Mid 2011 iMac 27'' won't boot - 3 beeps and maxed fans My iMac GPU failed about a week ago causing the OS to get stuck on a white screen with vertical pinkish stripes.

I’ve performed a careful teardown to reflow the GPU. While I was at it I took the chance to repaste the CPU and give the iMac internals a clean using air duster can. I’ve put everything together and double-checked the connections which look ok to me.

Upon pressing the power button, I’m greeted with 3 beeps every 5 seconds. After around 35 seconds all the fans are maxing out on top speed.

Looking on the internet I’ve seen that the basic diagnosis for the 3 beeps every 5 seconds is RAM issue. I have 4 different RAM cards (all were lightly clean with air duster). I’ve tried each on each of the iMac 4 RAM slots. I doubt that I managed to brick all 4 sticks, to be honest, but hey I guess it’s possible?

I’ve then taken the screen apart again and can see that led 501 and led 502 are lit and behaving as expected. led 503 and 504 are not led but this is what I would expect since the iMac never sounds the startup chime.

I’ve made a quick movie of the process: https://youtu.be/vrQ9qOJo2YA

Is it guaranteed that the problem is with the RAM or is it worth removing the motherboard again and triple checking everything? Is there any RAM connection to the board? Any other idea?

Some photos of the visible connections

I've removed the GPU and tried to start the iMac but the same symptoms are present.

I've also taken the CPU apart again to see if I had missed something. I can the following pins a little bit bent on the CPU tray but I doubt I caused this while taking it apart. Could this be the culprit?

  While trying to repaste the CPU I mistakenly thought I should pull the CPU out to avoid making a mess of it. I then proceeded to take the screw out instead of pulling the metal lever to the left. My best guess is that, as the screw was getting loose, the pins got bent with the pressure. But just a guess really

Upon pressing the power button, I’m greeted with 3 beeps every 5
seconds. After around 35 seconds all the fans are maxing out on top
speed.

There's a RAM issue.
3 successive beeps followed by a five second delay, then repeating means "RAM didn't pass an integrity check.  Apple has an excellent support document that details the startup sounds:  About Mac startup tones
Normally, this would be limited to the...

RAM Modules
Memory slots (logic board)

To diagnose this, you want to remove all of the memory and try each module in each slot individually.  The idea isolate whether it's a memory module problem or an issue with the slots on the logic board.  You should get one of the following results:

If one or more modules gives you an error in every slot, it's that/those modules.

If all modules give a problem in one or more slots, it's that slot
(Draft)

If you can't narrow it down to one of those two possibilities, there's a "larger" issue that needs to be investigated.

Cause:  CPU Issue

I had removed it [CPU] the first time round to repaste it. The thought process was that the iMac was almost 10 years old and had never been repasted.

In this case, this is where the issue occurred.  Intel CPUs directly connect to a number of peripherals like display and memory.  (A memory buffer actually, but for all intents and purposes, it's directly connected to the memory modules).  As you can see from the CPU block diagram, there are items that directly talk to the CPU, like the memory, and others talk to the CPU via the Intel Mobile Chipset.  The chips that got bent just so happened to be associated with the memory of the system.
Carefully bending the pins back to being straight should fix the issue.
Going forward, while I do wholeheartedly that computers (not limited to Macs) need periodic maintenance that includes replacing the thermal paste between the CPU/GPU and heat sink components, care must be taken when doing this.  You shouldn't need to to remove the processor(s), but should it be necessary, extreme care should be taken.


What is 10.5.8 (Users) preference file for video? If I can find the users preference file for video resolution I can try deleting it.

Hooked up a monitor that doesn't support 1280x900. Just a blank screen and unable to go back to original 1280x1024.

The other users video is fine. Thanks

First, try resetting the PRAM. That is supposed to be where the screen resolution is stored. If that fails, try starting up in safe mode, which can be done by holding shift at startup. Once you're in Safe Mode, try changing the resolution in the Displays preference pane. Then restart without holding shift, and see if it works. If that doesn't do it, then try following these steps at Apple support. Hopefully one of these will do the trick.


Black Screen of Semi-Death after Sleep/Fast User Switching On occasion, I get a "black screen of death" where the mouse cursor is visible and working, but no amount of mouse or keyboard activity will wake the machine back up.

This typically happens after using fast user switching after wakeup from sleep.  The computer is a 2012 Mac Mini with OS/X Yosemite (fully patched).

What could be wrong?  Is there an alternative to power cycling?

Much to my surprise, holding Command-Control-Eject pulls my machine out of this state, without rebooting it.  At that point I can simply log in.  Command-Option-Escape may help also.


Download Apple developer documentation as PDF files There used to be an option in Apple's developer documents, to download guides as PDF files. Not sure if this is guide specific.

For example, this one Introduction to System Configuration Programming Guidelines has no download option.

How can I download it?

Whatever be the reason, Apple has stopped providing PDF copies of most of it's Developer Documentation.

This won't work for all pages, but for your specific document, a PDF copy definitely used to exist (shown by this answer on SO).

The PDF itself is no longer available from Apple servers, but a quick Google search brought up this archived copy on CiteSeerX.

Whether you trust it is not modified or edited in any way is up to you (VirusTotal seems to say it's safe).


Fn key not being recognized on macOS Mojave I have Logitech K330 unifying keyboard with Fn key on it. I use it on MacBook Pro 2015 with macOS Mojave. For some reason when I press Fn key it does not do anything. I definitely need this Fn key behavior for terminal command line navigation (Fn+Shift+Arrow keys). I tried with Logitech unifying software too, it did not work. Has anyone faced a similar situation?

You'll need to wait for the new driver from Logitech I think..


Sync Apple Notes to OneNote online? Question title pretty much says it all.  My wife just started working for a company that uses Office 365 online.  When she is using a work computer, she logs in to her Microsoft Exchange Mail, Calendar, and her OneNote account via a web browser.  When on her home computer, she can connect Apple Mail and Apple Calendar to her Exchange account.  Is there a way to sync her Apple Notes to her OneNote account?

(I know that there is a Mac client for OneNote, by the way.  This question is about whether the native Notes app can sync to OneNote.)

The short answer is No.

Apple Notes and OneNoe can't be sync'd. You can export content from Notes and import it into OneNote, but they won't sync.


Why does macOS have many strange ports open and what do they do? 50323, 50334, 50641,57621, 57650, 64448 I did an nmap scan for my private IP address

nmap -p- 192.168.1.123

and got the following open ports back:

50323/tcp open  unknown
50334/tcp open  unknown
50641/tcp open  unknown
57621/tcp open  unknown
57650/tcp open  unknown
64448/tcp open  unknown

A more detailed scan about those specific ports also didn't yield much.

nmap -p 64448,57650,57621,50641,50334,50323 -A 192.168.1.123

PORT      STATE SERVICE    VERSION
50323/tcp open  unknown
50334/tcp open  unknown
| fingerprint-strings:
|   NULL:
|_    {"type":"Tier1","version":"1.0"}
50641/tcp open  tcpwrapped
57621/tcp open  unknown
57650/tcp open  tcpwrapped
64448/tcp open  tcpwrapped

I'm fairly confident that I'm not responsible for opening them. They're most likely there because Apple uses them for services.

I wanted to know what they do, so I'd know if I should disable them or not for security purposes. However, googling the port names gave nothing. So, I think we should give a short description about each port and the corresponding service, so that others will be easily able to find this information in the future.

There was no option to answer my own question, so note that I'm working on providing the list right now.

I have compiled a list of all the services and what they do.

Checking it yourself

If you have different ports open and want to check for yourself, you can use

sudo lsof -i :50323 to see the service running on the port 50323.

ps aux | grep rapportd to find out some more information about the service rapportd, like the executable path.

codesign -vvvv -R="anchor apple" /usr/libexec/rapportd to see if the service is correctly signed by Apple. Doesn't apply to programs that aren't made by Apple.

man rapportd to read the documentation about the service

Results

Port 50323:

Service rapportd at /usr/exec/rapportd, signed by Apple. It is a Daemon that enables Phone Call Handoff and other communication features between Apple devices.

Port 50334:

This is Spotify, which is a music streaming service. Not installed by default. I think it might be related to Spotify Connect, a service which allows connecting your phone to your computer, and streaming music from your computer to your phone (or any other device which supports it)

Port 50641:

This is IntelliJ Idea, an integrated development environment for programmers. Not installed by default. Also it's tcpwrapped, meaning you can't actually do anything with it, since it drops the connection whenever you actually try to send it anything (correct me if I'm wrong). I think IDEs usually need a port open for the debugging functionality.

Port 57621:

Also Spotify.

Port 57650:

This is gradle's daemon. It's a tool programmers use. Not installed by default. Also it's tcpwrapped. Not sure why it needs to be listening on a port. If someone knows, then I'd be curious to know.

Port 64448:

Also gradle. tcpwrapped.


Can the iPad Mail app show the message list full screen? I just got an iPad (not an iPad 2) and I would like to see the list of messages in the Mail app full screen and not just in the side bar, like they are now. Is this possible?

Sorry no, Mail.app on iPad only has two views.

In Portrait mode, the message list slides in from the left.  You can swipe left and right to change the view to account and folder list and back again, however you cannot resize the pane, although it feels like you should be able to in this view.

In Landscape mode, the message list is permanently fixed in position and width; you can no longer swipe to change the content.


Can an iOS app that has access to Photos get all my photos? Can a developer collect my photos that I edited and saved in my iPhone album?

One of the function of the an app I am using is to edit photos and save them to my iPhone's album. In this case, can the developer collect my edited photos?

I did not upload any photos, nor did I share them with anybody.

Also, there is no mention of collecting user's content in the privacy policy of the said app.

Can anyone help me with this?

Yes, if you give the application access to your photos and the application has network access, the photos can be taken from your iPhone.

Only use apps you trust

If you do not trust the developer, do not install or use their applications.
If the developer is not clear and explicit about how they handle your photos, do not install or use their applications.
If the developer is not contactable or does not answer your questions, do not install or use their applications.


