here's a screen cap of the whole Automator service...

Save the Service as something like "Show EXIF Create Date" and make sure it is activated in the Keyboard Preferences (Under the Shortcuts tab). The action should now show up when you right click/command click on an image in the finder.

Note this can be tweaked to create a pretty decent alternate Info dialog, though this just shows the basics of how it can come together.


UI Guidelines : Left Navigation button should be a previous button I've recently heard the that statement that the left navigation button should be a previous button and should not be used to display a menu.

Is that statement present in an offical guideline document or a WWDC video ?

In an official Apple HIG there's the statement:

When the user goes to a new level in a navigation hierarchy, two things should happen:

The navigation bar title should change to the new level’s title, if appropriate.
A back button should appear in the left end of the bar; it can be labeled with the previous level’s title if it adds value.

I do not recall any information about this in WWDC videos.


Mail.app message selection gets reset when clearing the search box If I search for something in my mailbox, select the message I'm interested in, then clear the search box (because I want to see the other messages that came in around the same time), the selection resets and I lose my selected message.

I thought there was once some option like "View message in mailbox" that could be used to select a given message without filtering out everything else, but I can't find it anywhere.

Am I imagining things?  Does this still exist?

-- Edit --

Trying to clarify with screencaps.

I search for and select a message.

I clear the search.

The message I had selected has been deselected
The message list pane has scrolled back to the top

What I want is for the message I had selected to still be selected, or at least visible on the screen.

Answering (sort of) my own question.  When making the screenshots I added to the question, I happened to turn off the "Organize by Conversation" option, and it suddenly worked!  When clearing the search box, the selected message remains selected.

Moreover, this also happens:

Turn on "Organize by Conversation"
Enter some search term
Select a message
Clear the search box -- the message will be deselected
Turn off "Organize by Conversation"
The previously selected message is reselected

So I guess the "answer" is that "Organize by Conversation" is simply a shoddy feature that Apple bolted onto their mail client without caring too much how well it works.


When is bluetooth tethering better than wifi tethering? One of the features added in the iOS 4.3 update is the ability to tether to your iPhone via wifi in addition to the USB and bluetooth tethering that's been in iOS since 3.0. I understand the use case for wifi tethering (multiple devices, non-computers like iPads, etc) and I understand the use case for USB (keep the device powered so battery doesn't run down).

What circumstances would bluetooth tethering be preferred to wifi and USB?

I would imagine that Bluetooth tethering over WiFi or USB would be a matter of convenience, or if a device doesn't have the appropriate ports for USB.  Another thought, MiWi OnDemand (jailbreak only), when being used between multiple iOS devices, will connect to a paired iPhone for internet connectivity over Bluetooth only when needed.  I suppose that Bluetooth is more on-demand whereas using your phone as a constant WiFi access point would drain the battery considerably faster.


New iPhone XS People & Places People album not populating - nothing I have a new iPhone Xs running iOS 12.4 syncing to MBP using Mojave 10.14.6 via iTunes version 12.9.5.5. Using usb cord to sync selected items - pics, music, etc..

The People album under People & Places will not populate.  Can anyone help to get it working?  Not sure what to do.  Here is a pic of how it looks now.  Have left the phone locked and plugged into power outlet days at a time and nothing shows in album.

Interestingly, the 5 has now changed to 7 pictures synced when I now look at the phone. It changed after I took these 2 screen shots to post....  Weird.

Photos synced through iTunes won't carry over faces data. Instead, your phone will scan the library manually. It will do this in such a fashion that it doesn't interfere with your battery life.

If you haven't left it plugged in over night you certainly won't see much results


new 2tb hd not useable I have a new hard drive which I can't seem to access correctly. It is a 2TB lacie drive and when I connect it I only see ~400MB. This is the output from fdisk:

What is wrong and how can I proceed?

It turns out Disk Utility wasn't showing all devices, only volumes. I changed that option in the menu and was able to actually format the 2TB drive.


