Can I damage my IPhone by overcharging Can I damage my iPhone 5c if I charge it when the battery is fully charged? I use the charger from Apple.

No you cannot overcharge it because careful account is made of the charge in the cells by internal circuitry which will not charge the battery when it is fully charged. Many of the technologies involved in modern, power dense batteries react very badly indeed to overcharging, so much so that a little circuit, usually built into the battery itself, acts as a kind of charge "accountant" to ensure it's impossible for things to get out-of-hand.


as of 4/2015 OS X Kindle App: Where are the books located? After I updated my Kindle for Mac app 2 mos. ago I can no longer find the azw book files on my Mac to convert them so I can read them on my KOBO ereader. I use to find them in a My Kindle Content file but that has disappeared. I have Ult. DRM & Calibre but they won't work without the azw files, and I can't find them on my mac anymore. Can anyone help me?
The answers on this site about this are years old & do not apply to my problem.

Kindle.app now uses the Apple Sandbox functionality.

This means that it can only affect and see files in a subdirectory under ~/Library/Containers. The .azw files are in ~/Library/Containers/com.amazon.Kindle/Data/Library/Application Support/Kindle/My Kindle Content

This directory is shown in the Kindle app in Preferences->General as the value of Content Folder and it appears that this can be changed there.


MBAir to Chromebook? For the last 10 years I have been using a Macbook Air. Now I want to switch over to Chromebook.
What types of challenges I may come across with regard to getting my saved folders and files in MBA and how do I access them in my Chromebook via my saved external disk?

You have multiple options depending on your needs.
The most straight-forward option would be to format your external disk in the ExFAT format. This format is supported for both read and writes by both macOS and Chrome OS. It also supports large files, which is otherwise a problem with older versions of FAT.
Another option would be to format the external disk with HFS+. This format can be read and written to from macOS, and you can read the files from Chrome OS. You'll need to copy them over to other storage (internal/external) once on Chrome OS, as you will be able to only read the files - not write to them again on the HFS+ formatted disk.


How to view path of Dock Icon I moved a folder and now the dock item cannot find the application.

How can I view the path of the pointer in a Dock item?

Simply hold the Command key when you click the app in the dock and it will open the location of the app rather than opening the application as normal. Once you have the app open in finder you can right click the name of the folder at the very top of the finder window that opened and it will show the path to the app.

Alternatively you could right click the app in the finder window and click "Get Info" to show a panel like this with the path to the app:


Create a RAID 1 with only one disk? I have a MacBook with an SSD, so space is limited.

I've been using a single external drive to store my overflow, but would feel a lot more comfortable if it was on a RAID 1. So, I've bought an 2 bay USB 3 drive case, and an additional hard disk (same exact disk). What I want to do is create a RAID without having to the move the data on the external disk to a new temporary home, if at all possible.

I have:

Disk 1 - contains files.

Disk 2 - empty.

What I would like to be able to do, is create a new RAID 1, with Disk 2 as the only member. It will therefore show that its in a degraded state.

Copy all my data from Disk 1 onto Disk 2 (which is RAIDed). Reformat Disk 1, add it to the Enclosure, and make it a member of the RAID, and have the OS silently replicate the data from Disk 2 to Disk 1, so that it becomes a mirrored set.

Is this possible?

Or do I need to find a 3rd disk to use as a holding area for all of this?

The short answer is no. In any case you should place your data on a third drive, make your raid on drives 1 & 2, then copy data from drive 3 back to the new raid (drives 1&2).

Please note that even raids can (and will) fail too and you should keep a backup of the raid.


How to install JRE in a way usable for dev? I have Java 8 installed by an admin

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_151.jdk/Contents/Home/bin
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_151.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/bin

I needed to install java9, so I downloaded and installed the JDK to

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-9.0.4.jdk/Contents/Home/bin

However, I got no .../jre folder!

When I tried to install the JRE as a standalone, the installation completed fine but there's nothing new under /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines (or jdk-9.0.4.jdk)

I need to have the jre folder there or at least to know where it is so I can configure my way to it.
How can this be achieved?

The Java 9 (and 10) JDK no longer includes a separate jre directory. Instead you just use the main JDK directory - the 'Contents/Home' directory.

The output of the /usr/libexec/java_home command will give you the directory to use.


Swap X and Y axes on Numbers 3.1 This link is now outdated with the new release of numbers.

I want to transpose the X- and Y-axes on a chart in Numbers 3.1. How the heck can I do this?

The first chart I made was able to sum my columns up to 100 just fine:

However, when I try it with fewer columns/geographies, it transposes the selection:

Even when I transpose the cells, it still forces the data to display incorrectly and there is no option to swap the axes:

I'm so frustrated with this! How can I make it plot correctly? Thanks!

Was having the same problem – apparently the options to swap axes moved to the bottom left when Editing Data References:

Answer found here.


How can I backup a VirtualBox VM with TimeMachine I've read lots of different things about using TimeMachine with VirtualBox, but I haven't been able to find a very clear answer about what an acceptable configuration is. Some folks say "include up the whole virtual disk", some say "use snapshots and include everything except the virtual disk", and other people say "forget TimeMachine, create a separate partition on you backup drive, and export you VMs manually". I've read that including the whole VBox vdi / vdmk will cause TimeMachine to write the whole disk each time something changes, filling up the TimeMachine backup & wiping out all of the incremental backup history.

Most of the things I've read are a few years old too. I'm wondering if anyone has any new advice on this. What is the best way to back up VirtualBox VMs using TimeMachine? Is it even a task worth messing with, or is manually backing up the better option?

I have an answer, it's not the answer but it just recently saved my posterior when my iMac's HDD crashed a few weeks ago so I thought I would share.  It's not a short read, but I think it can help.

There are many issues around VM's that can cause headaches for backup strategies - size of the VDI files, snapshots, backup time, etc.  Consequently, I decided to chart my own path here to make things simplier.

I avoid the "putting all your eggs in one basket" strategy.  What this means is that while I have a VM running FreeBSD for web development, what get's developed is nowhere on the VM.  Here's a map of what my environment looks like:

The graphic needs to be updated because I no longer run Oracle Linux 7 as I have switched to FreeBSD 10-2.  I also have 4 USB drives attached to the Synology, not just one.  But those are minor and the concepts are still exactly the same.  Following is how I put it all together...

The Architecture

My environment consists of my

Synology NAS (RAID 1) with an iSCSI Target configured to hold all the data for the FreeBSD VM
a USB drive to backup that iSCSI LUN
a cron job on the Synology to take daily snapshots of the dev directory (this includes a daily MySQL dump)

On my iMac

a dynamically sized VDI that maxes out at 24GB
FreeBSD VM configured how I like, updated will all the latest patches and updates
FreeBSD VM "bridged" so it appears as a node on my network and not NAT'ed behind VirtualBox
iSCSI Initiator that connects to the Synology iSCSI LUN
the VM autoboot set to enabled so that it will automatically boot the VM across reboots
Time Machine configured to backup once per day

How This Works

Because I have an iSCSI target mapped to my FreeBSD VM, anything I do is changed on the Synology, not the VM itself.  As far as FreeBSD is concerned, it's just another mount point.  In this case, I created a mount point

/mnt/web/http/htdocs    -----> Synology iqn.diskstion.local-some-name

Why iSCSI?  iSCSI is block level, not file level.  As far as the OS can tell, you have attached another hard disk to your OS.  You format and partition it the same way you would any drive you added to your system.

I then changed the DocumentRoot in httpd.conf to the aforementioned directory.  Now, if you point  your browser to the web server being hosted on my iMac, all the files are coming from the Synology and just passing through the VM. If I write new code, it's on the Synology.

Oh...the MySQL data directory...you guessed it...on the Synology!

Backing Up

Once I created the FreeBSD VM the way I liked it, I immediately archived a copy and put it on the Synology and on a USB stick.  It was only 4GB, by the way.

I tested out the restore procedure by deleting the VM on my iMac and then copying it back to my iMac's VM directory.  The trick is, instead of Importing/Exporting, you just "Add" it to VirtualBox and "Open" the .vbox file of the machine you copied over.

Now, my FreeBSD image was only 4GB and it never changes - unless of course I do an update.  So, there isn't a need to back this up with Time Machine (unless I want to) because it only changes when I do an OS update.

The Synology is configured with a RAID 1, so the disks are mirrored.  If one fails, then I still have the other; that my first level of data protection.  I also have a daily backup going to a USB drive;  that's my second level.  I also do a daily directory snapshot using tar and mysqldump that's cron'd (on the Synology); third level.  Synology has the ability to sync to cloud providers so in effect, if I set this up, there is now 4 levels of data protection available to me.  Buy another NAS and use rsync...5 levels...and so on....

How this Worked

So earlier I said that this saved my bacon when my HDD crashed.  Because my data existed on another drive, it was safe.  I had my VM image backed up in two places so that was at the ready.

When I copied my VM back to my new iMac, once I loaded it up, it knew where the iSCSI target was and immediately went to work.  I restored in less than 10 minutes total and that's including the time to find and copy the VM master image over to my new iMac.

But that's not where it saved my bacon...

I chose to upgrade to a 1TB SSD and delivery would take 2 days.  I couldn't be down for two days, so I copied the VM to my Surface Pro 3, loaded it up, and because  the VM "knew" where the Synology iSCSI target was, I was back up in business in 10 mins  on a completely different computer.

You don't need an external NAS

Ok, so maybe my setup is a bit overkill with an NAS and iSCSI.  However, there is nothing to prevent you from setting up a "shared directory" on your Mac and sharing it via NFS and mounting it on your VM. Remember, the VM is setup to be it's own node on the network; it has no idea that it's looping back to the shared drive where it's getting it's data from. With this setup you can still get the benefit of the VM never changing and only backing up what has changed which would be what's in the directory being shared via NFS.

Conclusion

I have always subscribed to the philosophy that data protection is not a product or service you buy; it's a strategy you employ.  I found that relying on one thing (i.e. Time Machine) is a disaster waiting to happen.  By building this as levels of protection I can be very efficient as well as highly backed up incase of disaster.  It also allows me to be extremely flexible and "rapid" in coming back online.


