show or copy password instead of dots in application In windows i had a program to inspect the password that i stored in filezilla.
But I forgot my ftp password I can still see the dots but I want to see what the password was that I stored.

Is there anything like that for the mac?

I found a solution for filezilla.

In the filezilla menu use "file->Export".
Save the file to a location

An XML file is generated with al the ftp sites entry's

Open the file with a browser and you should be able to see the passwords

Yes, of course. Try finding your "Keychain"-program,which is in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder.
After entering you admin pass, you can view all the passwords stored by your Mac. WiFi passwords, website-logins,...


How can I read Exchange 2003 email on a Mac with Outlook 2011? I previously here asked about a problem setting up Exchange server on Outlook 2011. The answer provided began, "Outlook 2011 requires an Exchange 2007 and above server."

Problem is - my company has Exchange 2003 and they're not likely to change any time soon.

How can I read my email on my Mac? And is there a way I can also fully use my calendar (including scheduling appointments with colleagues)?

(My Mac's full technical specifications are in the linked question.)

Outlook 2011 can also connect to POP and IMAP accounts, so if your Exchange implementation supports those (IMAP preferred over POP) you should be able to use OL.  Of course, that's not a 'true' Exchange client setup.

Likely better to use your company's Outlook Web Access (OWA), or acquire Entourage 2008.


How can I determine what is attempting to use sendmail/postfix on ML? I'm getting console messages multiple times per day that look like this:

8/2/13 5:20:00.119 PM postfix/sendmail[31004]: fatal: chdir /Library/Server/Mail/Data/spool: No such file or directory

When I tail /var/log/mail.log I see the same messages. According to the postfix config, the spool is indeed pointing to this directory, and yes, it does not exist.

queue_directory = /Library/Server/Mail/Data/spool

The thing is, I don't want postfix to be running, and have no idea why it's throwing errors. I'm not listening on port 25 as per netstat and I don't see any postfix processes running.

What's causing the error? Why would I get it if postfix isn't running?

Sounds like you have postfix installed and running.

You should check your postfix configuration.

There is a good description here.

Or do it your self:
If postfix is still not working, check the log file in /var/log/mail.log for the error:

  sendmail: fatal: chdir /Library/Server/Mail/Data/spool: No such file
  or directory

To fix this, run the following commands in Terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Server/Mail/Data/spool
sudo /usr/sbin/postfix set-permissions
sudo /usr/sbin/postfix start

If as you say you do not want it to be on your computer then disable it.

sudo /bin/launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist

That does not answer your question who is using it, but without more info from you one can not say, it could be a script in your system.

You could try to find out who is sending by going to

Open your Console:

Scroll down to Var/Log/mail.log

  The background: Mac OSX comes with the postfix MTA, which is a fully
  featured SMTP server. Under normal circumstances, there is usually no
  need to enable or configure this software, as most email access is
  usually done via GUI clients such as the Mail.app – which uses the
  POP/IMAP and SMTP settings to connect with the email service provider.
  However, there are certain circumstances in which having a local SMTP
  server is very useful, such as: Allowing the batch logs and output
  from the cron daemon or other scripts to be sent via Internet email
  (this is otherwise delivered locally) Testing email based code; which
  requires a local sendmail like SMTP server to be present


Applescript : text delimitation in a loop I'm trying to get values from a log file of all the occurrence of a value
Recorded on the following key :

> <key>MyTime</key>         <string>2019-03-29T08:48:18+0000</string>
>       <key>serviceToken</key>

I can get the first occurrence of the value I want with the following code, but how can I search for more occurrence and add in secondary variable ?

##Getting the file name
set ShortDate to short date string of (current date)
set [dayN, MonthN, YearN] to the words of ShortDate
set myUSDate to YearN & MonthN & dayN as string
set myFileName to "TIME" & myUSDate & ".log"

set p to "/Users/kevin/Library/Logs/MyAPP/" & myFileName
set plistfile_path to POSIX file p

property leftEdge1 : "<key>myValueTime</key>"
property rightEdge1 : "<key>serviceToken</key>"
set myNewCaseNote to ""
set newFile to (plistfile_path as text)
set theSource to read file newFile as text
set theText to Unicode text
try
    set saveTID to text item delimiters
    set text item delimiters to leftEdge1
    set classValue to text item 2 of theSource
    set text item delimiters to rightEdge1
    set myCaseNote to text item 1 of classValue
    set text item delimiters to saveTID
    myCaseNote
end try

But how can I get other occurrence of this time/data ? And not only the first one

An XML file can’t have identical keys at the same level, so I’m going to guess that it is just a plain text file with those entries.
Text item delimiters can be used for everything, but it would tend to add a bit more code, since you would need to get a list of items using the first delimiters, then use additional delimiters on those items, and so on.  In this case, you can use them to just break the text apart at the desired key, then get the text from between the first set of tags by getting their offsets, for example:

property keyValue : "<key>myValueTime</key>"
property startTag : "<string>"
property stopTag : "</string>"

set theSource to "<key>myValueTime</key>        <string>2019-03-28T08:48:18+0000</string>
<key>serviceToken</key>
<key>myValueTime</key>
  <string>2019-03-29T09:48:18+0000</string>
<key>serviceToken</key>
  <string>whatever</string>"

set saveTID to text item delimiters
set text item delimiters to keyValue
set classValues to text items of theSource
set text item delimiters to saveTID

set myCaseNotes to {}
repeat with anItem in classValues
  set here to (offset of startTag in anItem)
  set there to (offset of stopTag in anItem)
  if here is not 0 and there is not 0 then
    set the end of myCaseNotes to text (here + (count startTag)) thru (there - 1) of anItem
  end if
end repeat

return myCaseNotes


How Do You Change The Default Genre Artwork in iTunes? If you look at the album art for "Alternative Rock" and "Electronica," iTunes automatically puts up default album artwork and for specific cases, like "Acoustic Rock," it uses the album art of the music artist.

How can I change the album artwork to something I want then?

For example, I would change the default album artwork for "Alternative Rock" to an image different from "Alternative" music, etc.

Doing it manually:
You can also place your genre image in /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources (shift+cmd+G and paste this path to open it directly) and add your genre in genres.plist file. Use TextEdit or your favourite Editor of that kind (I use TextWrangler).
Copy and paste an existing list object like this one:

<dict>
    <key>matchString</key><string>blues</string>
    <key>resourceFile</key><string>genre-blues.jpg</string>
</dict>

Then modify it so it contains your new genre and image like this one:

<dict>
    <key>matchString</key><string>Psychedelic Rock</string>
    <key>resourceFile</key><string>genre-psychedelic.jpg</string>
</dict>

It's best if you copy the existing .plist file to your desktop, edit it and then put the new version back into the source folder and type in your password since it won't let you save your file directly into the folder (no rights in that folder for applications, only Finder via admin rights)
I hope this helps. (I know about the detailed version over at O'Reilly, this is basically the same in short)


View another user's files in OS X Is there a way to (temporarily) view another user's file on OS X other than to change the permissions of the file? I'd like the OS to ask for the user name/password.

I guess what I'm looking for is something like Window's idea of running Windows Explorer as another user (ideally at file/directory level only). The ssh idea fails because the Finder cannot recognize the permission granted.

An absolute requirement is not to move the user's files.

To view the file in Finder (GUI)

NOTE:  You're not viewing as the other user - but you're still viewing.  Admin rights are required, and the other user's password is not.
This was tested on Mac OS X 10.10 and 10.11 (see below)

Right-click on the folder you want to see (In Finder)
Click Get Info in the drop-down list that occurs
Click the lock in the bottom-right corner
Authenticate
Under Sharing and Permissions click +
Add your own username (or a group, like Administrators) with Read (or Read/Write) permissions
Click the lock to prevent further changes
You're done!  You should be able to view the folder in Finder.

Edit for OSX El Capitan and later (10.11)

Although this method still works, the change to El Capitan introduces a default of "rootless" mode. (actually, the real name is System Integrity Protection; SIP)  There are certain files that cannot be accessed modified by any user, anyway in this mode.  SIP can be disabled if you need to modify these files, (not just view them) and how to do that is outlined here. (If you only need to see them, you shouldn't have to disable SIP)

To view as another user in Terminal

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/3568/how-to-switch-between-users-on-one-terminal
Note: This requires you to either have admin rights or the other user password.  It only works from the terminal, while the session is active.

Type su - otherusername into the terminal.  Replace otherusername with the other user's name.  If you have admin rights, you can type sudo su - otherusername to use your password instead of the other user's.  You are now logged into the terminal as them.  If you just want to log in as root with full access, type sudo su, and enter your (admin) password.
Change directory to the directory that you'd like to view (/edit). cd /Users/UserDirectory/subdirectory
You can now view the files


I am an admin but several preferences are grey and say "your system administrator has not given you access to this preference pane" I have admin rights on my mac laptop at work.

In the last several days I have lost access to several system preference pane items.  Most notably "security and privacy" and notifications.

The icons are now grey and when I hover over them they display "your system administrator has not given you access to this preference pane"

How do I re-enable these preferences?

On ElCapitan

With System Prefs not running:

Go to: Hard Drive Name/Library/Managed Preferences/administrator
Delete or (rename to *_old) com.apple.systempreferences.plist
Run System Prefs, all should now be visible


Can't get iMac to stop booting Ubuntu I've just inherited an iMac from a departed coworker. It is a 27" unibody model with sandy bridge i5 (not slim, so, from mid 2011).

It came automatically booting Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS as its default OS when it starts up. I've never used Ubuntu before, but I was able to find my way around enough in the file explorer to find that there appear to be two hard disk partitions: one for Ubuntu, and one for OSX.

I would like to boot into OSX, but none of the methods I've found from googling seem to work.

Most notably, I can't get seem to get into the startup manager. When I restart the computer, there is no chime that I can time my pressing and holding of the "option" key to, but I've tried it many times waiting various amounts of time after the grey screen comes up, and no matter what, it always just boots Ubuntu. When it restarts, it goes to a grey screen for a few seconds, then do a dark burgundy screen for a few seconds, then back to a grey screen for a few seconds, before the Ubuntu startup screen appearing.

