Can I transfer backups when replacing a Time Capsule? If I get a new Time Capsule, how can I transfer the backups from the old Time Capsule to the new one. I see an option to Archive the Time Capsule from the Airport Utility, but I don't see any way to restore. Do I have to go through the initial back up process again with all of my Macs?

From Apple Support Knowledge Base...

Time Capsule, Mac OS X v10.6.3 or later: How to transfer your back up from an existing Time Capsule to a new one

For this process, you should leave your computer in the same room as the Time Capsules, or use one Ethernet cable to connect your Mac to the Ethernet port on the existing Time Capsule, then use another Ethernet cable to connect from the existing Time Capsule to the new Time Capsule.

Configure your Time Capsule for your network. See the documentation
that came with your Time Capsule for information about setting it up
on your network.
Open Time Machine preferences in System
Preferences.
Slide the Time Machine switch to Off.
Open a Finder
window.
Locate both Time Capsules listed in the SHARED section of
the navigation pane on the left of the Finder window.  Note: If you
do not see your Time Capsules in that section, choose Preferences
from the Finder menu and make sure "Connected servers" is checked
under SHARED.
Select the name of the new Time Capsule in the
navigation pane. The default name is "Time Capsule xxxxxx", with
xxxxxx being the last digits of the ID printed on the bottom of the
Time Capsule.
Mount the volume by double-clicking the name of the
volume in the Finder window's main section. The default drive name
is "Data".
Open a new Finder window by pressing Command-N, or by
choosing File > New Finder Window.
Repeat the previous 2 steps with
the other Time Capsule, to mount it. Drag your backup disk image
from the current Time Capsule to the new Time Capsule. This can take
some time to complete because your entire backup will be copied.
Open Time Machine preferences in System Preferences.
Click "Select
Disk...", then select your new Time Capsule.
Perform a Time Machine
back up.
After the back up, you can remove the Ethernet cables if
desired and configure your wireless network to your liking.


Creating a EFI partition I have been having trouble installing OS X Mavericks and I think I found the problem. It told me I couldn't boot up with Macintosh HD, so I verified my disk and I got this error: This disk doesn't contain an EFI system partition

So I figured out I can create one like this (tell me if I'm wrong): sudo gpt add -b 40 -i 1 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk0 from this question, but they also said the "index" must be 1, so I can't have anything at that index.

I ran diskutil list and this is the output:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk0
   1:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            233.0 GB   disk0s1
   2:                 Linux Swap                         4.0 GB     disk0s2

So I need to figure out how to move the indexes of Macintosh HD and that Linux Swap thing to indexes 2 and 3 instead of 1 and 2.

I don't know if this can be done without wiping and formatting my hard drive which I don't want to do, but if it can I would love to know how. Thanks!

By the way I'm on OS X mountain lion

Usually EFI is on your Macintosh HD. It's likely still there, but not used due to messed up settings. This very easy to fix:

Boot into a Recovery partition, DVD, or USB drive. Using the installation media that came with your device will suffice.
Once loaded, you'll be presented an interface like:

Close this window, and you'll be prompted to choose between Startup disk, Cancel, and Restart.
Select Startup Disk. The mere act of opening this utility with run the appropriate bless command in the background, repairing your EFI setup.
Select Macintosh HD
Restart
Come back to Ask Different and up vote this successful answer :D


What is really meant by "Invalid B-tree node size"? How to solve it without expensive 3rd party softwares? I've been having troubles with my external HDD and have been looking so hard for a solution.
I've tried everything. Diskutil, FSCK, testdisk. But only to find what I already know... "Invalid B-tree node size". It's unbelievable that Apple hasn't included a fixer for this kind of problem within its tools like diskutil.
My concern is, what is the meaning of this error?
Is there any solution to this problem without using a expensive 3rd party software?
Isn't there any open source software to recover my data?
Has anyone fixed this problem before?
I certainly would love just to buy a specialized software like DiskWarrior, but I can't afford that price.

It basically means the file can't be looked in the B-Tree. A more in-depth explanation can be found at https://www.easeus.com/mac-file-recovery/invalid-b-tree-node-size.html
Option 1 - Disk Utility
It's an inbuilt disk repair utility that repairs most commonly seen hard drive problems.

Choose Apple menu, click Restart.
Press and hold the Command and R keys until the Apple logo appears and then release the keys.
Click Disk Utility and click Continue.
In the sidebar, select the disk with invalid b-tree node size and you want to repair, click the First Aid button.
Click Run.

If Disk Utility can't repair your disk, run it again. Or else, move on the next solutions.
Option 2 - Fsck command
The fsck command is used to repair disk and file system problems on your Mac.

Start your Mac in single-user mode. Restart it, and then press and hold the Command+S keys while it boots.
Type the command /sbin/fsck -fy into the terminal and press Enter to start a file system check.
When the fsck command has your disk checked and repaired, type reboot and press Enter. Your Mac will reboot and return to the usual login screen.

Option 3 - Reformat
Take the Mac hard drive reformatting as the last step, because this formatting process will erase all data on the drive completely. Make sure you've backed up your hard drive with Time Machine.

Launch Disk Utility. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left.
Click the Erase tab along the top of the window.
From the Volume Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field.
Click the Erase button.

Disclaimer This answer is originally from https://www.easeus.com/mac-file-recovery/invalid-b-tree-node-size.html and was helpful for me when i had the same issue.


Why are the alias so big in filesize in Mountain Lion? I noticed the alias(es) that I create in Mountain Lion are very big in filesize (for example an alias to a folder is 5.8MB!)

Compared to Leopard, they were just about 500KB.

Why is this? and is there a way in the system where I can make them smaller without resorting to creating alias via the terminal?

Since Lion, in addition to storing Retina icons, it seems that an alias stores its many different sizes of icons in both the data and the resource fork (the xattr com.apple.ResourceFork). Possibly in a move away from Resource forks, while still supporting previous OSes (for now).

The alias I just created contained the follow formats:
is32, s8mk, ic11, il32, l8mk, ic12, ic07, ic13, ic08, ic14, ic09, ic10

They are described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Icon_Image_format


Arabic letters being cut on iPhoneX I've bought an iPhone X about 3 months ago, 1 month later I started facing a problem where some Arabic letters and words are being cut and not shown in the messages in Messenger, Facebook, Line and even the Messages app. While the same messages are shown normally if I come back later.

It happens from time to time, but recently it became so much worse. The English text is shown without any problem

Currently I'm running iOS 11.2.6

I'm not sure but have you tried to put the global language of the iPhone in Arabic?
Applications can change behavior.


How to upgrade my login shell from bash version 3 to 4? Current I am running

$ echo $BASH_VERSION
$ 3.2.57(1)-release

I have the new shell in

/usr/local/bin/bash

and I can run it directly with

/usr/local/bin/bash
$ echo $BASH_VERSION
$ 4.3.42(1)-release

I have done

$ chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash

I needed to fully quit the terminal application in order for the changes to take effect.  osx is different in this way as it leaves applications 'open' even when all current window occurrences of it are closed.


How can I access my GMail contact groups from my iOS 7 device? I really need to be able to access contact groups in the Contacts app on my iOS 7 device. How can I do this? In the side bar, all that is available is "All GMail", nothing else. However, under iCloud, there are several groups. Suggestions?

As far as I know the (becoming deprecated) exchange-based sync that gmail used never did it.  And the newer carddav sync doesn't support it "yet". I believe the spec they wrote for the protocol does provide the means for contact groups, but google simply has not implemented everything yet.

Google  does provide such features in their APIs which is a long way of saying you can find a few third-party solutions at the AppStore for the time-being that will sync your gmail groups bi-directionally.  Not sure if there are any free ones and haven't tried any to recommend, unfortunately.


How to disable or remove the YaraScanService (MRT.app)? Recently on MacOS 10.13.6 I have noticed high CPU usage and identified the process YaraScanService as consuming close to 90% CPU.

The Activity Monitor lists it under:

/System/Library/CoreServices/MRT.app/Contents/XPCServices/YaraScanService.xpc/Contents/MacOS/YaraScanService

as part of the MRT.app.

According to this thread and another one it appears to be some kind of Apple's built-in antivirus that is doing its scanning yet there doesn't seem to be a way to disable or remove it apart from killing it from the Activity Monitor or with pkill.

Any pointers on how to control it or stop/disable it?

I would assume that if you have dozens of gigabytes of zip, tar, bzip, rar, jar archives then yarascan will unpack them all to memory or disc in order to scan them, and there is absolutely no way to whitelist or exclude them.

The MRT.app is timestamped on 10-Aug-2018 along with a bunch of other folders (apparently the date when I accepted an Apple update). Most files inside the folder are timestamped 4-Jul-2018 and 8-Jul-2018, supposedly when the app was released by Apple.

As mentioned in this article YaraScanService is part of the MRT.app (Malware Removal Tool). If you are sure your system is not infected with malware and you don't want Apple to do automatic malware protection for you without asking your consent, then you can disable and/or remove the MRT service using these commands:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.mrt
sudo launchctl remove com.apple.mrt

The corresponding .plist files are apparently located at:

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.MRTd.plist
/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.MRTa.plist

If the above method does not work for you (apparently the daemon can re-enable itself), then a more radical approach would be to disable SIP with csrutil disable from recovery mode, and remove executable permissions on the MRT and YaraScanService files with:

chmod -R -x+X /System/Library/CoreServices/MRT.app

Once you have changed the permissions it is recommended to re-enable SIP again with csrutil enable (from recovery mode).


XQuartz is not starting from within tmux I'm using the standard apple terminal with zsh as my default shell.

In my ~/.zprofile (equivalent of .profile) I have the following line:

[[ $TERM != "screen" ]] && exec tmux

This basically makes shure that if I open a new window in zsh a new
tmux session is started, but tmux doesn't get started from within zsh
sessions running inside tmux subwindows.

This works fine but for one thing: I cannot start XQuartz. Everytime I launch an from the command line that requires X11 (like a gnuplot or octave plot) the terminal just hangs and nothing happens.

