iPhone 8 plus stuck on loading screen My iPhone froze and wouldn't unfreeze.  After messing with it for awhile it finally went to a black loading screen.  I have help power and home button down together and down volume and power button together.  I have plugged it into a charger.  Nothing will make it work again or even leave this loading screen.

Because I am new to Stack Exchange, I am unable to ask a followup question as a comment. I am aware that I am not to ask these kinds of questions in a reply, so I am going to make some assumptions about this situation. If any of these are false, let me know and I'll reconsider.

I am assuming you were not doing an update when the iPhone froze. If you were doing an update, you may have some other issues. I would like to know what iOS version you are running, but I can live without that info.
I know you mentioned the steps of hard rebooting, but it sounds like the reboot was not successful. I apologize if I have misinterpreted this. That being said, hard reboot this phone. For iPhone 8, hard rebooting is a bit different than in other iPhones. After hard rebooting, you may encounter the loading screen again, but it should start loading. Please follow these instructions
Please note that one hard reboot may not work, but three hard reboots in quick succession (meaning when you see the Apple logo appear, hard reboot again immediately) can cure a LOT of software problems. Also note that it is entirely possible that this is a fluke. I work as an iPad specialist for a school corporation, and I have noticed on several occasions that three hard reboots have solved some unusual iOS issues.
If the three hard reboots still fail, please try another hard reboot and hold in the side switch to force a "connect to iTunes" message (information about doing that can be found on the same link I mentioned earlier). Plug iPhone into a computer, and have iTunes update the software (if it hasn't already).

Good luck!


USB Lion Recovery Disk fails to boot Per What's a reliable method to create a stand alone recovery disk for Lion?, I'm attempting to create a two-partition thumbdrive such that one of the partitions is the Recovery Disk created by Recovery Disk Assistant and the other partition enables me to use the rest of the space for storage. Since I want this storage to be Windows 7/XP-compatible, its format will be MS-DOS(FAT).

So far, my attempts have been thwarted.

When booting my Mac with the thumbdrive inserted, I can select the drive but that only ever results in a gray screen. I have enabled FileVault 2 on this machine, if that matters.

What magic do I need to get a working external Recovery Disk on my thumbdrive?

Related: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/21303/two-partition-thumbdrive-unrecognized-under-boot-camp-windows-7

I have done this using the raw InstallESD.dmg image from the Mac App Store Lion installer (NOT the Recovery Disk Assistant) using the following steps:

Drag the InstallESD.dmg image to Disk Utility so that it appears on the side bar
Select your USB drive and partition the drive in to 2 or more GUID partitions
Once partitioning is complete, select the Restore tab
Drag that InstallESD.dmg image from the side bar to the source field
Drag the first partition from the USB drive on the side bar to the target field
Begin the restore process

Once finished you can leave things as they are or re-format the other partition as ExFAT or MS-DOS. However you should be aware the USB drive is GUID partitioned so only Windows 7 is likely to read it properly (I've never tried a GUID partioned USB drive on an XP system). You cannot use standard MBR partitions for the Lion Recovery Partition.


How to tell if an iPhone is hacked and how to prevent it? A friend of mine said he thinks his iPhone has been hacked. How do you find out if it has been and more importantly how do you stop it?

He called me up because his girlfriend says things during fights that he mentioned in text messages. He said she let it slip she ‘remoted’ in to his phone.

I think I know one way this could have happened. If she backed up his phone to her Macbook then iMessage on her computer might be receiving his messages. But that would only work if she has a Mac unless there is an iMessage for Windows.

I don't really know why people always think their device is being hacked after something weird is happening in their eyes.

If she made a backup on a computer, and someone put that version back - they have access to the complete iPhone after restoring it on another device. Can this be the case?

If not, he said things during fights on iMessage? Maybe he just said it and regret it afterwards claiming he didn't send it. I don't see why anyone would add extra text to a fight and not use it for something else (if they really have bad intentions.)

Backing up an iPhone to a Mac does not turn on iMessage by default unless the user activates this him/herself. It is impossible to get active just because of a backup.

Solution
Change the Apple ID password and all default Apple services will become useless because it will prompt for the new password.


Unlock a locked 32GB iPad I have an iPad (32GB) and have been locked out because I couldn't remember the passcode.
What can I do?

I have never associated it with an iTunes account but want to get the pictures off it (which do not appear in iCloud)

Is there anything I can do?

I am assuming by 'iTunes account' you are referring to an 'iCloud account'.

Photos won't appear in iCloud for that reason (no account to sync with).
No iCloud account associated with the iPad means no backup location to restore from or other form of cloud storage.

You may use iTunes to reset your iPad to factory default or restore it from a backup (should you have one) while the iPad is in recovery mode.
There are already tutorials specifically outlining every step of this process, hence I won't post them here.

This is just one of the 100+ available on YouTube: Video Tutorial

At this moment I am unsure if this answers your question or not, as I can't quite make out the actual question(s). Let me know how you get on.


How do I install Mavericks onto external HD but from inside VirtualBox I don't want to lock down my machine for the install. Can I hand it off to a virtual box process?

Open virtual box
Create virtual Mac
Attach Mavericks install pen drive to virtual Mac
Attach real external HD to virtual Mac
Boot virtual Mac from Mavericks pen drive
Install to real external HD from inside virtual Mac

Would/should/could this work?

I'm stuck at step 3.

I've entered:

sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/PENDRIVE.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk2

which outputs:

VBoxManage: error: VMDK: could not open raw disk file '/dev/disk2'
VBoxManage: error: Error code VERR_RESOURCE_BUSY at /Users/vbox/tinderbox/4.3-mac-rel/src/VBox/Storage/VMDK.cpp(3390) in function int vmdkCreateRawImage(VMDKIMAGE*, VBOXHDDRAW*, uint64_t)
VBoxManage: error: Cannot create the raw disk VMDK: VERR_RESOURCE_BUSY
VBoxManage: error: The raw disk vmdk file was not created

First make sure your external HD is attached. Then find out what device node your HD is. In your case it's /dev/disk2. Umount it with

diskutil umountDisk disk2

and wait until it disappeared from Finder. Change the owner of the device node to your user:

sudo chown `whoami` /dev/disk2

Then create the vmdk:

sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/disk2.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk2

Right then attach it to your VM and start it. If you unplug the drive, the ownership and permissions get reset, so you'll have to do the chown step again.


Can I change the default trash sounds? I'd love to change the default empty trash / move to trash sounds. I found this on Github, which is a script to change a bunch of defaults. The default alert is mentioned, but nothing about the trash.

Alternately, this other AskDifferent question discusses how to add a custom alert sound. Does anyone know the path to where the trash sounds are stored? Could I just replace the sound file as in the linked SO thread?

You would need to change *.aif sounds in:

 /System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/SharedSupport/SystemSounds/finder

There are:
empty trash.aif and move to trash.aif (self explanatory). I recomend to make backup of those files before swap.


icon for iTunes 10.7/music missing from System Preferences in Snow Leopard My music/iTunes icon:

is present in the Dock
has gone from some panes of System Preferences.

This first screenshot is from the Spotlight pane, the icon is expected to the left of Music:

The second shot is from the CDs & DVDs pane, the icon is expected to the left of Open iTunes:

How do I get these icons back?

System:

MacBook Pro
Snow Leopard 10.6.8

What I tried:

reboot
login/logout
trash Finder and Dock preference files

Edit 1:

The output of the grep command suggested by Graham Perrin in the comments is as follows:

Laptop:~ myname$ system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType | grep iTunes.app
      Location: /Applications/iTunes.app

In the Language & Text pane, three languages are present in the following order:

British English
Dutch
Russian

Logging into a fresh user account does not solve the issue. The same icon is missing in the same places.

Edit 2: Output for command /usr/bin/mdimport -L

Laptop:~ myname$ /usr/bin/mdimport -L 2012-10-24 11:12:32.307
mdimport[34295:903] Paths: id(501) (
    "/Library/Spotlight/iWork.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Font.mdimporter",
    "/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Office.mdimporter",
    "/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SourceCode.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Audio.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/ParallelsMD.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/SPSS/SPSSStatistics.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SPSSSpotlightImporter.mdimporter",
    "/Library/Spotlight/AppleWorks.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/RichText.mdimporter",
    "/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Application Loader.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/MZSpotlight.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/OmniGraffle Professional 5.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/OmniGraffle.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/CoreMedia.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/Sente 6.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Sente6MI.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Chat.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/PS.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Mail.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/vCard.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter",
    "/Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto8.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Bookmarks.mdimporter",
    "/Applications/TeX Live Utility.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/DVIImporter.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/SystemPrefs.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/iCal.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/MIDI.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/QuartzComposer.mdimporter",
    "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Google Earth for Plugin.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Google Earth.mdimporter",
    "/System/Library/Spotlight/Automator.mdimporter",
    "/Users/b8i/Library/Spotlight/EndNote.mdimporter",
    "/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/uuid.mdimporter"
)

Edit 3: Although the bounty has run out I still don't have a solution for this problem.

Edit 4:
I have been poking around and through the "Open Files and Ports" function of the Activity Monitor I think I found the location where the images are loaded from. The file is:

  /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ArtFile.bin

Unfortunately I cannot open this file. Does anyone know how to open the file to see if that is the place where the images are loaded from?
When I rename Artfile.bin almost no application starts.

Edit 5:

The Garageband application does show the iTunes icon:

By reinstalling iTunes, did you completely trash the application and then copy it anew?  Sometimes simply overwriting the existing installation doesn't do the trick.


Recover Deleted Zip file from macOS High Sierra Today I faced a low memory warning on my Macbook Pro 2015.

I opened Storage Management application and started deleting unnecessary files and I accidentally removed a zip file.

I instantly opened the Trash to check whether the file was placed there or not. But the file wasn't there.

Is there any possibility to recover such files which have been removed via the Storage Management application and not manually deleted by cmd+delete?

