How to format a Time Machine SSD so it can also host the backup for external booting I want to split an external 1TB Nvme SSD into 500/500 partitions - so one partition can be a target for Time Machine backups, and the second partition can be used as a target to be an external partition that can host that backup
So basically, if something happens to my Macbook, I can potentially borrow a Macbook Air that only has, let's say 256GB of storage, instead of using that internal storage, I can use the second partition on my 1TB backup SSD to restore the backup on and boot externally
Since there are so many arbitrary restrictions that you only learn about when you actually attempt things, I wanted to ask this question (As an example, maybe the backup partition has to be the second partition if macos can only be set up onto primary partitions etc. - or it might be impossible to restore a backup onto an external partition altogether)

I ended up verifying this scenario myself, you can restore a Time Machine backup from an SSD partition, onto another APFS partition that's on the same SSD drive
You need to enable booting from external drives on T2 Macbook's, but it's a simple step that you are guided into (Everything available on MacOS Recovery with CMD+R) (You need the root password of the Macbook for Time Machine restore capability and changing the startup security, so if you are going to borrow an actively used device, you either need to get the password too, or do these steps with the owner after they enter the password themselves)
If you try this yourself, the only side effect is the startup disk getting changed to the external drive you just restored a backup onto, the restored OS is regularly usable, the disk benchmarks were 900mb/s read/write when booted from itself (everything kept on working as it was too, the only issue I saw was missing Chrome thumbnails, but Chrome password system was accessible as before)
Overall I think this approach is very practical, obviously you need a secondary time machine since it's risky to use the same ssd that's housing your time machine in case of a secondary failure - It took 35 minutes to restore my ~200GB backup with a 10Gbps nvme enclosure onto itself
Some edge information that's relevant at the moment: Avoid 40Gbps Chinese enclosures, major example is Orico (avoid them like your life depends on it, recently restored a system from an HDD, I had it connected with one of their USB-C/USB-A cables, it turns out the read speeds were 8mb/s because of this faulty cable, while it's 100mb/s if connected with a different cable), I believe they are all manufactured to fail, the enclosures heat SSD drives on idle and have various other issues. I found the Asus ROG Strix Arion 10Gbps drive to be very reliant (seemingly). SSD's don't heat as much (nowhere near 90C, more like 40C) and they are cool when idle. I've tested a Samsung 970 Evo Plus, it was unusable with the 40Gbps thrash enclosure, usable with 10Gbps one, but I wouldn't use it in this scenario, the heat is still concerning. Instead, a WD SN550 Dramless Nvme SSD was both cheaper, cooler and suprisingly faster on average. Since it doesn't throttle due to overheating.


Can't boot Windows 10 past loading animation under Bootcamp I have a 2016 MBP with Sierra and have installed Windows 10 under Bootcamp. This has been running fine for a month or so but today I installed Docker in Windows and when it required a restart it restarted twice (both times requiring me to hold ALT to select Windows drive) and now does not get past the Windows 10 logo and cycling dots animation.

Do I need to reinstall Windows or will a USB bootable drive help? I have not created one yet.

TL;DR: I cannot get Windows 10 to boot past the loading animation after installing Docker in Windows.

Don't reinstall Windows just yet. Your boot files are fine, It wouldn't pass the first screen otherwise. The fact that you see the windows logo suggests the something (probably Docker, might be something else too) messed up your drivers.

Get into Windows safe mode and see if you can Uninstall Docker, if that doesn't work, check if you have a restore point to before the install.


Extreme MacBook Pro Slowdown/Freeze My MacBook Pro (2007) on Lion has a strange behaviour.

Sometimes Chrome browser stops working. When I then launch Safari, it can not load any web page.
When I try to download a large file, it can be unresponsive.
Sometimes working with PDF files (even small files) has the same result
Sometimes I can not view files in my folders because Finder loads them very slow (it's showing spinner indicator).

I haven't found another way to resolve these situations besides restarting the laptop every time they happen.

What can be the issue? At first I thought about my HDD but my S.M.A.R.T. Status is Verified. Any additional ideas are highly appreciated!

Update :  Activity Monitor shows

Try to retrace your steps. What have you installed on you Mac since the freezes started? Some suspicious software/freeware from the internet, maybe some illegal software... If you can think of something like this, try to uninstall/delete the software.

Try to detect which process is running (Activity monitor) when the freezes happened. If you detect the mall function service or software, try to figure out if the software is installed correctly.

Worst case scenario, you can back up your data (not software!!) via TimeMachine or just an external hard drive, and completely reïnstall you OS. It quite radical (and unnecessary if you ask me if you can figure out the bad software/process described in the above paragraphs). In this way, you have a completely new OS and you can restore your documents and reïnstall your software (be aware on what you install).

My advice, figure out your bad piece of software/process and fix it. So you can keep your documents without reïnstalling the whole Mac...


Is there a way to temporarily allow popups in Safari 6 without going into Preferences? If I know I'm about to click on a link that will pop up a window that I want, is there a modifier key or anything I can do to temporarily allow the popup to appear, without going into Safari's preferences window, unchecking the box, opening the popup, then checking the box again (and getting the same warning every single time)?

At least in Safari 5.1.7 it's under Safari menu


How can I make Caps Lock work with Hebrew like it did prior to Sierra and without Ukulele? In Hebrew the Caps Lock is used to activate the vowel points. How do I restore this feature of Caps Lock in Hebrew, and without creating a new keyboard with a program that I do not know, like Ukulele?

If you are talking about Apple's built-in Hebrew PC keyboard layout, you cannot make it work like before, but you should still be able to input vowels via Option plus Shift. Or you can download the new keyboard you need to restore the previous behavior.


sourcing bash profile for root users Apologies in advance if this question is going to annoy the hell out of everyone as I appreciate, it's been asked in various ways many times before.  Please be assured, I have read the archives and have tried at least some of the suggestions but still cannot resolve the (simple) issue. Hopefully someone can provide an answer and I can feel appropriately humbled.  FYI, for the avoidance of any ambiguity, I'm going to use absolute rather than relative paths.

When I log in, I do so as user adam.  The aliases in /Users/adam/.bash_profile are loaded and I can use them immediately upon pulling up a terminal.  I don't use a .bashrc file and that's fine.

Every now and then, I switch to root by typing su into the terminal and then entering my password.  The prompt changes and I am now root user.  My question is this: immediately upon becoming root, can my root bash profile be loaded without me having to manually source the profile file?  The reason I know it doesn't happen automatically is because I have the same aliases in my root profile file and my /Users/adam/.bash_profile.  After becoming root user, unless I type in source [root_profile_file], they don't work.  I have tried setting up the following permutations and then switching to root via the terminal but none of them automatically source the profile/aliases (note, I don't have any of the options below set up concurrently so I don't think I'm confusing the system):

Option 1: put my aliases in /etc/profile

Option 2:

in /etc/profile, insert [ -r /etc/bashrc ] && . /etc/bashrc
put my aliases in /etc/bashrc

Option 3:

in /etc/bash_profile, insert [ -r /etc/bashrc ] && . /etc/bashrc
put my aliases in /etc/bashrc

Option 4:  put my aliases in /var/root/.profile

Option 5:

in /var/root/.profile, insert [ -r /var/root/.bashrc ] && . /var/root/.bashrc
put my aliases in /var/root/.bashrc

Option 6:

in /var/root/.bash_profile, insert [ -r /var/root/.bashrc ] && . /var/root/.bashrc
put my aliases in /var/root/.bashrc

Please note, with any of the above, if I switch to root and then type source root_profile_file the aliases are loaded but only if I do indeed source the file manually.  Perhaps I've totally misunderstood how bash works and it's not possible to source a profile file automatically after switching to root but I'm hoping there is a simple solution.  Thanks in advance to anyone who's taken the time to read this message.

The problem you are encountering is that when you run su by itself, you are not entering a 'login' shell. This means that your environment, working directory, and everything except uid/gid remain the same of the original user.

Login triggers do not execute, and you experience the issues you describe.

A simple solution to a simple problem:

su -

From the su(1) man page:

  The su command is used to become another user during a login session. Invoked without a username, su defaults to becoming the superuser. The optional argument - may be used to provide an environment similar to what the user would expect had the user logged in directly.

Also:

   -, -l, --login
       Provide an environment similar to what the user would expect had the user logged in directly.

If you su into a login shell, bash will behave as you expect, and automatically source the appropriate files on "login", without the need for overly hacky workarounds.


What is the shortcut to hide the navigator view in Apple Keynote? I want to show only the slide, without the left-side slide thumbnails in the Navigator View. How can this view be made hidden?

I am on Keynote version 7.3.1 (5249)

Thanks

Note that Navigatior View is designed to show the thumbnails for navigation.  Slide Only view shows only the slide without the thumbnails.
There is no built in shortcut to change views.  However, a custom keyboard shortcut can be added in the System Preferences.
To create a shortcut:

Go to System Preferences
Keyboard
Shortcuts Tab
Select App Shortcuts in the left pane
Click the Plus button
Set Application to Keynote from the dropdown
Type the Menu command EXACTLY as it appears in the menu
Choose a key combination

Now you can change view with custom shortcut.

Adding custom shortcut:

Switching views:


How to share Back to my Mac across different Apple IDs? I'm trying to figure out the best way to remotely get into my family's iMac from my MacBook Pro as needed while I'm away. An internet search taught me that Back to my Mac was the thing, but that only works when the computers are on the same Apple ID, and I've got a different Apple ID from my parents (I know their login information, for what it's worth).

Short of creating a new account on my parents' Apple ID, is there a way to use Back to my Mac to get from my computer to my parents'?

Screen Sharing works across multiple Apple IDs and is probably what you're looking for. So long as someone at home can access your iMac and click "Accept" on the Screen Sharing notification that they will receive, it will allow you to remotely control the iMac and copy files on and off of it.


Prevent Photos app on OSX from launching when plugging in device The Photos app opens whenever I plug in my phone.

How can this be prevented?

I have seen many solutions for the old iPhoto app that involve changing the "Connecting camera opens" option, but the new app has no such option.