Time formatting in Activity Monitor What's the time formatting in the CPU Time column?

so for example 1:07.75

Is it hh:mm.ss?
or is it 1min 7sec 75ms

If it were h:m:s there would be a colon before the seconds, but it can't be seconds because in your screenshot there are 75 of them. Neither is it milliseconds since there  are only 2 digits. It's 75 hundredths of a second.

Picture showing longer-running processes, more clearly indicating hh:mm:ss.ss/100


Is it possible to use MTP with iPhone without installing iTunes? I want to transfer photos to the windows computer

iTunes is not responsible for photo import [on either Mac or PC].

Windows can use MS Photo Gallery [or equivalent depending on your Win version] as an importer & organiser, the closest free equivalent to Apple's Photos app.

The upside is you don't have to dig around in the file system at all - which is not recommended - the app can handle it all for you.

Re pjctech's answer - idk whether that is also a required first step before my solution will work.


Beer Spill on my Macbook Pro Late 2015 I have spilled a glass of beer on my Macbook. The screen and at least some keys on the keyboard no longer work.  When I start the computer and try to log in blind, I can hear that the password is not being entered correctly so so I know that the enter key and the sound work but that's all.
My question is, is there any way I can get into this computer from another computer?  I also have a 2011 Macbook that I'm using now.  I also have a raspberry pi.

Thanks,

Ron

From macOS help:

If you have two Mac computers with FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, you can connect them so that one of them appears as an external hard disk on the other. This is called target disk mode.

Connect the two computers with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable.

On the Mac you want to use as the disk in target disk mode, do one of the following:

If the computer is off, start it up while holding down the T key.
If the computer is on, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Startup Disk, then click Target Disk Mode.

When the computer has started up, a disk icon appears on the desktop of the other computer.

Transfer files by dragging them to and from the disk.

Eject the disk by dragging its icon to the Trash. While you drag, the Trash icon changes to an Eject icon.

On the Mac you used as a disk, push the power button to shut it down, then disconnect the cable.

The Apple Target Disk Mode support article is here.


External windows mouse invert scroll except touchpad I just attached an external windows mouse to my mac and I inverted the scrolling. But now it also inverts it for the touchpad... Is there a way to invert it only for the external mouse? I really don't want to switch it up every time...

I've had a simular issue as an inverted (external) mouse is pretty... annoying.
If you never use another computer, you will get used to it eventually.

But if you would like to customize buttons, I would recommend you steermouse as per their site:

  SteerMouse is a mouse driver that lets you freely customize buttons,
  wheels and cursor speed. Both USB and Bluetooth mice are supported, no
  matter whether the mouse is designed for Windows or Mac.


Mac os Sierra 10.13.1 : Unable to create an account I can't create an account on mac os sierra, when I add all informations (account name, password,...), all seems to go fine, then instead of creating an account I find that a "Group" is created!

When I try to delete this group I can't

Please, Help!

I found a solution finally, the problem was that my current user has no password set. After setting a password, everything is working!


Fix iTunes Billing issue with iTunes code My prepaid MasterCard didn't have enough value so a problem occurred at my last purchase and I can't download any already purchased music or free updates anymore as I have to update my credit card information. If I enter the prepaid data it says invalid because it does not have enough money on it, and due to holidays it will take another few days for my bank to transfer the money to it. Is it possible to fix this issue by redeeming an iTunes code (5€ for example?) or does it only work with a credit card?

Thanks for help! It's really important, have a new iMac 5k but can't download anythingn from the Mac app store or iTunes :/

I purchased 10€ via Paypal and it worked well, after reedeming I had 9.11€ left :)


Looking for old Garageband loop I bought a Macbook Pro in 2005 which got destroyed. I used a glockenspiel loop on garageband and would like to use it again now I"m starting out with Logic x. This is all the info I have. Can anybody help?

First, I know little about Garage Band, but I got it on or with my first Macbook. The old version now shows up in the App Store under the 'Purchased' tab at the top of the page. You could try getting that version again.


VMWare Fusion Full-Screen Not Available I'm running Mojave on my MacBook Pro. IT-support installed VMWare Fusion but I can't expand the VMware Fusion window to the full width of my laptop. It's really frustrating. Any ideas on how to fix?

