Simple File Transfer Logs This may be a general  Unix question rather than a OS X question.

I want to log general file transfers on OS X, whether it be from and to the same system or to another system, but to keep it simple assume that this is all internal to one computer and file system.

I simply want to be able to execute the mv command several times, then go back through a log file and see what was moved and where it was moved at a later time. The caveat is that I want to also log file transfers initiated the GUI when dragging folders and files into the same log file.

(If it was a directory, it would also show the contents of what was moved in that directory.)

An Example might be these files created and moved in the terminal and in the GUI

     1pm: $ vi testfile1.txt
     2pm: $ mv testfile1.txt MyMovedFile.txt
     2:30pm – GUI file moved  ~/myTestFile.txt ~/Documents/myTestFile.txt
     3pm: $ mv MyMovedFile.txt MyNewFile.txt

The log would then show the history for me:

     2pm: testfile1.txt MyMovedFile.txt
     2:30pm ~/myTestFile.txt ~/Documents/myTestFile.txt
     3pm: MyMovedFile.txt MyNewFile.txt

If it was really fancy, it may show me the return code of the file transfer also.

Have a look at iosnoop or possibly fs_usage. Although what you want isn't easy to accomplish without major filtering, because "file transfers" can be a lot of different things at syscall level:

mv on the same mount point will move a file
mv across mount points will create a new file at the destination and unlink the original
Other tools will do even more complex things, for example if you're downloading a file with a browser it will create an empty file and then append to it over time.

Both above tools rely on DTrace, which is a very powerful tracing framework and can probably be scripted to filter down to most of what you want, but it'll take some work. There are example scripts in /usr/bin/*.d (e.g. /usr/bin/iofile.d) and documentation can be found at Oracle (OS X DTrace is a port of the original Solaris version).


What can I do if the past purchases page does not load in iTunes store app on iPad? I have an iPad 3 and an iPhone 4 with the same iCloud account. On my iPhone I can load the past purchases page in iTunes Store app. The iPad does not load that page. It is light grey for a few seconds until it turns to a darker shade of grey. Nothing else happens.

Both devices run iOS 6.1.3. System language is German (if that matters).

I already restarted the iPad, logged out from and in to my account, activated Genius for apps (only to be able to deacivate it as suggested by some users with the same problem).

I have not yet completely restored my iPad. I only want to do that if nothing else would help.

Any ideas very much appreciated.

Disconnect and reconnect one last time from Settings / iTunes and App Store
Reset your network settings from Settings General / Reset
Make a backup and restore as new, connect with the AppleID and see if you can reproduce the issue "as new"


Can iTunes auto play a song related to the one I've just listened to (not in a playlist)? Is there a way to let iTunes automatically play a song after listening to a song I searched (not a part of a playlist), supposedly a "related" song?

I'm aiming for something like Youtube's "Up next" feature, also available on Soundcloud.

So, apparently that's the radio / station feature. Just need to click the three dots button of a song and select Start Station.

Thing is, that button (Start Station) was grayed out for me. According to a random suggestion I found here, I was able to solve it by deleting the preferences file from my library (%USERPROFILE%\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\.iTunes Preferences.plist on Windows 10).


Can't find any solution or product that'll add one more USB-C port to MacBook Pro13 Macbook 13 Pro. Two USB-C ports only

one used for charging
one used to connect to a monitor
I need another one for a USB-C to ethernet adapter

Is there a USB-C hub anywhere in existence? I can't find anything on Amazon to my amazement. I need 3 USB-C ports on my MBP.

Your question will likely elicit opinion-based answers, but what you are looking for is a Thunderbolt 3 dock. These can include USB-C, USB 3.0, Thunderbolt 2 and 3 ports, gigabit ethernet, FireWire 800, SD card slots, HDMI, DisplayPort, audio jacks, and so on.

Prices range from a little over $100 to more than $400, depending on what connectors and how many are included. See this page here to get some ideas, but you are looking for a Thunderbolt 3 dock.


trying to retreive txt messages from old disconnected iphone 4s i have a iphone 4s which is not currently connected but i am wanting to get old text messages from in but for some reason the conversation only goes back so far and does not contain the entire conversation which could have partly included imessages as well

You might have already tried all basic troubleshooting, but if not, it’s worth trying

a force restart or/and
iPhone Reset: Tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings
logging out and back in to your iCloud account

Let me know if any of these worked.


Why can't I access File Sharing when Open Directory is enabled in macOS Mojave? Here's the procedure I have followed:

Install a fresh copy of macOS Mojave to an APFS volume
Perform initial OS configuration and create 'admin' user at first launch. Assign a static IP from 192.168.168.0/24 private network. Use a DNS server located in private network. Ensure IP resolves to a FQDN ('test.mydomain.com') and vice versa.
Download macOS Server application (5.7) from App Store
Open macOS Server application
Create a new Open Directory domain with default options
Create a new user 'testuser' to Local Network Directory
Create a new group 'testgroup' to Local Network Directory
Assign newly created 'testuser' to 'testgroup'
Open System Preferences application
Open Sharing preferences
Enable File Sharing
Create a Shared Folder 'myshare' and assign 'testgroup' and 'admin' Read&Write access to it
Select 'myshare' and click Options button to ensure SMB sharing is enabled for it
Attempt to connect to the file server from a client computer within the same subnet via smb://test.mydomain.com/myshare or alternatively smb://192.168.168.X/myshare either using 'admin' or 'testuser' credentials

In the last step connection fails for both 'admin' and 'testuser' accounts. If I turn Open Directory to Off, I can connect with 'admin' user. Restarts in any phase of the procedure make no difference.

Why can't I access SMB when Open Directory is enabled?

Here are the opendirectoryd log entries from creating the OD master (step 5): https://pastebin.com/uQm8b8NM

Here are the opendirectoryd and smbd log entries from login attempt (step 14): https://pastebin.com/U2RS3LYC & https://pastebin.com/7bFNfd8V

The issue is the ACLs are not set up in the local directory for SMB and AFP. These used to be created in the older Server apps that had File Sharing in them. I've written an AppleScript that takes care of all this. It creates the appropriate ACL groups in the directory (/Local/Default/Groups/com.apple.access_smb and com.apple.access_afp), then adds all the users to it. The script is below. I threw it together today trying to solve this very issue. Hopefully it will help others.

-- Script to sort out ACLs for file sharing
set savedDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters

display alert "Setup File Sharing ACLs" message "This script will set up the appropriate ACLs in the local directory to allow users to connect to file sharing on a macOS 10.14 server with OpenDirectory.

WARNING: Changes will be made to your local directory. Administrator privileges are required (you will be prompted for a password).

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Set for all users, or only a single user?" buttons {"Cancel", "All Users", "Single User"} default button "Single User" cancel button "Cancel"

if button returned of result = "All Users" then
    set progress description to "Loading User List..."
    -- Load all directory users from the server
    -- (identified by UserShell value of '/bin/bash'; most likely to be normal users)
    -- The delimiter is horrible, but it's the only way to do it
    set delimiter to tab & tab & "UserShell = (" & return & "    \"/bin/bash\"" & return & ")"
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {delimiter & return, delimiter}
    set users to every text item of (do shell script "dscl /LDAPv3/127.0.0.1 search /Users UserShell \"/bin/bash\"")
else if button returned of result = "Single User" then
    repeat
        set username to the text returned of (display dialog "Enter Username:" default answer "" with icon note)
        if username is "" then
            display alert "Please enter username, or click cancel to end"
        else
            exit repeat
        end if
    end repeat
    -- Add blank element to end, as this happens with output from dscl above
    set users to {username, ""}
end if

-- Create the SMB & AFP ACL groups if necessary (this may be the first user)
createACLGroup("afp", 250)
createACLGroup("smb", 110)
-- Go through all the users now
set total to (length of users) - 1
set progress total steps to total
set progress description to "Adding Users to ACLs..."
set current to 0
repeat with idx from 1 to total
    -- Need to use indexed repeat because of issue with missing username in list from dscl
    set username to item idx of users
    try
        set progress completed steps to current
        set progress additional description to "User " & (current + 1) & " of " & total & " (" & username & ")"
        -- Now, check to see if the user is already in the file sharing lists
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {" "} -- Split words, not letters!
        set currList to every text item of (do shell script "dscl /Local/Default read Groups/com.apple.access_smb GroupMembership")
        if username is in currList and length of users is 1 then
            -- Only alert if in single user mode
            display alert "Username already set up"
        else
            -- Go ahead and set it up
            -- Firstly, get the user's GeneratedUID from the LDAP directory
            set isError to false
            try
                set guid to second item of (every text item of (do shell script "dscl /LDAPv3/127.0.0.1 read Users/" & username & " GeneratedUID"))
            on error
                display alert "Error" message "User " & username & " is not a directory user"
                set isError to true
            end try
            if not isError then
                -- Add the user to the group
                addUserToACL("afp", username, guid)
                addUserToACL("smb", username, guid)
            end if
        end if
        set current to current + 1
    on error
        -- Likely an empty username from the delimiters tokenising the list from dscl
    end try
end repeat
set current to total
display alert "Process completed!"

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to savedDelimiters

on createACLGroup(acltype, groupid)
    try
        do shell script "dscl /Local/Default read Groups/com.apple.access_smb"
    on error
        -- Doesn't exist, so we need to create it!
        do shell script "dscl /Local/Default create Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype with administrator privileges
        do shell script "dscl /Local/Default create Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype & " RealName \"" & changeCaseOfText(acltype, "upper") & " ACL\"" with administrator privileges
        do shell script "dscl /Local/Default create Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype & " PrimaryGroupID " & groupid with administrator privileges
    end try
end createACLGroup

on addUserToACL(acltype, username, guid)
    do shell script "dscl /Local/Default append Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype & "  GroupMembership " & username with administrator privileges
    do shell script "dscl /Local/Default append Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype & " GroupMembers " & guid with administrator privileges
end addUserToACL

on changeCaseOfText(theText, theCaseToSwitchTo)
    if theCaseToSwitchTo contains "lower" then
        set theComparisonCharacters to "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
        set theSourceCharacters to "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
    else if theCaseToSwitchTo contains "upper" then
        set theComparisonCharacters to "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
        set theSourceCharacters to "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
    else
        return theText
    end if
    set theAlteredText to ""
    repeat with aCharacter in theText
        set theOffset to offset of aCharacter in theComparisonCharacters
        if theOffset is not 0 then
            set theAlteredText to (theAlteredText & character theOffset of theSourceCharacters) as string
        else
            set theAlteredText to (theAlteredText & aCharacter) as string
        end if
    end repeat
    return theAlteredText
end changeCaseOfText


How can I get my Verizon apple Iphone to straightalk? I have a Verizon iPhone and I want to hook it up with Straight Talk. Can anyone help me?

