Make shell script contents difficult to read I am setting up an escape-room-esque experience for a group of 11 and 12 year olds. As part of the activity, I'm going to set up an old Mac (likely running Snow Leopard) with a specially-created user account. The desktop will contain an interactive, executable .command shell script that asks the kids to input a series of "passwords" to obtain the code to a safe.

I'm a little concerned that some enterprising child will realize they can open the script in a text editor and just read all the passwords. Making the account boot directly to a console might help, but I'd rather not do that, and there's still a risk someone will know the nano command.

How can I make this script as difficult to read as possible?

Option 1: use the shell script compiler to turn the script into a binary executable. The binary will still contain the script (in highly obscured form), but unlike a regular script, you can set the file permissions so the account the kids are using doesn't have read access to it (just execute).

Option 2: Encrypt the safe code using the "passwords", store the encrypted code in the script, and use what the kids enter to decrypt it. Here's an encryption process you could use with three passwords, "sekrit1", "hunter2", and "p4ssw0rd3":

$ echo '12 left, 25 right, 9 left' | openssl enc -aes256 -base64 -pass "pass:sekrit1|hunter2|p4ssw0rd3"
U2FsdGVkX18IFQAaSjEv2AJJ16z6wjROjcHiqHWGvji3MEsmcHwPgu3MQeh2O+c1

Then in the script:

read -p "Enter the first password: " pass1
read -p "Enter the second password: " pass2
read -p "Enter the third password: " pass3
encrypted="U2FsdGVkX18IFQAaSjEv2AJJ16z6wjROjcHiqHWGvji3MEsmcHwPgu3MQeh2O+c1"
if result=$(echo "$encrypted" | openssl enc -d -aes256 -base64 -pass "pass:$pass1|$pass2|$pass3" 2>/dev/null); then
    echo "The safe combination is $result"
else
    echo "At least one password is wrong!"
fi

If you want to give the kids password-by-password feedback, you could add checking the hashes of the passwords as they're entered:

$ echo "sekrit1" | shasum
b19fb68c28bff07cf8fcc7c53ab48c5d6f41e993  -

In script:

read -p "Enter the first password: " pass1
if [ "$(echo "$pass1" | shasum)" = "b19fb68c28bff07cf8fcc7c53ab48c5d6f41e993  -" ]; then
        echo "Correct so far..."
else
        echo "Wrong!"
        exit
fi
...etc

BTW, this isn't a really secure way to store passwords; proper secure password hashes are designed to be slow and use "salt". But this should be secure enough for some kids.


My find/replace text magically changes in Xcode I had a project wide find/replace search all set up yesterday in my Xcode project. Today when I get back to Xcode (without restarting or touching it in any way) the search text has changed. The weirdest thing is that the search text is now the same as a text search I made today in Google Chrome(!). I know for a fact that I haven't searched for "shipping costs" in my Xcode project.

Could someone explain what's going on? I don't particularly like it when applications throw away my data and I would like to prevent this from happening again.

Find/replace uses what's known as the Kill Ring, rather than regular Copy/Paste

It's similar to the regular Copy/Paste buffers, but uses a separate memory area.

You can 'Kill' using  Ctrl ⌃   K  which is similar to Cut &
'Yank' using  Ctrl ⌃   Y  which is like Paste.

The kill ring is also used in a lot of search routines, so will be replaced any time you perform a new search.
Don't rely on it as a data store.


Password incorrect and Internet Recovery Mode -3001f Error Have an iMac here roughly 2 years old and within the last week the admin account password has stopped working. It is the correct password, used on all of our devices and only IT staff use it. The password has not been changed. (our users use network accounts which have also stopped logging in, however that seems to be a network related issue as other computers are also experiencing this).

I have since attempted to enter internet recovery mode to either a) reset the admin password, or b) reinstall OS X (I believe it is running Yosemite). Both of these I have seen as options to get around the faulty password check.

However, upon booting into recovery mode, I am presented with an exclamation mark over a world icon and the following: apple/support -3001f.

I cannot find a description of this error anywhere. A few for -1006f or -1007f but absolutely zilch for -3001f.

What options to regain control of this Mac exist?

Resolved!

Managed to boot into single user mode and edit the password through the command line (both brilliant and a terrifying security issue).


Suppress Java warnings I'm using a website with a Java plugin (applet I think) that prompts me everytime I use it to access the local file system.

These are the two pop ups:

and:

I already have the site in question set up as a security exception in my Java settings

This is on Mac OSX 10.9.4 with Firefox 31.

Is there any way to suppress these popups permanently? I'm getting them many times a day.

Quick edit to add: If there is some sort of scripting technique to catch the message and kill them, that would be an option I'd consider too.

I don't know when it could be set up in Firefox, but in Safari you can open Preferences->Security->Manage Website Settings... In opened window select java, then select your website and in drop down list select "Run in Unsafe Mode". You will see warning icon at near the text. See screenshot from my Safari


Question mark folder on startup, how can I recover? I have a problem with the iMac 27 2012 .. At startup the folder tag appears

Then when you go to Recovery mode and go to disk utility the internal disk is not found so I can’t format or reinstall macOS.

I run Apple Hardware Test by pressing (D)

How can I recover my Mac?

The icon you are receiving indicates that your computer is unable to find a suitable operating system (OS).

Your internal disk does not appear in disk utility or diskutil list. Either it is physically disconnected or the more likely answer: dead. I would suggest you bring it into a local Apple Store. The Geniuses will be able to tell you the issue for free. You can decide if you would like to pay to have the disk replaced (assuming death is correct) or to get a new Mac entirely.

Either way you shouldn't lose too much data because you have been making consistent backups very often, right?


macOS Sierra, Multiple problems with iBooks syncing to iTunes 12 I'm having a whole heap of problems trying to organize my small collection of ebooks.  Mostly PDF but a couple of epubs as well none of which came from the iBook store.  I'm running Sierra 10.12.6 with iBooks 1.10 and iTunes 12.7.5.9.

I have a book in iBooks where I have edited the author name from "Alexander Elder" to "Dr. Alexander Elder".  This change is reflected in iBooks, but is not reflected iTunes on my Mac.  iTunes just shows it as "Alexander Elder".  I have already several times deleted all books from my iPad and tried to re-sync them.  iTunes still always shows the original incorrect metadata while iBooks shows it correctly.
iTunes fails to even show nearly half of my library.  I have a total of 25 books in iBooks, and only 15 show up in iTunes for syncing.

Why won't so many of my books appear in iTunes?  How can I get them to appear again and how can I sync them?

In addition to deleting all my books from my iPad, I have also deleted and re-added them to iBooks, quit & relaunched iTunes and iBooks, and I have tried the "Move Books from iTunes" option in iBooks.  The latter did momentarily cause all the books to appear in iTunes, but as soon as I quit & relaunched, it was back to only 15 again.

Nothing has ever solved the Author metadata issue.

I've been searching like crazy and finding loads of people with similar but slightly different problems.

UPDATE:  Woah I just discovered something very odd... guessing this is a bug.  If in iTunes I go into my iPad and choose Settings > Books, I see only the 15.  If however I then click on Photos and back to Books, suddenly they all appear.  If I then click On My Device > Books and click back to Settings > Books, it's back to the 15 again.  Rinse & repeat.  Very very strange!

So with this last discovery I am in fact able to sync all my books, however the author issue remains for the one book, it is incorrect in both iTunes and on my iPad after sync.

I would download Calibre to edit the metadata before adding the file saved by calibre to Books.
Also, I've found that unchecking ibooks in system preferences>icloud>icloud drive on my mac fixed the issue with itunes, and I only really read books on my iPad/iPhone, and having Books turned on under icloud on those devices' settings doesn't seem to mess anything up so this works for me.


Back to My Mac Only Works One Way I've got an interesting problem happening.

From iMac ➔ MacBookPro Back To My Mac works fine.
From MacBookPro ➔ iMac… not so much.  Sometimes I can't even get past the connection piece. It just does that shaky thing that it likes to do when it doesn't accept a password.

When/if I do I get an error message that says the viewer and server are incompatible.

Same network (just to rule out firewall craziness), all items are checked in iCloud etc. I can SSH back and forth. It's only when I try to use file or screen sharing that I see the issue.

Any ideas where I should start? I’m flying blind on this one - no idea why it would work one way and not the other.

I may be jumping the gun here with my answer, but I'm going to assume that one of your Macs is running macOS Mojave and the other is running an earlier version of macOS.

macOS Mojave dropped support for the Back to My Mac feature. Instead, users are encouraged to use iCloud Drive, screen sharing, and Apple Remote Desktop for the various features you may have been using Back to My Mac for.

For more info on this change, refer to Prepare for changes to Back to My Mac on Apple's website.


TestFlight to App Store transition I just want to know the process from TestFlight to the App Store like

Once my app is visible in the TestFlight of iTunes Connect:

When and how will it be moved to the App Store for being LIVE?
Apps, once uploaded, are automatically visible in the TestFlight app, when will this be removed: after 180 days, or 90 days, or when the app is live?
When does the reviewing process start? The moment app is uploaded to TestFlight, or when it is promoted by someone for LIVE?
Who promotes the build for LIVE?

When and how will it be moved to the App Store for being LIVE?

When the developer is confident the version is ready to go live, he/she just submits the TestFlight build (or a newer one with fixes) like a regular app update. Apple has to review it again (even if you use the same build as for TestFlight) and after approval it will go live.

  Apps, once uploaded, are automatically visible in the TestFlight app, when will this be removed: after 180 days, or 90 days, or when the app is live?

The standard testing period is 90 days, so after that, the app will disappear, but (IIRC) if that version of the app goes live, that ends the availability in TestFlight as well.

  When does the reviewing process start? The moment app is uploaded to TestFlight, or when it is promoted by someone for LIVE?

When the app is uploaded to TestFlight for an alpha test (by users which also have access to the iTunes Connect backend), no review takes place (except for some automated integrity checks). For a beta test via TestFlight, a short (manual) review is conducted by Apple, but nowhere near as rigorous as for an app going live. Again, the "going live"-review is a separate review.

  Who promotes the build for LIVE?

This is part of the process described under 1.