The Storage Management application will delete files without moving them to the trash.

You cannot restore them.

Your Mac has an SSD which will instantly execute the TRIM command. So, your Mac has already overwritten the file with something else. Data Recovery software also won't help. If you have a backup, try recovering the zip file from it.


iPhone can't play any music Hi all. I used to be able to play music with my iPhone but now I can't.

I'm not sure what causes this problem, and I'm wondering if this is a hardware problem.

I performed a clean factory restore, made sure the volume is maxed, but there's no sound at all. I've installed an alternate music player but there's still no sound (even though volume is maxed).

Does anyone know if there's anything else I can do to reset the phone besides the factory restore option in iTunes?

Thanks for answering my questions.

So with no headphones plugged in you get no sound through the built-in speakers on your iPhone.

Based on the screen shots you posted it looks like your phone thinks it's connected to a dock connection. That's jives with your "sound in headphones, no sound from internal speakers" answers to my questions.

It sounds very much like your dock connection at the bottom of the phone is not functioning correctly. It may just have some debris in it that's shorting out a few pins and making your iPhone think it's connected to a dock with a line-out on it, or it may be completely broken.

Try cleaning out the dock connection jack on the bottom of the phone. You can blow in it with a dry air source, compressed air in a can is best, to see if you can dislodge any debris from it. You can also try plugging your dock connector in and out a few times to see if that clears it up.

If that doesn't work your best bet is to take it an Apple Repair Depot and have them look at it. The dock connection is made up of a lot of small terminal points and it's not hard to mess them up if you force a connector in the wrong way or smush some debris in there when plugging it in to charge.


Open specific links in specific browsers Is it possible to tell OS X to always open one site in Chrome, and always open another site in Safari?

In a nutshell, I want to set a default browser per domain rather than globally for the entire computer.

Here's why I ask:  Out of the box OS X does not come with Flash.  The Chrome browser has Flash bundled, however.  So I'd like to have domains that I know require Flash always open in Chrome, but everything else open in my preferred browser, which is Safari.

I'm okay with maintaining a "white list" of which sites need the "use chrome" exception, but right now I can't see any way to make it happen.

Any suggestions?

Try to use Choosy
It can prompt you to select from the browsers on your Mac so you can decide which browser is right for a particular link.

:)


How should I configure VirtualBox to be able to connect to the internet from the guest OS I am trying to move from VMware Fusion to VirtualBox since Fusion 3.0 is not working since I upgraded to Mountain Lion. VirtualBox is working but I cannot connect to the Internet on my guest OS (Windows XP). I am new to VirtualBox, so any help will be appreciated.

Try this:

Be sure that you have installed the latest version of Guest Additions to the VM
Turn off the VM
Under the network adapter configuration choose bridged mode
Then click in advanced and change the adapter type to Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM). -Be sure to enable the checkbox "Cable Connected"

Worked for me, hope it helps


Commercial command line utility for transcribing voice memos to text? I'm looking for a commercial command line utility to transcribe my MP3 voice memos into text files. My workflow is to record voice memos through out the day and upload these memos as MP3 files to Dropbox. I would like to convert these MP3 files to equivalent TXT files on a batch basis. My voice memos range from < 1 minute to a max of ~10 minutes.

I tried using Dragon Dictate 4 for Mac and found this application a nightmare to use and very unreliable. I would be happy to purchase a slimed down version of this application that only transcribed audio files but I can't find such a product on the Nuance website. Unfortunately I could not get this application to work reliably enough to look for an API or scripting interface ... and I'm a little skittish about this vendor after reading about similar experiences from other users.

I've also looked at cloud services as well, but the ones I've found seem to be rather expensive - $0.20/minute and with limitations on the max audio file size that can be uploaded.

I doubt you can find command line commercial application.

You can better use some open source library like pocketsphinx http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net

To transcribe a file you can use latest version 5prealpha:

   ffmpeg -i file.mp3 -ar 16000 -ac 1 file.wav
   pocketsphinx_continuous -infile file.wav -logfn /dev/null

that should give you an automated transcription. To increase the accuracy you can adapt to your own voice.


How to clear up space on 16GB iPad for iOS upgrade? I have an iPad mini 16GB and like to upgrade to iOS 7.0.3. this upgrade wants 1.2GB of free storage. However I only have 0.5 GB at the moment.

The largest amount of data are my photostreams. They are about 3 GB can I trim them down (without losing any pictures permanently)?

If you have an iCloud account, you can enable Photo stream and sync it to your Mac or PC, then delete them on iPad, and you can upgrade.

BTW iOS 7.0.2 to 7.0.3 OTA only takes less than 1GB of space, so you can just delete some music or apps you don't want.


How to resolve "Cannot connect to AppleID server" error on macOS? This is a problem that is getting bigger and bigger for me.
My Apple ID works perfectly on my iPad and iPhone. I can change the password etc and it all works fine. On my computer however it continues to give me the message (Cannot connect to APPLE ID SERVER).This means I can't backup to icloud or do any updates etc. I feel like I have tried everything imaginable to get this to work including talking to APPLE SUPPORT on the phone. WIFI connections all fine. This has been a problem I have had for quite a while.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

So if you can log into your Apple ID from a browser an incorrect time zone settings might cause an error in connecting your Apple ID with the Store.
To correct your time and date settings, go to Settings > General > Date & Time and make sure that everything is set correctly.
Now: Open iTunes
Click on iTunes in the Menu Bar.
Select Preferences.

Go to the Advanced Tab.
Click the Reset Cache button.
Click OK.
Close and re-open iTunes.
Now, try to sign in to the iTunes store.


Update to a newer version of OS X from OS X 10.6.8 Every time I click Software Update it tells me there's no new software! I don't even know what software I'm running so I can't search for updated software. Why is it stuck on 10.6.8?

As others have mentioned, Lion (10.7) is the latest version of OS X supported by your machine. Although it's no longer available for download from the App Store, you can still order the media from the Apple Store.


Where does the name come from on Mail.app? I tried to use OS X's Mail.app, but when I connected it using gmail, the authentication window showed my real name in Chinese character in the first text field. The other two fields are mail and password, so I didn't log in to my gmail account yet. However, it looks like the Mail.app already knows my real name, and I wonder where it gets the information from.

My Apple account and iCloud account use my real name in English. So I want to check out where my Chinese character name was found and then fix it and change it to English.

This is pulled from your 'me' contact in Contacts.app.


Force a specific version of a framework for a process So I think it's known that OS X 10.10.5 breaks calendar server because of incompatibilities between the version of Python on 10.10.5 and a specific part of the Calendar Server. It does work in 10.10.3 and 10.10.4. I have determined that by replacing the version of Python.framework in /System/Library/Frameworks that comes with 10.10.5 with a version from another machine (my laptop) that is running 10.10.3, the Calendar Server magically works again! However I am somewhat hesitant about allowing the entire 10.10.5 system to use the Python.framework from 10.10.3.

Is there a way to force only the Calendar Server process to use the 10.10.3 Python.framework, while the rest of the system can use the new one that came with 10.10.5?

I updated the server a few days ago and none of the people who depend on those calendars can access them right now. The fix offered by several other places was to update to 10.11, but I have some other applications that must run on this server that only work on 10.10, and are broken on 10.11. I'm sure there's no way to make them work on 10.11, so the only option for me right now is to stick with 10.10.

A dangerous way to move forward is to use the DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES environment variable to change which python framework the calendar server uses. You will need to edit the launchd plist for the calendar server inside of the Server.app bundle to add your the environment variable. Look in Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/  for the file.
The man pages for launchd.plist(5) and dyld(1) will be useful. Also the otool -L command may help you track down dependancies.
I'm not sure how well the calendar server will run with these changes.


Color Picker for OS X Is there any app for mac which I use to know the RBG value of the point where my mouse is right now?

Absolutely. Check out the DigitalColor Meter tool in your Utilities folder. It does exactly what you want.


How does one change the share name with file sharing in Mac OS X? In Mac OS X you can create shared folders. Usually the share name is the same as the folder, but it can be different. For example if the is a user with display name "John Doe" and system name "johnd" the system creates a Shared folder named "Public" in the users folder Users/johnd/Public but the share name is "John Doe's Public Folder".

If that Shared folder is removed from the File Sharing folder list and re-added then it just shows as "Public".

How do you change the Share name?

Use Directory Utility.

Open /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Directory Utility
Select the Directory Editor tab
In the "Viewing" bar, select SharePoints in node /Local/Default
Authenticate by clicking the little lock button

Shares are listed in the left-hand column. Select one and update the following as needed:

RecordName (the name of the listing)
dsAttrTypeNative:smb_name
dsAttrTypeNative:afp_name

Changes should take effect immediately.

Apple hid this utility for a reason: Be careful, a wrong Directory entry can wreck your Mac.

Renaming sharepoints used to be possible with the Server app, but filesharing is now handled by the normal MacOS System Preference pane.


How do I disable Image Capture (Yosemite) from automatically launching when I plug in my SD card? I used to be able to disable it in iPhoto but now iPhoto is not part of the OS, I don't want to download iPhoto to just use it to disable itself and Image Capture. Any way to kill the auto pop out feature?

Okay, got it finally.

First you need to eject your SD card. And then you should plug it back in. Once you do that, the IC will pop up. There is a small icon looks like ejection on the lower left corner (poor design, Apple), click the icon and it will pop out a menu, where you can choose "no application" for your SD card.

Unfortunately you have to do it with every single SD card of yours. Another poor design choice from Apple.


Does Amazon Prime video support Dolby Vision on Apple TV? Amazon Prime video came to Apple TV today. Amazon Prime video supports Dolby Vision, but does it support it on Apple TV. I ask because Amazon Prime video doesn't support all Dolby Vision capable devices.

In my case I have an Apple TV 4K.