I use my iPhone from Verizon (not unlocked by Verizon) in Thailand, where they don't provide any kind of Straight talk.
So I just disabled in Settings all sort of use of my [integrated] US number, and added my Apple ID. Thou it is now used more like iPod Touch, but I am pretty accessible true iMessage, FaceTime, Viber, Facebook, etc... And all this only when I am in a Wi-Fi reachable area.

So IMO, to not use Verizon services with Verizon iPhone - this would be one option to do so...


Using Automator to recall open Windows of (multiple) Applications I would like to  assign numbers to open Windows of (multiple) Applications with a keyboard shortcuts like:

Cmd+1 (different numbers for different windows)

and then recall them (along with their Desktop/space) with a keyboard shortcut like:

⌘+1

Some of the main Applications I use are iTerm, Emacs, Chrome, Outlook (Calendar) and Outlook (Inbox).

The specific modifier for each action does not matter much. I used to do this with AutoHotkey in Windows. How can I do this with Mac OS X? I was told Automator  can help with this (IronAHK seems to not be available anymore)

I do not know the effectiveness of assigning numbers to the windows,

since I would forget who is who after the third window or after 5 minutes.

I use the cmd + tab to see the open windows and then select the one I want.

That works showing open windows by application, and to see them within the application like Chrome use the ctrl + tab.

But that's me, so let's hope someone will be kind enough to spend time writing the script for you since you asked so nicely.

This might be also something for you: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11158


Add striped effect to own events in Calendar.app Sometimes I see events like these on external calendars shown in my Calendar.app:

There is a striped pattern behind it. Makes it look cancelled.
How do I add this effect to events that I create myself?

That is how Calendar indicates that you have responded with a 'Maybe' to the meeting invite. There isn't a way that you can create your own meeting and respond to yourself with a maybe. However, you could create a separate calendar account and send yourself (original calendar) invites, to which you respond 'Maybe'.


Ease of access to playlists on iOS 10 I currently use iOS 9 on an iPhone SE. I frequently use the Music app to play a specific playlist of relaxing music before bed, so I like that from opening the Music app the playlists list is easily accessible. (The playlists tab is always on the bottom, unless a song is playing in which case I must minimize that first). And I can often bring up that particular playlist in the app so later when I go to the Music app it's right there for me to tap the first song.

My concern is with the Music redesign in iOS 10, which I have not personally used and is part of my reason to be hesitant about upgrading. My question is, how easy is it to access playlists (and other parts of the app, like artists or songs), and is it easy to open a playlist so it will be there for me next time I open the app?

Disclaimer: I have an iPhone SE on iOS 10, but my music is solely synced from iTunes, so I can’t speak for Apple Music playlists.

It should be relatively easy, Playlists is the very first option upon opening the Music app to your library:

And you can easily have the playlist open while you listen to a song so you’re ready to hit play at a later time:

As long as you don’t force quit the app its state will go unchanged and it'll show whichever part of the app you were on before hitting the home button when you reopen it.


Is there a way to see the invisible formatting in my clipboard and/or create the formatting when piping to pbcopy? Is there a way to see the contents of my clipboard in a way that shows me what formatting metadata is included?

Or to get to the question behind the question: is there a way to generate output in a script so that if I pipe the output to pbcopy it will include the formatting?

Specific example: if I write a script that generates a newline-delimited list of names, and then paste it into a table in Confluence, it will just dump the results into a single cell. I'd like to be able to paste it so that the whole column is filled up (with one name per cell).

I can do this by pasting the results into a Google Spreadsheet and then re-copying the column from Google Spreadsheet. For some reason that adds invisible formatting that allows me to paste the cells into Confluence, but when I inspect the clipboard (in Finder's Edit->Show Clipboard, or using pbpaste | hexdump) it seems exactly the same as the output of my script. I've often had this problem with formatting text for the clipboard, and I'd really like to know what tricks there are for viewing and generating this magical invisible formatting.

An thing on the clipboard is actually an OO-style object which has methods to render itself appropriately in each context.  So the reason that your hex dump from PBCOPY is the same even when the object on the clipboard is different is because the text-only renderings are both the same.

Just as a file on the clip board will render as its ascii file path in contexts that only accept text pastes.  I believe that pbcopy and pbpaste only operate with this textual format for the objects on the clipboard, so you cannot use them to do what you are aiming to do.

If I understand your objective correctly, you could hack it, by using an application like textedit, and feed the application as an rtf (rich text formatted file) then send a COMMAND-A, then COMMAND-C to the text edit application  (or perhaps a text-edit specific dictionary commands).

This is really hacky, and it would result in visible action on your screen, but it would be a scripted way to get ascii encoded markup onto the clipboard.

Post a follow up, if you want help implementing this.


macOS: Can't mount exFAT External Drive I have a Western Digital MyBook (25EE) 8TB External Drive. It is formatted with exFAT. I can't recall exactly how it was formatted, but I believe it was done with Synology's DiskStation for my Synology NAS.  I am able to mount and read the drive when I connect it to the NAS, but not on macOS Sierra 10.12.6.
The drive shows up in Disk Utility, but mounting does nothing. I have run "First Aid" with no errors.

Disk Utility incorrectly thinks that the usage is 8/8 TB. As can be in a screenshot below, usage is around 4.2/8 TB. The drive mainly contains a Synology HyperBackup file (.hbk) which makes up almost single-handedly all of those 4.2 TB.
According to Synology DiskStation, the main partition is exFAT and I think the EFI  partition is vfat:

The drive also shows up in diskutil as disk2s2 but I can't mount it:

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *8.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data WD My Book              8.0 TB     disk2s2

$ mount disk2s2
mount: disk2s2: unknown special file or file system.

$ diskutil mountDisk disk2
One or more volume(s) failed to mount

NB: (I tried following these instructions for FUSE for macOS, but I suppose they're not really relevant since exFAT should be supported natively in macOS these days.)
I don't have the faintest idea where to start on this issue – what could be the problem here?

Edit 1: Block Sizes
macOS:

$ diskutil info disk2 | grep "Block Size"
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

$ diskutil info disk2s1 | grep "Block Size"
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

$ diskutil info disk2s2 | grep "Block Size"
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

Synology SSH:
Used fdisk -l. Notice the GPT PMBR size mismatch – maybe it has some relevance?

GPT PMBR size mismatch (4294967294 != 2743150591) will be corrected by w(rite).
Disk /dev/sdq: 7.3 TiB, 8001562869760 bytes, 15628052480 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt

Device      Start         End     Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdq1      40      409639      409600  200M EFI System
/dev/sdq2  411648 15628050431 15627638784  7.3T Microsoft basic data

Edit 2: GPT

$ sudo gpt -r show disk2

        start         size  index  contents
            0            1         PMBR
            1            1         Pri GPT header
            2           32         Pri GPT table
           34            6
           40       409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93E####
       409640         2008
       411648  15627638784      2  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B726####
  15628050432         2015
  15628052447           32         Sec GPT table
  15628052479            1         Sec GPT header

Edit 3: Mounting EFI
Apparently macOS is able to mount and Finder list the contents of the EFI.

$ diskutil mountDisk disk2
One or more volume(s) failed to mount

The volume that fails to mount is the primary exFAT volume. macOS requires the EFI volume to be unmounted or it will complain about not properly ejecting disks.

If your ExFAT drive is not mounting, here is the solution.

sudo pkill -f fsck

fsck was holding the disk hostage. A quick ps aux | grep fsck revealed that indeed it was hijacking the disk/volume as soon as it was plugged in. sudo pkill -f fsck (or just kill with the PID if you prefer) immediately allowed the volume to be mounted.

Then to make the hard drive writable, you have to run the Disk Utility "S.O.S.", unmount then mount it again.


Will iPhone 6 cost you $649 over two years? After reading this page online, I got stunned, please go through the link, you will find that it says:

  While Apple and the major wireless carriers usually advertise the iPhone 6′s $199 price, that’s just the starting price for those that are signing up for a two-year contract and are eligible for an upgrade. The full retail price for the 16GB iPhone 6 is actually $649 and a lot of people are going to spend that much or more either upfront or through a payment scheme like Verizon Edge, which is essentially a payment plan that spreads the $649 cost over 20 months and allows subscribers to upgrade to the next generation iPhone after just a year.

My question is, is it a good idea to use a payment scheme like Verizon Edge with the iPhone 6?

Verizon Edge is a program that provides you the flexibility to upgrade
  early, and pay for your device over 20 months rather than paying for
  it all upfront. You’ll make a monthly payment until your device is
  paid off.

  After 30 days, if you’ve paid at least 60% of the Edge device,
  you’ll have the option to Edge Up to a new device without any upgrade
  fees.

What does it mean?

You will have a 2 Years contract with Verizon and have to pay the additional Verizon service costs (phone+Data). Now each time you Edge up to next phone the clock starts all over again. (2 Years contract).

The only benefit is you do not have to spend the cost of the iPhone up front, but over 2 Years, and the ability to get a newer model.

For Verizon you will pay >$60/M for network services. With some other providers you will pay $40/M for about the same services.  Difference of 720/480 is $240 per Year that you pay more.

So you actual cost after 2 Year with Verizon is 649+720+720 =$2089, while direct buy will cost you 649+480+480= $1609.


Thunderbolt and USB logo on screen I was trying to refresh my MacBook Air because I had just purchased a veikk A15 pen tablet and was trying to connect it to my MacBook Air. The instructions told me to refresh my MacBook Air and so I did. But then a USB and thunderbolt logo appears on my screen and won’t load my computer. This MacBook Air as no thunderbolt or USB port.

What has happened to my Mac?

These symbols are displayed when a Mac boots into target disk mode. Usually you activate it by pressing T at startup (different startup key combinations). Another option is to go into settings → startup disk → target disk mode.
You can simply restart your machine and it should boot normal. If it does not, disconnect all peripherals (mice, keyboards,...) and try again.
Target disk mode makes your internal hard-drive accessible to connected Macs via Thunderbolt/FireWire. Read more about target disk mode here or here.

