Should there be a hardlink from `/Users/Users` pointing to `/Users`? This is was my /Users directory looks like. That Users link doesn't seem quite right..

matt@viking Users $ pwd
/Users

matt@viking Users $ ls -lA
total 8
-rw-r--r--   1 root   wheel      0 22 Aug  2015 .localized
drwxr-xr-x+ 11 Guest  _guest   374 11 Nov 18:40 Guest
drwxrwxrwt   5 root   wheel    170 12 Nov 06:42 Shared
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root   admin      6 12 Nov 23:10 Users -> /Users
drwxr-xr-x+ 14 dave   staff    476  2 May 21:59 dave
drwxr-xr-x+ 87 matt   staff   2958  2 May 22:09 matt

matt@viking Users $

You can then of course go on to do silly things like this..

matt@viking Users $ cd Users/Users/Users/Users/Users/Users

matt@viking Users $ pwd
/Users/Users/Users/Users/Users/Users/Users

matt@viking Users $ ls -lA
total 8
-rw-r--r--   1 root   wheel      0 22 Aug  2015 .localized
drwxr-xr-x+ 11 Guest  _guest   374 11 Nov 18:40 Guest
drwxrwxrwt   5 root   wheel    170 12 Nov 06:42 Shared
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root   admin      6 12 Nov 23:10 Users -> /Users
drwxr-xr-x+ 14 dave   staff    476  2 May 21:59 dave
drwxr-xr-x+ 87 matt   staff   2958  2 May 22:09 matt

matt@viking Users $

It doesn't seem like the Users link should be there, there's a good chance I created it myself by accident; I just can't help but think some service or other might be relying on it being there.

Can I just delete it?

There should not be a link like that. If you truly have a hard link, that's something that's a bit self-referential, snake eating it's own tail recursion, so I'd make sure you have a backup if you're not sure you're deleting the correct link.

From your listing - the link count is 1 so it's probably a sym link and not even a hard link - which means it's safer to delete in reality than in theory above.

I would expect a 2 between the permissions lrwxr-x-ry-x and root owner if you had a hard link there.


Sync iCal on iPod Touch Is this normal that the events I add in my calendar on my iPod doesn't show up on the calendar on my MobileMe account ? Do I have to do something on the iPod to not only be sync from the MobileMe Account but also push the new events on the could ?

Note : I have Mail set up with my MobileMe information on the iPod. This works fine.

Depends what calendar you're adding the events to. In the Calendar app, in the top left, there is a Calendars button which lists all the calendars on the phone. You should hopefully see your MobileMe calendars in there, labelled as such in their own section. The theory goes that you should see any events on MobileMe that you've added to the calendars listed under the MobileMe section of the screen.

I would guess you're adding the events on the iPod touch to the wrong calendar, but it could be there's a separate issue. You'll need to check what Calendar is selected on the Event screen when you're adding or editing the event.


Virtual Hosts Not Working on OSX Mavericks In Mac OS X 10.9.3 I've Included http-vhosts in httpd.conf

# Virtual hosts
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

I've commented out the DocumentRoot and the Directory in httpd.conf

# DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
# <Directory "/Library/WebServer/Documents">...</Directory>

I've added the following to my httpd-vhosts.conf file

<VirtualHost *.80>
    DocumentRoot /Users/gdboling/Sites/rocket-gen
    ServerName local.rocket-gen.com
    <Directory "/Users/gdboling/Sites/rocket-gen">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

And I've added the following to my /etc/hosts file

127.0.0.1    local.rocket-gen.com

I've restarted Apache

sudo apachectl restart

There is an index.html in that directory but when I access http://local.rocket-gen.com from the browser I get a 404. I am getting this in the error logs

[Tue Jun 17 19:09:10 2014] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /usr/htdocs

I can't figure out why it is not working. If I create that directory as the DocumentRoot in httpd.conf it works. But I need to have several Virtual Hosts, so I'd like to get the vhosts file to work.

It looks like you have nearly everything correct. I'm running Mavericks with a couple dozen virtual hosts, so this should work for you.

First, and this might be all you need to do to fix things, you need to enclose your DocumentRoot in quotes. So,

DocumentRoot /Users/gdboling/Sites/rocket-gen

becomes

DocumentRoot "/Users/gdboling/Sites/rocket-gen"

Next, add the following to your /etc/hosts file, on the line immediately following what you already have. Your hosts file should be:

You have this part:

127.0.0.1    local.rocket-gen.com

Now add this right below:

::1     local.rocket-gen.com

I have each of my vhosts set in hosts this way.


know how many watts a USB device is consuming I know it's possible to do some electric hack to know how much current a device is using... but that would be a 1 time usage so it would be a waste of money and parts.

Is it possible to know that using software in Mac OS?

There's no BIOS in Mac OS, but I presume through EFI the OS should be able to access that kind of low level info.

System Information shows how much current devices tell they require at most:

The voltage for USB (including 2.0 and 3.0) is about 5 V, so 98 mA is about 0.49 W. For some devices the required current is just shown as 500 mA (the USB 2.0 maximum), and I don't know how to see how much energy devices actually consume.


Face ID stopped working Recently my Face ID on iPhone X stopped working. It didn't react to my face anymore and didn't even display an error while trying to unlock the phone, but rather just repeatedly trying to focus the image back and forth and -nothing. I did Face id function reset and tried to record a new face sample, but it was not possible. Same problem. Like the true sensor or camera is not managing to do the job supposed to do.

I googled it on the internet and mainly encountered suggestions to reset Face ID, Reset Settings of the iPhone or Erase and Reset the whole phone. I did all three and the problem still persists.
Is it possible that it is a hardware bug?

The day before this problem started, the phone got a bit wet (I was on kayaking, and the phone was with me in the kayak, but the water that got to it was not at all that significant - it never went heavily underwater - maybe it was lying in an inch of water that was in a kayak for a short time)

Any ideas what I might do to solve this issue?

Thanks

Yes, it is most likely that this is a hardware problem - although you couldn't really call it a "bug".

As this happened right after the phone was subjected to water, and none of the usual resets of the phone's software helped, it is most likely water damaged. You might think that an inch of water isn't much, but when you go kayaking that water isn't "pure water". It is likely that it has damaged the hardware somehow.

I would take it to Apple or a repair shop to get an estimate on the costs to fix it!


What is the proper 3rd party cable type for fastest charging and data transfer with new MacBook Pro? What is the proper name/number of the proper cable to get the fastest charging and data transfer for the new MacBook Pro?

Obviously it came with a wall charger and a cable but I am looking to purchase a 3rd party cable/adapter and I am finding it very confusing between all the USB-3, USB-C, USB 2.0 Type-C, Thunderbolt 3...

Which cable and wall charger is the right kind/type to get the fastest charging and data transfer? If you could recommend or link to some it would be appreciated.

When it comes to USB-C cables it's fast, long, cheap, pick two.
Passive cables are going to be the least expensive.  By being passive they avoid expensive electronics but they also put limits on length and bandwidth.  The faster the cable the shorter it must be.  Unrelated to the length of the cable is it's capability to carry current.  There are two current ratings for USB-C cables, 3 amps and 5 amps.  All USB-C compliant cables must be able to carry 3 amps safely.  Those rated for 5 amps must be "tagged" electronically to tell the charger and device it is capable of carrying 5 amps.  Even though they will have a electronics in them to indicate this current carrying capability they can still be considered "passive" because they do not have any electronics on the data carrying conductors.
There is no easy way to tell a 3 amp cable from a 5 amp cable.  The difference in thickness of the conductors that carry the current is quite small and so it is easily disguised by the insulating jacket which can have considerable variance in thickness depending on the composition and quality.  Simply, a 5 amp cable is not necessarily thicker than a 3 amp cable.
What are commonly called "charge only" USB-C cables are in fact USB 2.0 cables.  These are often relatively inexpensive because they have no active circuitry except perhaps the 5 amp "tag".  There's three ways I am aware of for USB-PD devices to negotiate power delivery over a cable, and a USB-C charging cable will have to support all three to be considered USB-C and USB-PD compliant.  One is to negotiate power on the USB 2.0 data lines.  Another is to use the configuration channel pins to negotiate power.  The third means uses communications on the Vbus lines.  Because USB 2.0 communications is an option for USB-PD negotiation these cables can be used for connecting devices at 480 Mbps even though they are advertised as "charge only".  Also because they must adhere to the USB 2.0 specification for communications they cannot be longer than USB 2.0 allows.  This length limit for a passive USB 2.0 cable is 5 meters, but I have yet to actually see a passive USB-C cable that is this long, 2 or 3 meters will be far more common.  There are of course USB 2.0 cables longer than 5 meters but they do this with a data repeater in the middle, these are not passive cables and they are not cheap.
Passive USB-C cables for 5, 10, or 20 Gbps will be limited to 1 meter or less.  As a matter of keeping these inexpensive they will often also be limited to 3 amps so as to avoid having the electronic tag and heavier power conductors.  Passive 40 Gbps Thunderbolt and USB4 cables will be noticeably less than 1 meter, they will be advertised as 0.8, 0.7, 0.5, or something in length.  Passive cables by their nature of being just a bundle of wires will work just as well (or poorly) for Thunderbolt, USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, or any alternate mode as any other.
Active cables are not limited in length like passive cables.  Because they have active electronics in them they will have some limits on the protocols they support, and they will be much more expensive than a passive cable of the same length.
How can anyone tell these cables apart?  One way is by the markings on the ends of the cables.  It's not illegal to make a cable that does not comply with the USB-C spec.  It is illegal to make a non-compliant cable and put trademarked USB iconography on the cable.  The same goes for Thunderbolt.  The people behind USB and Thunderbolt will defend those symbols because their income depends on people trusting those symbols.
To know how much bandwidth a cable supports look for the icon.  The standard USB "trident" means it supports USB 2.0.  The USB trident with the stylized "SS" means it supports at least 5 Gbps, cables that support 10 Gbps will have a 10 next to the trident, and you can guess what it means if you see 20 or 40.  Thunderbolt cables will have the Thunderbolt icon, and those that support Thunderbolt 3 often have a little 3 next to the symbol.
You likely won't much care if you have an active or passive cable.  I went through that discussion so as to explain why you might see a 1 meter cable cost twice as much as a 0.8 meter cable, and a 2 meter cable only a few dollars more than a 1 meter cable.  It will also explain why one 2 meter cable will make your external drive work real fast and another will make it work real slow.
So far I've been able to keep my USB-C cables apart by buying only passive cables.  I know my 2 meter cables are 5 amp and 480 Mbps, and my 1 meter cables are 3 amp and 10 Gbps.  If I need an active cable in the future then I'll try to make it distinctive by getting it in a unique color or I'll have to pay closer attention to the markings on the cable ends.


