Encrypted external drive won't mount anymore I have a 1 TB external drive I use for Time Machine, and as manual backup external drive. It is encrypted.

I started to convert it back to normal. I was able to mount it correctly several times while the conversion was in progress, but now it is not working anymore. Can't be mounted.

diskutil corestorage list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 390B29FA-501C-4A34-BCE9-A2249F1FA2A3
    =========================================================
    Name:         HDEXT1TB
    Status:       Online
    Size:         999860912128 B (999.9 GB)
    Free Space:   5943296 B (5.9 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume FB6151D3-4BEA-4C69-A744-A17B9AE18262
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk2s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     999860912128 B (999.9 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 21CF48F7-8D6D-4990-A2E6-C21680852F03
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Conversion Status:       Converting (backward)
        Reversion State:         Decrypting
        High Level Queries:      Not Fully Secure
        |                        Has Visible Users
        |                        Has Volume Key
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 45E49F43-C577-415F-B606-3295EB25FAB3
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk3
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          999502643200 B (999.5 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   57%
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               HDEXT1TB
            Volume Name:           HDEXT1TB
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFSX

diskutil mount readOnly 45E49F43-C577-415F-B606-3295EB25FAB3
disk3 is a CoreStorage Logical Volume which failed to mount

diskutil corestorage decryptvolume 45E49F43-C577-415F-B606-3295EB25FAB3
Started CoreStorage operation on disk3 HDEXT1TB
Error: -69649: This Core Storage logical volume is already decrypting

Is there any way to mount it again? It seems to be still decrypting, do you think I can simply leave it attached to the Mac even if not mounted?

solution:

ps aux |grep disk3

this reported a fsck_hfs -y on disk 3, consuming either a lot of cpu as well as keeping the drive like as locked.

killed the related PID

then the disk mounted itself immediately. the conversion is still in progress, 60% now, but at least I can access files.

thanks.


mysql fails to load on boot I have a Macbook. Forever I’ve had mysql server installed and running on start (using El Capitan).

Well now I’ve installed Wine. Since then mysql server fails to start on reboot. If I manually run ./mysqld from /usr/local/mysql/bin
it works fine. Here’s where things go weird: if I use launchctl list then pipe that using grep to see the list of running processes I can’t see the mysql (but I know it's running!)

Terminal window running mysqld:

Terminal window running my grep search to show no mysql processes running [searched for GPG as a control group to show what it should look like when working:

Back when I got the setup running before, I used this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/35445024/2226328 with no problems nor issues. Now since installing wine using: brew install wine I can’t get mysqld to load on start. Any ideas?

Since this I've uninstalled wine and had the same problem,  I ran brew update as well but have since determined that I installed mysql separately.

Edit: Some final followup here.  Once I ran sudo launchctl list | grep mysql it showed my mysqld running ...looking at the system.log for mysql entries showed it was failing to start which led to creating an error log plist entry mentioned in the answer below. changing permissions on the mysql folder recursively fixed the issue. This command will show you the name of your mysql user on the system:
   dscacheutil -q user | grep mysql

Depending on where you installed com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist you may have to run:

sudo launchctl list | grep mysql

to check if com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist is in the launchctl database.

Even if you find it that doesn't necessarily mean that mysql is loaded at start-up. Open Activity Monitor or enter ps | grep mysqld in Terminal.app to check if it is running.

If you get an error like that in your system log:

  com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

unload the plist and add two lines to com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist

<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/tmp/mysql.err</string>

Be sure to properly chmod/chown the file afterwards:

sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist
sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist

and reload the launch daemon

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist

Open the file /tmp/mysql.err in Console and check for further problems.


How do I transfer my photos from my cloud to my Mac? I don't want my photos from my Mac going into my cloud. I only want to put my photos from my cloud onto my iMac....how do I do this?

I tried a few things and the end result was  7,000 pictures that were in my photos app on the computer starting to fill up my cloud.

You'll have to download them from iCloud using the web interface and then load them onto your Mac. There's no option in iCloud Photo Library to go one way only.


Keynote transition delay time for each slide I am working with Keynote for the first time to create a slideshow.  I have a slideshow with just over 200 slides in it and I need the last 2 slides (one of which is a short 20 second video clip) to show for longer than the rest, which show 7.5 seconds.  How do you customize single slides to stay longer before they transition without changing the entire slideshow?

I am using Keynote Version 6.2
Software is OS X Version 10.9.5

In the Animate inspector tab you will find all the settings to easily change transition timing. You can do so for each slide or for the entire slideshow. In the movie inspector you can view the movie length then change your slide transition accordingly.
I encourage you to explore the user interface. Create a new slideshow just to play with. Then start clicking buttons and menu items. See what stuff does. Just like driving a new car, new software can take a little getting used to but in the long run, a little time invested will pay off. Cheers.


How to run old AirPort Utils 5.x on MacOS X maverics? How to run old  AirPort Utils 5.x on MacOS X maverics ? Because the new one is really ugly.

There is a workaround detailed here: http://coreyjmahler.com/2013/10/24/airport-utility-5-6-1-on-os-x-10-9-mavericks/.


Compatibility of NVMe and deep sleep in Macbook Pro Like many others in the community, I am running a Samsung NVMe drive in my Late 2013 15 inch Macbook Pro. [Thanks to the firmware update provided in 10.13 Macs back until around 2013 can work off of a NVMe drive natively] (Credit to Gilles) 1.

I used a Chenyang NGFF to Apple 12+16 adapter and formatted the disk in Disk Utility in the installer to APFS, then installed the system (10.13, initial release).  Note that before wiping and reinstalling the OS, I had previously upgraded to High Sierra.

Speed wise I am getting about 1400MB/s read and write speeds. I am stating all of this to show that the drive itself works great, except for deep sleep mode feature. It cannot come out of deep sleep mode, it just shows a black screen. Anyone happen to know of a fix?  I have read that it could be due to the drive not powering on in time for the SMC to find it.  If no fix is likely, what workarounds are there?

Please try this. Before try, Please check yourself about pmset, and if you like this then try.

open Terminal in Utility folder in Application folder.

pmset -g

(a list shown that is pmset setting)

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0

(administrator password is needed)

This command makes a Mac never hibernate or deep-sleep.


In Screen Sharing, how do I stop the local Mac from grabbing Mission Control keyboard shortcuts meant for the remote Mac? I have two Macs, each with ^-1 through ^-4 configured to switch between Mission Control desktops in Keyboard/Shortcuts. When I use Screen Sharing, these shortcuts always go to the local Mac, never to the remote Mac, regardless of whether the remote Mac otherwise has focus.

If I go into Keyboard/Shortcuts and disable these on the local Mac, I can then use them on the remote Mac. However, it's a hassle to toggle these every time I start/stop using Screen Sharing. Is there a way to get the local Mac to stop grabbing the shortcuts?

I have my local machine set to use Option for Mission Control.  I set the remote Macs to use Control.  This way, I have entirely separate key combinations.


Is there a command line interface to Keychain's / the system Password Assistant utility? When creating keychain records, changing your user password, and various other security-minded aspects of the system, there is a little key icon you can click on that opens the above Password Assistant utility. It is a very simple utility that has a small handful of Password types;

"Memorable" (pictured)
Letters & Numbers
Numbers Only
Random
FIPS-181 compliant

Then you choose a password length, and it gives you a random password, whose dropdown can be expanded for other suggestions matching your requirements.

This utility is straight-forward, and incredibly helpful, ESPECIALLY the 'Memorable' generator type. Is there a means of directly invoking the Password Assistant alone, either via the command line alone, or a command line command that launches the assistant, then returns the selected password on the command line?

The "cleanest" way I've found so far is to open Keychain Access.app, ⌘n, then click the Key icon to open the Assistant dialog. However, the mouse-centric nature of this is a nuisance to me when I just want to generate a password.

This does not appear to exist under the security Keychain command line utility as far as I can discern from its man page, any place where you would create an entry using security it prompts you for a password.

I've never seen any other generator that creates a pleasant 'Memorable' mix as this utility does, and I'd like to delegate to it's capabilities directly from any integrable aspect of MacOS systems.

The "Memorable" password generation option appears to be gone in MacOS Catalina, there is now only;

Manual
Letters & Numbers
Numbers Only
Random
FIPS-181 compliant

The security command line tool doesn't seem to generate passwords, it will only accept one you define. If there's another command line tool for password generation built into the OS that re-uses the above options, I don't know about it.

Given the combination of both of those factors, I'm documenting and accepting this answer as closure.


How to make keyboard shortcuts work for the Clipmenu application? I'm using Clipmenu application to manage copy and paste tasks.

It seems to me that you can use the shortcuts: cmd+1, cmd+2 to paste the copied texts, but it doesn't work though.

Let's say I copy these 4 lines in 4 times:

111111
222222
333333
444444

Then I'd like to use the shortcuts to paste every one of them. This is:

cmd + 1 (to paste '111111')
cmd + 2 (to paste '222222')

and so on..

But if I press cmd+1 I just hear a sound and nothing happens.

Invoke clip menu first (shift+ctrl+V by default) then use cmd+number to paste that particular item.


Can't disable fonts in Font Book after fresh Mojave install I just finished installing macOS Mojave on a brand new 2018 MacBook Pro.

One of the first things I usually do is disable all unnecessary fonts.

This time, the option to disable the font is grayed out for every single font.

In the Finder the file permissions are as follows:

system: Read & Write
wheel: Read only
everyone: Read only

How can I disable fonts in Font Book on OS X Mojave?

It turns out that (as far as I know), Font Book in Mojave just does not allow disabling of the default fonts.

There are two main locations where fonts are stored under Mojave:

/Library/Fonts/

/Library/Fonts/ contains all the general use fonts, available to all users. These are the fonts I wanted to disable.

/System/Library/Fonts/

/System/Library/Fonts/ contains fonts that are necessary for the system.

I simply moved all the fonts from /Library/Fonts/ to /Library/Fonts (disabled)/

It went fine and the system has not complained so far.

