Domestic plugged iMac 2012 into multiple socket gives a little shock My family have recently moved to a new place, sort of rural area (in the mountains), I did found a power socket in the room, connected a multiple socket into it and plugged in iMac + wifi router, there was no problem at the beginning, but sometimes I feel sort of electrified field over the aluminium case (when trying to plug USB cabels).

The real case :)
Last night it was cold to work, so I decided plug 600W heater and after 1h I did touch the iMac and was "kindly" suggested to leave the party :) (very noticable electric shock).

I know it's more an engenieering question, but maybe someone had experienced similiar situation and can suggest what is the possible work around?

P.S: I used the same multiple socket in the previous house and had no problems, the new character here is the 600W heater that I've found recently from previous owners (looks like it's from early 2000')

The short answer here is that the outlet isn't grounded/earthed.  It could be that socket or it could be the entire structure (at a minimum).  Also I would get an electrical socket tester and verify your wiring.  If anything is at fault, you run the risk of damaging your equipment to injury or death.

Your best bet is to get an electrician to come in and properly ground your electrical system.

Short of that, I would get a UPS (battery backup) and isolate your iMac from the outlet - this will at least give you a little bit of protection, though it won't do a single thing to protect your iMac in the event of a fault (and this is where it will get expensive).


How do I convince iTunes to play a podcast item I've manually replaced I'm subscribed to a podcast which recently had two episodes listed with links to files which were only a few bytes big. I have no idea what went wrong on their end, but my copy of iTunes downloaded these, and I could 'play' them.

Now the songs on the server have been updated, but I cannot convince iTunes to re-fetch the files. Removing the podcast is not an option as I have 4 years of history from that podcast saved locally and I don't want to lose it.

I'm a software developer myself, so I figured, I'll just use curl and manually get the updated files, copy them over the originals, restart iTunes, and all will be well. Not so. iTunes is still playing less then a second of the file before stopping again. However, I can hear the start of the actual podcast now, so it's playing the new file, and it has also updated the length of the file (as displayed in the podcast's list of items in iTunes itself) to something I assume is correct, much longer than the 0 seconds it was before.

The mp3 files themselves play fine in VLC. How can I get iTunes to normally recognize the new files?

(if it matters, I'm on Lion with all the latest updates. iTunes version 10.5.1. I'm not syncing with any other devices.)

Delete the corrupted episode
Opt/Alt-click on the triangle in front of the Podcast name
All available episodes will be displayed in addition to the ones you already downloaded, together with a button to download them individually


How do I close the editor in iPhoto? In iPhoto 09, how do you close the editor without closing the Event you're working in?

For example, you can enlarge a photo with space, then go back to the event with space again (single-clicking the image also goes back). However, if I'm editing the image, clicking "Done", double-clicking the image, and pressing Escape or Return all take me back to "All Events". How do you close the editor only, so you can go back to the thumbnail view of the event, or at least to the enlarged photo view?

Since I got different results from @Brandon, I started experimenting again. Esc, Done, and others behave as expected when I follow these steps:

Select Events from the Library group on the sidebar
Select your event
Edit a photo
Click done, press Esc, or any other quit-editing combination.
Voila, you're back at the event's thumbnail view.

If, however, you do as I've been doing while doing one-off imports of additional photos and merging them in to your existing event, you'll be in this situation:

Do work...
Select your event from the Recent group on the sidebar (first item under Recent, above "Last 12 months").
Edit a photo
Click done, press Esc, or any other quit-editing combination.
You're kicked back to the All events view, even though the sidebar shows your recent event is still selected.


How do I prevent my Mac from switching Wifi connections when at home? I have a MacBook Pro, running Mac 10.9.5.  I connect wirelessly to the Internet through my home Cisco LinkSys E900 router, which sits just 10 feet away from my computer.  However, frequently when I leave my computer inactive for a period of time and then return after waking it from hibernation, my Internet is connect to an xfiniti Wifi hotspot, without my having done anything.  How do I configure my Mac so that it will ignore the xfiniti Wifi hot spot and remain connected to my home network?

Looks like the computer is set to prefer or prioritise the xfiniti Wifi hotspot over you home wifi, you can set your home Wifi to be of priority to any other Wifi connection and this is how to do that,

System Preferences/Network/ then select Wifi and click on Advanced, you'll see all preferred networks there.

Click and drag your home Wifi to the top.


Will Time Machine restore the "Date Created" field along with the restored files? If I use Time Machine to backup my Mac and then have to restore it later, will it retain the "Date Created" attribute of the files?

I can confirm that it does on OS X 10.9. I created a spreadsheet in November 2013, then deleted it a couple of weeks back. I've just restored it (because I didn't know the answer to this question!) and the Date Created says 17 November 2013.

Since Time Machine changes between OS X versions, I can't say that this will be the case for older versions, but I imagine it should be.


Send Enter key using the mouse I have to use the mouse a lot, but have to keep hitting enter as well. It would really help if I could use the mouse to send a global/system-level "enter" key event via triple click or something.

Why? Various programs and website forms I work with do not have a submit button to click, they rely on an "enter" keypress event. It's quite awkward to constantly move my hand from the mouse to the keyboard for one keypress every 20 seconds or so.

Is this possible?

EDIT

Not Virtual Keyboard or Mouse Keys.

Something like BetterTouchTool can be used for this purpose. You can configure gestures and actions that trigger keyboard shortcuts. You could trigger something that simulated the enter key being pressed using this tool.


OS X 10.9.3 Update causing coreservicesd lag I'm getting a lot of stalling and high CPU usage when I open folders in Finder for the first time after the 10.9.3 update. Opening that folder again works fine, but expanding a folder of 20-30 files or folders stalls the CPU on these processes for 30 seconds:

  coreservicesd
   com.apple.IconServicesAgent

I've tried relaunching Finder but the issue still occurs.

This is what fixed the problem for me:

Rebuild the Quicklook cache (in Terminal: qlmanage -r && qlmanage -r cache)
Rebuild Spotlight index (sudo mdutil -E /)

I'm not exactly sure which one of those two really caused the problem. You can try them separately.
It takes a while to rebuild both the cache/index, but afterwards Finder worked as expected.


Xcode cannot download iOS 10 simulator due to network connection issue I am having trouble downloading an iOS 10.x Simulator on Xcode. After spinning and waiting for up to a minute, a popup with the following message appears:

  Could not download and install iOS 10.1 Simulator. The network connection was lost.

I can assure you that I have just fine Internet connection and I have tried this on multiple Internet connections. I have tried closing and repoening Xcode, restarting my computer, starting Xcode with sudo...nothing works.

What's weird is that I am able to download an iOS 9.x simulator just fine. What is going on that is preventing me from downloading the iOS 10.x simulator? Any debugging or troubleshooting steps to take?

Finally found a solution, thanks to this forum post!

The solution is to run Xcode in sudo mode, like so:

sudo /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/MacOS/Xcode

This really ought to be fixed, it is not an acceptable normal user flow to require the Xcode app to be run from the terminal in order to workaround this error.


Dock randomly switches between screens. Any way to stop? I have a iMac running OS 10.9.3 that has 2 monitors connected to it.

Randomly, thourhgout the day the dock will flip either to the left or right screen. Its pretty annoying.

Does anyone know what is causing this or how to fix it?

Dock position could be changed when You place Your mouse on the bottom edge of the secondary screen and then move it down again.


What happens if you used "rm -rf *" in /Users or /Users/someUser? Note: Don't type rm or any variation of it into terminal under any circumstances if you are not experienced with the command line

Does the Mac OS X block you from using rm in those directories to delete a user or delete all the users and do you need to use sudo and put in an administrator password or does it let you without any passwords?

For example if you typed in the following line into terminal would it just completely wipe everything?

cd /Users; echo rm -rf *

Of course the echo wouldn't be used if you actually wanted the remove command to run.

Two cases:

you're logged in as root. Everything goes away.
you're logged in as a normal user.  All of that user's files go away.

In some systems, rm is supposed to prompt you if you do this at the "/" level.  Do not count on that prompt.

With El Capitan, Apple supplies a "prompt" per se, which by default should leave enough of the operating system to boot and recover from your backups.  To see if this has not been disabled, use

csrutil status

Further reading:

How to Disable System Integrity Protection (rootless) in OS X El Capitan
Re: Backing up ACL's


How should a user of OS X verify whether backed up data comprises everything required for lossless restoration? I'm most interested in approaches that compare both:

the original file
the backup

– after the time of backup.

I'm aware of two approaches. Others will be appreciated.

Less interested in approaches that verify integrity of:

only the backed up file
only the file system used for backed up files
only the media used for that file system.

n8gray.org: Backup Bouncer

Improvements to Backup Bouncer were noted in March 2012 by Mike Bombich, developer of Carbon Copy Cloner.


2015 MacBook Pro battery replacement at Apple store I have an appointment scheduled for next Monday at an Apple store for a battery replacement on my early 2015 MacBook Pro with a Retina display. I was told that for this model, they need to swap the entire keyboard and track pad  in order to replace the battery.
Can the repair be done in the same day, or does it typically take several business days?

I had this done on my 2014 MBP (essentially the same model) last year, and it took exactly 7 days. It might be quicker or slower, depending on how busy they are, but it is a difficult job.


iPad camera to cloud I'm looking for a truly basic app that takes photos with the built-in camera and uploads them somewhere in the cloud.

I stress basic because I need my photos to be easily programmatically reused without a lot of translation (glue code) on my part.  For example: a Media RSS feed with nothing but the photos themselves, or a WebDAV folder.

Apparently this is the functionality of Photo Stream on iCloud. Requires iOS5 and Lion (or a recent Windows version) though.