If this still boots into target disk mode, then your T is broken and continuously sending a pressed state to your MBA (MacBookAir) which can only be solved by repair.

Note: I assume by refresh you mean reboot.


How to stop auto music playing on Bluetooth connect My mom got an iPhone 6s, and she LOVES it. There is one problem. When she connects to her car Bluetooth (the car is a 2012 Toyota Sienna LE), it automatically plays music, even without opening the music app. She tried Siri, opening and closing the music app, and turning off Bluetooth entirely. None of these work. So, is there a setting or a trick to stop music from playing automatically after she connects to Bluetooth?

I created a song called "AAA Silence" that fixes this problem at least for iPhones (by being 79 minutes of silence that should always be the first song alphabetically on your phone), and I put it on the iTunes Store and on CD Baby. You can just search for "AAA Silence" in the iTunes Store or on CD Baby to get it. Alternately, you can get direct links to buy it and read more about it at http://aaasilence.com/


Music files showing up on iPhone, but not in iTunes library. How to get rid of them In iTunes, in "On This iPhone" I have all of my music files deleted, but on my iPhone in the "Music" app it shows a bunch of my old music albums and files, opening an album it has the "Download from Cloud" icon to the right, so it is not really on the iPhone.

How can I get rid of all these old albums/files cluttering my iPhone Music app? I will never want to download them from the cloud, and they are still there even after I tried restoring my phone.

Thank you.

Settings > music > show all music - toggle to off.


What software is available changing the default maximize button behavior in this video? The still from this video (see image below) shows non-standard window maximization control options. Upon mouse hover on the + in the normal close, minimize, maximize controls (top-left of each window), a pop-up bubble is shown.

How can I enable these maximization options for my Mac?

That's Moom. Very handy app for various window management.

The site has a general options list as well for the window management category at: What Window Management Options exist for OS X?


How to get execution time of an AppleScript? I have seen some more advanced AppleScript users mention efficiency of their AppleScripts in terms of execution time.
Is there an AppleScript method for getting the execution time?
I know there is time when calling do shell script. I have this working in a loop:
set googURL to (do shell script "{ time googler --np -n 1 -w imdb.com " & movie_title & " " & movie_year & " | grep https | sed -e 's/^[ \t]*//' ; } 2>> ~/Desktop/time.txt")

(on a side note I couldn't figure out how to get the output of the time command to output to Replies, it was being interpreted as part of the grep command)
I want to get the time it takes to execute the entire AppleScript.

Here is one AppleScript solution that you may be interested in.
set startTime to current date

-- Your Code Here

set timeTaken to ((current date) - startTime as string) & " Seconds"

activate
display alert "Script Timer" message "Running This Code Took " & ¬
    timeTaken buttons {"OK"} giving up after 5

This is just a general solution which will return the value in seconds (whole).  This will not return fractions of seconds.


how can I fix disk permissions on a headless Mac that won't boot? I've made the mistake of changing the "everyone" permissions for the root of my Mac Mini server's startup drive to "none".

(I believe) this would be fairly easy to fix with the Recovery Partition - except this is a headless server, and I can't locate my Mini-DVI adapter, so I'm monitor-less.

my question is: would it be possible for me to boot my Mini to Target Disk Mode, then connect it to my MacBook, and boot the MacBook from the Mini's recovery partition, to fix the permissions? I'm asking because I don't own the necessary FireWire cable, but I'll buy one if it can fix this issue.

or, possibly, could I repair this using Disk Utility on the MacBook's own drive?

Two options:

You can repair permissions using Target Disk Mode from your MacBook - as you mentioned, you'll need a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable to do so. No need to use the recovery partition on the Mini - you can use Disk Utility on the MacBook to repair the drive on the Mini. In order to use Target Mode on a headless machine that won't boot, hold the 'T' key down during startup.
Alternatively - since you need to buy a cable, you could instead buy an adapter to connect a monitor (if you have one) & repair using the recovery partition on the Mini.

I'd have both options on hand in case of issues. Target Disk Mode will work if you have a keyboard & a FireWire cable.


2x TB from MBPr to display PBP on 4k monitor I have MBPr 13" early 2013, as it does not support 4k at 60Hz, I was wondering if I can use both TB ports (max TB resolution is 2560x1600) to push image to a 4k display using picture by picture functionality? I would flip them vertically.

Any experience with this idea?

Backup plan is to pick up two 2560x1440 monitors :D

Picture by picture does work, but window snapping to screen disables you from using the centre of the screen. Test the setup if you are thinking about it.

I went with dual QHD screens and it works great. Also, the internal screen can be driven along them without any problem/


MacOs Terminal zsh - cannot use ansi my .bash_profile is setting up my prompt like this
parse_git_branch() {
  git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/ (\1)/'
}

export PS1="\u@\h \W\[\033[32m\]\$(parse_git_branch)\[\033[00m\] $ "

however, the result is that my prompt looks like this:
\u@\h \W\[\033[32m\]$(parse_git_branch)\[\033[00m\] $

Just to get the username I tried the following so ANSI could be used in zsh
PROMPT=$'%{\u%}'

but the prompt became empty, like if \u was ignored.
How could ANSI be used as usual within zsh?

Zsh provides a very easy way to add color to your prompt; you don't need Escape codes.
PROMPT='%F{blue}%n%f %#'

%F = Sets foreground color defined in braces {}
%f = resets to default foreground color
%n = username

You can even access the 256 color pallet for your colors by specifying the number within the braces - %F{146} for “light steel blue“
For a detailed list of all the codes and what they do, see the official Zsh Documentation - Chapter 13 Visual Effects.


Horizontal scrolling on nedit with trackpad under XQuartz - MacOS Catalina I use sometimes the nedit editor with XQuartz on my MacBook pro. Everything works fine except the fact that I can't do horizontal scrolling with trackpad of the content of the file opened with nedit.

This is relatively frustrating, mostly when lines are long, I am obliged to scroll using the horizontal scroll bar of nedit (at the bottom of the window).

So I am wondering if there is a way to do horizontal scrolling directly wwith trackpad. I am using MacOS Catalina 10.15.1.

Thanks for your suggestions.

I use nedit and I can't scroll horizontally with my mouse. I have to manually move the scroll by clicking in the scroll bar at bottom of page. I don't have a trackpad to test with. If I place the cursor on a line and then click, hold and move the cursor to the right, then the page will scroll left.


How to downgrade macOS and restore settings from newer time machine I tried macOS Sierra and now I want to go back to El Capitan. I have backups from both OS versions on the drive but Time Machine is saying that I can't restore from that drive.

How do I restore my settings from Time Machine to El Capitan?

I just had to boot the computer with the drive attached and holding the alt/option key. I picked the Time Machine drive to restore from and it actually let me choose an older backup to restore from. It conveniently labeled the OS versions as well. It wiped my drive and restored everything.


Can I add music to iPhone from a computer without my full library? I just got a new MacBook, and I won't be able to restore the files from my previous MacBook (which isn't with me) for a couple of weeks. That older computer has my music library and syncs with my iPhone. In the meantime I'd like to add a couple of albums from my new laptop if possible. Can I add those albums from iTunes without deleting all the music already on my iPhone?

No, the phone can only be synced with one computer over the cable. If you purchase an apple music subscription, your music is cloud-hosted and you have more flexibility.


Update iPod touch OS remotely I currently live in an area that has very poor internet connection. I can log in to iTunes but it would cost a fortune to download the updates to the OS. Is there a way I can have somebody bring the OS update on a thumb drive and load it from there?

When you plug in the iPod touch, Alt- or Option ⌥-click the device's "Restore" button in iTunes. This will allow you to choose the appropriate ipsw file to load on the device.

Have someone download the appropriate firmware for your device. Below are links to Apple's downloads of the 4.2.1 firmware.

iPod touch 2G firmware 4.2.1
iPod touch 3G firmware 4.2.1
iPod touch 4G firmware 4.2.1


How to clear OSX cached applications? I'm having a very strange bug with an application. I've tried to update it but it keeps showing up the old version. I've tried deleting it too, but when I run open -a MyApplication.app it opens it again, even though I'm sure it's not anywhere. If after that I try to install again the new version, it's still showing the old one.

So I assume OSX is caching it somewhere. Does anybody know where this cache is or how to clear it?

I had the same issue once. I solved it by running AppFresh and scan to check if all apps are updated. When you find the one that gives you trouble, you can right-click and choose Reveal in Finder, and delete it.


Keeping a PDF article's bibliography always visible While reading an article, I like to keep the bibliography pages at the tail of the article visible at the same time as I am going through the pages of the article.

Two obvious ways for doing this are

Open the pdf article twice, once with Preview and another with Adobe Reader.
Temporarily make a copy of the article and open both with Preview.

Am I omitting something? Is there really no natural/easier way to do this on a Mac?

In Adobe Reader, when reading your document, you can choose "New Window" to view two different spots in the same document.  Do it again if you want to view three spots.


Apple program to view images on Windows OS I recently updated iTunes on my windows 7 computer. Long time ago i set the default program to open image files on my commuter to an Apple program but after I updated iTunes that program is now gone or the settings have changed. I don't know the name of the program but it's an apple program that got changed after I updated iTunes. I've tried reinstalling Quicktime but that's not it.

I liked my old default image viewer because it was clean and simple and it did everything i wanted. Can anyone tell me the name of the program so I can choose that program as the default image opener?

You should use windows system restore to go back in time and find the name of that pretty software, once you found it, restore to present and re-install/active it.


my hostname is not my laptop name My laptop's hostname appears to be Georges-MacBook-Pro-Mid-2145.local,

$ hostname
Georges-MacBook-Pro-Mid-2145.local

Why is the number reported here 2145 instead of 2015? (I own a MacBook Pro Mid-2015, so I was expecting the host name to be Georges-MacBook-Pro-Mid-2015.local).

Did I do something wrong somewhere while twiddling about in the terminal or is it normal that the last numbers are... "random" (?)

Have you tried clicking the edit button that's right next to the hostname that you want to edit?


Batch compress multiple folders into individual zip files I have dozens of folders that I need to compress into individual zip files.

If I select all of these folders in the Finder and do "Compress [X] Items," I get one zip file containing all of the folders, whereas what I want is one zip file per folder.