However, I noticed that when I just disable the auto-launching of tmux by removing the line above so that I can open a new terminal window and launch XQuartz from there, I can also use the launched XQuartz from within tmux windows.

This however gets pretty tiresome.

How could I fix this?

Try moving [[ $TERM != "screen" ]] && exec tmux to your .zshrc file. That way the command will only be run in interactive shells.

An interactive shell is simply any shell process that you use to type commands, and get back output from those commands. That is, a shell with which you interact.


Services bug that prematurely activates an application I have discovered a very strange bug with Services.

To witness this behavior, please do the following:

Make sure that Safari is in your Dock.
Open Automator. Create a new Service.
Set the service to receive "no input" in "any application."
Insert a "Run AppleScript" action.
Paste the following into the action:

on run {input, parameters}

    delay 5
    display dialog "Hello"
    tell application "Safari" to activate

    return input
end run

Save the Service.
Close the Service.
Re-open the Service.
Automator should present you with a dialog asking, "Do you want to install the “ServiceName” service?" Click "Install."
When given the "Installation complete" dialog, click "Done."

Now, run the Service. To do this, click on the current-application title in the top-left corner of the screen (the second item in the menu bar). Then click on the Service title.

You will notice that Safari will immediately open (evidenced by the black dot underneath its logo in the Dock). Safari will open before the 5 second delay and before the "Hello" dialog is displayed.

Placing the activate statement in a subroutine does not fix the issue.

Can someone confirm that this is a bug? I am convinced that this is a bug with the Services feature because when you run the Service from within Automator (by clicking the "play" button in the top-right corner of the Automator window), the code runs correctly.

If this is a bug, does anyone have a workaround so that the application is not in fact opened before the previous code runs?

My Macbook Pro is running OS X El Capitan, 10.11.6.

The bug might be related to another piece of strange behavior that I noticed:

Quit out of Safari.app and Automator.app, if they are running.
Pull up the folder where the computer's Services are stored (/Users/Me/Library/Services/) in Finder.
Right-click the Service file and open the file with Automator.

You will notice that opening the .workflow file with Automator will activate Safari. It shouldn't do that.

The only workaround I've found after testing several different scenarios is to wrap the Safari commands within a do shell script command, e.g. do shell script "osascript -e 'tell application \"Safari\" to activate'". Note that with osascript, multiple −e options may be given to build up a multi-line script.

From the manual page for osascript:

  −e statement

  Enter one line of a script. If −e is given, osascript will not look for a filename in the argument list. Multiple −e options may be given to build up a multi-line script. Because most scripts use characters that are special to many shell programs (e.g., AppleScript uses single and double quote marks, “(”, “)”, and “*”), the statement will have to be correctly quoted and escaped to get it past the shell intact.

Example AppleScript code:

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    make new document in front
    set URL of front document to "http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/271133/services-bug-that-prematurely-activates-an-application"
end tell

An example of the AppleScript code above, written as a do shell script command using osascript with the -e option, as necessary.

do shell script "osascript -e 'tell application \"Safari\"' -e 'activate' -e 'make new document in front' -e 'set URL of front document to \"http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/271133/services-bug-that-prematurely-activates-an-application\"' -e 'end tell'"

As you can see, each line of AppleScript code from the normal tell block statement is its own -e option, and as noted in the manual page for osascript with the -e option, escaping with a backslash has been done as necessary for the code to compile correctly before being run.

In other words, this turn the normal tell block statement and its included commands to a one-line do shell script command so as to circumvent the apparent bug in the use case scenario presented in the OP.

Note that you should be able to do similar with other applications triggered by the same bug, by substituting the appropriate application name (and commands) as needed.


AppleScript runs, but does not seem to work I have an excel workbook open, with old file names in column A and new file names in column B. I am attempting to use the applescript below to rename my files. It runs without errors, but doesn't rename the files. Am I missing something? Any help is much appreciated.

set theDirectory to "/Users/admin/Desktop/test/copied images"
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    tell active sheet
        tell used range
            set rc to count of rows
        end tell
        set theList to get value of range ("A1:B" & rc) as list
        repeat with theItem in theList
            try
                do shell script "mv " & theDirectory & "/" & quoted form of item 1 of     theItem & space & theDirectory & "/" & quoted form of item 2 of theItem
            end try
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

Why your script seems to run without errors

Your script runs without errors because it swallows any error that may occur in the do shell script line.

Temporarily remove the surrounding try and end try lines to un-mute the errors. This will likely lead to an error message that ends with No such file or directory.

Why your script does not rename files

The issue is that your script hands the value of theDirectory directly to the shell command without quoting it. Because that value contains spaces, the shell interprets the directory &[…]theItem part as two separate arguments, which causes mv to fail.

Solution

In the do shell script line, replace both occurrences of

  theDirectory

with:

  quoted form of theDirectory

(Optional) Making your script more robust

Additionally, I suggest that you either lose the surrounding try/end try altogether, or alternatively insert an on error statement to handle possible errors that can occur in the do shell script part.

Writing scripts that don’t swallow errors means you’ll save time in the long run.


Make the TouchBar show app controls for one specific app at all times Say I want to have control over my music regardless of which app I have active on the front. I want the music controls exclusively.

This is just an example. I would like it to be possible for any app. Not just Music.

In order to always show the “default” set of keys, like on older MacBooks, go to Settings > Keyboard.

Then find the Touch Bar shows control and set it to, Expanded Control Strip.

This way, the music controls are always in front.


Keep general phone installation size (incl. IOS) to a minimum I just bought an iPhone 5s and will receive it soon

It only has 16gb of RAM

I will clean install IOS 8 upgrade (this is best, no?)

Will the installation files self-delete after install?

And do you know some good tricks / guides / apps to keep IOS and other install sizes to a minimum? I mean clean up and delete unnecessary files etc.

Thanks

Obviously, the files will auto-delete after installation. iOS has a really good file management system. There are not "tricks/guides/apps" to keep the install sizes to a minimum. This is not Android to clean up and delete unnecessary files, It's done automatically.


Dual booting, and lost rEFInd: how to recover OSX? I mostly followed [these instructions][1] for how to set up dual-booting on my macbook, and everything seemed fine, up to the very last step. Now when I reboot the system (even if I hold command-R) I don't get any rEFInd boot menu or recovery mode, it just boots to the Ubuntu partition and I have no way of booting into OSX, which means this is now just a single-boot option Ubuntu machine.
I suspect it may be because during the OSX partitioning, I created two partitions, and then consolidated them into one during the Ubuntu  installation phase.

What should I do from this point?

Edit solved: From within Ubuntu, install refind again from the secondary installation. In case of Ubuntu:

sudo apt install refind

Let the program install to the partition that it wants to install to, then reboot, and you should see the rEFInd menu again.

You can try going into recovery mode like this and then follow these instructions..


Customize Notification Alerts/Badges Is it possible to customize the alerts or badges (either will be okay) for the Mail application so that it displays Delete upon a mouse-over instead of Options --> Delete? I receive a lot of mails daily which I need to delete etc and it will be very handy to have such a simple feature. I am using MacOS Big Sur on MacBook Air M1.
Related Question.

Apple would need to make a way for people to change the text or functionality of these notifications.
As of this writing, Apple doesn't expose to developers or users a way to customize these alert buttons.
You can contact Apple by completing this feedback and telling them you want this ability.


Can Apple TV AirPlay mirroring use a "secondary" screen/display? Can Apple TV enable me to treat my TV as a wireless secondary screen (as one can do when directly connecting the TV via a cable), rather than simply mirroring my primary screen?  I'd love to stream content to the TV while still using my laptop to do work.

(I know you can stream iTunes to the TV but that's very limited in what it can stream/play, e.g. can't stream content from arbitrary video websites.)

iPad 2 + Air Display. http://avatron.com/apps/air-display

Use Air Display to turn your iPad into a second monitor (totally cool in itself!), and then mirror your iPad to your apple tv.

OR, if you, like me, only have an iPad 1, then you can use your iPad as the main monitor and mirror your laptop screen.

Either way, you end up with three screens going, two of them the same.

That's the only way I know. Seems crazy that Apple can't come out with an update that allows the apple tv to be a second, rather than mirrored, screen.


Can't format 2nd HDD in optical bay on Mid-2012 Macbook Pro 13 I have recently bought an SSD and a HDD caddy to do a SSD+HDD setup. After installing, I can't format or reliably use my HDD while it's in the optical bay.

I installed the SSD in the place of the original HDD and it worked without any problems at all. Then I installed the HDD in the optical bay with the caddy and it seemed to work as well. This HDD was not changed since it was removed from the main drive bay and it still had OS X(and all my other files) on it.

One thing I realised at this point was I was unable to boot into my HDD which was not changed at all. Still I was able to access my files and copy over the needed ones to my SSD. I didn't try to do more (write, etc) so I don't know if more functionality was present.

Then I tried formatting the HDD and it hanged for a long time until I had to power off the computer and start over. I knew this would corrupt the partition scheme(obviously) but I figured that this would be OK and I can just simply reformat later.

After discovering that formatting doesn't work (with the error message: "disk erase failed with the error wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed") I tried the command line (diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ HDD1 disk1) but this also throws the error (Error: -69825: Wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed).

At this point I took the drive out of the bay, put it in a USB HDD dock, connect it to Windows and format it as FAT32.

This worked and when I put the drive back in my Mac it appears to be working until I tried copying a file to the disk. At this point it gave an error(something along the lines of: Can't read and write from the SOURCE_FILE) And when I tried to reformat it in my Mac it again corrupted the disk.

At this point I am inclined to think that this is an issue caused by the caddy. To test this I will try putting the SSD in the optical bay and try booting off that.

In short: My problem is that I can't format or reliably use my HDD while it's in the optical bay. Any ideas?

So the problem was with the cable. Apparently one of the small pins on the cable that connected the optical drive to the motherboard, got broken.

If it was a total failure of the drive this may have been more obvious, alas, it was not. It merely caused the drive to work in an unstable manner.