I saw this for Ubuntu but that's not my OS.

Additionally - is there a setting to enable my windows VM to run full screen on macOS Mojave?

You need to install VMware tools inside the Windows virtual machine to be to resize the resolution of the virtual machine from the host. That will enable you to resize the window to fit the width of your display, as well as being able to enable "Resize to Fit" so that when you resize the size of the window, the virtual display resolution within the virtual machine changes as well.

You can install VMware Tools by opening the menu titled "Virtual Machine" and choosing "Install VMware Tools".

Without VMware Tools you'll need to change the resolution of the virtual machine from within the virtual machine itself. On Windows you'll often be able to do so by right-clicking the Desktop and selecting Properties, and then select a display resolution that matches the width of your display. It is not that convenient.

If you want to run the virtual machine in full screen, i.e. not in a window, you can do so by opening the menu titled "View" and choosing "Full Screen". Or as a keyboard shortcut, press Ctrl-Cmd-F.


How to install ImageMagick on 10.6 (Snow Leopard) using a precompiled binary (without a package manager)? The wish is to manipulate images from the command line using the ImageMagick tools.

No package manager because:

The MacPorts port and Homebrew brew package managers have Xcode dependencies.
Xcode is a 4.1GB download for version 3.2.6 and I am not willing to wait for that.
Loads of dependencies exists in the packages themselves.
For example ImageMagick using homebrew depends on pkg-config, which fails to download: curl: (7) couldn't connect to host.

The ImageMagick.org supplied precompiled binary release is also no option as that ImageMagick-x86_64-apple-darwin12.0.0.tar.gz binary is compiled for Darwin version 12 (Mountain Lion) which results in "segmentation faults" when being run on Snow Leopard (10.6.8).

How to install ImageMagick on 10.6 (Snow Leopard) using a precompiled binary (without a package manager)?

Search for an old version of the binary ImageMagick release named "ImageMagick-x86_64-apple-darwin10" that runs on 10.6.8, for example:

http://tools.robodoc.net/tools/imagemagick/ImageMagick-x86_64-apple-darwin10.6.0.tar.gz

Download and extract the files.
Move the ImageMagick-6.6.7 folder to your home folder.
Start terminal and execute this command: $ export MAGICK_HOME="$HOME/ImageMagick-6.6.7";export PATH="$MAGICK_HOME/bin:$PATH";export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$MAGICK_HOME/lib/"
Ready


How to change path in Finder by entering the path manually? It seems that by default there is no way to enter a whole path in the Finder, so instead one should traverse through all the tree to get somewhere deep in the filesystem. Is there anyway to overcome this problem? If there is no GUI for it in the Finder maybe launching it from the command line with the path? Something like:

  $ finder /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/

Finder has a menu item found under Go ("Go to Folder…") where you can type a full path.

The command+shift+G keyboard shortcut makes it handy to summon. This short cut works in the file open and save dialog as well.


Selecting text while jumping with cursor in iTerm2 I would like to know if it is possible to get text-editor-like functionality for selecting text in iTerm2.  For example, in Sublime Text 3, I can do the following:

⇧ ⌥ → = Select word to the right of the cursor.

⇧ ⌘ → = Select entire line to the right of the cursor.

But I cannot for the life of me seem to do this in iTerm2.  I can add actions that make my cursor jump over words, or jump to the end of the line, but not jump and select at the same time.

To be clear: I am not looking for an alternative to highlighting text in this manner (for example any method that begins with a ⌘ F search or that requires a mouse), I am looking for the exact functionality outlined above.

You can setup key shortcuts for this functionality in iTerm2.

  In Prefs > Profiles > Keys you can assign keys to move the beginning or end of the selection by a single character, word, or line. No such keys are bound by default.