I did leave copies of the standard web fonts: Verdana, Times New Roman etc.


Can I run old versions of (now incompatible) apps on MacBook Air? A bunch of apps require an M1 chip when you try to download from the App Store.
Specifically, I'm asking about Classplus. https://apps.apple.com/in/app/classplus/id1324522260
 I'm pretty sure it's not an iOS app that's using the M1 chip; its first update was on 3 June 2020. My MacOS version is Big Sur 11.2
Is there a way to download an older version that doesn't require the M1 chip?

Apple currently recommends that developers make Universal Binaries for BOTH CPU types. Are you sure that apps only support the M1 CPU and don't work on Intel? Can you give us some examples?
They may be advertising that they will work natively on M1, but I would still expect all Mac App Store apps to support Intel CPUs.
EDIT: The app is an iOS app, which previously would only run on iPads or iPhones. The new M1 Macs can also run these apps. It's unlikely that there was ever an Intel version of this app (as there are no Intel i-devices).


Lion sleep (or hibernate) closes all applications [Disclaimer: I'm not an avid OS X user so I don't probably use the exact terminology or language]

I had a Mac Pro with Snow Leopard at work and I usually don't turn it off when going home. The next day, I always found my applications in the exact state where I had left them.
Now, I have a new Mac Pro with Lion and every time I come back to work in the morning the system is locked down (i.e. I have to put my password), which is fine, and all applications are closed. They do however re-start and try to recover the state as I left them the day before. Alas, some applications crash (e.g. Mendeley, Quicksilver, Word), others don't succeed but let you recover the previous state (Chrome, Firefox), others simply dissappear (Emacs, scripts running).
The thing that worries me the most is that when I leave work, I usually leave some simulations running that can take more than 12h to finish. I have lost work when I come back in the morning.

Question: what is going on here and how can I disable this "sleep/hibernate/???" behaviour.

I have already tried to change System Settings - Energy Saver - Computer and Display sleep to Never.

Update
It turns out that this had nothing to do with resume. My mac is randomly shutting down sometimes and it happens almost every night. Now it has happened to me while working a couple of times and now I realize why I had a login screen every morning: it was just that the machine was turned off and back on. This is why some apps crashed (they were shut down incorrectly) and some others dissappeared (Emacs, scripts and simulation do not restart when logging back in).

I think this is the feature of logging out after inactivity that can be set in System Preferences. This is in the General tab of the Security pane with the option of "Log out after ... minutes of inactivity".

An Apple page describing this feature is available here.

Additionally, this issue is described in another Stack Exchange question that I saw recently.

I'm only on my iPad so can't check this out at the moment but seems like it might be responsible.


My Macbook Air won't update from 10.6.8 to anything my Macbook Air says it is running the latest version but it is stuck on 10.6.8. When I check for updates it says there are no new updates. I don't want the latest one which seems to be problematic for everyone (is that true??) but I would like to go to 10.9 or the one before the latest one. How do I do this? I have tried through the store but it just says I already have the latest software.

Unless you have the very earliest (Jan 2008) model you should be able to upgrade to Yosemite. Check your Mac model, click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, choose About This Mac, then choose More Info.

You can't upgrade to an older version (unless you have a copy of the installer for that version).


Can I control how frequently Safari refreshes when switching between pages? Frequently when I'm using Safari on the iPad and loading multiple web sites at the same time and switching between them, Safari starts to reload a page when I switch back to it, even if it's been only a few minutes since I last opened the page.  This can be quite annoying.

Is there any way to control how often Safari on the iPad will perform refresh a page?  Ideally, I'd like to tell Safari to not refresh any pages and just refresh manually when I want to.

Safari (for iPod and iPad) keeps website cache only in RAM, and therefore, once it runs out of RAM, it'll automatically destroy an entire page, forcing the refresh, disguising itself as an auto-refresh feature. You can only keep few pages respective to amount of your device RAM.

You can try a third-party browser that has offline caching, and it'll remedy the situation. like:

Mercury
iCab
Atomic Web Browser

or if you Limit the number of tabs open in Safari to 2 or 3. It won't refresh.


Linking python as external build tool in Xcode 7 El Capitan I have been using Xcode 7 as my default python editor for some time now. The usual method to run python from Xcode is given here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5276967/python-in-xcode-7/8636301#8636301.

But with the new release of El Capitan (OS X 10.11), the /usr/local/bin/ directory is locked and in the step in "Edit Scheme > Info > Executable" where the executable has to be selected from a pop-up window, since the SIP is enforced, this is not possible. I already own the /usr/local/ but this hasn't helped. It is worthwhile to note that this problem should not be python version specific.

Can somebody suggest a workaround for this?

I know I will receive suggestions for using other editors and engines such as Eclipse and Canopy, but no thank you (no offence to Eclipse or Enthought of course).

trying run Python 2.7.11 on Xcode 7.2 on OS X 10.11.2;
I could not select 'python' under "Edit Scheme" > "Info" > "Executable"
It was grayed out. I do not know what SIP means, but I got it to work by right-clicking the grayed out 'python' under usr/local/bin in the window and selecting "Quick Look"
A box opened and I closed it and 'python' was now selectable and ran the file like a champ!


Hotkey to start and stop an application? I am using chunkwm for managing windows. How can I start/stop it with a hot key? Currently, I start it in a terminal window. To close chunkwm, I "Ctr-C" in the terminal. I would really like to have a hotkey to toggle between chunkwm on and off.

You can start and stop it from any app by creating a Service in Automator. First, open Automator, then create a Service in the next dialog. To launch an application, drag the Run Shell Script command into the workflow. In the text box that then appears, type the Unix command you normally use to launch ChunkWM. Save this file and pick a memorable name. For quitting the application, do the same thing, but with a command for quitting the application. Save this as well.

Now go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Scroll to General. After finding the services you saved earlier, click the Add Shortcut button and create shortcuts for each one. (There will need to be 2 different shortcuts; using 1 shortcut requires more advanced Automator coding.)


How can I rip DVD subtitles to SRT format (or something else that iPads can understand)? Title says it all. I've used HandBrake, Subler, VideoMonkey, and RipIt. I'm familiar with mencoder. None of them seem to be able to rip the subtitles from a DVD and then get the soft subtitles to the iPad.

This is by no means a complete answer but if the DVD you are ripping contains Closed Captioning subtitles then HandBrake gets you this for free.

Simply add the subtitles as a track. You'll be able to clearly see what must be burned in and what doesn't have to be by the options that have been greyed out.

I actually really like this option and use it whenever I can because different software can display these subtitles in different formats and all of the Apple playback software that I've used does a really nice job of displaying it readably and beautifully. I should also note that unchecking the Burned In check box won't make any difference on an iPad.

The problem is with bitmap subtitles. Essentially, I have found no software that can preserve alpha transparency when they rip bitmap subtitles and thus they require burn in to the resultant file if you want to use them directly in any Apple playback software. If you want to go this route, I have enough space to simply rip it twice, once with subtitles and once without.

What you're left with is a variety of OCR techniques that are shoddy at best as far as what I've seen on the Mac. I have heard good things about SubRip if you have any access to Windows.

Another option is to download an open SRT file and add it manually to the container. You could search for these via traditional means or give opensubtitles.org a try. YMMV. As long as the container format you're ripping to is mp4 (it should be if you're ripping for Apple devices), you can use Subler to add the external SRT track in post.


Troubleshoot internet connection over wifi in public on iphone 5C When I am in public places my iPhone 5C will not connect to the internet. An exclamation point appears next to the wifi name.

There's a good chance the WiFi you connect to actually might not have a working internet connection but is still broadcasting a WiFi signal. I suggest you to try and connect another device and see if the same helps.

Also, as the comment above suggests you may need to log into the network for the same to allow you to use the internet. To login, you should see a login screen right after joining the network or try opening any website from Safari, that will make the login screen show up too.


Problem configuring mongo db to start up using launch agent After installing mongodb using homebrew, and following the information that homebrew provided, I did the following:

launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.mongodb.mongod.plist

But got the following error:

Bug: launchctl.c:2406 (25182):13: (dbfd = open(g_job_overrides_db_path, O_RDONLY | O_EXLOCK | O_CREAT, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR)) != -1
launch_msg(): Socket is not connected

Mongodb starts fine in a terminal.

It seems like the problem was tmux. When executing launchctl without tmux running this bug doesn't occur.


What software provides a code editing environment on iPad? I am seeking recommendations for code editing primarily in Java, C, C++

My research shows these as candidates to meet this need:

Coda - iOS app for code editing and SSH (runing the code on remote computer) - it’s not clear how C or C++ would fit in coda, though.
Blink SSH - iOS app for Mosh or SSH to control a remote computer (I can use git for moving the files), look like linux terminal but this means I’m not using iOS as the IDE and just as a window to remote to another computer

Am I missing options to have an actual environment for editing on iOS bu restricting myself to these two options. Coda as an IDE or SSH (there are many, but they all end up needing a connection to a server)?

A good code editor for iPad is Textastic. Its not free and sells for $10 at the AppStore.  It claims to have syntax highlighting for over 80 languages. If you want to program exclusively in Python, there is an app called Pythonista. This is more of an IDE than just a code editor.


Bootcamp + Custom hybrid MBR = PAIN I installed OS X to my MacBook from scratch. I mean used USB stick with installer and fully erased disk.

Then I created 5 partitions: One for OS X, one for Windows, two for Linux and one for Data:

| OS X - 1 | Windows - 2 | Linux - 3 | Linux2 - 4 | **Data - 5** |

Than I installed Linux and rEFInd to boot it.

Next I installed Windows. But it was awful without drivers, so I boot into OS X and created USB stick with drivers with BOOTCAMP. I boot into windows again, installed drives, rebooted, and saw only disk C: and D:, which are Windows and OS X partitions.

So I booted in Linux, and created hybrid MBR on my own, adding only Windows and Data partitions to it.

It worked. I was able to use Data on any system.