Add Account in Outlook 2011 is greyed out I try to add a new email account to Outlook 2011 for Mac. On the "Enter your account information" sheet the "Add Account" button is greyed out (only the Cancel button is visible). I cannot add a directory service or exchange account, I cannot add anything :-) Everytime the the "Add" button is greyed out :-(

The two screenshots show the problem: the button to add a new account is disabled (even if I fill in all the values).

UPDATE: it depends on the provided email address... If I use an email address with subdomain, it does not work or rather the button is disabled.

Odd. Not really an answer, but all I can say is that it works for me. As far as I'm aware I don't have any other specific Outlook configuration that deviates from a "standard" install. Once you've filled out all the relevant information in the edit fields (which I did in order from top to bottom and with "valid" information), the "Add Account" button becomes un-greyed. Like so:


How to fix bluetooth problem? I'd like to connect my bluetooth headphones to my computer. Unfortunately, my macbook pro thinks that my headphones are connected. When I go to the bluetooth menu, my headphones appear connected even though they are turned off and out of range.

I deleted the bluetooth preferences plist with this command

sudo rm -R /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

I've also gone and option + clicked the bluetooth menu and hit reset and disconnect. I also shift + option clicked and hit debug reset bluetooth module and forget all devices.

Try to do SMC Reset as this will help for

General performance and functionality problems: abnormally sluggish behavior despite no CPU or disk usage, external ports not working, airport & Bluetooth aren’t showing up, external devices are not being found, etc

Apple says you shouldn’t reset the SMC without first trying other troubleshooting tasks, such as force-quitting problematic apps and restarting your Mac. However, Apple doesn’t mention any negative consequences of resetting the SMC, nor any way to determine for sure if the SMC is glitchy without resetting it and noticing that the problem went away. I’ve reset my Macs’ SMCs many times with no apparent ill effects, and on the occasion that did, in fact, turn out to be the solution to a problem.

How to do SMC Reset

Shut down and unplug your Mac. On the built-in keyboard, press and hold the Shift, Option, and Control keys on the left side and press the power button and hold all of these down for 10 seconds, then release the keys. Connect the power adapter and then turn the Mac on normally.


Using ImageMagick's identify to determine DPI of a document Ultimately, I'm trying to determine the size of an image in inches so I can be certain it lays out properly on the printer.

If I use the command identify document.pdf I get the following output:

document.pdf PDF 612x792 612x792+0+0 16-bit sRGB 29289B 0.000u 0:00.000

If I divide 612 and 792 each by 72 respectively, I get 8.5x11 which tells me the size.  I know this is correct because I printed it.  The problem is, it's not always going to be 8.5x11 nor will the DPI always be the same (and I won't be there to "know" how it was printed/saved).

From ImageMagic's page on using Identify they have a -verbose output flag and an example of "calculating an image size at 72 DPI" but they don't say how they got the DPI!

How can I programmatically determine the DPI of an image?

(Graphics are bit out of my wheelhouse and with the sheer volume of ImageMagick's options along with terms I'm not familiar with is a bit like drinking from the fire hose.)

(Thanks to Tetsujin for his helpful comments leading me to the answer)

ImageMagick can get a little confusing with their myriad of options when you're attempting to do something.  There's a couple of ways that you can find out the DPI of an image.  Both of them use the identify command.

For the examples below, I'm using a sample, royalty free photo of an Apple iMac saved natively as a JPG and exported as a PNG.

Manually calculating the size.  To do this, we need two pieces of information, the resolution and the Units.  In this case, we lucked out because the the units are in PPI (pixels per inch) so the resolution makes sense - it's 72 PPI or 72 DPI

identify -verbose apple_photo.jpeg | grep -E -i "resolution|units"
Resolution: 72x72
Units: PixelsPerInch

However, if the image file is a PNG, things are stored as PPCM or pixels per centimeter.  Issuing the same command:

% identify -verbose apple_photo.png | grep -E -i "resolution|units"
  Resolution: 28.34x28.34
  Units: PixelsPerCentimeter

This tells us that it's 28.34 PPCM.  To get DPI we have to do a little calculation.  1in = 2.54cm, so to get DPI we multiply that to the resolution as follows:

2.54 * 28.34 = 71.9836 or 72DPI

Real-time Calculation.  Again, using JPEG, we know that it's resolution is in DPI, so we just need to get the resolution value using the -format flag and the the percent (%) escape sequences:

identify -format "%[fx:resolution.x]" apple_photo.jpeg

Since PNG files are in PPCM,  we can use the calculated FX expressions and the percent (%) escape sequences, to calculate this value. Here, we're getting the resolution value and multiplying it by 2.54 to get DPI.

% identify -format "%[fx:resolution.x*2.54] DPI" apple_photo.png
71.9836 DPI

Note:  You can get the units using the %[units] escape sequence here:

% identify - identify -format `"%[units]"` apple_photo.jpeg

Calculate the size. We can now calculate the size (inches) of the image. Here, we use the %[w] escape sequence to get the width in DPI or PPCM

    % identify -format "%[fx:w]" apple_photo.jpeg
    3004

Divide by 72 to get inches

    % identify -format "%[fx:w/72] inches" apple_photo.jpeg
    41.7222 inches


Not able to Reinstall MacOS in Internet Recovery Mode I have a mid 2013 Macbook Air.

Without realizing the effect of my actions, I accidentally typed into my terminal a sudo -rm -rf "Xcode" command, where I intended to delete Xcode but in actuality deleted all files that contained anything to do with Xcode. As a result, my Mac software was corrupted, and I am unable to login to my computer (it goes to login screen, after entering credentials it crashes).

After countless hours with Apple Support, I:

Tried reinstalling Mac OS in normal recovery mode (Command + R) but it doesn't let me because it keeps asking me to enter login info for App Store purchases and never closes that screen.
Then I tried Internet Recovery Mode, which for some reason isn't able to reinstall MacOS because of an Internet issue (although it works in normal recovery mode) and gives the error "Could not connect to Recovery Mode server." I read up on this on Stack Overflow, and it was advised to use an Ethernet cable connection, which I have tried, but it still doesn't work. In the Safari in the Internet Recover Mode, it gives me the error "Localized String not Found".

Do you have access to another Mac? If so, I'd download the OS installer to that machine, and use it to make a bootable USB stick via the createinstallmedia tool which is inside Contents/Resources in the installer's app bundle. Then, boot your Mac from that USB stick and all should be well.

Alternately, connect your Mac to another Mac via target disk mode and install it from a fully-booted macOS installation that way.


Why my "Copy picture of selected area to the clipboard" does not work as usual? macOSX 10.13.6

I am frustrated with screenshot capture shortcut on my MacOS X.  It becomes a camera icon and it only captures the window rather than area selection, like the following picture.

I did not change anything, and I have no idea why it suddenly works like this.  The original function should look like this:

Appreciate any help.

You can switch between area/window screenshot with a spacebar. Here's the Apple website about the screenshots.


How can I remap the left keypad keys of a Kinesis Freestyle keyboard on macOS Sierra? I have a PC version of the USB Kinesis Freestyle keyboard. It've used these keyboards for years with my Macs and they work very well for me, but I have never used the block of keys along the left-hand side.

The back/fwd keys in particular would be ripe for use to control iTunes, but the problem is that pressing them generates ⌘-arrow key sequences, and remapping ⌘-arrow sequences would cause problems in applications that use ⌘-arrow keys for editing functions.

Is there a way to change the character sequence that the Kinesis keyboard generates?

Unfortunately the answer linking to the "auto-repeater" software would have the unwanted result you mentioned of trying to remap the basic ⌘-arrow keys.

As I'm sure you know by now it's not possible to remap the keys on the Kinesis Freestyle keyboard as it's not programmable.

They answer this question in their FAQ on their website:
https://www.kinesis-ergo.com/support/technical-support/faqs-freestyle-keyboard/

Disclaimer, I know this is 7 months old at this time but it's a top Google result and didn't have a proper answer


How to update apps in iTunes 11.3? I'm on OS X 10.9.4, with iTunes 11.3.1.  I got a new phone and am trying to get it set up on a new mac. Previous to this, I already sync'd the phone to an older mac (to get all my old apps and data from the backup), which my previous phone was sync'd to. That appeared to go fine.

Now I'm trying to sync the phone to a newer mac, because the old one is very slow. When I tried to sync, I got the message that 'this phone is already sync'd on another computer, do you want to erase and sync from this one?" I said yes. It appeared to sync.  But I know I need several updates, and I can't figure out where to do that.

When I look at the Apps tab in iTunes, with the phone selected, it displays the apps on a list on the left, and the home screens on the right. The only button next to each app is 'Remove'.

This is for iTunes 11.4, but I think it's the same in 11.3 and other versions around here, for anyone looking.

I had this issue too, because there isn't enough space on my iDevices to update in place.

Open iTunes, make sure you're in "Library" and not the Store.  At the top left there's a drop down menu, it defaults to "Music".  Use it to select "Apps".  Then in the top center area below the status box that shows sync progress and the like is "Updates".  Click that, then "Update All Apps" in the bottom right of the window.

Presto, utilizing your computer's network connection and hard drive for better app updating.


Find all "Other" Files How do I find any and all delete-able files on my Mac that are classified as other? My brother installed games on my computer, and even after clearing out "Downloads" and deleting the game applications I have 30 gb of "Other" files that I have no way of deleting because I don't know where they are on my computer.

I assume you're looking at the About This Mac Storage tab; dealing with that "Other" category is tough (illustrated by the wealth of search results for "mac storage other"), as it is comprised of a combination of files in many locations.
A recommendation would be to click the Manage button (Apple Menu -> About This Mac -> Storage) and start with the "Reduce Clutter" option, which may identify unused files that are taking up the most space.

If that option doesn't provide enough items to clear out, a second recommendation would be to try an app like MacPaw's CleanMyMac X, which can identify the files taking up that space to give you a better idea of what can be safely removed.
A more manual (but free and open source) option is something like Grand Perspective, which allows you to visualize the areas that are taking up the most space, but leaves the process of removing them (and knowing how to do so safely) up to you.


Best way to copy all files, ignoring errors? I have a partially corrupted HD that can not be repaired by Disk Utility, but which can be mounted read-only making the data on it accessible.

I am trying to copy all the recoverable contents onto a spare HD, but every method I try fails when an error is encountered - leaving the remaining files uncopied.

Finder - Fails.
SuperDuper - Fails.
Ditto (terminal command) - Fails.

