Installing windows on late 2009 iMac 27" I've sucessfully installed Win 7 x64 twice on my imac before. However the 2009 iMacs had faulty HDD, I had it replaced and after that I have trouble installing windows. I know about the display drivers needed to be present during install, I have those but I'm still presented with a black screen with blinking cursor while booting Windows - the Windows logo doesn't show.

Found out in mutiple threads that running these:

Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Bootrec.exe /FixBoot
Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd

will fix my booting but I'm unable to get into the repair windows section from the Windows installation disc. It tells me that my verions of Windows is not supported with the disc I have. Found out that it's like that and if I disable other HDDs from bios to make it work, but macs don't have BIOS.
Is there any other way to execute these commands? Did 5 windows reinstalls already without sucess. I'm pretty desperate.

Any help would be greatly appriciated.

This is what helped me. via http://ww3.tbreak.com/forums/topic/65304-boot-camp-repair-win7-partition-which-cant-boot-anymore/

  Posting this because it was a huge problem that has basically slowed
  down my work schedule by two days...

  Here's the scenario: You've created a new Boot Camp partition, or
  created a new NTFS partition on your hard disk using a third party app
  such as TUXERA NTFS-3G for use with your Boot Camp windows install.
  You restart your Mac and... BAM! No Windows anymore!

  What happened??

  Basically whatever normal operation you did before in creating a new
  partition has resulted in the MBR (Master Boot Record, which handles
  Windows booting) being corrupted. So how do you fix something related
  to PC when you're on a Mac?

  Before you start: First, make sure you can boot properly into Mac OS
  X. In Mac OS X, in System Preferences, select Startup Disks option.
  Choose your Mac OS X drive as the startup drive. You can press the
  restart button to test and see that the setting is saved. Second,
  uninstall rEFIt if you have it installed as it overrides Single User
  mode which is required for this fix. Third, if you have TUXERA NTFS-3G
  installed, disable it. Once you have disabled it, unmount and then
  remount your Boot Camp partition. This is so that the Boot Camp
  partition loads with Apple's native drivers rather than Tuxera's weird
  drivers (which are only useful within Mac OS X). Fourth, keep your
  Windows 7 install disc handy, you will need it. Don't look at your
  easy and convenient Windows 7 install USB flash drive, that won't work
  with a Mac.

  Shut down your Mac
  While holding down the "Command" and "S" keys, power on the Mac
  Keep holding down these keys till you see a black DOS-like screen with
  white text
  wait till you get a # mark allowing you to type commands
  type in fdisk -u /dev/rdisk0 and press enter
  If asked to create a new
  MBR, press y
  once the operation is complete type exit
  Wait till it
  boots to Mac OS X
  Insert your Windows 7 Installation DVD and restart
  your Mac
  After the Mac booting chime, pres and hold the Option key
  You
  should get options to select Mac OSX, another hard disk or the Windows
  DVD
  Select the Windows DVD
  Now you're in Windows land. Wait till it's
  done loading.
  On the Setup screen where it shows options for language
  etc. press the Next button
  In the second screen click the "Repair Your
  Computer" button
  This brings you to a dialog where you are to select
  your windows install. If you don't see anything listed, don't worry.
  Select the radio button related to recovery tools and pres next.
  You
  will get a window with links to several tools. Select "Startup Repair"
  If the operation completes and asks you to restart, click Finish
  Keep
  the Windows 7 DVD in the drive, boot into Windows 7 setup again.
  Navigate to the Recovery Tools section again, This time click on the
  Command Prompt option.
  Type in bootrec.exe /fixmbr, hit Enter.
  Type in
  bootrec.exe /fixboot, hit Enter.
  Restart your Mac.

  Pulled this off after 13 hours of browsing through Terminal commands
  and Mac minutea. There goes the weekend!


iPad Pages Password Protection I've read that pages on iPad can access protected files created on Pages (mac).  Can you also edit the files on iPad, or are they locked?  If you can edit the files, do they become unlocked, or do they retain the protection.

It would be great if someone could enlighten me on the nature of password protection (in iWork apps) on the iPad. :)

You can access the protected files by entering the password.  However, you will get the warning that by opening the document it will become a Pages for iOS document, and thus will no longer be password protected.  You do have the option of 'Opening a Copy' thereby preserving the originals password.

This could be useful if you just need access to the document to read it and then deleting the copy.  Not so useful if you need to edit the doc and save it and have the password intact.


Multithreaded compression in xz on macos Is it possible to use the multithreaded compression built into xz 5.2+ on macos? Currently using homebrew xz 5.2.3 on macos 10.12.3 with a hyperthreaded quadcore cpu and no matter my setting for number of threads in xz the compression time is always the exact same:

time xz -9vfT0 test.tar -> real 2m2.753s
time xz -9vfT8 test.tar -> real 2m1.113s
time xz -9vfT4 test.tar -> real 2m1.034s

looks like it was just my filesize was too small (~160mb), when using the flag -9 anyway. It was explained to me like this:

"If you use -9, it means it uses 64 MiB LZMA2 dictionary and the default block size is 3 * dict_size = 192 MiB, a new thread is started for every 192 MiB of input."

So at -9 I would need a filesize of 1344+ MB to get all 8 cores active, each working on a >192MB block of data


Remote login with graphic "ssh"/rdp I would like to permit a login to my MacBook Pro using a Linux PC via Remote Desktop like rdp. I need to use my Mac while a linux user can execute his session on my machine and the session are in parallels both with GUI.

Is this possible?

Yes (probably). macOS supports two simultaneous user graphical sessions. One the local session and a second remote. You get unlimited ssh / xwindows environments.

I would start with two users and your vnc of choice for remote access. The only problem is if your vnc doesn’t work like Apple screen sharing and offer the second user a choice if asking to share the session or create their own.

Are the changes to Lion's screen sharing documented anywhere publicly?
Is there a Windows remote desktop client compatible with Lion's virtual display feature?


How to Remove a Sound Output Device Created by an Application On my mid 2012 MBP running macOS 10.15.1 (Catalina) I had an application create a sound output device. I deleted the application in finder by moving it to the trash. I know this method doesn't uninstall any dependencies or extra things the application might have installed which is why I'm having this issue. I went into the Audio MIDI Setup, but the (-) symbol is greyed out for the output, which is named AudioJingle. How would I go about uninstalling this output device?

Posting here for  reference if you still have the problem and for other searching the answer was found at the Apple Community Site

Remove the following files:

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/Audiojingle.driver
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.audiojinglex.soundtree.agent.plist
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.audiojinglex.soundtree.agent.plist

Then restart coreaudiod using terminal sudo /bin/launchctl kill SIGTERM system/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod || /usr/bin/killall coreaudiod

or use the following script it does the same thing (I personally did it manually)

#!/bin/bash

# remove driver
DRIVER_NAME="Audiojingle.driver"
DRIVER_INSTALL_PATH="/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/${DRIVER_NAME}"
if [  -d "${DRIVER_INSTALL_PATH}" ]; then
    /bin/rm -rf "${DRIVER_INSTALL_PATH}" || exit 1
fi

# remove helper plist

LAUNCHD_PLIST_INSTALL_PATH="/Library/LaunchDaemons"
LAUNCHD_PLIST_INSTALL_PATH_BACKUP="/Library/LaunchAgents"
LAUNCHD_PLIST_FILENAME="com.audiojinglex.soundtree.agent.plist"
LAUNCHD_PLIST="${LAUNCHD_PLIST_INSTALL_PATH}/${LAUNCHD_PLIST_FILENAME}"
LAUNCHD_PLIST_BACKUP="${LAUNCHD_PLIST_INSTALL_PATH_BACKUP}/${LAUNCHD_PLIST_FILENAME}"

# romove the plist.
if [ -e "${LAUNCHD_PLIST}" ]; then
    /bin/rm -f "${LAUNCHD_PLIST}"
fi

if [ -e "${LAUNCHD_PLIST_BACKUP}" ]; then
    /bin/rm -f "${LAUNCHD_PLIST_BACKUP}"
fi

#/usr/bin/killall -u "_coreaudiod" "coreaudiod"
/bin/launchctl kill SIGTERM system/com.apple.audio.coreaudiod || /usr/bin/killall coreaudiod

echo "restart coreaudio"

sleep 2


Migration from 12" MB to 2020 MBA (Intel) Fail I am trying to migrate my data from my old MacBook (12-inch Retina Mid 2017) to a new Apple MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020).  I am using the USB port on an Apple AV Adapter on the MB connected using this Amazon cable and the drive never shows up when using Apple Migration Assistant on the new MBA.
I have reseated the cables multiple times and used multiple Apple and non Apple adapters and it doesnt work.  Has anyone successfully completed this migration using USB cables and if so, what cables did you use?
I'd love to use the Apple Thunderbolt yet the MB only has one port and it's USB-C, so I need an adapter for power during the transfer.
Thanks for any assistance.

The problem is your cable

AmazonBasics USB Type-C to USB-A Male 3.1 Gen2 Adapter Charger Cable

Emphasis mine
You need a proper USB cable, not a charger cable. A charger cable only provides the connections to send power, not data.
A USB cable for data will typicaly not need a descriptor (like "data") because it's assumed USB cables carry data. However, Amazon sellers may describe it as "sync" in their products title.


Bootcamp Assist Disappeared after Windows Update My windows crashed and I had to reset by re-installing windows.  After it was complete, I lost the ability to access Bootcamp so that I can switch back into the Mac.  I am stuck in Windows!   Anyone know how to help get Bootcamp back so that I can access the Mac?  Everything I find is to re-install BC assistant, but I cannot get into the Mac to do that.

Separate to the Boot Camp Control Panel, you can always choose your startup disk by holding alt/option on boot.

Shutdown, then hold alt/option while tapping the power button until the Startup Manager appears.
Choose your macOS startup disk to start from macOS this time.
Download the support software from Boot Camp Assistant and copy it to an external disk or other shared location between Windows and macOS.
Restart your Mac, which will boot into Windows again.
Reinstall the Boot Camp support software you downloaded and copied in step 3.

If you want to use Startup Manager in the future, something perhaps useful to know is you can change the default disk from the Startup Manager by holding control while choosing your startup disk.


How do I remove a substring from system_profiler with a posible if then? In short, I’m writing a script that will check if a computer is a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air and then I want to use the output as a variable.

Using

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep “Model Name”

I can get Model Name: MacBook Pro but all I need is either “MacBook Pro” or “MacBook Air”

-oP in grep gives me an error. Another idea was to use find but I’m unsure how I’d use find if I’m not searching an actual file.