Locating install printer PPD driver url script Is it possible to output the PPD driver path my installed printer is using?

You can get information about the installed printer driver with system_profiler:

pse@Mithos:~$ system_profiler SPPrintersSoftwareDataType
Printer Software:

    PPDs:

      PPDs:
          Path: /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/CanonIJMG7100series.ppd.gz
          Version: 11.7.1.0
          Path: /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/CanonIJMP520series.ppd.gz
          Version: 10.84.2.0
          Path: /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/CanonIJMP540series.ppd.gz
          Version: 10.84.2.0
...


Problem with creating hotspot on macOS I have a question regarding the setup of a hotspot on my Mac. I have a wired ethernet connection, which I connect to the computer. I would then like to be able to connect to that same connection (and the LAN) on my iPhone over wifi. I followed the steps here (https://www.maketecheasier.com/create-wifi-hotspot-using-mac-os-x/) which worked, however, there is a problem. Whenever I do this, the Macbook acts as a router, not allowing me to access any devices on the original LAN the Mac is connected to. I would instead prefer if it acted more like an AP, allowing communication to flow between my iPhone and everything on the LAN.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: To clarify, the important thing here is that I can't access any devices that are already present on my LAN. I have an IKEA Tradfri hub connected via ethernet to my router. Also connected to my router is a powerline adapter. The second powerline adapter is connected to the Macbook I was talking about. So now, when I connect to the Macbook's wifi, I can't access the hub. (This is, however, possible from the Macbook - I checked via a ping request, there is no app available for mac as far as I know.) My Macbook is therefore acting as a router, where the ethernet cable is plugged in to the port which says Internet. I need it to act like an AP or a router where the ethernet cable is plugged in to a normal LAN port. I hope this clarifies the difference. Thanks again!

Go to system preferences then click on internet sharing and select share your internet connection from your Ethernet then select (to devices using WIFI)


/etc/hosts will not update/refresh at all I add to my /etc/hosts file this :

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

Save the file. Flush everything with :

dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Reboot my computer 30 times.

Then I run:

dscacheutil -q host -a name youtube.com

And I get :

name: youtube.com
ip_address: 216.58.220.46

Clear my cache completely since the beginning of time in any browser, go to : youtube.com, and I get youtube.com, not my localhost.

I'm using OS X 10.10.5, Yosemite.

Check your hosts file, because probably it's malformed. It should look similar to this one:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.0.1       youtube.com
127.0.0.1       www.youtube.com
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost

Opening the file with sudo nano /etc/hosts it should have a trailing empty line. All entries for 127.0.0.1 should be added above the broadcasthost. The space between IP-address and hostname should be one tab: ⇥.

After writing the file to disk with nano, the changes should take effect immediately (usually without executing any dnscacheutil or killall commands). Check this with ping youtube.com.

Google Chrome is (probably) the only app which doesn't adhere properly (as a test in a VM revealed).


Combining diacritic marks don't work in iCloud Pages? Here is what it looks like if I type an "e" followed by an acute accent combining character, in macOS Pages (and in most good text editing programs).

Here's what happens in iCloud Pages.

I sent something via the "submit feedback" menu item.

Are others seeing this? Is there a fix or workaround? It's too bad. This will force me to Google docs.

I need them for stress marks on Cyrillic characters, so I cannot use the standard Mac dead-key shortcuts.

Safari: 11.1.1. macOS 10.13.5

Looks like a bug.  I think to add combining marks to Cyrillic characters you will have to use another app.


iOS 11 how to prevent iBooks from moving my books to the cloud? I see that my iBooks seems to be uploading my books to the cloud without keeping a copy on my local device. So when I reopen the app, I have to wait for the book to do finish downloading (which is a hassle if it is a 600 page pdf)

How can I prevent iBooks from deleting local book files and moving them to the cloud?

Is this related to “offload I used apps” switch? (it’s on for me)

This is a bug in iBooks.  Please report it to Apple so they fix it.  Many of us have this problem.  I just got bit by it on an airplane flight, when I realized I didn't have my books on my iPad or phone because... Apple.


where is the jitsi log? On Linux, I can "tail" the jitsi log:

thufir@tleilax:~$
thufir@tleilax:~$ tail .jitsi/log/jitsi0.log.0
00:08:08.579 WARNING: [59] service.resources.AbstractResourcesService.getSettingsInt().596 Missing resource for key: net.java.sip.communicator.SIP_PREFERRED_SECURE_PORT
00:08:26.710 INFO: [73] impl.protocol.sip.SipLogger.logInfo().185 Info from the JAIN-SIP stack: the sip stack timer gov.nist.javax.sip.stack.timers.DefaultSipTimer has been stopped
00:08:27.738 INFO: [73] impl.protocol.sip.SipLogger.logInfo().185 Info from the JAIN-SIP stack: the sip stack timer gov.nist.javax.sip.stack.timers.DefaultSipTimer has been stopped
00:10:08.444 WARNING: [76] plugin.sipaccregwizz.SIPAccountRegistrationWizard.installAccount().419 An account for id thufir@getonsip.com was already installed!
00:11:13.905 WARNING: [77] service.resources.AbstractResourcesService.getSettingsInt().596 Missing resource for key: net.java.sip.communicator.SIP_PREFERRED_CLEAR_PORT
00:11:13.907 INFO: [77] impl.protocol.sip.SipLogger.logInfo().185 Info from the JAIN-SIP stack: the sip stack timer gov.nist.javax.sip.stack.timers.DefaultSipTimer has been started
00:11:13.913 WARNING: [77] service.resources.AbstractResourcesService.getSettingsInt().596 Missing resource for key: net.java.sip.communicator.SIP_PREFERRED_SECURE_PORT
00:11:44.729 SEVERE: [90] impl.protocol.sip.SipRegistrarConnection.processResponse().937 Received an error response (400)
00:11:44.817 INFO: [90] impl.protocol.sip.SipLogger.logInfo().185 Info from the JAIN-SIP stack: the sip stack timer gov.nist.javax.sip.stack.timers.DefaultSipTimer has been stopped
00:11:45.818 INFO: [90] impl.protocol.sip.SipLogger.logInfo().185 Info from the JAIN-SIP stack: the sip stack timer gov.nist.javax.sip.stack.timers.DefaultSipTimer has been stopped
thufir@tleilax:~$

However, I wasn't able to find a .jitsi directory specifically, or configuration files for user applications.  Are they generally in the home folder?  Specifically, where's the jitsi configuration and log, please?

My system:

  System Version:   OS X 10.10.2 (14C1510)
  Kernel Version:   Darwin 14.1.0
  Boot Volume:  Mac OSx
  Boot Mode:    Normal
  Computer Name:    A MacBook Pro
  User Name:    thufir (thufir)
  Secure Virtual Memory:    Enabled
  Time since boot:  1:03

Jitsi → Preferences, then selecting the “Advanced” tab and opening the “Logging” form. You’ll see the “Archive Logs” button in there.

If your jitsi version is above 2.4 or newer, you can find log files in ~/Library/Logs/Jitsi.


Is it a good idea to run MacOS off of a flash drive? I have an old 2013 iMac and it is very slow because the hard drive is corrupted. I want to replace the hard drive with a new ssd, but before I do that I want to see how the computer would run with an ssd. Unfortunately, I don’t have any free ssds laying around to install macOS on, so I am wondering if using a flash drive would work well and as smooth as an ssd as long as I left enough room available?

Yes and no, Let me elaborate. Most USB 3.0 drives could run it almost as good as an hdd, If you have a SSD, that would be the best option and is usually faster than the hard drive the comes with any mac. Usb 2.0 can technically work but is very slow as the read/write speeds aren't the best. Im currently running mac os x 10.11.6 on a usb 3.0 flash drive i got from walmart for $17. I will mention however, that the newer OS your using, The slower it will be on os x. I still think that USB booting is great though because of the portability. Just install the OS on the usb flash drive, and hold down alt at startup and it should work perfectly fine. If you have any questions or want me to make you a bootable image for your flash drive, hmu.


Alcatel 3G Modem X600 - Kernel Panic on resuming Alcatel X600 is a 3G USB dongle. It worked well with the two previous OS X version. I have updated and am using OS X 10, El Capitan. The USB dongle works well without any problem but when it awakes from sleep, it goes into Kernel panic. So, I want to devise a solution to the above problem and want to take some suggestions before I try it. No firmware updates are available, I already had a look.

Proposal: The proposal is to restart the drivers i.e., to unload before sleeping and reload on resuming if the dongle is present.

Problems:
1.The dongle itself comes with some drivers but i am unable to find them where they are installed.
2. How to check in a bash script if a USB device is present?

Thanks for your time

This problem is not any more present in the new macOS Sierra. I think they fixed it after I send them my kernel panic reports.


Connect Apple 30" Cinema Display to new MacBook USB-C I noticed in this thread the OP successfully managed to connect a 30" cinema display to the new Macbook Pro USB-C, with full resolution:

Connect New MacBook (USB-C) to Apple Cinema Display 30" (Dual-Link DVI)

I have the official Apple dual DVI adapter, going to a displayport > USB-C adapter like yours, however the screen does not fire up.

I then tried a multi adapter instead of the single displayport > USB-C, which worked but only at 1280 resolution:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B074362CZC

Would the official Apple Dual DVI adapter not work?

The Apple Cinema Display uses a DVI-Dual Link interface which is becoming very long in the tooth so adapters are going to be few and far between.  It wasn't a widely accepted standard so even when it was current, adapters were already difficult and expensive to source.

What you need to get connected is to go from USB-C DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI.  This will require two adapters:

USB-C Display Port to DisplayPort female adapter
DisplayPort to DL-DVI (powered)
A USB-A port to power the adapter (can be a wall charger)

You have to do this multi-step connection because USB-C to DL-DVI adapters are impossible to find.  The good news is that the USB-C port on MacBooks have the native DisplayPort signal so you aren't really converting anything - just the physical interface.

The active DisplayPort to DL-DVI is required because DP and DL-DVI are two completely different signals; a passive rearrangement of signal wires don't work here.  The active adapter "recreates" the signal being sent to the Cinema Display.

