Running filemaker pro 6 on an Intel-based Macbook Pro? Recently moved my wife's content and settings from a white Macbook to an Intel-based Macbook pro.
So when I went to open her contacts database created in Filemaker Pro 6, no dice, since that is a PowerPC-based program.
And if I try using the later-version trial I got from Filemaker, it's Catch 22 time all over again, since I cannot import the file without having a working version of Filemaker Pro 6.

According to this article in the Filemaker support database, you should be able to recover your data by converting the v6 database with FileMaker Pro 11 first.


Replaced RAM and now web browser flickers I have a Macbook Pro 13-in. mid-2012, OS X Yosemite 1010.3.

I recently upgraded the RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB using Apple's guidelines:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1270

After replacing the screen and booting the system, I opened up Chrome. Whenever I type/scroll, the web browser flickers. Not the screen, just the web browser.

Any ideas what the problem is? My guess is I didn't place the RAM in correctly. Also, after lifting off the back case, I did spray the inside with canned air (as recommended, I thought) to clean the system of any dust. Would this forever damage the system?

Is it possible this is a static electricity issue? I have my doubts.

Any insight is appreciated, thanks!

EDIT: Another thought: maybe I touched the RAM cards incorrectly and damaged them? Is that possible?

From what I found, it was after all the RAM. I took out both chips again and used compressed air to thoroughly clean the areas involved. After that, it seemed to work.

Of course, it could be that I hadn't had the chips in properly previously, as opposed to dust.


How to copy video files from iPhone 6 onto computer? If I plugged my old iPhone 4 into a computer, all the files would automatically come up. But when I plug my new iPhone 6 into a computer, nothing happens. Did they change something in the iPhone 6, and I have to perform additional steps to view the files?

Mac Solution
You can use Image Capture to manage your videos and photos on your iPhone 6.
With Image capture: Choose AutoImporter from the “Connecting this [device] opens” pop-up menu to transfer images from a device to your computer whenever you connect it to your computer.
Click the icon that looks like a box with a down arrow enclosed on the lower left corner:

Select your preferred application from the list to change which application comes up when plugging in your iPhone 6:

From Apple Support:

Image Capture:
Transfer images and other items from your device
Transfer images, video clips, and MP3 sounds to your computer from
many cameras and devices that contain a camera, such as your
iPhone. Once you transfer the items, you can delete them from the device.
Connect your device to your computer, then turn the device on. If the
device is locked with a passcode, enter it.

In Image Capture, select the device in the Devices list.

Use the buttons at the bottom of the Image Capture window to view the thumbnails as a list or as icons to change the size of the
thumbnails, or to rotate or delete images.

From the Import To pop-up menu, choose where to save the images or which app to use to open the image.

To import only some of the photos, select those photos, then click Import. To import all the photos, click Import All.

Choose AutoImporter from the “Connecting this [device] opens” pop-up menu to transfer images from a device to your computer whenever
you connect it to your computer.

Select “Delete after Import” to remove the items from the device after transferring them to your computer. You can also select and delete individual items on your device, then press the delete key on your keyboard.


MacBook Pro Touch Bar pops and right speaker gets disabled I have a strange issue with my MacBookPro 14,3 (Touch Bar), a 15" model.

Whenever there is a loud sound or a change in music dynamics (e.g., the start of a loud chorus in a song, an explosion, the “bonk” sound that macOS makes on bad input, …), the right speaker volume is lowered, and audio appears to be coming only from the left speaker. It then stays like that indefinitely.

I can reproduce this issue with the system sounds preferences – at some point you hear the popping noise, the audio volume is lowered (and sound only comes from the left speaker), then I reset the audio sample rate:

(One might notice a bit of a rattling sound coming from the right speaker, but I think this is a hardware problem.)

It's not a hardware issue per se, as I can fix this problem by resetting parts of the audio system. For example, when I open Audio MIDI Setup and change the sample rate, the sound returns to normal. I can also solve it by taking a pair of headphones and plugging them in and out for a second.

I've had this problem both with macOS 10.12 and 10.13.

Note that this problem does not occur when no audio is playing. It's therefore not related to the random clicking sounds that people sometimes describe. Installing the Antipop software doesn't help either.

I will take the device to an Apple Store soon, but I thought I'd see if anyone else has come across this issue or might even have found a way to solve the problem?

I had this issue on a 15" 2017 MacBook Pro, three times over the course of roughly three months.

Apple issued two top case replacements, which includes both speakers–yet each time, a speaker would fail.

Apple finally issued a logic board replacement with a top case replacement. This, so far, has cured the issue.


How to read .tracev3 binary log files? In /var/db/diagnostics folder there are some compressed binary .tracev3 log files.

How can I read them what is inside in a formatted way?

Ok, I've found that using log command will read these files in a formatted way, e.g.

log show file.tracev3 | less

Source: New macOS Sierra Artifacts

See also:

Unified Logging and Activity Tracing (+PDF slideshow)


Does the recovery partition get updates? I clean-installed Mountain Lion 10.8.0. Now I am at 10.8.2 and I want to do a clean install again. If I boot to the recovery partition and do a restore, will I have 10.8.0 or 10.8.2? Does the recovery partition get updated when OS X gets updated?

The Recovery Partition does not get updated. Once the partition is created, OS X Recovery downloads the latest of your OS X version from Apple.

Extracted from Apple's About OS X Recovery:

  Reinstalling OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion via OS X Recovery requires broadband access to the Internet via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet connection. OS X is downloaded over the Internet from Apple when OS X Recovery is used for reinstallation.


How much more RAM can I add to my Mid 2007 24" iMac? I have a "vintage" iMac with the spec below:

This is going to sound like a real beginners question but can I up the RAM anymore? At the time, I upped it to as far as I could but could I put say 2 4gb RAM in?

According to Low End Mac's specs page You've already got it maxed out.


Keyboard layout editor that works on Lion So far I've been using Ukulele for editing my keyboard layout (I assigned some shortcuts to Alt+key and changed a few others). Unfortunately, after upgrading to Lion, it's broken.

The point is, Lion changed behavior of pressed keys -- they don't repeat, apart from punctuation that does.

But I can't fix it, since Ukelele apparently uses some PPC program.

Is there any other keyboard layout editor for Mac?

I use KeyRemap4MacBook, it works on Lion. It's a preference pane.


Mysterious Reply-To Header in Apple Mail I send e-mail with Apple Mail from two different accounts - lets call them A and B. Years ago I set the Reply-To header as my A account address (I think to force use of my 'canonical' address), since then I added my B account. Now all of my outgoing e-mail has the Reply-To header set to my A address. This causes considerable confusion to observant correspondents e-mailed through my B account. So, I'd like to fix this.
Here's where the mystery begins. I don't remember how I set the default Reply-To header. I would have thought that I would have used:
defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders ...
However
defaults read com.apple.mail UserHeaders
tells me "The domain/default pair of (com.apple.mail, UserHeaders) does not exist."
Next, I looked at the configuration on our e-mail provider, FastMail, to see if they might be setting a default Reply-To header. but I didn't see anything there.
Then, I tried resetting Apple Mail back to its default state using the instructions in How to reset mail to factory settings on discussions.apple.com. No dice.
And then, the method in How to Fix Mail App Not Working After macOS Update. Strike four.
Manually setting the header when I'm writing an e-mail doesn't work. The value I set gets overwritten, by the value for account A.
Where else could the header be set?

So with a bit of help the problem was tracked down to an interaction between SIP (System Integrity Protection), terminal, and Apple Mail.
Here's what was going on:

Due to SIP the Terminal app did not have access to Mail's defaults file: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
As a result, the defaults program was unable to read the defaults settings that Mail.app was actually using.
Instead of reporting an error when trying to access the com.apple.mail.plist it reported that the "The domain/default pair of (com.apple.mail, UserHeaders) does not exist."

The big clue was that defaults read com.apple.mail returned nothing.
The fix was to allow the Terminal.app full disk access in System Preferences (in Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access). Then you restart Terminal.app.
After that defaults works as expected and
defaults delete com.apple.mail User-Headers
solved the problem – since I didn't have any other User-Headers set.


As a user with multiple monitors attached to my Mac, how does it select which one a new window is opened on? I have a Macintosh [MacBook Pro] with multiple monitors. There's the built in laptop display and I additional have a Apple Thunderbolt Display and another third party monitor attached via Thunderbolt/DisplayPort adapter. This is a total of three displays.

When, in an application, I open a new window, the new window doesn't often open on the display I which currently had focus, but seems to open randomly across the three displays. That is I may have an open, active, foreground window on the Thunderbolt Display and when cmd-N'ing to open a new window it may open on the laptop screen or the third display.

How is Mac OS X deciding which display to open the new window on and can this be selectively changed to alway open on the currently active display?

If you right click on any icon in your dock, you could assign an app to a display.


Mouse lagging on iMac I'm using iMac 21,5.

Since my magic mouse broke, the new one wasn't working properly, it had insane lags, I bought another wireless gaming mouse and it works better but still have lag issues.

I was checking Bluetooth/Mouse settings and it says:

"Keyboard connected.

Mouse not connected."

Pressing mouse to connect, doesn't do anything.

Maybe the problem is there. Please help me.

I was having similar trouble with a Logitech bluetooth keyboard and mouse, when I plugged the transponder dongle into the USB port on the back of my iMac.  Researching the issue, I found several people suggesting to move the USB dongle away from any USB 3.0 ports, and as an EE I figured it also wouldn't hurt to get it closer to the devices it's talking to.  So this is my setup now and I've been a happy camper ever since I bought a USB 2.0 hub, plugged the dongle into that, and moved it near my keyboard and mouse.  (Of course the hub is connected to the iMac in the back -- should be obvious, but just sayin.)


Chrome Virus - Bueno Search Today I suddenly had my new tabs overidden by the "buenosearch" website with no new extensions or apps installed.

I have followed all steps I can find online to remove this but it continues to come back. I have run Bit Defender's Antivirus for Mac, and am now running MacScan and Clam Xav to try and remove it.

Any help is appreciated!