To make a shortcut for the precise text selection you are referring to you would assign the shortcuts to the following actions,

⇧ ⌥ → = Move end of selection forward, Move by word

⇧ ⌘ → = Move end of selection forward, Move by line

Source: https://www.iterm2.com/documentation-one-page.html


iTerm2, unicode and sympy In my both Mac (OS X Mavericks) and Ubuntu machine, I have installed sympy that is a python library for symbolic mathematics. Part of sympy is the pretty print functionality that uses unicode characters to prettify symbolic expressions in the command-line environments with unicode support. For example, in my Ubuntu machine and in its gnome-terminal running the following code
from sympy import *
x = Symbol("x")
pprint(Integral(sqrt(1/x), x))

renders to

However, the same command in OS X with iTerm2 (that should support unicode) results in

I'm using sympy 0.7.5 that I have made from source with the latest build of iTerm2 (Build 1.0.0.20140518). Is there anything that I miss here? The lead developer of sympy is one of the StackExchange network. It would be great to know his opinion on this one.

I finally found out what the problem is. The problem was not with the terminal emulators themselves as both OSX Terminal and iTerm2 were using UTF-8 by default. It turned out one has to inform python explicitly that the terminal is capable of handling unicode by way of

export PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8

Credits to this stackoverflow answer.


Is it possible to download Apple's Command Line Tools for Xcode from the command line? Background

My job gives me temporary MacBook Pros for travel purposes. I get them with a fresh OS install before I leave, and when I return, they blank the hard drive. The trips usually require some sort of development work, which means I'd prefer to install my entire development stack on the machine, but doing so every time would be tedious and a waste of time. I'd like to write a script that does all of the installation for me.

Question

The big issue I've run into is having to download the Xcode command line tools. For the time being, I can stash the DMG in my Dropbox or some sort of privately accessible cloud storage. I was wondering, however: is there a way to download these tools from Apple in a scriptable fashion? The main obstacle seems to be logging into Apple's Developer site. If I could download the DMG from Apple in a way that only required me to type in my ID and password from the command line, that would be great (or even better, download it without a password).

From searching around, it seems like there may exist URLs for the command line tools that may allow me to download them from the command line. (see, for instance: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9329243/xcode-4-4-command-line-tools)

Apple now includes the xcode-select binary in OS X itself, so you have a one line solution that presents a graphical authorization window and then downloads and installs the current version of the tools.

xcode-select --install


Why won't my iPad mini’s gyroscope work? Ever since I updated my iPad mini to iOS 7.0.6 when I twist it around from vertical to horizontal, the picture won't turn with it. Is this a bug or is my iPad mini broken?

try switching the button above the volume rocker, if it shows a rotation lock/unlock icon that should fix it.
If it shows an mute unmute icon swipe up from the bottom to reveal the quick-acces menu, in there there should be an icon for locking and unlocking the rotation of your iPad.
Let me know if this fixed it.


vim not working under iTerm2 Basically, vim behaves strange under iTerm2 (it works normally in Terminal). It sets the cursor in a non existing lines, it displays garbage (content from other lines) when I try to edit a line in a file etc. It is completely useless :(

I changed "reported terminal type" to "linux" as suggested in some post, but it didn't help

EDIT

iTerm2 version: Build 1.0.0.20120724 (very latest)
running with env TERM=xterm vim and env TERM=xterm-256color vim does not help

Apparently, removing set lines=40 does the trick. The manual says:

    Number of lines of the Vim window.
    Normally you don't need to set this.  It is done automatically by the
    terminal initialization code

so be careful when you copy-paste ready configs, as I did :)


Why do Apple Store insist on decrypting FileVault to run diagnostics? Much to my horror, my MacBook screen cracked the other day and had to be replaced.  I took the machine to an Apple Store and a Genius checked it in for repair.

The Genius said that they would, perfectly understandably, have to run diagnostics software after the hardware was replaced in order to satisfy themselves that everything was installed correctly.

Less understandably, he insisted that this diagnostics software (which is simply testing hardware functionality) must run from a user account in my installation of OSX—rather than, say, the recovery partition, or a wholly different installation of OSX (eg one they keep on an external drive from which they can boot if they so choose).

Fortunately, I had already enabled the FileVault 2 guest account (the one that boots to its own limited environment) and the Genius said this would suffice.  Sadly, now the repair has completed, I have received a call complaining that it is insufficient.  They are also refusing to return the machine to me without the diagnostics having been run, even though I have volunteered to take full responsibility for the consequences.