I was hoping that Ditto would do the trick, the Ditto man page says:

  ditto returns 0 if everything is copied, otherwise non-zero.  ditto
  almost never gives up, preferring to report errors along the way.
  Diagnostic messages will be printed to standard error.

I have submitted a bug to Apple re ditto failing to perform as advertised.

Any other ideas?

I use cp -Rfv sourcefile destinationfile with success on a pretty regular basis.

cp = copy

R = maintains file hierarchies

f = if  an  existing destination file cannot be opened, remove it and try again

v = verbose mode, displays files transferred as it progresses

sourcefile = data you want to copy

destinationfile = directory/drive you want to copy to


How to escape spaces in the results of `mdfind`? I'd like to find some file with mdfind and move it to another directory. So I tried like below but it makes an error caused by the space in the path.

> mdfind somefile.numbers
/Users/hugh/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Numbers/Documents/somefile.numbers
> mv $(!!) ~/Documents/
mv: rename /Users/hugh/Library/Mobile to /Users/hugh/Documents/Mobile: No such file or directory
mv: rename Documents/com~apple~Numbers/Documents/somefile.numbers
  to /Users/hugh/Documents/somefile.numbers: No such file or directory

So I tried to escape the space with printf %q, but it escapes everything.

> mv $(printf %q $(mdfind somefile.numbers)) ~/Documents/
mv: rename /Users/hugh/Library/MobileDocuments/com\~apple\~Numbers/Documents/somefile.numbers
  to /Users/hugh/Documents/somefile.numbers: No such file or directory

There must be a good way to handle this but I cannot find one. Any ideas?

Quote the variable:

mv "$(!!)" ~/Documents/


Can I select only a few specific folders to back up with Time Machine? Can I backup only specific folders with Time Machine?

If there is not an "official" way to do this, does somebody know a trick to do so?

You may exclude items from a Time Machine backup as follows:

Open System Preferences.
Click Time Machine.
After having enabled Time Machine and chosen a backup disk, click Options.
Click + to specify an item that is not to be backed up. The backup disk is included on this list automatically so that it does not back up itself.


Can I bulk delete songs no longer on my hard drive from iTunes? Does anyone know how to do an iTunes windows bulk delete of files for songs no longer on my hard drive?


MacBook Pro-Change Background doesn't display/use all of the jpg pictures in the folder I have a new MacBook Pro.   I just downloaded several free HD backgrounds (about 50+)from the internet and placed in a folder.   I added the folder to the Desktop & Screen Saver app.

All of the new images are .jpg files.    But when I added the folder, only 10 of the images display and are used as the background.

I researched online and tried setting "Change picture" to every 5 seconds to try and "force" cycling through all of the pictures -- this didn't work.

I looked at file details --- thee only difference is the date of the files.   The folder is only displaying files I added over a month ago. (Also downloaded from the web, same websites.)

I am not using iCloud Drive (I use Google for backup.)

Any ideas??

OK - I figured it out.     You have to click the FOLDER under its root when you add it to the Desktop & Screen Saver folder with "+"

For example.....if the folder is ....Documents\Backgrounds\winter(jpg files) --- you have to select the folder under ....\Documents\Backgrounds (select Winter)

I selected it under the actual directory ...\Documents\Backgrounds\Winter all of the jpg files displaying and selected "Winter" at the top.   (Need to select one directory back)


Can I tell who used iTunes on my iMac to sync while I was away? Is there any way to see who used iTunes from my iMac with USB connection? Actually i want to see iTunes logs when someone get connected, synchronized or used my books?

One way to tell if a device has connected to your iTunes is to check the preferences and see if there is a device backup.  When you can connect a device to iTunes it creates a backup of the device (if you are syncing stuff to and from it).  In your case it sounds like you wanna find out if your books have been syncing to another device.

Open iTunes Preferences:

Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences

There will be no way for you to see what specifically was sycned, this will only tell you if a device has synced, and when.


What happens to shared photos when i delete them locally? I am running out of space on my 16 GB iphone 6 (shocker.)

I have about 400 family photos that i've taken, and added to a shared album.  All of these photos are stored locally on my iPhone.

If i remove any of those photos from my phone to free up space, are they also removed from the shared album?  (that would be bad.)

More generally: what are the semantics of shared photos? are they copies? symlinks?

Settings:

General>Icloud>Photos

ICloud photo library is on
optimize phone storage is checked
upload to my photo stream is on
icloud photo sharing is on.

I have backups and syncs to my macbook on a fairly routine basis, and i'm also using google photos specifically for photo backup independent of any of the above settings.

Removing photos from your Camera Roll will not remove them from Shared Albums. It will, however, remove them from iCloud Photo Library, both in iCloud itself and all of your devices.

If you have iCloud Photo Library turned on and the Optimize Phone Storage setting enabled, there's no way to further reduce the amount of storage taken by photos in your camera roll other than simply deleting them (again, subject to the caveat in the first paragraph).

Deleting photos using Photos.app should not affect their storage in the Google Photos cloud. (Deleting them with Google Photos will cause them to be removed from the Google Photos cloud.)


How do I disable Front Row? My Mac mini is picking up the same remote signals as my apple TV remote.  How can I turn off Front Row so it doesn't start playing music / videos when I am browsing my Apple TV?

A quick way to solve your problem is to simply disable the IR remote control receiver.  Visit this preference under

System Preferences -> Security -> General

and uncheck the box labeled "Disable remote control infrared receiver".


Map app for iPad that works while you're not connected to WiFi or 3G? About to drive across country and, while we're sporting iPhones, it sure would be nice if the navigator could use our iPad, non-3G, version to view maps while we're traveling. I've looked through the app store but the field is littered with impostors and the carnage of the poorly implemented.

Does such a thing exist? Is there a well-made, offline map app for the iPad?

Notes:

I'd need it to cover Canada (Eastern and Atlantic) and the North East United States (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, upper state New York).
Obviously I don't expect it to do any positioning (does the iPad 2 even have a GPS radio?) so an app that just called up street level maps would be fine. We're old enough to understand how to find our place in the world without a GPS lock on. :)

These apps might be of interest:

Galileo Offline Maps
OffMaps 2
Comparison of iOS Map apps

According to OffMaps2 library search, maps of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and parts of Canada are available.

Hope that helps, and enjoy your trip!


How to delete directory ~/Pictures? This is on MacOS Catalina, but the same behavior has been observed in prior versions of MacOS.
Similar questions have been asked for other default directories in the default home directory, but this is different. I am able to delete most of the other directories: ~/Music, ~/Public, and ~/Movies all went away after I removed any ACL's from them. But ~/Pictures is different, and no matter what I do, MacOS refuses to delete it.
bash-5.0# /bin/ls -led Pictures
drwxrwxr-x  2 MyLogin  MyGroup  64 Nov  5 18:17 Pictures
bash-5.0# /bin/ls -lea Pictures
total 0
drwxrwxr-x   2 MyLogin  MyGroup    64 Nov  5 18:17 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 72 MyLogin  MyGroup  2304 Nov  5 18:17 ..
 0: group:everyone deny delete

Note that the last ACL is applied to the parent directory of ~/Pictures ie. my home directory, and that is not the cause of this behavior as I am able to delete other subdirectories without trouble.
This also does not appear to be a restriction imposed by System Integrity Protection:
bash-5.0# /bin/ls -leOd /usr/bin
drwxr-xr-x  1014 root  wheel  restricted 32448 Oct 23 01:19 /usr/bin
bash-5.0# /bin/ls -leOd Pictures/
drwxrwxr-x  2 MyLogin  MyGroup  - 64 Nov  5 18:23 Pictures/
bash-5.0# /bin/ls -leOa Pictures/
total 0
drwxrwxr-x   2 MyLogin  MyGroup  -   64 Nov  5 18:23 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 72 MyLogin  MyGroup  - 2304 Nov  5 18:23 ..
 0: group:everyone deny delete

Note the restricted attribute on /usr/bin which is protected by SIP. ~/Pictures has no such attribute.
I've tried as root, as my normal user account, and even as a different user after setting the permission 777. Nothing works.
My question is: what is protecting ~/Pictures from deletion, and how can I turn it off?

My question is: what is protecting ~/Pictures from deletion, and how can I turn it off?

In macOS Catalina the Users > $USER > Pictures folder, aside from ACL's set on it, it is being protected by System Integrity Protection (SIP).
Even using sudo chmod -N Pictures, while in the Home directory in Terminal, the directory can not be deleted unless done from macOS Recovery using Terminal without turning off SIP.

Caution: This will remove the Pictures directory and everything in it!

Example:
rm -r "/Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/name/Pictures"

Replacing name in /name/ with your short name, the name of your Home directory.
Replacing Macintosh HD as appropriate if you've modified the default name.

If you want to be able to delete if from a normal running occurrence of macOS Catalina, not macOS Recovery, then you will need to turn off SIP from macOS Recovery using Terminal from the Utilities menu.
csrutil disable

You could then immediately use:
csrutil enable --without fs

This way, except for the filesystem, the other protections offered by SIP are still in play.
Personally, I do not recommend doing this and would opt for deleting it from macOS Recovery without turning off SIP and then once booted back to normal mode macOS Catalina... I'd create the directory from Terminal while setting it hidden with SetFile, applying ACL's to prevent any modifications while also removing all normal privileges (rwx), all in the hope that Apple doesn't mess with it until the next upgrade.
That said, if your are the type that always shows all files including the hidden ones, then what's mentioned in the paragraph above is a moot point.

Notes:
To boot to macOS Recovery from a running occurrence, normal mode boot, of macOS, you can use the following compound command from Terminal:
sudo nvram "recovery-boot-mode=unused"; sleep 2; sudo reboot

Then before rebooting from macOS Recovery, in Terminal from the Utilities menu, run:
nvram -d recovery-boot-mode

The latter is not necessary in some versions of macOS, however, it doesn't hurt either way.


iPod touch 4th gen dead I got this iPod touch 4th gen today. It worked initially but in between it showed a few weird screens and turned off and it would start again immediately. I thought if I would update this from iOS 5 to iOS 6 that would solve the problem. So I plugged it into my computer (Windows 7) and tried to update it from iOS 5 to iOS 6. Everything went well but at the end it returned error 1600 due to which the update was unsuccessful. Since then, the iPod has not started, nor is it charging. It just gets heated up when I plug it into the charger. It doesn't show any sign of charging. If I hold the sleep/wake button and home button together even for 60s it won't respond. It only gets recognized by iTunes that too with the same message "iTunes has detected an iPod in recovery mode. You must restore this iPod before it can be used with iTunes". I try to restore iPod and it shows error 1600 and I again get into the same cycle.
Any help will be appreciated. I have wasted the past 5 hours over this.

