Swollen/pregnant battery on a MacBook (13" aluminium late-2008) The battery in my late-2008 model aluminium 13" MacBook became extremely swollen in early to mid-2012 after only 283 cycles (as per Cycle count under Hardware → Power), and the button on the multi-touch trackpad stopped working due to the expansion of the battery.  I have since had to remove the battery to get the button working again, but the battery itself hasn't leaked, just expanded very heavily to nearly 1.5× the height (perhaps ≈0.2 each on top and bottom).  After removing it, it's basically nearly impossible to put it back in and still close the cover.

I'm convinced that this is a fault in Apple's design, because it seemingly started after there were a couple of times that I had a browser open with too many windows, and it busy-looped during the night, getting quite hot and with the fan kicking in.  However, during such occasions, the MacBook itself sat on a rather clear desk in an air-conditioned room, so I find it unacceptable that plain-use self-overheating on the machine's part could possibly cause any such problems.  (I only ever ran OS X on the machine, and it was very far away from any other heat sources or direct sunlight.)

I'm disappointed that now I not only can't use the MacBook as a portable with any kind of battery life at all, but also that it is now subject to resets during power outages and cannot be transported (e.g. in sleep mode) without having to be shutdown first.

Shouldn't extremely swollen and expanded batteries that completely obstruct trackpad button usage be covered by a warranty?  This never happens with any other single  brand-name manufacturer of computer batteries!  What are my options?  Do I have to buy another battery at full price, only to have it become pregnant and start obstructing my button again right after the warranty is out?  I tried going to an Apple Store in NorCal, and they said they can't do anything about it, since it's out of warranty.  They said that even at 1.5× the width, it is still supposedly safe to use!

My perspective here is that the battery has not been consumed, but instead became damaged through no fault of my own.  It was either defective outright (either through design or manufacturing), or it has become damaged through hardware/firmware/software bugs related to charging and/or overheating.  I wouldn't have cared if it simply stopped holding the charge for more than a dozen of minutes or so; that's clearly something that is very well documented everywhere and is to be expected.

I run into this as well with our MacBooks after a few years. You have to replace the battery. If you have an Apple Store or Reseller nearby, ask whether there is a replacement program ongoing (there sometimes is) which would allow you to get a new battery cheaper or for free.

It would be odd to have a 2008 model Mac still covered under a one year warranty. Even AppleCare with a three year coverage would normally be expired in this case. You might need to spend $129 for a battery at this point, but you could try one more time at a store if you read up on some details.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/replacements.html

Towards the bottom it says:

  However, the AppleCare Protection Plan for notebook computers does not
  cover batteries that have failed or are exhibiting diminished capacity
  except when the failure or diminished capacity is the result of a
  manufacturing defect.

Then you'll want to go to the full AppleCare document, http://www.apple.com/legal/applecare/appgeos.html, where if you search for battery and skip past the iPod parts, will be:

  What is not Covered?
  4.1 Hardware Service. The Plan does not apply to:
  (vi) Consumable parts, such as batteries, except in respect of battery coverage under APP for iPod or unless failure has occurred due to a defect in materials and workmanship;

So, with a battery that is rated at 300 cycles, and is listed as a consumable part (i.e. expected to fail over time), it's pretty common for some people with failed batteries to have to pay for a replacement. Now, the one thing would be if the trackpad still doesn't work after you paid for a battery exchange, I would ask them to consider repairing that.

Keep in mind - the warranty (or care plan) has a start and end date. During the time of the plan, it's Apple's responsibility to pay for repairs and service and parts for covered repairs. After that time, it's the consumer's responsibility to pay.

I would head to the genius bar, with an appointment, and ask them to look it over. Explain (briefly) that you were told at another store you had to pay for a battery and feel bad. You clearly wish it had lasted longer and ask if there is any way they could help you avoid paying for either a repair of the trackpad or a replacement of the battery.

Think of that person as your friend as opposed to someone "working for the man" and is there to say no. You might still get a no answer, but at least you read up and can talk with them over what would be covered and what wouldn't be covered. By trying to get a second hearing of your situation, you might either feel better or they might find a way to help and you'll be out a trip to the store and maybe the cost of a battery.


How can I create a morning routine with my HomePod that would read me today’s weather? I believe this capability exists in other smart speakers, and even in iPhone’s Siri (to an extent).

I have a “Good Morning” scene setup in HomeKit where it turns on a few lights and starts playback of a radio channel on the HomePod, when I say “Hey Siri, good morning!”.

I would like the HomePod to tell me today’s weather as well.

How can I accomplish this?

You can surely do it with the Shortcuts app. It's available on iOS and every shortcut you create will be synchronised with your other Apple products on the same iCloud account.

It works well with HomeKit, the default weather app and the Apple Music radio stations. You can trigger a shortcut with Siri, and you should check out the user guide for more infos.


Cannot erase SD card with Disk Utility (El Capitan) I have this SD card that I am trying to use to backup photos on a Windows computer.

After using the SD card on the Windows computer, and copying the photos back on a safe drive, I cannot erase the SD card:

And yep, in the Info window for the card, the device is listed as "read only":

I checked the Lock Tab and it's not on Lock position... What gives?

A better and simpler solution would be using the command-line.

Execute the following command to identify the mount name of SD card following the pattern /dev/diskX, e.g., /dev/disk2

diskutil list

Say the disk name is /dev/disk2. Now format the card to FAT32 by running the following command:

sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MYSD MBRFormat /dev/disk2


Java applets in a browser on Mavericks? Is it possible to run a Java applet in any browser in MacOS 10.9.2? Chrome does not work with Java applets because it's a 32 bit app and the Java plugin is 64 bit only. Firefox and Safari both should be able to use Oracle's Java plugin, but it does not seem to work.

The official java.com download from Oracle is "Version 7 Update 55". It installs via a .pkg installer but the plugin still does not work in Safari or Firefox. I did verify that /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin exists, but it is not showing up in Safaris' list of plugins.

Oracle's installer adds a new "Java" system preference, with a security tab with a checkbox "Enable Java content in the browser". This is checked off. I check it on, click "Apply", and am prompted for my password. Then the dialog flashes and the box remains checked off. The plugin still does not work. I do note my console has a log line FAILURE: Job com.oracle.java.deployment.Helper is not loaded in launchd. There is an unresolved bug against OpenJDK for this problem that may be why it's not working. It is several months old.

Some searching frequently turns up advice to re-enable Java 6. I really do not want to do this, but I am interested to know if it works in Mavericks.

I´m using OSX 10.9.2 and Java (version 7 update 55) with Firefox (Nightly) and latest Safari and it works. It is right, that Java will not be shown in Safari extensions but I could find it under Firefox plugins.

I suggest that you uninstall Java, check that everything will be wiped off and reinstall Java. Normally Java will be enabled in system settings by default.

Update: If these doesn´t help please create another user and logon into a fresh user profile. Do you´ve got the same bug in Java system preferences?


How to lookup disk "Device Identifier" from "Device / Media Name"? There are 20+ drives in the system. One of the drives is having issues according to the disk controller. The disk controller reports to me by the drives serial number. That drive serial I can map to a "Device / Media Name" (f.e. HPT DISK 1_7 Media).
Device / Media Name → Device Identifier
Next, I do wish to know the "Device Identifier" (like disk8) or "Device Node" (f.e. /dev/disk8).

Regression
Having to do a diskutil info /dev/diskZZ for all of the 20+ drives is quite inefficient.

What is the efficient way to do a command-line lookup for the disk its "Device Identifier" having the "Device / Media Name" using Lion (Mac OS X 10.7)?

The following will output the device node for any volume with a matching name by replacing <string> with the Device/ Media Name you're searching for.

for d in /dev/disk*; do
    if [ `diskutil info $d | grep -c <string>` == 1 ]; then
        diskutil info $d | grep "Node"
    fi
done

One-liner

$ for disk in /dev/disk*; do [ `diskutil info $disk | grep -c '<string>'` == 1 ] && diskutil info $disk | grep Node; done

BTW, on my MacBook Pro I have two "drives" with the same device name as they are two volumes on an APFS drive so some people reading this may have similar happening. I also don't have a 10.7 Mac available to test it, but it doesn't rely on any fancy shell stuff so should work fine. It certainly works on 10.12 and 10.13.


How do I resubmit a podcast to iTunes after Apple has rejected it once? Apple rejected my initial podcast submission but their rejection wasn't particularly informative.
The email I got from iTunes is the following

Dear podcast owner,
The following podcast has not been included in the iTunes podcast directory.
Name: The Bottom :: Radio Breakout Feed URL: http://www.radiobreakout.com.au/podcast?podcast=thebottom
Submissions may not be included in the directory for a variety of reasons. For more information, please see the podcast technical specification at http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/techspecs.html.
Regards,
The iTunes Store team

I can't see any errors; it is a valid RSS/XML feed. When I added it manually to iTunes it downloaded and played the show correctly so the feed does work.
The feed is available at:
http://www.radiobreakout.com.au/podcast?podcast=thebottom
I've updated the feed slightly since trying to submit the podcast and I'd like to try again but I cannot see how to resubmit the podcast once it has been rejected. Is this possible? If so, can someone walk me through the resubmission process?

The RSS has an invalid '.' at the end of it

</channel>.

fix that and it should be ok


Install older version of VirtualBox (4.3.6-91406) on OS X El Capitan I am trying to install VirtualBox 4.3.6-91406 on OS X El Capitan because I want to run an old version of Minix.

It is advised to run my version of Minix on VirtualBox 4.3.6 as it may not be compatible with the newest VirtualBox 5.0.12-104815 and anything between.

Running the old VirtualBox 4.3.6-91406:

This is what I get when I try to install VirtualBox 4.3.6-91406:

Running latest VirtualBox 5.0.12-104815:

And this is what I get when I try to run my old version of Minix on the latest VirtualBox:

  Implementation of the USB 2.0 controller not found!

  Because the USB
  2.0 controller state is part of the saved VM state, the VM cannot be started. To fix this problem, either install the 'Oracle VM VirtualBox
  Extension Pack' or disable USB 2.0 support in the VM settings
  (VERR_NOT_FOUND).

  Result Code:  NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
  Component:  ConsoleWrap
  Interface:  IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

Is there anything I can do about it? I want to run this version of Minix and preferably VirtualBox 4.3.6.