Save an app for later download? I am looking for a way to create a wish list in the App Store, like you can in iTunes on the desktop.

Is it possible to do this on the App Store from an iPhone?

That is actually a feature I've seen with "third party" app stores but never in the official App Store itself. I did however just check and I guess the closest in relevancy is the feature to "Tell A Friend". I presume you could simply tell yourself by emailing the direct link for that App Store application.


Mini Display Port to HDMI - no sound My Mac Book Pro was purchased in 2010.  Using a Mini Display Port to HDMI cable yields no sound. "System Preferences"  "Sound" "Sound Effects"  "Play Sound effects through" has no TV icon.  Can you help.

It's possible your Mac doesn't support audio over Mini Display Port:

These Apple computers supply multichannel audio (up to 8 channels) and video signals over Mini DisplayPort:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012 and later) 1
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)1
Mac mini (Mid 2010 and later)1
Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
MacBook (Mid 2010 and later)
MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 and later)
MacBook Air (Late 2010 and later)
iMac (Late 2009 and later)

Also, have a read of this question:
Does this Mini DisplayPort to HDMI connector output audio?


Which ports does the Messages app for OS X use? If someone has a list of the ports that Messages uses I would appreciate that answer here. Extra votes and thanks for providing a reference.

I have searched the knowledgebase and found this, but it only lists iChat ports. I'm assuming Messages replaces iChat, but do they use the same ports? Barring a direct answer, is there an easy way to figure this out with Netstat or some other utility?

Using Little Snitch, it reported when Messages is fired up, the following:

And for posterity, here is what the 'FaceTime' application reports as connections, since you can call it up from Messsages (camera icon next to user you're messaging's name):

If anyone finds anything different, please add to this answer. (Making it community wiki).


How to drag file on OS X without having to click it twice I'm running Mojave 10.14.6.

On previous version of OS X, I could click and drag files same as on other OSs. However, with this version, by default it had the 3-finger drag, which I disabled by un-checking Enable Dragging. Now when I try to click and drag a file, nothing happens. I need to click to select the file, at which point its highlit, and THEN I can click and drag it.

Does anyone know how I can configure my system so that I can just click and drag files without having to pre-click to select the file first?

My suspicion is you have Accessibility options you don’t like enabled.

Unable to double tap on the trackpad to highlight multiple words in macOS Mojave
What's the difference between one finger dragging and drag lock?


What does the red 1! msg mean in the Byobu status panel? I've used Byobu on Linux systems, and the x! msg (x being a number) means that many corresponding packages need to be updated. However, on a Mac with brew (all packages updated) I cannot tell what the 1! msg is trying to tell me? Is there someway to parse it's data out?

Byobu checks for updates on macOS using this script:

# Mac OSX
# check if any new versions have been installed since
# we last cached. this may not recognize formulae
# installed with HEAD
for f in $(brew --prefix)/Cellar/*; do
    [ "$f" -nt "$mycache" ] && return 0
done
# nothing new has been installed, so check wether the
# formulae database was updated
[ "$(brew --prefix)/Library/Formula" -nt "$mycache" ]


Does the developer of a Mac OS X app get the crash reports when the app crashes? If an app crashes while I'm using it in OS X I get a little (apparently) OS-driven dialog that lets me "report the crash to Apple". It sends along a stack trace and some other system information.

Does this crash information get shared with the app developer of the app in question at the time the crash occurred?

Mac OS X Reference Library Technical Note TN2123 states:

  CrashReporter performs two useful
  actions:

  When a program crashes, CrashReporter will record a crash log
  (typically into
  ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/), and
  inform the user by logging a message
  to the system logging facility.
  In addition, if the program that crashed is running as a logged in GUI
  user, CrashReporter will present the
  user with a dialog asking them whether
  they want to submit a bug report to
  Apple (see Figure 1). If the user
  clicks the Report button,
  CrashReporter displays another dialog
  that shows the details of the report
  (see Figure 2) and allows them to
  comment it before submission.

And not much further along, states:

  In this technote I explain how to interpret crash logs that you have obtained from end users.

I believe this implies that the information is not automatically shared with the developer.  The developer needs to "obtain" the crash logs from the end users' ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ folder.


Cannot open graph .gcx file saved by Grapher I'm facing an issue where I am unable to re-open any saved graphs that have a contour plot inside. For example, if you plot sin(x)*cos(y) and save it, you will not be able to reopen it in Grapher. It will just say: The document “test.gcx” could not be opened.

Example of a plot that I cannot save and re-open:

Apple's grapher does not save and reopen correctly files without real equation (with the sign equal)
Another problem is with upgrading the os, and the security : sometimes you have to allow (with "open anyway" box in the security preference panel) the system to load a file previously created.


Turn off mail notifications when in mail (OS X El Capitan) Does anyone know of a way to have mail notifications turned off when I'm in my mail client (more specifically, when the Message Viewer Window has focus)?
It's rather superfluous to receive a notifications in the top right when I can see the mail coming in in Mail's main window.

Go to System Preferences > Notifications and set Mail Alert Style to "none" and also uncheck notification center, badge app icon and sound options.
This would turn off all the notifications for the default mail client.


How do you add a table in OneNote 16.24 for iPhone? On both versions of the desktop app I'm able to add a table, but in the mobile version 16.24 on iOS 12.2 I'm unable to add a table.

Most wiki's have a syntax for this, I guess OneNote is a note taking app, and so that makes it different.

Currently, Microsoft has not added the ability to create tables on the iPhone.

Tables can be created in iOS using an iPad only (which is why I posted my comment; since deleted).  This feature has been missing since OneNote was introduced.


Memory card on iPhone I have an sd converter for my iPad but can't find anything like it for my phone?  Plan on using it to view shots from a trailcam while in the woods

Are you mean this thing:http://www.amazon.co.uk/iPad-camera-connection-USB-Adapter-reader/dp/B004R4NLJC.  It only support iPad, not include iPhone, and I searched for iPhone SD card reader, there is no result.


Using Dark Menu Bar and Dock In the ten minutes since I have updated my OS I have restarted the computer three times (I was testing something with displays having separate spaces, and a restart is easier than logging in). Each time it's started back up I've had to uncheck that box.

After reading Cannot disable "Dark Menu Bar" on Mac OS I think there is a good chance my preference files have been corrupted (since installing El Capitan deleted all my system preference files). I don't know how to fix them.

I've never had a problem with the menu bar or it's color before. Can I stop this from happening a fourth or fifth time?

Restart your Mac.
Do not change any settings

Execute chmod -RN ~/Library/ in terminal.

It'll restore permissions for your library folder.
After the command have finished running (it can take from seconds to several minutes) try to change the dark setting, and restart.


Dell U2713HM LCD Monitor Killing Wifi (and ethernet) on my Mid-2012 MBP and iPhone 4S I just purchased a Dell U2713HM monitor.

As soon as the monitor is turned on, the internet (both wifi and wired) goes out.

I have tried the following fixes:

1) Changing channels on wifi router.

2) Changing display resolutions. Very low resolutions bring the internet back (on both cable and wifi).

3) Different ways of hooking the display up to my Mac (directly via a Mini-displayport to displayport cable or by first connecting a mini-displayport to regular displayport adapter and then hooking the monitor up to that).

4) Trying to find settings in the monitor's OSD that may account for the strange behavior.

Any and all help is very appreciated.

Thank you very much!

I want to post a quick update as I have been able to isolate the problem.

My MBP's magsafe power adapter was hooked-up to the same power strip into which my Dell display was plugged into.

Plugging the magsafe into a "discrete" power outlet solved the wifi blackout issue.

I hope this helps others dealing with similar issues...


Is it possible to remove cell borders from Numbers? I imported an Excel spreadsheet that contained a few cells with black lines as their border.  Is it possible to remove these outlines through Numbers (iOS)?

I have tried copying and pasting, the Format > Cells > Border Style, and deleting the contents, but the black border always remains (and actually spreads if I copy and paste the contents elsewhere).

It's not iOS but this is how they've done it on OSX:
Under the "Table" tab, uncheck "Grid Lines"

You might also set "Table Outline" to "None" and play with the 3 buttons to the right to add/remove grid lines from the headers.


Resume file move after Finder crash (unmoved items appear washed out) I was moving a large amount of data to an external drive.  The Finder crashed (or appeared to restart) in the middle of the operation.

Now the files appear as "washed out" in the external drive (exFAT), and the move operation doesn't resume.   If I try to move again, the Finder tells me that

  The selected items can’t all be put into the same location, because at
  least one of them named “something” is busy.

Why does this happen? What does the washed out appearance mean? Is there a way to resume the move?  Is it safe to just delete the washed out items (note that it was a move, not a copy)?

The "washed out" items are basically just placeholders that the files were meant to be copied into. Those files aren't anything until the copy finishes and the real files are there. You can safely delete them and start over.

Step one, I would just reboot. This makes sure any copy operations are ended and you know it's safe to delete the placeholders once you've rebooted.

Sometimes Finder gets upset about you trying to delete its placeholders because it thinks they are still in use (busy). If this happens, open Terminal and use

sudo rm -rf /path/to/file/

Replace /path/to/file/ with the actual path, obviously.

That command will allow you to delete ANYTHING, even stuff your Mac needs to run, so make SURE you point it at the right files. They will be gone after this command runs, ignoring all warnings and restrictions. ...but that's fine for these placeholders; you just want them gone so you can try again.


Connecting App Store release app to Xcode I am trying to connect an App Store released app to Xcode.

The reason I want to do this is because I want to check attribution data from Appsflyer and make sure that it is sending partner data that we can use for internal tracking purposes.

When I use Xcode to generate a build for my device, it only lists it as organic tracking, so I need to use a release version that has gone through the proper attribution method (i.e. clicking a link that leads through Appsflyer).