With the iPhone plugged in, open the Image Capture app on your Mac. In the Image Capture window, left lower corner, choose which app should automatically open when you plug in your phone, chose "no application"


Finder launch and quit after booting I've started noticing that, after booting and launching all app that was on at the time of shut down, finder simply quit after ~10 sec and I have to turn it on manually. I didn't recall this issue before Mojave (but maybe it was already like that, I barely turn off my laptop - just closing it).

It doesn't seems to crash as there is no warning like "finder quit unexpectedly" or anything...

When opening console after finder quit, this output appear :

[ApplicationManager statusChangedForApplication:] | In status changed, finder quit, calling to get number of foreground apps

Disk utility check says everything's fine, and I just did a clean install as my MBP crashed during last update.

What could be the cause of Finder quitting after launching all app ?

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017) version 10.14.4 (18E226)

EDIT :

I find out that when I open pCloud, Finder quit (but still not crash)

Console output :

[GUIApplicationLogout loadProccessesToQuitArray] | Checking app: pCloudFinderExt

Have you tried logging out & unticking the "Reopen windows when logging back in" option?

Else you may have corrupted user Caches/Saved Application States.. you could try removing the content of these folders & rebooting:

~/Library/Caches

~/Library/Saved Application States


Is it possible to hide or remove system preference panes? I have a number of System Preference panes I'd like to get rid of. My preference is to make them inactive so nothing loads, but not to delete them in case I ever want them back.

What are my options? How do I do this?

The answer is Yes on both counts. That is, you can hide a preference pane or remove it altogether. See below for steps on doing each.

Hiding System Preference panes

To hide a System Preference pane:

Go to Apple > System Preferences…
With your mouse, go to View > Customize…
This will reveal a checkbox at the bottom-right of each pane (see image below)

Untick the checkbox of any pane you want to hide
Click on the Done button at top-left of the window

Note: You can also use the above steps to reveal any previously hidden panes by ticking the checkbox at Step 4.

Removing System Preference panes

You can only remove 3rd party preference panes (i.e. ones which are not natively part of macOS). To do this:

Right-click on the preference pane in question
Select the Remove “name“ Preference Pane option (in the example image below the user is selecting to remove the Java preference pane)

Login items

In case you're just wanting to hide an item upon logging in, or want to stop it loading on startup, you can also hide or remove items from your login items. To do this:

Go to Apple > System Preferences…
Click on Users & Groups
Make sure your user account is selected (it should be by default)
Click on the Login Items button
Now you will see a list of applications etc that automatically open when you log in
You can either:

Hide an item by ticking the checkbox on the left of it, or
Remove an item by selecting its name and then clicking on the minus - button below the list.


Java applet for OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) I was trying to run a Java applet (downloaded) through the jnlp file which came with it. And I see this error always.

I looked into the code signing certificate, and its signed from a trusted CA, and the expiry is not until 2020.

So, I narrowed down the issue to the problem mentioned in the following link: Fix the “App can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” Error in Mac OS X which says that OS X has prevented any app from an external developer to not run. This change was made to Gatekeeper.

But, I was not able to find an official release doc which talks about this change.

Another place I heard that Apple has stopped the usage of Java applet all together. Did not find any official doc about that also.

Can anyone point me to a link to an official doc about these updates?

To open the app right-click it and click 'open'. This will open the app with Apple's Gatekeeper (System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General) still activated.

You can see more about this on Apple.com (WWDC video) and on Apple's Developer pages.

Other URLs:

About Gatekeeper

  Mac App Store and identified developers (default in OS X Mountain
  Lion) – Only allow apps that came from the Mac App Store and
  developers using Gatekeeper can open.

macOS Security

  Gatekeeper gives you two security options. The default option allows
  you to download apps from the Mac App Store, as well as those from
  other sources that are signed with an Apple ID.

macOS Human Interface Guidelines: Gatekeeper

  Users can set Gatekeeper to download and install:

  (...)

  Apps from the Mac App Store and apps signed with a Developer ID (this
  is the default setting) With the default setting, if an app is
  unsigned, Gatekeeper blocks the app from installing and warns users
  that the app did not come from an identified developer. Users can
  choose to override Gatekeeper or change the settings.


Can I replace Apache with a different web server? I have often wondered why Apache is installed on my Macbook. I have been working with web development for several years and often wondered; why does Apple install Apache on a Macbook.

Recently I have run into several issues with setting up an Apache based local development environment, and I would like to know if I can replace Apache entirely, or is my Macbook Pro relying on it being installed?

You can install other web server software like, for example, nginx using brew.

Personally I would just turn Apache off, I wouldn't try to remove it. Off the top of my head I can't think of any places where the OS depends on it being there, but given that it is installed as part of the OS, if you remove it there is a good chance that a future software update will just reinstate it.


How can I delete an apple account? I have an old account that I don't use. I can log in through

https://appleid.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MyAppleId.woa/

and edit my account but can't find anywhere to delete it.

Is it possible?

Any apple account that is created cannot be deleted.  Just create a new account if you need a new one.


Album covers from songs bought in iTunes won't show album cover on iPhone I restored my iPhone 5 from an iOS 7.0.6 jailbreak to iOS 7.1. I restored to a backup. During the syncing of songs from the backup to my iPhone it accidentally got unplugged. I plugged it back in and synced my songs manually (not from the backup).

Now 5 songs that I bought from iTunes have all lost their album cover on my iPhone. All the other album covers from other songs are still there. It's not a big deal, but I like to have all album covers filled in.

While I was typing this I remembered that it helped to completely delete the album covers and download them again, I did this, now only 2 albums are naked, so to speak.

I had this problem and through asking google I figured out a solution.
Your best bet (it worked for me) is to go to your iTunes, sync your iPhone and then go to music. Once you are at the music tab, you want to uncheck the "Sync Music" at the top (this will get rid of all of the music without album covers, it will be okay I promise). Then you want to sync your phone so it gets rid of the music. Then once that is completed, you want to recheck the "Sync Music" and sync your phone so it reverts what you just did. It will take a few minutes for the music to get back on your phone so be patient! Afterwards, everything should be peachy keen :)

Hope I could help.


"iTunes media folder location" keeps reverting to local storage instead of persisting the NAS location, how to stop this? I have my iTunes music held on a NAS box and apart from severe lag times, it works fine, however, occasionally iTunes just switches the 'media folder location' back to the local machine without even asking me.
The wifi connections between iMac/NAS/Router are fine and are always available.
How can I prevent it from automatically switching it back?

Put the iTunes itl file on the NAS along with the media.  Then lock the copy of the file that's in your $HOME.
Launch iTunes.
iTunes will whine that it can't open the library (it thinks it needs to write to it), and will ask you for another.
Point it at the one on the NAS.
Now, iTunes will regularly, as you know, try to revert back to the one under $HOME.  But now it can't, so if it does, you get the prompt, and can redirect it.
Instead of discovering some time later after it's been storing media on the local drive again.


Booting into Windows partition prompts for firmware password I installed Windows 10 via Boot Camp couple of months ago and it worked normally. Today I tried to boot into Windows, but a password form pops up (firmware protection form). Booting into macOS without holding option key works OK.

I have tried entering the passwords for an admin account, my Apple ID, and iCloud, as well as booting into local and network recovery modes. Nothing worked.

I don't have "Find My Mac" installed or a recovery partition.

Where I can find this password or bypass it?

This is normal, and is likely because you enabled a Firmware Password while under Recovery Mode. Having a firmware password prevents your computer from booting from other boot partitions besides your main MacOS partition without your permission.

For more reference, view the relevant Apple Support page here.


iCloud Drive - sync Documents without syncing Desktop? I want to use iCloud Drive syncing for my Documents folder, but I do not want to sync my Desktop. Is there a way to sync only Documents?

Very often I copy large video files to Desktop for processing, editing, etc. Syncing these temporary files uses a lot of bandwidth and slows down other uploads.

Symmetrical question:

Sync only Desktop folder, but not Documents, with "Store in iCloud"? (iCloud Drive)

Related support thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7679836

System Preferences:

Put your large video files into Downloads.
This is what I do for instructional videos from Lynda
Don't sync or use iCloud Drive for Downloads


How to delete all cookies in safari 5.1.3 on osx lion I am trying to remove all cookies in safari 5.1.3.  In firefox/chrome this is controlled by command+shift+delete

In safari I have tried preferences->privacy->Remove all website data.  But this is NOT deleting all cookies despite what it says, Ok so doing this deletes stack exchange cookies but it still leaves me logged in to gmail.

Does anyone know why gmail cookies still stay despite safari saying i am deleting google cookie?

Safari

  Privacy Pane
  A new Privacy pane in Safari preferences gives you more
  control over your online privacy, allowing you to clear website data,
  customize cookie settings, and choose whether websites can request
  your location information.

This is also a known issue in some versions of Safari when working with the YouTube HTML5 Beta.

Since it is not a Safari or OS X issue, you may want to try other browsers like  FireFox or Chrome.

Lastly, Always make sure OS X is updated along with Safari. Safari is currently at 5.1.5 right now. Here is how to update


Gigabytes of disk space shown as hidden space in DaisyDisk My disk space usage doesn't add up. I should have used only about 80 gigabytes, but according to DaisyDisk about 25 gigabytes is taken up by hidden space. The mystery disk space seems to be classified as other in the About This Mac window.

I've disabled local Time Machine snapshots with sudo tmutil disablelocal and deleted /Volumes/MobileBackups/.

Does anyone know what the hidden space could be or how I could free it up?

Possibly related to Macbook HD "Other" all the Sudden Almost Full.

Starting up from the recovery partition and repairing the disk fixed the issue. (Disk Utility showed an error about an invalid free block count.) Thanks @cksum.


How to convert an epub package to regular epub? I have some epub files in my iCloud Drive that are essentially packages.  I can show package contents and then it shows me a hierarchy of files and folders.

How can I convert this structure to a standard epub that any regular epub reader will understand?