As soon as I replaced the flex-cable with a salvaged one, the problem disappeared.


Different speed for Magic Mouse and built-in trackpad Is there any way to set different tracking speed for Magic Mouse and for built-in trackpad?

I'm using both, but Magic Mouse acts good for me at max tracking speed, but trackpad good for me at average tracking speed.

I see that tracking speeds are adjusted separately for each input device, but actually they affect both mouse and trackpad.

Is there any chance to set different configurations?

MacOs Sierra 10.12.2

In my testing just now, the trackpad and mouse have separate tracking speeds. I moved the trackpad to the slowest setting, and the mouse to the fastest. The trackpad was slow and the mouse was fast. The two did not seem to affect each other.

The answer should be to move each to the setting that works for you.

Could you elaborate more on what happens when your adjustments affect each other? Have you tried setting each to a different extreme to see what happens?


OS X works perfectly fine on external HD but extremely slow with HD on MBP Things get weird when I replaced my HDD with an SSD since my MacBook Pro  (Mid-2012) slowed down horribly. I get beachballs everything I did on my MBP and it was so painful.

I thought it was because of malfunctioning HD, so replacing it with an SSD gonna both speed up my system and help me to get rid of old HDD. I installed OS X to my SSD with and external box, run my computer over that and boom! MBP speed-ed up and it seems to worked out. So, I open my MBP, replaced old HDD with my SSD, I rebooted my MBP and it was worse than before. How could this be possible?!

So I decided to do something else. I put my old HDD to USB converter box, connect it to my MBP, run OS over that. MBP works like charm.

I was wrong, there is nothing wrong with my HDD. Does anyone have any idea regarding to this?

Any input is appreciated.

If both the HDD and the SSD are running significantly faster when installed in the external enclosure rather than the internal bay, your SATA cable is likely the culprit. Both should run faster when connected via the internal SATA bus vs external USB 3.0 bus. You can run the Apple Hardware Test (which doesn't test your drive, but does test the connection), but it's prone to false negatives.

If you are close to an Apple Store, my advice would be to take it in for a free diagnostic (AppleCare won't cover the cost of replacing the cable since you already swapped out the drive, however). At any rate, you can get a definitive diagnosis and then decide whether to go through Apple, use a third-party service, or a DIY solution as posted in the link above. BOL.


How do I restore itunes library onto another computer I followed all the steps as suggested for backing up and restore iTunes library in the apple support website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751 but I have problems with the 'choose library' part in the last step. I clicked it and located my iTunes Media folder but all that happened was that it just opened the folder and showed me what I have inside and not restore it.

I'm just echoing the Apple KB article for anyone else who comes across this answer. I have used this process many times when moving or reformatting my computer:

Process for restoring an iTunes library:

Quit iTunes.
Copy your iTunes folder from your external hard drive to whatever location you desire on your internal hard drive.
Open iTunes while holding down the Option key (Mac) or Shift key (Windows).
In the resulting dialog, click the Choose Library button.

Navigate to the new iTunes folder you just copied and locate the iTunes Library.itl file
Click Choose (Mac OS X) or Open (Windows)
iTunes will open and your iTunes Library will be restored.


Blurry fonts on external monitor with MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, 2015) I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, 2015) connected to 2 LCD monitors: one through VGA and one through DVI. Text in both this monitors look awfully blurry.

Example:

Things I've tried:

Settings > Preferences: Font smoothing enabled/disabled (makes no visual difference at all).
AppleFontSmoothing set to 0, 1, 2, 3.... also no visual difference.
The edid patch to foce RGB also didn't work (applied the patch succesfully but didn't make any visual difference). Didn't remove it though and my color profile is set to 'Forced RGB'.

Same monitors in a Windows machine don't present this problem (at least the one connected through DVI, VGA looks a little off too but that might be the connection).

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Edit: Additional details. Monitors are both the same, Lenovo E2323. No settings aside from contrast, brightness, colors, clock... basic stuff.

It will look blurry because Apple designed their system to look best on retina (high PPI, around 200) displays. I've been trying out everything but nothing works, except one thing - running Windows in bootcamp or remote session.


Change header date format in Pages How can I change the header date in Pages to just the year?
The only choices are different versions on the month, date and year, all together.

The choices that are listed here are based on what is configured within the OS. You can change this, of course.

Go into your System Preferences under 'Language & Region' and click 'Advanced…'.
Under the 'Dates' tab, you can change one of the formats (e.g., 'Medium') to just be the year and click 'OK'.

Restart Pages and you should now be able to customise based on year.

If you go to a computer that does not have this setting, it will still be the same until somebody edits the date field.


Best practices for Macbook Pro usage I have a new Macbook Pro and I want it to last and keep a healthy battery.

How do I best ensure this?

If I am using it, do I let it discharge, or leave it plugged in?
If I am discharging it / allowing it to be unplugged, should I plug it in again when it reaches a certain %?
Is there a particular battery level I should wait for before shutting down / recharging?
When is it okay to close the lid vs. shutting down completely?

If it matters, I use my Macbook Pro daily, and I take it to work with me so I can do some coding when I have downtime at work.

In general, Lithium-Ion batteries don't like being discharged frequently, and decent computers will cut off the charging circuit once the battery is fully charged.

  If I am using it, do I let it discharge, or leave it plugged in?

Leave it plugged in, if your battery is at 100% the circuit is shut off, and you're essentially not using your battery at all, helping its life expectancy.

  If I am discharging it / allowing it to be unplugged, should I plug it
  in again when it reaches a certain %?

You shouldn't be doing it generally. Batteries only need about one full cycle (full discharge-charge) per month to stay healthy.

  Is there a particular battery level I should wait for before shutting
  down / recharging?

As stated before, it's recommended to stay at 100% and only run one charge cycle about once a month. This charge cycle can be one-time where you fully discharge/charge it, or it can be several partial cycles (for instance 5 cycles where you discharge to 80% and then charge back to 100%)

  When is it okay to close the lid vs. shutting down completely?

It depends. As per question 1, if your computer is plugged in it won't be using the battery at all, so no harm there; but if your computer isn't plugged in, it will consume battery charge (though not much). So if you're going to leave your computer unattended for a considerable time, you want to either leave the computer plugged in, or shut it down, or take advantage of the charge usage as part of your "monthly charge cycle". I'd say its ok to put it in sleep mode unplugged only for short periods of time, such as driving to work/home, but it might even be ok to do so for the night, to force your monthly charge cycle.

Bottom line: battery life expectancy is measured in cycles, so the worst you can do is to constantly discharge and recharge it. Leaving it plugged in helps your battery life by not using it at all.


I want to use 2 imacs (one with FCPX) in same house with Airport Extreme I have a new 2017 iMac, that when it arrives, I'll be using in a home office to edit videos for video production business on Final Cut Pro X (FCPX).  The 2017 iMac will be hooked up the same as I currently have a late 2013 iMac.

Cox coax cable to router to Ethernet cable to Airport Extreme to Ethernet cable to back of iMac.

I want to use the 2017 iMac solely for video editing and hope to keep it clean and fast, but would like to keep the 2013 iMac downstairs as a home computer.  What exactly would I need to make that happen. A second cable internet line and router for downstairs and home computer?  Seems expensive

I don't want to lose any speed or power upstairs with FCPX and the new computer.  This is paramount.

Would I be better upstairs in video production office to cable from Internet router straight to the back of iMac and not to Airport Extreme?

I'm sharing a house with 2 teenage daughters and a wife with iPhones, MacBooks, etc.  I'm hoping someone will feel my pain and help out a newbie with this.

Your Internet connection has nothing to do with the performance of your hardware with respect to video editing.  The only place it will come into play is when you are transferring data files over your network.

If this is of concern, the answer is simple:  wired is always better.  With wired Ethernet, you're not sharing bandwidth like you would with WiFi.

That said, if you aren't transferring files over the network and all the work will be done locally, it won't matter if you are going WiFi or hard wire.

(IMO) I would hard wire both my iMacs to the network and use the WiFi for convenience like your daughters' MacBooks, iPhones and iPads.  It may cost a bit more during installation, but the reliability and stability will pay dividends in the future.


Should I format and upgrade to mavericks or upgrade to mavericks and format? I am planning to upgrade on a Unibody Macbook (2008) to Mavericks. Mountain Lion is already installed and I felt it to be a bit sluggish when I upgraded. I also would like to start anew and clear some files that have been on the machine for a few years. So I am wondering:

Would you advise formatting on Mountain Lion, adding files and apps back then upgrade to Mavericks?
Would you advise formatting on Mountain Lion upgrading to Mavericks and adding files and apps back to the Macbook?
Would you advise upgrading to Mavericks then formatting and then format then add files back?

You could pick this route:

Back-up everything you need
Format your disk (this will format/clean Mountain Lion and all files)
Install a clean version of Mavericks
Put back the files you still need

Why this way?
Easy, you won't have the old Mountain Lion files on your file system. This results in a clean new environment to start with.
The other methods you described will result in Mavericks on top of Mountain Lion.


Why do I have to reboot my iMac and Wacom Cintiq after sleep? I have an iMac and a 24 inch Wacom Cintiq. When I put the iMac to sleep, it freezes and I have to restart both the iMac and the Wacom Cintiq.

How can I get around this?

I've had the same issue with my MacBook Pro (Early 2009).

Only occurred when waking up from sleep initiated by lid close.

Workaround I used was to switch off Automatically adjust brightness (Systems Preferences -> Displays). Hasn't re-occurred since – try that and see how you go.


URL for Omnifocus Context I would like to use a URL in Launch Pad Pro to open the "Home" context in OmniFocus whenever I get home.

I know to get to a perspective you use:

omnifocus:///perspective/PerspectiveName

But I've tried this for contexts, and it isn't working.

omnifocus:///context/Home

I think this might not be exactly what you want, but it is possible to create a perspective with only the items in your home context, which you could have the url link to. That's the best solution I could find.