As of now, it does not. Amazon Prime Video on Apple TV 4K will send HDR10 content, which can be converted to Dolby Vision on the Apple TV itself, or sent directly as HDR10 if the "match content" setting is enabled on your box. Amazon Prime on Apple TV also annoyingly streams 2.1 PCM audio instead of 5.1, though Amazon says this is temporary, and that Dolby Digital Plus audio is coming soon to Apple TV 4K.

For full compatibility, take a look at the supported devices / formats page on Amazon's website:

Compatible Amazon Video devices and the features available on each device.


How do I make my Mac speakers sound like iPad 2 speakers? I am the developer of an app that uses voice recordings. I need to have an idea of what the recordings will sound like on an iPad. I have an iPad, but I'd like to change some settings on my Mac speakers so that every sound sounds like it's coming out of an iPad speaker.

Depending on your budget, I would use something like Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack 3 to process the sound output and model the speakers of the iPad.

If you have extra budget, you'll want to record in a acoustically quiet room some songs and test tone generators out of the actual iPad speakers (and maybe sample several devices to see how much variation is present in the iPad line). Use a high quality microphone if possible for this.

You'll have issues correcting for the Mac speakers though and should probably invest in some good powered studios monitors or headphones if you really want to hear what the iPad would sound like.

If you don't have decent audio analysis software, you might want to look at something like Spectre

p.s. FWIW - My MacBook 2015 (40% volume) sounds about the same as my iPad Air 2 (90% volume) and passing the MacBook audio through the AUBandpass filter. Configure the bandpass to be centered around 2 kHz and a width of 5000 cents.


How to set up windows so its possible to boot non Apple laptops from it? I have an old Macbook and a new Windows laptop. I want to install Windows 7 on the Mac's Samsung 850 EVO SSD so that its possible to use it on both Macbook and the Windows laptop.

Is such a thing possible?
If yes, how does one do that?

Here's why I need to do this. (feel free to skip this)

The (2008) Macbook is my personal laptop but Windows one is for work. I want to avoid using work laptop if possible. I'm taking classes for professional exams and my LMS software is compatible with only windows. The institute is basically being a **** and is saying if my mac's logic board gives out (which I think it might), I need to pay about $200 extra since its not possible to generate a new key or something like that.

So I need to be able to just plug in the samsung SSD in a windows laptop so that its ready to use. I have exams in 3 months.

Apart from the fact that you'd have to ring Microsoft to reinstate your licence every time you swapped, Windows is not very good at swapping hardware.

A Mac drive can be used to boot any Mac older than the OS on the drive; Windows doesn't work that way, you'd need a bare-metal clone & install the correct drivers every time.


iTunes Does Not Automatically Sync I just installed iTunes 9.2.5 (x64) on a new laptop, and iTunes is not automatically syncing when my iPhone is plugged in. The preference "Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically" is UNCHECKED. I didn't have this problem with my other laptop, so I'm not sure where the problem lays. Any help would be greatly appereciated.

Thank you.

Your iPhone is bound to a specific machine. It won't automatically sync to a machine. You have to manually force it to sync. When you do this, it will ask if you wish to erase all data on your iPhone and sync with the new machine.

Beware, if you do this, it will wipe your contacts, music, apps, videos, etc, and replace them with what is on your current machine. The only way to avoid doing this is to copy your entire iTunes library folder from your old machine to your new one, and replace the existing library.

To summarise, the iPhone thinks your new laptop is a new machine, and so won't automatically sync to it until it's re-associated. Any questions, just shout.


How to set up App Shortcuts for Music.app in Catalina? I'd like to set up System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts to activate Music's View as Songs via a ⌃ + ⌥ + ⇧ + ⌘ + L shortcut, but it's not activating after setting it up.

To clarify, my goal is to activate this in Music.app:

In System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts I've set the following:

Unfortunately this doesn't work as it used to for iTunes.app.

I have just verified this feature actually does still work but you aren't using it properly, there is no need for the -> syntax, I am unsure where this comes from but I have never seen that used.

The correct way to create this shortcut is as shown below:

Open System Preferences.app
Navigate to 'Keyboard'
Select 'Shortcuts'
Choose 'App Shortcuts'
Add a shortcut using the + button.
Choose the app 'Music'
Set the menu title to the text name of the menu title 'as Songs' ignoring where in the menu bar it is.
Set a shortcut by clicking the field, then pressing the keys.
Finalise by clicking 'Add'.

You can verify this has worked as the shortcut will be shown in the menu

How it should look:

  Note: It is not possible to distinguish between identically named menu items in the same application.


How to set default directory for Emacs 27.1 app? I just upgraded Emacs to 27.1 using brew cask. One noticeable change is that when I launch the app and c-x c-f the directory is / instead of ~/.
This really bothers me, is there a way to change it back?

I had the same issue after installing Emacs 27.1, my default directory became "/"
I could fix it by adding the following to my .emacs file.
(setq default-directory "~/")
(setq command-line-default-directory "~/")


How to show file extensions in finder for all files I'm using the Finder Preferences option, but it still won't show the extensions!

Most likely the files you are wondering about do not have any extension associated with them. Unlike Windows and many other operating systems Mac OS does not require a file extension and can use meta data stored in the filesystem instead.

More about Resource Fork and File Type/Creator.

After some searching around it appears to be fairly complicated to take information from the meta data and use that to add extension to files.


Extending crosshair arms for partial screenshot on Mac OS I very frequently use Command ⌘+Shift ⇧+Control ⌃+4 to take a partial screenshot and store it in the clipboard.

However, the arms of the crosshair which appears are very short, making it hard to select the right area on the first go, especially when I want to select a large area with no border.

So, I'm wondering whether it's possible to extend the arms of that crosshair, perhaps to span the entire screen?

As far as I'm aware, there is no way to manipulate the system crosshair picker, however, Skitch (free!) offers an alternative workflow for partial screenshots. They have a zoomed preview dialog, and the fully extended arms as you desire. Also free in the Mac App Store.


iPhone does not sync events to Google Calendar I am using Google Calendar on an up to date iPhone 4S. I also use my iCloud calendar.

When I create an event in the Google Calendar in iOS's calendar app, the event is only visible on the iPhone. It does not get synced to the Google web app or my Mac. When I create an event on the web app, it gets synced to the iPhone.

Using the iCloud calendar works fine both ways.

What might be the problem? I've tried to disable the calendar syncing, and re-enabling it, but that did not help.

It often takes a few minutes for the cloud to sync, that's normal.

I'd suggest double checking your phone to ensure your push settings are all set the way they ought to be. Since it's working on iPad, but not iPhone, it's my assumption something got funky in the settings and it's simply not being pushed to the cloud.

easiest fix, delete your gmail and redo it, or compare each item on your phone to your iPad.

Also, a restart my help as they get silly sometimes.


Connect to Bluetooth tethering I have my Android phone set up with Bluetooth tethering and it's sharing its WiFi connection. I use this WiFi connection on my iPad (iOS 10.1.1). I have paired the devices via Bluetooth and switched off WiFi on the iPad, but I don't see any option to use WiFi via Bluetooth? How do I set this up on the iPad?

Excuse me for my bad English.

Your android phone should make a WiFi hotspot when enabled, which acts like any other normal wifi hotspot as far as the iPad is concerned (connect via WIFI settings). It doesn't operate over Bluetooth at all, neither on the phone nor on the iPad.


How to reset Mac Catalina password! I will admit that i was messing around deleting system files, and deleted bunch of files,system asked permission.

In a stage I wanted to delete something entered password, didn't accept. Well here the panic started. I changed the password from setting and also not accepting the password. I restarted the mac then im stuck at the login page, Even after resetting password in recovery mode the recently changed password not accepted.
I've tried resetting it by Apple Id and same thing not accepted.

I think you are at the point of completely reinstalling a fresh system and provide fresh passwords.

It may keep user data, but if not then you will need your backup.

Next time around you should have an admin account and a user account, so you are less likely to delete things you should not.


X Quartz opening on new blank desktop on Mac I'm having a problem where if I run anything that uses xquartz, the GUI opens on a new black 'desktop' that doesn't have the dock, any icons or the top bar. I'm not sure why, and, for my uses, I need the programs to run on one of my regular desktop screens.
Earlier this year, I was trying to set this computer up to allow XForwarding to a remote computer, so I may have changed something that is causing this to happen, but I thought I had gone through and reset my ssh_config file and sshd_config file in case this is causing it to happen by reseting things to be commented out.
I can't think of anything else or what I might be able to do to stop this from happening (before trying to set up ssh, this was not an issue that I rememeber but I am not absolutely certain that it is what is causing the problem). Any ideas?
Thank you!
Bethany
Computer Specs:
Mac Pro 2017, OS: Mohave 10.14.6 (18G6032)

You probably have set XQuartz to Full Screen.

(picture from https://grammarofdev.blogspot.com/2018/01/exit-xquartz-full-screen-mode-macos.html)


Disable bash command completion (bash v. 5.0.7(1))? I'm trying to remove all tab completion features from my shell to start over and rebuild it properly.

I have homebrew installed and it's running bash v. 5.0.7(1). I had the bash-competion brew package installed which has been uninstalled. I have removed all completion features from the .inputrc file and, as far as I know, any trace of completion features from my other startup files.

However, if I type ec<tab> it still completes the command for me with echo even after opening a fresh shell. How do I turn this feature off?

OK, turns out it's enabled be default so you have to disable it explicitly:

Add the following line to the ~/.inputrc file:

set disable-completion on


Default browser in Google maps on iPhone iPhone recently allowed me to set Chrome as the default browser, but this has not affected browsing from google maps. When clicking on a business location in google maps, then clicking on the website, it still always opens in safari. Any way for me to change this?

If I go to a business location and on their website via the google maps-app, the website is opened in the internal browser of google maps (and not in a external browser like safari or chrome.
When I click the icon on the right bottom, it's open the recent website in safari, but this icon refer to the safari browser.


Can Mail.app be configured to insert a blank line before the text of the previous message in a reply? Currently, a reply window contains this:

*new message text starts here*
... old/previous message text starts here...