I don't know any details of how Ubuntu was installed, if it's an EFI setup, etc. What's the best way for me to figure out what's going on, and how to get it to boot into the OSX partition given that Ubuntu is currently the default, and I can't get the startup manager to appear?

I'm using a bluetooth keyboard, I've read about people having issues getting startup manager to appear when using a BT keyboard and that they have to wait until after the startup chime ends to press and hold the option key. But, again, I have no chime on startup.

Thanks for any help that anyone can give to see what's going on!

If your keyboard is not from Apple, then this may be your problem.

Other options would be:

Find a Apple wired keyboard you can borrow. Hold down the option key
immediately after starting the Mac. Hold down the control key before
selecting macOS (OS X) as the startup operating system.
Boot to Internet Recovery and select macOS (OS X) from the menu bar.


Can't connect from macOS High Sierra to Windows 10 share on home network At wit's end.  Have MBP named newt running High Sierra.  Have Windows 10 machine named "Vader" that's always up & running with a physical drive (X:) shared as //Vader/x with permissions set to Everyone having full control.  Other Windows machines can access share just fine & read, write, etc.  Windows 10 box has user Adams with no password & automatically logs in at boot.

Prior to installing Sierra, had no problems accessing share.  Since Sierra (now on High Sierra, hoping it'd fix but didn't), I haven't been able to access at all, always with the following error with text There was a problem connecting to the server:

Windows 10 machine's workgroup is WORKGROUP, and so is MBP's:

Here's newt's DNS settings:

I've got a pretty simple Google WiFi setup (with 3 units) providing my home network.  All machines are on the wifi network (192.168.86.0/24).  Here's some terminal output from newt:

$ ping vader
PING vader.lan (192.168.86.86): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.86.86: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=2.208 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.86.86: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=5.940 ms
^C
--- vader.lan ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.208/4.074/5.940/1.866 ms
matthew@newt:/Volumes
$ smbutil lookup vader
Got response from 192.168.86.86
IP address of vader: 192.168.86.86
$ smbutil status 192.168.86.86
Using IP address of 192.168.86.86: 192.168.86.86
Workgroup: WORKGROUP
Server: VADER
$ smbutil identity -N //vader
smbutil: server connection failed: No such file or directory

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I don't know what else to try.  I've searched many docs, forums, StackExchange sites, etc.

For me the solution was to check if SMB server was active on windows pc (and it was not!!, just SMB client is active by default):

go in search field at the right of WINDOWS icon and type: WINDOWS FEATURES
scroll the list and find SMB support
make sure that SMB server is checked, if not check it and restart pc.


How can I tell Apple iCloud to forget or delete system configuration settings? I've noticed that whenever I setup a new iMac or MacBook, that small system configurations from older/other systems are copied over to my new system as soon as I login to iCloud.  While I like iCloud for syncing files across desktops, I don't necessarily want each of my systems to share the same configurations.  It's a granular as the speed of my pointer or the touch settings on the trackpad.  With a couple iMac's and a physically different layout in my offices, this shared configuration is obtrusive and I frequently need to revise it.  Is there a way to enjoy some iCloud features on one Apple ID account, but not have every system configuration shared?
I've noticed other settings sync in the past, but "Tap to click" and "Tracking speed" are the most annoying.  On one of my physical desks, I've my trackpad off to the side like "normal" people :P. At my other office, I've the trackpad and keyboard in a container laid out like a MacBook so bumping it with my palm causes a tap-to-click, so I have to turn it off. If I turn it back on on the other system, it updates both.

iCloud does not sync settings like mouse pointer speed. If these settings are appearing on a new system, it means you have implemented an alternative syncing method (inadvertently or not).


What bluetooth audio codec does iOS use for Airpods? I recently bought the ToothFairy App and noticed that it has an option to enforce the AAC codec. The difference in sound quality is remarkable.

How can I tell which is being used between iOS and AirPods?

You can't tell which codec is used on iOS, but AirPods use SBC or AAC.
On macOS, you can check which one is in use by going to the Bluetooth menu, clicking on your Airpods with the "Alt" key pressed.


How to identify if popup download of Adobe flash Player was infact a virus or malicious on? How to identify if popup download of Adobe flash Player was in fact a virus or malicious on El Capitan, OS x10.11.6?
I am not a savvy person but I can do things if someone explains it to me in plain English.

Unless you specifically went to Adobe & downloaded it right from their page at https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ then assume it was malicious & discard it.

If it arrived in the form of a Disk Image (.dmg) then so long as you don't mount the image, the file itself is inert & can safely be trashed.
If it was a Windows executable (.exe) then that is also technically safe on a Mac - ie, it will not run - so can also be safely discarded.
If it was a compressed file (.zip, .7z, gz etc) then so long as it remains unextracted, again it is safe to simply discard.

If it was anything other than one of those types, or if you extracted any archive, then scan your computer with something like Malwarebytes or send the file to VirusTotal for further analysis.


apple software is not working in the app store I cannot update my updates in the apps store for apple
the user id is locked (untitled projects@gmail.com)

I understand why the id field is locked under this user id

How can I resolve this issue I have a 15 in Mac Book Pro using OS X 10.10.5

thank you,
Jonathan

It should be easy, sometime Apple blocks some account for security reasons.
So go to iForgot and insert your Apple ID.
There you can unlock or reset you Apple ID password (I recommend to reset).

For more details, here's the official article If your Apple ID is locked


Laptop keyboard randomly not registering So one day I opened my MacBook Pro, only to find that none of the keys were registering. A few seconds later, it gave me a popup that there was no bluetooth keyboard detected. My trackpad was also not registering. The only button that seemed to be working was the power button. When I pressed the power button, it brought up the usual popup dialog about whether I wanted to sleep, restart, or shut down. I had no way to click on any of the options, so I just held down the power button to force shut down. (Opening and closing the laptop didn't do anything).

When the computer booted back up, everything was working fine. I used my computer like normal, until a few days later, it happened again. o I did the same thing. This was maybe 5 days ago. And today, it happened again.

So it's not happening every time I use my computer, not even close, but it's still annoying, and I'd rather it didn't happen.

I didn't do anything to my keyboard before this happened, so I have no idea what could be causing it.

Anyone have any ideas?

EDIT: This question is not a duplicate of the linked question because in that question, the asker is having issues with specific buttons being stuck down. This seems like a physical issue with the hardware. In my issue, my computer is not registering my keyboard, and it telling me there is no keyboard attached. I haven't spilled anything on my keyboard or done anything else to it, so it seems like a software issue. I would share screenshots, but when this happens, I have no way to take screenshots.

I would reset the SMC on your Mac. Of course you would need certain keys to work for it to be successful.

How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

If that doesnt help, my next suggestion is to boot the Mac into Safe Mode and test the keyboard. If the keyboard works then you may need to just reinstall MacOS. If it doesnt then you may need to call Apple Support and set up an appointment for your local Apple Store if you have one.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac -
 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Here is an interesting article by MacWorld

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-fix-mac-keyboard-3598931/


iOS iTunes latest podcasts not showing up On my iPod touch running iOS 4.1, the iTunes store app (purple note icon) lets me search for podcasts and download episodes. In my RSS feeds I often see a new podcast episode announced, so I load up the podcast in iTunes and inevitably the most recent episode is absent. Has anyone else experienced this problem, and are there any solutions to this? besides:

use Instacast
sync to PC/Mac iTunes
wait a few days for it to show up

I hear this more and more. iTunes on the PC directly uses the RSS feed and can be downloaded immediately. The podcasts in the iTunes store are cached, meaning that a process has to go out and update it. You have no control over this. If you don't want to continuously sync with iTunes, get a podcast app for the iPod Touch. I like Podcaster though there are many others. This app like all of the others uses the direct RSS feed and can pull down the show immediately.


Etrecheck says performance is poor. Any way to find out whats wrong? My 10-year-old iMac, running High Sierra, has been beach balling a lot while using Safari and other applications. I ran Etrecheck on my computer and it said my performance was poor. When I look up what that meant it gave me the following:

  Poor: Your machine is critically sick. You should make a backup or
  otherwise save critical documents immediately. Your machine likely
  needs hardware repair.

I have run it several times and keep getting performance is poor. Is Etrecheck considered good and if so, is there any way to tell what in particular it was referring to

Etrecheck is usually pretty reliable.

Your iMac is running on one of the latest software versions on a 10 year-old machine.

Your iMac is too old to handle the latest software and to support peak performance therefore Etrecheck is displaying that message.

If you can I recommend downgrading your OS to an older version, one that your iMac can handle better. You can see how to downgrade in this article.

If you don’t want to downgrade I still recommend creating a backup for your files.

An additional test you can run is an Apple Hardware Test, by holding the D key on startup which might detect any other issues.


How do I fully relocate my user's home directory to another disk? I installed Lion on a new disk today and let the migration assistant move users, applications and stuff from my internal disk to the SSD connected via FW800. So far everything works great.

Because I have a pretty large photos and audio library, I want to leave my user's home directory on the old Volume and have OS and Applications on the other disk.

To achieve this I opened up Terminal.app, sudo'd and entered the following command:

cd /Users
mv mwidmann mwidmann_
ln -s /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/mwidmann .
chown -R mwidmann:mwidmann mwidmann

So far so good.

In finder the home folder was replaced with mwidmann_, but I removed that item from the sidebar and added the new one instead. Same goes for documents, downloads, pictures, videos, music. Other items I added there, worked like before.

Why I feel that I'm missing something is because the nice sidebar and dock icons for these "special" folders aren't showing up.

There must be an additional thing that tells Lion that THIS is my home folder and it is in /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/mwidmann and nowhere else.

Any Ideas?

You could also go System Preferences > Users & Group, right click on your username, click Advanced Options, and set the path of your Home directory. I also feel it's a more "robust" solution, because it's "endorsed" by Apple.


Geeklet script to ping hosts I have found the nice script below to ping a host to check if it is up or down. However I haven't found a way (and my very basic programming knowledge has failed me here) on how I can ping multiple servers. Ideally I'd go HOST1= XXX, HOST2=YYY etc...

Could someone point me in the right direction? I have about 10 hosts I'd like to see the up/down status for. Geektool script copied from macosxtips.co.uk

HOST=typehostnamehere
PING=`ping -q -c 1 $HOST`
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] ; then
    TIME=`echo $PING |tail -1 | cut -d/ -f 5`
    echo ${TIME}ms away from $HOST
    exit 0
else
    echo $HOST could not be reached
    exit 2
fi

You want to read up on loops in bash scripts.