(IMO) I wouldn't spend the money on this solution to get a Cinema Display working on a new MacBook.  The tech, while still good is obsolete and the active adapter isn't cheap.  I would sell the monitor to someone with an older Mac that can support this type of display and use the money you would've spent on the adapter with the proceeds from the sale of the Cinema Display on a shiny, brand new monitor (like a 4K or 5K).


What Twitter apps work with a Retina display? Update: Twitter for Mac is now supported by Retina and available through the app store.

As many have noticed, the Twitter App doesn't render sharply on a Retina display.

Some say Tweetbot is the app to get for Retina compatibility, but it costs $19.99. That's a tough cost to swallow when, historically, most Twitter apps have been free.

Is there an alternative cheap or free Twitter app that supports Retina display?

There are several complicated and time-limited things that are causing apps like Tweetbot to very likely get all shut down by Twitter in the near future.

My impression is the high price of Tweetbot not only reflects the high cost that the developers spent to make such a complicated and design intensive app, but also to discourage too many people from "trying" it out as well as a calculation that they need to make their investment back sooner rather than later due to the uncertainty of being dependent on Twitter's API rule changes.

Twitter is in the process of shutting down all third party apps that replicate what you see at http://twitter.com in terms of showing you the timeline.

Twitter under fire as Tweetro for Windows 8 blocked to new users

In a nutshell - in the last 12 months, Twitter has been telling developers to not make apps like Tweetbot since they replicate the core twitter experience and the 100,000 user token limit is really making it impossible for a team of talented professionals to recoup their costs without charging for an app since you need way more than 100,000 users to make money on data or advertising.

Twitter wants to make money, developers want to make money, so at the moment the development of great, free twitter apps isn't exactly a hotbed of innovation in 2012 like it was in the past.

Many in the development community had assumed that Twitter would bend the rules when their app wasn't ready, but with the Windows 8 release, they shut down the most popular client when it hit 100,000 user-tokens even though Twitter doesn't even have a windows 8 client (perhaps yet). When that happened, I imagine a lot of projects are being dropped or at least halted. Not only is Twitter putting hard limits on third party app growth, it also is getting more and more exacting in telling these devs exactly how a tweet must be shown (with the implied threat that they will shut down those apps if they fail to comply to Twitter's exact design standards which include serving all promotional content)

So, now that a brief back story is complete, here is your answer:

The following OS X twitter clients have been viewed to broadly and/or fully support retina display Macs:

Twitterrific by the iconfactory
Hibari by Victoria Wang
Tweetbot by Tapbots

Both Hibari and Twitterrific have free downloads so you can try them both before buying. Check all of them as one is on sale now for half price and prices can change over time. All of the above render text with great precision and have all or many of the app's graphics in retina. Of course the twitter stream has many non-retina people thumbnails, etc...


How to see total uptime on a mac Back when I had a Windows machine I used a program called CrystalDiskInfo to see total hours of operation of my computer. I only used the numbers for fun or to like indicate how "used" my PC was..

So I'm looking for a terminal command or an app that can display that information for me.

Screenshot of the crystaldiskinfo gui.

The command you want is called uptime:

|ruby-2.1.2| cortana in ~
○ → uptime
14:49  up 3 days, 21:51, 4 users, load averages: 1.41 1.32 1.30

From the man page:

  The uptime utility displays the current time, the length of time the system has been up, the number of users, and the load average of the system over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.


Using "tmutil set destination -p" fails with a failure to save the password to the keychain I've got a new FreeNAS setup, and I'm trying to get Time Machine backing up to it from both of my household's laptops. I've set up an AFP share for one of the datasets on the NAS and have got my laptop backing up automatically after solving an issue supposedly related to mDNS.

However, applying the same workaround that I used for my laptop to my girlfriend's doesn't quite work:

Richelles-MacBook-Air:~ richelle$ sudo tmutil setdestination -p afp://richellemba@macknas.local/Time\ Machine
Password:
Destination password:
2015-03-21 23:41:10.889 tmutil[416:9720] ### syncProxyWithSemaphore error:Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." (connection to service named com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig) UserInfo=0x7f9ca3706660 {NSDebugDescription=connection to service named com.apple.systemadministration.writeconfig}
Failed to save password to system keychain. (error -1)
The backup destination could not be set.

Further investigation into the above error has so far turned up a blank, and I'm stumped. Does anyone have any ideas?

The laptop in question is a 2014 MacBook Air running 10.10.2.

It seems that this was due to having a user password on the server (the "destination" password) that had special characters.

This was the original password:

cDWo3fVq%2XKg}T/r,2C)jV.bZcB3FxRU*sJ2UW2&s+2[2X23b

Changing the password to a string of letters and numbers without symbols saw the username/password pair save successfully to the keychain.


Why is my iOS 6 device missing all iTunes Match playlists? After upgrading to iOS I don't see any iCloud playing list in my iPhone.

The lists are OK in iTunes on my two OS X devices but not on the iPhone.

In the Music settings:

iTunes Match is switched on
show all music is also switched on

Any hint?

I also found renaming the missing playlist in OS X caused it to appear back on a device that wasn't showing it.


Corrupt .photoslibrary file in Photos app. Any way to get photos back? I am using Apple's Photos app on macOS El Capitan.

When trying to copy my Photos Library.photoslibrary file (44 gigs) from old external drive to new internal drive, I get a -36 error. Apparently the file is corrupt.

Are all my photos lost? Are those photos stored externally as files somewhere else on the disk?

In Finder, right-click the Photos Library.photoslibrary file and click Show Package Contents. Inside you will find a folder named Masters. It contains all your originals, organized by date. If you’ve made no edits to your photos, then that’s all you need.

If copying Masters fails, you can try copying individual subfolders until you’ve isolated the corrupted folders/photos. This will at least allow you to salvage the vast majority of your photos, instead of losing the entire library.

The -36 error in Finder is often caused by corrupt . files (typically .DS_Store). Thankfully there is a handy command-line utility named dot_clean that will attempt to fix this issue for you. It’s a good idea to have a backup of your photos before using any repair tool, so do this after you’ve copied your Masters folder somewhere safe.

Open a Terminal session and type the following:
dot_clean ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary/
This is assuming your Photos Library is in the default location. Since you’re using an external drive, replace ~/Pictures with the correct path (prefixing spaces with \).

Now try copying your Photos Library.photoslibrary file once again. If this still fails, try repairing your external drive using Disk Utility and running First Aid on it.

And as a last resort, you can try repairing your Photos Library. Quit out of Photos completely by pressing ⌘ cmd q. Then relaunch the app by holding ⌘ cmd ⌥ opt while clicking the icon in your dock. Finally choose Repair.

Leave the app alone while it does its thing and don't interact with it in any way.


Swiping between spaces changed A couple days ago, my MacBook updated to Mac OS X 10.13.2 (17C88), and since then, the swiping between spaces has been fickle.

Before the update, I just had to swipe with three fingers (as per the setting) and the screen with my mouse cursor would switch to the desire space.

Since the update, I occasionally have to click with the trackpad to initiate the switch.  Without clicking it does nothing.  However, once clicked it works without clicking for a while (like it did before).  Also, I don't have to hold the click; it's almost like a focus issue.

Is anyone else experience this?  Is this something Apple did in the update?  Is there a way to get the swipe to work without clicking again?

I restarted and the behavior corrected itself.  Not sure what the cause was.


Is my SSD drive faulty when Blackmagic disk speed test shows decreasing write speed as low as 10 Mb/s? I have old plastic white MacBook 13'' 2007 mid late.

In previous year I have bought SSD and replaced old one (HDD).

Everything was Ok, but in last month i started seen how sometime OS become stuck for one-two second, and then everything is ok.

Today I have download

  Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

And it shows me good speed, but only at once. Seems to me it is testing my drive in cycle. It trying to write then read, then repeat cycle. So in first try it shows nice digits as a result, but then "write" (and only write) numbers become lower and lower, and fixing about 10 Mb/s. Is it mean that something non good with my SSD drive?

mapasov pointed this link out for me to enable TRIM if you're using Lion http://digitaldj.net/2011/07/21/trim-enabler-for-lion/

It means that your system will handle TRIM as if it were a native Apple SSD, and that you shouldn't get the problem you're facing after the system has had time to manage it


My USB is basically gone after 'diskutil zeroDisk /dev/disk2'. What do I do? My USB was screwed up after I did something wrong while using bootcamp (don't remember the details).
I did a bunch of stuff but it doesn't really matter as here's the current situation:
My USB won't show up on the desktop. It's in Disk Utility, with the main disk seeming normal and WinInstall blanked out and saying 'Not Mounted'. In previous attempts, whenever I tried to erase or mount it, the usb would disappear. I do not know what I should do anymore. It has currently disappeared again and I'm reinserting the USB to get it back up in Disk Utility
(Please don't mention Finder>Preferences>External Disks because I checked it already)
(First Aid also fails to do anything with the WinInstall volume, but it succeeds in the general VenderCo disk that's above it.)
I need to format the WinInstall volume but do not need the files on this USB to be recovered, although if it were possible it would be great.

There is so much going on with your operating system and in the comments, I would take the USB drive to another computer to test it. Then you can have possibly two follow on questions.
One to address erasing a USB or knowing it is flakey.
A second question where you ask how to get your Mac in a desired state. (Like how to erase install macOS.)


How to search better in App Store As an example ...

If I wanted to see all commercial airplane simulator games out there, how would I accomplish this without going to see title by title?

http://itunes.apple.com/au/genre/ios-games-simulation/id7015?mt=8&letter=A&page=2#page

As using iTunes I can only see this

  Is there an external website / application that we can easily search what are we looking for?

Not entirely sure if it fits the bill, but a great alternative App Store search app is AppShopper. It lets you do far more advanced searches and really helps pick up bargains and special offers too!


mac OS microphone only works when using Siri, works fine on bootcamp As the title says the mic only works in Mac OS when using Siri in any other application it is just muted, the input level in system setting is always 0 as shown in the picture unless I'm using Siri. The mic works just fine on Windows 10 through bootcamp which leads me to believe it is not a hardware problem.

I'm on mac OS Sierra 10.12.3, I tried resetting SMC didn't make a difference.