Is there anyway to get the print logs from an installed (from the App  Store) app via Xcode or some other way? I.e. a way to attach the process to Xcode? I looked in the Attach to Process part of Xcode but didn't see the process anywhere.

You can access the device logs using Console. In Console.app, connected iOS devices appear in the sidebar and selecting a device brings up the system log in real time.

To use Xcode to attach to the process, choose Debug → ‘Attach to Process by PID or Name’ and enter the name of the app. See Attach debugger to iOS app after launch on Stack Overflow.


Using a Macbook Pro as a second monitor for another Macbook Pro My parents are visiting us for Christmas, and we'd like to watch a movie together. We have two Macbook Pros between 4 people and no TV or other display, so we'd like to watch the same movie, synchronised, on both computers. We're on the same WiFi network but don't have any HDMI cables, thunderbolt cables, etc.

Is there a way that we can use one of the Macs as an external monitor for the other Mac, in order to achieve this?

Unfortunately, the Bluetooth antenna is broken on one of the machines, so a Bluetooth solution won't work for me. However, feel free to post one in case it's helpful for other users.

so we'd like to watch the same movie, synchronised, on both computers.

You can leverage the Screen Sharing feature built into macOS to achieve this. You'd just need a network connection (which you happen to have via Wi-Fi) and would NOT need any cables whatsoever.

To use Screen Sharing, on the MacBook on which you'll be playing the movie, go to System Preferences app → Sharing and enable Screen Sharing.

Once configured, the other Macs in the same Wi-Fi network would be able to see the configured MacBook and can request access to your configured MacBook.

However, in this scenario, you'd have to resort to using the original Macs speaker. So the audio playback would only be from one MacBook (which would also be the case in an external display scenario).


Will the new iPad (bought in Korea) work in the USA? I want to buy the new iPad (iPad 3) in Korea with both the WiFi- and cellular service, but I was wondering if this configuration will work on the Verizon Network in the US?

According to Korea's Apple Website the WiFi + cellular specs are:

Wi-Fi(802.11a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 4.0 기술
UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
4G LTE (700, 2100 MHz)

Also, I was wondering if it would be unlocked?

Yep, it will work in the USA. There is no difference in the hardware for a cellular iPad bought in USA or in any other country.

All iPads have been sold unlocked since their release. So yes, it will be unlocked.

Source: http://store.apple.com/us/question/answers/ipad?tqid=Q79JKFTAAKPHKF2FTPT47A24U4YAUH79K

  "Both the AT&T and Verizon model of iPad can roam worldwide on GSM/UMTS networks. In countries without compatible 4G LTE networks, the new iPad will operate on GSM network technologies such as HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA.
  When you travel internationally, you can use a micro-SIM card from a local carrier."


tccd stuck and taking up lots of cpu Often when I am using XCode (and sometimes other apps) the tccd process will take up lots of CPU or just get stuck. I find myself more and more having to kill that process (now it happens multiple times a day). It always seems to immediately re-start the process as soon as it is killed.

I am wondering if there is a way to fix it so that it does not break all the time.

I found this blog post titled: Fix TCCD process consuming high CPU usage when run Xcode.

excerpt

  Using Xcode 8 is really a frustrating experience. When compile swift source files or write code in Sierra(the latest macOS), Xcode frequently freeze. It's nuking productivity. After a long time of searching, I found this is caused by a process named tccd which take up to 70% of CPU usage. What is tccd? It seems to be a access controller that manage the permission to user's contacts. So the solution is quite easy, go to

  System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Contacts

  uncheck Xcode and restart it. Then, it works again.

So it would seem, simply disabling contacts will disable tccd thereby dropping the high CPU load.


How to repair permissions on /usr/local after accidentally changed? I accidentally run command chown -R paulie /usr/local (I needed to add some subfolders).

How can I get it back?

Now I already resolved problem with mysql data, but still have problems with gcc, for example.

Assuming you only changed the owner (as your command states), you can return everything back to root ownership by

chown -R root /usr/local

If you think you may need to fix the group ownership too, then this is better

chown -R root:wheel /usr/local


Skype for Business Mac Chat History Storage Location I downloaded Skype for Business on Mac and I have tons of Chats saved, but there is no setting for deleting them after X amount of days or a way to delete them in mass. Currently, I have have to right click then delete on every single chat.

Does anyone know where the Chat history is stored on Mac?

Open Finder and navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/.
The “~” sign means your home folder. To find your home folder, open Finder and in the main menu, select Go > Home or press Command (Apple) + Shift + H keys.
It is the folder that has your Skype Name.

An app restart may be required after making modifications.

Source: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10888/how-do-i-manage-my-conversation-history-in-skype-for-mac

Also, try this location: /Library/Application Support/, as there is a difference when the tilde sign is used.

Furthermore, the stores file can be found in ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.SkypeForBusiness, which is the user folder according to This Post


How to make a dump of my iPhone so as to make forensics I would like to be able to run a forensic analysis on my iPhone from a disk dump copy made on my Mac or any kind of Unix as I would from any external disk with a dd command.

For those who are curious: why do I want to perform such a forensic analysis?
I would like to detect malware, data leaks, to check what is encrypted, what isn't…, this is a method I would like to be able to
run easily and as frequently as I need as a security audit.
I only trust what I understand!

I am open to any software method I can replay.

How may I proceed to see my iPhone as a normal disk?

How may I decrypt the dump obtained since I know my password, but not how is built the AES key from it?

You can read about how the encryption is performed and how the AES keys are built in Apple's iOS Security Guide:

https://www.apple.com/business/site/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf

In particular this describes that the key is not available to the application processor. It is only available within the Secure Enclave. This means that even though you know your password, you cannot rebuild the AES-key from it on a different computer.

This means that it is not possible to do what you want (i.e. dumping the raw disk contents and decrypting it on another computer using AES keys that you build from your own password on that computer).

In regards to dumping raw disk content, you can use the dd command if you want - but you cannot really use it for anything.


Turn off the ability for users to have a password hint I am working on a security setting for my company that requires users to not have a password hint. Since we have several users that either

ignore our security options and
purposely go against ones they don't like, I need a way to turn it off in terminal for 10.13-10.15.

I know I could create a script that pulls the User lists, and repopulates the opendirectory command to insert a 'blank' password (dscl . -merge /Users/username hint "password hint"), but I would like to turn off the ability as part of the setup. I have scoured the Internet and found nothing so far.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
PS. I also want to build a profile for it, but we are a ways away from profile management but any suggestions on that would be helpful as well.

The ability to disable Passwords Hints has been built into macOS
System Preferences → Users & Groups → Login Options.  Just make sure "Show Password Hints" is unchecked.

Using Terminal, you can issue the command:
defaults write com.apple.loginwindow RetriesUntilHint -int 0

Your security policy
You aren't alone in dealing with employees/users who what to go against the grain so to speak when it comes to security.  The users that you described:  the ones who ignore your security and the ones who actively go against your policies can actually be the biggest threats to data security.
First thing to know is that there is no technology you can implement that will secure a user who ignores your security policy - i.e (don't use personal email accounts when sending sensitive documents) or employees that circumvent them (puts a Post-It note with their password on the screen because it needs to be changed every 90 days).

The very first thing you need to do is define the security policy and why it's being defined.  Describe what data or system (or whatever) you are protecting and the risk it poses if it's compromised (i.e. loss of revenue, litigation, etc.).

The very next thing is to get buy in from management.  Not only should you periodically remind employees, but have an official communication come from management spelling out the policy - don't do this alone!

Thirdly, involve HR (or whoever is ultimately responsible for hiring and firing) to spell out the consequences of not adhering to the policy.

Why is this important?
As an IT manager, I can't tell you the number of times a data breach occurred not because I or the systems I put in place failed, but people who didn't like the policies actively went around them.  Having these operational policies in place squarely puts the burden on the employee and management and not you.  Now, as an IT consultant (I charge for this type of analysis) I can't tell you how many times my business increased because the IT manager took my report, went back to management and said "see, I told you so."
Obviously, I'm speaking in broad terms, but the takeaway from this is to not shoulder security by yourself.  Define your policy, use whatever tech is available (can afford) and get buy in from the whole organization.


Is there a way to suppress badge counts and the dock icon bounce for Terminal.app in Lion? With the new state saving features (which I want to keep), the dock notifications are more aggrivating to me in Lion. Can I suppress the bounce and/or the notification badge functions?

While I like the new restore feature in Terminal.app that re-opens the tabs and shows the last 500 or so lines in the history, I absolutely hate that the Terminal.app now is so much more communicative and intrusive as before.

If I have a command like tailing a log file in the terminal, it constantly keeps telling me when there are new entries, which turns out to be pretty annoying.

Not only does the Terminal.app's icon jump in the Dock, it also has this nice little red badge telling me how many tabs have updates for me. Fortunately this only happens when the Terminal.app's window is hidden behind others, but nevertheless it's pretty annoying.

I looked through the Settings and can't find an option to disable this. Are there any hidden settings I could switch on/off there?

Google finds an example of what is, I think, disabling bounces for all Dock icons (not Terminal alone):

Annoying infinite bounces of an icon on alert!!!

defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE

However, that may be not the solution in this case. Puzzling me:

[macbookpro08:~] gjp22% date
Tue  2 Aug 2011 13:40:41 BST
[macbookpro08:~] gjp22% uname -a
Darwin macbookpro08.centrim.freeman-centre.ac.uk 11.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 11.0.0: Sat Jun 18 12:56:35 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1699.22.73~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
[macbookpro08:~] gjp22% defaults read com.apple.dock no-bouncing
2011-08-02 13:40:57.029 defaults[2501:303]
The domain/default pair of (/Users/gjp22/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist, no-bouncing) does not exist

— nothing relating to no-bouncing my preference file, and I can run for example

tail -f -n 50 /private/var/log/system.log

— then bring something other than Terminal to foreground, watch things added to the log and in my case:

lines added to the background window do not cause any bounce, do not cause any count to appear in the Dock icon.