For example:

HOSTS="hosta
hostb
hostc"

for machine in $HOSTS
do
  PING=`ping -q -c 1 $machine`
  if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] ; then
    TIME=`echo $PING |tail -1 | cut -d/ -f 5`
    echo ${TIME}ms away from $machine
  else
    echo $machine could not be reached
  fi
done

I didn't test that, but it's close enough. Replace the HOSTS list with the list of hosts you want to report on.


Empty Drive from update? Had a user come back from summer break and boot his iMac. Jamf shows that it last checked-in early June. It boots to the recovery partition and Disk Utility shows the drive as empty. It may have had a power surge?  The only reasonable explanation I have is that it was on and received the 10.13.6 update and was erased. Usually an update will never wipe the drive first.

Any thoughts?

A power surge isn't going to erase a drive.  Destroy it maybe, but erase the main partition while leaving the Recovery partition intact is virtually impossible.

If it was a power surge, the internal power supply would have been fried.  If that didn't fry the computer the greater than 18V DC along the power rails would surely have fried (at a minimum) the SMC (which operates on 5V and 3V DC).

What has happened is the user erased the drive in an attempt to bypass restrictions. I've seen my share of students who ask how to bypass restrictions both here and at many clients.  Here's just a short list of questions that fall into that genre:

How do you download games on a school iPad?
Why does McAfee Endpoint Protection keep auto installing?
What is a organizational device considered to be? (This one is pretty benign but I have my suspicions...)
Amazon FireTV without WiFi, MacBook Pro Internet sharing
What websites can I use to get games in my schools IPad?

The only resolution you can take (and what I still do) is the following:

tell them "That's odd.  I wonder how that could have happened..."
proceed to put it in queue for repair
tell them that since they didn't have a backup per organization acceptable use policy (or similar) that their data is gone and the responsibility is theirs (you already indicated that)
document in writing with an email to the student

There will always be someone who wants to get around the system only to smack face-first into a brick wall.


Monitor not displaying color red. Is this the monitor or some setup I'm missing? I've plugged the monitor into both an iMac 2006 and a MacBook 2008. Red shows up as black. I've set up the monitor in System Preferences and on the monitor itself. The color red simply shows as black. Is there something I'm missing or is the monitor likely broken?

I've searched online and can't find similar issue.

Edit: Now I'm *really confused: can't be the monitor, because I tried plugging a different monitor (from a friend's computer) and I have the same problem.

There are applications that let you control how much of each color component in the display generated by your machine gets to the monitor. An example of this is Dark Adapted.

These are useful for adjusting your monitor for night time viewing, and other special cases. Unless you have something like this running on BOTH the machines, it's likely that the problem is either with the monitor itself, or with the cable.

Are you connecting via VGA or DVI? A problem with the cable wouldn't manifest like that on DVI, but could on VGA, where individual pins literally correspond to component colors. If on VGA, try another cable and see if that helps. If that doesn't work, it's most likely that the monitor is broken.


macOS: App icon shows up in app switcher even if instance is closed On macOS, when I invoke the app switcher by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Tab, I see an array of app instances. If I select an instance and release the keys, sometimes the instance doesn't open up.

This is super frustrating. Not only do these empty instances make the app switcher more cluttered, but it's just plain annoying that the instance doesn't open up.

Presumably it was already closed but for some weird reason the app icon still shows up in the app switcher.

How do I fix/avoid this?

If I select an instance and release the keys, sometimes the instance doesn't open up.

If an app's icon is shown in the app switcher (invoked by using the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Tab), it indicates that the app is indeed running. However, selecting the icon from the list using the Tab key, and releasing the Cmd key wouldn't always show an app window(s). This could happen in following cases:

All the open app window(s) are minimized: If all the app window(s) are minimized into Dock, using the app switcher to switch to the app won't automatically un-minimize the app window(s). If this is the case, just follow the procedure described below to also un-minimize an app window in addition to switching to it.

After you have selected the desired app from the app switcher using the Tab key, continue holding the Cmd key after you let go of the Tab key, and press and hold the Opt key. Now with the Opt key held, release the Cmd key. If the app has one or more of its windows minimized, this key sequence would un-minimize a window.
No app window is open: It's possible for some apps (based on how it's programmed by its developer) to not have any visible/open app window even if it's running. In such cases, the trick discussed in the first case won't work as there in no app window to un-minimize. You can either click on the app icon in the Dock, or use one of the commands in the app's menu in the Menu bar at the top of the screen to show an app window.

Here's a quick way to quit an app shown in the app switcher. After you have selected the desired app from the app switcher using the Tab key, continue holding the Cmd key after you let go of the Tab key. Now with the Cmd key held, press and release the Q key once to immediately quit the app. The app would also get removed from the app switcher instantly.


Who else besides Apple typically offers Iphone preorders? The iphone 5 is going to be my first iphone.

Since I've never purchased one before, I'm wondering, who else besides Apple offers preorders in the United States?  Does anyone offer them on the same date that Apple does?

I only ask because I'd prefer to avoid having to go to the Apple store when it comes out.  I like Apple but the thought of waiting in line for hours annoys me.

Which retailers, if any, typically offer preorders?  Which ones officially offer pre-orders?

The carriers pre-sell and also have pre-order queues from years past. It's not been something that other retailers have offered as the quantities sent through distribution channels is largely taken by large corporate buyers looking for as many devices as possible so until production catches up with demand, your best bet might be to pre-order directly from Apple and have home delivery scheduled if you don't want to try your luck with the waiting in line game. (You can always go wait in line if you care, knowing your phone has been pre-ordered but the reverse hasn't been true once the initial allocation of pre-orders sells out.)


How to view photos from all years on map? In the iPhone Photos app, I am able to view a map with all of the photos from a given year when I am in the Photos/Years tab. Is it possible to do the same thing except with all photos, spanning all of the years? Or is a single year the highest level of aggregation that is possible?

Currently, year view is the highest level you can view a map for. With iOS 10, this is expanded to viewing all photos together on the map, but iOS 10 is not available yet at the time of writing.


Can I install figlet from the terminal? I really love FIGlet, and use it frequently in my code and emails. It's really easy to install through the terminal in Linux, but I can't figure out how to install it on a Mac (OS X Yosemite 10.10.3). Does anyone know how to install FIGlet straight for Mac so I can run it from the terminal?

You can install it using homebrew. Just type the following:

brew install figlet

If you don't have homebrew installed, you can simply do it by typing:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"


Which software to batch join videos AND add a chapter for each? I have 55 short clips (<1min) that have the same characteristics (only the content and length change) and I want to combine them into one big chaptered video.
I know with QTPro how to combine 2 videos and how to add chapters to 1 file. Now I need a Mac OS X tool that's gonna do it automagically.

You can easily combine many files into one with free MPEG Streamclip's Batch mode — cmd+b. But it will not automatically add chapters at the start of every clip included.

Update: Just checked that you can add chapters manually with free tool Subler.

You may also add chapters with usually included with every Mac iMovie app. Here is how to do it with iMovie'09-11 but I believe the latter will re-compress the video degrading quality.


Analyze and store statistics for my Internet connectivity over time? My Internet connection has been flaky for a while. I wonder what the options are to monitor and somehow store statistics (over time) for when my modem loses and regains Internet connectivity.

I wish to use this information when I contact my ISP.

I'm thinking, would something like Instruments be able to do this?

I maintain a script that chooses a random server that's known to respond to pings, and performs 100 pings (one second apart). I run this script by hand as a first indicator to determine if I'm having a connectivity or signal quality problem.

The ping command I use is ping -c 100 [server-hostname]

I chose hostnames for my script that were known to respond to ping at the time that I wrote the script, and I tried to keep the list geographically diverse (for example by using university web servers). But this sort of technique requires maintenance, because servers don't consistently allow ping (server configurations change over time), and things like hosted servers disrupt the geographic diversity issue.

I would think that Automator might be a better fit for this sort of task than Instruments, although if you're adept with scripting (shell, python, perl, etc), you could write a script to do it and use much less memory.

As for your situation, the source(s) of failure should dictate what kind of connectivity testing you do. The problem could be due to a piece of hardware within your home/office that needs to be periodically reset, or even replaced. The ping test I describe above doesn't necessarily isolate the source of the problem.

Edit: and to address analysis/graphing, you could perform a ping test at a regular interval (every # minutes), export the packet loss percentage data in a format such as comma-separated values, and use a spreadsheet program to graph the results.


Do files lose their UTI when copied to another file system? From what I understand, if you create a file on OS X it will have a Uniform Type Identifier. I'm not sure if it's part of the file system or the file itself. If you copy the file to another file system (say NTFS), will it still have the UTI associated with it if you copy it back?

UTIs are stored on the file system itself, so they are not copied with the file if you move it to another file system.

Where do UTI come from


Mac Mini + HP 3065 - resolution I bought the new Mac Mini and connected it to my HP 3065 screen using the DVI cable + supplied HDMI to DVI adapter. The problem is, that the display settings enable me only very low resolutions (max 1280x800), which is unacceptable for this 30" display.

Is there any way to get the high resolution - 2560x1600? The Apple site says that it is possible somehow, but I don`t know how.

Thank you all very much.

You need a Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter since your monitor doesn't support Mini DisplayPort.


No covers after copying shared iTunes songs I got a new MacBook and now I would like to transfer all my media files via iTunes sharing from my old MacBook to the new one. But sometimes the covers are not copied.

Does someone know why and how I can copy my songs with covers?

My experience:  there are 2 ways that itunes associates art work with songs:

one is in the "Album Artwork" folder in itunes.  this can be updated from inside itunes in the menus.  these images stay in a folder and get some soft association with the music files.
the other method is added manually with the gui, cutting and pasting.  these get added into the mp3 file.

it seems to me that i've tried to xfer the album artwork folder different ways before, but it doesn't work unless you copy the whole itunes setup.


What is the latest version of Java for macOS High Sierra? On my High Sierra Mac

java --version

gives

java version "1.8.0_172"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_172-b11)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.172-b11, mixed mode)

but in Oracle's documentation and list of downloads I see references to versions that are much higher, notably 9 or even 10.