I tried creating a workflow with Automator using the "Create Archive" action, but it behaves the same way: inputting multiple files/folders outputs a single zip file. There's no way to specify that the action run on each item individually.

Basically, I'm looking for a way to avoid having to tediously run "Compress" in the Finder on every single folder one at a time. Is there any way to automate this?

There's an alternative solution that's built-in if you don't want to use Automator and are fine with changing Archive Utility's settings.

Open the Archive Utility.app located in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/
Go to File > Preferences
Change the "Use Archive Format" preference to "Zip archive"
Drag and drop the folders into its icon in the dock.


New desktops get randomly created I use two monitors on this Macbook Pro running Mavericks. I never use more than one "desktop", however once every few days, I see a random number of new desktops created - usually between 2-3 but sometimes there are as many as 7-10.

The desktops do not remove themselves so some days I end up having more than 12 spare desktops.

There is no wallpaper or icons on my desktop.

What causes the new desktops to be created spontaneously?

I have the same issue and I'm looking for a solution. However, I think I know the cause...

When you unplug a monitor the OS creates a new Desktop for the lost screen and moves all the windows onto your laptop screen. When you plug back in it thinks you want that extra Desktop so it doesn't re-use it for the monitor, then when you unplug again it creates a new one. For people who rarely use the Desktops / Spaces feature (or mission control) these extra desktops can build up and you only notice them on the rare occasions you go into mission control. I sometimes find 20 or more Desktops there.

I'm not sure if this is exactly correct, or how to solve it, but I think this is what causes multiple Desktops to keep appearing.


What can I do once my jailbroken iPhone gets a data plan attached by AT&T? I noticed my phone bill had a data plan attached this month to my jailbroken iPhone -- is there any way to get around this?

You're going to have to talk to AT&T and have them remove the data plan, unless you're under contract for a data plan (as all new iPhones are) they should be able to take it off your next bill. Jailbreaking really doesn't have anything to do with this.


Are macOS dictionary definitions accessible via the Web? What is the data source for definitions in Dictionary.app on macOS? Is it a first-party or a third-party source? Are the definitions available online?

If you go to preferences for Dictionary you can see the source of the Dictionary and choose which source you want to use. I use the New Oxford American Dictionary.


Is Windows 8 fully compatible with latest Macbook Air 13"? I am planning the next laptop and I really like the Macbook Air 13" hardware, looks, and weight. On the other hand, for certain reasons I need Windows, so in case I stick with buying MBA13" I am going to remove OSX and install W8 instead.

One of my biggest concerns here is whether W8 is fully compatible with MBA. I really would like all features work correctly - webcam, brightness/volume buttons, mic, cooling fan control, close/open lid, etc.

Yes it is fully compatible. But since Windows 8 is heavily dependent on multi touch gestures, and the trackpad driver of a mac isn't the best... well its not recommended. I use bootcamp with Windows 8, but since Apple are the one who need to upgrade and update both the drivers and the bootcamp for almost every major Windows realise the experince might not be as good as a "native" pc, by this I mean you can get third party drivers, as I did, and it does work, but if you buy a Mac for the hardware I suggest you look at other alternatives as it doesn't function as well with Windows as it does with Mac!

You can get look alikes that perform better on Windows! I can say personally I buy Macs because of MAC OS X the hardware is only a plus, if I wasnt going to use Mac software i would probably look in to the Samsung Series 9. However the options are many, but if your main use is to buy a Mac in order to use Windows, I personally recommend you to look elsewhere, and if you are planning on partitioning your drive and only install Windows, well honestly you can get better hardware for less money. although probably uglier! (some exceptions)

-this is from an avid mac and pc user-

If you have any questions, concerns, or need any assistance in future, please don't hesitate to reply to me. I'll be happy to assist you further.

Update 1:

Well except for the core i7 which can probably be configured in store, you can get most ultrabooks cheaper and update the ram and ssd yourself, I think my favorite pc-ultrabook (samsung series 9) is easy to upgrade yourself!
here are some links however

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407200,00.asp

http://www.theverge.com/products/aspire-s7-13-3-inch/5713

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/3135319/asus-zenbook-prime-ux31a-review

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/13/lenovo-ideapad-u300s-review/

still, go in to a store and try and feel them out, focus on the trackpad! Especially in windows 8


Video file does not appear under Windows Explorer I have a Windows 10 pc and attached an iPhone 6S to it. All files appear in Windows Explorer except one. It is a 4K Video going over 13 minutes. Is it too big? Is the file system the problem?

You have to install iTunes to get a better driver. With this the 4 GB file is recognized. The default Win 10 driver can't do this ...


How can I remove a VPN service when the remove button is disabled? I added a VPN config. Now I want to remove it, but the - button is gray and disabled.

I checked some answers from this Apple Support Communities thread:

  In Terminal: networksetup -listallnetworkservices
  In Terminal: networksetup -removenetworkservice networkservice
  In Terminal: networksetup -listallnetworkservices

…but I cannot remove all.

How can I fix this issue?

To remove the VPN Profile from your Mac:

System Preference > Profile > Vpn One Click > Remove.


How to click button with applescript using UI Element Inspector I am new to applescript. I am trying to open a webpage, and click a button on that webpage.

here is my script:

tell application "Safari" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    tell application "System Events" to open location "https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8"
    click button "View In iTunes" of window "iBooks for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store"
end tell

here is my info gathered from inspector:

<AXApplication: “Safari”>
 <AXWindow: “iBooks for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store”>
  <AXGroup>
   <AXGroup>
    <AXGroup>
     <AXScrollArea: “”>
      <AXWebArea: “”>
       <AXLink: “View In iTunes
”>
        <AXGroup: “”>

Attributes:
   AXRole:  “AXGroup”
   AXSubrole:  “(null)”
   AXRoleDescription:  “group”
   AXChildren:  “<array of size 1>”
   AXHelp:  “”
   AXParent:  “<AXLink: “View In iTunes
”>”
   AXPosition:  “x=-9566 y=574”
   AXSize:  “w=10105 h=23”
   AXTitle:  “”
   AXDescription:  “”
   AXValue:  “”
   AXFocused:  “0”
   AXEnabled:  “1”
   AXWindow:  “<AXWindow: “iBooks for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store”>”
   AXSelectedTextMarkerRange (W):  “(null)”
   AXStartTextMarker:  “<AXTextMarker 0x100151f70 [0x7fff77fa1110]>{length = 24, bytes = 0x070000000000000078140319010000000000000001000000}”
   AXEndTextMarker:  “<AXTextMarker 0x100177c50 [0x7fff77fa1110]>{length = 24, bytes = 0x9a00000000000000c09de015010000000e00000001000000}”
   AXVisited:  “0”
   AXLinkedUIElements:  “(null)”
   AXSelected:  “0”
   AXBlockQuoteLevel:  “0”
   AXTopLevelUIElement:  “<AXWindow: “iBooks for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store”>”
   AXTitleUIElement:  “(null)”

Actions:
   AXPress - press
   AXShowMenu - show menu

How do I click the "View in iTunes" button?

This is the easiest way...

tell application "Safari"
    if not (exists document 1) then reopen
    activate
    set URL of document 1 to "https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193"
    delay 3
    do JavaScript "document.getElementsByClassName('lockup product application')[0].childNodes[3].onclick()" in document 1
end tell


How do I get current location by using Google Map or Apple Map How do I get current location coordinate by using Google Map or Apple Map?

I want to copy and paste to email/whatsapp/waze.

I want some kind of this format. 3.1739161,101.984351

Anyone can help?

I've never understood why we couldn't get location coordinates from Apple Maps etc. Seems like such an obvious function.

However, you can use the default Compass app and it'll give you your current location at bottom of screen. See screenshot below for the format these appear in:

Otherwise you can also download dedicated GPS Location apps as well if you need different formats.

[EDIT]

Just thought I should add that tapping on the coordinates in the Compass app will then open the location in Apple Maps.


iPad Air 2 Data Transfer I recently purchased a new iPad Air 2. My old iPad had the most recent iOS installed, and had been backed up. On some games, my data transferred, but on others, I lost all of my progress.

Since most items seem to have transferred, it sounds like the games weren't included in the backup of your old iPad. It is also possible these games required you to sign in with the same Game Center account to associate the new device with your progress.


on-demand launch agent restarting automatically As title says I have created a on-demand launch agent that listens to socket and is launched on incoming connection. It works well and after it has done it's job I want to quit it. After quitting system automatically restarts it, OS probably thinks it died accidentally. How can I stop this behaviour? My launch agent is a Cocoa application (without GUI), I have tried quitting with 'exit(EXIT_SUCCESS)' and '[[NSApplication sharedApplication] terminate:self]'

My launchd plist is below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.mycompany.mylaunchagent</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>/Library/Application Support/com.mycompany.myproduct/myproduct.app/Contents/MacOS/myproduct</string>
</array>
<key>ServiceIPC</key>
<true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<false/>
<key>Sockets</key>
<dict>
    <key>MyListenerSocket</key>
    <dict>
        <key>SockServiceName</key>
        <string>12040</string>
    </dict>
</dict>

It probably won't help, but you could try sleeping for a few seconds before exiting. From Daemons and Services Programming Guide:

  Important: If your daemon shuts down too quickly after being launched, launchd may think it has crashed. Daemons that continue this behavior may be suspended and not launched again when future requests arrive. To avoid this behavior, do not shut down for at least 10 seconds after launch.


Install a clean Mavericks and then use TimeMachine makes it unclean again? I am about to install OSX Mavericks in an iMac I have.
I would love to make a clean install (creating the bootable USB with that complex procedure).

I was thinking about copying folder by folder but thinking about iTunes, iMovie and iPhoto makes things more complicate as they are stored in the library folder and it can carry more than one problem I guess.

I was wondering if that "clean" install will again become "dirty" if I restore everything with the copy I have in TimeMachine.

Would that also transfer preferences and things which could interfere with the new installation?

It depends on your definition of 'dirty' — indeed, restoring from Time Machine will restore many preferences, but won't restore any system files, as they will come from your fresh OS X install.

If you want the cleanest possible OS, manually copying the files you need will be the best option — even though it's time consuming, you'll only get what you need.

The OS itself will remain 'clean' if you restore from Time Machine since the files will be kept from the OS X install and won't be restored from Time Machine.