Mac apache not working - apachectl configtest errors I'm trying to get off of MAMP and run local versions of an AMP stack on my Mac, but when I try to start apache and run localhost from a browser, it's not coming up with anything.

In running apachectl configtest, I see the following errors, but I don't know how to fix.

Is there a way to do a clean reinstall of the AMP stack on a Mac? Is this even the recommended fix?

  httpd: Syntax error on line 527 of /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf: Syntax error on line 8 of /private/etc/apache2/other/+php-osx.conf: Cannot load /usr/local/php5/libphp5.so into server: dlopen(/usr/local/php5/libphp5.so, 10): Symbol not found: _unixd_config\n  Referenced from: /usr/local/php5/libphp5.so\n  Expected in: /usr/sbin/httpd\n in /usr/local/php5/libphp5.so

Looks like you have an extra conf file in the other directory. This file (+php-osx.conf) is trying to load PHP from /usr/local, rather than the system-supplied PHP. I know my PHP install works and am using the bog-standard Apple supplied Apache and PHP. Call to PHP module should be in the main httpd.conf file - this line is there, but commented out, by default in the Apple-supplied config:

LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

And in other there should only be the single php5.conf file, contents:

<IfModule php5_module>
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
    AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

    <IfModule dir_module>
        DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>

The Apple-provided Apache2 should include the default config files in /etc/apache2, labeled with a suffix such as .original, .pre-update, or ~previous. Same goes for the conf files in subdirectories.


Thunderbird stopped working with iCloud email I had Thunderbird configured with an iCloud (me) email account and it worked fine until about two weeks ago. When I tried to send a message, it asked me for the server password. When I entered it, I got a message saying the login or password was wrong. I also had this same problem on another machine with another account. I was able to add and use a Gmail account without any problems.

My setting are:
Incoming

Protocol: IMAP
Server: imap.mail.me.com
Port: 993
SSL: SSL/TLS
Authentication: Normal password

Outgoing

Protocol: SMTP
Server: smtp.mail.me.com
Port: 587
SSL: STARTTLS
Authentication: Normal password

I got the settings from How can I configure iCloud mail in Mozilla Thunderbird?

I am able to login to both iCloud accounts through a browser.

Starting June 15, 2017, Apple requires two-factor authentication on all iCloud accounts that access their accounts non-natively. Apple’s third-party email client setup instructions have since been updated accordingly.

Native iCloud access is limited to System Preferences on macOS, the Settings app on iOS, and iCloud for Windows. All other apps, including Thunderbird and Outlook, require an app-specific password.

To enable two-factor authentication:

On an iOS device open Settings → Password & Security and tap Turn On Two-Factor Authentication.
On your Mac open  → System Preferences → iCloud → Account Details → Security and click Turn On Two-Factor Authentication….

Then, login at https://id.apple.com/ and under Security → App-Specific Passwords, click Generate Password…. Enter that password into Thunderbird.

This was done to keep third-party apps from getting access to your iCloud password, thus reducing the likelihood of iCloud account breaches.


MacPro after wake-up takes ages before Wi-Fi connects? Basically once my MacPro wakes up, the Wi-Fi icon is greyed out and it takes like a minute (which feels pretty long), before it connects to my home Wi-Fi network.

This happened already a few times over the last year. It starts happening without a good reason, and it fixes itself also like that. Utterly annoying.

I cleaned up my Wi-Fi list (only 3 networks in it) and my home network is on the top.

Running 10.13.3

Any clues?

Did you try to delete your wifi settings?

Go go to System Preferences > Network > Use the (-) to delete wifi. Use the (+) to add a new wifi setting.
Do you use additional network settings e.g. Ethernet or iPhone USB? If so, try to disable them or set the Service Order accordingly.
It could be a network issue. Maybe your wifi DHCP Server is slowing things done.


Trackpad switch pages with 3 fingers By default the Back/Next gesture works with two fingers (in e.g. Safari) on the trackpad. Now it often happens to me when scrolling through iframes (with two fingers) I accidentally activate the back gesture. Now I changed it in settings to 3 fingers, but the animation is gone, and in Safari it's not anymore like dragging the page before from the left to center but like hitting the back-button (without animation)... Is it possible to use the real 2-fingers gesture with 3-fingers?

No.

All you can have is to activate both the 2-finger and the 3-finger gestures. They work differently, though.

With two fingers you scroll the page to the sides revealing the page "below" it or the page "above" it according to the tag history.

With three fingers you just tell the browser to "go back" (swipe left) or "go forward" (swipe right) without any animation at all. At least this 3-finger gesture is consistent in many apps, including Finder.


Reformat / resize an external hard drive removed from a NAS I have a 3TB hard drive that I removed from a NAS that is only showing as 800MB on my Mac.

Have tried Disk Utility (and terminal diskutil) but the hard drive keeps showing at the wrong size.

diskutil:

Disk Utility (Debug -> Show every partition):

Partition tab:

The disk in question is the one showing as 801.6 / 801.57 GB. It is in fact a 3TB HDD.

I appreciate that this is something to do with Linux and the mac not reading ext2,ext3 etc..

Don't mind losing all the data on the HDD, just cant figure out how to reformat this drive.

Thanks in advance for any help.

EDIT

I believe this could be an issue with the caddy that I am using not supporting HD greater than 2TB.

Will source an alternative caddy to confirm this.

EDIT

This problem was due to the caddy not recognising HDD greater than 2TB. Is a common problem on older hardware.

Quit Disk Utility. Try this command in the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

Relaunch Disk Utility. Select Show every partion from the now present Debug menu. See if you can find some hidden partitions and remove them!


Dual screen setup Apple Cinema Displays Mac mini How do I connect dual screen setup on a Mac Mini?

Mac Mini: Late (2012)
Apple Cinema Display 27"
Apple ThunderBolt Display 27"

ThunderBolt Port: Apple ThunderBolt Display 27"
Tried two different Kanex XD units and did not work.
Kanex XD: Mini display port female to HDMI female converter to HDMI cable to HDMI Port on Mac mini.

Does anyone have a link to a converter that work or an option to hook up?

With the two monitors you have listed, it's not feasible (most definately, not economically).

The 27" Apple Cinema Display requires miniDisplay Port
The 27" Apple Thunderbolt Display can only support another Thunderbolt display.  From the Thunderbolt Display User Manual:

  Connect Thunderbolt-compatible devices for high-speed data transfer,
  or connect another display that uses Thunderbolt. This Thunderbolt
  port is not compatible with DVI, VGA, or DisplayPort displays or
  adapters

The Thunderbolt Display must be used with the Thunderbolt port and cannot be converted from HDMI.  This is a limitation you can't overcome because these are two completely different signals.

For the Cinema display, you need a mini DisplayPort (DP) which is not available if you plug in the Thunderbolt Display.

Daisy Chaining

You can't.  The Thunderbolt Display will only daisy chain to another Thunderbolt Display.

Using a Dock

You could use a dock like the OWC 12 Port Thunderbolt 2 Dock that has multiple TB ports out that includes support for video.

The problem with using a dock like this is two fold:

It's already obsolete technology.  You're using tech that's already 5 years old and has already been surpassed by Thunderbolt 3.  This product will soon be EOL'd if not already.
It's expensive.  You're looking at spending about as much for a new monitor to get an obsolete device to connect obsolete monitors.

Bottom Line...

You are going to spend more than the Cinema Display is worth in adapters only to end of with EOL'd products.  (IMO) Your best bet is to sell your Cinema Display and use the procedes to get a newer, modern display that has multiple input formats like HDMI and DisplayPort.  This way, you can avoid all of the extra, unnecessary signal conversions and you end up with a monitor that will last you at least several years.


My iPhone cannot "see" all the books on my Mac via Mojave iTunes I have 18 books in Books.app on my Macbook Pro running Mojave. When I open iTunes and look at the Books on my phone, it shows 5 books.
Changing the iTunes radiobutton from "All books" to "Selected books" lets me select among those 5. As far as I can tell, the other 13 are invisible to it.
Any clues where to look, what settings to change, what to reboot (again), or whatever?
Please don't tell me to upgrade my OSX, I have to much expensive 32-bit software to make that attractive.
Thanks.

I thought I had found a fix for my situation in this post:
"iBooks does not seem to be recognizing that books have been previously purchased when the purchase price has changed."
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8613752 (Not the most meaningful questions because it presupposes the problem, which turns out no to be the case.)
After doing as suggested, "Books -> File -> Move Books From iTunes", then resyncing my Books, everything was in my Library, as expected.  I had previously not been able to find any explanation of what "Move Books From iTunes" was about or what it did.
So I reported that here as an "Answer". Except that it didn't last.
Now, of 18 books in Books on my Mac, iTunes Devices > My iPhone > Books shows 8 of them. A few minutes ago it showed 5 and then I did the "Move Books From iTunes" routine again. It reported that it was moving 15 books. I don't know which ones are missing from the 15 because I now only show 6 of them after updating. 5 books, a different 5, then 8, now 6. And the current 6 does not include any of the ones I'm actually reading. I would quit trying if and when I finally got all 3 of those on the iPhone at the same time.
I keep restarting iTunes, rebooting my iPhone, restarting Books on the Mac, running the "Move Books From iTunes" routine, in hopes that some combination will be the magic sequence of what is being updated in what order so that I can read those three books on my iPhone. Right now, it can't even "see" them to allow me to select them.
Update: It appears that every time I run the Books "utility" File > Move books from iTunes, I toggle between two sets of books. One set has 6 books and the other 16, with a total of 18 different books. I have no clue what put which books in which list.
Unfortunately, there are two books that I am in the middle of, one happens to be in each list, so I cannot switch between those books without connecting my iPhone to my Mac, using "Move books from iTunes" to get the other list active, and then syncing that list. My previous set of books disappears off my phone, replaced by the new set. Then I can read in the other book. I repeat that when I want to go back to the first book. This will probably force me to just finish one or the other book by brute force, rather than following my whims. Oh well ...


How to enable "Preview" in open/save dialogs (viewed as List)? I hate open/save dialogs.  They suck.  Specifically, I want the same functionality as...

here..