What is the most up to date version of Java intended for use with for use on macOS High Sierra?

Java 11

The implementations of Java 8, 9, 10, and 11 based on OpenJDK from vendors such as Azul Systems, Oracle, and AdoptOpenJDK run on macOS High Sierra and Mojave (and some older macOS as well).

Java 12, not yet released for production, runs on High Sierra as well.

LTS

Note that Java development has changed recently. Oracle and the Java community have adopted a faster cadences for releases, a fashion known as the Release Train. Every six months a new version arrives, as discussed in this article. These are production-ready fully-tested releases. However, these versions may not be supported free-of-cost with patches after the successive version arrives.

The exception is that every three years, the sixth release in succession shall be designated a Long-Term Support (LTS) version. Versions 8 and 11 are both LTS, as will be version 17. This means the version will receive updates and fixes for years instead of months.

This applies, at least, customers paying a commercial vendor. Free-of-cost implementations may also receive updates under LTS from some providers. We’ve yet to see if that happens or not.

This approach using rapid delivery train with LTS is new in the Java world.

To learn more, read Java Is Still Free.

Vendors

Here is a flowchart that might help guide you in choosing a source for Java 11.


Preventing iPad Pro from getting hot during usage My iPad Pro 2018 gets quite hot during usage. I've noticed that this occurs around 50% brightness (not even 100%). If I turn it lower to, say, 10-20%, it doesn't heat up anymore. I assume this heating is partially due to the thinness of the device, which conducts heat very easily.

This heat is rather uncomfortable on my hand while I write on my iPad. Is there any way to get rid of this heat without lowering the brightness too much? I don't want to reduce the brightness due to legibility.

There are some "heatsink" cases for iPhones; is there anything similar for the iPad anywhere?

A strange way that I've gotten around this issue is by placing the iPad on a large heat sink—basically anything that can conduct heat really easily. An example is a laptop (that is turned off!) which can take in a lot of the heat generated from the iPad's body. The iPad needs to be placed in direct contact with the heat sink.

This actually significantly cools down the screen of the iPad, which allows me to place my hand comfortable on the screen while writing. It's still warm, but at least not burning hot.


I can't install OSX Lion from DVD, because I receive an error I tried to install OSX Lion from DVD, but when I boot from the dvd I receive bootstrapper crashed error. How can I fix that? Maybe the disc is scratched, or what's the problem?

Thank you!

You can do a clean installation from the recovery partition:

Restart or start up and hold ⌘R after the screen turns on
Erase the drive from Disk Utility (without it the next step would only do an upgrade install)
Choose Reinstall Mac OS X


Is there an iPhone app that takes continuous photos? I am looking for an app that can take continuous photos.  In other words, I should be able to set the interval (e.g. every 3 seconds) and for how long (e.g. 2 minutes) and it would just snap photos.

Does something like that exists?

Try Triggertrap, it has time lapse and other options to trigger a photo. It works with the iPhone's camera or, if you purchase the appropriate cable, you can hook it up to a dslr. The free version is limited but I think provides the functionality you're looking for.

Triggertrap Mobile


USB Keyboard and Mouse not working in Bootcamp Windows 7 installation I installed Windows 7-64 bit on an iMac (27" late 2012). Mouse and Keyboard worked during the installation process. But now when I'll try to log in into windows, I am stuck on the login screen because my USB keyboard and mouse aren't working. It looked like during the windows installation process that my mac installed the bootcamp drivers correctly (Version 5.1.5621).

I tried to reinsert the USB mouse/keyboard. Boot without and then insert. Switch the USB ports etc. Any idea how to fix this?

How did you install it? Do what you did before but look for a repair option, or if you really want to, choose reinstall or install. I highly suggest to back up your data on your iMac before doing this just in case something does go wrong.


Combine/merge two separate image files of the same thing(newspaper page) taken in half Is there a way of combining two photos of the same thing taken in half?

For example, i have two images of the same newspaper page taken in two halves in order to keep the focus and quality of the text to an acceptable level. Now, how do i merge these two photos into one seamless photo?

There are a number of applications which will stitch images together, provided there is sufficient overlap. Calico is one I have used. Partly this depends on how the images are taken.

For simple tasks like this a manual process is probably better.

I use GIMP, importing the images into 2 layers and manually moving them until the match is "adequate".


ipad music player crash The music player on my iPad iOS 8.1.2 has started crashing. After playing half a dozen songs or so the music player stops completely. This is very recent behaviour. Whether the music is downloaded or cloud does not make a difference. All music is in my iTunes account.

I have rebooted the machine (let the battery run down to force a restart) but that has not fixed the music player. How can I restore normal music player function?

You might need to isolate the problem further.

Syncing with iTunes will rebuild the iTunes database files and potentially correct artwork problems.
playing new content might show that the existing content is in some way corrupt.
backing up the device and erasing all content and settings might be a more drastic step to get a clean song or two.

If that crashes, restore your device. If not, you can restore the backup and continue isolating things that will cause the crash. There's no update for iTunes, but perhaps you just need to wait for iOS 8.2 to arrive if it's not anything you are causing. The fact that multiple songs cause a crash means it's more likely about the database file storing the playlists and not just a bad song or two. Your comment about it happening with music that once played fine also points to settings and metadata and not the songs themselves.


com.cisco.anyconnect.macos.acsockext hogs Mac CPU but cannot be killed or stopped from launching. Nothing online works so far to solve this MacBookPro16,1 running Big Sur 11.3.1 (20E241)
This job consumes huge amounts of CPU off and on (see attached image from my Activity Monitor), often causing my laptop fans to engage to cool the processor. This is generally when the App itself (Anyconnect) is not running. The program launches automatically and relaunches every time I kill it, restart, etc. I have tried fancier things like removing the Cisco elements from launch directories etc, but it does not have any effect.
There are several discussions online about this problem, but none of the proposed solutions have helped me:
Stop Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client from starting up automatically
https://dannyda.com/2020/10/28/how-to-disable-cisco-anyconnect-secure-mobility-client-autostart-on-macos-stop-cisco-anyconnect-start-on-boot-on-macos/
I've tried all the solutions I've found online (including those in the above links), but nothing stops it. Only uninstalling AnyConnect works, but I need the Cisco VPN to work remotely with my organization.
Anyone worked this out (for real?)
t3s

Press Don't allow When Cisco asks Cisco AnyConnect Socket Filter” Would Like to Filter Network Content.
If you do so it creates Network Settings that automatically launches this CPU-consuming com.cisco.anyconnect.macos.acsockext.
To revert it :

Go to System Preferences -> Network
Observe several instances starting with Cisco.. next to Wi-Fi
Delete all of them with - button beneath
Press Apply
If any Cisco instances appears again, delete it again; Press Apply
Check for com.cisco.anyconnect.macos.acsockext in Activity Monitor and kill it if needed
NEVER! Allow Cisco to Filter Network Content again
(for some reason it lacks of Don't ask again checkbox)


Is there a way to reach the multitasking bar on the iPad via a keystroke on the keyboard dock? When the iPad is plugged into the keyboard dock, you can reach the home screen by pressing the "square" button in the upper left corner of the dock's keyboard. Is there a keyboard analogue to the double-press that brings up the multitasking bar, or do you have to reach for the physical button?

Double-hitting the Home key (at the Escape key place) will bring the multitasking bar much like the Home button on your iPad.

Confirmed on my iPad Apple keyboard dock.


iMac G3 (Bondi Blue): What Kind of Plastic is the Shell? I rescued an old Bondi Blue iMac and have plans to turn it into a terrarium.  I have all the internals taken out and I am left with just the plastic shell.  I would like to glue all the seams together so it will hold together tightly, but I am unsure what kind of plastic was used for the shell.  I understand that you need to match the adhesive to the exact type of plastic or it could form a weak bond or even melt the plastic. I've looked for the little recycling symbol, but I can't find one on it to rule out some classes of plastic.

Could someone tell me what kind of plastic material was used or how to determine this?

I believe that the plastic casing is polyvinyl chloride (PVC) because of it's durability and physical characteristics.  However, I don't have access to that machine to do any definitive testing.  That said, with a small sample of the plastic, you can determine what type it is with some very simple tests you can do at home;  see below.

(I don't believe it to be Lexan (acrylic plexiglass) due to how easily it scratches with a fingernail.)

Personal note:  Way back when, I worked for an electronics manufacturer that reverse engineered products to see how they could make them cheaper (they were based in the good ol' USA).  One of the engineers taught me how they identified certain materials like plastics.  I had to go look this up since it was so long ago I actually used this type of info.

Basic Plastic Testing1

There is some basic tests you can do to plastics to identify the type of plastic material.  Basically, the test involves:

Look:  Is it transparent, translucent or opaque?
Feel: Does it bend? Can it be scratched? What does the surface feel like?
Cut:  Does it cut easily? Are the edges smooth or jagged? Does it crumble or flake?
Float:  Does it float or sink? (Note: not applicable to expanded foam materials. Water should be around room temperature).
Burn:  What is the size and colour of the flame? Do molten drips fall from the sample and continue to burn? Does the sample self-extinguish? Is there any odour when the flame has been extinguished?

Low density polyethylene (LDPE)

Transparent only as thin film, translucent in thicker sections
Fairly flexible; soft, 'waxy' feel, easily scratched
Easily and smoothly cut
Floats
Not self-extinguishing; molten droplets which usually go out on reaching bench or floor; blue flame with yellow tip and little smoke, smell of burning candle/paraffin when flame is extinguished

High density polyethylene (HDPE)

Transparent only as thin film, translucent in thicker sections
Fairly stiff and hard, can be scratched by fingernail
Easily cut with smooth edges
Floats
Not self-extinguishing; molten droplets which usually go out on reaching bench or floor; blue flame with yellow tip and little smoke, smell of burning candle/paraffin when the flame is extinguished

Polypropylene (PP)

Transparent only as thin film, translucent in thicker sections
Stiff; hard, can be scratched by fingernail
Easily cut, fairly smooth edges, when cut with chisel leaves white mark
Floats
Not self-extinguishing; molten droplets which usually go out on reaching bench or floor; flame mainly yellow with a trace of clear blue at the bottom; smell of burning candle/diesel when flame is extinguished.