Quick and reliable solution for accessing Outlook 2011 .olm files on Windows Outlook As I am currently using Outlook 2013 for Windows 8 and I have some crucial mails to access, which are in the form of Outlook für Mac-Archiv.olm and Harrison.olm in My Pen drive, I just carried out these mails from office PC and currently I am on holidays for 2 weeks, so please, its request for a reliable solution as soon as possible.

I will be extremely appreciated your assistance.

Manually you can access your .olm files in Windows Outlook, but before the start of this files moving process,  you have to make some settings on your Outlook 2011 applications end, it’s essential to make changes in Outlook 2011, without making all these changes in Outlook 2011 you can’t get your .olm files on Windows Outlook,  as you have to configure your Mac Outlook 2011 with the IMAP mail account and have to follow below steps-

•   Firstly, set up an IMAP mail account (as an instance Gmail)

•   Afterward, configure your Mac Outlook 2011 with the IMAP mail account

•   Create a Gmail label to connect the IMAP mail account to Outlook 2011

•   Now, move all the emails from Outlook 2011 to the IMAP mailbox folder, after all the above steps to move all the data from IMAP mailbox folder to Windows Outlook.

Note: As per your query, you required quick response for .olm files to Outlook for Windows, you can try any software, at present multiple Free online software's are available for such conversion, you can utilized any of the application.

Hope the above information will assist you.


Is there a Google Calendar Mac Desktop App? Is there a native OS X app that allows me to see my Google calendar?

Yes, the built-in Calendar app lets you add them.

For your Mac:

On your computer, open Calendar
In the top left corner of your screen, click Calendar > Preferences.
Click the Accounts tab. On the left side of the Accounts tab, click +.
Select Google > Continue.
Enter your Gmail address, password, and verification code (if you have one).
Click Accept.
On the Accounts tab, choose how often you want Apple Calendar and Google Calendar to sync.

For more information, see https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/99358


How to prevent keychain passwords being seen with iPhone passcode? Via Settings/Safari/Saved Passwords/ it is possible to view all saved passwords by simply entering the 4 digit passcode on ones iPhone.

Is it possible to still be able to use Keychain passwords and autofill, but prevent access by the 4 digit code (e.g. requiring the full Keychain/iCloud password), so that someone who knows your phone code is not able to access all of your internet passwords in plain text?

EDIT: it is possible to set a different 4 digit code as the "Keychain pin" via turning on Settings/iCloud/Keychain/Advanced/"Approve with Security Code", but the phone 4 digit code is still used for accessing the saved Safari passwords as above... It would be great if there was a way to always require the "Keychain pin" instead.

RELATED: the analogous problem on Mac OS X: How to prevent Safari saved passwords being seen with Mac password?.

I hate to reference unreleased software, but quite frankly the solution may be for you to enroll now in the iOS 9 public beta or simply wait for it's official Fall release. iOS 9 (at least in its current state) gives the option to set a custom alphanumeric password in place of the familiar 4-digit pin.

So, if you have hardware with touch ID capability you could use that for your everyday login and reserve a more complex passcode (even the same as your iCloud one, like you mention) for protecting your keychain in case of theft, etc.


Is iCloud email address different from me.com address? I have a me.com address that works on my iPad and on my Mac.

However, I am trying to set up iCloud to sync all of my devices on my Mac using the instructions found here, http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/mac.html

When I get to the second part of step 2 and check the Mail radio-box, I get a pop-up asking me to create an iCloud email address. I enter my me.com address and get this message, "This email address is already taken. Try picking a new one."

Am I supposed to create a SECOND me.com address for iCloud? Should my current me.com address work? Won't 2 addresses just confuse things further? What can I do to troubleshoot?

A side-note. Last night I successfully migrated data from gmail to my me.com calendar and address book. Everything worked successfully on my Mac but I cannot see any of the updates on my iPad. I want these updates on my Mac to push onto my iPad and I wonder if this issue is creating the problem. Everything seems to be working on the individual devices just not on the Cloud.

If you didn't migrate your old MobileMe account to iCloud before it expired last june you may be locked out of that old account.

Here is the list of things you can still do if your MobileMe email expired and how to add a new email address to that Apple ID.

Can I use my MobileMe account for Apple services without moving to iCloud?


How do I pause the installation of iOS apps? How do I pause the installation of an application? I started the download and installation of two apps from the app store. Now those are showing "waiting" and I want to cancel the installation of those apps.

To pause the download or installation of an app you need to tap once on the icon of the app in question. To resume the installation you need to tap once again on the same icon.
To completely cancel the installation of an app you need to tap and hold any application icon on your home screen/springboard until all the app icons start to wiggle. Then you can delete the apps you want. (The ability to delete apps that aren't completely installed yet is only available since iOS 5)


Headphones with iPhone 6 protection case I have a small protection case around my iPhone 6 and my headphones can't be plugged perfectly. Anybody knows a very thin case to protect my iPhone without having this issue?

Probably be cheaper to borrow a needle file & ream out the cover's headphone hole a bit;
or even a simple nail-file & chamfer the edge of the headphone plug itself.


Installed App with Brew Cask Over Existing Install, Did it Remove the Old App Files? I upgraded to the latest OpenOffice (from 3.4.1 to 4.1.1) with brew-cask without realizing OpenOffice 4 was already installed:

$ brew cask install openoffice
==> Downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/openofficeorg.mirror/Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.1_MacOS_x86-64_install_en-US.dmg
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Symlinking App 'OpenOffice.app' to '/Users/shwaydogg/Applications/OpenOffice.app'
  openoffice staged at '/opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/openoffice/4.1.1' (3180 files, 385M)

I'm worried that the old install with ~400MB is still there just not linked.  Or does brew-cask writing the the symlink over the old app effectively delete the files?  / Perhaps BrewCask was smart enough to take this into account?

How could I check?

update:  did as @njbook suggested in comments:

$ brew-cask cleanup
==> Removing dead symlinks
Nothing to do
==> Removing cached downloads
/Library/Caches/Homebrew/openoffice-4.1.1.dmg
/Library/Caches/Homebrew/Casks/openoffice-4.1.1.dmg

There's no mention of the an old install being removed.

Another way to phrase my question perhaps more directly is in a unix system if a directory is replaced with a symlink pointing elsewhere are the files within the directory still taking up space on disk and if so how can they be found?

Cask does not clean up old versions by default. It stages the installs in /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/$APPNAME and then symlinks them in to ~/Applications or /Applications depending on the brew recipe. And then it leaves the old versions around until you run brew cleanup.

You can see old installs of OpenOffice under /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/openoffice. You can safely delete the old installs from there, though brew cleanup is supposed to do this for you.

If you had previously installed OpenOffice using their DMG installer and not Homebrew Cask, it was most likely installed in /Applications and not ~/Applications. Cask won't install over top of an existing installation that wasn't previously Cask-installed itself. So check /Applications and make sure you remove the old version from there if hadn't installed it via Cask. If you had installed it via Cask all you need to do is delete it from /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/openoffice as mentioned above.


MacBook Pro 2008 Aluminum - keyboard problems I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro all aluminum.

The green caps lock light comes on intermittently: sometimes solid, sometimes flashing. When it comes on, the arrow pointer gets stuck and the screen freezes, or if I'm typing it will stick on a letter and keep repeating it.

Any ideas? …or is it a keyboard replacement?

Try an external usb or wireless keyboard.  If it works ok, then most likely you internal keyboard is damaged and needs repair or replacement.


Dell P2715Q Needs "Detect Displays" after MBPR 15" goes to sleep So I have my new Dell P2715Q connected to a Thunderbolt port on my MacBook Pro Retina 15" Mid-2015 using the supplied DisplayPort cable, in SST mode.

When I plugged it in the first time, it worked perfectly at 4K@60. But: when the MacBook goes to sleep, the display does not wake when the laptop does.

Once woken, the MacBook is aware there is a second monitor attached (I can move the mouse off the edge of the MacBook monitor), but the Dell shows black.

Going into Display Preferences and hitting "Detect Displays" fixes everything back to how it should be, but it's a huge pain that it doesn't do it automatically. When I do this, the MacBook monitor does not dip to black (like it usually does when I plug in a monitor), but the Dell wakes. Makes me think that the MacBook has opened the display stream but is forgetting to send anything to it.

Anyone have any ideas?

The fix for this for me was to go into the Others menu of the Dell's menu and disable DCC/CI. It now works perfectly.


Install OSX on Macbook Air which currently only runs Windows 7 I have a mac book air, which was formatted a long time ago, and only has windows running on it.

I would like to run Mac OS again instead of windows. Or if that isnt possible, have both OS's.

How can I get Mac OS installed on this machine again?

The easiest way is probably to use OS X internet recovery:

Press cmd+alt+R at startup
Open the disk utility from the opening menu
Reformat the disk to HFS+ Journaled
Close disk utility and go to install OS X

This procedure will delete all your data and Windows completely.


What is another source for Dashboard widgets? On the Apple Dashboard widgets page, the most recent app (found at the top of the Just Added section) is The Weather Channel Widget, released on February 14, 2011. Where can I find some more recent widgets?

The widget download page was a curated approach to enabling a single place to locate and install widgets from.  Developers would submit a Widget and associated details and host the file for downloads.

The lack of updates is down to 1 of 2 things:  1) Apple stopped accepting additions and ammendments to the listings, 2) Developers stopped submitting updates.

Both are probably true, and certainly a lot of developers stopped writing widgets in order to write iOS apps and such like instead, at least according to the anecdotal information I am aware of.

However, the listings as they stand are useful for identifying good widgets, just because no updates are listed doesn't mean none are available.  I searched for Time Machine Buddy which is a useful widget I use.  It's still listed, but at an older version on the Apple site.  However the link to the developer is included which allows me to check and download an updated version direct from the developer.

Unlike iOS apps, widgets can be hosted and downloaded from anywhere, they didn;t have to go onto the Apple site alone.  So you can use the directory to find interesting things, and then hit the developers direct to find updated version.

If a download link is dead, or the developer is no more, you can still find the download site useful to get the name of a widget, and then use tools like osx.iusethis.com to search for alternatives.


Install my ATI graphics card in Parallels I installed parallels 11 on my iMac and installed windows on it. Then I'm trying to install my ATI card on windows so I can install the Catalyst manager as I want to disable the anti-aliasing option as shown here and here, and to do so I need to have the Catalyst control centre installed. So I want to have the Catalyst control centre installed, Any suggestions please?

