Is there a complete list of all hidden keyboard shortcuts in OSX? I keep discovering keyboard shortcuts that are not listed anywhere under preferences. For example, I discovered here that ⌥ ALT⌘ CmdE will eject all partitions on a disk when a partition is selected. How the heck do people find these shortcuts, and where can I find more?

Not sure if this is a complete list, but this is a pretty good start from Apple:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236

Here is another link to an image of the shortcuts:

http://dashkards.com/img/dashkard-macosx-general.png


Safari and Chromium on Mac get input language from other apps In my system, two 'input sources' (languages) are enabled, and I use different languages in different 'documents' (apps).

I have Chromium or Safari open (a Webkit browser, that is to say) with English language selected for input. Then I switch to (for example) Skype where I use Russian. And when I switch back to the browser, it has Russian language selected as the current input language—the browser picks the language from another app.

This happens only when I switch to the web page itself. If I click in the address bar instead (from Skype or from the browser), the language will switch to English. And if I then put focus in the page again, it will still be English (i.e. the address bar acts as another 'document').

So, every time I switch to the browser to type something, I have to make sure I change the language to the proper one first. Languages seem to work fine in other respects across the system (though I recall having the same issue in the Terminal before but it disappeared, possibly with an update).

What could cause this behavior? Is there a solution? Is it a known issue?

Versions, for the record:

  OSX 10.8.5 (build 12F37)
  Chromium 30.0.1599.101 (227552) from FreeSMUG
  Safari 6.0.5 (8536.30.1)

All browser extensions are turned off, no Flash in the open pages (because this happens even on the 'new tab' page).
The issue is not new, I had it since 10.7.

Welp, since different input sources for different documents are no longer in OS X as of 10.9, I don't have the problem anymore.

Now I use Punto Switcher to switch the language for different applications, and it does that fine (although it seems to hang language switching altogether once in a while).


Is it possible to recover a formatted macOS partition Backstory: After I went to the Apple Store today, the drive in my Mac was wiped by an employee as I was supposed to have it replaced. The replacement unit had an issue though, so they gave me my old machine back with the SSD already reset to factory.

As the employee probably just used the DiskUtil UI to wipe the drive, I was wondering if there was any way for me to get my data back by rebuilding the HFS volume tables back to their previous state for instance. Using a backup would take days to get everything back and I want to try the other options before restoring a backup that would corrupt the data and prevent any further recovery.

Small issue: I only have a Sierra Recovery USB stick, so I can only use the terminal with whatever is already installed, like gpt, diskutil or pdisk. TestDisk for instance doesn’t work as it seems like it’s lacking some dependencies in this recovery environment.

There are several professional, commercial data recovery options.

One is DiskWarrior, as an external boot media, which can recover corrupted file systems. However, as your file system was completely wiped, you will need to do block-by-block scanning of the raw data.

DataRescue is the tool of choice here. Starting it from a different Mac, connect your current machine via FireWire or Thunderbolt in target disk mode (start the current machine while pressing and holding the t key). It will show up as an external drive on the other Mac. Select the drive as source in DataRescue and run a full scan. This will take hours. After it finishes, you can choose which of the reconstructed files should be saved to a new location.

Direct manipulation on-disk is not possible, especially not now that a new OS appears to have been already installed. Without the partition table and metadata information, data is just on the disk but in an unusable way. That's why modern filesystems save the metadata information to several locations on the disk, so it is more likely to be recoverable even when the sector containing the superblock is damaged. But wiping the information manually wouldn't even help there.

So your best bet is reconstructing files with DataRescue. You could also ask your cloud backup provider to send you your data on disk. It will be quite expensive but if the data is important, just do it and consider it a hard-learned lesson for the future.


How do I enable Handwrite on the Google Search app for iOS? I figured how to enable the Google Handwrite feature from Safari (Browse to google.com/preferences. and enable handwrite), but cant seem to find a way to do the same in the Google Search App for iOS.

Anybody been able to get around this?

I'm not completely sure, but I think that's just a feature of Google's mobile site. I don't know that there's a way to enable it in the Google Search App. Perhaps they will add this feature down the road. I'll edit my answer if I find it is possible.


Where does Messages.app store its "Play sound effects" setting? I'm trying to write a script to configure the system and various apps to my liking, mostly via defaults write. I got stuck with Messages' Play sound effects setting (under General). I think this setting might be new in Mavericks.

I couldn't find it in any of the *iChat*.plist files under ~/Library/Preferences, so I watched the whole directory for changes with FS events, and it doesn't seem like that setting is affecting any of the files in that directory.

Any ideas about other locations where Messages.app could be storing this setting?

Since Messages.app is a sandboxed app, the preferences would be under ~/Library/Containers/:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.plist

or look through ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.*iChat*/.


ios defaulting to music in control centre I was wondering if there was a way to prevent the control centre from defaulting to music.

I listen to a lot of podcasts and I’ve tried various apps including Apple Podcasts to see if the following problem can be remedied but nothing works.

I often find that after pausing a podcast I return to the control centre and it has defaulted to music when I go to tap play. This can happen after as little as half an hour, sometimes it can be several hours, sometimes it doesn’t happen at all no matter how long it has been left.

To be clear, the apps are not crashing, they are still open in the background most often.

Use Siri Shortcuts. One built-in command is to say "Podcasts" and Siri will resume media playback in the Podcasts app. If you want more specific podcast shortcuts, look into Overcast.


Start Quicktime Player recording while in Split View mode I have two apps side by side in Split View mode and would like to record that. Is there a way to start a QuickTime Player recording while being in Split View mode with two apps ?

Make it a on a new desktop, and later trim it.

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/quicktime-player/qtpf2115f6fd/mac

If it is only screen, not audio, you can even use command+shift+5 to record the screen in most circumstances.


Find all hidden ".idea" folders in system I am using PHPStorm 8 for programming. PHPStorm automatically creates a hidden folder called ".idea", where all project-specifiy settings are stored.

How am I able to find all these ".idea" folders in the entire system?

(I like to find and remove all of these folder)

Thanks!

You can do it from Terminal.app. Navigate to the topmost directory with:

cd /

Then type this command:

find . -name ".idea" -exec rm -r {} \;

This will remove all .idea directories which are owned by You (more specificaly You have the rights to delete them). If You want to delete all of them, add sudo in front of this command.

NOTE: calling sudo without knowing what You are doing can be dangerous.


How do I restore my iPhone from an iCloud backup? I just installed iOS 5 on my iPhone 4 several days ago, and I backed it up to iCloud. After performing a sync with my PC, it deleted a bunch of apps. I'd like to restore these from the iCloud backup.

I tried searching Apple's site and Google to see how to restore from a backup, but all the examples are for newly activated phones, not existing phones. I couldn't find any options relevant to this in the settings app.

I tried pressing "Restore" in iTunes, which deleted all the data on the iPhone. When it started up again, it took me through some basic configuration steps, but none of the steps asked me if I want to restore the phone from an iCloud backup. The only thing close to this was when it asked me if I want to backup to iCloud or my PC. I chose iCloud.

How can I force my iPhone to download all the data that was backed up to iCloud?

Update: according to iCloud: Backup and restore overview, it says that I need to go through the setup assistant and choose to restore from iCloud. The problem is that the setup it took me through was the standard iOS 5 setup which just asks you to enable/disable services such as location and iCloud backup. It doesn't seem to be the same setup assistant that appears on brand new phones. So the question is how to force the setup assistant to show on a non-new phone.

When you restored your phone, did you do the configuration steps in iTunes or on the iPhone itself? Try restoring again, and follow the steps on the iPhone, not in iTunes. I've seen some reports claiming that iCloud restores can only be started from the device itself.


Re-image Macs in bulk and administer them I've been called in to deal with the IT infrastructure of a small non-profit organisation that is going through a restructure. They have 6+ Mac Minis, an iMac, a MacBook, a MacBook Pro and a Mac server (not a Mac Pro, a silver desktop box).

I'm presented with the need to take backups of hard drive content, and then re-image them with 10.8, reinstalling Microsoft Office 2011.

With 10+ computers, downloading the OEM OS version 10+ times via Recovery, and then updating seems slow and pointless.

How can I re-image all these Macs in a sane way? Coming from a Linux background, this all seems overly complicated.

Bonus points if someone can point me to some free software that will help me administer all of these. I watched Google's talk on the matter, but there didn't seem to be anything out of the box.

Nice thing about the Mac OS is it can be cloned, even while it is running.

What you want to do is create a bootable disk exactly as you want everything to be. Install applications as desired, create one user (admin) that you will use for maintenance. If you are using Open Directory it's a bit more involved but not much.

With only a dozen or so machines you can do them manually in under a day.

The process I would use is:

Create the working image on what will be your computer. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy it, file mode, to external drive A. Partition drive A to be only a hundred megabytes or so larger than the data (important for next step)
Attach the hardware to your desktop in target disk mode (hold T on startup - it now behaves like an external firewire case. Yes, you need a firewire cable. No, doesn't work with USB.)
Copy (finder drag works fine) computer -> Users -> theirName to Large External Drive B
Go back to Carbon Copy Cloner. Source disk: Drive A. Destination: other computer in target mode. Copy type: Block (you may need to enable this mode in preferences. Wait. Repeat from step 2 as needed.

The first clone-to-external in file mode means that everything is linearized and doesn't include things like /tmp/ and /swap/. The second clone in block mode is  lot faster and doesn't have the write-amplification issues if the destination is an SSD.