I had the same issue recently, and i found a seemingly stupid fix to it.

Go to system preferences, keyboard, and access the dictation and try using it on any document. The default to using dictation on my mac was double tapping Fn button. Strangely enough my dictation feature worked and typed what i spoke on the screen as Siri did. Then, go back to your input devices and check if that "permanently" fixed ur input issue; microphone should now also work without dictation being active.


Is 64-bit a requirement for publishing to the iOS App Store? iOS developers recently received an email from Apple stating that

  Starting February 1st, new apps and app updates submitted to the App
  Store must be built with XCode 4 and iOS 7 SDK

The email included a link about building apps for iOS 7.

One of the item on this page, is about 64-bit compilation.

So the question is, should I deduce that 64-bit is now a REQUIREMENT, or is it still a recommendation?

Apple just announced that starting 1. February 2015, apps have to support 64 bit. Source: https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=10202014a. So, it will then be a requirement.


Symbols appear instead of letters/numbers when typing on Mac Im using a Mac book air and when I try to type something, random weird symbols appear instead of texts. The symbols "Œ„´‰ˇÁ¨ˆØ∏" appear when I try to type "qwertyuiop".

I had already found a solution although it is only temporary.

I revert my keyboard through following these steps:

Open system preferences
Select accessibility
Select keyboard
Enable sticky keys
turn it off
Problem solved!

However, every time I close my laptop it makes the same error again and I have to fix the accessibility settings each time. Although everything else is working fine I'm still looking for a long-term solution to this problem. I wouldn't want to go through the hassle of logging into the guest account just to change the settings in order to be able to type the password in my main user account on my mac.

Your qwertyuiop result indicates that your machine thinks that both option and shift are being held down while you type.  The symbols are not random but exactly what is supposed to happen when those keys are depressed.  Normally this would indicate a damaged keyboard, especially if you try another one and it works ok.


How does external GPS device work with iPhone and iPad? It seems iPhone (and iPad) actually has a standard feature that is called external GPS device?
I hope to find out more about it:

First of all, why would we use an external GPS device?  I can understand if it is wireless-only iPad, then it has no GPS hardware and it is "best guessed by wireless", so an external GPS device can help, but what about for iPhone -- why do we need it?

If it is external GPS device, is it by BlueTooth only?  Can it be by WiFi, or by lightning connector, USB-C if it is iPad Pro, or possibly, another other method? (such as using the Internet to pass the location to iPhone, instead of BlueTooth?)

Does it in general work for iPhone and iPad both?

So the device can also move around from the true GPS location, such as for whatever reason, simulate a location that is 20 feet away? Or even to 50 miles away? What are some examples of such devices?

The question is to understand about "external GPS devices", which I never knew is actually a standard feature for the iPhone / iPad.

Per specs, only iPads with cellular modems have GPS hardware built in—where by definition all iPhones will have it.
There's a discussion thread in Apple communities that appears well-sourced with a few links to more information.
Speaking from experience, full-fledged GPS in an iOS device WILL drain battery quite quickly—due to the need for satellite tracking. That can be an unwelcome surprise in the wilderness—and something dedicated GPS devices may be better suited for.
Another example is aviation-use iPads in the cockpit for management/flight planning, where external GPS devices run the risk of interfering with the aircraft's installed GPS transceivers.


Restoring iOS apps (+data) that weren't transfered to PC before iPhone backup I recently performed a backup of my iPhone, but forgot to transfer my purchases to my PC before restoring from the backup. A couple apps had some data I'd really hate to lose. To make things worse, the backup is apparently corrupted, and the only solution seems to be paying 30$ for a program that can repair it.

If I were to pay to have it repaired, will I be able to recover all the app data from what was installed at the time the backup was performed? Can I just download the apps in question to my iTunes library, and the backup will have the appropriate data to restore to my iPhone?

Hopefully someone has precise info on this; it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Full disclosure: I'm the lead developer of the repair software you're most likely referring to ;)

The data for the apps are stored in the backups, just not the apps themselves. Normally, the apps should be downloaded again automatically from the app store after you restore and setup (logging in to your app store account/AppleID). You don't have to have the apps themselves transferred into iTunes in order for their data to be in the backup.

So yes, normally if you repair it, the apps should reinstall, and the data for those apps should be there waiting after the restore. In the rare event (but does happen) that the app data that you need was part of what was broken in the backup, that's why we offer a guarantee with our software :)


Hide/Remove app for a user on Mac Is it possible to remove or hide an app for a user on Mac? This way I want to make a user not known about the presence of the app.

Yes.

Create a folder named "Applications" in your home folder.
Move the app from the standard applications folder to the applications folder in your home folder.

This way only you can see and use the app.


How to uninstall not App Store apps using Launchpad? Is it possible to make any changes to macOS through the Terminal or in another way, so that Launchpad allows simple uninstalling application files, downloaded not via the App Store?

It is possible but it's a bit "hacky".

Open your Applications Directory in Finder
Find an app the was installed from the Appstore.
Right click on the .app and select Show Package Contents.
Copy this directory (_MASReceipt).

Now repeat the above steps or write a script to place that directory in
all of the non Appstore apps by selecting Show Package Contents and pasting the copied directory.


How to remove photos without masters from library in OS X Photos app? I was cleaning my drive and removed many file duplicates. I removed many photo masters (originals) from OS X Photos app library, but when I open Photos app I saw that all photos are still in my library. Is there any way to delete photos without masters from my library?

Photos should detect when changes have been made to the library and prepare it for you. See Photos has attempted to repair the library.

You can force Photos to repair the library if it doesn't do it automatically:

  You can force Photos to try to repair the library by holding option and command (⌥⌘) whilst launching Photos. Photos.app will try to repair the library and it may ask you for administrator privileges.


Reboot directly from MacOS to Startup Manager? (Init command) I have a strange setup (briefly, I have Windows 10 on an external SSD and I use a MacBook Pro as my main Mac these days in a dock that connects to an external monitor which has a hub - Samsung CJ79 34" - everything, including the SSD, is plugged into the monitor).

Because of this strange setup I can only change startup disks via the Startup Manager - I can't boot directly from the Startup Disk control panel.  However, my Windows keyboard doesn't work to change desktops I need to plug in my original Apple keyboard.

Knowing that MacOS is basically a heavily modified UNIX setup I hazard to guess there is a command somewhere in the OS (like the init command) that will let me boot directly from MacOS to the Startup Manager screen.

Does anyone know what this is and if it is possible?  Thanks.

A few days ago, I had a problem to reboot on the recovery-mode (CMD+R) and to also to have access to the startup manager (Option/Alt). None of those key combinaisons would work for me. So after some research, I found out how to boot in any drive without the startup manager.

(Solution 1) Reboot directly onto a USB drive or another partition without the startup manager:
You just need the macOS application Boot Manager. Once installed, it appears in the menu bar, just like the image below. You can  then select the drive that you want to reboot onto.

Here is a tutorial on how to install it: Boot Manager installation tutorial

Note: At some point, you will need to reboot into the recovery-mode. So you can use the following trick

Open a terminal
Type in:

  sudo nvram recovery-boot-mode=unused

Enter the admin password
Restart the computer. It will automatically reboot into the recovery-mode

(Solution 2) Replace the startup manager: You can replace the startup manager with an application (just like rEFIND) that will ask you to select the drive to boot onto without having to press the "Option/Alt" key when booting up your computer. The app is Next Loader and is from the same dev. The installation tutorial is here.


How to stop iPhone 6 lock screen from rotating to landscape mode I have an iPhone 6, running iOS 11. Before iOS 11, the lock screen would never rotate to landscape mode (similar to home screen, that never rotates). Since iOS 11 my lock screen has started rotating to landscape mode. I don't want this behaviour.

Can I stop my lock screen from rotating to landscape mode while letting the other apps auto rotate to landscape mode normally?

UPDATE

I have exact steps to reproduce:

Unlock phone
Open an app that supports landscape mode
Rotate the phone to landscape
Lock the phone while it is in landscape mode

Now the lock screen is in landscape and it is "locked" in landscape until I unlock the phone.

There is no separate setting that will stop only the lock screen from rotating to landscape while allowing the apps to change orientation.


iOS 8/7 keyboard swipe up menu: no control center access How can I access the iOS 8 Control Center swipe-up menu while the keyboard is active?

It should be accessible while the keyboard is active. (Source: I can do it now.) Just start your finger below the screen (like on the Home button) and swipe upwards quickly, not lingering on the space bar or any key.


How can I secure a Retina MacBook Pro to a desk? (similar to how the older MacBook Pro could use a Kensington Lock) I work for a company renting office space from a downtown skyscraper. In order to deter casual theft from building employees and cleaning staff my company prefers we secure our laptops to our desks using Kensington locks. With the last MacBook Pro (the 13" one with the slot-loading optical drive) this was no problem, as it had the slot for the lock.

And then I asked for (and got) a recent MacBook Pro with Retina. One of the things none of us really thought about was its lack of a slot for the lock.

So I've investigated the options and none of them are really confidence inspiring.

The prevailing logic is to buy this thing from MacLocks. However, it has very mixed reviews, it requires grafting something onto your rMBP (which, for what its worth, I don't care about for cosmetic reasons, but rather the idea of having to screw something onto the bottom of the thing is a little unnerving), it has very mixed reviews, the website itself looks shady (the JavaScript bot pretending to be a human asking me if I need help is bothersome), and it's sort of expensive ($70) considering all of the above.

Most of the other options I see are no longer on the market (either for lack of sales or effectiveness, I assume) or are precluded on the idea of things like alarms going off should they be removed (which is going to be pointless if the casual theft were to occur after hours). One solution was a "locking case" which reportedly had overheating issues.

As it stands now I'm just tossing the thing in a drawer at the end of the night and locking the drawer which is a pain and doesn't allow me to let tasks like app submission go on so I can leave for the day, but it's potentially the only real option other than MacLocks.

So what other options are there for locking a rMBP to a desk? Has anyone here tried the MacLocks solution? Or is the rMBP mostly a "take home at the end of the day or don't worry about it" device for most people? I'm not taking mine home because I have my own rMBP in my backpack and the nature of what I'm currently doing precludes me from working from home anyway.