Since I have a backup of the whole computer, I suggested that they just wipe it and reinstall OSX, in order that they can then do whatever they want: I'll just restore once I get it home.  They insist that they're unable to do this without me first unlocking the drive (which obviously is not true—not least because they would solve this for customers who genuinely have lost both their passwords and their recovery keys, but also because very simple instructions are given here).

Anyway, I'm not giving out my password (which is also my key to many online resources) over the phone to a complete stranger, even if they do work for Apple.  I would be willing to go to the store to tap it in for them, but it's out of my way and the diagnostics apparently take up to 5 hours to run—so I'll end up having to make a second journey to pick up the machine once they're complete.

In all, they are making this so inexcusably painful—and frankly I'm more inclined to make a point: go there, buy an external HDD, install OSX onto it and boot that before returning it for a full refund!  (If they insist on booting from my internal drive, I could just copy the encrypted partition to the external drive, then reinstall on the internal, then copy back once all is done).

Is there any way that I can persuade them to stop being so stupid, and save us all a ton of wasted time and effort?

In my experience they don't insist anything except you ensure you have a backup of the data should service erase it.

If they don't have your password, they can boot to another OS to test. If the issue is your software, they won't be able to advise - but even knowing you have OK hardware will help you then finish the troubleshooting.

Perhaps your frustration with the repair is coloring your recollection? It would take them 15 minutes to wipe your drive and test things and if you aren't in a position to fulfill that portion of the repair agreement that's causing the delay and both sides regret entering into the agreement that wasn't "by the book". Keep in mind if they have to take hours to work around your not having a backup - other customers are delayed in their repair and maybe that along with the high volume of repairs that happen at the end of the school year.

Perhaps the time quote was incorporating the backlog and not that your machine itself was taking that long on the test bench.


Catalina: /usr/sbin/accept command not found I have an applescript with code below that had been working until Catalina 10.15 update, gives command not found error:

do shell script "sudo /usr/sbin/accept '2nd-flr-Library-rm228'" with administrator privileges

Looked at /usr/sbin/ and accept is not in the directory.  Has it been moved?   Or is another method now required?

The script installs a printer, the uses accept command to get user to put in authorization.

Prior to macOS Catalina the accept command was a symlink to cupsaccept.  So in macOS Catalina, use:

/usr/sbin/cupsaccept

In macOS Mojave, in Terminal:

$ which accept
/usr/sbin/accept
$ ls -l /usr/sbin/accept
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  10 Sep  7 21:22 /usr/sbin/accept -> cupsaccept
$

In macOS Catalina, in Terminal:

% which cupsaccept
/usr/sbin/cupsaccept
%


App that retains data between installations. iCloud Keychain has never been enabled I noticed that Pinterest app on my iPad (iPad 4, iOS 10.3.3) keeps log in credentials after delete/reinstall. As a iOS user and not a programmer, I managed to find out from some posts I could understand, that iOS apps can keep data between instalations on Keychain, iCloud or Dropbox.

Pinterest never asked for access on iCloud, Dropbox or similar cloud storage. I suppose it stocks login data in Keychain and do not delete it when uninstalling.

Please help me to understand: is it a local keychain that iOS apps can use, different from iCloud Keychain? Is it so that only the iCloud Keychain could be user enabled / disabled, the local keychain beeing an always on iOS feature that every app developer can use whithout requesting user permission?

I ask this because I never enabled iCloud Keychain on any of my iOS devices. Or does Pinterest app use other iOS feature that I don't read about to retain log in credentials?

iOS apps can keep important data (like login credentials) in the local Keychain. It is not the same keychain as the iCloud Keychain. iCloud Keychain is located in iCloud. Local keychain is located on your device, will never leave your device, only when you backup your iOS device and only when those backups are encrypted.

When you delete an app from your iOS device, there isn't really a uninstall procedure that also deletes keychain data.