Is it possible to change the screen display names in MacOS for a multi monitor setup I have a 15" MacBook Pro (with Catalina 10.15.1) with a multi monitor setup using USB-C adapters:

I've using this setup since Maverick, as you can see in the next screenshot, the 3 screens have the same name C24F390 just with a (n) number appended:

Which causes confusion every time the video adapters are connected and disconnected, since the order (and therefore the numbers) change.

Is there a way to change the screen display names in System Preferences or maybe with a third party App? It will be very useful to send a windows to a specific screen but as the names are just the same it is a little uncomfortable (I will like to rename the 3 screens: L, C & R, which stands for Left, Center & Right screen).

The order is not a problem itself, but the screen names are, because sometimes I disconnect an adapter to work on specific tasks and I just want fewer screens.

If you need more information, just let me know.

Thanks in advance.

SwitchResX will let you rename your monitors. You can download a free 10 day trial of it to do so.

To address your root problem though, try the free terminal tool I wrote, displayplacer, that lets describe your monitor layout as a terminal command. I then use BetterTouchTool to execute these profiles via hotkeys. I have the same issue as you, when I plug in my monitors the layout randomly changes.

For example, on my 4 monitor setup at home I have this profile: displayplacer "id:A46D2F5E-487B-CC69-C588-ECFD519016E5 res:3840x2160 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0" "id:F466F621-B5FA-04A0-0800-CFA6C258DECD res:1440x900 color_depth:4 scaling:on origin:(-1440,1437) degree:0" "id:4C405A05-8798-553B-3550-F93E7A7722BB res:1440x2560 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(3840,-363) degree:270" "id:18173D22-3EC6-E735-EEB4-B003BF681F30 res:1920x1200 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(960,-1200) degree:0"

Also available via Homebrew brew tap jakehilborn/jakehilborn && brew install displayplacer


Add unlock sound effect Whenever I unlock my macOS machine, I want it to play a sound effect from an mp3 file.

So I created an automator .app to play the sound using Afplay
shell command.
Tested the app successfully.
And added that app as a login item under Users & Groups.
Granted the system permission to access the mp3 location when it prompted me to do so.

However, I fear that it is only being triggered when I do a full logout. Not whenever I unlock the lock screen.

Catalina 10.15.6 (19G73)

I believe you'll need to use a Launch Agent to watch for when the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist file is touched, as it is when the lock screen is unlocked, to have something you want to have happen when the lock screen password unlock event occurs.
Please read the answer in its entirety before implementing it.
The following was tested and works on a clean install of macOS Catalina 10.15.6.
Open Terminal and execute the following commands:
mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents
cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
touch com.my.detect.screen.unlocked.plist
open -e com.my.detect.screen.unlocked.plist

Copy and paste the example XML code, shown further below, into the opened com.my.detect.screen.unlocked.plist document and then save and close the document.
Back in Terminal, execute the following command:
launchctl load com.my.detect.screen.unlocked.plist

You can now close Terminal, if you wish.
To test, click the Lock Screen menu item on the  menu, then log back in.

Example XML code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.my.detect.screen.unlocked</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/afplay</string>
        <string>/System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityInterface.framework/Versions/A/Resources/lockOpening.aif</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <false/>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Notes:

The sound file in this example XML code obviously can be changed to whatever you'd like, however, I'd suggest that its path is not within default folders of the root of your Home folder as there may be an issue accessing it. You'll have to test if it's an issue for you. As an example, in the root of my Home folder I have folders I've created that where not originally there, that is where I'd place it.

This will also trigger when you log out as the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist file is also touched during a log out. By touched, it means at a minimum the date/time of the file has changed, not necessarily its contents. (I was not able to trap a change to its contents, if there even was one, in spite of the date/time of the file having changed.)  There may be other events that can cause it to be touched, so this is not a perfect solution. I'd still implement it and test it for a while. If you are satisfied, you can leave it in place or remove it as you wish.

To stop the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist file from being watched, and thus the sound no longer being played when the lock screen is unlocked, you'll need to unload the com.my.detect.screen.unlocked.plist file and then delete it.

In Terminal:
cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
launchctl unload com.my.detect.screen.unlocked.plist
rm com.my.detect.screen.unlocked.plist

Alternate Method
This involves the use of a third-party application called EventScripts which costs $4.99 USD on the US App Store, however, there is a demo version you can download from the developers website to give a test run to see if you feel it's worth the price.
This application sits in the menu bar area with the other menu applets and response to a variety of events, the one in particular of this subject is Screen password unlocked in which you'd use the AppleScript do shell script command to execute, e.g. afplay /path/to/filename.mp3.
 Note: I am not affiliated with the developer of EventScripts, just a satisfied user of the product.
Example AppleScript code:
on run eventArgs
    set thisTrigger to (trigger of eventArgs)
    if thisTrigger is "Screen password unlocked" then
        do shell script "/usr/bin/afplay /System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityInterface.framework/Versions/A/Resources/lockOpening.aif"
    end if
end run


Web-based screensharing applications that works with MacOS 10.5 Leopard? Using MacOS 10.5 Leopard, I want to be able to share my screen with others during a meeting so the people I'm talking to can easily see my screen through a web browser. A free solution would be preferable.

I looked at Join.me, ReadyTalk, and AnyMeeting, but none of those work with MacOS 10.5. Skype's screensharing does work, but (a) recipients need Skype (vs. just a web browser), and (b) I don't think you can do one-to-many sharing for free.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Have you tried Screenleap? I'm not sure which versions of Mac OS it supports, but it's worth a try.


VNC client like x2vnc x2vnc is a program that lets you use two screens on two different computers as if they were connected to the same computer.

The overall result is that it works like a dual-display workstation, where the mouse pointer can pass from one screen to the other by trespassing a screen's edge.

But x2vnc is only for a X11 server. EDIT: But x2vnc is not compatible with macOS' screen sharing VNC server.

Is there any VNC client like this for macOS?

Or what's the closest I can get with existing VNC clients?

xQuartz is an open-source X windowing system for macOS. I managed to run x2vnc on my mac:

Install xQuartz.
Download x2vnc.
Within the x2vnc directory, run ./configure
Edit the Makefile to include X11 (sorry I don't know the more elegant way to do this)

On line 7, add -I/opt/X11/include making the full line INCLUDES = -I/opt/X11/include -I. -DVERSION=\"$(VERSION)\"
On line 16, add -L/opt/X11/lib making the full line LDLIBS=-L/opt/X11/lib -lX11 -lm

make and sudo make install


Spotlight doesn't show applications Setup

I've got a MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017)

Problem

When I type in the name of an application, Spotlight doesn't show the application. When I do sudo mdutil -E /, It says the following,

  Error: unknown indexing state.

When I Select System Preferences, Click the Spotlight pane, select the Privacy tab and then click the Add (+) button and try to select anything, It says

  Privacy List Error,
   the item couldn’t be added or removed because of an unknown error.

What I tried

I've tried https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/rebuild-spotlight-search-index-on-mac/,
and Spotlight re-indexing takes too long or doesn't work. sudo rm -R .Spotlight-V100/ says

  No such file or directory

sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network

does a lot of stuff,

sudo rm -R .Spotlight-V100/ also says

  Error: unknown indexing state.

sudo mdutil -E -i on /
says

  Error: unable to perform operation.  (-400)   Error: unknown indexing
  state.

How it happened

When I tried to download the macOS Catalina update, the mac got stuck in an endless loop of trying to update and then failing, forcing it into recovery mode, I tried to stop the update by using this link, https://www.mklibrary.com/technology/macos-sierra-stuck-endless-rebooting-loop/ but nothing worked, so I had to fully reinstall macOS, Spotlight now doesn't show any files or applications at all. It only shows other stuff like emails, Dictionary suggestions, etc.

(Note, I've also made sure to check all the categories in system preferences)

I've tried,

sudo mdutil -a -i off,

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist'''

sudo mdutil -a -i on

It worked, however, it stopped working again afterwards when my computer shut down.

I am not sure whether you have tried this step or not.

Open Terminal window from LaunchPad.

First, turn off Spotlight:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

Next, unload the metadata file that controls Spotlight’s index:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

Use the following command to re-loads the index :

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist'''

As a last step, turn Spotlight back on:

sudo mdutil -a -i on

After a few minutes to rebuild the index, Spotlight should be functioning as normal.

Let me know how it goes.

Update: I have a script for it and it is helping me in such kinds of issue.

#!/bin/bash
# This script is designed to fix Spotlight indexing issues
# by removing the existing Spotlight index and forcing Spotlight
# to create a new search index.

# Turn Spotlight indexing off

/usr/bin/mdutil -i off /

# Delete the Spotlight folder on the root level of the boot volume

/bin/rm -rf /.Spotlight*

# Turn Spotlight indexing on

/usr/bin/mdutil -i on /

# Force Spotlight re-indexing on the boot volume

/usr/bin/mdutil -E /

Save this as .sh and run from the terminal. It should help you to fix your issue too.


cron is failing to run my AppleScript I have the following code in a text file (myfile.applescript):

#! /usr/bin/osascript
tell application "Google Chrome" to quit

I would like Chrome to shut down each night at 9:15PM, so I added the following cron task to crontab:

15 21 * * * ~/Desktop/myfile.applescript

Unfortunately, the script is not triggering. Any thoughts?