For what it's worth I did see this question but it's for a MBA, it's four years old, and the accepted solution (loud noise when the adapter is removed) isn't going to work for me as I mentioned above)

I know SE is not a place for product recommendations, but this Henge Dock sounds like something that might be useful to you.

The dock hugs the MacBook Pro from both sides (inserting a plug into all the available ports), and has a Kensington lock port on the back.

I do not own this product but I have been considering it.


macOS Mojave -- Finder won't show favorites and can't drag new folders into favorites Something happened to Finder on my Mac.  It won't show the favorites I've selected (as per Finder->Preferences), and I am unable to drag any folder into the Favorites area.

I've included a screenshot to highlight the first problem I mentioned.

What do I need to do to regain this functionality?

If you hover your mouse over the word "Favorites", you should see "Show" button.


Where is the microphone for Siri for the iPhone 5? I thought it was at the bottom left on the phone, but when I cover the bottom and blow on the earpiece, the waveform when Siri is waiting for a response moves.

There are three microphones on the iPhone 5. This setup is used to eliminate background noise while on call. One is ideally placed at the back, and two in the front. So basically when you're covering the bottom, the mic on the ear piece picks up the audio input.


Hardware acceleration for flash videos in Google Chrome Is there any way to enable flash video hardware acceleration in Google Chrome? I get up to 300% cpu usage, while playing flash video.

Using OSX 10.9.5 and latest Chrome on a MBPr 13" late 2013.

In Safari I get around 90% CPU usage. Which is bad, but not as bad.

Step 1 would be to look the status of your Chrome GPU settings.

Paste this "chrome://gpu/" in Chrome web address field.

On my MBA 10.9.5 Chrome Version 38.0.2125.101 it looks like this

Graphics Feature Status
Canvas: Hardware accelerated
Flash: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D Baseline profile: Hardware accelerated
Compositing: Hardware accelerated
Rasterization: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Threaded Rasterization: Disabled
Video Decode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Video Encode: Hardware accelerated
WebGL: Hardware accelerated

Pending on your result (Flash- Not accelerated) proceed to step 2:

Do following:

  To force Chrome / Chromium to use hardware acceleration, open a new
  tab, type "chrome://flags" (without quotes), search for "Override
  software rendering list", enable it and restart Chrome / Chromium.

Optional Step 3 (my settings)

Paste this "chrome://plugins/" in web address field.

Disable the Chrome build in Adobe Flash player aka PepperFlashPlayer.plugin

If you have not already have done so, get the Adobe Flash player from Adobe, that will be now used by Chrome.


Remapping Y and Z keys with Karabiner I just want to switch the Y and Z keys. I've tried everything with Karabiner on High Sierra, but it just doesn't seem to work. I always get an error message along the lines of: "Karabiner Error. Error in xml. Unknown symbol: KeyCode::0x6"

Attached you can see the code that I've been trying to use, as well as the modifier keys for Y and Z (which I've tried every variation of in the code).

   <root>
      <item>
      <name>Swap Space and Tab</name>
      <identifier>private.swap_z_and_y</identifier>
      <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::0x6, KeyCode::0x10</autogen>
      <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::0x10, KeyCode::0x6</autogen>
      strong text</item>
   </root>

Please help!

ahem … Karabiner 10.xx no longer works with MacOS (High) Sierra …

The interim app Karabiner Elements 12.10 will solve your problem very easily, but "Complex Modifications" –meaning modifier/key combinations or e.g. "if_held_down"– can locally only be added/modified by manually editing      ~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json.

Here's a comprehensive guide for the interested ones: https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/json.html


After info.plist setting LSUIElement 1, how do I quit the application I've set the info.plist to have an LSUIElement key value of 1.

As described here:

In Fullscreen, disable auto-hiding Mac menu bar

If I fullscreen the virtualbox application using the green fullscreen icon, it will take the fullscreen but have no menu bar associated with it.  I can exit back to the normal desktop area using command-tab but then VirtualBox is not visible anywhere from within the dock.  I can get back to VirtualBox using mission control.

Once in this state, short of logging out and logging back in, is there a way to un-fullscreen the virtualbox window? or quit virtualbox?

I was able to quit the VirtualBox console and leave the virtual box vms open by using the activity monitor, finding the virtualbox process and then choosing quit.  Relaunching the virtualbox console, launches it in non-maximized mode.


OS X El Capitan suddenly can't open DMG files I am trying to open a DMG file to install an OS X app. I get the error The following disk images couldn't be opened. Invalid Argument. I have tried to open other DMGs that I successfully managed to mount earlier and they are failing too. So the issue is not with the current DMG only. I restarted and that did not make a difference. I ran First Aid in DiskUtility and it reported that my drive was corrupt and needed repairing. I therefore restarted my mac with cmd + r pressed, selected Disk Utility and ran the repair. The repair failed after running for about 5 minutes. I would like to keep the contents of the drive if a solution exists that allows. What should I do now?

UPDATE:

I did a time machine backup and let the iMac go get its drive formatted etc. I then attained a macbook air, and did a Restore From Time Machine onto it such that I have back where I left of on the iMac. I then tried to open a new DMG, and the same error came up. I ran First Aid on the mac air drive and it reported it to fine (Ran Successfully).

This is therefore not a drive issue right (first aid on the mac air succeeded)? What could it be, and how can I fix it.

I had the same problem, and managed to open .dmg files by going into Disk Utility>File>Open Disk Image. Once opened in Disk Utility, Double Click (Right Click) the icon and click show in Finder. Then I could install what I wanted! Hop it works for you!


Get Instapaper to save blog comments with article I recently bought the highly respected Instapaper app for my iPhone.

One thing I have noticed is that if I save an article from (most) blogs such as Coding Horror, the comments to the article are not saved in the Instapaper version.

While in many cases the comments are mindless noise, and I can understand why Instapaper would strip them, there are some blogs where the comments are very much part of the conversation and I'd love to see them, formatted nicely, in the Instapaper output.

Does anyone know an easy way to achieve this?

Instapaper uses various filters to figure out what to strip from the page and which content to keep (Coding Horror configuration is here).

My only suggestion would to be to write a script which takes the content + comments, puts them into a new page wrapped in a div which has the class instapaper_body and saves that to Instapaper.


Power MBP and connect Thunderbolt devices with only one cable I have a MacBook Pro with USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports. I would like to have only one cable ending on my desk to plug into the laptop. Is it possible to power the laptop through that cable and use the same cable to connect external thunderbolt periphery devices? What kind of adaptor would I need on the other end of the cable?

Yes - you can look forward to vendors shipping Thunderbolt 3 docks and have one cable going to your Mac and everything else connected to the dock:

power
ethernet
USB
video
Thunderbolt
possibly audio in/out and firewire

I would read this review of Thunderbolt 2 docks and keep in mind that no Thunderbolt 2 dock will charge the new Thunderbolt 3 / USB C MacBook Pro.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-thunderbolt-dock/

Until the "3" version docks ship, you'll need to use "2" version cables for display/dock/whatever and a second USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 charge cable.


Dell laptop with DisplayPort (but NOT mini) to Thunderbolt monitor I have a DELL E6410, with DisplayPort output. How can I connect it to an Apple monitor with a Thunderbolt input? Searching for that kind of adapter keeps returning mini DisplayPort ones, which won't help.

Going through DVI or HDMI perhaps?

According to Apple's spec page, the Thunderbolt Display requires a Thunderbolt-equipped Mac. So, I don't think there is any way to get it to work. Although Thunderbolt allows for video steams and you can connect a DisplayPort monitor to a Thunderbolt port, the reverse is not true.

If you can get your hands on the older Apple Cinema Display with a mini-DisplayPort, that should work with something like this.


Macbook's harddrive free space changes seemingly randomly Over the last few days my hard drive has gone from a few GB of free space, to zero KB, absolutely full. I then deleted about 1GB of files, and now the free space has gone down to 640MB, and then went up to 690MB. This is without doing anything major. Over the past few days, almost all of what I've done is on the internet.

Is this some type of malware (though I thought malware usually deleted stuff), and how can I see why this is happening, and what recently has been taking up so much room. (I've just switched my PC to ubuntu and it has something called Disk Examiner which shows you what is taking up the most room, is there something like that for Mac?)

Checking the space

You can use OmniDiskSweeper to check what is occupied your space. It's free.

Or, if you like command-line, run Terminal.app and enter this:

du -kx /some/directory | sort -nr > $HOME/DiskUsage.txt
less $HOME/DiskUsage.txt

you will get sorted size-list (in kB) for all directories under the /some/directory.

Swap files

Another check - swap file. If your apps take more memory as you have, the OS do "swap" parts of memory into HDD. (In the linux or FreeBSD there are usually dedicated HDD partitions (slices) but on OS X these are files.

You can check their size with:

ls -l /private/var/vm

you will get something like the next:

total 12582912
-rw------T  1 root  wheel  4294967296 23 jún 14:30 sleepimage
-rw-------  1 root  wheel    67108864 15 jún 09:03 swapfile0
-rw-------  1 root  wheel    67108864 23 jún 14:54 swapfile1
-rw-------  1 root  wheel   134217728 23 jún 14:54 swapfile2
-rw-------  1 root  wheel   268435456 23 jún 14:54 swapfile3
-rw-------  1 root  wheel   536870912 23 jún 14:54 swapfile4
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  1073741824 23 jún 14:54 swapfile5

As you can see, in my HDD are now 5 swapfiles with total size 2GB. When start too much programs (or have 50 browser windows or soo) sometimes the swap increases up 5 GB or more. Simply close applications and the swap will be freed.

The another 4GB file (sleepimage) is the space, where OS X store its memory content when going to sleep (SafeSleep - storing memory content in the file). While it is possible turn of the SafeSleep and get 4GB HDD space (or less, if you have less memory) via pmset command, i do not recommend this.

Browser

When you browsing a lot, Safari storing some content into his cache/files. You can partially clear from the menu: Safari -> Empty Cache

Or simply check your cache files in the $HOME/Library/Caches with the OmniDiskSweeper or the du -kx $HOME/Library/Caches | sort -nr command from the Terminal.