Remove search box within imessage How do you get rid of the search box within the imessage app at the top? I enabled it by doing the following:

In the Messages app, back out to the main view that lists all conversations. Scroll to the top (by tapping on the time at the top of the screen — an eleventh hidden trick for this list!) and then pull down a bit more by tapping the middle of the display and dragging your finger down a bit. You’ll see a hidden search box appear above the first conversation.

How can I reverse this?

Once you have revealed it, it stays.  To remove it, you can go into the app switcher (double tap on HOME), and swipe the app away to force it to restart back in the default mode with a hidden search bar.


Clear cached frameworks to reload OSX UI (graphics only) With the release of Yosemite I'll no doubt be needing to update our OS X UI at work, basically just white-labeling various parts of OS X. I lost my bash aliases a while back and have forgotten the command to reload the UI of OS X.

I'm looking for a way to tell the OS to clear any frameworks it might have cached somewhere and load them fresh from disk. The ultimate goal in doing this would be to force any changes you made to your .framework packages to get reflected in the OS.

Shutting down and logging off don't seem to do the trick. But there should be a bash command that will work.

Just to clarify, I'm not looking for a way to restart the Window Server, that won't really do what I want.

Here is an example of a framework that I'd like to refresh:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LoginUIKit.framework/Resources

EDIT

For example, I used to be able to reload the following types of system graphics, I'm 90% sure it wasn't a chain of commands either, just a single magical UI refresher:

Finder Icons, Textures

Menu Bar Icons

Lockscreen Icons, Text

Function Key Icons

If you're looking to re-label parts of OS X, the file you would want to modify is Localizable.strings. Within each language, or the current language of your OS, for instance, en.lproj/Localizable.strings for English, modify the necessary strings. It is necessary to only restart the app for it to take effect.

If you're looking to change the theme of OS X, there used to be various apps that could do it. For Yosemite, the only one I know of is Flavours 2. It includes various themes, and you can also make your own.

http://flavours.interacto.net

For menu bar icons, there are a few menu bar icon packs, like the following;

http://aaronolive.deviantart.com/art/Menu-bar-Icons-OS-X-Mavericks-10-9-x-406393600

though I'm not aware of any apps that work with Yosemite that allow you to change them automatically. You would need to find the correct folder to place the icons, like Yourapp.app/Resources/.


Apple TV+ (the subscription) - how can I tell what it actually offers? I recently activated my one year subscription to Apple TV, after buying a phone.
However, I find it very challenging to tell what it actually delivers.  Not a big deal while it's free, but certainly makes it unlikely I'll renew at $5/mo or so.

Sicario, the movie, shows up.  Great, except that I can rent or buy it.  So, not included with Apple TV.

Game of Thrones.  Great, except that it seems like Apple TV is helpfully aggregating it to itself from my paid-for Crave (HBO's distributor in Canada) subscription.  Sure enough, it sends me to the Crave app and replaces what Crave was previously playing.

Greyhound (Tom Hanks) WW2 movie.  This one seems to be on the level and actually part of the channel, but nothing really differentiates it from Game of Thrones, except for a small icon bottom right.

And so on.  How do I see what a subscription actually buys me?  And how, when I search, do I avoid extra-fee listings like Sicario?

The easiest way I browse TV+ content is by opening the TV app on iPad and look for the channels. Tap on it, then you can see all the major shows. Also, on each show in the app, look for the service in the text as well as the badging in the lower right corner.

Of course the free episodes can and will change, so I wouldn’t count on things that are free today being so in a month or vice-versa. If you prefer web access: https://tv.apple.com lets you browse and watch off device (AppleTV, iPhone, iPad, etc..) in a native app.
Since the native apps show all channels, not everything is included nor is everything in the app advertisement free, however what you pay for from the + is commercial free, downloadable, playable for the duration of the subscription whether it’s subsidized or paid in cash / store credit.


Slide links not working when exporting as PDF from Keynote I've done a presentation in Keynote. On the first screen I included a few links to different slides. I tested them in Keynote and they're working, however when I export to PDF they're simply not there anymore.

Note that used Export to > PDF and not print as PDF and I also looked in the export settings and saw nothing related to links..

I had the same problem. I put the link to a slide on items that were grouped together. If I ungrouped the items (I had text inside a circle) and just selected the text and added the link to that, then when I exported to PDF the links worked.


Sharing screen snippets from Windows 10 to iPad 7 Is there a good way to share screen snippets taken with Windows⇧ ShiftS to an iPad?
Window's cloud clipboard requires Microsoft launcher.

As far as the individual manufacturers go (Apple and Microsoft), their universal clipboards are for products in their eco system.  In other words, Apple's universal clipboard only works between Apple devices (i.e. macOS to iOS).  Same with Microsoft.
However, you have a couple of options:

Save your snipit to a file and save that file to a cloud service like OneDrive or iCloud.  There are Microsoft OneDrive clients for macOS and iOS and reciprocally there are iCloud clients for Windows.

Use a 3rd party utility like 1Clipboard that will allow you to sync a clipboard between Windows and macOS (requires Google drive)

Personally, I use the first option and simply save any image I obtain from my Windows machine to a OneDrive folder and pick it up on my Mac through the OneDrive folder there.  The clipboard could be more convenient but I'm not keen on having Google products installed, but if it's something you already use then it's an easy integration.


Resizing Macintosh HD partition to use free space I recently deleted a partition and have 60GB of free space. I would like for my main partition to use that, but whenever I go to resize it, I get the error "You can’t perform this resize unless it has a booter".

This Ask Different post has what you're looking for. Don't go looking for an "answer," the author for some reason decided to write his own answer in the "question" post. The method worked perfectly (and non-destructively, but you should always take a backup anyway, just in case) for me!

Paraphrased:

  Reboot in Recovery Mode by holding down Command-R as your Mac starts up.
  Open Terminal (from the Utilities section of the Menu Bar).
  Run the command, diskutil cs list
  Take the Logical Volume ID (a long string of letters and numbers) 10 lines up from the bottom of that command's output, and use it in the command:

  diskutil cs revert [Logical Volume ID]
  This should convert the CoreStorage Logical Volume to a normal disk partition.
  Run diskutil cs list again, and you should receive a "No CoreStorage logical volume groups found" message.
  Now you should be able to resize your partition normally through Disk Utility.

Good luck!


Globally move mouse pointer and click using VIM keystrokes? I'd like to be able to hit a hot key, and enter a mouse movement mode where I can move the mouse pointer around the screen using VIM keystrokes - regardless of the app I'm in (ie globally for all apps)

For example, just say my mouse mode key was SHIFT+COMMAND+M

I hit SHIFT+COMMAND+M to enter mouse mode
I use h,j,k,l to move the cursor around the screen, and possibly some other keys to jump from monitor to monitor
I hit the enter key to click, and leave mouse mode, or hit esc to exit mouse mode.

Are there any apps out there that would let me do this? I'm aware of "Mouse Keys", but I really want to be able to customize:

the keys I use to move around
the amount of movement that's done by the mouse when a key is pressed.

A tool that might just help you is Cliclick. With it, you can read the mouse position using the p:. command, move the mouse using the m:x,y command, and click using the c:. command.

This is a bit of a hack, really, but regarding the multi-monitor support, you can use Slate, where you can programmatically call Cliclick with the coordinates of the mouse in a different monitor. I'm sure there are other alternatives, though. I also used Slate to bind the other first calls to Cliclick.

The "mouse mode" is a bit tougher. In Slate you can create "modal hotkeys" pressing two hotkeys in succession (like ^W in Vim), but no support for whole modes. You could, however, dynamically edit the .slate.js binding file to contain "normal mode" or "mouse mode" bindings each time you change the mode.

I did something similar yesterday, so hope this helps. :)


Expand APFS container using free space located before the container within macOS I have an SSD (disk0) that contains my macOS Mojave installation. SIP is enabled (and for reasons outside my control, cannot be disabled) so I cannot give the output for gpt -r show disk0 nor can I unmount disk0.
But going into Windows (installed on a completely separate drive), is one partition located at the end of the drive (my macOS install) with free space preceding it but I was unable to run diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s3 0 because of Error: -69743: The new size must be different than the existing size.
I tried creating an APFS partition and merging the two together, after creating a partition, this is what the diskutil list disk0 output is:
/dev/disk0 (external):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         250.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI SYSTEM                  536.9 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk5         110.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         139.5 GB   disk0s3

Running diskutil mergePartitions APFS Macintosh disk0s2 disk0s3 gives me
You cannot merge disks into an APFS Physical Store

Instead, you can delete the partitions following the APFS Physical Store by
using "diskutil eraseVolume free n <disk>" for all such partitions, and
then by growing the corresponding APFS Container by its APFS Physical Store
to fill the gap by using "diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0"

Doing so in the reverse order gives me
The given partitions are not ordered sequentially on disk

The only problem is, they are sequential!
I don't want disk0s2 because that is my free space, I need to preserve disk0s3. GParted's APFS support is limited so I'm hesitant with shifting the APFS drive using that. All resizing guides presume free space is succeeding the partition, what should be done if it is preceding the partition?