Can't "Click lock to make changes" after update to BigSur After I updated my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) to BigSur 11.1 something went wrong.
I can log in, I can change the admin users password, I can access my keychain and I can run sudo with no issues.
What I can't do though is to click the padlock to make changes in System Preferences. Even when I enter the correct password the dialog behaves as if I entered the wrong password.
Any help appreciated.

Ok so apparently this was easily solved by resetting the SMC (system management controller)
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/649884?login=true&page=1#618964022
Instructions on how to do this can be found here
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201295


How can I retrieve photos from a damaged iPhone 3GS? Is there ANY way possible (NO MATTER WHAT THE EXTREMES), to retrieve my photos off of my husband's iPhone 3G/3GS? My husband of 13 yrs. was diagnosed with bone cancer and passed away 21 hours later. Every memory of the prior 4 months the kids and I had with him, the hospital 'til the devastating end is on that iPhone & it was dropped in the drive and run over, but still intact, just broken screen is only visible damage. Please help...!!!!

We may need a bit more information, but some suggestions...

First, I assume you've checked that the photos were never imported onto a computer in any way? Obviously this would make retrieval unnecessary if they have been copied to a computer/hard drive, imported into iPhoto/Picasa/etc... but I guess that hasn't happened in the last 4 months...?

Was iCloud Photostream turned on? You may be able to directly access the last 30 days worth of photos already, via iCloud or software that supports Photostream.

Was DropBox installed on the phone? DropBox has a Camera Import feature, which, if turned on, backs up your camera roll photos to your dropbox account.

Was the phone setup to backup to iCloud? You may simply be able to restore another iPhone from the backup, getting all photos from the camera roll back (assuming a complete backup; though if there's a lot of photos it may have gone over the free 5GB limit).

Was it set to backup to iTunes? If it's recently been backed up, you can also restore another iPhone from the backup.

Does the phone still power up? This is hard to tell if the screen is broken, but if it shows up on a computer when plugged in via USB then you may be able to recover information over USB. In that case you could use iExplore to access the contents of the phone. I believe iExplore can also browse an iTunes backup. And if it does work, this would be a good time to ensure you take a backup.

If all answers are no, then you would want to find an iPhone repair shop. Apple themselves may be able to do this. There are limits, however. If the memory chip itself is damaged, the data will be lost. The iPhone data is also encrypted using an encryption key, and I'm not sure whether this relies on any hardware components or if it's purely in software—if the key is derived from the main board or some other chip on in the phone (not just a software key) then you would need all relevant parts to be still functional to retrieve the data. This is something Apple or a repairer will be able to tell you.


pip disappeared for some reason pip was fine but today when I tried to use it, I got this message:

-bash: pip: command not found

That's weird. brew shows that the python package from brew is still installed but now typing python in the terminal will run the one by default on the system instead:

~: brew install python
Warning: python 2.7.13_1 is already installed

~: python
Python 2.7.10 (default, Feb  7 2017, 00:08:15)

Trying to import the packages I had didn't work as well:

~: python
>>> import cv2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named cv2
>>> import PIL
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named PIL

If I go into /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/, everything seems fine. Strangely it also work if I type

~: pip2 -V
pip 9.0.1 from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages (python 2.7)
~: python2
Python 2.7.13 (default, Jul 18 2017, 09:17:00)
>>> import cv2
>>>

What I can do to get pip (and my packages) back?

I am pretty sure that the reason these symlinks changed was due to the homebrew updates announced in version 1.3.0:

  "The most significant change since 1.2.0 is that brew install python
  no longer installs a python binary without manual PATH additions and
  instead installs a python2 binary. This avoids overriding the system
  python binary by default when installing Python as a dependency. It
  also paves the way to eventually have python be Python 3.x."


Mail.app in Sierra accumulating Gmail drafts Just now using MacOs Sierra's Mail client. Compared to what happened on El Cap, which worked fine. It seems that now Gmail is accumulating drafts, in other words, once the email is sent, there may be one or many drafts of the email in the drafts folder. Probably corresponding to how many autosaves happened.

Can I stop this from happening?

I had just fixed this problem in El Cap when I updated to Sierra, and it came back in full force. The solution is simple though. In this version of the Mail app there's no more checkbox for saving drafts on the server, but you can manually select where Mail stores your drafts for you.

As before, go to Settings > Mailbox settings and in the Drafts drop-down menu select either [Gmail]/Drafts or [On my mac]/Drafts.

Selecting the latter option will prevent Mail from sending your drafts to the Gmail server, resolving the problem with leftover drafts.

Obviously, this does mean that you can't work on your Mail drafts in the Gmail web version.


How can I format the output of ping in bash? I am using the following script to cycle through a list of IP addresses and report back on the % of packet loss.

I'd also like to have the IP address printed first, then its % of packet loss. But I can't get the syntax right to make this work.

Ideally, it'd look like:

192.168.99.24  25%
192.168.99.23  0%
etc...

Here's my script:

#!/bin/bash
HOSTS="192.168.99.24 192.168.99.23"
COUNT=10
SIZE=1400
for myHost in $HOSTS
do

    ping -q -n -s $SIZE -c $COUNT $myHost |  grep "packet loss" | awk '{print $7}'

done

Use

ping -q -n -s $SIZE -c $COUNT $myHost |
    awk -v host=$myhost '/packet loss/ {print host, $7}'

inside the loop.

In case you only want to print the hosts with packet loss use

ping -q -n -s $SIZE -c $COUNT $myHost |
    awk -v host=$myhost '/packet loss/ {if ($7 != "0.0%") print host, $7}'

Side note: grep pattern | awk '{action}' can usually be replaced with the much neater  (and slightly faster) awk '/pattern/ {action}'


High CPU and GPU temperature, high fan speed, low activity Macbook Pro early 2011 model - 13" - running El Capitan.

I've been seeing other people reporting this left and right and mostly they don't look at the activity monitor first. I can say I have and my activity on my computer isn't high at all most of the time.

Here is a screenshot of a typical situation

I did SMC reset, PRAM reset,... all to no avail.

Looking at this Ask Different post it says temperature sensors may be defective. So I ran the extended hardware test and it showed 'No troubles'. Can temp sensors still be defect despite the so called no troubles from the hardware test?

I also booted into a clean install of Linux and that's where I will have the loud fans as well while there is hardly any activity at all.

EDIT: almost forgot but I did clean out the dust from and around the fan.

EDIT: Here is also a screenshot from the Intel Power Gadget;

Since you've established that you don't have the problem in Safe Mode, but still do after logging in normally again, then it's time to investigate login items, fonts, and kernel extensions

Investigating login items, fonts, and kernel extensions

Let's start with Login Items:

Startup normally
Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups
Select the Login Items tab
Take a note of your Login Items
Now remove all of them by highlighting them and clicking on the - button below
Restart your computer

Now your Mac will boot up without those login items loading. Test this and see if the problem persists:

If the problem goes away you know one (or more) of the Login items were causing the problem. You can then add them back in one by one until you've identified the culprit. Problem solved.
If the problem does persist, it's either a problem with fonts you've installed yourself or with a 3rd party kernel extension. A little more info below:

Fonts:- You can remove any of the fonts you've installed yourself to see if this makes a difference.

Kernel Extensions:- You can open Terminal (found within your Utilites folder) and enter the following command:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

The above command will list 3rd party kernel extensions (you may need to stretch the Terminal window so it's easier to read). Look for anything you don't remember installing, or something that belongs to software you've removed, or just anything that looks out of place. Remember though, this is a list of 3rd party kernel extensions and therefore any of them could be causing the problem.

A final word

Finally, as an aside, MBP models usually range from about 40ºC (104ºF) to 100ºC (212ºF) depending on whether the CPU is idle or under load. CPU temps (just like ambient temperatures) typically have a bearing on GPU temps too, especially within the extremely confined spaces of a MacBook.

If you'd like, you can refer to the Intel Mac Temperature Database to see the various temperature ranges reported by users. You can also filter the list by model etc.


How to have locatedb created / updated automatically? I ran locate blob.txt and I got:

$ locate .bashrc

WARNING: The locate database (/var/db/locate.database) does not exist.
To create the database, run the following command:

  sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist

Please be aware that the database can take some time to generate; once
the database has been created, this message will no longer appear.

I ran this command and my locate database was built within a few minutes (includes tens of thousand of files).

On my Linux (Ubuntu) system my locatedb database is updated automatically by default, on a daily basis I believe.

How do I turn this on for my Mac?

When you run that command, launchd will update the database every week automatically. On my system, the plist is set to run every Saturday at 3:15am.

Edit from OP: Yes, works, note: Also it ran once when submitted, so for me, within a few minutes I was able to use locate.  the update process runs in the background so you may have to wait a few minutes before locate then works (You'll get the "The locate database ... does not exist" message until then).


Why does iPhone 6 have a thick line on its edge Apple never keeps even a dot on its hardware if it doesn't have a function. But why does the iPhone 6 have this Gap/Thick line on its edge? Any clue?

Those are for the phones antennae (theres one towards the bottom of the phone as well).

The anodised aluminium causes really bad signal attenuation, hence the plastic-like strips are necessary to create a break in the metal shell.

I decided to delve a bit further and found that Apple is trying to get rid of them.


How can I tell iTunes to stop playing a song? I do mean stop, not pause. If one navigates to, say, the iTunes Store, the Pause button changes to Stop, but I want something that always works no matter my location in iTunes.

Workarounds (such as AppleScript) are acceptable as long as they aren't too difficult to set up.

The AppleScript for this is pretty simple:

tell application "iTunes" to stop

You can make this easily accessible by creating a Service.

Open Automator and create a new document. Select the Service document type. Set the Service receives: menu to no input. Drag in a Run AppleScript module and paste that code into its text box. Save the service and give it a name.

You'll now be able to activate it by going to the current app's menu and choosing Services-> Stop iTunes (or whatever you named the service).

You can assign a keyboard shortcut by going to System Preferences-> Keyboard-> Services, finding the service (it should be under General at the bottom) and adding a shortcut.