What means SecTaskLoadEntlitlements failed error=22 I'm trying to run a game I bought from Steam: Dread Out. It starts the main screen, options, etc. but when I'll play the first level, it does not load the level. The loading screen stays forever, with music and tips. The app seams to be running but no content is loading and no error is dispatched. I did put a flag in the console and got the messages while running the app:

06/05/16 22:44:01,529 launchservicesd[83]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22
06/05/16 22:44:01,534 launchservicesd[83]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22
06/05/16 22:44:01,646 appleeventsd[56]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22
06/05/16 22:44:01,709 dreadout[31113]: WARNING: The Gestalt selector gestaltSystemVersion is returning 10.9.4 instead of 10.11.4. This is not a bug in Gestalt -- it is a documented limitation. Use NSProcessInfo's operatingSystemVersion property to get correct system version number.
Call location:
06/05/16 22:44:01,710 dreadout[31113]: 0   CarbonCore                          0x00007fff8f1466df ___Gestalt_SystemVersion_block_invoke + 113
06/05/16 22:44:01,710 dreadout[31113]: 1   libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff969bc40b _dispatch_client_callout + 8
06/05/16 22:44:01,710 dreadout[31113]: 2   libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff969bc303 dispatch_once_f + 67
06/05/16 22:44:01,710 dreadout[31113]: 3   CarbonCore                          0x00007fff8f0d2fbc _Gestalt_SystemVersion + 987
06/05/16 22:44:01,710 dreadout[31113]: 4   CarbonCore                          0x00007fff8f0d27d0 Gestalt + 139
06/05/16 22:44:01,710 dreadout[31113]: 5   dreadout                            0x000000010071d70c _ZN12GraphicsCaps6InitGLEv + 5468
06/05/16 22:44:01,710 dreadout[31113]: 6   dreadout                            0x00000001007137d0 _Z17CreateGLGfxDevicev + 64
06/05/16 22:44:01,718 coreaudiod[167]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22
06/05/16 22:44:02,957 WindowServer[10829]: disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "dreadout" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.
06/05/16 22:44:08,511 WindowServer[10829]: common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "dreadout" after 6.55 seconds [0.15fps] (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds [1.00fps])
06/05/16 22:44:08,514 launchservicesd[83]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22
06/05/16 22:44:08,514 launchservicesd[83]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22
06/05/16 22:44:09,048 launchservicesd[83]: SecTaskLoadEntitlements failed error=22
06/05/16 22:44:45,793 WindowServer[10829]: MPAccessSurfaceForDisplayDevice: Set up page flip mode on display 0x042731c0 device: 0x7fbb615119b0  isBackBuffered: 1 numComp: 3 numDisp: 3

There is this "SecTaskLoadEntitlements" all over, might be the source of failure. Do you know what it means?

Edit: Mac OS X 10.11.4

You need a bit of introduction to understand what SecTaskLoadEntitlements really is/does:

An application (.app) in OS X is really a folder containing a number of files, including the actual program, resources (graphics, sounds, etc) as well as system files such as plist files.

One of these plist files contains a descriptions of the application's entitlements. An entitlement is either that the application "can do" a certain thing, or that it has permission to do a certain thing.

Examples on OS X would be for an app to have the permission to get read-only access to your Music folder, or that it is allowed to interact with Bluetooth devices, record from your microphone, etc.

Application on the OS X App Store are required to use entitlements in so that that they're required to be sandboxed, which is an entitlement in itself.

In order to make sure that entitlements cannot be changed or unrightfully gained, the entitlements are "signed". This means that the developer of the application uses a specific cryptographic key to "sign" the entitlements.

OS X checks the signature when loading in new applications, and only if it is signed correctly will it load the entitlements and apply them to the program.

Your error message means that the "launchd" program tried to load in the entitlements for an application, but it failed with error number 22. The number 22 means that an invalid argument (parameter) was given.

This completes the explanation of what SecTaskLoadEntitlements is.

To answer your main question you need to know what launchd is. Launchd in general is the first program started when you boot OS X - it has process identifier number 1. Its job is to start all the other programs necessary for booting your computer. It can also start programs based on time and events, such as for example hardware changes.

Therefore the log messages you see are not necessarily linked to the problem you're having. Launchd is running continually no matter if you're playing the game or not. There is no indication that the log messages relate to your game as per the information you have given. It is thus unlikely that the problem with your game has anything to do with SecTaskLoadEntitlements.

I would write a message to the Dread Out support to ask for a fix.


Want to use multiple email addresses for one contact I am updating my address book on my MacBook, and filling in all the information on the cards for each contact. My contacts have both work and home email accounts listed under their name. I'd like to ensure that both are copied when I send out a mailer to them. Is there an option that will activate all emails on their card or only the one in first position?

It seems like you would need to enter each of the email one at a time. For contact NAME with EMAIL1, EMAIL2 and EMAIL3, you can type NAME in the to: line and Mail will give you the options to choose which email.

For all three you will need to type NAME three times. Although on the to: line it will show NAME three times, if you click on the little arrow next to the name it will show you which email each name refers to. Good luck.


Mac Mini powerful enough to play any 1080p movie? I have a Mac Mini (Mid 2011) with 2,3 GHz Intel Core i5 8 GB RAM with SSD, that I use to watch videos. The machine is great in all respects, except if I play 1080p encoded with H265 or VP9, the fan goes to full speed (and CPU tops around 100%). 1080p at H264 plays fine without fan noise.

What is the minimum upgrade that will let me play any current 1080p file without audible fan noise? I realise the problem is caused by a slow CPU / lack of GPU support, which means replacing the entire unit, which I am willing to do. So which (second hand) Mac Mini is strong enough for this?

You won't do that with a Mac Mini. The latest Mac Mini uses a Haswell cpu (core gen4) which provides acceleration for H.264/AVC 8-bit, VC-1, MPEG2 and JPEG.

Additionally:

H.265 = HEVC = MPEG-H Part 2 = standard

x265 = encoder (and not the only one which exist).


How can I script inverting screen colors? And, more generally, how can I change accessibility settings via the command line?

Worth pointing out that I'm pretty comfortable with bash already- coming from a systems administration / *nix background- but I just don't know which files to edit or tools to use.

To clarify, I am not asking this question, the resolution of which modifies a setting under Security and Privacy. What I want to do is change a setting directly under Accessibility. I'll grant the title of that question is misleadingly similar, but the content is entirely divorced from my intent.

If it's okay to give Terminal.app permanent access to Accessibility:

Open System Preferences
Go to Security & Privacy section
In Privacy tab, click on the lock in bottom left and enter your password to enable editing
Select Accessibility from left side list and then check Terminal checkbox in right side list (if there is no Terminal checkbox here you might run step 5 once and then back to this step)
Open Terminal and run this line (it uses AppleScript):

 osascript -e "tell application \"System Preferences\"" -e "activate" -e "reveal anchor \"Seeing_Display\" of pane id \"com.apple.preference.universalaccess\"" -e "tell application \"System Events\" to tell process \"System Preferences\"" -e "click the checkbox \"Invert colors\" of window \"Accessibility\"" -e "end tell" -e "quit" -e "end tell"

repeating previous steps for the future is not needed.

If it's not okay to give direct access:

Open System Preferences
Go to Keyboard section
In Shortcuts tab, Select Accessibility from left side list and then check Invert colors in right side list (Default shortcut is ctrl+alt+cmd+8).
Open Terminal and run this line (it uses AppleScript):

 osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\"" -e "key code 28 using {control down, option down, command down}" -e "end tell"

repeating previous steps for the future is not needed.

You can write those codes in external script files and run with osascript invertColors.scpt


How to change the date created and date modified of a note in Notes.app? I'm trying to merge all of my text-based notes into Notes.app. My notes are all over the place: some in text files, some in email drafts, etc. I can of course just copy and paste the text of such notes into Notes.app, but then their date created and date modified will be as of the time I copy and paste them in, rather than when I actually made them or modified them, and I'd like to retain the original date data.

I don't believe there is a way to change this directly in Notes.app, but is there a way to change the dates in the files created by Notes.app? If so, how?

I was trying to do the same thing--have original dates for notes that I was moving off my old Samsung phone onto my Mac (which syncs with the iPhone I now use). Both programs display one date--either the created or last modified date.

The solution I used: I sent all Samsung memos to my computer (I actually put them in Notes.app, but it doesn't matter where you have them on the computer). Then, what I did is I turned off the Wifi (maybe not necessary?) and went into "Settings" > "Date & Time", unlocked the lock at the bottom and unchecked "Set date and time automatically". Then, I reset the date to the date I wanted displayed on the note in Notes.app, clicked "Save" and I made a new note, copying what I had already imported into the computer/Notes.app. It created the note with exactly the date I wanted. :) I repeated the process for the rest of the notes. At the end, I rechecked "Set date and time automatically" and restarted the Wifi.

A solution that works, both clunky and elegant, depending on how you look at it. I am going to do the same for importing my voice memos into iTunes to sync correctly with Voice Memos on my iPhone.


iTunes Connect payment made on a closed account My iTunes connect is linked to an old account that closed on September 4 or 5, so I have no more access to it to check if the payment has been made on it.

I changed bank so I updated my banking infos in iTunes Connect in order to receive the next payments on my new banking account and received a mail on August 30, 2017 that saying my banking infos has been processed. But when I go to the Payments and Financial reports part in iTunes Connect for July, it is marked that the payment was made on September 7 on my old account, not the new one.

Will I receive an email from Apple saying that my payment has been refused and reported on the next month or something like that, or should I contact my old bank ?

If the charge was declined by your old bank, you'll get a message stating that there was a billing issue and it will ask you to update your billing info to correct the issue.

Theres more info and and an explanation on how to resolve the billing issue at
this page.

If you didn't receive a message like that, I would suggest checking your current account to see if that charge appeared on it. If not I would recommend contacting Apple or your old bank.


Stop unknown devices trying to connect to Apple TV I have a 4th generation Apple TV and I live in an apartment block, so I have very nearby neighbours.

While I was watching a video, it was interrupted by the 4 digit confirmation screen of a new connection (Ryan's iPhone) flashing up.

I don't know Ryan, and I don't appreciate him interrupting my viewing.

I've checked my Wi-Fi router's status and it indicates that Ryan's iPhone is not connected to my WLAN. I presume that this was an attempt to connect via Bluetooth.

How do I prevent this from happening again and only allow connections from previously authorised devices?

You can give AirPlay a password in the settings on your Apple TV. Only with this password you can connect.

Open Settings
AirPlay
Change 'Security' to Password
Turn off 'Require Device Verification'


Is it possible to switch off the trackpad in OS X with a keyboard shortcut I'm using OS X almost entirely using the keyboard, and it helps to have the trackpad disabled most of the time. But I'd also like to be able to enable it every so often for individual tasks - is it possible to switch it off and on with a keyboard shortcut?

No way right now as far as I'm aware. I'd like to see an option to disable the trackpad while typing, for a user-selected number of ms after a keystroke.  That would solve the most irritating thing about the macbook for me.


Why are Ctrl+a and Ctrl+f broken in Snow Leopard? In most text areas, ctrl-a and ctrl-f used to move my cursor to the beginning/end of the line, but now I get "^A" printed to terminal, and nothing happens in other input areas.

Any ideas what happened?

It was my bash key bindings - I had "set -o vi" in .bashrc.