I went straight to 3dnator extension, and disabled it... It just worked! :)


Macbook Pro 8,1 hanging on startup I have a macbook pro 8,1 that is having issues starting up. When I first turn it on, there is a small grey loading bar beneath the apple logo and loading circle. After the loading bar is ~20% done, it disappears. After this, the apple logo remains, and the loading circle continues spinning, but it stays like this for over an hour, until I eventually have to force shut it down.

I cannot boot into safe mode, but I can open up Apple Hardware Test, which after multiple passes has not found any issues (both regular and extended tests)

The DVD drive has had a disk stuck inside of it that cannot be removed, so I can't try to boot off a disk (even if I had one).

There are 2 trouble shooting methods if the Safe mode fails.

But before you go in to them, try the PRAM reset.

  Turn on your Mac.

  Immediately press and hold the Option-Command-P-R keys. You must press
  this key combination before the gray screen appears.

  Continue holding the keys down until your Mac restarts, and you hear
  the startup sound for the second time.

If that did not help move to the start up in Verbose mode (hold v during start up).

  Verbose mode will load a terminal-like screen that logs the boot
  process in realtime to identify the source of any particular errors
  that may be preventing the computer from booting properly.

Once you have identified the source (where verbose mode stops processing), move on to the Single user mode([command]+[S]).

  This mode will boot the Apple computer into a terminal-only mode where
  bash commands may be entered to perform further troubleshooting from
  the command line.

WARRING...if you do not know what you doing in this mode do not do it.

Now... the next step will depend on the cause identified in the Verbose mode.


Applescript to toggle "Announce the time:" in Sys Preferences I'm trying to toggle the "Announce the time:" checkbox on the "Dock & Menu Bar" pane of System Preferences (in Big Sur).
I've gotten this far:
tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    reveal anchor "Clock" of pane id "com.apple.preference.dock" -- pane "Dock & Manu Bar"
    -- nothing I've tried here works
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    -- nothing I've tried here works
end tell

That reveals the correct pane with this checkbox:

I've tried using global coordinates with click at {x,y}, but that's ignored or I get a timeout error.  (I'm able to click the buttons on the main Sys Prefs screen, so I know I have the coordinates correct.)  I've also tried clicking the element named Announce the time:, but that didn't work either.
How can I toggle the Announce the time: checkbox?

Using Accessibility Inspector, a part of Xcode, it shows that some of the time the Announce the time: checkbox reports "Parent does not report element as one of its children" and as such will cause AppleScript code to fail under certain conditions, and under other conditions not fail. In other words, writing my own code I can get it to check that checkbox sometimes and not other times.
In trying to ascertain a pattern to see how to workaround this situation I came to the conclusion that using fully visible UI Scripting was the most reliable way. It's also unfortunately an ugly way and requires letting the script finish without interruption once started, otherwise it will fail for sure. Such are the pitfalls of fully visible UI Scripting.
The example AppleScript code, shown below, was tested in Script Editor under macOS Big Sur with Language & Region settings in System Preferences set to English (US) — Primary and worked for me without issue1.

1  Assumes necessary and appropriate setting in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy have been set/addressed as needed.

This script requires that the Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls checkbox is checked on the System Preferences >  Keyboard > Shortcuts tab, and as coded, the script checks its status and toggles the checkbox, as necessary, based on its current status.

Example AppleScript code:
--  # Check to see if System Preferences is
--  # running and if yes, then close it.
--  #
--  # This is done so the script will not fail
--  # if it is running and a modal sheet is
--  # showing, hence the use of 'killall'
--  # as 'quit' fails when done so, if it is.
--  #
--  # This is also done to allow default behaviors
--  # to be predictable from a clean occurrence.

if running of application "System Preferences" then
    try
        tell application "System Preferences" to quit
    on error
        do shell script "killall 'System Preferences'"
    end try
    delay 0.1
end if

--  # Make sure System Preferences is not running before
--  # opening it again. Otherwise there can be an issue
--  # when trying to reopen it while it's actually closing.

repeat while running of application "System Preferences" is true
    delay 0.1
end repeat

--  # Get the fully qualified POSIX pathname of the target .plist file.

set thePropertyListFilePath to ¬
    the POSIX path of ¬
        (path to preferences from user domain as string) & ¬
    ".GlobalPreferences.plist"

--  # Get the value of AppleKeyboardUIMode to determine if the
--  # 'Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls'
--  # checkbox is checked on the **System Preferences** >
--  # **Keyboard** > **Shortcuts** tab.

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    tell the property list file thePropertyListFilePath to ¬
        set keyboardNavigation to the value of ¬
            the property list item "AppleKeyboardUIMode"

if keyboardNavigation = 0 then
    --  # Check the checkbox.
    my toggleKeyboardNavagition()
end if

--  # Open System Preferences to the Clock row of the Dock & Menu Bar pane.
--  #
--  # This UI Script needs it to be visible, hence the activate command.

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    reveal anchor "Clock" of ¬
        pane id "com.apple.preference.dock"
end tell

delay 1

--  # Tab to the 'Announce the time:' checkbox and toggle it.

tell application "System Events"
    repeat 9 times
        key code 48 --  # tab key
        delay 0.2
    end repeat
    key code 49 --  # spacebar
    delay 0.1
end tell

if keyboardNavigation = 0 then
    --  # Uncheck the checkbox if it
    --  # was previously unchecked.
    my toggleKeyboardNavagition()
end if

delay 0.5

tell application "System Preferences" to quit

--  # Handler(s) #

--  # Toggles checkbox: 'Use keyboard navigation
--  # to move focus between controls'

on toggleKeyboardNavagition()
    tell application "System Preferences"
        activate
        reveal anchor "shortcutsTab" of ¬
            pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
    end tell
    tell application "System Events"
        tell front window of ¬
            application process "System Preferences"
            set i to 0
            repeat until (exists checkbox 1 of tab group 1)
                delay 0.1
                set i to i + 1
                if i ≥ 20 then return
            end repeat
            click checkbox 1 of tab group 1
        end tell
    end tell
end toggleKeyboardNavagition

Note that because of the comments and coding style the script is long. It ends with end toggleKeyboardNavagition, so make sure you highlight all of it when copying and pasting to Script Editor for testing.

Notes:
In the tell application "System Events" block in with there is the repeat 9 times loop that does the tabbing in order to toggle the Announce the time: checkbox, the value of the delay command may need to be adjusted.
If the normal state of the Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls checkbox is unchecked, then do not run the script immediately back to back as it takes a second or two for the value of the property list item "AppleKeyboardUIMode" in the users global preferences file to update the change. I'm mentioning this mainly for when doing testing more so than when in normal production use, as it shouldn't be an issue then.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and sans any included error handling does not contain any additional error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


Comfortable way to archive and log terminal input I often want to reuse a terminal command that I already used in the past. I know two ways how to do this:

Use the "up" arrow to browse through old commands.
Copy a bunch of commands into a script.

Now I'm looking for something like an archiving tool, where I could comfortably collect useful terminal inputs. Is there something more comfortable than the "up" key or copying into scripts?

Maybe not quite what you're asking for, but an elegant solution: Press CTRL-R and it will invoke a search through your entire history. Pressing CTRL-R again will display the next search result.

Another solution would be to use something like TextExpander etc. You define your commands there and call them by shortcuts. Unfortunately it doesn't work with the built in OS X shortcuts from the System Preferences - I did not get it working.


Setting up a special secondary display on iMac I am a video editor and I have seen 2-display video setups a where one monitor is used for the editing software, and the secondary monitor is used to preview the edited footage. How would I be able to set this up on an iMac, if at all possible?

The operating system supports multi screens. For the iMac i would say that a DisplayLink adapter would allow you to connect additional screens via USB. I've never used it, so I have no idea what the maximum resolution is, but I read several times on different boards that this solution has been successfully used.

Update: As gabesubdo mentioned in a comment below, it is not necessary to use a DisplayLink if your iMac has one or more Thunderbolt ports, which can be used as Mini Displayports as well. Apple provides adapters for Mini Displayports (to HDMI, VGA, ...)


Hide windows in current desktop (Lion) I'd like to make a keyboard shortcut that hides all windows on the current desktop, while ignoring windows on other desktops. Is this possible using Applescript?

Here is a suggestion (Works on OSX 10.8)

Using Automator :

Create a new Service with automator
Select Service receives selected no input in any application
Add a Run AppleScript action

Copy this script :

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "System Events"
        set processList to (every application process whose visible is true)
        repeat with appProc in processList
            set windowList to every window of appProc
            repeat with aWindow in windowList
                click (third button of aWindow)
            end repeat
        end repeat
    end tell
end run

Save your new service
In System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services add a keyboard shortcut to your news ervice

Edit :

Other script :

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Finder"
        set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is not "Finder" to false
        close every window
    end tell
end run

It hides all apps but it closes all finder windows.


Can I easily view all songs that iTunes can't locate in Finder? I recently had a mishap with my music library, resulting in the untimely termination of hundreds of innocent music files. These songs were not removed from iTunes, so there are many tracks that are seemingly normal, but upon closer inspection are actually gone, never to be seen again.

Is there any way I can make a smart playlist or something that'll show me only tracks whose source file can't be found?

Two approaches: First, take a look at Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes - dougscripts.com.  He has a ton of useful scripts, including Super Remove Dead Tracks, which you might be able to modify to just list them if you want.

Or, if all you want to do is create a playlist of songs which have no native file, there is a very simple way to do that (which I found repeated by so many people that I don't know who to attribute it to):

Create a regular playlist, not a smart playlist. For this example, call the playlist "Alive".
Select all tracks in your main library and drag them into "Alive". Note that "dead" tracks with no native file will not appear in this playlist.
Create a smart playlist defined as: Playlist -- Is Not -- Alive. Call this playlist "Dead".

You now have a list of "!" songs which are missing their native files.  You could then go ahead and delete the dead ones if you wish.

Deleting is not allowed from a smart playlist. So, select all songs from the new "Dead" playlist by clicking Ctrl A. Right-Click and select Dislike. Now they can be seen and deleted in the main library; sort using Love/Dislike column. Tested in current Windows version.