I had not booted windows for a week, and I installed OS X 10.11.2 update. And when I started Windows again, I could use only Windows and OS X partitions.

I think that BootCamp assistant or some other OS X program recreated Hybrid MBR. But they add only first 4 partitions, and Data is fifth!

How could I stop OS X from restoring MBR? Maybe I could make it not to be able to see Windows or remove bootcamp?

PS Sorry for my English

Update 1

I do not believe there is a way to keep OS X from updating the MBR table. It would appear that OS X relies on partition entries appearing in ascending order in the GPT. Also, OS X desires the index of each MBR partition entry to be the same as the partition entry in the GPT. Occasionally, when OS X finds a discrepancy, it will make a correction.

Users have found tools, such as gdisk, that allow editing of the MBR table. This will allow GPT entries with indices greater than 4 to appear in the MBR table. Fixes of this type are temporary since OS X may erase them at any time. Furthermore, El Captain (OS X 10.11), with SIP turned on (the default), will not let gdisk change the MBR table. Rod Smith has recently published changes to rEFInd which allow SIP to be turned on/off at boot time.

Since you refer to a Hybrid GPT for use with Windows, I will assume you have a Mac dated before 2012. My Mac is a 2007 iMac. I have run Vista in 32 mode and Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 in 64 bit mode. These installs were not from upgrades, but rather clean installs into freshly formatted partitions. In each case, the Device Manager showed all devices working properly after installing the Boot Camp Support Software. Also, no version of the Boot Camp Assistant was used to install Windows. However, due to the limitations of my Macs firmware, I am required to install Windows in BIOS/MBR mode.

Along with Windows and OS X, I have also installed 64 bit Ubuntu Linux. Since Windows needs to be installed in BIOS/MBR mode, I decided to install Ubuntu in EFI/GPT mode. Also, to aid in choosing an operating system at startup, I install rEFInd in its own partition.

So how many partitions does that make my Computer? Let's count.

1 EFI partition FAT formatted.
2 Windows partitions NTFS formatted. (Sometimes I two different Windows installed)
1 Fat formatted partition for data.
1 OS X partition HFS+ formatted. ( I do not use Core Storage)
1 OS X recovery partition HFS+ formatted
1 HFS+ formatted partition (Sometimes I have an older OS X installed
here)
2 partitions needed for Ubuntu (currently empty, Ubuntu was installed)
1 small HFS+ partition for rEFInd.

Since only Windows is required to use a BIOS/MBR scheme, it made sense to put all FAT and NTFS partitions first on my main drive. To do the same on a different computer depends on what equipment and software is available. In my case, I have 2 TB of external storage, a WinClone license, and a 40 MB/sec internet connection. I can boot OS X from the external storage which gives me the ability to image backup part or all of my internal disk and repartition as needed.

Original Answer

Well, the answer would seem obvious.

Put the Windows and data partitions before the OS X and Linux partitions.

I did this on my 2007 iMac and I have eliminated the problems you are having.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to install OS X on an external drive and boot from this drive. You then can repartition your internal drive. Then install OS X on the internal drive, followed by the other operating systems. This is what I did.

To explain what other installation options are available, I would need to know the model/year of your Mac.


How to Connect a router to console, using a mac I just purchased a non-Apple router (a pfSense SG-1000 device by Netgate). As a contingency plan in the event I would forget my web interface password, to then save my bacon, I want to be able to connect it to console in spite of the fact I do not do Linux and equivalent. The advice I found on the device website seems rather complex:

Install an appropriate CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP driver on my Mac;
Use a Terminal program (screen, or ZTerm, or cu, but not Terminal);
Use Terminal to locate the port and connect to it.

This could be old advice, prior to mac OS 10.12. Could be a Windows-equivalent, or Linux, set of instructions. To maintain my Mac on a low-entropy diet, I try to minimise specific software installations and try to minimize cases of using Terminal commands.
What would be the advice of serious Mac users?
What is the minimal number of dedicated software I must absolutely install?
What else do I really need to do? Can I avoid using Terminal?

I don't know if I am a "serious Mac user" but I do use my Mac "seriously".

The instructions you got fit pretty much all OSes (Windows, macOS, Linux).  It just depends on the software that you use

What those instructions are telling you is to use an RS-232 connection to talk to the router.  This type of maintenance has been around since at least the 1970s and predates macOS/OS X

The only "modern" difference is that they now recommend a USB to UART bridge, or in more common vernacular, a USB to Serial Adapter because modern computers haven't been shipping with RS-232 serial ports for a long, long time now (since USB became mainstream).

You won't need to install any software; you just need to use screen that is included with macOS.  You must go through Terminal because

screen only runs in Terminal
you are connecting to the pfSense console (which is, in effect, another Terminal connected to a serial port)

What you would then do is connect to the console by issuing the command:

$ screen /dev/cu<USBdeviceName>

I currently don't have one attached to my Mac so I can't show you an exact name.  Though, I do  have FreeBSD on an old Dell workstation for this with dedicated RS-232 ports and my devices are /dev/cuca0 and /dev/cuca2.  (OS X bases a lot of their inner working on BSD)  You will have to see what the device gets named by listing out /dev.


Parallels Desktop to OS X brower actions I have a customer with a Macbook Air running Windows with Parallels Desktop.
When he clicks on a hyperlink in a Windows application he wants OS X Safari to respond.
Is this possible somehow?

To make things even more complicated some of the pages he wants to open are not online but local files inside the Windows enviroment.

Go into your Virtual Machine Configuration, on the left menu select "Internet Applications" and the right toggle "Web Pages" to say "Open in Mac OS X".


MacBook pro boot Kernel panic no kext summary Yesterday my Mac crashed and after trying to turn it on again I recieved a message like this:

  panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800667b0b2): "VM page 0xffffff800ad5fad0 should not have an error\n"@SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2422.1.72/osfmk/vm/vm_kern.c:457
  Debugger called:
  Backtrace(CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
  ...
  ...
  ...
  Can't perform kext scan: no kext sumaryczny
  BSD proces name corresponding to current thread: unknown

  Mac version:
  Not yet set

  Kernel version:
  Darvin Kernel Version 13.0.0: thu sept 19 22:22:27 pdt 2013; root:xnu-2422.1.72~6/release_x86_64
  Kernel UUID: ...
  Kernel slide: 0x0000000006400000
  Kernel test base: 0xffffff8006600000

  System uptime in nanoseconds: 0

And I know there is a similar post and a good answer to that.

I can't access Recovery HD. When I try to do it by hitting Cmd-R or Alt while booting, Mac freezes and does nothing except generating a lot of heat around CPU. I can only turn it on, do nothing and wait for the kernel message above.

What can I do?

I'd advise you to boot your Mac from the system DVD and check the internal disk.
The coincidence of kext scan failing and the recovery HD unreachable
let me diagnose a major disk (and not just filesystem) trouble.
The CPU overheating might be a consequence of a fool's fsck.

If you don't have a system DVD to boot your Mac (which is the case
since Lion), I advise you to ask a colleague who have the exact same
MacOS X version to build you one.


Macports update causes Macbook pro to heat up sudo port upgrade outdated

I type the above and the fan on my 2014 Macbook Pro Retina 15 sounds like a jet engine taking off. After about 10 minutes of the fan blowing hot air out of the side of my Macbook Pro, I stop the update for fear of my expensive notebook burning up. How could a simple software update cause such a reaction? This doesn't happen all the time, just if I haven't updated Macports in a while.

That behaviour is expected, as each updated port needs to be compiled for your system. Some ports are simpler and don't take much effort. Others are more complex and will cause your MacBook to heat up as it works (example: ffmpeg).

Given you say you haven't updated your ports in a while, likely there are quite a few ports that need updating. You can take a look at those with:

  port outdated

From there, you can choose which ones you want to update, if you don't want to update all of them:

  sudo port upgrade PORTNAME

Additionally, you can see what MacPorts is doing by looking at the output in your Terminal. Typical steps where your MacBook may heat up are:

  --->  Configuring PORTNAME
  --->  Building PORTNAME

Do not be concerned about the temperatures. If they really become too hot, your MacBook will shutdown by itself to prevent serious damage.


Update not installing! My iPhone 4 isn't installing the new update! Do you have to have service to update? It keeps saying update failed because I'm not connected to the Internet, but I am! Help help!

Try plugging your device into your computer and downloading it from iTunes. If you get any error messages, please paste them here.


How to delete the Java installed shown in the "System Preferences" dialog? I have MacOS El Capitan
About Java, in the /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines path I have:

All works fine.
But I did realize about the following in System Preferences:

Observe in the bottom the Java icon.
If I do clic in there, it opens:

And finally

Observe it is Java 10 and is not listed in the /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines path.
Questions:

Where is installed? or where is its location?
Is safe to remove it? All my customs apps (IDE, programs uses according the case any JDK avaiable from the /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines path).
How to delete? I am assuming deleting some directory. But perhaps it requires a special approach. I want avoid problems.

You can uninstall Java from the command line by using the rm command, this is aimed for advanced users who understand the ramifications of using rm with superuser privileges. This is not for novice users, using the command line requires precise syntax and failure to use proper syntax may result in erroneous commands or unintended data loss.
One by one, execute each of the following commands individually:
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin"

sudo rm -rf "/Library/PreferencePanes/JavaControlPanel.prefPane"

sudo rm -rf "~/Library/Application Support/Java"

Observations: This requires authenticating with sudo. Be certain you have the syntax 100% correct, if you are not sure if the syntax is correct do not execute the commands, and instead you’d likely want to use the Finder based approach of uninstalling java instead.


Why does AirDrop only sometimes require me to open the AirDrop window on my desktop? When I'm sending things to my desktop from my iPhone, it randomly doesn't show my computer until I open up AirDrop in the Finder. Does anyone know why this is? (it just shows the blue circles instead of my Mac Pro)

Specs:

Mac Pro Late 2013 (OS 10.12.3)
iPhone 6s (10.2.1)

According to your devices, it should work reliably. But Apple documentation makes two relevant observations:

Find out if the Mac has “Block all incoming connections” turned on in Security & Privacy preferences. A Mac won't receive items using AirDrop if this setting is turned on.