Which would be better for FCP and Pro Tools? Mac Mini 2.3GHz i7Quad or iMac 2.9GHz i5 Quad? I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question.  I've been a post production recording engineer and sound editor for 20 years, but for the last 4 I've been on disability because of arthritis and Crohn's Disease and so I haven't been keeping up on the technology.  I'd like to start trying to at least do a bit of freelance work but my MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo just doesn't have the muscle any more.

Keeping in mind that cost is absolutely a consideration, I'm looking at a Mac Mini 2.3GHz i7 Quad Core 4GB RAM (or 2.5GHz i5 Dual Core 8GB RAM) and a 24" Dell IPS HD monitor or an iMac 2.7GHz i5 Quad Core 8GB RAM 21.5".  I know both monitors would be the same resolution and the iMac monitor would probably look better, but I don't know which computer is better suited to my current needs.  At least for now I'd be running Pro Tools 8 and FCP Studio.  I know I'll have to learn FCPX at some point...but one thing at a time.  I don't need to have both programs open at the same time, so multi-tasking isn't a big consideration.  For the most part, data would be on external USB 3 drives.  But a couple of other questions.  Would I need to add RAM to the Mini?  Will the Mini support an IPS monitor and ALSO an HDMI monitor as a preview screen?  How much difference is Dual Core vs. Quad Core? I could get the 2.5GHz Dual Core Mini for only $600, and then add the extra RAM.

I'm one of those rabid Apple lovers so I'd obviously prefer the iMac, but I can't spend an extra couple of hundred dollars just because it'll look better on my desk.  However LONGEVITY is as big a concern as cost.  I'm likely going to need this computer to do the job for quite a while!  So I know that for now the software I'm using doesn't really make use of multiple cores, but newer software will right?  Other than security, is there a big difference between the i5 and i7?  Also, I don't need to start tomorrow, so what is the rumour mill saying about new release dates?  Will new iMacs have Retina displays?  I've checked a bunch of rumour sites but nobody has any RELIABLE information.

I'm sorry, I know it's a very loooong question and it seems like I've done no research on my own.  I have done some, but the answers vary greatly.  So any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.  If I can spend $900 dollars instead of $1300 I can eat next month (that's a joke - it's not THAT bad).  But I don't want to regret the purchase a year from now!

Actually, the most important hardware component in video rendering is videocard (GPU).

iMac has discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M adapter with dedicated memory, while Mac Mini has integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 card. The difference is jaw-dropping. Some benchmarks to prove this:

3DMark 11: 2320 points in 650M, only 604 points in HD 4000.
3DMark 11 (GPU): 2112 points in 650M, only 524 points in HD 4000.
3DMark 06: 13453 points in 650M, only 4410 points in HD 4000.

I believe, you got the point. HD 4000 is a bit less powerful than NVIDIA 610M. Quad-core processor will not matter when integrated graphics will render every frame for 2 seconds.

  Geekbench is more about CPU, than GPU. Video editing is more about
  GPU, than CPU.

8 Gb of RAM is enough for working with 4K@24fps projects.

This fall new Macs will be released with better hardware and the new OS X Mavericks will roll out with performance (CPU and memory) improvements (more free RAM for FCPX).

So I advice you to wait for a while with buying new Mac. Get better.


How to uninstall "Microsoft AU Daemon” from my macOS machine? How do I completely remove "Microsoft AU Daemon” from my macOS machine?

I don't want to disable it. I want to remove it completely from my computer.

First find it in Terminal with

mdfind -name "application name"

once you have it (copy its location and now kill it with

sudo rm -rif paste

there is no undo so be precise what and where are you deleting


2017 MacBook Pro 13" with Touchbar (USB-C) can't connect to LED Cinema Display 27" (Mini DisplayPort) I purchased a new 2017 MacBook Pro 13" w/ Touchbar (updated in June) from my local Apple Store. I want to connect my 2010 LED Cinema Display 27" which uses a Mini DisplayPort connection. The clerk at the Apple Store wrongfully sold me the Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter, which did not work. I later confirmed on Apple's support site that it does not work for this use.

I then purchased an AllSmartLife "USB C Type to Mini DisplayPort Adapter" from Amazon, which had many reviews from people having successfully made the connection I am trying to make. I received the adapter, plugged it in and... nothing. I looked back realized none of the reviews specified they had a 2017 MBP.

Does anyone have this exact setup with a successful connection? If so, which adapters did you use?

I have the exact same problem and after much search, came to this solution:

Dual-Link DIV to DisplayPort using Apple's connector
DisplayPort to USB-C using this connector Which is a  USB-C to Mini-DisplayPort and Charging Port Adapter {Amazon.com}

Keep in mind that the Cinema display also needs a USB-A connection (I'm guessing to provide power to some internal circuit for link negotiation?), so you'll need a separate adapter from USB-C to USB-A.

I'm also an amateur photographer and shoots with a Canon 5DsR, editing my photos using an AdobeRGB LG 4K display (10-bit color to support AdobeRGB). I've also tested the DisplayPort adapter on this display and it works flawlessly.

On a side note - reason why you'll need a separate adapter for USB-A instead of having the USB-A built-in to the DisplayPort adapter is that only way for USB-C to support DisplayPort data-rate is using Display Protocol, which turns a bi-directional USB connection (10Gbit/direction) to a uni-directional output port (20Gbit total). If you work out the math: 3840 * 2160 * 10-bit color per channel * 3 color channels (RGB) * 60 Hz = 15Gbit/s.


iPhone iOS 10 compatible with Mac OS X 10.7.5? After upgrading my iPhone 6 to iOS 10, iTunes and iPhoto on my computer (mac OS X version 10.7.5) will no longer sync with the phone - any solutions around this? My mac is not capable of  moving to newer operating system.

iOS 10 requires iTunes 12.5.1 if you're on a Mac. However, the last version of iTunes to support macOS X Lion is 12.2.2.25, so I'm guessing that's your problem.

If you still need to be able to transfer media such as photos and music between your Mac and your iPhone 6, you can opt to use third party software. One example is iExplorer which happens to still support OS X 10.7 and iTunes 10.

Another possibility, depending on your actual model of Mac, is to install newer versions of macOS via alternative methods. If you want to pursue this, please post another question providing full details of your Mac hardware (including model, RAM, etc).


macbook pro absurdly small battery life My Macbook Pro lasts me about 1.5 to 2 hours max on a single charge. This feels ridiculously low.

What can I do to increase the battery life on Macbook Pro?

Battery Information:

  Model Information:
  Manufacturer: SMP
  Pack Lot Code:    0000
  PCB Lot Code: 0000
  Firmware Version: 0201
  Hardware Revision:    000a
  Cell Revision:    0157
  Charge Information:
  Charge remaining (mAh):   6079
  Fully charged:    No
  Charging: Yes
  Full charge capacity (mAh):   6930
  Health Information:
  Cycle count:  3
  Condition:    Normal
  Battery Installed:    Yes
  Amperage (mA):    2139
  Voltage (mV): 12492

Make sure there are no processes hogging your CPU (this eats battery).

Open Activity Monitor from /Applications/Utilities.
Set the Show menu at the top right to All Processes
Click the %CPU column head so the triangle faces down.
Which processes are at the top? How much are they using?

This may reveal what's going on.

Also, you can check the health of your battery to make sure it's not a hardware problem.
Download the free coconutBattery app and see what it has to say about your batter's capacity.


How can I change a scripted ftp upload to lftp for High Sierra? I am very new to coding/scripting..

I have a noob question I guess:

I have this script to upload and delete files on my remote host:

#!/bin/bash

echo Starting Website upload ...
echo This may take some time depending on your internet connection ...
echo Waiting for remote connnection ...

/usr/bin/ftp -d server121.web-hosting.com << ftpEOF

    prompt
    cd public_html
    delete index.html
    cd images
    mdelete *.jpg
    cd ..
    lcd /Applications/PlexEmail/streamnet/
    put index.html
    lcd images
    cd images
    mput *.jpg
    bye
ftpEOF

echo Website upload successfull ...

Ok so now I upgraded my mac to high sierra 10.13 and there is no ftp command anymore.

Can please someone help me out to get this to work with lftp?

From looking at the lftp man page it seems as if lftp is scriptable. Something like the following should work (untested):

# upload script (save as website-update.lftp)
open server121.web-hosting.com
cd public_html
lcd /Applications/PlexEmail/streamnet/
put index.html
cd images
lcd images
mrm *.jpg
mput *.jpg
exit

And then use

lftp -f website-update.lftp

to execute it.

PS: lftp also has a mirror command which would this make even easier, probably.


What devices is the iPod to Firewire 400 adapter meant for, and for what purpose? I have this adapter:

Is it completely useless? I'm not quite sure what it is. I've had it for years.

This is a Firewire 400 to iPod 30-pin adapter.

If you have an older iPod, you may be able to sync and/or charge it via Firewire. This site has an exhaustive list: Which iPods can sync and charge via USB? Which iPods can sync and charge via Firewire?

It looks like some models supported Firewire charging as recently as 2009, but no models since 2006 or so have the ability to sync media over Firewire.


Can I get S.M.A.R.T. support on external hard drives? Disk Utility reports the S.M.A.R.T. Status as not verified for external disks, and by default Mac OS X only seems able to access S.M.A.R.T. information on internal hard drives.

Is there a way to get SMART information on external USB or Firewire hard disk?

Yes (maybe).

There's an open-source kernel driver OS-X-SAT-SMART-Driver for Mac OS X that will work for some USB and Firewire enclosures. It uses SAT (SCSI ATA Translation) to pass the SMART commands through to the hard drive, so only works if your enclosure supports SAT.

SAT isn't something enclosures seem to advertise support for, but the one I use (WD MyBook Studio Edition) happens to support it, so it works for me. It'll probably be quicker to test the software with your drive/enclosure, than to find out if SAT is supported in the specs.


Mac mini memory module are Mac mini (2.53GHz so called "late-2009" model) memory modules any different than ddr3 so-dimm modules I would buy for my pc laptop? I'm a little confused here. Should I buy modules especially labeled as "Apple" type?

You can find the specifications for your computer here.

Specifically, the unit has the following (with a maximum RAM capacity of 8GB):

RAM Type: PC3-8500 DDR3 SO-DIMMs
Min. RAM Speed: 1066 MHz

So buying RAM that meets those specs is sufficient. As for buying "Apple" branded memory, it doesn't seem necessary. I always look to Mushkin, which sells "Apple" tested memory and have relied on them exclusively, but I have read others running Macs with Kingston, Crucial, or any one of the many other brands available without reporting issues.