I copy the contents of the container to a new disk / volume and then evaluate if it's faster to erase the entire drive or I want to merge / rearrange things.
The short answer is the tools are designed to have one container for the entire storage so you can move date between volumes without running into ordering issues. One container per drive is how I run boot volumes to avoid painting myself into a corner like you have done here.
The long answer is use volumes inside a container so you're working on a synthesized disk as opposed to a physical disk.
/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +499.9 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume macOS - Data            327.0 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 255.2 MB   disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                664.6 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume macOS                   15.2 GB    disk1s5
   6:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.2 GB    disk1s5s1

So, in your case, here is what a machine might look like as you prepare to upgrade to Big Sur where you can maintain a Catalina / Mojave and Big Sur beta Volume alongside the Big Sur shipping version when it's time to upgrade Macintosh HD to Big Sur.
me@dev ~ % diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Apple_KernelCoreDump                         655.4 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.1 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     71.9 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 81.2 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                525.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume bitbucket               99.7 GB    disk1s5
   6:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            11.5 GB    disk1s6
   7:                APFS Volume Big Sur                 761.9 KB   disk1s7
   8:                APFS Volume Mojave                  761.9 KB   disk1s8
   9:                APFS Volume Catalina                761.9 KB   disk1s9

Also, now that I said you can't do it - can you shrink the files on disk0s3 so that it fits in disk0s2 / move the data, then delete disk0s3 and grow disk0s2 to consume the now free space at the end of the physical disk?


Sharing multiple files on iCloud by using System Events in Applescript: How to intercept an option? I am trying to share a folder with many Numbers files with iCloud, by sharing each file with an AppleScript and saving the path of each shared file so that I can send it to my collaborators. To do that, I use System Events. I got to the point in which I can share the files, but I cannot do something really simple.

By default, when you share a file  Numbers gives you the "Mail" option by default in the "Invite with..." . There is also an option "Copy link". If I find a way to select that option, I can get then everything else working.  However, despite my many attempts, I could find no way to tell System Events to change that default selection. Yet I can see what syntax Automator uses for the very same action, but when I copy that syntax into Script Editor, the action is not executed.

If you want to understand what the problem is, assuming that you have a 'test.numbers' file into your Numbers folder of your iCloud disk, the following script will share that file (paste it into the Script Editor app):

=====

    tell application "Finder"
        open POSIX file "/Users/[
   XXXPUT HERE YOUR USER NAME
   ]/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Numbers/Documents/test.numbers"

        end tell
    delay 2
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Numbers"
            delay 1
            tell menu bar 1
                tell menu bar item "Share"
                    tell menu "Share"
                        delay 1
                        click menu item "Share Link via iCloud…"
                        delay 1
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
            click button "Share Spreadsheet" of UI element 1 of sheet 1 of window "test"
            delay 5
        end tell
        delay 5
        tell process "Numbers"
            tell menu bar 1
                tell menu bar item "Numbers"
                    tell menu "Numbers"
                        delay 1
                        click menu item "Quit Numbers"
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell

=====

However, I found no way to do the simple extra step of changing the default value of mailing the link (you will see that the script paste the link into a message.

Does anybody have any clue as to how to achieve that? I tried the following possibilities, from a call to "System Events":
--click image 1 of UI element 3 of row 1 of scroll area 1 of UI element 1 of sheet 1 of window "test" of application process "Numbers"
--click button "Copy link"  of row 1 of scroll area 1 of UI element 1 of sheet 1 of window "test" of application process "Numbers"
--click UI element 3 of row 1 of scroll area 1 of UI element 1 of sheet 1 of window "test" of application process "Numbers"

When the script does not complain, the action is simply not executed.
For clarity, I am talking about selecting the option "Copy Link" in the pasted image:

Any suggestion is welcome.
Thanks,

(Using OSX El Capitain 10.11.5)

OK so I answer my own question.
It is possible to do what I wanted, although I did not find a satisfactory solution.

The short answer is: I could find no way to use applescript with the direct manipulation of the graphical interface (eg. clicks). I did find a way by using key alternatives. To do the exact bit of work that I needed, the following  sequence will do:

-- after opening the document in Numbers, open the share window:

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Numbers"
        delay 1
        tell menu bar 1
            tell menu bar item "Share"
                tell menu "Share"

                    delay 1
                    click menu item "Share Link via iCloud…"

                end tell

            end tell
        end tell

    end tell

-- once the share dropdown window is open, use the following key combination

tell application "System Events"
--add tabs

    delay 1
    key code 48
    delay 1
    key code 48
    delay 1
    -- use arrows to move to the right part of the 'Share' window
    key code 124
    delay 1
    key code 124

    delay 3
    --  click return
    key code 36

    delay 8
    -- save the file and close it
    keystroke "s" using {command down}
    delay 4
    keystroke "w" using {command down}

The long answer is: it is a pain in the neck for a series of reasons.

First, when you create a Numbers file, it is a simple file. However, when it is shared, or when it is being saved in iCloud, it becomes a package. Applescript sees packages as folders, so you have to do some check before doing anything as to whether what you are dealing with is a folder or a package. Then you can go on to the sharing operations.

Now, I found NO principle way to intercept when exactly a file becomes a package. That is, when you open a Numbers file and ask it to be shared, you will see that Numbers gives you a "preparing the document to share" message. This, I found, is when the file is transformed into a package. There is a property that one can use in order to check if a given path corresponds to a package or a single file: one could loop while (package folder of the item_info is false) and then continue, but this property becomes set as true well before Numbers has finished its own "preparing the document to share" work. So I could only guess when I can continue and go to the sharing part of the script. I  put a rough delay of 30 seconds when a file is not yet a package, which should give plenty of time for Numbers to finish its transformations of the file to share:

if (this_package_folder is false) and (this_extension is in the extension_list) then
    delay 30
end if

Second, you must be on a good network, so that all operations related to Numbers in iCloud can be done smoothly -- otherwise,     iCloud will give you error messages that will block the execution of the script

Third, you have to take care of the .DS_Store files and other files that may be inside the folder where you put your Numbers  documents to be shared.

Fourth, if you want to identify where the iCloud folder with the documents to be shared is, from inside AppleScript you won't see it as you see it from the finder (i.e., in the iCloud Drive), but you will have to look for it in /yourUser/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud Drive/yourfolder.

With all these caveats, here is the script that I am using now. In my system, it works. It assumes several things:

there is a folder in your iCloud where your Numbers documents are
you have a file where you want to save the paths of the files that will be shared, so that you know the paths that you have to communicate to those with who you want to  share your files. In my case, I use a Pages document.
the files to be shared ARE NOT already shared. Otherwise, the script will give errors.
you don't care about errors and style. The script has no error checks. I am not a programmer.

The script will ask you to first identify the folder with the documents to be shared, then the Pages file where you want to save the paths of the shared documents, and then will open the documents to be shared one by one, will share them, will save them, will copy their path to the Pages document that you selected, and finally will quit Numbers and Pages. Give plenty of time for the script to execute and don't interfere with it. Notice that when you open each Numbers file, you can modify the script so that you insert specific operations that you want to be done on your files, always with the same technique (for example, in my case I need to find a cell, find a value, copy it somewhere else and save it. This part of the procedure is not in the script below. You can add whatever your fantasy leads you to invent as contorted and complicated operations).

Now, if somebody finds a way to REVERSE the operation, unsharing the shared files, and especially, a way to tell if a file is ALREADY shared or not, so that the script acquires generality....

I paste the script below.

-- Beginning of the script
global f

property extension_list : {"numbers"}
tell application "Finder"
set source_folder to choose folder with prompt "Please select directory."
set posixSource_Folder to POSIX path of source_folder
tell application "System Events"

    set these_items to POSIX path of disk items of folder posixSource_Folder
end tell

my createList(these_items)
end tell

on createList(these_items)
tell application "System Events"
    tell application "Finder"
        set f to (choose file with prompt "Choose a file where to store the paths")
    end tell
end tell
set posixF to POSIX path of f
delay 2
tell application "Finder" to open file f
delay 1
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
    set this_item to item i of these_items

    set the item_info to info for this_item
    set this_extension to the name extension of item_info
    if folder of the item_info is true and (package folder of the item_info is false) and (this_extension is not in the extension_list) then

        process_folder(this_item)

    else
        if (this_extension is in the extension_list) then
            process_item(this_item)

        end if
    end if
end repeat
close_files()
end createList

-- this sub-routine processes folders
on process_folder(this_folder)
-- set these_items to list folder this_folder without invisibles
set posix_this_folder to POSIX path of this_folder
tell application "System Events"

    set these_items to POSIX path of disk items of folder posix_this_folder
end tell
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
    --set this_item to alias ((this_folder as Unicode text) & (item i of these_items))
    set the item_info to info for this_item
    set this_extension to the name extension of item_info
    --if folder of the item_info is true and (this_extension is not in the extension_list) then
    if folder of the item_info is true and (package folder of the item_info is false) and (this_extension is not in the extension_list) then

        process_folder(this_item)
    else
        if (package folder of the item_info is true) and (this_extension is in the extension_list) and (alias of the item_info is false) then
            process_item(this_item)

        end if

    end if
   end repeat
end process_folder

-- this sub-routine processes files

on process_item(this_item)
set the item_info to info for this_item
set this_extension to the name extension of item_info
set this_package_folder to the package folder of item_info
set Posix_Item to POSIX path of this_item

set Posix_File to POSIX file Posix_Item
delay 1
--opening the Numbers file
tell application "Finder" to open Posix_File
delay 3
-- going to Numbers and making the file shared

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Numbers"
        delay 1
        tell menu bar 1
            tell menu bar item "Share"
                tell menu "Share"

                    delay 1
                    click menu item "Share Link via iCloud…"

                end tell

            end tell
        end tell

    end tell

    -- extra time allowed for non packages

    delay 3
end tell
if (this_package_folder is false) and (this_extension is in the extension_list) then

    delay 30
end if

--tabs
tell application "System Events"
    delay 1
    key code 48
    delay 1
    key code 48
    delay 1
    -- arrows
    key code 124
    delay 1
    key code 124

    delay 3
    --  returns
    key code 36

    -- leave some time for Numbers to actually share the file. Maybe you need more time for your system.
    delay 8

    -- saving and closing documents
    keystroke "s" using {command down}
    delay 4
    keystroke "w" using {command down}

    -- Now returning to the file where the paths have to be pasted
    tell application "Finder" to open file f
    delay 2
    -- pasting the local Unix path
    keystroke "v" using {command down}
    delay 1
    key code 48

    delay 2
    -- pasting the iCloud remote path of the shared document
    set the clipboard to Posix_Item
    delay 1
    keystroke "v" using {command down}
    delay 1
    key code 48
    key code 36

    delay 1
    keystroke "s" using {command down}
end tell

end process_item

--closing files

on close_files()
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Numbers"
        tell menu bar 1
            tell menu bar item "Numbers"
                tell menu "Numbers"

                    delay 1
                    click menu item "Quit Numbers"
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell

    tell application "Finder" to open file f
    delay 2
    keystroke "q" using {command down}
    delay 1
end tell
end close_files
-- end of the script


Connecting to a Folder on a Different Partition Using AFP or SMB I'm in the process of setting up a DeployStudio system. Part of the requirement is that the server be able to connect to a Repository of files.