If AirDrop on the receiving device is set up to receive items from contacts only, make sure that both devices are signed in to iCloud. Also make sure that the email address or phone number associated with your Apple ID is in the Contacts app of the receiving device.

If your Mac Pro is located on a safe environment, I would go to Finder > AirDrop and set it to accept files from anyone. It made my devices find each other much faster in my experience. It might do the trick for you.


Yosemite moves all desktops to one display on startup I am using 2 displays on my Mac Mini (late 2013), and have 6 desktops on each of the displays.

Primary display: 6 desktops
Secondary display: 6 desktops

However, after upgrading to Yosemite, it adds 1 more desktop and moves all additional ones to the primary monitor on startup:

Primary display: 13 desktops
Secondary display: 1 desktop

This was working properly on Mavericks. I can do it manually, but don't want to do it every single time I boot the computer.

I couldn't find any related options in "Preferences -> Displays".

Any ideas how can I fix this?

I am having the same issue and I believe it's a system bug (10.10.1) without any good workarounds.  Even if you have no extra spaces on your secondary display, an extra space will show up on your main display on every reboot.

I will summarize for you the various approaches I've tried and the results of each.  Only the first one solved it totally for me, but it's not ideal as you have to get used to making your secondary display into the new primary display.

(My two displays are different sizes which limits the ways it can be solved.)

If your secondary display is being seen by your Mac as "primary" (does the boot screen Apple logo first appear here?), then you can use Display preferences, under Arrangement, to move the menubar to your secondary display.  I tried it and it fixes the issue, but now everything defaults to the secondary display.  You will constantly see new notifications, new windows, etc. popping up on the secondary display.  Not ideal but it solved the issue of spaces being pushed over to the main display after every reboot.
If your secondary display is being seen by your Mac as "primary" (does the boot screen Apple logo first appear here?), then maybe you can swap the ports where these displays are plugged in.  I purchased the adapters in order to do this, but it was a total failure for me.  No matter where I plugged in my smaller display, the Mac picked this for the boot screen every time.  I even trashed all display preferences and zapped the PRAM to start fresh... no matter what I tried, the smaller secondary display booted as the primary.  Unless you've set the menubar on this same display in preferences, the bug you're reporting will remain.
On the Apple forum, several users have reported that turning off auto-login solved it entirely.  This trick also failed for me.  The boot process looked nicer as you no longer had to look at desktop pictures shifting around and re-sizing, but after logging in, the root problem of spaces shifting over to one display remained.
Turn off the "displays have separate spaces" item in the Mission Control preferences.  Not a practical solution.  This is like killing the patient to cure the disease.  Clearly there is a bug when using separate spaces that urgently needs to be addressed.
If your two displays are the same size and you don't care which one is primary, then whichever display contains the Apple logo on boot will become your primary display.  Use Display preferences, under Arrangement, to move the menubar to your this display.  Then physically arrange them on your actual computer desk to your liking.  This is the only perfect solution, but obviously works only when you don't care which physical display is set as the primary.

EDIT:

Since posting this answer, I submitted this bug to Apple using my Apple developer account on December 18, 2014.  The current status of my bug report (19299246) is "open".  I will update this answer as I track the bug with Apple.


Devices with different Apple IDs responding to the same FaceTime calls This is really weird. Whenever my sister-in-law calls my wife via FaceTime, my phone and Mac also ring at the same time. When my wife answers the call, then both of my devices stop ringing.

It's exactly as if all three devices were using the same Apple ID for FaceTime, but they're not, and they never have. My wife's phone is signed into her iCloud account and uses her phone number and email address for FaceTime; likewise, my phone and Mac are signed into my iCloud account and use my phone number and email address.

Furthermore, this only happens when my sister-in-law calls, not anyone else.

Why does this happen, and how can I prevent it? The only thing I can think of is that maybe my sister-in-law has both my wife's phone number and my phone number in the same contact card, so when she starts a FaceTime call, it goes out to both our numbers (and my Mac by extension)?

Yes - this technology seems to be driven by your contact card info stored by calling party. If calling party has info for you and someone else in same contact card, then both phones will ring for FaceTime even if not same Apple ID.

In our case, we had friend who had stored my number and husband's number (not email) under my contact card. Both our phones would ring when friend tried to FaceTime me, even though husband and I have separate Apple IDs and caller never selected the other number.

Solved it by having calling friend remove the additional phone number from my contact card on his machine.


Preview fails to save pdf forms Example : [i539] (https://www.uscis.gov/system/files_force/files/form/i-539-pc.pdf)

I can fill the form and "Export As PDF..." but I can not save the pdf so that I can continue to fill later.

Errors:
File > Duplicate : "The file couldn't be saved"
File > Save... : "The document 'I-539-pc copy" could not be saved as 'I-539-pc copy.pdf'"

OS: macOS Catalina (10.15.3)

This happens for most such forms.

And, I don't have admin access to install any other pdf software.

If you open the link in Safari, you can do a Save As and the pdf is copied wherever you tell it to copy. You can then reopen the file with Preview and it worked fine for me.

If you can't get it to save as a pdf, go to the print command and when the print window opens there is an option on the bottom left to print file to a pdf. This will create a new pdf file.


Are the 2 cameras of the iPhone 4S of the same quality? I wonder if the 2 cameras inside an iphone 4S are of the same type?

No, as noted in Apple's specifications, the front camera is VGA (640x480), whereas the rear camera does 5 MP stills and 1080p video. This is confirmed in iFixit's teardown of the 4S.


Can I exempt a single file in iCloud directory from deleting locally? I use the "storage optimisation" feature on my Mac. Part of this feature is that it deletes local files to save on local storage, and files can then be downloaded when needed.
I like this feature. However, I want to be able to prevent certain files that I use frequently from deleting locally.
When I am working offline, it is very frustrating to go to open a file only to find that it has been deleted locally and I cannot open it without finding an internet connection.
To be clear, I do not want to prevent syncing. I just want to keep the file permanently on my local hard drive.

Unfortunately, there is currently no file or folder level controls for storage optimization. It's an all or nothing feature, which is really too bad.
Here are your options as I see them:
Option 1: Turn off Storage Management
System Prefs -> Apple ID -> (uncheck) Optimize Mac Storage
By default this keeps everything. You can Right click -> Remove Download for any files in an iCloud drive you don't want to keep locally. But you'll have to manage them by hand.
Option 2: Move the file out of an iCloud folder
Storage Management will stop deleting the file, but it also stops syncing.
Option 3: Use another service
You could keep Storage Management on for most files but move the things you need more control over into another cloud service (ie dropbox) that does what you want.
Option 4: Open the file frequently
In theory Storage Management will keep files you "open frequently". You could probably even do so automatically if you're comfortable with a command line:
For Example:
export VISUAL=nano
crontab -e

0 12 * * * touch -a /Users/yourname/path/to/file
Should make the OS think you've used the file every day at noon. Make sure to pick a time when your computer is on.


Is there a shortcut to "Switch User" from the Lock Screen in macOS Mojave? Let's say you lock your screen with Command + Control Q. Now, you want to log in as a different user, without using the mouse.

It seems that this is possible if you press Shift Tab twice, followed by Tab and then Space. (Essentially, it brings the focus to the "Switch User" button, and then pressing Space selects it.

I am wondering if there is some less cumbersome keyboard shortcut to do the same thing?

Alternatively, is there a keyboard shortcut to Fast User Switch when already logged in? (I have searched for this and only found older articles, suggesting the use of 3rd party software).

There might not be a ready made one - but you can write your own!

This link explains how to apply a shortcut to some applescript that you have already written.

If you are not familiar with Applescript (new skill to learn! :)), you could check out this link where there are a number of other suggestions (including a user switch script - but your password will be in plain text).

Let us know which one works for you.


'Could not validate or distribute application to App Store' in App Submission We have developed an iOS universal application and are trying to upload it to the App Store.

From the Organizer window, when we try to validate or distribute the application, it loads for a long time at the login page and then gives a "request timed out" error. It's happened for the last 10 days.

How can we upload the application to the App Store?

Use Application Loader. When Xcode has trouble connecting, Application Loader seems to work every time for me. Archive your application as an ipa and upload it through Application Loader.


How to prevent or lessen data usage when using phone as hotspot for other phones If an iPhone 7 Plus is used as a hotspot for an iPhone 6 Plus, then I think the iPhone 6 Plus will treat the data as "not cellular" and use as much as it wants?

So, for example, Google Photos or other apps, when set to not use cellular data, will transmit data as much as they want when using a hotspot, which happen to be cellular data on the other phone.

That means, Google Photos or other apps can be transmitting 30GB or 60GB of data, and run up the phone bill to several hundred dollars.

Is there a way to prevent or lessen the issue?

P.S. after finding more things out, it looks like one big thing you can do is, say, you set up a hotspot using your iPhone 7, and now use a notebook computer and an iPhone 6S to use that hotspot, make sure you turn off all the "iTunes store automatic app update" on the iPhone 6S, and turn off "Download all updates but let me decide when to install them" on the notebook computer, or else they could download a GB or two without telling you. Also make sure Google Photos is not running in the background, or else it could think it is Wifi and upload the 500MB of photos you took recently.

Hotspot = WiFi. When you connect from the client, you access it through the WiFi settings. There's no way to limit the type of data or usage used as from the client's perspective, it's not a cellular connection.


Packet Filter (PF) firewall logging I have PF configured and working with rule sets that are logged.
Where is PF logging to? How do I check these logs? How do I configure them?

Packet filter doesn't log on any file. It does log on a network interface named pflog0 (a special device in Unix-lang), see
man pf.conf

You turn on this interface with:
ifconfig pflog0 create

You suppress it with:
ifconfig pflog0 destroy

You can follow what does packet filter logs on this interface with
tcpdump or wireshark.
Ex. :
tcpdump -i pflog0

If you want to go any further with PF and without writing your own configuration files, I highly recommand to test Murus.