How do I mount my FileVault 2-encrypted volume? I have a Lion 10.7.2 system (on MacBook Air 13" 2011) which doesn't boot anymore after a restart. My HD is encrypted with FileVault 2, and after I click on my username and enter my password, it appears to be logging in but the apple logo turns into sort of a "forbidden" traffic sign, and stops there forever.

So I booted into Lion Recovery to try and repair permissions, but Disk Utility won't mount my Macintosh HD. It doesn't even allow me the option to mount or verify, they're greyed out.

An output from diskutil list recognizes my partition (/dev/disk0s2) as having the type Apple_CoreStorage.

Any way to make my encrypted partition mount?

You should be able to unlock or decrypt your FileVault 2-encrypted HD with Disk Utility. I've got a post on how to do this:

Using Disk Utility to unlock or decrypt your FileVault 2-encrypted boot drive:

http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/using-disk-utility-to-unlock-or-decrypt-your-filevault-2-encrypted-boot-drive/

If unlocking via Disk Utility isn't working, you may need to use your recovery key. I've got another post on how you can unlock using your recovery key using the command line:

Unlock or decrypt your FileVault 2-encrypted boot drive from the command line:

http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/using-the-command-line-to-unlock-or-decrypt-your-filevault-2-encrypted-boot-drive/


disk drive about full. Library folder has over 100 GB I have an old iMac running High Sierra. I have an internak 250 GB drive and a 4 TB eternal hdd. My internal drive is about full. I was going to clear up some room but I noticed my library folder has over 100 GB. Is there anyway to delete some of the files and folders in the library folder. Can the library folder be moved to the HDD instead.

I asked a similar question a couple of months ago and was told to turn on disk opimization. I've done that. Now i'm asking if there is anything I can do about the library folder?

Is this the root-level /Library, or the user ~/Library ?

The former contains things installed by applications: this could include large data like audio sample instruments for Garageband/Logic.

The user Library contains settings and preferences, but it can also contain iPhone and iPad backups, which can take up a lot of space. You can manage these in iTunes' preferences.

You can use an app like OmniDiskSweeper which will show you the contents of your disk, sorted by size. You can drill down through each folder and see what's taking up space, and delete files if you wish. However, remember that it is very easy to delete files that may be critical and necessary to your Mac.


Is there a way to automatically mount a volume from another Mac on start? I'm using my Mac Mini as a TimeMachine host. I have a couple of external drives plugged in via USB. TimeMachine doesn't work unless I use Finder to manually Browse the network and mount the volume after each reboot or Wifi change (e.g. when I've taken the MacBook on a work trip).

Is there a way to have macOS or a script on my MBP to automagically mount the volume on the Mac Mini? Maybe something that checks every 30 minutes and remounts if it is not already?

Edit: I have two home Wifis - one super-fast 4G with limited bandwidth, and the default one backed by ADSL, so I switch to the 4G one when I need to videoconference, and back to the default one to use the printer or connect to other devices at home.

The way to mount the drives on the Client at login is:

Mount the Network Share.
Open System Preferences > Users & Groups.
Drag the drive's icon and drop it onto the list of Login Items for your user.

WiFi change? How often do you change Wifi? If the TM share and client aren't on the same network, then obvs that won't work.

However, TM shares should normally work without the need for a Finder connection, so there may be another remedy to your original problem.


Apple - No devices are registered in the Developer's account I've read a lot and even opened 2 tickets on Apple Support, but Apple is good at charging money for the air, so far not for the help.
Here is the problem - I can't sign the app correctly as developer profile doesn't see a registered Mac.

Here is my full reply to the apple support:

Steps to reproduce the following:
I open the xCode project. In Xcode preference & Accounts there is my profile Volodymyr Rudov-Tsymbalist set.  Go to the project settings, Signing & Capabilities mark "Automatic signing", choose my team and Bundle Identifier. Status returns me an error message: Failed to create a provisioning profile. There are no devices registered in your account on the developer website.
I go to the developer website: https://developer.apple.com/account/ , sign into the account and go to "Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles". Then to devices and see the Mac I registered to that account.
image.png
I go to Profiles section => generate profile, choose that option and receive "there are no devices available"

If I'm trying to register same Mac - I got an error that it is already registered.
Date: Wednesday 19 of Feb 2020 time: between 12:50 up to 23:00 we tried many times. Timezone - CET (Poland, +1 from UTC). Also it happens now, 21 February 2020 CET 9:42a.m.

3.there was a video

Volodymyr Rudov-Tsymbalist - the user.

5-6 Google Chrome Version 79.0.3945.130 (Official Build) (64-bit)  & Safari v.13.0.5 (15608.5.11)

Xcode - v.11.3.1 (11C504)

Problem sounds like you try to sign an adhoc app with your individual/company paid Apple Developer account. For this type of account adhoc distribution is for know devices (for example local test devices) only and need to known on which devices the signed app will be installed by signing.

From this devices the UDID will be crafted in the adhoc-profile. Your error message sounds like there are no devices linkend to your Xcode configuration so it can't create automatic a adhoc-profile that you need for singing and installation on a physical device.

  Xcode -> Window -> Devices and Simulators

There you can pair with physical devices, if that is already the case I would like to advice you to look at your generic identifier of your app because it needs to be unique to pass the system and get ready for signing.


Display Daisy-Chaining with High Sierra has this issue been sorted out with High-Sierra?

The issue being (in case you didn't want to click the link) that daisy-chained displays were always being mirrored instead of recognised as individual displays.

I just bought a second Dell U2515H and tried daisy chaining them to my Macbook Pro '15 High Sierra. No luck, second monitor mirrors the first.


Pages: pasted images are too large Whenever I drag and drop an image into Pages from (for example) my browser, the image is resized to roughly 2x the original size. This causes annoying aliassing to occur; especially when taking screenshots and copy-pasting these it causes it to look blurred.

I saw the 'Original size'-button (as suggested here) but when I click it, it just takes the image back to the 2x-size it had when pasting.

Is this something I can configure somewhere? Or should I not drag-and-drop images, but go through the hassle of importing?

This would be due to the difference in resolution.

You will likely need to adjust the size/resolution of your images (can use preview for this).

Refer to the following discussions:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4472984
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11208784#11208784


Change Finder Printing default to print 100%, not scale to fit I am trying to print groups of pdf files without opening the files.

I am trying to print from either the automator app, which is a hot folder to print, or drag and drop onto printer.  Every time it prints the page scale to fit. I changed the setting in terminal to.....

defaults write com.apple.Preview PVImagePrintingScaleMode 0

Thinking that maybe those uses the preview app to print. That did change the setting if I open up preview but it did not fix the problem.

I have logged into CUPS but I am not seeing anything in there about scaling.

If I open the pdfs in preview or acrobat and manually print them and have the setting at 100% they come out correctly.

lp -o fit-to-page. ???  but do I just type that into terminal?  does it need to have a false on the end?

Not sure what needs to be done to fix the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you drag and drop onto the Printer queue window, or otherwise send a job to print without settings the print options, then CUPS will fall back on the default options for that queue.

Check the manual to see if there's a way to set the default for your printer using its control panel, or other method.

Failing that, you can set the default options for a specific queue in the CUPS web front-end. First, make sure that you can access the CUPS web interface:

cupsctl WebInterface=yes

Then in your browser, go to http://localhost:631

Click on Printers in the menubar at the top. Click on the print queue. Then choose Set Default Options from the 2nd drop-down menu.

..

You may find a Fit To Page parameter, with options:

But the available options will depend on the definable characteristic of your printer. The fact that it is scaling suggests it does have such a setting.

As for the lp command: that command sends files to a print queue, and you can specify the job options that are used. To find the appropriate options, use:

lpoptions -l <printQueueName>

The print Queue Name is optional for the default printer.

So, for my HP LaserJet, I get (among other things)

HPPaperPolicy/Fit to Page: PromptUser *NearestSizeAdjust NearestSizeNoAdjust

The asterisk shows the current default. If I wanted to change that for a specific file, I would use:

lp -d <printQueueName> -o HPPaperPolicy=NearestSizeNoAdjust /path/to/file

Again, you don't need the -d flag to set the destination if it's the default printer.


Incoming call on 2nd iPhone without SIM Card Yesterday, i was going to setup my new iPhone 6.
So i did a backup of my iPhone 5, exchanged the SIM card and restored the iPhone 6. The restore did not went well, so i switched put the SIM card back to my iPhone 5.
I left both phones switched on.
Now, whenever i receive a call, both iPhones ring. And i can connect the call on either iphone. How is this possible?

iOS 8 has this new feature called Continuity. Which basically means you can make and receive phone calls on your iOS devices as long as your iPhone is on the same Wi-Fi network.

Source: Apple

Go to the phone with the active cellular SIM and you can disable this in settings app:

Phone
Calls on Other Devices
Allow Calls (turn them all off or disable some but not all other devices if you prefer)


Thunder Bolt to Dual VGA adapter I am having a hard time finding an adapter from Thunderbolt to two separate (not mirroring) VGA outputs. You would imagine that if it is designed to do that Mac would make an Adapter for that very application. Any one have any suggestions?

I am using a Mac Pro if that helps at all.

My ultimate problem is that I am using two thunderbolts to power two identical projectors with VGA and each projector is stuck in different resolutions. The Projector company suggested I try using a thunderbolt to Dual VGA adapter.

To the best of my knowledge a 'Thunderbolt to twin VGA' adapter does not exist.

I think what The Projector Company are suggesting are the Matrox DualHead2Go adapter boxes. The premise of these adapters is they connect to two displays (or projectors) and present a single connection to the computer. They present the two displays as a single super-wide display to the computer. e.g. if you have two 1024x768 projectors connected the computer will treat them as a single 2048x768 display (this can be very useful sometimes!).

As far as I can see Matrox do not offer a Displayport -> Dual VGA version. But you could get the DualHead2Go Analog and use a Thunderbolt-VGA adapter to connect it to the MacPro. This would probably work. But…

The original problem; the two projectors. I see no reason why the Matrox box should be able to get different resolutions for the projectors than the Mac Pro can. I think you should be able to fix this problem without the Matrox box. I have fought many a projector in my time.