On my server, that Repository is located on the partition "NetRestore-Images."

I've adjusted the permissions to the folder to R/W for everything. I've verified that File Sharing is on and is set to share by AFP and SMB. I've verified the folder is showing up in both the File Sharing System Preferences Pane and OS X Server File Sharing.

Despite this, I cannot connect to it. I get an error saying that "Share does not exist on the server."

I have tried the following addresses: (For the purpose of this example, I'll be using 192.168.0.1 as the server IP)

afp://192.168.0.1/Volumes/NetRestore-Images/Repository
smb://192.168.0.1/Volumes/NetRestore-Images/Repository
nfs://192.168.0.1/Volumes/NetRestore-Images/Repository

I've also tried with the DNS Server Name (which I'd prefer not to use)

afp://psu-nx-01.corp.walrus.net/Volumes/NetRestore-Images/Repository
smb://psu-nx-01.corp.walrus.net/Volumes/NetRestore-Images/Repository
nfs://psu-nx-01.corp.walrus.net/Volumes/NetRestore-Images/Repository

I've tried doing it without the NetRestore-Images and a few other variants but nothing seems to work.

Any suggestions? I just want to be able to mount this folder directly.

For anyone who runs into this, the folks on the DeployStudio forums posted the answer:

afp://192.168.0.1/Volumes/NetRestore-Images/Repository

when connecting to a share, don't use the full path to the share point.  If the Share is named "Repository", then as far as your client is concerned, "Repository" is the root folder.  For example,

afp://192.168.0.1/Repository

or if you are sharing the NetRestore-Images folder,

afp://192.168.0.1/NetRestore-Images/Repository


Downloaded an app from App Store but it never appeared on my iPod touch I was downloading Clash of Clans. I clicked the download button and it did everything normal. But when it finished, the app never showed up on my iPod touch. So then, I decided to delete it and try again, but there was no deleting option that I could find.

Can anyone help me?

Power off your device and try opening the game first after the device starts from a clean boot.

If that doesn't work, you'll have to find the app on the home screen and delete it.

Here is Apple's KB on troubleshooting apps that don't open:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1702

Feel free to ask a second question if you can't use that document to solve your Clash of Clans issue.


Is it possible to upgrade from El Capitan to Sierra if you have the pkg and pfpkg files? Per this article I downloaded the 10.12.6 versions of Sierra's pkg and pfpkg files. I cannot use the technique described in the article because Sierra is no longer available in the App Store. Is there a way to use these files to upgrade my MBP without the App Store?

Only if you know the exact location of the files for 10.12.6, the last available version.

From your link...

  Update: Here, we have mentioned the URL of the package file for macOS
  10.12. If the latest version of macOS Sierra available on the Mac App Store is a different one, MAS will fetch it from a different location.
  Hence the workaround mentioned here will not work, unless you know the
  URL of the latest package file and create the directory structure on
  localhost based on the same.

It's always wisest to download any major new version from the App Store - any time between when it's released & when it's taken down - even if you never install it. That way it will always be in your purchase history & you can get it again at any time.


Changing service order using Terminal I would like to write a script to change the service order from Ethernet 1 to Ethernet 2.  Any help would be appreciated.

You need to use networksetup to do this:

networksetup -ordernetworkservices <service1> <service2> <service3> <...>

For full details, refer to the man page (man networksetup)


Screencasting in 1080p from a retina display without scaling, possible or not? I want to make some tutorials in 1080p on my MacBook Pro with retina display. Is there a way to record the screen "natively" in 1920x1080? I don't care if it would look scaled and blury at the time I'm recording it. Also, I wouldn't mind if I had black bars up and down (due to the different ratio). I just want to have a sharp 1080p video as the final result (a video that will be as sharp on YouTube, when it's switched to 1080p playback).

Has anyone tried it? Any suggestions, preferably experiences? Thanx...

After much searching and toying with various programs I finally found one that did exactly what I wanted.

http://www.madrau.com/

Now I have this fancy menu that I can use to quickly change my screen resolution.

I record my screen at 1280 x 720 HiDPi (720p). It puts black bars on the top and bottom of my screen, but for recording purposes that's totally fine. You can also record at 1920 x 1080 if you need 1080p, but I find that text gets really tiny at that resolution; with 720p I only need to zoom my text editor in slightly.


How can I specify a drive in Applescript without the drive name? I had a main system drive on my iMac named "Macintosh HD" and wrote my scripts to reference files on that drive.  For instance, to get to my library directory, I had "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Documents:Dev:AppleScript:" as the full path.
The problem is that I'm having drive issues and need to replace my drive before it goes bad.  To keep track, I cloned my original system drive ("Macintosh HD") to "System Temp," which is connected by USB.  I can afford to use this drive for a few days, but need to return it to a server as soon as I can.  Early this week I'll be getting a new drive that will be the long term replacement drive, named, "System."
I don't want to name each drive "Macintosh HD" because that makes it hard for me to keep track of them, but I'd like to keep the scripts working throughout the process.
How can I, in Applescript, specify a pathname to a drive without using the HD name?  If it's the main HD, what is the equivalent of the Linux form of "/" for the root file system, so I'd use "/home/me" to get to my home directory?  Is there some way to do something like "::Users:me" instead?  I just want to be able to tell Applescript something like, "This is on the main system drive," or, "Use the boot drive."
I tried a lot of possible alternatives and none worked.

Instead of using HFS file paths, use posix paths.
Use System Events for file operations, which handles posix paths as well as HFS paths.  It even knows how to expand the ~, so your home directory can be expressed simply as folder "~/", and your main disk is mounted at folder "/".
As for your attached USB drives, you essentially have to reference them by name.  They'll be listed under folder "/Volumes", or you can use this command (via System Events):
get the name of every disk where it is ejectable -- i.e. attached drives

I'm not entirely able to tell if I've answered all your questions.  Leave a comment and I'll fill in whatever seems missing.


Will upgrading my 2007 mac-mini from Tiger to Snow Leopard be a performance upgrade? I'm cleaning my old 2007 mac-mini and am wondering whether I should upgrade it to Snow Leopard while I'm at it?
I want to do this only if this will be any performance upgrade.
Note that I have upgraded it's memory from 1GB to 2GB.

Thanks in advance,
Ittai

It is advisable to upgrade to Snow Leopard in your case. More specifically, it's very advisable to upgrade from Tiger to Leopard (10.5) at the very least. This will ensure that you can use newer software and hardware that is on the market these days.

Personally, I didn't notice massive performance increases between Leopard and Snow Leopard, but on paper it is designed to better take advantage of the hardware in your Mac Mini. You'll also see alot of new features that have been incorporated into 10.5 and 10.6 since Tiger.

You'll have to source a copy from eBay or something as now Apple only sell OS X Lion (10.7) through the App Store.


MacBook Pro CD burning is not permanent I am trying to burn a bootable CD to update my harddisk firmware. This is what I have tried:

Using Disk Utility: pressing burn, selecting the bootable image, speed = maximum possible (24x), verify burned data is checked, pressing burn.
The superdrive spins, makes noises indicating that it's doing something, I get a message "burn succesful", and then the CD is mounted on the Desktop with all the expected contents. I eject the disc, insert it again and it's empty.

Again using Disk Utility: pressing burn, selecting the bootable image, speed = 8x, verify burned data is checked, pressing burn.
The superdrive spins, makes noises indicating that it's doing something, I get a message "burn succesful",  and then the CD is mounted on the Desktop with all the expected contents. I eject the disc, insert it again and it's empty.

Using the open source Burn app: going to Copy tab, dragging iso image in, pressing burn, verify data is checked, speed = 24x.
I get a message that all went well, the CD is mounted on the desktop, all contents are there, but on ejecting and inserting the disc again the disc shows as empty again.

I tried this with 4 Philips discs.

Does anyone know what my problem could be? I'm on a MacBook Pro 5,3 with 10.6.8.

Looking around at different forums I found out that this behaviour might be caused by a dirty lens. I ended up buying this cleaning CD, and after giving it a spin I could burn CD's normally again.


How can I prevent jittery video playback on High Sierra? I have a 17-inch MacBook Pro with 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3. I purchased some kids videos from iTunes in 2015/2016 to entertain my kid. Those videos played flawlessly then.