I had to do the following things:

Boot the image on Linux with VirtualBox 4.3.6 installed from a terminal using the following command:

$ VBoxSDL --startvm MINIX3 --norawr0 --norawr3 --nohwvirtex

Apply this patch which resolves the guru meditation problem.

Go to /usr/src/drivers/e1000 and in the e1000.c file you have to replace line

e1000_reg_write(e, E1000_REG_MTA + i, 0);

with

e1000_reg_write(e, E1000_REG_MTA + i * 4, 0);

Run make and make install in /usr/src/drivers/e1000.

Turn off your virtual machine.
Copy the whole directory of your virtual machine to OS X.
Install latest VirtualBox.
Download Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack and add this extension to your VirtualBox.
Done!


Set environment variable for the process before startup I have the following situation: I have Mac OS bundle with application which uses some 3rd party dylib's and those dylib's depend on some env variable, let's name it ENV_VAR. I want to set ENV_VAR to some value for my application only because if I set it for the whole system it may breaks some other apps. And it should work transparently to the user i.e. he just run my app from the Application folder by double clicking it. How can I achieve it?

NOTE: dylibs are loaded before main functions starts hence setting this variable in the main doesn't help

By "main", do you mean the Info.plist file of your .app ?
That's Apple recommandation so far: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/General/Reference/InfoPlistKeyReference/Articles/LaunchServicesKeys.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009250-SW1


Can't use ⌃⌘Space for Evernote Helper as shortcut is already in use I love Evernote and I used to Evernote helper with the shortcut: ⌘ + ⌃ + space.

I have since reinstalled Mavericks and now can't use this shortcut any more.

Just changed Special Characters shortcut to ⌘ + ⌥ + T. (it was ⌘ + ⌃ + space), but I still can't use this shortcut for Evernote helper.

Evernote only says:

  The key combination ⌘ + ⌃ + space can't be used!
  The key combination "Command + Control + Space" can't be used because it's already used by a system-wide keyboard shortcut. (If you really want to use this key combination, most shortcuts can be changed in the Keyboard & Mouse Panel in System Preferences)

…but I've already changed the Special Characters shortcut.

Go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Spotlight and disable the Show Spotlight window option.


How to diagnose Address Book quitting unexpectedly? When opening Address Book, it quits before it opens. The window says:

Address Book quit unexpectedly. Click `Reopen` to open the application again.
Click `Report` to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple.

What's the best solution? How can I diagnose this problem?

You can click on the Report button and look though all the gibberish to see if there is something informative or suspicious there.

You could run the Console program and search for "Address" in the upper right to check for error messages.

You could try accessing your contacts from within the Mail program and check near the top and bottom of the list for any missing or weird entries.

You could turn on iCloud syncing (if you already have it on, back up) and see if you can access your full contact list from the web interface.

You could check for System Updates and hope there is a new update (Mavericks soon!) of the Contacts app.

** If you ever do get it to open, you should back up your contacts immediately (Export...> Contacts Archive) just in case.


Is there any way to delete hundreds of empty contacts group Because of some unknown problems, I have hundreds of empty contacts group,I want to delete them all.

I try it on Mac and iCloud,they can just delete one group a time.

I haven’t found any good apps to do it in App Store,if you know one,please tell me.

Thanks Leonard Challis, I finally solved this problem with AppleScript.

I found the script here. Script to delete all groups in contacts

Just copy the code to "Script Editor" and run it.

set counter to 0
display dialog "Name of group to delete?" default answer ""
set theGroupName to text returned of result
tell application "Contacts"
    repeat
        try
            set theGroup to group theGroupName
            delete theGroup
            set counter to counter + 1
        on error
            exit repeat
        end try
    end repeat
    save
    display dialog "Removed " & counter & " instances of the group" with icon caution buttons {"OK"} default button "OK"
end tell

It will run a very long time if you have a lot of groups, just wait, it's working.


How to force a Time Machine deep traversal? After a few kernel panics and an accidental hot-unplugging of my Firewire Time Machine drive, I'd like to make sure that my Time Machine exactly matches my Macintosh HD, much like rsync -a.  Is there a way to force Time Machine to do a deep traversal to check that the backup matches?

Knowing how to do this on Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion would be useful.

Setting the Time Machine destination to nothing and then re-setting it to the same location as before forces a deep traversal for me. You could try rebooting between the changing of the destination and the re-adding it to increase the chance of a deep traversal being triggered.

Worst case, we could muck about in single user mode to destroy the fseventsd directory at a safe time when the system is not counting on it to be correct, so you have forced a new database that won't match. You could presumably delete this from the TM side, but I would remove the boot copy as marginally safer and less prone to destroying data you need or messing up your backup.

If you're inclined to use the command line / terminal, I'd start with tmutil compare before you even thing about forcing a deep traversal. It explicitly compares things as they exist now to the last snapshot and you can force things by specifying a specific external snapshot if you are worried about a local snapshot being compared.


What hooks exist into Notification Center / twitter so that I can tweet programmatically? I'm specifically looking to design a custom action for LaunchBar so that I can initiate a tweet from that utility. Since Notification Center has a "Click to tweet" button, I wondered if Notification Center has any hooks that would allow me to script this without waiting for the developer of the program add a function to perform this action.

Apps can hook into the sharing options with the new NSSharingService API. It sounds like custom LaunchBar actions can be made with any UNIX executable file, so you could probably write a small command line tool (or you may need to build an actual app — you'll have to test it out) which activates this API (using NSSharingServiceNamePostOnTwitter), and that should display the tweet dialog.

Update: to initiate a tweet from AppleScript, you can do the following:

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Notification Center"
        -- activate notification center
        if (count of UI elements) is 1 then click first menu bar's first menu bar item
        -- click the tweet button
        click button 1 of UI element 1 of row 2 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of window "Window"
    end tell
end tell

Furthermore, you can toggle the "Show Alerts and Banners" / do not disturb mode:

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Notification Center"
        key down option
        click first menu bar's first menu bar item
        key up option
    end tell
end tell

(This is all very specific to the current window layout of Notification Center and is likely to break with future OS X updates — but there will probably be easy fixes.)


How do I disable DVD player auto start when a DVD is inserted by using Terminal If anyone can help me with this it would be the best! I have just installed 150 Mac minis in a hotel and I'm using remote desktop management to control them. Now I need to disable DVD player auto start when a DVD is inserted. I would like to know if it's possible to do this by using Terminal?

Couldn't you just copy the preference files? I don't know anything about managing multiple Macs, but there's probably some better way to do this.

Opening DVD Player can be disabled with com.apple.digihub com.apple.digihub.dvd.video.appeared -dict action 1.

com.apple.digihub com.apple.digihub.dvd.video.appeared -dict action 105 will reenable it.

The preference for the desktop picture is in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist, but I don't know how to change that directly.

You can find where the preferences are stored by diffing the output of defaults read before and after changing a preference.


How do I completely and securely wipe a FileVault (SSD) drive? When I follow Apple's instructions for preforming a complete erase and reinstall on a FileVault 2 encrypted SSD machine, and choose a high level of security for the erase, I get an error, and the process (apparently) completes instantly.

Did this securely erase my FileVault machine? If not, what should I have done; and what (if anything) can I do now (that I've "erased" my machine)?

The scenario: I wanted to securely erase a FV-encrypted SSD (to hand of the machine to another user; I will be using the same FV password on a new machine, I have no recovery key), but my attempt seemed to have failed quickly with an error (though the option for secure erase was enabled). Even so, the drive seemed to have been "erased" in some form anyway (there was no OS to boot into; though wifi was still working after the "erasure", so something was left) and I proceeded to reinstall OSX.

I don't know where I am now though. Is this the correct procedure? Have I performed the "official" (secure-as-it-gets) erase procedure for a FV-encrypted SSD after all (error message and nearly instant completion notwithstanding)?

No - nothing really happened when you asked for the erase and yes - you are basically done when you delete a partition instead of decrypting all of the contents. Even if you used a third-party tool instead of the supplied disk utility to securely overwrite an SSD, it doesn't cover 100 % of the storage space due to how flash memory is over provisioned and the drive controller actually intercepts the read/write commands and decides how to store data amongst the normal and space memory addresses that make up the "drive".

Apple documents the hasty refusal of Disk Utility to actually perform secure wipes of SSD - this is the designed behavior of the tool:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3680 - OS X: About Disk Utility's erase free space feature

Note: With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD. For more security, consider turning on FileVault encryption when you start using your SSD drive.

If you didn't turn on FileVault before introducing sensitive information to the SSD, it's possible that the controller could have marked some of that data as offline / damaged and it theoretically could be recovered - although highly costly and perhaps requiring someone to modify the drive itself / change the firmware to get it to dump all the data and not the data that is making up the "drive" currently.

In reality, writing new data will gradually / eventually over-write any old data. I would either just destroy the FileVault key securely or set up a new FileVault encryption on the drive and never write down / record the passphrase and then repartition the drive. From your words, you might not even need to do anything if the previous FileVault encryption was secure in terms of passphrase and no copies of the recovery key being obtainable.

That encryption is much stronger than most people care to or could decrypt - so once the new encryption pass is complete - you can be quite confident that absent the passcode/recovery key - no one will discover what was on the drive.


How to type keyboard shortcuts like ⌘Ä, ⌘Ö, ⌘Ü, etc. on a US keyboard? I'm using a Mac laptop with German set as the preferred language (the keyboard, however, is a standard US keyboard).  With this setting, some keyboard shortcuts include the characters Ä, Ö, and Ü.  E.g. ⌘Ä (command-Ä), ⌘Ö (command-Ö), ⌘Ü (command-Ü), etc.

Now, I produce Ä by first pressing ⌥-u (Option-u), and then pressing ⇧-a (Shift-a).  I can't figure out any way of using this method to produce the equivalent of ⌘Ä (command-Ä).  The same goes for for Ö and Ü.

Is there some way to produce these keyboard shortcuts on a US keyboard?

This may seem metaphysical, but you cannot press a key that does not exist. Despite the lack of a physical Ä key on the U.S. Keyboard, you can, however set the keyboard layout to the German keyboard layout. Alternately, you could create a modified keyboard layout starting from the standard U.S. Keyboard layout that includes a Ä key.