You can Trash everything from the $HOME/Library/Caches without problems, but (for the safe) is better relog or reboot after the delete.

Logfiles

Another space-waste can be the Logfiles. You can check them with your Console.app (Utilities). (in the bottom left corner it showing the current size) - You can trash a big ones from the application directly.


Spotify Offline Mode: do I need to launch the app within 30 days? (when I'm online) If I use Spotify in Offline Mode on my iPad, I need to go online within 30 days or I will lose the offline songs.

But do I need to open the spotify app when the device does have internet connection, or can I just leave it close, and it will automatically inform the server?

In other words, do I need to take care about it and open the app when I do have connection, or this is done silently in background as soon as I connect to the internet (even with the app close) ?

I think your misinterpreting the intent of that feature. Spotify offline mode basically forces your app to not connect to the Internet, in other words only the songs downloaded to your phone via the 'available offline' switch will play when the feature is enabled. After 30 days the next time you open the app it will disable the feature and connect to the Internet as normal. However, this does nothing to your music, it won't delete your downloaded songs or move it or touch it in any way, it just lets the app start up with internet connectivity allowing you to stream songs. I use this feature too and have no issues with it.

EDIT straight from their website:


How can I compile and run C in Xcode? Our teacher is teaching use some Data Structures algorithms that are being implemented in C. He uses Visual Studio in class, but I want to be able to run simple programs that we write in Xcode.

I've tried to run the code but in Xcode 5 the options to do so are greyed out. Besides just installing Xcode, what steps should I need to take so that I can run simple C programs on my Mac?

Open Xcode
Select File->New->New Project
Select macOS (OS X in older versions) -> Command line tool
Choose C as type
Fill out the name and the other relevant wizards parts you need
click the main.c file to select it

And you should be good to go


Switched carriers after ordering iPhone 11 I ordered the iPhone 11 with Verizon on the day it came out, and a few days later my family switched from Verizon to T-Mobile. When I'm setting up my phone, it's still trying to activate with Verizon, even when I switch the SIM out for my T-Mobile SIM. How do I resolve this problem?

Edit: I forgot to that this was ordered as part of the iPhone Upgrade Program with Apple, which says that the phone should be unlocked.

Make sure your iPhone is unlocked from Verizon. Make sure that they remove your IMEI number from the account. Verizon can unlock the device, but if you haven't paid it off they wont.


how can bind any string of text, so whenever you type it, it will be replaced into another string I tried my best to describe it, I saw this functionality in some video about macos for noobs.

Basically you can bind any string of text, so whenever you type it, it will be replaced into another string. It seemed super easy.

Example, you bind

<something>

to xsy
So whenever you write xsy, it gets replaced by

<something>

etc

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Text and add your text for Replace and With by clicking the + in the lower left of the window.

Once added, you can edit an entry by selecting the row and then click the field to open the edit window.

To remove a row, select it and then click the - in the lower left of the window.


iMac 2011 Graphics Card issue - Unresolved I have a weird issue with my iMac 2011 model. This is the iMac with the graphic card issue, so it happened to me as well.
I tried everything except baking the graphics card, this is my absolute last resort. What I've done now is I installed Windows on the iMac, and guess what it works perfect, please don't judge but this was only for testing.
So now, why is it that Windows works but not OSX?
Does anyone have any thoughts on why this is?  Please do let me know.
Much appreciated.

You need to repair/replace the GPU card.

This is the iMac with the graphic card issue, so it happened to me as well.
I tried everything except baking the graphics card, this is my absolute last resort.

If you're going to bake it, you may as well just toss it into the bin and save the electricity/gas used to heat the oven.  Baking a PCB is about the worst thing you can do because...

it assumes that the issue is a dry solder joint which the theory is re-flowing the solder will somehow fix the problem.  It ignores that the problem may be something simple like a bad capacitor, resistor or some other component.  Re flowing doesn't fix any of this

you're literally cooking the components on the board so if they weren't bad before, they're likely to be bad now.

What I've done now is I installed Windows on the iMac, and guess what it works perfect, please don't judge but this was only for testing.

Why not judge?  That's a perfectly viable, creative way to test the viability of your iMac.  You got Windows working so you can see that from a hardware perspective, you've got a working machine (well, almost).  Nothing wrong with getting test results that give you definitive answers.

So now, why is it that Windows works but not OSX?

It's integrated graphics versus dedicated (discrete) graphics.  The Intel Core  CPUs have integrated graphics chipset (i.e. HD Graphics, Iris, etc.) as well as a discrete GPU like the Radeon HD 6970M (mobile chip).  When you boot into Windows, it defaults to the integrated graphics whereas macOS is likely set to use "both" integrated and discrete.
How to fix...
You've got two options

The board itself can be repaired.  There are shops that do board level repair.  They can diagnose and replace the specific components that have gone bad.

Replace the GPU (link is about upgrade a 2009/2010 iMac, but it lists all 2011 compatible GPUs)  It may be quicker, easier, and possibly cheaper to simply swap out the GPU with another.  If you go this route, don't toss the bad GPU - you may be able to get a few dollars in scrap value from a board repair shop.


Mac blogging client similar to Windows Live Writer Can someone suggest a really good blogging client for Mac OS?

I am looking for something having similar functionality like Windows Live Writer (on Windows).

Blog details: WordPress (installed on Windows).
I have a Mac laptop at home, and am trying to decide on a blogging client for WordPress.

I haven't had any exposure to live writer, but maybe you might want to give MarsEdit a try. It can interface with many different blogging systems.


Applications gone from Dock. How to restore? Somehow the Applications icon is gone from my Dock. However I can't just drag the Applications folder (from Finder) into the Dock. How else can I restore it?

Is there a config file somewhere for the Dock that I can just edit with vi and fix this?

Thanks.

Hmm, depending on how precisely you formulated the question there are several possible answers:

The Applications folder is missing from the Dock

Navigate to Computer in Finder (Shift-Command-C)
Open local hard drive (usually called "Macintosh HD" or computername)
Drag the Applications folder to the Dock (near the end where the other folders and the trash are located)
Right-click the folder in the Dock and select show as folder

The Applications folder/link is missing from the Favorites list in any Finder window

Step 1 and 2 as above
Drag the Applications folder to the Favorites list

You are actually missing the Launchpad icon from the Dock

Step 1 and 2 as above
Open the Applications folder
Locate Launchpad and drag it to the Dock (near the beginning this time)


mail app not sending appropriate Reply To addresses from different email accounts My wife has a MacBook Pro (10.8.2) with a Telus home internet connection. She uses the Mac mail app (6.2) and her primary email account is a Gmail address, which she has been using with no problem (using Gmail's imap and smtp servers).

She recently asked me to set up another Gmail account, which I did, but whenever she sends a new email, the Reply To address is for her original account. In an effort to trouble shoot the problem, I activated her Telus email account, which she does not normally use.

Here's the setup:

Gmail account (primary account)      -  imap.gmail.com,    smtp.gmail.com (with password authentication)
Gmail account (new account)           - imap.gmail.com,    smtp.gmail.com (with password authentication)
Telus account                         - imap.telus.net,    smtp.telus.net (with no authentication, as suggested by Telus)

She can send and receive from all three accounts, but the Reply To address is always account no. 1.

She selects the correct account in the drop-down From menu when composing her email

Each account has its own smtp setup, with the correct name and password in the authentication, in the case of the Gmail accounts.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

I've found the answer. I had forgotten that a long time ago I had set 'Reply To' for all email accounts, using a command line in the Terminal.

I reset the defults, by using 'defaults delete com.apple.mail UserHeaders'

All three accounts now work as expected.


What's a reliable method to create a stand alone recovery disk for Lion? I'm seeing a lot of questions with all sorts of steps to burn a DVD or create a USB disk so you can boot your Mac with Lion if the internal drive is replaced.

Is there a definitive set of steps that is best in terms of support, reliability and cost?

This might help

http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1433

"The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant lets you create Lion Recovery on an external drive that has all of the same capabilities as the built-in Lion Recovery: reinstall Lion, repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup, or browse the web with Safari."


How do I cancel a download in iTunes on the iPad? I have selected to download a few podcasts in iTunes on my iPad but have decided that I don't want them anymore (they're audio only and I would prefer to listen to them on my laptop instead). Is there any way of terminating/cancelling the download?

I have tried tapping, holding, and various other things in iTunes on the iPad but no luck.

Am I doomed to have to download the files and then delete them?

I ask because I'm in a country that does not have unmetered download internet plans.

you should be able to swipe from left to right along the item to get a delete button. The same way you used to have to delete on the iPhone before they added in multi-item delete.


How do I type the power icon on an Apple Keyboard? What keys do I press to place the power icon into a Word document?

Go to Edit > Emoji & Symbols, click on the gear wheel at top left, select Customize, check the box for Unicode, then find 23FB.  If blank, download and install the font Symbola.

https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/23fb/index.htm

(From the keyboard, you need to activate the Unicode Hex input source in System Preferences/Keyboard/Input Sources and then type 23fg while holding down the Option key).


Open Java .app application bundles with double click on a Mac without Apple's Java 6 In short: On a mac with a clean installation of Yosemite, doubleclicking a compiled Java mac-style .app application bundle fails to launch the app, unless Apple's Java 6 is installed, even if the current version of Java for the Mac from Oracle is installed.

At length: When Apple developed the Java SDK for macosx, you could open a .app mac-style application bundle written in Java by doubleclicking its icon in Finder, its app icon will show up in your dock while it was running, and its menu items would live in the Mac OS menu bar. Java apps behaved almost like native Mac apps.

On the other hand, if you install the current Java SDK from Oracle, you can execute your Java application with java -jar YourApp.app/Contents/Resources/Java/yourapp.jar, but you get a generic dock icon, your menu items live on top of the window instead of menu bar.

And if you don't have Java 6 from Apple installed on the machine, which is not included in recent versions of the OS but still available for download from Apple at this location (but it's pretty out of date at this point), then you just get an error message dialogue: "To open YourApp.app you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime." with a link to Apple's outdated implementation, even though you already have Oracle's Java 8 installed already.