What I want is this

*new message text starts here*
... old/previous message text starts here...

Not ideal but:

Go into Preferences: Signatures, create a new Signature, erase the name and e-mail address, and hit Enter once to create a blank line. Then check the "Place signature above quoted text" box.

Note: once a signature has been saved with actual text, Mail won't let you blank it out, so make sure you do this with a new sig, rather than editing an old one.


Can't rearrange Dock icons On OS X Yosemite, I can't rearrange my dock icons. I click one, and drag, but it just stays in place and stops highlighting.

Here's a demonstration

This has been so ever since I upgraded to Yosemite

I've tried killing it with

killall Dock

To no avail. It just stays stuck.

After restart, I can drag once or twice but I'm not sure what event causes it to stop. If I wait too long after reboot, that privilege is taken away from me.

Any idea what can be done?

So turns out, this problem extended to other parts in the system, namely: Xcode.
After some back-and-forth communication with Apple's support case team, the crash problem in Xcode turned out to be ibtoold and pboard processes are malfunctioning. They said it's a clipboard set of processes, and if I have any clipboard-relevant apps - they might be clashing with them.

So the only possible culprit on my system was CopyClip.

To make sure that was indeed the problem, I quit CopyClip, and restarted the processes, then restarted Xcode:

killall ibtoold pboard

And it worked. I made sure that was indeed the problem by starting CopyClip again, then running the same command again - and the problem returned. I then fixed it once more.

I figured the problem might be the same for the Dock, so I killed it:

killall Dock

And voila, it was functioning again!

TL;DR: Applications that provide special handling for the clipboard, such as CopyClip or PushBullet's "Universal Copy and Paste" collide with processes necessary for Xcode and Dock to function correctly. My problem was resolved by disabling or getting rid of that app and restarting.


Why is it quicker to search on google app compared to web browser on smartphones When you do a google search , the time taken for the results and the webpages of the result to load is much faster on Google search app compared to web browser for smartphones. What is the explaination behind this ??

Google app

Web Browser

Your screen shot shows EDGE networking which is one of the slowest in terms of bandwidth and often also in latency.

Presumably, the Google app can send just the characters you type to the search engine immediately and get just the results you need to see back.

The web page has to redraw the entire page when results start to arrive, so if you are noticing a sustained, long term speedup in one versus the other then you can conclude one of several things:

The native app sends less data and retrieves less data - but interacts with the same servers (or more precisely - servers with the same speed) on google's side.
The native app sends the same data as the web app but connects to servers that respond faster.

I would guess both are in play. Google is selling you and your searches to Google's paying customers. It doesn't take deep analysis or insight to realize that Google gets more value from you using their native app than it does from you using safari to browse their web search app. It might easily serve Google's interests to invest more money in making you choose the tool that makes it the most money.


How to set multiple-author metadata for an item in iBooks? While I can edit books' author metadata in the list view, I can’t seem to be finding a way to set multiple authors for a single title. Is there any way to do this, so that I can have, let's say, two separate author entities for a book?

defaults read ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/Books.plist

...,
{
      BKAllocatedSize = 131072;
      BKDisplayName = "An Introduction To Software Architecture";
      BKGeneratedItemId = 409BAEEB1FD9D2272D63E97BFB7CDEBD;
      BKGenerationCount = 3;
      BKInsertionDate = 558100869;
      BKIsLocked = 0;
      artistName = "David Garlan, Mary Shaw";
      explicit = 0;
      isPreview = 0;
      itemName = "An Introduction To Software Architecture";
      metadataMigrationVersion = 20140106;
      modificationDate = "2000-11-13 17:55:48 +0000";
      pageCount = 42;
      path = "/Users/Sepehr/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/An Introduction To Software Architecture.pdf";
      releaseDate = "2000-11-13 12:55:48 +0000";
      sourcePath = "/Users/Sepehr/Books/An Introduction To Software Architecture.pdf";
      updateDate = "2000-11-13 17:55:48 +0000";
      versionNumber = 0;
},
...

How can I get more than one author added in the metadata for an iBooks document?

All this metadata exists on the filesystem, so you could use the xattr command line to change pretty much anything, but I find the documentation and syntax to be very challenging to get and use.

I would start by trying xattred editor and perhaps the easier tools SearchKey / SearchKeyLight

https://eclecticlight.co/downloads/

The author has a very superb blog explaining why the app was made in the first time and how to use it as well if you don’t get the buttons or features. Think of all these metadata as a key value store. You just name the attribute (like modification date) and then set a value (today’s date or whatever). Same for page count and in your case, the author metadata string type.

Since you are reading the overall catalog, I would focus on changing the metadata in each book one by one (perhaps working on a throwaway ebook or duplicate copy of a book if you don’t have a good backup and restore procedure for the books you store in iCloud).


How to get rid of "what's playing"-notifications in iTunes 11.1? Since I updated my iTunes to the newest version (11.1), these notifications appear every time I play songs or listen to the radio.
I really don't need that. Does anybody know how to turn them off?

You can turn them off in the Notifications preference pane by changing the alert style for iTunes to "None":


Cannot rename Pictures folder I have a cloud drive folder where I store my documents, pictures, etc. I want to change the documents, pictures, etc in home to point to my cloud drive folder. I was able to rename the Documents folder just using sudo mv and then create a symbolic link for the cloud drive Documents folder, but for some reason I cannot mv/rename the Pictures folder. I always get "Operation not permitted".

I already moved the photo library bundle out to another location and set that as the system photos library in the Photos app.

If you are not using iCloud sync - game on. Hard link / sym link - unix filesystem is a unix filesystem.

If you are using iCloud, it intercepts the filesystem IO at a low level and I try not to mess with the folders Apple makes In this general case since as soon as you update the OS or some software makes assumptions about what folders exist, then things break.

I love storing my main photo library on secondary storage so you’re on the right track there.

What’s stopping you from making a pictures folder in the Documents folder and just using that? If I understand you have a Pictures folder as well already in iCloud so just updating your finder sidebar and recent locations to be there would get all the apps to use the new cloud pictures. Maybe I’m just not seeing the case where something can’t find your new Pictures folder or what’s failing in your mv command or attempts to remove the user folders.


I stopped Terminal with "killall -STOP Terminal" how to -CONT it back? I used terminal for long 3D render overnight. I planned for the rendering to be finished in the morning, but it was finished only half way.

To prevent losing the progress and to continue using the computer without lag I decided to pause the terminal.

I opened a new Terminal window and entered: "killall -STOP Terminal".
Everything was fine, Terminal was paused, but now I don't understand how to continue Terminal.

I can't open new Terminal window and "Force Quit" window doesn't allow me to continue the app.

How to continue Terminal?

Should I make a copy of Terminal app maybe?

Open Script Editor from the Utilities folder and run the following:

do shell script "killall -CONT Terminal"


What is this icon in Apple Watch Control Center? I noticed this icon in Control Center on my Apple Watch recently and didn’t recognize it. It’s not listed on Apple’s support pages about Control Center (a b).

(bottom left)

I was able to determine the button’s purpose through VoiceOver, which reads this button as “announce messages”.


How to update Server 5 to TLS 1.2? In the latest version of Apple's Server app version 5.0.4 running on El Capitan (10.11.2), SSL websites use TLS version 1.0. But, as one Ivan Ristic says, « The bottom line is that TLS 1.0 is insecure and we must migrate away from it ». How to achieve that with Server 5?

Go to http://www.apple.com/feedback and send feedback demanding that they update Server and OS X to support TLS 1.2. It's ridiculous that they don't, especially considering that in iOS 9 and El Capitan they require that Apple developers release software that only talks to TLS 1.2 servers. Even if you could patch Server to work with TLS 1.2, what happens when Apple updates Server again, and it still doesn't support TLS 1.2? When you install that update, will it overwrite whatever you put into place?
In the mean time, the only real option you have, I guess, is to install OpenSSL 1.0.1 or later, download the Apache source code, and then build it linking against OpenSSL 1.0.1, and then replace OS X's Apache with the one you just built. That will almost certainly require disabling System Integrity Protection because you can't modify the core OS files like apache2. You might be able to get away with just swapping out mod_ssl.so after you do your build. But it's ridiculous that we'd even have to resort to this! Apple needs to fix this!!! (see https://serverfault.com/questions/265556/upgrade-openssl-mod-ssl-on-mac-os-x-server)
Download VirtualBox, and install CentOS or another security-enhanced Linux flavor, and just run your server out of that on the Mac. Because, evidently, Apple CBA to chew gum and walk at the same time.

UPDATE:

Here are the exact steps that I did to get (2.) above to work.

This gets OS X Server 5 to work with TLS 1.2 and forward secrecy on 10.11.1, making ATS perfectly happy (especially if you're a developer this is really cool).