What you could try is to sign off in Pinterest before you delete the app. If the Pinterest app is developed properly the sign off function should delete the login credentials. (not sure about it)


How to connect 4 monitors to Mac mini 2011 I want to connect 4 monitors to my Mac mini. I want to send the video output to an image wall, so the 4 monitors should show one big screen.

Which adapter(s) do I need for my plan?

An old thread, but in case anyone finds this via Google, I will be a drive-by good samaritan: I'm running 4x 1920-res monitors with a 2011 mini, as the poster wishes.

Number one is connected via HDMI; number two is connected via Thunderbolt. These two are fast enough for movies and 3D gaming. Number three and number four are connected with two USB adapters, specifically this one: HIS Multi-View II Video Adapter HMV2-MAC-PC USB to DVI Interface (link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815136004 ).

Many of the other brand USB adapters won't do 1920 (check carefully) or, as someone above said, will only do a single display from OS X, but I can confirm that one (at least) works with OS X (Mountain Lion, though I also used this setup with Lion).


Prevent display from sleeping I'm trying to use an auxiliary LCD as a light-pad/bed/table by loading up a 1080p white .PNG in preview and setting fullscreen ON.

The problem is after several (20?) minutes of inactivity I get the Apple screensaver kicking in, and then have to enter my password.

How to prevent this?

Nothing in System Prefs -> Energy Saver works.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/03/21/temporarily-prevent-a-mac-from-sleeping/ suggests pmset noidle but that's also fails.

In addition to the "sleep corner" mentioned in Tetsujin's answer, there is also a small app out there called Caffeine which you can use to prevent the machine (and thus display as well) from sleeping. Note that it will even stop a laptop from sleeping when the lid is shut, so be sure to disable it. There are also alternatives like Amphetamine and Owly that seem to do the same thing, but I've only use Caffeine. All of them hit the same underlying OSX setting, apparently.


How to change "Open With" option for folder in Mavericks My Desktop folder is set to launch terminal. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to reset that.

I have deleted /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist and that did not fix it. I installed OnyX, and ran Rebuild Launch Services. I tried changing the open with option to Finder, but I couldn't locate it.

I'm about to wipe and start over. Any thoughts?

Just to be clear, this is on both the the Favorites sidebar, and the actual folder itself.

I'm by no means certain, but it sounds like you have managed to attach an Automator action to it somehow. A folder shouldn't have any kind of File Association/Open With attached to it.

Does the same happen if you manually drill down to the same folder HD/Users/[name]/Desktop ?


Bluetooth tracking built into iOS? While there is a joint venture to produce an API by Google and Apple which allows truly anonymous contact tracing, is there an API for more generic device tracing, similar to how Tile and other Bluetooth based trackers work, but still anonymous - reporting locations of Bluetooth ‘tags’ only to the user (and not, of course, making available any information about the device which performed the detection.
I’m asking here because I can’t find a device/system which appears to be a suitable tracker (outside of the COVID API) which could be used for (eg) parents to track their children.
This question is specifically not about the ability for a service to provide information to users who have their app installed but wish to remain anonymous. It is about anonymous, community-based device reporting to allow Bluetooth ‘tags’ to be found.

Yes - Apple’s API/SDK and framework for location aware Bluetooth technology is branded iBeacon.

https://developer.apple.com/ibeacon/

It is designed for your device to orient itself and take actions as soon as it comes within range of known devices. Look for this to get another jolt of attention when iOS 14 ships with App Clips and App Clip Codes.

https://developer.apple.com/app-clips/

For tracking people, I would look first at the best dog tracker around (IMO).

https://tryfi.com/

Mount that puppy on a bag, helmet or backpack until your children are old enough to merit their own smart device that uses Apple Find My tracking would be my advice for parents invested in the Apple ecosystem.


Continuity not routing audio properly for calls I just set up my new Mac/iPhone combo, and am having trouble getting phone calls via continuity to work properly.

I can both initiate and answer phone calls from the Mac, and the status popup shows correctly, and allows me to control the call. However, as soon as the call connects (either incoming or outgoing) the audio only comes out of the iPhone. This happens regardless of whether I am attempting to use the computer's internal mike/speakers or my attached Bluetooth headset.