I don't want to use "Browser View", I don't want to use Quicklook.  I don't mind a nasty hack.

Any takers?

How about DefaultFolderX?
More features than I know what to write about, without it sounding like an advert ;-)
I've used it so long I actually find it difficult to work on machines that don't have it installed.


How to automatically close an app when I shut down the mac? My father would always scold me that so many applications are open when he turns on the computer which he says consumes computer memory. I always forget to close the app by right -clicking>quit Is there any way to automatically close an app when shutting down? When I searched at google. They talked about iCalendar, but it was too confusing so I came here to ask.

Basically all apps will be closed when shutting down, simply because the computer will be turned off. Just to be sure: Shutting down means: Turning the computer off.

However the behavior after rebooting differs depending on the operation system version you are using. If you are running Lion or Mountain Lion there is a feature that allows to automatically  restart all open applications after rebooting/start up. In Mountain Lion you will be asked before the computer shuts down if you want the applications to be restarted after reboot. Just uncheck the checkbox.

If you're confusing shutting down with standby and/or sleep mode you will have no built-in way to solve it (but an AppleScript may help). But at least I can provide you with a shortcut: Pressing ⌘ Command  Q will "completely" close an application. You can use this shortcut instead of right clicking the dock icon to close the app.


Problems installing powerline fonts on macOS 10.12 I'm pretty new with MacOS and Macbooks in general. I've been a unix user for a long time and right now I'm trying to install the patched powerline fonts to use with OhMyZsh, VIM and the like but I'm running into some issues getting it to properly work.

I've followed a couple different guides but I'm always getting the same error in that some of the special icons/characters show up correctly on the terminal while some others don't and that pretty much screws everything up.

Here's the latest guide I followed (and the simplest one): powerline/fonts and here's a screenshot of how my terminal currently looks like:

The fonts do seem to be installed as they show up in the font book.

Q: What can I do to so all icons/characters show up correctly?

Fixed. It was me just being dumb.

Everything was properly installed and working but I realized that iTerm2 and the stock Terminal app were set to use a different kind of font so that's why it wasn't displaying some characters.

Going into iTerm2's settings and manually overriding the fonts fixed the issue.


Cannot Run GUI AppleScripts I recently upgraded my system to OS X 10.11 El Capitan and ever since, my AppleScript which enables GUI scripting cannot be run. Part of the reason is obvious, the Universal Access pane in System Preferences has changed, i.e. there is no longer a checkbox to enable it. I would like to know how do I enable it in this newer system?

I found a shell script, which is supposed to work with Yosemite, but it does not work with my system. Anyone have an idea? I would think it would not be necessary to use the shell. Isn't there some way to click on some checkbox and, if necessary, enter your system password?

OK, it's kind of embarrasing, in a way, when you figure out the answer to your own question, but, here it is:

You just go to the Security and Privacy pane, click on the Privacy tab, and then add the apps where you want to allow GUI scripting. Just that simple....


How to quickly delete multiple albums in Photos app (OS X) My Photos app (on OS X) has very many (well over a hundred) albums sitting inside an iPhoto Events folder. Most of the albums have are named by a day, e.g. '16 May 2014'. In order to delete an album I need to right click, select delete album and then say YES, when I'm asked when I'm sure. To clean up all these old (and unwanted) albums is taking ages.
Is there a quicker way of deleting albums? The keyboard shortcut mentioned in this Ask Different question (hitting delete with the album selected) does not work for me. I can only do the right click thing. Adding a keyboard shortcut with the contextual (right click) menu didn't work either. I can't select multiple albums at once and delete them all either.
Am I missing a trick, or is the app just designed to make deleting albums a one at a time and confirm every time thing?
Update
Some more experimentation and, in line with @dankohn below, it is possible to do this. Things to note:

You can't select multiple albums in the Sidebar. So if you want to select multiple albums to delete you need to do it in the main window. This confused me - so maybe it will have confused others too.

Selecting Album view (or using ⌘ 3) does not necessarily take you into a view of Albums. If you've previously been looking inside an album, selecting this view changes the main window to show the photos inside that album, i.e. you don't get to see the list of albums at all. If this happens, you need use the back button (top left) to go back to the listing of Albums. This confused me - so maybe it will have confused others too.

Once you have got a list of albums showing the main window, as @dankohn, you can select multiple albums (using Shift Click or ⌘ Click) and then you can delete them using a Right Click / the contextual menu.
Note: All this applies to Photos 1.0.1 running on Yosemite. Things may have changed with El Capitan.

Select View: Albums. Click the first album, than shift click the last album. Then right-click any of the selected albums and select Delete, to delete them all.


2 external USB monitors on MacBook Pro I have a new macbook pro, got it in january of 2014. I am trying to connect 2 USB ASUS MB168B monitors via the separate USB ports on my macbook pro. One will load up and they other one goes black. The system preferences recognizes that there are 3 displays but one of them is completely blacked out. I know both monitors work because when i only plug one or the other, they work fine, however when i try to have both plugged in, one goes black outed (the first one i plug in gets overridden by the second one)

thoughts?

My knee-jerk thought is insufficient power to supply both monitors (hence why connecting either singularly works without issue).  I know the default for those monitors is bus-powered, do they have an option for an external power supply?  Or can you try then through a powered USB hub?


Apple Mail not downloading attachments I am using macOS Sierra. Recently, the Mail app started having problems with attachments. On many (but not all) messages, attachments show up, but they are displayed as "Mail Attachment", not as the actual file name. Curiously, sometimes the correct icon shows up. I thought that maybe they needed some time to download, but waiting for hours does not solve it. I tried turning on and off the automatic attachment download and deleting the Mail Downloads directory, but that did not fix it.

This is an Exchange account, which may be part of the problem.

Any idea what could be causing this?

I found this post to be very interesting:

http://osxdaily.com/2016/12/17/fix-mail-not-showing-attachments-mac/

Backup your computer
Rebuild your email mailbox(es) (this may take a long time to run, be sure your connected to internet because it's going to reload all the mails)
In your "Account Information", select Download Attachement that matters to you (all)
Restart Mail.

Hope that helps


Get rid of lingering partition Not sure what happened, but when I was setting up my new Mac, something wonky happened w/ the second partition. I ended up deleting it and naming the second partition on my laptop Machintosh HD 3.

It's working great, but every time I log in now, /Volumes/Machintosh HD 2 appears with a fresh Library directory. How do I get rid of it?

I would use the terminal to sort things out if you don't see what's happened in Disk Utility.

diskutil list

From there, you can see all the names and numbers OS X has given to the volumes/partitions. Eject them all (except for the booted OS). diskutil eject disk2s2 etc...

At that point, you might need to clean up the bad mount points.

ls -l /Volumes

At this point you want to be sure you're not deleting actual files so if you're not comfortable using rm in terminal, you can use the Finder. Use the Go menu to Go to Folder... and enter /Volumes

Rename the Macintosh HD to something like temp and then move all the bad mount points to the trash and rename your boot volume to be what you wish. Now when you mount the drives the name should match what you have in Disk Utility.


Is there a way to keep your app icons sorted by name in LaunchPad? It seems that LaunchPad is not remembering the position of my app icons. I manually sorted them by name, but every now and then it will shuffle them.

I have not yet identified the pattern that resets the icons (my best guess is that it is after every restart). I have also not identified the pattern on which it resets the icons themselves, but it seems to leave Apple's own apps grouped together, followed by my Mac App Store purchases at the bottom.

Is anybody else experiencing this behavior and is there a way to keep all icons sorted by name? Thanks.

This is a known bug and has been filed with Apple. All we can do is wait on a fix.

The database gets corrupted when a new entry is added and moved.

The only current workaround is to delete the database and start over, but bear in mind that once a new item is added and moved to a different position, the corruption will occur again.

The database is located in ~/Library/Application Support/Dock


Does using a brightness reducing app save battery? I installed the app Brightness Slider on my MacBook because the lowest brightness setting in the System Prefs isn't low enough at times. When I choose a brightness setting below what the System Prefs allows, does the laptop in any way actually consume less power? Or is it using up the same amount of power?

You would expect an app that dims the screen to save power. LEDs show a linear relationship for luminous intensity vs. forward current. The more you dim your LED display the less current it consumes.

(I'm assuming you have a LED-backlit display as all current-model MacBook Pros and Thunderbolt Displays are, and I looking at a LED data sheet found at SparkFun for the intensity/current relationship. It should be the same for any LED-based product.)

BUT if the app is not actually dimming - just covering everything with a transparent layer - then it may use more power. That app's reviews suggest it causes the discrete GPU to become active so I don't think there's any way it could be saving you power, more like the opposite. Adding a transparent layer over the entire display may decrease the apparent screen brightness but increase battery consumption due to the GPU having to do more work to blend the transparent dimming layer with other elements on the screen.


How to update apps in background? When an update is released I have to manually update apps.
How can I do to update apps in the background auomatically.
Does anyone know how to do this?

Go to Settings → iTunes & App Store and enable Automatic Downloads: Updates.


Can Safari on an iPad be controlled with gestures? On the Desktop version of Safari, you can navigate back and forward with a swipe gesture on the trackpad. Setting up other gestures (close tab, new tab, next/previous tab) is trivial with an app like BetterTouchTool.

I find myself trying to use these gestures, especially the swipes for back and forward, on my iPad (third generation).
Is there any way to enable gestures for Safari on the iPad?

I realize that the answer is probably no; Apple isn't much for hidden features/preferences in iOS and there are no BTT equivalents. So, I'm willing to explore alternatives. Are there any other web browsers for iPad, preferably as similar to Safari as possible, that support gestures?

Yes - Dolphin Browser supports gestures. So do Atomic Web Browser and Perfect Web Browser.

As you correctly realised the answer is no for Safari, unless you count the four-finger swipe up to get to the current app list, and other system gestures.


How to remove a service from launchd added by mistake? By mistake I added an invalid (non-existing) service to launchd:

sudo launchctl enable system/homebew.mxcl.cntlm

The above should be system/homebrew.mxcl.cntlm instead.