NOTE: I am aware I can use iCal to resolve this problem. However, I'd prefer to not clutter my calendar with a daily script-triggering event.

Cron has be deprecated on modern versions of OS X. Apple's suggestion is to use launchd instead. You will find Lingon to be a useful tool for creating launchd daemons.

If you would prefer to use iCal to launch the script, you can create a separate calendar for scripted event(s), and hide it from view. It will function, but your calendar view will not be cluttered.


Is there a way to type Niqqud on iOS? On my iPod touch I am able to type basic Hebrew characters by adding a Hebrew international keyboard.

Is there some way for me to type Hebrew vowels (Niqqud) [without using any specialized apps]?

I think not, only by using a hardware keyboard or via copy/paste from another doc or an app like Unicode Maps.  You might be able to make a custom layout as well with Unicode Maps.  Also have a look at Keyman.

A 3rd party keyboard is Davka Nikud.


Specification of MagSafe power adapter coaxial cable? Does anyone know what type/specification of coaxial cable is used from the transformer brick to the MagSafe connector in the A1343 power supply?

The cable from my 85W MagSafe power adapter to my MBP (the cable from the transformer brick to the MagSafe connector) has been chewed pretty badly by my cat, and is now unusable. The break is near exact center on the length of the cable. I've found a fair amount of information out there that I can repair the cable by soldering the center conductor and braided outer conductor back together, but I'm wondering whether I could source a proper coaxial cable splice kit for it.

Here's what I've determined so far, from cutting apart my damaged cable:

outer jacket diameter appears to be 0.130 inches, +/- 0.005 in.
next layer is a shield conductor, OD ~ 0.085" +/- 0.005", which appears to be made up of two layers of silver-colored fine metal wire (feels like silver-plated copper but can't tell for sure). These are NOT woven like larger coax, but rather are two layers in a spiral-wrap around the dielectric insulator, wrapped in opposite directions.
dielectric insulator is .070" +/- 0.003", white in color, unknown material but feels like PTFE.
Center conductor is fine stranded (strand count appears to be 50-100 as a guess), same material as the shielding. Looking at the cross-section of the center conductor gives a distinct appearance of copper color, strengthening my feeling that this is silver-plated copper. Diameter appears to be .045" (1.143 mm, or about 17 AWG) but I can't be positive as the thin strands won't maintain form in a caliper.
Most independent information I've seen mentions a fabric or other type of "string" somewhere in the shielding (presumably for end-to-end strain relief), but I wasn't able to locate it.

I can't seem to find any source for this, or even specs for it. Still, it seems strange to me that Apple would manufacture a custom cable gemometry just for these power adapters?

Apple's Magsafe technology is patent-protected, and there's a good chance they used a custom-manufactured cable to make it even more difficult for 3rd parties to sell cheap relacements.

Ifixit has a page describing How to Repair a MagSafe connector which may be of use to you. Excellent close-up photos & detailed instructions.


iOS 7 I want iOS 8 latest version When I click on software update the little working icon shows up and all it does is spin and spin like it's working but the software latest version never pops up so that I can download and install. What do I do ?

Shut the iPhone completely off and turn it back on.

Make sure the iPhone is at 100% charge and still plugged into the charger.

Attempt to do an "over the air" update wirelessly via Software Update under Settings.

If that fails then update the iPhone via iTunes.

Have a look at Update the iOS software on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for steps using either method.

Make sure you have adequate free space to preform the upgrade.  Have a look at If you need more space for an iOS update if need be.


How to restore iTunes DVD backup to v10.5 I had an old mac mini die on me, so new machine has itunes 10.5. I backed up the old machine itunes library on DVD, using the backup functionality in itunes. There is no restore from dvd option in 10.5. How do I recover my music ? This seems idiotic to not support restoring from dvd in the new product. Fine, get rid of backup, but at least allow restore.

Open iTunes then select File > Add to Library. Select your files and click open.

You also should be able to put your Library in /Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. Or, just put the library somewhere in your /Music folder and select File > Preferences > Advanced (tab), then under iTunes Media folder location click Change, and find the folder that you have your library in.


ICloud Password prompt On my Yosemite OSX machine I often get an ICloud prompt after awaking from sleep or after a reboot like this

what program is causing this? Is it a valid Apple one or one trying to get my password?

I have not knowingly set an app-specific password.

and in normal use ie not just after awake I got the box again but a more interesting log

24/03/2016 11:51:12.488 identityservicesd[8431]: [Warning] Registration failed for Registration info (0x7ff8e1435230): [Registered: NO] [Type: AppleID] [Device Name: (null)] [Service Type: com.apple.private.alloy.maps] [Env: (null)] [Main ID: example@mac.com] [Phone Number: example@mac.com] [AppleID: example@mac.com] [UserID: E: example@mac.com] [C2K: NO] [Push Token: <f72dd563 26eccf96 f9e058ca b26ff2b7 fa67c0e9 e7b8e17e a9c86f31 c8d5f217>] [Region ID: R:GB] [Base Number: +440000000000] [URIs: ()] [Candidates: (example@mac.com, example@icloud.com, example@me.com)] [Auth Cert: 0x0] [Reg Cert: 0x0] [Profile ID: D:53092237] [Auth User ID: (null)] [Heartbeat Date: (null)]   (Error: 0)

From that list of contacts it does look message related but still what proof is that this is from Apple and note my Message does not work even if I provide a password(see other question)

You can try logging out your iCloud in Settings and logging in back again. I've had the same issue before when I changed some account settings on another device.

It's a legit prompt from OS X but I think it's a sync operation bug.


Why am I being prompted for my password for updates in the iOS App Store? Recently the iOS App Store has started to prompt me for my password for updating apps in the App Store. Is there something I can do to change this back to the way it was?

I think the restriction settings may be the cause. Even though I have a PIN on the home screen, it prompts me for a password when I update.

I went to Settings > General > Restrictions > Require Passwords and set it to 15 minutes. I'm not sure how it got changed to this, possibly an update?


2 Months old MacBook Pro (Mid 2020) battery only last for 4 hours I'm new to the world of Apple, I bought a new Macbook Pro, mid-2020, Intel i7, 16GB RAM. I'm a developer, I run apps like VS Code, Sublime Text, Slack, Chrome (Multiple Windows), I play videos/songs in the background. I have been keeping a track of the energy consumption on my Mac, and it only runs for 4 hours. I have reset my SMC after I upgraded to Big Sur. Is 4 hours normal? or should I go to the service center?
Update on 3 Feb 2021:
I submitted my Mac to the Apple service center they said they conducted a few tests and the conclusion was that the battery is fine (I don't know what type of test they did). So I guess I'll be using it on AC
Update on 12 Feb 2021: Took it to the service center, they didn't find any issues so I started using Safari for work and my battery has improved by 1 hour on Average.

You’re using Chrome. That is a known energy hog on macOS. You can observe this yourself by keeping Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities) open to the Energy tab while you’re working.
Long battery life on modern computing platforms is the result of massive, massive amounts of engineering across all levels of the software stack. It requires adopting certain APIs and adhering to certain behaviors & best practices, and so it only works when all your software is well-written and well-behaved. Apple tries to make it straightforward for developers to adopt energy-saving practices, but that doesn’t mean that all software will. In particular, large and cross-platform apps (such as Chrome) will deviate from recommended design patterns for one reason or another, and this often causes all sorts of issues with energy usage (not to mention stability, performance, security, and privacy).
Short story: Switch to Safari. Try it for a week. See if your battery life doesn’t double.


iOS 4 - Can I close an app without it staying open in the background? I am aware that after closing an application (pressing the home button) you can enter the multi-tasking tray, hold your finger down on an icon and close an application properly. But is there an easy way to perform this series of actions with one command? Sometimes I close an app and know I will not be using it again any time soon and would not like it to remain open in the background.

Not presently.

iOS multitasking however is quite different than say the multitasking in Android or Mac OS X. The app unless it specifically is using one of the 7 methods to run in the background is "frozen" and won't consume any resources until it's brought back to the forefront. Essentially the fast app switching feature as part of iOS 4.0 is a large part of why you saw so many apps being updated to work with iOS 4.0 multitasking.


Count pages in a folder full of .doc files I recently found this very helpful link to count the pages in a large folder full of PDF files:

Count pages in PDF (for non-technical, mac using person).

It worked like a dream. Now, however, I need to do the same for a folder full of Word files. Does anyone know how I change the script provided in that link to do that? Or is there some other utility that I can use?

The AppleScript in the linked page queries Spotlight's metadata to get the page count for each PDF document. (Specifically, the kMDItemNumberOfPages value.)

It's up to applications to provide metadata to Spotlight, and MS Word doesn't provide page numbers to Spotlight.

So you can't change the script easily, and will need another method.


dd cloned NTFS partition will not boot from flash drive I have a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.10 and a Windows 7 Boot Camp install.

I just bought a 64 GB flash drive that I would like to put a bootable copy of Windows on, to reestablish the hard drive as OS X only, and figured it would be easiest to just clone the BOOTCAMP partition that I already have.

I formatted the USB to GUID/NTFS and used dd to clone it:

dd if=/dev/rdisk0s3 of=/dev/rdisk2s2 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync

After 12 hours it finished, and does not work. Windows displays the partition as "RAW"

Anyone have any tips?

You cannot boot windows off a USB flash drive.  You need a special type of flash drive then windows ultimate which comes with a USB bootable creation tool and a specialized USBkey.  There are other methods with which to install USB bootable windows onto and I have tried them and they do not work.


Does Apple Watch identify "me" while using Apple Pay on Cellular without iPhone nearby? Is it safe to use Apple Pay on Watch like on iPhone? As far as I know, Apple Watch does not need a passcode or something to pay with Apple Pay nor unlock Apple Watch (but probably it can be set).
Now let's talk about Apple Watch 6 Cellular version in situation when iPhone is not nearby (I left it in home).
As we know, when we want to pay with Apple Pay on iPhone, the phone requires TouchID or FaceID to identify that "we" are we.
Does a similar identification mechanism exist on the Apple Watch? Does Apple Watch know if really "I" am wearing the Watch or when my watch would be stolen, Apple Pay can be used by anybody else as long as then will use it when it is on someone's wrist?