On a Mac with Java 8 from Oracle installed, but not Java 6 from Apple, is there a way to open a Java app from finder, or retain these other native platform compatibilities? Is there a way to force a .app bundle to use your preferred Java installation?

I'm basically asking the same question as To open “Eclipse” you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime. Is there a solution to this problem other than installing legacy Java 6?

Also this question may be relevant: Application is using Java 6 from Apple instead of Java 7 from Oracle on Mac OS X?

At the questions Run java bundled in .app from command-line and Why is Java SE 6 Legacy required to open Intellij?, it is suggested that you can force your Java .app bundle to use a newer version of Java if you change the JVMVersion in YourApp.app/Contents/Info.plist, but this did not work for me. Those answers are from Java 1.7 era, maybe it's outdated?

From replies to a question I asked on Apple's java-dev list it would appear that on a Mac with Java 8 from Oracle installed, but not Java 6 from Apple, there is no current way to open a Java application bundle that was created using Apple's own old jar bundler technology. I suspect this is because the JavaApplicationStub is written to expect some aspect of Apple's Java not present in Oracle's Java.

From a user's point of view the only thing to do would seem to be to download and install Java 6 from https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572 while it is still available.

From a developer's point of view the safest bet would be to embed Java within one's application bundle using a tool such as jwrapper (www.jwrapper.com). Alternatively there may be tools for creating a bundle that will run with Oracle's Java 8+.


Distributing more than 50 full versions of my application I have an iOS application, and apparently I can have a max of 50 promo codes.

There is this kickstarter game: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/293831888/pota-toss-amazing-indie-ios-game-with-gps-based-le

In the second reward tier, it says it will give a full version of the game for free. I see 98 backers.

How can they offer more than 50 full versions of their game? Do they use a method other than promo codes? Can someone request more promo codes?

You can achieve this by signing up for the iOS Developer Enterprise program. This will allow you unlimited ad-hoc builds of your application, which will mean that you can deploy unlimited copies of your .ipa to send to as many users as you want.


Disable Wi-Fi and LAN if user is not logged in How can I disable internet ( Wi-Fi/ LAN ) on Mac Pro while user is not logged in or when the Mac is locked?

There isn't a great way to script this, but I would consider implementing this on the network side if you really had a great reason to not allow this. It will break many things that run, but let's assume you have some compelling reasons.

Simplest is firewall rules on your router to isolate that machine. Only allow outbound connections to a VPN and log in to that VPN when you log in to an account that should be able to connect out.

The reason to do this on the network side is that the system is designed to take the WiFi credentials and expose them even before the OS boots in case of FileVault and T2 security chip. Same with Ethernet - the system wants to enable all of the interfaces so that a net boot or internet recovery is possible so rather than fighting the design, I would implement this entirely on the network end.

If you can't do DMZ / FireWall / VPN, the first thing I would try is making the network settings intentionally wrong. Choose a non-existent gateway on a non-routable address. For example if your actual router is 192.168.1.1 - set your Mac to be on the 172.16.0.1 or 10.3.2.1 networks. Yes they are connected, but the default route will be wrong and you can make sure the network drops those packets. Any software that has hard coded network addresses or can discover DNS / mDNS will still work, so that's why I recommended a proper network setup to disable the network for your Mac instead of scripting or hobbling things in the settings.


Retrieving apps and Music from 2 iCloud accounts to one iPhone I have 2 iCloud accounts. not because of any crafty idea or security concerns but because I forgot my password and it was easier to just setup anther account.

Now I just upgraded my phone to a 5S and want to get all my apps and music on the new phone but they're backed up on two accounts.

Any suggestions?

The apps are not « backed up » on account, they are at most link to an account.

Your only solution :

If you still have your first password : Change your iTunes login in the iPhone and download the apps linked to that account. You'll get the cloud icon on the App Store if the app is linked, a price/free else.
You do the same thing with the second account.

NB:  If you really forgot your password, you're going to need to rebuy the apps with your new account.


iOS - how to "save as a copy" for annotated photos Ive taken a photo on my iPhone (iOS 13.x) and drawn over the photo using iOS's in built annotation tool.

I would like to also have a copy of the photo where i have not drawn over it.

Is it possible to get the annotation tool to save the annotated photo as a duplicate so that i can have both copies ?

You can create a copy from the Share Sheet before you start to annotate the photo.

Navigate to photo in question
Activiate Share Sheet
Scroll down a bit (depending on screen size) and tap on "Duplicate"

Afterwards select "Edit" on one of the photos.


Phone battery use searching for a signal I just got hi speed internet and turned on wi-if calling on my iPhone 6 since I have poor signal at home. Also just installed a signal extender(booster)from Verizon, which increased my signal to full strength.
Since I don't need both I was going to send back the $160. Extender to Verizon, but would my phone then be searching for a better signal even though its on wifi calling and using more battery life?

It might. This questions shows several factors there are to battery loss, including the cell reception, but that Wifi can help reduce that. I would recommend following his 5 day test procedure before returning the signal extender.


Files seem to be copying to iCloud Drive even though I've not tried to copy anything I opened my icloud drive and noticed a message at the bottom of the Finder window.  The message is shown in the following image.

The way I read this is that 7,546 files and folders totaling 6.29 GB are being written to my icloud drive. Is that correct? If so, why is this happening?

I am running High Sierra on my iMac.

Apple has gotten ever-more-aggressive about activating iCloud-on-by-default as the years pass.

The most likely cause is that Desktop & Documents iCloud syncing is enabled in System Preferences --> iCloud.

Here are some screen shots, note that in my example I do not have Desktop & Documents syncing turned on.


OS X Mavericks Screen brightness auto adjusting even when option is disabled Now I know from trying to find an answer to this to go uncheck the auto adjust box, since apparently it got checked when I updated to Mavericks, but now it seems my MacBook Pro has a mind of its own and still feels the need to auto adjust when I'm not doing anything.

I made sure 10 times at least that the auto adjust box wasn't checked, and it's not. So why is my Mac randomly doing this? (and btw, this only started today, and I got the update on the first day it was available)

I was just struggling with the same issue—it really annoyed the hell out of me. What helped me was a good ol' SMC reset:

See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 on how to do it.


What does “-501 0D” mean when trying to run the Apple Hardware Test? I have a late 2012 iMac running El Capitan which has become quite sluggish. I’ve tried a few software solutions, but I think it’s something wrong with the disk. (A lot of stuff is fine; anything that touches the disk starts crawling.)
I tried to run the Apple Hardware Test using Apple’s instructions.
I booted my Mac while holding down the D key. I got the “Starting Internet Recovery” screen, then I was asked to select and authenticate with a Wi-Fi network. I did that, and it went back to the “Starting Internet Recovery” screen. Shortly afterward, it got stuck on an error:

apple.com/support
–501 0D

I’ve tried Googling this code, but I can’t find anything on what it means – mostly just some Apple Discussion Forums with other people asking about it.
Anybody here know the answer?

Brief follow-up note: it turns out this Mac did have hardware problems.

I took it to the Apple Store a few days after writing the original post, and their more thorough diagnostics discovered a problem with the disk (specifically, the hard drive portion of the Fusion Drive). I got the hard drive replaced under warranty, and after a year I haven‘t seen the symptoms again – I assume this was just an artefact of a failing disk.


Numbers: how do I create a column with a sequence of times? In Numbers, I would like to create a column with automatically generated cells to create a timetable with each hour and each half hour.

I create a new document, type in "7:30 AM" and then in the cell below I type in "8:00 AM" then I drag downwards from the first cell, but it doesn't work, it replaces "8:00 AM" by "8:30 AM" but I only want 30 mns increments...

I tried changing the cell format to "date and time" but it just erases whatever I typed and replaces it by today's date and time or random dates and times...

The formula syntax in Numbers is actually less intuitive and more stubborn than Excel IMO. Nevertheless, to create time intervals:

In the first cell, say B2, type 8:00 AM
In the following cell, type =B2+"30m"

Now, drag down:

Voilà:


Photo Stream & iCloud turned on - but Photos taken on iPhone don't appear on iPad I have iOS 5 on my iPhone and have iCloud set up. I also have turned Photo Stream on. I have an original iPad that also has iOS 5 and also has iCloud & Photo Stream enabled. When I take pictures on my iPhone, they do not appear on my iPad. I went to my iCloud settings (Storage & Backup to make sure that iCloud backup was on. (It was.) I hit “back up now”.     Only the 10 or so pictures I took that morning with my iPhone appear on my iPad now. I took some more photos and checked it several hours later, and the new ones do not appear on my iPad.

What am I missing? The way I understand it, I shouldn’t have to do anything to get iPhone pics to appear, as long as I have iCloud enabled on both and Photo Stream enabled?

I suppose there is no way to get older iPhone photos (taken a few weeks ago) to appear on my Photo Stream? At this point, I’d just be happy if I could get it to stream the ones that I’ve taken since I got iOS 5 & iCloud.

Photo Stream definitively only works for photos (or screenshots) taken after it was enabled.

As for your other problem: Yes, if you are logged into the same iCloud account on both devices and have Photo Stream enabled it should sync whenever you are logged in into a Wi-Fi environment (apparently Photo Stream doesn't sync over 3G).

What else can you try:

Take a screenshot on the iPad, make sure you are in a Wi-Fi environment and see whether the screenshot appears on the iPhone
Log in to iCloud from your computer (requires Lion or a recent Windows version of course) and see whether the photos get streamed there


Window shading in MacOS Mojave (10.14) Window shading

Window shading, to borrow from the KDE documentation:

  Shade, on the other hand, causes the window to be reduced to simply
  the titlebar. Double clicking on the titlebar again, restores the
  window to its normal size.

On MacOS, it was reportedly first available as an extension, and included in MacOS 8, but then disappeared in MacOS X.

Usefulness of window shading

While users have commented on the usefulness of window shading, that has been
mostly in the context of full windows.

My primary desire to have window shading is to use it with an OpenStreetMap editing application, JOSM. It can have floating image windows that I do not want to dock (not enough screen space), and want to see those windows every now and then. On KDE/Linux, I can doubleclick the titlebars to reduce those floating windows to the titlebar only, and then doubleclick them again to see the image.