Error 1600 would appear to be a USB connectivity error
From Get help with iOS update and restore errors

  Check your USB connections

  Errors: 13, 14, 1600, 1601, 1602, 1603, 1604, 1611, 1643-1650, 2000,
  2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2009, 4005, 4013, 4014. You might also see a
  message that includes "invalid response."

  If the USB connection between your device and computer is interrupted,
  you might not be able to update or restore.

  To narrow down the issue, try different equipment:

  Use the USB cable that came with your device, or a different Apple USB cable.
  Plug your cable into a different USB port directly on your computer. Don't plug it into your keyboard.
  Try a different computer.
  Solve other issues with the USB connection, then with your security software.

  If you still see the error message, check for hardware issues.

Also, you might need to troubleshoot your hardware. Try different cable, a different port, a different computer....


Does Exchange enable MDM automatically on iOS? My employer recommended that I sign into our corporate email (Google hosted) via Exchange in the Mail app. I found out later that by doing so, I automatically enabled MDM or allowed them to set policies on my phone. (We learned this when another employee lost their iPhone and our IT department helped to lock it with their console.)

I did not install any profile or certificate and those tabs are empty/missing in my settings. Nothing stood out in the signin flow either (I certainly wouldn't have pressed "Allow your employer to access X" buttons.)

Does using Exchange automatically enroll you in an MDM policy? Is there a way to opt out or continue using Exchange w/o giving up my rights?

I'm not sure if it could be done automatically when you sign into an exchange account. If your device is under MDM policy you will find a configuration profile in the Settings.

How to delete a configuration profile on iOS

Open Settings on your iOS device.
Go to the section General → Profiles & Device Management, or Settings → General → Profiles.
Tap on a configuration profile you would like to remove from your iOS device.

Tap Delete Profile at the bottom of the configuration profile screen.
Enter your passcode, if required.

Confirm that you would like to remove the selected configuration profile from your device by tapping Delete. When you delete a profile, all of the settings and accounts associated with the profile are also removed.
It is always a good idea to restart your iOS device after removing a profile.


Is there software that implements John Siracusa's Spatial Finder concept? Grumbling about how Apple wrecked the Finder when switching to OS X has been going on since OS X was first released.

It's been ten years since John Siracusa outlined exactly how the Finder ought to behave.

With Mavericks, Apple stepped even farther from this Spatial Finder model, where it's apparently not even possible to have a double click/⌘↓ open a new window by default (it works in windows without toolbars, but the newly opened window will, by default, have a toolbar…).

My question is this: is there a third-party Finder replacement that behaves in the spatial way that Siracusa's ten-year-old manifesto calls for?

Note that it is possible to quit the program that Apple calls Finder.app.
Is there some other program I could launch in its place that would give me the behavior he describes, most notably the binding of one folder to one window that retains its state with regard to position, size, color, etc.?

This isn't a direct implementation of Siracusa's vision. It is, however, a Finder alternative that looks distinctly spatial in orientation, an the opposite of the file browser direction most other Finder alternatives (and the Finder itself) seem to be going:

Raskin for Mac seems to be the very spirit of the spatial Finder that Siracusa has been calling for. I just downloaded the free trial and am exploring it, but this might be exactly what I've been looking for.


Why doesn't MiniDisplay out work with Thunderbolt-only Target Display Mode iMacs? I realize this is kind of an AnandTech-fu level question.

Technically speaking, why doesn't a Thunderbolt iMac work in Target Display Mode with a computer that only has MiniDisplay out?  That is, what's preventing the 0s and 1s from happily going into the iMac's Thunderbolt port, especially when the iMac's happy to let MiniDisplay port adapters carry 0s and 1s on out to a monitor?

That is, why can the iMac's Thunderbolt port do DisplayPort monitor out and not in?

(I realize it's not exactly the same thing, etc.  What I'm getting at is if Apple simply didn't write the drivers to push you to use Mac laptops or if there's truly a technical hurdle that made supporting mini DisplayPort devices exceptionally difficult.)

How difficult, technically, would it be to create an adapter for MiniDisplay output into "Thunderbolt output" like the iMac & Target Display Mode expects?

Edit: I can find a good deal of speculation that video should work (here or here, for example), but when I see someone who actually had a DisplayPort computer try with Thunderbolt monitors, it doesn't work. And Intel's Thunderbolt graphic only shows DisplayPort going one way.  Though that doesn't necessarily preclude taking in a DisplayPort feed, I suppose.

The display port standard only supports a video signal going in one direction (source to destination). The video card can output via display port, but  handling a bidirectional connection would require extra hardware to handle the inbound signal, and isn't part of the standard.

AFAIK the iMac's target display mode is done through the PCIe layer of thunderbolt, whereas the DisplayPort layer is only supported (by the graphics card) in the outgoing direction.


Finder windows moving from other monitors as soon as the computer hibernates I have 3 monitors. I have finder opened with windows on monitor 1, 2 and 3. The middle one, 2, is the main screen on the iMac.

As soon as the computer hibernates, the windows on other monitors are moved to the main monitor. This is pretty much annoying.

Attention because I am not talking about applications on other monitors. I have Photoshop on 3 and Pages on 1 and those never moves.

The problem is with Finder windows only.

This is my Spaces config.

This problem started on Mojave.

Any ideas?

Found this apple discussion thread about your issue:

  First you need to open Mission Control and add a new "Spaces" now just
  called a "Desktops" to both screens. You don't need to use these new
  Desktops, they just need to be there. With two monitors you end up
  with "Desktop 1" and "Desktop 2" on the first monitor and "Desktop 3"
  and Desktop 4" on the second monitor.

  Right click the Dock Icon for that application you want to launch in
  the second screen and choose Option. Now you can assign the
  Application to always open on the second Desktop.

  Without having multiple Desktops established, this option isn't
  available. It looks like a bug to me.


Unchecking 'part of a compilation' for multiple items in iTunes? In iTunes, under the Artists list (brought up by ctrl+b in Windows), I have an unwanted 'Compilations' artist. In it are several tracks where the part of a compilation  box is checked when one goes to the get info --> info tab. I can go through individually and uncheck this, but when I select multiple items at the same time, this box doesn't appear in the info tab anymore.

Is there a quick way to uncheck this box for multiple items?

Yes.  Select all of the items and press cmd + I.  iTunes will ask you if you want to edit info for multiple items.  Select yes, then select the options tab.  There should be a dropdown menu on the right if the words "Part of a Conpilation."  Select yes, and then click apply, and you should be all set!


Language spelling menu switch I understand that Mac OsX should recognise the language automatically - and to say the honest truth - it does but... on rare occasions I need to see which language in"ON" and what are the choices...

Menu indicator-switch would be of great help - maybe an extra function to the keyboard indicator would solve the problem.

I use 4 languages in many programs...

One way to maximize the ease of changing the spellcheck language is to use an app which allows you to synchronize the keyboard layout and the spellcheck dictionary.  I think both Nisus Writer and Mellel have this feature.


How to block unwanted sites from opening? How do you block websites on Safari?

You can add an entry to your /etc/hosts file. For each site you want to block, add a line at the bottom, in the form:

127.0.0.1 site-to-block.com


How can I display contents of trash using terminal? How can I display contents of trash using terminal?

You can run

ls -al ~/.Trash

to show the content of the Trash of the current user.

To see the content of all Trashes, use

sudo ls -al /Users/*/.Trash

from an admin account.

And if you also want to include the content of the Trash on external volumes, use

sudo sh -c 'ls -al /Volumes/*/.Trashes/*/'


How to sync Faces between devices in iCloud Photo Library? I just synced my library from iCloud, and I realised that there is no faces.What I did wrong? How to sync faces between devices? I really need them in iCloud also.

NOTE
I know that I can create another albums with specific faces, but it is not expected.

Unfortunately faces are not synched across devices using iCloud Photo Library.

There is evidence that Faces data is stored in Apple servers somewhere since you can ask Siri to show you pictures of a specific person from a different device that uses the same iCloud photo library. There is a reddit thread on this topic here:  https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/3ggvn3/icloud_photo_library_and_faces/.

My guess is that Apple is still grappling with how to create a consolidated view of your contacts across devices and photos.

Please request that Apple prioritize fully implementing face syncing across devices:  http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html.


Will I lose third party apps if I delete user 501? One users account is broken. No apple apps work. Can I delete and create a new user and not lose Registered Apps like Adobe. The problems with the account seem to never end. Fix one another pops up. Made another user to see if it was just the one. All apps work on second user.

Probably not. If you look at your Macintosh HD You should see...

Applications/
Library/
System/
Users/

Typically Applications are installed globally in this top level Applications directory here.

If you look in

Users/
    |_ MyUserName
        |_ Applications
        |_ Desktop
        |_ Documents
        |_ Downloads
        |_ Etc Etc.

Hardly ever are applications installed in this Applications directory.

So unless you see any there. It should be ok to remove the problematic user.


A keychain cannot be found to store "NETWORK." I just recently purchased a refurbished MacBook Air from Apple running Sierra.

For the most part it is functioning just how I would expect it to, except for the following: for certain networks (it appears to be limited to just wpa2 personal networks. wpa2 enterprise with RADIUS authentication connects automatically just fine) it will not remember the pass.

I leave the network, rejoin, and get prompted with the message:

  A keychain cannot be found to store "NETWORK."

It gives me an option to reset the keychain, which I would love to do (there are no custom CA/client certificates on here yet, just a stock certificate bank), but when it prompts me to put in my password, I can't type anything in the box.

I have tried the solution listed here, but still get the same result.

A restart after applying system updates fixed this issue.


Rebooting iPhone Doesn't Kill off All the Process I tried to reboot my iphone according to the guidelines here, but after the phone is started, I found that all the apps are still there at the bottom of the screen when I tap on the home button twice.

Any idea why this is so?