Here's a solution using awk with system_profiler :

 system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | awk -F ': ' '/Model Name/ { print $2 }'

We change the field separator to : <space> then search for a line with Model Name in it and print the second field. Or instead of using a pipe use process substitution to feed awk

awk -F ': ' '/Model Name/ { print $2 }' < <(system_profiler SPHardwareDataType)


iPhone 7 deactivated – Won't get recognized on any Mac/PC I've bought a used iPhone 7 two weeks ago and later found out that the proximity sensor didn't work. So while being in my pocket, it apparently tried too many codes and hence is deactivated now.

Now when I tried to connect the iPhone to my 2012 MacBook Pro, I realized that it does not connect in any way (a glimpse into system info confirms that there is no device connected). Charging via a AC works, though. Strangely, whenever I connect the iPhone to my Mac, there is a slight vibration on the phone, but it won't charge or anything.

So far I've tried two MacBooks and several cables, I've updated my MacBook to macOS Mojave, I've force-reset the iPhone and put it in DFU, nothing works. Two weeks ago I was able to do a backup via iTunes, so everything was working properly.  I'm starting to get a bit desperate, so has anyone an idea?

My search on the Internet has not yielded anything so far.

Try erasing the phone from Find my iPhone on iCloud.com. The phone thinks it has been stolen.


What are some good resources for learning how to AppleScript with Xcode 4.3.2? I AppleScript quite a bit and I'd like to start working with Xcode 4.3.2, so that I can expand the functionality of the things I'm writing. However, I have no idea how to use Xcode, nor how to AppleScript within it. Where can I find some good resources for learning how to AppleScript with Xcode 4.3.2?

Mac OS X Automation has sample Xcode projects and a few videos for getting started with AppleScript in Xcode. They also have a comprehensive book, AppleScriptObjC Explored, which you can buy from their site. (I can't vouch for it as I haven't read it, but their free resources are excellent.)

You can start here:

http://macosxautomation.com/applescript/develop/index.html


When EarPods with microphone are attached, does iPhone use internal or external mic? Is the internal or external mic used? Is there a difference in quality between the two mics?

If earphone are attached, your input audio will be the earphone mic. The difference between the both depends of the quality of your earphone...


Apply email rules to existing emails I've added a email rule in iCloud to copy emails with a specific from address to a folder.  This is working fine, all new mails are moved to that folder. Is there a way to apply the rule also to mails that I've received before I crated the rule?

Use cmd + A to select all your mails, then right click on it => Apply rules

Or as Matteo point out : cmd+shift+L


Passcode entanglement with UID While reading the Apple Platform Security document, I came across this statement under the Passcodes and Passwords section
The passcode is entangled with the device’s UID, so brute-force attempts must be
performed on the device under attack.

I have a few questions

What is meant by the passcode being entangled with the UID and why the brute force attempts have to be performed on the device itself?

What sort of cryptographic algorithms are used for this?

Any online links to this topic is appreciated.

In general "entangling" means that you're somehow "mixing" two components into one. This can be done in a number of ways.
In this specific instance what happens is that the UID and passcode are entangled by using an AES encryption algorithm. The UID is as the key for the AES encryption, and the passcode is used as the clear text. The cipher text is then the entangled data.
In order to create the entangled data, you'll need both the UID and the passcode.
The reason why this must happen on device is that the UID is a unique number that is "fused" into the CPU (i.e. each CPU has a different number, and it cannot be changed after the fact) - and that number is not accessible by software directly. However software can ask the CPU to encrypt data with the AES algorithm using the UID as the key - the software can then get the cipher text without ever knowing the UID.
As an added complexity, Apple actually uses a key derivation function known as PBKDF2 where additional computation is needed to go from the starting data to the actual data used as an encryption key. Apple is using 80 rounds (basically "loops" of a computation processes). The purpose of this is to make it slow (i.e. use a lot of CPU time) to come from a pass code (which we're trying to brute force) to the encryption key - even when you have access to the CPU with the UID inside it. Making it slow means that brute forcing takes a lot longer than otherwise, hopefully making it infeasible.


When does my one-to-one subscription expire? I recently ordered a new MacBook Pro and a One to One membership online. I got an email saying that my MBP will arrive in "3 or 4 weeks". I also got an email saying "Thank you for joining One to One. Please activate your membership online".

Does my one-to-one membership expire 12 months from receipt of this email or 12 months after I activate it?

In other words, if I activate it now, I can imagine it will expire 11 months after I receive my MacBook Pro. But if I activate one-to-one when my MacBook Pro arrives, will I have wasted a month of One to One?

I just got a reply from rep at Apple Store, who agrees with CajunLuke above.

About the One to One, do not activate your new One to One until you receive your computer.
So that You do not lose those  one month.
One to one starts when you activate that code online.

I'm in Japan which explains why the English ain't right.


Some applications on MacBook Pro think Internet is not connected when it is I have had my MacBook Pro for about 6 months; bought it new in 2010. I am running Mac OS 10.6.5.

Using Airport to connect to the Internet. Had no problems until this last week, when at an apparently random moment, some applications (e.g. Safari, iTunes, Adium and Tweetie) decide the Internet is no longer connected. The message from Safari is the standard "You are not connected to the Internet."

Pinging different hosts on the Internet works completely fine, and I can browse without any issue on Firefox.

Network Diagnostics reports that the Internet is connected. Turning Airport on and off, and closing and rebootting the applications doesn't seem to help.

I did manage to fix the problem with a reboot but would rather find the underlying issue and a better solution. Can anyone out there help?

Just stabbing in the dark here - DNS? Or rather, the relation of Safari towards DNS (since you mentioned that Firefox was working fine).

I know that Safari takes on the system wide proxy settings and firefox has its own - another possible avenue why firefox works when safari doesn't.

Maybe you could try opening two new tabs when the issue occurs again and try accessing http://72.30.2.43 and www.yahoo.com on the second tab. Perhaps we could help eliminate DNS with that test.

Muck around the system proxy settings is another possible investigation route.


Can't downgrade or update jailbroken iPhone I can't update or downgrade my iPhone 3GS, Firmware 4.3.5 tethered with redsn0w.

Whenever I try to update it, I get a "device isn't eligible" error. I researched on how to do that, like changing host files, but none of them worked for me. I use OS X Snow Leopard.

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1   localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com

This is my host file – not sure if it's the orginal one or not.

The host file is not the original. That

74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com

resolves gs.apple.com to 74.208.10.249 (nginx.saurik.com) and not the real server by Apple, so that the SHSH trick works. Probably you have added it at some point. If you remove that you should be able to upgrade to iOS 5.1 using Apple's update. However, depending on the bootrom that you phone has, you may or may not be able to do a untethered jailbreak with Redsn0w, so be very careful before deciding whether you want to upgrade (although you say you have tethered jailbreak so probably you can live with tethered).

As for downgrading, I am not sure why you can't do this, chances are that you don't have SHSH for lower versions in Cydia.

Edit: for downgrading you may have to use another IP address in the hosts file. I've seen 74.208.105.171 used recently (check the recent tutorials for saving SHSH blobs, the IP address may have changed)


About graphics card do I need one or not I want to play simple games like diablo 3 or sims and Internet stuff also work stuff on a laptop and don't know the difference between intigrated graphics and the dedicated graphics. I want a MacBook Pro do I need to get one with the graphics card or will I be ok without one? I can spend the $2500 if I have to but would like the cheaper one if possible.

You can check the hardware requirements of the games you want to play in the App Store. This will give you a good idea on what exactly you'll need.


Why can't I use this monitor full resolution at 60hz on my 2013 Mac Pro with OS X Mojave? https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/uhd-and-wqhd/32-uj590-uhd-monitor-lu32j590uqnxza/#specs

Says 60hz on the site, tried HDMI1, HDMI2, FreeSync, tried various HDMI cables, even bought an HDMI to Thunderbolt cable to try instead of HDMI out of the mac.

What gives?

My old mac mini can drive my 60" TV properly, but my Mac pro can't drive an UHD display? Seems like I should be able to do this....

This is the only resolution I can get 60hz at:

EDIT Answer marked below. For anyone wondering:

In order to drive a 4k display at 60 Hz over HDMI, you'll need a GPU supporting HDMI 2.0. The 2013 Mac Pro supports HDMI 1.4 by default.

To get this working, you'll want to use a cable plugged into the DisplayPort connector on the monitor, and into the Thunderbolt 2 ports on the Mac Pro.


Run backup script at any time every weekend (using launchd?) I recently lost configuration of one of my IDEs (deleted it myself, I am very smart). I had a backup but it was a few months old. I have a script to backup all my config and push it to GitHub. I was looking into a way to run a script every week to back up everything automatically but launchd / cron need a specific time to run. My laptop might not be running at that time but I do boot up my laptop every weekend at least once.

Is there a way to configure launchd / cron to run on a weekend at any time to back up my configuration?

Edit

To make it clear, the question is not a duplicate of the one posted in the comments. The other question talks about running a script "10 minutes after 2 am every weekday only", not anytime possible on a weekend. Only once per weekend.

Set your computer to power on or wake from sleep on a specific day and time (Energy Saver preferences), then run your script though launchd or cron within that time frame.


Why does music keep playing during videos? Why does music play when I'm watching videos?

Sorry re lack of detail.  I have a Mac Air. I use Firefox.

It first happened maybe a year ago when my son sent a little home video taken on iphone. There was this slow dirge-like repetitive music playing in the background--loudly, too, so that I couldn't hear the voices on the video. When I lower the volume, the background music also decreases, along with sound on the video.

That continued for several months and happened for videos from the web as well. It then stopped for a couple of months and today it's back.  Watching SNL iconic episodes on Yahoo.

I should add that this same tune plays continuously, whether a video is playing or not. So I keep the volume muted when just using the web.

So, music always plays when you have web browser open, regardless of any videos?

Maybe.. check if there are tabs open, try to close them one after other if you would find if one of those has background music. Chrome and some other browsers might show an icon indicating if a tab is playing music.


Copy not possible from ssd to another ssd We want to move 30GB of data located on a 128GB ssd to another 120gb ssd. This is not possible as disk utility says that /dev/disk2s2 doesn't have enough space.

The data we want to copy is os x itself, and some programs used in the store.

Can this be solved by partitioning the 128gb ssd and than copy the partition? Or is the a command line way to achieve this?

update
At this time, we partitioned the 128ssd. We just started copying, fingers crossed.