Why can't I sync more photos to my ipod touch? I am trying to sync all of my photos to my ipod touch. it syncs some of them but now when I add more folders it simply fails upfront saying:

No photos were copied to the Ipod because there is not enough free space on the ipod to hold your photos and photo albums.

I have 12 GB free so I understand if all can't be synced but why doesn't it sync as many as it can until the ipod is filled up ??

Is there any way I can figure out how many photos it will let me sync to avoid wasting time trying and failing ??

As you have figured out, you need to select fewer folders/photos in order to keep it from failing. Simply compare the size of the folder(s) you want to sync with the space available on your iPod.

On a Mac, you can select a folder and press command+i (or control+click and select Get Info) to display the size of a folder.

On Windows, you can right click and select Properties to display the size of the folder.


What side effects, if any, are there from issuing scutil --set HostName 'Fred'? I have read that you can change all of the three "computer names" associated with a Mac using the scutil utility.

The three names in question are ComputerName (the "friendly" name), LocalHostName (used only by Bonjour) and HostName (which is subsequently returned by /bin/hostname).

I understand that there are very few side effects from setting the first two.  Obviously if Bonjour clients are out there looking for the old LocalHostName then changing it will be a drag from their perspective, but otherwise this seems pretty side effect free.

I am no networking guru so the idea of changing what is reported by /bin/hostname is a bit spooky to me.  Should I be concerned?

For more background, what is reported by /bin/hostname changes, it seems, currently, with the weather.

Suppose, for example, my ComputerName is Chuggid (don't ask).  Suppose my LocalHostName is also Chuggid.

I've found that when I connect to some wifi hotspots, hostname returns chuggid.linksys.  When I am connected to my workplace's VPN, hostname returns things like xyz-abc.vpnpool.yoyodyne.com.

So my worry stems from the fact that I'm concerned that since I didn't come up with either of these names, when I arbitrarily decide to set my HostName to chuggid that this will cause all sorts of problems.

Is it "safe" to change all three Mac "computer names" to whatever I want?

If you haven't already set the HostName yourself using scutil, /bin/hostname is probably reporting the result of a reverse DNS lookup on your computer's IP address. Both the IP address and the result of the reverse DNS lookup will likely differ based on the network you're connected to, and can easily change over time on the same network, too.

scutil --set HostName foo is a persistent setting, and unlike LocalHostName and ComputerName, HostName cannot be set in the GUI. For that reason, some advise against setting HostName. In my opinion, as long as you don't get confused if you try to make changes through the GUI later, setting your HostName is unlikely to cause any negative side effects for you. However, if you do run into issues, it's easy to undo with scutil --set HostName ''.


Keep Maps/Waze on screen when answering call I have my iPhone paired with my car's Bluetooth. I typically have my iPhone displaying Waze or Apple Maps in navigation mode. When I answer a call, the Phone app takes over the entire screen and I no longer see the map.

Is there anyway to keep the navigation on screen while I'm answering a phone call?

It's not possible to make the call screen not come up. You'll have to double-click the Home button and go back to Waze. Or, if you have an iPhone 6s/Plus, 3D touching the left side of the screen and dragging right will send you back to the previous app.


iOS App Preview videos - are all 3 iPhone resolutions required I've just completed an App Preview video for my forthcoming universal iOS app. I did it by capturing an iPhone 6 using QuickTime then editing in iMovie.

If I only submit my iPhone 6 App Preview video (750x1334), will iPhone 5/5s and 6 Plus users be able to see the video on the App Store?

Or do I have to create and upload separate iPhone 5/5s & iPhone 6 Plus videos?

Thanks.

In the end I only uploaded 3 videos - iPhone 5 resolution, iPhone 6 resolution and iPad resolution. When I visited the app on the App Store on an iPhone 6 PLUS - the iPhone 6 video was shown.

So it looks like larger iPhones will fallback to smaller videos if the larger preview video is not present. Presumably the iPhone 6 will fallback to the iPhone 5 video as well.


How do I turn on HomeSharing without original remote? Accidentally the Apple TV had its home sharing turned off (device used was the remote app on iPhone).

The original remote is lost.

Have Apple Mac laptop and HP Laptops also iPad 3rd Gen, and iPhone 5s available.

I have looked up answers but it suggested that I disconnect Apple TV, and connect it to my laptop. Restore settings etc. It seemed like a reasonable work around. Only thing is I am not sure how I am supposed to connect it to a laptop. my question is HOW?

All answers seem to suggest that it's wireless but I don't see how this is possible when Home Sharing has been turned off.

HDMI cable didn't work. Ethernet didn't seem to do anything either. But I maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place - or just doing it incorrectly.

The Apple TV should be connected with a mini USB cable to your laptop USB.
Go here: http://www.howtogeek.com/214243/how-to-factory-reset-or-reboot-an-apple-tv/ and scroll down to "If Your Apple TV Will Not Boot"

With laptop(and running iTunes) connected to Apple TV plug in the Apple TV to power.

"If your Apple TV will not boot properly, or something has gone wrong and the unit isn’t operating properly, you can almost certainly restore it by connecting it to your PC and using iTunes to factory reset it.

First, unplug your Apple TV. You still need to power it back up, but before you do that, make sure to plug a mini USB cable in the back of your Apple TV (right below the HDMI port) and then to a USB port on your PC."

The link above even has pictures.


Flickering Static when Connecting Macbook Pro to LED TV I'm trying to connect my Macbook Pro Late 2011 (OS X 10.8) to a LED TV. I'm getting this flickering static shown on the screenshot below. It also comes with a "bursting" sound whenever the static appears. Happens once every couple of seconds.

Things I've found out:

There's no problem with the cable (a Griffin Mini DisplayPort to HDMI connector). I actually brought it back to the store and it worked just fine using the shop's MacBook Pro and external monitor combination.
Cables are properly connected. I've checked and pushed the connection points a dozen times to make sure this is not the cause.
There's no problem with the TV. It works just fine when connected to an iPad, or to a PS3.
Problem also happens on a different TV (LCD).

I've done some research and solutions recommended would be to reset the parameter RAM and the SMC. Before I go to such measures, anyone with an idea about what could be causing this problem?

I cannot comment your question, but maybe you can narrow the problem down by using gfxCardStatus to force the macbook to use either internal or discrete video card. I'm thinking it may be a problem with either.

Also, can you get rid of the flickering by forcing the plugs a bit in any direction with your fingers?


Music app launches with bluetooth earbud connection in Catalina This has been asked before  in the days of iTunes, but I'm still having trouble and the one Catalina-centric comment on that thread didn't work for me. I never want to use apple's music app, yet I manage to open on a daily basis by either connecting my bluetooth earbuds (Taotronics Liberty 79) or possibly by pressing the play/pause button on them. Sometimes it starts playing the few sad lonely songs I've purchased from apple. I want none of this and would uninstall Music.app if it were possible. Is there a way to prevent music from opening inadvertently like this? I've tried Music.app --> preference --> restrictions and checked all the boxes under "Disable:" (Music Profiles, Apple Music, iTunes Store, Shared Libraries).

Check out this web site and scroll down to the 'Get rid of default mac apps' section and see if this works for you.


How do I install Flash in the guest account only? Is there a way to install Adobe Flash to the Guest account (only)?  I'd like to install to the Guest account so it gets wiped out on reboot.  I rarely use Flash, so I want to not have to track updates.

Either that, can I install it to a non-Admin account that I can wipe out when I need to.

Yes, Google Chrome has a sandboxed built-in version of Flash.

Download Chrome.
Navigate to: Macintosh HD> Users> Guests
Right Click and select "New Folder" and change its name to Applications
Open the Google Chrome disk image and drag Chrome.app to this folder

Google Chrome and its Flash player will only be accessible to the Guest user.


Is there a way to use Siri with my Bluetooth? I have a new Bluetooth headset and would like to use Siri with it. As far as I know, the standard way is to hold down the "call" button for a long press. Unfortunately, my headset treats a 3-second press as a "turn off" signal. Is there a workaround? Possible options I've thought of include shortening the press needed to trigger Siri, remapping the "redial" function (which on this headset involves double-tapping the button", using an alternate combo to trigger Siri, or turning on "Hey Siri" for Bluetooth only.

Most wireless headsets use a double tap of the main button for voice commands (like Siri)

You are trying to use it like wired headphones that have the controller by trying with the hold of the main button

If it has a second button also try double pressing or holding it


Screen saver settings keep defaulting back to National Geographic Photos I like to use my photo library for a screen saver (have 10,000 photos - it's nice to get to see them more often), but ever since I've downloaded Yosemite, every time the computer goes to sleep, it defaults back to the National Geographic photos (there are maybe 30 of them).  Really, really frustrating, and I can't find where to change the default settings to try and make an adjustment.  Anyone know how to change that default setting or have any other idea what to do?

After trying the other "fixes" and nothing worked, I went with what was previously suggested here.  Located the Nat Geo folder (HD>Library>Screen Saver>Default Collections>1-National Geographic) and removed those pictures.  This does require your Administrator Password. Then I moved the pictures I wanted into that folder. This works, but it is not a fix as the Screen Saver still defaults to that folder.


Visio TV attached with HDMI to iMac zombie I've connected my Vizio TV with HDMI and thunderbolt (USB3?) to my iMac. It seems to work pretty well. But when I turn off the TV, the Mac still thinks that it's connected and behaves in dual monitor mode. Is there a setting, an app or a trick that would overcome this problem?

Your TV is not actually turned off, it’s in standby.  And since many consumer electronics companies utilize the CEC signaling over HDMI so other devices can turn it on/off, the Mac is interpreting that it’s still on.

You’ll have to disconnect your Mac or turn off the monitor from the mains themselves.

Possible solution

I’ve been looking at a product from a Pulse-8 that claims to have a USB CEC adapter that allows you to control the CEC signaling from a computer.  I haven’t tested it for a number of reasons not limited to many other projects, proximity of my iMac an my living room TV, priority, etc.  However, since it “intercepts” the HDMI signal and overrides the CEC signaling, it may solve the problem.  I’m not saying it does, but it may be worth looking into.