Match the type and speed, and you shouldn't have any problem. Newegg has a 4GB package (2x2GB sticks) and a 8GB package (2x4GB sticks) for relatively cheap. They should give you an idea of what kind of prices to expect. Searching google yields quite a few results if you are interested in other brands or other configurations.

Lastly, consult iFixit for details on how to upgrade the memory for your specific model.


How do I remote backup while waking up my computer from sleep? I am backing up remotely from a Macbook Pro to an external backup drive on a PowerMac G5 via Time Machine and AFP. When the G5 goes to sleep, the Macbook Pro can't back up because the drive is made unavailable. How do I get the G5 to wake up while the Macbook Pro is backing up, and to go to sleep after the Macbook Pro is done backing up?

The MacBookPro is on Snow Leopard and the G5 (Early 2005) is running Leopard so I can't just use the normal sleep proxy / Wake On Demand or have an airport do the waking up whenever Time Machine tries to connect to the AFP share.

You could use cron, or use the energy saver > schedules to wake your power G5 up.

This post might help you as well superuser.com this other post might also help you, ont the apple website.


Clear desktop icon cache I wrote two applications which I have on my Desktop which I can't change the icons of.

The first is called was an app I wrote with Automator. After creating it, I was able to change its icon from the default Automator one to the Dock's app icon (as seen in System Preferences). When I installed MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra), the icon changed to the icon depicting my laptop model (MacBook Pro 13" with Touch Bar). I changed the icon back to the Dock. However, the icon change was not visible on the Desktop (though it was in Finder windows and Quick Look).

The other app was written in the programming language Racket (racket-lang.org). I changed the logo from the Racket logo to my laptop (see path above). I am having a similar problem where the icon does not change.

Note that I renamed the new icons to the old icon's name to avoid problems.

For both apps, renaming the file fixed the problem, but I have a Service which runs the app, and renaming it would break the Service. Changing the name to its correct name puts the incorrect icons back in place. I have come to the conclusion that there is some sort of cache that stores the icons. How do I remove or reset this?

You can’t clear or refresh the apple touch icons. Only if the name is changed in the actual website of the icon will Apple look for it again and refresh.


Cannot symlink gcc-5 instead of clang on OS X 10.10.5? I've installed gcc-5 via brew install gcc5, and I've tried linking gcc (which is clang by default) to gcc-5, but whenever I try running gcc, it's using clang. I've also checked that /usr/local/bin is first in my PATH variable. Here's how it all looks in my terminal:

$ which gcc-5
/usr/local/bin/gcc-5
$ which gcc
/usr/bin/gcc
$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:~/.composer/vendor/bin:/usr/texbin
$ gcc
clang: error: no input files
$ gcc-5
gcc-5: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.
$ ln -sf gcc-5 gcc
$ gcc
clang: error: no input files

Also, in ~/.bash_profile, I've put export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH" in the last line of the file, and it appears 1st in $PATH, I've played around a bit and discovered that it's somehow read in reverse, as if every export appends to the front, is that normal behaviour?

EDIT:
I would prefer to avoid using alias for things like these.

ln -sf gcc-5 gcc

You might be thinking of an alias, but that symbolic link doesn't really do anything unless you're in /usr/local/bin. You need

ln -sf /usr/local/bin/gcc-5 /usr/local/bin/gcc


How to highlight all search results within the Terminal application screen buffer In the past I had used iTerm2 which makes search a non issue. However it has showstopper bugs with pasting from the clipboard so I must use Terminal instead. It seems the latter does not make searching a trivial task.  The screenshot shows searching for event :

You will have noticed there is nothing highlighted.  I don't know what it is actually doing..  Sometimes when searching maybe one element shows up. But that's not acceptable either: why are not all instances of the search term highlighted?

The keyboard shortcuts do not list any such shortcut: am I missing something there?  https://support.apple.com/guide/terminal/keyboard-shortcuts-trmlshtcts/mac

Cmd+F to open the find window, and then type your find keyword
After you've entered your keyword, go to Edit → Find → Select All
Your search term should now be highlighted:

Unfortunately, this has no keyboard shortcut by default and you can't add a keyboard shortcut for this via the normal Mac settings (without installing a third-party automation app) because it would conflict with the "Select All" option that is being used as a top-level action inside the Edit menu, before the Find submenu.

However, you could add a keyboard shortcut for "Select All in Selection", the only downside to this is you have to select the region you want to highlight before executing the key combination. Here's how to set up this workflow:

Click on the  menu on the top-left and go to System Preferences
Select Keyboard.
Select the "Shortcuts" tab
Click on "App Shortcuts" on the lefthand side menu
Click on the "+" button, then select "Terminal.app" as the app, "Select All in Selection" in the Menu Title field, and the "Shortcut" key combination you want to use (Cmd+Shift+F in my case, but you can choose whatever you want).
Click "Add"

Now, inside Terminal.app you can use this like:

"Cmd-A" to select all
"Cmd-F" to open the find bar
Type in your search phrase
Because everything is still selected, you can use your shortcut you just specified (e.g. Cmd+Shift+F) to highlight your find keyword in your terminal window.


Can iTunes combine identical podcasts? Somewhat similar to this question, but I don't just want to import.  I have a bunch of This American Life podcasts that I downloaded using iTunes on another computer.  I also have a This American Life podcast subscription on my current Mac with a bunch of podcasts downloaded.

I have already imported the old ones into iTunes.  They show up as two separate podcasts, with the same name and metadata.  The old ones have a "subscribe" link but I haven't clicked it, they're just sitting there.  The new ones are subscribed and regularly downloading new episodes.

How can I merge the old ones into the newer, subscribed version of the podcast in iTunes?

This has been bugging me for years, most specifically with This American Life and To The Best of Our Knowledge.

The tag that's causing them to be separated is not available via iTunes -- you need an extended tag editor. On the Mac, I used ID3 Editor.

Instructions specifically for ID3 editor:

• Open a "good" podcast file (you can drag it straight from iTunes onto the ID3 Editor icon in the dock to open).

• Click on the Podcast tab. Look for the field called Feed (It may have a different name if you're using different tag editing software). Copy the Feed field contents.

• Open your "bad" podcast files, paste/replace the "good" Feed info into the Feed field (they should be different - mine were) and click Update.

• Last important step is that you have to delete the "bad" files from iTunes and reimport them. If you right click or control click the file in iTunes before deleting, and select "Show in Finder," the enclosing folder will open. If you sort by date modified, all the podcast you just updated should be at the top, if they're in the same folder. Then you can delete all the bad ones, and drag them back into iTunes. Whey they're re-imported, they should now be grouped with the "good" podcast.


Configure Router with Mac My router's IP address is 192.168.1.245. I tried to access it but without success, because my WIFI address is 10.0.1.10 and my Ethernet address (via the Thunderbolt port) is 169.254.xxx.xxx.

How can I configure my router without having internal IP addresses?

Settings - Network - Thunderbold Ethernet - Configure IPv4: Manually: 192.168.1.20. After this I am able to access the router.


'Do not disturb' doesn't (fully) work 'Do Not Disturb' is set on an iPad Pro running ipadOS 13.3. It says "Calls and notifications will be silenced until Do Not Disturb is turned off" on the lock screen.

When someone calls me on Telegram, the notification still gets through, but in a weird way: before it's declined, instead of the Telegram call notification sound, I hear a regular call tone for half a second, and the screen lights up. Both are enough to wake me up, so 'Do not disturb' kind of fails it's purpose.

Here's what my 'Do not disturb' settings look like:

Is this an iOS bug, or is the app not honouring my 'Do not disturb' settings?

If your iPhone also received a telegram call - it will pass that off to all your devices if you have Calls on Other Devices enabled.

I would review the DND settings on your phone (or other iOS devices) and then verify you are OK with the Calls on Other Devices settings.

This is found in the settings app > Phone section in the calls subsection towards the middle on iOS 13.

Either way, pretty peculiar failure - I wonder if it's just slow to fail or that your call times out by the time the iPhone wakes your iPad and the call goes to "voicemail" and wasn't quashed at all other than slow wakeup wasn't slow enough.


Can't rename/move file from an OS X application title bar anymore I noticed this a while ago: I used to be able to click on the title bar of applications like Preview or TextEdit and rename or move the file opened at the moment. Now if I click on the title bar nothing happens.

Has this feature been removed in a recent update? Is there any way to reactivate it?

I am working on finding a resolution, maybe by next week.  So far I have discovered this since I have been using this for a long time--simply going to the application title bar and clicking on the name and having a dialog box drop down, changing the name and hitting return.  (NO DROP DOWN MENU WITH RENAME IN IT>).  It stopped working recently and these are some of the facts:

It is not an application plist that controls it.  This renaming process happens with lots of apps.
It does not appear to be an error in the system files because I can create a new user and it works.
It is not a network thing because my wife's system still works while mine on the same network does not.
It seems that it is somewhere in my user files.

I have sent some files to Apple Care and will know next week if they can tell me what plist or parameters control this so I can fix them..


How to stop Terminal from starting minimized in the Dock? Every time I start Terminal, it starts minimized in the Dock.
As I saw from this question, the problem is in my profile (under preferences) but I can't find any option to change this behaviour.

How can I solve the problem in my current profile?

Update

The proble is not specific to my profile - it occurs with all profiles I try using.

I'm using macOS 10.12.3 and Terminal.app Version 2.7.1 (388) and I don't see the "Hide after opening" checkbox option mentioned in the answer to the question you linked either.

From the Terminal.app >> Preferences::Profiles pane, look below the list of profiles. In the gear icon menu you can export your current profile in the gear settings menu options. Open the exported profile in a text editor and you might be able to find the setting which is causing this behavior.

You could also try "restore default profiles" or simply rebuilding your profile from one that does not minimize at launch.

------------------UPDATE

If "Restore Default Options" doesn't work AND you are having this problem with all the profiles you try, it might be helpful to post your exported profile settings in your question.

Also, do you know which shell you are launching into?

To find out, enter this into your Terminal command line:

echo $SHELL

I am using the "Default login shell" and echo $SHELL reports /bin/bash

Are you using the "Default login shell"? You can find this setting in the Terminal.app >> Preferences::General pane:

Please post your OS and Terminal.app versions in the original question.