Are you connecting both projectors with the same series of cables and adapters? In my experience projectors often present different resolution options over VGA than DVI, so both should be connected in the same way if they are to behave the same.

Do the projectors both display a list of resolutions in System Preferences > Displays? If one projectors doesn't display a list at all and only allows a single resolution option (800x600 for example), then the cabling to that projector is probably bad.

If you swap over the display cables at the projector end, do the 'stuck' resolutions swap (do the resolutions follow the cable or the projector?).

If you are using VGA cabling to the projectors, can you switch to DVI cabling? This may be costly, depending on cable length, but the picture quality is often significantly better (and hopefully it'd fix the resolutions!)

Try SwitchResX, see if that offers more resolutions options for the projectors.

If none of those things help, look for any factory reset setting on the projector.


Can iPhone 6 tell if a surface is horizontal? I can launch the Compass app on my iPhone 4 and it can tell if the surface I'm placing it on is perfectly horizontal, or it's bending to any direction. Given iPhone 6's sticking-out camera, can it still measure such things?

Yes you can.

Find a surface that you trust to to be level
Open the compass/spirit level app and place phone on it
Tap the screen while phone is placed on the surface - this will recalibrate the accelerometer reading on your iphone6 implicitly
taking into account the camera bump as well.
Go measure the things you want to measure :)

There is a catch to this, as it does assume that the surface is wide enough to place an iPhone 6 down with the camera bump touching the surface.


"Other" in Disk Utility The Disk Utility on my Mac shows 100GB of usage by 'Other'.

I had a look inside ~/Library/Caches, but I did not see anything taking up too much space in there.

I even tried using an app called "Clean my Mac". It didn't do much good.

Here is my question:
How do I find and delete the files that are taking up nearly 100GB of space and are marked as 'other' in Disk Utility.

I am on El Capitan on a 13 inch 2015 MacBook Pro.

It's probably not just 1 file. Other just means it doesn't fit in any of the other categories.

See this answer for more info: How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space?


How do I hide rulers on startup for Pages? I can press Command-R to easily hide the ruler, but is there a way to make this behavior consistent every time I start up Pages?

Get a document set up exactly the way you like it, with whatever showing or not-showing that you want. Save it as a template (File: Save as Template).

If you have the template picker load on startup, then just pick that template.

If you don't, then go into Preferences, and choose that template as the template to load by default (For new documents: Use template…).

These templates can also include custom styles, canned text, etc.


iPhone detected but "could not be identified properly" I receive this message when I connect my iPhone to my PC:

  An iPhone has been detected but it could not be identified properly. Please disconnect and reconnect the iPhone, then try again.

When I disconnect and reconnect, the message reappears.

Troubleshooting steps I would recommend (in order).

If you have access to another IOS Device with the same IOS firmware or higher, see if the PC can connect to that. If it can't connect to another device try the following:

Ensure you have the latest version of iTunes.
Try a different USB port, a different cable.
Completely remove iTunes and try again with a fresh copy:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204275
If none of that works I would recommend backing up with another computer and then transferring your backup over if you wish to store the backup on the PC that isn't recognizing the iPhone.

If it does connect to another device on the same IOS version or higher.. Try the following:
1. Evaluate if the iPhone has a damaged cable. Most iPhones (all iPhone 5 & up) have the ribbon cable running from the lighting port around the bottom right corner. If you have a damaged screen in that area chances could be that [cable][1] is damaged. You may need a new charging port assembly.
2. Confirm that the lighting port is clean, blow it out with compressed air or carefully remove any debris that may be inside.

If you don't have another device to try, following the steps from the first part, then followed by the second.

Without knowing what type of damage specifically happened to the iPhone, I would hope that you would find a solution with the above steps. If you believe the cable could be damaged, that would be a logical issue. Reply if clarification is needed.

Good luck!


Is there a limit to how old a device/iOS version iTunes can backup? I have an old iPod touch which cannot be upgraded past iOS 3.1.3 and the (currently) newest version of iTunes (12.6.0.100). iTunes does not allow me to create a backup of that iPod to my Mac (the buttons and settings in the Backup section are just grayed out). That's not terribly bad, but it got me interested: Is there a minimum iOS version or other restriction that prevents recent versions of iTunes from creating a backup of a device? Is this documented somewhere?

I think it's important to know because I may want to migrate my data to a newer device, regardless of how old the old device is.

Yes, the latest versions of iTunes (at least going back through Spring of 2016 & possibly winter 2015; I don't quite remember) no longer support the iOS 3 and lower backup protocol. I haven't found it documented anywhere, I just know when people started emailing me about the issue.

Unfortunately, any version of iTunes that speaks BackupAgent (the old protocol) won't support an iPhone running iOS 10. I actually don't know if BackupAgent2 will handle an iOS 3 backup. If it doesn't, you would need to make a backup of the iOS 3 device using an old iTunes, restore to an iOS 9 device using that same version of iTunes, make a new backup of the iOS 9 device, then update iTunes and restore to the iOS 10 device.

Depending on what you need to migrate, there may be easier ways :)


Copy/Paste working inconsistently (El Capitan, Macbook Air) I'm using a MacBook Air from late 2010 or so, and I've recently noticed that my copy/paste abilities have become significantly reduced. Within an app itself it usually works without a hitch, but occasionally if I try to paste between apps (like, say, use a messaging app to send a link to someone), it'll usually either paste the last thing I copied within the app or nothing altogether. Right now, I'm just looking for some kind of quick, lasting fix, as this is making my usual workflow significantly more difficult.

Occasionally, it is possible for keyboard service to either die or become unresponsive. I've had this too, although I'm not really entirely sure under what circumstances. The following restarts it "gently", and may help you:

launchctl stop com.apple.pboard
launchctl start com.apple.pboard


What happens if your iPhone becomes damaged while preparing for AppleCare+ Repair? I recently cracked my iPhone XS's back camera. Since it is under AppleCare+ until early October, I paid $99 for an Express Replacement which requires that I mail the broken phone to them.
Unfortunately, when the replacement arrived, I had to switch the SIM card to the replacement, but the SIM card mechanism became damaged on the old phone while i was doing so. I do not believe I did anything wrong at all, it just wont let the tray back into the phone.
Has anyone encountered a similar problem? Should I contact Apple about it in advance and risk losing the right to my $99 claim or should I mail it in anyway and hope for the best? I believe it is a design flaw in the SIM tray that such a thing can happen.

I would send it in, protect it as best you can - write a short note, I tried to get the SIM out, that didn’t go well, please help.
Send it off. If they call you and requote, you can decide if you pay more. If they fix it all, you’re set.
If you can’t write a short note, maybe just send it, but I would expect they’ll wonder more if it comes in shape not the same.
If you really are concerned, maybe get photos and call - but I’m guessing Apple will say send it in so we can look at it.


constant use of killall Finder 12" MacBookPro late 2012, OSX 10.9.5

Something is wrong with the Finder. When I try to open a new window one pops up, but the interior is the color of the background, nothing inside, and it reflects the image of anything that is dragged over it:

Those windows start out blue like the background, but are grey here because to take a screenshot I had to drag the grey rectangle over the finder window. They close just fine.

To open any working window I have to open Terminal and type killall Finder, but this solves the problem for a short time. (Sometimes the space of only one window opening.) Also, the desktop does not reflect saved files there until I restart the Finder, and I cannot manipulate anything on the desktop when the Finder has crashed.

A very small amount of water was spilled on it (over the battery and speaker) awhile ago, could that have caused this? What could be wrong? I've seen similar issues posted online involving software installation, but can't link any new installations to the problem. How can I resolve this?

Before we begin: Make a backup of your Data e.g. with Time Machine or similar Software (if you not use Time Machine).

Note: All steps are complete in itself. If one of the steps work, you're done.

Step 1: Boot into Safe Mode

Restart your mac and hold down the Shift-Key during startup.
The startup process is slower and possible you got a flashing screen. This is normal.
Login and open the Disk Utility. Choose your Systemdrive and click on the buttons Verify and repair disk permissions.
Restart the mac and test.

Step 2: Finder Preferences

Sometimes the Finder Preferences may be corrupt so you can delete this files to return to Standard configuration.

Click on the Finder Desktop and press the keys Command + Shift + G
In the small Window copy and insert the following Line ~/Library and press Enter.
Search for the following folders and move the bold-marked files into the Trash.

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist (if exists!)
~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.finder.savedState
~/Library/SyncedPreferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Note:
Maybe some of the files (folders) not exist on your system this is ok.
Please don't delete the files until test that works.

Restart the mac and test


Would the new HandOff app in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite work on iOS 7? First of all, I have an iPhone 4, meaning I can't upgrade anymore to iOS 8. I would really like to use the "Handoff" and I have a mac (Mid-2011). It can upgrade to Yosemite the new OS X. Can my Mac answer the calls, messages from my iPhone which has iOS 7?

No, you need both iOS 8.1 and OS X 10.10 for this to work.


Transfer PDF from iPad to Mac without Internet No internet access here except iPhone.  Therefore, I can't download an iPad file explorer, nor email a PDF to myself.  Is there another way to "reverse sync" a PDF?

(Backup will NOT do it).

I did actually send by email, thinking sync would let me pull it from the Drafts (unsent) in Mail.  Alas, Apple has decided there's no longer any value in syncing Mail.

I do already have two such explorer apps, but one announces it is not compatible with IOS 8, and the other does nothing when I select "mount device."

Depending on the type of Mac and iPad you are using, AirDrop could be a solution. The iOS device would need iOS 7 installed and be at least one of the models below.

iPhone 5 or later
iPad (4th generation or later)
iPad mini
iPod touch (5th generation)

The Mac would need to be a 2012 or later model with OS X Yosemite installed.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth need to be enabled on both devices, but no network infrastructure is necessary as AirDrop uses a direct Wi-Fi connection.