Additional solution - there is an “HDMI CEC-less” cable that doesn’t have the CEC signaling pins - this too, could solve your issue.


How do I enable the interactive iPhoto screen saver in OSX Lion? The Lion features page  says:

Interact with photos in screen saver.
New onscreen controls let you
pause your iPhoto screen saver and manually flip through the photos in
an album without leaving the screen saver.

After upgrading, I've set my screen saver to iPhoto, and it randomly goes through pictures, but whenever I move the mouse, it exits, just like it used to.  How do I get this new interactive version?
I have OSX Lion and iPhoto '09.

The screen saver can be controlled with select keyboard buttons. The mouse will wake it up and exit screen saver.

Press space to pause and play. Use the arrow keys (left and right) to move between photos.


iCal won't change what calendar events are saved on My usual issue goes something like this:

Click to add new event, under the default calendar
Add details, etc, and save

Later on, when I want to move it to a different calendar, I edit it, and change it to a different one via the drop-down.

Make edit, click done
The event will change to the proper calendar
The event disappears
The event reappears under the original (default calendar)

All the calendars are on Google Calendars, and synced via CalDAV into iCal as delegates. I've never had an issue up until a few months ago, and now I have to sign into Google each time I want to move an event.

Running OSX 10.7.5, iCal 5.0.3

Any suggestions?

I've had similar trouble. I just went to preferences>accounts and unchecked, then re-checked "enable" for the account. Seems to be working for now.


Are there any applications which integrate with OmniFocus? Besides Siri, are there any applications which integrate with OmniFocus.

For example, in my RSS reader or Twitter client, I would love to send items I wish to read later to OmniFocus instead of Instapaper or Readability.

There's a list at http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=18931. Not a lot, I'm afraid. There's an API available but I guess there's not enough consumer demand for that feature.

For other apps, you might be able to make use of the "Send-To-Omnifocus" feature. From your RSS or Twitter app, forward the item by email to send-to-omnifocus@omnigroup.com.

You will get an automated reply containing a link: click the link and an Omnifocus item will be created.


Reinstall bash on MacOS 10.7 I have a MacBook Air where someone attempted to install this version of bash over MacOS's native one unknowingly. I attempted to fix this by removing the files created by the installer (the readme was clear about it).

This version was causing error because it's compiled for PowerPC, so I immediately deleted it. Now I'm lacking Bash.

I'd use my system install disk to restore it, but I'm on an MBA and I'm not sure how to proceed from here. Any help is appreciated.

If this someone did everything which is documented in the referenced article, you should be able to get your old bash back by

Opening Terminal.app (which will give you an error because it can't start bash)
Running another shell directly via "Shell -- New Command" (Shift-Cmd-N) (e.g. /bin/ksh)
Executing sudo mv /bin/bash-old /bin/bash


Can I access data on Windows outside VMWare from within the OS X VM? I am running OS X Mountain Lion on VMWare Workstation installed on Windows 7. How can I access my Xcode projects outside VMWare (i.e. from host)? I know I can do this by copying projects in the shared folder of my machine.

Can I have a folder on host where I can create Xcode projects from within VMWare? I want to do this because VMWare may crash and I may want to keep all Xcode projects safe and access them from host.

Any ideas?

Sure you can. You don't have to use the shared folders set by VMWare. You can create new ones on you host in the Options > Shared Folders tab in you VM's settings. And they can be located everywhere. I don't know if there are any restrictions from xCode where you project files have be be saved but the new shared folder should be accessible from your OSX VM without any problems.


Mac on Windows 10 blue screen of death I've installed 64 bit Windows 10 onto a separate partition on a mac. This was done manually, as the bootcamp software that comes with MacOs creates a partition that Windows wouldn't install on. The setup goes by normally, but when in Windows 10 (and 8.1), it crashes after a few moments. The error it gives is "SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (igdkmd64.sys)". I've tried to boot into safe mode and delete the graphics driver (AMD Radeon HD 6500) through the device manager, and I've renamed igdkmd64.sys to igdkmd64.sys.backup. Neither of these worked. Any help?

I am using a iMac12,1. I used the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Window Support Software. I can install Windows from either a DVD for flash drive.

The output from diskutil list:

Windows 10 should be installed using a BIOS boot method. Two reasons for this. First, the EFI on iMac12,1 models may not be advanced enough to handle an UEFI boot of Windows. Second, the Windows Support Software contains the drivers for a BIOS booting Windows. You would be better off using your optical (DVD) drive and the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows. If the Windows 10 installer is in the form of a ISO file, then you will need to burn this ISO file to a DVD. Note: you may need a blank double layer (DL) DVD.

If you which to continue with a flash drive install of Windows, then you will need to follow the accepted answer to the question: How to install Windows 10 into a 2011 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, an optical (DVD) drive or third party tools?

Additional Notes

The  Windows installation media can be stored on a DVD, flash drive or an internal drive. When viewed from the Startup Manager you will see an icon labeled Windows and/or an icon labeled EFI BOOT. Should  should select Windows to BIOS boot the Widows installation media. Choosing EFI Boot obviously EFI boots the media.

There a two partition tables stored on the internal drive. The first table is the legacy Master Boot Record (MBR) table. Any partition information stored in this table is only used by most BIOS booting operating systems. The second table is the GUID Partition Table (GPT). This table can be used by both BIOS and EFI (UEFI) booting operating systems. (Although, a BIOS booting operating system using the GPT rarely occurs.) When both partition tables are used to store partition information on the same drive the partitioning is referred to a hybrid.

The macOS (OS X) operating system EFI boots and uses the GPT. A BIOS booting Windows uses the MBR table, so the partitioning must be hybrid. An EFI booting Windows uses the GPT, so no partition information can be stored in the MBR table. Actually, in this case the MBR table contains a single partition spanning the entire drive (up to 2 TB) and the MBR table is then referred to protective.

Your Mac need to install a BIOS booting Windows. Therefore the internal drive needs to be hybrid partitioned. If you get a message that the internal drive is GPT partitioned, then you have to either employ the solution to How to convert a drive from the GPT format to the hybrid GPT/MBR format when using High Sierra (macOS 10.13.2) or use the h function from the recovery and transformation menu of the third party gdisk command.

Steps to use gdisk to create hybrid partitioning.

Download gdisk
Disable Systems Integrity Protection (SIP)
Enter the command given below.

sudo gdisk /dev/disk0

Enter the following into gdisk.

r
h
2 3 4
y
af
n
ab
n
07
y
w
y

Enable SIP.

Example output from using gdisk:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.4

Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): r

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h

WARNING! Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous! If you decide not to use one,
just hit the Enter key at the below prompt and your MBR partition table will
be untouched.

Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be
added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 2 3 4
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): y

Creating entry for GPT partition #2 (MBR partition #2)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): af
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AB): ab
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #4)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): 07
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): y

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk0.
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions.
You should reboot or remove the drive.
The operation has completed successfully.


TextMate : Keeping my KeyBindings after an update I'm using TextMate 2 with some custom KeyBindings. I change them in /Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/Resources/KeyBindings.dict. It works great, but everytime I update them app they get reset. (I guess the update replace the whole .app).

Any suggestion how I could prevent that (= not set again my keybindings).

Under MacroMates' keyBindings page is written:

  In addition TextMate has a /path/to/TextMate.app/Contents/Resources/KeyBindings.dict file with some extra key bindings which are specific to TextMate (and thus not appropriate to put in the per user global key bindings file). You can copy this file to ~/Library/Application Support/TextMate
  and edit it, this will then take precedence over the bundled file.

As this file won't be replaced during the Application's update, your keybindings will remain.

Note: As Matthieu points out, you will need to rename the file to DefaultKeyBinding.dict to make it work.


iPhone 4 (iPhone3,1) reboots while exploiting limera1n Please help.
I'm currently trying to downgrade my iPhone 4 (running iOS 7.1.2) to iOS 7.0.4 (or a version of iOS 6, I'm not sure yet). However, whenever I use iREB or redsn0w (via limera1n exploit) to enter a pwned DFU state, the device disconnects and reboots. This occurs once the exploit progressbar reaches 100%.

Can this be downgraded so that I can jailbreak with evasi0n7?

You have a catch 22.

You need to jailbreak to downgrade.
A downgrade is needed to jailbreak.


Core Audio Driver not working I have been using Virtual DJ on my machine.  The setup is where I want audio to play over the headphones and use a USB sound card to play audio into my headphones so I can listen to music before I play it for everybody.

However, the last time I tried, I got an error message saying "Error in the sound driver of Core Audio.  Your sound card is probably not connected, or the settings are incorrect".

If I use the headphone by themselves, the USB sound card by itself, or my speakers by themselves, they all work individually.

How do I go about figuring out what's wrong here?

When the USB sound card is plugged to the Mac, do you see it in System Profiler (from Apple Menu -> About this Mac -> More Info... -> System Report) as a USB device ?

If so, can you then see the audio device in System Preferences -> Sound -> Output ?
If not, would other USB devices work on the same USB port ?


Unexpected results from rsync I am trying to use rsync for back up using this command:

rsync -vaE --progress --delete /source /destination

My goal is to have the destination be an exact copy of the source. I have updated rsync to 3.1.2 (using homebrew) on my iMac running 10.11.6.

My problem: I use Finder to originally copy /source to /destination. Using Get Info, I see the size and number of items in source and destination are exact matches. Then I run the rsync command above to ensure destination is an exact match to source, but it rewrites many files (incl resource forks, .DS_Store files, etc) before completing successfully. But if I do another Get Info on source and destination the size and number of items no longer match.

Shouldn't destination be an exact copy of source after rsync, with the same size and number of items, etc? Shouldn't rsync exactly match destination to source, incl resource forks, hidden files, etc.? I am very inexperienced at Terminal and would appreciate any help and guidance.

A further oddity: if I run rsync twice in a row, the second run still finds files to write/rewrite. Why is this? Shouldn't the first run have exactly synchronized the directories?

rsync option -E is OK for the standard but too old version 2.6.9 of rsync which is provided with MacOS X (Mavericks, Yosemite & El Capitan).
But this option -E has another function with standard rsync.