FWIW, here's a shell command that works:

 cd my-broken.epub

 # iTunes/Books seems to add a file
 # 'iTunesMetadata.plist', and it produces a warning.
 # May also contain private data, so better delete it.

 rm iTunesMetadata.plist

 zip -X -r ../fixed.epub mimetype *

As far as I can tell, compression does not need to be deactivated (-0). epubcheck has no complaints. There might be differences between versions of the epub spec, however. My test was with an epub 3.0 file.


Mac not sleeping when lid is closed I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2014) running El Capitan. Whenever I close the lid it doesn't sleep! The Apple light dims and the screen turns off, but my battery drains at a normal rate. Sleep is also grayed out in the top-left  menu.  Please help!

Do not  blindly start typing copying/pasting stuff into the prompt without knowing what you're doing this could seriously hinder performance or destroy your system!!

Fire up a terminal window either through cmd+space and typing into spotlight Terminal.app or Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal

I'd modify the energy settings via pmset.You can get your current settings with pmset -g. My energy preferences are something along the lines of:

sudo pmset -a destroyfvkeyonstandby 1
sudo pmset -a standby 0
sudo pmset -a sleep 20
sudo pmset -a displaysleep 20
sudo pmset -a proximitywake 0
sudo pmset -a acwake 1
sudo pmset -a lidwake 1
sudo pmset -a powernap 0
sudo pmset -a networkoversleep 0
sudo pmset -a womp 0
sudo pmset -a ring 0
sudo pmset -a standbydelay 0
sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 1
sudo pmset -a autopoweroffdelay 0
sudo pmset -a tcpkeepalive 0
sudo pmset -a ttyskeepawake 0

From man pmset:

  -a = all (all options being passed to power manager should apply to battery, ac connected or UPS, connected machine)

Keep in mind these settings will affect the entire machine; so I'd read up if you're not familiar with them. Eg. tcpkeepalive will kill off network connections; thus, Find My Mac won't be available when the machine is offline [for me, this ain't a problem; though, to each, his own. ]

Also proximitywake causes nearby devices to automatically connect and share info with nearby Apple devices that are sharing the same iCloud account (that's, if you're willing to buy into what apple is supposedly telling you through the man pages -- don't know about you but when I turn something off; I want it OFF.)

NOTE: from what I remember, proximitywake is a feature introduced prior to 10.13 (High Sierra); so it might not be available with El Capitan(Don't know  though...with all the security updates... you're gonna have to run pmset -g and man pmset in order to figure it out.)

Remember that the man pages are your friend! Whenever you're inside a terminal prompt and aren't sure about what a cmd does; type man <desired_cmd> in order to get the details about what does what. Type q to exit it.


Limit processor speed like in Windows In Windows (Linux too), you have the very useful "Power saver" mode that limits the maximum frequency at which your CPU runs.

Is there something similar in OS X?

No. OS X doesn't have a CPU or even GPU throttling lever that users can toggle.

There is a nice app, gfxCardStatus to know which of the two GPU is engaged on Macs that have two options. It also allows pinning to the higher or lower power consumption which might be of use. It's not clear if there is no way to get past the OS to exercise control of the CPU or just that no-one has programmed it yet.


Is there a car-friendly way to play music on the iPhone without a car kit? I'm wondering if there is a car-friendly way to play music on the iPhone without any type of car kit.  Specifically, I am looking for a way to change tracks without unlocking the phone.  I'm okay with pressing the home button, I just don't want to worry about unlocking the phone.

Some examples would be:
1) Swipe controls accessible from the lockscreen.
2) Shaking/moving the iPhone in a certain way.

I know Siri can do this, but I was hoping there was a way to accomplish this pre-Siri.

The normal music player on the lockscreen is not suitable for driving, as I have to look at the phone to press the touchscreen in the right place.

You could get something like this remote, which has passthrough for any standard 3.5mm audio, and provides volume controls and a clicker remote (just like on Apple's headphones). The clicker can to play, pause, and skip (double click for forward, triple click for backward).

There are other similar products out there, I found a few by searching for "iPhone inline remote".


Administrator of this Mac Disabled Your User Account from Accessing USB Network Gate When I try to install the application "USB Network Gate" I get message "Administrator of this Mac Disabled Your User Account from Accessing USB Network Gate. If your require further assistance, please contact your local/network administrator."

I'm logged in as user "admin" and "Allow user to administer this computer" is checked in my account.

I'm trying to install the app from a downloaded .dmg file. I've had no issues installing other applications.

How can I install this application?

Assuming that you are an admin on this Mac it may be that your app security settings need to be either relaxed or for you to give that app permission to install.

Go to System Preferences > Security > General and click on the lock icon and authenticate. That app might be listed for you to explicitly give it permission to run. If not make sure that "Allow Apps downloaded from: app store and identified developers" is selected.

You might also want to ask the developer if they have seen this behavior and what their specific solution is.


Can I have audio from my PC output to Bluetooth while my video outputs to AirPlay? As it stands, my Apple TV is hooked up directly via HDMI to my television. I have 2 amazing speakers that I use bluetooth to connect to and play from when I'm NOT using AirPlay. When I switch to AirPlay, the sound comes from my TV speakers which sound terrible, instead of my higher-quality bluetooth speakers.

Can I cast my MacBook's video stream via to the TV via AirPlay, while routing the audio through Bluetooth instead of my TV Speakers?

Just figured it out -

Connect to AirPlay, so that both video and audio streams are going to the TV
Open System Preferences > Sound. Click "output" tab.
Select your bluetooth speakers.

Voila.


Prevent Spotify using 3G on iPhone On the Spotify iPhone app, there is a manual setting to turn offline mode on or off. Ideally there would be a feature that automatically switches to offline mode as soon as a wifi connection is dropped, and switches back to online mode when connected again. Is there another way to achieve this?

You can switch off cellular data per app. Go to Settings -> Cellular and scroll to the bottom, tap to turn off cellular data for an app.


How to listen to the same song at the same time on 2 different iPhones? My girlfriend stay far way from me, but we have a habit that is listening to music together in the morning. But now we have to do that by playing loud by a Computer so that the quality is so low. I wonder that any IOS app can help us listen to the same song at the same time, i.e. when I press Play button, the song will be played at the same time in my iPhone and her iPhone too.

There are couple of young coders who met at 2013 WWDC after getting a scholarships from Apple who had the same idea you describe. They brought out an app called
Audibly

Description
Audibly plays your music in sync across nearby iOS devices. Just
choose the songs you want, link up some devices, and you're ready to
go.
Hanging out with friends and want to play a song, but your phone’s
speakers aren't loud enough? Instantly create a wireless surround
sound system and forget messy headphone cables.
Features: • Create a playlist of songs from your own library • Control
the volume across all the devices • Music kept in sync as you listen •
Use filters to change the pitch of the music • Favorite what’s playing
to come back to it later • No Internet connection required*
Audibly was first created at WWDC by a group of Student Scholarship
Recipients: Nick Frey, Chris Galzerano, and Veeral Patel.

Music can be streamed over Peer-to-Peer Wi-Fi on newer, supported devices, anywhere you are without an Internet connection. Devices can
also connect over a Wi-Fi network.

They still have some bugs to iron out but I have used it and it works well.


How do I change the location of macOS screen captures? As a developer, I take a lot of screen captures. I often take screen shots to share with Stack Exchange members in chat.

The problem is my Desktop is so cluttered with screen captures that they're now overlapping! I'd like to save all screenshots in a dedicated folder or directory.

In macOS, how do I change the default location where screen captures are saved?

These are the screen shots taken with CommandShift3 or CommandShift4 keyboard shortcuts.

I would prefer a solution which doesn't require installing any software.

According to this page...

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location <path>

Also, to turn on/off shadow:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool false

And to change file type:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type <format>

You'll want to

killall SystemUIServer

to make the commands take effect.


How can you mark every item in Safari's reading list as "read"? I just want to mark every item in my Reading List as read. All 200+ of them. Is there a CLI solution, or a way to edit the ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist file to mark them as  read?

The XML tag that determines whether the article has been read is DateLastViewed.

I think the simplest, most user friendly way to do it (for most people, anyway) is with TextEdit find-and-replace.

First, though, you're going to have to convert the plist file from binary to XML with this command (Enter it at the prompt in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app): plutil -convert xml1 'Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist'; open 'Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist' -a TextEdit Don't worry if it gives you an error; that just means it has already been converted.
The command will also open up the newly converted file in TextEdit.

Find-and-replace

<key>DateAdded</key>
 with
<key>DateLastFetched</key><date>2012-10-13T12:15:04Z</date><key>DateLastViewed</key><date>2012-10-13T12:15:04Z</date><key>DateAdded</key>

What this does is puts the DateLastViewed (and DateLastFetched, just to be safe) before every time it finds a DateAdded. I don't know if it actually uses the dates for anything, but you can change them if you want.


Dual VGA monitors (not mirrored) with Mac mini 2012 Is it possible to do this some way? I need to work with to different monitors, not simply mirroring.

Well, the Mac mini should include both an HDMI connector, as well as a Thunderbolt connector.

If you are actually using VGA monitors with VGA connectors, you would simply need one HDMI -> VGA adaptor for one monitor, and one Thunderbolt -> VGA adaptor for the other.

If your monitors are newer, you might like out and one will already have an HDMI connector, so no adaptor is needed.

But the simple answer to your question is YES, you just need to buy the appropriate adaptors for the connections you have.


Share only link from Safari to Mail When a friend uses the Share button in Safari to send me a link by email, the email I receive is a huge (and very buggy!) reconstruction of the Webpage including pictures and everything.

How can I reconfigure macOS to only share a single line with the link itself and nothing more?

I'm not sure whether it's possible... but the workaround is so simple it's easier than reaching over to the Share button.

 Cmd ⌘   L  which moves focus to the address bar.
 Cmd ⌘   C  to copy the address.
Switch to Mail
 Cmd ⌘   N  for new mail.
fill in address & title
 Cmd ⌘   V  to paste the URL


Compose key with æ, ø, å I need quick access to the Danish letters æ, ø, å while using the US keyboard-layout in OS X (I it slow to change keyboard layout all the time, my MBA has a Danish keyboard).