Polyvinyl Chloride, Unplasticised (uPVC)

Transparent (unless fillers or pigments have been added)
Stiff; hard
Fairly easy to cut, smooth edges
Sinks
Burns with difficulty, self-extinguishing; yellow flame, blue-green at bottom edges; unpleasant, acrid odour of hydrochloric acid.

1 How, using simple manual tests, can I identify an unknown plastic material?


Siri and birthday events One of Apple's calendar features on every device is that it takes the birthdays from the contacts and show them as a separate birthday calendar. This is a nice feature, but has a huge drawback in my workflow:

Since I do a lot of driving I use Siri a lot to create calendar events. But when somebody of my contacts has birthday on the day I want to schedule a meeting (or whatsoever) the birthday event is recognized as a full-time event, what causes Siri to warn me, that I already have an appointment - what is obviously not true because it's "only" a birthday. Siri of course then tell me which appointments I have "at the same time" (which is a feature when you are connected via bluetooth), so at least I know, that this are only birthdays and I can schedule a meeting anyways, but this is also annoying, because if there are like 5 birthdays that day, it takes a pretty long while until Siri read all appointments to me.

So my question is: Is there any way to to get rid off the full-time status of the birthday calendar or even make Siri ignoring this birthday events (without deleting every birthday from any of my contacts)?

There is no way to make Siri stop seeing the Birthday calendar, even if you disable it in the Calendar app. You can always write feedback to Apple or file a bug report (free developer account required).


Can I add EAS support to Mac OS Is there a plugin, or some third party solution that I can install on OSX to get EAS support for native calendars and contacts apps?

I'd like to add "internet accounts" in the settings for my hotmail calendars and contacts, which use EAS (Exchange ActiveSync).

As of April 2014, there are no third-party OS X applications or plug-ins that support Exchange ActiveSync.  There aren't any solutions to view your Hotmail calendar and contacts in an OS X desktop application.


Why can't I no longer boot into my MacBook Air? My MacBook Air (Late 2011) hangs during startup at the Apple logo, and the spinning cursor freezes.

I have booted into verbose mode and it hangs after the following messages:

com.parellels.kext.vnic 7.0.15054.722853 has started
MEDetect: PASSED - ME_INTERNAL_STATUS: 0xfred1f338 = 2
nspace-handler-set-snapshot-time: 1326447352

I have tried resetting the PRAM, logging into recovery mode and repairing disk permissions, and starting in safe mode but still to no avail.

I performed a Parallels Desktop update last night. I wonder if this is preventing the machine from booting.

Looks like there's a reference to parallels and it might have modified something in the directory.
You can do a re-install which shouldn't wipe your data.
Startup with CMR+R and just re-install the OS. Don't choose the option to erase.


New iPhone, took a few nice pictures, then restored with the data of old iPhone. Pictures gone - help! Bought new iPhone, took a few nice pictures with girlfriend, then proceeded to restore with the data of old iPhone. Pictures gone now. Can I get them back somehow?

The pictures were not backed up by iCloud or anything like it. Already tried Fonelab as a data recovery tool, but no photos showed up.

It's so stupid that the apps that I downloaded before are still there but the photos are gone... just does not make any sense! thanks!

When you restored the phone, you have changed the encryption keys on the iPhone and the old keys are gone. Unfortunately, the chances of recovering those pictures are almost 0%. It is not simply not worth trying.

The apps are there because when you've downloaded them, you have been logged in to the App Store with your account, so the information about your download/purchase was stored on Apple's server. After you have restored your phone, you have logged in again with the same account, and thus it is possible for the phone to restore your purchases/downloads.


can I point my Pictures folder to a folder in an external hard drive? I would like to save some space on my laptop and to do so I was thinking of moving my Pictures folder on an external hard drive. As OSX doesn't want me to mess around with the main folders in my home, how can I do this and is it safe to do so?

(this follows from my original question, which was closed as it wasn't a real question https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/76019/can-i-point-one-of-the-user-core-folders-to-an-external-hard-drive)

As Rabskatran pointed out, you can move your iPhoto Library if iPhoto is your primary photo manager. Or Aperture, it doesn't matter in this case.

Also, before we start, I would suggest you NOT to move your Pictures folder as it might mess with the structure of the system.

Anyway, here are the steps:

Close iPhoto if open,
Go to your Pictures folder,
Move that folder named as iPhoto Library to your external disk,
Make sure that the transfer is FULLY finished,
Open iPhoto while holding down the alt key on your keyboard,
From the pop-up Finder browser, choose your iPhoto Library on your external disk.

This way you transferred your iPhoto library to your external disk and made iPhoto to directly open up with your photo libraries new place.


Finder sidebar duplicating entries I'm trying to figure out why one of my drives is appearing multiple times in the Finder sidebar.
If I drag the list order a new one is generated. Dragging out to the desktop, the normal way of deleting them, fails; it simply reappears immediately in the sidebar.

From georgegarside blog - Mac Finder Sidebar Favourites Location I discovered the names & locations of the two files possibly responsible.
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
I tried throwing them away, but that was considerably more trouble than it was worth, as defaulting the Finder views entirely is just too much work to put back how I like it.
The .plist files themselves look pretty complex, so I'm trying to figure out what I can safely delete to see if will restore normailty.

As I had backups of everything I decided to play fast & loose with copies of the two .plist files.
I dropped both files into BBEdit & tried to make sense of the reams of data.
The sidebar file looked at a glance more promising so I started with that.
I realised it had several thousand aliases to disk drives, SD Cards, CDs, RAMDisks & disk images permanent & temporary, dating back over perhaps a decade.

Carefully selecting sections from <dict> to </dict> in each case, I deleted all aliases except the one that contained SeenAsBootVolume. Saved & relogged.
Success. The current list rebuilt itself, the myriad 'spares' were gone & the drive no longer duplicates if I move/drag items in the list.
As a hint as to just how many old drive aliases I did actually delete -  the file was 82MB… it is now 9KB.

 …and, no, the date modified on the older one doesn't make any sense to me either;)


Continuity not supported to / from my iPad? I've just installed ios8 on Both my iPhone 5s and iPad 3 (model md329kn/a). However, I can't get continuity working.

Tried starting an e-Mail on the iPad, hitting the lockout button and picked up my iPhone. No icon in the lower left corner :/ Same the other Way from iPhone to iPad. They're both on the same wifi. Should also mention that I was able to call my iPhone from my gf's phone and answer it from the iPad.

Handoff enabled in iPhone settings menu in the general section under Siri but I thought the continuity is always on - only handoff needs to be enabled?

Also, no handoff menu is visible on my iPad where it is visible in the settings app on the other device.

Did I miss something or is the iPad not capable of handoff?

Quoted from Apple.com

  Continuity features are available on iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th generation), iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad mini with Retina display, and iPod touch (5th generation).


How to install apps to Snow Leopard after a fresh reinstall and still keep the MacBook in a pre-first-boot state? I'm selling my 2007 White MacBook.

In line with many suggestions I've seen online I've securely wiped the drive and done a re-install but have hit a problem.

The machine came with OS X 10.4 Tiger but I've since upgraded it to Leopard then Snow Leopard.

Ideally I'd like to give the new owner the new MacBook experience with the spinning Welcome text but I'd also like to stick them on the latest Snow Leopard.
The problem is, when I do a fresh install of Snow Leopard the machine won't have the iLife applications (they are on the original Tiger install disks).

Is there a way I can get the iLife apps on there without needing to set up an account on the machine?

If not, what's the best thing to do?
Setting up an account is something I'd rather not do (I know I'd be annoyed if I bought a second-hand MacBook and it already had an account on it).
On the other hand installing Tiger and giving them the upgrade disks also seems a bit poor.

Any suggestions please?

Thanks in advance.

Follow up:
All the answers below were very informative, clearly explained and probably equally effective.
I chose the one that best suited my circumstances but hopefully they will all be of use to future readers of this question.
Thanks to all who contributed.

You could definitely install iLife, boot into single user mode, delete the user account via this superuser link(also below, and do it in single user mode), and then in single user mode just type rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone which is like a toggle switch, it tells the mac to start from the initial boot.

#!/bin/bash

# cf. http://www.macos.utah.edu/documentation/authentication/dscl.html

if [[ "$(/usr/bin/whoami)" != "root" ]]; then printf '\nMust be run as root!\n\n'; exit 1; fi

OPATH=$PATH
export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin

OIFS=$IFS
export IFS=$' \t\n'

declare sudo=/usr/bin/sudo

printf "\e[1mDelete user account\e[m: "
read user

if [[ -z "$user" ]]; then printf '\nNo user specified! Please, try again!\n\n'; exit 1; fi

# make sure the user exists
usertest="$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Users name "$user" 2>/dev/null)"

if [[ -z "$usertest" ]]; then printf "\nUser does not exist: $user\n\n"; exit 1; fi

# get user's group memberships
groups_of_user="$(/usr/bin/id -Gn $user)"

if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] && [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups GroupMembership "$user")" ]]; then
   # delete the user's group memberships
   for group in $groups_of_user; do
      $sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete "/Groups/$group"  GroupMembership "$user"
      #$sudo /usr/sbin/dseditgroup -o edit -d "$user" -t user "$group"
   done
fi

# delete the user's primary group
if [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups name "$user")" ]]; then
   $sudo /usr/sbin/dseditgroup -o delete "$user"
fi

# if the user's primary group has not been deleted ...
if [[ -n "$(/usr/bin/dscl . -search /Groups name "$user")" ]]; then
printf "
   \e[1mWarning\e[m:
   The group memberships of the user \e[1m$user\e[m have been deleted\x21
   groups_of_user: $groups_of_user
   The user's primary group \e[1m$user\e[m, however, has not been deleted\x21
   Please, try again\x21
   Exiting ...\n
"
  exit 1
fi

# find the GeneratedUID of the user and remove the password hash file
# from /private/var/db/shadow/hash/<GeneratedUID>
# sudo ls -a /private/var/db/shadow/hash
# sudo ls -l /private/var/db/shadow/hash/<GeneratedUID>

guid="$(/usr/bin/dscl . -read "/Users/$user" GeneratedUID | /usr/bin/awk '{print $NF;}')"

if [[ -f "/private/var/db/shadow/hash/$guid" ]]; then
   $sudo /bin/rm -f /private/var/db/shadow/hash/$guid
fi

# delete the user
$sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -delete "/Users/$user"

# make a backup
if [[ -d "/Users/$user" ]]; then
   $sudo /usr/bin/ditto -rsrc -c -k "/Users/$user" "/Users/${user}-archive-$(/bin/date).zip"
fi

# remove the user's home directory
if [[ -d "/Users/$user" ]]; then
   $sudo /bin/rm -rf "/Users/$user"
fi

export IFS=$OIFS
export PATH=$OPATH

exit 0


OSX Unmount usb disk drive from Automator bash script I have a task in automator to make my backup, it runs shell script code, lot of code is working well but the unmount command doesn't works, I don't get unmount the unit after backup.