For a user installer version 3.1.2 which is the right one on MacOS X,
then the standard options to maintain ACL and extended attributes are respectively -A and -X.

Here you should use:

rsync -aAvX --progress --delete /source /destination


Profile app won't verify Problem

I am a jailbreaker, having used Unc0ver to jailbreak my phone. But I cant verify the profile. When I do it just untrusts it again. I have trusted it before. Being on Wi-Fi doesn't seem to make a difference, although I did take my phone camping and that's when it first stopped trusting the profile.

Research

I have tried to look at other forums on this website, but they didn't help because they were talking about illegal apps (such as AppValley and PandaHelper).

How might I try resolving this?

The profile for the jailbreak was revoked by Apple, and you need to reinstall the app from wherever you installed it.

I would recommend using ignition.fun to install it again. The ignition.fun website will say at the top whether their applications are signed or not, which will tell you if you can install apps such as unc0ver from the website or not.

If you don't want to have to deal with the jailbreak apps being revoked, you can install the tweak ReProvision from the repository https://repo.incendo.ws which will allow you to automatically resign apps using your Apple ID.


How can I easily toggle the cursor size back and forth between normal and largest? I'm using Mac OS 10.8.3.  I have a huge display and bad eyes, so I like to have the mouse cursor be the largest possible size. (under System Preferences: Accessibility: Display: Cursor size.

However, I also do a fair amount of video editing, for which I use Final Cut Pro X.  Unfortunately, the UI designers who made the Final Cut Pro X interface didn't properly take into account larger cursor sizes, so when I click a button in the program's interface with the "tip" of a large cursor, it won't register.  To remedy this, when I'm using Final Cut Pro X, I change the cursor size back to normal.

However, doing this is fairly time consuming, as I have to do it a few times every day.  Is there a way to somehow do this automatically?

Perhaps this is too excessive but you could create an AppleScript which would toggle the size of the cursor. To do so just:

Go to System Preferences / Universal Access and check Enable access for assistive devices, this will let you use AppleScript to query and control the user interface of most Applications.
Go to /Applications / Utilities / AppleScript Editor and paste this code and save it as Application:

tell application "System Preferences"

    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"

    tell application "System Events"

        repeat until slider "Cursor size:" of window "Accessibility" of process "System Preferences" exists
        end repeat

        set theSlider to slider "Cursor size:" of window "Accessibility" of application process "System Preferences"

        set stash to value of theSlider
        if value of theSlider is 1.0 then
            set value of theSlider to 2.2
        else
            set value of theSlider to 1.0
        end if
        stash

    end tell
end tell


My Windows 7 PC can find my Mac but can't connect to it. No password prompt? I'm trying to access my Mac's files via my Win 7 PC and I'm so close but yet so far. The PC finds the Mac (it is there under 'Network'), but then I can't connect. According to many guides that I've read, there should be some kind of prompt asking me to provide credentials in order to connect, but nothing comes up. Then after a while of waiting I just get this screen...

I have firewall turned off for both sides, they are both on WORKGROUP. I don't have any other ideas left :/

It is likely just authentication issues.

On the PC RIGHT-Click on the computer icon and select Map Drive. Enter the path name (I'd use IP address but hostname might work) like this:

\\192.168.x.x\[SHORTUSERNAME]

Use the Mac's IP address, then a backslash and then the short username of the account you want to connect to.

There should be a checkbox for "log on with different credentials." check that

You'll click done (or OK, I don't remember exactly) and the PC will prompt you for a username and a password. Try the username and password of the Mac. If that fails try the fully qualified username, which includes the hostname (computer name) of the Mac, a back slash ( \ ) and then the username on the Mac, followed by the password. That usually works for me.


WiFi connects, no internet Yesterday my wifi suddenly stopped working on my Mid 2014 MBP, Mojave 10.14.1

Network is up, as other devices can connect, same issue with mobile hotspot.

Network diag says there is no issue. The toolbar icon successfully shows a connection to either of my wifi networks.

But the browser/curl cannot connect. Chrome just says "no internet"

I am unable to even connect directly to the router admin panel (by IP)

I tried restarting and resetting PRAM.

Tried deleting plist files associated with the wifi as well, no luck

What else can I do?

Continuing troubleshioting with the link above, in the Network > Advanced > Hardware tab

click on the Hardware tab and change Configuration from Automatically to Manual.

Then click on MTU, and select Manual. Enter 1453 as the MTU Number.

This fixed things, does anyone know what might have caused this?


Can Spotify be paused when a Skype call is made, similar to how iTunes does it? When I am listening to music on iTunes, the music is automatically paused when a Skype call is made. I recently switch to Spotify for my music resource. Can I have the same pausing functionality with Spotify, as with iTunes?

There are multiple ways of achieving this. Here are two possible solutions:

Python. This has been answered on this Stack Overflow question already.
Simplify. One of Simplify's features is auto-pausing on Skype calls:


Where is the private forum for the Universal App Quick Start Program / Developer Transition Kit (DTK)? I've signed up and been accepted to the Universal App Quick Start Program and received my Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kit.
One of the featured benefits included in the program is access to a private forum:

Private Forums
Ask questions and connect with Apple engineers and other members of the Universal App Quick Start Program.

However, upon receiving my DTK, I cannot seem to find these "Private Forums" anywhere.
The new Apple Developer Forums are arranged under "tags": https://developer.apple.com/support/forums-tags/
But there is no tag listed for the Developer Transition Kit or Universal App Quick Start Program. The closest tag I can find is "Universal Apps" for Apple Silicon.
Where is the private forum for the Universal App Quick Start Program?

This seems to be a common source of confusion:

Where is the private DTK forum?

From an Apple ID that has been accepted to the Universal App Quick Start Program, access the Apple Developer Forums.
Click your profile icon at the top right of the screen:

You should see a link to the private forum:

Developer Forums
Universal App Quick Start

Which links to the forum/tag for the UAQSP/DTK, located here:
https://developer.apple.com/forums/tags/universal-app-quick-start

Universal App Quick Start
Private forums for program members

Notably, this Universal App Quick Start tag is not included in the list of all forum tags. So it's rather hard to find.


Why does OS X repeatedly prompt for certificate trust when joining WPA2 Enterprise WiFi WHY does OS X always prompt for certificate trust when connecting to WPA2 Enterprise (EAP-PEAP in my case) networks, even if the certificate is already marked as 'trusted'?

Even weirder.. if I delete the cert from keychain access, then click 'Continue' to the first cert prompt, but the click 'Cancel' on the elevation credentials window.. I am somehow still able to connect to the WiFi network...

I had the same issue and my solution was to change the access control on the certificate's private key to not require confirmation. Go to My Certificates, expand your certificate, and open the private key settings. You could probably be more selective and just allow whatever "application" handles WiFi, but in my case it wasn't necessary.


Upgrade HDD to SSD in High Sierra and import a Time Machine backup I am thinking to put an external Time Machine backup (HFS+ files) from my old HDD on a newly installed SSD in my MacBook Pro mid 2012. Is this possible?  Will the SSD recognise and accept this backup? Or is it possible or advisable to install the new SSD with the old HFS+ system instead of the new APFS. All in High Sierra. How to go about?

There's 2 ways to do this, I prefer the first since it ensures you start with a macOS install.

Install the blank SSD in your Mac.
Boot while holding ⌥⌘R for Internet Recovery.
Follow the steps to download and install macOS on your SSD.
During Setup Assistant, when prompted if you'd like to transfer your files, choose to transfer from a Time Machine backup.
Follow the steps to important your content and settings from your Time Machine disk.

Alternatively you can use the Time Machine backup for the initial macOS install.

Install the blank SSD in your Mac.
Connect your Time Machine backup disk.
Boot while holding ⌥ and choose your Time Machine disk from Startup Manager.
Follow the steps to install macOS on your SSD using the Time Machine disk.


Mac app for show all character features in notepad++ I am working in 2 environments (Mac & Windows). Once I have problem with invisible characters in Windows and notepad++'s "show all characters" feature helped me a lot in displaying the invisible character (which turns out to be LF).

Is there any text editor or any application in Mac that has similar feature? I specifically liked this "show all characters" with whitespace, tab, and CR-LF characters. Other common text editor features I can find in either Atom, Sublime Text, or VS Code and I am pretty happy with them.

BBEdit is a really great Mac text editor, and can show invisible characters.
http://www.barebones.com


What are the performance impacts of blocking a contact with 10,000 numbers in it? My wife and I are getting a ridiculous amount of same-exchange spam calls (same area code and first three digits) and are looking for a solution. One promising solution is outlined in this apple discussion -- create a .vcf file to establish a contact containing all 10,000 numbers (-0000 ... -9999) in that exchange and then block that contact. A nuclear option so to speak.

I've read that having a contact with several hundred numbers in it can be slow to open, on the order of several seconds to open for one containing 200 contacts. But it isn't clear if "open" in that context refers to opening it in the Contacts app to view or loading it into memory to check when a call comes in.

We each have an iPhone 6 and just upgraded to iOS 11 via wipe and restore, and we haven't experienced much slowdown so far other than a slight (fractions of a second) degradation in response here and there.

What kinds of performance issues should we expect if we take this route?

Edit And specifically is there any danger of bricking our phones or otherwise crashing if we use this? There is some discussion in the above link of the contacts app no longer opening.

Another option is to create say 20 contacts each with 500 numbers, or 100 contacts each with 100 numbers, or something like that. But I don't know if there is a larger performance hit for breaking it up that way vs having them all in one.

Why the nuclear option?  We moved away from that location ten years ago but kept the numbers for convenience, we do not receive any calls from so-called "neighbors" out there, and I would prefer not to use a call-blocking app due to privacy concerns, so this seems like a perfect solution. (second only to nuking the spammers from orbit)

Edit 2 I am currently experimenting with creating the contacts manually with 500 numbers per contact, for a total of 20 contacts. It only took a few minutes to generate and import four contacts with 2,000 numbers total once the spreadsheet was set up, and that included emailing the contacts to my phone and importing them there.