However, after removing the service:

sudo launchctl remove system/homebew.mxcl.cntlm

it still shows in the list of disabled services:

nlykkei-mbp:~ nlykkei$ launchctl print-disabled system
disabled services = {
    "org.apache.http" => false
    "homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq" => false
    "com.apple.CSCSupportd" => true
    "com.apple.ftpd" => true
    "com.apple.mdmclient.daemon.runatboot" => true
    "com.openssh.sshd" => false
    "org.apache.httpd" => true
    "com.apple.bootpd" => true
    "homebrew.mxcl.cntlm" => false
    "org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx" => false
    "com.launchd.maxfiles" => false
    "com.apple.ftp-proxy" => true
    "homebew.mxcl.cntlm" => false     <-- doesn't exist
}

How can I remove all traces of homebew.mxcl.cntlm from my system, so that it doesn't show up using launchctl?

Immediately after removing the service you won't be able to find the service name in a distinctive and editable file. It's probably hidden in some cache.

After a reboot you should be able to remove its traces by performing these steps though:

Search for the name of the non-existent service to remove in the files of this directory: /var/db/com.apple.xpc.launchd

sudo grep -rnw '/var/db/com.apple.xpc.launchd/' -e "homebew"

Edit the file found by grep with nano (the string is probably found in disabled.plist)

sudo nano /var/db/com.apple.xpc.launchd/disabled.plist

Move the cursor to the two incriminating lines (service name e.g. <key>homebew.mxcl.cntlm</key> followed by its status e.g. <false/>) and remove each with ctrlK. Hit ctrlO, ⏎ and ctrlX, ⏎ to save the changes to disk and leave nano.
Reboot again and launchctl print-disabled system won't show the service anymore.

Due to an agressive caching mechanism or other opaque system procedures, removing the lines doesn't work reliably with vim or nano (on the OP's system it didn't work at all, in my Catalina VM 5 out of 6 attempts have been successful).

Then the file has to be cleaned in Recovery Mode:

Boot to Recovery Mode
In the menubar open Terminal
Edit the file with nano. The paths depend on your main volume name (e.g. Macintosh HD):

/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/bin/nano /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD//var/db/com.apple.xpc.launchd/disabled.plist

Enter reboot to boot normally.


How do I free up space (delete things) taken up by my iPad's Photo Library? I have an older iPad that I got in 2012. The iOS version is 8.1

A lot of space is used by my "Photos & Camera".  I clicked on my "Camera" icon and after clicking on its gallery, I clicked the "Trash" icon next to every item in there.  However, when I go into my Storage Settings, and drill down to my "Photos & Camera", it says "8.9 GB," but there's no where that allows me to delete the items used by the storage.

How do I actually delete things?  That is, I'm trying to free up storage, which I can't seem to do.

On the newer iOS versions, Apple initiated a delayed trash. This means that things are only truly deleted after they've been in the trash for 30 days.

To force things to delete, go to the photos app, then choose albums in the bottom right corner. Scroll down until you find the "recently deleted" album and click on it. Then click select and choose whether you want to delete or recover either all or just a few of the photos.


Why does my iPad screen feel sticky? Lately, I've noticed that my iPad's touch screen feels sticky to touch which makes it difficult to swipe in a smooth motion (particular when several swipes in quick succession have to be done in quick succession). As I don't use a screen protector, I initially suspected that this could be due to the build up of oils on the screen but wiping the screen with a microfiber cloth (even with a damp one) does little to help the problem.

The device is 4 months old at the time of writing; the screen should still be in reasonable shape. What could be the problem here and what can I do to fix it?

There are cleaning kits targeted for the iPad that might give you a better result than just a damp cloth. I personally bought the Hama Premium Cleaning Kit for iPad and I'm quite happy about it.

The second parameter in the equation are ofcourse your hands, the dryness/greasiness of your fingers will influence the comfort of the moment. Personally, I've found that just after washing my hands I feel some resistance when swiping the screen, and it works best with a more natural greasiness.


Selling original RAM to OWC after installing an upgrade I purchased a 27" iMac with 16GB RAM in April direct from Apple. I just upgraded the RAM to 64GB from OWC. They have an offer where they will buy back your original RAM within 60 days of your purchase, in my case offering $40 for the two RAM sticks that came with my iMac.
These unused sticks will likely just sit in a drawer... however, they might be good to keep in case the new RAM were to fail. I have an internal debate going on whether or not to keep the memory in case something happens. What I would like to know is will Apple give me a hard time if I need to take my Mac in for some unrelated issue and I should therefore keep it and swap it back in should that need arise?

Will Apple give me a hard time if I need to take my Mac in for some unrelated issue and I should therefore keep it and swap it back in should that need arise?

If you bought the product in the US, they legally cannot give you a hard time about it due to the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act.  Specifically, using 3rd party parts cannot void your warranty. Outside the US, check your local/federal laws specific to your country.
Where the Act applies to your question is with respect to using 3rd party parts.  Specifically, they cannot "tie in" genuine Apple Parts (i.e. hard drives or memory) to keep the warranty in tact:

(c) Prohibition on conditions for written or implied warranty; waiver by Commission; No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer’s using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade, or corporate name;

The FTC has opined on this very question and I've written about it as part of an existing answer: Apple cannot void your warranty solely for using a 3rd party accessory.  Note, "accessory" isn't limited to peripheral device like mouse or keyboard, but any compatible part like memory, hard drives, etc.
Can they try to give you grief about it?  Sure.  But that's where going in armed with the knowledge of what your rights are will help immensely.  Further, speaking from a pragmatic side of things, all they (or you) have to do is simply remove the memory.  Just because you bought it with 16GB of RAM doesn't mean you must take it in as you bought it - you can bring it in with 8GB (remove the 3rd party memory).
And again, speaking from a pragmatic point of view, the odds of more than one memory module failing at the time same time is very low.  If a module fails you can remove the failed component and continue to function, so there's no need to keep backups of memory unless you're in a mission critical environment where uptime is key.
Standard disclaimer:  I'm not a lawyer and definitely not your lawyer.  Nothing written here should be construed as legal advice; it is simply my interpretation/opinion on this matter.  If you need legal advice, seek out the services of an attorney in your area.


Make Carbon Copy to Time Capsule? Can I copy my entire hard drive to my time capsule?  I mean a bootable copy (carbon copy)?

Yes.

Find an external drive (same dimension as your internal drive, preferably) and connect to your computer with USB.
Create a clone, with an app of your choice.
Disconnect and connect the drive to Time Capsule through USB.
Mount the drive over ATP and sync your internal hard drive to the clone with an app of your choice.
When failure occurs on the laptop, connect the external drive to the laptop through USB and boot.
And if you wish, remove the working/external hard drive from its casing, open up the laptop, and place the drive inside. If the failed drive is still usable, put it in the casing and repeat to step 1.

I have a SSD, a secondary SSD in the optical bay, and a HDD connected to Time Capstule in this configuration.


How to get iPhone device details when it is connected to a Windows machine? I want to get the details (OS,version,UDID...) of the device (iPhone) when it is connected to a Windows machine. The only thing here is either using iTunes or another way.

I want this done from command line (NO GUI Tool).

You can find the details (OS version etc.) simply by going to Settings > General > About on your iPhone.

Your UDID can be mailed to you with this free app http://itunes.apple.com/app/ad-hoc-helper/id285691333?mt=8 if you don't want to connect to iTunes and have the information shown.

AFAIK there is no easy way of finding the UDID through CMD on a Windows, but you can try and navigate to this path through it:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB

This should show the UDID of the iPhone, if it has been connected through USB. Bare in mind there are many lines inside the folder, but the files referring to iDevices have 40 digits in it.


How to disable Facebook push notifications in iPad 2 I have an iPad 2 with iOS 4 and the Facebook for iPad app installed.

Even after disabling all the Push Notifications from Settings > Facebook > Push Notifications, I still get push notifications.

Is this a bug in either Facebook or Apple's part or is there a hidden setting somewhere to disable the notifications?

There were some bugs in the FB app for notifications, but you should be able to disable the notifications on an app-by-app basis in at the iOS level from Settings -> General -> Notifications (or Settings -> Notifications ... I don't have an iOS 4 device handy to double-check).


Best practices for storing a replacement battery? My early 2011 MBP has been giving me the "Replace Soon" battery warning, and an app I have says that the battery can hold 57% of its original capacity. I bought a new one on Amazon, but now I've decided to wait as long as possible until doing the surgery, in order to squeeze as much life as possible out of the current battery before beginning the new one's life cycle.

My question: What do I do with the replacement? It's currently in the cardboard box that it came in (not the big box from Amazon, a smaller box inside that). How can I store it for a month or so while keeping it happy and healthy until the time comes to give it the privilege of powering my computer?

The recommended storage temperature for most batteries is 15°C (59°F); the extreme allowable temperature is –40°C to 50°C (–40°C to 122°F) for most chemistries. While lead acid must always be kept at full-charge during storage, nickel- and lithium-based chemistries should be stored at around a 40 percent state-of-charge (SoC). This minimizes age-related capacity loss while keeping the battery operational and allowing for some self-discharge.


How can I trigger scripts (lock screen) when leaving a specific WiFi on OSX? I dimly remember hearing about an OSX application that let you, for example, enable password lock when leaving the current WiFi, but I can't find it anymore. Does anyone know how it's called? Thanks!

I believe that you're actually looking for a setting in OS X:

System Preferences → Network → Advanced


I can't unlock my Apple ID I want to log in to Messages on my Macbook, but it says I need to unlock my Apple ID first.
After clicking "Send to my email", I receive an unlock link, but after opening the link I can't click the "Unlock Apple ID" button.
I inspected the network and it's returning 502 Bad Gateway:

I waited some hours but still the same. Is there any other alternative apart from answering security questions because I forgot the answers?

After I turned off the VPN, the button link is working.
Maybe Apple block Opera VPN(maybe any other VPN too).


What Database programs/tools are included with OS X? Many years ago I believe Apple included a copy of Hypercard with it's OS.  That's before my time, and I have never used it.

But, I do have occasional requirements for very simple databases.  I am not talking full relational database systems necessarily, a flat file "cardview" system would be suitable for most of my needs.