I suspect that I am missing a setting somewhere, but have no idea where to start looking.

FWIW - If I have Settings > General > Accessibility > Call Audio Routing > Set to speaker (nice when using 'Hey Siri' to make a phone call; to have it auto default to speaker phone) My phone and continuity crashes on me.  So I need it set to "Automatic" and it works fine. Took me forever to figure this out.

Not sure if this is applicable to your problem or not but hope it can help you or someone.


Privacy fail? Spotlight shows the Safari pages read by other user accounts Suppose you have two family members using the same computer, each with their own user account (Jack and Jill).

Jill opens a page in her Safari browser (in her user account) for say:  "Pregnancy test". Then she logs out of her user account.
Jack then does a search in Spotlight for "test" in HIS user account ... and up comes the page "Pregnancy test" that Jill viewed.  One cannot actually view the web page, but the full http://address is given.

In other words, you can spy on what other users on your computer have viewed on the internet. Surely this is a bug, or an invasion of privacy ..., and not the intended behaviour!?

More importantly, can I set up my Mac to stop Spotlight searching other user accounts?

I am running Mac OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks) with Safari 7.1.6.

If it is a bug rather than a setting, it's never going to get fixed in a 2-year-old OS, only in some future update.
It still does it in Yosemite, btw, just tested.

You could add all other users' home folders to the Privacy tab in Spotlight prefs - but this, of course, would require the complicity of each user.


iTunes 10.5.3.3 - songs ending early For no clear reason, since a recent OS wipe & reinstallation of iTunes, songs in my music collection are ending early.

This is not merely a case where the song's metadata makes it appear to be 30 seconds longer than it is; the song rather abruptly ends in the middle of lyrics/music/etc.

The songs are marked "played" (their "plays" number increments, and their "last played" date updates) as though I'd listened all the way through them, but they're ending early.

I'm on Windows 7, iTunes 10.5.3.3.

This does happen with songs I am streaming via iTunes Match but doesn't just happen with those songs.

Anybody run into this before or have any suggestions on how to prevent it?

edit It appears that for certain specific songs, iTunes has "decided" that their end time is early.  My example song here is 'Sentimental Johnny' by Flogging Molly (not that it matters).  This song's track length is 4:47.  At 3:13 into the track, it ends abruptly. If I try to "fast forward" past this point by clicking on a further-forward moment on the "track time" bar at the top of iTunes, the song ends (and its "plays" and "last played" update as described above).

The problem isn't resolved, though. I am inclined to reinstall iTunes and see if that makes the issue go away.

Well I'm afraid that I resorted to the obvious Windows thing -- I uninstalled iTunes, renamed my iTunes library, and then reinstalled.  After reinstalling, everything appears to be OK (my "test song" now plays completely).  I assume there was a problem somewhere in iTunes's metadata repository.


How to recover the built in Directory Service data? AFAIU, OS X has a collection of built in users, and one of these users is 'mysql' user.

The reason I am making this guess is, the first time I have installed mysql server using the dmg, it installed fine. However, later I have uninstalled it and deleted mysql users. When I wanted to reinstall it later again from dmg, the installation kept failing until I recreated the 'mysql' user and 'mysql' group.

So, is there any way to recover the built in Directory Service data (such as Users, Groups, etc.)?

There is a daemon that backups the directory /private/var/db/dslocal nightly. If the backup hasn't occurred since the removal of the user then the info could be restored. The archive is /private/var/db/dslocal-backup.xar.

An alternate solution for "system" users and groups:

Rebuild the corresponding user and group plist's from /private/etc/passwd and /private/etc/group.


Soft switch for Mac sound output When I'm alone, I unplug my headset and let the sound output from the load speaker of my iMac, and when there are other people around, I plug in the headset in order to not bother people around me. I found myself keep plugging and unplugging my headset. What's worse is the headset jack of the iMac is on the back side of the screen.

Now I'm hoping that I could keep my headset plugged in all the time, and there would be a software switch to control the sound should be output from either load speaker or the headset. But I don't know if it is possible with a Mac. It seems to be possible with Windows, but I'm not sure. Anyone has any idea will be greatly appreciated.