I want to use right-alt (option) as the compose key, so I can get "ø" by typing r-alt-/-o and similar.

I have consulted an earlier question but it is not clear if this gives me access to the Danish letters and I don't have a Linux installation to get configuration files from.

Is there a another/newer/easier way to do it with Karabiner/Seil etc.?

To make this work you have to use a third party tool: Karabiner.

In the example below holding the right option key enables the Danish keyboard layout. To type æ, ø, å just hold the right option key and use the original keys printed on your physical (Danish) keyboard. Releasing the right option key switches the layout back to en_US.

Prerequisites:

The US-English and the Danish keyboard layout have to be enabled. The shortcut cmdspace mustn't be used elsewhere than "Switch to previous input source".

Download, install and open Karabiner
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences
Open the tab Misc & Uninstall
Hit the button Open private.xml
Open the file private.xml with an appropriate editor
Enter the customized keycode

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>Change input source temporarily</name>
    <item>
      <name>Change input source to Danish while you are holding down right option key.</name>
      <identifier>remap.change_input_source_temporary_danish_option_r</identifier>
      <autogen>
        __KeyToKey__
        KeyCode::OPTION_R,
        KeyCode::VK_NONE,
        Option::KEYTOKEY_BEFORE_KEYDOWN, KeyCode::VK_CHANGE_INPUTSOURCE_DANISH, KeyCode::VK_WAIT_100MS,
        Option::KEYTOKEY_AFTER_KEYUP, KeyCode::SPACE, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::VK_WAIT_100MS,
      </autogen>
    </item>
  </item>
</root>

Save the file
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences the tab Change Key
Hit the ReloadXML button
Enable the remapping. It should be listed at the beginning.


Macbook Retina recognizing replaced SSD as external despite being internal Just bought a Retina Macbook Pro and swapped the SSD for a 1TB drive, it boots and seems to run fine, except the drive in 'about' shows as external and when I set in finder show/hide external it appears/disappears-

Is this going to be an issue (boots and runs) and how can I fix it?

I believe it will only show up as internal if it's connected to the internal bus on the motherboard.  Anything else will display as external.  You can change the icons if you want it to look like an internal drive from Finder.


How to uninstall application from iOS when there are many of them? How to uninstall some application from iOS?

Please don't say to press and to hold an app icon, because it is impossible to find it visually in my case. My child downloaded a lot of games and made a lot of folders.

I need convenient way to delete application by it's name from alphabetically sorted list.

Is this possible in iOS?

You can plug it into iTunes and delete them from there by pressing uninstall, and apply.
Also, on newer iOS, you can just let iOS offload unused apps. Thirdly, you can now delete apps from settings app.

settings > general > iPad storage


Can you go to an Apple store for a problem with a product you bought in another country? I got an iPhone in Germany, but I'm in Japan now. The camera has got some issues, and I wonder if I can go to a Japanese apple store with my problem or do I have to wait until I'm visiting Europe/Germany the next time?

Absolutely go to an Apple retail store if one is convenient. Worst case, they can assist you in setting up service in the country of origin if that is needed, but in many cases, parts are universal should you need an actual hardware repair.

Both countries you mention also have web service, so you can set up service and possibly a repair without needing a trip to the store.

Technically, Apple could ask you to mail the product back to the country where you bought it, but my experience is that is reserved for rare circumstances and not the normal procedure.


Speed comparison of iPhone 3g with iOS4 and iOS3? I have heard that running iOS4 would slow down my 3G. Does anyone know of any reliable data on whether that is the case or not, and if so, by how much?

Related Questions

Is it worth upgrading my jailbroken 3G to iOS4?

Yes, it does slow down. It's more and more noticeable as time goes by.
Apple has acknowledged this issue and they are looking into it.

Here are tips to make it run smoother again. (This is just a solution that has worked for many people. This is not Apple's official solution. They are working on a solution.)

1 - Disable spotlight search.

Settings -> General -> Home Button -> Spotlight Search. Uncheck things you don't search for. Uncheck all is best I guess?

2 - Perform DHR (double hard reset)

To perform a Hard Reset, press and hold the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons on your iPhone simultaneously for 5 to 10 seconds. After a few seconds the Slide to Power Off notice will appear, ignore this and keep holding down both buttons. In another few seconds the device should abruptly turn off, followed by the Apple logo and a reboot. Now release the buttons.

If your iPhone remains powered off, wait about 15 seconds then boot the phone by pressing the Sleep/Wake button.

Do this one more time.

I think this is related to iPhone running out of memory (RAM). But that's just my guess.


What scenarios benefit from Mac OS X allowing apps to run when no document windows remain? As a rule of thumb programs on Mac OS X stay running when you close all their document windows.

This is the behavior I noticed in MacVim, VmWare Fusion, Chrome and host of other applications.

I personally find this of no use and frankly quite annoying, although having had some number of experiences confirming that my opinion is not always the prevailing in a given target group, I assume that there could be a reason for this decision.

What are scenarios where this function could be useful?

When you are using Windows and you open an application like MS Word or Adobe Photoshop, it will open up the application window with some sort of empty background. When you do this on a Mac however, there is no background, there is simply the menu options in the very top bar. So say you had a file open in Photoshop in Windows and you closed that file, you would see the same blank application window that you saw when you started up Photoshop. On a Mac, you will see the menu in the top bar, but again, since there is no background you simply see the desktop. So really, there is no difference in the way that Windows and Mac OS X handle the applications, other than one had a visible window and the other doesn't.

The benefit of doing it the OS X way: If you DO plan on keeping the application open, it keeps you from having to minimize the app like you would in windows. All you have to do it click on something else in the background and it will make the applciation lose focus. To close it, simply right click on the application icon in the dock and choose 'Quit'.


What is com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice and why is it using significant energy in my new mac? I just bought a new mac. I've been using it a couple of days, and today I find that under "Apps using significant energy" there is a listing com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice.

What is it ? Why is it using significant energy ? Should I kill it ?

Some System Preference panes in Mavericks are built in a way to separate certain tasks into XPC processes.

  The idea is to break up a complex application into individual processes, each of which requires only the few entitlements necessary to perform a specific subset of the application's total capabilities.

com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice is one of these XPC processes. If you locate the process in Activity Monitor you should be able to tell which preference pane launched the process by the icon. In the screenshot below the process has the Users & Groups icon indicating that it belongs to the Users & Groups preference pane.

I'd check first to figure out which set of preferences it belongs to and make a judgement call on whether it makes sense that it is still running, but if one of these processes is using a significant amount of energy (and is still running once System Preferences is closed) I'd assume something has gone wrong and kill it.

Something you could do to attempt to understand what this process is doing is to open the Console application on your Mac and enter "remoteservice" in the filter box in the top-right corner. I'm assuming if the process is using a significant amount of energy then it is struggling to do something and will have written quite a few errors to the system log about what it is trying to do.


How can I see Windows PCs on a Mac and vice versa on a home network? I have an iMac running El Capitan, an Intel NUC with Windows 10 and a Raspberry Pi running OpenELEC (for now, but I've also tried OSMC and Raspbmc). I have a simple WiFi network with no Windows domain or anything.

The Mac and the Pi can see each other in their network browsers, but not the NUC. The NUC's Network only shows the NUC. All of them are in the same workgroup (WORKGROUP) and all of them can ping each other. On the Mac, I can use Finder's 'Connect to Server...' option to add smb://10.0.0.199/sharename (which is the IP of the NUC) to access a share alright, and I can open \\10.0.0.99 on the NUC to access the Mac alright too. But the Windows computer(s) don't show icons for the Macs in the 'Network Neighborhood' equivalent and the Mac and Linux (Pi) computers don't show the Windows PCs.

Configuring networks and sharing on Windows has always been a trial-and-error process for me. Just mess with various settings till something works and that's how I've even gotten these machines to ping or access each other.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a guide to setting up a non-domain network the proper way with mixed platforms?

You need to specifically enable Windows File Sharing on the Mac.
By default just checking 'File Sharing' will enable [I think, it's been a long time since I set up a raw machine] SMB & AFP, but not specifically Windows.

System Prefs > Sharing > Options…

If you need to specify a Workgroup, that's done from Network > Advanced… > WINS

One thing to be aware of is that if one of your non-Mac machines isn't set to be Master Browser, then the Mac can often force an election & win, even if it wasn't supposed to.
Depending on which machine is most likely to be on at all times, you may need to force that to be the Local Master.

This is a good article on how to set it on multiple platforms - http://petestechblog.com/archives/847 - there's a bit much to précis here.


How do I disable the nagging to update to High Sierra? I am on Sierra and would like to disable the periodic nagging to update to High Sierra. I will do it when I am ready. Any easy way to do this?

There are two ways to do this. The first should just prevent the prompt to update to the newest OS while the second will disable the App Store from bothering you altogether to update anything.

The most recommended is to go to the App Store, select the Updates tab, right click on the update you wish to stop being bothered about, and select "Hide Update".

The alternative is to go to System Preferences, click on App Store, deselect "Automatically check for updates". This should prevent the App Store from bothering you about all available update.


Microsoft Outlook on the Mac App Store - no option for in app purchase Microsoft Outlook on the Mac App Store requires an Office 365 subscription. There is supposed to be an option to subscribe using an in app purchase - I want to use this option.
However, the darn thing never gives me any option to do so. I initially tried to activate using an old account, but that account does not have an Office 365 subscription.

I have tried in vain to remove every trace of Outlook and start over - I've removed the keychain entry for "Office," and removed more or less everything with "Microsoft" in the name in ~/Library (including the obvious stuff in ~/Library/Containers, /Library, and /System/Library. I've removed the application from /Applications as well, emptied the trash, and rebooted.
I have tried clicking "Stay Offline," to open outlook, and then open its list of accounts - there are none. I have also tried using outlooks profile tool to remove the existing profile, to no effect.
But once I install the app from the Mac App Store, the blasted account is still listed. I do not have any other office applications installed.
So, how can I either (a) reset outlook completely so it doesn't show this account (and thus hopefully gives me the option to use an in-app purchase to subscribe, or (b) force outlook to activate using an in-app purchase?