The operation of changing the layout is the simplest to accomplish:

Go to System Preferences » Language & Text » Input Sources
Enable the German layout (and also make sure the "Show Input menu in menu bar" box is checked).
In the Input menu, select the German layout.

Then, pressing the physical ⌘' keys will produce the ⌘Ä sequence. Likewise for ⌘; producing ⌘Ö and ⌘[ producing ⌘Ü. After typing that keystroke, you can use the menu to switch back to your desired keyboard layout.


Ethernet and Airport Problems We have one canon copier machine which is connected to our LAN router via Ethernet cable. Currently, we are connecting to the Internet using a different router. To work with the printer, I need to manually configure the Ethernet connection as follows.

Ip Address: 192.168.1.19
Subnetmask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.1.1

When set with the above settings and connected to both the Ethernet network and the Airport (Internet) network, I can print, but I cannot browse the Internet anymore.
Could this be caused by an ip conflict ?

I can setup like this in windows and can use both printer and Internet at the same time. Should I use the same router for both Internet and LAN connections?  Is there any way to solve this?

I'm guessing here, but it your network settings may have the ethernet interface prioritized above the AirPort (this is the default setting), meaning that when both are connected it'll try to reach the internet through the ethernet connection.  You can check this easily be looking at the order the network "services" are listed in the sidebar of the Network system preference pane.  If Ethernet is prioritized above AirPort, change it by selecting Set Service Order from the action (gear) pop-up menu below the service list, then dragging AirPort above Ethernet.  Note that you need to click the Apply button for the change to take effect.


Is there a way to set the dock height in fixed pixels? I want to set the dock size to 40 pixels.

Is there anyway to do it in Yosemite?

The Dock height is delineated by the size of the icons on the Dock, called the tilesize.

To calculate the tilesize for a Dock height of 40 pixels (80 pixels on my Retina display):

You can set the tilesize with the following command, replacing '29' with the size of icon you desire.

defaults write com.apple.Dock tilesize -int 29 && killall -HUP Dock


How to use auto-updatable templates with Word 2011? I would like to have a template that I can update and be able to auto-update the documents using this templates.

Currently I wasn't able to find a way to convince Word 2011 to update a document based on the changes made to the template.

Just like in the Windows version, this is done via the menu: Tools > Templates and add-ins.
In the dialog box that appears, check "automatically update document styles". And of course set the correct template if necessary.

Each time you open the document, and the template location can be found, the styles will be updated to match those from the template.


Automator: Save images from a list of URLs in a text file I have a text file with a list of URLs of images from a website. I would like to download them to a folder named Art on my computer.

I have tried Get Contents of TextEdit Document and then Extract URLs from Text, but then I don't understand how to parse each URL and save the image before moving to the next URL.

How can I batch download several images from their URLs?

Let's assume for a second that your image URL's are in a text file located on your desktop... "Image list.txt"

Let's assume each image URL in that file is on a separate line

Let's assume that the "Art" folder is located on your desktop (folder for the downloaded images)

This AppleScript code is all you need

set theList to (path to desktop as text) & "Image list.txt"
set artFolder to (path to desktop as text) & "Art"
set artFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of artFolder

set theImages to read alias theList as list using delimiter linefeed -- get the lines of a file as a list

repeat with i from 1 to count of theImages
    set thisItem to item i of theImages
    do shell script "cd " & artFolder & "; " & "curl -O " & quoted form of thisItem
end repeat

Actually, here is an even better solution.  Save this following AppleScript code in Script Editor.app as an application.  Now you will have two options.

Double clicking on the app in Finder will open a dialog asking you to choose the text file containing the image URLs, then will proceed to download the images.

OR

You can drag the text file containing the image URLs directly onto the app’s icon, in Finder, which will then go ahead and process and download the images in that text file.   (AKA Droplet)

on open theFiles
    --  Handle the case where the script is launched by dropping
    -- a .txt file, containing image URLs,  directly onto this app's icon
    set artFolder to (path to desktop as text) & "Art"
    set artFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of artFolder

    set theImages to read alias theFiles as list using delimiter linefeed

    repeat with i from 1 to count of theImages
        set thisItem to item i of theImages
        do shell script "cd " & artFolder & "; " & "curl -O " & quoted form of thisItem
    end repeat
end open

on run
    --  Handle the case where the script is launched without any dropped files
    set theList to (choose file with prompt ¬
        "Choose Your Text File Containing Image URLs" of type {"txt"} ¬
        default location (path to desktop) ¬
        invisibles false ¬
        without multiple selections allowed) as text

    set artFolder to (path to desktop as text) & "Art"
    set artFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of artFolder

    set theImages to read alias theList as list using delimiter linefeed

    repeat with i from 1 to count of theImages
        set thisItem to item i of theImages
        do shell script "cd " & artFolder & "; " & "curl -O " & quoted form of thisItem
    end repeat
end run

Here is a visual of the droplet in action...


What is the "studentd" process? I'm logging network traffic (with Radio Silence), and noticed that the studentd process from /usr/libexec/studentd is connecting to some server.

What is this process doing, why does it need internet access?

studentd manages the Apple Classroom experience for students and teachers that use MDM and the Apple School Manager service.

https://support.apple.com/guide/classroom/classroom-infrastructure-requirements-classes-apdd491bf924/mac
https://school.apple.com

The manual page also says it is designed to run without classes configured, so I would allow the traffic so that it knows you aren’t needing management and then sits idle.

https://eclecticlight.co/2019/07/24/studentd-and-its-self-signed-certificate-are-permanent-fixtures-in-mojave/

Unless there’s a resource issue, you have thousands of processes that run, self configure and then sleep or wait for a task. Blocking the traffic might make the daemon keep trying to connect and finish it’s run-once (or perhaps a regular check in) setup process.

On a larger stage, this design is how Unix and all of the Apple os work. They design small hardened daemons to serve narrow purposes, and often make a user account to run these behind the scenes to isolate permissions and sandbox everything cleanly. For us using the OS, I only try to manage these processes if there is a resource or usage issue.
In your case, this process will connect to very specific servers, so you can know it’s talking to Apple or to your MDM server in all likelihood. We would need details to dig into that deeper.


How can I gift an app in the app store? I want to gift an OS X app, specifically OS X Mountain Lion to my mother in-law. How do I achieve this from the OS X App Store? I can't find any gifting option for both apps I own and apps I do not own.

Currently, it is not possible to gift Mac App Store apps directly. There is a workaround where you could buy an iTunes Gift card (from the iTunes store home menu) for exactly the price of the app and the recipient can redeem the code in the Mac App Store


Most compact solution for external monitor for 2011 MacBook Pro My MacBook Pro's dGPU failed and I did the software "fix" where I am forcing the use of the integrated GPU. Unfortunately because of disabling the dGPU there is no way to connect the external monitor to the thunderbolt because it's wired through the dGPU.

Short of replacing/repairing my motherboard what are my options to add an external monitor? Here are my requirements:

I am willing to buy a really compact external gpu. But which one?
I am willing to hack my MacBook Pro, for example to add one in the CD drive slot, assuming such a hack even exists.

EDIT:
Here is an additional requirement: I use the external monitor for doing text editors and development most of the times and the occasional movie. No gaming at all.

----------Config--------------

  Model Name:   MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2
  Processor Name:   Intel Core i7
  Processor Speed:  2.2 GHz
  Number of Processors: 1
  Total Number of Cores:    4
  L2 Cache (per Core):  256 KB
  L3 Cache: 6 MB
  Memory:   16 GB
  Boot ROM Version: MBP81.004F.B00
  SMC Version (system): 1.69f3

Intel HD Graphics 3000:

  Chipset Model:    Intel HD Graphics 3000
  Type: GPU
  Bus:  Built-In
  VRAM (Dynamic, Max):  512 MB
  Vendor:   Intel (0x8086)
  Device ID:    0x0126
  Revision ID:  0x0009
  gMux Version: 1.9.23

I purchased a Wavlink 2.0 USB to HDMI/DVI adapter and its working fine as of now with my MBP. Text editing and movie watching have not been an issue.

My monitor is an old HP 2311x. YMMV on different more high res monitors? I had to install their software for my macosx to get it to work which was not so hard.

There are some wonderful details about this technology.


Is there an application like Clipper for Mac? Is there any software like "Clipper" for Mac?
I am looking for an application like this.

I think you will find something like what you are looking for here 9 Crafty Clipboard Utilities for Mac. Also TextExpander might be of interest too.


Can a Verizon iPad (4th Gen) be used on AT&T GSM/HSPA+? I have seen a lot of old information about this, but nothing new or recent.

I have a Verizon iPad (4th Generation) running iOS7 and want to switch to AT&T.

Can I drop an AT&T SIM in and run on AT&T's network (obviously sans LTE)?

Yes, you can. It's unlocked, and you can move to any carrier you wish to. Of course, if you're planning to move off of Verizon, you would have to consider the terms dictated by your contract with Verizon.

Read more on Are iPad Models Unlocked? - iPad Q&A (from EveryiPad.com). Here's a relevant quote:

  However, both of the iPad 4th Gen models with cellular data capability are sold "unlocked" and are capable of running on any compatible network.

Also, a footnote Apple's LTE page states (with emphasis here):

  2. To identify your iPad model number, see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5452. iPad models are unlocked and may support LTE networks outside the country of purchase when using a valid SIM from a supported carrier. Contact your carrier for more details.


Update iMovie in OS X 10.6.8 My iMac is running OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).  I still have iMovie 7.1.4. How do I update it? And which version of iMovie is it compatible with OS X 10.6.8?

You can get the iMovie 8.0.6 from Apple website

https://support.apple.com/kb/dl859?locale=en_US

You can also buy it on Amazon, the "iLife 11" package that contains iMovie 09 version.


How to preconfigure wifi on Mac OS X (Yosemite)? Does anyone knows a way to preconfigure a WPA2 WiFi network on Mac OS X (Yosemite)?

I'm preparing an iMac for a friend and would like to setup his home WiFi while currently far away from the network.

I know all the WiFi parameters (SSID, security, key) but can't manage to validate the manual setup through the AirPort wizard.
I also tried to manually add the entry in Keychains, but can't manage to add the confirmation exceptions on "airportd" and "AirPort" binaries in the ACL part.

Thus, I can't setup transparently and remotely the WiFi connection.

Go to the network preferences panel in System Preference
Select airport, then 'Advanced...'
Press the plus button

It will work even when the network isn't near.