The Apple Watch requires the user to have set a passcode in order to use Apple Pay with the watch.
When you put the watch on, it will request a passcode. You can use Apple Pay only after you have entered the passcode. The Watch by default continuously monitors that it is still on your wrist - if you take it off, it locks itself again and requests the passcode.
You can disable Wrist Detection, but that will disable Apple Pay on the 1st Gen Watch, and on newer watches you'll be prompted for your passcode when you attempt to use Apple Pay.
You can also use the "Unlock with iPhone" feature so that you unlock the Watch with your iPhone (i.e. by entering a passcode on the iPhone or using TouchID/FaceID).


How do I stop GitHub Conduit? How do I stop GitHub Conduit and keep GitHub.app from reinstalling the job in launchd?

There are two steps to stopping GitHub Conduit: telling GitHub.app to not re-install the job with launchd and telling launchd to not run it anymore.

Disable Conduit installation:

defaults write com.github.GitHub GHShouldDisableConduit -bool yes

Remove launchd job:

launchctl remove com.github.GitHub.Conduit


Is it possible to install Mac os x in virtual machine on a macbook pro? I'm going to try diffrent versions of MacOSX on my macbook pro. I have a Snow Leopard installed there, and need something else (possibly a Tiger) as second solution, to test the software.

So I thought of a virtual machine that would be running on my Snow Leo and have a Tiger running on it.

I tried VirtualBox, and install a MacOsX from there (from a .iso disk image), but it basically hangs during the very beginning of the instalation.

Is there any good and easy to perform solution to do this?

The only version of Mac OS X that can be legally virtualised is Mac OS X Server:

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#intro-macosxguests


Is there a way to block images from untrusted senders on the iPhone? I got a spam message on the iPhone and I accidentally opened it. It loaded an image and now I guess the spammer knows this is a valid address since they are sending more spam.

I'd like to prevent this problem in the future with my other email accounts. I know that I can disable Load Remote Images in the settings. The problem is that I believe this will not allow any images to load, even those from people in my address book.

Is there any way to get functionality similar to Gmail where it will only load the images from safe senders? Or is it an all or nothing deal?

Also, what's the significance of the word "Remote" in the setting name? Are there images that will load which aren't remote?

Doubtful without a custom email app of some kind.

Certainly the default iPhone mail app won't selectively (or conditionally on click) block images by default.

Have you tried the official GMail iPhone webapp?

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-gmail-for-iphone.html
http://www.google.com/mobile/mail/

Not a native app, but... there's surprisingly almost zero native iPhone apps that do Gmail.


why do I have to double tap command + space to open spotlight? Since I installed High Sierra I sometimes have to double tap Command + Space to open spotlight search bar. This problem is weird because it happens randomly. Say I just double tapped Command + Space, it won't happen again for a couple minutes.

I haven't setup any shortcut nor I use any app that steals this shortcut. I have no idea what is going on and it is really boring, cause sometimes I'm in a text editor, tap Command + Space, nothing happens but as I'm used to it, I start type right away and mess up my code.

I had the same problem. Apparently, Siri is waiting to see if it's being called. In the Siri preferences, there's a setting for Keyboard Shortcut which is set to Hold Command Space by default. So sometimes you might be pressing a little longer but not long enough for Siri to kick in.

Change this setting to Press Fn (Function) Space as shown in the screenshot.


When a powered USB hub is used, would we need to worry the power flowing from the hub back into the MacBook or iMac? If I use a non-powered USB hub, the iPad Air or iPad Pro could be losing power over a few hours, because the charging power is not enough.
However, if I get a powered USB hub, would it be an issue, say, if the USB port on the MacBook, MacBook Air, iMac is at 5.2V, while the powered USB hub happens to be 5.3V, in which case the current could be going back into the Mac instead of out of it?
This may be more of an issue if the iPad Air and iPad Pro is unplugged, so the current has no where else to go.

There's an isolation on the power connectors to prevent power from the hub flowing into the USB-A port on a computer.  People have been plugging powered USB hubs into laptops for something like two decades, if this was an issue someone would have seen it by now and fixed it.


Manage /etc/hosts from menu bar Some years ago, I recall a menu bar application that would allow you to activate/de-activate host entries in /etc/hosts.

I can't seem to find it via google.  Anyone have recommendations?

It is not a menu bar item, but this preferences pane called Hosts is by far the best /etc/hosts manager I tried. And you can enable or disable entries easily.


Find multiple files at once via Terminal I have a list of filnames like this:

P1020804.JPG
P1020805.JPG
P1020806.JPG
P1020807.JPG
P1020808.JPG

How to best find them all by single query in Spotlight, Terminal, mdfind or locate?

I'm going to assume your list is just a representative list and the filenames follow that pattern and may actually be more then those exact filenames. So, the use of an extended regular expression is going to be used to find the files matching the pattern shown in the example filenames in your OP.

find -E . -regex '.*\/P[0-9]{7}\.JPG'

-E Interpret regular expressions followed by -regex and -iregex primaries as extended (modern) regular expressions rather than basic regular expressions (BRE’s). The re_format(7) manual page fully describes both formats.
. Searches the current directory and its subdirectories.
-regex pattern True if the whole path of the file matches pattern using regular expression.
.*\/P[0-9]{7}\.JPG

.* matches any character (except for line terminators).
* Quantifier — Matches between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy).
\/ matches the character / literally (case sensitive).
P matches the character P literally (case sensitive).
[0-9] match a single character present in the list.
{7} Quantifier — Matches exactly 7 times, 0-9 a single character in the range between 0 (index 48) and 9 (index 57) (case sensitive).
\. matches the character . literally (case sensitive).
JPG matches the characters JPG literally (case sensitive).

$ find -E . -regex '.*\/P[0-9]{7}\.JPG'
./Pictures/P1020799.JPG
./Pictures/P1020800.JPG
./Pictures/P1020801.JPG
./Pictures/P1020802.JPG
./Pictures/P1020803.JPG
./Pictures/P1020804.JPG
./Pictures/P1020805.JPG
./Pictures/P1020806.JPG
./Pictures/P1020807.JPG
./Pictures/P1020808.JPG
./Pictures/P1020809.JPG
./Pictures/P1020810.JPG
$

Note: The . is the current working directory, which by default if you just opened Terminal will be your Home directory. If the files are elsewhere you can use a different starting path, e.g. / will start in the root of the Macintosh HD, (assuming default naming).  As you can see in the example output the target filenames found by the regex pattern were in my Pictures folder.


Deleting srt files from vlc app in iPad Mini I have installed VLC app in my iPad Mini and have been enjoying movies. But the srt files I have transferred to my iPad cannot be removed even after I have deleted the movies from my iPad.

Before there were only some files, so it was not a problem for me but now it's been a mess. I tried to delete it from the iPad but the files aren't visible there. I don't have Macbook. I tried to delete via Windows, but the delete option doesn't work.

So you have lot of subtitles hanging around loosely. There are two ways you can remove these annoying creatures. I will discuss both of them, use whichever suits you best.

Delete and re-install the VLC app.
Take a deep breath, this is going to be long. There is a work-around that I've found and works 9/10 times.

Theory:

What VLC does in the background is that, it deletes the subtitles files automatically  whenever you delete the parent video file, provided that the video and the subtitle have same name.

For example, if your video file is named "test.mkv" then the subtitle file should be "test.srt"

What you need:

A video clip, format doesn't matter, and smaller the size is
better as it will take less time to get copied.
iTunes

Procedure:

Connect your iPad to your computer and go to iTunes.
In iTunes, go the "Apps" section of your iPad and find your way to VLC.
Copy all the parent-less subtitles to one folder in your desktop.
Create copies of the video clip as many as the number of subtitles present in that folder. For example, If you have 4 subtitles, then you create 4 copies of the same video clip.
Rename each video clip to one of the subtitle. Take caution while renaming, don't change the extension/format of the video clip.
Once you have the video clips renamed, copy the video clips to back to VLC.
Save and eject the iPad from iTunes and computer.
Go the VLC app in your iPad and start deleting those renamed video clips.

So, as per the theory, when you delete the video clip, VLC will delete its subtitle as well simultaneously.


Apple Numbers, matching string variations in a SUMIFS function I'm using a SUMIFS function to get values from a column in another table depending on if they have a certain string in a corresponding memo column. I'd like to be able to check for a few variations on the string, i.e.

SUMIFS(Amount-column, Memo-column, "this-string*"||"that-string*")

Anyone know how to do this?

Sorry to bring bad news, but there simply is no suitable formula, in-place ORing, or list comparison of that type in Numbers.

Of the common workarounds for similar spreadsheet problems, I find the "helper column" approach to be the most straightforward and maintainable. Create a new column to calculate whether or not that row should count in the later summing. The helper column can then be the condition source in your sumif formula, and hidden.

For example, helper-column cell D2 could be:
OR(  IFERROR(SEARCH("This*",C2),FALSE)  ,  IFERROR(SEARCH("That*",C2),FALSE)  )
and after populating that down the rows, your count formula could be:
SUMIF(helper-column,helper-column,Amount-column)


How to get the selected text into an AppleScript, without copying the text to the clipboard? I've researched methods on how to get the selection as a text variable in an AppleScript. But these methods rely on copying the selection to the clipboard (for example, by keystroking the copy command at the top of the script) in order to introduce this text to the AppleScript (by using the clipboard).

This is less than ideal, of course, because the actual clipboard text is overwritten.

Is there another way to get the selected text, system-wide, in AppleScript, without disturbing the clipboard?

Obviously, one can easily get the selected text without touching the clipboard in Automator. However, in this case, I don't want to use Automator; I need a pure AppleScript solution.