For any future readers, the Mac app store version of Outlook simply does not work the way I expected. You will not be given the option to subscribe using an in-app purchase until after you have created or logged in with a Microsoft account.
Once you have logged in with a Microsoft account, then will you have the option to subscribe using an in-app purchase.


R2D2 Mac Pro making sound when CPU usage is high (not fan noise) We have a 12-core R2D2 style Mac Pro at the office.  It is very quiet.  If I put my ear very close to it, I can hear the fan humming smoothly, but from a distance it's quiet.

When I run a program that uses all 12 cores at 100%, the computer will emit a strange zzzzz sound comparable to a creaky wheel.  The sound is very quiet, but still audible in an otherwise quiet room.  It's slightly louder than the humming of the fan, and it is not smooth like the fan.

It doens't sound like this is the fan spinning up: the sound comes on isntantaneously as the CPU usage goes to 100%, and it stops instantaneously when I stop the program.  I can still hear the steady hum of the fan in the background.

Question 1: Since this computer doesn't have any other mechanical parts than the fan, what is making the sound?  Is it an electronic sound?

Question 2: Does the sound indicate a problem?

It's normal. Many computer components can generate high frequency noise under high load, mostly from power circuits, but fans are usually loud enough to cover them up. The GTX 780 in my desktop does this but I didn't notice it until I installed a liquid cooling system. If you're interested, this has some details of the components that can cause this kind of noise. (one example is piezoelectric flexing of ceramic capacitors causing vibration of the PCB)


Contacts recall with mult numbers How do find out which number you dialed after the call when a contact has multiple numbers associated with it. On an iphone

Go to the Phone app and tap on the Recents tab.  You'll see incoming and outgoing calls there.  The outgoing calls have a little phone handset icon with an arrow going up.  When you click on the information icon, the 'i' inside the circle, you'll see details of the call.  It will also say 'incoming' or 'outgoing'.


Should we change the availability date when we resubmit the app in to App Store? Last month(15-Feb-14) I have uploaded an app in to App Store with availability date 20-Feb-14 and my app status was "Waiting For Review". Yesterday(1-Mar-14) I got one issue and again I had to resubmit the app in to App Store and my app status is "Waiting For Review". My question is Should we change the availability date also when we resubmit the app?

There's no need to manage an availability date and it is separate than the review submission process and only is considered once approval is granted for the app to be sold.

If your date is in the future, it will sit and wait to go on sale when that future data arrives.
If your date is in the past, it will go on sale as soon as approval is processed and the store can update the database.

You might in the future hold your patch until the first review finishes, since you may have put yourself at the end of the queue by resubmitting. If the first review gets rejected, you still need to resubmit and can bundle the fix then. If the first review gets approved, you can then decide on how long it took and whether you push the change you had before releasing or if you want to release with that issue.


MacBook Pro couldn't find wireless network while other devices can. How to fix that? I have MacBook Pro (Late 2013) and a router, that serves two wireless network (2.4GHz and 5GHz) with different names. Most of my devices are connected to 2.4GHz network, while some are connected to 5GHz network. I'm running on OS X El Capitan 10.11.6.

After MacBook goes to sleep or gets rebooted it couldn't find ANY of my networks, while it could see a number of neighbour's networks. After some time it suddenly finds both of them and connects to 5GHz.

I've tried everything, removed network configuration from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/, created new location, turned wifi on and off, you name it. Nothing works, as soon as it goes to sleep it looses my networks.

My other devices could see both my networks perfectly at all times.

Scan utility from Wireless Diagnostic is unable to detect any of my networks as well. Actually running wireless diagnostic doesn't yield any results, because it also couldn't find my network.

This started as soon as I bought new router, but I did have different problems with my old ones and this same MacBook. Seeing as my other devices work just fine, I assume router is not to blame. Anyway I could post my network settings if it's somehow relevant.

Reinstalling OS X is not an option, since 1) it's not an actual solution and 2) this is corporate MacBook.

Yesterday I've played with the router a bit (even though I thought it's not to blame) and figured that my country code (transferred via 802.11d) was set to TW (factory default I guess). And almost every other network has RU country code. So I've changed my router's country code to RU (lost couple of channels and ability to serve 802.11ac) and after that I haven't experienced any problems with connection (yet).

I think (not 100% sure though) that my other devices just ignore country code or don't use 802.11d protocol at all. And that's why only MacBook was affected.


Where can I find unsaved Preview images? I have two unsaved images open in Preview. My Mac is on strike, no screen usable, but SSH is working fine. I really want to salvage my images.

Where can I find my images ?

At worst, I would accept memory dump as an option.

Look at /Users/(your user)/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Autosave Information/
That's where mine are right now.


Is there any way to have two applications visible at the same time, with one application not in use overlapping the other For example:

Notice how Sublime Text 2 (the application on the right) is visible and I can see chrome in the background. This is expected behaviour as I have Sublime Text 2 open and in use.

But then when I swap back to Chrome, the app disappears in the background, because chrome is now in use (which I guess is expected behaviour).

Is there any way so that when I swap back to Chrome, I can see other applications on top of it? In other words, can I use Chrome and look at other applications on top of it?

Obviously I could do something side by side, but my real problem involves an application that I maximise.

What you're looking for is the option to "float" apps.
Before I give my answer, I should say that you need to do a bit of Google on "How to keep apps on top on mac"
With this, I found that this was already mentioned before in superuser.com
If you are too lazy or have slow internet, the answer mentioned was Afloat, since Afloat is open  source, install guide here.


Serious system issue - kernel extensions installed improperly I have just gotten an error message for every single kext file there is.
the error message goes something along the lines of:

The system extension "*file path*" was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the products vendor for an update.

If there is something I could do to fix it, let me know.

Try booting to "Safe Mode".  To do this:

Turn off your Mac.
Turn it back on and before you see the Apple logo on your screen, press and hold the Shift key until the Apple logo appears.
A progress bar should appear below the Apple logo - during this time your Mac is performing a directory check and loads only necessary Apple kernel extensions (among other small things).

After about 3 minutes or so you should load to either your login window or the Desktop, depending on whether you have automatic login enabled.

If you no longer see the error messages, it's safe to assume the corrupt kernel extensions are third-party kexts.  Otherwise, if you continue to have error messages even when booting to Safe Mode, I would re-install OS X.

Good Luck!


Repeated errors of “there was a problem connecting to the server” I have been having the following message pop up every few minutes on my Mac for around a year.

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

The IP address is for an old fileshare that I no longer have access to. So far I have tried every online link I could find but have not been able to get rid of it. Worst case I can just reinstall the OS but would prefer not to do that.

I have checked both my login items as well as my Time Machine disks. I have also checked that I don't have any mapped drives from that share. The drive was only used for files and no programs should be connecting to that drive. The issue persists even when all programs are closed although it doesn't happen for other user accounts on the machine.

Does anyone have any ideas for getting rid of this?

Try checking your Time Machine settings under System Preferences -> Time Machine. Look for a network disk that you are not using or is not reachable, and delete it. This solved this issue for me.


Use Apple's Server Admin Tools to Force Inherit Permissions We have our work drive (let's call it Drive2014) and we have our archive drive (Drive2013). Every file on Drive2013 is read-only and must remain that way. When I drag a file from Drive2013 to Drive2014, I need the file to inherit the permissions from it's new home on Drive2014.

I tried How do I use chmod on a Mac to make new files inherit parent directory permissions? but this is only applicable after the file has been copied.

Someone mentioned that what I want to do is feasible through Apple's Server Admin Tools. I'm running the latest version of OS X Mavericks Server all up to date.

Open Server.app and select your server from the services list.
Go to the Storage tab.
Browse to the folder location that you wish to inherit permissions from.
Click the gear at the bottom, and select Propagate Permissions…
Choose the permissions you wish to propagate and click OK.


How to disable iOS FaceTime notification sounds? I don't want any sound-based notifications on my iOS device, but I still want the visual alerts.

Most apps (e.g. Messages, Reminders, etc.) have a None choice at the top of their list of notification sound options (or at least an On/Off switch, e.g. Gmail and Hangouts), but Settings / Notifications / FaceTime / Notification Sound yields no none option.

Nothing more regarding notification sounds is listed under Settings / FaceTime, nor in the app itself (which frustratingly has no in-app settings—I think the system settings are crowded enough even without adding app settings to them).

Am I missing something?

In the meantime, all I can do (it seems) is disable FaceTime notifications altogether.

2012 iPod Touch 5

iOS 8.0.2

I found this extremely frustrating as well. I spent an hour trying to record a silent ringtone in GarageBand but it consistently delivered noisey ringtones despite no sound on the track. I was about to give up when I thought someone else besides us must have been annoyed and figured it out. A Google search yielded the silent ringtone below. I tried it and it works great. Good luck.

http://www.codingmerc.com/blog/silence-ringtone-available-for-download/


Can I use a Thunderbolt display for a macbook pro with a mini display port? I have an older macbook pro with a mini display port. Can I use a Thunderbolt display as an external monitor?

Unfortunately, no. Thunderbolt displays will only work with a Thunderbolt port on your machine - not with a Mini Display Port...


Linux' `ps f` (tree view) equivalent on OSX? How can I get a tree view like the one below on OSX?

vartec@some_server:~$ ps xf
PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
11519 ?        S      0:00 sshd: vartec@pts/0
11520 pts/0    Ss     0:00  \_ -bash
11528 pts/0    R+     0:00      \_ ps xf

To clarify, I'm mostly interested in the tree structure, not the extended information.

You can install the pstree command using either Homebrew (my personal favourite), MacPorts or Fink and you'll get a command-line, tree view of processes on your Mac.

With Homebrew installed, just run:

brew install pstree

then use it like pstree from the command line.