Remote Synchronisation: rsync

Consider using OS X's Terminal.app and included rsync command line tool to safely copy the data:

sudo rsync -vaE --progress /Volumes/SourceName /Volumes/DestinationName

See Fastest and safest way to copy massive data from one external drive to another for how this command works and what each section means.


iPhone 5s/ iCloud info Is there a way to see the settings of my iPhone without actually looking at the phone? For example on a computer logged into the AppleID or iCloud? I need to make sure the "Find my iPhone" info is turned on on my daughter's iPhone.

I was using the app xFi Locator to track her whereabouts and it was working fine until her data was turned off, because it had reached the limit. I've contacted xFi support and they had a list of items to look for, which were all set properly.  However, I think my daughter has turned this feature off.  Hence the question above.

If you want to check if find my iPhone is turned on on a device, you can check the activation lock on icloud.com using this link: icloud.com/activationlock

You will need to have the IMEI or serial number of the device. Both can be find in the the settings app on the device, or at the back of the box that came along with the iPhone.


Time Machine sharing external hard drive with windows Is it possible to backup both Windows 7 and Mac OS X to the same Time Machine?

Time Machine uses the Mac OS Extended file system whereas Windows is using NTFS or FAT.

If you want to use the same hard disc for backuping both operating systems, I would advise you to partition your hard disc, so that you are able to format both partitions with a different filesystem (one for OS X, one for Windows).
You can do this from OS X using the disk utility tool (system prefs).

Format one hard disk with MAC OS Extended (Journaled) and one with FAT (or NTFS directly within Windows).

Now you are able to use the hard disk for backing up both operating systems.


Kernel Panic right after sleep in macOS High Sierra Recently I have noticed my MacBook Pro restarting as soon as it tries going to sleep. If I plug it in and leave it on for the whole day, it will work fine.

I have tried resetting SMC, NVRAM etc.
Apple Hardware diagnostics says there is no issue with the machine.
First Aid says disk is okay.

I have also tried going into Recovery and deleting the sleepimage. Now have hibernate mode disabled. Still facing kernel panic.

This is what I am getting in the log.

*** Panic Report ***

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff7f9a41ffcd): "Failed to quiesce supporting devices\n"@/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppleACPIPlatform/AppleACPIPlatform-281.70.3/AppleACPIPlatformPower.cpp:1970
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff9216e739c0 : 0xffffff8018c6c1c6
0xffffff9216e73a10 : 0xffffff8018d95274
0xffffff9216e73a50 : 0xffffff8018d87544
0xffffff9216e73ac0 : 0xffffff8018c1e1e0
0xffffff9216e73ae0 : 0xffffff8018c6bc3c
0xffffff9216e73c10 : 0xffffff8018c6b9fc
0xffffff9216e73c70 : 0xffffff7f9a41ffcd
0xffffff9216e73cd0 : 0xffffff7f9a41fb9e
0xffffff9216e73d20 : 0xffffff7f9a4240eb
0xffffff9216e73d40 : 0xffffff80192b9658
0xffffff9216e73d90 : 0xffffff80192e7a03
0xffffff9216e73e00 : 0xffffff801928154b
0xffffff9216e73e50 : 0xffffff801927e738
0xffffff9216e73eb0 : 0xffffff801927b713
0xffffff9216e73ef0 : 0xffffff801927b5a2
0xffffff9216e73f30 : 0xffffff8019297ef2
0xffffff9216e73f70 : 0xffffff801929752c
0xffffff9216e73fa0 : 0xffffff8018c1d557
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform(6.1)[B0282791-F78C-3A3D-A829-629AD847C7EA]@0xffffff7f9a414000->0xffffff7f9a4affff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.4)[95DA39BB-7C39-3742-A2E5-86C555E21D67]@0xffffff7f99948000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[AEA4C7F5-CCB0-338B-B471-CF28A9792522]@0xffffff7f99494000
            dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleSMC(3.1.9)[2D1E4A3F-A19E-3F12-878D-807CB79CD55F]@0xffffff7f99951000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Do you happen to have the GPU problem stated here?
If you do please do take care of Part 2: improve thermal and power management.


Save command line output to a file without any graphics or special characters I want to save the command line output data in a text file. I am running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. The problem is, it has some graphical output which I don't want to store. What I need is, only the  strings and their corresponding values. Could you help me please?

The shell command I am running is:

pwmetrics http://www.cnn.com --runs=1

And the output shown in the Terminal is:

This tool to generate web page performance metrics is open source. Here is the error I am getting while I try to save my code:

And the o.txt file contains nothing.

The shell command I have tried so far are:

pwmetrics http://www.ieee.org --runs=2 &> /Users/ssr/Desktop/o.txt
pwmetrics http://www.ieee.org 2>/dev/null | tee /Users/ssr/Desktop/o.txt
pwmetrics http://www.ieee.org yes>/dev/null | tee /Users/ssr/Desktop/o.txt

You’ve got several options with that tool.

Output JSON and parse that
Upload to Google Sheets and export as CSV the text you need
Use a tool to strip the ANSI escape codes that prettify (in the opinion of some) and color the text - one package to strip ANSI is https://github.com/chalk/strip-ansi
Use other tools to strip these out by piping the output or saving it to a file - https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4527/program-that-passes-stdin-to-stdout-with-color-codes-stripped or https://superuser.com/questions/380772/removing-ansi-color-codes-from-text-stream
Trying to set your terminal type to TERM=dumb (like Can't plot with gnuplot on my Mac)
forking that project and changing the code so the ANSI escape values are nothing. (Lines 4-8 here https://github.com/paulirish/pwmetrics/blob/master/lib/utils/messages.ts or perhaps a few lines down where those variables are used to construct the output)

I would also tell the program to write your output file so you get a clearer view without needing to debug file handling and pipes in bash (assuming that’s not your strength here today).


Connecting a Dell U2412M to a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro using DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort I recently got a Dell U2412M monitor. I'm attempting to connect it to my 2013 Retina MacBook Pro using a DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable. I repeatedly get a "Entering Power Saving Mode" dialog on the monitor. The only time I've been able to successfully connect to the monitor is if I unplug the monitor completely, turn off the computer and turn them on in sync (even this only works 30% of the time). However, connecting it using a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter works as expected.

Is there a way to force the computer to detect the display using the terminal? I've tried using apps from the App Store that bring back the old Detect Displays option, but those don't work either.

There are posts regarding this on other sites, but none provide a solution. Since the DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable are the most convenient to use, so I wanted to see if anyone here has solved a similar issue, before giving up and using DVI.

I had the exact same problem with a Dell monitor.  After months of support calls and monitor replacements, it ended up being the cable.

The problem was using a Mini-DP to DP cable.  For some reason, the DP chips in the cable is not sending a signal that Dell monitors are expecting or the length of the cable causes the signal to degrade.

The fix? Buy a Mini-DP to DP adapter then use a 1.2 DP to DP cable to connect to the monitor.  I know it sounds lame and the MiniDP to DP cable should work but after I switched out the cable for this setup, I didn't experience the issue again.

Hope this helps.


Why does 'df' not show changes after running CleanMyMac? I've used CleanMyMac to remove around 40 Gb of files, but a before/after of df -h doesn't show much difference at all:

# Before:
[Kens-MacBook-Pro:~] % df -h
Filesystem      Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused               ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s1   466Gi  445Gi   18Gi    97% 2138098 9223372036852637709    0%   /
devfs          188Ki  188Ki    0Bi   100%     650                   0  100%   /dev
/dev/disk1s4   466Gi  2.0Gi   18Gi    11%       2 9223372036854775805    0%   /private/var/vm
map -hosts       0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%       0                   0  100%   /net
map auto_home    0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%       0                   0  100%   /home

# After:
[Kens-MacBook-Pro:~] % df -h
Filesystem      Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused               ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s1   466Gi  445Gi   18Gi    97% 1899364 9223372036852876443    0%   /
devfs          188Ki  188Ki    0Bi   100%     650                   0  100%   /dev
/dev/disk1s4   466Gi  2.0Gi   18Gi    11%       2 9223372036854775805    0%   /private/var/vm
map -hosts       0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%       0                   0  100%   /net
map auto_home    0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%       0                   0  100%   /home

In this case the removals were in two stages, first doing a "Smart Scan" that says "10.13 GB Unneeded junk removed", and then using Space Lens to manually select items, after which it says "CleanMyMac has freed up 30.21 GB of space on your Mac."

Taking @at0mic's comment as a starting point, I have a theory about what's happening:

Since the Time Machine snapshots aren't physical copies, they're still hanging on to the same inodes that CleanMyMac deleted.

Since the snapshots didn't take up more room when they were created (see https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-apple-file-systems-killer-feature-clones-and-snapshots/ - they just create one more reference to the same inodes), I also won't get back disk space right away when deleting stuff.

This makes sense to me.  However, when I went into Time Machine and performed "Delete all backups" on one of the large items I'd deleted, the disk usage as reported by df still didn't reduce.  So I kind of believe that Time Machine is the explanation, but there are still pieces I don't understand, so if I figure it out I'll edit this answer.


Bash Script to Auto-Update (and reboot) all Updates to Mavericks & Yosemite? I'm seeking a script that I can execute on a newly installed Mavericks or Yosemite computer, that will install all updates, rebooting as necessary and starting again automatically.