Restoring MacBook Pro My MacBook Pro froze.  I turned it off manually.  It won't come back on.  It is 1 year old.  I can't restart in Safe Mode.  I can restart using Command-R and get to Disk Utility but I don't know what to do next.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks so much

If you get to the cmd-r screen there you should have the restore option.

Since your system froze, probably the best is to use restore the os x.

Your system has the Internet restore option.

In order to reinstall OS X, you need to be connected to the Internet over an Ethernet or Wi-Fi network. The Wi-Fi menu is in the upper-right corner of the screen. Click the icon to select from available Wi-Fi networks. Choose your preferred network name and, if needed, enter a username and/or password.

Now to the bad news: you probably had a disk error. It is big enough to also screw up your osx boot sector. Try holding the option key to see if it comes with the boot option. Since you do have access to the disk utility use it to try to repair your disk.

Now to the good news: Since your computer is probably still under warranty if above fails bring it in for repair.


How do I maintain photo filters (e.g. Noir) when transferring from iPhone to iPhoto on MacBook? I love using my 5c photo filters but when I go to download photos into iPhoto on my MacBook Pro from my iPhone, the filters disappear. All my photos end up in color. How do I maintain the filters?

I've asked this question at a GeniusBar in an AppleStore and also searched the web quite thoroughly on this.

Apparently, the only way to maintain the filters is with workarounds such as emailing the photos to yourself.

Background: Only the original photos (without the filter) are stored in the iPhone and iOS applies the filter every time you view the photos or use an iPhone App (like Mail) to export them. Apps from your Mac (like iPhoto) can only access the original photos.


Bluetooth unavailable with Yosemite 10.10.3 Bluetooth is unavailable since the middle of last March.

I've followed all topic suggested: reset SMC, PRAM, deleted preference files (com.apple.Bluetooth.plist), reinstalled OS X from scratch and I also changed the WiFi-Bluetooth board with a brand new one. Nothing worked.

At first resetting SMC worked, but than the trouble came back; same thing happened when deleting preference files. After the WiFi-Bluetooth board replacement, when I turned the MacBook on, bluetooth was unavailable so I turned WiFi off and bluetooth showed up, but after some tens seconds it was unavailable again and never came back.

I've run the AHT, both the fast and the more detailed one, they reported nothing wrong.

Is there anyone who can help me with this?

My configuration:
MacBook Pro 15" Mid 2010
OS X Yosemite 10.10.3

Try these commands on a terminal window to unload and reload the driver:

sudo kextunload -b com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport

sudo kextload -b com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport


.Trashes folder on USB won't delete I am trying to delete files off my 8GB USB Cruzer device, as I often put movies on it to watch on my PS3. When I plug it into my PC, I can delete files off it fine, but when I plus it into my Macbook Pro, it creates a .Trashes folder. When I put the files I want to delete into the trash bin, it goes into this .Trashes folder, but when I try to empty the .Trashes folder, a window comes up saying "Moving "Trash" to "Trash" and it just stays on that window, it does not delete. I waited for an hour and still nothing. I have tried restarting but it still does not work. I do not want to go upstairs to my PC everytime I need to delete files.

The '.Trashes' folder is for OS X to remember that you moved files to the Trash but haven't deleted it. To remove the files from the '.Trashes' folder you need to empty the trash.

You can empty the trash by right clicking on the trash can in your dock and selecting 'Empty Trash'.


I have an app that won't open/sync & I can't delete it Having trouble with updating my Instagram app.

When it was time for the update, I clicked "update app" of course, but it said the app couldn't be updated. Now I can't access it. Since then, it just says "Waiting…" and I can't do anything with it.

I tried to delete it but the × doesn't appear in the top corner to allow me to delete it.
When I click the app to see if it'll load, nothing happens.
I even hooked it up to iTunes to see if I could delete it there but the × still doesn't show.
I went to my settings to manage my storage and I clicked "delete app" which removed it from the list, yet it's still on my iPod.

I don't get it. I really don't want to have to restore my iPod just to fix a problem with one app. I can update, download and delete other apps just fine.

Make sure you are connected to WiFi, then restart your device.

If you're desperate to just use the App, you can still access it by double-tapping the home button and entering the App via the multi-tasking menu.


accidentally deleted /var folder I accidentally moved my /var folder to trash and now unable to login to mac. The only solution I found until now it to recover OS X.

I have tried to move /var back to /private folder in single user mod, since it is Read-only and not allowing me to perform this action.

Is there any way I can move /var folder back without re-installing OS X. I am having Mavericks as OS.

When in single user mode you must enter the command at the begininng to make it writeable.

/sbin/mount -uw /

Then move the /var folder back to /private

mv /Path/To/var /private/


Can I set different Screen Time App Limits on different devices? Is it possible to set Screen Time App Limits differently on difference devices, when the same iCloud account is used between them?
I would like to limit how long a child account can spend using a browser on iPhone, but have a more generous limit on a Mac Mini. However, it seems like App Limits are shared across devices - aforementioned child left the Mac logged in, which has used up all her App Limit allowance for the day.

Yes, but it's a trade-off. The answer is to turn off "Sync across devices" in Screentime settings. That way, all your App Limits can be different on different devices.
The downside is that it also stops syncing all the other Screentime settings, so you'll have to individually maintain the Always Allowed list, the Downtime hours, etc. Any changes that you make later will need to be made separately on each device.
It can be a bit of a pain, but it's probably worth it to get the flexibility you're asking about.


How can Almost Empty Dropbox folder Take 1.3 GB Space? System: El-Capitan 10.11.5. Finder details of Dropbox folder

I deleted Dropbox from my PC. The directory size is 1.3GB although it contains only symlinks, by ls -laS

drwxr-xr-x+ 54 masi  staff  1836 May 29 14:28 ..
drwx------@ 23 masi  staff   782 May 28 16:31 .
drwxr-xr-x   5 masi  staff   170 May 28 16:31 .dropbox.cache
lrwxr-xr-x   1 masi  staff    47 May 17 18:15 Animations -> /Users/masi/Animations/
lrwxr-xr-x   1 masi  staff    41 May 17 17:42 Labs -> /Users/masi/Labs/
-rw-r--r--@  1 masi  staff     0 May 28 16:17 Icon?
...

I would like to understand and find out what is taking so much space in the directory which should be almost empty.

Answers to comments

MacBook-Air-3:Dropbox masi$ ls -laS .dropbox.cache/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  814 masi  staff  27676 May 29 11:27 2016-05-28
drwx------@  23 masi  staff    782 May 28 16:31 ..
drwxr-xr-x    5 masi  staff    170 May 28 16:31 .
drwxr-xr-x    2 masi  staff     68 May 12 00:24 placeholder_cache
drwxr-xr-x    2 masi  staff     68 May 12 00:24 prefetch_cache

MacBook-Air-3:Dropbox masi$ ls -laS .dropbox
-rw-r--r--@ 1 masi  staff  35 May 12 00:24 .dropbox

Web interface has more content, about 20 GB.

How can Almost Empty Dropbox folder Take 1.3 GB Space?

In the end after taking 3 backups of the system, I deleted the Dropbox Directory because

Dropbox can backfire and delete files/directories in local system if symlinks are used to Dropbox
Dropbox messes up OS X Extended hierarchy and takes significant amount of spaces although Dropbox uninstalled; I do not understand the details here.

I noticed surprising effects although I had deleted Dropbox application. Diskutility showed me 15 GB free space before the deletion of Dropbox Directory. I restarted my system many times to see if the case is really true. After removing Dropbox directory, I got 50 GB free space as I should. Dropbox is clearly messing up the filesystem more than many know.
Replacement of Dropbox

VPN connection in router because software VPN unstable (at least NordVPN crashes all the time; TODO Tunnelblick) in OSX; software VPN in Ubuntu Linux 14.04 (not newer because systemd/upstart problem with runit) next to OSX installation
Goal to use Bittorent Sync with VPN [experimenting]. It experienced conflicts with Dropbox and my local ISP/governments because they block/obstruct torrent protocol.
... [hope more comes here] ...


Is less(1) missing lesskey functionality? less(1), the terminal file pager, seems to be missing lesskey(1) and the ability to rebind the keystrokes in less. The docs claim it's there, but it doesn't work. Am I crazy or is Apple's version of less broken?

$ less -k ~/.less /etc/fstab
There is no -k option ("less --help" for help)
$ less --help | grep lesskey
  -k [file]  .  --lesskey-file=[file]
                  Use a lesskey file.
$ which lesskey less
/usr/bin/less
$ less --version | head -2
less 418
Copyright (C) 1984-2007 Mark Nudelman

I'm running Lion. It seems odd that Apple would mess with less(1) at all, it's such an old and standard Unix utility. (Less compiles easily from sources on MacOS, so I'm now using my own version.)

The Lion build of less indeed comes with the lesskey feature disabled, as can be seen by the customized defines.h it is being built with (line #define USERFILE 0). This doesn't mean it's broken, just that someone decided to customize the build and disable this feature for whatever reason. Sadly they neglected to update the man page, which is why it's still referring to it.

If you want this feature, building your own less from source is just a matter of ./configure && make install (which puts it into /usr/local), and you might also want to get a more recent version while you're at it.


Automator action not supplied with the required data I'm trying to do the following in an Automator workflow:

Ask for Finder items from folder A
In folder A, add a suffix to the file names
Copy them to folder B
In folder B, with an AppleScript, split the file name by a delimiter and then rename the file with the second half of the text split
In folder B, add a prefix to the file names
In folder B, add a suffix to the file names

Here is a sample of the file names I'm trying to rename:

a new file$SG789.jpg
file_2$123-456.jpg
file_name$LG123.jpg
this_file$558-432.jpg

The delimiter I'm splitting by is the "$" dollar sign to create the following new files:

SG789.jpg
123-456.jpg
LG123.jpg
558-432.jpg

These are the file name formats I'd like for the automator to continue processing.

Thanks to another user, I was able to get this far. However, my workflow is failing at step 5. I'm getting the following warning:

The action "Rename Finder Items: Add Text" was not supplied with the required data.

Here is the workflow setup in Automator:

With the AppleScript below:

 on run {input, parameters}
     try
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "$"
        set output to {}
        repeat with anItem in input
            set the end of output to text item 2 of (anItem as text)
        end repeat
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {}
        return output
    on error eStr number eNum
        display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} ¬
            default button 1 with icon caution
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {}
        return
    end try
end run

I thought by returning output, the next workflow would pick up and continue with the required changes. I'm seeing that is not the case.