Time Machine backups are too slow I used to backup on a USB flash drive, it was slow, and the drive became very hot in the middle of backup, so I bought a fast external SSD drive (2,800MB/s) which connects through Thunderbolt 3.
But a 60GB backup with Time Machine still takes about "1:30-2 Hours"...
Is this normal? I thought it would be a matter of minutes with this drive :(
macOS is Mojave if that matters, and I'm taking Encrypted backups on a Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) formatted drive.
P.S. I found this command: sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0 while googling for this matter, but it is for 2017, not sure if it is still useful and a good idea on macOS Mojave?
Edit:
I am using a 2019 Macbook Air, my read speed is 650MB/s using this command:
time dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k of=tstfile count=1024
That's still 38GB per minute.
I also tried reformatting the drive to:
CoreStorage Logical Volume • Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) (not case-sensitive)
Edit2:
After running: sudo sysctl debug.lowpri\_throttle_enabled=0 it became much worse... even though I returned it to default enabled=1 , still 6 hours remaining.

Time Machine backups are limited by three factors, the type of scan selected, the speed of the primary storage, the speed of the destination storage.

If your empirical evidence is increasing destination, then that’s not your bottleneck. (Sorry to restate the obvious)

I would look over the unified log file to see what’s actually happening and also not mess with any defaults (reset them if you changed anything) and use this tool to get some specific data:

https://eclecticlight.co/2019/12/27/t2m2-further-improves-strategy-data-for-backups-in-catalina/

It is a nice graphical wrapper and the author explains very well in their writing how it works, what some gotchas are and even how to read the system logs if you find you need different data than the Time Machine Mechanic utility exposes.

In the end, it’s probably more likely you need to exclude whatever data is taking a long time to scan or just live with the backup speeds, but I’d love a follow up question with some specifics if we want to get into if it’s bandwidth or iops that’s constraining your backups.

Time Machine Backups taking too much space?

Also, case sensitive is an odd choice and not usual - do you have room to make a second partition and test the defaults journaled / encrypted HFS destination? The encryption isn’t going to make a difference in my experience either - so that’s a good thing to not test unless you’ve exhausted every other variable.


How can I display Activity Monitor's "Memory" columns through Terminal? Activity Monitor has a number of columns that show different measurements of memory usage for each process. Including:

Memory
Real Memory (various)
Compressed Memory

How can I display these for a specific process or app in Terminal, AppleScript or Xcode?

The terminal command top -stats is what you need to use. Executing man top will give you all the usage info.

Note: The keys used in the -stat option are listed under the -o option.

Here are some sample top -stats commands you can try to see what you can glean from the output with different keys.

top -stats cpu,mem,pid

top -stats cpu,mem,pid -pid 106

top -stats cpu,mem,pid,command

The last command example outputs this:

%CPU                         MEM                            PID                           COMMAND
3.6                          2308K                          2191                          top
0.0                          3156K                          2190                          mdworker
0.0                          3248K                          2187                          mdworker
0.0                          3132K                          2186                          mdworker
0.0                          3280K                          2185                          mdworker
0.0                          3240K                          2184                          mdworker
0.0                          3156K                          2183                          mdworker
0.0                          3196K                          2182                          mdworker
0.0                          3156K                          2181                          mdworker
0.0                          4704K                          2175                          quicklookd
1.7                          17M                            2067                          backupd
0.0                          7652K                          2046                          mdworker
0.0                          17M                            2045                          mdworker
0.0                          19M                            2044                          mdworker


How do I transfer photo/video from Ipad2 to Windows XP computer? What driver when asks for new hardware found? (Don't have disk) I have an ipad2 and windows XP service pack 3.
When put USB to Windows XP it recognizes IPad2 and I can hit "Trust this computer' on Ipad2.  However, the windows XP computer then says "new hardware found" insert installation disk if have one.

I don't have it.
The computer's new hardware wizard can then choose best to install the software (recommended)... It chooses "Digital Still Camera".  If I click "Next", it then says warning this has not passed windows logo testing to verify its' compatibility with XP and may lead to destabilization. So, if I cancel then the hardware (IPad2) is not recognized. Please help!

I know I need to get the proper software/driver installed on the Windows XP computer so it will show the IPad 2 in my camera & scanner area.  Once I do that, I need to know the next steps to transfer the photos on IPad2 also. THX!
PS- I do have up to date iTunes version on XP computer.

Your issue is likely to be that you in fact don't have the latest iTunes, because it will not run on Windows XP.

The oldest supported MS OS is Windows 7. See http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/


Transferring apps from device to itunes Reading conflicting information on this one.  iOS 9.1, iTunes 12.3.1.  When I sync, any apps I have purchased recently do not show up in iTunes.  Some things I've read say it's a bug, some say it's by design.  If the latter, is there another way that I can manage apps in a similar way (i.e. see the whole list, sort by name/size/date added, etc., view sizes, date added, select which ones I do/don't currently want installed on the device, etc.)?

Transferring apps from iDevice to iTunes is no longer supported with iOS 9, see Can't transfer purchases from iPhone to iTunes in iOS 9 for details. Using iTunes to manage app on your iDevice is still possible though, but you need to download all apps in iTunes to do that. To automate this, set the corresponding option in Preferences->Store.


No internet access on MacBook Air, though I can connect to networks (Edited after rebooting everything again.)

I'm unable to get my MacBook Air (mid-2011 model, running OS X Lion 10.7.4) connected to the internet. I've tried to get online through tethering both an iPhone 4 (through USB, wifi and bluetooth) and a Samsung Galaxy S2. I can use the internet connection created by both of these phones on other computers. I'm mainly testing on wifi as that is my primary network connection source, but bluetooth and USB are also failing. The same applies to Ethernet.

I can connect to any network in range, and when I plugged in an Ethernet cable for testing, I could connect to the corporate network. All status indicators in Network Preferences are green; I get assigned an IP address, but I still can't browse the web, and instead get a "You are not connected to the Internet" message.

The issue is not specific to any user account (confirmed by creating brand-new user accounts and testing from there).

I can't ping anywhere (all requests timeout), but I can lookup any site (including internal ones) from Lookup in Network Utility, and receive a response.

I've exhausted every avenue I could find online. I've tried removing/renaming the SystemConfiguration plists, removing and re-adding every network and network interface, flushing the cache, checking the hosts file and making sure it's only the default values, turning everything off and on again in various sequences and multiple times, swapping out cables, etc.

Running ifconfig from Terminal gives me:

lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
    options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
    inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
    inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
    inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=4<VLAN_MTU>
    ether b8:8d:12:54:64:40
    inet6 fe80::ba8d:12ff:fe54:6440%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
    inet 169.254.2.123 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 169.254.255.255
    media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
    status: active
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 10:40:f3:8a:97:a4
    inet6 fe80::1240:f3ff:fe8a:97a4%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
    inet 172.20.10.10 netmask 0xfffffff0 broadcast 172.20.10.15
    media: autoselect
    status: active
p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304
    ether 02:40:f3:8a:97:a4
    media: autoselect
    status: inactive

It was working fine when I left work a few days ago, then when I arrived for work the next day all my network settings had been cleared and this issue occurred.

I'd be very grateful for some ideas as I've spent way too long trying to figure this out. Thanks :)

Days later, I've finally figured it out.
The com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist file located in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ was corrupted, and for some reason attempts to reset it were not being saved.

I copied this file from a macbook that was able to connect, and, since I'm using Lion, added in the option to allow appending search domains by inserting the line

<string>-AlwaysAppendSearchDomains</string>

in the following position:

<string>/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder</string>
<string>-AlwaysAppendSearchDomains</string>
<string>-launchd</string>

I then restarted the machine. This appeared to do the trick.


Listening to iTunes U audio in the background Is there a simple way to listen to iTunes U audio in the background? Switching to another app turns the audio off except in this very specific case:

Press the power button to lock the screen. This will immediately turn the audio off.
Double-click the home button to show the audio controls.
Press play. The lecture will begin playing.
Receive a notification (e.g. a text message) while the screen is locked.
Open the notification item from the lock screen. The audio will continue playing while you're in this other app.

Unlocking the phone any other way brings you back to the iTunes U app, which only gets us back where we started.

Is there a simpler way to do this?

I understand your frustration, thankfully, it can be done.

Many video apps, like the YouTube app or the iTunes U App allow you to play the content in the background like music, it just takes a certain trick.  The way you do it is two ways, depending on if you want to sleep your iPhone or use other apps while you listen:

Exit the App and then double click the home button, and then swipe to the right to reveal the iPod controls, you should see the youtube or iTunes U app in the place of the iPod Music Icon.  Hitting play should continue playing the contents audio in the background while you do other things. Opening another music or sound related app may mute or stop the playing but opening up Safari or checking your mail, text messages, etc should not stop anything.

To have it play in the background with your iPhone in standby mode, i.e., like listening to your music while your iPhone is sleeping. Simply lock your iPhone, the sound will stop. Double click the home button and the iPod controls will show up, press the play button and the audio portion of your iTunes U or Youtube app content should keep playing.

I hope that this information helps you out.


How to turn off your MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar via keyboard shortcut Since my new MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar I'm unable to turn off my MacBook using the keyboard CNTROPTIONCMD + Power. I saw this question about the screen lock: Simular question but there is no button in the Touch bar for turning off the Mac completely. Is there a new keyboard shortcut for this?

These are the only options to drag into the Touch Bar:

The keyboard shortcut you refer to was actually only one of two keyboard shortcuts that worked the same way. The other one was to use ControlOptionCommand and the Eject key instead of the Power button.

Regardless, both of these keyboard shortcut combinations will quit all apps and shut down your Mac. Of course, if you have any open documents that have not been saved you'll be asked whether you want to save them.

Since you have a Touch Bar model, I suspect you will just need to ensure you're in the right interface to see the Eject key option.

Otherwise, what actually happens if you still use the ControlOptionCommand and the Power combination, remembering that in your case the Touch ID doubles up as your Power button?

If there is no way to get that to work, you could add your own custom keyboard shortcut to achieve what you want, but that will mean changing some of the other Function Key behaviours - if this is an acceptable option and you need assistance to do this, let me know and I'll update this answer.