Time Machine failing (.inProgress) My Time Machine recently stopped working. When it tries to create a backup, it quickly fails with the error:

  "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the
  backup folder."

The drive has plenty of space and I have not updating my operating system. Actually, due to software compatibility issues, I'm still running 10.9.5. Everything I've found on google says to remove the .inProgress file, but when I try to delete it (drag it to Trash) I get this error:

  "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in
  "file.inProgress" can't be read or written. (Error code -36)"

I've tried tmutil delete and it returned the error "tmutil: delete requires root privileges." I don't even know what that means. Can someone give me another suggestion? Manually backing up my hardrive is a huge pain and I forget to do it more often than not.

The user account named ”root” is a superuser with read and write privileges to more areas of the system.

It is disabled by default since it can do a lots of irreparable damages, so use it with caution.

In Terminal use the Sudo to invoke that root user account, and you will be prompted to enter the password, which is usually your Administrator password. It is just a protection for some powerful commands making sure you want to do that by confirming it with password.

sudo tmutil delete …

Password: .....


WiFi Failing and Keychain crashing I have a Macbook Pro 13 from about a year ago running OSX Lion.
Whenever I connect to my school's WiFi, I can't seem to get to the WiFi Login page
I was told the problem was probably in Keychain Access, but it crashes as soon as I try to open it whenever this is happening.
Using Safari or Chrome, I can't seem to get to any websites, it just hangs or gives me a page load error.
Firefox works though without any issues.

A friend of mine had a similar problem. After trying the usual fixes (restarting, removing wi-fi networks, removing wi-fi network interface, resetting PRAM and SMC, deleting login keychain from ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain), I was able to solve the Keychain Access crashing (and wi-fi issues) using a solution from here: http://www.unsanity.org/archives/security/love_tropicana.php

In short, remove the wi-fi network (from System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Preferred Networks), then open Terminal and type in these two lines:

$ sudo mv /var/db/CodeEquivalenceDatabase
$ /var/db/CodeEquivalenceDatabase.old

(For more information, read the page I linked to above.)

Then restart, and see if Keychain Access opens - it did for me. You can then delete any passwords or certificates related to your school's wi-fi. Then try connecting to the network again.


CMOS Battery in MacBook Pro 2007 CMOS battery in my MacBook Pro (2007, pre-unibody) has died recently.

I am looking for a replacement, although all I could find so far was only used batteries off ebay.

It says following on the battery's shrink wrap:

CR2025/USTC
PW3+3V
7 8 21

Under the shrink wrap it says:

Panasonic
CR2025
3V
Made in Malasya

So I am wondering if I could simply take a good quality CR2025 battery and use it instead of buying a used one? Or is this some super-secret version of CR2025 only Apple managed to get its hands on and I'd better off getting a used one, although straight of a MacBook Pro?


Will the new 2015 "MacBook" be able to run VMs effectively? Windows especially I currently use a 2Ghz i7 x 8gb Memory 2013 MacAir.  With this I am able to effectively run a windows 8 VM running Visual Studio Professional and other developement apps simultaneously, or Ubuntu and Eclipse with no issues.  I get an occasional memory error in windows guest if I have too much open but this is rare.

My laptop is starting to get super beat up.  I want to get the new MacBook but am concerned about the less the stellar specs on the CPU.  Has anyone ran VM's on this box yet and confirmed that it is capable of such tasks, or are we dealing with a glorified chromebook here ?

Thanks

edit

Review all but saying that this rig will not run vm's smoothly

As far as I know, the new MacBooks as of today have only begun shipping from online orders, so I won't be able to speak from personal experience - but I would be very wary about the MacBook being able to handle intensive tasks like Parallels, especially in tandem with Visual Studio or Eclipse.

Parallels' recommended hardware specs for running Windows 7 include "...an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor (Core Solo and Core Duo processors are no longer supported)." The new MacBook has sufficient RAM (8 GB minimum) to fulfill their requirements, but the Core M processor (see the tech specs) will be the issue with running these types of tasks on the MacBook.

Check out the benchmark details here compared to the i7 that you are using currently and you'll see a noticeable difference - Core M running at 1.1GHz which effectively makes it a mobile processor if anything.


Microsoft Outlook versus iCal versus Google Calendar The corporate calendar and email server is Exchange. My personal calendar is in google.

Currently, I use iCal to allow me to see both calendars at the same time.

This is not perfect, however, insofar as iCal doesn't support all of Exchange's calendar protocol. When people propose new times for meetings, for example, unpleasant things happen.

So, I wonder if there's some way to get Outlook 2011 to cooperate with Google calendar, with or without help from iCal, so that I could use Outlook to manipulate the work calendar and still see my Google calendar as I go.

From http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar/thread?tid=044fe4493f88eba1&hl=en&start=80

peertimo
Level 1
1/4/11

"One confirmed hint: Spanning Sync works. First you have to set up Apple iCal with the same Exchange as Outlook. Then Spanning Sync can sync one way from that "shared"/same calendar and Google Calendar. Once it is there, you can sync it back down to your iPhone and iPad as a regular Google Exchange sync."


MacBook Air 2012 won't charge or boot I have a Mid 2012 11" MacBook Air that won't charge or boot. I've tested the charger with multiple other MacBook Airs, and the charger works fine. I have researched this and have done everything from attempting a PRAM reset, a SMC reset, to even sitting on the charger to heat it up. Nothing works, but I don't know if you can reset the PRAM or SMC when there is no power. One thing I have noticed is that if I plug the charger in to a working MacBook, let the light turn orange, and then unplug the MagSafe and plug it into the broken MacBook, the light will turn orange. It doesn't charge it, however, and will only do that if I plug it in within seconds of unplugging the MagSafe from the working MacBook. Does anyone have any suggestions?

A similar thing happened to my MacBook Pro - from around the same era.

The only other thing I would suggest is trying a few different wall power outlets and making sure those outlets are working (like with a lamp).

Other than that the unfortunate diagnosis is that your MacBook will most likely have a dead logic board.  On the Airs, I am pretty sure most things are directly integrated to the logic board:, RAM, CPU.  But the SSD is removable and you could take it out and put in into another Mac to get your data from it, if need be.

Here is a guide on how to take apart that model of Mac Air.


Why are CPU fans running on my MacBook Pro 15" full blast while my laptop has just booted up and waiting at the login screen? I know a lot of people have problems with the MacBook Pro's CPU fan running super loud and IMO the Activity Monitor is less than unreliable in telling what's really causing it… but let's check what happens when no applications are running.
What I find absolutely unbelievable that my Mac's CPU fans were running at maximum speed after just booting up, from a switched off state, with the charger cable disconnected. I can't see any reason for that, no applications should be running at this stage.
Is it possible to debug this somehow or is this simply an indication of a possible rootkit and a complete reinstall of my Mac?

Check your login items and launch agents.
Update to the latest OS.
Open Activity Monitor when you log in. See what is gobbling up your CPU.


Internal mic not working on 2008 iMac running 10.7.5 I just got my iMac back from Apple---they had to replace the video card for me---and the internal mic is not working. In System Preferences -> Sound, I can select "Internal Microphone" or "Line In" and I get nothing on the volume bar for either when I speak. I moved the input volume slider all the way to right and I still get nothing, but oddly enough as I move the slider I register sound. Only while the slider is moving though.

I went to Utilities -> Audio MIDI Setup and made sure that the inputs were not muted. I also tried a few combinations of the "Format" options (44100.0 Hz and 96000.0 Hz each with 2ch-24bit, 2ch-20bit, and 2ch-16bit) but still no dice.

I went in to Garage Band -> Preferences -> Audio/MIDI and made sure that "Built-in Microphone" was selected under "Audio Input". Still no dice.

I tried restarting and pressing [command] + [option] + p + r until the third startup noise. I am not sure what this is supposed to do, but I found the suggestion on a forum somewhere. No dice.

Does anybody have any suggestions for what else I might try to get this working, or how I might find out for certain if the mic is broken? If my mic is broken, does anybody know of a good video or article detailing how to replace it on your own?

I would not be terribly surprised if Apple broke my mic during the repair since they made several other errors and I had to bring the computer back to them twice before the original problem was fixed.

EDIT: I plugged in an external mic that I own and the computer seems to be receiving sound through that. Any suggestions as to how I can go about fixing the internal mic?

My guess is that they accidentally disconnected the mic or failed to reconnect the mic when they operated on it.

MacFixIt has a guide if you want to try to take it on yourself.  They rate is as "Moderate" difficulty.

Be sure to double check that I got the right model for your iMac.

Otherwise it's back to Apple it goes...


iPhone loses SMSs after software update I recently updated my iPhone 4 to iOS 4.3.1. Everything seemed to go fine. However, after I sent my next text message the phone quickly showed the restart screen and then all my old messages were deleted. Thinking it was a fluke I restored to before the update. Everything (except the messages I had sent between the update and restore) showed up again. However, again, as soon as I sent another text, my phone restarted and all the old messages were removed. I'd like to keep my old SMSs on my phone and still be able to send/receive new ones.

Any ideas?

Open up "Settings" then tap on "General" and scroll down to the last option "Reset". Tap the third option "Reset Network Settings". This will take a few seconds and then your phone will restart.

BE ADVISED Doing this will deleted your saved wireless network passwords and wireless network history so you will have to reenter these passwords to reconnect to wireless networks. This option does not delete any of your personal data off your phone.


Automatically share photos I'm looking for a way that my wife and I automatically have access to each others' photos and videos. My understanding is that iCloud can't do this, and you have to manually share or add to a shared album.
Right now we're using Google Photos as an alternative - just set Google Photos to use partner sharing, and turn on automatic backup. However, Google Photos is getting ready to end unlimited storage, and I'd rather not pay for their space since I'm already paying for iCloud. And I don't think I can just delete old stuff from Google since auto-backup will just pick it up again.
Has anyone come up with another alternate strategy?