Install Homebrew and brew install openssl, brew install PCRE
Download the latest source for Apache, apr, and apr-util
Extract Apache source into /usr/local/src/httpd-2.4.17
Extract apr and apr-util archives to /usr/local/src/httpd-2.4.17/srclib/apr and /usr/local/src/httpd-2.4.17/srclib/apr-util
Replace the character "+" with the word "apache2" in the files config.layout inside the apr and apr-util dirs
In Terminal, execute the following commands:

cd /usr/local/src/httpd-2.4.17
CFLAGS="-arch x86_64"
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache-2.4.17 --with-included-apr --with-included-apr-util -with-mpm=prefork --with-ssl=/usr/local/opt/openssl --enable-mods-shared=reallyall --enable-layout=Darwin
make
make install

Copy mod_hfs_apple.so, mod_authnz_ldap.so, and mod_ldap.so from /usr/libexec into /usr/local/apache-2.4.17/libexec/apache2/
Disable SIP: Restart into Recover mode (command-R), open Terminal, and type csrutil disable. (This allows you to be able to make changes inside the /usr/sbin and /usr directories, necessary to swap out the insecure default Apache with the new secure one you'll be building.)
Restart back into normal mode, open Terminal, and type the following commands:

sudo mv /usr/sbin/httpd /usr/sbin/httpd.old
sudo mv /usr/libexec/apache2 /usr/libexec/apache2.old
sudo ln -s /usr/local/apache-2.4.17/sbin/httpd /usr/sbin/httpd
sudo ln -s /usr/local/apache-2.4.17/libexec/apache2/ /usr/libexec/apache2

Re-enable SIP: restart into Recover mode, open Terminal, and type csrutil enable.
Restart back into normal mode and download the latest source for PHP, then extract it to /usr/local/src/php-5.6.16 (or whatever version; 7.0 just came out, woot, but I don't know if it would break OS X Server's own uses of PHP)
Configure PHP with the following command (modify as needed, but this worked for my LAMP stack with OS X Server 5):

ln -s /usr/local/opt/openssl /usr/local/openssl
cd /usr/local/src/php-5.6.16
CFLAGS="-arch x86_64"
./configure --with-openssl=/usr/local/opt/openssl --with-pcre-regex=/usr/local/opt/pcre --with-curl=/usr/bin/curl --enable-exif --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-mysql-sock=/tmp/mysql.sock --with-pdo-mysql --enable-opcache --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache-2.4.17/bin/apxs --prefix=/usr/local/apache-2.4.17/php/ --enable-sockets --enable-zip --with-pear=/usr/local/apache-2.4.17/lib/php --enable-mbstring --with-mysqli
make
make install

In a text editor, edit the file:
/Library/Server/Web/Config/Proxy/servermgr_serviceproxy_customsites.plist
Starting at line 65, perform these changes (lines to delete, new lines):

  SSLCipherSuite "ALL:!aNULL:!ADH:!eNULL:!LOW:!EXP:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM"

  SSLCipherSuite "ECDH+AESGCM:DH+AESGCM:ECDH+AES256:DH+AES256:ECDH+AES128:DH+AES:ECDH+3DES:DH+3DES:RSA+AESGCM:RSA+AES:RSA+3DES:!aNULL:!MD5:!DSS"

  SSLHonorCipherOrder On

  SSLProtocol -ALL +TLSv1

  SSLProtocol -SSLv2 -SSLv3

  SSLProxyProtocol -ALL +TLSv1

  SSLProxyProtocol -SSLv2 -SSLv3

Next, make a similar change in apache_serviceproxy_customsites.conf, starting at line 13 (lines to delete, new lines):

  SSLCipherSuite "ALL:!aNULL:!ADH:!eNULL:!LOW:!EXP:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM"

  SSLHonorCipherOrder On

  SSLCipherSuite "ECDH+AESGCM:DH+AESGCM:ECDH+AES256:DH+AES256:ECDH+AES128:DH+AES:ECDH+3DES:DH+3DES:RSA+AESGCM:RSA+AES:RSA+3DES:!aNULL:!MD5:!DSS"

  SSLProtocol -ALL +TLSv1

  SSLProtocol ALL -SSLv2 -SSLv3

  SSLProxyProtocol -ALL +TLSv1

  SSLProxyProtocol ALL -SSLv2 -SSLv3

Next, make the exact same changes as in step 14., in apache_serviceproxy.conf, starting at line 198.
Start OS X server and run the following command to verify that you have succeeded:
/usr/bin/nscurl --ats-diagnostics https :// [[your custom site's https url]]
Note: the URL will obviously need to be formatted properly. I put an extra space in there before the colon because otherwise this post gets sent to moderation.

In my case ALL of the tests came back with a "PASS."

I can provide you a git patch file to make the changes to your .conf files assuming you still have a virgin install and you're on the same version as me.


Web pages won't load but network is working I can't get web pages to load on my MacBook Pro. Airport connects with the router and ping tests work fine (on www.google.com) but web pages aren't loading in any browser in any user account. Internet works on all other devices.

Worked fine until yesterday when it just stopped working.

Update:

Very strange. I tried three routers and had the same problem with all of them. I then created a new admin user account on my Mac and the internet worked on it. When I returned to my own account - the internet was working again!

Any idea why this would happen? It seems creating a new admin account and then coming back solved it.

Deleting the wifi icon and shutting down fixed the same issue for me as well


Is it impossible to listen to podcasts on iOS 6 now? I'm on iOS 6 on my iPhone, and I don't like iOS 7.  When I try to listen to a podcast on the iTunes app, it tells me to download the Podcasts app.  When I try to download the Podcasts app, it tells me iOS 7 is required to download the app.  So how can I listen to podcasts, short of upgrading to iOS 7?

If you had downloaded the podcasts app while iOS6 was the most recent, then you would have a version of the podcasts app that was compatible with it.  Unfortunately the current version of the podcasts app is written using iOS7 APIs, including ones to automatically download content for  you without you having to manually open the app etc, which are not backwards compatible.

As such, you will have to use a 3rd party app to listen to podcasts, or upgrade to iOS7.


What would happen if I force installed a Linux driver into Mac OS X? So, recently I got a Mac system and I was planning to put in an Intel WiFi card (as an upgrade for its current card). Now, as we know, Apple and Intel do not get along WiFi-wise.

However, this same card works in Linux.

What would happen if I were to force the Intel drivers for the Linux kernel into Mac OS X? Would it work? Would there be severe instability or data loss? Is it even possible?

What would happen if I were to force the Intel drivers for the Linux
  kernel into Mac OS X? Would it work? Would there be severe instability
  or data loss? Is it even possible?

At best? 100% nothing. At worst? Crash your whole system and make it unusable or even unbootable.

While Mac OS X and Linux are both different “flavors” of Unix, you can’t just grab parts from one OS and just install it into the other OS and expect them to work.

That said, if there is source code for the driver somewhere, you could potentially compile them for Mac OS X using the Xcode suite of development tools.

But that is one big if. The reality is compiling Linux application source code on a Mac OS X system from a Linux system is a crapshoot. Sometimes it works and you get to use nice Linux tools on a Mac OS X system. But sometimes it just won’t work. And that is at the application level. On the driver level it’s even less plausible or doable; and even if it was doable it would be difficult to do that at best.

That said, there seems to have been an open source effort to compile Linux Intel drivers for Mac OS X as seen here. But note that the versions of Mac OS X referred to are Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5; nothing more modern.


It's possible to restore data deleted one month ago? I ask if it's possible to resore some pictures taked last month an deleted from my iPad.
More precisely, when I taked the pictures I wasn't connected to the internet.

If you've deleted the pictures within the last 30 days, they are still available in the "Deleted pictures" album/folder within the Photos app on your iPad. If the deletion occured more than 30 days, they are unfortunately gone.

While it might be possible to recover the data even after the 30 days, the sandboxed architecture of iOS, the hardware encryption used and the ongoing file system writes by other apps make this a rather theoretical approach.


USB3 HDs fail to mount on wake from sleep with new iMac Pro On December 26, 2017 I took delivery of a 10-core iMac Pro.  From the time of its arrival I have had a serious problem with external USB3 drives (I have tried a variety from different manufacturers) attached to the ports on the back of the iMac Pro, ejecting 95% of the time when I wake the iMac Pro from sleep.  If I restart, the external USB3 hard drives reappear and function perfectly until the next time I put the iMac Pro to sleep. They do not dismount during use. The only setting I have checked in System Preferences > Energy Saver is “prevent computer from sleeping automatically when display is off”.

To solve this problems I have tried:

resetting the SMC Controller;
resetting the NVRAM;
completely reinstalling the Mac OS High Sierra software using Command > Recovery;
Using a variety of USB3 HD’s from different manufacturers.

None of this has resolved the issue. I am now able to use my new iMac Pro with only the supplied keyboard attached to a USB port on the back of the iMac Pro and two external Thunderbolt HD’s (which do not produce any problems).

Any solution that you can supply to these issues would be greatly appreciated.

I had this problem with a WD 6TB external HDD on wake(encrypted HDD) starting with Sierra and continuing into High Sierra. It would show in Finder (but not libraries or files) and DiskUtility, but would not mount. Running FirstAid failed on the physical disk. All was normal on restart.

Unfortunately It was not seen by TimeMachine and so I ended up with backups without the drive contents. Subsequent backups after restarts ended up erasing all old backups and backing up the entire drive for the next 14 hours.

Uninstalling the WD Utilities, especially WD Utility Helper which runs in background solved the issue. Installing or even just running the WD Utilities executes the helper as well as puts it into the user's startup jobs.


Distribute discount coupons for our app on AppStore (sent via email) As a developer (with Apple Developer program membership), is there a way to give discount coupons for an app sold on the AppStore?
Example use case: some users who bought many of our apps in the past contact us by email, and we would like to offer them 20% off if they purchase a new app. Is there a way to send them a discount coupon for a specific new app via email?

You cannot send out 20% discount coupons for App Store app purchases.
You have the choice of either using App Store promo codes that gives the user the app for free, or using App Store offer codes that discounts in-app subscriptions for the first term.


What's the structure behind Apple version numbers / build numbers? macOS Sierra 10.12.3 is 16D32, but the SDK is 16C58 according to my Xcode.

iOS 10.3 beta is 14E5239e.

Xcode 8.2 is 8C38.

You know how they look, and they are shared among all Apple software.

But how are they made up? What's the logic behind? I can barely guess that "sometimes", the first number is the "major" version, eg. for Xcode, but that's not always true, eg. for iOS.

And what's the middle letter about?

The last number surely is a sequential build number, with minor revisions having a lowercase letter appended (take iOS 10.3 beta).

Do they all start at 1A1 internally, then move on build after build?

What is the greater scheme at play here?

Paul Suh (formerly a consulting engineer and training developer at Apple, wrote the following (published on Joe Moreno's blog):

  For instance, Mac OS X 10.4.10 Intel is build 8R2232. Mac OS X Server
  10.4.11 Universal is 8S2169. These numbers have the following rough meanings:

  8 - This is the major version number of the software package. 10.5 =
  9, 10.4 = 8, ... 10.0 = 4. Prior to that was NextStep 3.3, from which
  we get the 3 series.