[UPDATE]

As requested via comments, here are the steps to creating a custom keyboard shortcut using one of your Function keys to replicate the ControlOptionCommandPower button combination:

Go to System Preferences
Select the Keyboard option
Ensure you are on the Keyboard tab
Make sure that the Use all F1,F2, etc. keys as standard function keys is not ticked
Now choose the Shortcuts tab
Select App Shortcuts in the lefthand column
Click "+" symbol at the bottom of the right pane
Leave the Application drop-down as All Applications
In the Menu Title field type this in exactly: Shut Down...
In the Keyboard shortcut field press the fn and F1 keys
Click on Add
Exit System Preferences

Now you should be able to just press the fnF1 key combination to shutdown your MBP.

NOTE: The reason at Step 4 I wanted you to ensure that the Use all F1,F2, etc. keys as standard function keys is not ticked was because you wanted to set the keyboard shortcut on a key that is already used for something else. However, if you do want to leave Use all F1,F2, etc. keys as standard function keys ticked, you can change the original F1 key shortcut to something else first and then set the F1 key (without the need for the fn key) as your keyboard shortcut.

Any questions, just ask.


Dual booting Yosemite/Mavericks: Stuck in Yosemite with an 'Install OS X' volume instead I've made a partition on my hard drive, so I currently have Macintosh HD (call it 1) and Macintosh HD 2 (call it 2).

I downloaded the Yosemite installer with my Mavericks install on 1, then ran it and selected 2 as the disk to install on. It worked fairly well and I'm running Yosemite without any problems.

But tonight I tried to switch over to Mavericks, so I rebooted and held down option. When the list came up, it contained recovery volumes for OS X 10.9 and 10.10. It had Macintosh HD 2 on it (my Yosemite partition), but not Macintosh HD. Instead of my Mavericks partition, it showed an 'Install OS X' volume. Selecting this shows the Apple logo with a progress bar under it, then boots into Yosemite.

I can view /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/ and see that everything is still there.

How can I boot back into my Mavericks install?

I also asked on the developer forums and got an answer there (iOS/OS X dev account required to view).

The solution was to boot into a recovery partition (⌘ + R), and change the boot disk from the Apple menu. It needed to be changed to my Mavericks install instead of my Yosemite install.


Are there iOS apps for taking notes with Apple Pencil in color, grid, and with pages to print? I am searching for an app, in which I can take notes during lectures. To be more specific I would like to find an app which extends the default notes app in the following ways:

Creating a color palette (eg. I would like to have darker colors, but it seems like I can only pick one color at a time)
Changing grid size (I would like to make the grid a bit smaller, so it fits my handwriting better)
Option for pages (Ideally I would like to be able to print my notes, but the $\infty$-paper cuts my handwriting in half)

Other features (like pdf annotation, text recognition etc.) are not important for my use case. The recommended apps I was able to test (Notes, INKredible, Nebo, Sketches, Paper, Quicknotes) didn’t fulfill these requirements. Due to cost I could not test Goodnotes or Notepad+.
I hope there is an app satisfying my needs, to specially to vouch for a paid app if that’s the only fit for my requirements.
Can any app do some or all of my requirements?

Notability is the app you want to use but it is $8.99. There is also a version for Macs as well. This allows multiple colors and it opens with a large page to write on. I can't vouch for it because I use Notes but Notability is a popular app. You can read about it at the link I included.
There is a free app called Notes Writer which you could check out since it's free.


How can I connect mac to Iphone hotspot without making "personal hotspot discoverable"? Question

How can I connect mac to Iphone hotspot without making "personal hotspot discoverable"?

Usecase

get on train
on phone, make "Personal hotspot discoverable"
open laptop
wait for laptop "looking for networks" to see my SSID
once laptop sees my SSID, connect to wifi

Desired

I want to "connect mac to hotspot" without "doing anything" on my phone.

i.e. remove these steps:

on phone, make "Personal hotspot discoverable"
wait for laptop "looking for networks" to see my SSID

so the "new usecase" would look like this:

get on train
open laptop
connect directly to my Wifi-hotspot

Environment

Mac Catalina
IOS 13

Some points

I could use bluetooth, but prefer to use wifi as my vpn software will automatically reconnect (i.e. if i disconnect from wifi at home and reconnect on the train)

Thanks!

Unfortunately many useful settings on iOS are simply not there.
One of this is the inability to hide your SSID.

If you really care about security you should just use the USB cable, to force this you have to completely disable both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi from you settings and then enable the hotspot.
It will ask if it's okay to only share your cellular connection with the USB.

Otherwise you can just use a strong password, if both computer and iPhone are up to date you shouldn't worry about anything. WPA2 is very secure and KRACK was patched a long time ago.

Even if you could hide the SSID everyone you should worry about can still see your hotspot. There is no way to hide any wireless connection.


How to get previous shutdown cause? I try to get previous shutdown cause and when it happened but i don't know correct syntax.

syslog -k Sender kernel ???

I need to get date and time in start of the row and shutdown cause number in end of the row which can be negative number too.

I usually just run

sudo grep "Previous shutdown cause" /var/log/system.log

or (if the above returns empty)

sudo zgrep "Previous shutdown cause" /var/log/system.log.*.gz


Can't acces or find BOOTCAMP drive in mac El Capitan I have a late 2012 iMac running El Capitan and here is how the drive shows in Disk Utility and NTFS Paragon. It also doesn't appear in the Finder sidebar even after i checked all the things in the Finder preferences. The funny thing is that if i log into Windows 10 I can easily acces everything from the mac drive. What can i do to make the BOOTCAMP drive appear and be accesible?

I know this is an old thread, but I had this issue too...

It turns out, the disk was in hibernation mode, and Paragon may have been responsible.  In the System Preferences pane, go to Paragon NTFS, Volumes Tab, and check the box (Bottom left) that reads : "Disable Paragon NTFS for Mac".  This is what worked for me.

Also, on startup you may get a Paragon notification that says the disk is in hibernation.  Click on that notification before it disappears and another dialogue box will come up that lets you force a mounting of the disk.  This warns you that you will loose temp info from hibernation mode (which is not a big deal).  This is another way to potentially fix it.


How to connect my iphone to PC and edit my contacts and other things like I can do with my Nokia phone? How to connect my iPhone to PC and edit my contacts and other things like I can do with my Nokia phone?

You can in iTunes define which online Service or PC program you want to use.

In the iPhone User Guide on page 55, are the below written.

  Info Pane

  The Info pane lets you
  configure the sync settings for your
  contacts, calendars, email accounts,
  and web browser.

  Contacts

  Sync contacts with applications such as Mac
  OS X Address Book, Yahoo! Address
  Book, and Google Contacts on a Mac, or
  with Yahoo! Address Book, Google
  Contacts, Windows Address Book
  (Outlook Express), Windows Contacts
  (Vista and Windows 7), or Microsoft
  Outlook 2003, 2007, or 2010 on a PC.
  (On a Mac, you can sync contacts with
  multiple applications. On a PC, you
  can sync contacts with one application
  at a time.)

  If you sync with Yahoo!
  Address Book, you only need to click
  Configure to enter your new login
  information when you change your
  Yahoo! ID or password after you’ve set
  up syncing.


How can I remove the OSX server? I have installed a OSX server a long time ago for testing purpose. It shows up in my App Store

However I cannot install update on my iMac that's running El Capitan due to this error message:

I really want to remove it because apparently this package is preventing me upgrade to Sierra. Sierra installer requested this to be of latest version before proceeding any further.

As an admin, open the /Applications folder, and drag the Server.app icon to the trash. An alert should pop up, saying the the server will be shut down, and a bunch of uninstall scripts will run. Your data will still be in /Library/Server.

You can empty the trash or pull it back out, if you want to keep it.

Then you should be able to upgrade the OS in peace.


Problems with SD card reader on Bootcamp (MBP 15" Late 2011) I've got a strange problem with the SD card reader on Bootcamp. It reads some of my cards fine (one 8GB, one 4GB, and one 512MB), but it has problems with some others (64GB SDXC, an identical 8GB). When I try to read a file from the 64GB one, it usually freezes the application trying to open it, or sometimes it says an unknown error occurred. If I try to write to the card, it takes forever and is almost always corrupted when reading on another computer.

This problem seems to be with the built-in card reader drivers for Bootcamp, because it works perfectly on the Mac side and also works perfectly when I use an external card reader in Bootcamp.

I've got Parallels installed to use Bootcamp without restarting, I don't know if this is affecting it... I've tried uninstalling the "Broadcom SD Host Controller" and removing drivers and reinstalling, but nothing's changed...

Just to be clear, I'm in Windows directly, not through Parallels...

Things I've tried

Reinstalling "Broadcom SD Host Controller"
Reinstalling WindowsSupport drivers
Reinstalling Windows entirely
Formatting cards as exFAT in Mac

Try to isolate the problem as much as possible first.

Boot straight into windows (not thru parallels) and test the cards to see if they work. If they don't, the problem is with the driver inside w7. If they do work then the problem might be in the way parallels shares the hardware access with W7.

When using parallels to access the hardware you are not using the actual drivers as you don't have access to the actual hardware, just a parallel's emulation of the hardware and an interface to it in osx.

If the problem persists in W7 reinstall the windows support files as it should work (mine works with SDXC perfectly), but this WONT fix the paralles problem.

As I said the parallels problem is completely separated and much harder as you can't switch drivers. But try this: http://lifehacker.com/368819/access-usb-drives-in-parallels-and-your-mac-simultaneously

ie: add /Volumes as a shared folder (its where OSX mounts HD/USB/SD/DVD drives)


Microsoft Remote Desktop Server for OS X Is there any solution that would allow ke to run a Terminal Services or RDP server on my Mac?

I'd like to be able to access my Mac via Microsoft's Remote Desktop application
I am aware of Screen Sharing fir OS X

Also, if there is no specific way to do this, is there any way to use the linux xrdp package on OS X?

On this site are listed 5 possible programs to do this, as native this isn't possible.

Explained are:

TeamViewer
LogMeIn (free)
Real VNC
Vine Server
Remote Management

Note, LogMeIn does not have a free version anymore.