For instance, I'd like to:

sudo curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ChristopherA/0ddc4c27f8ec7d5a0aed/raw/2e694c616c728593c2af155d18aeeff68b25a222/gistfile1.txt | sh

This then goes to my gist, sends the content to my shell, then is the following script (which currently exists in my gists):

#!/bin/bash

# Installs all system updates, reboot and does it again if necessary.

# Execute on a new mac via:

# sudo curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ChristopherA/0ddc4c27f8ec7d5a0aed/raw/2e694c616c728593c2af155d18aeeff68b25a222/gistfile1.txt | sh

# Initially, based on https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=7827 which works on 10.8 and untested on 10.9 or 10.10

SWUL=`/usr/sbin/softwareupdate -l | /usr/bin/awk '{printf "%s", $0}'`
SWULER=`/usr/sbin/softwareupdate -l 2>&1 | /usr/bin/head -1`
NoRestartUpdates=`/usr/sbin/softwareupdate -l | /usr/bin/grep -v restart | /usr/bin/grep -B1 recommended | /usr/bin/grep -v recommended | /usr/bin/awk '{print $2}' | /usr/bin/awk '{printf "%s ", $0}'`
osvers=`sw_vers -productVersion | awk -F. '{print $2}'`

if [[ $osvers -lt 8 ]]; then
/bin/echo "Script only for 10.8+ ONLY"
exit 1
elif [ "$SWULER" == "No new software available." ]; then
/bin/echo "$SWULER"
exit 1
elif [[ "$SWUL" == *"[restart]"* ]]; then
echo "Installing Updates that require Restart"
/usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/softwareupdate -d -a
/usr/libexec/PListBuddy -c "Copy CompletedProducts InstallAtLogout" /Library/Updates/index.plist
/usr/bin/touch /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateAtLogout
/bin/chmod og-r /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateAtLogout
/usr/libexec/PListBuddy -c "Add -RootInstallMode STRING YES" /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions
/usr/libexec/PListBuddy -c "Add -SkipConfirm STRING YES" /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions
/bin/chmod og-r /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions
elif [[ "$SWUL" == *"[recommended]"* ]]; then
/bin/echo "Installing Updates that does not require Restart"
/usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/softwareupdate -i $NoRestartUpdates
fi