My question is simply what tools does are provided that enable simple database style data files to be created and accessed.  Graphical would be preferred, (although I am fairly sure that no such thing exists) but command line tools may be fine also, and there are a vast range of Unix/Linux style tools included so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that some are either suitable, or at least able to be co-opted with a bit of scripting to provide a minimal database app.

I am aware of (and indeed own) third party database software such as Bento, and I am not looking to replace it or acehive it's levels of customisation.  They key is that the tool must be pre-installed with Mac os X 10.7, and not require me to download anything extra.

I have experimented with creating a custom Address book datafile with custom fields and using the Address Book front end for entering data and searchign etc, but with limited success (mainly in that I cannot subsquently use my real address book easily).

Sadly, the database tools that ship with OS X Lion are special purpose tools and lack an interface building toolkit. Apple implemented Core Storage for developers and not end users to use and a similar path seems to be likely for iCloud in the next year. The address book is the only card like storage GUI and adapting it for purposes other than storing contacts is painful to say the least.

Let's look over the open source projects included with OS X v10.7.3 that ship and call out the candidate database and key-value store frameworks you could possibly bend to your wishes:

BerkelyDB
OpenLDAP
PostgreSQL
SQLite
WebKit
libsecurity_keychain

I'll leave the various programming languages off the list since that's more of a Stack Overflow answer, but none of these is ready to go with a simple card based graphical user interface. If I had to pick one tool to re-implement hypercard, I would start with WebKit's implementation of HTML 5's client side database storage and use Safari for layout / user interface. This would likely need javascript knowledge as well as HTML / CSS to pull off a workable solution.

In a similar way, you could take tk and one of the programming languages to build up your database and UI logic and hook into your favorite data store listed above. Also, don't overlook iCloud's key-value store since it could arguably be considered "shipping with Lion."

Your constraint of not needing to install additional software is limiting since Apple no longer ships a tool that both stores data and has any sort of usable UI. Even automator can store variables, but you'd be hard pressed to make something of it in practice.

Leaving the run only what is installed constraint opens the gates to many solutions. The best (as of today) card based studying app seems to be Mental Case, but it lacks the database aspect and simple programmability of Hypercard.  I haven't seen a single viable hypercard replacement that ships on the App Store, so perhaps some developer will provide exactly the tool needed to fill the gap left by Hypercard.


What if I don't want my keyboard occupy 2/3 of the screen? I am sure fans like even this, but what if I don't like web page look like this

Is there any way to make keyboard widget smaller?

The split keyboard takes up significantly less space. You may need to enable it in

Settings->General->Keyboards->Split Keyboard

To split, pull the left and right side of the keyboard apart with two fingers, or tap and hold the keyboard button in the bottom right then choose "split"...

You can also move the keyboard by grabbing the same button and dragging it up and down the screen.


How do I send data from an iPhone via Bluetooth to a MacBook? Since you can't send data via Bluetooth from an iPhone to a MacBook, I need to know if there exist any external bluetooth alternatives that you can use to transmit data to a MacBook?

If you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can send files over Bluetooth using the tweak AirBlue Sharing - here's the developer's page about it and a Lifehacker post about it.


Transform ordering of photos in iPhoto to files I use iPhoto to organize my photos, especially to order them. If I copy a whole album, for example the last holiday trip, to an usb stick, all images are transfered, but not in the order I created in iPhoto (obviously ^^). Is there a way to automatically rename the files so they match the ordering I created in iPhoto?

Easy.

Select all photos in your manually sorted album (e.g. using cmdA)
Choose File–Export... from the menu (or hit ⇧cmdE)
Select "Sequential" for File name, and enter a base name (which will be followed by numbers)
In the next dialog, choose the target folder (e.g. directly on your USB drive). Your photos will be exported there, and sorting them by file name will result in your beloved custom sort order from iPhoto!

In step 3, you might also want to select other options such as picture size and file format – this comes in handy if you don't need the full-resolution versions to be exported.


Video Editing Software - MKV? I want to edit MKV video files (anime). Naturally I want to use iMovie / Final Cut. But sadly they can't import MKV?

What is the recommended thing to do? Should I convert the files first or use a different software that does support MKV?

I'm a total newbie to video editing so I have no real attachment to any software, thanks!

Yes, I would recommend to convert it to a format that iMove can import. MKV is just a container format so  you probably already have an iMovie-compatible inside that package. Under Snow Leopard just install Perian and open it in QuickTime X and then go to File->Save as ... and choose a suitable format from the dropdown menu.

If you need more control over your conversion, you could also convert it to an iMovie-compatible format using any of the video conversion tools available for the Mac. For a long time VisualHub was the king of video format conversion, unfortunately techspansion the company behind it, closed its virtual doors. There are two main open-source options derived from VisualHub, ReduxZero and TranscoderRedux they both should do the trick. Another option is Subler which will also convert to and from MKV video containers to an iMovie-compatible format.


Is there a secure shell client for Mac similar to Secure CRT for Windows? I have many servers to manage and I don't want to use Terminal on my Mac to keep and manage server lists.

I want to know if there is a secure shell client for Mac similar to Secure CRT on Windows?

I'm a great fan of ZOC Terminal Emulator for MacOS.

It has a host list, tabbed interface, very similar features (the two programs (ZOC and SecCRT) appear to copy-cat each other's features always within a few months).  Like SecureCRT it is commercial.

See also this question/answer on superuser (the guy there quotes someone saying it's the closest thing to SecureCRT).  User comments on MacUpdate are mostly favorable.

.


How long does it take to restore from an iCloud backup? I have 12.8gb worth of photos and videos and I remember shooting videos in particular that was 1 hour long and another 30 minute one.

Last night it didn't take long for the 5,000 photos (inc. short videos) like a few mins at best to come and the 6,000 photos rest is still pending it says "Downloading 6,0000 xxxx originals" in my Photos app. And my video for example that 1 hour one, (i sometimes record videos for YT on my phone) and the other 30 minute one hasn't come through so i wonder if that is what is slowing the restore process.

Googling online it says it can take 1-4 hours per gb to restore from an iCloud backup...

I was thinking maybe it was faster to restore from iTunes...

iCloud backup total: 14.5gb

Photos and videos: 12.8gb

There's really no definitive answer to this as a lot comes down to network speeds, bandwidth, what else you're currently doing with the device, and so on.

That is why you're finding that "Googling online it says it can take 1-4 hours per gb to restore from an iCloud backup" - because there's just too many variables involved. In fact, there are places in the world where 1Gb of data would take even longer than 4hrs to download.

As for your thinking that maybe it would be "faster to restore from iTunes", then it certainly would be if you're talking about a local iTunes backup that contains all of the photos and videos in question. Keep in mind though, a full "restore" means you're restoring your entire iPhone with what's in that backup, meaning that your phone ends up losing any data it currently has since that backup was made.

However, if you have all of the photos and videos also stored on your computer (e.g. in the Photos app on a Mac, etc) then you could use iTunes to sync across the photos/videos you want from that source rather than restoring your divide from a backup.


How can I right click on a Mac using only the trackpad in a dual-boot environment? I am absolutely new to Mac OS and can't determine hot to issue a right click on my Mac. If I want a shortcut menu to appear I can ctrl + click to get the same effect or I can use an old mouse that has two buttons.

How would I right click if I don't have a mouse and I have only track pad and my laptop is dual boot with Windows or Linux?

If you have a MacBook Air you can "right-click" by placing two fingers on your trackpad and clicking with one of them. Of course this work when you are using OS X.

You can configure this option (if it isn't already configured) by going to Settings > Trackpad > Secondary click

If you are using Windows with Boot Camp instead, you should install the additional driver provided by Apple. They should allow you to right-click in the same way you do it on OS X.


Good Video Editing Software, around $100? I'm looking for some Video Editing software that allows me to

Have more than one video track, so I can do Picture-in-Picture, cross-fades etc.
Read AVCHD and AVCHD Lite
Have good options for synchronizing video and audio
Have a few limited options to cut audio and take parts of audio, just so that background tracks can be made to fit
Export into at least one standard format, be it uncompressed so that I can do it later
Compatible with Lion

Usually, Final Cut Pro X would come into mind now, but it's $300. In the Windows world, there's stuff like Pinnacle Systems Studio, but I don't know what's available on a Mac and what doesn't totally "suck" ("Consumer" Products that are limited, naggy and otherwise just a cash grab)

Just FYI, I bit the bullet and went with Final Cut Pro X in the end.


200GB lost on APFS boot disk Recently (last month) I upgraded from Sierra to High Sierra on one of my Macs. I now am confronted with 200GB of the 500GB 'lost'. That is, when running OmniDiskSweeper as root, I find 255GB files, but according to df, 460GB is in use. Removing large files (e.g. I removed a 33GB directory with rm) does not increase free space. I've run repair on the volume (system in target disk mode, repair executed from another Mac).

The disk was full yesterday (unexepected) and the system died. What pushed it over the edge was CrashPlan crashing and writing 12.5GB cores. I used the string command to try to find where the core dumps came from but string gave errors like "malformed object LC_SEGMENT_64 fileoff field plus filesize extends past the end of the file". That sounded like file system corruption to me, hence the attempt to repair.

I first tried to remove those core dumps to free up data, and that worked to give me 40GB. But I removed more from the disk and I never got that space back. Not even the repair gave me my disk space back. I now have a file system with 210GB space missing.

I cannot use DiskWarrior as it doesn't handle APFS. So, what can I do?

The reasons for this problem were twofold, it has turned out.

About half of the missing space was in SIP-protected folders that are not found by programs like du or OmniDiskSweeper, not even when they are run as root. A safe boot fixed that.
The other half was indeed (see How to thin your local Time Machine Snapshots on macOS High Sierra mentioned in a comment to my question) in time machine local snapshots.

The LC_SEGMENT error may have been a red herring. Checking the APFS system with the machine in TDM attached to another Mac did not notice any problems with the file system.

Time Machine does provide a risk for boot file systems that are pretty full and that have a volatile content (large size of additions and removals). And these days, you cannot turn local snapshots off anymore.