As a developer I can assure you that if you reboot the phone, those apps are no longer running in any way. At that point it's literally just a list of apps that you've launched in the past in reverse chronological order.

Edited to note: I've since verified (as @ughoavgfhw pointed out) that backgrounded apps can in fact have their services restarted after a reboot. You can still kill all non-Apple services using the method I describe below.

If you still don't feel comfortable, you can manually quit the apps any time. Simply double-press the home button to reveal the list of "running" apps -- the multitasking bar -- and tap-and-hold on one of them, the same way you rearrange you apps in Springboard.

They'll begin to wiggle, and instead of the black circle with an "x" in it that appears in the upper-left corner of each app icon (used to delete apps off the device entirely) you'll see a red circle with a "-" in it. Tap the red circle and the app will be completely forced from memory, killing an associated processes. After you've quit the first several, even if you haven't restarted your phone you're in the "totally suspended" territory.

Press the home button again to stop the wiggling, as normal.

Deleting an App: Black Circle with "x"

Quitting an App: Red Circle with "–"

Empty multitasking bar, all apps have been dumped


Vmware Fusion, how to remove suspend option completely I have good number of virtual XP and W7 machines on our domain, one thing always cause problems when multiple users are using the same machine.  There's always that one person whom put the vm session on suspend instead of shutdown.  I know to change under preferences, but somehow users change default back to suspend.  Is there a way to enforce shutdown only.  this is the case for Fusion 5, 6.

thanks.

From Disabling the suspend feature for a virtual machine in VMware Fusion:

  VMware Fusion

  To disable the suspend feature for a virtual machine:

  Shutdown the virtual machine.
  Locate the virtual machine bundle. For more information, see Locating the virtual machine bundle in VMware Fusion (1007599).
  Press Ctrl and click the virtual machine bundle, then click Show Package Contents.
  Open the .vmx file for editing in a text editor. For more information, see Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine (1014782).
  Add this line to the .vmx file:
  suspend.disabled = "TRUE"
  Save and close the .vmx file.
  Restart the virtual machine.


Sync iTunes U between 2 Macs via an iPod Is it possible to download lectures (from iTunes U) with iTunes on Mac A, sync an iPod to Mac A, then carry that iPod to Mac B, and finally watch them on Mac B?

That's what I have been doing with my previous iPod (not an iPod Touch) because it allows me to use it as a USB hard drive. Now that I'm using an iPod Touch (which doesn't allow me to see what's inside), I wonder if I can use syncing to do the same job.

Actually, there is a way you can sync your device to more than one iTunes library in different computers. The trick is making the device believe that it is the same library.

Each library has an associated identifier. By modifying one of the libraries and putting the id of the other, you will accomplish that.

In order to do so, select one of the computers, the one that you are currently syncing with, and find out its identifier. Look for a file called iTunes Music Library.xml. In a Mac, this file is in the ~/Music/iTunes directory (though I think it can vary depending on what version of iTunes it was created with). In a PC, I guess it must be somewhere under the My Documents folder.

Open it with a text editor and find out a line which reads like

<key>Library Persistent ID</key><string>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</string>

where the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX will be the identifier for that library.

Now, on the second computer, find out the same file, and, after making a backup (just in case), and making sure iTunes is not running, copy the identifier to a new document, because we'll need it shortly, and then replace it with the identifier from the first computer. Now, we're halfway done. The following step is the difficult one.

With a hex editor (which is an editor that allows editing the bytes of a binary file; my PC using mates recommend Ultraedit, while I on the Mac like HexFiend), open a file called iTunes Library in the same directory (remember, make a backup first), and do a search for the same string (or rather, byte string) that you copied and replace it with the new one from the first computer.

After performing these steps, you should be able to sync both computers with the same device without problems.


Is there a way to export syntax color settings from one Xcode installation to a new one? I have installed a new XCode 4 on a machine and I'd like to copy/paste the syntax coloring settings from the first one to the new one. How may I do this ?

Custom syntax color themes are located in

~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/FontAndColorThemes/

(Note that this directory may not exist if you've not yet modified any of your themes or haven't created a custom theme of your own, but will be created as soon as you do.)

The files have a .dvtcolortheme extension. Simply retrieve the file from that directory and copy it into the same directory on another machine.

I quite like Ethan Schoonover's Solarized themes; I find them to be very readable and easy on the eyes, and can be installed as explained above.


iOS 7 music controls not working As soon as I updated my phone, my music controls stopped working. On the lock screen and in the Control Center, I can only change the volume, not the song. The buttons to change the song light up when I touch them but the song doesn't change. I have to go into the Music app to change the song every time. My screen isn't cracked or broken - it works perfectly fine. Please could I have some help on what to do?

Try resetting your phone I was having the same problem, make sure to close ever app before turning your phone off. It's working for me at the moment but I've been having this problem since iOS 6 and also in iOS 7 now, so who knows how long it'll work.


Cannot login to OS X 10.9 because password field disappears after clicking username I didn't add or do anything to computer except reboot. When the login screen appeared with my user account I clicked it as usual and the password box briefly appears and then disappears stopping me from logging in. How can I fix this? I do have a guest account with limited capabilities.

That is odd and I have not seen it before, the only thing I can think of is to boot in Safe Mode in the hopes that there is something running on your Mac that is causing that or interfering with login.

Boot your Mac holding Shift untill the apple logo pops up then release the key and let it boot. It will likely take longer to boot and eventually you will see "Safe Mode" on the boot/login screen. Try it then.


How to get the Dock to open the Documents and Download folder in Finder? When I click on the Documents or Downloads folder in the Dock, a Grid comes up.  Is there a way to get it to just open in the Finder?  Instead of having to click on Documents and then click on Open in Finder.

Right-click or Control+click on the Documents folder in the Finder, and click 'Make Alias'.

You probably want to move the alias somewhere else and rename it "Documents". Then, drag the Documents alias into the Dock.

Voíla, a link to the Documents folder instead of a Documents folder stack.


Can I wipe a MacBook Air SSD without having a recovery partition and still be able to do a new installation of OS X? I tried to update my old MacBook Air from OS X 10.8 to the newest El Capitan. However, now (directly after the installation) when I boot it up the loading bar will stop at 100% and nothing happens.

Then I wanted to reinstall OS X (10.8) but it says that it can't install an older version of OS X.

Now I'm really tempted to wipe the SSD but I'm worried that if I completely wipe the SSD it won't be able to do anything with the MacBook since it doesn't have a recovery partition.

Is it safe to wipe the SSD?

If your Mac shipped with OS X Lion or later, you'll be able to use Internet Recovery - in which case it's safe to fully erase your SSD, as your Mac is capable of fetching the recovery partition over the Internet.

You can enter Internet Recovery by holding Cmd+R during boot.


External Hard Drive not recognized after using it in Windows I have a HFS external hard drive. I wanted to transfer a large file to my brother so I made him install the Paragon HFS+ program to be able to read it.

During the process something happened and the hard drive stopped working. Now I can't mount it in my Mac.

I can see that Windows recognizes the device but can't access it, while it is not recognizable in my Mac (neither in Disk Util or by running the diskutil command).

I don't know if there is a way to fix this problem.

Can it still be recognized? Try First Aid or copying the files and erasing to ExFat so that you have access to large files on macOS and Windows.


Use an External USB SSD before logon (daemon) I noticed that after a system reboot my new USB SSD (SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD) attached via USB-C to an MacMini 2020 is not available until the first user has logged on (interactively using the GUI).
On this MacMini a daemon is running which requires access to the external USB drive directly after a reboot before any user has logged on (because this MacMini runs at server and therefore nobody ever will login).
What do I have to configure in Catalina to make my USB SSD available before the first user has logged on?
The daemon that should use the external SSD is started via registered plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons/ using the following flags:
<key>RunAtLoad</key><true/>
<key>UserName</key><string>myuser</string>
<key>SessionCreate</key><true/>

I have formatted the external SSD as APFS (case sensitive).

Seems that MacOS has an option to do exactly what I need:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool YES
Afterwards my external SSD is directly accessible by the daemon (if I wait some seconds because the daemon starts before the external SSD has been mounted). Additionally the external SSD is not accessible at all (independent of the user permissions). To finally get access I had to add my daemon (in this case the java executable) Full Disk Access in the MacOS security settings.


Boost Volume for iPad Been using an iPad's speech synathesis for a project and we're finding that the volume just isn't loud enought - are there ways of boosting the loudness without just adding external speakers? The iPad is jailbroken, and I'm willing to consider approaches that reduce the lifespan of the device.

There is a neat trick you can do with a book, or other hard surface. (Ideal results are achieved with a concave surface.) Place the iPad speaker facing the book/surface. Some sound will reflect off the book, and join the forwards traveling sound, effectively boosting the volume by a small margin.

Other than that, consider placing the iPad almost touching the microphone of whatever recording device you are using.

(There is probably an app on Cydia to boost volume, but my iPad is not jailbroken, so I am not sure)


Hooking into Active Screen (Hot) Corners Anyone know if / how it is possible to launch a custom application via the  Active Screen Corners (aka Hot Corners) ?

I don't know any way to assign custom actions to screen corners without using third party applications, but one free application for that is CornerClick.


How do I transfer iTunes on a PC to my new iPhone 6? When I connect my iPhone 6 to my PC in order to transfer my music, I am told that the I need the newest edition of iTunes. When I try to download the newest edition of iTunes, I am told that the update is for Windows7 or higher. (I have Windows XP.) Microsoft no longer offers support for Windows XP. How else can I get my music from my PC to my iPhone 6?

If you can't upgrade from Windows XP you could use iExplorer, however I'd strongly recommend upgrading to a newer OS and using iTunes.


I turn off my Read receipt but the other person doesn’t. Will s/he get the Read notification when I’ve read her the person sent me? I wonder if the person who turns on the read receipt on imessage will get notified when I’ve read the text even though I’ve turned off my read receipt

Read receipts are only sent by your phone when you have them on. If the other person has them on, you will continue to get receipts from them, but they will not get anything from you.


iCloud backup/restore - how to get the rest of my stuff (photo's)? I got a new phone yesterday, and restored it from my recent iCloud backup and have all my apps etc... but I haven't got my photos!! How do I get them???

According to Apple overview of iCloud backup photos are only included in iCloud backups when iCloud Photo Library is not enabled.