As long as you have the option to share the PDF using the standard iOS share button, you should be able to AirDrop the file. Your Mac will show up in the top section of the share sheet, but may take several seconds to be discovered so be patient.


iMac stuck at white screen - graphics issue? I have a mid-2007 iMac that can't boot into OS X Lion unless it's in safe mode. When I turn it on, the Apple logo appears, then the loading spinner, then a white screen with no cursor.

What makes me think it's a graphics issue is that when I boot into Lion recovery, the white screen doesn't get replaced completely by the "steel" background - rather, dragging the Installer window around kind of "erases" the white and lets the steel through, like how the eraser works in Photoshop. I'm thinking this could be related to the graphics card driver, as in safe mode it loads fine and I'm assuming it uses a generic driver there. I've tried the OS it came with (Tiger), and that installs fine but won't boot, only this time getting stuck at a blue screen instead. Oddly enough, Apple hardware test says everything is okay.

I've replaced the hard drive, reset the PRAM and SMC, and done a memory test, and I was wondering if there was anything else I could do or if my hypothesis is correct, finding an alternate way to use the graphics card.

To determine if it is your hardware or OS X boot from external drive. If it works it is your OS X, if not, it is your hardware.

If it is OS X use Safe mode and:

look for non apple drivers loaded using sudo kexstsat in Terminal (enter password)


Magic Mouse Not Very Smooth When Physically Moving It Around I love the Magic Mouse, but there seems to be too much friction between it and my table, so I got a mousepad. That made it even worse, so I bought a special very thin mousepad.  Maybe it's a little better, but still sucks compared to other mice when physically moving it around.

Today I went to the Apple Store to see if there's maybe a special mousepad I need. The employee showed me their sample magic mice and said that's just how they are.

Is this true?  I love the Magic Mouse in every other way, if it was only physically more smooth, it would be absolutely amazing.  Is there a mousepad that works particularly well with it?

I have a five year old magic mouse that's still going great.

I had the same problem with the mouse feet wearing down  to the point where the battery cover was making contact with the desk. It became gritty and not very pleasant to use. I then coated the feet with teflon tape and also covered the worn spot on the battery cover. The tape is extremely thin and won't affect tracking. It feels like the mouse is new. The tape is durable - I haven't had to change it yet and the roll contains enough tape to do a LOT of mice.

The tape I used is ½ inch wide. I applied it as follows:

Remove battery cover and measure the length of the feet. Cut a strip of tape the same length.
Start from inside the battery cover by aligning the tape to the vertical part of the feet (at this point the tape should be perpendicular to the bottom of the mouse case. Use your fingernail or something like a toothpick to seat the tape to the fee.
Gently roll the tape around the feet and under the 'v' between the feet and the mouse case. Again, your fingernail works great for this.
Use a single edge razor blade or exacto knife the trim the excess tape.

Enjoy your 'new' mouse.


iPhone not charging from laptop? I have recently had some problems charging my iPhone 7 from my 2013 Macbook Air. For a while, the phone would only charge if I had the lightning cable turned a certain way, otherwise it would do that incredibly annoying connecting/disconnecting thing. It now refuses to charge at all when connected to the laptop. The strange thing is - my laptop charges my portable phone charger fine (suggesting the laptop port isn't the issue) and the phone charger works with my iPhone fine (suggesting the phone isn't the issue either). And I have tested 2 different cables (one new, one is an apple with no signs of wear and tear) and both work with other devices.

I have, previously (March last year) had some issues with the headphone port requiring the following repair. I am wondering if the two could be correlated, if there is any "easy" fix or if I should just take it into Apple.

The problem description/diagnosis from last time:

Issue: Machine fans get loud and no sound from machine

Steps to Reproduce: observed the issue, Performed visual mechanical inspection, ran Mac Resource Inspector and noted machine had a thermal sensor warning

Proposed Resolution: Replace I/O flex and test. If unsuccessful replace I/O board. Run ASD/EFI & OS as post repair testing and ensure there is sound in users operating issues

Could that be that portable phone charger simply takes less power to charge while iPhone requires more?

By the way, with iPhone not charging is it all the same for all USB hubs on your MB? And is it recognised at all by the laptop?


Rename files before saving I have a certain structure in my files (YYYY-MM-DD_name of file_MYINITIALS). I could rename existing files in batch but to do so I would have to know where they are, as they are in different folders this doesn't seem to be right solution for me.

Is there then way to add the above structure to each file I save? I.e. each time I create a new file a script or so would add YYYY-MM-DD_ before the file name and MYINITIALS right after/before I click "save".

You could create a program that uses Apple's FSEvents to be signalled every time a new file is created - then it could use a standard move command to give the file a new name.

Another options is using Folder Actions, but that would require you knowing which folders you want to monitor. The folder action could execute a small script you put together, that simply append the date and initials to the file name.


Can I restore an application by application switching to it? When you command+tab to an application that is minimized it doesn't bring it forward, is it possible to make it so it gets restored?

With the minimized application selected, start holding the ⌥ alt key before you release the ⌘ cmd key.


MacBook Pro USB Ports Not working I have a MacBook Pro mid 2009 computer. Connecting my usb flash stick doesn't do anything, I tried both ports but not working. I tried connecting an iPad, the iPad charges but it doesn't open show in iTunes for syncing.

One thing to note is that Windows on VMWare recognized the devices when it is active, but not MacOSX. That means the problem is not hardware related.

Have you repaired disk permissions and reset your PRAM?

Follow these instructions to repair disk permissions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1452

Follow these instructions to reset PRAM:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379


Sync Apple notes app on MacBook to Android I recently got an Android phone, and I wanted to know how to sync Apple Notes to Google Keep. I have added my Gmail account to the Apple Notes app, but I don't see the notes showing up in Google Keep. What do I do?

Synchronizing Apple Notes to Gmail puts the notes under a Notes section within Gmail itself.

Google Keep has a synchronization feature, but it's only accessible from Google Keep apps on other platforms and cannot sync with or import from any non-Keep apps. Several years ago, Google stated they were going to be introducing sync to Google Drive within a few weeks, but that never materialized. (The only available interaction with Google Drive is to export a note to Drive as a document, but the reverse is not possible.)

Your options are to continue to use Apple Notes and interact with them in Gmail, or to use the Google Keep web app or a relatively poorly-reviewed Chrome app.


Why won't the iPad Podcasts app download my MP3s? I'm developing a podcast for a website.

iTunes on my Windows desktop works with the podcast feed fine — I can download and then listen to individual MP3s.

I've subscribed to my podcast using the Podcasts.app on an iPad, and the Podcasts.app will play MP3's, but it wont download them. If I click the grey "download" arrow, the app pops up a dialog saying:

  Unable to Download Podcast:
   [name of episode] could not be downloaded at this time.

— but it doesn't actually tell me why it's refusing to download.

My coworker has the "Instacast" app on his iPhone, and that app lets him download episodes from the podcast just fine — but the official Podcasts.app on his phone will also refuse to download episodes.

Why won't the official Podcasts app download any of my podcast episodes?

Since you have access to the server that is supplying the podcasts, you might have to look over the access logs and correlate the time with when your iOS device failed to download an episode.

If for some reason you can’t or won’t look at the server logs, next easiest is to set up a web proxy like Charles proxy - https://www.charlesproxy.com/ and generate more logs.

Last useful would be downloading Xcode and running instruments on the Mac to connect to your iOS device and look over the system and use console app to attach to the iOS logs as you attempt a download.

Let us know what you did to figure this out!


Finder wastes /leaves dead vertical space between details and preview panels As can be seen in the screenshot there is a large area in the middle of the screen that is unused .

I have not been able to reclaim that space by resizing the columns: instead the details panel seems to have a fixed proprtion of the Finder window horizontal width. Here is what clicking in the "dead space" does:

I have been using Finder multiple hours in the past two days to view images . I have killed it (via Activity Monitor) multiple times and even rebooted the machine: nothing changes the behavior.
Am I missing some setting/ knob to reclaim that space?

There should be two ways to reclaim 'dead space':

drag column width (works only on separator between 'Name' and column next to it; 'Name' column width 'consumes' dead space width)

drag Finder window size (right side) smaller (size reduction starts at expense of 'dead space')

In both cases in order to work pointer must turn into "arrow left and right" (↔)


How to know the name of UI elements using Accessibility inspector (or any other tool) I'm trying to interact with a print dialog via Applescript.

What I want to emulate is the user setting a value on a specific dropdown.

Say I have:

tell application "System Events"
  tell process "Preview"
    set value of pop up button XXX to YYY
  end tell
end tell

How should I know the name XXX? For example, how would I distinguish between the "printer" and "presets" dropdowns?

I've opened the Accessibility Inspector, but from the information displayed there, I cannot spot a reference to the name or some other unique identifier for the specified dropdown.

I've seen many people using numbers to refer to the different dropdown, but I'm not sure this is good practice. What happens if Apple decide to swap the order of two dropdowns at some point?

Any help would be appreciated.

UPDATE:

Using 10.6.8 and inspector as suggested below, I get the following:

UPDATE. this will work in 10.7.x but 10.6 has les element info.

The Buttons (drop downs ) in the Print Sheet have Description to describe the function.

In Accessibility inspector; you see this when hovering the mouse over the element (button). you can lock the  Accessibility inspector's view with cmd+F7.

The Description will be listed as AXDescription

In the cases for the Printers its is Printers for Presets it is Presets

If you know the AXDescription you can avoid the numbers using something like this. But this is not the only way. Just one example.

activate application "Preview"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Preview"
        click ((pop up buttons of sheet 1 of window 1) whose description is "Printers")
    end tell
end tell

For the above to work in this example the Print Sheet must be visible along with 'Show Details'

The button/drop down  has a menu. So you can select or click it by referring to the menu items of the menu of the button.

Either by number or using its title/AXTitle.

activate application "Preview"
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Preview"
            click ((pop up buttons of sheet 1 of window 1) whose description is "Presets")

click menu item "Last Used Settings" of menu of ((pop up buttons of sheet 1 of window 1) whose description is "Presets")
        end tell
    end tell

You can shorten repetitive code by using a variable for the button and calling that.
When doing it like my example below;

   activate application "Preview"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Preview"
        set Presets_button to item 1 of ((pop up buttons of sheet 1 of window 1) whose description is "Presets")

        click Presets_button
        click menu item "Last Used Settings" of menu of Presets_button
    end tell
end tell


Why kernel log is empty? My macOS 10.12.3 crashed while suspended and I want to look in the log files to determine where the problem comes from.