Moving the windows around is a very poor substitute, it is very inefficient. While individual applications could implement hacks to imitate window shading, that is an excessive work on the application development side (which is not too likely happen with JOSM in particular).

Window shading in MacOS

As mentioned before, window shading was an internal part of MacOS, but got removed. While there have been some 3rd party applications, they suffer from functional problems as MacOS is updated or do not offer proper window shading experience.

With Apple notoriously ignoring user feedback, return of the native functionality seems not too likely.

Are there any good, free solutions for window shading in MacOS Mojave?

Although you said free, there is a paid app that seems to offer a similar feature.

Deskovery claims to "Minimize your windows to their titlebars".

I haven't used it.


play display from MacBook to projector connected to mac pro I've got a projector connected to my MacPro. Now I would like to be able to mirror the screen from my MacBook(!) to this projector.

Is this possible? Seems like an use case for AirPlay, but I am new to the Mac-World and do not find a way to do this. Thx!

Install software like Reflector 2 on the Mac Pro.

Then your MacBook (assuming it can airplay to other displays) will see the Reflector advertisement and push the MacBook screen to the window on the Mac Pro.

Once that's set - set the Mac Pro to direct the Reflector 2 window to full screen on the projector.

Worst case, you'd need software like AirParrot on the MacBook if it's not new enough to AirPlay to a remote screen from the OS level and hardware.


How do I enable key repeat on iOS? I am working on a project in iOS and would like to enable key repeat. I have done quite a bit of looking around and have failed to come up with any option like that (which surprises me quite a bit, actually).

Is there a way to enable key repeat on an iOS device?

The other answers here are inaccurate. The correct answer is "sort of"

@MichaelGoerz Comment is correct. There seems to be a bug in iOS where key repeat only works for certain keys instead of all keys as expected. For example backspace will repeat per your settings but "w" won't. I recommend filing a bug report with Apple at https://bugreport.apple.com in an effort to prod them to fix this. This bug is highly irritating especially when using remote desktop tools where holding down a key might be required.

I occurred to me that this may also be by design, an attempt by Apple to be "helpful" by only allowing the most commonly used repeating keys. Due to the fact that the Settings->General->Accessibility->Keyboard->Key Repeat menu makes no mention of this I am treating it as a bug.


Removing iCloud on an old phone I have iCloud on more than one phone—my old iPhone 5c broke and the screen doesn't work. I now have a new phone with iCloud backed up and it works fine. I want to sell my old phone but they state that iCloud must be removed. How do I do this on icloud.com without wiping my other phone?

Connect your iPhone 5c with your PC/Mac and open iTunes
  Restore the 5c to factory settings (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414)
  Go to your Apple Support Profile and de-register it.

That should be it.

In addition, you can delete old iPhone Backups from the iCloud:

  Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage.
  Tap the name of an iOS device whose backup you don’t need, then tap Delete Backup.


Can we disable the drag window to top of screen Mission Control / Spaces feature in El Capitan? Open Mission Control

  Use any of these methods to open Mission Control:

  ....

  In OS X El Capitan, drag a window to the top of the screen.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204100

I'm using a window snapping/resizing app and this feature above, introduced in El Capitan, is being triggered instead. This when I snap a window to the center top of the screen.

Is there a way to turn this feature off?

According to the Reddit thread, Is there any way to disable Mission Control coming up when I drag a window to the top of the screen?, the solution is:

  System Preferences > Mission Control

  Uncheck "Displays have separate Spaces" then log out and back in again.

It works, I had the same issue & now it's sorted.


Why won't the Finder sort when clicking on the column headers in this different list view? As pictured this new list view has the column headers that are un-clickable, so one can't sort by clicking on the column headers.

Why is the Finder doing this and how do I get it back to the way it is in the deactivated window.

Any suggestions?

You could also select View > Arrange By > None, press ⌃⌘0, or change the arrange mode from the pop-up menu on the toolbar.

See also Finder: Difference of "Sort by", "Clean Up By" and "Arrange by" - Ask Different.


Running MacBook Pro without battery My MacBook's (Pro 2105) batteries are swollen and there is no AppleStore available here, is it possible to disconnect the battery from the mainboard and use the machine until I find replacement batteries from third-party stores? I don't want them explode!

Here are the pictures of the batteries:

I'm not here to answer if you can run it without the battery... as I have no idea.

I'd perhaps look no further than iFixit if I wanted to replace the battery myself. I'm not sure if this is your exact model, I just picked one that was close enough: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2015+Battery+Replacement/89284

You can typically buy the parts needed for the guide straight from them.

Before you start ordering new batteries or disassembling it further... Are you super sure it's not possible for you to let Apple handle it? Many countries (as far as I know) don't have apple stores but instead, they have "Apple authorized service providers" (or whatever they are called). It would be easy to not realize that these types of places exist in some cases. Sometimes the local store that sells Apple devices can handle the repairs as well. Not always.

Unfortunately, I can't give you a direct URL to a website where you can find your nearest service location(s) (it differs from country to country), you just have to find it through this website: https://locate.apple.com/

Make sure to click the country selection button on the top right.

The path to the right place differs from country to country, but as I think this is the longest possible path I decided to write it down:

  Each step is a new page

Click the box that says something like: "Service and Support"

It may at this point already ask you to enter a city or area code to locate the nearest service location(s).

In a grid of boxes with Apple devices choose Mac

You may then have to further select Macbook in a similar grid

In a grid of boxes with text and icons click the box that is something like "Repairs and physical damage",
You may then get 2 options. To call the local apple call center or enter city or area code to locate the nearest service location(s).

You may also have to enter the device serial key or login with your apple id at some point.


Messages on MacBook isn't sending or receiving messages, despite being signed in to iCloud My iPhone is connected to iCloud with the same account. In Messages → Preferences, under "You can be reached for Messages at:" my iPhone's number and my iCloud account are both there and checked.

I have tried restarting Messages, my MacBook, as well as turning iMessage off and on from my phone, and removing the files from ~/Library/Messages. Nothing so far has worked.

My computer is running El Capitan, and other applications (such as Notes) can sync over iCloud just fine.

The first step would be to make sure you can send iMessages to other iCloud users. If not, then you’ll want to Sign Out of iCloud under Messages → Preferences → Accounts. You may need to reboot your MacBook before signing back in.

If it’s regular text messages (SMS/MMS) that aren’t working, on your iPhone open Settings → Messages → Text Message Forwarding and make sure your MacBook is enabled. If it already is, toggle it off, then back on. You will be prompted to enter a verification code sent to your MacBook.

If none of this works, you may need to reboot both devices with everything disabled, then reactivate everything only after booting back up.


What's the purpose of Mac firmware standalone updates still offered by Apple online? I'm learning Mac troubleshooting and have stumbled upon this article several times, which very clearly explains that you can download and install these updates from macOS itself:
About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers (no longer updated since Published Date: 25 September 2017)

Just for the sake of knowledge, what's the purpose of these updates?

These are older versions of the firmware, and you can't use them to update your firmware as you'll obviously have a later update, neither to downgrade the firmware. Neither to install the firmware if your Mac fails and upgrade (for that purpose there's an installation CD you can use).

In what scenario would you use these?

Generally speaking, these firmware updates are for reliability, but as EFI/UEFI become more and more complicated compared to BIOS, there are also security vulnerabilities that require patching.

One good example is the fairly recent Thunderstrike 2 rootkit vulnerability.

Apple has not included optical media for system restoration since Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion."


Maintain an email group on iPad - no Mac involved I can't find an answer to this one here or elsewhere, so here goes. I have a friend who would like to maintain some school-based email lists using an iPad. She doesn't use any computers for this purpose and would like to keep it that way. As one of the people who organises social activities and volunteers among the school community it is often necessary to send an email to a group of people. The groups are typically between three and 20 people - think "3rd grade mothers jogging group" or "classroom volunteers".

Ideally the groups would

be created on the iPad through Contacts, from existing Contacts
send email without exposing the complete distribution list in the To: line
easily add or remove recipients as required

Group features provided by software like majordomo (self-subscribe, list digests etc.) are a little beyond what we want here. I just can't see how to make Contacts create a list of people and easily send an email to them without including a huge To: line in each email. Nobody is that paranoid about their emails being exposed but it seems like best practise not to, there's always that person who thinks everyone wants to be on their "funny" picture mailing list, some addresses will be corporate and that kind of thing can cause problems for the recipient.

It's fine if there's a free or paid app you can suggest, ease of use is the number one requirement.

May I suggest our unique "MailShot Pro" app, which is the ONLY app on the store that lets you create contact groups in your address book that you can use from any app to send email, just as you would use a single contact.

We have tens of thousands of users using it for exactly the sort of thing you describe

You can protect privacy by adding the contact group to the Bcc line.
You can edit the group permanently in the MailShot app, or temporarily just before you send an email (simply by saving and retrieving the email from Drafts)
And you can share groups between multiple devices using iCloud contact sharing.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mailshot-pro-group-email-done/id445996226?ls=1&mt=8. (A free trial version is also available.)

Peter

Soluble Apps

Full Disclosure:I am the developer of MailShot and will benefit from its sale, but so might you :)


Text editor quotation mark woes In text editor my quotation marks keep getting replaced by non ascii versions.

So if I am editing an XML document the double vertical line type quotation mark keeps getting auto-replaced by the curly type that breaks the XML document.

I have turned off the Text replacement option in preferences but it keeps happening.

If you are using TextEdit, go to Preferences > New Document > Options and uncheck the box for smart quotes:

You may then require a system restart.


Keyboard shortcut for buttons in dialogue box Given the following options at the bottom of a dialogue box:

If I press Enter (return) key, it will select Cancel, the default selected button. What's the keyboard shortcut to select Delete option instead?

Almost, though not quite, universal on macOS is the use of  Cmd ⌘   Backspace ⌫  [or Delete on keyboards without a distinct Backspace key] to discard, or discard changes.

This should also work to invoke "Don't Save" in dialogs too.
Some apps still accept the alternative of  Cmd ⌘   D  to do this, but Backspace has been the recommended method for several years [since Lion or so].