Also, after changing your profile, have you tried logging out, restarting and logging back in then verifying that the profile change is still in effect?


What are the best programs for editing midi files? I'm looking for a Mac OS X program for editing midi files.

Specifically, I'm using the program Synthesia to learn how to play songs on the piano, but a lot of the midi files I have don't have the notes split into a right hand and left hand track. I'm looking for a program where I can load one of these midi files, add a new track, and then manually move notes from the existing track onto the new track.

Are there any good programs I can do this with?

I'll admit I'm biased because I've been working with it for years now, but Apple's Logic has one of the best MIDI editing interfaces going. If the Pro version is a little too much for you to stomach there's an "Express" version that's pared down when it comes to plugins and samples, but has the same excellent MIDI editor.

On the cheap-but-effective side you've got Reaper which will run on OS X and includes MIDI editing facilities. You can try it out for free and it's $40 (at the time of writing) to buy it if you like it. Hard to beat that deal.

And then in between these two running the gamut of price and features you've got a whole slew of other options: Cubase, Sonar, Abelton, etc. Each of them offering slightly (or not so slightly) different interfaces and feature sets.


Unable to figure out how to disable/remove growl mail notifications I am trying to get rid of the GrowlMail notification. I have tried to follow instructions posted and can get into the Library to find the Mail folder but do not know how to find the /Library/Mail/Bundles/GrowlMail.mailbundle to remove the mail bundle. I am going in through the finder on OS X 10.9.3

I am a real novice so need clear steps to follow. The steps I have been trying are here: How to remove GrowlMail (on Mavericks)?

In Finder's "Go" menu there is a command "Go to Folder..." (or: shift + command + G when Finder is the active application)

If you paste in the /Library/Mail/Bundles it will take you to that folder.

I tried it on my computer and it didn't go (I just got an alert ding) because the folder doesn't exist.


How can I change the Guest account's background image? When I login as guest, then change the background, logout, and log back in, the background is not saved. How can I choose which background the guest account will have?

This article explains it very nice. Basically you are modifying a "User Template" file, which is used to create a fresh new user every time you log in as a Guest. If you're not quite sure on how to do it just ask for help. :)


Logitech Options won't let me change the "Keystroke assignment" assigned to a mouse button anymore Logitech Options won't let me change the "Keystroke assignment" assigned to a mouse button anymore. I just get a sad error noise every time I try to set one.
Strangely, there are already keystroke assignments set for the mouse buttons on one of my Logitech mice. (I set them a long time ago.) They appear in the Logitech Options app and those assignments still work. But I cannot change them.
This is on Catalina, and I have Logitech Options and Logitech Options Daemon enabled under Security & Privacy => Accessibility and Security & Privacy => Input Monitoring.
Logitech Options used to work fine for me, but it stopped working at some point, and now no amounting of fiddling seems able to make it work properly again.
Any ideas?

I've discovered no answer to how to make Logi Options behave properly in this respect, but the commercial mouse driver "SteerMouse" works just fine for me. It's $20, but at least it lets me continue to use my Logitech mice the way that I've been using them for years.


Bonjour Sleep Proxy / WoWLAN / WoL So I've had an interesting issue that I think I know what might have happened, but I'm not sure if it is actually possible.  I have 2 Mac's running High Sierra, Laptop and iMac.  I have enabled "Wake for Network Access" to facilitate waking the system up for Back to My Mac or some such.  Now, my iMac is almost never actually in sleep mode (being a desktop, I don't have it configured to automatically sleep).

Here is what happened, there is a software package I have that has a bug, and automatically tries to reconnect to a voice chat that is over if it's been asleep for over and hour and wakes up.  It is in the works to be fixed, but has not been fixed yet (confirmed this with the developers).

Now, 3 times in the middle of the night while I was asleep this behavior occurred.  I confirmed that my sleep monitor says I was asleep at the times in question.  Since I live alive, I'm not sure why or how the system would have been woken up from sleep.  The iMac was not asleep, but the MacBook was; and not on a wired connection.  I have a VPN provided by ZeroTier One (not a standard VPN as provided with OpenVPN protocols, LT2P or PPTP).

So here is my basic question...  Given that the iMac was awake, could it have received a broadcast packet from the VPN on ZeroTier, from a distant system connected via the VPN / Internet that unintentionally woke up my Laptop?  How would I find out if the Laptop woke up and what system triggered the wake up?  I have been looking and according to what I read, the computer won't know who or why it was triggered to wake up (unless I read it wrong).  My understanding of the "sleep proxy" of Bonjour is that a running system on the LAN could be used to trigger a system on the LAN to wake up based on a signal from a system on the VPN -- again, I could be horribly misunderstanding the protocol.

In short, how would I found out if this happened / is it even possible?

Power settings, including sleep and wake:

man pmset

What settings are active?

pmset -g

What is keeping your mac awake?

pmset -g assertions

To find out what woke up your mac, run this before sleep:

pmset -g assertionslog

While this is running, you can find out the state of your assertions with CTRL-T

Assertion status system-wide:
   BackgroundTask                 0
   ApplePushServiceTask           0
   UserIsActive                   1
   PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep    0
   PreventSystemSleep             0
   ExternalMedia                  0
   InternalPreventDisplaySleep    1
   PreventUserIdleSystemSleep     0
   NetworkClientActive            0
Listed by owning process:
   pid 97(hidd): [0x0000c79b00099bde] 00:00:00 UserIsActive named: "com.apple.iohideventsystem.queue.tickle.4294971710.3"
    Timeout will fire in 600 secs Action=TimeoutActionRelease
   pid 56(powerd): [0x0000e37c00108184] 00:01:04 InternalPreventDisplaySleep named: "com.apple.powermanagement.delayDisplayOff"
    Timeout will fire in 235 secs Action=TimeoutActionTurnOff
No kernel assertions.
Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler

You'll need to take a look at the internal state of mDNS. To enable debug logging:

sudo killall -USR1 mDNSResponder # so much data.

Trim the logorrhoea to what you came for:

sudo syslog -c mDNSResponder en

Dump the state of mDNS to the syslog:

sudo killall -INFO mDNSResponder; tail -1000f /var/log/system.log

The section “Network Interfaces” in the syslog output lists the network interfaces on your machine that Bonjour knows about. For any interface which (a) Bonjour believes to be capable of Wake On LAN and (b) Bonjour has discovered a Bonjour Sleep Proxy, you should see a black sun (“☀”) immediately preceding the address at the end of the line, like this:

------ Network Interfaces ------
v4 en0(4) 00:17:F2:CD:7E:0A 00:00:00:00:00:00 v4 0.0.0.0 ⊙ ⇆ ☀ 192.168.1.50

For any interface which (a) Bonjour believes to be capable of Wake On LAN but (b) no Sleep Proxy has been discovered yet, you should see a white sun (“☼”). This means that Bonjour is willing to use a Sleep Proxy on this interface, but hasn’t found one yet.

------ Network Interfaces ------
v4 en0(4) 00:17:F2:CD:7E:0A 00:00:00:00:00:00 v4 0.0.0.0 ⊙ ⇆ ☼ 192.168.1.50

Review the canon here.


Airdrop doesn't work between MBP mid-2012 and iPhone 6 I read that Airdrop between iOS is since the MBP mid-2012. Although I have that Macbook I can't see my iPhone and viceversa. What can be the problem or the info that I'm misunderstanding?

PS: I have El Capitan but didn't make a clean installation.

Thanks in advance.

Found a post which gives this advice:

  Turn off bluetooth on your mac, delete: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist turn bluetooth back on

I tried this and can confirm that it fixed the problem for me.


Is the thicker USB C cable included with the MacBook Pro charger necessary for its higher current capacity? My new MacBook Pro came with a USB C charger and an associated cable.

I'm noticing this cable is a little bit thicker than other USB C charging cables I've seen.

What safety and charge carrying standards exist with USB C so I can know if a specific thinner / thicker cable is both safe and can support specific charge rates?

To answer my own question, according to Wikipedia, USB C cables can have different carrying capacities:

  All USB-C cables must be able to carry a minimum of 3 A current (at 20 V, 60 W) but can also carry high-power 5 A current (at 20 V, 100 W).[10] All USB-C to USB-C cables must contain e-marker chips programmed to identify the cable and its current capabilities. USB Charging ports should also be clearly marked with capable power wattage.[11]

So while I can't say this with 100% certainty, the cable that comes with the MBP charger probably is a higher capacity cable, but USB-C cables have chips in them to tell the device and charger their carrying capacity.


New iOS9 Spotlight search not finding contacts I've just upgraded to iOS 9, and the new Spotlight search isn't finding contacts for me - it sometimes finds contacts, but not the one I'm searching for.

I've turned off every app in Spotlight search, except Contacts, so as not to muddy the waters.

Example: I have a contact named "Fred Jones".  He's the only contact with the surname Jones.  I swipe down or right to get the spotlight search, and start typing jones one character at a time.  When I type "j" I get

TOP HITS
Jane Airy
CONTACTS
Abbadab Fabrics
Dan Anderson

When I type the "o" I get

(nothing)

I.e. no search results.

Both Abbadab Fabrics and Dan Anderson do have a "j" somewhere in some field - but so do lots of other contacts.

I've tried typing "Jo" but same results.  Obviously, this used to work in ios8.

Further details in response to questions: I'm on the released iOS 9 build (13A344), not any developer or other pre-release. I only have one account syncing Contacts - Google Sync. There's plenty of storage available: 11.0GB out of 15.2GB.

I tried two fixes, and this one seemed to work after playing around with it for a while:

Fix #1 (didn't seem to work, but may have helped)

Turn off all the Spotlight switches in Preferences > General > Spotlight.
Do a hard reset by pressing and holding the Home button (big circle below the screen) and the Sleep/Wake button (on top of the iPhone) simultaneously.
Hold both buttons until the screen goes black, and then release when you see the Apple logo.
After restart, turn on the Contacts switch in Preferences > General > Spotlight.
It may take a few minutes, or half an hour for Contacts to show in Spotlight search.
Turn on other Spotlight switches after Contacts begin to show in Spotlight searches.

Fix #2

Open the Contacts app, tap your own contact... Then Groups will display in top left. Tap Groups in the top-left corner, then Hide All Contacts or show all contacts. One of them may default. Tapping just toggles back and forth between the 2 options. The IOS 9 update may have defaulted your option to Hide All which may be the only issue.
Tap Show All Contacts.