I checked to run my command successfully from terminal, It unmounts my drive well, all fine, but when It runs from my bash script in automator It doesn't unmounts the unit, no errors, it runs well, but it doesn't unmount. :(

My command used is:
sudo diskutil unmountDisk disk3;

I have try with and without sudo, and I have the same problem.

I have tried diskutil eject command and same thing, it unmounts the unit typing it at hand from terminal, but from my automator shell script code it doesn't.

Any idea is very welcome.

When run from Automator how are you inputting your password when prompted by sudo?  You're probably not being prompted if you're just running it the same way as if in Terminal.

You'll need to add some AppleScript code and run it via osascript so you're prompted for an Admin password:

osascript -e 'do shell script "sudo diskutil unmountDisk disk3" with administrator privileges'


Sending link in Safari via IM Does anyone know of a Safari mechanism (extension in Safari 5, perhaps), that will allow a person to send the current URL via instant message? Ideally, it would pop up a list of contacts.

If you are using Adium, you can send the current Safari link by clicking on the toolbar item "Insert link to active page in Safari" on the chat window with a contact.

If you need to send it directly from Safari, you may need to create an automator action or applescript service.


Remove all files in folder apart from one using OS X Terminal I would like to remove the whole content of a folder, apart from one file. The problem is can't copy the file to another folder and then back to the first folder, because then the application doesn't accepts the file, so the one file must stay in the folder.

Exists there a command like I described?

I would go about it like this:

find . ! -name <filename> -delete

for this to work with folders, you have to replace the delete with an exec rm -r

find . ! -name <filename> -exec rm -rv {} \;

This breaks down to

find = find

. = in current working directory, you can replace . with a path, like ~/Documents/

! = not

-name = name

<filename> = file

-exec = execute

rm -rv = verbose remove

{} = results of the find

\; = close the execution

Find all files and folders in your working folder, that do not have the name filename and then execute the remove command on the results.

You should do a dry run without the delete option, first:

find . ! -name <filename>

This command gives you a list of all files and folders in your working directory that are not named <filename>. Adding -delete or -exec rm -rv {} \;, will delete this files and folder (the exec version).

You could also use

rm -v [^filename]

for folders add -r

rm -rv [^filename]

Somehow I feel more comfortable using the find option. Mainly because you can do a dry run. Either way I would start with a dummy folder and try both options.


App that tells me what app is using data (Big Sur) We just installed Eero and it has the ability to report which devices are using how much data. I was surprised to see one of our family's laptops uploading a ton of data. Nearly twice as much as downloaded.
Odd thing is that the laptop does not seem to be running anything thing that should be uploading that much. Most of its cloud backup services are synched and when you look at the activity monitor I can't get a complete enough picture to see what is driving the usage.
Is there an application out there that people trust that can monitor and log what apps and/or processes are using data and when? It would be nice to get a picture over a couple of days to see what is going on.
I fear there is some sort of malware or another process that has been installed that is acting as a bit of a resource vampire that has hidden well enough from the usual activity monitor filters I have been using.
I have TripMode installed but it struggles with the history look, I also have explored LittleSnitch, but could not tell if it gave the full picture. Happy to go that path if you think it will sort me out.
Thanks!!
I am running 2019 MacBook Pro 16" Big Sur 11.1

Activity Monitor gives a lot of info, including:

If you have the battery icon in your menu bar, you can see this:

Now, that says energy rather than I/O, but what's interesting is that it always says Photos.app even though the app is not running.  My guess is that even though it is supposedly not running, it is maintaining the sync between local and iCloud, i.e., network.
In an admin account in Terminal, you can use tcpdump to see details on what packets are being sent and where to/from
About a decade ago, my son used to play a game called RuneScape until I discovered that the Mac he used was exchanging huge amounts of data with the RuneScape servers when no one was logged in on that computer!  (And so I blocked all five servers.)


What monospace font is most legible at the smallest size? Does anyone know which monospace font in the Terminal program or iTerm is the best to use at very small font sizes?

My choice would generally be Lucida Grande or Anadale Mono; Some days I'm more in the mood for Monaco though too. If my eyes start getting tired I ditch the small fonts for a few days if possivle. Depending on the shell I'm running, I've had Anadale Mono cranked all the way down to 5 point and still readable (provided I have access to an electron microscope as backup).


What's a good terminal manager for OS X? The Terminal.app application from OS X is quite good but it lack some functionality that I find really important like: ability to setup SSH profiles for connecting to different servers and ability to setup tunneling.

I know that there is a putty port for OS X but it uses X and is ugly. Is there any other alternative, preferably free?

Taken in mind that setting up a tunnel by your self is really easy, you may consider using iTerm2 as a replacement to Terminal.app.

iTerm2 features profiles, so you may connect to any SSH server instantly.

Advantages over Terminal.app:

http://www.iterm2.com/

If you still need to use a gui for tunneling, then you may use an app like:

SSHTunnel or SSH Tunnel Manager


How can I configure Midnight Commander to execute "open %file_name%" command every time when I press Enter Can I somehow configure Midnight Commander to execute "open %file_name%" command every time when I press Enter? If so, how can I do it?

You could edit the extension file (Menu → Command → Edit extension file). I couldn´t test it on OSX but this should work:

regex/\.(.*)$
    Open=(open %f &)


iPad: DjVU reader with the support for DropBox? Does there exist an excellent reader for DjVU with the the key property i.e. the support for DropBox so I can download DjVU files easily to it from my DropBox and upload stuff to DropBox from it?

On my iPad, Djvu reader works fine now, and it dates back to in update in August or September.


Jumping between full screens in Yosemite? I like having many full screens open (in the same ‘space’), but it bothers me that I have to press CMD+right twice to get from 1 to 3; it should be possible to jump directly to 3 with a shortcut like ctrl+3. Or is it?

PS. Sorry, I meant: can one jump between spaces within the same desktop?

Yes, you can certainly do so.

Go to Settings > Keyboard
From there select Shortcuts
Mission Control
Tick the boxes for the Desktops you want.

EDIT: One quick way to to move is to ⌘+tab to switch between open applications.  Otherwise, you can submit feedback to Apple.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan will feature having a Split View which may be more convenient when rolled out.


IOS 10 warning: Using a hidden network can expose personally identifiable information I am aware that 'hiding' a wifi network/SSID does not make the network MORE secure, but Apple's warning on IOS 10:

  Using a hidden network can expose personally identifiable information

seems to indicate that hidden networks are LESS secure.

Clicking the 'learn more' link does not give any further info supporting the claim.

Exactly how can hiding an SSID make the network any LESS secure (by "expose[ing] personally identifiable information")

Clients that connect to known networks automatically will advertise “hidden” SSIDs in all of their probe requests. This results in your device broadcasting those SSIDs everywhere you go, to anyone who’s listening.
This behavior is dependent on the client’s operating system. For instance, you can configure Windows 7 and later to not connect to hidden networks automatically (only “visible” ones). That prevents such broadcasts from happening, but then you have to connect to hidden networks manually every time.
On the other hand, iOS and macOS always connect to known networks, hidden or not. The fact that iOS 10 warns about this would indicate that Apple has no plans to add the kind of toggle switch that Microsoft added in Windows 7, or to force the user to connect manually. Therefore, iOS and macOS constantly broadcast all the hidden SSIDs they are capable of connecting to.
Microsoft explains this behavior on TechNet:

A non-broadcast network is not undetectable. Non-broadcast networks are advertised in the probe requests sent out by wireless clients and in the responses to the probe requests sent by wireless APs. Unlike broadcast networks, wireless clients running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server® 2003 with Service Pack 1 that are configured to connect to non-broadcast networks are constantly disclosing the SSID of those networks, even when those networks are not in range.
Therefore, using non-broadcast networks compromises the privacy of the wireless network configuration of a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based wireless client because it is periodically disclosing its set of preferred non-broadcast wireless networks.

Now as to why this is a privacy issue:

Should I point out the irony of broadcasting an SSID in the direct vicinity of the access point trying to hide it? Except instead of only having the AP broadcasting it, every client in range does. Then the AP responds to each of those clients with the SSID anyway.
Instead of limiting SSIDs to the vicinity of their respective APs (like in the case of visible networks), your phone goes and broadcasts those hidden SSIDs to everyone near you, everywhere you go. Worse, SSIDs may include first and/or last names, which I’ve seen people use in network names.
Your set of preferred hidden SSIDs acts as a signature that may uniquely identify you. Let’s say for instance that my neighbor uses the hidden SSID My Secret SSID. Now if I sniff a broadcast beacon containing My Secret SSID at Starbucks, I can infer that a member of his household is nearby, or one of his guests. Based on the other hidden SSIDs among that person’s broadcast beacons, I may be able to determine exactly who I’m dealing with. Conversely, I could walk up to that person, recognize them, then assign a face to their unique set of hidden SSIDs.
Let’s say you carry your phone with you everywhere you go. Someone with a large-enough network of radio receivers could know where you are at any given time, figure out where you work, where you spend your time, whether you’re home, etc.