This is my iMac display details:

I doubt you'll get a graphics driver to install in Parallels, as it's using Parallels own driver. Even if you did, it would only disable AA in Windows, not in the Mac.
You might have a better chance in Boot Camp, as at least you can install the drivers to that.

Alternatively, did you try just disabling font smoothing in System Prefs > General ?


Moving a window to another workspace by a key combination Is there any way to move a window to another workspace by a key combination? For example, in Ubuntu I can do that by "Ctrl+Shift+->" if I recall correctly. In mac - only by mouse? It's not convenient.

You can use Better Touch Tool to move window to different space (even move to secondary monitor). However this does not work on fullscreen windows. Here's sample setting:


How can I keep keybindings of iTerm and vim apart 1.Enviroment

Env: vim+zsh+iTerm2 on Mac OSX 10.9.2. (Same problems in vim+terminal+bash on Mac OSX 10.9.2)

2. Mapping Problems

Here are mapping problems list(You can chose any of them to anwser).

My vim could not get some shortcuts: <A-Left|Right|..>,<D-char>.

2.1 <A-Left|Right|UP|Down

In iTerm2 , hitting <A-Left|... will result in(iTerm2 doesn't bind any shortcut for them.):

<A-Up> print 'A' with a sound alert.
<A-Down> print 'B' with a sound alert.
<A-Left> print 'D' with a sound alert.
<A-Down> print 'C' with a sound alert.

In vim, <A-Left|... behave same as <Left><Right><Up><Down> in insert mode , normal mode, visual mdoe  and Ex Mode, etc. Could I map them <A-Left|..>?

2.2 <D-char>

Some keys about <D-char> are iTerms's own hotkeys, such as :

<D-q> will quit iTerm2
<D-w> will close current tab in iTerm2

On the other hand, the other keys such as <D-s> are not hotkey, and do not print any char in vim and terminal. Is it possible to map them in vim?

I prefer to not change any mappings in iterm and use .vimrc for all mappings as it’s simpler and generally more effective. It also lets you use terminal app

Once that’s set, you could easily ask specific follow on questions for specific key sequences.

Arrow keys are particularly vexsome in some versions of iterm.

Why don't my arrow keys work in vim under iTerm?


Esc button from touchbar has disappeared After a clean reinstall of OSX Catalina 10.15.2 on a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018), Esc button from the touchbar has disappeared.

I don't have any 3rd party tool or app installed.

Any idea on how to bring it back ?

After killing Touch Bar server application it will come back. Just paste the following to terminal and enter your password when asked:

sudo pkill TouchBarServer


Is there anyway to fill up the boot screen on Touch Bar when booting up? I was wondering if there's a modification on Touch Bar when a MBP booting up e.g. putting up a JPG image before booting completed / login.

Touch Bar is not designed to be modified by the end user, so while it might theoretically be possible to do this, there is no such modification currently available as this is designed to be a secure part of your computers hardware.


How to expand partition into free space that lies before it I would like to expand my "journal" partition to include the free space that lies (logically) before it on the drive. How can I do this without losing the data in "journal".

I have a few more iterations to go through but I'm eventually going to move everything on the NTFS partition into journal, but I have to keep moving and expending/shrinking to make enough room.

You can't do what you are asking, per se.  What you would have to do is create new partition "above" your existing partition, copy the data there, kill the partition below, then expand the partition with the data into the newly created free space.

You can do this with  Disk Utility.  OS X Daily has a really good write up on it (limited on how to resize the partition)

However, I am personally not a fan of resizing disks with any sort of data on it.

I prefer to follow these steps:

Copy all data from the drive to my desktop, a USB, burn a DVD;
basically make a backup copy of the drive.
Using Disk Utility, erase and repartition the drive.
Copy data back to the drive.

Yes, it's a bit old school, but it is super reliable (not that the partition resizing is a failure by any means).  I am just old school and this procedure gives me peace of mind.


How switch Mac UK PC keyboard layout backslash \ and backtick ` to match normal UK PC layout This is the normal UK PC Keyboard Layout:

We can see the backslash is on the left-bottom corner (right of shift).

But the mac configuration for UK PC layout, the backslash is on the left-top corner (left of the number 1), see the setting as follow:

So when I use both mac and windows together, this key always confuse me with different output!

UK layout keyboard is ISO standard and the Mac also detects ISO. The only issue is the key on the left of z is switched with the key on the left of 1.

The layout of the UK keyboard:

the key on the left of z should be:\ and |
the key on the left of 1 should be: ` and ¬

But mac switches them.

It appears to be controlled by what you actually have connected... but there is something else going on I'm still trying to hone down.
The best conclusion I can come to at the moment is "it's a bug" but one that seems to be at least partially fixed in High Sierra & Mojave.

This is a UK Apple Keyboard on Mojave [confirmed identical on High Sierrs]

When you first open the panel, it shows as ANSI.

Press Shift [which I discovered by accident trying to take screenshots] & it changes to ISO.

Then add British PC & it seems to retain that information...

Now I've persuaded it to show like that I can't 'break' it again, it seems to stick so far.

However, testing on El Capitan, I can't persuade it to flip to ISO, no matter what I do - it stays as ANSI...

Test on the El Cap machine, swapping a TextEdit document from British to British PC - even though the control panel still claims it's ANSI & after clearing all keyboard prefs & re-detecting the keyboard...

The Mac 'knows' it's ISO, but won't display as that in the Keyboard Input Sources control panel.


Should I let malwaredomainlist.com connect to the net? I am getting Little Snitch alerts for Firefox trying to connect to the malwaredomains.com with the IP-address 76.63.222.170. I have blocked the connection, but I wonder why Firefox needs to connect to that address? Can I trust it and let it connect?

I found the answer to my own question. You can see both the question and answer here. The problem seems to have to do with a firefox plugin named uBlock Origin. In the preferences pane you will find a list of addresses which you can enable or disable. the addresses are related to websites which update maleware sites, etc. It Looks like the malewaredomainlist.com was one of those addresses. In short, it is safe to let it connect to the Net.


How do I fix OSX Maps having the wrong location (Next Door) On OSX Maps, when I use my "Current Location" always resolves to the house next door.

This is easy enough to override, by never using my current location, but is there a way to make it know the real location of my Mac? Like reset Apples DB of where my Wifi is?

There's not really a way of doing this. Apple does use croud-sourced data obtained from iPhones though: get an iPhone and let it get its location. Using GPS the iPhone will obtain an actual location, and as it can scan for Wi-Fi the data can be combined.


"DefaultKeyBinding" Hex code for ML's "⌘ ⌘" Start Dictation command? I have a set customized keyboard bindings located in a plist file at ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.Dict which works with Hex keys like..

"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /* Home */

or for "Non-Printable Key Codes", like so..

Backtab ( ⇧tab)   \U0019

I'd like to add a new keyboard shortcut for the start dictation commands in Mountain lion, aka, ⌘⌘.

Is there such a code?  Or is NSresponder making them up on the fly, other private magic, etc.?

Changing the actions of double-presses of modifier keys is probably impossible. There isn't even a code point for the fn key in CORPCHAR.TXT.

But if you're looking to add a different shortcut for toggling speech, you should be looking for method names instead of shortcut strings.

I tried using strings to find method names for starting dictation. startDictation: and startSpeechCaptureForDictation: seemed promising, but neither worked in DefaultKeyBinding.dict.

Even if you were able to change the shortcut in DefaultKeyBinding.dict, it wouldn't work in applications that don't support the customizable keybindings.

What's wrong with just changing it in System Preferences?

If you want to use a shortcut that isn't allowed, you might be able to change CustomizedDictationHotKey in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.speech.recognition.AppleSpeechRecognition.prefs.plist.


How do I change which AirPod audio input comes from? My AirPods are suddenly not working for audio input and I remember there was a way to force the OS to use the left or right one but I don't remember whether it was iOS or macOS. Sound Preferences on the macOS doesn't seem to give me the option.

Sorry - just found it in iOS. You go to Bluetooth, select the (i) info icon to the right of the AirPods and then at the bottom is a Microphone options: Automatically Switch AirPods or Always Left/Right AirPod.


Sold my MacBook Pro Lion, how to reset OS installation? I just sold my MacBook Pro. It originally came with OS X 10.6.6 (snow leopard). I since upgraded it, through the App Store, to OS X 10.7.5 (lion).

I want to wipe everything clean on the hard drive so the new owner starts fresh. I have the original Install DVD. Should I just insert that and format the drive? Is there an easier way, like with iPhones, that I can click on something?

After resetting everything, do I then need to go to the App Store with my Apple ID, install Lion, and then erase my Apple ID?

It's much easier to just reboot to the Recovery HD (restart and hold down command and R).

Then use Disk Utility to erase the hard drive. Everything will be gone and if you want to be paranoid, you can zero the entire drive one or more times. Once that erase is done, you can re-install Lion from Apple's image over the network. You could also use the DVD at that point, but the erase is quite easy and best done using the Recovery HD on the Mac's drive.

I don't think you'll need to sign in to get Lion, but if you do, then you can just put Snow Leopard on the Mac. That would be the best thing to do licensing wise, since the App Store terms require you to erase software before selling your Mac.


Where does Time Machine store its settings? I'm looking for the file that contains all the Time Machine exclusions entered in its Options dialogue. I know that (some of?) the scheduling related settings are stored in the com.apple.backupd-*.plist files at /System/Library/LaunchDaemons but I haven't been able to find the exclusions.

It is in the root directory of the actual backup e.g. /Volumes/Back3/Backups.backupdb/flat/Latest/.exclusions.plist for a machine called flat but that only shows what happened.

More usefully - if you want to edit things see /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

I got the informatiuon from this blog


Where is the backtick on iPhone keyboard When I type on iOS keyboard, I don't find the backtick (`) character. Where is it located? If there isn't, why?

Switch from ABC to 123 & then press & hold apostrophe.
Backtick will be the left-most option in the pop-up.

I surprised myself by being able to actually screenshot it…


How to view Root directory and subdirectories in Finder? Apparently, the Macintosh HD icon on the desktop points to the root directory but it is not showing all the contents.

Some of the files and directories are the same as those which I see when I perform an ls on / dir in Terminal, but most other directories like /usr, /bin, etc are not visible.