This didn't immediately work for me, but then I tried only showing iCloud contacts, and not Facebook contacts, and then it started to work.  However - I noticed some contacts starting to appear after a search, which is when I tried this in the last sentence.  It may very well have been the first fix that solved this, and it was just a matter of waiting for it to work.

Try both, and also showing different contacts groups, then quitting the contacts app, then hiding and showing again.


Macbook Air WiFi Connection Timeout problem I have a Macbook Air 13" Early 2014 with macOS High Sierra 10.13.

The problem I have is that my Internet connection (Wi-Fi) keeps going off every 5 minutes or less.
When I start my Mac, Wi-Fi works perfectly, but after a few minutes, the Internet connection goes off. If I disconnect Wi-Fi and reconnect after a few seconds, the Internet connection works, but only for a few minutes, and then I have to disconnect and connect again.

When I connect the mac with others wifi works perfectly but the one at home gives me this problem only on my macbook. Because i have also an iphone and ipad and for them (the wifi that i use at home) works perfectly.

It's very annoying. I had the same issues with macOS Sierra, so I decided to update the OS, but it's the same.

If someone can help me I'll be really grateful, thanks.

Troubleshooting can be a process of elimination and often requires patience. Below are a few things you can try.

Try another 'Wi-Fi' network

It'd be interesting to see whether your MBA can maintain an internet connection from another Wi-Fi network. If you have an iPhone you can share an internet connection from its cellular connection and connect to that via your Mac's Wi-Fi port? Does this allow your MBA to browse the web, send/receive emails, etc and maintain the connection for longer than the five or so minutes you're having problems with?

Another way to test this is via a public Wi-Fi services (McDonalds, Starbucks, etc).

Test your Wi-Fi network

If your MBA connects fine to other Wi-Fi networks, then it's time to test your home Wi-Fi connection with other devices (such as an iPhone, iPad, etc) to see if they also drop a connection. If they do then you know it's your Wi-Fi network that needs investigating.

On the other hand, if they connect fine, it may be time to reboot your Wi-Fi router. This is because your router may have a limit on how many devices can be connected at any one time, or may struggle when too many devices are connected.

To do this, switch the router off for about a minute and then switch it back on. Wait a couple of minutes and then try connecting your MBA and testing to see what happens.

Remove and then add back your Wi-Fi service

I would totally remove your Wi-Fi service, restart, and add your Wi-Fi service back.

To do this:

Go to Apple > System Preferences > Network
Select the Wi-Fi service on the left-hand side
Click on the cog icon at bottom-left and select Make Service Inactive
Now delete the service by clicking on the minus sign (i.e. the - button) at left of the cog
Click on the Apply button
Exit Network preferences
Restart your MBA
Go to Apple > System Preferences > Network
Click on the plus sign (i.e. the + button) at left of the cog
In the pop-up window, ensure that Wi-Fi is selected from the drop-down menu
Click on the Create button
Make sure Wi-Fi is on and connected (it should remember your previous settings, but if not just re-add your Wi-Fi network again)

Run Wireless Diagnostics

You can use Wireless Diagnostics to analyse your Wi-Fi network. Follow these steps:

Close any apps you have running
Connect to the Wi-Fi network
Hold down the option key and go to the Wi-Fi status menu and select Open Wireless Diagnostics
Enter your administrator name and password

Now follow the steps to see whether any problems are found.


Microsoft Store button disabled in Word 2016 for Mac I have a user that wants to use an add-in available on the Microsoft store. However, the store button under Add-ins on the Insert ribbon is disabled. This is in Word 2016 on OS 10.13.2. Is there a specific setting or permission that can cause this to occur?

Found user had read only document open when attempting to use store. Opening an editable document enabled all buttons under addins.


Can I use Apple's Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter for Target Display Mode on an iMac? Apple's support page for the Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter lists support for Thunderbolt Displays and no support for Apple DisplayPort displays. However it doesn't say anything about iMacs with Thunderbolt in Target Mode mode. Does Apple's Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter support Target Display Mode on an iMac?

My guess is that it does since Apple's support page for Target Display Mode says that you have to use a Thunderbolt source for an iMac with Thunderbolt in order to use Target Display Mode.

Yes, I'm successfully running a setup with a 2017 13" MacBook Pro and a 2011 iMac. The original Apple USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter works fine for Target Display Mode.


enable program for all users (root included) installed via Terminal from source (tarball) I can to enable some program installed from tarball...

using this command:

echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/SomeProgram/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export MANPATH=/usr/local/SomeProgram/man:$MANPATH' >> ~/.bash_profile

But how to do it for all users (including root profile)?

$ more /etc/paths
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
$

$ more /etc/manpaths
/usr/share/man
/usr/local/share/man
$

Try with this like Root:

# echo '/usr/local/SomeProgram/bin' >> /etc/paths
# echo '/usr/local/SomeProgram/man' >> /etc/manpaths


Why causes Chrome to make my Mac unresponsive? I'm asking this mostly out of curiosity, as I've given up on finding a practical solution. Everyone knows that Chrome makes Macs sluggish, especially if you have a lot of tabs open. My question is what causes this, since it doesn't seem to be due to memory or CPU use.

I have a habit of keeping around 100 or more tabs open in Google Chrome, in several windows. If this number gets too high then my Mac starts to become unpredictably unresponsive - I'll sometimes have to wait a few seconds after clicking or typing for the input to be accepted, for example, or if I'm playing a game the frame rate might drop to 2-3 frames per second for a minute or two before recovering. This happens particularly if I have Keynote or Pages open in addition to Chrome. Using the Chrome plugin called "The Great Suspender" helps quite a bit, especially with keeping CPU use down, but it doesn't completely solve the unresponsiveness issue.

I used to think that this was a memory issue, but after buying a new Macbook with a lot more memory a year or two ago, this seems not to be the case. Activity Monitor tells me I currently have 4.6Gb free, and this issue can occur when less than half my 16Gb RAM is in use. It doesn't seem to be due to CPU use either (unless it's caused by sudden spikes), since I can keep that down to around 2% most of the time.

So if it's not memory or CPU that Chrome and other applications use up to make my computer behave this way, then what is it? And (since it can't hurt to ask) is there anything I can do to mitigate it?

Finally, I'm using Mountain Lion. Is this issue the same, better, or worse in Mavericks? Whether I will upgrade or not will be determined solely by this issue.

This is the common problem which can be related to anything, like:

Chrome bugs,
network issues (check logs at chrome://net-internals/),
active extensions are slowing down web browser in general,
performance issues (either your machine is slow or you've too many tabs opened),
slow disk access, especially when your cache folder is huge with too many files.

E.g. you may consider moving your profile folder into quick access drive.

Here are few suggestions:

restart web browser (also kill all chrome processes),
run in Incognito mode, to see if this could be related to some slow extensions,
create a new profile with no extensions and see if that helps,
install addons which aims limit the page processing (e.g. OneTab, ad blockers),
run Chrome in different user data dir (--user-data-dir="<some_path>"),
run with --disable-hang-monitor to suppress hang monitor dialog,

  Suppresses hang monitor dialogs in renderer processes. This may allow slow unload handlers on a page to prevent the tab from closing, but the Task Manager can be used to terminate the offending process in this case.peter.sh

make sure Chrome uses GPU process to enhance performance (see: chrome://gpu/),
generate network log file at chrome://net-internals/ and report the issue at bugs.chromium.org.

Debug suggestions:

check: chrome://flags/
check debug network log file generated by chrome://net-internals/
run chrome://tracing/
see other internal Chrome pages at chrome://chrome-urls/.


OS X Mountain Lion does not boot after the creation of a Fusion Drive I have followed a guide to set up the core storage logical volume to use one SSD and one HDD.

Since then, I have encountered multiple errors such as:

69822 Couldn’t rediscover disk after operation
69780 Unable to create a new CoreStorage Logical Volume
...

When created my Fusion Drive, I inverted disk0 (HDD) and disk1 (SSD) in the first command to create a Logical Volume Group.

If I boot normally (not in safe mode), the machine hangs at Apple logo ... even if I try to boot from an external drive or a Mountain Lion startup drive.

Could this be a problem of the EFI version (2.7)?

Hardware: Macbook Pro 15" early 2011 (8,2)

It seems that some early 2011 15" Macbook Pro  (8,2) machines have trouble creating a Fusion Drive.

It's being discussed in this MacRumors forum thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1480179&page=16. This is the post that gives more datailed information about the problem http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=16321849&postcount=384

It might be a hardware problem, there is no known solution yet.

Update: I have just created a working Fusion Drive on my early 2011 15" 2.3Ghz Macbook Pro (8,2), following the instructions in the answers here: Can I make a DIY Fusion Drive? I have installed Mountain Lion on it.
I used a 250GB Samsung 840 Pro in the hdd bay and placed the original 750GB hdd in place of the optical drive. Maybe the hardware troubles are only present in the 2.0Ghz versions.


Cheap way to import MiniDV video into macOS? I have some home videos stored on MiniDV media and am currently able to watch them by connecting the camcorder's RCA cable to my TV. However, I am looking to digitise my collection of home videos, and, as such, am seeking a reliable and cheap method for doing so.

I am aware that products like the EasyCAP aim to solve this by allowing you to access the stream via USB using special software. After doing some research, I was pointed towards this software designed for macOS which aims to allow functionality for Mac computers. However, there was a note on the website which says that:

  2015-10-31: Reports indicate EasyCapViewer doesn't work on OS X El
  Capitan. This would be a good time for other developers to pitch in. I
  will spend some time investigating too but no guarantees.

As the note suggests, I believe the software will no longer function with later releases of macOS including macOS Mojave. I am unwilling to buy one of these devices, have it shipped, install the software and test it only to find it is no longer supported as stated on the website.

Whilst I am aware that a possible solution may be installing a virtual copy of Windows on a program like VirtualBox, I feel this is overcomplicated and may bring up even more issues especially with regard to interfacing with the device through the virtual machine.

As a result, I am curious to find out if anyone is aware:

Whether or not the EasyCAP software will work with macOS Mojave
Whether there are other, currently supported, softwares for doing the same thing on macOS Mojave
If not, what is a reasonable alternative (preferably below £30)

Any help would be much appreciated as I am desperate to back up these videos before they are lost, broken or damaged.

Thank you in advance for your help,

Kind regards, Rocco

P.S. I could also access the video via FireWire (4-pin on the camcorder), however, I do not have any devices in my house with FireWire ports. My personal computer, MacBook Pro, only has Thunderbolt 3 ports and this would require numerous expensive adapters in order for this method to work.