Terminal becomes unresponsive when a “sudo” password prompt is displayed When asked to type my password to run a sudo command, the USB keyboard goes unresponsive and I cannot type in the password or anything else.

I can hit return three times to bounce out on three failed password attempts however so it gets the return key input but no other keys until I bounce out then all works again.

Any suggestions?

The terminal doesn't show the characters being entered when typing in a password field such as a sudo password field. The characters are still being entered—just type your password as normal and press Enter to continue.

$ sudo echo hi
Password: type here, then enter
hi

You can show asterisks when entering your password for sudo by editing the sudoers file.

Open /etc/sudoers with visudo:

EDITOR=nano sudo visudo

I've used nano here, but feel free to use your preferred editor.
visudo will check your file for errors before saving, otherwise you may not be able to sudo.
You can backup the file with cp /etc/sudoers ~/Desktop.
Add "pwfeedback" to the Defaults, replacing the first line with the second:

Defaults env_reset

Defaults env_reset,pwfeedback

$ sudo echo hi
Password: ************
hi


Where can I find of Apple TV apps that can be installed in France? I bought a French relative an Apple TV from the US as a gift. Until I can go there and see what the Apple TV App Store has to offer, I would love to see if there's a list of TV Apps that one can install in France to start giving them recommendations based on their tastes.
Where can I find a list of French Apple TV apps?

Without changing your store country, you can search the App Store in any country using the marketing tools site, previously known as Link Maker.
https://tools.applemediaservices.com/app-store
Enter a search term and on the next page choose a store country and platform.


Can a Wi-Fi only iPad use a mobile Hotspot to get Internet access? Since I switched mobile providers, I can no longer use my iPhone as a personal Hotspot. The company doesn't allow it, and I didn't realize how convenient it was until I no longer had it.

I used to connect my iPad (Wi-Fi only) to my personal hotspot. Since I am no longer able to do that, I am wondering if I could buy a mobile hotspot and use it in a similar manner?

I've never really given it a thought as to how all the connections are made between devices. I'm guessing that the iPad + iPhone connection works differently. The iPhone is not offering the iPad a 4G/LTE connection, is it? I'm thinking that since the iPad can't access the cellular network, then it won't work with the mobile hotspot.

Since I am not sure what type of connection the iPhone and the mobile hotspot offer to a another device like a tablet, I'm really clueless as to whether or not it would work.

Yes, you can definitely use a mobile hotspot with the iPad. Make sure you get a version that connects with devices over WiFi, and you’ll be fine! (I.e. do not get a dongle that needs to be plugged into USB).

The connection process is slightly different than with an iPhone. It isn’t automatic, so you need to open Settings and look for the hotspot under WiFi and enter the password.

The only thing you’ll miss in comparison to the iPhone tethering is that the iPhone lets the iPad use its GPS for location updates. A mobile hotspot does not in the same manner give access to precise locations. Usually this is not a problem at all, unless you specifically want to use the iPad for navigation (GPS routing / mapping).


How can I create a new group for items in the Sidebar in Finder? I have:

Favorites
Shared
Devices

I'd like to create something like:

Cloud Files

My Favorites is getting a little cluttered with shortcuts to a DropBox folder, a SkyDrive folder, a Google Drive folder, an IDrive folder, etc.

How can I create a new group for items in the Sidebar in Finder?

No. You can rearrange the order of the three you mentioned though - just click and drag to move them.

A possible workaround would be to create a new folder, say "Cloud files", and put it in the sidebar. You could then place aliases of your other folders into that one. This would help trim down the folders in your Favorites section, as well as keep the same quick access to them.


How do I change the login screen background in macOS Mojave? I just updated to macOS Mojave, and immediately noticed a couple of things:

My custom login screen wallpaper is gone.
When you click on a user's name in the login screen, it switches to their personal background (their usual wallpaper for the first space on the primary monitor).

I assumed it had just overwritten my cached image file. But when I went to replace it, nothing happened. It turns out that com.apple.desktop.admin.png is gone entirely!

Right after taking that screenshot, I decided to poke into Desktop Pictures and found my personal login screen background, which looks promising. It contains one other folder, which  probably  (edit: confirmed) contains the login screen background of my administrator account.

I've fixed it! You'll have to edit the dune HEIC picture though. If you're willing, follow these steps:

1) Go To: /Library/Desktop Pictures/

2) Find the file called "Mojave.heic"

3) Save a copy as a backup somewhere else

4) Select the picture you want to have instead

5) Edit image values (DPI, size, etc.) to fit

6) Rename this edited picture as Mojave.heic


Extreme slowing down of MacBook Pro due to pkd process I am debugging this issue for several days now, but just realized that a certain pkd process is responsible for extremely slowing down my MacBook Pro. When I kill this process, everything works fine. While the process is running, I cannot work with the MacBook. I cannot startup Finder, I cannot typ anything, etc. I can barely manage to open the Activity Manager and kill siad pkd process.

Here is a picture of which files this process is using:

Does anyone know where this is coming from? Why does it block the laptop entirely? How can I solve this issue?

The laptop is a MacBook Pro Mid-2012 (serial number is C1MK9X6ZDTY3; it is a MacBook Pro 13-Inch "Core i5" 2.5 Mid-2012). The operating system was recently updated to Catalina 10.15.4. Thanks for your help.

According to the man page, pkd is a:

management and supervision daemon for plug-in services

You can stop it with:
launchctl stop com.apple.pluginkit.pkd

It will restart automatically when needed.


how to concatenate csv files so each file is added adjacently i.e., to the right, instead of sequentially i.e., to the bottom in other words I am trying to join a few hundred csv files that are 1 column each and I would like each csv file to create a new column instead of creating a new row.

This is the command I'm currently using:

gls-Mac-Pro:~ gliiiitch$ cat *.csv >merged_files.csv

Try the paste command:

paste *.csv > merged_files.csv

You may have to experiment to be sure that the column order matches your expectations...


Shortcut to go to next table cell in table in Pages In Numbers, it is possible to go to the cell below the cell you are currently in by pressing Enter.

In a table in Pages, it seems as though pressing Enter simply makes a new line in the table cell. Additionally, pressing the arrow keys only move the text insertion cursor and pressing Escape. Pressing ⌘ Enter does deselect the current cell and keep the entered text in it, but it doesn't automatically go to the next cell.

Is there a way (like there is in Numbers) to go to the next cell in a table in Pages?

⌥ alt/option↩ enter/return will always move down a cell.

The down ↓ arrow key will move you down a cell when

not editing the contents of the cell
(i.e. the cell is selected but the insertion point is not within the cell), or
the insertion point is on the last line of the text content of the cell

If your insertion point is on another line of the cell, either

keep pressing ↓ until you get to the bottom line (then another press will jump cell), or
press ⌘cmd↩enter/return first to acknowledge cell contents and jump out of the cell, then ↓.


Missing ntlm_auth when running app with Wine I installed Wine using the .pkg from their website (installing the necessary dependencies like XQuartz beforehand). I was able to run the installer of the Windows app with no problem, but when I try to run the app itself I get:

err:winediag:SECUR32_initNTLMSP ntlm_auth was not found or is outdated. Make sure that ntlm_auth >= 3.0.25 is in your path. Usually, you can find it in the winbind package of your distribution.

Some googling around suggested that this might be due to not having Samba installed on my system. I installed it and started the Samba server, but I still get the same error. Any ideas about what else I could check?

Apple removed Samba in Lion. You'll need to reinstall it along with all the dependencies, which you can do with SMBUp. There are some caveats to installing this such as breaking Finder's network browse — you should read the app's website first.


Deleting Photos From "Photos" App Does Not Delete Them From Local Drive I have some photos and I want to remove some of them by first previewing and then removing, like I always do on Windows.

Because "Preview" does not let me look multiple photos and "Quick Look" has no delete function, I imported the photos to "Photos" app by dragging the folder into the app and started to removing photos.

Then I also go to recently deleted tab in "Photos" and deleted photos permanently.

But it does not remove them from local drive. They are still on my drive, I can see on Finder.

How do you remove photos in MacOs? I could not find an easy way to remove photos "on fly". If possible, I don't want to use 3rd party apps.

Photos app stores the pictures in a database. There will be an original copy of the image, a copy of the image if you edit it in any way as well as proxy / thumbnail photos so that various functions are fast.

These files are all stored and managed via the application and default are stored as a directory or folder on the filesystem that is shown as one icon. Look in your Pictures folder in your home folder. (Shift Command H in Finder to short cut to your specific home folder).

Any photos stored outside that location can be deleted using finder, search tools, etc.. and using Photos won't help manage them. Any photos stored inside the photo library should not be deleted, so they are generally hidden from search to prevent people from breaking the library database.

Most people don't ever have more than one Photos library, but here are documentation for those that prefer to know how things are stored.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517 Explains how to move your photos library - you could move yours to an external drive and then delete it. Then you'll know all the searchable photos can be deleted, saving your library to be moved back once you are done cleaning.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204414 Explains the system library and how to select alternate libraries when you start up Photos app by holding the option key.


Improvement to 'grep -h "BSD process name" /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/* | sort | uniq -c' To track down the culprit for the frequent crashes of Lion, I ran:

grep -h "BSD process name" /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/* | sort | uniq -c

which produced:

   1 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Finder
   1 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: PluginProcess
   1 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: PubSubAgent
   1 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: SystemUIServer
   2 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WebProcess
   1 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer
   1 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: coreaudiod
   8 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
   2 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: launchd
   1 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: mds
   1 BSD process name corresponding to current thread: mdworker

but this list seems to be far from complete for the number of crashes I had over the past few days -- during startup, shutdown, and in-between (and /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports contains 17 days worth of crash reports). What can one run in the terminal to produce a more comprehensive list of OS X crashes?

Looking through the reports in my own .../DiagnosticReports directory, I see lots of entries that don't have a "BSD process name" section.  In fact, I don't have that line in any of the files in DiagnosticReports.