Well, as you mentioned, there is no official or easy way to do this.
The only thing I can think of is to create a "Shared Album" (Go to the album tab in the photos app and click the "+" icon, then tap the three dots in the upper left and click "Share Album"). The only thing is you will manually have to add photos to that album (Which is easy to do, just go to the "Library" view and tap "Select", select the photos, and then tap the share icon and "Add to Album").
Hope this is helpful!


Are there sites that support editing and ordering photo prints, cards, and books on an iPad? I'm reposting this question (unchanged) from webapps.stackexchange.com, because I've received no answers there and this seems like an appropriate question for the Apple Stack Exchange site.

I've tried the Shutterfly iPad app, which allows uploading photos, but doesn't support any other functionality available on the website. And I can't edit photos or design cards and books from the Mobile Safari browswer on the iPad, presumably because those features use Flash.

Are there any other photo websites that provide either a full-featured iPad app (that includes creating cards and books and ordering prints) or an iPad or iPhone app that allows uploading photos and a website that allows one to create cards and books and order prints in Mobile Safari?

Note, I download photos directly from my camera to the iPad, so I'm trying to figure out how to avoid any need for a PC.

Someone (on vark.com) recommended Apple's MobileMe (http://me.com).  But http://www.apple.com/mobileme/features/gallery.html doesn't show that it supports editing photos and ordering prints, cards, and books.  Does anyone have experience with MobileMe?

I don't really have a direct answer for you, but I would like to help by sharing what I know.

I have a Mobile Me account, and there are no tools for editing your photos online. It's an image gallery. A gallery is meant just for viewing and not for editing.

Mobile Me was designed to work in conjunction with the iLife software on a desktop mac. You edit the photos, order the prints, make the cards, and the books in the iPhoto app on the Mac.

Photo editing on the iPad is the easy part, but I think you are approaching it from the wrong angle. There are tons of free (and cheap) apps that allow you to edit photos. (Photoshop Mobile for instance. Just check the Photography category in the App Store). Once you edit them in an app, then I would upload them to a service that supports printing services. The hard part is going to be the ordering of prints, cards and books from the iPad.

We can only hope that sometime in the near future, Apple creates a mobile version of iPhoto just as they did with iMovie. That would be ideal.

EDIT

You can order prints from this app as well:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=323705153&mt=8%3FpartnerId%3D30&siteID=KEmRFwU0WKY-yY5rDqaKJMaSUWCfbLPC3w
You can also order prints from the Walgreens app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/walgreens/id335364882?mt=8
This might solve your issue as well!
http://www.ritzpix.com/net/OrderPrints/
You might want to check out this app and service:
http://www.ecce-terram.com/order-solutions/mobile-client.html

  ECCE TERRAM announced a new service this week that will allow people to order prints of photos stored on their iPhones from the phones themselves. With their Photo2lab Client, users may select a photo (both those taken with the iPhone and those transfered from iPhoto), add text and create prints, post cards and even mini photo books. You'll even be able to add an address to a post card from the iPhone's built-in contacts list.


Is there a way to take videos on iOS, with music playing? I came over a bug last month that enabled me to legitimately record a video on my iPhone's camera app without having to pause the music that was playing. But I shut my phone off and back on and it stopped working, I wish someone knew how to trigger this again or inform me if it was patched by apple in a recent update, but yea, that's basically it.

You can't currently record a video while playing music using the native app.

Good news is that you can use 3rd party apps to do it instead, here is an example.

Cheers


Where does the iPhone store deleted apps' notification settings? Basically if an app is allowed notifications, it never asks again even if the app is deleted and reinstalled. Where is all this data stored?

Apparently, Push Notifications Permission are reset if the devices are restored or the app is uninstalled for a day.

Extracted from Apple's Technical Note:

  The first time a push-enabled app registers for push notifications, iOS asks the user if they wish to receive notifications for that app. Once the user has responded to this alert it is not presented again unless the device is restored or the app has been uninstalled for at least a day.

Therefore, these preferences must be stored where iOS System Settings are stored.


Running a local web server on MacBook I am using a MacBook with OS X Mounain Lion 10.8.3 and I want to install a local web server on my machine. What are my options? On windows I used XAMPP.

If you are interested in running Apache, PHP, MySQL and phpMyAdmin, you can check out this article.

Or just use MAMP


Move mail message back to inbox of Exchange account Is there a special syntax for using AppleScript to move a message from a folder back into the inbox of an Exchange account?

I have Apple Mail configured with three accounts, two Gmail accounts and an Exchange account.  The code below should move the selected message to the inbox of its respective account. It works as expected for the Gmail accounts; but, returns an error for the Exchange account:

set theSelection to selection

# do nothing if no email is selected in Mail
try
    set theMessage to item 1 of theSelection
on error
    return
end try

set theAccount to account of mailbox of theMessage
set UnSnoozeBox to mailbox "INBOX" of theAccount
move theMessage to UnSnoozeBox

Specifically, when I try to set UnSnoozeBox, I get `The action “Run AppleScript” encountered an error: “Mail got an error: Can’t get mailbox "INBOX" of account id "80403C8B-7G0H-4CCA-D619-3605F76138F1".”

(For what it's worth, the code that moves messages into the "Snooze" folder works as expected for all three accounts.)

I figured it out:  It's 'Inbox' for Exchange, and "INBOX" for GMail.  (How annoying.)


How do I download to an external hard drive? I have a very large file to download, and I want to download it directly to an external hard drive and not to the download folder on my c: drive.
Is there a way I can do this? There only appears to be two options, open or download.
I can only find answers here for extracting zip files, not for downloading directly.

You didn't specify which browser you are using, so I assume Safari. Two options come to mind:

Right-click on the file you want to download and download directly to a destination you select
Open Safari Preferences (in the Safari menu) and select a different download destination in the General tab


How can I copy a file from a CD when Finder reports error code -36? I have a CD. I copied the whole CD to another location - except for one file. When trying to copy that particular file, I get following error:

  The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in
  "filename.extension" can't be read or written. (Error code -36)

This file is neither particularly large nor any unusual file type, and I do have the permission to read that file (it's on a read-only CD).

What can be done about that? Thanks in advance!

Error code -36

-36 (ioErr) (I/O error) is a file system error, it indicates that data cannot be sent or received by the operating system. Historically, errors of this type were bummers.

Finder: source and destination

Think not only of the source (the CD); think also of the destination.

The file

What is the one file that Finder can not copy?

The file system

What type of file system is the destination? The answer will be amongst results to the following command:

mount

A volume with file system type hfs should be good for most purposes.

Depending on what you wish to copy, other types of file system may be equally good.

Disk Utility

For copying a CD in its entirety – or for imaging a file system within a CD – Disk Utility is ideal.


MacBook Pro used in smoking area My late 2012 Retina MacBook Pro has been used in area's in which it was allowed to smoke. The smoke is now in the circulating system. Is there a way to clean this? The MBP is "smoking" now, producing old smoke smell around it.

To start, you'll want to power off your MacBook Pro, and clean it thoroughly (but carefully) with a microfiber towel. If you do this dry, you run the risk of abrasion and scratches, but you also don't want to soak your MacBook Pro with any liquid.

External Cleaning
Use an electronics screen cleaning liquid, preferably one with an "Apple Approved" label. Don't use anything alcohol-based or otherwise corrosive externally, as it will damage the rubber and plastic parts. Spray the cleaner directly on the microfiber towel, not your MacBook Pro.

Most Apple approved screen cleaning liquids leave a thin film you allow to dry, then gently polish away, not unlike wax on a car. Avoid open ports, thoroughly but gently clean the keyboard, hinge area, and speakers. These areas tend to accumulate a lot of gunk.

Internal Cleaning
Here's a step-by-step tear-down of the 2013 MacBook Pro.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Retina+Display+Late+2013+Teardown/18695

In addition to their required tools, you will need:
• Electronics Cleaning Liquid, usually sold as "Screen Cleaning Liquid"
• Microfiber Screen Cleaning Cloths
• Electronics Cleaning Swabs (lint free Q-tips) optional
• Paper Towels
• 70% or (ideally) 90% Isopropyl Alcohol
• Medium bristle toothbrush or paintbrush (optional)

You may want to invest in an anti-static wristband: They're inexpensive, and will save sensitive electronic parts. If you do not have one, disassemble your MacBook on a wood or metal surface, protected by a static-free towel: Microfiber works well, but only the "smooth" type, not the terrycloth type.

In Step 12 of the tear-down, you will see the fans being removed. This is optional: A good cleaning with canned air will most likely rid you of the problem. Take care not to blow the fans around too much. You won't clean them this way, and it may be bad for the motors. As an "extreme cleaning" option, replacing the fans will also get rid of the smell.

Take special care in wiping out the aluminum bottom case door -- The bare aluminum door, not the electronics -- with an electronics cleaner and a microfiber cloth or paper towel. Dirt, dust and debris tends to accumulate there.

You can gently clean the circuit boards in your MBP with 70% or 90% Alcohol (do not use Rubbing Alcohol with high water content), but this will depend on your comfort level working with electronics. Avoid the battery while doing this. Isopropyl evaporates quickly, and is used for liquid damage remediation for this reason. I have used it to thoroughly clean my 2009 MacBook Pro several times, and am typing on it right now.

Be careful and gentle with the electronics, and clean it well. Good luck!


Where is the Skype for Business for Mac Log Location? Microsoft has released the new Skype for Business for Mac product on October 26, 2016, as a replacement for the old Lync for Mac IM client.

On the "General" preferences page, the product contains a "Collect Logs" button. When I click that, nothing happens.

I'd like to know where the product stores its log files when a user clicks on this button. On previous Lync versions, the log files were stored under ~/Library/Logs, but I did not see any Skype for Business log files there after clicking this button.

Where can I find the log files for this new client?

Based on this blog entry, the log location is:

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.SkypeForBusiness/Data/Library/Logs/com.microsoft.SkypeForBusiness

This directory contains a file called sfbmac.log, which has the log information from the Skype for Business for Mac client.