I opened System Information and in the Logs I found a Kernel log entry linked to /var/log/asl. But this file is empty. Why?

As of 10.12, macOS no longer primarily logs to text files.  However, you can interrogate the stored log data using the log(1) command on the command line in concert with the Console application (found in /Applications/Utilities).

For example, to see all log entries generated by the kernel during the last day in old-fashioned syslog-style text, you can do:

log show --predicate 'processImagePath contains "kernel"' --style syslog --last 1d

(You can also use --start and --end flags if you want to restrict the time window more accurately.)

Alternatively, you can collect all logs from the past day into a bundle called system_logs.logarchive in the current directory by doing:

sudo log collect --last 1d

You can then open this bundle in the Console app (this takes a little while), and in the Search field type process:kernel to find all the log entries generated by the kernel.

I suggest a thorough reading of the log(1) man page (as well as the other resources it points to), plus some experimentation.


Can I configure an SSD and HDD to be one logic volume in Lion? I recently purchased a 120GB SSD that will replace my optical drive in my MBP. It also has a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive.

Is it possible to have a single logical volume that uses both physical disks in Lion. If so, would I be able to still specify that the OS and Applications be installed on the SSD while all other large files reside on the HDD, and how would I do it?

You certainly can make two or more physical drives into one volume that the OS sees. It's referred to as a concatenated disk set - and Disk Utility will erase both drives in preparation for a RAID - you can choose an actual RAID stripe or simple concatenation.

Since Macs won't boot from a RAID volume without some additional hardware or extra software ( to handle the added complexity that RAID entails ), you won't be able to use this for your boot volume.

Even if you could, I wouldn't advise doing this since the OS decides where to store files inside any volume. If your goal is to control what files go to the SSD and which to the HDD - this doesn't get you any closer to that goal.

The good news is there is an excellent "Plan B" for you

The best writing I have seen recently on how to both think about using a SSD with a HDD that also covers how exactly to implement a split was written recently by Matt Legend Gemmell - He really knows his stuff in general and his article titled Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup is great reading.

Matt advocates

installing the OS and most user data on the SSD
place user data that won't fit on the SSD instead on the HDD
implementing this by moving entire top level folders from the SSD home folder and placing them on the HDD.
using soft (sym) links to connect the two locations.

I hope that gives you a better solution to what I see as the major thrust to your question. You might also look at using Aliases (OS X Finder's enhanced version of a sym link that points at unique characteristics of the file as well as the path in case either gets moved and the system can figure out (re-link) to the correct/new location of the file.)


Is there a way to send a remote lock/unlock message to an iOS device with Cydia? I want to be able to trigger my iphone to unlock from a webserver. Is there a way to send a command over LAN to it to unlock using Cydia?

The only way I can think of doing this is by downloading Veency and a program that supports it, eg. VNC viewer


Safari stopped auto-filling saved password data, any 'fix'? Yet another marvellous new 'feature' - Safari 11.1 now will not auto-fill any login data unless you specifically click the first field, select the login drop menu, select the login....

Is there any way to go back to the old method & prevent this complete & utter waste of time, every time?

To clarify, after comments.
The mac is unlocked, I'm sitting at it working. Security is not at issue; if I leave my machine, either I will lock it or it will self-lock.
 Any web site I visit that requires a  log/pass [already saved in Keychain, which is also unlocked] then requires me to click in the first box. Safari then presents a credentials drop menu for that box. I then have to click on it to populate the fields.
This does not improve security, it merely wastes time.

This is in no way an improvement on simply auto-filling with the same information, which it used to do until recently.
I could understand it if there were potentially multiple entries to choose from; but that would be an edge case not a standard practise.

Whether or not there are 'hidden text fields' is not really an issue, as this data was previously manually entered into the visible fields then saved to Keychain. Keychain wouldn't populate fields with data it had not already saved for that page.
This is not for the  the 'personal info autofill'  -  - which already needs specific user interaction for good reason, only site-specific previously saved Keychain log/pass information.

This is only a partial answer covering a slight alleviation for:

  Yet another marvellous new 'feature' - Safari 11.1 now will not auto-fill any login data unless you specifically click the first field, select the login drop menu, select the login…

My personal grievance with this situation is that there seems no way to use the keyboard for this and being forced to use the mouse/trackpad to hit a usually tiny caret to achieve the desired result. Using the keyboard for this task would be at least much faster and less error prone.

Unfortunately, it looks as if you still may use Tab to get to the username field, but after that all keyboard actions seem to be inert and it's back to using a pointing device?

That seems to be amplified by a bug. If you Tab past the username field and into the password field, then Shift+Tab back into the username field, then the information is auto-filled in for the most recent credentials and you may even select other identities with the cursor keys.

This behaviour differs depending on the page in question and also has its level of practicality depending on the page design: how many fields there are to tab into, before reaching the desired one.

On a relatively cleanly designed page like Apple's developer program login page the behaviour is as described above. On other pages the behaviour can sometimes be different and even be more like it was before. For example, Microsoft dedicated login pages preselect an open field and it's just a cursor down + Return to go forward.

This was tested on 10.12.6 and with Safari Version 11.1.1 (12605.2.1).


In iTunes 11, how do I download all existing shows for a podcast? Recently, I've started listening to more podcasts on my iPhone. I've found a few that I like and want to listen to past episodes. Ideally, I want to just download. I can't seem to figure out a way to queue up all unplayed episodes for download in iTunes.

I found in the settings for the podcast I can have it automatically download all new episodes, but this doesn't apply for older episodes.

Ideally, I don't want to have to click the download button for each episode (there are a couple hundred episodes).

Select the List tab:

Click on the disclosure arrow to expand the subscription (if it's not already expanded):

Click on the download button at the top of the list:

Click OK to start downloading all episodes:


Presentation software for ipad which works also on windows 7 laptop for remote control Very soon I have a presentation at school. and would like a suggestion regarding the application for iOS which can I use for the Powerpoint presentation. I would like an app that allows me to change a slide a page on my iPad, and have that reflect automatically also on my laptop (has Windows 7).

What software I need for tablet and laptop, and what steps do I follow to do remote presentation?

There are several apps that will allow you to remotely view your laptop's Powerpoint, as well as remotely control it. Here is one such application:

i-Clickr PowerPoint Remote


Use LaunchControl to run pg_dump in a ruby file Using Mac OSX 10.12.5, I have a ruby file with the following contents

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
Dir.chdir('/Users/my_files') do
  system("pg_dump -Fc --no-acl --no-owner -h localhost -U MyName development > backup_file.dump")
end

it works if I run it from the command line, but if I run it from LaunchControl I get the following error:

sh: pg_dump: command not found

How do I fix this?

Thanks to klanomath's comment, the problem is that I am not putting the full file path to pg_dump.

pg_dump is a utility of postgresql which was installed using homebrew. So in my case I did brew info postgresql which told me the path to postgresql.  In the bin directory I found pgdump.

I also put in the full path to where I wanted backup_file saved. This was found by changing to that directory and typing pwd.


My network password for my wifi I cannot remember my network wifi password to set up another device.  Is there a way to see the password on my iPad since it is connected to my personal wifi?

On the iPad there's no way of viewing your password but if you have a Mac running OS X Mavericks v10.9 or later and your iPad is running iOS 7.0.3 or later having your iCloud Keychain synced up with them both then you could see your password in your Mac's Keychain Access.

Follow this Apple FAQ about iCloud Keychain.


Safari won’t load, it freezes shortly after I open it and the coloured wheel appears I have been having problems with the Safari on my MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018) in the last couple of days. I updated it yesterday to Catalina 10.15.7 and I have Safari Version 14.0.
Now every time I open safari, I get to the favourites page and when I click on a website (like moodle, or websites from my school) it always freezes and the coloured wheel starts spinning and the fans start turning really loudly. I can’t close the browser, and I have to “quit” Safari, but that doesn’t work, so I have to “force quit” it. And when I restart Safari the same thing happens again, so I tried to force-restart my laptop, because Safari is frozen. But when I restart it the same thing happens again. And I just have 1 website/tab/window open, and it used to work fine in the past.
I closed all the other apps, and tried reopening Safari multiple times. And then I tried restarting my mac several times.
I tried to run diagnostics on my laptop and that said there were no problems.
I deleted all my Safari History and I emptied my Caches.
I do not have any extensions.
I usually can’t even log into my university-moodle-account, and when I can, I can’t download any of my homework or watch the video-recordings of the lectures.
I don’t know how to fix it.

I just had a Macbook Air with Safari that would immediately crash when trying to launch.  This was on a Mojave system.
To fix, I would up reinstalling OS (reboot and press and hold Command+R).
Safari is now working fine.


prevent doubleapple files creation when tarring directories (Snow Leopard) I'm looking how to prevent tar from saving or creating .AppleDouble shadow files and preferably do it in an automated manner. There are a few questions asking why this happens, but I want a solution that helps me prevent this in practice.

What do I need to do using terminal when I tar a directory to prevent these files from being generated?

The duplicate (linked above) as it has been pointed out shows a whole bunch of lines which I do not understand. I'm pretty new to working with Terminal, so that is probably the reason why I don't grasp it.

$ xattr -l file.jpg
com.apple.quarantine: 0002;50d20c48;Tweetbot;
$ tar -cf 1.tar file.jpg
$ tar -tf 1.tar
./._file.jpg
file.jpg
$ COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar -cf 2.tar file.jpg
$ tar -tf 2.tar
file.jpg

I just cannot imagine that every time I want to tar a directory I need this bunch only to achieve not getting duplicates.

Regarding the solutions given below in the comments, does it mean that every time I want to tar something I have to use that whole line? Or is there a way to tell the system to set this as the default behaviour when tarring files?