1 and 2 show how trying to hide an SSID makes the privacy of its network much worse. 3 and 4 show how that extends to your personal privacy as well.
Sound far-fetched? Criminals/advertisers/jealous exes/the government have done worse things. In fact, MAC addresses were once used to track shoppers’ movements through malls. Apple subsequently randomized MAC addresses in probe requests.
Thankfully, no one I know has used a hidden SSID in well over a decade, and I haven’t seen that practice recommended in even longer long.
Bottom line: don’t hide your SSID. It achieves the exact opposite of what you think it does.
Update: Since there seems to be some confusion as to why you can’t connect to a hidden network without broadcasting it to the world, as well as about security vs. privacy, let’s make a fun analogy.
Imagine a driver (the AP) is picking you up from the airport. They don't know you, and you don’t know them. So they hold up a sign that reads, “John Doe.” When you find them, you (the client) go and tell them, “I’m John Doe.” This is what happens when connecting to a broadcast network.
Now, imagine that driver is trying to be super covert, and doesn’t hold up that sign. What happens now is you have to walk around yelling, “Who’s picking up John Doe?” over and over, until finally the driver steps forward and responds, “I'm picking up John Doe.”
In either case, you then exchange credentials, make sure you’re each who you think you’re dealing with. What happens after authentication is just as secure either way. But every step leading up to it compromises your privacy.


iPhone thief phished iCloud password. Can they decrypt iPhone contents? Long story short, a close friend had their iPhone stolen a few months ago. Just yesterday they got a text saying their phone was found with a link claiming to show the phone's location. Unfortunately, this person fell for the phish and ended up submitting their iCloud credentials. I assume that the thieves now have the ability to reset the phone.

The main worry here though, is whether the thieves are able to decrypt the contents of the phone? Is it possible for them to extract the data from the phone knowing the iCloud password?

EDIT: Also, is there any valid fear that they can extract the data directly from storage by connecting a USB cable to the phone or use any 3rd party apps to do this?

Did the user have an iCloud backup?
If yes, the data is available.
https://support.apple.com/kb/ph12521?locale=en_US

If no, the phone is erased as part of the recovery process.  To get the data, you would need to connected to the computer the data was backed up on.
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/iphone/iphone-troubleshooting-repair-faq/iphone-how-to-unlock-open-forgot-code-passcode-password-login.html


Apple ID for enterprise use - Mac's and iOS devices We found ourselves in a situation where a company supplied iPhone got linked to an employee's personal Apple ID account, and the phone is now useless to us, as the employee was terminated.

Is there a way using Apple's 'Profile Manager' to lock the Apple ID that are tied to Mac OS or iOS devices to their company email address?  We don't want people to be able to change that address.

Thanks!

Take it to an apple store. They will lookup purchase history from serial number and if it shows that the company paid for it, they will wipe it for you.


How does APFS encryption work? I recently upgraded my 2013 MBP to High Sierra. This changed my unencrypted file system to encrypted APFS.

Does Apple provide any information about how APFS encryption works? Does the account password protect the private key? Then how can there be a guest user? When my account password was weak, does changing it improve encryption security?

What is the encryption method and strength?

I'm used to Windows BitLocker, where the encrypted partition is either locked or unlocked, and the Windows account password is different from the BitLocker passwort protecting the private key. The encryption method and strength can be set via Windows group policies.

APFS encryption is done with the AES encryption algorithm in XTS mode with a 128 bit keylength. This is the same algorithm, mode and keylength used by earlier versions of macOS too (i.e. with HFS+ file systems).

As you mention Windows BitLocker, this is actually the same method and strength that Windows has recently started using in the newer versions of Windows 10.

Regarding your other questions about guest users and account passwords - this really has nothing to do with APFS encryption. This is instead handled by a layer above called File Vault 2.

File Vault 2 with APFS is really the same as with HFS+ with the one difference that APFS has built-in encryption support (i.e. the AES-XTS-128 for encrypting the data) where HFS+ needs encryption added as layer on top of the file systems (i.e. via Core Storage). In practice there's no real difference for most end-users.

In any case, all the key handling that makes full disk encryption work for the end-user to handle such things as booting from an encrypted drive, user accounts, guests, recovery keys, etc. are all handled by File Vault 2 - which is seperate from the file system itself.


CheckPoint VPN for Mac OS X Has anybody been able to use a VPN connection to CheckPoint from a Mac?

My test until now:

Tried the standard Html page to login, no success because the java applet cannot be loaded
Downloaded a full featured Checkpoint client, no success (connection not made)
Tried IPSecuritas, same results

Until now the most interesting result were installing the SNX client from CheckPoint and then creating a .snxrc profile, after that snx is able to connect like so

snx
Check Point's Mac SNX
build 800005012
Please enter your password:

SNX - connected.

Session parameters:
===================
Office Mode IP      : 192.168.1.173
DNS Server          : 172.16.0.190
Secondary DNS Server: 172.16.0.191
Timeout             : 12 hours

Problem is that at this point it seems to connect (because IP address are correct and also because if I provide a wrong password it give me the correct unsuccesful logon message) but if I do a ifconfig I see that the interface created from Checkpoint do not have an IP address and also if I try to add one using ifconfig I'm not able to ping any machine on the remote network

ifconfig en7
en7: flags=8862<BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1350
ether 54:55:43:44:52:00
Check Point Virtual Network Adapter

Any idea about I can assign a proper IP address to the interface so that I can use the remote network?

Regards
Massimo

I was able to run the client making some modification to the wireless router configuration:

The DHCP server now gives addresses that start with 192.168.2 instead of the old 192.168.1
The subnet mask of the local IP address is now 255.255.0.0
You run OSX in 32 bit mode keeping the 3 key pressed during boot

After these changes the subsequent call to SNX (configured as described above) was able to associate the proper IP address (that in my configuration was 192.168.1.33, last number changes from connection to connection) to the en7 interface created by SNX and so I've a valid IP address for the router on the 192.168.2 network and one for the office on the 192.168.1 network.

I'm still convinced that something can be done using also the ifconfig command to properly assign IP address, but for now having a connection it's enough for me, I'm posting the result of ifconfig if someone can describe me how to proceed:

en7: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1350
ether 54:55:43:44:52:00
inet 192.168.1.33 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
Check Point Virtual Network Adapter

See also http://www.phillo.it/?p=13

Regards
Massimo


What counts as a partial charge for my rMBP? I just recently decided to switch over to the Mac for the first time by buying the latest Retina MBP (which shipped with Mavericks).

I use it like a commuter where I have it unplugged for a couple of hours but later will plug it in at a desk. I want my battery to last as long as possible and I know I should run the battery calibration check and also have the battery down to 10% once a month.

However, what about the "partial charges"? What's a good percentage that I can drop down to before plugging it in? I usually start charging when battery is between 50% -60% for now. Is that low enough that it won't hurt the battery in the long term?

"I know I should run the battery calibration check and also have the battery down to 10% once a month."

Apple actually recommends fully charging and then discharging the battery once per month. All modern Macs with batteries self-calibrate and require very little user involvement. There is no best practice as to what level to charge a battery at, none that I have seen that equate to a significant elongation in lifespan.

In short, use your MacBook Pro and don't worry about its battery. Ideally, as long as you are depleting and recharging it, then the battery's health should remain optimal. Running a notebook that is always connected to a power supply is not ideal. Battery cells like it when the electrons flow; unfortunately it is that very motion that invariably leads to a reduction in charge capacity. That is just the nature of the technology. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

A partial charge is just that: when a battery is recharged without being fully depleted. Apple rates batteries based on full charge cycles. So if you would let yours run down to 50% and then recharge it, twice, then you would have hit one full charge. There is no relevance as to the health of the battery should you recharge it at any given point. Recharge it when it's convenient for you.

The main culprits to poor battery health are heat and inhibiting the movement of electrons (by keeping the notebook plugged in all the time). Avoid those and your's will be just fine.

You can consult Apple's suggestions on the matter.


Manually move iCal into Lion How can I import iCal event into Lion from either an iPhone or Snow Leopard?

I have a Time Machine backup from Snow Leopard, and an iPhone, each with up-to-date iCal calendars. I have a clean Lion install with no iCal events. I would like to get the iCal in Lion up-to-date, either from Time Machine or the iPhone.

I have tried syncing the phone, but nothing happens to either device. I have tried manually moving files from Time Machine, but the Lion iCal does not recognize anything.

The best chance of success it to make a new user account and try syncing the phone to the new empty calendar. Just sync the iCal data.

Then back up the lion iCal data to one file in /Users/Shared and import that to your proper account.

Should that fail, trash that temporary user account and make another temporary admin account.

Turn off time machine ( to prevent an automatic backup slowing things down )
Set lion to back up to your snow leopard time machine ( stop any backup if it commences)
Start iCal
Browse backups from the iCal menu
Restore your calendars one by one
Back up calendar data to /Users/Shared
Set Time Machine to your preferred destination and clean up the temporary user.


iOS Device Serial List Does anyone know of a list of iOS serial numbers that marries the respective device types to the last 3 characters of the device serial? I know there are query sites out there where you can pump in the entire serial number but I'm looking for a comprehensive list that accounts for all models and sub-models.

In example:

CP7 --> iPod 4th Gen
FHW --> iPad 2nd Gen
196 --> iPad Mini 1st Gen

I'm trying to avoid compiling this for all devices in my environment but I can't seem to find anything that already exists.

iOS-based devices:

iPad (3rd Generation) (Wi-Fi + 3G CDMA) - NQV
iPad Air 2 (Wi-Fi + Cellular) - 5YN
iPad mini Retina (2nd Generation) (Wi-Fi) - CM9
iPhone 6 - 5MG
iPod touch (5th Generation) - 4JR

iPods (pre-iPod touch):

5th Generation (Late 2006) - V9K, V9P, V9M, V9R, V9L, V9N, V9Q, V9S, WU9, WUA, WUB, WUC, X3N (complete list per Apple)
5th Generation U2 Special Edition (Late 2006) - W9G (complete list per Apple)
Classic (120GB) - Y5N, YMU, YMV, YMX (complete list per Apple)
Nano (3rd generation) - YOP, YOR, YXR, YXT, YXV, YXX (complete list per Apple)
Shuffle (2nd Generation) (Early 2008) - 1ZH, 1ZK, 1ZM, 1ZP, 1ZR (complete list per Apple)

For names, we use:

iPad - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201471
iPhone - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201296
iPod - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1353
Apple TV - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200008


How can I update my version of `unzip` to version 6.00 or higher? Its a common problem that, when unzipping (read: 'open by double-click'), some .zip files result in a similar sized .cpgz file. But you expected an unzipped file or folder instead.