Yet another headphone stuck in retina macbook pro question as the title states, my headphone jack is useless because a headphone cable broke off in the jack. I can't get audio through the speakers because the computer thinks there're headphones plugged in. I had read and thought that I couldn't redirect audio because it was a hardware issue. But, when I installed Windows 7 through bootcamp, I was getting audio through the speakers. So, I know now that it isn't a hardware issue, but a software issue in OSX.

If one were to solve this via software (hack, script, etc) how do you think one would go about doing this?

Last time I took in my computer to the Apple store to try and get the bit of cable out of the jack, they couldn't and recommended that I use an adhesive.

Thanks for your help

Latest version retina macbook pro 15" (mid or late 2012) running OSX 10.8.4

Do not know about software but assume you would like to use your Headphone eventualy.

Removing broken Headset pin

  The gentle methods:

Use instant glue at the end of Q-tip shaft.

The disadvantage, depending how deep you have to go in glue can stick and cover the contacts in the socket so it wont work afterward.

  The "Man" methods:

Use Drill bits (broken screw) removal tools, or something like it.
Yes you will be drilling :)

The disadvantage: You are Drilling !

  The profession methods:

Disassemble you computer and access the headphone jack from inside>this is the best method.

The disadvantage: Know-how + Time + Cost! ?


Pinning desktops to monitors in 10.9 Is there a way to pin desktops to monitors like you can pin app windows to desktops?

Specifically my problem is I use a macbook and plug and unplug my external monitor a few times a day. Rearranging my desktops and full-screen apps every time is a pain in the rear end and so I hope there's a setting for that that I just can't find.

There was a way to do this a few years ago. I think it was on SL with some third party software, but sadly I can't remember what it was called. Could be discontinued though...

Edit: I remembered: Put the app to the desktop where you want to have it. Right click on dock icon, go to options and select the space you want to assign the app to.


Is there any way to view full podcast title on my iPhone running iOS 4? Most of the time the podcast title is long and it is truncated with dots at the end.
I think since iPhone OS 3.?, title font size has gotten smaller so I can see more of the title.
However, I still can't view the full title.

Is there any way to view full podcast title?

I'm on iOS 4.

There is a way, Though a bit strange.

If you choose to delete the podcast/file, you will get a Confirmation dialog with Delete/Cancel option.

Slide with your finger horizontal
over the file and it will give you
an option to Delete the file.
Choose Delete to show the second Confirmation dialog. There, you will be able to view the full name of the Podcast.

Be CAREFUL not to choose Delete or you will loose the file. And also the full name of the podcast.


Keyboard Not Working in Bootcamp I just installed Bootcamp and Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro (13 inch, 2010), and booted into the OS. The keyboard and mouse worked fine, but because there were no drivers, things like multitouch and the two-finger mouse click didn't work - this is as expected.

I went back into OS X Lion and downloaded the Windows Support package to my thumb drive, rebooted, and installed the driver package and the Boot Camp Control Panel. After I had restarted, my keyboard wasn't working.

The weird thing is, the F-keys do work and function correctly (brightness, volume, etc). If I change those keys to perform the F-key functions in the control panel (ie. require holding Fn+F1 to change brightness), the F-keys work correctly.

Any of the keys below the F-key row do not work at all. They don't type anything, no matter what program I am in. The Caps Lock key does light up when I toggle it on and off.

I've tried going into the Device Manager and uninstalling the Keyboard driver and then scanning for hardware changes (which reinstalls the Apple Keyboard driver), I've uninstalled and deleted the driver (and then reinstalled it from the package in the WindowsSupport folder), and nothing is working. The keyboard appears as the Apple Keyboard in the device manager. The trackpad and everything works fine as well.

I checked the Language settings and it is set to United States (English).

Is there anything else I can try to get the keyboard working?

Windows 7 64bit (not SP1, yet)
MacBook Pro 13 inch 2010
8 GB RAM
250gb HDD, with 55gb partitioned for Windows

OS X Lion (10.7.3) is installed as well.

Before you do any of the steps mentioned below the line-break, check the bootcamp control panel first!!!

When in Windows, after everything is installed and done, do the following:

Click 'Start ' (the windows logo-button in the bottom left corner)
Type 'bootcamp'
Open the bootcamp control panel. It will ask for administrator privileges, say 'yes' or 'ok' or whatever
Configure the necessary settings for your startup disk, remote, keyboard and trackpad - these are the four tabs you should expect to see when the bootcamp control panel opens.

Your keyboard and trackpad should work (almost) perfectly. If not, read the answer that follows.

When you installed Windows the specific bootcamp drivers should have been installed automatically from your Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) DVD or 10.7 (Lion) DMG in the process. I would recommend trying to:

Remove/Delete the drivers in Windows Device Manager
Insert or mount the OSX DVD or DMG
Restart your system (booting into Windows).

The correct bootcamp drivers should then be installed automatically from the OSX DVD. If the drivers were not installed, browse for them on the OSX DVD.

If all else fails you can always try re-installing Windows, and from there should be able to determine during the process if you have keyboard functionality.

★ The key to having the correct drivers working in bootcamp is installing them specifically from the OSX DVD or DMG.

The Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7 Boot Camp Software includes these Mac drivers for Windows:

Apple Bluetooth
Apple Keyboard Support
Apple Remote Driver
Apple Trackpad
Atheros 802.11 Wireless
ATI Graphics
Boot Camp control panel for Microsoft Windows
Boot Camp System Task Notification item (System Tray)
Broadcom Wireless
Intel Chipset Software
Intel Integrated Graphics
iSight Camera
Marvel Yukon Ethernet
nVidia Graphics
Cirrus Logic Audio
Realtek Audio
SigmaTel Audio
Startup Disk control panel for Microsoft Windows

Boot Camp 4.0, OS X Lion: Frequently asked questions
Boot Camp 3.0, Mac OS X 10.6: Frequently asked questions


Adding 'OSX Server Account' from outside I've set up an OS X Server, and I'm now trying to make its services available from outside my local network. From inside the LAN, the iCal service works fine when I add an 'OS X Server Account' via 'Internet Accounts' in System Preferences.

When I attempt to connect from the outside, it tells me it is Unable to verify user credentials. The server is behind a firewall, so I've forwarded numerous ports in an attempt to get it to work. Initially I only added 8008 and 8443, as they are used for the iCal services, but as that did not work I attempted to forward other ports that might be relevant (based on their description in this list). This has not let me to any success, however.

What ports do I need to forward for the OS X Server Accounts to be available? The server is running Open Directory, so I'm assuming that the services rely on Kerberos for authentication? Is Bonjour relevant for this scenario, since I already know the IP I'll be connecting to?

Note: I'm not talking about Network Accounts, and have no intentions of logging in to network accounts remotely.

This is a partial answer, but it perhaps contains valuable information to whoever is reading this.

As I was able to add an 'Internet account' from inside the LAN, I decided to set Wireshark to work and try to figure out the port that way. I found out that the initial authentication and selection of services is done via port 443.

After forwarding port 443, I was able to add the internet account from outside the network. This pretty much answers the question, but does not resolve the issue for the full 100% yet, so I figured I'd still keep this open for a bit.

At this point I'm stuck at creating an agenda in the iCal account, however, running into a rather generic error message:

This is a work in progress, and any pointers on that error are appreciated.

EDIT: Further network sniffing let to no more information. Once logged in, the rest of the traffic is conducted over port 8443, which is duly forwarded. However, it still won't work outside the network. The fact that it does not work via VPN as well strikes me as odd, and makes me suspect a different issue than the TCP layer.


Option/speed Q's about best configs to upgrade early 2008 Mac Pro 8-core to SSD I'm a first-timer on here.

I too have an early 2008 MacPro 8-core 2.8ghz with 16gbRam and stock Radeon 2600 Vcard. It's fairly well configured, but I'm sure that can improve response for a reasonable purchase, which bring me to this inquiry.

The idea of using a 1tb SSD drive as a Boot drive to boost my Mac's overall response is exciting because this thing is a dog, even on Yosemite. What I don't know is if that will speed things up in general (and hopefully Photoshop) better than maxing my RAM.

My deeper Question here is which option would get me the most speed for the $ by:
1. maxing Ram to 32gb for ~$450
2. swap current SATA3 WD Caviar boot drive for an SSD (about same $)
3. add an SSD to my second Optical bay (about same $)
4. add an SSD to my second fast PCIe slot? (possibly more $$ than it's worth?)

I currently work a lot on 400mb+ Photoshop files. I keep the files on an internal 7200rpm SATA2 RAID-0, and use a 10,000rpm SATA3 disc as a scratch space.

Do you think I would see a stronger performance gain not only in finder ops, but also in Photoshop with the SSD vs double the RAM? Hard to know where my response time bottlenecks are in this box.
Would an SSD on a fast-lane PCIcard be better than on native internal bus to drive bays?

Any wisdom on options I've not considered would be deeply appreciated as I'm trying to save this box as I don't have the funds to buy a cylinder MPro or fast iMac.

My setup stats:

Running Yosemite, + background apps like Sophos, Fonts mgmt app, TimeMachine, DropBox, etc.
RAM: All slots used with 2gb Apple sticks.
Boot drive: 1tb 7.2k rpm WD Caviar SATA3/64cache containing only OS system, iTunes, etc. Only half space used. Kept optimized with DiskWarrior.
Internal 2tb 7.2k rpm Seagate Barracuda SATA2 Raid-0 for the files. Kept less than 70% full and regularly optimized.
150gb 10k rpm WD Velociraptor SATA3 as a dedicated scratch disk for PS.

thank you!  ~ dave

Maxing out RAM can only situationally improve your performance. If your computer isn't ever using a ton of swap space (less than a gig), adding more RAM isn't likely to help much. The SSD will almost certainly improve the performance of your computer. Yosemite really is designed for SSDs. It seems to do a ton more arbitrary reads/writes to disk during the course of its operation than earlier versions did, so it will be dog-slow on a HDD.

As for the SSD on PCI, that is definitely the better solution. SATA 2 (which the 2008 Mac Pro comes with) is far too slow for the faster SSDs. There's little point in hooking up a modern SSD to that. PCI should be able to handle it.