Sync iCloud TV show purchases between AppleTV and iTunes How do I sync AppleTV purchases from iCloud to iTunes?

I recently purchased the most recent episode of Psych on my Apple TV but am unable to transfer it to iTunes.

I was able to do this with a previous episode but can't recall how.

I've tried going to Store > Check for Available Downloads... but it says I don't have anything to download:

I am using the same Apple Store account between the Apple TV and iTunes.

Go to the iTunes store homepage and click "Purchased" in the Quick Links section. This will bring you to a list of all content that is available for redownload for your account.


Associated Voila files to finder by mistake An associate of mine has managed to associate all his Voila files to Finder, and now he just has a bunch of folders for them.  He wants to revert this but, when he does, at Get Info he has no option to re-associate the folders/files to Voila.

How can this be fixed?

You could reset/unregister Finder file associations with the following procedure:

In the Finder, press
⌘+⇧+U to open the
Utilities folder.
Open Terminal.app () in the Utilities folder.
To unregister the associations, paste this into the Terminal window, followed by ↵ : /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -u /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app -domain user
To restart the Finder, type: killall Finder, followed by ↵
Voila documents should be Voila documents again.

Let me know if this works!


cc1plus: no such file or directory (gcc) Issue

Every time I try to compile something with gcc I get this error:

gcc: error trying to exec 'cc1plus': execvp: No such file or directory

What I tried

I have tried uninstalling gcc and re-installing it using brew.

Other Info

I am on a MBP 2015 running Mojave.

Edit 1

$ file $(which gcc)
/usr/local/bin/gcc: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
$ which gcc
/usr/local/bin/gcc
$ gcc --version
gcc (Homebrew GCC 8.2.0) 8.2.0
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Edit 2

$ cat > /tmp/foo.c << EOFeof
#include<stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    printf("Hello World\n");
    return 0;
}
EOFeof

gcc /tmp/foo.c -o /tmp/foo
/tmp/foo
gcc: error trying to exec 'cc1': execvp: No such file or directory
zsh: no such file or directory: /tmp/foo

Something is going to be messed up, but with the details given I don't even know where to guess what you have wrong. Instead. let's go the other way and try something super minimal that should show your failure immediately.

Here's a simple end to end test of gcc that ships from Apple should work. I'm using the version that ships with Mojave (ProductVersion:   10.14.3 BuildVersion:   18D109) according to the sw_vers command on macOS.

cat > /tmp/foo.c << EOFeof
#include<stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    printf("Hello World\n");
    return 0;
}
EOFeof

gcc /tmp/foo.c -o /tmp/foo
/tmp/foo

Where I'd start is which actual GCC and version you're running:

Mac:~ me$ file /tmp/foo
/tmp/foo: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
Mac:~ me$ file $(which gcc)
/usr/bin/gcc: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
Mac:~ me$ which gcc
/usr/bin/gcc
Mac:~ me$ gcc --version
Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 10.0.0 (clang-1000.11.45.5)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin18.2.0
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin

Then you can repeat the test in your flavor of gcc to suss out the differences or if you even need the bcc that’s not the clang implementation of a gcc like compiler.

What specific error or what specific differences do you have? Feel free to start a new thread or edit / refine your question and then @ me in the comments.


How do I sync iCloud iWork documents with Lion? I have been using my iPad with Numbers and would like to be able to just open them up on my Mac with Lion. I can not figure out how to connect/sync to iCloud documents. I have checked iCloud documents for syncing, but my documents don't appear on my Mac.
I have even set up my mobile documents folder on the desktop. I can drag files to the iCloud that way, but then I can not open them from that folder. Frustrating.

Unfortunately, Macintosh does not (yet) support complete iCloud synchronization for documents. We can only hope that Apple will implement this at some point soon.

In the mean time, go to http://www.icloud.com/ and sign in. You can drag documents to and from the appropriate section on your computer, and it'll work with your iPad. There's still another bug, which involves Mac > Mac syncing, but as long as you just do iPad > Mac or Mac > iPad, it'll work fine. :)

Also, there is a folder located at ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ which contains your iCloud-enabled apps' data. This includes the iWork suite, but unfortunately iWork documents aren't saved as the normal filetypes (e.g. ".pages"), so they can't be opened on their own.


Subscribe to RSS feed in Mail app (iOS 5.1.1) In Lion's Mail app, I can subscribe to RSS feeds and have them show up in the inbox.  Can I do the same with the Mail app in iOS 5.1.1?

No, the iOS mail app does not double as an RSS reader. Fortunately, however, there are many great RSS apps in the app store, my personal favorite is Reeder (iPhone, iPad).


Notes 10x Duplication (Without iCloud) My notes.app is going crazy. When I create a new Note and then hit save, the note is not only duplicated but 10x duplicated.

I have icloud sync deactivated. As far as I can see, the note is duplicated for each word in the file with more than one letter.

What can i do?

Try to close Notes  and delete ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Notes.plist.

Relaunch Notes to see if the same problem exits.

Update

This method suggested will remove all your local Notes and resync with the notes stored in iCloud. Just for record:

Open your favorite Terminal. (If that sounded weird, just open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
Quit Notes.app.
Enter rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes. and press Enter.


How do I sort a Numbers' table using data from another table? So, I've got this data set coming from questionnaires. I created one table per question, questionnaires in rows, answers in columns, and everything is fine and dandy, but now I have this situation where the questionnaires pertain to a number of different groups. So I created a table associating the ID of the questionnaires with their group, and then I sorted it and I've got a nice aggregated view of questionnaires' IDs grouped together depending on their group.

Now I'd like to sort all my other tables' rows accordingly. Is this even possible? I know I should have done this before beginning to import the data…

EDIT Sample document at http://www.morpheu5.net/public/sample.zip

Example of what I start with:

And (below image ) if you sort table "Condition" by column "c", you get a different sorting of the head column with the IDs.

This and the sorting I need to replicate on table "Q5.6…"

EDIT 2 I temporarily "solved" by copying column "c" from table "Condition" to all the other tables and used that to sort accordingly. I'm not marking this as my answer in case somebody comes up with a more efficient/correct way.

Thanks to your sample file, I think I was able to do what you wished.

Using an additional column to bring in the numbers corresponding to the codes (16AA, 1; 16AE, 2...) sorting by that column then hiding it the desired result was accomplished.  To refresh the sort after adding data, unhide the column and sort again.

Here are the steps:

Create new column to the left of the "Code" column.

Add a formula to extract the proper number for each code and copy down.

Formula: =INDEX (Group::c, MATCH (B, Group::A))

(Using INDEX(MATCH) is a good way to get column data with out worrying about extra columns being added as is the case with VLOOKUP.)

Copy the formula down, sort the column and hide it if desired.

Result:


How do I lower OS /system resource usage /adjust for best performance? Lets say I want to dedicate all resources in running some code so I would like to decrease operating system usage as much as possible  i.e. the mac equivalent of adjusting for best performance (e.g. in windows you can adjust for best performance make the whole thing look like windows 95 inorder to conserve resources I want to know how to do that for a mac.) totally get rid of extraneous/ overly fine graphics animations etc

Using a Mac OS catalina

App Tamer may satisfy your requirements.


Strange background color on external drive folder names I had folder on local Mac drive. And when I ls on terminal I see this:

But when I copied on external HDD (FAT filesystem) I see this when I call the same ls command in the same directory:

What does the background color mean?

Means that you and every body have permissions to write over directories. On your mac drive only you have perms to write inside.

Note that you folder on mac drive have perms drwxr-xr-x, and your external hd have drwxrwxrwx.

How to Set File Permissions in Mac OS X


Is there a "global" setting for Do Not Disturb on iOS devices? As the title suggests, I would like to set DND on one device that will affect the other. I have looked through Settings on both devices but haven't found anything (unless it is a deeply hidden setting). A bonus would be if this would also affect my MBP.
MBP: macOS 10.15.4
iPhone & iPad: iOS 13.5.1

There is no one setting that applies to all devices.
Each device has its own Do Not Disturb feature, as explained here for iOS devices and here for macOS devices.


"iTunes Sync: X items could not be synced. See iTunes for more information." Every time I sync my iPhone or iPad (both running iOS 5) with iTunes, I get this error. iTunes displays no information that I can find about what the mystery six unsynced items are. How do I find out - any ideas?

I haven't got a solution to this yet, but I get the same error (342 items though). The reason appears to be that the iPhone contains 342 hidden voice memos, not appearing within the voice memo app, but viewable (and playable while the iPhone is connected through USB) in the iPhone Device list in iTunes (click the triangle left to the device, see the voice memo playlist).

I will backup and restore to factory setting now. But I'm fearing that the voice memos will be back there when I restore the backup. But then again, I might be lucky.. :)

UPDATE; It did in fact work, I did get rid of the hidden voice memos and the "could not sync" message! Great.

Thoughts on how the hidden memos got there in the first place; I did mess around with the location of the Voice Memos playlist in iTunes, moved it in under a playlist folder, back and forth a couple of times, synced between, in addition to choosing to sync voice memos and not. It was all me testing how the (not intuitive) Voice Memos syncing works. Not sure if this produced the problems though.. but date stamps etc support the thoughts..


AppleScript for iCal events from Address Book entries I want to create a script that creates alarmed events in iCal for birthdays of people that I have in my address book. Unfortunately, I am very bad working with AppleScript.

Below is the outline of what I it to do, I would love some help as to what the actual script should be.

run script when a change is made to a birth date in address book or when address book quits
define list of people (will have an extra alarm, see below)
search for birthdays entered in address book
if no event is present in ical calendar named "birthdays" for birthdays found in address book (check name and date)

create new all day event in birthday calendar with alarm on date and title "(Name of person)'s Birthday)

if birthday is on list defined earlier

add extra alarm two weeks before the birthday

display message showing what new events were created when the script ran

I don't think the script would be that complex or long. Any help would be very much appreciated.

I'm not sure how this script could be triggered, but ideally it would run if a change is made to a birthday in address book (or a new one added).