Photos and videos on your iOS devices
However, if you turn on iCloud Photo Library on your iOS device (iOS 8.1 or later) or Mac (OS X v10.10.3 or later), your photos and videos are already stored in iCloud, so they aren’t included in your iCloud backup.

Photo's are always included in iTunes backups.

Photos already stored in the cloud, like My Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Library

You should be able to restore your photos by making certain iCloud Photo Library is enabled on your new phone.
You can verify whether your photos are in iCloud by using a computer and browser and going to iCloud.com and logging in with your appleId and password and then clicking the photos icon.


After migrating to iCloud Photo Library can the iLifeAssetManagement folder be deleted? Before iCloud Photo Library and Photos.app in OS X 10.10.3, we had iCloud PhotoStream. iCloud PhotoStream synced its photos to the ~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement folder (and subfolders). Even though PhotoStream only synced 1000 photos, that folder could get rather large, but you had to live with it.

Now that iCloud Photo Library exists, and everything is stored in the cloud (and the cloud copy is "the truth"), I'm assuming that the iLifeAssetManagement folder is no longer used and can be deleted. Does any one know for sure if that's true?

In my case, the folder hasn't had changes since I upgraded to iCloud Photo Library, which would indicate it's not being used.

The answer appears to be "Yes, it can". After a month of the folder not being touched I finally deleted it and it hasn't caused any issue whatsoever. However, if any device using your iCloud account is still using Photo Stream (for whatever reason), you may still need the folder.


Xcode 6.2 to 6.4 update failed I waited for about 8 hours to finish my 2.6 GB download to update from Xcode 6.2 to 6.4. After waiting it says it is installed. Opening Xcode it prompted me to install additional files and I accepted it. Once the installation was finished, it still says that my version is 6.2. After restarting my Mac Mini it still says that my Xcode version is 6.2. I checked App store, and Xcode still wants to update to 6.4. Whereas my "Updates installed in the Last 30 Days" tab it indicates that I was done downloading the 6.4 version.

How can I update my Xcode 6.2 to 6.4?

I'd go for the standard "first fix" tasks.

Disk Utility, Repair Permissions, then Verify & if necessary Repair Disk.
Apply or re-apply the latest combo updater - 10.10.5 here. This can fix many odd issues.


Can't unlock encrypted external drive with filevault (osx) I formated my external drive on mavericks, and then on Lion, sometimes I had to wait some time to unlock the volume. Other times I had to do a disk repair and only after that OSx accepts my password to unlock the volume.

This issue is described here: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cant-unlock-encrypted-external-drive.1668423/page-2

Now I can't unlock, regardless of the waiting or the number of times i do a disk repair. I even made an upgrade to El Capitain, but without sucess. Tried in another OSx computers, but without success.

Maybe there is a chance of some corrupted data, due to not eject the disk properly some times.
I'm pretty sure of the password, so, what i can do to unlock/decrypt my data from this volume? Can I create a volume image with dd, or another tool and then try to decrypt? There is any tool available to do this?

Sadly you are going to have to get that volume unlocked before you can copy any data from it.  The encryption cannot be "cracked" in any reasonable period of time.

If there is corruption, the volume/data may be irretrievable.

Can you find a machine running Lion and try to unlock it one last time there?  If that works, copy all the data off the volume and onto a new volume.


Do the new macbook pro models (2011) still have a 4 partition limit? If I remember correctly, the older Macbook pro models (pre 2011) had a 4 partition limit: so, if you tried to install multiple operating systems, you had this limit.

Do the new models (2011) still have this limitation? I'm planning to install two Linuxes, A Windows and a Mac partitions to boot.

This is not a limitation of the hardware. This is a limitation of the MBR partitioning scheme required to allow Windows to boot with other non-Windows operating systems. The MBR partitioning scheme only supports 4 primary partitions.

The GUID partitioning scheme that Mac OS X uses by default is able to handle more that 4 partitions but not all operating systems support GPT.


Why is the host name in the shell prompt "MacBook-2" instead of "MacBook"? I opened Terminal on my MacBook Pro and the prompt reads:

MacBook-2:~ myName$

Is there something wrong? Do I need to be worried about this? Why -2?

This is because there can't be two devices on the network with the same name. MacBook becomes MacBook-1, then MacBook-2.

You can check this with:

scutil --get ComputerName

This could be because there are two other devices with the name MacBook, or because Bonjour hasn't forgotten that the device disconnected. It's nothing to worry about, and you can change the computer name from System Preferences → Sharing or use scutil to ask for a name change.

scutil --set ComputerName MacBook


How do I create an apple script that changes the destination folder of airdropped files? I've downloaded the following apple script, which moves airdropped files to a specified folder (which I'll refer to as the Airdrop folder):

property AIRDROP_FOLDER : "Macintosh HD:Users:pschorn:Airdrop"
property QUARANTINE_KEY : "59"

property GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_START : "ls -l -@ '"
property GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_END : "' | tr '\\n' ' ' | sed 's/.*com\\.apple\\.quarantine\\s*\\(\\d*\\)/ \\1/' | awk '{$1=$1};1'"

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    repeat with i from 1 to length of added_items
        set current_item to item i of added_items
        set quarantine_type to getQuarantineType(POSIX path of current_item)
        if quarantine_type is equal to QUARANTINE_KEY then
            moveFile(current_item, alias AIRDROP_FOLDER)
        end if
    end repeat
end adding folder items to

on moveFile(move_file, destination_dir)
    tell application "Finder"
        move move_file to destination_dir with replacing
    end tell
end moveFile

on getQuarantineType(file_path)
    return do shell script GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_START & file_path & GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_END
end getQuarantineType

I followed the instructions on this website to set it up as a folder actions script.

However, if I move an airdropped file out of my newly created airdrop folder and back into my downloads folder, it gets automatically put BACK in the airdrop folder. I don't want this to happen.

I found that after applying this terminal command xattr -d com.apple.quarantine [file path of airdropped file], the file will no longer get moved back into my airdrop folder after I move it out.

MY question is: How do I integrate this command into the above apple script so that the airdropped files do not automatically get moved back to my airdrop folder after I move them out of it?

If you are sure of the provenance of the AirDropped files and are happy to remove the quarantine extended attribute you can remove it as you say with xattr.  In AppleScript you can do this using do shell script and passing the quoted path in alias form.

removeQuarantine(quoted form of (POSIX path of (current_item as alias)))

on removeQuarantine(file_path_alias)
    do shell script "xattr -d com.apple.quarantine " & file_path_alias
end removeQuarantine

In your script you want to call this before the file is moved so your script would look as below (remember to update the AIRDROP_FOLDER to your required path).

The script will now check files for com.apple.quarantine equal to 59 and if so remove the attribute before moving the file.

Therefore if you then move the file back to ~/Downloads it will not be moved again as the com.apple.quarantine attribute is no longer there.

property AIRDROP_FOLDER : "macOS:Users:hali:Desktop:Test"
property QUARANTINE_KEY : "59"

property GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_START : "ls -l -@ '"
property GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_END : "' | tr '\\n' ' ' | sed 's/.*com\\.apple\\.quarantine\\s*\\(\\d*\\)/ \\1/' | awk '{$1=$1};1'"

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    repeat with i from 1 to length of added_items
        set current_item to item i of added_items
        set quarantine_type to getQuarantineType(POSIX path of current_item)
        if quarantine_type is equal to QUARANTINE_KEY then
            removeQuarantine(quoted form of (POSIX path of (current_item as alias)))
            moveFile(current_item, alias AIRDROP_FOLDER)
        end if
    end repeat
end adding folder items to

on moveFile(move_file, destination_dir)
    tell application "Finder"
        move move_file to destination_dir with replacing
    end tell
end moveFile

on getQuarantineType(file_path)
    return do shell script GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_START & file_path & GET_QUARANTINE_COMMAND_END
end getQuarantineType

on removeQuarantine(file_path_alias)
    do shell script "xattr -d com.apple.quarantine " & file_path_alias
end removeQuarantine

Note : This script will overwrite files of the same name in the destination without prompting.  If this is a concern there is a forked version by user SuraAzure on github that appends a sequence number to the filename before moving if a file with the same name already exists in the destination directory.


Unable to recover disk space Mac OS X EI Capitan I deleted one partition on my mac and now I am not able to recover that space.  diskutil list shows below output. Here I see total space is 500 GB and size of Yosemite(installed El Capitan on it) is 248 GB. So where is remaining 250 GB.

sudo  fdisk  /dev/disk0

Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -  976773167] <Unknown ID>
 2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

sudo  gpt  -r  show  /dev/disk0

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  488816512
  489226152  485912608      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  975138760    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  976408296     364839
  976773135         32         Sec GPT table
  976773167          1         Sec GPT header

If backup is available then remove the recovery HD, resize the main volume to fill the remaining available space (since it appears the recovery HD is what is in the way of resizing) and then recreate the recovery HD with whatever you're comfortable with (suggestion https://github.com/MagerValp/Create-Recovery-Partition-Installer )


Where can I see the installed profiles in iOS9 Where is Settings > General > Profile in iOS 9?

I was part of a testing-team for an iOS app and using testflight. Back then, under iOS 6, I had to install a profile on my iPhone. Now, years later, I am again helping out to test with testflight, and I am having problems with certificates. I just wanted to check which profiles are installed on my iPhone, however, the Settings > General > Profile menu is not here any more under iOS 9.

How can I see the profiles that are installed?

You don't see a profile entry until the first one is saved. It's listed when it shows up immediately below the VPN entry, so be sure you scroll the content up so that VPN and below are visible.

Other than that, you can tap through each profile and see details about what entitlements it controls and how it's authenticated and/or cryptographically singed in the same manner as before.


Why can't I FaceTime to a Gmail account from my iPhone? I am trying to FaceTime my daughter through her Gmail account from my iPhone and I cannot get it to work. I don't understand why I cannot connect to her mail.

Your daughter needs to make sure her gmail.com address is associated with her iCloud account. From an iPad or iPhone, can you send her an iMessage at that same Gmail account (i.e. does the conversation turn "blue" instead of green)?

Email addresses can be added to FaceTime through iOS Settings or through the preferences in FaceTime.app on a Mac.

People FaceTime me all the time at my Google Apps account, so it's possible.


macOS Grapher recursive function Can grapher in macOS work with recursive functions???