Here is a recent blog post that focuses on this very mission:

Michael Tsai - Blog - Processing the Selected Text via Script

One way to get the currently selected text into an AppleScript, without overwriting the clipboard contents, is to simply save the clipboard contents to a new variable before the selected text is copied. Then, at the end of the script, place the original clipboard contents back onto the clipboard.

Here is what this might look like:

-- Back up clipboard contents:
set savedClipboard to the clipboard

-- Copy selected text to clipboard:
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
delay 1 -- Without this, the clipboard may have stale data.

set theSelectedText to the clipboard

-- Makes the selected text all uppercase:
-- From: http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/171196/184907
set theModifiedSelectedText to (do shell script ("echo " & theSelectedText & " | tr a-z A-Z;"))

-- Overwrite the old selection with the desired text:
set the clipboard to theModifiedSelectedText
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using {command down}
delay 0.1 -- Without this delay, may restore clipboard before pasting.

-- Instead of the above three lines, you could instead use:
--      tell application "System Events" to keystroke theModifiedSelectedText
-- But this way is a little slower.

-- Restore clipboard:
set the clipboard to savedClipboard

But, this method is imperfect, as Michael notes:

  This is ugly and has some downsides: there are delays necessitated by the GUI scripting, and certain types of clipboard data are not preserved.

However, Shane Stanley left a comment on the blog post with a method to retain the original formatting of the clipboard contents.

If using the previous example, replace the first line with:

set savedClipboard to my fetchStorableClipboard()

Replace the last line with:

my putOnClipboard:savedClipboard

And add the following code to the end:

use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AppKit"

on fetchStorableClipboard()
    set aMutableArray to current application's NSMutableArray's array() -- used to store contents
    -- get the pasteboard and then its pasteboard items
    set thePasteboard to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
    -- loop through pasteboard items
    repeat with anItem in thePasteboard's pasteboardItems()
        -- make a new pasteboard item to store existing item's stuff
        set newPBItem to current application's NSPasteboardItem's alloc()'s init()
        -- get the types of data stored on the pasteboard item
        set theTypes to anItem's types()
        -- for each type, get the corresponding data and store it all in the new pasteboard item
        repeat with aType in theTypes
            set theData to (anItem's dataForType:aType)'s mutableCopy()
            if theData is not missing value then
                (newPBItem's setData:theData forType:aType)
            end if
        end repeat
        -- add new pasteboard item to array
        (aMutableArray's addObject:newPBItem)
    end repeat
    return aMutableArray
end fetchStorableClipboard

on putOnClipboard:theArray
    -- get pasteboard
    set thePasteboard to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
    -- clear it, then write new contents
    thePasteboard's clearContents()
    thePasteboard's writeObjects:theArray
end putOnClipboard:

I've tested this solution provided by Shane, and it does indeed retain all of the original formatting of the clipboard contents if you have rich text on the clipboard.

Shane later left a second comment, this time with the intent of minimizing the runtime of the script.

Replace this code:

-- Copy selected text to clipboard:
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
delay 1 -- Without this, the clipboard may have stale data.

with this code:

set thePasteboard to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
set theCount to thePasteboard's changeCount()
-- Copy selected text to clipboard:
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
-- Check for changed clipboard:
repeat 20 times
    if thePasteboard's changeCount() is not theCount then exit repeat
    delay 0.1
end repeat

I tested this new code and I did find that the script was in fact noticeably faster, just by a hair.

Overall, this is not a bad workaround. The contents of the clipboard are preserved and the delay is much less noticeable if you employ the code provided in Shane's second comment.

I tested the solution against a Service created in Automator.app that receives the selected text as the input. The Service and the pure AppleScript solution pretty much took equal amounts of time to complete (i.e, about one second).

If one wants a method to get and replace the selected text without having to touch the clipboard, Michael suggests in his blog post that one can utilize a piece of third-party software entitled LaunchBar. However, this is "cheating," because, at that point, we have moved beyond the scope of my original question, which is strictly concerned about AppleScript.


iPhone 6, charged overnight and now stuck in bootloop I left my phone charging overnight, and in the morning I woke up and the phone was stuck in bootloop.
The Apple logo came on, then the screen turned white, sometimes with 1 black horizontal line or sometimes a pixel (greenish).

While the screen is white I would try force restarting.

If that doesn't work, and you have a computer and some time, I would force it into DFU mode and restore it with iTunes.

HOWEVER, do not use DFU mode if you do not have a backup of the phone. In that case, I would take it to the nearest Apple Store and ask how they would suggest recovering your data.


Wireless Keyboard Connection I have the wireless bluetooth connecting keyboard for the iMac and it continues to disconnect even when the batteries are brand new. Is there anyway to enhance the bluetooth connection so that it will stop disconnecting?

I guess you are using the original Apple keyboard? In this case, you shouldn't have any problems with the bluetooth connections when the keyboard is in front of the iMac (and your Mac is located in a "normal" office, without lots of over the air devices that can cause a lot of noise).

To me, this sounds like a hardware defect. I would take the keyboard back to Apple/reseller to get a new one.


How to deal with payment scam through apple calendar? I upgraded to latest version of iOS and link my debit card to apply pay a few days ago. After that I start receiving a very suspicious invite on my iPhone calendar. I ignored it and on advice from my friend, disabled "Events found in apps". However, 2 days later, when I wake up, I received the same event again, and most shockingly the phone was at the payment screen, waiting for me to authorise the payment of $19,99 through my thumbprint. Unfortunately I did not take a screenshot of this as I immediately turn off and on my phone to get rid of it.

I checked both my gmail and yahoo mail accounts that are linked to my phone, including the spam folder, but did not find any suspicious email.

I had contacted apple support, but they did not even know about the disable event found in apps feature. Really worried about the security of my phone now and thinking of deleting apple calendar or removing apple pay. Any advise will be appreciated.

Part of the solution, which fights the consequences not the reason, is to create another iCloud calendar named, for instance, "Spam" and move scam event(s) there without accepting/declining it (them). Then just delete this "Spam" calendar choosing 'Do not notify' when asked.

I think all this is due to hack of Yahoo mail when some people got access to many Yahoo addresses (about 500 million) and now they are sending those iCloud calendar scams.


Does an app's bundle ID change after App Transfer in the developer program and itunes connect? I have successfully received a transferred app as per Apple's documentation on transfers: App transfers

However when uploading a new version of this app I receive this warning that is caused because the app is now under a different team ID:

  Potential Loss of Keychain Access. The previous version of software
  has an application-identifier value of 'A1B2C3D4E5.com.company.app'
  and the new version of software being submitted has an
  application-identifier of '5E4D3C2B1A.com.company.app'. This will
  result in a loss of keychain access.

Does that mean that the app's bundle id has changed to include the new team ID?  The error message seems to indicate that it has.

However in itunes connect the app's bundle id still shows without the team id as:

com.company.app

Yes the app identifier changes and no the bundle remains in your scenario. Unless you copied the information wrong from the portal, 5E4D3C2B1A.com.company.app is what you’ll ship next iteration.

When you submit and the app goes to sale, only the Team ID part of the app identifier will change and you’ll have the one time loss of keychain data the app stored.

This could be minor or major depending on how the app was designed.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/technotes/tn2311/_index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40014135-CH1-A_ONE_TIME_LOSS_IN_KEYCHAIN_DATA_WILL_OCCUR_IF_YOU_SWITCH_YOUR_APP_ID_PREFIX

If you have thousands of users or can’t be sure you are safe after talking to the previous Dev or inspecting the code, you might burn one of your paid support incidents with Apple to review the code and be sure you’re safe to go with the change.


Software to horizonally flip (not rotate) OSX's monitor output? For display reasons we've got a setup where a user watches videos on a MacBook via a mirror.  Of course, this works okay for videos normally, but the user would like to be able to do more than watch videos, including play some games and read comics and the like.

Since the user views the display though a mirror (there are disability issues around this - I'm aware it's a relatively odd question) obviously the text is backwards. Is it possible to horizonally flip OS X's output? Either to the main screen or a external monitor? At the moment it looks like two mirrors is going to be the only solution and that's going to be tricky to arrange.

To be clear - I'm trying to flip horizontally, not rotate by 180 degrees. So the Apple menu is in the top right and the spotlight Notification Center are top left.

Please indicate/edit and OS version requirements in your answer.

I realize how old this is, but the answer is VLC player. I have an El Capitan Macbook 13". Open VLC, then Window - Video Effects - Geometry - Transform. From there you can rotate 90/180/270, flip horizontally or vertically, magnify, clone etc. Perfect if you have a p/w locked no remote garage sale projector like mine.


How to store SSH Credentials in Terminal I am new to the MacBook and I am running El Capitan.

I'm migrating my machine usage from a PC to a MacBook. I am long time user of PuTTY and SuperPuTTY on a PC.

I want to create and save login credentials to my web servers in MacBook Terminal just like I've done in SuperPuTTY on the PC.

Is it possible to save web server login credentials in Mac Terminal?

Here is My Overall Objective:

I would like to know if there is an easy way in Mac Terminal to store the following command line login credentials and then use some sort of a shortcode to connect to my web server through Terminal:

ssh -p 2200 root@123.456.789.012
Password: ****************************************************************

I manage and connect to 5 different web servers so sorting out and organizing the login credentials in a short/fast connection method would be a huge time saver. Especially because my passwords are cryptic 64-character strings.

You can copy your public key to the remote machines. As long as they have public key authentication enabled, and your public key is present on the remote machine, you can ssh to the machines without having to supply a password.

First you'll need to generate a public/private keypair like so:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Follow the prompts. When it asks if you want to protect the key with a passphrase say YES! It's bad practice to not password-protect your keys and I'll show you how to only have to enter the password once in a while.

If you already have keypair you can skip the step above.

Now, assuming your ssh key exists on your Mac as ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, you can install it on a remote machine by running:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@123.45.56.78 "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >>  ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

For your specific server example cited above, the command would look like:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh -p 2200 root@123.456.789.012 "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >>  ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

You'll have to enter the password for root@123.456.789.012 to perform this copy, but this should be the last time you need to do this. Assuming the remote server's sshd is setup to do public-private key authentication, when you ssh to the box now it shouldn't ask you for a password for the root account -- instead it'll ask you for the password for your key. Read on for how to make this something you don't need to enter all the time.