How do I return my output so that the next workflow item can use it and continue with the file renaming?

It is still not totally clear what it is you're trying to accomplish, however, here is an example workflow that you might find useful.

First Automator Workflow

Broken into two working segments:

First Segment:

Ask for Finder Items
Rename Finder Items: Add Text
Copy Finder Items
Run Shell Script

Settings: Shell: bin/bash and Pass input: as arguments

Replace the default code with the code below.
This is what's used to remove up to and including the $ in the basename of the filename.

Code for Run Shell Script action:

cd "$(dirname "$1")"
for f in "$@"
do
    mv "$(basename "$f")" "$(printf "$(basename "$f")" | sed -E 's/^.*\$//')"
done
echo "$(ls -1)"

Note: The echo "$(ls -1)" command is not really necessary in this use case and was used in this example just to show the filenames had been changed and to show that in the Results pane.

Update: New code for Run Shell Script action:Use this code instead of the original code, above. I've modified it to be a bit more efficient having to call basename once, instead of twice. (I have not updated the code in the Run Shell Script action in the original image below.)

cd "$(dirname "$1")"
for f in "$@"; do
    n="$(basename "$f")"
    mv "$n" "$(printf "$n" | sed -E 's/^.*\$//')"
done
echo "$(ls -1)"

Note: See also the second Automator workflow, shown after the original image below, which negates the need for the Second Segment:, as its Run Shell Script action is coded to handle the renaming that takes place in the second segment, adding prefix- and swapping -proc for -suffix.

Second Segment:

Ask for Finder Items

Options: [√] Ignore this action's input

By checking this option you'll see, in the image below, there is a wanted disconnect between the previous action and this one.

Rename Finder Items: Add Text
Rename Finder Items: Add Text

See the image below for other applicable settings of Automator actions, as shown in the OP.

As you can see in the image below, all actions completed successfully and did as programed, with the Results pane of each action showing the results of it's action.

Second Automator Workflow

To be used instead of the First Automator Workflow.

Ask for Finder Items
Rename Finder Items: Add Text
Copy Finder Items
Run Shell Script

Settings: Shell: bin/bash and Pass input: as arguments

Replace the default code with the code below the image.

The results of the first three actions in this second Automator workflow are the exact same as shown in the first workflow above, therefore I've left the Results pane hidden for these actions. However, the Results pane for the Run Shell Script action shows the wanted results.

Code for Run Shell Script action in the Second Automator Workflow:

p='prefix-'
s='-suffix'
t='-proc'

cd "$(dirname "$1")"
for f in "$@"; do
    n="$(basename "$f")"
    if [[ $n =~ ^.*\$.*${t}\.${n##*.} ]]; then
        mv "$n" "${p}$(printf "${n%.*}" | sed -E -e "s/$t/$s/" -e 's/^.*\$//').${n##*.}"
    fi
done
echo "$(ls -1)"

Update Note: I've modified the code by placing the variable assignments outside of the for loop, as that is the only code you should need/want to modify as necessary (and they don't need to be within the for loop). I have not updated the image of the Automator workflow to reflect this update.

You could, if needed/wanted, add a different second segment to this second workflow, but the code in this  Run Shell Script action eliminates the need for the two Rename Finder Items: Add Text actions that were in the second segment of the first (original), workflow.

Note: I will update this with an explanation of what the code is doing in Run Shell Script action, as soon as I can.


Redownloading iWork for iPad apps without paying for them I bought an iPad Air 2 fourteen months ago. Recently I reset my iPad and now Pages, Keynote, and Numbers are not free — they ask for payment. How can I download them again without paying?

I tried to switch my iPad off and on and I tried another Apple ID, but neither of those worked. My device is fully upgraded to iOS 10.2.

When you set up your iPad and downloaded these apps, the iPad would have asked you to sign in to iTunes & App Store, then registered the apps to this Apple ID as it was the first used to download them. You must use this same Apple ID to re-download the apps later.


Removing apps from 'Mobile Applications' that aren't in iTunes? I'm running iTunes on Windows 7, and at some point (or rather, at multiple points) I must have accidentally pressed the 'Cancel' button when it asks if I want to remove the app from my hard drive when deleting it in iTunes

The net result is that I have 503 apps in iTunes, and 598 apps in my 'Mobile Applications' folder.

Is there anyway I can tidy these up? ie some way within iTunes that will clear the Mobile Applications folder of any apps that aren't in my iTunes liberary?

Thanks

I don't know of an effective solution.

One approach could be trying to process the iTunes Library metadata files to see if you can extract the raw filenames from that. There are some third party programs that read your iTunes Library. There's an one open source library called sift that does that.

In addition to this, I can think of a workaround requiring some work. Not sure if it will work for you:

Remove all apps from iTunes without deleting the files.
Re-add the complete folder.
Re-delete all the apps you don't want from iTunes, making sure you chose to delete them from disk as well.


Safari crashes when I open it After restarting my MacBook, I want to open Safari.
Safari asks me if I want re-open my windows or just restart Safari.

Whatever I do, Safari crashes and i can't open it.

I have tried to create a new session in my MacBook, and in this session Safari works.

I've been looking for the "com.apple.safari.plist" file but i can not find it...

I have checked and repaired my partitions in Disk Utility and tried to clean everything with Onyx, but nothing works.

My Macbook Pro is running on MacOS 10.10.5 version.

Any ideas ?

Launch Safari with SHIFT held down. This is a kind of Safari "Safe Mode."

If that works you can then clear caches, change home pages and delete extensions.


Loud noise charging Macbook Pro USB-C Anyone ever had a loud noise coming from the speakers when inserting the usb charger? When I say a loud noice, I mean a screeching, metal-scraping-like sound at full volume. My volume was turned off though. I keep getting the issue until I reboot my device.

System information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
Processor: 3,1 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 8GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3
Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB
running macOS High Sierra (version 10.13.1)`

This is something you could record with a phone (or perhaps the Mac itself) and then open a support case directly with Apple. This sort of thing could be a firmware update needed or failing hardware, but I’d hesitate to speculate on the cause of this without hearing the sound, but I’m sure it’s disconcerting to say the least.

I would be sure to apply all system updates and possibly download the High Sierra installer and run it to be sure all firmware updates are applied on your Mac if opening a support case isn’t getting a quick response.


Use time machine with different MacOS versions and a NAS I'm going to buy a NAS to back-up different pcs (~15) with Apple time-machine but I'm facing different doubth regarding compatibilities, and possible issues. I will include informations regarding chosed devices and approaches, but I hadn't bought anything yet so choices can be changed.

The general approach (single NAS, local storage backupped with TM) is not a question topic, or until it will be clar that what I'm asking is not possible.

I will quote different pages where I get informations from, because apple documentation is not exhaustive.

Selected NAS: QNAP TS-431P2-4G
MaxOS versions:  10.6.8 ,  10.13 and newer

NAS support time-machine, support Protocols AFP (v3.3) and SMB and has QTS 4.3
MacOS > 10.12 support SMB in addition to AFP for time-machine, QTS 4.3 can run SMB for time machine. No mention has been done regarding the possibility to use both SMB and AFP protocols in the same NAS

Other link with the same information

Chatting with QNAP technical service I had a reply:

  Service: Non possono essere combinati i vecchi macos con quelli successivi 10.12 sullo steso nas.
  Old macOS cannot be combined in the same NAS with macOS newer than 10.12

  Me: QTS 4.3.6 o precedenti non supportano contemporaneamente SMB3 e AFP? Non posso configurare un utente per SMB3 (macOs > 10.12) e un altro utente per AFP?Neanche creando diverse partizioni?
  Doesn't QTS 4.3.6 or earlier support SMB3 and AFP concurrently? Can't I set up an user for SMB3 (macOS > 10.12) and another user for AFP? What about using different prtitions?

  Service: non abbiamo casistiche come questo .
  Se desidera procedere lo stesso posso sollevare il problema con i developers ma deve essere pronto a mesi di troubleshooting nel caso ci fossero problemi con i backup.
  We don't have experience about that. If you decide to proceed anyway I can update developers regarding the problem, but be ready for months of troubleshooting if there will be problems with backups.

AFP can’t share files on Apple File System (APFS). Apple File System (APFS) is the default file system in macOS High Sierra (10.13) for Mac computers with all-flash storage. You can't opt out of the transition to APFS when you upgrade a Mac with all-flash storage to macOS High Sierra. If you need to share files, switch to SMB. If you have network home directories shared via AFP on an APFS volume, update the mount records and user records to use SMB.

Other link with the same information

That with point 2 should means that only macOS 10.12 works with both SMB and AFP

Does anyone had experience or informations regarding a successfull way to use the same NAS to store time machine data with two mentioned OS?

The only option, from infos above, is to have a NAS that can handle SMB and AFP concurrently and that was reported as impossible from QNAP technical service (buy maybe other brands can, or he was wrong).

Thanks for help

After a couple of useless QNAP replies, I moved to a Synology model. Tech service is much faster and ensured it works

I started from a DS418 but I choose a DS918+, I already installed it and it's running without problems with concurrent connections with different protocols


Tracks listed under "Manually Added Songs" continue to re-appear When syncing music to an iPhone, iTunes give you the option to drag individual tracks to a section labeled "Manually Added Songs" to add them to the device (as opposed to adding all tracks of an artist, genre or album). The "Manually Added Songs" section not only contains tracks "cherry-picked" in iTunes itself, but it will also contain tracks the were added within the device itself after your last sync (for example, by using the iOS version of iTunes to re-download a prior purchase).

This feature is behaving strangely for me: Tracks I downloaded manually from within the device a long time ago, continue to appear in "Manually Added Songs", even after I have manually deleted them from the device and even after I manually deleted them from the "Manually Added Songs" list itself (to avoid those songs being re-sent to the device on the next sync).

Essentially, this odd set of tracks (a few songs from album A, a few songs from album B, etc) continues to magically re-appear on the "Manually Added Songs" list regardless of what I do. The only way to not get these tracks sent to my device is to manually clear the "Manually Added Songs" list every time before I sync my device. This is clearly not the way this feature is supposed to work--sync should "trump" what's on the device, so once the "Manually Added Songs" list is cleared, that should clear those songs for good.