  R - This is the minor version number. It is always incremented for
  system updates (i.e. 10.4.10 to 10.4.11 is always a letter jump), but
  may be incremented as well for hardware-specific builds. R is the 18th
  letter, but only the 10th update to Tiger. The other 8 letter bumps
  were for hardware support for new releases. Security updates generally
  don't merit a letter bump.

  2232 - This is the sequential build number within the minor version.
  If it is a four-digit number, the first digit indicates a specific
  platform. In this case, 2 indicates that it is for Intel. A
  three-digit or shorter number indicates a unified build for all
  architectures. The remaining digits are the sequential build number.
  In this case, the R train had 232 builds before release, the first one
  being build 8R2001. Although the builds are roughly daily, you can't
  really go by that number. In the early stages builds may only happen
  once every two or three days; towards the end they may occur two or
  three times a day. The build trains of successive releases may overlap
  to a certain extent, based on what Apple Engineering sees as the
  priority vs. risk of various changes to the code. The earliest builds
  of 10.4.11 almost certainly overlapped with the last builds of
  10.4.10. The builds of Leopard definitely overlapped with builds of Tiger updates, going back to almost all the way to the day after Tiger
  was released.

  Note that different software packages have totally different build
  numbers, so you can't compare the build numbers to each other in a
  meaningful way. The exception is that Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server
  share the same build numbers.


iPhone 6s unresponsive display when unlocked My iPhone 6s was updated to iOS 11.0.2 recently. After that I began experiencing various unresponsiveness problems. Today it got even worse; my phone's display is 100% unresponsive when unlocked. However, when locked the display works as normal. So I can use the camera, browse the lock-screen widgets, and use Siri. This means I can make calls to people in my phone book. But if somebody calls the phone, it rings but there's no option to answer the call.

I cannot reboot the phone as the power on/off button on the side won't show the slider to turn off the phone. However, that same button works to lock the phone.

This doesn't appear to be a hardware problem as everything works (save for the power off function) when the phone is locked.

I tried to reset the phone in iTunes, but it wouldn't let me because "Find my friends" must be disabled first, which I obviously cannot do.

What are my options here? I'd like to resolve this quickly as I'm traveling abroad today and need my phone. I can think of only two things:

Make the battery run out and hope that something changes when I power the device up again. I can drain the battery faster if I light up the flashlight
Enter a wrong passcode over and over until the phone resets itself

I had a similar problem. It occurred after iphone music app became stuk while loading. Phone wouldn't turn off and wouldn't respond to swipe or changeing the app.
I pressed down simultaneously on the home button and the off button on the side . After awhile the phone shut down and the slider bar appeared and I was able to shut the phone off. Than able to turn it on and things are working now.


How to disable Bluetooth Sharing via terminal? I want to disable the Bluetooth Sharing that is located in the sharing preference section. I want to be able to disable it via terminal, does anyone have an idea on how to do that?

This is what I'm using for Yosemite:

First, grab $hardwareUUID:

hardwareUUID=$(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep "Hardware UUID" | awk -F ": " '{print $2}')

Then loop through existing users and set to "Disabled"

for USER_HOME in /Users/*
  do
    USER_UID=`basename "${USER_HOME}"`
    if [ ! "${USER_UID}" = "Shared" ]
     then
      if [ ! -d "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences ]
       then
        mkdir -p "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences
      fi
      if [ ! -d "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/ByHost ]
       then
        mkdir -p "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/ByHost
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/ByHost
      fi
      if [ -d "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/ByHost ]
       then
        /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Delete :PrefKeyServicesEnabled"  "$USER_HOME"/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.$hardwareUUID.plist
        /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :PrefKeyServicesEnabled bool false"  "$USER_HOME"/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.$hardwareUUID.plist
        chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.$hardwareUUID.plist
      fi
    fi
  done

If you just want the chunk that actually disables the value, see below:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Delete :PrefKeyServicesEnabled"  "$USER_HOME"/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.$hardwareUUID.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :PrefKeyServicesEnabled bool false"  "$USER_HOME"/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.$hardwareUUID.plist
chown "${USER_UID}" "${USER_HOME}"/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.Bluetooth.$hardwareUUID.plist


iPad 2 locked by Apple? A relative of mine got an iPad about a year ago and has not updated it until November after he asked me to help him with the update. We had updated it to the most recent iOS possible at that time using his apple account. Later, after the update was completed, he asked me to show him the iCloud. I logged in using my Apple ID to show him exactly what it is and now apparently his iPad is locked for 90 days. Has anyone heard  of anything similar? Is there a fix?

I believe this is associated with automatic downloads and/or iTunes Match. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4627

  Once a device or computer is associated with your Apple ID, you cannot associate that device or computer with another Apple ID for 90 days.

This article makes it sound like you can only sign in with a different account every 90 days, but this doesn't seem to be the case in my experience. I regularly sign into different accounts on our family's iPad when downloading apps and this has never been a problem.

I've only gotten warnings regarding this 90-day lockout when enabling iTunes Match.

The article also notes that:

  Note: Removing a device from your Apple ID does not override the 90 day timer. The timer must complete 90 days from the day the device was associated before it can be associated to another Apple ID.

It looks like you'll have to contact Apple if you want to have the device reset.


Adding an airport extreme base station so I can connect an aftermarket backup disk to the network to be used by Time Machine. We have our home network connected through an ATT uverse router.  I want to add an airport extreme base station so I can connect an aftermarket backup disk to the network to be used by Time Machine. What is the best way to hook up the airport extreme so it is always available to Time Machine?

From what I understand uverse needs their router used instead of any other. So I think you will have to put the AEBS into bridge mode and not have it working as a router. It should still serve up the hard drive as a time capsule, it just won't be doing the DHCP or DNS work for your network. The uverse router will be fulfilling that role.


Photos library - importing photos from DSLR camera - missing Masters directory (macOS Catalina) I used to import photos from my DSLR camera (Canon 50D) via Photos Library and then copy them from ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters/ directory. They were grouped by year/month/day of import and all files had their original file names eg. IMG_123456.jpeg

Recently I've noticed that Masters directory is missing (probably after update to Catalina). Imported photos seem to be located in ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/originals/ directory, however directories structure is illogical and file names are some hash values eg. 33487C0A-C816-4EE1-9F8D-49E20E1A06A4.jpeg.

Does anyone know why is that? Can the "previous" approach with "Masters" directory be restored? How to retrieve files with their original names from Photos Library?

Is there a reason you want/need to do this via the Finder, exploring the Photos Library.photoslibrary package database?

If you are going to do that, why not just "import" the files from your SD Card using Finder? Skip importing via Photos entirely.

If you are importing into Photos, I'd suggest you also export via Photos.app rather than exploring its folder structure. Select the photos you want, then select File > Export. This will export the photos using their original metadata and filenames.


How to automatically mount airport connected hard drive as read only for a user account I have an external hard drive connected to my airport extreme. I am able to access the drive without any problems. However, I have user accounts set up for my two young children. I want to give access to the shared drive as read only for their accounts. I would like this read only setting to be automatic when these accounts log in.

To get the drive mounted at login, drag the mounted volume to the Login Items in System Preferences → Users & Groups for the user that you want the volume auto mounting.

To set the permissions, Get Info (⌘I) on the drive and set the permissions in the Sharing & Permissions section.


Make Solid-state scrolling trackpad behave like Multi-Touch trackpad I am using an early 2009 MacBook.

Is there any way or any APP that can make Solid-state scrolling trackpad on my MacBook behave like Multi-Touch trackpad

Solid-state scrolling trackpad supports two-finger scrolling, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities, while Multi-Touch trackpad supports inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities.

Can gestures from Multi-Touch trackpad, be available to Solid-state scrolling trackpad?

You could try with some software like Better Touch Tool, but that's not guarantied it will work, since it's more of a hardware limitation.

Another solution would be to buy a Magic Trackpad.


Set different keyboard settings for two different users or applications on Mac? One user of uses Microsoft Remote Desktop to use Windows-based, industry-specific software which requires constant use of function keys, while other users never uses function keys.

I know that we can just press the fn key to access F1 to F12, or change the setting globally to require the fn key for the special functions (brightness, volume etc) instead, but can this setting be different for different users or, better still, different apps?

We have the British English Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, and an iMac running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

The Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys setting is applicable on a per user basis.

If the two users in your case have different user accounts, it will be very easy to enable/disable this setting for appropriate users.

It is not natively possible to configure this setting on a per app basis though.


How do I install QuickTime 10.1 on Snow Leopard? I haven't upgraded to Lion yet and was thinking of keeping this Mac running Snow Leopard and buy a new Mac with Lion.

So I hope to install the newest QuickTime 10.1 on the current Mac running Snow Leopard.  It already has QuickTime 10.0 (128) so it can record the screen as .mov, but it can't select a region on the screen to do the recording like on a Lion Mac in the Apple Store (which has QuickTime 10.1).  (so QuickTime 10.0 must record the full screen, it seems, and the duo core CPU is not powerful enough).

But I don't see any upgrade link inside QuickTime's about or help, and I don't see it on Apple's website (only QuickTime 7 is available).  Is it possible to upgrade to QuickTime 10.1 on Snow Leopard?

Snow Leopard already comes with QuickTime X. And as for trying to port Lion's version to Snow Leopard, that can't be done. QuickTime is a core component and like any integral piece of software, requires many libraries and APIs only available on Lion. It's not as simple as trying to copy over the contents of an .app bundle.


Force autocomplete form save on iPad While on some websites, iPad Safari automatically asks to save form data like Us/Pwd, on other pages, it never asks for the same.

How can we force it to ask for form data save on any website?