exit 0

```

Unfortunately this script from https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=7827 does not work on 10.9 or 10.10.

The Results:

Installing Updates that require Restart
Software Update Tool
Copyright 2002-2012 Apple Inc.

Finding available software

Downloaded iTunes
Downloaded iTunes
Downloaded OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 8
Downloading Yosemite Recovery Update
Downloaded Yosemite Recovery Update
Done.
Copy: Entry, "CompletedProducts", Does Not Exist
touch: /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateAtLogout: Permission denied
chmod: /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateAtLogout: No such file or directory
File Doesn't Exist, Will Create: /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions
File Doesn't Exist, Will Create: /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions
chmod: /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions: No such file or directory
$

There are some clues in the comments of that post, and also at http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080916220249270

However, I'm not able to find something that can be just a bash script.

Christopher Allen

how about just

sudo softwareupdate -i -a
sudo reboot

by the way, about the script you posted, try adding sudo in front of commands below:

/usr/bin/touch /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateAtLogout
/bin/chmod og-r /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateAtLogout
/usr/libexec/PListBuddy -c "Add -RootInstallMode STRING YES" /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions
/usr/libexec/PListBuddy -c "Add -SkipConfirm STRING YES" /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions
/bin/chmod og-r /var/db/.SoftwareUpdateOptions


Is Lingo IRC is abandoned? I'm using nice Lingo IRC client, but it a bit outdated.

Links in About seem to be broken and I can't find this app in App Store.

Does anybody know for sure is Lingo IRC abandoned?

Maybe there is a way to contact with maintainer?

Based on the comments at MacUpdate for Lingo, the product appears to have been removed the Mac App Store and is no longer being maintained.

The domain associated with Lingo IRC, http://lingoirc.com, is now a holding page.


Does an iOS app with Sign In with Apple ID work on iOS 12? I want to know whether an iOS app with Sign In with Apple ID runs on iOS 12 or not.

Whether an app supporting Sign In with Apple ID will run on iOS 12 or not will depend on how the developers configured it. When building an iOS app, you have to indicate a minimum supported iOS version. Since not everybody will run the latest iOS version, they'll probably specify a lower target, e.g. iOS 10 or 11.

That's not the only thing they need to do; before they call the "Sign In with Apple ID" API, they have to check the current iOS version. If it's older than iOS 13, the API call should be skipped since it's likely to crash the app (the App Store reviewers might even reject it for that reason).

So all in all, it will likely run on iOS 12 as well, but without the feature.


iPad 1 endless reboot loop with no iTunes reformat I have an iPad 1 which is unable to reboot at all. I tried to go in DFU mode, using Home and Power buttons. It's been detected by iTunes, when I try to reinstall from iTunes, nothing works. I have an 1602 error (every time). I tried on a Mac and on a PC, and my last chance is here before I throw it to the garbage :(

All I can see is the screen flashing (but no Apple logo, or any graphic).
Do you know if there is a free software I can use to repair it or if there is anything else I can do?

I solved my problem by replacing the battery. Apparently, the old one was so dead it wasn't even capable to boot up the system. Once it was replaced, I was able to access the DFU mode then reinstall the OS. This is the only solution available throughout the Internet. I even spoke with an Apple assistant, and he recommended me to not bother with this old piece of... plastic! ;)


iPad Mail client - IMAP with X.509 client certificates? Short version: Does anyone know if X.509 client certificates are supposed to work on the iPad for IMAP mail? Am I wasting my time trying to get a feature that doesn't work to work? If the built-in mail app doesn't support IMAP with X.509 client certs (ie: they only work with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync accounts), are there any 3rd party apps that do?

Only iOS 5.1 or newer is of interest; 5.1 is the version I've been testing with.

I'm the admin of a network that's required by policy to use X.509 client certificates to protect all external communication, including our IMAP mail server (Cyrus IMAPd) and SMTP server (postfix). Neither will accept a connection without the client presenting a valid X.509 client certificate. Disabling the client certificate requirement is not an option for me, and we aren't permitted to tunnel traffic in via VPN for similar reasons.

We now have iPad users who want to connect to our network, and are finding the iPad to be a bit of a problem.

For users on desktop machines we usually install Thunderbird, as it has rock solid IMAP with excellent client certificate support; it "just works" and is the same to support on every platform. This isn't an option for iPad.

Unfortunately the iPad's built-in Mail app doesn't seem to cope with client certificates for IMAP. I can install our org's root cert and the user's client cert using the iPhone Configuration Utility. Both are shown as "verified" in Settings->General->Profiles.  The iPad then accepts our server as trusted and omits any warnings about the server's identity not being verified.

Mail still fails to send a client certificate when one is demanded so the server terminates the handshake. It doesn't prompt the user to select one, nor does it automatically send the client certificate it has installed for the user that matches the CA certificate presented by the server.

Examination of the traffic flow between client and server shows that the TLS negotiation fails when the iPad responds with an empty set of client certificates when client certificates are demanded by the server. See below.

When connected to the internal network over encrypted WiFi, where no client cert is required to get mail, the device connects and downloads mail just fine. External access (public WiFi or over 3G) fails, whether I use the IMAPs port 993 with "Use SSL" checked or the IMAP+TLS port 143 with or without "Use SSL" checked. Other than the apparent lack of client certificate negotiation support for IMAP, it's perfect.

References to client certificate support in the documentation for Apple's "Enterprise support" only appear where Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync is discussed, and where Cisco VPN support is discussed.

There are a few questions on Apple's discussion forums, but no recent ones and no useful answers. I'd link to them, but Apple's forums are "down for maintenance" at the moment.

As a workaround I can probably set up a locked down VPN using the iPad's automatic VPN connection support to talk to a client-cert authed IPSec VPN that can only talk to the IMAP and SMTP servers on the appropriate ports plus DNS, nothing else. It'd be a pretty gruesome hack to have to perpetrate though.

BTW, the client<->server conversation is:

C -> S      TLSv1    Client Hello
S -> C      TLSv1    Server Hello
S -> C      TLSv1    Certificate, Certificate Request, Server Hello Done
                    (Sends server cert, signing root cert,
                     DN of accepted client cert signer which happens to be the same as the root that signed the server cert)
C -> S      TLSv1    Certificate
                    (empty set of certificates, zero certs included)
S -> C      TLSv1    Handshake failure

In other words, the server says "this is me, I expect you to provide a certificate signed by  authority to prove who you are" and the client replies with "Um, my papers are in this empty envelope here. Look, a cassowary!"

The client has the root cert installed, and has a client cert installed that has the signer DN demanded by the server.

See the comments above where the asker reports that they never got this to work.

So on iOS 5.1, X.509 certificates will not easily be of use to secure email on iOS without some engineering effort and perhaps not at all.


Some audio (but not all) coming out of MacBook speakers instead of Display speakers My 13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is connected to my Apple Thunderbolt Display via a genuine Apple Thunderbolt to USB-C adapter. The audio from the MacBook is piped through to the built-in speakers in the Apple display.

Music, movies, YouTube videos… all that audio comes out of the display's speakers. What's weird is that certain system sounds come out of the MacBooks speakers… like Messages notifications and the screenshot camera click sound. What's more, is that I can't seem to adjust the volume of the sounds coming from the MacBook's speakers. Adjusting the volume on the MacBook's Touch Bar and on my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard only affect the Apple Display volume, not the MacBook.

This is a problem, of course, and quite annoying. I've done all of the typical troubleshooting things: restarted, unplugged and replugged, set, unset, and reset the output destination in the Sound preference pane.

Any ideas?

Follow these steps to solve this issue on a Mac running macOS 10.12:

Open System Preferences
Go to Sound
Click 'Sound Effects'
Set Play sound effects through: to Selected sound output device
Optionally: Select 'Output' and set your desired sound output device (e.g. your external display).

Was this helpful?


Auto completion of accents and tilde OSX I've been working on macs for a couple of years now, and recently switched jobs (Software dev).
Before when I  was typing something like "e would not automatically merge into ë. This is really annoying in terminal And I don't know how to disable this as of now (I googled but not sure what I should be looking for). One of the most annoying things I encountered was when I need to go to my home dir in terminal (using tilde) when tying by default it will complete to ˜/ whilst I would like to see it act like before: ~/ which requires me to type an extra space.

I never need the auto completion for accents since I'll use the menu which opens when you hold the key instead.

Does anyone know what could cause and get rid of this behaviour.

My keyboard settings are US-Internation (which is normal in the Netherlands) and my MacBook is fully updated to El-Capitan.

I had same problem, just change U.S. International - PC input source for U.S.


Using an old iPhone 4s to connect to internet to develop apps I have an old iphone 4s but just upgraded to a new iphone 6 and switched cellular service from the 4s to the 6.  Wifi broke for some reason a long time ago on the 4s (the buttons are permanetly disabled).

Is there anyway to connect to the internet? I have my phone plugged into a wifi enabled macbook but phone still has no internet connection.

Is your iPhone 4s running (at least) iOS 7.1? If so, then I believe this support page from Apple should do the trick:

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/ts1559

If neither of Apple's instructions work, then one idea is to you back up your iPhone using iTunes and restore the device. I recommend making a clean restore. If the Wi-Fi works, then you can either leave it as it is or go ahead and restore again, but this time, using the backup that you made on iTunes.

If that still doesn't work, then... well, I don't usually recommend this, but you could jailbreak the iPhone and try a fix from there. I'm not entirely familiar with that process, but that's the only other thing that I can possibly suggest. Otherwise, you're out of luck (unless you want to try the Apple Store to get it fixed/replaced, but I think that it'd be a waste of your time).


Does the iMac EFI Update 1.7 change how NetBooting works? I have a NetBoot server to manage all the Macs in my office. However, when I started a weekly backup of one of my iMacs last week, after rebooting and holding N, I saw the blinking globe for a few moments and then the system booted from the hard disk.

As far as I know, no configuration changes have been made to the NetBoot server. Other iMacs still can netboot fine.

This particular iMac had the iMac EFI Update 1.7 installed whereas none of the other Macs have. I suspect that is the culprit especially given Apple's description:

  This update enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection [...]

Does the iMac EFI Update 1.7 change how NetBooting works? If so, how specifically? Does the vendor-class-identifier of the DHCP request change?

(I'm happy to edit the question with additional details about my configuration if it will help)

UPDATE: I confirmed that the vendor-class-identifier in the DHCP request did not change after this update:

And indeed, the server is sending back the proper booter filename and image path:

So there's something else at play here...

Yup they broke it. Early Internet recovery firmware versions don't netboot. later versions fixed this.


Backup online iMessage repository Is there a way to download/export iMessage history somewhere? If I deleted messages on a local device, is it also removed online on iCloud?

You can use PhoneView or a similar application to download your iMessage database to your Mac.

iMessage data is not stored in iCloud, not even as a backup.


When I change my CSS and refresh the page, the changes aren't reflected in Safari or Chrome I set the background to red instead of the color it normally was. Didn't change. Removed the properties all together, refreshed, the texture was still there, even though I removed the line.

OS X 10.7.5

Is there a caching issue? It happens in both Chrome and Safari.

Yes, the CSS is cached.

Try holding down the "Shift" key while clicking on the refresh icon. This will usually trigger a refresh that will reload the CSS and JavaScript.


Recovering files from an iMac G3 hard drive (Mac OS 8.6) I recently purchased an iMac G3 (M2452) running Mac OS 8.6 from eBay for a project I'm working on, and was hoping to recover system sound files (such as startup sound, error sounds, etc) to use in the project. The machine booted fine, but once it was running I was unable to open the hard drive in Finder, which was likely related to TechTools Pro claiming there was an issue with the volume structure. Attempting to open it would freeze the machine. I didn't hear any disk activity, and let it sitting for at least an hour just to see if it would follow through, no results.

I kinda got ahead of myself and disassembled the machine to continue with my project, and now have the intact hard drive separated. Is there any way I can connect this to a modern computer, and if so, would I even be able to recover files? I can't find anything but the startup sound after a bit of digging around online, and I'd love to have the original files anyway for authenticity's sake.

Thanks in advance!

From what I can tell the drive from an iMac G3 is an IDE type. HDDs running Mac OS System 8.6 ought to be running on the HFS+ disk format.

If you get a USB HDD enclosure with internal IDE connectors you should be able to plug the drive into it, connect the enclosure to a modern Mac and see the disk contents.

If you don't have access to a modern Macintosh you should be able to read HFS+ formatted drives under windows with the software hfsexplorer.


iPhone photos size problem, I am using iPhone 7.And total space is 32GB,and i duplicates 5000 photos into 50000.And when i went and see the iPhone storage, it's showing total capacity 32GB,free space 0 and photos part occupied 54GB.I am confused and posting this Question.How is it possible to store 54GB in 32GB device.Please help me.