I've transferred dozens of my own MiniDV cassettes so let me share the methods I used and what I think makes sense for you. I'll preface by saying that this was a project that took me DECADES to get started, precisely because there are so many options and variables to consider. However, once I began I did it all at once, and was relieved to do it. This is an investment of time and money, but one you'll agree is worthwhile for unlocking and securing your tapes' contents.

First, to answer your question, if users were reporting that EasyCapViewer wasn't running well on El Capitan, then it almost certainly won't run well on Mojave. For what it's worth I downloaded EasyCapViewer and it launched without any errors on Mojave, but you can't know how it functions with that capture card hardware until you try it out. EasyCap isn't a 64-bit app, so it's definitely not optimized to run on modern versions of macOS like High Sierra or Mojave, but it does technically run. If you're dead-set on using that software, you could always get a copy of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, install it on a disk partition or external drive, and work with it from there.

Second, if your priority is to capture the highest quality of these videos, then my recommendation for you is to go the Firewire route, because it's the only option that transfers the pure digital signal from tape to Mac. If your intention is to archive and back up these tapes for posterity, you'll want to capture the highest quality version of that video, and Firewire is the only way to do that. But be aware that importing raw digital video can take up a lot of storage space, so depending on how many tapes you have you'll want to have a fair amount of disk space, and/or a backup drive to hold them all. The alternative is to important analog video, via this EasyCap tool or one of the many other options like it (there are many analog hardware and software tools just like EasyCap, so I encourage you to check those out if EasyCap doesn't sound like it has the support you're looking for). Just keep in mind that when you import analog video the video gets compressed, so you won't get the same quality video out of the analog transfer as you do with digital Firewire. You may not notice or care much about that difference, but just be aware that importing via analog will result in a loss of some quality that you would otherwise retain through a digital transfer. On the positive side though, since analog video files are compressed they do take up much less storage space.

Back to Firewire: As you noted, this setup requires a few adapters. In your case you would need a Firewire Cable (assuming your camcorder takes the small 4pin plug, like mine did, you'll need a 4pin to 9pin Firewire 800 cable). Then depending on whether you have a USB-C hub for your Mac (some of which do offer Firewire 800 ports, or else Thunderbolt 2 ports) you'll need an Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter. If you don't have a hub you'll also need to add an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter to make the direct connection to your MacBook Pro. Like most Apple dongles, these are overpriced, but you can find the same products on Amazon or eBay for half that.

Economically, buying a hub and/or a bunch of adapters would probably cost more than just picking up an old used Mac, like a Powerbook G4, and doing the video transfer with that. It sounds crazy but you actually might consider this option, since those models have built-in Firewire and often come installed with Tiger or Leopard, which would also be compatible with the EasyCap. Oddly enough it could be less of a headache than trying to make all the old hardware/software fit with your new MacBook Pro.

Lastly, a note (and warning) on tape damage: be aware of the possibility that your tapes may have video/audio artifacts or disruption (several of mine had sections like this, and they were painful to watch). Hopefully yours don't have any, but if they do I'll just save you the trouble of investigating the Why: it can be connected to recording in LP instead of SP, or using different brands of tapes whose tape lubricant doesn't get along well with other tape brands. A corrupted digital signal can make those sections virtually unwatchable, and importing those clips via Firewire looks terrible. In that case the best alternative for importing those sections is to use an analog tool. The one I used was Elgato's EyeTV to import those damaged sections of video via S-video or Composite video. Importing damaged sections via analog isn't great either, in that it won't get rid of the artifacts, and for some reason it reduced my LR sound channels to mono sound, but the damaged sections do import better with analog than with digital, so I used analog imports exclusively for that purpose.

I know this is a lot of info, but hopefully some of it is helpful for you. Good luck with your continued efforts!


Why doesn't the Apple Watch activity app count the activity recorded on the iPhone? When walking around with the iPhone and not the Apple Watch the iPhone records steps. However when looking at the Apple Watch activity app the previously recorded steps are not shown there. Why is that?

The activity recorded on the Apple Watch is separate from the activity recorded on the iPhone. As such each is recorded as a separate source in health.app. Also only activity recorded on the Apple Watch is reflected in activity.app.

Source: @pbur - Apple Software Engineer

https://twitter.com/wahoo/status/591749264956461058


Calls from my iPhone to friend's iPhone always go to voicemail, and he never gets my texts anymore EDIT: For others with the same problem: Phong was right, my friend had actually inadvertently blocked me.

I have an iPhone 6s and my friend has maybe the 6 or 5, but definitely an iPhone as well.

We used to receive each other's calls and texts no problem. Starting about a week ago though, he stopped receiving any of my texts but I still get all of his.

Also, any time I call him my calls go directly to his voicemail without ringing (and we tried enough times to make sure that his phone was on and should've rung) but he can call me just fine and my phone will ring.

I'm not having this problem with anyone else as far as I can tell (my gf and other friends get my texts and I can call other numbers).

One thing is that when I text this friend, I never see "Delivered" under the text.

Sounds like your friend may have blocked you accidentally. Have him open your contact card, and scroll to the bottom. If he did in fact block you, he will see a button to Unblock this caller.

Blocking requires no confirmation, and that button is present at the bottom of every contact card, so it’s easy to tap on accident.


How to upgrade bash with brew (permission error)? I work with Yosemite (10.10.3) and would like to upgrade bash (to version 4.x) and found this post. After brew update, I did brew install bash, but obtained:

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/bash-4.3.33.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring bash-4.3.33.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
==> Caveats
In order to use this build of bash as your login shell,
it must be added to /etc/shells.
Error: An unexpected error occurred during the `brew link` step
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
Permission denied - /usr/local/share/locale/af
Error: Permission denied - /usr/local/share/locale/af

How can I fix this? I cded into /usr/local/share/locale but the directory af doesn't exist. Why does brew try to access this?

Update

I forgot to say, if I use sudo brew install bash, I receive:

Error: Cowardly refusing to `sudo brew install`
You can use brew with sudo, but only if the brew executable is owned by root.
However, this is both not recommended and completely unsupported so do so at
your own risk.

You must be sure that the group of /usr/local and all inside it is admin (I'm supposing your username belongs to admin group too). If this isn't the case, fix it with:

sudo chown -R $USER:admin /usr/local

You will probably have to do the same on /Library/Caches/Homebrew:

sudo chown -R $USER:admin /Library/Caches/Homebrew


How does App Store "complete my bundle" work when I've spent more than the bundle cost? I have bought the Hitman app for $4.99. When I checked for the app bundle, it says GET. Does this mean that the bundle is free, or do I still have to pay for it?

Since you’ve already paid more for one app than the total cost of the bundle, you get the rest of the bundle for free. This is why it says GET without a price.

If you had to pay anything, it would show you a price instead. For instance, in my case I see $3.99 where you see GET.

iTunes albums work the same way. Every time you purchase a track on an album, the cost to complete the album goes down, as reflected on the Purchase button. If the cumulative cost you’ve paid for the tracks on an album exceeds the cost of the album as a whole, the button changes to GET and you can download the remaining tracks “for free.”


How can I disable the Apple ID warning about not being signed into iCloud? On my work computer's Apple ID I only sign into "Media & Purchases" - to access my Music library. I don't have a reason to sign into "iCloud" and prefer to keep my personal iCloud off of my work machine.

Unfortunately (on macOS Catalina) the cost of this is that System Preferences has a permanent badge icon and I'm prompted to add iCloud every time I open System Preferences.

How can I turn off this warning without signing into my personal iCloud account?

Some solutions I've considered:

Use iCloud, but toggle off all syncing.
Create dummy Apple ID just to sign into "iCloud" (keep my regular Apple ID for "Media & Purchases").

You could also issue this command in the Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AttentionPrefBundleIDs 0; killall Dock

This has worked for me so far (I'm on 10.15.2). Before that I created an alias for System Preferences, and put that in the dock instead. You get a small arrow at the bottom of the icon, but it's less eye-catching than the nasty red blob.


MacBookPro8,2 (early 2011) RAM size limit per Bank as the titles states I'm curious about the maximum supported RAM per Bank on a MacBookPro8,2.

I know the total supported capacity is 16GB but can this be achieved with just one DIMM leaving the other bank empty?

I'm asking this specific because recently one of my RAM banks died cutting my
available RAM in half.
(Luckily it's not the complete logic board, I just run out of warranty..)
If the limit is only in the total size and not a per-Bank limit then I would just get new DIMM to put in the remaining functional Bank.

Also which - if any - vendor would you recommend for DIMMs this size?

Apple states that you should fill both RAM banks with equal size memory for best performance, implying that one bank should work.  Your machine running on one bank would seem to bear this out.

For the second part of your question I can recommend RamJet (1-800-831-4569) as both a good source of quality technical support that is Mac specific, and a retailer of RAM.

I have no business connection to them, but I have been using them for my own machines and my clients machines for almost ten years.


Where to put VirtualHost files for brew's httpd24? I have installed httpd24 via brew by running brew install httpd24

However I am not sure where to put a virualhost definition files in the file system.

I ran this command /usr/local/bin/apachectl -S and there is the output

AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using mbp.local. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
VirtualHost configuration:
ServerRoot: "/usr/local/opt/httpd24"
Main DocumentRoot: "/usr/local/var/www/htdocs"
Main ErrorLog: "/usr/local/var/log/apache2/error_log"
Mutex default: dir="/usr/local/var/run/apache2/" mechanism=default
Mutex mpm-accept: using_defaults
PidFile: "/usr/local/var/run/apache2/httpd.pid"
Define: DUMP_VHOSTS
Define: DUMP_RUN_CFG
User: name="daemon" id=1 not_used
Group: name="daemon" id=1 not_used

And here is a tree output

$ tree /usr/local/etc/apache2/2.4
/usr/local/etc/apache2/2.4
├── extra
│   ├── httpd-autoindex.conf
│   ├── httpd-dav.conf
│   ├── httpd-default.conf
│   ├── httpd-info.conf
│   ├── httpd-languages.conf
│   ├── httpd-manual.conf
│   ├── httpd-mpm.conf
│   ├── httpd-multilang-errordoc.conf
│   ├── httpd-ssl.conf
│   ├── httpd-userdir.conf
│   ├── httpd-vhosts.conf
│   └── proxy-html.conf
├── httpd.conf
├── magic
├── mime.types
└── original
    ├── extra
    │   ├── httpd-autoindex.conf
    │   ├── httpd-dav.conf
    │   ├── httpd-default.conf
    │   ├── httpd-info.conf
    │   ├── httpd-languages.conf
    │   ├── httpd-manual.conf
    │   ├── httpd-mpm.conf
    │   ├── httpd-multilang-errordoc.conf
    │   ├── httpd-ssl.conf
    │   ├── httpd-userdir.conf
    │   ├── httpd-vhosts.conf
    │   └── proxy-html.conf
    └── httpd.conf

You have to edit the file /usr/local/etc/apache2/2.4/httpd.conf.