To set single alerts on all birthdays, you can avoid a script altogether:

Open Calendar Preferences in Calendar.
Under General, tick "Show Birthdays calendar".
Under Alerts, set an alert for "Birthdays".

I haven't taken the time to actually write up an AppleScript for the double alarm parts, but this article seems to cover scripting calendar alarms quite nicely. I would imagine you would just need to create a file or list in the script that contains the names of the events (which you can deduce from the standard naming convention Calendar app uses).

Also I am using Mountain Lion with Calendar app. I can't recall if the steps above work on older versions of iCal.


iPhone 5s battery draining when in Airplane AND Sleep AND Low-power modes together, as if I am using it My iPhone 5s battery is being drained very fast when in sleep mode (30-40% over night). I put it in airplane mode and in low power mode, and it still drains very fast in sleep mode. The battery however is fine during the day, lasts about 3/4 of my day when I use it.

It's possible that the battery health has degraded over time. I would recommend you install Battery Life in your iPhone to check the battery health.
If the battery health is below 80%, then you should consider replacing the battery. I replaced my iPhone 5's battery after 3-4 years after it hit 65% battery health. You should do the same. I was able to find a 3rd party battery and replace it myself. The process took me 30-40 mins. Also, go to the Battery section in the Settings app and see which apps are the biggest battery users.


Unable to get Intel HD 4000 graphics and audio working on EFI install of Windows 10 Bootcamp on Macbook Pro mid 2012 I have installed Windows 10 on my Macbook Pro mid-2012 (MacBookPro9,1) using the EFI method. Note: I am intentionally wanting to use Windows 10 in EFI mode instead of the legacy MBR/BIOS method.

Below are the basic specs of my MacbookPro9,1 model:

15inch display with NO Retina
i7-3720QM 2.6GHz with Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics
Nvidia GeForce GT 650M dedicated graphics
8GB RAM
EFI and SMC firmware are updated to latest by installing macOS Sierra

I used this guide to install Windows 10 using EFI method: https://fgimian.github.io/blog/2016/03/12/installing-windows-10-on-a-mac-without-bootcamp/

I was able to successfully install Windows 10 using EFI method. After installing Windows 10, I installed the latest v6 of Bootcamp drivers and support software. Everything works except for the below listed below.

Problem

I am unable to get audio to work. There is no sound from the speakers or headphones. Device manager shows "This device cannot start. (Code 10)" for High Definition Audio Controller. After reading around in other forums, the audio issue could be related to Intel graphics drivers. I am unable properly install the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics drivers also.

As shown in the attached image, the Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark on "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" and "High Definition Audio Controller". The attached image shows the device error for each of these.

To get the audio/sound working, I tried running the following two files. However, this still didn't fix the issue:

BootCamp\Drivers\Cirrus\CirrusAudioCS4206x64.exe
BootCamp\Drivers\Cirrus\CirrusAudioCS4208x64.exe

I tried updating the drivers for the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter to Intel HD 4000 drivers using multiple methods (listed below). In all cases, the drivers are detected but while the drivers are being installed, Windows crashes and automatically reboots.

Letting Windows search automatically for updated driver software
Bootcamp drivers located in BootCamp\Drivers\Intel\IntelIvb_Win10\Graphics
Intel HD 4000 graphics drivers on Intel's Download center website

If I am connected to the internet, Windows 10 by default automatically tries to install the latest display drivers in the background. This leads the computer crashing and rebooting. I have to manually prevent Windows 10 from automatically updating the drivers to stop the crashing from occurring.

Is there way to at-least get the audio to work?  Is there anyway I can properly get the Intel HD 4000 drivers to install in the EFI install of Windows 10 on Macbook Pro mid 2012?

See image below also.

I realize this is an old thread, but I had this same issue and I was finally able to get the on board audio working by following this:

https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/fix-dsdt-override-to-correct-error-12/

I think they attempted this in order to install an eGPU but it serves the purpose of allowing the on-board audio to work. The only thing that isn't working on my 2012 non-retina MBP is the on board graphics driver (Intel Graphics HD 4000) which is fine because the NVIDIA drivers work fine (only with the most recent driver patch from December 28, 2018, the "current" drivers from December 12 crash the computer) and allow proper "sleep" which wasn't possible previously.

Only feature that doesn't work is the ability to adjust the brightness. Staring at this very bright screen will drive me crazy, but in trying to fix this one last problem, I have had to re-install Windows twice, so I am about ready to give up. Any ideas?


New Big Sur upgrade. . . downgrade for click drag? When I try to move a window on my MacBook Air (press down with thumb on trackpad and use forefinger to move cursor & whatever object I grabbed) it takes 2 to 5 TIMES(!) for the cursor to actually take hold of the window and move it.  It appears there is NO correlation to exactly where on the upper pane margin I grab.  For weeks now I can't figure out where the "sweet spot" is!   It used to be you could place the cursor just about anywhere up there and it grabbed and moved. This is REALLY frustrating.
Wishing I had not upgraded because there is no apparent increase in the OS operation capability that I notice at all.
MacBook Air(mid-2013)

Finally too frustrated to wait further I relented and called Apple.  Apparently this has been a problem in their beta issue of the OS-- 11.1.  Person I spoke with said he experienced it personally but since the latest BETA FOR 11.2 has come out to developers it is gone.   I just need to wait till Apple bumps out their 11.2 OS version.


my iphone4s and his ipad 2. Ive had itunes and my apple ID for some time now and synced it with my iphone4s. My husband just purchased an ipad 2 and synced it to the itunes already installed on the computer. He has an apple ID now but when he goes to update any apps on his ipad it keeps asking for MY apple ID and password since it synced to it when he connected to itunes. How can he get rid of my apple ID sign in screen on his ipad and sign in to his own apple ID?

Hope someone can understand what Im talking about and can help us........

This is because there are apps on his iPad that were assigned to your account. As a result, he will either have to re-download (re-purchase) them on his device (more on that below), or will have to sign into your Apple ID every time he wants to update those apps. When he synced with iTunes, it obviously synced your apps over to his iPad.

To rectify this problem, you will need to plug the iPad into iTunes and then de-select the option to sync apps (at least in iTunes 10 this should be under the "Apps" tab). It should ask you if you want to clear the apps off of the device. When prompted, accept the message. This should clear all your apps off of his device.

After this, he will need to re-download, and/or re-purchase, the apps that he wants on his iPad.


Using AppleCare before it runs out I have a first generation Apple Watch Sport with some minor cosmetic imperfections and scratches after two years of use, with Apple Care+.
The support runs out soon, and I was wondering what use it the cover has.

Specifically: If I were to 'accidentally' 'drop' my Watch, could I claim that on Apple Care and get a brand new one, or at least screen?

The hardware accidental damage coverage is only good for 2 incidents over the life of the AppleCare+.  Each incident is subject to a US$69 service fee + tax.

You don't have to accidentally drop your Watch, you can just tell them that the glass was accidentally damaged during normal use and you want to make a claim (assuming you haven't already made at least 2 damage claims so far).  You'll be charged a service fee and they'll either repair the glass or provide you with a refurb Sport watch.

There should be no need for moral quandaries while doing this.  You bought the coverage to help you for this very purpose.


How to sync iTunes to iPad Now I have this iPad that's synced with my home iTunes. I need to add just one pdf onto it. So I installed iTunes here, but it won't sync iTunes to iPad. It wants to sync iPad to iTunes instead. Which is pointless, as the local library is empty. Both are logged on same iTunes account.

How do I make iTunes sync to iPad, so things can be added to the library and then synced back to iDevice?

Your first sync will bring items from your iPad to your iTunes library. Once that is done via iBooks on your mac drop the PDF into that app. Then when you sync again that PDF will show up on your iPad.

Or you can just email (iMessage, AirDrop) the PDF to your iPad and then open it and save it into iBooks.

If the iPad already has media content then you will want to this - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4256950?start=0&tstart=0


Empty .MOV file, stuck on iPhone After using Image Capture to copy all my photos and movies from my iPhone to my Mac, and deleting from the iPhone, I find I have one stubborn remaining file listed in Image Capture. It has a usual name, IMG_0155.MOV, but the size shows as 0.

There is indeed such a movie copied to my Mac, with a normal size of 93 MB. The movie plays normally in Preview.app on the Mac.

I cannot select the file in Image Capture, so I cannot click the Delete button (red circle with slash).

Is there some way to get rid of this glitchy ghost file?

I ran into the same mysterious problem. Easiest answer I have found that worked for me: simply delete the offending empty .mov file(s) directly from your iPhone's Photos app (select and trash). They will then magically disappear from Image Capture and Photos on your Mac.


Windows live hotmail on iPhone Setting up mail on my iPhone, I didn't see an option for MS Live Mail/Hotmail.  I understand (due my mastery of search engines) that there are a few options. What's the best?

The priority for accessing any email service would be:

Exchange: Push email, folders, syncs read/unread status, contact sync, calendar sync
IMAP: Folders, syncs read/unread status
POP3: Bare bones email reading, usually only useful for a single client unless you "keep a copy on the server"

It seems that some people have had success using Exchange; IMAP seems to require either a premium account or 3rd party software; and POP3 is possible for free accounts.

Keep an eye on Apple's page as they will probably update it as new solutions are added by Microsoft.


How to create an Alias with a Variable inside? I want to create an Alias for my Terminal to quick-search inside files.

In Ubuntu is was: alias gre="egrep -rnw ". I used it like that $ gre 'my search string'.

Now I want this for my local MacBook-Terminal. I found out that I have to use grep only like this grep -r 'search string' .

How can I add an Alias like the one in Ubuntu?

I think it's something like this: alias gre="grep -r $theTerminalParameter ."

If I test it in the Terminal: alias test="grep -r $var ." and check the "content" of that alias with alias test i get that information:

alias test='grep -r  .' so my Variable doesn't appear in the alias.

How can I use an Alias for that task.

You can't use alias for arbitrary substitutions. You can use a function instead.

function gre() {
  grep -r "$@" .
}