After complete re-installs of iTunes, iOS, OS X (for reasons not having to do with this problem), this problem persists even across two different phones. The one constant element is that we are dealing with the same iTunes (XML) library file. I would like to keep this file because of the play stats and whatnot, so if anybody can point me in the right direction (including hacking the iTunes library file), I would be ever grateful... I am tired of listening to those same songs! :P

When you delete songs on an iPod (or other iOS device), they get copied back the next time you sync with iTunes. This makes no sense, of course, but that's the way it works. (It correctly does not re-sync apps you delete, most of the time.) The only way around it is to un-sync the tracks - make sure they are not selected in the Music tab, or are not in any playlists, or uncheck the tracks and choose the Only sync checked songs and videos options. Or you can manually sync music to the iOS device, but that may not be what you want.


Can I save Thunderbolt Display Arrangement so it is different depending on which Thunderbolt I connect? I recently migrated from a 2013 MacBook Pro to a 2016 MacBook Pro, both running Mojave 10.14.3.  I connect my laptop to a Thunderbolt 2 display.  I have one Thunderbolt at my office, and a second one at home.  Because of the way each workspace is arranged, I put my laptop to the right at home, and to the left at work.  At some point several years ago, some knowledgeable person must have helped me configure the display setup so I did not have to open Preferences and adjust the Thunderbolt Display Arrangement every time I travel between work and home. Now that I have migrated to a newer laptop, whatever file that captured that configuration is gone.  I can find lots of advice online for daisy-chaining multiple displays at once, but that's not what I want to do. I'd appreciate any suggestions for setting a display arrangement so it adjusts based on the identity of the hardware. I do plan to re-arrange my desk if I can't sort this out, but that's plan B.  Thanks in advance!

Check out the tool I wrote called displayplacer for setting monitor configurations via profiles. Since your goal is to treat the same model monitor differently you may need to use the contextual screen ids instead of persistent screen ids. Be sure to read the Notes section on GitHub for more info on this.


Make Spotlight show files on unmounted volumes Is there a way to make Spotlight show files that reside in different unmounted Volumes?

I think there is no official way of doing this, and that Apple does not provide a plugin API that allows this kind of behavoiur but, is there any hacky way this could be implemented?

(Maybe in a similar way to the Spotlight Google Importer:)

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/spotlight/googleimporter.html

The official way is to store files on Mac OS X server volumes where the spotlight server functionality has been written to provide search of unmounted volumes.

I am unaware of a free or open source effort to recreate this function but it is certainly doable. If you only want filename search, you could use locate and launchd to extend the local copy of the locate database each time an external drive is mounted.

Many replacement tools catalog external volumes but they don't inject data into spotlight and you have to use their app to get at offline index data. Here are two that have been around a long time but also updated for snow leopard.

media catalog
disk tracker


How do I install Pillow on my mac without pip? I installed python using homebrew. It didn't come with pip, so I'm having trouble getting pillow installed. I tried to get xcode and build it from the source, but I can't get xcode because it requires software version 1.14 (or whichever the newest version is), but my macbook doesn't update to this. How do I get pillow?

You can install pip very easily (Though I think it should come with most python builds now.) using the following commands:

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
python get-pip.py

In fact, you shouldn't even need homebrew to install python. You can get the latest versions of python 2 and python 3 as macos installer packages. Even without installing python, MacOS does include an (old) version of python 2.7 by default.

Once you've installed pip, you can type:

pip install Pillow

Also, I think you should still be able to download a version of Xcode compatible with your OS version.


How can I fix voice dialing iCloud contacts? I use voice dialing primarily to call my wife, let's call her "Helga". She's the only Helga in my contacts, so I could hold the button and say "call Helga mobile" and it would dial her iPhone.

Since I updated her phone to iOS5 (and enabled iCloud), when I say "call Helga mobile" my phone asks me which of four Helgas I wish to dial -- my wife or one of the three other Helgas in her contact list.

I've disable iCloud contact syncing on my phone but not yet on hers. If I go to http://www.icloud.com/, I can only use "Find my iPhone" there.

What else can I do?

Create a new contact name for your wife's iPhone number.  "Call Mary's mobile".


How can I remove a Gmail account in macOS? I have a Gmail account that has a conflict, how do I remove my Gmail account from my Mac Air?

Is it from the Mail App?
Go to Mail>Preferences>accounts
then click on your gmail then the minus ( - ) button to remove it.


Increase the time of the pmset countdown Is there a way to change the delay time until a scheduled sleep/restart/shutdown occurs? It starts at 10 minutes (10:00), but I want to change it to 30 minutes (30:00).

As you can see above, the computer is scheduled to restart in 10 minutes via pmset.

As far as I'm aware there's no way to change this value because a Mac must be awake for at least 10 minutes past the scheduled time. It's because of this that the 10 minute value is set and cannot be altered, although I suppose there's no reason why it couldn't be extended beyond that (such as the 30 mins you want). Regardless, I'm not aware that this can be done.

According to Apple:

  To shut down automatically, your Mac must be awake at the time that
  it's scheduled to shut down, and remain awake for at least 10 minutes
  past that time. If it's sleeping at the scheduled shutdown time, it
  continues sleeping instead of shutting down. If it's set to go to
  sleep after less than 15 minutes of inactivity, it might go back to
  sleep before it can shut down. To make sure that your Mac shuts down
  even when sleeping, set it to start up or wake 5 minutes before the
  scheduled shutdown time.

Source: Set a startup, wake, sleep, restart, or shutdown time on your Mac

One thing you could do is check the man page for pmset on your system to double-check, as different versions of the OS will provide different options (and sometimes particular hardware can offer different options depending on it's type and location).

To check the man page for pmset on your system, launch the terminal and enter man pmset. Note this may take a while to retrieve the info.


MacBook Pro Lion + lavalier mic records nothing How can I record audio using a lavalier mic and MacBook Pro OSX Lion?

I have just opened my brand new Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Omnidirectional Condenser Microphone. I tried to connect it to the jack just next to the earphones jack and record sound using quicktime player.

Recording works well without a mic, but when I connect the mic and choose Built in input: line in instead of Built in Microphone: internal microphone, only silence is recorded.

The microphone was tested on a Windows 7 notebook, and it works well.

The ATR3350 is not compatible with Macbook Pro. Nor is it compatible with iOS devices.
It's a turkey and I regret having bought it. The manufacturer is deliberately misleading people about this unit.


How to recover lost space after a bootcamp restore failed and APFS container failed to verify? I gave 50GB to bootcamp for Windows 10. Today, I decided I no longer want Windows 10 bootcamp. I went to bootcamp, and clicked restored. Then it said something about being unable to recover the partition space. I tried everything... I need help please. Thanks!

EDIT:
Running diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0 gives the following:

Started APFS operation
Aligning grow delta to 48,684,773,376 bytes and targeting a new physical store size of 250,685,575,168 bytes
Determined the maximum size for the targeted physical store of this APFS Container to be 250,684,547,072 bytes
Resizing APFS Container designated by APFS Container Reference disk1
The specific APFS Physical Store being resized is disk0s2
Verifying storage system
Using live mode
Performing fsck_apfs -n -x -l -S /dev/disk0s2
Checking the container superblock
Checking the EFI jumpstart record
Checking the space manager
Checking the space manager free queue trees
Checking the object map
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume Macintosh HD was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.30.63) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.250.134)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
error: directory valence check: directory (oid 0x3c7efb): nchildren (1) does not match drec count (0)
error: alloced_size (143360) of dstream (id 5451301) does not match calculated size (0)
error: alloced_size (143360) of dstream (id 5451301) does not match calculated size (0)
warning: apfs_num_files (2504403) is not valid (2504417)
warning: apfs_num_directories (909244) is not valid (909247)
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume Preboot was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.30.60) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.250.134)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume Recovery was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.30.60) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.250.134)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Checking volume
Checking the APFS volume superblock
The volume VM was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.31.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.250.134)
Checking the object map
Checking the snapshot metadata tree
Checking the snapshot metadata
Checking the extent ref tree
Checking the fsroot tree
Verifying allocated space
Performing deferred repairs
error: found file extent gap (id 5451301) at logical address 0+143360
error: nchildren of inode object (id 3964667) does not match expected value
Deferred repairs failed
The volume /dev/disk0s2 could not be verified completely
Storage system check exit code is 8
Error: -69716: Storage system verify or repair failed

I reinstalled macOS. But it still didn't recover my 50GB.

So I went into disk utility, clicked on the 50GB chunk and after it was selected, I pressed delete on my keyboard and it recovered my 50GB back into the main partition.


Is there any terminal tool to convert from ODT to PDF/PS? There is unoconv for Linux.
I am looking something similar for Mac.
I think no such a program exists.

On unoconv's gitHub page is stated that:

  LibreOffice 3.6.0.1 or later is required to use unoconv under MacOS X. This is the first version distributed with an internal python script that works.

There it's explained too, how to install it.

And being the latest version of LibreOffice v4.0.1, there should be no problem with it.


MacBook Pro 2011: unable to get into terminal via Recovery Mode I have a MacBook Pro 2011 with the well known AMD GPU failure. So I know about the procedure to de-activate the AMD GPU and activate the Intel GPU on the mainboard. This has to be done via the command line in Terminal, for which you need to start Recovery Mode and get into OSX Utilities and then start Terminal.

Unfortunately, booting in Recovery mode ends before I get into OSX Utilities. The screen goes grey and then either shuts the system down, or it starts rebooting.

The MacBook is currently installed with High Sierra.

What can I best do?

I'm trying to find a way to avoid getting into graphics mode.  I remember in the olden days displays had a command line mode and graphics mode.

(1) I'd try single use mode.
This page will tell you how to get into single user mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

Basically, you hold down the command + s key then power on your machine. [ The command key has a little apple symbol on the lower left. It is between the alt/option key and the space bar. ]

(2) You could try safe mode.  This avoids using the graphics hardware.
Try a safe boot.
    Shutdown your machine.  Hold down the shift key.  Poweron.  The boot up will take longer than normal because the filesystem on the startup drive is being checked and repaired as needed.   All about safe mode including what features and apps safe boot leaves out.  Safe boot uses a software driver instead of using your machines video hardware.
      http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455


Markup on excel on mac What is the formula on the OS X version of Excel 2016 to add a number in a column with a markup percentage in another column.