Repeat the above for every machine you want to ssh in to with your keys instead of a password.

Please note, anyone who gets a hold of your ~/.ssh/id_rsa file can ssh to this machine as root without supplying a password for the remote machine. Password protecting the key file ensure they'd need to know the password for that key to use it. Make sure that file is secure. Use disk encryption on your Mac and keep the permissions on the file and the ~/.ssh/ directory tight.

To make it easier to use the key without having to enter the password every time, OS X runs an ssh-agent process in the background on your machine. This agent will cache the keypair the first time you use it so you only have to enter your password once in a while. If you only sleep your mac, never restart it, you can go long periods of time without needing to enter your password.

You can pre-cache all your SSH keys with the ssh-agent by running:

ssh-add

Now you only need to remember the key password, not the many different account passwords. I usually keep my key passwords in 1Password (no affiliation), further simplifying how many passwords I need to remember. Then I just look them up in 1Password and cut-and-paste them in the Terminal the odd time I restart my Mac and cause my running ssh-agent to be restarted.

If you combine copying your key to remote machines with the Terminal.app connection management solution in this question, you'll have something very close to PuTTY for GUI connection experience.

On the server side, check /etc/ssh/sshd_config and make sure:

PubkeyAuthentication yes

is enabled in the configuration (it is by default in OpenSSH). You may also wish to set:

PasswordAuthentication no

While you're there so password-based authentication is disabled and keys become the only way to access the machine.

You'll need to restart sshd on the machine if you make any changes to the configuration file.


Do all Airport Express generations support client mode + Airplay? I basically want to achieve what is explained in this question/answer.
I have an existing, non-apple WiFi network and I want to use an Airport Express to be able to play music from my MacBook Pro (Mountain Lion) and iPhone (iOS 7) on the stereo.
The current WiFi router and the Airport Express can not be connected by a cable, so I need to use the existing WiFi connection.

To keep the cost down I want to buy a second hand Airport Express, but I noticed there are several versions.
Are all versions capable of achieving this? Or is one version better at this than the other?

Every express supports AirPlay. Some older hardware needs an older OS or utility to configure, so go for a newer model if you don't have an older PC or Mac (or VM) to run the old software to configure things.


MacBook Air audio input/output, mic/headset In perusing varying sources I have not reached a definitive answer on the ability to use a product such as the Headset Buddy on my MacBook Air.

Apple states...

Support for Apple iPhone headset with remote and microphone

...on their web site which led me to believe, along with varying comments that the audio jack is indeed both input/output. Having said that, I did purchase the above Headset Buddy and am unable to get it working in any way. It appears that the OS does not recognize the device in any way and it is not an available selection within Sound, only the internal components.

I want to avoid using a USB solution at all costs but more importantly identify if the port is indeed audio in/out and how I can get my Headset Buddy functioning properly?

The port does support headphone+mic combos, which you can verify for yourself by plugging in any headset that's compatible with an iPhone. Apple notes this on the Audio section of the Tech Specs.

The reviews on the product page suggest that it works with other Macs, so it seems likely you've got defective hardware somewhere in the chain. Try testing the components individually with other known-good devices. Test the adapter + headset with an iPhone or iPad, the headset itself with a PC, and the MacBook Air port with an iPhone headset.


Mac mini loses wifi when an ubuntu computer is on the same network Someone gave me their mac mini running osx 10.6.

I have a D-Link router at home.  I want to connect my mac mini to the home network.

I start by turning off all other computers and wifi devices i have at home so that i make sure nothing else is on the wifi network.

I turn on my mac mini, and it automatically detects my home network.  I select the network and enter a password that has wpa2 encryption. Mac mini successfully connects and i can surf the web, watch youtube videos, use skype etc...

I then go to another room and turn on my Dell laptop.  It also successfully connects to the home network and can surf the web.  But now all of a sudden, my mac mini loses wifi connection because no matter what url i put into safari, it says can not connect to "domain name".  I can't even use safari to open up 192.168.0.1 which should show my router user interface.

I then close the lid on my laptop.  Now all of a sudden my mac mini has internet connection again.  I open the laptop lid, the mac mini loses internet connection.

How do i fix this i problem?

ADDITIONAL NOTES

I just noticed my mac mini loses connection ONLY IF MY LINUX laptop jumps on the same wifi network.  In otherwords, if i boot my laptop into windows instead, my mac mini remains on the wifi network. If I boot my laptop into ubuntu linux, then it kicks my mac mini off the wifi network.  I have other cmoputers and phones connected to the wifi network and it doesn't affect the mac mini wifi.

So it's only my dell laptop when in Ubuntu Linux that kicks my mac mini off of wifi.

My linux laptop is at IP address 192.168.0.102.  My mac mini is on IP address 192.168.0.110.  So there's no conflict with IP ...

Does anyone know how to correct this problem?

Try locking down the MAC address into the router to a specific IP address.
MAC address is media access controller not the mac mini.
The router will dhcp the same IP each time you connect.


Can't merge "Free Space" with Macintosh partition I have deleted a messed up bootcamp install and now I am stuck with 50 GB in "Free Space" that I am unable to "delete" or merge with my Macintosh partition. Anyway to do this?

diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk1 0

The command above fixed it :)


Is it possible to use iOS7's AirDrop with the Mac AirDrop? iOS 7 is out, and it has AirDrop. I'd like to be able to AirDrop files between my Mac and my iPhone, but it seems that iOS devices don't show up on the Mac AirDrop console.

Is it possible to use AirDrop to transfer files between a Mac and an iOS7 device? Is there, say, a file-manager app I can install that makes it possible?

Not Yet, I have tested it and TechHive confirms. Though Mavericks may bring this functionality (complete speculation obviously).


Duplicate keyboard input after upgrading to macOS Catalina After updating to macOS Catalina – when I type, macOS will randomly repeat keypresses and sequences of keypresses.

Below are some examples of some mistypes just while writing this article:

macOS => macOSmacOS
Below => Below elow
Below => BelBelow
Some => SomeSome
Some => Someome

macOS also duplicates Enter and control-sequences like Ctrl-C and CMD+V.

After updating to macOS Catalina, I also updated brew with brew upgrade, so maybe I have some odd update in there that might be causing this issue?

~ $ brew list
allure
ansible
apr
apr-util
argon2
aspell
autoconf
bash-completion
bdw-gc
brotli
c-ares
caddy
cmake
composer
ctags
curl-openssl
dnsmasq
doctl
fdupes
freetds
freetype
fzf
gdbm
gettext
git
glib
gmp
gnu-sed
go
graphicsmagick
htop
httpie
icu4c
jansson
jasper
jemalloc
jpeg
jq
jsoncpp
libev
libevent
libffi
libidn
libmetalink
libpng
libpq
libsodium
libssh2
libtermkey
libtiff
libtool
libuv
libvterm
libyaml
libzip
little-cms2
luajit
mariadb
mongodb
msgpack
ncdu
ncurses
neovim
nghttp2
nnn
oniguruma
openldap
openssl
openssl@1.1
pcre
pcre2
php
pkg-config
python
python3
python@2
rbenv
readline
rtmpdump
ruby
ruby-build
sdl2
sdl2_image
shellcheck
sphinx-doc
sqlite
the_silver_searcher
tidy-html5
tig
tmux
unibilium
unixodbc
webp
xz

I have tried multiple different keyboards. It feels like restarting the computer will make the issue go away for maybe 3 minutes and then the random key repeats start happening again.

What could be causing this and where should I be looking? I can't work like this and it's also dangerous because sometimes macOS repeats e.g. the enter-key which has already caused some confirmation-dialogs to be silently confirmed. :|

Thanks for your help!

Do you happen to have Wacom settings/software installed? Seems that completely uninstalling all Wacom software and deleting its other files solves the issue.

Looks like doing so solved the problem for me, testing for 10 minutes and the issue doesn't occur.

Logitech settings may be a reason too.

Kudos to rakdavid.


Is the trackpad surface different on MacBook Air than the Pro? Is the trackpad surface on a MacBook Air different than on a Pro? I found that the trackpad on my friend's 2012 MacBook Pro is much smoother than that of my 2013 MacBook Air. Is that normal or my has my trackpad gone rough by use?

The trackpad surface is the same on both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. It's the iconic glass on metal design (patent D674382). The trackpad design and hardware has been the same since it's introduction in 2008 with the new MacBooks.


How to skip using Photos app whem importing photos I prefer to keep sorted/labeled folders of all of my iphone photos via finder and a NAS system. With more and more system updates and phone/iMac changes, I am finding that now when I go to import photos from phone to iMac I can't bypass the stupid "photos" app.
Can anyone help me? I saw someone's suggestion about using image capture application, but I can't find that either.
Thank you

You can use Image Capture to save you photos to a folder somewhere. Image capture will bring up a list of photos and you can select which ones to save.
There is also an app IExplorer which allows you to just transfer photos from your device to another.  Just select one or all photos and copy to a folder.


Buying in the Mac App Store for the enterprise We're looking to buy an app in the Mac App Store (iBarcoder) for our graphic designers using Macs, and after read this article on Macworld.com, we're not too sure how to go about it.

  Does that mean I could buy one copy of an app and install it on every Mac in my business?

  No, the license you agree to when you enter the Mac App Store says
  that app downloads are for Macs that you personally own, and that's a
  license for personal use. Apps that are intended for professional use
  are licensed for you or for a single computer used by several people.
  While there's no technical impediment to you installing them on
  multiple Macs at work, you'll be violating the license agreement. It's
  the same scenario as if you buy a single-user copy of iWork and
  install it on ten Macs at work—you can do it, but you're violating the
  license agreement, making the act ethically questionable.

We know about the volume licensing that Apple offers, but it seems as though it's only for education and not for the enterprise. Surely creating a new Apple ID for every Mac isn't the best way to do this, right?

Thanks!