It is not possible to store 54GB in 32GB of space. It sounds like it is erroneously displaying how much space it wants to fit all the images. File systems mark memory as allocated before transferring to them, which could be why you are getting strange numbers.


Automatically hide and show the dock is greyed out, how to reactivate the option? I have been using macOS Catalina since its  release but today the Dock suddenly refuses to hide. In the preference pane, the Automatically hide and show the Dock option is greyed out.
I have tried killall Dock which hides the dock for 1 second, then it comes back.

macOS details
OSX Catalina 10.15.5 (19F101)
Mac book pro 16" 2019

I have run into a solution, thanks to idownloadblog
just put the code below into terminal
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool true

It overrides the setting in preference


imovie. Adding a static image without the gentle zooming effect I'm using imovie 10.0.3

When I add a static image (a jpeg file) to my movie it adds a gentle zooming effect. Very pretty but I didn't want it, and I cannot work out how to switch it off. Infuriating!

I'm trying to add the image either by dragging it onto the movie, or by clicking the [+] button which appears on the photo. Either way it adds it with a zooming effect.

Within the movie I notice I can select it, and then use an "Adjust" toolbar to achieve various things (mostly colour shifts in the image)... but I can't see any options for disabling the effect.

In the Adjust toolbar, click Crop, then Fit.


Stop Reminders App from sending emails every time a change is made on a shared reminder list I have a shared reminders list with my wife. For the last couple of weeks any time she updates/deletes an item I get an email - however when I update she doen't get an email. She  is the owner of the shared list.  I cannot for the life of me figure out how to stop these emails.

Any help gratefully received.

Alan

My guess is that you have not registered and verified the email address you are receiving the emails at as an alternate email address for your Apple ID (or you have multiple Apple IDs and have registered the email address with the wrong one).


Western Digital Passport Drive Shows up on Old 2009 MacBook Pro, but not my new one I just bought a new MacBook Pro to replace my old 2009 model. For some strange reason, the external Western Digital Passport Drive I've used for Time Machine on my old Mac doesn't seem to work on the new one.
No icon shows up on the desktop. Disk Utilities doesn't show the disk. I've tried it in all three USB ports. No luck.
It sometimes shows up in system reports. When I plug the drive into a USB port, I get information from the Console App:

9/16/14 9:32:13.000 PM kernel[0]: The USB device Apple Internal Keyboard /     Trackpad (Port 5 of Hub at 0x14000000) may have caused a wake by issuing a remote wakeup (2)

Dead Drive? No, it works just fine on my older MacBook Pro 2009 model.
The only thing I can think of is that my older model had USB 2 ports while the newer Mac uses USB 3 ports. The port on my drive is a USB 3 port. Maybe formatting the drive via USB 2 makes it impossible to use for USB 3?

One More Thing...
I didn't mention this earlier because I forgot. Whoops.
The drive is encrypted, and I need a password to open it. On my old MacBook, if I hold down the option key while booting, I can put in a password for the drive, and I see the various partitions (There is the TimeMachine partition, a Yosemite Beta partition, and a Yosemite Emergency Boot Partition).
If I put this on my 2009 MacBook Pro, it simply shows up. If I put this on my wife's iMac (2012), I have to put in the password, but it mounts fine.
On my new MacBook Pro, I don't see it (or am I offered an option to enter a password) if I hold down the option key when I boot the system.
Also, a question came up about the OS:
The old MacBook is running a beta of Yosemite. It was running Mavericks and it would be the same release and version of the one on the new MacBook Pro. However, the drive crashed, and I was forced to initialize and format, and install Yosemite since that's the only emergency boot item I had.
It's the reason I decided I needed a new MacBook Pro. The new MacBook Pro and my wife's iMac are both running the same version of Mavericks. The old MacBook Pro was running the same version of Mavericks and using the WD disk before it crashed.
This isn't a terrible emergency. I had put my Documents folder on Dropbox, so all of my documents were backed up to Dropbox. Other docs were in iCloud. Almost all of my apps were from the Mac App store (except for some open source tools). My mail is IMAP. The only thing on the WD I didn't have were iPhotos that weren't in iCloud. (Which makes me wonder if Time Machine is still all that important).

Are both MacBooks running the same version of Mavericks? WD had a fiasco with their applications, kernel extensions, etc. being incompatible with Mavericks, which led to massive customer data loss. You might need to update the drive's firmware and erase every trace of WD SmartWare, etc. on the drive and possibly even on the new MacBook, as their crapware can self-install in some instances.


Questions on Mac OS X from a web developer who is new to Mac I'm getting ready to buy a MacBook Pro 15", but would like some help regarding a few things.

I witnessed somebody using a tool that showed all web requests' request headers / content, response headers / content, URL, port, other meta info, etc, sort of like a "Live HTTP Headers" on steroids (I thought it was a stand-alone piece of software, but maybe it's just a browser add-on). Do you know what the tool I'm speaking of is called?
Mac OS X comes with Apache and listens at port 80 by default. This is no good, if you're developing an application (a Django app) and you want it listening on port 80 during development (not using Apache). Can I stop Apache from listening on port 80 or disable it altogether, or is it required for OS X (or some built-in software) to operate?
MOST IMPORTANT: For about 3 days I had a high-res 15" but had to return it due to the fonts being difficult to read. I was able to cope with certain of the apps, but my code editor's text looked blurry no matter the font size, and a couple other apps' fonts did as well. Is there a trick to getting your fonts to look crisp on the high-res display (such as how Windows has ClearType settings, etc), or should I change fonts? I believe I only used Consolas during the 3 days.
Are their any other tools (aside from Firefox add-ons) that you would recommend to a software / web developer who's new to Mac?

The first sounds like Wireshark, which you can install from Fink, MacPorts, or Homebrew.

The second, you don't need to run the built-in Apache at all.  System Preferences > Internet & Wireless > Sharing, uncheck "Web Sharing".

The only real font control in OSX is System Preferences > Personal > Appearance, where you can control whether font smoothing is done at all and at what size OSX stops trying to smooth small fonts.  Some people don't handle smoothing well, so turning it off can be useful.  (Smoothing is done by borrowing and halftoning neighboring pixels, so the fonts really are fuzzy.  Some people find it easier to read, some harder.)


AppleScript editor cannot save .scpt file I've created a simple AppleScript .scpt file, using TextEdit.

If I now open it with AppleScript editor, I can run it. But when I try to modify and save it, I get the following error:

It's frustrating that such a basic operation has got me completely stuck.

What is going wrong?

This is happening because .scpt extension is used for compiled scripts, just use .applescript extension and it will work just file.

Yet another example of the stupid coded error messages.


What is the source directory? In the website http://gfs.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Mac_OSX_Installation

In this line:

  type from the source directory

./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-osmesa --prefix=$HOME/soft
make
make install

What is the source directory referring to here ?

It's the directory that contains the source. In the example given in the link, it's ~/soft, but it really depends where you unpacked the tarball containing the source.

./autogen.sh runs autogen.sh in the current folder. However, autogen.sh and the source files won't be in every folder. It's asking you do go to the folder that contains the app source to run the commands. cd <path> to go there, then run the commands.


MacBook Pro 2012 Bootcamp problem I was trying to install windows 10 on my MacBook Pro 2012,  I was following apple tutorial (https://support.apple.com/pt-pt/guide/bootcamp-assistant/bcmp09f5f773/mac)(or in English). I chose 100GB to windows partition. Everything was going great until I came across "no bootable device insert boot disk and press any key" message.
I went back in MacOS to remove the Bootcamp partition to repeat the process again, but I couldn't find it.
Here are some prints from disk utility:

what can I do to undo and resize the original MacOS partition to try to do the bootcamp again?

Thank you in advance and have a great weekend!

diskutil list:

This is a very common question. To reclaim the lost space, enter the command given below.

sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

Some of the Windows 10 ISO files released by Microsoft can not be transferred by the Boot Camp Assistant to a flash drive as described by the document you referenced in your question. This is either because the flash drive is too small or needs to be ExFAT formatted.

If you are still failing to install Windows though the use of the Boot Camp Assistant, then consider using the following steps to install Windows.

Use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Windows support software. In this case, you are prompted where to store the files to be downloaded.
Use the Disk Utility application or the diskutil command to create space for Windows.
ExFat format and 16 GB or larger flash drive and copy the files from the Windows ISO and Windows support software download.
Boot from the flash drive and install Windows. Basically, you are installing Windows the same way as anyone who owns a PC.

An example of one user who recently successfully installed Windows 10 using this method can be found at the question Mojave bootcamp assistant limits partition size.


Clone the disk image of an iMac to a Mac Pro (or MacBook Pro) I have about 20 computers at the office that I wanted to have identical installations.   Some are iMacs, some are MacBook Pros, some are Mac Pros.

I have one install that I love. Has every piece of software, every driver.  And its stable. It’s an iMac. I’d like to clone an image of that HDD to other computers.

Do MacOS installations configure to the specific machine it’s on, or does it install a nearly identical version of the OS on every machine and adjust drivers depending on what’s attached?

How modular is the OS after it has been installed?

Will that actually work?  Will that be stable?

Short answer

Generally what you want to do should be fine, however there are some considerations (see long answer below).

Long answer

In years gone past macOS installations were configured as part of the installation process specifically for the hardware it was on. However, for quite some time now this is no longer the case. So, doing what you want should be largely possible, although you may have some minor issues that are inherited. For example:

I have seen situations where the computer name doesn't reflect the actual computer of the installation, although this doesn't pose any actual problems as numerals are typically appended at the end to distinguish between computers on the network
some software may not work initially as the software is simultaneously installed on multiple machines and therefore exceeding the software license

Another factor to consider is that not all versions of macOS will run on all Macs. For example, let's say the installation you love is on a 2015 iMac that's running El Capitan 10.11.6. If you clone this and then try to use it on a 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, it won't work because Macs cannot run on any version of macOS that is earlier than the version that shipped with the Mac originally. This is managed via the firmware and there's no getting around it.


Can I start an application as another user without actually switching users? Is there a way to start an application as another user so that the started application would use the other user's preferences/history/resources et al?

For example: I've logged in as Alice and I'd like to start Firefox as Bob, so therefore Firefox would show Bob's browsing history instead of Alice's.

I tried

$ su Bob
$ open -a Firefox

But with no apparent effect; as a matter of a fact Activity monitor shows the Firefox process is being run by Alice—not Bob.

I understand I will need Bob's login credentials, but that's not a problem.

From the command line you have to find the Unix executable and run it using sudo like so:

$ sudo -u Bob /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/Firefox

… or the same with su: (however this also needs you to set up a password for root - which I do not recommend)

$ su Bob
$ /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/Firefox

(…or the above in one line:)

$ su Bob -c /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/Firefox

In the past, the easiest way for PPC Macs was to use Pseudo, but it has been long discontinued. This is to drop the application icon on Pseudo's icon or window.


Does Mac Pro 2013 support 5 GHz Wi-Fi? Does the Mac Pro 2013 support 5 GHz Wi-Fi? Can't find this information on Apple product page.

Wireless

802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless networking

Mac Pro (Late 2013) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

802.11ac uses the 5GHz band

802.11ac vs 802.11n WiFi: What's The Difference? - Forbes


How Finder can find this file with long name? Macbook Air 1.3GHz Intel Core i5 8GB Memory DDR3 OSX Yosemite

This is because of the long name, I think:

  Hans-Jorg Oestern, Otmar Lorenz Trentz, Lorem Ipsum Lorem Vascular Injuries- Trauma Surgery I (European Manual of Medicine).pdf

I search unsuccessfully

Hans
Hans-Jorg
Hans pdf
Hans-Jorg pdf

No matches at all.
If I make the name shorter, there is a match.
It seems that the file is not indexed so the search is not working.

I run the command mdls [filename] and get

kMDItemAuthors                 = (
    "Hans-Jo\U0308rg Oestern, Otmar"
)
kMDItemContentCreationDate     = 2015-02-11 09:37:18 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2015-02-18 07:29:29 +0000
kMDItemContentType             = "com.adobe.pdf"
kMDItemContentTypeTree         = (
    "com.adobe.pdf",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.composite-content",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemDateAdded               = 2015-03-23 05:34:10 +0000
kMDItemDescription             = "ISBN-13: 978-3540123123"
kMDItemDisplayName             = "Hans-Jorg Oestern, Otmar Lorenz Trentz, Lorem Ipsum Lorem Vascular Injuries- Trauma Surgery I (European Manual of Medicine).pdf"
kMDItemEncodingApplications    = (
    "Mac OS X 10.10.2 Quartz PDFContext"
)