@LauriRanta answered the question by giving two solutions.

The first solution is to use COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar -cf directory.tar directory each time you want to tar a directory without the hidden files.

Her 2nd solution however - and also the one I was looking for - shows how to automate the whole lot by using an alias. If you don't know what an alias is (I didn't) there is a great tutorial available here that shows how to create a temporary alias (only valid for current session) and a permanent alias (stays valid even after turning your Mac off).

I used Lauri's suggestion with a few additions to create a permanent alias:

alias tarc="COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar --exclude '\\.DS_Store' -zcf"

so next time I want to tar a directory without overhead I only have to write tarc chosen-gzipped-tar-filename.tgz name-of-directory-i-want-to-tar/ and beam it up to my webhost.

Thanks for all comments and input!


How to get Cmd-Tab (Mapped to Alt-Tab) in a Parallels Windows VM to cycle just Windows Apps? I have a Windows VM running in Parallels and is working just fine. I have mapped Apple-⌘ Cmd key to Windows-Alt and Apple-⌥ Opt to Windows-⊞ Win.

When I press ⌘ Cmd-Tab - even in full screen mode - I cycle through all Apps running in both Windows and MacOS. How do I get it to just be Windows?

To disable the OS X system keyboard shortcuts while the focus is on your VM, just change the setting under Shortcuts labelled "Send OS X system shortcuts" to Always.  This will send all keystrokes only to the VM when it has the focus.


Custom keyboard I created with ukalele not working I created a custom layout with Ukalele. This file is here: http://www.filedropper.com/koray1

The filename is: koray1.keylayout

I copied this file to /Library/Keyboard Layouts

However I do not see it available for selecting:

What am I doing wrong?

The Keyboard Name is not set correctly.  It duplicates one already in use by the system.  Instead you should make it koray1.


OS X 10.11 unable to press "allow" on Keychain Access dialogs I'm running into an issue where keychain password verification box does not verify password - does not shake for incorrect password and nothing happens when I press "allow". I'm using iCloud keychain.

What could make the Keychain Access wants to... dialog box to not verify the password?

Nothing happens when I press "Allow" with password enters. The box does not shake when password is incorrect:

I encountered this same issue today. I could not "Allow" or "Always Allow" any programs, nor could I confirm my password in any dialogues. The interface wouldn't shake, even if I had entered the incorrect password.

I use Synergy to facilitate programming over several different computers. My mouse and keyboard do not belong to the Mac OSX device. I was able to hit the "Allow" button once I used a mouse actually hooked up the Mac OSX device.

In general, try turning off any virtual or physical KVM services and use the Mac mouse/keyboard directly.

Hopefully this can help you or someone else who comes here looking for help.


Does buying a new mac also get you Lion on your Apple ID? When you buy a new mac, the iLife apps are redeemed with App Store validation codes which means you can upgrade/install iLife 11 on your other macs. (Assuming you have fewer than the current store limit of 5 macs connected to your store Apple ID and the software requirements are met).

Does this also apply to Lion?

I would presume no since the linked MacWorld article clearly only mentions iLife. I'm mostly interested in how the App Store is working and this appears to be a new function where it's allowing a programatic access to an asset that also is being sold under the normal store terms of redemption code or direct payment.

No. The copy of Lion you get with a new Mac is only available via the recovery partition on the hard drive and this version of the OS is tied to the hardware.

From this MacWorld article that talks about how the version of iLife you get with a new Mac is a full Mac App Store version you can install on multiple Macs in your house:

  When you reinstall Lion via Lion Recovery, it seems Apple uses information about your Mac's hardware to verify that it has a license for Lion.

Or as this summary of the MacWorld article puts it:

  Unfortunately, as Macworld points out, this trick doesn’t apply to OS X Lion itself — there’s no DVD or thumb drive included with a new Mac, which means the big cat only lives on your new Mac’s recovery partition, which appears to be tied to the hardware itself — meaning you can’t install it on your other Macs without ponying up the $29.99 from the Mac App Store.

Would be nice if you got it for your other Macs for free when you bought a new Mac, but for now it seems like it'll still cost you another $30 to bring all the Macs you own up to the current OS rev.


How to transfer a Motion (5) project between Macs? I need to be able to work on a motion project on-the-go on a MacBook Pro, but it really seems to be lagging performance wise, so I want to transfer the project to a iMac while at home, and to transfer it back onto the MacBook when I go out again. So how do I transfer the active project along with all required data easily between two computers?

Edit:
Never mind, apparently when you save you can save as a folder, copying all the media into that folder. I'll just leave this up for others who have the same question.

When you save you can save as a folder ("Copy Media"), and it will copy all the media into a folder in the folder of the project, allowing it to be moved around.


Folder of second hdd unaccessible for other users I have a Macbook pro with El Capitan and two HDDs. The second drive I wish to use as a sharing area with my wife who has a user on the same notebook.

I created a folder and put some files there. She can see but cannot modify the folder, can't save anything.

I opened the info window about the folder and there are 3 users: me, admin and everyone. I changed the permissions to all read and write and order to apply to content too.

Nothing has changed, my wife still cannot modify the contents of the folder, nor save files. "Everyone" should give rights to all users - a public folder. What is missing?

On this second HDD, Get Info on the drive, and at the bottom, authenticate by clicking the lock button, then click the Ignore ownership on this volume checkbox.


How to burn a .mp4 to DVD+R I have the osx version 10.9.2

I can't find any way to burn my .mp4 file to a DVD+R.

Can anyone recommend a way to do this?

There is a freeware software called Burn:

  Made your own movies and want to share them with family and friends? No problem. Burn can create a wide range of video discs. From VideoCD to DVD-Video discs. And DivX discs to fit more of your videos on a disc.

I use it all the time for burning mp4s to DVDs, the finished product will also work with DVD Players too.


Add note to emails in Mail App or alternative Mail app? I just found http://www.indev.ca/MailTags.html but I will not pay 30 bucks just for adding some notes to my mails.

Are there some free extensions or alternative mail apps that support adding notes to emails?

That would be awesome. I searched a lot but didn't find a good alternative.

The point is: I want to add a simple comment/note on my mail so I directly can identify the state (e.g. 'waiting for response with data')

Mailmate allows extensive tagging (IMAP compatible). A very good mail client, btw.


How to sync OS X Contacts and Calendar with Windows Phone? How can I sync Windows Phone contacts and calendar with the Mac contacts and calendar?

I have done some research and found the following:

Windows Phone app

…but it's taking care of the media only (music, films and photos)
SyncMate

…but it's not compatible with Mavericks at the moment, and the paid version has bad reviews on the app store.
Nokia Support Discussions — Sync contacts and Calendars between a Mac and Windows Phone about sync with Gmail account

…but I don't want to use a Gmail account.

If you have a Microsoft Exchange account (which I presume you have as you have a Windows Phone) or any other major account (eg. Yahoo) then it is fairly easy. Go into System Preferences/Internet Accounts and select your account type. Put in you username and password and select the apps you want to sync. Viola! Your contacts and calendar are now synced between your phone and your Mac.


How to prevent Safari saved passwords being seen with Mac password? In Safari on OS X via Safari/Preferences/Passwords/ it is possible to view all saved passwords in plain text by entering the Mac password.

I want to use a different password. Is this possible?

I know that it is possible to change the password used to access the Keychain app via this method: Mac OS X, passwd, and keychain, however it does not change the behaviour in Safari as mentioned above. My ideal situation is for Keychain to manage all my passwords across all my devices and autofill them, without revealing them in plain text to someone who knows my device passwords.

RELATED: How to prevent keychain passwords being seen with iPhone passcode? the same problem on iOS.

If you want to avoid the default behaviour, which is a reasonable setting for a computer that allows multiple accounts, including guest accounts, you can do the following in Keychain Access:

Change the Keychain password
For each really sensitive item you have in there:

Select a relevant item in Keychain Access
Get information on the item with the Get Info menu
Select the Access Control tab
Mark the Ask for Keychain password checkbox

That should allow for the most sensitive passwords (or all of them, if you apply it to all of them) to require your password to be provided every time they are about to be used, and hence won't show in Safari's saved passwords unless that Keychain password is provided.

Another option is creating a new keychain, different from the login keychain, with a different passwords, and move the items from the login keychain. The system can find the needed items in that keychain, and you will need to provide that different password instead.

Of course, another option is using 1password.


Using automator and handbrake cli to convert videos automatically I am trying to automate video conversion process using Automator and Handbrake CLI version. I am trying to implement the functionality that whenever a video is downloaded in my dropbox folder on my PC it is converted and put in another folder. Currently i am testing it with a test folder (not on dropbox so i am just copying files to it to test). When a put a single file or multiple files in the folder simultaneously it works. But when   i put one file (or many) and script is executing i.e. converting the videos and i put another file in the folder then for that new file script is never called so the new video is not converted.

So how can i achieve this functionality that when script is running and new file is added another instance of script is started for new file.

And also the new file is saving with only the first word in the name if name has many words (i.e. breaking on space)

Here is the screenshot of my automator configuration:

Thanks in advance for your help.

Here is my script from run shell script as you asked @:Tony Williams

for f in "$@"
do
    Applications/HandBrakeCLI -i "$f" -t 1 --angle 1 -c 1 -o "/Users/abc/Desktop/TestVidDest/$(basename $f)"  -f mp4  -4  -O  --decomb="fast" -w 1280 -l 720 --modulus 16 -e x264 -b 3800 -2  -T  --cfr -a 1 -E faac -6 dpl2 -R 48 -B 128 -D 0 --gain 0 --audio-fallback ffac3 --x264-preset=slow  --x264-profile=high  --x264-tune="film"  --h264-level="4.0"  --verbose=1
done

Process in the background

Ideally, your script needs to complete as quickly as possible. The easiest way is to spin off the processing of the movies into background processes. You can do this by adding a space and an ampersand & to the end of your HandBrakeCLI line.

Move before processing

However, this does not solve the problem of new files being ignored. In fact, your files could now be processed twice if the processing is not finished before the next new file appears.