I'm assuming that for security, Mac OS X isn't showing the rest of the files and directories. Is there a way to change this behavior so as to make it like we view root folder in Linux?

Edit:
just found the following here:

  The Finder and the Terminal show different contents for the root
  directory. Some items in the root directory are not visible in the
  Finder. This reduces visual clutter and enhances simplicity. If you
  are familiar with a UNIX-style command line you can use Terminal to
  view all items in a directory.

As per this note, Terminal has to be used to view all the items. So, what do others do? Use terminal or there is some other way?

Shift-Command-G in Finder brings up a "Go to folder" dialog. Type in the name of the directory, for example, /usr/local. Finder will show the directory. I use this with Finder in 'View as Columns'

While this doesn't give a browsable directory from the root directory down, I've found it quite useful.


All of my Finder sounds refuse to play I installed Lion on launch day, and a few days after, my Finder sounds stopped playing. When I move files, or folders, delete items or empty the trash there is never any accompanying sound. I know this worked under Lion for a while, so I do not thing that the cause is the lion upgrade.

After further investigation, I discovered that the issue was not confined to Finder sounds but other sounds as well.

I deleted the com.apple.SystemSounds preference file from ~/Library/Preferences, restarted my computer and it solved the issue.


Macbook Pro overheating issue? I don't know why, but these days my fans for some reason run throughout the day. When the fans start spinning the computer becomes extremely laggy. I have also tried running Macs Fan Control app after reading about it, but my system still hits 80°C. At that time it also freezes for 5 seconds to 2 minutes.

So any suggestions as to why it might be happening, and how I can fix it?

System:
Running macOS High Sierra 10.13.3
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012)
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

So any suggestions as to why it might be happening? Is it overheating?

No, it's not overheating.  It's actually attempting to prevent an overheat condition.

Your MacBook Pro is doing two things to keep the CPU/GPU within operating temperature tolerances:

spinning up the fans, to cool the CPU
allocating CPU to lower the load demand

When you install software to override the SMC's control of the fans (cooling), you force the system to increase the CPU allocation to prevent additional load - it will become slower.

What you should do is

clean the dust from the fans
put in new, high quality thermal paste on the CPU heat sink

There are excellent videos on how to do this procedure on YouTube


Remove "Move to Dropbox" menu from Finder context menu I want to remove the annoying "Move to Dropbox" entry in the context menu when I right click a file in macOS Finder.

I know I can disable Dropbox's Finder Extension all-together, but I do like the green check marks that display syncing status. I just don't want the clutter in the right-click context menu.

Is there a way to disable only this "Move to Dropbox" menu item while keeping Dropbox's other Finder integrations?

If you go to Preferences -> Extensions -> Finder, you will see the Finder extension that you can enable/disable and you can enable/disable the Finder extension from the Dropbox app itself.

Unfortunately I don't believe you can simply remove the one option but rather it's an all-or-nothing scenario based on the extension itself. Well, at least until Dropbox makes some improvements.


OS X Server Mavericks stuck on "Preparing Services" I am trying to install OS X Server app version 3 on Mavericks system. I tried everything, including manually deleting all server app files and making clean install, but nothing works. Whenever I start the installation process, it sticks on "Preparing services". The app keeps respond, but no HDD activity is visible at all. Does somebody encountered the same problem?

Try resetting Server.app permissions:

sudo chown -R root:wheel /Applications/Server.app
sudo chmod -R g+rx,o+rx /Applications/Server.app

This has been discussed on this Apple Support Communities thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/24122772#24122772


iPhone 6 GPS problem on Pokemon Go Recently when I'm playing Pokemon Go I get a message saying I don't have a GPS signal. Some people told me it could happen because the battery is pushing on the GPS component in the iPhone 6 model.

Is this a known problem? Do I need to replace the battery?

Make sure you have wi-fi switched on if you don't already. It doesn't need to be connected to an access point.

For some reason I get the GPS error even with a good GPS fix if I have my wi-fi switched off.


How to view the kernel on MacOS? How to view the kernel on MacOS?

I am learning Linux command line by William Shotts,

The Kernal directory can been accessed by :

ls /bin
# Contain Linux kernal, inital RAM disk image

How to view the kernel on MacOS?

$ ls /boot
ls: /boot: No such file or directory

That depends on your version of macOS.

Previously the kernel XNU was locate at the root directory and named mach_kernel:

$ ls -la /mach_kernel

Apparently starting with 10.11 El Capitan and in mac OS 10.12 Sierra this file was moved and renamed:

$ ls -la /System/Library/Kernels/kernel


How extract apps from a iTunes backup file? I have recently restored my iPhone using the IPSW file but before this, I had made a full backup of my iPhone using iTunes.

Now when I restore the backup, it just brings icons of my app and needs to be downloaded and besides that, I had many files inside one of my file explorer apps(in my case it was 'offline' downloader and file explorer).

My question is how can I retrieve those files and apps? is it possible?

My OS is windows 10 and my Itunes is Version 12.10.3.1

iTunes hasn't saved or restored ipa files in a long time. Apple expect you to recover everything OTA [over the air] these days & assume you have a current online backup over iCloud.

This function change arrived with version 12.7 - http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/13/itunes-12-7-update-removes-app-store/

If you do already have an ipa of an app no longer available from the App Store, you can use Apple Configurator 2 to restore it to the phone. There are other MDM solutions that allow tethered app installation as well if you really need that capability.

https://www.groundctl.com/docs/425


accessing data on a broken macbook pro I have a MacBook Pro 13" (2017) which is not displaying any info on the screen. It's more than a broken screen. There's a problem with the logic board.  I'd like to sell it for parts, but I'm concerned about the data that is still on the hard drive.  I don't know whether it's encrypted.
It appears to boot up, but the touch bar only displays the ESC key, suggesting that the problem is deeper than just the display or its controller. Apple has offered to repair this for $1500, which is more than the repaired computer would be worth.
I tried booting in target disk mode, but this doesn't seem to be working, but without a screen, it's hard to know what's up.

Is there way to log on to the computer (say via a USB C cable) so that I can delete any data on the SSD?

Is this something that can be done at the Genius Bar?

Or, is the value of this thing so low that I should just trash it?

If this were the 2018 model, you could "trash" it and not worry (too much at least)  about your data (there's actually some vulnerabilities, but that's for another day and another question).  The T2 chip would make it virtually impossible for anyone to access it.  If you encrypted your drive, then you're essentially protected from bad actors trying to steal your data.
Booting in Target Disk Mode
If you boot your computer from an "off" state, just hold down T for about 30 seconds - that should be enough time to allow your Mac to enter TDM.  Normally, you'd see a USB icon on the screen, but now you're forced to guess; 30 seconds should be sufficient.
Once the target is started, boot your "good" Mac using the "bad" one as the startup disk.  You should then be able to get in and wipe out your data.
Genius Bar
This is something the folks at Apple can assist with. Your particular model had something called a "Lifeboat" circuit integrated with the SSD.  You could literally have a dead MacBook logic board, but with a Data Migration Tool kit you could access the SSD to recover your data.  It's an expensive tool, so it's not DIY, but Apple and 3rd party repair shops would have this so they could offer the service.
Does it have value?
As unlikely as it might seem, your machine still has value.  Apple makes it impossible to obtain certain chips like the SMC.  It's made by Texas Instruments (TI), under an exclusivity contract; nobody can buy it in the open market.  So, if an SMC dies, the board repair companies cannot buy the component to fix.  So, they use donor boards for this type of repair.
Normally, donor boards were sold as complete units.  Now, they are literally being "carved up" like a Thanksgiving turkey - a wing here, a thigh there, etc.  (Seriously, not kidding).  If you want to sell off your board, remove the logic board and put a drill through the solid state drive.  That will ensure that your data is secure.  They wouldn't be able to use that component anyway due to the security, but it doesn't hurt to take it one step further.  For a "map" of where the SSD is, just take a look at the iFixit Teardown for your model.
Get a second opinion
Before you trash it, have someone who specializes in board repair take a look at it.  Rossman Repair in NYC does this and is considered one of the best (not affiliated, just a happy customer).  Without putting hands on, I obviously can't give you a budgetary quote, but you could conceivably get this repaired for less than $500 USD (guessing here).  It doesn't hurt to get a second opinion.  The plus side here is if it's not worth repairing, they can recover your data for you.


Which is the earliest Apple TV that can mirror an iPad? So, I need to mirror an iPad Air 2 (not just spare apps, the whole screen and audio) wirelessly to a projector, and I was thinking of buying an Apple TV. However, since the current version is so expensive, I thought of buying an older one (say, TV 3rd Gen version A1427, A1469 or 2nd Gen). Somehow, I couldn't find this in the Apple help (I guess... because they update it to the latest version, sometimes "hiding" previous ones).

Which is the earliest version that can (decently) screen mirror an iPad?

The Apple TV 2 is the earliest Apple TV that supports AirPlay Mirroring, being the earliest Apple TV capable of installing Software Update 4.4, which added the feature.

  AirPlay Mirroring: Wirelessly stream what's on your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 screen to your HDTV.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT202157


Pinch to Zoom on Macbook Pro 2007 I have an early 2007 Macbook Pro. The trackpad isn't multitouch - it doesn't support any of Lion's new many-finger gestures - but it does support two-finger scrolling. It obviously can keep track of two points of touch, so is there any way to get it to support pinch-to-zoom as well?

Actually it can only discern between one narrow touch moving and one wider touch. It's not tracking multiple points - just calculating the area of touch and the single general motion.

Some other questions here might help explain this better:

Are non-unibody MacBook Pros capable of Lion's 3 and 4 finger multi-touch gestures?
MacBook multi-touch trackpad support
Make Solid-state scrolling trackpad behave like Multi-Touch trackpad

No amount of software will make up for your solid state based trackpad. You might be able to get a Magic Trackpad or use an iOS device to inexpensively upgrade your hardware set and take advantage of multitouch.


How do I permanantly unistall nmap? Installed nmap from https://nmap.org/download.html to check it out, got bored, moved the app name: zenmap to trash and emptied it. However, if I run the nmap command in terminal, it still works...