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate     = 2015-02-18 07:29:29 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate          = 2015-02-11 09:37:18 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode           = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags           = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon         = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible             = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden     = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery          = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                 = 0
kMDItemFSName                  = "Hans-Jorg Oestern, Otmar Lorenz Trentz, Lorem Ipsum Lorem Vascular Injuries- Trauma Surgery I (European Manual of Medicine).pdf"
kMDItemFSNodeCount             = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID          = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID           = 501
kMDItemFSSize                  = 65898547
kMDItemFSTypeCode              = ""
kMDItemKeywords                = (
    "ISBN-10: 3540881212"
)
kMDItemKind                    = "Portable Document Format (PDF)"
kMDItemLogicalSize             = 65898547
kMDItemNumberOfPages           = 435
kMDItemPageHeight              = 747.84
kMDItemPageWidth               = 547.68
kMDItemPhysicalSize            = 65900544
kMDItemSecurityMethod          = "None"
kMDItemTitle                   = "Hans-Jorg Oestern, Otmar Lorenz Trentz, Lorem Ipsum Lorem Vascular Injuries- Trauma Surgery I"
kMDItemVersion                 = "1.3"
kMDItemWhereFroms              = (
    "file:///Users/masi/Downloads/Lorem.pdf",
    ""
)

Time dependency for indexing

I run the same search as above during

time when asked this question
2 weeks after asked this question

and the search did not work.

I run the same search as above about 50 days later and the search works for the file.
This proposes me that something is wrong in indexing, since same location of the file.

Some Possible Factors of causing the Bug

Quartz engine used to construct the file

Other systems where bug reproduced

some iMac (see grgarside's answer below)

How can you force indexing of such files and make faster search?

I've tried creating a PDF file with that name on two machines and both immediately index the files and provide them in searches for any part of the name. I would be curious to the see the actual content of the file in case the content is somehow causing the indexer to fail, but then you say the indexes okay with shorter names, so it doesn't follow that the content is a problem.

Something you could do is try running mdls against the file. This should show you metadata that is recorded in the Spotlight index for the file. For example when I run it against the PDF I used for testing I get things like the following. You can see here the kMDItemDisplayName and kMDItemFSName are both pulled from the actual name of the file, as the document is just a random PDF about something else entirely that I simply renamed).

kMDItemAuthors                 = (
    se0896
)
kMDItemContentCreationDate     = 2014-12-11 11:38:01 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2014-12-11 11:38:01 +0000
kMDItemContentType             = "com.adobe.pdf"
kMDItemContentTypeTree         = (
    "com.adobe.pdf",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.composite-content",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemCreator                 = "Microsoft® Word 2010"
kMDItemDateAdded               = 2015-03-22 22:30:07 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName             = "Hans-Jorg Oestern, Otmar Lorenz Trentz, Lorem Ipsum Lorem Vascular Injuries- Trauma Surgery I (European Manual of Medicine).pdf"
kMDItemEncodingApplications    = (
    "Microsoft\U00ae Word 2010"
)
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate     = 2014-12-11 11:38:01 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate          = 2014-12-11 11:38:01 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode           = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags           = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon         = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible             = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden     = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery          = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                 = 0
kMDItemFSName                  = "Hans-Jorg Oestern, Otmar Lorenz Trentz, Lorem Ipsum Lorem Vascular Injuries- Trauma Surgery I (European Manual of Medicine).pdf"
kMDItemFSNodeCount             = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID          = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID           = 501
kMDItemFSSize                  = 132180
kMDItemFSTypeCode              = ""
kMDItemKind                    = "Portable Document Format (PDF)"
kMDItemLogicalSize             = 132180
kMDItemNumberOfPages           = 5
kMDItemPageHeight              = 841.92
kMDItemPageWidth               = 595.32
kMDItemPhysicalSize            = 135168
kMDItemSecurityMethod          = "None"
kMDItemTitle                   = "Job Title"
kMDItemVersion                 = "1.5"

Another thing you could try is running the manual import tool mdimport with the debug option against both versions of the file (i.e. the file with a long name and again with a short name) and check for differences in the data that is being extracted and imported into Spotlight's metadata stores. The following command (with the correct path to your file of course) should show you which importer is being used and which keys are being extracted. This might help diagnose the fault. This is also a way to force Spotlight to index (or reindex) a file, but I don't think I've ever found that to be necessary. NOTE: The easiest way to perform the following command is to type "mdimport -d 3 " and then drag and drop the file onto the Terminal window.

mdimport -d 3 /Users/USERNAME/Hans-Jorg\ Oestern\,\ Otmar\ Lorenz\ Trentz\,\ Lorem\ Ipsum\ Lorem\ Vascular\ Injuries-\ Trauma\ Surgery\ I\ \(European\ Manual\ of\ Medicine\).pdf"


"Battery not charging" on MacBook Pro I have the infamous "battery not charging" problem on my 2014 Retina MacBook Pro. The power source shows as "Power source: power adapter".

I checked system info and I have 1100+ cycles, which I guess is a lot. So my guess is that the battery is dead, and so it stopped charging.

Right now, the battery percentage shows 6% and seems to be staying that way. It is not increasing at all.

What worries me is every time I reboot, the battery seems to drain a bit, meaning that after sufficient reboots the battery will eventually reach 0% (as my MacBook isn't charging), and at that point I won't be able to boot up again at all.

Should I set all my energy settings to "never sleep", "never turn off", etc. to prevent any rebooting, so that the battery does not drain any further?

What can I do short of buying a new computer? I don't think there is Apple service where I am for the next few weeks. I would buy a new charger, but it appears that the charger is not the problem (or at least there is a good chance it isn't).

Coconut Battery status:
8440 mAh, Full charge capacity 6973 mAh (guess that means my battery is 82% healthy?), Cycle count: 1177, macOS battery status: good.

I found the answer to my charging problem in another question:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/301722/41731

Please make sure to upvote the answer I linked.

Short version: yank the cord forcefully and horizontally out of the notebook. Repeat it a couple of times, until the orange light starts and it starts charging. Visit the link for more information.

For reference, this is what my pins look like after the yanking (sorry, don't have a before foto):

The second pin from the right maybe looks kind of intended still, it could be the ground pin, but I don't actually know.


Calendar repeat day of week events I need to repeat bi-weekly events. This is on either the second Wednesday of the month and the first and third Thursdays. When I specify biweekly events and there is a fifth Thursday, that is included. As a result, the first Thursday of the next month is skipped and chooses the second and fourth Thursday.

Can this be done with iOS calendar or a third party app?

I had to program a bi-monthly event. I could NOT find any way of reliably doing so.

In the end I programmed 2 (identical) events, one on the 2nd Thursday, one on the 4th.

You could do similar with 3 events.


Where to complain to Apple about an premium reseller that is sending spam? I have clear information that iStyle, a Premium Apple Reseller is sending commercial email messages to people who did not subscribed for that.

In addition to this, their "newsletter" contains no information regarding unsubscribing.

I want to send this complaint directly to Apple because this would be the only way that could put enough pressure on them to change their practice ASAP.

Opinion: You should take it up with the company in question first. Give them a chance to change their practises before informing the mothership.

The contact number listed on Apple’s Web site that seems best suited is the one intended for “Reseller Referral (Resellers, Trainers, Consultants)”, (800) 538-9696


How to convert the cable in my photo to USB? I have an external hard-disk that doesn't have a USB port. It works with my MacBook. Now, I'd like to connect it to a PC machine, so I'd need to know how to convert the cable to USB. I'm not sure the name of my Apple cable (but it's definitely not a USB cable) and I don't have any idea whether the conversion to USB is even possible.

The cable you have there is a Thunderbolt Cable (herein referred to as TB).  You can get a TB to USB adapter, but you cannot get a USB to TB adapter.

Why?

First an understanding of Thunderbolt...

In short, TB is a combination of of the PCIe Bus and Display Port (herein referred to as DP).  Thunderbolt Overview

Your PCIe Bus, simply put, is the interface that adapter cards use to connect different peripherals to your computer.  While both PC and Macs have PCIe Interfaces, it's much easier to show the ones on a PC, due to their expandability.  Rest assured, while these connectors aren't in your Mac, the bus is.  It's how your HDD, WiFi, etc all interface with the CPU and each other.

Using the PC as an example again, suppose you want to add a network adapter to your machine.  You just buy an adapter like the one below.

What TB does is take all that tech, put it on a cable and allow you to attach the adapter OUTSIDE your machine.  So, for the example above, TB puts it all in a nice, neat package like what's below:

Or a TB to USB...

USB, for all intents and purposes, is just a serial data cable, it just has two data channels, a ground, and  5v power.  It does not cary any PCIe bus traffic whatsoever - it just doesn't have the capability.

It's sort of like recording your favorite TV show on a DVR.  While you get the finished product, there is no way for you to recreate all of the tracks, video frames, etc to turn it back into raw footage; it's a one way street.

Now...How do you connect that drive so that your PC can use it.   Assuming you have desktop PC with an open PCIe slot, you can use something like this HP Thunderbolt Adapter

If it's a PC laptop, you won't be able to connect the drive, and your best best would be to share it across the network.

How do you do that?

It's fairly easy.  OS X Daily has a very good write up already.

After you have gotten access to your files, I would look at switching out your drive for a USB model so that it would be compatible with all your computers.


How do I change my default "from" email address for the iOS Mail app? I changed my "Default Account" in Mail Preferences:

And this changes my default "from" address when I send an email from (say) the Twitter app

But when I use the Mail app to send an email, it uses my old "from" address by default.

If you are creating a new message, then the "default" account will be used.  If you are replying to a message in another account, that account will be used as the "from:" address.

It sounds to me like you want to reply to a message received on (say) Hotmail and have the message come "from" a new GMail address. This is not possible to do by default; you will need to change the "from" address manually.


How to take backup of a partition from another partition I have two partition one for Yosemite OS as Macintosh HD  and another for El Capitan OS as El Capitan

Now El-capitan part is not booting up and I have to take a data backup of El-Capitan from Yosemite so that I can reformat the El-Capitan partition and later restore from the back up.

I couldn't find any tools that does this.

Any pointers to achieve this is highly appreciated !

Thanks

I can think of several ways of making a back of your El Capitan partition, provided the El Capitan partition still mounts when you're booting up from Yosemite partition then you could use Time Machine to select the El Capitan Partition in System Pref/Time Machine.

Or copy the entire contents of the El Capitan partition onto an external hard drive when you boot from Yosemite.


Website Doesn't redirect correctly I have recently created a blog and hosted that on a freehosting website.

domain is purchased from hostgater
Website is hosted on freehosting.
On hostgather nameserver has been updated as per suggested by freehosting.

Probem

If I open from my andriod mobile it shows correct page.
My mac shows the page from hostgater which ask me to update the nameserver.

Wesbite: allabouthadoop.net

C02V48Y7HTD5:~ gaurang.shah$ nslookup allabouthadoop.net
Server:     2001:1970:c06e:c0::94
Address:    2001:1970:c06e:c0::94#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   allabouthadoop.net
Address: 192.185.0.218

C02V48Y7HTD5:~ gaurang.shah$ nslookup 192.185.0.218
Server:     2001:1970:c06e:c0::94
Address:    2001:1970:c06e:c0::94#53

** server can't find 218.0.185.192.in-addr.arpa.: NXDOMAIN

I wouldn't use nslookup to test reachability on macOS. Try scutil instead:

scutil -r www.apple.com
Reachable
scutil -r 192.185.0.218
Reachable,Directly Reachable Address
scutil -r allabouthadoop.net
Reachable

Then you'll need to check if the ports you want are open once you've verified network reachability (and if you have to go through a router or the address is directly reachable on a local subnet to your Mac). I use https://brew.sh to get nmap installed easily.

/usr/local/bin/nmap allabouthadoop.net
Starting Nmap 7.70 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2018-09-02 15:10 HST
Nmap scan report for allabouthadoop.net (195.201.179.80)
Host is up (0.23s latency).
rDNS record for 195.201.179.80: free-hosting-clients.freehosting.com
Not shown: 985 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
21/tcp   open  ftp
22/tcp   open  ssh
25/tcp   open  smtp
80/tcp   open  http
110/tcp  open  pop3
143/tcp  open  imap
443/tcp  open  https
465/tcp  open  smtps
554/tcp  open  rtsp
587/tcp  open  submission
993/tcp  open  imaps
995/tcp  open  pop3s
7070/tcp open  realserver
9100/tcp open  jetdirect
9103/tcp open  jetdirect

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 14.66 seconds


Why doesn't my MacBook Pro automatically reconnect to the Wi-Fi when resuming from sleep? I have a 2012 MacBook Pro with Retina display (currently running Mountain Lion v10.8.2).

Every time I wake it up from sleep (open the lid), it doesn't seem to automatically re-connect to the Wi-Fi network. If I manually click on the connect button, it works fine. I'm fairly sure this used to work.

How can I fix this?

It should automatically reconnect but it might take a couple of seconds, more depending on the speed of your wireless router.  How long are you waiting?