Apple also has a Volume Purchase Program for Business, which it says is applicable "whether you have ten employees or ten thousand". I didn't see anything saying it couldn't actually be used for even fewer than 10 employees/users, too. There doesn't appear to be a minimum quantity for VPP license purchases (that I could find, anyway).

If you choose to enroll, you'll need to set up a new Apple ID using an email that isn't already tied to an existing Apple ID.

You can find more information in the VPP Guide (PDF).


Freeware includes ssh terminal and file transfer support for Mac OS? I am looking for a freeware (like Bitvise SSH Client on Windows) that keeps track of servers/connections via a GUI and support some features:

SSH terminal.
File transfer (FTP, SFTP, SCP ...).
Port forwarding .

In the absence of any freeware that meets the features in section 1. I will choose the most suitable software (cost, features, utilities ...).
I have tried the free version of the softwares below:

Royal TSX
Terminus
sFTP client

Would you like to share your experience with me ?

Thanks for anything helpful.

UNIX Philosophy

macOS is built upon a UNIX philosophy. In your situation, that means many smaller dedicated tools instead of one monolithic tool. Most of the features you want are part of built-in macOS tools. These tools are accessible by macOS's included Terminal.app.

For Secure Shell connections, use ssh
For network file transfers, use scp or rsync
Port forwarding is typically part of your router's interface, not the local computer.


How to get Mavericks Calendar to sync with Microsoft Exchange My company uses Microsoft Exchange server for email and calendar items. How can I get that onto Calendar in the new Mavericks OS?

Open System Preferences → Internet Accounts.

Select Exchange from the list.

Enter your account information and follow the instructions.

Make sure that the Calendars option is selected.


AirPlay Mirroring shows scrambled output in guest account When using Mountain Lion's AirPlay Mirroring in the guest account, all I see on an Apple TV is some flickering scrambled image.

Sometimes I shortly recognize some text, but that seems to be from the screen of another account. However, I am only using Mirroring in one account at a time.

How can I use AirPlay Mirroring in the guest account?

This is a bug in 10.8.

To be more precise: after using AirPlay Mirroring in one account, one needs to log out that account before one can use Mirroring in another account on that same Mac. The same applies if you happen to use Mirroring in the guest account first, and then leave that account logged in and try to use Mirroring in some regular account.

Also, any text you might recognize is not from the current screen of the other account, but from the last Mirroring session of that account. The current screen might already not show that text anymore.

(It's fine to log in again right after logging out; apparently some cleaning up is done when logging out. I've reported it, but unfortunately used Apple's feedback form, rather than the developer Bug Reporting. Hence, I cannot see the status of my report. I will delete all this if it's fixed in some future version.)


Prevent iPhone from charging when plugged into a battery powered MacBook Air I would like to prevent my iPhone draining power from my MacBook Air while the laptop is not plugged in and relying on battery power. How would I do this? Note, there doesn't seem to be any "unpowered USB ports" on the MacBook Air, both of them seem to charge my iPhone even when the laptop is not plugged into a power socket...

I don't know if there is a software way to do that, but there is an hardware way:

Use an unpowered USB cable (some company makes it, targeting audiophiles), might need an adapter to male lightning.
Tape/Remove the power plugs on your USB cable.

Also, not exactly an answer to your question, but maybe to your use-case:
Build a binary, then export it to iTunes, then upload via wifi.
No debbuger and much less convenient tho.


Looking for command to display network usage on macOS ifconfig can be used on linux to check network transferred bytes in each interface like below:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:42:ac:11:00:05
          inet addr:172.17.0.5  Bcast:172.17.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:20782 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:16290 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:28527924 (28.5 MB)  TX bytes:1386216 (1.3 MB)

the RX bytes and TX bytes shows the current data transferred in the eth0 interface. However, the ifconfig on Mac doesn't show this information for me.

Is there an equivalent command on Mac? I am looking for a native command without installing 3rd party library.

Absolutely there is.
I was going to suggest the GUI alternative, through the Network Utility's Info Tab or the Option + Click onto the WiFi icon in the menu bar to bring up current statistics. A set of easy to follow steps that are well-documented in this article.

You are however asking for a "native command" and thus interested in the following:

Command: netstat -i : contains Incoming and Outgoing Packets (just another name for RX and TX). By default every interface returns its data but you can easily narrow it down using either netstat -i | grep en0.
Command: netstat -I en1 (note the capital -I flag) will produce an output for only that specified interface (here, en0). This is a more direct approach that does not require further filtering such as the grep operation above.

Let me know if you have success with any combination of the above, or if there is anything you don't understand/want to refine.

Additional Explanation
In a comment, you mention seeing three lines of output when querying the interface using netstat -I, and ask how to handle that data. They are all the same values because they tie back to the same interface, read one line only (usually the first) and don't add them all together as you suggested.

Why?
In the Terminal output, those 3 lines are referring to the same interface because multiple addresses are associated with it. In plain terms, it is much like having multiple phone numbers forwarding their calls to your cell phone instead of ringing at their physical location.

In my case (on an iMac, querying en1), the first line's Address column shows the MAC address of my (ethernet) network card. Which is typically referred to as the most reliable out of the three entries because it is hardcoded and unique to the network card itself (hence won't change unless the physical unit is replaced).
The second line is (at least in my case) associated with an IPv6, while the third is an IPv4 address. These are susceptible to change depending on your network configuration and location. That's why the first line is usually the most reliable out of all. Think of line 1 as your cell phone to which lines 2 and 3 are forwarding the calls - it is also the only entry with error (Ierrs and Oerrs) logging.

Why are the errors only logged there?
Well, think of it as a direct reference/shortcut, if that's all they are (logical connections), they do not exist physically - the only physical interface is where the MAC address resides and thus the only location for packets to be verified and error reporting to take place.

I really hope that made sense, I know you were just after the procedure at the top, but I thought a bit of an explanation won't hurt. Is that helpful in any way?


Is there something special about the .Spotlight directories/data? I am nearly out of disk space and trying to remove old/unused files. I ran
     du -k -d 2

in my home directory to attempt to identify candidates and found the following:

4   ./.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1
3297484 ./.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2
3297492 ./.Spotlight-V100

That's 6.6GB between them. I'd like to see if the V1 were still in use or just old.  But that directory is not viewable from iTerm ?

$ls -lrta $HOME/.Spot\*
ls: /Users/myuser/.Spot*: No such file or directory

That directory also does not show up in Finder even though I have enabled "Show hidden files".

So what is going on with those directories - or are they truly inaccessible?

Yes you may delete those directories.

These directories house files that are indexes to allow searching your drive with Spotlight. (see the magnifying glass on the menubar of your Mac.)  Deleting those indexes will force spotlight to re-index your drive (which is perfectly natural) and it will make a new index, hopefully something small and tidy.  I've no idea why your index is so large and would hope that the new index will take up MBs rather than GBs.


Apple TV HomeKit hub can see devices but cant communicate I have an AppleTV 4th gen that im trying to set up as a HomeKit hub. I have it signed in using two factor authentication and it shows on my Apple ID devices page.

The settings app on appletv says it’s connected to my home and I also see the Apple TV as a hub on my iPhone home.app under the house settings.

Both the iPhone and Apple TV are on the same WiFi network.

I can control my devices with my iPhone but not with the Apple TV.

I know the Apple TV knows about the device database because I have a light named “Xmas Tree”. When I say “turn on the Christmas tree” it spells out “Xmas Tree” on the screen and then says that “The Xmas Tree is not responding”

How can I trouble shoot this?

As @Jake3231 pointed out, Apple disabled homekit on AppleTV temporarily. I thought mine was up to date (it didn't show any updates available and its set to auto update), but upon checking again tonight an update was available.


Change Spotlight's Top Hit? Say I have two apps that match a search in spotlight (e.g. utility), it seems that Spotlight chooses the first application (sorted alphabetically) as the Top Hit. Is there any way to change this so that a different application appears on top?

Just use some other launcher. Alfred is also good at learning new associations. If for example you select "Disk Utility" after typing "ut", it will become the new default suggestion for "ut". Very low-maintenance.

You could also try Apptivate. It allows you to assign 2-letter shortcuts (like ⌥UT) for launching applications.


Extand main APFS partition on MacOS Mojave 10.14.3 As it can be seen from the screenshot below my APPLE SSD is of size 500GBs, but my Apple_APFS Container disk1 is of size 450GBs. There was a Container disk 2 of size 50GBs before but I successfully removed it using:

sudo diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" %noformat% /dev/disk0s4

I tried resizing the main APFS cotnainer with the following command:

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

but I am getting the following error:

  Error: -69519: The target disk is too small for this operation, or a
  gap is required in your partition map which is missing or too small,
  which is often caused by an attempt to grow a partition beyond the
  beginning of another partition or beyond the end of partition map
  usable space

Following some screenshots displaying the current state of the sysetm:

 diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         449.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Apple_KernelCoreDump                         655.4 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +449.3 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            362.2 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 55.2 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                517.2 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

The output, from the commands below, should show that disk0s3 starts at an offset that is sufficiently close to the end of disk0s2 to produce the error message you posted.

diskutil info disk0s2 | grep -e Offset -e "Disk Size"
diskutil info disk0s3 | grep -e Offset -e "Disk Size"

Or, in other words:

(Offset of disk0s2) + (Size of disk0s2) - (Offset of disk0s3) = (Small enough size to cause message)

You do not need the Apple_KernelCoreDump partition. You can remove this partition be entering the command below.

sudo diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" none disk0s3

Next, you can reenter the command you posted in your question to reclaim the free space.

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0


I need auto suggest back! My auto-suggest disappeared when I updated to iOS 10.3.3. How do I get it back? It was so helpful to me.

There are two places to enable it:

Open Settings → Keyboard and enable Predictive.

With the keyboard on the screen, long-press the  key (or  if you’ve only got 1 keyboard installed) and enable Predictive.


Chromium in Launchpad but not in Applications I recently installed uTorrent on High Sierra but wasn't thinking and installed the Yahoo thing. The uTorrent installer says "Opera", but I ended up with a Chromium icon in my Launchpad. The problem is it isn't in my Applications folder.