If so how? There doesn't seem to be an obvious way and there are no answers to this online.

Thanks

I was looking for this myself and was a bit disappointed at the dismissive comments under your question. Fortunately, it is quite simple: Choose “Equation > New Equation from Template… > Other > Series”.

Edit: The best resource on Grapher I know is this PDF. It is a bit hard to read at times because it has so much content, but it is an invaluable resource if you want to make full use of Grapher. You can find recursive functions under “Sequences”.


How can I check what mode is already on on defaults write? I am making a script that puts on a defaults write thing to true. How can I check before it's it's true or false?

You can use defaults read. For example, if I wanted to check for AppleShowAllFiles, I would do:

~$ defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles
YES

Which would return YES in the stdout. You can make your script execute this command and read it from stdout.

Another perhaps unrealistic (and quite dangerous) option would be to read directly from ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.<ID>.plist, however most of then are rather unreadable. For example, com.apple.Finder.plist around the area of AppleShowAllFiles looks like this:

NSNavOutlineColumnSettings.v1_FXMyDocumentsArrangeGroupViewBy_AppleShowAllFiles_ViewSettingsDictionary_CopyProgressWindowLocation_FK_StandardViewSettings_8NSTableView Hidden Columns

This is not recommended though


On iPad's iBooks, how to make highlighting show up for PDF files? It seems that on iPad, iBooks, Kindle, or Kobo won't show any user highlightings?

For example, just go to https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/Introduction/introObjectiveC.html and you will see at the top right corner to download the PDF file.  Right click and save it into your Mac or PC, and use Acrobat 10 or Mac's Preview to highlight the word "Objective-C" on the frontpage of the file.  We can close and re-open the file to see the highlighting.

Now use DropBox or Box.net and transfer the file to iPad's iBooks (I am using the New iPad (3rd Gen)).  (Done by downloading the file and "Open With" iBooks). The highlighting won't show up at all.

This is a simple test... the other document which I highlighted for many pages also won't show any highlighting either.

Is there a way to make the highlighting show

in iBooks
in other apps?

I tried also the Kindle app and Kobo app on iPad and they won't show the highlighting either.

iBooks for iPad currently doesn't support highlighting in PDFs. However, there are many 3rd party apps like iAnnotate PDF, GoodReader, or PDFpen that support PDF highlighting and annotating. I use GoodReader and I can personally verify that PDF highlights that were made on Mac's Preview do show up on the GoodReader iPad app.

I also tested the DropBox iPad app and PDF highlights do not show up.

Hopefully, Apple will add PDF highlighting to a future version of iBooks. If enough people request this feature at the Apple feedback site, maybe they will add it in the near future.


How do I search for an App in iOS11? In iOS10, by pulling on the Home Screen, I could search for an app. How do I do this in iOS11?

When I pull down from the Home screen, I see a message "Earlier Today" only. If I scroll down, nothing happens. If I scroll up, I see the Camera.app.

If I have a new message, that shows above the "Earlier Today" message.

Thanks for any help.

This is beta 2.

Edit... Adding a screenshot:

If I press Home, I see all my first page icons. If I then scroll up, I see the Control Panel. I can't seem to get a screenshot of this. It shows icons for brightness, and mini images of my open apps. I don't see a search option.

It's the same as iOS 10. Pull down on the home screen (from somewhere amongst the apps, not from the top of the display) and a search bar appears at the top. Type the name of the app you want to look for and the results show in the Siri App Suggestions section.


Dual boot Linux Mint 17.1 with OS X Lion I have a 13' MacBook (2007, hw.model: 2,1) running OS X Lion (10.7). I wish to dual-boot Linux Mint 17.1 alongside OS X.  I created a Partition for Linux, and have also installed rEFIt (0.14). I have created a LiveUSB as well as the Live DVD for installing Linux Mint.

When I use the LiveUSB and select Linux option in rEFIt, I get the following error:

Starting legacy loader
Using load option 'USB'
Error: Not Found returned from legacy loader
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Not Found returned from LocateDevicePath
Error: Load Error while (re)opening our installation volume

The firmware refused to boot from the selected volume. Note that external
hard drives are not well-supported by Apple's firmware for legacy OS booting.

* Hit any key to continue *

And when I use the LiveDVD (with and without holding down 'c'), the disk just gets ejected. I burnt 2 new DVDs, and also tested installing it on another machine, where it installed successfully.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this are welcome.

I have the same hardware and experienced the same problem. Booting from DVD and USB didn't work so I created a new partition on the hard drive, copied the Linux iso onto it and booted off that.  Got it installed ok but the fans were running all the time so I gave up on it in the end.


Save Pages Shortcuts For All Documents In Pages you can set shortcuts for the different type of fonts:

But it only saves the shortcut for that one document. Does anyone know of any way to save the shortcuts for all documents?

(I've looked in Pages preferences)

Although it is not possible to change for ALL documents, you can create a custom template that preserves the shortcuts for future documents based on that template.

Set your shortcuts in a new document, preferably one you already have formatted the way you like it.
Click File > Save as Template...
Save in Template chooser and name the Template.
Use this new template (Found under My Templates whenever you wish to use those particular shortcuts.

Of course, this will only preserve the shortcuts for that particular template and all documents based on it, not universally with other documents.


Why does my dock keep moving back to my other monitor? I have a larger, external monitor connected to my MacBook Pro and have arranged it such that the dock is in the external monitor (via System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement, by dragging the white bar to the larger screen). This works fine, except for the fact that every now and then, the dock will suddenly shift back to my MacBook screen, but when I open up Displays to change this back, the white bar is still on the external monitor. So I have to drag it to the smaller screen, and then drag it back to the external monitor.

It's a minor issue, obviously, but I've noticed that it has been happening more and more frequently and it's getting quite annoying. Perhaps there's something I've been doing unintentionally for this to happen?

I'm using Mavericks, 10.9.5.

You can summon the Dock on a different display by moving the cursor to the bottom of the desired display, and then continuing moving down. It may be possible that this is occurring when you inadvertently perform that action.

I answered a similar question: cmd-tab behavior on Mavericks with multiple displays.


Tips for using spotlight with webpages served via https I've started using spotlight with webpages today.  It will actually index the content of web pages in your history and bookmarks.  It's great.  But I can't find any documentation on how to use it.

My understanding is spotlight doesn't index URLs that start with https:

One of the main wikis that I use has all pages behind https:, so I would very much like to change this.

Is there any way to get "mdfind" to spit out spotlight results for items other than files?  (UPDATE: Thanks bmike, I looked more carefully on my system, and I see the bookmarks now.)
Are there any other tips or tricks I should know for using spotlight better with https and/or normal web pages?

I can't help you with the main thrust of how to index ssl content, but will take an attempt at the learning mdfind commands.

The man page for mdfind is thin, but shows you that you can search on anything that is classified. In your case, try a mdfind command to get some web history results - for me, this command shows several files Safari has squirreled away for spotlight to index.

mdfind stackexchange | grep Safari | grep History | head

From there, you can use mdls to pick apart what terms you might want to feed back into mdfind:

mac:Users mike$ mdls /Users/mike/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari/History/http:%2F%2Fapple.stackexchange.com%2Fquestions%2F25487%2Flock-screen-with-launchbar.webhistory | tail
kMDItemFSName                  = "http:%2F%2Fapple.stackexchange.com%2Fquestions%2F25487%2Flock-screen-with-launchbar.webhistory
kMDItemFSNodeCount             = 14147
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID          = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID           = 501
kMDItemFSSize                  = 14147
kMDItemFSTypeCode              = ""
kMDItemKind                    = "Safari history item"
kMDItemLogicalSize             = 14147
kMDItemPhysicalSize            = 16384
kMDItemURL                     = "http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/25487/lock-screen-with-launchbar"

A few tags that might be of immediate use to you are kMDItemContentType, kMDItemFSName, and kMDItemURL

You can see my mac has processed several hundred items with a URL that begins with https:

mac:Users mike$ mdfind "kMDItemURL == 'https:*'" | wc -l
    353


Permanent solution to slow open/save dialog? I've experienced the fairly common slow open and save dialog box issue that seemed to come about with Mavericks and stick right through Yosemite.

The following solution has worked temporarily for me:

1) In Terminal: rm ~/Library/Caches/CloudKit/CloudKitMetadata*;killall cloudd

2) In Activity Monitor: Force Quit cloudd

But the problem always returns. I wanted to share the above temporary solution, but also to see if anyone has come upon a permanent solution yet.

I do not believe there is a permanent solution, since this problem has been out for far too long with little interest to fix it. I would recommend having that terminal script save as a .command stored in your dock that you would click every time you need it. To create a document that can do this for you:

Open TextEdit.app
Enter the following code into the document:

rm ~/Library/Caches/CloudKit/CloudKitMetadata*;killall cloudd
Save to a directory with the name "[a name that you would like].command"
Open Terminal
Type in chmod a+x BUT DO NOT HIT ENTER
Drag in the .command
Hit enter

Now you can drag in the command to your dock and click it whenever you need

EDIT:

Another idea is to use Automator.

Open up Automator
Go to the toolbar on the left and drag a execute she'll script
Paste the code from above into the action
Record a "Watch me Do" (by pressing the red record button in the top right) of:

Opening activity monitor
Seraching for cloudd
Clicking cloudd
Clicking quit
Selecting quit or force quit

Set that to 1000x and save as an app


Make Dropbox app upload in background without having to open every 10 minutes Is there any kind of workaround to get Dropbox on iPhone iOS to work as well as it does on Android?

Installing Dropbox on the iPhone requires manually triggering the upload process instead of it running itself in the background. Dropbox only runs for about 10 minutes every time you open the app or change location. If you rarely change location then it might as well be manual upload only. In my situation I rarely change location for days and even a week or two at a time. I might take as many as thirty photos, but they will only start uploading when I open the app, and they will only continue uploading for 10 minutes.

In addition to that, it seems to hang for no reason at every tenth photo or so (which might be a different issue, but please address it if you have ideas). The final result is a lot more annoyance than it's worth.

On Android, I installed Dropbox, set it up, then I never opened it again for nearly a year and it worked flawlessly.

How can I get the iOS version of Dropbox to work like it does on Android?