The nmap installer from https://nmap.org/download.html installs

the application /Applications/Zenmap.app
some binaries in /usr/local/bin
support files in other directories within /usr/local

To remove, run

sudo rm -r /Applications/Zenmap.app
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/{ncat,ndiff,nmap,nmap-update,nping}
sudo rm /usr/local/share/man/*/man1/nmap.1
sudo rm /usr/local/share/man/man1/{ncat,ndiff,nping,nmap-update}.1
sudo rm -r /usr/local/share/{nmap,ncat}


Need some advice/solutions on having 2 external displays set up I have a 2015 13" Retina MacBook Pro that comes with 2 Thunderbolt ports and an HDMI port.

I have 2 monitors which have same resolution (1920x1080) and same size, and they also only have DVI and VGA ports (no HDMI ports on both monitors).

I have already connected one of the monitors to my rMBP via a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adaptor. I'm looking to connect the other monitor using a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adaptor.

Now, is there any problem with using different formats of adaptor in this case? Are there any problems/obstacles to set up both external monitors using 1 VGA and 1 DVI adaptor to Mini DisplayPort?


iTunes Connect closed this holiday? iTunes Connect was closed for a week last year around the christmas holidays.

Does anyone know if there will be a similar period of time where iTunes Connect is closed this year?

They do it every year. The official announcement is too early to be. In 2011 it came on Nov 16th. I have no mail from 2012 to see when it came.


Allen Heath QU-16 mixer to Macbook Pro connect We need to hook up a macbook pro to record our sermons through GarageBand to an Allen Heath QU-16.  The macbook pro only has one headphone jack.

Use the USB B from the mixer to you Mac, and select the Qu as the input device in yoursound preference panel. Simple, and great quality. Use 48k sample rate.


How can I get my entire iTunes Match-based music library to appear on my iPhone? I have about 12,500 tracks uploaded to iTunes Match. From my desktop and laptop, everything works great. I can see the cloud-based tracks and play them. I can download them to my machines.

When I turn on iTunes Match and select "Show All Music" on my iPhone the Music app shows me nothing at all. Specifically, it shows me this:

I've tried leaving it plugged in, with the Music app open, over night to see if the progress bar fills in a bit and it never does. Not even a little bit.

If I turn off the "Show All Music" option, the Music app shows the tracks I had sync'ed to the device before I signed up for iTunes Match and put all my tracks in the cloud.

How can I get my entire iTunes Match-based music library to appear on my iPhone?

There could be a corruption in your music library that is preventing the 'sync' to finish.

On your iPhone, turn iTunes Match off, then open Settings > General > Usage > (wait for usage to populate) > Music >
tap Edit and then the red remove icon.
Restart your phone
When your phone is back on, open Music to ensure its empty. If its not, complete the above again.
Turn iTunes Match back on and leave the Music app open. It should take no longer than 15 minutes for it to display something other than the cloud logo.

If the issue is still persists, try deleting your Music library using iExplorer

  Note: Before using iExplorer, ensure you have a backup of your information

Download, open iExplorer, and plug in your iPhone
Select Media on the left, and then right click iTunes_Control and delete that folder

Restart your iPhone and turn iTunes Match back on and leave the Music app open. It should take no longer than 15 minutes for it to display something other than the cloud logo.

If the issue still persists I would recommend you do a complete restore through iTunes


No AirDrop option on iPhone 4s I have an iPhone 4s running iOS 8.3. I am trying to send a file from a Mac to the iPhone through AirDrop. Mac notifies that

  if I want to share a file with someone using iOS, he/she must open Control Center and enable AirDrop.

However, I tried to follow these steps, but there is no AirDrop option on my iPhone.

iPhone 4s doesn't support AirDrop. You need an iPhone 5 or newer.


Why do I have a picture on my contact list of a iPhone number I wrote down? I wrote down someone's phone number on my iPhone. He also had an iPhone. However, we are not connected in any way. Example: no social media, he hasn't sent me a message, no email, etc. I know that the iPhone pulls pictures from many places but in this case, we don't have anything in common.
How would his picture appear on my phone under his contact name?

You can remove any contact photo from the contacts app. It’s going to be hard for us to guess your setup without sitting shoulder to shoulder and reviewing all the places you could have added an account. The likely culprit is the other person chose to share that image with you when asked by Apple permission to share their name and icon. They may not be aware this happens or mistakenly tapped the allow button while they were putting the phone in their pocket. It’s a one tap to share situation in some cases.


Where to get older bootcamp drivers? I recently partitioned my MBP 15", early 2011 model, so I could run windows. I installed Windows XP and now I have no Wifi. I've installed the bootcamp drivers off CD of Snow Leopard and the disks that came with my machine. No luck, there are no wireless drivers.

What I am planning to do is install Windows 8. How can I get wireless drivers on my XP partition? Or if I download windows 8 on my OSX and make a bootable flash drive and upgrade the os, will I have Wifi that way?

Thanks

This website contains download links for the latest version of the Boot Camp WindowsSupport for older devices:

For Windows XP, Apple has provided Boot Camp Drivers Update v2.1 and v2.2 which…

  is intended only for use with Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista running on a Mac computer using Boot Camp.

Both updates require Boot Camp 2.1. It also notes that…

  This download contains complete copies of Boot Camp Windows XP Drivers (version 2.1). If you have Boot Camp drivers already installed, it will update them.  If you do not have any Boot Camp drivers installed, it will install version 2.1 drivers onto your already installed Windows OS.

This should fix your XP issue, since it contains the latest XP-compatible drivers. If not, your only option will probably be Windows 8 (or Windows 7).

With regard to installing Windows 8, Boot Camp 5 brings full Windows 8 support.


Time machine deletes old backups when still >2 TB of 3 TB are free I get messages that my Time Machine backup volume is full and TM has deleted older backups. But my backup target disk is an external 3 TB HD and Finder reports that over 2 TB of it are free (only some 820 MB used)!

I am backing up the internal 1 TB SSD (850 GB in use) of my Mac Book Pro Retina to that volume. I have also reformatted the backup volume and started all over with a new Time Machine backup to that fresh and empty target. But the effect reappears after 3 to 4 days.

All my trials to find similar reports on Google failed. It seems that other users have less than 25% free on their backup target when they run into this message. The only similar question I could find was this one but it was not answered.

I am currently running OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 and the backup HD is connected through USB 3.

Is it possible the snapshots being deleted are local snapshots (see http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202301) and not on the external? Local snapshots start getting deleted when free space your internal volume (not the backup volume) drops below 20%.


Is there such a thing as unsafe cpu levels on mac? Background: The process com.docker.hyperkit has consistently been using between 100% and 200% cpu on my mac (which has 2 physical, and (in total) 4 virtual cores).

Question: is there such a thing as unsafe CPU levels (as displayed in the activity monitor) on a mac? If so, at what levels should I get worried?

No. Your CPU will thermally throttle itself if it becomes too hot.  If it goes beyond its thermal limit, it will shut itself off.

The only thing you actually have to worry about is reduced performance.


Run AppleScript from bash script If I wanted to run an AppleScript from within a bash script I could call a file with the list of commands that I require to execute.

#!/bin/bash
{some commands}
osascript file.scpt
{other commands}

What, however, if I wanted to run commands that needed to be run in sequence from within bash?

An example would be

#!/bin/bash
echo
echo This will open Google Chrome in Kiosk mode
  osascript -e "tell application \"Google Chrome\""
  osascript -e "activate"
  osascript -e     "tell application \"System Events\""
  osascript -e         "key down {command}"
  osascript -e         "key down {shift}"
  osascript -e         "keystroke \"f\""
  osascript -e         "key up {shift}"
  osascript -e         "key up {command}"
  osascript -e     "end tell"
echo "Google Chrome is now open in Kiosk Mode"

I know this is a very far fetched example, but it works to explain what I am trying to do. Normally, those commands would all be written without their respective escape \ characters all over the place and less " around each command. I'd also have them inside of a .scpt file.

A solution I am aware of, is to rewrite the script using #!/usr/bin/osascript instead of bash and go from there, but I want to be able to blend. I have found that I can test for a script file, if it does exist to create one and append each command I need to that file and then execute the required script file from within bash, but that also defeats the purpose.

There is no way that mid-way through a file, I can swap the shell being used with the shebang line and then swap back after I've executed the commands necessary, is there?

Any insight would be more than welcome.

The argument for osascript -e can contain newlines:

osascript -e 'set x to "a"
say x'

You can also specify multiple -e arguments:

osascript -e 'set x to "a"' -e 'say x'

Or if you use a heredoc, bash interprets three characters (\, $, and `) between <<END and END but no characters between <<'END' and END.

osascript <<'END'
set x to "a"
say x
END

Edit:

Since osascript can operate with a heredoc (ie take input from /dev/stdin) then one can just write the script as a whole file and prepend with the correct shebang line:

#!/usr/bin/env osascript

set x to "a"
say x

This also allows you to save your apple script as a actual program in ~/Applications/.app using the following procedure (changing  for your script's name):

mkdir -p ~/Applications/<APP_NAME>.app/Contents/MacOS
touch ~/Applications/<APP_NAME>.app/Contents/MacOS/<APP_NAME>
open -A TextEdit ~/Applications/<APP_NAME>.app/Contents/MacOS/<APP_NAME>

Ensure that both the script file in .../MacOS/ and the  matches


How to restore jailbroken iPhone stuck in recovery mode without iTunes? I have a jailbroken iPhone 4 running on iOS 7.1.1. I checked Cydia and updated a few tweaks and since that update, my tweak called "f.lux" wasn't working so I deleted it. After deleting it, I would swipe to unlock my home screen but my phone would just shut off and restart. Restoring it in iTunes didn't work and errors would always pop up. I tried using TinyUmbrella and it didn't work. I also tried downloading an ipsw file but that doesn't seem to work either. Do I just need to buy a new phone or is there a way of fixing it?

It’s not possible to do that without iTunes.

If you have a PC or Mac with iTunes installed, you can bring the device in DFU mode by performing the following steps:

Connect the iPhone to your computer
Press and hold the Home button and the Sleep button at the same time
After 10 seconds, release the Sleep button
Continue holding the Home button until this iTunes message shows up: "iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes"

You can then restore it to the latest iOS version. Please be aware that this will erase all the data on your device and will restore it to the latest iOS version (iOS 8.1.1 as of Dec 1st, 2014).

Please note: In DFU mode, the iPhone’s screen will remain black until you invoke the firmware restore. If it shows a "Connect to iTunes" screen, you are not in DFU mode but in recovery mode.