I rebooted the laptop and Chromium started up on its own and when I opened Chrome I was notified that another application installed an extension. I removed it.

How do I get rid of this Chromium installation now? I have enabled the jiggle but no X appears.

I know I just asked, but I figured it out and want to post the answer for others when they search for this same problem. Run the following in Terminal:

cd ~/Applications
rm -rf APP_NAME.app

Note: If the app name contains a space, place a \ character before the space so it looks like this /My\ Space

I verified that I was removing the correct app first by renaming it then checking LaunchPad to confirm the change. Once I saw that I was actually changing it in LaunchPad I went ahead and deleted it with the rm command.

You can additionally write rm -rf (with a space after the -rf) and then drag n’ drop the application from the Finder window into the terminal window. This will paste the path to the application correctly (auto fix spaces, etc.). Then press enter. This will ensure you have the correct path and are deleting the correct application.

Warning: Do not press enter without a path after rm -rf


OSX Software to use for Photo Collage in a large poster size I need a very large poster of pictures of kids collage.

Here is a sample

I'm not a graphic designer and so I'm not necessarily very familiar with the Vector design tools that people often use to make these kinds of posters.

I came up with this from a free tool, but that only allows exporting of sizes below 172" and my requirement is to edit and export this for size 298" X 121"

Can anyone recommend me a good collaging poster export tool that exports to this size?

Vector graphics won't help for this kind of task. All your images are in raster format.
Your limit will really be the number of pixels [WxH] rather than 'print size', though you will need at least 150 dpi to print this at a large poster size.

Gimp can apparently save images up to 45,000 x 45,000 pixels [though I can't find citation for this] which should be just inside your range - though bear in mind this will be a colossal size in RAM.

The clarity of your output image is also very dependant on you input sizes. If you need to enlarge the photos to fit this size you will lose definition.

Alternatively, if your existing package will let you export at 300dpi or higher, then you can just ask your print service to re-scale.


Which processes / services need to be running to perform a local sync with an iPod Touch iOS5 with Windows 7? I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and the wifi sync used to work properly, but due to lack of memory, I shut down some of the processes / services that would run automatically to make my computer run a bit faster.

Now I'd like to sync my iPod Touch with iOS5 again but I don't know which services need to be turned on to sync again.

When I go to my iPod to sync, the button for wireless syncing in Settings isn't tappable.

Okay so here are the prerequisites for making this work over wifi:
Prerequisites:
Programs Running:

iTunes

Services Running:
(Located in Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services)

Bonjour Service
Apple Mobile Device Service

wifi:

iPod connected to wifi and so is your computer

iTunes Issues:
If you have all of the prerequisites above set, and on your iPod you enter (Setting->General->iTunes Wi-Fi Sync) and you find the Sync Now button is still disabled do the following:

In iTunes click edit->preferences
Click the Devices tab.
Click the Reset History button.

Now if you look at your iPod Touch again the Sync Now button should now be enabled.
(found in the apple documentation)


if i delete photos on my camera roll on my iphone will it delete the photos on photo stream on my macbook pro? If I delete photos on my camera roll on my iphone 4s will it delete the photos on photo stream on my macbook pro?

It shouldn't. The Camera Roll and your Photo Stream "live" in separate places.

I just did a test with this. I placed the same photo in both the Photo Stream and the Camera Roll and then deleted the copy from the Camera Roll. The one in the Photo Stream stayed in place.


Replacing AirPort card on my Macbook I have a White MacBook model 3,1 (bought in 2007).
My AirPort card seems to be busted. It has trouble picking up WiFi from a transmitter that is more than one meter away.
I know it's not an OS issue because I also have Ubuntu and Windows installed on this machine, and I'm having connectivity issues there too.

I want to replace it, but before I buy a new one I wanted to know if there are different models available, maybe something newer and better. Or is a new card of the model I currently have (AirPort Extreme  (0x14E4, 0x88) according to my System Profiler) my only option?
And While on the topic, where is best to buy such card? is eBay ok?

I would not recommend using any other model or spec with your macbook, you could try ebay, but for service parts that you can trust you could also buy from www.welovemacs.com, who I can recommend.

Hope this is helpful.


Switch apps with Cmd+Tab, only focus last window in app I realize that the solution is probably "use Spaces". I find that after 10+ years of experience using Windows, the habit of segmenting the windows into different "task areas" is a bit difficult to get used to.

I was hoping that there could be an easy way to subtly tweak the behavior of Cmd+Tab: Only bring into focus the last used window of the app that I am switching to. For instance I usually have a large number of Terminal or iTerm windows open in which I do a large number of various types of tasks, and then there are the other apps that I have many windows open in, such as the web browser. Here's a screencap of Expose right now:

As you can see I've been dumping all my work in the first space. This is actually a lot cleaner than it usually is, right now there are just 2 terminal windows, the rest of the grey windows are Sublime Text windows, which this issue also crops up with as well, as it is pretty cumbersome to be moving around all of those windows too, and I am often touching 3 or more projects at a time (each of which I try to constrain to its own window). I already have 3 Sublime windows minimized to the Dock, the reason that I did that was to alleviate this issue, where switching back to the app would cover the whole screen.

The usual case is Cmd+Tab to switch back and forth to see a description of something to enter into the terminal. Unfortunately this is often encumbered by me arranging both the terminal windows and the browser windows in such a way that Cmd+Tabbing to each app will cover the entire screen. Thereby not making it easy for me to see the contents of one app while using another, without manually re-focusing the individual windows using the mouse.

It's pretty obvious that desired behavior here is not obvious and e.g. if I was using an image editing app I'd certainly want all my toolbox windows to become visible when I tab back into that app. So this is probably something that I don't even want to "switch on globally".

So maybe there is a tweak out there that can customize this. Or even a feature in the iTerm terminal emulator that can change how it shows itself when tabbed to.

I think Witch comes pretty damn close to giving me the level of control that I want, and then with even more nice stuff on top.


Touch Bar - Alternate Key Combination to Show App controls Hope someone can help.

I have my touch configured like the following. This is basically the same setting that you got with the Mac Book Pros 2012 - 2015 as default.

I am a developer and use code editors so it's very important to me that my function keys are the first class citizens on my keyboard. I also want access to the control strip for screen and volume control using the fn keys (How else can I easily get to these?).

Great!

So now how do I access the "App Controls" as well? Surly I should be able to configure say fn+option to give me these?

Finding this very frustrating, makes the touch bar seem even more pointless if I can only have the settings I was used to with a "Real" keyboard. Seems I have to give something up to use the touch bar's app specific controls.

Try Better Touch Tool.

I don't see a way to have the Touch Bar display function keys (initially) AND allow for the use of both App Controls and Control Strip.

Aren't you accustomed to holding fn when using the function keys anyway? I think this is the behavior Apple had in mind (show App Controls and use fn for function keys).

Instead of an additional keyboard shortcut, I'd suggest Apple add a "Show Control Strip" box on the the Fn setting when you choose App Controls (like the first drop down behaves).

Worst case: use an external keyboard when developing.


iCloud features requiring use of @icloud.com account versus actual account name My wife and I use several features of iCloud, like calendars, reminders, and more. We are also using the new Family Sharing features of iOS 8, but this issue existed before then, and still happens today.

For some reason, if I want to connect anything between our accounts, I must use her @icloud.com account associated with her account, not her general gmail account. This gets to be annoying, because we never remember, and she doesn't use that @icloud.com account for anything.

She can sign into iCloud on her devices and the web with her gmail account.

If I share to her gmail account, it never gets to her. If I share to her @icloud.com account, she gets all invites, and actually gets the notifications in her Gmail.

How do I get this to work without the extra account?

I had a similar issue and eventually got sick of dealing with the issues you have noticed and gave in and used the icloud account. Calendar, app store, reminders, notes, etc. It all works better with the icloud account. I never use the email address associated with it (and I've had one since the @me.com days).

Yes it is annoying but Apple's built-in apps work much better with Apple's accounts. You can spend hours of your time troubleshooting or moving over to dedicated 3rd party apps or just "grin and bear it."

I know that doesn't solve your problem, per se. And there may be folks who have found acceptable workarounds (if not here try macintouch.com) who can offer a better solution but I found that not fighting city hall ended up working for me rather well after all... YMMV...


MacBook air battery has stopped charging I need help. I have a MacBook Air.

I have a new battery. It has only 21 cycles in it. Out of nowhere it stopped charging. I checked my battery status and it showed as NOT CHARGING. (More specifically "Charging: NO").
So basically I have to use it plugged in. I've tried the SMC restart and many other options I've found here and other places online.

Does anyone have a solution or an idea on what I could do? Thanks!

Oh, I've tried with 2 different chargers as well.

UPDATE: I just finished talking with MAC assistance and they also made me press another combination of keyboards: POWER + SHIFT + COMMAND + P + I + R (or something like that) and the system rebooted. But that didn't help either.

Apple is pretty clear that if one SMC reset doesn’t fix your power issue, the next step would be a hardware repair.

Now before you do that, consider the machine stops charging the battery past 90% or so and you are above 97% charge. No panic and just let the battery drain down a bit and make sure it’s just not resting the charge.

(6885 - 6696) / 6885 = 0.027 which means you're not discharged enough to resume adding charge to the battery according to the system information. Your battery health is good.

Assuming it doesn’t start charging when you’re at 85 % capacity, then seek a repair. For now, make sure your backup is running just in case, but nothing is amiss in regular readings whatsoever.

That repair would be to take a new adapter to your Mac to be sure it’s not the adapter or a stuck pin, then they would inspect and replace the MagSafe port or the battery or cables or the Logic board (or even a combination of some or all of the above).

You did good work making sure it’s not something simple so unless you missed a stuck pin in your adapter or physical debris in the MagSafe port, time for a repair.

Battery is not charging despite SMC reset
Battery not charging? (Even after SMC reset)

There are probably dozens of other similar or duplicate questions here if you search on the right or use the main search.