Example:
Cell A1 contains a number,
cell B1 contains a percentage number,
so cell C1 calculates A1 plus B1 percent

The formula you type into cell C1 is =A1*(1+B1/100)

See also: help page for calculating percentages in Excel 2016 for Mac.


Crontab task "LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed ... with error -600 for the file ..." I just moved to a new MacBook with El Capitan and trying to set up my crontab to do backup tasks.  Here is how I have it set up (via crontab -e)

40 7 * * * /Users/myusername/daily.sh "daily tasks run 7:40a"

Daily.sh looks like this

open -b com.apple.terminal ~/backupThing1.sh
open -b com.apple.terminal ~/dailyThing2.sh

I have it set up this way so I see the terminals come up and can respond to some inputs and password prompts.

Anyway, this task fails with the following messages:

LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed for the application /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app with error -600 for the file /Users/myusername/backupThing1.sh.
LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed for the application /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app with error -600 for the file /Users/myusername/dailyThing1.sh.

I have verified that these scripts are owned by myusername and are executable.  What am I missing?

As noted in the other answer the error is because you are trying to run a GUI app when not logged in.

However in your case why are you using a GUI app (Terminal ) here.

Just call your scripts directly from the cron script.

e.g. daily.sh should be

#!/bin/bash
~/backupThing1.sh
~/dailyThing2.sh

Note that you might need to have absolute paths not ~ here as cron jobs do not have the same environment as when run in the terminal.


How do I track and view total stand time using the Apple Watch? The Apple Watch can monitor if you stand at least 1 minute during 12 different hours in the day. If you do, that is counted as 12 stand hours. But you could have actually stood for 12 minutes or 12 hours during that day.

Is there a way to see the actual amount of time that you stood or sat in that hour?  Or the total amount of time that you stood or sat during the day?

As you stated the apple watch counts the stand goal as 1 minute of standing every hour for 12 hours.

from Apple

  "The Stand ring shows hours in which you've stood and moved for at least a minute. Complete your daily Stand goal by standing up and moving around for at least 1 minute during 12 different hours in the day. Even if you stand all day, you still need to move around."

As far as I am aware there is no other metrics that are viewable to the user.


WiFi connecting problem in 5GHz networks I have a 2017 13” MacBook Pro Retina, model A1407,  which doesn't even show my 5GHz WiFi connection. I tried so may times but failed. Other devices at home is working just fine with 5GHz network on WiFi,  But my MacBook Pro doesn't.

How can I make it work?

Just to make sure... Is visibility for 5G Wi-Fi network turned on? I.e., network is visible in the list of available networks, when you want to connect from any other device?

Also, try this:

Turn WPA2 only in the router settings..
Remove saved 5G Wi-Fi network on MBP and register again.

Just in case, make sure your MacBook supports 5G connectivity by:

Go to Apple menu (click  icon in the top left corner (menu bar))
Open About This Mac
Click System Report button
Go to Network -> Wi-Fi section, find Supported PHY Modes and make sure that your adapter at a minimum supports 802.11g/n.

And finally, this article may be very useful for running diagnostics on Wi-Fi connections.

Hope this helps at least find the path to fix.


Speaker on iPhone not working with Skype or Viber I have an iPhone 4, a couple of days ago the speaker when using Skype and Viber stopped working, I tried removing the apps and reinstalling them and have updated to 5.0.1 and it is still not working. I can still hear normal calls but for some reason when making Viber and Skype calls I can't hear, only the other person can hear me.

What else can I do?

This is a member of the Viber Development Team! :)

Please see our Help Desk at: http://helpme.viber.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/25/0/iphone-viber-connection-issues  for information concerning connection and audio issues.

If the issue persists it might be related to your own specific device. (You can contact Apple support).

If you have any question about Viber - please feel free to ask.

Thank you,
Viber Team.


iTunes cannot connect to Apple ID Server This is my first post to this exchange.  Being a programmer, I'm a huge stackexchange user and always get my answer so hopefully I will have success here.  Apple support stinks.

On windows 7 64bit.

My itunes was working fine and was in mist of purchasing songs, but could not verify my credit card details at checkout and then some error occurred.  I restarted and plugged in my iphone and then itunes said it could not connect to iphone until upgrading to new itunes version.  Well, I've used the iphone/itunes version before so I knew this was BS.  Long story short, I upgraded and now it cannot connect to Apple ID Server.  I downgraded version and same thing.

What's really strange is that my iCloud connects just fine.

I went through all the checks Apple suggests...the connection, the winsock, disable firewall, system date, etc, etc...and nothing seems to fix it.

Any and all help would be appreciated.

I know I'm using windows, so don't be hate'n.  I am bootcamping on imac so I'm not all bad. lol.

After some time, I came back to this and tried some other things and got my iTunes connecting again.

On my Windows side, I use GData for my security and it has firewall settings, min-max.  I always keep it on max for tight security, but I tried lowering it to one below max and that worked.  Oddly, when I disabled firewall altogether, that did not work for me.  Also, sometimes I have to lower setting to two below max to get iTunes to connect.  Very strange, but it works.

What is really strange, is that I could not connect on my MAC side either, which is not running GData.

I got a work around and I'm fine with that.

I hope this helps someone else.


Client isolation while using Internet Sharing over WiFi I'm using my iMac as a WiFi router, I have a ethernet cable plugged in and sharing internet to my other devices using it's WiFi card.

It creates a WiFi network (infrastructure mode) and I can connect all my devices and use the internet just fine.

My problem is my devices doesn't have access to each other, so for example I can't see my Apple TV from my phone.

Is there any way to turn client isolation off?

I guess you have to turn off the Firewall in your iMac or at least go the Firewall setting and turn off "Enable Stealth mode" if this is ON. You can test first with this and if this don't help, then you can turn off Firewall fully on your iMac. It should work in this way. Let me know how it goes.


Is it possible to force the MacBook Pro HDMI output to specific resolution/refresh rate? I have a MacBookPro11,2 connected via HDMI to a 4K television. I would like to try driving the display at various resolutions and frequencies, to see if that might alleviate some problems with signal stability. However the Displays prefpane only offers me a list of "scaled" resolutions, all of which are interpolated up to 4K, meaning the HDMI signal and monitor are still operating at 4K. Is it possible to foce the HDMI output to a specific (lower) resolution/refresh rate?

The answer is: Yes, this is possible.

I found a piece of trialware called SetResX that lets you set arbitrary real resolutions on the HDMI output, and it works!

I also found a video tutorial here that explains how to do that yourself with a substantial bit of effort, and without the nice UI, but I haven't tried that method.


Crawl live website and do a text/code search? I need a Mac app that can crawl a live website and do a text search (and, as a bonus, a source code search) and report the results.

Surely something like this exists. Help!

When I needed to do this I used AppleScript to feed the text to BBEdit which has a full POSIX regex and excellent AppleScript support. You can probably do it with Automator as well and simply use due shellscript to pipe the text through your regex.


how do i back up my time capsule? I have a Time Capsule that I'm using to back up a number of macs.

How do I back up my Time Capsule?

You can open up your Time Capsule from the Finder. In the left hand panel it ought to be under the Shared section.

Connect to it and you'll find a sparse bundle file for each computer you're backing up.

Those can then be copied off to another location, eg. another hand drive either attached to the Time Capsule, or attached to your computer.

If you want to automate this you can write a script to automatically mount the TimeCapsule then copy of the files using something like Unison. That's how I have it setup.

To mount it:

mount_afp afp://$USER@$CAP_IP/$CAP_NAME "/Volumes/$MOUNT_NAME"

To sync to another location with Unison:

unison -batch -logfile /PATH/TO/LOGFILE -perms 0 "DESTINATION" "SOURCE"

Unison is available in HomeBrew, mount_afp is built in.


How can I delete old messages on my iPhone to free up space (NOT the whole message thread) My iPhone is getting real low on space. I know the Messages app is taking up lots of space and I want to clear some of it.

I looked and it only allows me to delete EVERYTHING from a message thread.

How can I just delete just some of the messages, not all messages?

Surely I can delete messages that are really old or large messages with photos or videos, but I checked everywhere and can’t find how to do this.

I’ve also tried clicking on the info symbol at the top of a message thread. This lets me view images and attachments, but I can’t delete any of them. I tried tapping on them or 3d touching them, but there's no delete option anywhere.

I'm using an iPhone 6s running the latest iOS 11.

You can do exactly what you want as follows:

Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage
Wait a little while as the screen starts populating with data for each of your apps
Within the list that appears, tap on the Messages icon
Now you’ll be presented with a number of options for saving storage space
Select one or more of those options (see below)

Options

Enabling Auto Delete Old Conversations will automatically delete all messages (and their content, incl. photos etc) that were sent or received over 12 months ago
Tapping on Review Large Attachments will allow you to view all attachments. You can also swipe left to delete them. Likewise, you can tap on the Edit option at top left of screen to select multiple attachments to delete.
You can actually choose to delete individual items by reviewing them within the Documents & Data section at the bottom of the screen. This allows you to review Conversations, Photos, Videos, GIFs, Stickers and other items (e.g. tapping on Photos will allow you to review and/or delete each one individually).


Will deleting a device from iCloud remove data from that device? I bought my sister and iPhone and used my Apple id to help set up her phone. Now I want to delete her phone from my iCloud so she can set up her own Apple id. If I delete her device from my iCloud will it affect or remove any of the data on her phone?

Removing the phone from your iCloud 'find my' structure won't in itself remove any data from the phone…
…but re-assigning it to a new owner will. It will have to be set up again from scratch.

As the phone is currently owned by your Apple ID, so are all the apps & the data stored within them. You can restore [most of] the apps, music etc if you set up Family Sharing but any data in those apps will not be transferred with them, as it still belongs to you.


windows partition deleted by boot camp assistant but space is not restored I was trying to delete bootcamp drive , using bootcamp assistant while formating it hanged up along with my mac. i could not perform any action. (like cmd+q ) or open any other app .
so it was hanged i decided to force restart by pressing power button . mac restarted normally, bootcmap drive was deleted , but its space is also gone now.. there is no storage added to my macOs drive.
and deleted drive is not appearing in diskutility

any idea on how to restore this lost space ?

heres the output from diskutil list

diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE
IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB
disk0s1
2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         198.0 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE
IDENTIFIER
0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +198.0 GB   disk1
                             Physical Store disk0s2
1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            181.4 GB
disk1s1
2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 21.7 MB    disk1s2
3:                APFS Volume Recovery                519.0 MB   disk1s3
4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

As commented by David Anderson in comment the solution to this problem was this command

sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

No idea how it worked or what it does but i got my storage space back.