Your script should move each new file to another unmonitored folder before processing begins. Consider adding a mv command before your HandBrakeCLI line. Alternatively, you could have Automator perform the move.

The destination folder should ideally be on the same drive, so it completes quickly and does not delay the script.


Do any RSS apps available for OS X and/or iOS sync via anything other than Google Reader? I recently switched from NetNewsWire to Reeder on my iPhone and iPad because a) Reeder as a “Mark as unread” button, and b) I thought NetNewsWire was marking older articles as read, and not letting me switch them back.

I soon realised that old articles were being actually marked as read because Google Reader does that after a month.

Whilst I prefer Reeder’s UI, I think it’s (currently) purely a Google Reader front-end. Are there any RSS apps that sync via some service, free or paid, other than Google Reader, and thus let me keep articles as unread for more than a month?

NetNewsWire used to sync via NewsGator, but I believe NewsGator no longer offer an RSS sync service.

My last comment just gave me one idea that might solve your issue: Google's Feedburner. You can configure it to send emails from any feed. It will be little troublesome at first as it's a long manual job. Seems like it is unsupported and not really meant to be used like this. But it works perfectly!

Here are some quotes from its own help:

  What triggers the email to be sent out?

  FeedBurner sends subscribers a daily
  digest of new content from your blog,
  so a new post, new title, link, or
  change to the published date will
  trigger the email delivery. If you do
  not post anything that day, no email
  is sent out.

  FeedBurner only keeps a change history
  for items currently listed in the
  feed. Once they “drop off the bottom”
  of the feed, the system forgets about
  them completely. If you re-introduced
  them later by increasing the number of
  items your feed contains, this will
  result in the newly included items
  being delivered via email as “new”
  content.

  How much does this service cost and what methods of payment are accepted?

  FeedBurner Email is a free service.
  However, we do accept voluntary
  payment in the form of props and
  general goodwill.

  How do you get started?

  Sign in to your FeedBurner account,
  select your feed, navigate to the
  Publicize tab and select "Email
  Subscriptions."


What does Date Created in Finder mean? This sounds really stupid - but I bought my Mac (supposedly brand new) from a retailer friend in 2014, and I just found apps that are created in 2013 while going through Finder.

Does Date Created for apps & files in OS X can be not the exact date that it was installed on the Mac?

In most cases, "Date Created" is the date you created the file. For example, if you write a document and save it, "Today" is the creation date.

If I check my Applications folder, I can see that "App Store.app" was created on June 18, 2015. However, it's impossible for it to have been installed on that date because I installed El Capitan on the USB drive I'm currently booted from just a couple weeks ago (in other words, in June 2015 I didn't own a bootable copy of El Capitan). This means that the "Date Created" was the date that the app itself was created and not when it was installed.

In some other cases (I can't find the file I'm thinking about right now but if I do I'll edit my answer) you can download files and they could retain their metadata. You can download a file created years before you even owned your computer. If the metadata is retained you could have a creation date that is before your owning of that computer (e.g. download a document written in 2013 on a 2014 laptop).


When I open an Open Dialog box in Catalina, it always displays in "Recent" view, showing items grouped by recently used I find Recent View to be EXTREMELY anxiety-inducing because it forces me to have to think about when I used the document last and when I used all of the other documents in the same folder. it's in fact much more difficult to locate a document than if the list were simply alphabetical.

Is there any wait to tell Finder to sort items alphabetically?

use the icon with the 3 columns to select how you want the Open Dialog box to display, choose the icon, then from the drop down select "Name" under "Group Items by"


How to turn off horizontal split screen on iOS 14 on an iPhone? I keep accidentally splitting the screen horizontally - which has led to zoom call issues etc. However, despite the split, I can't seem to figure out how to get 2 apps to display on my iPhone.
So, how do I make sure the screen does not split? (Which gesture even causes the split? I seem to be able to do the split only randomly.)
A quick google search only yields iPad tutorials** - the screen settings differ on an iPhone.

Unlike iPadOS (variant of iOS, renamed to reflect features specific to iPad, such as the ability to view multiple running apps at once), iOS has no ability to view two or more running apps in a split screen mode.
What you are encountering is an iOS (running on iPhone) feature called Reachability. Reachability is a feature available on iPhones with an iPhone 6–sized screen or larger. The rationale is to make single-handed use of larger screens easier by temporarily shifting the on screen elements to make them easily accessible.
You can learn more about Reachability in the official iPhone user guide.
Reachability is enabled by default in iOS. On iPhones with a home button, Reachability can be invoked by double tapping on the Home button. On iPhones without a home button (i.e. those that use Face ID), Reachability can be invoked by swiping down on the bottom edge of the screen.
Reachability is available on the following iPhone with Home button:

iPhone 6

iPhone 6 Plus

iPhone 6s

iPhone 6s Plus

iPhone 7

iPhone 7 Plus

iPhone 8

iPhone 8 Plus

iPhone SE 2nd gen

and on the following iPhone which come without Home button/with Face ID:

iPhone X

iPhone XR

iPhone XS

iPhone XS Max

iPhone 11

iPhone 11 Pro

iPhone 11 Pro Max

iPhone 12

iPhone 12 mini

iPhone 12 Pro

iPhone 12 Pro Max

You can move out of Reachability mode by double tapping the Home button or swiping up on the bottom edge.
Reachability mode is not persistent after invoking and the iPhone also automatically moves out of Reachability mode after a little while once you start interacting with the on screen elements.
If you do not wish to use Reachability feature, you can disable it on your iPhone by going to Settings app → Accessibility → Touch and turning the switch corresponding to Reachability off.

To answer your specific questions:

How to turn off horizontal split screen on iOS 14 on an iPhone

By turning off Reachability from within Accessibility settings.

how do I make sure the screen does not split?

By turning off Reachability.

Which gesture even causes the split?

Swipe down on the bottom edge on iPhone without Home button/with Face ID.


How to manually update? Obviously I'm online and able to connect to apple.com and other websites.
System Updates think I'm offline for some 2-trillion$ reason.

Is there a way to trigger a manual update?

Being connected to the internet is one step, next is
softwareupdate --all --install

Should that fail, I would test APNS notifications to see if your network may be blocking outbound and inbound traffic to Apple servers.

https://twocanoes.com/products/mac/push-diagnostics/
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210060

The second link explains what network ranges and ports have to be free of interference. One typical situation is a network is performing one of MITM attack / HTTPS Interception / SSL Inspection of the traffic between your device and Apple, rendering the secure connections invalid.
This can also just result from Apple services are in an error condition or your network or OS has issues. I test that with a command line invocation if the software update tool.
You can then run the full installer to accomplish your update or see errors why it’s not progressing in many cases.


"You cannot auto-download or download past purchases with a different Apple ID for 90 days" when switching iTunes library from old PC to new PC I have migrated all of my music from my old laptop to my new desktop via iTunes Home Sharing. I can see all of it, but it will not allow me to play any of the music. It says:

  This computer is already associated with an Apple ID. You cannot auto-download or download past purchases with a different Apple ID for 90 days.

What does that even mean? When I go into "My Account" it says that 4 computers are authorized, but under manage devices there is only 1 computer listed and it was associated dec. 25, 2013, well past the 90 day rule. I'd like to get rid of my old laptop, which is why I'm trying to move all my music. Does anyone know what I should do?

It looks like you have been just caught up in a mess with Apple Servers.

Presently there is a stampede going on at Apple Store, with people wanting to preorder the iPone6.

Reportedly the server was overloaded and had to be taken down, and has not been operating correctly since.

Others have reported similar problems.

Just hang in there till the dust settles, and keep trying.


How do I make iTunes sync automatically when an iPhone, iPad or iPod is connected? When iTunes is already running and I plug in my iPhone or iPad, the device appears correctly in iTunes but it doesn't sync automatically. I'm sure it always used to sync automatically on connection, but now I need to start the sync manually (i.e. by selecting the device and clicking the Sync button). Does anyone know how I can get it to sync automatically as soon as the device is connected?

My details are as follows:

iTunes 10.5.1.42 on Windows 7 64-bit
iPhone 4 and iPad 2, both with iOS 5.0.1
iTunes > Preferences > Devices > "Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically" is unchecked.
For both devices, the iTunes setting "Open iTunes when this iPhone/iPad is connected" is unchecked.
I'm syncing via a USB cable. (I did try Wi-Fi sync but iTunes hardly ever found the devices so I disabled it on both iPhone and iPad. This may have been around the time auto-sync stopped working too but I can't be sure.)
I don't use iCloud for sync or backup.
It's the same laptop and library I've always synced against (so this answer doesn't seem to be relevant in my case)
iTunesHelper.exe and iPodService.exe are both running normally.

Your list holds the answer, specifically #4. The problem is the fact that when iTunes it prevented from automatically opening when a device is connected, there's a whole list of actions that simply don't happen, sync triggering is one of them.

Re-enable 'Open iTunes when this iPhone/iPad is connected' and your syncs should work normally, and automatically, again.


how to install latest possible iTunes without Yosemite upgrade? My Mac is running OS X Mavericks (1.9.5) and iTunes 11.1.

After I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 7 to iOS 8, I get a message saying that I need at least iTunes 11.2 to connect to this iPhone. However, when I click on the "upgrade" button, App Store only gives me the option of upgrading to Yosemite. I can't find a way to just install iTunes 11.2 or whatever version without upgrading to Yosemite.

Is there any place where I can download older iTunes versions?

thanks!

Download the latest version from the Apple Support Downloads here


USB-C to VGA adapter Apple TV 4 Just out of curiosity: Is it possible to use an USB-C to VGA adapter with the 4th generation Apple-TV by placing the adapter in the USB-C service port?

No.

From AppleInsider: "Unlike with the 12-inch MacBook, which uses the USB-C port for both charging and syncing, the USB-C connection on the Apple TV will only be used for diagnostics purposes."

Also, from AppDevice "The USB-C cable offers the only way for the new Apple TV to interface with a computer for things like taking screenshots of screen recordings from the device and, more important, restoring the device to factory settings via iTunes (in the event that over-the-air restore doesn’t work)."