Today, in 2018, I was trying to play exactly the same videos again on the same computer but with latest macOS High Sierra. The videos playback becomes jittery. The sound is still smooth, but the video is like several frames per second, not watchable at all. I've heard Apple deliberately slowed down the iPhones. I'm wondering whether they did the same thing with MacBook Pro.

Update:

I installed El Capitan, and played the same video. It was smooth as it should be. Here are the evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fogEmqSE0ME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBljv5YnjnY

No, Apple did not deliberately slow down your Mac. (As for deliberately slowing down iPhones see this).

The reality is I see this sort of thing all the time, on both Macs and PCs, as well as other devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, etc).

As time goes by the minimum requirements for software and hardware change, and the configuration of a particular system will have a big impact on how long it will continue to keep up with software changes etc.

Without knowing the full specs of your MacBook Pro (e.g. type of storage device, software, etc), it's nevertheless 8 years of age and obsolete.

As a result, this model will run Mac OS X El Capitan better than it's going to run macOS High Sierra. And, once you're running a particular version of an operating system, this will have much broader ramifications. It's not just the OS, but bundled software such as browsers that have greater requirements. Additionally, some 3rd party software/hardware will no longer work, or they'll have limitations, hence the need to regularly update/replace them as well.

In general, macOS High Sierra has greater requirements than El Capitan had, and although it still runs on older hardware such as yours, that doesn't mean all features will work on your machine. And while High Sierra can run with 2GB of physical RAM, its requirements are such that it's more RAM hungry than El Capitan was, hence placing a greater burden on your storage device for virtual memory purposes (having a fast SSD is going to handle this better than a traditional hard drive).

In other words, the problem you're experiencing is most likely the result of a scenario something like the following:

macOS High Sierra needs more memory to run (both in terms of RAM and graphics)
It therefore uses more of your physical 8GB RAM, thereby leaving less RAM available for other software etc
In response, macOS High Sierra makes more use of virtual memory to help manage the limited memory resources
This places a much greater burden on your storage drive which is having to deal with a lot more read/write operations
Your video playing software is potentially having to make more use of virtual memory and your storage drive is having to perform even more read/write operations as it has to deliver the video as well as everything else it's doing
End result: A stuttered playback experience.

Summary

The overall burden on your system from having High Sierra installed (along with all of its associated software etc) is much greater than having El Capitan installed. And, this overall burden will be more obvious with some functions than it will be with others. Unfortunately, playing video files is one such candidate for this.

If you had a 2011 MBP you might have been able to address this by increasing your RAM to 16GB, but that's not an option here. If you don't have an SSD already, then installing one will definitely help. If playing videos is the main purpose of this machine, then leaving it with El Capitan installed may be an option for you. Otherwise it's time to reconsider your setup as your MBP is no longer able to meet all of your needs.


Automatically change settings of Terminal when in full screen I often use emacs from a terminal (emacs -nw), and when comparing two files side-by-side (C-x 3) it is often useful to go into full-screen mode.  I'm using a 27" screen, so full-screen mode provides a lot of screen real estate, usually more than I need.  To counteract this, I typically increase the font size under Terminal->Preferences->Setings.

Is there a way to have settings -- e.g. font size -- changed automatically when going to full screen in a Terminal application?

I notice that one can define a preset Setting, which can be swapped out easily, but it would be nice if it was swapped out automatically when going full screen.

You could try AppleScript to do something like

tell application "Terminal"
    set zoomed of window 0 to true
    set font size of window 0 to 24
end tell

but I haven't found a way to activate fullscreen mode this way yet


Third party man pages in touch bar The yellow man feature of the touch bar does not seem to use manpath,
for example /opt/homebrew/share/man/ is ignored. How do you configure this?

You need to add a MANPATH entry to /private/etc/man.conf as follows:
MANPATH /opt/homebrew/share/man

This will direct man to include the specified path directory in the search path (from man man):

If you don't specify an explicit path list with -M or [the] MANPATH [environment variable], man develops its own path list based on the contents of the  configuration
file  /private/etc/man.conf. The  MANPATH statements in the configuration file identify particular directories to include in the search path.

If have tested it in Big Sur and it works.
Why doesn't man honor the MANPATH environment variable in this case? When you look for a man page by pressing the "Open man Page for Selection" option in the Touch Bar, a process like the following is executed:
login -pfq <username> /usr/bin/man -P ul <command>

where:

username is your username
command is the command whose man page you want to display

login starts man directly, and it is not aware of the value of the MANPATH variable.


How can I set the iTerm2 window title to be the same no matter which pane is selected? I'm aware that the iTerm2 window title can be set with

echo -ne "\033]0;"Title goes here"\007"

but that appears to only set the title for a single pane. When I switch panes, the window title is changed.

How can I quickly/automatically set the window title to be the same for every pane?

If you are just looking for a static title you can add that line to your ~/.bash_profile. Just be sure to source it to load it:

source ~/.bash_profile

Otherwise you could use an alias. Those are also added in your ~/.bash_profile as well:

alias title1='echo -ne "\033]0;"Title goes here"\007"'
alias title2='echo -ne "\033]0;"Other Title goes here"\007"'

Hope that helps!


How to protect an iPhone 4s from Internet access? Is there a way to disable/lock the Wi-Fi network access on an iPhone 4S?  Crazy question, I know.  But I got my son an iPhone and do not want him to have an Internet access. I disabled his data through my account with Sprint.  But with Wi-Fi he can still get on the Internet when he is within reach of open hotspots (we do not have open Wi-Fi at home).

I want to be able to disable the Wi-Fi capabilities of his iPhone so that he cannot access the Internet.
Any suggestions?

There isn't a way to do this directly on iOS. What you can do that is the closest thing to what you want to achieve is to follow these steps:

Go to Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions and create a passcode that only you will know (and it should be different from the passcode that has been set on your son's iPhone, if there is one).
Then deselect the following items: Safari, iTunes Store, iBookstore, Installing Apps, Deleting Apps, in-App Purchases, Siri, and FaceTime (of course, deselect whatever you see fit, but my example is an extreme example).

On the same Restrictions menu, go to Accounts and tap "Don't Allow Changes".

Go to Restrictions once again, and go to Cellular Data Use and tap "Don't Allow Changes".

Finally, go back to Restrictions, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and tap the following switches under Game Center: "Multiplayer Games" and "Adding Friends."

I'm assuming that you don't want your son to use any form of Internet on the iPhone AT ALL. This will limit the iPhone to the most limited form as possible. I can't guarantee that your son will not be able to use the Internet in some way, shape, or form, but at least you have now severely limited the chances.


What to do if I sold my MacBook Air and didn't disable iCloud I recently sold my MacBook Air, and I deauthorized iTunes, wiped the hard drive, and reinstalled snow leopard (the os version that came installed with the MBA).

I stumbled upon this shortly after, which made me very nervous since I didn't do it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5189

This is what I didn't do:

  Turn off Find My Mac and sign out of iCloud

  To turn off the iCloud service on your Mac:

  Choose System Preferences > iCloud. Deselect Find My Mac to disconnect
  your devices from iCloud. Click the Sign Out button on the left side.
  The system automatically removes iCloud data from all of your devices.

How nervous about this should I be? Also, is there anything I can do now that the computer is not in my possession?

Not at all - when you wiped the drive, the iCloud registration token for that device was wiped as well.

The only remnants of your account on that Mac might be your FindMyMac token that gets stored on the Recovery HD.

You might contact the seller and lest them choose whether you will send a remote wipe at their convenience to clear that. If they enable Find My Mac - they will see your email and be able to remove your hold on tracking at device.

If you can't or don't want to contact the buyer, you could also just forget that device using the web interface to iCloud or the Find My Phone app on iOS.

Again, the person can't get at your information or log in as you - just that computer might still check in depending on how exactly you wiped the storage drive.


iOS 12.2 unknown words can be dragged around, but why? By accident I've discovered the following:

I open the messages app and write some text in the message area
I write a word that the phone doesn't have in its dictionary and it gets a red dotted underline
I tap on it and it gains a pink highlight and the black menu appears suggesting alternative words

At this point I can hold my finger on the red highlight and then drag the word around the screen. It appears in a white background rounded rectangle with a superimposed green plus, while the misspelled word in the message box is a grey color. The keyboard disappears.

I haven't been able to figure out what else to do with it- dropping it on various parts of the screen doesn't seem to do anything. I did wonder if it added it to the dictionary but it seems like such a bizarre UI for doing this, and the next time I write the word it still suggested as a misspelling..

What is this functionality for?

When you click on the word like that it is selected.  You can drag the word around at that point.  If you select some text and drag it around you'll find that it does the same thing.  You'll have to select some bigger text so you can click the middle of it and not change the selection.


Why does Google Chrome mount and unmount a volume every few hours? I'm assuming it's part of the 'check for updates' process, but does anyone know how this is controlled and what it's mounting and unmounting?

I first discovered this behavior after updating Growl, and I ran HardwareGrowler to see what it did (it was a slow afternoon) and it's kind of neat to see what hardware is connected at any given time, and watching what happens when I plug in various USB peripherals, etc.  I know, I have a severely deficient view of entertainment.  After amusing myself with this for about 5-10 minutes, I returned to my work.

Some time after this, I spotted out of the corner of my eye a Growl message that said 'Volume Mounted Google 8.0.0 (something)'  And just as quickly 'Volume Unmounted Google 8.0.0 (something)'.  I didn't get time for screen shots, it appeared and disappeared within seconds.

Has anyone else noticed this and is the explanation for it posted somewhere online?  Apparently there's some helper process that's running that's doing it, but I don't see anything in Activity Monitor with Google or Chrome in the name.  I'm not a process-killing weenie, I'm just curious about this behavior I'd never noticed before.