You can't. There are restrictions with iOS multitasking that prevent apps like this from running all the time. You might be able to bypass this by jailbreaking though.

Also, apps can't bypass this on the App Store due to guidelines such as:

  2.5 Apps that use non-public APIs will be rejected

Source: https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html


What causes AppleScript error 1721 when trying to execute Python3 file? I'm trying to make AppleScript to execute Python 3 script:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Terminal"
        do shell script "/usr/local/bin/python3 /Users/UserName/Desktop/PyHello.py $@"
    end tell
    return input
end run

but I'm still getting an error 1721. I tried different types of file as well as changing Command Line command from:

/usr/local/bin/python3 /Users/UserName/Desktop/PyHello.py $@

to

/python3 /Users/UserName/Desktop/PyHello.py $@"

Both commands:

/usr/local/bin/python3 /Users/UserName/Desktop/PyHello.py $@

and

/python3 /Users/UserName/Desktop/PyHello.py $@"

Run OK, when typed directly within the Terminal.

Thank you  user3439894 on the basis of your answers I was able to figure out the problem.

That's the correct script for AppleScript:

tell application "Terminal"
    do shell script "/usr/local/bin/python3 /Users/UserName/Desktop/PyHello.py $@"
end tell

This script is for Automator to run AppleScript:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Terminal"
        do shell script "/usr/local/bin/python3 /Users/UserName/Desktop/PyHello.py $@"
    end tell
    return input
end run

Also following shebang is needed in initial Python script:

#!/usr/bin/env python3


Where does OS X store the profile photo it takes when you first create an account? When you first create your OS X login account it takes a picture of you. Where does that picture get stored? I can't find it in ~/Pictures or ~/Library.

The photo can be found in the /Library/Caches folder, if you haven't cleared this folder yet.
Otherwise, I recommend typing:

dscl . -read /Users/short_username JPEGPhoto | tail -1 | xxd -r -p >
/PATH/TO/accountImage.jpg

on one line in a Terminal window, from Chealion's brilliant answer here. In the above example, a JPEG copy will be saved to /PATH/TO/accountImage.jpg.


MBP fan running but no airflow I have a 2014 MBP, running very well but for one issue: the fan doesn't seem to move any air around, even though I can hear it running. As a result, the laptop gets quite warm, and further, it seems that the Mac throttles the CPUs to keep it from overheating (performance is one reason I got it in the first place).

I can hear the fan running (well, a fan-like noise anyway!) and the noise builds up when the load increases. I installed smcFanControl, and it shows the temperature and fan speed changing as expected. But no air movement. Running something like htop from the terminal shows CPU usage topping out at 60-70%. The CPU tends to sit around 60-70 deg C, which seems quite high for a permanent state. Letting in January cold air through the window only makes minimal difference.

What I tried:

I restarted the SMC
I opened the cover and looked for any lint. What very little there was, I removed, but there was no significant build-up in the vents or around the components
I installed smcFanControl to see if I can tune the fan speed, the noise does respond to the settings but again, no air flow

None of it made any difference.

Any idea what the problem is, and how I can fix it? The laptop is working very well, so I'd rather keep it than replace it, even though it is getting old. Would Apple help at all - I never had anything fixed with them, but ofc the Mac is out of warranty.

I think the problem may have started around High Sierra upgrade, but it didn't bother me much at the time.

EDIT

It was suggested that this question is relevant. But I don't think so. I did clean the inside, and found no obvious sources of lint. Perhaps applying thermal paste would help, but I cannot see how, if the air is not pushed around by the fan.

How are you so sure that there is no air being moved around?

Further, when does the throttling apply - right at the start or after some time? Because at some point under high load, you will experience some throttling on basically any laptop.

The only thing - depends on how familiar you are with such things - I can think of, is taking the back cover off and literally looking at the parts. Yet, I would not necessarily recommend this.

Before doing something like this: Save your data either in a backup or by copying your files.

Apple might be able to help you, but what usually do and recommend is going to a certified repair shop. It's more personal and you usually speak directly to the repair guy. Though, I guess they will probably not be able to do anything different than what you did, @Tetsujin or I suggested.


File System Update Delay I regularly move/copy/remove files from the terminal using mv/cp/rm shell commands. With Catalina (10.15.5), file system updates are not reflected in the Finder windows until several minutes later. That is, I can rm a file and it will still show up in the corresponding Finder window for at least several minutes.
How should I go about diagnosing this behavior?
Could any of the following be contributing to it, and if so, how?

If the folder is on an SSD formatted with HFS+ rather than AFPS
Whether the folder is on a disk image and/or one with encryption
Whether there are 1000+ files in the folder
File sizes and/or types

One thing that does work is running disk first aid from Disk Utility or diskutil verifyVolume after any of these commands.

Just to set a base line, I can say that my Catalina installation does not exhibit any such delay for updating Finder windows. Doing mv/copy/remove operations from the Terminal updates the Finder windows immediately.
This is on Catalina 10.15.5 on an encrypted APFS SSD, and works with any file size and file type (as far as I can tell).


using iMac 2008 (display port) as external monitor with MacBook Pro 2013 (thunderbolt) I am trying to connect a MacBook Pro 2013 to an iMac 2008. The latter is a 24 inch model and has no thunderbolt, just a Mini Display Port.

Any idea how to connect the iMac to the MacBook Pro, to use as an external monitor?

With both the iMac and Macbook off connect the computers with a Firewire cable.
Turn on the MacBook while holding the "T" key. This puts the MacBook into Target Mode and a firewire icon appears on the screen.
From now on you only need touch the iMac Keyboard and mouse.
Turn on iMac while holding the Option key. This allows you to choose the Start Up volume, in this case the MacBook. Use the left and right arrows to select the MacBook icon.
Press Return and iMac will start up with the MacBook System, Users, and Applications.
You can now close the MacBook and enjoy the "big screen".

To turn off.
1.Shut down iMac using the Shut down command in the apple menu (ie the normal way).
2.When the iMac is shut down. Press the power key of the MacBook to turn it off.

Hope this helps

There is no way of connecting the iMac through display port or thunderbolt since it is incompatible as stated in the comments below


Apple TV2 Remote not working My Apple TV2 stopped responding to the IR remote all of a sudden. The white LED would blink with every button press, but nothing would happen. I was able to pair the Apple TV's remote with my Macbook Pro, and it worked fine. My old plastic IR remote, which still works with my MBP also displayed the same behavior with the Apple TV.

The Apple TV did respond to the iOS remote app, so that's not the problem either.

I only asked this question because it was bothering me all day and couldn't find an acceptable answer, so here it is:

Hold the Left/Back button and the Menu button (on the aluminum remote) for 6+ seconds.

That's it!


node npm Installing bower = npm ERR New computer, fresh start. Was installing bower from terminal and got this ERR! message in return. Seems common, but i'm hesitant in forcing it with sudo.

OSX 10.10.3
git version 2.3.2 (Apple Git-55)
npm (2.9.1)
node v0.12.3 are installed.

  npm install -g bower

npm ERR! tar.unpack untar error /Users/username/.npm/bower/1.4.1/package.tgz
npm ERR! Darwin 14.3.0
npm ERR! argv "node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "-g" "bower"
npm ERR! node v0.12.3
npm ERR! npm  v2.9.1
npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! errno -13

npm ERR! Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower'
npm ERR!     at Error (native)
npm ERR!  { [Error: EACCES, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower']
npm ERR!   errno: -13,
npm ERR!   code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR!   path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower',
npm ERR!   fstream_type: 'Directory',
npm ERR!   fstream_path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/bower',
npm ERR!   fstream_class: 'DirWriter',
npm ERR!   fstream_stack:
npm ERR!    [ '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/fstream/lib/dir-writer.js:36:23',
npm ERR!      '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/mkdirp/index.js:46:53',
npm ERR!      'FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:95:15)' ] }
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please try running this command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /Users/username/npm-debug.log

You can't normally install command-line software without administrator permissions. Do as it says and run with sudo, and you will be able to proceed.

This isn't "forcing" it, it's just elevating your permissions to do something that isn't safe to have accessible to non-administrators, thus requiring sudo.


Is it possible to enable key repeat for letter keys on the Apple Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro? The key repeat options in iOS Keyboard settings seem to work for the navigation keys (arrows, backspace, etc) but not for the letter keys. When I hold down a letter key, it does not repeat. Is it possible to change this behavior to allow all keys to repeat like on a regular desktop keyboard?

As far as I can tell this isn't possible, which is a shame. I was trying to use my iPad with remote desktop where I need to hold down keys and it just doesn't work. It seems this is a "feature" of iOS that only certain keys like space and delete are allowed to repeat. Here are some links about it that I found.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/34220222#34220222

https://support-splashtoppersonal.splashtop.com/hc/en-us/articles/230005527-Does-Splashtop-support-Bluetooth-keyboards-


Can I use a lightning to USB cable to charge an iPhone through an iPad (iPadOS, Pro 9.7)? Since you can charge with the new iPad Pro, I was wondering if something similar could be done using the lightning to USB  adapter and the charging cable

Yes, you can use an iPad Pro to charge other devices, including an iPhone.

According to Apple:

  To charge your iPhone or earlier-model iPad that has a Lightning port,
  connect it to iPad Pro using the Apple USB-C to Lightning Cable. If
  you have a Lightning to USB cable, you can combine it with the Apple
  USB-C to USB Adapter, then connect the adapter to iPad Pro.

Source: Charge and connect with the USB-C port on the new iPad Pro, Apple, [Bold emphasis mine].


How to move rent movies from iPod Touch to iMac? I moved rented movies from my iMac to my iPod Touch with iTunes to watch them outside, but now I want to watch some of them at home.

I tried to drag the rented movie in iPod Touch to iMac with iTunes, but nothing happened.

How do I move rented movies from an iPod Touch to an iMac?

According to the FAQ - you should be able to move a rental that was first purchased and downloaded to a Mac as many times as you wish - but it can only be on one device at any point in time. You need to be connected to the internet when you move the rental file.

In your case, just find the rental on the device in iTunes and transfer it back to the iTunes library.

Expand the section named - Can I play my rental on more than one device? for the exact wording by Apple on this.

If you rented it on iOS - It's not possible without cracking the DRM as rentals from iOS or AppleTV stay on that one device and cannot be transferred.