Add the following bookmarklet to safari:

javascript:(function()%7Bvar%20ca,cea,cs,df,dfe,i,j,x,y;function%20n(i,what)%7Breturn%20i+%22%20%22+what+((i==1)?%22%22:%22s%22)%7Dca=cea=cs=0;df=document.forms;for(i=0;i%3Cdf.length;++i)%7Bx=df%5Bi%5D;dfe=x.elements;if(x.onsubmit)%7Bx.onsubmit=%22%22;++cs;%7Dif(x.attributes%5B%22autocomplete%22%5D)%7Bx.attributes%5B%22autocomplete%22%5D.value=%22on%22;++ca;%7Dfor(j=0;j%3Cdfe.length;++j)%7By=dfe%5Bj%5D;if(y.attributes%5B%22autocomplete%22%5D)%7By.attributes%5B%22autocomplete%22%5D.value=%22on%22;++cea;%7D%7D%7Dalert(%22Removed%20autocomplete=off%20from%20%22+n(ca,%22form%22)+%22%20and%20from%20%22+n(cea,%22form%20element%22)+%22,%20and%20removed%20onsubmit%20from%20%22+n(cs,%22form%22)+%22.%20After%20you%20type%20your%20password%20and%20submit%20the%20form,%20the%20browser%20will%20offer%20to%20remember%20your%20password.%22)%7D)();

You will need to know how to manipulate an existing bookmark to paste this small program in the place a bookmark normally has the URL. This is exactly how programs like Instapaper and Pocket and others use a bookmarklet (which is really a program stored as a bookmark) to change or act on the page you are currently browsing.

Since you should always be a little suspicious when someone posts a program for you to run - here is a clearer version that shows we just loop over all the elements and blindly turn on autocomplete for each.

This makes up for web developers that forgot or intentionally did not enable autocomplete.

Same script as above, but nicely formatted and without the bookmarklet wrapper:

function () {
    var ca, cea, cs, df, dfe, i, j, x, y;

    function n(i, what) {
        return i " "
        what((i == 1) ? "" : "s")
    }
    ca = cea = cs = 0;
    df = document.forms;
    for (i = 0; i < df.length; i) {
        x = df[i];
        dfe = x.elements;
        if (x.onsubmit) {
            x.onsubmit = "";
            cs;
        }
        if (x.attributes["autocomplete"]) {
            x.attributes["autocomplete"].value = "on";
            ca;
        }
        for (j = 0; j < dfe.length; j) {
            y = dfe[j];
            if (y.attributes["autocomplete"]) {
                y.attributes["autocomplete"].value = "on";
                cea;
            }
        }
    }
    alert("Removed autocomplete=off from "
    n(ca, "form")" and from "
    n(cea, "form element")", and removed onsubmit from "
    n(cs, "form")". After you type your password and submit the form, the browser will offer to remember your password.")
}


How do I Change my old iPod Apple ID to my new Current ID to match the one on my iPhone? About 2 almost 3 years ago I purchased an iPod touch 5. My phone and my iPod both have 2 different Apple ID's (same as 2 different email addresses). The email address used for my iPod is an email I no longer use and I'm not sure if I deactivated it or not. Anyway when I go to Settings> iCloud> it still tells me that same old email address.

Sign in with your old Apple ID at iCloud.com, go to Settings->Manage (Apple ID)->Click on your iPod and remove it from the list of devices. And finally use your new Apple ID on your iPod.


Finance App That Charts Bank Info? I'm looking for a finance app that will connect to my banks so I can see My balance at the end of every day, week, month.  I would like to see how it rises and falls just so I can keep a better eye on my money.  Are there any dashboards or apps like this?

If there is an app that syncs with an iOS app that would be great

I believe Mint.com does exactly that:
https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/accounts/

They have a website as well as iPhone and iPad apps.


Macbook Pro 13 inch mid 2012 not running two daisy chained thunderbolt displays I am trying to run two thunderbolt displays with my macbook pro and it will only run one at a time.

I have tried the displays with an older 17 inch model and it runs all three (including the internal screen) fine.

OS X 10.11.1
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB

I think it's that my laptop is on the edge of being powerful enough for both.

I made some space on my hard disk, stopped any applications from opening automatically on login and restarted whilst plugged in to both monitors.


Create a snapshot of Mac that I can restore from What is the easiest way to create a snapshot of my Mac at its current state that I can use to do future re-installs from.

I want to be able to get my Mac back to a state where all my required apps are set up with their required settings and plugins and all my system settings are set to a state I'm happy with.

You can indeed go into recovery mode and use Disk Utility to image your drive to another location (like an attached USB drive or the like.

There are also 3rd party programs (SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner, and others) that will make a bootable image of your drive to either a DISK image (think multiple copies) or directly to another drive so that drive is bootable. The advantage of these is that they can do it on a live system without booting into recovery mode. The only downside is that you'll have to pay for them.


Top row on keyboard has a different behavior when pressing alt and using a non mac keyboard I use a MacBook Pro as a Laptop and mainly Linux to work. Mostly i like to use the same Keyboard (Ducky one 2 SF) for both devices. I chose the same keyboard settings (German) in Mac OS as in all other Systems. My Problem is, that the top row on mac doesn't work as expected. It still works as if I use a Magic keyboard.
For example, I want to get [ with alt 8, but instead I get {.
One solution would be to remap all the different keys, which doesn't look as the best way for me. Is there any way to just use the natural keyboard layout of my selected keyboard?

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources and make sure the only item on the list is "German Standard" (and not "German").
The Apple "German" input source puts [ ] { } on alt 5689, while the German Standard input source should put them on alt 8970, and there are various other differences, such as @ being on alt L for "German" instead of on alt Q for "German Standard".
Because the differences are on the alt level, the printing on an Apple "German" keyboard can look the same as that on a "German Standard" keyboard, except perhaps for where @ appears as the 3rd item on a key. So it is easy to choose the wrong input source.


How do I build and install gcc5 in OS X 10.11 without Xcode? Obviously installing gcc from source will require a compiler to build it; is it possible to install gcc without Xcode?

You can find several versions of gcc for different OS X flavors here: HPC Mac OS X.

Download my binaries, and cd to the download folder. Then gunzip gcc-5.3-bin.tar.gz (if your browser didn't do so already) and then sudo tar -xvf gcc-5.3-bin.tar -C /. It installs everything in /usr/local. You can invoke the Fortran 95 compiler by simply typing gfortran.
[To compile other sources...] you will also need to have Apple's XCode Tools installed from the Mac App Store. With XCode 4 or better you will need to download the command-line tools as an additional step. You will find the option to download the command-line tools in XCode's Preferences. On 10.9 Mavericks or higher, you can get the command-line tools by simply typing xcode-select --install.

Addition in square brackets by me...

Please also visit Information Security Stack Exchange and search for questions about the security risks associated with precompiled compilers from "unknown" sources.


BlackMagic UlraStudio Mini Recorder - Black Screen on all Inputs - HDMI input to Mac Pro I am trying to get a live feed via the following setup on my MacBook Pro 2012 running Sierra 10.13.2.

HDMI Out on camera, plugged into HDMI In on BlackMagic device >> Thunderbolt out plugged into MacBook Thunderbolt port.

I have a few Camera's I have tested but none work.

I have tried BlackMagic drivers 10.9.7 and 10.9.5. When I open the BlackMagic Media Express, I just get a blank/black screen on the "Log/Capture" screen.

In the BlackMagic driver settings I have selected HDMI and under "Conversions" I have set "None".

The end goal is to use IStopMotion, which shows the device "Black Magic" as an option, but it is also a black screen.

The cameras I have tried are Sony HDR-SR10, Sony HDR-CX130 and Lumix DMC-GF1.

We had to go buy a new mini HDMI to HDMI adapter. After the software worked as expected. Good Job BlackMagic on a nice piece of SW.


Mail.app on 10.8: How to get back the "N Messages Selected" label? In OS X 10.7 Lion: Mail.app in "classic layout" (Preferences > Viewing > Use classic layout), would display a very helpful "N Messages Selected" label in the empty bottom pane when you selected multiple messages:

But in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the helpful label is gone and replaced by some terrible (slow, choppy) animation of individual messages flying around and being added to a stack of overlapping messages.

Question: is it possible to get the old "N Messages Selected" label back on OS X 10.8?

I usually just drag the selected messages a few pixels and then let them drop back. While you're dragging them, the number of messages is shown next to the cursor.

Not exactly the same thing, but it does the job for me.


How to get keyboard shortcut for downloads folder work again after deleting downloads folder? I tried to get my downloads folder synced with iCloud and followed this tutorial: How to sync an additional folder to iCloud Drive similar to how macOS Sierra does it?

However, I did not like the result, so I tried to reverse its effects and "reinstalled" the downloads folder in my user folder by simply creating a new folder and naming it "Downloads". Everything seems to work (Safari files get downloaded into this folder, this folder is accessible via the dock etc.)

My problem: The keyboard shortcut (⌥+⌘+L) is not directing me to the downloads folder whenever I am in finder. All other keyboard shortcuts in finder still work.

Do you have any tips or suggestions on how to get the shortcut to work again? I rely heavily on keyboard shortcuts in finder, so this problem is very annoying.

Thank you.

Btw: I am using macOS 10.15.2, if that is of any relevance.

⌥+⌘+L is the default key but if it is not working, I would suggest you create a new service in Automator.

Set the dropdowns to Service receives to no input, in any application, or limit it to just the Finder if you like.
Add the "Run Shell Script" item, and set the content to open ~/Downloads
Save the Service, name it whatever you like.
In the keyboard shortcuts preference pane, select "Services" from the source list.

Find the service you created at the bottom of the list on the right, and give it whatever shortcut you'd like. I hope this will help you.


iMovie 10 (Mavericks): Altering the duration of imported pictures (stills) In earlier versions of iMovie, you could relatively easily import still pictures and alter their duration to create slide show. However, in the latest release, iMovie 10, this ability seems to have disappeared or at least moved. If I import a series of pictures (PDF format), I can use 'Adjust' to see a duration of the form '1.0 s of 0.9 s'. I can type in the '1.0' part but not the '0.9' part, and changes are not reflected in the movie. In particular, I want to set durations of several seconds or even minutes: how do I do this in the latest version?