Apparently there is a Google Software Update process that is queued to run periodically, which is why it's not always there. (I couldn't grab a screenshot of it, it was too sneaky). It's not just for Chrome, but for Google Earth and Picasa too. It was a bit of a breadcrumb hunt finding info about it.

I think the Google updater isn't a proces that runs all the time, but a launchd job that runs when you boot and every so often after that. Google com.google.keystone.user.agent and you'll find a number of explanations of what they've done (and how to get rid of it if you want).
charlie  (Apple Discussions)

From Google's Help Page:

Google Software Update is a background application for the Mac OS that helps ensure that you always have the most up-to-date, stable, and secure versions of the Google software you have installed. Google Software Update may run two services: GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent and GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon. These services allow Google applications to be safely and securely updated.

I couldn't find, and I'm not aware of any reason it mounts a partition, but it's probably either:

A bunch of information about which updates are available and for what apps
Updates for products, Google Chrome updates are quite regular
An Update for the Updater

Ah the endless mysteries of HardwareGrowler. Entertainment for the whole family!


Mojave bootcamp assistant limits partition size MacBook Air 2015, Mojave installed, 125 GB flashdrive

We had a VM for windows, but with installing Mojave, deleted everything additional down to bare Mac OS and tried to install W10 with boot camp assistant (BCA). According disk utility, MacOS is taking 27 gb (including W10 iso file), free 93 gb. BCA partition keeps 47 gb for Mac, with remark 8 gb free. It will not go lower.

I used Disk Utility to make a disk partition of 30 gb for Mac, 90 gb for second partition. No problem. I deleted that partition, again disk space 120 gb, free 93. Tried again BCA, no dice, will not go below the 47 gb for Mac OS.

Any way to push this lower? I would like to go 85 gb for W10, 35 gb for Mac. That should be enough for both OS and some working space for extra programs, all larger data files go through external drives or cloud.

Update: Output from diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     GUID_partition_scheme                         *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                       EFI EFI                      209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                Apple_APFS Container disk2           30.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                Apple_APFS Container disk1           75.0 GB   disk0s3
   4:      Microsoft Basic Data Data                      15.9 GB   disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +75.0 GB    disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s3
   1:                APFS Volume W10                     745.5 KB   disk1s1

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +30.0 GB    disk2
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            20.5 GB    disk2s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 44.4 MB    disk2s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                522.7 MB   disk2s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk2s4

If the BCA will not create the partitions in a way you want and you can, then consider installing W10 using a flash drive. While the use of a flash drive is not required, the procedure is simplified when one is employed. A Microsoft recommended install of W10 involves creating 3 new partitions which are listed below.

A Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition of about 16 MB.
A Windows partition of at least 20 GB.
A recovery tools partition (WRE) of about 800 MB.

Even though Microsoft recommends a MSR, often the Boot Camp Assistant does not create this partition and Windows apparently works correctly when omitted. If the WRE partition is not created, then the software normally installed in this partition will be installed in the Windows partition. So technically, you only need the Windows partition. You can manually create the other partitions, but again this complicates the installation procedure. The exact Microsoft document explaining these requirements can be found at the Microsoft website UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions. Note: This document states the WRE should be 500 MB, but with the current W10 release, the size needs to be 800 MB. So, if you wish to create the three partitions, then the procedure would be as follows.

Boot from the flash drive.
When the first Windows 10 installation screen appears, enter a shift+F10 to open a Command Prompt window.
Run the diskpart command to create the partitions. In other words, create free space by deleting the single partition you created using macOS and create the three partitions in the free space.
Close the Command Prompt windows an proceed with the installation of Windows.

Instructions for creating a USB Windows 10 installer flash drive can be found as part of the accepted answer to Boot Camp Assistant fails to create the USB installer from the Windows 10 October 2018 Update.

  Note: When installing using a flash drive, the Mac may reboot back to macOS before Windows finishes installing. If this happens, the select Windows from the "Startup Disk" pane of the "System Preferences" application, then click on the "Restart" button. The Windows installation process will pick up from where it left off.

Steps to Download the Windows Support Software

This example as done using a iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013) running macOS Mojave Version 10.14.4.

Using the Finder application, open the Applications folder. Next, open the Utilities folder, which can be found in the Application folder.
Open the Boot Camp Assistant, which can be found in the Utilities folder.
From the menu bar, select Action, then Download Windows Support Software.

In the popup window, select where to store the download. In the image shown below, the Downloads folder was selected.

Below is an image of what to expect during the download.

Below is an image of what is shown when downloading completes. Some of the Windows Support Software files may be needed during the installation of Windows. Therefore, even though you are suppose to run the Windows Support Software application (Setup.exe) after installing Windows, you still need to copy this software to the same flash drive containing the Windows ISO files.

Installing Without the Windows Recovery Environment (WRE) Partition

  Note: You probably can skip step 2.

Boot from the Windows 10 flash drive.
In this case, you will not need to use the diskpart command. However, you still could use the diskpart command to view the partitioning of the drives. When the image below appears, press the key combination shift+F10 to open a Command Prompt Window.

Enter the following commands.

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
list volume
exit

Your results should be similar to what is shown in the image below.

  Note: The output from list disk command must show a * in the Gpt column for Disk 0.

After entering the exit command to close the Command Prompt window, proceed with the installation.
If you encounter the image shown below, select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).

When the image shown below appears, select Drive 0 Partition 3.

Confirm the selected partition is approximately 75 GB. Next, click on the Delete button, then click on the OK button in the popup window.

When the image shown below appears, select Drive 0 Unallocated Space.

Confirm the selected unallocated space is approximately 75 GB. Next, click on the New button, then click on the Apply button. Click on the OK button in the popup window.

The result should appear similar to what is shown below. Confirm the selected partition is approximately 75 GB. Click on the Next button to continue with the installation of Windows.

  Note: If you do not what a Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition, then you can delete the partition before proceeding. In this example, I did not delete this partition.


Is there a way to get an Airport Extreme to coexist with a second router offering VPN? Essentially, I want add VPN functionality to my home-office domain so I can access it from  other locations, and allow the occasional other person to access it this way.

Obviously, the two routers need to be daisy-chained together, only one of them should be the DHCP server, and only one of them should connect to my ISP, and so forth. The key question is whether the AirportExtreme can happily do half of the job it was intended to do.

Has anyone here had experience building such a configuration?

Thanks in advance
Josh

Yes, there is. You set up your other router as the default gateway for the Airport Extreme, put the Airport extreme in bridging mode via the Airport Utility.

The new router will be connected to your ISP, and have the VPN tunnel set up, depending on which model you choose you will be limited as to what type of tunnel you can set up (GRE, IPSec) or something else, in the case of routers such as FritzBox (which can only set up VPN tunnels to other FritzBox routers.

I would recommend the cheapest 800 series router from CISCO.

Or you could also  run pfSense virtually or on a stand alone box which will provide VPN functionality you require.


Mojave guest OS on Yosemite Host via Parallels Desktop 10 I can't get to the welcome choose your country screen when installing Mojave virtualised via Parallels Desktop 10 on my Yosemite system (MBP Retina 2015).

I downloaded the 6GB Mojave '.app' file as per the OSX Daily webpage (http://osxdaily.com/2018/09/29/download-full-macos-mojave-installer/) via the installer from this website:
http://dosdude1.com/mojave/

1st attempt (via .app file):
Parallels didn't automatically find the OS file so I located manually. I got the message "unable to detect operating system". I clicked continue and selected OSX. When starting up I got a boot failed message. I figured perhaps Parallels doesn't recognise an OS via .app file and that I should convert it into an ISO file...

2nd attempt (via ISO file):
I created an ISO file from the .app file. I did this via steps 1-7 (under the 'Creating the installation media image iso' sub-heading)in this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/a9twye/mac_os_1014_mojave_vmware_15_diy_guide_no_3rd/

Again Parallels didn't automatically find the OS file so I located manually. I got the message "unable to detect operating system". I clicked continue and selected OSX. This time I got the apple logo and load-up bar screen. I then got the MacOS Utility screen. After selecting 'install macOS'  and clicking continue it took several minutes to get to the next page. Then I got to the screen where It says select your drive to install. I selected the Macintosh HD and clicked next but then I got the error message:
"An internal error occurred while preflighting your volume for APFS conversion".
I was reverted back to the MacOS Utility screen. So this time I did not click on 'Install MacOS' instead I selected 'Disk Utility' and clicked continue which quickly took me to the Disk Utility screen. I selected the Macintosh HD and went on the menu bar to select [Edit -> convert to APFS...]. I got the dialog box 'Converting Macintosh HD to APFS' saying the conversion was complete and the operation was successful.

So now I got past the select your drive to install screen. However, I couldn't complete the installation. Using this video as a reference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbLEtH4PnlQ):
I couldn't get past the blue loading-bar screen (6:00) ie. could not reach the welcome screen (6:03). Basically after the blue loading-bar screen I get the initial apple logo screen and then goes back to the MacOS Utility screen.

I don't know if this is an issue with Parallels Desktop 10, the Mojave file I downloaded or something related to compatibility. I prefer not to update/upgrade Yosemite.

Would greatly appreciate any advice.

Here are the visualizers that I know about.

Parallels:
Full version
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/
fyi: Free version of Parallels for individual use:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/parallels-desktop-lite/id1085114709?mt=12
Free version, if still available, will only work with the most current version of macOS.

VMware Fusion
With VMware Fusion, run the most demanding Mac and Windows applications side-by-side at maximum speeds without rebooting
http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

VirtualBox
VirtualBox is free, but you get what you pay for. Works fine for non-macOS operating systems.  Nightmare to get to work for macOS.  Basically, you need to match a version of VirtualBox with a version of macOS that will work.
"VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. " Runs Windows on Mac OS.
http://www.virtualbox.org/