Search for and uncomment the following two lines (remove the # at the beginning of the line):

#LoadModule vhost_alias_module libexec/mod_vhost_alias.so
#Include /usr/local/etc/apache2/2.4/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Then edit the file /usr/local/etc/apache2/2.4/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf to suit your needs.


use Windows registry in wine I want to use Putty on Mac, and I need to import Putty (SSH client) profiles in it.
Putty profiles are stored in the Windows registry (you can dump and import .reg files on another windows machine without any problem)..is there a way to import them using Wine?

Wine emulates the registry so this might be more about putty being amenable to this alternate SDK.

https://wiki.winehq.org/Regedit
https://wiki.winehq.org/Winelib

wine regedit

If the second link saying putty is ported is wrong, hopefully you don’t have to dump the registry and translate them to a terminal setup. ssh (as are the other tools) is native on macOS, so functionally you could ditch putty. You’d lose the graphical accordances and specific shortcuts and settings portability of course, which is what I’m guessing you want to avoid reimplementing.


install opencv with cuda support and.. brew i have installed opencv with brew and everything is magically ok. now i want to try to recompile by myself with cuda support.

for this i have to download opencv, change a line in CMakeList.txt (because i have already installed cuds 5 and cuda toolkit), run cmake, run make, run make install. Exactly what brew has done.

I am scared to do some mess with brew and blabla and going end up to have 2 different version of opencv and brew not happy.

I just compile opencv with pkg-config --cflags --libs opencv so pkg-config is the only thing i care about.

What is the best way to do it without mess everything up?

You can pass the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX option to cmake to have OpenCV install to a different location. It's analagous to ./configure --prefix. For example:

cmake -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt/reallylocal -D WITH_CUDA ..

This will install it under /opt/reallylocal, leaving /usr/local untouched. Then, to run your custom build, call it with the full path, or put the appropriate directories on your PATH and PYTHONPATH variables when working with it. If you build other projects against your opencv, you'll need to point their build scripts at your custom install location. Leave those paths alone when doing brew tasks and other work, and brew won't care about your other install off to the side.

The OpenCV Install Guide has full details.

I tested this on my OS X 10.8.3 box. /usr stayed clean.

[✘ @ in ~/tmp/homebrew/opencv/install]
$ find /usr > before-install.txt
find: /usr/sbin/authserver: Permission denied
... did the whole build & install in another terminal ...
[✘ @ in ~/tmp/homebrew/opencv/install]
$ find /usr > after-install.txt
find: /usr/sbin/authserver: Permission denied
[✘ @ in ~/tmp/homebrew/opencv/install]
$ diff before-install.txt after-install.txt
[@ in ~/tmp/homebrew/opencv/install]
$


What's the difference of FaceTime App that came installed in my Retina Macbook Pro and the one that is in Mac App Store for $0.99? I checked that both apps (pre-installed and paid) have different version numbers.

FaceTime in the App Store is really only meant for users of 10.6 Snow Leopard.  As of 10.7 Lion, FaceTime comes pre-installed.

I'm not sure why Apple was charging for FaceTime in the first place.  Perhaps just testing the Apple Store sales model.


Grant Terminal Access to Web Cam I am currently working remotely due to the pandemic, and am attempting to identify the physical room that a set of lab iMacs are currently in. Our CMDB states that these machines are in Room A; however, another staff member states that they are in Room B. The location matters in this particular instance.

Since the subnets are the same for both rooms, we have no way of remotely identifying the location network-wise. I could, however, identify the location if I were to see through the webcam. I have SSH'd into Machine1, downloaded ffmpeg via curl and used this post to attempt taking a photo using the built-in camera.

Everything works well, except that Terminal does not have permission to access the web cam. Is there a command or CLI tool that allows me to set this permission?

Note that I am attempting to avoid enabling screen share to perform this permission setting task as I see it as more required cleanup in the end.

There is no documented workaround to short circuit this security control on macOS Catalina.

My recommendation is to use Screen Sharing and Remote Desktop since you can kickstart that on and off by command. Based on whether your macs are MDM managed, you may not be able to remotely grant access to the physical machines and have to physically go in or trace the ethernet MAC address to switch ports on the switch.

Possibly if you have only one version of macOS there’s something that might be possible, but the question as stands it would be best to use AppleRemote Desktop as the most trusted / privileged tool to remotely compromise the security of these Macs. You’re up against protections to prevent stealthy snooping, so the more you are acting like a proper remote administration, the less friction you will have and once Remote Desktop is set, cleanup is scriptable and very easy (and logged).

These controls must be user initiated, even with a fully functioning MDM like JAMF. You can report if a user has allowed or denied this, but Apple is blocking this pretty effectively in Summer 2020.

https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/35287/zoom-app-asks-for-admin-credentials-when-use-microphone-and-camera#responseChild200127


A keychain could not be found to store "" Just got a new Macbook, my first Mac in 5 years, and I'm having trouble getting it to save my Wifi network information. If I remember correctly, I was able to connect to the network at the office with no trouble, but when I try to connect to my home network, I get the error in the title: A keychain could not be found to store "<network name>".

I then get the option to Cancel or Reset to Defaults. When I select Cancel, it connects just fine, but won't reconnect if I leave the house and return, or shut wifi off and turn it back on. If I select Reset to Defaults, a dialog box pops up asking for my login password, but I can't type in the box. I click on the text box, but typing does nothing.

The issue was resolved by removing the network from the list of Preferred Networks: System Preferences --> Network Preferences --> Advanced --> Find network and click "-" to remove from list of networks. After that I restarted the computer, and was able to connect and save the network without issue.


Yosemite maximization shortcut and Java applications I'm using OSX Yosemite and I hate how windows maximization works... previously (with Mountain Lion) I was using RightZoom, in order to always maximize windows as it should be (using the whole space). I discovered that by clicking on the green button with ALT + SHIFT the maximization is applied as I like, BUT is very annoying... so I created a shortcut (CMD+SHIFT+M) by going to preferences > shortcuts > app shortcuts > clicking on "+" and creating a shortcut named "Zoom"... it works great for all the applications but not for the Java ones (or at least it does not work for Intellij Idea and PyCharm)... so... are app shortcuts available only for native Cocoa applications? Is there another way for a fast and simple maximization? (I was thinking about some kind of "defaults write blahblah", but I didn't find anything)

http://spectacleapp.com is a free app which will allow you to do all sorts of window manipulation on the Mac, including “Fullscreen” which really means “maximize”:

You can set your own keyboard shortcuts, of course.


How do you get monitor to shut off when screen is locked? When I lock my screen, the monitor does not shut off, even though the display is set to sleep after 10 minutes.  I suspect it is because one of the applications running is preventing sleep.  Is there a way to tell the mac to suspend the monitor in this situation?

Locking your screen and putting your display to sleep are two totally different things.  Locking your screen is preventing others from accessing your desktop and does not necessarily put your display to sleep.

There are a couple options for you to immediately put your display to sleep and lock the display:

Keyboard Shortcut:  If you want to put your display to sleep, use the keyboard shortcut  ^Control⇧ ShiftPower Button.

Hot Corners.  You can also set a Hot Corner.  Just move your mouse to the desired corner and it will put your display to sleep.

The key here, to get the display to lock and go to sleep  is to make sure that you have your security settings set to require a password (from "immediately" to "8 hours").


Python editor for ipad with mercurial support? Is there a text editor for ipad which supports python and mercurial? It would be even better if there were a solution that also allows one to run and develop with django.

Any suggestions?

I just don't believe that thing that you want yet exists1. But…

1) There is textastic which supports text highlighting for Python, Ruby, CSS and HTML and   it supports FTP, SFTP and WebDAV connectivity (but no version control support). It highlights 80 different file formats but not Django templates (you can edit them like it's just html).

2) GitHub supports online editing for any files under version control using their Ace Editor (of course it's not an app and it doesn't support mercurial yet, but anyway if you like DVCS you should like Git and their Hub too :).

3) Python for iOS. That's what you need for mercurial and Django right? But,
Python is scriptable language which is distributed under GPL compatible licence so Apple can just remove this appх from their App Store (because they don't like scripting stuff on their iOS devices and they hate GPL licence)

1 That's mainly because it's too amazing to exist.


How to disable recycle bin (Recently Deleted) of iOS 8 Photos app? Is it possible to delete photos without going through the "Recently Deleted" album in iOS 8?

There is one way I know of, if the device is jailbroken.  It's a free tweak on the "BigBoss" Cydia Repo (http://apt.thebigboss.org/repofiles/cydia/), called "NoRecentlyDeleted".

If your device is jailbroken, just search for "NoRecentlyDeleted" on Cydia, and install it.  After you install and respring your device, the photos you delete will no longer go into the "Recently Deleted" album in your photos app, and will instead be deleted from the device, as they were previously in iOS.

As of now, the tweak does not fully remove the "Recently Deleted" items album in the photos app, and it will still show there.  The author of the tweak plans on updating it in the near future, so the album is removed as well.

I hope this helps ;)

-James


How to force the new 10.10.3 Photo app to open in full screen after restart? Every time I start my new photo app, it NEVER starts in full-screen.
Even if its was previously closed in full-screen!

System Preferences > General > Uncheck "Close windows when quitting an application".


Carrier name in the status bar not showing I noticed my phone not displaying my carrier name (Vodafone UK) in the status bar at the top of the screen, but then after a few minutes it came back (I’m running iOS 12.3.1). Does anyone know what happened?

From searching around the internet I found a few users were experiencing this bug on iOS 12. If it comes back, you can update to iOS 13 and that should fix it.
You can also Update Your Carrier Settings:

Make sure your device is connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network.

Tap Settings > General > About. If an update is available, you'll see an option to update your carrier settings.

It could also be an issue with your carrier.