In Preferences->Sound, select "Show volume in menu bar". You should then see a little speaker icon in your menu bar.

If you option-click that (click while holding alt/⌥), you can select the audio output right there.

Update: Only works for audio devices connected via USB or DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, not for the Headphone port.


Is my macbook pro dying? I have a Macbook pro 4,1 early 2008.

It's a great machine for surfing while the TV is on, but it's starting to act strange.

These screenshots are both of a google sheet -- same one a few minutes apart.

I can see two possibilities:

A:  My GPU is dying, and doesn't work in certain modes.

B:  I've got a bad memory stick.

How do I diagnose which?

Run Apple Apple Hardware Test.

Apple Hardware Test (AHT) contains a suite of diagnostics that test the hardware of your Mac.

Here is the official support article by Apple:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

And the relevant instructions, "Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold the D key on your keyboard. Keep holding the D key until you see the Apple Hardware Test icon."


How do I launch Play-in-window from AppleScript I'd like automatically launch Keynote's "Play->Play slideshow in window" feature. There's no predefined shortcut. Can that be done from AppleScript? How? Thanks.

You can define custom keyboard shortcuts for pretty much erverything via System Preferences.
Open the "System Preferences" app ➔ "Keyboard" preferences ➔ "Shortcuts" pref pane ➔ App Shortcuts. Click the Plus (+) button.

Choose Keynote from the "Application:" list. Enter the name of the menu title, in this case "Play Slideshow in Window" exactly as it appears in the menu item (spaces, upper/lower case etc.). Enter a keyboard shortcut (Control-Option-Command-W in the screenshot below). Click the "Add" button.

Tadaaa! :) Custom keyboard shortcut in Keynote.

You can then automate this via AppleScript just like with "default" keyboard shortcuts, like so:
tell application "Keynote"
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "w" using {control down, option down, command down}
    end tell
end tell

(The keystroke in the script is corresponding to the example used above.)
Please remember that you have to allow the respective script editor/compiled script app to control the computer in the Accessibility settings pane in "Security & Privacy" ➔ "Privacy" settings so that the app can send keystrokes.


Backups seeming much much larger than my hard drive Can anyone explain this to me? My drive clearly does not have 140TB of backups on it...

this is on a late 2013 retina macbook pro 13 inch.

It's a glitch in Time Machine. When an auto-backup is scheduled but your external hard drive isn't available, the computer saves a backup locally. I'm not exactly sure how their space-counting function manages to mess up like this, I'm just paraphrasing what I read in a Google result that then proceeded to give me the solution that worked for me.

The solution: Go into System Preferences > Time Machine, and flip the switch from on to off. Restart your computer, confirm that your storage usage looks reasonable again, and then you're free to go back and switch automatic backups on again.


Browsers won't load css/js files with https URL Firefox, Safari and Chrome won't load any CSS or JS files when I open an HTTPS url, for example on Twitter, it will only load the HTML.

When I look at firebug in Firefox I get the following errors:

Mac OS X version: 10.6.7
And all my browsers are up to date.

Anyone any idea what it could be?

Just a thought ... have you checked if you are using any custom Styles in those browsers? Alternatively for Safari make sure to check in the Develop menu if you have disabled styles or JS. Just to eliminate the possible culprits.


Set two-arrow key combinations to [PageUp|PageDn|Home|End] I have a new mac and am unable to recall how to enable the following key mappings:

Up-Right -> Page Up
Down-Right -> Page Dn
Up -Left -> Home
Down-Left -> End

Those combinations are working on my other macbook. I can not however recall where/how those are enabled. I have looked in the following and not found them:

Karabiner (aka KeyRemap4Mac)
System Preferences | Keyboard  (looked through all the panels
and clicked all the buttons)

My recollection is there were a single option selected that enabled all four of those mappings.  I did think it were in Karabiner (aka KeyRemap4Mac)  but can not find it .

OK found it - and yes it is Karabiner but not in the expected place instead under "Simulataneous key presses"

There is a similar way by using the Right-Option key:

  Change Option-R Key