It will automatically join a network if you have configured it to remember networks you have previously joined.  You can check this in the System Preferences>Network page. Click on the WiFi entry then on the Advanced button.  In the Wi-Fi tab is a list of Preferred Networks.  Make sure your network is listed, with the correct security mode.  If it is listed but not at the top, perhaps the laptop is trying other networks first.  Move your preferred network to the top of the list.

If that still doesn't work, try deleting it from the list, click OK, click Apply.  Then turn off the Wifi by clicking the "Turn WiFi off" button above.  Then turn it back on and choose your network, making sure that it is set to remember.  Save/Apply and close the System Preferences and try sleeping again.


Can I replace my charger twice if its under warranty? I have a problem: due to high power electricity my charger was damaged and I had to replace it - an Apple 13 inch MacBook Air charger. This has happened already once before, a month ago, and now it has happened again.

I want to know if, having replaced the charger previously one or two months ago, and now that the replacement charger has been damaged via the same issue (i.e. high power electricity), can I replace it again under warranty without any cost? What can I do if the Apple Care Centre in my city refuses to replace my charger the second time around?

I have no idea what you mean by High power electricity, but generally Apple will replace something as many times as necessary while it's under the warranty period so long as you haven't damaged it in some way.

Your question implies that your chargers were not faulty, so if Apple determines that they've been damaged, you may be out of luck. However, if the chargers are supposed to be able to manage whatever it is you mean by High power electricity, then they should still be covered as something isn't working properly.

Of course, this assumes that by damaged you mean it no longer works, rather than just some sort change in cosmetic appearance.

Regardless, the only way to find out is to ask Apple. If you get no joy and feel that a replacement is honestly warranted, then your local consumer laws may offer a process you can avail yourself of.


How to keep mac awake while updating I am upgrading from mojave to big sur and need to know how to keep my mac awake during this time. the terminal command caffeinate did not work, after some time the screen display went blank as usual. Is there a way to prevent the mac from going to sleep? Also, If i went to System Preferences > Energy Saver > Battery and put "Turn Display Off After:" to never, will the update be able to override that when it needs to restart the computer after the update file has installed?
Thank you in advance

The easy way at the command line is to call software update.
softwareupdate -a -i -r

The command prevents sleep, checks for all updates and then installs them. If the install requires a reboot, that happens immediately as well once the install is done.


How to post Apple Watch activity of a group to slack? Lots of people in my office are using Apple Watch. I think it would be nice if when someone finished a workout or completing activity ring, the info is posted on slack.

Is there anything I could use to accomplish this? Any App?

I could go as far as building the custom mobile app if it does not exist yet, but really need direction on where I should go first.

Since health data is highly private, you’ll want to have an app run on each device so everyone opts in to the collection.

This has been done very well - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/challenges-compete-get-fit/id1051342211

I would start there and then see if you even need slack integration. The shortcuts app does have the ability to pull data from the health database, but you’re going to need to connect a few things and then architect the trigger or have people periodically push their data. The app above has already solved all those “design and technical challenges” for you so you can all just design a challenge on workouts and fitness

Here’s how you get started with shortcuts. You can chain them together and call any web API so that’s how you’d get things to slack if there isn’t a slack app that works with shortcut automation on iOS.

There is an app for slack you could install and see if shortcuts still can post to slack after the app was renamed
from workflow to shortcuts.

https://your-slack-instance.slack.com/apps/A03A1LEM4-workflow


How to turn on the hotspot remotely (e.g. bluetooth)? I have a MacBook and an iPhone around. On the ground I have no phone signal, therefore there's no way to turn the hotspot on.

I put my iPhone on a long piece of wood and bring it in the air at a height of ~6 meters. There my iPhone gets phone signal and internet.

Is it possible to turn the hotspot on using some kind of bluetooth communication from the ground level?

Is there any other way to do it?

Yes, you can turn on the hotspot from the MacBook by choosing the phone in the WiFi menu, where it is displayed with a special icon. The feature is called "Instant Hotspot" and is accomplished using Bluetooth.

sign in to iCloud on both devices
Enable continuity (a.k.a. Handoff) on both - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204681
Enable wifi and Bluetooth on both macOS and iOS

This requires you to be using the same AppleID on the phone as on the MacBook. You'll also need at least iOS 8.1 on the phone and OS X Yosemite or later on the MacBook.

If you open System Report on your Mac and select "Bluetooth", it should be listed whether Instant Hotspot is supposed by your hardare.


How do you make the fn keyboard button work like a Ctrl button? I'm used to having the Control button at the bottom left corner of the keyboard. It's a little annoying to be pressing Fn + Tab when I wanted a Control + Tab and the position of the Control button in the new Mac keyboard layout is just very uncomfortable for any finger to reach.

Does anybody know how you can make the Control and Fn buttons change function like how you can change the modifier keys in System Preferences?

Download and install Karabiner
Open Karabiner Elements and set the Target Device in the dropdown
Map fn to left_control and left_control to fn as below


Scrolling to the bottom of 500 emails Is there an easy way to scroll up and down in the left hand pane in e-mail?
I have my ipad set to display 500 emails and its a pain to get from an email at the bottom of the list to one back at the top again.
There is an indicator bar that goes up and down as you scroll but you don't seem to be able to drag it. Please help.

A fast way to get back to the top from anywhere in the list is to tap the status bar above the list. This works in many places throughout iOS, like Safari, Notes, etc.

The only fast way to the bottom, though, is to swipe as fast as you can!


Turn off Aliases in iCloud Drive When I browse into an iCloud Drive folder (specifically Preview.app's folder) via Finder on OS X 10.11.1, I see both the files I knowingly placed there and the ones I opened with the related app, Preview in this example, which got automatically aliased in there.

To me, it's just clutter, useless. I'm thinking perhaps a workaround script or toll running periodically as a cron jobs could wipe out the aliases in the specified locations?

Is there a (hidden/unofficial)way to turn-off this behaviour of iCloud Drive that it doesn't create aliases? If not, has anyone a tool/script that would be the start of something I could adopt to clean the folders?

I would advise against deleting the aliases since the design is to place them there. Since the entire cloud folder is synchronized you're fighting a losing battle when those aliases come back from the cloud or from the process that creates them. As a bonus, you already have one copy of those files stored elsewhere in iCloud drive, so perhaps you could make progress by moving the file so that it lives in preview rather than the other folder.

If you look in terminal - you will see that all the .alias files are hidden with a . to start the name and you could easily script deletion of these files with AppleScript, Automator, Hazel, cron with something as blunt as

rm ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~Preview/Documents/.[ABCDEF0123456789]*\.alias

I've tested that while looking at brctl log -w on OS X 10.11.1 (15B42) and the system seems to not misbehave and propagated the deletion up to the cloud properly, but I can't say I'd be comfortable with automating the deletion to run continuously or even regularly.


Can I connect 2 monitors to my 2015 Macbook Pro Retina via 2x DisplayPort connections? I have 2x 24" HD monitors. Each has VGA, DVI and HDMI ports. I want to use both of them without mirroring. I do not want to use my MacBook's own screen (it will be closed) when I connect the others.

I have managed to connect the screens by using one DisplayPort->HDMI cable and one HDMI->HDMI cable. That works fine, except, because the HDMI port is on the other side of the laptop to all of the other points I need, it makes the desk a bit messy.

So I bought a second DisplayPort->HDMI cable. When I connect the second one, the system freezes up and the second monitor stays blank.

My research suggests that the MacBook Pro 2015's GPU is meant to support one DisplayPort monitor plus its own screen - but can I configure it to use two DisplayPort monitors and not use its own screen?

(There are lots of similar questions but I couldn't find one that specifically deals with 2x DisplayPort cables)

I found conflicting information about this subject, so for the sake of clarity for anyone asking the same question:

As per the comment @James left on @Bret's answer, the Mid 2015 MacBook Pro with Intel Iris graphics CANNOT drive two DisplayPort monitors simultaneously, so it is not possible to run two external 4K displays at 60Hz. This was tested on the 15" model with standard Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cables.
You can however run one 4K display at 60Hz through a DisplayPort and a second 4K display through the HDMI port at 30Hz.


Locate database does not exist, even though it is already loaded I am trying to use the locate command because even though I installed postgresql, psql is not recognized on command line:

$ locate psql | grep /bin

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

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

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

So I run the command:

$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist
com.apple.locate: Already loaded

Output:

$ ls -l /var/db/locate.database
-r--r--r--  1 nobody  wheel  11096658 Mar 25 14:29 /var/db/locate.database

If it is already loaded, then why is it telling me to create the database? I already created it. How can I get locate working?

You can update the database used by locate manually by running

sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb


VoiceOver in macOS Big Sur echos zoom level Very frustrating change here. Using VoiceOver with Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom enabled in System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom, VoiceOver will echo the zoom level while holding the modifier key and scrolling the mouse wheel. It seems to be a new accessibility feature in Big Sur but I need to disable it — super annoying.
I've looked through some plist files for VoiceOver and accessibility preferences but there is nothing relevant to zoom. No new relevant options in VoiceOver Utility nor the Accessibility pane in System Preferences.
Maybe someone might know if there was a way to disable echo for adjusting screen brightness or system volume on the keyboard? It could be tied in there somewhere but I don't know where to look for that.
Thank you very much

I was also very annoyed by this change, but finally they fixed it in macOS 11.2


How can you run Apple Diagnostic through an external monitor? My MacBook Pro A1708 is recovering from water damage.

From not working it has since been cleaned and have the LVDs Cable replaced.

Currently the display is showing black but I am able to connect to an external display.

If possible I would like to run Apple Diagnostics through an external monitor if anyone can help?

Follow these steps exactly:

Start your computer with external screen plugged in and an external keyboard, typically a USB keyboard
Once your screen is started, close its lid, it will go to sleep
On your USB keyboard, type a key. It will wake up, but now using external display as its main display
Instruct it to restart
Hold D on external keyboard when it chimes


Network issues since upgrading to Yosemite - Unable to find local systems I am on a Windows corporate network. Since I've upgraded my MacBook Pro (2014) to Yosemite from Mavericks, I am unable to find local machines on our network via DNS.

I can get onto my corporate network.
I can connect to any machine, webpage, server throughout the world via the DNS name. ( I can connect to Google, Yahoo, etc. with no problems)
I can find local systems via the IP address.

What I cannot do is find our local systems via DNS names. For example, I can ping 10.1.0.233 but I cannot ping flubert.prod.local even though that machine's IP address is 10.1.0.233.

This is an issue for many of us Macheads. Many haven't upgraded from Mavericks to Yosemite because of this issue.

This is very common problem in split-horizon DNS and heterogenous but Windows-dominated company networks. A lot of Windows sysadmins are used to the .local TLD as a valid private TLD name since at least a decade though it's not RFC-compliant anymore.

When your local area network has been configured with a domain name ending in .local, then all LAN hostname resolutions queried by a Mac will be passed to mDNS first - bypassing unicast DNS!

So hostname resolutions for .local often fail in Mac OS X applications (Safari, Chrome etc and often ping).

In contrary dig and nslookup are unicast DNS utilities, so they will both bypass the system hostname resolution order (files->mDNS->DNS) and query unicast DNS directly.

Some workarounds exist (your mileage will vary):

flush DNS cache frequently
add prod.local as search domain (to add local additionally is sometimes advised as well)

IMHO the only proper and RFC-compliant way to fix this is changing the local domain names to use a TLD other than .local in your Windows corporate network.


Does appleutd@xmr3.com belong to the Apple up to date program? I applied for the apple up to date program through their site and got now the e-mail with a password protected pdf attachment in it. Xmr3 doesn't really sound like apple. Has anybody some additional info on this?

NOTE: I didn't visit their site because the WOT add-on in safari rated the website with a poor reputation score.

I wonder if you signed up for their Up to Date Program on a web page pretending to be the Apple website. That PDF is most likely a scam, do not open it--It could execute some malicious code. In the last seven years I have yet to see e-mail communication from Apple that does not come from apple.com. Also, I think all of their invoicing is done by using HTML-formatted e-mail messages sent to your Apple ID, not PDF's. Hope this helps.


Voicemails not being intercepted by Google Voice I have a Google Voice account that is set to transcribe voicemails and send them as e-mail. This used to work on my iPhone 4.

I upgraded to the iPhone 4S and do not receive voicemail to my Google Voice account anymore. All voicemail goes to my Visual Voicemail.

How can I make my voicemails go to Google Voice?

I believe you must setup Google voicemail for every unique device. Have you tried deactivating and reactivating Google voicemail for your phone? This can be done through the Google Voice website under Settings: http://google.com/voice?pli=1#phones.