The default unzip program in OS X is '/System/Library/CoreServices/Archive Utility.app'

When you try to unzip it in the Terminal (/usr/bin/unzip) you see the following:

$ unzip SE.zip

Archive:  SE.zip
warning [SE.zip]:  zipfile claims to be last disk of a multi-part archive;
  attempting to process anyway, assuming all parts have been concatenated
  together in order.  Expect "errors" and warnings...true multi-part support
  doesn't exist yet (coming soon).
error [SE.zip]:  missing 8256083459 bytes in zipfile
  (attempting to process anyway)
error [SE.zip]:  attempt to seek before beginning of zipfile
  (please check that you have transferred or created the zipfile in the
  appropriate BINARY mode and that you have compiled UnZip properly)

I have Mavericks 10.9.5 running, and a unzip -v learns us we are on version 5.52:

$ unzip -v
UnZip 5.52 of 28 February 2005, by Info-ZIP.  Maintained by C. Spieler. Send
bug reports using http://www.info-zip.org/zip-bug.html; see README for details.
...

The funny thing is, the same 'corrupt' zip file extracts fine on my CentOS system. There is no error and the file seems fine. My CentOS system runs unzip version 6.00:

$ unzip -v
UnZip 6.00 of 20 April 2009, by Info-ZIP.  Maintained by C. Spieler.  Send
bug reports using http://www.info-zip.org/zip-bug.html; see README for details.
...

My question: How can I update my version of unzip to version 6.00 or higher?

And affiliated question: Will my new version of OS X unzip also have affect on the default unzip 'Archive Utility.app'?

ps. I prefer the use of a package manager like brew above compiling from source. brew install unzip results in: Error: No available formula for unzip

Using Homebrew (as requested):

$ brew tap homebrew/dupes
$ brew install unzip

This will install unzip at (considering defaults) /usr/local/Cellar/unzip/6.0/bin/unzip

You can then alias it as unzip6 somewhere in your path.

Also, you may want to to try "The Unarchiver" from the app store. Much more useful IMO then Apple's Archive Utility.

UPDATE

dupes has been deprecated in Homebrew, so brew tap homebrew/dupes is no longer necessary. All you need now (assuming Homebrew is installed) is:

brew install unzip

Then you can add a link to /usr/local/bin with:

ln -s /usr/local/opt/unzip/bin/unzip /usr/local/bin/unzip6

Now the system unzip should work with unzip and Version 6 will work with unzip6


Using the mac app, Music.app, I can go to the Music Store but how do I search for an artist or a song I'm using the Music.app on my iMac running Catalina. When I enter the Apple Music Store how do i search for an artist or a particular album or song?  I hope this is not a stupid question, but I've looked everywhere for a search box. I have found a way but its convoluted and doesn't work all the time.  If anyone knows how to search on the App Music Store using the Music app please let me know?  Thanks.  Do i have to load iTunes?

In the Music app, click in the Search bar at the top of the left sidebar. When you do that buttons will appear on the right to select either Apple Music or Your Library. You can search for artists, albums or songs. Note that I subscribe to Apple Music, so your details may vary if you don't, but I think the search should work just as well.

I tried signing out and got similar results - plus an iTunes Store button! So give it a try.


Internal Speakers not showing in Output of Sound application As shown in the screenshot only the Headphones are selectable:

But no headset is plugged in.

I have plugged and unplugged the headset several times to see whether the Mac thinks it were plugged in and maybe to get un-confused: no difference.

While I could try to reboot it would be helpful to understand if there were some mechanism to reset macOS "understanding" of the headset in/out.

Explanation

If the sound output device is always displayed as 'Headphones' there are usually three explanations for it:

you have headphones plugged in
the tip of a broken headphone jack still sits in the Mac's audio jack
the Mac's audio jack is defective/broken

Possible solution

Please check with a flashlight whether you can see any debris in the audio jack. If debris/dust builds up it may trigger the electrical contact that makes your Mac switch from Internal Speakers to headphones.

Try to gently blow it out or pick it with a tweezer.


ipad mini bought London UK may 2013 I have a house in france, and just charged the ipad mini with a french plug. It blew a fuse. Can I get extra french plugs from Apple for the charger cable???
I bought this french plug from amazon. Not good!

Apple sells the "World Travel Adapter Kit" that includes plugs that will cover the spectrum of countries in the world.

Look here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB974ZM/B/apple-world-travel-adapter-kit


HTTP URLs aren't working on OS X Yosemite My OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 Mac seems to only be able to hit HTTPS URLs, but not HTTP URLs. I tested another computer on my network, and that machine seems to work fine.

I tested using this URL:
http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js

In Chrome, the URL returns ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE. Safari and Firefox return similar errors.

With curl, curl -4 http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js works fine, but when I do either of these…

curl -6 http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js
curl http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js

…I get:

curl: (52) Empty reply from server

I changed my DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.8.4 to use Google's DNS instead, and flushed my DNS cache using sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; and restarted the machine, but it still ends up with the same issue. It also fails on other sites that use HTTP, such as http://yahoo.com.

If I change HTTP to HTTPS on any of the above URL's, it works fine.

I've experienced the same behavior twice, Once with Time Warner and again with Comcast Xfinity.  Browsing to HTTPS is fine, HTTP is empty response.

In both cases I contacted the ISP and they resolved it.   It's possible some site tripped an upstream alarm.

See here for similiar experience


IOS 8 and App Store wrong language Since the new IOS 8 I have had several problems with my iPad. One of which is the App Store is in Turkish I have checked my country and language everything is fine. Since its in Turkish it will not allow me to update any programs saying I need to switch to the U.S. Store, how do I do that? Several of my games no longer work  after the upgrade.

All the way at the bottom right corner of the Apple Store screen there is a round symbol representing which country Apple store are you in.

Click on it and it will bring you choices to switch country.


Install Mavericks on new drive? Does Mavericks allow an install to a different drive than the current startup drive?
I am running Mountain Lion on a 2008 Pro Desktop and would like to try Mavericks without losing the old OS. I'd first like to see what apps run fine vs which ones I'd need to update. And also see the performance before fully committing.

Yes, you can. Download and run the installer from the app store, click continue and agree to the license. In the screen asking for where to install, click the show all button to show drives other than your startup drive. You can select either an empty drive or one with older versions of OS X installed.

Since you are very likely to install OS X Mavericks again, you can make a copy of the installer to avoid having to download it again. Make a copy of the Mavericks Installer app in your Application folder before the installation begins, since the app will be deleted after the installation. You can use it to install OS X Mavericks on another drive or Mac. See here for more discussion: Re-use Mavericks install file

Reference: http://www.macworld.com/article/2055518/installing-mavericks-what-you-need-to-know.html


Unexpected Quarantine set on keychains In my Console logs I've been noticing these two messages repeated constantly:

4/7/16 5:06:17.726 PM Safari[383]: KeychainGetICDPStatus: keychain: -25300
4/7/16 5:06:17.726 PM Safari[383]: KeychainGetICDPStatus: status: off

I ran the security tool against the error code:

[kb:Forsaken:0:~ ]$  security error -25300
Error: 0xFFFF9D2C -25300 The specified item could not be found in the keychain.

I don't actually know what Safari is looking for, but apparently it is lost. After a while, I checked the actual keychain file. To my suprise it was quarantined.

xattr -l ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
com.apple.quarantine: 0001;570253b9;Safari.app;

If I'm reading this right, Safari has set the quarantine attribute on my keychain.

Checking the system directory, I see that my System.keychain is fine, but the apsd.keychain has been quarantined.

xattr -l /Library/Keychains/apsd.keychain
com.apple.quarantine: 0006;56fbb5f8;com.apple.apsd;

Why is this happening? I'm not downloading these files. I don't know how to find out what Safari is looking for. My logs are full of messages, but oddly, other apps don't seem to be having a problem accessing the keychain.

Stumped.

EDIT:

I did, in fact,  go insane tracking this down. Found out about this "feature" far too late: http://openradar.appspot.com/25618668 . FYI: if you run "locate diagnose" you'll find inside the app bundles tools that might help in the future for someone. What I ended up doing was just signing out of icloud with my standard user. I sync the passwords in Safari every now and then. Apple makes good hardware. I've loved it for years. /me sighs.

I suggest going to https://developer.apple.com/support/certificates/ and do a bit of research on certificates. Certs are used to verify the identity of whoever made a program, or owns a website (for encrypted connections).

At that link you can also find the Apple-supplied root certs you can add to your keychain if you're missing any specific certificate, or have a malicious one. Certs are stored in your keychains.

* Be sure to keep an eye for a lock or green text in the safari address bar to indicate an encrypted connection! That page will be a target for middle-men! *

The beginning of this year was chaos for certificates. With OS X 10.11 and many many certs expiring, waiting for renew, many hackers took advantage. You may have picked something up, as I know I have and still have it. I have the same issue as you.

Easiest solution (maybe) is to reinstall. Back up your data, but do NOT use it to restore your account after the reinstall.

Let me know if you need more information.

Also, unless you're actually experiencing problems, stay away from the console. It'll drive you into insanity. The messages are never pleasent. Here are some of mine for example of what (According to apple tier 3 engineers) is normal behavior. If your accounts are having issues, then I would worry about it.

4/7/16 20:59:33.000 kernel[0]: decmpfs.c:579:decmpfs_fast_file_is_compressed: decmpfs_fast_get_state called on unknown file

Apr  3 17:12:06 jahheins-MacBook-Pro kernel[0] : Sandbox: SpotlightNetHelp(302) deny(1) file-read-data /Applications/Safari.app
---- This is a common one. Its due to SIP (System Integrity Protection) Apple seems to be too dumb to tell their programs to stop accessing any program files to a program they've designed to be off-limits.

I also have a lot of kernel crashes. Faulty boot ups, and GPU Issues. Logic board, bat, screen, trackpad, and keyboard were all just replaced and my board is having issues swapping GPUs in the Retina.

Regarding why it was quarantined: Between OS X 10.10 to 10.11 and the SIP changes, any SIP programs or files that are found to be not acting the "rootless" way are instantly quarantined. Usually migration helper is in one of the files and may be the culprit. I've had my airport do the same thing, and ASPD (The key to rootless).