What can I do about frequent beach ball Safari and other apps? I very frequently get the beachball and occasionally the wristwatch (as in every minute or so if I'm using the machine multi app) as I use my Mac. This appears in all apps, especially Apple core apps. This most often happens in Safari, but can happen unpredictably in anything. It's not reliably reproducible, though doing almost anything in Safari will soon create it.

Usually, it happens when either I or an app do something (vs it just sitting there). Neither cpu nor memory appear overloaded in Activity monitor when this happens, (though just occasionally cpu goes to 100%, and fan goes full.)

System is MacBook Pro 2.7GHz Core i7, 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 (factory spec) running OS X 10.7.4. One probably totally unrelated oddity is that the s/n of the machine never comes up on the Apple database, always apparently missing a digit in the middle. And yes, I bought it from Apple!

Solution attempts:
Extensive.
Machine has been back to Apple, who replaced system board and hard drive.
Repeated visits to Genii (Genius's?) who have spent much time deleting, and reinstalling individual apps, fiddling with plists, general fiddling, reinstalling the OS (Clean reinstalls - as in reformat HD).

But the problem comes back, every time.

I'm not reinstalling any of my 3rd party software, as I can't bear the repeated process, but also so as to eliminate that possible source.

I'm at the end of my tether, almost can't bear to use the machine (which is NOT how I want to feel about my Mac), and can't afford to replace this still very new machine.

Diagnostic questions will be gratefully received. I would be delighted for any possible solutions.

Once I got something similar after a Snow Leopard upgrade:  spinning bechball when starting Safari and making Safari inoperable. Turned out it was an incomaptible SIMBL plugin from before the OS upgrade.

If you already replaced the motherboard and hard drive, there's really not much "hardware" left that can be eliminated.

If you already have done a clean install as well, there is really no other "software" eliminated either. Make sure you've done a total clean install though: format HDD, install the base OS without iLife, etc, DO NOT restore anything from you backup afterwards, DO NOT use your regular username and DO NOT enter your Apple ID at first boot. Do not restore and data from your backup, especially not /Library and /Users//Library

I guess I'd also try to install a different version of OSX (downgrade or upgrade, doesn't matter) and see if the problem persists.  Also try booting a different OS (Windows, Linux, boot from a Linux live CD/usb would be the easiest option). Booting in a different OS is the best way to find out if it's a hardware issue or software.

Generally a spinning beachball are caused by CPU/memory/disk access spikes, but it can also be some other kind of blocking I/O (e.g. network, USB). Maybe it's compatibility issues with your home network? Use it on a different network, try connecting to the network with an external USB ethernet adapter.

Hope that helps.


Swap data, profiles, app on two Mac with Migration Assistant I make it easy: I have two MacBooks, all the data in MacBook A have to migrate to MacBook B and vice versa (so all the data in MacBook B have to migrate in macbook A as well). I want to do it with Migration Assistant. I already read that MI copies the files without deleting them. Do I run any risk or I can go smooth?

Migration Assistant works best on a cleanly erased Mac.

borrow/buy a drive large enough to back up Mac A
Time Machine Mac A onto drive and then disconnect the drive
Erase Mac A and install new OS
Migrate everything from B to A - connect the two to the same network or use Target Disk Mode
Erase Mac B and instal new OS
Migrate data from the backup drive to Mac B

Swap complete.


Can I use my Mac to play music stores on an old iPod shuffle? I want to plug my very old iPod shuffle it into my more current Mac and play from my shuffle's play list.  Can I do that and if so how?

I can see all the songs in "My Music" but cant play it.

This should be fairly easy.

Simply select your iPod in the iTunes sidebar
Check the Manually manage music and videos box under "Options" (in the "Summary" screen).
Now you should be able to play your music from your iPod shuffle


Set sshd to serve different shell based on `host` I want my local sshd to serve different shell, based on the host.

Example:

ssh user@hostname1 -> get's bash
ssh user@hostname2 -> get's fish

Is it possible, and if so, how can it be done?

I'm not able to find a way to accomplish what you're asking for directly with sshd and the options available in man sshd_config or man sshd.

Method #1 via ssh client

The first method that comes to mind is pretty straightforward. You can either do it directly with just ssh.

$ ssh -t user@someserver bash

-or-

$ ssh -t user@someserver dash

Examples

bash

$ ssh -t manny.bub.lan -l manny bash
$ ps | grep $$
31691 pts/0    00:00:00 bash

dash

$ ssh -t manny.bub.lan -l manny dash
$ ps | grep $$
31730 pts/0    00:00:00 dash

csh

$ ssh -t manny.bub.lan -l manny csh
manny:~% ps | grep $$
 1687 pts/0    00:00:00 csh

fish

$ ssh -t manny.bub.lan -l manny fish
Welcome to fish, the friendly interactive shell
manny@manny ~> ps | grep $$_
fish: $$ is not the pid. In fish, please use %self.
ps | grep $$
           ^
manny@manny ~> ps | grep %self
 4218 pts/0    00:00:00 fish

Method #2 via alias

You could leverage the above method in #1, and build aliases like these:

$ alias sshmanny1="ssh -t manny@manny-rei210-2.bub.lan bash"
$ alias sshmanny1="ssh -t manny@manny-rei210-2.bub.lan fish"

Then use them like so:

$ sshmanny1
manny@manny:~$ exit
exit
Shared connection to manny.bub.lan closed.

$ sshmanny2
Welcome to fish, the friendly interactive shell
manny@manny ~> exit
Shared connection to manny.bub.lan closed.

Method #3 ~/.ssh/config

The third method I was able to find would build configurations that can do this on the client side of your SSH connection, instead of on the server via SSHD.

$ cat ~/.ssh/config
Host manny1
    HostName manny.bub.lan
    RemoteCommand bash
    RequestTTY force
    User manny

Host manny2
    HostName manny.bub.lan
    RemoteCommand fish
    RequestTTY force
    User manny

Now when you want to connect you'd do so like this:

$ ssh manny1
manny@manny:~$ exit
exit
Shared connection to manny.bub.lan closed.

$ ssh manny2
Welcome to fish, the friendly interactive shell
manny@manny ~> exit
Shared connection to manny.bub.lan closed.

References

Choosing the shell that SSH uses?


Is there a Mac OS X Terminal version of the "free" command in Linux systems? On Linux, I often use the free command to see the current amount of free and used memory in the system. For example:

$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       7264256    1010952    6253304          0     371892     189088
-/+ buffers/cache:     449972    6814284
Swap:      8126456         28    8126428

It does not seem to exist when I enter free in Mac OS X's Terminal. Is there an alternative?

As @khedron says, you can see this info in Activity Monitor.

If you want it on the command line, here is a Python script that I wrote (or perhaps modified from someone else's, I can't remember, it's quite old now) to show you the Wired, Active, Inactive and Free memory amounts:

#!/usr/bin/python

import subprocess
import re

# Get process info
ps = subprocess.Popen(['ps', '-caxm', '-orss,comm'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0].decode()
vm = subprocess.Popen(['vm_stat'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0].decode()

# Iterate processes
processLines = ps.split('\n')
sep = re.compile('[\s]+')
rssTotal = 0 # kB
for row in range(1,len(processLines)):
    rowText = processLines[row].strip()
    rowElements = sep.split(rowText)
    try:
        rss = float(rowElements[0]) * 1024
    except:
        rss = 0 # ignore...
    rssTotal += rss

# Process vm_stat
vmLines = vm.split('\n')
sep = re.compile(':[\s]+')
vmStats = {}
for row in range(1,len(vmLines)-2):
    rowText = vmLines[row].strip()
    rowElements = sep.split(rowText)
    vmStats[(rowElements[0])] = int(rowElements[1].strip('\.')) * 4096

print 'Wired Memory:\t\t%d MB' % ( vmStats["Pages wired down"]/1024/1024 )
print('Active Memory:\t\t%d MB' % ( vmStats["Pages active"]/1024/1024 ))
print('Inactive Memory:\t%d MB' % ( vmStats["Pages inactive"]/1024/1024 ))
print('Free Memory:\t\t%d MB' % ( vmStats["Pages free"]/1024/1024 ))
print('Real Mem Total (ps):\t%.3f MB' % ( rssTotal/1024/1024 ))

As you can see, you can just call vm_stat from the command line, though it counts in 4kB pages, hence the script to convert to MB.

The script also counts up the "real memory" usage of all running processes for comparison (this won't match any specific value(s) from overall memory stats, because memory is a complex beast).

Here's an example of the output of the script on my system:

[user@host:~] % memReport.py
Wired Memory:           1381 MB
Active Memory:          3053 MB
Inactive Memory:        727 MB
Free Memory:            1619 MB
Real Mem Total (ps):    3402.828 MB

(very slightly adjusted to match the tab sizing on StackExchange ;)


Can I restrict the times during which iTunes downloads podcast content? I have a capped ADSL account that splits my bandwidth allocation 50-50 between anytime and download time (midnight to 6am). I therefore prefer to have any downloading happen during download time so as not to max out my anytime bandwidth and require top-up purchase.

I subscribe to a number of podcasts in iTunes and would like to be able to restrict the downloading of those podcasts to download time. Does iTunes (on Windows) offer any way to d this?

What you need to do is refresh the podcasts at a time during the download period and then set the update podcast to "Daily"
Find the settings button :-

And select Daily..

This is because the Daily refresh will reset itself to download every 24 hours after that time..
As seen here I refreshed this morning and the next update will be 24 hours after that.

The caveat, of course, is that iTunes must be running at the time you want it to refresh


How to cut a file from my USB drive and paste it elsewhere in Finder on Mac OS X 10.6.8? When I click Cmd-X to try and cut the file on my USB drive so I can paste it elsewhere and free up space on my USB, it does nothing, and when I Ctrl-click it only gives the option to copy the file, not cut it.

How to cut-and-paste a file on OS X?

Use CmdC to copy, then OptCmdV to paste in a new location and delete from the original location.