⌘-click on all the pictures that you want to adjust the timing of in the timeline.
Go to Window → Show Adjustments Bar or press 3.
Select the info button on the adjustments bar.
Enter the duration into the box on the right and press Enter.

This will change the duration of all the selected clips (or in this case, pictures).


How do I force macOS to update? How do I force macOS to update? When I try to open Xcode I get the message that I'm not running a new enough version of macOS. However, the software updater menu says I'm up-to-date.

You should be able to download an update manually.

Generally speaking Apple releases what they call combo updates that will update all previous versions of an OS release to the (current) latest version.

You can search out "Mac OS 14 combo update" and you will end up here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2000?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

With the latest revision of macOS Mojave 14.5.

This also works with previous versions of macOS. Combo updates are also a good way to fix a "misbehaving" OS installation.


Is it possible to connect two iPhones to the same external GPS device? I can connect an iPhone to an external GPS device, but when I use another iPhone to also try to connect to it, it won't connect.
But there are posts that stated we can connect two iPhones to a single Bluetooth device. Does it depend on the Bluetooth device?
It makes sense if the GPS signal can be provided to two iPhones if there are two people hiking together, but maybe it takes extra design steps to make such a Bluetooth device.

Yes, this depends on the Bluetooth device.
Also note that there's a difference in pairing multiple phones with the same device, and actually be actively using the device from multiple phones at the same time.
I do not think it is common for Bluetooth devices to allow the latter in this use case, however it is ofcourse possible to implement for the device maker (at the extreme including two separate Bluetooth modules).


How to Make OS X Partition Smaller? System: SIP disabled, Macbook Air 2013-mid, about 120 GB SSD, 8 GB DDR3.
My current disk state

OS X portion

I want to decrease OS X portion and move it to other but trying to startup partion, I get

Outputs motivated by klanomath

Command diskutil list and its output

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            76.0 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         44.3 GB    disk0s4
/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +75.7 GB    disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 20C85797-328F-4A27-B0DE-97DB2B14F1D7
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk3 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *128.7 GB   disk3
   1:             Windows_FAT_32 FAT32                   128.7 GB   disk3s1

Command diskutil cs list and its output

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group E7F4DE9D-EFE4-4CEC-BCA3-3A0C20ED47C9
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         76017078272 B (76.0 GB)
    Free Space:   12656640 B (12.7 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 6F9B1342-37C0-4734-8C95-9E20F2344F04
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     76017078272 B (76.0 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family A8F4C470-C0FF-4000-85A9-565FACDA1818
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Conversion Status:       Complete
        High Level Queries:      Fully Secure
        |                        Passphrase Required
        |                        Accepts New Users
        |                        Has Visible Users
        |                        Has Volume Key
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 20C85797-328F-4A27-B0DE-97DB2B14F1D7
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          75652100096 B (75.7 GB)
            Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Command sudo gpt -r show disk0 and its output

gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         MBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  148470856      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  148880496    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  150150032   86566407      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  236716439     261704
  236978143         32         Sec GPT table
  236978175          1         Sec GPT header

I run exactly klanomath's commands in real partions but I get with the last command; everything goes fine before the last command

Error -69722: You can't perform this resize unless it has a booter (target partition is probably too small)

How can you Make OS X Partion Smaller?

You should be able to resize the CoreStorage stack by booting to a second boot volume (e.g. Internet Recovery Mode) after modifying the partition table. Afterwards you have to re-add the partitions in the old boundaries but with proper types.

Preparation:

Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.

The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan). If you boot to a full system and login as admin you have to prepend sudo to execute some commands like gpt ... or newfs_hfs ...!

Remove the bogus MBR/GPT and re-add the partitions

Open in the menubar Utlities->Terminal
Enter diskutil list and gpt -r show /dev/disk0 to get an overview
Destroy the bogus GUID partition table/MBR and recreate a fresh one:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/diskX #with diskX = disk identifier of the logical volume
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt destroy /dev/disk0
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt create -f /dev/disk0

Re-add the partitions:

gpt add -b 40 -i 1 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 488966144 -i 3 -s 1267712 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 150150032 -i 4 -s 86566407 -t EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 148880496 -i 2 -s 148470856 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

The logical volume should mount automatically if not encrypted. If not you may have to unlock it.
Verify the disk and the volume and try to repair them if necessary
Unlock your FileVault volume

diskutil cs unlockVolume lvUUID

Resize the CoreStorage stack

diskutil cs resizestack lvUUID size

e.g.

diskutil cs resizestack 20C85797-328F-4A27-B0DE-97DB2B14F1D7 65000m

if this fails you may have to decrypt the FileVault volume

diskutil cs unlockVolume 20C85797-328F-4A27-B0DE-97DB2B14F1D7
diskutil cs decryptVolume 20C85797-328F-4A27-B0DE-97DB2B14F1D7

and get the new device node with

diskutil list

Verify the decrypted volume (e.g. disk16)

diskutil verifyVolume /dev/disk16

Try to resize the CoreStorage stack again (like above)

diskutil cs resizestack lvUUID size

Resizing you Linux partition from inside Linux afterwards will probably hose your current MBR (and/or GPT) and will render one or both systems unbootable.

Tested in a VM:

Resizing the unlocked but encrypted volume from a second boot volume failed with an error number and some "booter is mounted" message. The reason for the message may be the following: the FileVault volume (disk0s2/disk16) relies on some files in the Recovery HD (disk0s3). Resizing the stack means shrinking the Logical Volume Group and all subsequent CoreStorage items and moving the Recovery HD to lower block numbers afterwards. The Recovery HD has to be unmounted to achieve this.

Using real partitions may yield different results or errors.


Important files and photos saved on Cloud service What happens if the iCloud/GoogleDrive/DropBox data center where my important files (business info, family photos) are saved ever faces a catastrophic situation like a terrorist nuclear bomb attack? Is my cloud data stored in more than one geo-location?

Yes, your data is stored in multiple different locations. Most of the time cloud services has various datacenters in multiple countries on different continents.

As user you don't know where your data is stored exactly and how many copies of that data is stored. But you can bet they have a backup of a backup of a backup.

Because systems, servers, harddrives fail every single day their systems are designed to keep all the data save.

Keep in mind companies can decide to stop offering cloud services. So if you are a little bit smart, you have backups as well.


How much time would pass before overwriting data on iPod/iPhone flash memory results in failure? Just for the sake of this question.

Let's say I have a file that fills my iPod completely, and I set an automated test to save this file into my iPod and overwrite it, non stop. How much time will pass until the flash drive cannot write the file anymore?

I tried to Google this, but "Stress test" only means smashing your device to pieces.

Flash controllers generally degrade gracefully, so once a block has failed, it no longer is usable, so you would expect a slow, gradual shrinking of the usable space over time. Once the majority of the blocks start reaching the limit on write cycles (you need to store different data - not just the same bits to make real change on most flash controllers) then this reduction of space increases more linearly with time / write cycles.

So - it will be quick to not store the entire file, but a much longer time until you can't write to 50% of the drive.


How does one detect if java is installed without triggering a visual prompt? On most systems, one would just run java -version and a non-zero return code would indicate that Java is not installed.

One could do this on OS X, but a nuisance-prompt comes up to ask the user if they want to install Java.

This is irritating in automated scripts.

How can one detect whether Java is installed on a Mac, without getting the popup?

rtrouton has some great examples on his derflounder website.  The examples are used as extension attributes in a mdm suite, just remove the results tags from them.  Below is a script that looks for the java install folder, if it exists echo out the version if not echo not installed.  This in return never triggers the java command keeping the pop up away.

if [[ -e /Library/Java/Home ]]; then
    echo "$(java -version 2>&1 | awk '/version/{print $3}' | sed 's/"//g')"
        else
    echo "Java not installed"
fi


Why is it that "Mac OS X Snow Leopard can't be installed on this computer"? I'm trying to install Snow Leopard on a MacBook (32-bit, Dual Core, ca 4 years old).

I am presented with: "Mac OS X Snow Leopard can't be installed on this computer."

Is it because of the 32-bit architecture? Should I just go with Leopard instead of Snow Leopard?

Check to make sure you have enough RAM, Snow Leopard requires 1GB of RAM.  Snow Leopard does not require a 64-bit processor.


Finder wants to make changes. Type your password to allow this System: 10.10.3 Any changes in Finder gives the popup window where I am asked to type my password. I can delete files so not that earlier discussed problem. Any file taken out of finder is just copying, not remove it. It started after updating to 10.10.3 and both on iMAC and Macbook Air.

Tried everything so far....repaired my disc's permissions in reboot mode, checked terminal and compared with the empty trash problem... but nothing worked.
An solution would be much appreciated, thanks

I would recommend you updating to 10.13.2 macOS High Sierra. It should resolve the problem.


Reduce iPhone Ringer Volume Without Affecting Messagaging Alert Volume I need to know how I can lower the volume on my phone ringer without lowering the volume for messaging alerts.  At night, I need Messaging to be LOUD, but I want my phone ringer to be barely audible (note: ringer still needs to emit some sound, not completely turned off).

Sadly this isn't an option on a non-jailbroken device.


Rented movie disappeared from iTunes So, I rented guardians of the galaxy to watch on a plane ride, I downloaded it the night before I left so it would have enough time to download, I checked right before I left and it was fully downloaded, then when I went on the plane and no longer had internet connection the movie was no longer in my movies or in my unwatched movies.I never started playing the movie so I should have had 30 days. what should I do?

My first suggestion would be to launch iTunes and from the menu bar select Store -> Check Available Downloads

If that does not work, just contact Apple Support. Reference your order number, and they should push the download back down to you.

They do have a 24 hour turn around on this, so do it earlier rather than later so you'll have it for your next flight!

http://www.apple.com/support/contact/