Solution I'm marking Matt's answer as the solution because he pointed me in the direction of the app WideProtect. I installed it a couple days ago and so far there have been no calls.

Initially I was avoiding installing an app due to privacy concerns, but after reading the CallKit API I was persuaded to give it a shot. The app does require access to your Contacts if you want to allow numbers from your contacts through the block (which seems opposite from what the CallKit API says...) but I got around that by blocking all ranges except the range my wife's number is in. For example, if my wife's number is 123-555-3859 I would block 123-555-0XXX, 123-555-1XXX, 123-555-2XXX, 123-555-4XXX, etc. Skipping 3XXX. That gives only a 10% chance scammers will pick the range that includes my wife's number, so that is an acceptable tradeoff to me AND it avoids giving WideProtect access to my contacts list. If it becomes unbearable I can block 123-555-30XX..123-555-37XX and 123-555-39XX giving only a 1% chance they randomly pick the range. So that works great for me and preserves privacy.

Many thanks to Matt for pointing me down that path. This looks like a great solution.

There's no impact in performance. TrueCaller uses CallKit, the iOS provided method of blocking spam calls, and behind the scenes they are all loaded into one contact.

The only issue would be if you wanted to manage that contact manually rather than using an app that is designed to do it. Swiping to delete hundreds of contacts is a pain!

Anyway, there's an app called WideProtect that uses the CallKit to do the blocking and will let you set ranges of numbers to block.


How can I completely de-authorise my account from iTunes (mac)? I'm using a different apple ID now.  So I switched accounts like this:
- I signed out of the old apple ID in System preferences > iCloud.  Then signed in with the new one.
- I signed out of the old apple ID in App Store > Store.  Then signed in with the new one.
- I de-authorised the old apple ID in iTunes > Accounts menu > Authorisations. Then authorised the new apple ID.
I restarted the computer.

However, even after authorised the new Apple ID, it's the old one that still shows up in iTunes > Account, on top, even though it has already been de-authorised:

Screen Shot 2017-11-05 at 16.56.55.png
not only that, now, when I go to Account > View my account, I'm prompted for the old apple id and password, and if I use instead the new one, it won't go through, I'm prompted again for the new apple id and password.

Weird!.

Signing out of your account and deauthorizing a device are two different things.

Within iTunes you can actually sign in and out of multiple accounts. I don't mean simultaneously, just that you can sign into one and, if needed, sign out of that account and then sign in using another account.

Authorising a device basically tells the iTunes ecosystem that it's allowed to play your purchased music, videos etc and that's why there's a limit to how many devices can be authorised for any particular account. So, deauthorizing a computer/device is typically something you would do when you're going to sell it etc.

If you want to sign out of your old account in iTunes you should actually do that within iTunes. You may need to sign in again first and then sign out before signing in with your new account.


Only half of the display works, can I set to display only in that region? I have a Macbook with a cracked screen, only the top left half of the screen works, is there anyway to reduce the screen resolution, keep the DPI the same, and thus have the entire OS visible in the top left section of the screen which works?

The below photo demonstrates what I mean, with parts of the creen totally unusable, it would make sense to be able to display the whole screen in the remaining usable part.

You can't control the viewing area by changing the resolution, resolution only influences how many pixels are displayed on the whole screen. Even though it would make sense to restrict the viewing area to that remaining part in your case, there is no easy method to actually accomplish this.

Technically this could be done via display calibration, but the tools build into Mac OS X do not have a screen size calibration, only Color Calibration. (External monitors usually have this option in the monitor menu.)

The second place to look is inside the Accessibility features (under System Preferences), which include Screen Zoom and some Display settings. What you would need is a global fullscreen negative zoom, which is not supported by default for obvious reasons. (I could imagine, though, that there might be a possibly undocumented setting that would allow this. Either way, there is no obvious way to do this.)

However, you could do the following:

Go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom

1 - Enable Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom
2 - Select Picture-in-picture for the Zoom Style
3 - Open More Options
4 - Select Stationary for Window position
5 - Click Adjust Size and Location

Now, you can move the overlay rectangle to the exact are you can still use in the top left half of your screen.

6 - Click OK to confirm the Zoom window position.

Lastly, hold Control and zoom in with the least amount possible. Now move the mouse around and you will be able to see every corner on your screen - it isn't the nicest experience and probably takes some time to get used to. I would recommend to just scale all your (safari, etc) windows to the section you can view and only use this method when you have to. Then just zoom out again and that overlay window will disappear.

In the end it's a broken screen and your most usable solution would be to get an external monitor.

[Update]

There is also a third-party application that could possibly be useful. It's called SwitchResX. I have not used it myself (and have nothing to do with that company), but they appear to support custom layouts that could be helpful in your situation. I believe you can just try it out for free as well.

[Update 2]

If you care to do some coding and are skilled enough to solve this on your own - this may be a good starting point: https://github.com/Eun/DisableMonitor/tree/master I have absolutely not looked at that code, but it claims to be able to change resolution and turn off certain screens for you - you would probably have to implement something like a screen-grabber that you run in full-screen mode, but only draw the results into your desired area. Actually doesn't sound that complicated now...

New Idea

You could even try to activate Screen Sharing in your Mac OS X System Preferences and see if you can find a tool that allows you to connect to your localhost. It probably won't work, since you'll see a screen inside a screen inside a screen .... but maybe you could run the VNC in another user account and get it to work?

1 - Enable Screen Sharing in your main user account
2 - Create a new user account and switch to that user without signing out
3 - Start RealVNC or another third-party VNC viewer (the build in ScreenSharing application into Mac OS X doesn't let you connect to your own machine).
4 - Scale the output window to your viewable area.

You could do this with VNC or you could install TeamViewer or Splashtop or any other third party tool that allows you to do screen sharing.


iPhone - How to set up not requiring passcode if recently closed I have an iPhone with iOS 8. Is there a way to setup my phone where it doesn't require a passcode to unlock if it has been closed in the last 5 (or some amount) minutes?

I know that my computer has a 15min feature.

Thanks

I believe the setting you are looking for is Settings > Touch ID and Passcode > Require Passcode.

It should be noted that using a Microsoft Exchange account in email can effect the options available here.  For example the only option on my phone is "immediately".  this thread is how i finally learned why I only have the option "immediately".


My iphone 3GS suddenly shuts down i have a nice iPhone 3GS which has a curious behaviour.

I'm not using it often but when i'm doing CPU intensive things like a game, it just shuts down suddenly, screen becomes black an i can't restart it without putting it on the charger. It's not hot.

Then i plug it, and it just boots and is runs ok with the same battery level as before the crash.

I thought changing the iOS would fix that but it doesn't .. i'm on iOs 6 and it's still the same behaviour

What could i do ?
thanks

Sometimes when you run some games that is not compatible with your iPhone, it will use more power than it can to the CPU and GPU and then it will crash. Try to verify if the game is compatible with iPhone 3GS


Can each application have a separate merchant account? I work for a software company that is just starting to develop for the iPhone and we have a few clients that each want their own app developing and adding to the Market to sell.

My question... is it possible to create 'sub accounts' for each client so that they have access to information for their app and payments will go straight to them?

We set up separate iTunes Connect accounts for the clients so that the client gets all of the info they need and also the money from Apple where applicable.

You would also need to set up Apple developer Accounts for each client (You get them to pay for their developer accounts) They can then add you to that dev account and you will be able to manage the provisioning, certificates and other things on their behalf but using your developer access account.

Apple documents this thoroughly here:

iTunes Connect Developer Guide


websites don't open on a specific wifi connection (probably DNS issue) I have a cable broadband which works flawlessly; I am using the same to ask this question from my Android.
But it doesn't work on my MacBook (10.10.2).
Basically, no websites open, although I can ping all the websites, sometimes Google websites open fine, but that too only in Chrome (not in the incognito mode though).

I have tried Safari, it had the same problem.
I have tried removing and adding the wifi connection.
I have tried flushing the unicast and multicast DNS cache with the recommended commands.
I have tried adding Google & OpenDNS servers to network settings for this wifi connection.
I have verified that the wifi connection works fine on Windows and Android devices.
I have reset the wifi router.
I have verified that the MacBook works fine with all other wifi and other kinds of internet connections.
I have tried connecting the MacBook to hotspot (Bluetooth) with Android, but still the websites don't open.

Any help will be truly appreciated, but please, don't suggest things I've already tried.

Update:

This gets fixed when I cold restart the MacBook. Also, to clarify, all other internet services work fine e.g. Skype, Dropbox, Box apps seem to work. So, it is probably something to do with the DNS, as pointed out by Buscar웃 too.

I use DHCP with this wifi connection. The network settings show several DNS servers automatically populated by DHCP. I can override them though, by adding new DNS servers, but still the problem persists (as I mentioned above in point 4).

Some users have reported similar problems with 10.10.2

Looking true you attempts, I would suggest following additional steps.

Reset WiFi settings:

Turn Off Wi-Fi from the Wireless menu item

From the OS X Finder, hit Command+Shift+G and Copy/Paste the following path:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

Select following files:

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

com.apple.network.identification.plist

com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist

NetworkInterfaces.plist

preferences.plist

and move them to Desktop (do not delete for now). This forces OS X to recreate all network configuration files.

Restart WiFi and check.

Solution 2:

If your Ping works (your WiFi connection is fine), then check and modify your DNS server (responsible to connect you to the right website). I would add Google DNS in system preferences- Network -Advanced -DNS and it is the 8.8.8.8


How do I subscribe to an RSS feed in Mavericks? I would like to subscribe to some RSS feeds. I originally had them in Mail, which worked just fine. But after upgrading to Mavericks, the RSS feeds disappeared, and I get this message when I click on an RSS feed link:

How do I subscribe to an RSS feed, if this won't work?

An option you might look into is Feedly. They have a Safari plugin (and probably other browsers) and work well enough.