I think you need to grep on a different term, perhaps "^Process:"

grep -h "^Process:" /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/* | sort | uniq -c


Does setting the Computer Sleep setting to 'Never' prevent sleep? I'm running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion on several servers. We're about to ship them off to a colo provider, and I wanted to prevent them from sleeping.

My question is, does setting the System Preferences > Energy Saver > Computer Sleep option to 'Never' reliably prevent sleep?

I noticed yesterday that all the mac minis were off, despite the 'Never' option being set. However, I'm thinking their power strip may have just been accidentally unplugged for a second.

Yes. This setting reliably prevents a Mac from sleeping. I've had my iMac set to "Never" sleep for over a year, and it's still running (though its display turns off after 10 minutes or so per the other setting on that screen).


How to know whether SSD is permanently implanted on Mac or not? I've heard that SSDs have a read and write limit.So,if my SSD is implanted on the logic board then I will need to get a new Mac.So how do I know if my SSD is removable via System Report or command line?

The MacBook that has one USB-C port and the TouchBar MBP are the only Mac going back to 2013 models where the main storage is soldered to the logic board. All the rest are serviceable without solder or needing a new serialized logic board.

That being said, Apple and certified repair agents will repair all Mac with storage issues for 5 years from the date of last sale of that model so practically, you’re never without repair options even if you don’t have the skill or tools or training to successfully close a Mac after repair.

Just about anyone can go to ifixit.com and open up a Mac. The trick is getting the right parts, not damaging tiny screws and connectors and putting it all back together so the system is operational and reliable.


Is there software for transcribing and recognizing musical pitches in an audio recording? Does GarageBand or any other Mac software make it possible to determine the notes in a musical recording?

It doesn't have to be absolute, and it doesn't even have to guess the rhythm. Determining the intervals would be enough.

No, GarageBand cannot do this. You should investigate the commercial products Celemony Melodyne and Neuratron AudioScore.

Also have a look at Capo by SuperMegaUltraGroovy. It provides a good method for assisting a person in transcribing by ear.


Use an iMac 5k or iMac 4k 2017 as a target display with Macbook Pro retina early 2013 I have a Macbook Pro Retina early 2013 and I'd like to know if it's possible to use a brand new iMac 5K maybe the 4K 2017 as a target display for that macbook, is that possible, do I need an adapter from Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3?

Regards.

According to this article on AppleInsider the 2017 4K and 5k iMacs do not support target display mode.


Error -36 "some data can't be read or written" when copying files from SD card I want to copy files from my SD card to my Desktop but for some of the files I get:

  The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “GOPR0054.MP4” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)

I tried to use dot_clean because it seems to have done the trick for others:

dot_clean Path/To/Directory

Didn't work.

I have no idea what error -36 is or how it can be solved.
My SD card is in ExFAT format (if that matters).

I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.2.

Not true; it's a privacy issue with the xfat format. You can copy the files via terminal: mv plus space, drag the file, plus drag the destiny. If that doesn't work, you'll have to change the format of the file.


How to disable the Guest account on OS X El Capitan About a couple of weeks ago, the Guest user account was automatically enabled on my Mac running OS X El Capitan (by itself, without me enabling it). Now, whenever I start my Mac, I am greeted with a login screen showing two accounts: 1) Mine. 2) Guest user.

I have Find My Mac turned off, as I know people have suggested that the Find My Mac feature may be responsible for this behavior. Beyond that, I have logged out of my iCloud account from "System Preferences -> iCloud," and also disabled the Guest account from "System Preferences -> Users & Groups." Now it shows the Guest user as off in System Preferences.

However, when I start my Mac, I'm still shown two accounts to log-in. And yes, I have tried and have successfully managed to log into the Guest account despite having disabled it in System Preferences.

This is very strange, and I was wondering if anyone has found a fix.

Additional Info which may help: I've never had this issue with any other versions of OS X prior to El Capitan. And I've got FileVault enabled, and it's been enabled since OS X Lion without this issue.

I'd greatly appreciate any feedback.

After some extensive testing (and multiple Time Machine restores--to verify that this fix works), I have found a solution. And it's pretty easy too, just don't do it on the go, or you'll wipe out your battery.

Visit Apple's dedicated website to download the OS X 10.11.4 Combo Update
Disable Find My Mac
Ensure that you have disabled the guest user

Install the combo update

Poof! Guest is gone.

Re-enable Find My Mac, if you'd like.
Disable guest user again, immediately after re-enabling Find My Mac

And that's it! It works nicely with FileVault 2, Bootcamp, and Time Machine, so no worries there.


Automator Workflow - Convert FLAC to MP3 I would like to have an Automator Workflow that converts FLAC to Mp3. Right now I am using this shell script which works fine and preserves ID3 Tags:

#!/bin/bash

for f in "$@"; do
    [[ "$f" != *.flac ]] && continue
    album="$(metaflac --show-tag=album "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    artist="$(metaflac --show-tag=artist "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    date="$(metaflac --show-tag=date "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    title="$(metaflac --show-tag=title "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    year="$(metaflac --show-tag=date "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    genre="$(metaflac --show-tag=genre "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    tracknumber="$(metaflac --show-tag=tracknumber "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"

    flac --decode --stdout "$f" | lame --preset extreme --add-id3v2 --tt "$title" --ta "$artist" --tl "$album" --ty "$year" --tn "$tracknumber" --tg "$genre" - "${f%.flac}.mp3"
done

Unfortunately, if I put this into Automator's "Run Shell Script" it won't work.
First it complained about unknown command for metaflac so I exported my PATH in the script. If I start the workflow now it runs for a second and is done instantly without converting the files. It is set to expect Files and Folders in Finder.

I also found this answer Converting WAV to MP3 using LAME and Automator but this also does not work. I suspect find is not aware of spaces in the path. This also does not preserve ID3 Tags.
Could anyone help me out with this? I am not very experienced with Automator at all. I don't want to use iTunes or other third party Apps. I just need a service which could be used with files or folders.

Found this.
Edited it to my needs (no iTunes import, don't delete the files). If I select files it works but not for folders. Pretty nice. A solution where I can select files or folders is still prefered.


iPhone 5 won't turn on after being off for two weeks The iPhone was perfectly working. Then it was left home for two weeks. Battery obviously drained out.

When I came back, I put the iPhone on the charger for a lot time. However, the iPhone and the charger were cold, like nothing is really charging. Charger works, have tested it with a different iPhone.

So now my iPhone still can't be turned on!

How can this be possible?

Edit: I tried hard reset combination, tried to connect to laptop, different chargers...


Sort emails by sender on iOS It is possible to sort emails by sender (“From”) using Mail app on Mac.

Can the native mail app do this on iPhone and iPad?

No - you would need to search the mailbox and filter on the sender. At that point, you have the sort for just that one From sorted by order received.


MacBook cooler fan ripped wires Due to a mishap during disassembly, I managed to rip the cooler fan's wires from the on-board connector. The connector itself appears intact, as do the ends of the wires. Is there a way of re-inserting the wires into the connector? It's a 2010 model A1278.

The plastic connector is probably broken given that they were, as you describe, ripped from the connector.  There are very tiny detente molded into the connector and these are probably broken meaning the wire will no longer be secure.  This can lead to intermittent connection problems.

Spend the few dollars and get a new fan; it’s extremely inexpensive.


How can I delete cookies for one site in Safari, without deleting local data? I'm having trouble logging in to a website in Safari, so I wanted to delete cookies for that one site. I went to Safari > Preferences > Privacy > Manage Website Data And searches for the site's name, but I see that the site is using cookies and local storage. I don't want to delete the local storage, just the cookies.

This is on Mac OS X 10.15.7 with Safari version 14.0 (15610.1.28.1.9, 15610)
In Safari, How can I delete just the cookies for a single site and leave the local data?

Visit the website, open the developer tools (option-cmd-i, enabled in Preferences → Advanced), choose the Storage tab, then Cookies in the sidebar, and for each cookie, select it in the list and press backspace.


Is it possible to use Remote Desktop to control a Mac Lion Server without monitor and keyboard attached? I never used Remote Desktop for Mac OSX so before buying the software I would like to know if I can fully control my Mac Mini with Lion Server installed without any keyboard or monitor attached.

Basically I would like from my Mac Book Air to use Remote Desktop to see the graphical environment of my Mac Mini server and control it, without a KVM.
What I'm concerned, and I didn't find any clue inside Apple website, is the fact that when I'm trying from my MacBook Air to open a Remote Desktop session on my MacMini server some sort of acknowledge is required to the person at the console of that machine, but in my case that machine would be fully unattended and without any keyboard and display.

So I'm asking this question to someone that succeeded in using this software (or other software, any suggestion is welcome!) in this configuration.

Finally, the software admin guide says: "Apple Remote Desktop replaces the need for KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) switches for accessing Xserve computers without a monitor attached.". So it's ok for XServe, but what about MacMini?

thank you

There's two parts to your question, one part is easy to answer: yes, you can get a remote, graphical session on your server without the server having to have a keyboard or mouse attached to it.

This part of your question troubles me:

  before buying the software

What software are you buying? Everything you need to remotely control your Lion server is included in OS X. From any OS X machine you can connect to any other OS X machine and get a desktop session on that machine.

To enable desktop access on a machine go to System Preferences -> Sharing and make sure the Screen Sharing setting is checked. You can configure just exactly who has remote access to the machine from this dialog as well:

With your screen shared on your server, from your Macbook you can open a Finder window and connect to the machine from there. First click on the machine name on the left bar in the Finder window and then click on the 'Share Screen' button on the top of the window to connect to the machine's display:

Depending on how you set up screen sharing you may be prompted to enter your user name and password.

The end result is a Apple Screen Sharing view of your remote machine's desktop:

(The computer you see up there is an iMac with no keyboard or mouse connected to it)

I recommend the neat ScreenShareMenulet program if you want quick access to screen shares. It sits in your menu bar and gives you one click access to remote screen shares with machines on your network.


Why does `whoami` give a different answer than Current User in Users & Groups? I don't recall exactly what info I was asked to provide at the time I set the mac up, which is leading to some confusion.

On my mac, when I run whoami in a terminal, it tells me aerovistae, my general username. However, if I open Users & Groups, it tells me the current user is myFirstName myLastName.

Why is this? Is it the same account, and it has two different name properties? What is the difference?

It is the same account. The name displayed in Users & Groups is your full name, the one shown by whomami is the name of the account as known to the underlying Unix system (and also used as the folder name for your home folder). To check yourself, open Users & Groups, unlock if necessary and then right-click on your user name in the left column. This will show you the technical details behind your account.


Transfer movie using itunes I am trying to follow the simple instructions given at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAI2V5q-4Bs to transfer a movie from my laptop to my ipad.  However, when I run itunes in windows with the ipad plugged in I don't see the left hand pane at all. How can I get to the screen they have at 31 seconds into that video?

The video is for iTunes 10 or before, I assume you are using iTunes 11 now. After plugging in your iPad click on the "Devices" button at top right (next to "iTunes Store") and then on Apps (about in the middle) to get to the same screen again.


Update iPad 3 iOS 5.1.1 to 7.0.4 not 7.1? I have iPad 3 iOS 5.1.1 Jailbroken.

I now want to update to 7.0.4 or 7.0.6 but can NOT figure out how. (7.1.1 is currently the official update)

Manual updates thru iTunes to a 7.0.6 restore file always result in "This device isn't eligible" error despite hosts editing. I've tried on multiple computers.

Am I hosed?

Actually you can't update iOS devices to old versions.


macOS Terminal.app can't split with Command + D I installed zsh. When I press Command + D in iTerm2, it could split normally.

But when I return to using Terminal.app, I use bash or zsh, it can't split with Command + D, it changed like the screenshot below.

Before pressing Command + D

After pressing Command + D

How can I solve this problem?

I've reported this as an issue on Apple Communities and also reported it as a bug to Apple Support. Until it is fixed, there seems to be no workaround.


External monitor can't be detected anymore I know this is a reoccurring issue and I've gone through every forum, every topic and every blog post I could find. Two days ago my MacBook Pro 13 stopped detecting external monitors.
I'm using a Unitek HDMI to USB-C dongle which I know works fine. I've tested 3 different monitors, that have different resolutions and refresh rates, they all work fine.
I've got another 2019 MacBook Pro 13" that works fine with every single monitor; using the same cable/dongle combo.
What I've tried:

plugged the dongle with and without charger also being plugged in,
plugged the dongle when Mac was sleeping/off
plugged in a USB-C -> USB-A dongle and connected a mouse to it - both ports work fine,
restarted my Mac after I've plugged the USB-C cable in,
reset NVRAM and SMC,
reinstalled OS (with and without backup)
tried clicking "Detect Displays" in Displays settings,
closed the lid, plugged the cable in, opened the lid,
installed DisplayLink drivers, uninstalled them.

When I connect the dongle, it's visible as BillBoard Device in the System Information -> USB (both Macs have that). I've also been watching and comparing Console logs when I connect/disconnect the monitor and here are some things that I've noticed:

The Mac that works fine has some [Hot_Plug] events visible when I plug in the monitor,
FB0 both have DisplayPort driver version 1.1, FB1 on working Mac has a version 1.2 (this information doesn't show up on non-working Mac)

The screen doesn't flicker when I connect any external display, there's no Arrangements tab visible. AirPlay works fine.
Both Macs are 2019 13" Pro with the same stuff inside - they both use Intel Iris 645 Graphics.
Any tips?

There's only one thing to do.... take it in for service.

When I connect the dongle it's visible as BillBoard Device in the
System Information -> USB (both Macs have that).

The fact that it's being detected means your port is functioning.  Now, you didn't specifically say so, but I'm assuming that the built-in display is working.  Since you have the Intel Iris (Integrated) graphics, there's no failure with the graphics chipset (there's no discrete GPU)
However, there is a video mux (multiplexer) chip that "sends" video to the LCD, the external monitor, or both.  This has likely died.

Macbook Pro on but display is blank

You've done a lot of diagnostics - actually gone a bit overboard with the re-installation of the OS.  Safe Mode or Recovery Mode is sufficient for this.  For the future, try this first and if you absolutely must have a clean install, do it to a USB flash drive (32GB is sufficient) so you're not wiping out your drive (and all your work) as a diagnostic procedure.


Watch live news on AppleTV Is there any way to watch live news on an AppleTV? This is the only thing that's preventing me from cutting my cable.

The Apple TV wasn't designed for that sort of thing; it's for all intents and purposes a closed system (i.e., iTunes-stored content only).

At the same time, if you have a flat screen TV, then chances are you can hook up a PC or Mac to it using it as a monitor and grab newscasts off the web (a friend does this and it works great). Also some of the higher-end flat screens offer links to content distributed by the manufacturer (Sony's Bravia line comes to mind here).


MacBook Pro Trackpad Suddenly Stopped Working Completely The trackpad on my Macbook Pro of 2 years has suddenly stopped working out of blue.

The trackpad doesn't move, respond to any gestures nor do any clicks work. This is really frustrating as I used gestures a lot to navigate around my laptop, and even though I use a bluetooth mouse it makes using my laptop unnecessarily laborious.

Does anyone know what may be causing the problem, and any solutions?

The trackpad is connected over USB - so try these things before seeking hardware service:

Check System Information app like the image below
Disconnect all external devices and restart to reset the NVRAM (that causes the hardware tree to repopulate)
Make a system backup and possibly reinstall the latest combo update / or install a new OS on an external drive to ensure it's not a problem with the OS / software


How do I make my iMac Apache server always run? I have a password protected Apache server running on my iMac (OS X Sierra 10.12.1) at home for personal purposes. It is accessible by the internet so that I can access my home files when I am outside my home.

I have configured settings on my iMac so that I can lock the screen without making it go into sleep mode. However the web server still doesn't always run. When I try to access it from outside home, it only works about half of the time. I know that my home network being down etc. is not the issue, because connecting to my VPN server running on my Mac mini on the same network always works.

I understand that making an iMac web server always accessible might be problematic, but if anyone know how to solve this or improve the uptime just a little bit I would be very grateful.

so that I can access my home files when I am outside my home

If this is all you really want to do then you are using the wrong tool.

Go to System Preferences -> Sharing and enable File Sharing.
Then go to Options (same panel) and check the AFP box.
Then forward port 548 on your router.

You can now access your files from the Finder ( Go -> connect to server) with read-write access instead of download only.


Is it possible to use my Mac to mine Bitcoins? So Bitcoin seems all the rage, but it’s way too expensive for us mere mortals. Who can afford a bitcoin, right? But apparently bitcoins are produced by mining them and mining them involves a computer processing mathematical calculations. So I wonder, can I use my Mac to mine bitcoins?

I have one old iMac sitting in a corner that I figure I could leave powered up 24/7 to do nothing else but mine Bitcoins. Is this possible? Will the benefit outweigh the costs?

It’s a 21 inch mid 2010 iMac with a 3.6ghz i5 processor and has 16gb RAM.

Short answer

Is it possible? Yes.

Will the benefit outweigh the costs? No.

Long answer

Without going into a lot of detail, and at the risk of oversimplifying things, in the early days mining bitcoins was easier than it is now. And, as time goes by, it will continue to get harder.

Another contributing factor is that the kinds of calculations needed to mine bitcoins are actually better suited to GPUs instead of CPUs (i.e. a graphics card is better at processing these than a CPU is). So, using your iMac as an example, the best GPU your model shipped with was a Radeon HD 5670 that had 512MB memory and while this may have been okay to mine bitcoins in 2010, it would take so long to do now that the cost of electricity would outweigh the value of any Bitcoin you’d be able to mine (as it now takes a lot longer to mine and the cost of power only goes up).

This brings me to the other factor. There is a real cost in mining bitcoins, starting with the cost of electricity. You’d need to have your Mac working overtime on the calculations 24/7 for literally months to try and obtain a single bitcoin. Trust me, the cost in power will be a lot higher! That is why many bitcoins are now being mined in bitcoin farms in China (i.e. air conditioned buildings with many devices on 24/7).

To my mind, the only way it’d be worth doing on a Mac would be if you were going to have access to one of the new iMac Pros (about to ship in the next couple of days) and it was configured with a Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics processor with 16GB of HBM2 memory, and you had it running 24/7 at a workplace (i.e. so you’re not paying for the power) and assuming you didn’t have to pay for the iMac Pro itself. But of course that’s not a realistic scenario, and unless your employer was also on board, may risk termination of employment!

Instead, if you want to get into mining, look at a dedicated machine designed for this purpose. Below are some examples:

AntMiner S7
AntMiner S9
Avalon6

NOTE: I am not affiliated with any of the products listed above, nor have I any experience with them whatsoever!

As you can see, the above items are not cheap. And, on top of that you need to factor in the cost of running them (i.e. electricity, air conditioning, etc)  where you live. So, my advice is forget about using a Mac (or any PC), do your research, and perform the calculations necessary to determine the costs to you and the likely return.

A word on the lottery analogy

As mentioned by various people via the comments below (and those already migrated to chat), many see bitcoin mining as being akin to buying a lottery ticket. While I understand the analogy (i.e. because the odds of success are extremely low, and because someone could mine bitcoins for a whole year with no success while someone else could be successful after only ten minutes), this analogy is actually somewhat misleading.

When someone buys a lottery ticket they essentially end up with a ticket containing random numbers in the hope that those numbers get selected. Now the odds of those numbers getting selected will depend on the lottery you're playing. However, bitcoin miners are not rewarded for essentially doing nothing, because the very act of mining bitcoins is in fact providing a record-keeping service for the overall bitcoin cryptocurrency and payment system. Bitcoin miners (if lucky enough) may get paid (i.e. rewarded) with newly-created bitcoins for this service. Likewise, even the term mining is somewhat misleading. Miners typically produce something, but bitcoin mining doesn't actually produce anything. For more information refer to Bitcoin and Beyond: The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Virtual Currencies.

Nevertheless, using the lottery example is useful to convey that (1) the odds of success are extremely low and, (2) you may get lucky instantly (and therefore the return on investment is excellent) or over the longer-term you'll spend a lot of money for very little gain.